Op/Ed: The 10 Worst SL Train Wrecks - So Far

by Casey Jones, railroad expert

10. Any announcement by Robin Linden on a Friday
Announce the bad news then head for the hills - the classic Linden strategy. Robin depends on the idea that any resistance is futile since most residents don't have a week to fight against Lunatic Lab’s latest moves, and at least half the residents are probably ill-informed, so the other half can spend their time arguing with them. While the SL residents spend most of their time backbiting, Robin has proved herself to be a master at putting the worst possible spin on whatever bad news the Lab has cooked up. This makes us wonder - is Robin Linden really a griefer at heart?

9. SL Next Top Model
This competition has been a long standing joke in the Second Life fashion world. Several months ago we watched the stolen idea war between Jada Hoyer and BooBooKitty Haight, Then there is a minor issue - Miss Hoyer never received written permission from Bankable Productions to reproduce the contest in Second Life - but with the amount of press Jada insists on receiving in-world, she might soon find a big, fat, life-sized lawsuit on her hands. But look on the bright side: if you suck up to Jada right you might win the competition! Next Top Model, please!

8. The Rag SL
A small unknown blog popped up a few months ago and seems to have a penchant for calling out people for their indiscretions - and doing that with a bite of humour. Only problem is they seem bent on publishing full chat logs - could this be their undoing? Oh wait - we do that here at the Herald too. Oops! Recent Rag SL complaints include the Face of Style contest and the Minnu Skins vs. Suite 17 debacle.

7. Woodbury University Closing
Good job there Lindens! While Provokey Evah “hits back hard” when asking the Linden game gods to keep their fingers off the scales of justice, that hobgoblin of small minds - consistency - is not a problem when P. Evah’s has unilaterally convicted virtual miscreants. Whenever the ever omniscient one has determined guilt - it is time to ban the whole lot of ‘em - and take their land too. But what on earth was the Lab thinking? With all the pushing they do to get educational backing, they choose to shut down an edu-Sim? Sad, really.

6. Second Citizen
A forum unto its own, this place gladly welcomed the jaded and slightly -or completely- insane to become regular posters in its largely unmonitored posting fury. The only downfall is the threat of legal action finally got the best of the moderator and he shut it down. Drama whores of Second Citizen then migrated to SL Universe. Second Citizen ranks #6 because they managed the longest running, slow motion train wreck in the metaverse.

5. GBUofSL
This is an older blog from last year, but it still deserves to be on this list. The blog was ran by a couple of alts who had a penchant for attacking Six Kennedy in particular. Some rumoured that the alts were actually Ginny Talmasca and one of her (his?) cronies, but there are also rumours that this blog was run by Colleen Desmoulins and has a very strong connection to the Brutal Honesty blog.

4. Brutal Honesty
This blog took less than a month to skyrocket to C-list fame in Second Life by blindly attacking anyone that moved the wrong way. They claim to be brutally honest, but unfortunately, all they tend to do is come across as cruel. Their gaggle of drama-hungry comments only increases their breakneck speed towards the wreck. Is it wrong to hope they actually reach the destination? Probably - but it feels so good.

3. Second Thoughts
In the midst of mountains of self indulgent, faux-intelligent conceit and way too many words, this particular blog does its best to tackle the "controversial" topics. Unfortunately, the articles tend to come off as poorly researched at best and there are astounding amounts of recycled prose. Good thing that this means you can skip reading the bulk of the blog. The obsessively repetitive approach here relies on making completely blind claims in the hope that someone, anyone, will get offended and provide a good nugget of real news to write about. Most commenters only hang around to laugh and poke at the author with sticks - and not because she's funny. Rest assured, we'd never do anything like that here at the Herald.

2. 12Avatars
Aside from the blogs, this particular contest was a trainwreck in itself. Advertising twelve spots for any resident-elected avatars, the number of possible winners was slowly whittled away as we found out exactly who Monkeyface had chosen for his own - and those included Bianca Darling and Callie Cline, both which arrived in the helicopter on the night of the opening. At the time we were all left in the dark as to exactly why. There were also "real life models" (re: bimbos) added into the mix, the profiles of which never mentioned whether or not they were Second Life residents. Wasn't the contest supposed to be for Second Lifers? We won't even touch the original concept of the thing, which was a popularity contest. Barf.

