Friday, August 22, 2008--Another Grand Tour, Science Friday and Mystic Library

 

Another Friday in the Lab and another Second Life afternoon.  Yay!  I started off my visit by touring around a bit while shopping.  Basically, I'd scoped out a bunch of freebies on OnRez and had to be inworld to import them, so I (quite honestly) was just bumming around at various spots while stuffing my inventory full of goodies.  Then, I received an IM informing me that Science Friday was about to start, so I followed the transport.  Mucho, mucho lag.  I couldn't get the streaming audio to work (apparently a bunch of others were having the same problem), so I logged onto one of NPR's streams.  It worked out just fine, but I wonder how you'd cope with the same problem in, say, an in-world conference that didn't have NPR live streams as a backup.  I stayed for roughly an hour at the seminar/meeting.  Ira Flatow's avatar kept disappearing (as I said before, there was *major* lag).  And, though there was a Linden in attendance, during the end-of-hour break, the whole meeting basically fell into a Bush-bashing, all conservatives are evil rant session.  Now, I'm not exactly the most conservative person in the world, but I was there to attend a Science Friday session, not a left-wing rally.  People who feel the need to spew such bile (we're not talking ideas here, we're talking downright slander), well, they tend to get very boring very quickly.  And I found it rather disappointing that the organizers couldn't or wouldn't keep it all under control.  Ah well, it just proves that SL is nowhere near a perfect world.

 

As I said, I got bored, so I teleported out and found myself on Landmark Island (the companion island to SL: Official Visitor's Guide), where I picked up some (er, duh) landmarks for more places to visit.  From here, I teleported to the Galaxy.  Now, the Galaxy is pretty cool--its a huge virtual ocean liner.  But there weren't hardly any people/avatars on board.  Talk about a ghost ship!  The closest to conversation I came was having to duck some guy who was playing with a helicopter, buzzing the deck.  With nobody around, even the ocean liner wore out its interest rather quickly.

 

Just on a fluke, I pulled up the search function and put in "New Orleans."  I found a riverboat listed and teleported in.  The cool part wasn't even the riverboat, but where it was docked--right next to a virtual French Quarter.  The whole area had been set up for fundraising events for Katrina survivors and rebuilding.  I noticed on the map that it said something about Biloxi in the bottom left, so I took off to find out what that "Biloxi" actually was--but not until after I checked out some of the blues clubs.  They were empty, so off I went.

 

I can appreciate that the designers were trying to get a feel of what Biloxi might look like, but really--uh-uh.  The lighthouse was kind of a likeness and the garden they placed it in is rather reminiscent of the Town Green, but the two landmarks are nowhere near each other in fact.  And there was no beach, just a dropoff into the ocean from the grass.  While it kind of upset me, at least they paid some kind of homage to some of the places other than N.O. that were affected by Katrina.   

 

 

Thursday, July 24, 2008--Shopping Trip, New Look and a trip to Conservation Island

 

Today was the last day of finals week and, again, I was determined to get more time in-world.  I'd run into a couple of entries in the In-World Travel Guide for freebie stores and figured I'd check them out.  First, I hunted down the Indigo shop, figuring that it might be nice to get an idea of how many Lindens I might be out if I bought something "pro" made.  I toured the various buildings--gorgeous stuff, but I can't say that any of it was "me"--or, I should say, Aevalle. 

 

So, off I went to "strike it rich" at the freebie stores.  In the first one, I hardly had any time at all--today was one of the rolling restart days in SL, so I had time enough to grab a couple of things before getting kicked out and having to start over, this time coming in at Annenberg Island--since I couldn't come back in to the Freebie Warehouse (it was still down). 

 

I toured the Vienna Freebies stores and, I have to say, its been *forever* since I've had so much fun shopping!  Maybe because everything was free--ya think?  The rolling restarts caught up with me again, just as I'd pretty well finished up grabbing everything I could grab.

 

As it turned out, the timing was pretty good, because I had a task to get done, but once I got through, I was ready to jump back in-world and do a bit of "trying on."  After a few hits and misses, I stumbled upon a look that I love (at least for today) and--ta da!--Aevalle's now a teal faery and, oh yeah, brunette.

 

Thanks to the new duds, I don't think anyone will be making any more "newbie" comments--unless I do something stupid, like rez between a billboard and a wall again.

 

Once I was comfy with  my new look, I visited the World Wildlife Fund's Conservation Island.  Pretty place and I can certainly see how it would be a great backdrop for classes and virtual lectures, but there just wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do, from what I could tell.  But it was pretty...:o)

 

Stopping off at Bridgid's Temple on my way "in world"

 

On the goose chase, hunting for Indigo, I found a sci-fi shop selling Stargates...

 

...soon enough, I figured out that it was a fake--I almost ended up in the water behind the gate...

 

At Indigo, they had this odd huge fish--I couldn't resist climbing it.

 

Up in an eagle's nest at WWF Conservation Island

 

 

Long way up...

 

Longer way down...the high bridge at WWF Conservation Island

 

Underwater in the lagoon at WWF Conservation Island

 

That's one big jellyfish!  (At WWF Conservation Island)

 

Playing with the Orca at WWF Conservation Island

 

Ending the day, meditating at a Celtic pool

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 22, 2008--Greenies, Close Encounters and Librarians, Oh My!

