VSTE Meeting March 16th

This week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, Mandie led us on a tour of Dublin. Here is a link to the pub! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dublin/81/81/25 Here are the spots we visited: Welcome to Dublin in SL! Enter Trinity College to see the Book of Kells: Originally the Irish Houses of Parliament: Christ Church Cathedral dates to 1030 (this LM is off by a few steps-just follow sidewalk): In Dublin city the river has been used for many centuries for trade from Viking beginnings: One of Dublin's old stone city gates named after St. James: Park located in Dublin city centre originally opened in 1663: Pedestrian bridge named after the toll paid to cross the River Liffey:

Discordia

Discordia is a sandbox with all kinds of interesting particles and lights floating around. There are some interesting animations and vehicles lying about. It's a mature sim so don't tour it if you are easily offended. Here there is a huge pipe organ you can play and a statue that looks gothic, if not evil.

Taran's Proposal

Taran is a friend I met when researching Numbakula for a VSTE meeting some time ago. I don't remember who messaged who first but he told me Taran means Thunder in some language. We searched together some but never found anything of significance. Taran was partnered (a public pronouncement of attachment to another in SL) when I met him and since I've known him has ended that relationship and been through another. He's not frivilous with his affection I don't think. He has a lot of female friends, is single in real life, and pretty sweet and sentimental. He tells me about his girl friends and quest for love in real life like I'm a big sister. Recently I learned that the man behind Taran is a Christian and pretty serious about that. He would not get to know a female avatar based on groups in her profile that indicated she could be pagan, for instance. All this information is to make clear that Taran and I have no affection for each other beyond friendship before I tell you about this photo. Taran asked me to be in a photo contest with him. The prize is a wedding in SL worth 25,000 Lindens! He wanted to do the wedding with me too, "just for fun." I declined but it was fun being asked. Taran's friend, Tovah Bravin, is a new wedding planner in SL. This was a promotion to drum up business. I did give her landmark to a few friends in SL that I thought might be interested. To visit her sim go to http://slurl.com/secondlife/SkiTyrol%20Estates/118/89/501. I don't know if she is still running this photo contest, but she has about a dozen different venues for the bride and groom to chose from. Anything can happen in SL!

St. Patrick's Day

From Second Life

Look closely to see Jazmemo, Thunder, and Mandie enjoying a jiggy time at the Chicago Schools Island sim! We all wore green in honor of the upcoming St. Patty's Day. Sometimes SL is just silly!

ISTE Sunday Tour

From Second Life

Sometimes it's fun to just let someone else show you something they found and if you can do it with friends, that's even better! Esme and Janita give tours that start at ISTE HQ every other Sunday beginning at 9 AM SLT (12 noon Eastern time).This week we went to three or four underwater sims. It was fun! In this one you could get a free SCUBA suit, which, of course, I did! That's me in the yellow. The sims were educational. One was about biomes, one was about organisms, but I wasn't paying attention to the information. I was relaxing and taking photos.

From Second Life

From Second Life

VSTE Meeting - Profiles

I got to run the first VSTE meeting after the face to face VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach March 2. I created a slideshow on profiles and the newest avatars worked on theirs while we talked. Profiles in Second Life are how you present yourself to others. Because we are there to network and collaborate with other educational technology folks we want to let the world know who we are and what we do to some extent. I went tab by tab over what is available in the profile, including how to make notes about the others one meets so as not to forget important things they have told about themselves. Everyone added VSTE Island to their picks and at the end of the meeting Pocahontas gave all the newbies 10 Lindens and we helped them add a profile pic of themselves. We had over twenty people in attendance. :-)

Virtual Pioneers Meeting at Virtual Abillities Island

Comments to follow.