1. VAT Tax "Surprise!"
Oh, what a grand thing - Europeans woke up one fine morning to the VAT Tax slapping them in the face with its penis which was 17 to 24% larger than they expected. This particular episode will go down as Robin Linden’s best resident griefing ever - until next friday.

Comments

[Marc Woebegone]

Brilliant!

Especially the highly accurate comment at number three about second thought.... absolutely on point!

Keep up the great work.

[Crap Mariner]

Whew... SLWoodstock didn't make the list.

YES! SUCCESS!

[StallionSeven]

Oh, good, infamous cheat Marc Woebegone is posting here.

[urizenus]

Oh snap! Well that should awaken Prokofy from his dogmatic slumbers.

There are so many train wrecks it is hard to keep track of them, but surely the Linden policy on academic research (they had to approve it, etc) was a bigger train wreck than Woodbury. Then there was the whole ageplay fiasco and the hamfisted Linden response when it became visible to mainstream media. There was the Linden role in the copybot fiasco. There was the Marc Bragg bungle. The list goes on and on.

[Artemis Fate]

"2. 12Avatars
Aside from the blogs, this particular contest was a trainwreck in itself. Advertising twelve spots for any resident-elected avatars, the number of possible winners was slowly whittled away as we found out exactly who Monkeyface had chosen for his own - and those included Bianca Darling and Callie Cline, both which arrived in the helicopter on the night of the opening. At the time we were all left in the dark as to exactly why. There were also "real life models" (re: bimbos) added into the mix, the profiles of which never mentioned whether or not they were Second Life residents. Wasn't the contest supposed to be for Second Lifers? We won't even touch the original concept of the thing, which was a popularity contest. Barf."

Just want to note that I totally called that on the first SLHerald thread about 12Avatars.

[Ama]

GBUoSL was run by Colleen Desmoulins, not a rumor.

[Ethan Schuman]

I'm quite surprised the whole Ginko fiasco didn't make the list.

[SqueezeOne Pow]

I'm surprised there was no mention of American Apparel or the other corporations that didn't understand what they were getting into when going into SL to market themselves and left claiming it was SL's fault.

Not to mention the SL anniversary celebration this summer where half the sims didn't work or the townhall that Philip Linden couldn't get into after crashing because the parcel was full or the flying penis attack on Anshe Chung during her ego-boosting interview. You could have gotten a ton of better entries on your list without having to mention anything in the "fashion community" of SL...which is still the dumbest and overall worst-looking thing I have ever seen in SL (but that's another article!).

[Doubledown Tandino]

Well, SL Next Top Model is supposed to be a trainwreck... The RL show is, so why wouldn't the SL one be?

[Seraphine]

See what a wonderful world SL has spawned?
Britney and Lindsay are amateurs in comparison
to the devious minds of Second Life,

[moses]

and where is open registration on your magic list ? it was the single worse train wreck in second life history. this other things you mention beside perhaps VAT is just trivial derailments. a few cars left the tracks, no one is hurt, back to cool running next day. open registration is what you find if you open up a dictionary and look up "fuckery"(if you will excuse my language).

[Brennan Planer]

I'm surprised too that the Ginko thingo didn't make it.

[Darien Caldwell]

I hope this list makes it onto next years list. :p

[Amy]

Why is Tenshi Vielle not in the list?

[Nacon]

Who care about Woodbury University Closing.... but yeah... why isn't Tenshi ON THE DAMN LIST?! Or why even Second Life Herald is not on the list too? You're missing out.

[Stef Wade]

Why all that fuss over VAT for Second Life in Europe?

While many commentators in the USA shake their heads in disbelief about the uproar this episode has caused in Europe, I have to ask the europeans: Did you actually believe that there was no VAT to be paid?

In the United States, people are accustomed to the fact that in their supermarket, they pay much more than what was on the price-tag, because the VAT is “added to the value”. (Which is not quite correct, since the “value which was added” is being taxed).
In Europe, businesses have to include VAT into their customer’s prices. Usually, if I as a person buy something, VAT is included. If I as a business buy something, VAT is usually not included. But hey, businesses don’t worry about that anyway.

