Cats, Weirdness, Cats

No. of cat cafes set up: 1 (good); No. of new kittycats acquired for cafe: 2 (v.v. cute); % by which kittycat food bill goes up: 25% (bad); No. of people who think I am creepy, lonely, antisocial and altogether ought to get out more into the FRESH AIR: approx. thousands (bad)

So week of Yoshikawa on FutureLearn Play MOOC has come and gone (i.e. last week) in which generally speaking politest thing that people said was that SL was not for them, am exaggerating for effect though not outrageously. Talk of SL creepiness etc. was somewhat dampening of spirits as difficult not to take personally (was tempted to thrust Facebooks pics on them shrieking "Look I have friends!" or perhaps as Facebook also virtual that not such effective strategy, think only solution would be videos of me hiking in woods with friends and family whilst doing good for some charity or other).

But heyho SL has kittycats and whilst one has kittycats who can be downhearted, they frolic, they sleep in cute poses, they sit at your feet and ask to play and nowadays they rarely disappear under floorboards which is bonus. As relaxation and inspired by RL cat cafe that visited, as noted in last post, have created the Shore Thing Cat Cafe which is now OPEN FOR BUSINESS though of course all food and drink is free, it being pixels. Is in particular v. wide range of cakes, and drinks include champagne chilling in bucket.

This pic is most popular of cafe shots on Flickr and shows corner with assorted cakes etc. and pics of the cat cafe cats plus one rather professional pic by Nina Heartsdale who does cute mashups of kittycat pictures with artworks. Decided to give visitors a range of cats, so did indeed buy black cat was shown viewing in last post. He is now full grown and called Hawthorn, and have invested in teacup kittycat (so tiny!) which is Siamese chocolate tortie. The other 3 are Jennifer (Bengal snow), Snowflake Morpho (Advent cat) and Sabrina (Firestorm), so colours for all tastes. Hmm, perhaps that statement is catist, obviously also each cat has own personality and is not constrained by gender, breed or colour. Hmm again also note that may be heteronormative element to kittycats since can only be Male or Female and can only pair up a male and a female kittycat for breeding purposes, and not possible e.g. to form kittycat civil partnerships. But will pass on from this to wallow in cuteness once more.

SL cat cafe Merchandise and a Facebook page are logical next steps. But why stop there. Am now dreaming of extending empire to Noyo and beyond. Could have minimalist cat cafe on Juicy (minimalist, as am allowed only 25 prims, ie.e. 2 kittycats a cake and a cup of tea). Next stop, the grid! Soon there could be a Yoshikawa cat cafe in every continent! People would be snapping up the virtual cute cat cafe t-shirts! and mugs! Cute cat cafe videos on Youtube! It could go viral!

On the other hand it could just consume hours and hours of my time, but since I am apparently creepy, sad, antisocial and weird am sure there are lots WORSE things could be doing.

Will finish with pic of me tickling Praline. ZOMG she is so cute.

Cats; Comments; Houses; Preparation

No of cats transferred to cat cafe: 3 (good); No. of comments on Futurelearn MOOC; not so many as last week (reassuring); Houses bought: 2 (good); Percentage of required preparation for future presentations/life/work successfully completed: not nearly enough (bad)

Whereas should be setting up useful posters for newbies, decluttering, preparing landmark givers, constructing items which simply yet effectively tell the story of information literacy (etc etc) in preparation for the possibly-not-hordes of people storming into Infolit iSchool because of the Play MOOC, am in fact in process of constructing the Infolit iSchool Cat cafe. This is inspired by a cat cafe in London, which recently visited and v. nice it was too although really rather competitive as all the people visiting the cafe wanted the cats to spontaneously love THEM, and if that didn't happen, to photograph the cats in cute poses.

In SL is a bit simpler as kittycats periodically tell me they love me in text chat and unless they are asleep then anyone can pet them as much as they want.

Have almost finished cafe in new L2 Studios home. Spent oodles of lindens to secure 2 very neat sets of tables and chairs in a gacha (also got 2 sofas, 4 odd tinny decorations and a musical bear surplus to requirements, but that's gachas for you). Sofa in pic doesn't match in colour, but was from latest round of collabor88 and cushions have little cats on so nice touch. Have absolutely loads of random food items in inventory and is mostly a matter of which ones to pull out.

2nd pic is of Tassie, felt that she was telling me NO I do NOT want to work in a cat cafe. However didn't get that vibe from Jennifer and Snowflake Morpho so there they are settling in (1st pic). Have now added Serena the Firestorm cat who technically belongs to Zoe, but of course Zoe is my puppet and does what she's told being 2nd Alternative Avatar.

