Waiting; Tolerating; Curating

Years since last blog post: 1 (bad); Exquisite outfits bought since last post: innumerable (good); New rentals since last post: none (good).

Had "can't remember when last blogged, hope not so long ago blog disappears" moment. Turns out was a year ago and evidently at that point had grand plans to post detailed account of moving in to Ahiru. Well, moved in and have moving-in pics somewhere but probably on other computer so moving on. 

Was on VWEC duty today which involves standing or sitting about on the VWEC welcome platform (see pics 1 and 2), and then if anyone appears offering to help induct them into the wonderful educator's paradise that is Second Life. Have chosen slot at 9am Friday my time, which is 1am SL time, and after ??? months of duty only meaningful interaction has been with European educator I already know, who happened to have a holiday and so was mooching around in SL, as you do.

 Nearest apart from that was someone who rezzed and stood motionless for half an hour or so not responding to helpful chat and IM, turns out they were waiting for someone, so had to mean they already had communication and wayfinding skills but hadn't learned how to turn on BUSY so they could block out irritating IMs from busybodies "trying to help".

Will see that in 1st pic am wearing cute Chinese outfit, which spotted on Spectacledchic's Flickr feed and snapped up as soon as Kustom9 opened. Oodles of colour options for different bits, but ended up with blue, because, blue is best, and then homed in on these great boots when finally got into Fameshed. Fameshed was delayed by about a day as SL was having a Moment, or rather a moment lasting several hours whilst its servers fell over and they had to Roll Back to Previous Version a couple of times which meant the work people had done in setting up their booths had disappeared. 

Wasn't all the servers, and in fact the point at which realised that it wasn't just me not able to get to the sims I wanted was when saw chat on the Fameshed group inworld with people complaining they'd been waiting 3 hours for event to open and Fameshed people explaining the situation. As sidenote, is annoying when the place you want to loginto is vapour, and it sends you to one of the ghastly Welcome Hubs instead. With  mesh bodies, you just get used to lots of people initially rezzing naked before all the clothing bits cludge together. However if you happen to have been rezzed at an adult Hub, the point comes where you realise I AM IN FACT SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE WITH NO OR SCANTY CLOTHES THERE IS NO MORE TO REZ think they are aiming at the target market of those who have read media slurs about SL being all about sex. 

Hope don't have this happen when am doing demo for colleagues about SL, as would feed into stereotype, though of course last paragraph demonstrates that stereotype has some foundation. Am putting together lovingly curated link of annotated links about life in SL for this demo, though is possible that only person who'll read them all is me. Always have to remember although think SL and all its paratexts are entrancing, awesome, rich, creative etc. etc. etc. for some it is dull / weird/ childish etc etc.  

One of things am entranced by is self so here to finish is a pic of me in the Ahiru home, worshipping my otaku-themed PC, snug in the kotatsu. So much cuteness! I could look at it for hours.

Draxtor Despres is offering friendship; blog apps regress; pumpkin time

Friendship offers: several (good); Friendship offers from Draxtor Dupres: 1 (like, totes amazeballs); pumpkins pulled from inventory: infinite (bad); Blog app "upgrades": 2 (apalling)

Appears to be time for 6-monthly blog post, so here it is. Was startled this morning by friendship offer from Draxtor Dupres, who is a notable slebrity. Think this is because of attending the Digital... digital ... digital something sessions inconveniently scheduled at 10am SL time on Thursdays and convened by Tom Bukowski. Are inconvenient since 12 noon is of course VWER time, and need to have physical food break too. However, digital thingy sessions give oppportunity to utter self-obsessed statements about SL, universe and everything, so go when can (though searching through chat, first utterance at one of these events appears to have been @Eliza think I agree with that so also indulge in sycophantic yea-saying). 

In first pic I'm in digital thingy event looking v. cool with the shaggy hair and poncho vibe and there's Draxtor (in mustard coloured trousers), you can tell already that we're going to be great chums.

One change that has happened since last blogged is enforced changes to Blogger editing layout. This was advertised as " an improved web experience for Blogger" and perhaps is for some, but can only think of ways in which it has got worse e.g. 