If you buy abroad, you need to pay taxes upon import.

These rules apply for all sales: In stores, on websites, for “Google-Adsense revenue” and I do not understand why they should not apply in virtual worlds!

And to take it a step further: If european businesses sell virtual goods in virtual worlds for real money (and yes, IMO L$ is real money), they need to pay taxes on that income. If you make a real fortune selling virtual clothes, you need to pay real taxes.

The VAT-issue is just as overhyped like the gambling issue: If real gambling in real casinos is restricted, and web-gambling in web-casinos is restricted, what should make SL (or TSO, or There, or Whatever) any different?

By applying RL-common sense to SL, many of these hot topics could have been handled much calmer.

DISCLAIMER: I am neither a lawyer, noŕ a tax consultant. If you need legal advice, please consult with a specialist.

[shockwave yareach]

The title of this was 10 worst SL train wrecks, not 10 worst SL blog train wrecks. A full half of this is about other blogs, and not a whisper was made about Ginko's ponzi (sorry - creative investment) scheme melting down. Not a hint about the gambling ban, either. And nothing mentioned about the free/open accounts or the upcoming age verification system? Comeon, even the newbies coming in this week have heard about these things.

Headline Rename: Five Worst SL train wrecks and five irrelevant whinings about other blogs instead of actually writing about SL.

[Angel]

Is it just me or is the Herald mainly listing other blogs as trainwrecks.

This article started well with Robin, and could have done well sticking to "Broadly Offensive", "Gambling", "Stability" (Which is what I see as a huge trainwreck), "Ginko" and so on.

But no, instead it becomes a back-biting contest with other blogs.

[Observant]

Because Tenshi wrote it. Also promoting her new blog if you read closely.

[anon]

GBU was run by three people. Ginny and Colleen were two of them. It isn't a rumor and it isn't the first time this little crew has taken to slamming people in blogs. They seem to thrive on it.

[Maki Kaourismaki]

"Why is Tenshi Vielle not in the list?"

Of course Tenshi is on the list. She's the star of the list actually.
She was directly and/or indirectly involved with the Train Wrecks #3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9!

[the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll]

I am the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll
I've information lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
I know the lore of griefing, and I quote the lulz historical
From Furnation to Woodbury, in order scatological

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters scriptographical
I understand rezzing, both recursive and forevermore,
About the grey-goo-fence and parcel rules I'm chatty to engage
With many cheerful facts about the coming physics engine change!

With many cheerful facts about the coming physics engine change
With many cheerful facts about the coming physics engine change
With many cheerful facts about the scoming physics engine-engine change

I'm very good with particles and ear-raping sound-effects
I know the asset keys of all of that the PN collects
In short, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
I am the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll

In short, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
He is the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll!

I know our mythic history, Prok Nevas's and Sir Plastic's
I make malicious scripts, I've a grid-crasher so fantastic
I underwater-basket-weave all the crimes of Ms.Tizzy,
In short I keep those lindens pretty goddamned busy!

I can tell undoubted trolls from geniune, clueless noobs,
I know the best way to make money is to sell a ton of sculpted boobs,
then send it out to paypal an blow it on the orange box for sure,
whilst my brothers all run out and crash some place of Prok's once more!

whilst my brothers all run out and crash some place of Prok's once more!
whilst my brothers all run out and crash some place of Prok's once more!
whilst my brothers all run out and crash some place of Provokeyprok's once more!

Then I can write a silly song in ripped-off rhymes and metaphors,
whilst I browse /b/ and sage some motherfucking ugly camera whores,
In short, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
I am the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll

In short, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
He is the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll

In fact, when I know what is meant by "choppaman" and "SFF"
When I can tell at sight a lagfest from a GGF,
When such affairs as IP-bans and proxies I'm more wary at
And when I can MAC-spoof at tipping of a hat

When I have learnt what progress has been made in funny gunnery
When I know more of grid nodes than a blonde trap from a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of sim-crashing technology,
You'll say a better Griefer-Mega-Troll had never shot at thee