 

Well, I hadn't been allowed to do much SLing, thanks to the work load in the OLL (it always gets busy leading into the last week of the semester).  So the last couple of days, I set aside to do some in-world experiencing.  I finished the In-World Travel Guide Monday night and had marked all the places that I thought showed promise, then put my list up in here (I'll be adding to it as time goes by).  After seeing just how few places I'd been to, I was determined to visit at least one on the list.  I opted for the Greenies place, since it seems like every book I come across on SL mentions the Greenies.

 

I have to say, it was a jarring start.  I somehow managed to teleport in and have a sign rez directly in front of me, pinning poor Aevalle against the wall.  I managed to get loose--finally--after probably making myself look like a real newbie.  It was a neat place--though most of what I imagine was supposed to be interactive didn't seem to work the way the readings said that it would.  For those of you who haven't visited, the Greenies Home puts you literally at a mouse-view of a home.  I toured an open purse and a doll house (which didn't seem all that different from the rest of SL), sat in a "Barbie" car (I say sat, because I couldn't get the danged thing to do anything), went through several bookshelves, jumping and playing on goodies.  I ended up in the kitchen area, under the sink.  There was an odd glow, so I followed it and "ta-da!," found a hidden teleporter to a UFO launching pad.

 

So this is what it feels like to be stuck in my purse... 

 

Up, up and away (taken aboard the UFO launching pad).

 

 

Unfortunately, my UFO ride didn't last very long (no pictures to capture the moment).  Any direction I went, I ran into "restricted airspace" until finally the saucer dumped me out, high about the "ground" in Second Life.  To escape my free fall (gee, I wonder how far you have to fall to "die" inworld?), I teleported back to Pan Shamana, where I spent a few lazy moments by the beach there.

 

 

Floating carpet anyone?

 

Gotta float a bit on the other side, too...

 

Saying goodbye to the beach...

 

 

Just as I was figuring out where to go next, I had a message pop up in my chat of an educational meeting on the Montclair State University campus.  So, of course, I jumped at going.  I get a kick out of these academic meetings--with their werecats, fairy princesses, goths, robots, etc.  Nobody changes their avatar to "fit the norm" of what you'd expect in these settings.  It's wild!  This particular meeting was all in chat, no audio that I know of, so I could follow along without having to tinker with speakers, making sure that the media was streaming properly, etc.  There was, though, the ever-expandable conference table.  I didn't treat myself to a seat, but instead sat in the amphitheatre, looking much like a wallflower, I presume.  (But I knew I'd be leaving early.)  From my vantage point, the table was a distraction--too many avatars showing up late and forcing the table to expand.  The name bubbles looked like a huge living tag cloud with names and descriptions constantly jockying for position.  I had to force myself to concentrate on what was in the chat box, rather than all of the movement I was seeing in front of me.

 

The topic of the meeting was about trying to create a network of the educational (higher ed) libraries in Second Life, for greater communication and for more coverage for students and researchers working in and through SL.  Most of what was mentioned had to do with resources for troubleshooting and creating in SL, so I brought up that resources for educational researchers doing qualitative work in SL would be nice as well.  It was noted, but I had to leave before the meeting was adjourned, so I don't know that any decisions were made.

 

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Extra Odd Photos...

 

The American Library Association Main Lecture Stage is amazing!!!  You can see the waterfall through the floor!

 

Got my pic taken at the ALA's dance club (can't say that librarians don't know how to party!)--one tip, don't agree to the dancing script unless you're ready to dance all over the island--I couldn't get rid of the silly thing!

 

Enjoying a book in, of all place, a gypsy wagon in one of the Celtic areas.

 

Floating around one of the Texas Universities (can't remember which one!)

 

Discovering the Podcaster's Place at ISTE--gotta love it!

 

Gotta be one of my favorite lecture halls--the Association of Florida Educator's virtual classroom

 

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Thursday, July 3, 2008--Taking the Grand Tour

 

Today, I "traded" my Friday for Thursday.  Tomorrow's a holiday, which means I'll be back home with my dial-up computer--which means no Second Life.  So I made today my "Second Life Friday."  After reading the Au book, I was determined to find the Stellar Sunshine's Beanstalk--I mean, we're talking Second Life history--the first publicly created landmark in Second Life!  It took me a while--the search function wouldn't give me the slurl, so I had to hit up Google and, bing boom bah, found it!  I had to cheat to get up it, however.  The highest I could get with hopping was the fourth leaf, then I'd freeze up going forward and fall off.  So I flew up to the top (which is no longer in the clouds, btw) and managed to land on the top leaf (which for me is no small feat). 

 

In the process of finding the slurl for the beanstalk, I'd found a list of other locations.  And so, I started teleporting all over the place.  I visited Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (which apparently has some major bugs in the mix--I kept falling through floors), the Statue of Liberty, New York's Central Park, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, the Boston Lighthouse, Vassar's Virtual Sistine Chapel, the Parthenon, Roma, Tombstone, and Versailles (where I took a magnificent hot air balloon tour of the grounds).   I'm sure I'm missing something--it was quite the whirlwind! 

 

        

Dang, this thing is high!                                                              You betcha, I cheated!

 

Looking up at the Grand Lady herself (or at least the virtual version of her!)

 

It's a looooong way down!

 

Balloon's eye view of the virtual Versailles

 

It may be virtual, but its still a beautiful view!

 

Out front of the virtual Parthenon

 

Inside the Parthenon

 

The dark streets of an old French village

 

 

June 2008 (1)

 

 

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These don't have anything to do with Second Life--I created them with a new program called Spore, yet another immersive simulated world created through technology.