Is terrifically tempting to use cafe as excuse to buy more kittycats. Visited sim which is basically devoted to stalls and shops vending kittycats i.e.it is one giant kittycat shop. Was very taken with a couple of them notably the black kittycat with odessey (mismatched) eyes (middle row on far left). Also almost got sucked into real-time cat auction, with about 15 people gathered round bidding on 10 assorted cats including an absolutely adorable teacup (tiny) cat (shown) below, but would have to bid at least 1000 Linden and let's face it already have several kitty boxes in inventory (offspring of Tassie, Marl etc.)

That black one is very cute, though. Very.

Crows, comments, distraction

No. of people registered to MOOC on Play: 15000 (scarey); No. of comments in MOOCs first day: c. 2000 (distracting); No. of hats, shoes, tops, skirts and trousers snapped up in sales: too many too mention (bad); No. of items purchased which have crows in them: 2 (good)

So as can be seen from last non-statistic, consumerist life being pursued as per normal. Tulip is having closing down sale which is v. sad as they do nice hair, and also, as now almost too late discover, nice clothes. Here I am posing on bed in new L2 Designs show house wearing floaty boho skirt and warm jumper. Fatpacked on the skirts as they seemed Just The Thing, and also bought a couple of jumpers and various trousers, oh and also pair of cute turquoise suede wedges.

Crow items were from some event, have already forgotten official name, but anyway it was focusing on Poe and so there were various Crow-ish items (Nevermore etc.) including this hat and a crow in a birdcage. Don't usually go in for hats but in fact am shown here wearing 2: namely a butterfly one with a net veil, and the crows. Spent a short while wondering whether crows were alive or not. They don't move or make sounds so inclined to think, not. Then paused for thought: some people might think was weird to wonder whether something ONLY COMPOSED OF PIXELS was alive or dead. Hmm.

Moving on, also bought cute changing rooms and shop chairs from Cleo Designs. In fact when TPed in to buy them, the creator, Cleo herself, was there. Should have taken a pic but instead got v. fangirlish and thanked her gushingly for her creations (which are also, it should be noted v. reasonably priced AND are copy/mod). Am shown below in changing room trying on new Truth hair (called Dariela, think will get it in Pastel colours)

Should have been doing more marking, but instead was distracted not just, ahem, by virtual shopping but also by MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) which is indeed Massive since 15000 people - that's *15000 PEOPLE* - are registered. Sheila Yoshikawa features in week 6 talking about SL and Play, plus a token amount of SL and Information behaviour which managed to sneak in. Not sure how many peeps will be left by week 6, but at moment comments are zooming in and not just one liners, all sorts of deep and interesting stuff so is v. tempting to just dip in and out all day.

As readers will know, am not one to resist temptation, so tomorrow will have to take self firmly in hand and decree no MOOC and no SL until certain things are MARKED and AWAY.

Was going to do a blog post with profound thoughts about how reading MOOCers comments about childhood play have given me further Great Thoughts about SL and play and how in fact I appear to be carrying on various activities from childhood into SL dotage (collecting shiny things! dollshouses! dressing up box! being a princess! etc. etc etc.)

However, as usual, talking about shopping is rather more fun. Makes better pictures, too.

Gone cats; on Comments; too much stuff

Comments on fashion blog: 2 (bad); Cats disappearing into Lost and Found: 7 (very very bad); Amount of cute stuff that can be bought at SL events: limitless (so bad, it becomes good again)
My Blueness fashion blog is attracting comments, but alas not from what one might call discerning punters. Indeed a sceptical reader might think people were spamming the blog to advertise some tawdry search engine optimisation services. First comment reads "Its such as you read my thoughts! You appear to understand so much approximately this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I believe that you can do with some percent to drive the message home a little bit, however instead of that, that is magnificent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back."

This so barely hangs together as English that it almost becomes poetry (really awful poetry, obviously). Quality of the prose is probably explained by next comment

"I read a lot of interesting posts here. Probably you spend a lot of time writing, i know how to save you a lot of time, there is an online tool that creates high quality, SEO friendly articles in minutes, just search in google – laranitas free content source". Is evident that author A must have been using services being peddled by author B and in my view should ask for their money back, though the phrase "like you wrote the e book in it or something" has a certain ring to it.
Makes me nostalgic for the early days of spam where either messages were lovingly handcrafted by spamming maestros, or consisted of random chunks of text welded together with no regard for sentence structure, punctuation or meaning.

