The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

During the run-up to the Blogpower Awards ceremony last year, many of our bloggers visited Second Life, the virtual world where the ceremony was held.

A couple of the visitors from that time are still regulars. However only Bag of Bag’s Rants (a fellow-traveller, rather than a Blogpower member) has anything like the enthusiasm for SL that I have.

Of the others involved in the awards, Ruthie is still an occasional visitor, as is Ian Grey (aka Delicolor).

At that time, I began a tradition of naming my various SL vessels after the female members of Blogpower. So we have a "steampunk" airship called the SS Ruthie (see picture of my avatar at the helm), a Zeppelin called The Lady Ellee and – stateliest of all – a 120 metre long airship liner called the AL Limoncello, after Welshcakes of that ilk.
Currently in refit, the Limoncello houses my art gallery in Second Life and her large ballroom was the venue for our party after the 2007 awards ceremony.

All vessels are usually female as any fool knows, but there is also a spacecraft named for Blogpower’s well-loved founder, now sadly no longer a member. Here is the USS Higham in all its glory.

The new Blogpower Common Room (BCR) is on one deck of a new spacecraft, until now un-named. Bearing the above in mind, I have decided to name her in honour of enthusiastic Blogpowerer JMB of Nobody Important. As she is from Vancouver, I have named the craft the USS Vancouver, and the nameplate fixed high on the stern (click picture to enlarge) proudly declares that she has "JMB/Blogpower Hyperdrive." I have two more vessels to name. Both are spaceships.

I am open to suggestions as to female Blogpower members to be honoured (in the comments please).  Suggested designs for the nameplates (emailed as jpeg files to the email address in the sidebar) would also be welcome.