- in HTML blogging mode, no longer puts in breaks if you do them in that mode, it all just scrunches up.
- takes two clicks to create new post when click on the "New post" in top bar
- Resizing pics after you inserted them is more fiddly 

But could be worse, what Wordpress have done to their editing interface is unfathomable. Have decided that without me realising Wordpress have stopped being somewhere that ordinary mortals/avatars can blog and turned into - ? possibly a suit of website apps. Only know that couldn't understand most of their "help" blog posts for last couple of months. 

Meanwhile things jog along in roughly same groove in SL. Am having to be at VWER every week and still getting more people coming along than pre-COVID. Am preparing for Global Media and Information Literacy week in SL (suppose should have blogging about that instead, oh well). Because of this am neglecting Halloween though managed to get a couple of Halloween-compliant costumes (see pic 2). Have resisted buying pumpkins so far because have so so many.

Or is this wrong. Broke off to see what had in Inventory when searched on "Pumpkin". 

This is just part of the result (above) and that's without the giant pumpkin trees that swallow you, the multipart Sway's pumpkin carving set, numerous small pumpkins that got lost in the grass, pumpkin lanterns and pumpkin-related food. 

Though realise that have dearth of green pumpkins, pale blue pumpkins and pumpkins in shape of animals other than cats. So permission to purchase more pumpkins granted!

Hunts; Walls; I Am My Cat

No. of hunt items found: 3 (good); No. of hours spent searching for hunt items: 1.5 (bad); Number of gigantic boundary walls bought: 1 (good); No. of kittycats whose bodies I have occupied: 1 (so far) (not spooky AT ALL)

With October comes halloween hunts and one of fave SL designers, namely DRD, has a hunt in their shop. You get a HUD, you go around spotting Black Dahlia flower heads and get cool stuff when you find them. This sounds v. simple, but have trawled lower floor of DRD's store twice, camming into corners and waiting impatiently for all to rez etc etc, plus have gone round upstairs twice, and done quicker trawl of builds in their garden. However have only found 3 items out of about a dozen. Was at least glad to hear from DRD group chat that wasn't just me that found this challenging. Hunt object is small and also black, and as DRD do a lot of dark stuff and store is huge have evidently missed loads of dahlias lurking in corners and under carpets. Also they produce a lot of small fiddly objects that look v. like dahlias until they rez properly.

In 2nd pic you may be able to see object on floor that got overexcited about til saw was "film cans" not dahlia. Realise have got used to hunts where you (a) get a hint (b) have a large and flashy hunt object, so am probably lazy but frankly life is too short to spend more than 1.5 hrs looking for objects however cute.
Was, though, friendly experience, one avatar IMed me to ask if was on hunt and we exchanged cheerful remarks on lack of success in dahlia finding. Group chat also good natured except when spammer spammed chat with random request for 100 Linden which resulted in multiple insults and group bans for spammer. Would be careful about spamming DRD chat, probably contains people with arcane knowledge of spells and potions (AM JOKING know that people who like to recreate post-apocalyptic dungeons and spooky haunted asylums are quite likely frightfully well adjusted individuals who would no more think of cursing someone than of jumping the checkout queue in Tescos).
Anyway have ended up with (1) carpet (2) very cute tray of bedroom decor stuff (3) some sort of notice on a cute board PLUS there was a free thing just waiting to be nabbed on the 1st floor, vis several female corpses hung up on pegs, some of Bluebeard's wives according to the description. Obviously maker did not subscribe to the "it is all symbolic of mental abuse and Bluebeard's wives are now all enjoying fulfilled lives with more suitable partners, it's Bluebeard you should feel sorry for" line. It will be a useful item for my halloween decor this year.

Thinking of Halloween made me think of dungeons and caves, so wandered over to the Felix Alter sim as he does v. good v. reasonably priced cave and mountain decor. Did look at caves (see pic), but got distracted by what is v. good idea and wonder why noone else has done it. He has created high thin and attractive cliff walls (with walkable paths) for people to put round sims when they want privacy from neighbours. One of perils of mainland is suddenly having some huge hideous barrier penning you into your plot, because your neighbour doesn't want to see your beautifully landscaped gardens but would rather see some giant, implausible and out of focus picture of a tropical beach.
There are several options which mix and match, all priced at 250 Linden, and bought one and immediately put it to good use. Trouble with previous similar things is that they have tended to be (a) not thin enough (b) not that much more attractive than the hideous beach picture. Will post some actual pics of walls at some point but cannot pause to do that as OMG final thing is MOST EXCITING.

