2013: The Year We Find Magellan Linden

It's the end of the year and so many Second Life residents, prominent or not, are making predictions about what will happen next year. No one, however, has said that 2013 will be "The Year We Find Magellan Linden" but me.

Let's stick with so-called reality for a moment ... Magellan is a fictional character that Linden Lab used to a few years ago to promote the release of new sims.

Image hijacked from HeadBurro's Website here.

For those that believe (i.e., those that can suspend disbelief or who spend too much time with a bottle of Old Warthog), Magellan is probably one of the great explorers of our time. This is the man sent "where no man has gone before" or at least where no Linden has gone before, through rugged landscapes, untamed forests, hazardous seas, and many (many) a filthy pub. Contact suddenly broke off at one point and sightings have been intermittent at best – often limited to the odd beer can or empty bottles with his fingerprints – since then. The best of us – HeadBurro Antfarm, Valdora Grayson, Marianne McCann, Kennylex Luckless (among others), and even the least of us (me) – have searched long and hard, bearing up under many hazards and still more filthy pubs. One has even paid the ultimate price of the explorer ... Salazar Jack is now missing, too.

Over the years I've taken a casual interest. I mean, you know me. My attention span is about ... ooh, string! erm ... But I've taken up the cause in ernest now, especially since I've been involved with the search for Salazar. Today I buckled down and did quite a bit of research ... at least a half-pound of Jelly Belly^® jelly beans-worth, actually ... making landmarks for places that I knew were related to his explorations and subsequent investigations. Here are a few:

Several sites in the (premium access) Wilderness regions show that Magellan was there, like this raft moored at a bar (naturally) in Piranah (SLurl). Note the LDPW logo. The moles know things and aren't talking. Michael Linden? You reading this?

• Magellan left a tunnel boring machine in Mysehi (SLurl).
• Many vehicles were crashed in his travels. In Squall (SLurl) he setup a camp site after falling out of the sky.
• The broken portal in Elderglen (SLurl) may have something to do with Salazar's disappearance, too.
• The Pouloco gas Station in Bay City (SLurl) has a milk carton with search info inside it.

Then I Binged my butt off and Googled my goggles around compiling a list of Websites dedicated to the search:

• Start here, on Blog de la Burro with "The Magellan Files"
• The Second Life Wikia is handy, too.
• HeadBurro's Flicker page is useful.
• Follow key searchers MySL pages, like Kennylex and this entry, or Marianne's pages (like this one).
• And don't forget about Magellan's own blog here.

Contact me in-world or by posting a comment here with your SL Resident name and I can drop my landmark collection on your profile.

So, the upshot ... Magellan Linden will turn up in 2013. The Grid needs a kick in the pants and he's just the man to do it. Think of the marketing opportuniites! Think of the morale boost amongst old-timers and really old-timers! Think of what Residents will think of when they see that The Lab plays in Our World, too, like in the old days. Oh! The Community of it all!!