Moving on, had been looking at fashion blog because just posted new outfit (see above) presenting just a few of the many items hoovered up at recent SL events. The Arcade! Kustom 9! We Love Roleplay! Jewelery Fair! The Chapter Four! Basically, there is just too much cute stuff to be had, and my inventory is stuffed to the limit (i.e. 71,000 items) with things so delightful have never even opened the box let alone worn them.

Could have disquisition on moral decay of Western Society here (what kind of world is it where spend money on virtual hat consisting of giant butterfly, when should be doing marking?) however will move on swiftly to Case of The Disappearing Kitties. Was going quietly about normal business in SL, setting up a picture shot of me carving pumpkins amongst autumnal trees and grass (see first pic), when realised that item which had just rezzed was more than the prim count that I had left on the land. Strange.
Turned out that this was because SL had decided to send into Lost and Found
- 7 assorted kittycats
- 1 folding chair
- 1 set of washing, on a line.
Items are all scripted, but then so are oodles of other things. To cut long story short, kitties are returned to their homes, but still seems to be some kind of aftermath in which when "holding" a kitty animation does not work, so get unfortunate effect as pictured here with Marl.

Perhaps  is revenge of the spammers for sending their comments straight to spam.

And I have got 6000 files; Spring becomes autumn; I whack some noobs

No. of pictures still in my Second Life folder: 6000+ (worrying); No. of noobs whacked: 17 (unimpressive); No. of giant pink flamingos bought: 1 (v. good); Season following on from Spring on Infolit iSchool: Autumn (because I can); Parts of SL disappearing in random fashion: lots (bad)
As can see from above, SL continues as per normal. Was trying to upload some pics to Flickr but Second Life folder on my PC (where save said pics) refused to be ordered by date rather than by name. Upon investigation realised that this folder had approx 7,200 files in it, most of them pictures, and presumably am testing some kind of Windows limit for the no. of files you can have in one folder without it curling up and waving legs in air.
Did a quick transfer of the 1000+ SL pics taken in 2013 (that averages 3 a day hmmm, perhaps ought to reflect on that statistic) anyway even after that there were still 6000 pics left. However, it seems like Windows can cope with sorting that number so, hey, won't have to worry about that again for at least 6 months.
Probably need to say asap that noobs being whacked (see item 2, above) were of course not REAL noobs (i.e. not the 3D embodiments of real living human beings who have only just embarked on the adventure which is SL) but rather a twisted version of Whack a Mole, produced by designers Weather or Not.
Just searched this blog and realise with dismay that it contains little about Whack a Mole in fact only a passing reference namely here http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/three-weeks.html. Have had Whack a Mole game on Infolit since (evidently) 2008 and jolly fun it is, little moles and rabbits pop up and you have to whack the moles and avoid whacking the rabbits. Good healthy fun for all the family. It essentially looks much like the Whack a Noob machine you see above/right.

In the noob version, heads pop up for you to whack, and you get some noob-like random chat generated e.g.
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: What am I supposed to do?!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: So, what is there to do here?
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: Help!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: this game sux!!!!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: the graphics aren't as good as WOW
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: $100L please?
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: are you a boy or a girl RL?
As can be seen in first pic, I whacked only 17 noobs. One problem, which was what decided me against buying it, was that you have to go into mouselook view (interface disappears, you have to target and click), so it requires more skill/patience than I have to master the whackery. Also, would only be amusing if you were sufficiently un-noob to recognise the noob responses and go hohoho so true so true. And is trifling matter of it being a teensy weensy bit anti-noob.  So on balance will stick with mole version.

Still, is against nature to leave a shop without shopping and could not not resist this giant flamingo with multiple sit options. Particularly like the "dangling from the flamingo" pose (2nd pic). You can also see other tempting items in Weather or Not's shop e.g. giant sushi and giant hamburger, but resisted those. Giant Flamingo joins the normal sized unanimated flamingos that already grace my inventory.
The third pic shows giant flamingo in situ on Infolit iSchool, with a little flock of pose-less flamingi, including one discovered in Inventory's Library ie everyone has it for free (go look!), but like most Library items it is constructed of zillions of prims and is endearingly retro. It's the borked-looking flamingo at the back. Felt impelled to put it out of its misery (Right Click, delete!) as soon as the pic was taken. (Question: why did Linden Lab think its users would be in need, specifically, of a mishapen virtual flamingo rather than (say) a mishapen virtual cat? Discuss)

So, onwards to final items in check list above, i.e. springing into autumn and random disintegration of Infolit iSchool. Had left Infolit in spring mode because had been filming for the MOOC on Play (of which more in future posts, if can be bothered) and was concerned that might need to do some extra filming to fit in with what was already done. However, filming over now, and appear to have passed summer by, so straight to autumn it is. Must be said that, in SL terms, summer is dullest of 4 seasons and one with least special trees, ground textures etc. So, not a problem to skip it, really.

