Monday, December 22, 2014

Comment moderation now on

... since my last post attracted spam.

I'm not going to name or otherwise publicise the creature responsible, but I would like to ask: have these people no shame?  No feelings of even the most basic human decency?

Yes, I know I am resorting to clichés, there.  These phrases become clichés because they express everybody's feelings about despicable things like this.

Do the people who post these things tell their mothers what they do for a living?  "Yes, mum, I got in to work, spammed a memorial post... it was a good day."

Sunday, December 21, 2014

In Memoriam: Alastair Whybrow

Received very sad news last night - Mr Alastair Whybrow's RL self is no longer with us.  He had been fighting cancer and absent from SL for some time now... my good wishes went out to him, of course, but there is so little that good wishes can do.

Mr Whybrow's name has featured in this blog before... in SL, he was one of the niche creators who only seem to exist in this oddball medium we inhabit.  His speciality was jewelry, crafted in the most exact, delicate and painstaking manner, wielding prims with the same exactitude as a real-world jeweller.  I have, of course, some examples of his work - not, I regret to say, the most gigantically impressive creations, involving well over a thousand prims - but enough, I hope, to remember him by.

He was a presence, too, in Caledon, ready in chat with opinions and witticisms; his shop "Sparkle of Sound" was a landmark in Caledon Southend... and he encouraged and advised me on my own minor commercial ventures.

In RL, he was close enough, geographically, to my typist that we shared reminiscences of local characters and local events, over many a long conversation.  We shared ideas, and stories... and I regret very deeply that we won't be doing that any more.

Godspeed, Mr Whybrow.  You are missed... a gentleman, and a creator, and one of the good people in SL.  I will close with a quotation which, I think, he might have found apt: "He’s in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom."  And I will treasure my memories of him.