Who knew a powdered beverage could taste so good??I recently acquired a big tin of Caffe D'Amore's mocha mix-with-milk drink (thank goodness just about every piece of packaging in the world today has a website), and it's really yummy. Better than Horlicks in its heyday when I had it as a kid. I totally nuke dairy until it supercurdles and then dump a big scoop in and stir it all up. Mmmmmm keeps my tummy warm. I would have embedded an image of the can but here, look at it in all its glaring glory, like the survivor coming out of Cube. (Which makes me think, next time I'll have to try this with ice cubes.)

Onto more pressing matters, there's a lively piece of fan fiction by Jack Cline on the SL Forums, and I don't know whether this is the first fanfic piece for SL, but what I do know is that "Arley Torgeson" blatantly (in the best of ways) seems to be based on yours unruly. Looks like Jack did his research into some of my areas of interest, and the vocabulary is pretty up there!

Arley Torgeson frowned as the first sheet of rain staccatoed a rapid cadence against the windshield of her watermelon-pink and green hoplite. The readouts projected on the inside of the canopy seemed to brighten as the little aircraft shot into the onrushing cloudbank at 30 meters per second. Dynamic weather on the grid was a relatively new development, fully functional only since the rollout of the last point release a week before.

Yeah I hope we get dynamic weather. Thanks Jack, whoever you are, I am honored. Keep writing!

One of my dream collabs is about to come true in SL — from an electronic music standpoint, it's like Brian Transeau and James Holden working together on a track. SO LET IT BE KNOWN: famed Second Life inventors Rickard Roentgen and Francis Chung are working together on a vehicle. But not just any vehicle! Apparently, it takes its past roots from some sort of Earth-based vehicle called a Mustang, and a future foundation scaled from the pages of Back to the Future, as previously popularized by ahk Grommet. This vehicle will be fully flyable (and driveable! Yay for shpelling my way!), and Fran's been doing the artwork — something she's tended to focus on more nowadays, if you've seen her Primmies creations — while Rick is working on what I'm told are "vehicle control systems". Pleasant things there, if you're familiar with his past achievements such as the R-3 Hammerhead. Another pic here.

On that trip, I met a delightfully charming creator of games of chance, Plexore Lumiere. Yes, the name has quite a ring to it, doesn't it? She runs the Sapphire Moon Casino and while my addiction to gambling is a dangerous one, I dared come close enough to take a look at her simply luxurious video poker machine. Look at that — just LOOK at it! Isn't it a beaut? When playing her games — the casino's @ Ritch (7, 121) –?you'll also notice that her blackjack tables have animated cards that fly out, and not just a jarring texture change.

HEAD TO NETHERBECK (50, AND LOOK TO THE EAST! What's there? Well, Ryntha Suavage has just introduced what she calls "Cheapies", which are quality products from her at a great, virtually non-existent?price. You can get 20?verycool eye contacts for just L$2, and also makeups. More on the way I assume. Nearby on the wall, also check out the L$25 (!) rubber catsuits she has for sale, you can mix and match colors. Make sure to read the READ ME.