voyeurism

scenes from the Holy Land

this Christmas, i would like to share with you some photographs taken by my mother on her recent trip to the Holy Land.

the photographs form the backdrop to my Christmas episode, in which i invite each of you to consider carefully your answer to what i consider to be the most important question ever asked.

this question is recorded in Matthew 16: 15, and was asked of Jesus, to His disciples.

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

may i take the opportunity presented by this 11.1 MB download, to wish each of you the peace and hope that only the Christchild brings.

Saab - some much needed light relief

during these wearying times, the good folks at autoblog have provided some much needed light relief.

If Saab dies, who stands to benefit? AutoTrader thinks it's BMW and Audi originally appeared on autoblog on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:29:00 EST

James Cameron's Avatar, ubuntu, fictive worlds and MMORPGs

i watched James Cameron's Avatar today.

i had watched it originally to see how useful it might be to help others understand Gee's notions of projective identity, but emerged from the cinema with two unexpected takeaways.

first, the Na'vi notion of "I see you" is remarkably similar to the Bantu philosophy of ubuntu.

second, one statement by the protagonist Jake Sully really leapt out at me, namely:

"the Na'vi say that every person is born twice; the second time is when you earn your place among the people"

i think anyone who has spent time in fictive worlds such as Second Life, or MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft or Eve Online, can resonate with that.

:-)

by the way, here's the most lucid review of Avatar that i've been able to find :-)

Saab - farewell, and thank you

today, the day after the announcement, i went down to the Saab showroom.

the sky was overcast and threatening to rain, as you can see from the photo, and i didn't know quite what to expect. in fact, i hesitated to go in, in the first place.

i was expecting it to feel like attending somebody's wake, and indeed the mood inside was sombre. there were clusters of people inside, talking in hushed tones. at least i wasn't the only one who had turned up to mourn the passing.

i expressed my appreciation to the sales person who came up to greet me, and for some reason i felt the need to explain to him that although i had never bought a Saab in my life, i had come very close to buying a 9-5 2.3 back in 1999, and that my first ride in a Saab was in a 9000, and that my cousin had bought two 9-5.

here's to you, Saab. i'm going to choose to remember you for those iconic and insane turbocharged cars with otherworldly proportions of the 1980s :-)

Citroën - 90 years of mythical automobiles

way cool video :-)

Technorati Tags: Citroën

Winterfest snowball fights :-)

the schedule for the annual Lindens vs Residents snowball fights is out :-)

there will be three sessions:

- 28 December 12 pm to 5 pm (PST) / 28 December 8 pm to 29 December 1 am (GMT) / 29 December 4 am to 9 am (SGT);

- 29 December 7 am to 12 pm (PST) / 29 December 3 pm to 8 pm (GMT) / 29 December 11 pm to 30 December 4 am (SGT); and

- 30 December 5 pm to 11 pm (PST) / 31 December 1 am to 7 am (GMT) / 31 December 9 am to 3 pm (SGT).

whichever session you plan on attending, please feel free to use the Anton airstrip - which directly adjoins Zermatt (where snowball fights will take place) - to have a great day out exploring the Linden snowlands :-)

Technorati Tags: Second Life

presenting at the first annual Digital Media and Learning conference :-)

all thanks be to God :-)

i'll be able to attend the first annual Digital Media and Learning conference - on the theme of 'Diversifying Participation' - from 18 to 20 February 2010 :-)

the conference is hosted by the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and will be on the grounds of the UC San Diego campus at La Jolla, California.

the presentation has the gripping title of Challenges in Extending Participation in Research Design in Socially Diverse Populations – the Experience of the Learning Sciences Lab, Singapore and it will be in the format of a combined session with a team from Brazil led by Hernani Dimantas. the title of the combined session will be 'Global Perspectives on Learning: A Comparison of Brazil and Singapore'.

i'll post more details as soon as i know of them :-)

i hope to meet some of you there, perhaps :-)

Technorati Tags: DML2010, education, games, learning, media

the Christmas 2009 issue of Prim Perfect is out!

the good folks over at Prim Perfect have just published their Christmas 2009 issue :-)

Technorati Tags: Second Life, SS Galaxy

Aurora Borealis at the Linden snowland

i've never before seen Aurora Borealis, but now i have :-)

Aurora Lindenalis, by Brent Linden, at Zermatt

NOTAM for the Anton Airstrip

strictly speaking, this isn't a proper NOTAM - being improperly formatted - nonetheless i hope it will be useful to those of you planning to fly in to the Anton Airstrip.

the Anton Airstrip is open to the public from today. it affords you a base from which to explore the Snowland region of the original mainland continent of Sansara.

the runway is 82 metres above sea-level (that is, 102 metres on the Second Life z-axis). it is 70 metres long, with overrun areas of 10 metres on either end.

object auto-return is set to one minute at the rezzing area near the western end of the runway.

in addition, there is a helipad with emitter beacon and an airship mooring tower.

happy landings!

APPROACHING FROM THE EAST

approaching from the East is the easiest and more recommended vector.

from the Linden-protected sim of Zermatt, just align yourself with Runway 27 and fly straight in.

please note that there is an embankment directly at the end of the runway, so apply braking as soon as your wheels make contact with the ground.

there is sufficient space for you to turn your aircraft around at the end of the runway.

APPROACHING FROM THE WEST

approaching from the West is NOT RECOMMENDED at all and would demand an exceedingly steep descent, with no emergency nets to arrest your aircraft should you overrun and end up in the lake at Zermatt.

Additional reading (wikipedia entries):
- NOTAM
- runway