Mexico Live!

The person behind the avatar-also-known-as-Corvette lives in Mexico in RL. He is learning the language and immersing himself in the Mexican culture. Lately when he ventures into SL he does the same. SL does mimic RL afterall! Here we morphed back to the avatars we were when we were doing a lot of SL exploring together. I just had to record a photo of it.

Corvette Visit July 14

Lately I've been running into my old friend, Corvette, online more. I really enjoy talking with him about real life and second life. Though we have never met, we have a significant real life connection as my dearest RL friend used to work closely with him. She herself has never been in SL but she introduced us by sharing our SL names one to the other. I've known Corvette since my first month in SL. The timing of when you meet someone in Second Life is somehow significant. I was a newbie, still in my original avatar when he came to Cybrary City to meet me. Over several months he showed me a lot of his favorite places in SL and shared a side of it I didn't really expect. I learned a lot from him about SL and RL and am proud to call him a friend. When he has a couple of hours to spend talking with me I'm quite blessed.

VSTE building Institute Day 1

We had a guest builder lined up for July who was going to teach us to use sculpties to create new avatars for ourselves. I was really looking forward to it. The builder is a really fun character himself, and though, sometimes inappropriate, always entertaining. During our team meeting when he talked to us about what he would like to do, he walked on our board room table like it was a runway. He's just a hoot! Sadly was unable to participate in the project and backed out just days before it was to take place. Mandie got Kip (Pikskate in SL) to rescue us! Because he has class on Mondays he could only build with us on Wednesdays. So Mandie decided to create a four day building institute. She would help members create something that would use skills similar to the ones Pikskate would need from us on Wednesdays. This was the first day. We created what looked like two trees on one prim. We learned that a prim can be manipulated to form a flat right angle and a transparent texture can make one side of a prim invisible. Handy to know.

Quest Atlantis

My Quest Atlantis training has begun. This is not about Second Life but I learned about it in SL so I will blog about it a little. Here you see my class in QA waiting for everyone to make it in. We are all in white because we haven't yet earned the right to wear other clothing. Everyone can see that we are newbies. Quest Atlantis is a virtual world for 9 to 15 year olds. It teaches Internet safety, global awareness, the responsibilities of citizenship, and curriculum. Teacher train in pairs to learn how to bring Quest Atlantis successfully to students. My gifted resource teacher is my partner. We have to learn to walk and fly, communicate, and complete quests. Flying from a Mac laptop is challenging. I have done it once successfully and can not seem to repeat the performance. I have done two quests and have two to go. I'm doing one of them with Soulstar as a co-quest. I'm very excited at the prospect of bringing this to fifth graders at my school.

Thunder Traps Kiwi

Kiwi was my mentor when I was a newbie in Second Life (see http://thunderliving.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-does-this-happen.html and other early posts). While I have rented various parcels, bought land, and tried several houses on my island, Kiwi has always stood on the top of his bank at cybrary city. He's always there, or his avatar is. Very often he's in fact AFK and his avie is unattended. ;-) That's where I come in! It's great fun, okay my life is not very exciting at times, to go bump him off his building and see how long it takes him to notice. He awakens and sees me as Queen of the Hill, laughs, and we get to talk for a few minutes before I find someone else to bother. On this particular day he was gone a long time and I had nothing special to entertain me so... I enclosed him in a box. He came to in the dark and couldn't walk out. He used the map to TP to a nearby spot, but it was a fun moment.

President Obama Speaks in Second Life

Okay so that was misleading. It mislead me, too. He was only on a big screen with dozens of avatars gathered around watching, listening, and commenting. When the message came via one of my groups from someone I know and respect said that Obama was speaking in SL I thought he'd have an avatar there. I left what I was doing and followed the link almost immediately. Now I wouldn't cross a street in RL to see a celebrity. I don't want to be in a crowd. I wouldn't expect to be able to see or hear the celebrity, much less have any sort of verbal exchange. But this is a key difference between RL and SL. I meet avatars operated by real people who I've heard of and admired all the time. I get close to them, even have a one on one discussion, sometimes. No, I haven't meet a world leader, or famous actress, or wealthy athelete; but I have met a Holocaust survivor, a pioneer in podcasting with kids, and international speakers on the topic of instructional technology. So why shouldn't I expect to see my president if only as an avatar? Maybe some day I will. We have invited Senator Warner, former Virginia governor, to VSTE Island. I don't think there has been any response, though he was one of the first politicians to go public in Second Life. It seems like an easy thing to do to make an impression.

ITC Visits Channel Island and Learns Greedy

This was a fun time when Chellie came by while I still had Channel Island. She is a rare visitor to SL.