Deleted or took various cherry trees, ground cover, and the odd lurking narcissus or snowdrop, changed all the alder trees to autumn using a HUD (one click and they all turn brown) and then brought out some old favourites such as the mixed leaf cover and the Heart brand autumn oak. Finally changed ground textures so the spring carpets of flowers turned to mossy and leafy greeny-brown.

Only blight on proceedings was that noticed later on that some buildings/trees/etc. were disappearing until you got v.v. close. Can see this in final pic; is blank space where you ought to see Sakura House (which, being called sakura (=cherry blossom) house retains its sakura even when everything else is autumnal/ covered in snow). Not sure whether disappearing was due to my graphics card or SL playing up, but think probably the former, as seemed a lot better after restarted computer.

Anyway, there I am contemplating the unusually bare horizon, waiting to hitch a ride in an automobile that will never, ever come, unless, that is, a passing noob finds one of the free vehicles in  the welcome pack and gets his kicks on route 66 by crashing into me.

ZOMG I am so cute (again)

Hair with bird: 2 (v. cute); companion which bobs up and down: 1 (almost as cute, but not quite); kimono acquired: 5 (4 free, v. good)

So here is version 1 of the hair with bird. Also bought another version which haven't worn yet. 1st pic. shows close-up of cuteness (bird flutters wings! and tweets! you can change its colour to match your dress!) and 2nd pic shows self in giant arena of cuteness, namely the Dreamer event. May be able to see that cute bird has been joined on other side of head by indeterminate cute winged blobby thing that bobs up and down.

Main purchase at dreamer event was sort of house consisting entirely of clouds. This is so overloaded with cuteness that probably enters some kind of new kawaii dimension where everyone is wearing backpacks in the form of Hello Kitty, with bunny rabbits on their heads, riding bicycles suspended from balloons, and surrounded by miniature cartoon animals emitting soap bubbles and butterflies.

In fact sad fact is could probably assemble something like that from depths of giant inventory, except think Hello Kitty item is lunch box rather than backpack.

Meanwhile, changed out of bird princess gear in order to moderate a VWER meeting, v. serious business of new group starting up with aim of liaising with Lindens. What (I hear you ask) is position of VWER in relation to new body which has acronym which also has V in it (and some other letters, but can't remember which ones)?  Exactly question chewed over for 40 mins, then finished by discussing Our Value to The Lindens (which is, or course, priceless i.e. v. difficult to calculate).

Was mostly concentrating on being good facilitator but distracted by Pathfinder's interesting avi namely (i) sunflower and (2) cloud of butterflies. In this pic appear to be staring mesmerised at swirling insects.

Finished evening by changing back into princess garb to visit kimono-ichi which had completely forgotten about because of number of cute events that had intervened, but was reminded by reading own blog entry from last week. Once again spurned octopus yukata, and instead invested in wedgewood blue yukata from 1mm (see middle kimono, below), plus assorted hair ornaments, bags and fans, and snagged 3 free kimono from different lucky boards, plus one free event gift kimono.

Am shown here at 1mm booth admiring pic of v. tasteful lucky board kimono had just won, letter has now turned to G. Giddy with freebie success am tempted to send in Zoe and Dimitrova to try their kimono-ichi luck. Given am due to be discussing weighty issues of RL module redesign with 2 colleagues in approx 9 hrs time would be madness, but ZOMG those kimono are so CUTE.

Princess practice; Octopus kimono; Bubbles

Crowns acquired: 3 (free); Hair acquired: 3, inc. 1 sparkly (good); Bubble-emitting windmills acquired: 1 (v.v. cut)

New "practice" project makes blogging into work so am feeling not at all guilty that am recording various acts of SL consumption instead of
- finishing peer review of article that is now mega urgent
- writing article about rhetorics of play in SL
- putting finishing touches to ppt for talk next week
- emailing students to arrange meetings
etc. etc. etc. and those are just some of the more attractive alternatives. However yesterday was a VWER meeting so is obviously v. important that capture Thoughts and Feeling re that, foremost of which is that spent some time perfecting princess outfit before attending. Hair Fair just started and had already:
- looked at set of hair fair pictures on Seraphimsl
- scrutinised pics on fave blogs such as Chic's
- sent Dimitrova in to browse a few shops and pick up freebies.
Therefore when finally managed to get into sim targeted xPlosion where picked up hair which has lightening streaks running through it. They flash and flicker! as you wear the hair! So who can resist, frankly, plus a percentage of the dosh goes to the charity Wigs for Kids, so is practically duty to spend money. Also acquired v. pretty updo from Ink (they didn't do it in blue, but you can tint it), and this frizzy hair from Analog Dog. This has v. nice HUD where you can tint the highlights, v. cool. Crowns were freebie in ISON store, gold, silver and iron.

