So, it’s time to announce the Final award, and this one is the biggy….It’s the ‘Golden Kitty’ award, and if I’m perfectly honest my winner was pretty much decided from the get go, BUT recent events have made it even more pertinent to award the prize to this particular person.

It’s with great pride therefore that I announce that The Golden Kitty Award this year goes to Nikk Huett.

This is for a number of reasons. First of all, Nick worked tirelessly to promote ‘Tribute Island’ and ‘the Big Green Switch’ in Second Life. Tribute Island, was home to virtual tributes created by admirers of deceased personalities from fields as diverse as showbusiness, literature, politics and sport, as well as ‘ordinary’ folk. The tributes were all created with love and care by Second Life citizens and cited by Nikk upon the island. Perhaps the reason Tribute Island was most famous was because of it’s virtual tribute to servicemen and women, and it included service personnel who had featured in the national press and held fantastic tribute night parties which ensured the island retained its high profile in-world. Alas, it’s gone now, merely a memory, but the Iraq and Afghanistan memorials are still around along with the Diana Memorial Fountain and can be found in the London Sims.
The Big Green Switch was another project that Nikk worked upon, and this aimed to educate visitors on all matters environmentally friendly. The location featured a plethora of fabby freebies which were available to help spread the green message. Compost bins, wormeries and windmills were the order of the day here, as well as plants and trees. You could even carbon offset your avatar ( which I did, and felt very pleased with myself for it too!) It may seem mad to the outsider, but it was actually a very valid idea and really impressive to see such a hot topic,as the environment is, handled in such an immersive and non-patronising way. Alas, I haven’t seen Nikk much in world recently, but as followers of his blog http://lactosetheintollerent.blogspot.com/ will sadly be aware he was made redundant by his employers, hence the cessation of the projects that he had worked so tirelessly upon to promote in-world.

Nikk, this award is to thank you for your vision and your imaginative contribution to the metaverse. You sought to educate, innovate and tirelessly promote causes that are important not just to Second Lifers, but to the wider public as well. Thank you so much for your contribution to the history of Second Life, and good luck with all your future projects, may they be as successful and satisfying for you, but just make sure that some of them involve your remaining in-world, as your skills and talents will be sorely missed!