DEN Dog Sled Race

DEN always has the most fun and the best prizes. I got my first pair of boots after doing pretty well at an Academy Awards trivia contest DEN held in 2008! This time we were celebrating the Iditerad I guess or the new year or just the return to school after a long break. :-) DEN took us to a dog sled race. We had one hour to sled as many times as possible and get our best time. There were prizes for first, second, and third place. I think Riptide actually won, but was ineligible for prizes. Though I really came in second I took first place! I won this lovely snow queen outfit, 1000 Lindens, and a DVD which I will receve in the mail. :-) Queen for a day!

http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife/2009/01/07/a-night-at-the-races-dog-sled-races/

VSTE Island Delivered

Photo caption: Marie, Jaz, Thunder, our builder, Identity Euler, met Danny on VSTE Island. It's here and not without birthing pains. Thunder first noticed the e-mail from Danny and entered Second Life. Danny tried in vain several times to TP her to the new island. She called Marie onthe phone who was on her way home. As soon as possible Marie came to SL. Marie and Danny were on the phone while Danny frantically tried to follow directions for what he had to do in the first 90 minutes. Marie and Danny used Identity's advice to set up the basics so we could access the island without Danny being there. Now it begins. http://slurl.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/83/103/28 The tiny dot in the center of the sky is Mandie. She is terraforming! She removed the hill before dinner on the second day. Later that night, while everyone else was resting, she flattened the island and recovered as much land as she could from the water, leaving space for canoers to circle the island later. The second morning the island looks like this.

Montclair State University Panel Discussion

I went to an awesome panel discussion at Montclair State U last week. I am too tired to write a paragraph now so here is some text cut right from chat that gives the particulars. AJ Brooks: These meetings are made possible by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University. We meet here each week at 2:30pm SLT for an hour. Sometimes we have a topic, sometimes its an open forum. Prospero Linden notes that the table is not, strictly speaking, round, today. Buddy Sprocket: we do prospero? kewl! ;-) AJ Brooks: Normally our meetings are only 60 minutes but today I am expecting us to run over, probably closer to 90 minutes. AJ Brooks: Our topic today is "Possible, probable, and preferable futures of Education in Virtual Worlds" and our very special panel here to discussion this includes: AJ Brooks: * Chris Collins (Fleep Tuque) * Anthony Fontana (AnthonyFontana Chevalier) * Jeremy Kemp (Jeremy Kabumpo) * Daniel Livingston (Buddy Sprocket) * Jonathon Richter (Wainbrave Bernal) * Sarah Robbins-Bell (Intellagirl Tully)

Photo Board by Biran Gould

Behind the desk in my office I have my second Photo Board by Biran Gould. I had one on Channel Island but I've accidentally deleted it or it is in the wall there somewhere. This is a great board. You add up to 15 photos by holding Control and dragging them there from your inventory. When one of the photos is clicked it grows to cover the whole board for easy viewing. Click again and you are back to the collage. I love it! I was tickled to find a photo Corvette took of me my first month in Second Life so it is there to show the newbies who come by discouraged about their looks. Corvette has said he did not like the way I looked then. I can't see why!

Mon aime beaucoup, Ciril

Ciril is a new friend I met while on Christmas vacation. He was wandering around Serenite, one of my favorite sims, and I was there people watching. I think I was actually helping someone else when Ciril came up. He needed more help and I was distracted away from the other av. Do I have a little cyber ADD? Ciril works with cars in France. I haven't figured out whether he makes, repairs, sells, or drives them, but I know it's something to do with cars. You see, he speaks only French. I don't. Madame Slack and Mrs. Williams would be ashamed of me, but Mrs. Curtis would not be at all surprised! :-P Ciril needed help with his inventory, like finding the photo I took of him to put in his profile and finding and wearing the ice skates from the rink I took him to. He wanted very much to rid himself of a sign over his head. For that I took him to my office. He could not find it in his inventory to detach. I had him detach all and take off all clothes in my second room with me modestly on the couch in the outer office. It was quite frustrating. My friend, Anibal, who speaks French and English, came to help after I begged for a bit. He was able to let Ciril know I was trying and frustrated. Ciril and I parted for a few days while I regained my strength. Ciril and I each have the free translator from inside SL now and we communicate much better. I'm taking this opportunity to try to recapture some of my high school French. Most of the time when we are talking he is far away dancing with some sweet gal his age and I'm with my teacher friends. Our translator does not work in instant messages so I try to remember some of the phrases I've used lately.

C'est une manière amusante de rappeler quelques-unes de mes leçons de français.

Milosun Draws a Weapon and I Embarrass Myself

This was fun but maybe went over the top as you will see. I found this Likert Scale object and brought everyone I could find online, who I thought would be interested, to see it. See earlier post. Here Milosun, the original VSTE SL guy, Mandie, and I are standing around after everyone else left. Somehow we became playful. Someone mentioned snow and I put on my snowball thrower and aimed at Milosun. He donned this storm trooper outfit from Star Wars for protection. I went berserk and got out my shoulder sitter! Why can't I leave well enough alone!? I don't have a photo thank goodness but I sat on Milosun's shoulders and he could not get away until I stopped, which I hope I did pretty soon. :P Here is the REALLY embarrassing part. Later I repeated this silliness at ISTE. Although KJ gave me permission beforehand he didn't really know what was going to happen and, as I sat backwards accidentally, it wasn't pretty. I have deleted the monstrous mechanism from my inventory now because I know I'd do it again given the opportunity. As in RL I can not pass up the chance for a laugh! I was a gift from an Aussie member of ISTE and friend of Henny. We had so much fun riding each other's shoulders early in the AM at ISTE when the Aussies were there. It just did not come off as much fun in the more serious evening group. I am not responsible or mature enough to own such a device!

Egpytian Images

There are many places in Second Life that depict real places, some very historical and related to units of study in my school. I've heard someone say they use photos like this that they take in SL for students to use in projects in the computer lab. Was it Marie? Anyway I thought I'd start collecting some and see how helpful it is. This was hanging in a store near a shop rented by my SL friend Leonard Hawker. There was no other appropriate shot I could get since it is not an Egyptian setting. This was just art for sale. I think I will spend some of my SL time looking for sims with interesting photos I could take.

Southern Georgia and Darra Nimbus Advertise Their Toy

It was a very interesting night at ISTE on Saturday. I popped in there as I often do when I'm in SL with no particular goal. There were a couple of groups gathered which eventually grew and blended into one large group. SG then pulls out this marker and drew on the scene with it! He could write a word, circle an object, or draw a beard on KJ. It was really awesome. If you click the photo and zoom in you can see the circle he drew around Darra. This is 3D and as I moved to take the photo it was no longer placed correctly. When he wrote a word it was backwards on my screen but I could walk around it to see it correctly. Naturally all the educators there wanted it! We began to ask, beg, and whine. Finally he teleported his friend, Darra, to answer our questions. I got the impression it was hers and her information to share. Apparently she has started a group called Virtual Education on Virtual Education Island where SG has moved his Freebie Mall and teaches his classes. This was all a ploy to get us interested in taking classes to get more info on the marker. It worked! Darra rezzed a very cool object that we all clicked to be added to a list and get messages about future classes. It doesn't even occupy one of our precious group slots! Way to go Southern and Darra! I think you have something here!