You'll say a better Griefer-Mega-Troll had never shot at thee
You'll say a better Griefer-Mega-Troll had never shot at thee
You'll say a Griefer-Mega-Troll had never shot at shot at thee

For my griefing knowledge, though I'm plucky and eager,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the yesteryear
But still, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
I am the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll

But still, in matters lulzy, about your anti-grief patrol
He is the very model of a modern Griefer-Mega-Troll

[Aara]

GBUofSL was a train wreck but dammit it was hilarious and made me laugh out loud every morning. Ama, I think you are forgetting Mya Heaney who was stupid enough to get demo skins on her main AV, and Ginny Talamasca, who was actually the mastermind.

[Tenshi Vielle]

You won't see me on that list because I'm sleeping with the author. :)

[Araa]

Wow. I love yellow journalism as much as the next guy, but this is retarded. What a bunch of non-events. Seriously? The Rag? A blog by nobodies writing about nothing and read by none. I guess that must be your new blog Tenshi? Isn't it ironic that the latest post there is about publicity whoring when that seems to be the only point for this "article".

For the record, it was Tenshi herself who wrote the GBU, albeit under a prior pseudonym. It's widely reported that she writes the new Brutal Honesty blog as well. Self deprecation is a small price to pay when sweet, sweet SLebrity is at stake!

[Tenshi Vielle]

OH MY GAWD are you SERIOUS?! Wow! News to me... huh. I guess I should stop sleeptyping.

[Observant]

Tenshis new project is the Rag SL. Everyone knows it.

[Trudeethreedee]

Wow, Prok was avatar of the year here on the Herald a couple of years back, now she is the #3 trainwreck?

I guess it's true - slop will eat itself.

I am not surprised Tenshi wrote this.

I thought she "changed"?

What a crock of shit that was, and here people were, scolding others for not taking her at her word that she had "changed".

WTF evah.

Stupid little troll.

Uri, what a great job he's done! He runs a freakizoid pulpit for Prok for a couple years, then lets the attention whoring daycare kids run the place when Prok finally and inevitably turns on him too.

Is there anything in between? Something or someone who are not some fucked up fringe lunatics with huge agendas and who suffer from self-loathing and are wont to take it out on others around them through displays of puerile and massive egocentrism??

[Tenshi Vielle]

Oh, for cripes' sakes you people... I didn't write this! Helloooo! I'm on vacation from the Herald, save for commenting.

[pixeleen mistral]

Trudeethreedee asks: is there someone who is not a "fucked up fringe lunatic"?

Yes, Trudeethreedee there is a Santa Claus - we call him Casey Jones.
Sadly, some cold souls claim that Casey died in RL 107 years ago.

Not to worry though - the Lab recently found a way to turn these
sorts of historical figures into campbots, and as long as people
like you and me close our eyes and really believe, Casey and
Santa Claus will live on.

That is, assuming everyone continues to pay tier.

[Cocoanut Koala]

This isn't a list of the 10 Worst SL Train Wrecks, as promised. It's just an excuse to trash other blogs.

Waste of a good title. Any of us could have written a much better article under that title.

coco

[Cocoanut Koala]

P.S. Prok didn't turn on Uri.

The SLH got this new person, Pixeleen, whom Walker loves, and decided there would be a new title, "Junior Editor," for other writers, thus demoting Prok (and I don't know who all else), and removing some of their former abilities, such as being able to attach credits to photos.

Prok quit over that. As far as I can tell, Uri has had hardly anything to do with the SLHerald over the past couple of years, and unfortunately, it shows.

For example - who in their right minds would have allowed this article to run?

Without at LEAST changing its title.

coco

[Trudeethreedee]

My apologies then Tenshi, you all are such bitter and sarcastic people it's hard to distinguish some of you from one another sometimes. My troll comment can be redirected to Pixeleen in this case. Don't fret, you're still a troll though Tenshi, and quite stupid - narrow-minded selfish people many times are.

It would be nice maybe if op/ed pieces were credited to someone other than Pixeleen's fabled santa claus. Which was a really lame come back, or whatever that was supposed to be.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh go fuck yourself.

