Tillman Terra (Sept. 2003): The account that preceded Cubey Terra

In the past, I’ve engaged in retrospectives:

• 2005
• 2008
• 2010

And a little flight of fiction:

• The Oldbie

This time I’m going to just say that, although I recently sold Abbotts Aerodrome, I’m not dead and gone yet. I’ll be here playing with aircraft, gadgets, and crap in SL until Linden Lab turns out the lights.

Thanks for all the memories, Second Lifers. Now let’s go make more.

Update (Aug 11, 2011): Although Abbotts Aerodrome is closing and I’m moving on, a buyer has stepped up who will repurpose the Abbotts build  (the tower, runway, etc.) as a new facility. See the relevant comment here.

Standing at the edge of the runway in Abbotts, I can hear the waves shushing against the supports underneath. A short ways away in the trees, a bird whistles a song that is suddenly overwhelmed by the roar of a 737 taking off. In the distance, a steady beat of helicopter blades rides the cool morning air. These are the sounds of Abbotts Aerodrome. I made this.

About seven and a half years ago, Apotheus Silverman and I closed our short-lived Zoe Airfield and bought up the majority of parcels in a new southern region called Abbotts.

Zoe Airfield in 2003: The predecessor to Abbotts Aerodrome

We built a floating airport with an art deco theme, called it Abbotts Aerodrome, and welcomed pilots and aircraft makers.

The region of Abbotts in February 2004, before Abbotts Aerodrome was built. That's not a typo on the sign; the region came online as "Abbots", but the Lindens later changed the spelling.

In subsequent years, we expanded, I tore it down, rebuilt, tore it down again, and finally realized the structure that you see today — literally from a dream.

An early version of Abbotts Aerodrome in 2004, when it featured floating platforms around a central tower.

Abbotts Aerodrome in 2005: More art deco, more floating stuff!

We held small aircraft building contests, huge exhibitions, and design competitions. We fought off attacks from sandbox griefers and two-bit newbies with cage guns. We’ve had Aerodrome members join our ranks, and others who faded away and left.

One version of Abbotts had small, low-lying structures that hugged the hillside.

All of it was great fun. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. It’s the end for Abbotts Aerodrome, Second Life’s second oldest airport.

Abbotts Aerodrome in its final configuration

On September 1, 2011, we are closing the doors and grounding the aircraft for the last time. The lights will turn out and the aerodrome will go silent.

Watching the sun set over the southern passage.

On that day, I’ll retreat to a corner of Abbotts to build a little cabin, where I’ll take up fishing and learn to make primfish sushi.

*crickets*

No, really, go ahead.

*crickets*

Doh.

Prelude to a heart attack.

Poutine is beautiful in its simplicity. Dump some crispy fries on a plate, top them with cheese curds, and pour gravy or other sauce over top. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in flavour. And grease. And salt. And arterial blockages.

These cheese curds are from Quebec, apparently.

To construct this cheesy concoction, I enlisted one of Canada’s leading experts on poutine, Chef Stacie Bee. I checked her credentials, and she has, in fact, not only been to Montréal, but has also actually eaten poutine. Furthermore, Stacie is an expert not only in poutine, but also in bacon, which became a small but vital component in our construction.

Chef Stacie transforms bacon into bacon bits. Note the bacon wristwatch, which can only be worn by a truly accomplished culinary expert in bacon.

As culinary experts agree, any food is made better by putting it on a stick: pizza on a stick; fries and bacon on a stick; spaghetti and meatballs on a stick; scorpion, seahorse, and silkworm larvae on sticks; and more! As chef and author, Anthony Bourdain, is fond of saying, everything tastes better on a stick.

And this is how Chef Stacie and I decided to prepare… poutine-on-a-stick.

Ingredients:

• Crispy french fries
• Cheese curds
• Gravy or poutine sauce (fresh is best, but we used powder)
• Delicious, crispy bacon

Poutine-on-a-stick under construction

Preparation:

1. Put fries and curds on the stick.
2. Put sauce on the stick.
3. Sprinkle bacon bits on the stick.

The finished product:

Behold the majesty that is POUTINE-ON-A-STICK!

I’m looking into possible ways to fix this, but until then I hope I can ask for your patience. Sorry for any inconvenience.

If you’re looking to try or buy Terra products, you can still do that at Abbotts Aerodrome!