Namely, KittyCats have a new update and YOU CAN BECOME YOUR KITTYCAT. OMG.

In fact practically never desert my human form but took all of 10 secs to decide that I wanted to inhabit the bodies of my KittyCats. Took copy of body shape, made sure outfit was saved and then you just click on your chosen KittyCat, select something off the interaction menu, get a folder which includes a "KittyCat Transponder" you wear the folder and voila!

In fact it wasn't Voila! at first as simply became invisible. Wandered about a bit invisibly and then thought would try logging off and on and THEN trying the wear transponder thing again and this time it worked. I went through the spooky change thing (see pic, I am migrating, Jennifer is sitting all unconcerned to my right), Jennifer disappeared and then I WAS JENNIFER. I walked and ran and sat and flew. When you fly a skateboard appears underneath you. I may moderate VWER as a kitty on Thursday so went and practiced sitting at the VWER table (see last pic) and OMG I am so cute.

Was a slight worrying moment when I transponded back and initially the "Jennifer kittycat" in my inventory simply would not rez. However all was well when I logged out/ in and she now seems to be sleeping and pottering about quite happily again, all on her own.

Am deciding which Kittycat I will comandeer next. Probably Marl.

Is this a bit creepy? I don't care if it is a bit creepy. Thank you KittyCats creators for providing me with awesome features I never even knew I wanted.

Not writing; Christmas; Transmediation

No. blog posts written in digital writing month: 1 (bad); No of stories written in digital writing month: 0.5 (could be worse); No. of items on shopping list: 35 approx. (bad)
Have failed singularly to increase amount of Yoshikawa blogging during digital writing month, as month has flashed past oozing with teaching, family emergencies, storms, meetings and cute SL items that SIMPLY HAVE TO BE BOUGHT.
In fact had decided that thing wanted to do more of was not digital writing but uninterrupted sustained writing (USW), as in getting into flow of writing for a couple of hours so imagination can take wing and so forth. In fact managed about 1.5 hours of USW on train between London and Sheffield, so partial achievement. Have also peered through window at digital writing activities, so to speak. Would have been fun to join in, but v. time consuming. One digital writing challenge was doing something transmedia, and was pondering extent to which SL is transmedian in itself. Could argue that is just one environment, on other hand have sound, pictures and movement and can zip about between different locations and import things in and out of SL. Is probably substance for whole, dull, peer reviewed article in debating this.

Anyway, did find time for some Christmas shopping as deluge of cute Xmas cheer kicked in as soon as the pumpkins and scary Halloween skeletons had been collected up into inventory. Thought that might be able to limit Xmas expenditure by going through all the events and making up a shopping list in advance, so am not tempted to buy anything extra. However not sure that this will work, e.g. for Lost and Found event my initial advance list ran

Lost and Found
Kalopsia - sewing table, crackers box or present pile 90 Linden each
 plaaka - kitchen cupboard? Linden 300

Kalopsia and plaaka are familiar puveyors of cute things, and although cabinet was on expensive side, all the items on cabinet shelves are v. cool e.g. artisan japanese ceramic bowls and tea whisk.
When tp-ed to Lost and Found was still impressed by cabinet. Decided that already had enough piles of presents, but the crackers were nice and the sewing table reminded me of the old treadle sewing machine that we had when was young (though it has to be said that nostalgia has already led me to buy 2 different SL reproductions of this treadle sewing machine, however don't have table without machine, so obvious gap in inventory).1st pic shows me stoutly resisting urge to also buy decorated Xmas chair, watering can with artful bauble tree in it etc.
However was drawn inexorably to the display of boots by Deadwool. They are v. realistic all wrinkled leather and laces. Suffice it to say that they cost 450 Linden and am now wearing them with my new Go! dress and Atomic woollen legwarmers. All very boho.

