Sunday ISTE SIGVE Tour 2.0

Today Cyrus Hush took over the ISTE Tours, now the ISTE SIGVE Tours. I know he's hoping it's not all on him, that volunteers will step up and do some tours. Maybe he already knows some who are planning just that, but he did today's tour. We went to Costa Rica. There were 9 or 10 avies by the end of the tour. We road a four person boat through the sim and then traveled to the top of a volcano.

Some of these photos are mine and some are my friend, Josain Zsun's. 

Exploring

Lazy Sunday afternoon explorations...

VSTE Home Tour

This happened a while back, but I haven't blogged in ages.

VSTE in Second Life meetings are sometimes just for fun. This was one of those meetings in early summer. Someone from the membership suggested it at a planning meeting and it seemed like a good idea: let's tour the "homes" of some VSTE Second Lifers. So we put out a call and asked who among the VSTE family has a home in SL, or some personally owned or rented space, they'd open up for us to see.

Seems silly, having a virtual home, I guess. There are a lot of good reasons to do so. I like having one little place where I call the shots. My little rental is mine. I don't have to ask anyone else if the tree I put at the southwest corner is okay there. I like to share it with friends. I have a couple of game tables there and a movie screen with some DVDs available. I can't afford to keep it all year. It's $22 a month rent. That's US dollars for an idea, a virtual 3D representation of... a house on an island.

Leko's home, almost completely built by Leko himself.

Cyrus' home, Expedition Central, a place to find landmarks to explore.

Mandie's home

Em's home on Timbucks

Em is amazing at finding deals in SL

Jazzmemo's home

Always comfortable, a nice place to have a chat

If only she were online more. :)

Thunder's home

I love having people over, even if I'm not there.

Flying carpet tour of Timbucks

Polling Educators on Griefers

Serena Offcourse led the ISTE SIGVE social meeting this week. Quite a few educators came out to particpate in her activity. She prepared a set of statements about "griefers" in Second Life and we responded by walking into the Opinionator, a scripted Likert scale.

When we walked into areas that matched our level of agreement with Serena's statement, the piechart in the center of the Opinionator created a matching chart. Discussion ensued after each statement. Sometimes there was quite a spread in opinion, which made for lively discussion.

Are griefers mostly teens? Do they add to the SL experience or are they merely an annoyance? What's your opinion?

Tribute to Dick Clark

Karen Carpenter

An interesting participant

Buddy Holley

Dick Clark

Michael Jackson

Patsy Cline

I can't remember who this was supposed to be.

Donna Summer

More Avatars

I'm enjoying people watching these days.

Random Avatars

from a brief visit to a welcome center

 

 

 

Earl Grey

Spoke to Earl Grey to compliment his avatar, but he didn't respond. His profile is nearly blank. Why would someone go to the trouble of creating such an interesting character and not communicate anything about himself, real or virtual? I don't understand but I appreciate the creativity.

 

The avatar on the right of this trio was playing 80s Nintendo music and talking in the background. They weren't bothering anyone but they have a "griefer" look about them. I was drawn to the interesting avatar on the left but did not try to engage him in conversation.

 

This was was just floating in midair near the trio above. Why the shrunken head? Unattractive but eye-catching. The rest of his avatar suggests he isn't all bizarre, but a more typical SL player.