I'm listening to NPR's Technology Podcast right now.

The most recent roundup talks about a project called "Loveland" where square inches of a property in Detroit are being sold to suckers people around the world with virtual deeds.

At first, I thought that this was cute and quaint, supporting the revival of Detroit one inch at a time.

Then, as I listened to more of the piece, yeah, I agree with the critics who think it's a pyramid scheme and hokey. You're not investing in anything, but handing some dude cash for a slip of paper saying you can come stare at a spot in his yard.

At least with virtual land in Second Life, it's got some level of functionality and utility to it.

A square inch in someone's yard in Detroit is, well, bonkers. And the folks who dump their money into it, lining some dude's pockets for something worth less than server space they can put all sorts of possibilities in, I'd strongly suggest that they get a mental health wellness check soon.

Who would fall for this kind of scam, eh?

Of course, I'm listening to this thing at work, so I'm not quite paying attention... a piece of Girl Scouts selling online... and... hold on... wait... did I miss something in that Loveland piece? I thought... didn't I hear... hold on... rewind... rewind... and...

Rita King is the biggest "landholder" in Loveland, with 1,000 square inches. She works for IBM, and she's an entrepreneur with a firm that helps companies use social media and virtual worlds.

King is excited about the project's potential to help the real city in which Loveland sits.

"Because Loveland is physically located in Detroit, it takes those 500 inchvestors, and it ties us to Detroit, which means that the development of Detroit is now of critical importance to hundreds of people who don't live or work in Detroit," King says. "And now I, for one, am starting to look very closely at Detroit, and how can I help Detroit level up along with Loveland in our small way."

O.o

*facepalms*

The world is a very small asylum, man.

Go figure.

How the hell is this an investment?

What's the return?

I baked a cake for jane's rezday yesterday, but when I went back to the kitchen to get it, it was missing.

I wonder where it went.

Oh well. Who's got the ice cream?

Looking for something to read today?

Lauren has added quite a bit to the off-the-cuff census bit I wrote up yesterday.

Good stuff. Cool.

So, what else should I scribble up today while pretending to work?

I'll be doing another round of 100 Word Stories today at 6PM Texas Time (4PM SLT) in the Clocktree on Edloe Island.

It will only be a half-hour of storytelling. Then you can go off to Lauren's where you might just hear some material I've slid under the table... or, you can take a nap or sort inventory.

There's talk of a Champions Series on First Question, and I've suggested a panel of me, Gary, Lauren, and... did anyone else funny win a show?

Just to keep it fair, I'll do a shot for every question I get right.

(Gary will also be doing a shot he gets right, so he'll be the designated driver.)

Just when you thought that history and archaeology couldn't get any more fun, the Rezzable folks have done it!

I love the new Egyptology-themed Monopoly game on Heritage Key!

Here I am, riding the Heiroglyphics Reading Railroad:

CHOO! CHOO!

A wide shot of Corona Cay's new layout:

I won't add any additional commentary because I already know what Radar will or won't say about it, so there's no point.

The issues never end, do they?

First issue was a series of laptop blanks and freezes. Those came about after a Windows Vista patch and then Tweetdeck using Adobe AIR. The video card was overheating and shutting things down, so I blew out the dust with compressed air and got a powered fan base for the laptop.

Oh, and bye bye Tweetdeck.

Then, I ran into WiFi issues. Neighbors appear to have wireless cards that spray like tomcats with ten pound nutsacks. Had to find a decent cleared channel to avoid their crap, but I connect via a network cable when something's important now.

Speaking of ten pound nutsacks...

EYES FRONT, SOLDIER! KIM AIN'T CASTING A PEEPSHOW!

Where was I?

Of course, server 1.36.x and Viewer 2.0 have added a whole new level of suck, using more bandwidth for the connection, it seems. I've been having issues with music streams stuttering and buffering. Voice gets wonky at the drop of a hat. And I had to drop from First Question last night because I just couldn't sustain a decent connection.

You may have dodged a bullet, Zen, but will you dodge THIS?

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

DSL was adequate before, but now things are just too thick to pass through this pipe.

Wiring is awful where I live, despite being a stone's throw from the central office. So, it's time to look at a cable connection and see if they offer better than 3m down and 512k up.

Yeah, Day 18 of War On The Wallet isn't looking good at all. I may end up having to push back my goal to pay off the credit card.

Feeling awful this morning.

Went to bed a bit after 10, woke up at 4 and never got back to sleep.