Dress was got at the latest round of Kustom9, and is by Junbug. Junbug specialises in satiny long dresses but thought this especially pretty example of her art. Then chiffon shawl was something had in mind to buy for a while, and it so goes with the dress so popped to Lika Ruby store to get it. Main issue was - what colour, but decided to match dress rather than contrast.

So as can see, spent long time preparing for VWER meeting but not exactly in terms of deeply considering topic for discussion that week i.e. virtual worlds and digital health. Nevertheless may be useful to identify Information Practice in acquiring stunning outfit.

First thing is Monitoring i.e. keep lookout for shopping events coming up. In fact difficult to miss Hair Fair if you are looking at the feeds i.e. in my case Iheartsl blog aggregator feed, as increasingly filled with bloggers teasing with upcoming hairstyles to be released at Hair Fair. Then look at Chic Aeon's blog and the Itsonlyfashion blog more or less every day and they always get previews plus Cajsa on Itsonlyfashion always plugs charitable events like this. She is even doing little slideshows of her fave styles. So then is only matter of waiting for event to OPEN and for industrious bloggers of SeraphimSL to put up a gallery of special releases.So is worth noting that this is all to do with SL fashionistas sharing pics, comments and links about SL fashion.

When eventually went in, searched for Hair Fair in SL search and then kept trying to TP until finally managed it (as sims were v.v. full couldn't get in first try, always the same with popular events: in fact made no attempt to get in til event had been on a few days as knew would be hopeless). Once arrive everything takes ages to rez, matter of greyish blobs slowly emerged and turning into whatever it is they are) so usually just leave self floating and go off and do something else (not in SL) until enough has rezzed to know where you're going. Simples.

After this suppose is matter of knowing how to:
1) Establish whether hair available in blue (as otherwise pointless going further)
2) Buy demo hair
3) Wear demo hair
4) Buy proper hair, if demo proves hair worth buying.

Have already said which 3 hairs bought, still need to go back to buy Hair with Birds see e.g. here ZOMG it is so cute etc. As regards shawl had seen it when doing some window shopping months ago, Lika Ruby doesn't bring stuff out v. often but is usually good stuff when does. So was a matter of searching for shop and TPing in.

Anyway when got to VWER at least one person noticed fab outfit as Beth said /me curtseys to Queen Sheila and jested in reply that was practising my princess skills. Anyway must say that during meeting was taking even more pics than usual as ZOMG I Look So Cute. Mind you there were others looking cute as well inc. one person as large green object, not exactly sure what. Apart from this, might be invidious to pick out faves.

Today was tempted to go into SL because saw a notice which one of my SL groups had sent out (redirected to email), viz:

Group Notice From: *NAMINOKE* UPDATE GRUPE, taiko McCaw

Hi!

Kimonoichi started!
I made octopus yukatas, so plz get notecard for more info!

Have good summer < 333  

Octopus yukatas! Who can resist. So went inworld, got attached notecard and TPed into event. SL is all about Learning New Cultures and Kimonoichi seems to mean Kimono Festival, anyway they happen in Winter and Summer and event was certainly packed with stalls selling kimono. Again took ages for things to rez, but when did, stumbled onto Naminoke stand. Did in end resist temptation of yukata (light summer kimono) with picture of octopus on but invested 35 Linden (a snip) in gatcha to get hand-held windmill that emits bubbles. Got supercute rare one with transparent sweeps. Therefore remainder of time in SL spent taking pics of self holding windmill in arty poses. One shown is so arty you can't actually see windmill, just bubbles.

So, not much reflection on role of VWs in digital health, but giant win as regards cuteness.

