Mo Hax Rezz Day Party

Test 3

Test 3 Visit Timbucks (35, 115, 24)

Test from iPhone

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Post Deletions

I thought I had learned that I could email snapshots from Second Life to this blog and return later to fill in the text and publish the post. It worked a few times. Unfortunately it didn't work for the second book talk meeting or Julie's ISTE appearance. Maybe the issue is sending more than one at a time. I'll test that theory. I'm so disappointed. I thought this would help me keep up, at least chronologically. Sigh.

Virtual Pioneers Middle Passage Experience

Last night the Virtual Pioneers visited Middle Passage Experience at http://slurl.com/secondlife/SolipCISM/217/246/22. We were hosted by builder Tamsin Barzane. This build is designed so visitors can to pretend to be Africans being enslaved through this journey. It's just the sort of thing VSTE looked for a year ago for Black History Month and could not find.
First we landed in a beautiful spot where we heard the sounds of African birds and other creatures. Then we began to notice monkeys, elephants, and lizards. Once rezzed boxes appear which have free clothing in them. They are marked with African names, five male, five female. We each chose one and wore the clothes. These were the traditional clothes one might have worn who lived in Africa. The most important item in the box however was our identity. We received a name, tribe, and story.
As we proceeded through the tour we were to find our new, slave clothes, on another box, and change into them. There was a costume to wear later which may have been our daily wear once put to work at our destination. Our story continued and we learned our fates. I happened to pick Nzinga, who ended up in Jamestown, Virginia, the mother of four children forced upon me by my master.
Along the journey there is a slideshow and at the end there is information about the Underground Railroad and its conductors. There is a clip from Amistad on the slaveship, a sales block on land, and several exhibits about early slave live in America nearby. This was a very moving experience.
VP is so popular that is was crowded and difficult to focus attention and see everything during this meeting. I will return with a few friends and take more time with it later.

Kiwi Visits VSTE

There was a time that I spent all my in world time with Kiwi. He was my mentor, the first one I found that was a teacher at heart, patient, and willing to help me endlessly. He taught me how to dress, edit freebie clothes and shoes, and move and explore SL. He took me to salons and explained about trying demos and bought me hair. He helped me think through the social norms in SL. I can remember now getting furious with his constant correction about what I was wearing or how I was wearing it.  That was almost two years ago. You get attached to someone who spends this much time with you and is so helpful. He was one of my first real SL friends. I have yet to meet him in person and perhaps I never will.
After a time the real person behind Kiwi got busy with his athletic hobby in real life and I became very involved with VSTE's presence in SL, and we just drifted apart.
Lately, maybe because of his new job, or my having more time away from VSTE, we have had more time for little visits. He used me and some of my friends in some Team iN Training machinima  recently. That was fun.
So here we are on a Tuesday evening sharing family and work news. Friends are the best reason to be in Second Life. Jaz, is this you?

Elisa Carbone Visits VSTE Island

We started off our second book talk with the author's visit. Mandie arranged for Elisa to call her on the phone and be in SL via voice from phone to headset. It was pretty good! Elisa talked about how and why she wrote the book, "Blood on the River," about Samuel, a real boy at Jamestown. She discussed her research methods. She talked to Jamestown docents, read primary sources, visited the archeological dig, and camped in the Jamestown area in the late spring. She knew the sounds, smells, and feelings Samuel and the others might have had living in SE Virginia in 1607 without the amenities we have today.
Elisa does not use a computer for communication and has only just started using it to compose her current book. She looks away while typing because the screen bothers her. She has always written, edited, and rewritten her books by hand.
VSTE members asked many thoughtful questions and Mandie read them to Elisa via phone. Mandie will send her our text chat along with photos we took via US mail. What a strange mix of 20th and 21st century, but it worked!