Today, I did it. I brought pig and chocolate together in a sweet and salty chocomeatgasm. On a stick.

Ingredients:

Only 3 ingredients for the greatest food on earth

• 15 oz semi-sweet dark chocolate
• 4 oz white chocolate
• 15 strips of thick-cut bacon
• bamboo skewers

Preparation:

OK, admittedly at this stage it looks a little gross

1. Soak the bamboo skewers for a while, then skewer the bacon.
2. Put them on a rack in a roasting pan for 30 minutes at 350F until crispy.
3. Remove from oven and let them cool.
4. Melt the dark chocolate and smear it liberally on the bacon until no meat is showing through.
5. Put the skewers in the fridge until the chocolate sets.
6. Melt the white chocolate and drizzle lightly over the dark chocolate.
7. Put the skewers back in the fridge until it sets.

The result:

Mmm. Chocobacon.

Exploring the new coastline south of the City of Nexus Prim in Gibson

With the removal of the sandboxes and ridge that separated them from Abbotts, now we can perform proper approaches to runway 9.

Making the final approach to runway 9 at Abbotts Aerodrome

Of course, wide swaths of new ocean are perfect for Second Life’s sailing enthusiasts, and some have already approached me to ask about my plans for Abbotts regarding sailing. Since Abbotts Aerodrome’s founding in 2004, it’s been our policy to allow anyone to rez any kind of vehicle. So our marina in the northwest corner of Abbotts is, as always, open to the public for launching their boats on their way into the new southwest passage. It’s not a big marina, so giant yachts won’t fit, but we’ll certainly let you temporarily place smaller vessels.

It’s almost the weekend, which means I’ll have some time to upgrade the Abbotts marina to accommodate the sudden increase in demand. I hope to see you out on the water and in the sky in our new seaway.

My first object imported to OpenSim from Second Life

The Imprudence viewer exported the biplane model as XML, minus any textures I didn’t actually own (I’m not sure which those would be, since I textured this myself). Then I ran Sim-on-a-Stick, logged in with Imprudence and imported the XML. Over a period of about 30 seconds, I watched Imprudence assemble the plane in pieces — all 248 of them and all textured correctly. Proof of concept: Now I can start migrating my content away from Second Life.

Just to be perfectly clear, I’m not abandoning Second Life. I just think that it’s good to have a lifeboat available if the Titanic goes down.

UPDATE: After playing around with Imprudence in Second Life for a bit, I find that I can export almost nothing, because there’s always at least one part of the model or textures that have someone else as the “creator”, even if that name is my own alt account. What I need is a viewer that ignores the creator tag. Without that, all of my content is stuck in SL.

• It is very popular and very packed. More bums than seats for some talks.
• Enthusiasm abounds for blogging: technologies, social relevance, strategies, and more.
• Attendees appear to be predominantly Macophiles: MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones abound. It was rare to see Windows. I was so ashamed of my Samsung netbook. So déclassé.
• Many people like to divide their time between Twitter and the speaker, occasionally including the one giving the talk.
• Many attendees do not look good in a lime green t-shirt.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the party at The Academic, despite having a ticket, but I’ll definitely be back for the 9:30am start. That is, I’ll be there if I can find a shirt. Stupid laundry day.

Northern Voice 2011

Months ago, I signed up for a conference that I knew nothing about for reasons that weren’t actually clear to me at the time. It was, admittedly, kind of an impulse buy. I’d heard of Northern Voice, I knew it was a conference for blogging and social media, but knew nothing about it beyond that. And though I’ve had this blog now since 2002 (see my archives), I’ve never thought to head out in the real world to connect with fellow bloggers and discuss the techniques, experience, and meaning of blogging. So the decision to attend Northern Voice 2011, my third conference of any kind, is a bit of a departure for me. My question now is this: Why am I going?

As a conference newbie, I have no idea what to expect when I get there, so I imagine I’ll figure out what it’s all about after I hang out for a bit. I’ll even try to Twitter my experience and “live blog” a little because that seems hip, and anyone who knows me will be familiar with exactly how hip I am. Maybe after a few hours of discussing blogging, discussing blogging meta-discussion, and meta-blogging meta-discussion, I’ll know why I’m there.

If you’re looking for me there, I’ll be the bald guy in the corner with a confused look and most likely the ONLY attendee not blogging/tweeting on an iPhone.