Note re pics: 1st is me posing moodily on picturesque sim; 2nd is pic of me posing in same sim, was aiming for look you get in some fashion shoots where model is placed in unlikely environment with picturesque or indigenous set of animals/people and assume are meant to think gosh how cool/edgey/on-trend/ethically-sound/cosmopolitan is THIS brand, must rush out and get the look NOW; 3rd is overhead view of VWER meeting, note my skirt is so poufy it eats the table; 4th is Naminoke's booth at kimonoichi, middle gacha is the windmill one; 5th is arty bubble shot

Nostalgic kittens

VWER meetings attended: 1 (good); Kittens worn on head: 1 (nostalgic); Photos taken of feet: 3 (worrying)


Attended Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable meeting last night. Will note in passing that until about 2 weeks ago had thought it was called Virtual Worlds Educators Roundtable and have referred to it as such for years. Embarrassing. Whatever, acronym is VWER and will refer to it as such. Organisers i.e. me, Kali (Our Leader), Grizzla, Beth and Shailey now v.v. organised and have Google doc in which we mark who is moderating which week. Interestingly, invitation into this Google doc was sent by Yahoo email straight into Yahoo email spam folder. Perhaps is Yahoo policy to sabotage Google, stranger things happen.

This week Grizzla was moderating and when TPed in noticed quite soon that she was wearing kitten on head (see 1st pic). Had rush of nostalgia as a year or two ago I was one attending with same kitten on head, she had IMed me to say "cute kitten" or suchlike and I had told her where to get one, which she did. In solidarity, also put kitten on my own head (see 2nd pic, right). Am wondering now if she noticed. At any rate felt nice to recall happy shared kitten moment.

Currently am v. excited as embarking on RESEARCH into MY INFORMATION PRACTICE of being a VWER person. Involves a lot of 1) reflecting about me 2) talking about SL 3) Excuses to pose and insert pictures of cute kittens, exquisite feet etc. so all good. Research is with Swedish person who has never been in SL, so obviously great treat ultimately awaits him, but at moment am doing lot of explaining e.g. how to wear shoes. Readers of this blog, or indeed anyone who has got beyond the hello sky hello clouds why am I trapped under a table help help phase of SL will know SL feet are tricky things.

Had just written long rambling disquisition (note long researchy word) describing v. tiny bit of what you do in VWER, and started talking about how wearing clothes is something a VWER moderator ought to do. Will rephrase that. Obviously since we are not on Adult sim, ahem, wearing clothes is requirement, but is good idea if also have clue about how to change look if want to and know how others might be seeing/judging you. In my case this means sending millions of Lindens into coffers of fashion designers and agonising whether bangles coordinate nicely with nailpolish. However e.g. in case of Thinkerer who is v.v. expert but mostly looks like just popped out of newb shell at dawn of SL time, know that is his conscious decision to look same all time, and have heard him describe it as part of his brand. So can't assume that just because someone looks a bit newbish that they ARE newb.


Nevertheless can't help wondering sometimes if people who I know are no newbs really want their feet to look like that. Does it look ok on their viewer? Do they not look at their feet? Do they think it's a retro look? So, after had briefly cammed in lovingly to own exquisite feet as featured in last blog post, took pictures of other people's feet. Will note that as usual Grizzla was wearing v. smart and interesting shoes but had better not mention anyone else in case it is indeed a case of I Never Realised MY Feet Looked Like That and cause embarrassment.

So have 2 VWER participant practices to ponder here:
1) Kitten wearing
2) Taking pictures of people's feet.
In RL think first would be eccentric (and also v. difficult, hard enough to keep kitten on lap let alone head) but 2nd might well end in call for security guard and stern talking to, as crawling round taking pictures of people's footwear is not what might be called accepted practice at RL meetings. In fact very much the contrary. Whereas in SL can take ALL SORTS of pictures without people knowing unless of course you post them to Flickr or your blog, which in this case I will not do.

Re: kitten wearing is this:
1) Bonding ritual to assert membership of VWER elite Community of Practice
2) Pathetic attempt to win favour with Grizzla
3) Sign I have too many kittens in inventory
4) Look it's a KITTEN, it's CUTE, and I am wearing it on my head because I CAN, enough said.

Anyway, took kitten off head before shooting scene in mock-up of phone shop with Zo, as didn't want to look weird. Though if viewers of final vid don't think two pixelated beings pretending to be interested in pixelated phones and tablets isn't weird, a kitten probably won't make much difference one way or the other.

I have new feet

New feet obtained: 1 (ok, 2, but they come in one attachment) (v. good)

Onward march of SLINK feet increasingly inexorable, i.e. % of new shoes which are not for SLINK feet low. SLINK feet, for those uninterested in fashion/dwelling under SL rock, are pretty mesh replacements for ordinary avatar feet. Said avatar feet are condemned by fashionistas for a) having malformed toes and b) having ugly cankles (those bulgy ankles you get when you shrink your feet to get into the size zero shoes).

