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.

Virginia Trekkers

We were proud to have the Virginia Trekkers visit VSTE Island for a meeting in May.

Amethyst's New Home

Amethyst has a new crib! She moved across her sim to a larger, gothic Victorian house with three floors and at least two balconies. She has a flare for decorating! Here I visited with Louise.

Red Square with Jorgito

Shakespeare at the Pavilion

On Sunday night I attended a production of Shakespeare at the Pavilion, presented by Avatar Repertory Theater and the San Diego City Sim. They did one scene from several different plays. The interesting thing about SL is that one can "go" behind the stage with camera controls to see the sitting actors waiting for their turns. Avajean Westland was one of the actresses but she doesn't know me. She's only met my alt. I could not seem to get anyone to come see this with me. I sat with strangers. :P

Cages Everywhere!

At some point before Henny spoke at VSTE about Quest Atlantis we got together in my house to talk about his presentation. Somehow we go to talking about dealing with griefers and started displaying weapons. I have some Widowmakers or something that Cyrus gave me ages ago and Henny had this cage deal. We started shooting things at each other but nothing happened. At least nothing we could see. There must have been lag issues. When I returned to Channel Island days later my house was completely full of these black cages! It was funny and easy to take care of. I looked at the About Land window and returned all prims to Henny. There were over 100 of them! Later I realized that these black cages are all over the nearby islands, too. I can't return the ones not on my own land. I sent a message to Skipper Burns and asked him to return cages to Henny that I'd found in the sky. I'm not sure he did but I think so. Today I found more under water! Finally I have sent Jeff, RL Henny, a tweet asking him to come help me clean up. It's a little bit like trying to clean up the last bit of Easter grass or Christmas tree tinsel. There is always one more piece to be found!