I'm pretty sure I had a bad reaction to some garlic and onions I chopped up for pasta last night.

Lots of gurgling, but very little in the way of forward progress.

I needed a day off, anyway. This weekend wasn't any rest at all, and I think I'll just curl up in a ball and moan in the corner.

Of course, when I called in sick, the overnight jackass didn't bother telling the morning crew. Got a text message asking if I was coming in.

Wonderful. (Fucker.)

While waiting to bomb the porcelain harbor with what will amount to a crime against plumbing fixtures, figured I'd get the rope barrier that Tobias Novi is selling.

Copy/Mod and 395 for 1 prim? Yeah, I'll take two.

I arranged it along the road over the fishing dock. Looks good, I think.

More from from Heritage Key:

They have a new version of Valley Of Kings ready for release that adds some narrative and guides to the build. Cool stuff, but I think it still needs a bit more audio... maybe some of the figures in character.

Anyway, Buckethead took a moment to write her brother again:

"Dear Indy,

I am at the Valley of the Kings.

Howard is here. He's doing a lot of digging. I think he lost his tin of pennies that he buried here. Poor guy.

Oh, and I'm sorry about the dog, but Dad didn't warn me that you're supposed to keep their heads above water when giving them a bath. NOW he tells me.

He's pissed. Or at least piss drunk. Can't tell with those Scots, can ye? Ha ha!

Anyway, Howard told me to stay out of the way, not cause any more fires, and play with my coloring book.

So, I ordered pizza.

I hope they make . At least I know that they made it here before, because there's a lot of dead pizza boys in the open desert crawling away from the camp. So, they must have at least delivered the pizzas before dying out there.

See? Your sister has big smarts. One day, I may be as smart as you.

Until then, I have my whip.

Love,
Your Sister Buckethead."

Louis and Isabele got SL-hitched last night.

They needed a photographer, but I wasn't really able to commit to doing it officially and such, since I've been having all kinds of issues sicne 1.36.2 server and Viewer 2.0 beta came out. (I've been using LL's 1.23 when I can.)

The snapshots I got before crashing out are here.

I got back in just in time for those final vow things.

Then, as people lagged over to the party area like so much avatamolasses, the Oscars needed some serious riffing on... as if nobody else was doing it over Twitter, right?

Where the Hell did this weekend go?

I'm exhausted. Beyond exhausted.

And yet, aside from getting back from Kevin Smith's thing after midnight on Friday night, did I do anything?

Something's messed up in my internal clocks.

I think I'll see Alice tonight. The theater is on the way home from work.

Didn't bring a packet of cheese with me... I don't plan on having popcorn there because popcorn is seriously messing me up.

Changes. Suck.

Try to guess which portions of this bio are mine and which are Skylar's embellishments.

The fun part will be getting poses and moving around at the right times without rubberbanding into the next sim over.

Get your tickets now, and pack plenty of produce and large rocks to throw...

More letters from Buckethead Jones as she explores Stonehenge on Heritage Key grid...

"Dear Indy,

I kinda broke Stonehenge.

I didn't mean to! Honest!

All I did was lean on a stone because I was tired from carrying around a bunch of stolen artifacts in my Hello Kitty backpack and next thing I knew, the whole place came crashing down.

The druids are angry and want to kill me, but I reminded them that they didn't do human sacrifices at Stonehenge.

Hah! Got them there!

See, I'm super-big smart like you!

And no matter how much they tempt me with ice cream and footrubs outside of the stone circle, I'm staying put!

Love,
Your Sister Buckethead.

I wonder if Sandra Bullock wants to play her in the movie series.

Prad was deejaying on Heritage Key today,

What? Madonna?

*THUNK*

Ouch.

"Dear Indy,

I didn't realize there were right-handed and left-handed shovels.

Learned that the hard way today, I guess.

You know, like scissors. Left-handed people using right-handed scissors can't cut, and right-handed people using left-handed scissors can't cut.

Except, with shovels, well...

Anyway, please send bandages. Lots of them.

Oh, and a new shovel, too.

Love,
Your Sister Buckethead."

Is it ethical of me to use Hide Selected to remove the sign and the tipjars from a snapshot?

Am I obligated to include all of the elements of a scene, or am I allowed to deconstruct it for artistic purposes?

Every since the 1.36.x server got out and Viewer 2.0 beta came along, I've been having some horrible rubberbanding issues with building.

Still, I've managed to get the boat almost to the point where I want it.

Sadly, there's beed a few other issues as of late:

No wonder why I have trouble sleeping.