So a couple of months ago took the plunge with approx 600 lindens and purchased said feet.

In fact main deterrent has been fact that would find it difficult to match pale skin colour. However Glam Affair just brought out SLINK Appliers for their palest colour, Frost, which means that once have SLINK feet attached, just need to wear Appliers and hey presto, feet and ankles same colour as legs.

Should be mentioned in passing that there are also SLINK hands (also de rigeur for fashionistas, but still not so convinced by them, your hands get stuck in one position, I think) and this week a SLINK body, but - baby steps, baby steps.

Since then have not taken SLINK feet off, except when doing lightning quick change into outfit for emergency reasons (can't now remember what). Feet are so pale! so smooth! So easily decorated with umpteen shades of nail polish! Have mostly invested in sandals since what is point of cute new feet if they are stuck in boots? Thus am now possesor of jeweled sandals (Zaara), explorer sandals (Ingenue), sandals made of recycled tyres (by someone or other) etc. etc. Main problem is shoes which disappear iif viewed from distance, so have to spend some time demo-ing shoes and then camming outside shop door to see if can still see them. No point in spending 200 Linden on pair of sandals which noone can see. On other hand, if shoes do disappear, then at least you can still see these lovely, exquisite feet.

It Began With A Japanese Lantern

Research discussions held: 1 (good); Metaphorical objects discovered: 1 (multilayered yet ambiguous, obviously)

Today used Sakura House as discussion venue for first time in long while. Is still original 2007 build, and causes nostalgia and happy memories of days gone past e.g. time when student holding Jack Daniels bottle stumbled into infolit discussion and fell unconscious at our feet. Felt Pioneer Teacher credibility status went up several notches as real student doing something recreational in SL is always a desirable outcome for SL teachers.

Topic of discussion today was research approaches. Pancha talked about constructivist grounded theory, Ridvan about case study with ethnographic texture, and I talked about autoethnographic study of SL that have still not done even after several years of printing out articles about autoethnography and filing them away in boxes/on hard drive. Suppose actually reading articles might speed process, but in this case managed to produce paragraph for notecard by copying out a few sentences** found in a textbook on Google Books. Will probably now have to buy book and put it on shelf, as author appears to be guru in field. Can Reading Book be far behind (answer: yes)

For uninitiated, autoethnography is ethnography about self. Actually realise must have blogged about this before (do search of own blog). Yes, July 2010 http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/wasted-evening-or-pleasant-evening.html. Think have progressed since then as am sure are more articles in the Autoethnography article box now.

After meeting meandered outside Sakura house and reminisced about time when had just got island and put down a japanese lantern as the first object. Have recreated scene in pic, right.
Pancha observed
"the lantern is a good metaphorical object"
which actually hadn't thought of before and is Useful Insight for a budding autoethnographer. Was this lurking in back of mind when selected it as First Prims? Think that it was just that liked japanesey things and lantern was copiable. However, perhaps was more too it than that and didn't even realise!

In fact for purposes of autoethnography should reproduce chunk of text JUST NOW, fictionalise it and then reflect on it

1. Chatlog
[2014/04/23 13:21] Sheila Yoshikawa: that japanese lantern was the first thing i placed on the island after we got it on 2007
[2014/04/23 13:22] Sheila Yoshikawa: so i am sentimentally attached to it
[2014/04/23 13:22] Sheila Yoshikawa: (the one on the little island)
[2014/04/23 13:22] Pancha Enzyme: ooh i see now
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: i felt soooooooooooooo excited when i got the island and had 15000 prims
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: and a whole island to terraform
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: getting into the autoethnographic swing
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: actually
[2014/04/23 13:23] Pancha Enzyme: :-D
[2014/04/23 13:23] Pancha Enzyme: excellent!
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: not to be modest
[2014/04/23 13:23] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): u going to start from here then :)
[2014/04/23 13:23] Sheila Yoshikawa: ****
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: the lantern is a good metaphorical object
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: lol
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: indeed
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: shining light on my whole SL experience
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: :-D
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: It Started With A Japanese Lantern
[2014/04/23 13:24] Pancha Enzyme: yes!
[2014/04/23 13:24] Sheila Yoshikawa: 9 prims
[2014/04/23 13:25] Sheila Yoshikawa: but at least that means you can see it from a distance
[2014/04/23 13:25] Sheila Yoshikawa: i have a problem with a lot of these very prim-light objects
[2014/04/23 13:25] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): I am looking forward to be 1st reader of your paper Sheila :)
[2014/04/23 13:25] Pancha Enzyme: I still have vivid memories of meeting you and Ishbel for the first time in here and eating japanese barbeque