Woodbury isn't an edu sim; it's a griefer's haven. The Lindens closed it for cause. I have long documented their constant griefing. It's not hard to do. It's not some imagined griefing or bias -- it's evidenced in chat logs, pictures -- and of course the Lindens' server logs -- duh.

The Herald has a terribly moral blindness about the problem of the PNs.

[Prokofy Neva]

3. Second Thoughts
In the midst of mountains of self indulgent, faux-intelligent conceit and way too many words, this particular blog does its best to tackle the "controversial" topics. Unfortunately, the articles tend to come off as poorly researched at best and there are astounding amounts of recycled prose.

Rolls eyes. What a fucktard. Suffering from terrible projecting lol. And guess who Casey Jones is, that cowardly lameass loser hiding behind a nick? It's Ouchquack/Heartun lol!

[Prokofy Neva]

Actually, the train wreck of the year is the Herald itself, ceding its pages to outrageous griefers, libel-threatening tarts, and malpracticing lawyer wannabees.

[plot tracer]

Ha. Of course, the writer sticks only to West Atlantic train wrecks. Over here on the East, the biggest train wreck was when the French political ultra-rightwing party, Front National, tried to improve their image by building a pre-election hq on Secondlife. A pig-bomb or two and thousands of rl and sl worldwide protestors later, Front National have withdrawn their official sponsorship of the members who are still here. The cartoon violence/demonstration, and its inclusion in french; european and world-wide press, went a long way to making lePen and his neo-fascist party look even more ridiculous than they already are. And this helped lead to the train wreck that was their May election results.
Details here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/20/news.france
http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

[Jessica Holyoke]

The train wrecks listed above do focus on blogs and forums about SL then events that actually happen in SL. And while I would definately include the way the gambling ban was carried out, the problems with the financial trading sectors, including the WSE and Ginko, Broadly Offensive, GOM, the addition of unverified accounts then adding invasive age/identity verfication, and other Linden moves as SL train wrecks, I would not include the Herald as a train wreck of SL.

Obviously, I'm a little biased. I consider myself a freelance writer for the Herald. My writing, even if I need more experience as a journalist, is published here. The difference between the Herald now and the Herald in the beginning of the year, is the additional voices being heard. Is there another paper/blog in SL that would publish not only Prokofy's missives against griefers and an editorial from a different person calling for the computers used by the griefers to be seized by the government along with writings by the people who are accused of being griefers?

The overall tone of the Herald varies with each writer and is not set by one person. Pixeleen guides the timing of the articles, not the tone. If I read the Insider, I don't detect that much difference between the writers. Metaversed is also fairly similar in tone. (And if you want to read Prokofy at his intellectual best, but without the obscenities, check out his work at Metaversed.) Only the Herald provides a paper for the wide array of people on Second Life.

[Alyx Stoklitsky]

Prokofy "it's evidenced in chat logs, pictures -- and of course the Lindens' server logs"

Chat logs?

"Hi prok"
"Can't you be civil and talk rather than just banning me on sight?"

Oh yes, such horrible griefing!

Pictures?

Of what? Of me standing in your sim doing nothing whatsoever? Oh no.

Sever logs?

...Of me doing nothing whatsoever! Awesome!

[Tenshi Vielle]

I'm amazed at how bitter the Herald commenters sound. Especially Prokofy, who apparently can't put out a coherent thought the first time around, but must comment at 3:53, 3:55 and again at 3:58. I'm used to her rambling diatribes I suppose.

[Tenshi didn't Change]

You know, 70% of these 'trainwrecks' seem to be personal vendettas or associations of Tenshi Vielle. It's clear this was written by her, as the pseudonym clearly is obvious.

On the Brutal Honesty blog, her BFF Iris attempted to defend her by saying Tenshi works all day in SL making more than 'you or I would in an entire year'.

Doing exactly what? Each of her business ventures have failed miserably. Iris even claimed she's making a ton of moolah in Mercury, and yet, we never hear about Mercury anymore.

Iris, give it up. Your rose colored glasses are far too foggy with Tenshi.

Tenshi changed? Yeah right.

[Tenshi Vielle]

Again, news to me! Iris made a ton on Mercury? When? And why am I not being paid too? wtf. *shakes her fist*

[Amy]

Tenshi with Brutal Honesty? No.