Eye was also caught by SariSari upcycled Christmas tree, a snip at 299 Linden. Well, in fact not PARTICULARLY a snip, but v. well made.Was more charming than in advert and could immediately see it being an amusing conversation piece in my new Fallingwater House art gallery. In fact had thought it came with a nubbly cotton rug (see 2nd pic) which proved not to be the case, but  am not too disappointed.

Can see from this account that future does not look promising for list approach, since started out intending to spend max of 480 Linden and spent nearly that on unplanned boots. Oh well.

3rd pic shows me with the acquired consumer items. Am wearing boots but also have displayed one on top of cabinet.

So, this is the kind of thing I was doing instead of digital writing.

I must say, it seems pretty transmedia to me.

Moderated success

No. of sessions agreed to moderate: 4 (good); No. of sessions actually moderated: 3 (bad)

Wrote this post a week ago and then forgot to post. Is about Virtual Worlds conference which is History now, but am loathe to waste some writing. Also reading through realise it sounds as though conference was bit disasterous whereas (will hasten to add) was mostly fine and even good. Really it was.
Anyway.

Somewhat belatedly, am continuing tale of moderating at the Virtual Worlds conference. Was, as they say, one of Pride Before Fall. Had felt rather pleased with moderation at Friday's events, and rashly agreed to do 4 more sessions next day. However, failed on 3 counts, namely:
1) Did not manage to find out SL name of first speaker on day before;
2) Did not check that knew how to get to first venue;
3) Did not allow enough time on day to establish 1) and 2).
Thus found self at point when was supposed to be starting session lacking both speaker and venue. Did have tiny bit of excuse in that would have been v. helpful to have been given SL name of speaker rather than first life one (since various googlings turned up a blank), and also would have helped if landmark for venue had actually landed one IN said venue rather than considerable distance away.

However, was generally mortifying. Encountered one equally baffled punter at the teleport point, and said would contact him if found speaker/venue. Then TPed to anywhere in area that had green dots (since dots mean People). When eventually found my session, was already 10 past the hour (and person had offered to help was already in audience, so doubly embarrassing).

Apologised profusely to speaker afterwards (1st pic) and did manage to help 2 people in audience with sound and general info. Anyway, after this things could only look up, and connected with other 3 speakers in good time. Last of my sessions, on Open Wonderland, really moderated itself, since was team of people who were fielding questions in text chat.

In between had attended keynote of colleague Jackie, which thought was v. good. Afterwards went to last few sessions, including Zana talking about Conne River project (2nd pic) and Graham talking about Opensim (3rd pic). Also v. good. Pleased to see Kattan in audience. After that she visited cat and took picture 2 posts ago.

Had look round exhibition, well in fact was mostly amusing excursion round exhibition since discovered flying thing on Virtual Pioneers stand, and spent most of my time zooming round it in this, rather than contemplating pedagogic virtues of exhibits. Here is a celebratory animoto about VWBPE that I did.

The luck of the lost pig

Hours spent waiting for "S" to come up on a lucky board in February: 2 (bad); Hours spent on this blog in February: zero (bad, very bad)

Spent 2 hours a couple of weeks ago waiting for letter "S" to come up on this Lucky Board in the Aju shop. During that time "D" came up four times. Know this since actually got Dimitrova to hang round (so wouldn't be troubled by friends expecting me to do something more constructive than lurk round a lucky board waiting to snag a cute item of virtual furniture). Eventually "S" did come up and was able to clutch item to Inventory and later position it in yet another new house (see here). However of course when teleported into Aju yesterday, "S" came up straightaway. Why does that happen? Must be a Law of The Lucky Board.

On another note, when clearing up after the Inf6011 class last week I found this escaped pig outside the Educational Informatics village. It had been there for a year, floating in space, the result of some mismanaged piece of Editing or perhaps just of someone who had decided to Abandon Pig in mid flight. Anyway, it was swiftly Returned to its owner's Lost and Found.

Of course, could make up some elaborate story about pig making bid for freedom and an eternal flight over Infolit iSchools mossy hills.