**** [line censored as was indeed being immodest and comparing ability to write fiction favourably with someone v. famous in autoethnography world, who knows if said person might google own name and "autoethnography", too dreadful to contemplate]

2. Fictionalised version
After the meeting I felt impelled to walk to the door and look our over the glimmering, shimmering sea to where the lone, stone lantern threw its light. I murmured, emotion catching my throat, "that was the first object I placed on this island". Ridvan and Pancha joined me. Together we contemplated the view. I recalled the wild exhilaration of seeing a new, virgin land blossoming beneath me, ready to be terraformed to my will. I smiled "Such and exciting experience". Ridvan jested lightly "So, your autoethnoethnographic journey starts here!" I nodded "yes, my systematic sociological introspection, as Ellis says". This time, this place, were good places to recreate my journey, to delve within and without. Pancha exclaimed "the lantern is a good metaphorical object". I smiled at her insight, observing "Indeed, for it shines light on the whole of my SL experience." As dusk fell, we recalled more happy times on Infolit iSchool. I felt invigorated, inspired.

3. Reflective account
Well can reflect that SL scenery evokes emotional response as would RL scenery and that also am nostalgic person with attachment to pixelated objects. Also that if am with another Immersed person with Shared Experiences can launch into reminiscence session as dull for 3rd party as is RL equivalent.

Ho hum not sure that is really deep reflection, but actually need to stop blogging and get home as tomorrow outside SL have got v.v. large amount of things to do and then off to RL Sweden where will be attending friend's PhD viva, which over there is public performance.

So, one more step on the autoethnographic highway!

**WITH DUE CITATION AND QUOTE MARKS, just to make that clear

Discover am Creative with small c

Mentions in PhD student's talk: too many to (disconcerting)

Decided to follow disconcerted theme, by recalling talk given by student at last week's Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. Presentation was on creativity in SL teaching and several slides devoted to showing creative development of Sheila Yoshikawa. Used framework of different kinds of creativity, suffice it to say that this blog was given as example of pro-c which came as surprise as is vying for Least-Professional-Output-of-Sheila prize. However, was v. flattering and will take compliments where can get them.

Here is Ridvan showing pics of SY over time. Actually think all of them look v. good. That jacket in first pick is vintage Last Call.  Enough said. Am always happy to look at pictures of self, but felt should be expressing embarrassment in some way. However, is limit to number of times can say lol in text chat without looking idiot. Suffice it to say was glad that was exquisitely dressed in mori girl outfit that had gathered praise from all and sundry (i.e. a couple of people had said cute avi).

Am now pondering how can achieve big C creativity, meaning genius "reserved for the eminent and great".  Am sure that cannot be beyond one's reach in SL. "Your imagination, your world" eh?

Sheila Yoshikawa has just won a ::: B@R ::: Magical Inappi just for being here! and I am Disconcerted

Barerose items won 2: good and bad; People unexpectedly encountered when teleporting into home: 1 (disconcerting)

Am gift stalking in Barerose again. Tried yesterday and was rewarded by a gear bikini and today bagged a magical inappi. If wondering what Gear Bikini looks like, wonder no more as is pictured right, although as as said bikini is v.v.skimpy have retained long hair and taken mid-distance pic. Perhaps should have ditched boots as well. Bikini is rather unlike usual garb in which tend to cover all skin areas except face, so am filing that one in Unlikely Costumes folder.

Am sporting Magical Inappi in 2nd pic., which turns out to be rabbit-like shoulder-pet thingy. Will need to name Inappi: you get 2, so obvious solution is calling one In and the other Appi, though in fact neither one looks particularly 'appy (joke).

When TPed in to latest home, found random person there, so quickly TPed out again. Then sneaked back to take pic. Suppose more sociable person would have invited him to sit down and offered tea. Anyway, he does not appear to be bothering cats, so suppose is OK.

Your object 'Duck' has been returned to your inventory Lost and Found folder

Sims reduced to earth, sky and sea: 1 (sad)

Received a series of messages from SL yesterday announcing that a variety of objects (stools, ferns, coffee makers, ducks, tabby kittens etc. etc.) had been returned to my Lost and Found by Art Fossett.

Knew that this could only mean that Eduserv island was no more. Went inworld today and found that there was nothing but sea and sky and, if went down a bit, featureless underwater land.
Presume that soon Eduserv sim will be only a Location Not Found. Hope that previous post on poor dead Mitsies didn't trigger this end of era experience.

So, Farewell Eduserv Island, you were loved once.

But, evidently, no more.