Tenshi with The Rag? Yes?

[Nacon]

Well this is quite retarded to read on from the comment posts...

"...because I'm sleeping with the author."
Thus Tenshi proves to be a whore.

"The train wreck of the year is the Herald itself."
Yup, you got that right.. but you helped, Prok.

"3. Second Thoughts
In the midst of mountains of self indulgent, faux-intelligent conceit and way too many words, this particular blog does its best to tackle the "controversial" topics. Unfortunately, the articles tend to come off as poorly researched at best and there are astounding amounts of recycled prose."
Still true... but what Prok commments about it...

"Rolls eyes. What a fucktard."
Heheh. I love it when Prok post back about as a direct panic/paranoid attack when she can't admit about it. Afterall... it's still a self indulgent in faux-intelligent manner. Thus Prok is proving this point about it.

Good job Prok. :)
And good job sleeping like whore, Tenshi. :)

no really... I'm glad. :)

[Tizzers Foxchase]

Самый короткий анекдот: коммунизм.

[The other Anon]

GBU was founded by some masterminds. I would love to marry whoever was behind it. That blog literally made me laugh out loud, and I could never quite tame my anticipation for the next post. If GBU ever resurrected, I would be beyond ecstatic. You say it has a strong connection to Brutal Honesty? I disagree. BH has nothing on GBU. GBU was the best, and I dont think anyone will ever be able to compete; quite sad really, because I dont think they're ever coming back.

[Prokofy Neva]

Pixeleen is becoming more and more brainless and supine -- or perhaps merely MIA -- or both. Urizen has been declared missing -- and now dead.

>Is there another paper/blog in SL that would publish not only Prokofy's missives against griefers and an editorial from a different person calling for the computers used by the griefers to be seized by the government along with writings by the people who are accused of being griefers?

No. Because my *reports* which are not 'missives' aren't covered anywhere else at all, except the real-life media which is above the fray somewhat from the craven griefing-loving blogs like the Herald and the Blingsider.

I don't see what's to be gained by seizing *writings* of griefers, and even seizing their computers seems extreme; what's needed is for the Lindens to show some spine, and ban their groups/insignia and be more assiduos about "broken windows" policing and banning those who collect a lot of milder griefing reports and only take 3-day furloughs over and over again.

There's something wrong at typepad lately where it constantly stops comments. Possibly due to key words, but maybe not. Hence having to chop up a comment and post it in 3 separate posts.

The idea that you achieve "plurality of voices" by inviting sectarians like Holyoke or "injured but not innocent" "victims" like Lisae to post and even Mootkykiops -- well, it's fucked. The editorials should come from editors, but they are braindead, MIA, etc.

Yes, the trainwreck of the year really is the Herald.

[The other other Anon]

GBU was founded by people that should have known better, it might have amused some, but to find out that someone you thought you were close to and could trust, was behind writing a blog about you and slating you and their other friends, I can only suspect was actually quite hurtful.

Maybe this is why a certain somebody that was behind it, never affiliates for long and has about 20 alts.

As for the BH blog... please... i've seen smarter things come off the bottom of my shoe, they talk shit and don't look much better either. GBU might have been hurtful, but at least they knew the actual gossip, perhaps because of their connections on the quad.. er I mean grid.

[Tenshi Vielle]

" How dare you call me a trainwreck! You're the trainwreck!"
"Nuh-uh, YOU'RE the trainwreck!"
"Nuh-uh, doodoo head lintlicker!"

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mabb dilweg]

Prok: "Yes, the trainwreck of the year really is the Herald."

I totally agree Prok. I used to enjoy reading the SLH a year ago when I first encountered Second Life. In particular, I remember a very amusing piece on some US politician appearing in SL - it was satire. Intelligent, but with a point to make. Pixeleen wrote that piece, and there were many articles by others that I found intelligent or witty but most of all, worth reading, even when I totally disagreed with the authors!

Now it's just a bitch-fest written mostly by people who don't have the courage to come out and spray their crap under any kind of traceable identity.

Walker, Uri, I do hope you're deeply ashamed of what this blog has become in your absence...