But, after all, it is just prims. And, to be frank, not very ornamental prims either.

Hmmm, I feel a bit mean, now.

Whatever happened to the last 4 hours?

No. of SL pictures uploaded to Flickr since last post on this blog: 160 (good); No. of posts on Yoshikawa fashion blog since last post on this blog: 8 (exquisite yet quirky); No. of Screenrs & Animotos recorded since last post on this blog: 6 (good); No. of posts on this blog since last post on this blog: zero (obviously) (bad)

Appears to be over 6 weeks since last blogged here, so brief reflection seems in order. Of course have had Xmas in between which is always bit of a blogging lull. Still 6 weeks is a long time, during which (as can be seen above) have been busy bee in other social media, and have also done fair share of talks, meetings etc. etc. in SL.
Possible factors for blogging failure include:

1. 52 weeks of colour challenge. Majority of population will need reminding that each week Luna Jubilee announces a new colour, and to keep to Challenge have to post an outfit in that colour before end of week. Have completed 10 weeks! Have even managed outfits in green and sienna! In fact seems a pity that only 42 more weeks to go! Also starting to get sucked into that vortex of time which is Commenting on Other People's Posts, since Luna rather amazingly is commenting on the zillions of blogs which are following challenge, and this has even drawn in a few comments from others on my pics, so of course I have to at the least do some Silent Faves on Flickr.

2. Am starting to feel need to do interior design posting too. Started when put pics into the SL House and Garden photo comp on Flickr in August. Were supposed to be only 3 prizes, but was given special 4th prize which was cruelty really, since now can only strive to recreate said glory. Took ages photographing & photoshopping entries for "colours of fall" (=autumn) Flickr comp, but with disappointing result that a) noone faved my pics and b) winner of comp has never been announced, even though comp ended last year. Anyway, sad thing is that have started to Crave Faves, and (since know that to she that giveth shall be given) have started doing some Faves myself and even odd comment. Must be admitted that most of people who fave me are designers whose work is featured in my pics. therefore is scarcely disinterested. But, hey, a fave is a fave.


3. Am now dabbling in video, using Screenr screen capture and often blending video clips and pics to create a slideshow on Animoto. Have been encouraged in this endeavour by getting the Golden Crown at the ARVEL meeting before Xmas for 5 minute vid about Infolit iSchool. Has to be said that were only 2 entrants, but still, this shows this is all adding up to pattern of amazing success in the media field.

4. Have been doing loads of stuff, but lots of it is same old same old: arrange SL interviews, return abandoned vehicles to people that have crashed into my land, go to VWER meetings, arrange discussions, take endless pictures of self and photoshop them, observe griefing and wait for someone else to mop up the problem, create winter wonderland, delete winter wonderland, get overexcited by new shop selling cute plants/ hair/ animated kittens.
Still find this riveting to do, but perhaps no longer to ponder upon.

5. Having started to write sort of short stories, so perhaps all creative juices are leaking into these.

6. Is possible that have lost sense of humour. Assuming that ever had one.

Anyway, will finish with brief account of SL activities today, namely:

1. Bought new cardigan

2. Considered buying new blouse in Zaara's. Looked at them. Decided not to.

3. Attended large chunk of Metanomics meeting (on: experiences of Queensland flooding)

4. Whilst there, saw that Chimera had some rather nice hair

5. Looked at the Object profile and tp-ed to the new-to-me shop

6. Tried on hair. Bought hair

7. Discovered that browser has been creating separate files for each day's chatlog rather than bunging them in the same one. Relief in some ways since had thought was simply not logging chat at all. But - Why oh why?

8. Attended VWER meeting. Took pictures. Said some things.

9. Took pics of self in new outfit, in new Greenhouse house (created yesterday)

10. Photoshopped pictures

11. Uploaded to Flickr, responded to some Flickr Faves & did fashion blog post

12. Reflected that all this answers my question "where did the evening go to?"

. . . .

More of the same

Screenr captures taken: 1 (good); Screenr captures failing: 1 (bad); Registrations with Mendeley: 1 (good, I think)
Today had 2 meetings, namely the first Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Meeting, in which committed self to various things that will doubtless regret later, and meeting with Pancha to discuss article about SL journal club. Invited her over to the new skating rink and were able to skate, drink and talk about qualitative research all at the same time. During this discovered:
1) That hot chocolate dispenser only dispenses hot chocolate to me, somewhat pointless. Rectified anomoly by putting in Gluwein keg and tray of functioning hot choclate from What Next.
2) That is service called Mendeley that does academic stuff. At any rate have registered for it, and it appears it will aid our research work mightily, if I can work out what it's for.
3) That sometimes Screenr doesn't work. Recorded 5 mins of Pancha and me going round and round rink, and when last looked it was processing the vid merrily, but certainly doesn't work now and also can't download anything. Will give it til tomorrow in case Screenr Fairy was merely sleeping.
As substitute have created v. short Animoto video with some still pics that took of me and Pancha. Here it is. (NB 1st pic, above, shows me talking to a reindeer with a coal tit on its nose, in Noyo. The picture of the VWBPE meeting was just really too dull to post.)

Where did it go?

Stuff done: lots (good/bad/indifferent)
In terms of blogging have to award self mark of C double minus. Is more than whole month since last blogged. As have noted before, when v.v. busy in SL, then blogging tends to slump. So as a quick catchup:
No. of new student sky homes created: 1 (good)
No. of new autumnal trees bought: 10? 12? (who knows)
No. of halloween houses created: 1 (good)
No. of sessions done with first year students in SL: 4 (good? only they can tell)
No. of 3D versions created of information behaviour models developed through empirical research using a grounded theory approach: 1 (v. good)
No. of times Opinionator repurposed for specific exercise: 2 (good)
No. of Infolit iSchool events: 3 (good)
No. of fashion blog postings: 4 (good)
No. of houseboats bought: 2 (floating)
No. of tops bought: who's counting? (not me)
No. of unwarranted and surprise price hikes by Linden Lab: 1 (v.v.v. bad)
& so forth & so on.
Last item is one which has cast pall of gloom over proceedings since announced a few weeks ago that educator's discount was being removed, thus doubling price of island. Consternation, anger etc. followed. was then announcement that people could buy up to 2 years in advance at old price (which am trying to do) but still is bit gloomy in long term. Apart from anything else seems like Community of educators, librarians etc. will get fragmented.
Reacted by attending meetings and buying a lot of clothes.
Also pumpkins. Creation of halloween stuffage seems to have escalated to insane proportions, can scarcely go inworld without being bombarded with message cards about cute new pumpkin lights/seats/decals. Was tempted today by 50% off on cauldrons from What Next, but in the end got free Wizard cosi from NRD and 1 Linden staff from Tekeli-li and then wasted, ahem, ahem, spent hour or so flouncing round Immersiva taking pics.
Choose first one as looked vaguely apocolyptic e.g. SL disintegrating because of ill advised customer relationship management on part of LL staffers.

Foolish

But I forgot and turned up on Tuesday.

Meetings not happening

Meetings scheduled in SL: 2 (good); Meetings taking place in SL: approx 0.6 (bad)

Should currently be doing tidying up activities (updating notecard, preparing chat for upload, sweeping up toast etc) after successful discussion led by Ishbel "Impressions of the London Online exhibition/conference". However as any devoted SL resident will know, SL grid only notable by absence this afternoon and evening (UK time).

Was usual sorry tale of "will be up in an hour" "grid is now online!" "oops gosh it fell over" "we'll be up in an hour" "um, make that 3 hours". Meanwhile screen as pictured here told sad tale of zero avatars inworld.

For some time looked like grid would come back up at noon SL time ie official discussion start time - but then was postponed 2 hours so Ishbel and I (via email, thanks heavens for old technology) decided to postpone talk too, to Monday.

Had omitted to mention that between successful discussion on SL interviewing and this discussion had been social event scheduled on the skating rink. In a nutshell was bit of a mistake, think need to employ social secretary as am good enough at organising festivities (extra skating animations, Gluhwein etc.) but not good at publicising event in sparky manner. Was grateful therefore to Adelaide and Jocelyn who graciously stayed for while and tried out spins, couple skating etc.