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.

I find an old half finished post about Twitter vs SL, and finish it

Blog posts completed after mere 5 year delay: 1 (good)
Had decided to post here for first time in mumble-mumble months, when noticed had 66 draft posts. As had thought, most of them consisted of few enigmatic words or a couple of random pics., but this seemed almost complete, so have decided to post it. Unfortunately forgot to note down when actually drafted it*: think was 2015, though that seems a bit late for 1st Tweet chat. Anyway here it is:

------------roll back time to 2015-------------
For first time participated in Twitter-only discussion this week. Could not help but compare with SL equivalent so decided to be Reflective Practitioner and blog about it. Was then question of which of my x zillion blogs I should burden with these pearls of wisdom. Thought people would be least likely to read it if I put it here, and hey haven’t blogged here recently**, so here we go.

Discussion was about info literacy, so is pretty easy to compare with some Infolit iSchool discussions. Must start by saying that am not that keen on Twitter. Have blogged about that HERE. Blog I blogged THAT on is more Serious Blog (though with risibly low page hits, but whatever) so omitted to mention key drawback which is that on Twitter no one can see whether you have a kitten on your head. Or your shoulder. Or new spiffy cowboy boots with pink ribbons. In fact you could be a dragon or a dancing cabbage and people still wouldn’t know. Whereas in SL it is all out there for people to see and make merry banter about.

Tried to reign in refs to SL in above blog post, because we all know that people think that people who like SL are, like, weird**, but was thinking how on SL do have fun. In fact in week before wrote Twitter-is-no-fun post had amusing post-meeting banter in SL with Kali and Pancha which started with fact that Pancha was wearing steampunk librarian outfit (lower half replaced by gears). Led to reminicences about when Kali rezzed with no top on and I took pics and then had to promise not to post them to Flickr. Lord how we chortled. You had to be there.

Anyway: Similarities between a discussion on infolit on Twitter and in SL:
1. Can be at your desk/ in bed/ in the pub i.e. anywhere where you have a device and an internet connection:
2. During discussion can nip out to make coffee, take a phone call, have a comfort break etc. etc.
3. You get an automatic transcript
4. Discussion overlaps and is disjointed
5. Technical problems
6. People use [inserted May 2020 use what??? language? a computer? I suppose people will have been using SOMETHING, let's leave it at that]
7. You find out some interesting stuff and talk to new people
Differences
1. On Twitter you get to talk to people who use Twitter, on SL to people who use SL.
2. Beginning and end of session are not so clear on Twitter, though of course could have been Twitter session I was in.
3.
------------roll forward to 2020---------

At this point typing had ceased. Presume was through lack of time, but perhaps was so overwhelmed with differences that had to go and lie down.

Anyway, can add some more differences, so, to continue
3. In SL shared digital space is more distinctive, and more likely to be brought into conversation
4. Also in SL can move location
5. Can use Twitter on all sorts of devices, and even when your device and signal are rubbish. Not so with SL
6. In SL can be present and not saying anything, but people still know you are there.
7. In SL people more likely to apologise for arriving late, or for dropping in late and then disappearing. In Twitter get more people divebombing in and out (or perhaps they've been there all the time not saying anything, one can't tell, see (6)
8. On SL saying goodbye and thanking people takes 3 times as long as on Twitter. This is an estimate. If anyone wants to give me money to test this hypothesis, yes please.
9. More likely to get an idea of what was said on Twitter afterwards, as will be able to search on hashtag even if no-one has archived chat. In SL depends on someone sharing chatlog
10. Are more likely to get pics of the SL discussion posted than Twitter discussion, in that - why would you even take a pic of a Twitter discussion?
11. In SL more likely to comment on people's appearance and people more likely to change appearance during session.
12. SL is more fun. It just is.

Hmm, not sure that is unbiased assessment, but this is a reflection, not some nonsensical attempt at objective evaluation. Have illustrated this with pics of some of my devices in SL plus me in a kimono with a small donkey companion, because, why not

*As soon as had looked at it Blogger helpfully updated date to today's. 
** No change there, then

Multicoloured musings

Hunts toyed with: 2 (good); Papers on SL delivered in RL: 1 (excellent, Naturally); No. of people attending talk: 7 (4 more than one of the other speakers; so, good)

Seem to be writing blog posts here circa once a month. Have speculated before on sad fall-off in Adventuresofyoshikawa productivity. One factor is still 52 weeks of colour challenge which has reached week thirty-something, so might as well mention that have blogged clothes in mauve, electric blue (see 1st pic), celadon, lemon and patriarch since last post here.

Some of these are colours that didn't know existed before 52 Weeks challenge, so am engaging actively in lifelong learning. Other skills for 52 weeks challenge include shopping, buying more linden so can do more shopping, spending hours trying on different virtual clothes, playing with lighting so look more exquisite in photo shoots and fiddling with photoshop to add final touch to exquisiteness. However, most of these are skills had mastered already, esp. shopping.

Have also acquired numerous freebies from Hunts, including bed with cotton bunny draped nostalgically over rail (see 2nd pic), boat, and supercute house with shutters that make creaking sound when open and close (also in 2nd pic). Stash of not-free-but-cheap includes 2 starry night skydomes, zen massage platform with parrots and urban rooftop garden. Could now have whole islands themed with different types of building e.g. think have at least 3 different stables and 3 different spa/massage sets, so could already create either equine paradise or health/spa resort.

Meanwhile, am dazzling RL friends with news that am researching how to do research in SL. Actually for "dazzling" could substitute "inducing glazed eyes and sudden realisation that they have urgent appointment elsewhere".




Have got v. interested in research on documentary photography & its application to SL, and whole issue of documenting and presenting research about SL. This is what paper at RL conference was about, and am sure that after hearing topic of presentation, readers will be wondering why audience was not 20 deep and queuing down the corridor rather than being confined to 7 people, one of whom was chairing session.

However must be said were only about 40 people at conference and at that point were 4 parallel sessions, so did not feel too bad about it. Also had attended previous session where were just 2 of us plus chair, so felt relieved were as many as 7.
Presentation included numerous pics (e.g. "spot the difference" ones above) and 2 videos, one of which is on Youtube and is linked below. As predicted, acquiring fraps recording software has been ... come to think of it, yet another reason why am not blogging here.

Czech, lesson

Sessions in viewer 2: 2 (bad); Training sessions attended in Czech: 1 (foreign yet familiar)
Today was giving talk about SL in Prague. Created short video as well as presentation, so will link those at the end. During talk had to to stop every few sentences to let interpreter translate into Czech, which worked surprisingly well as interpreter was v. good. She also later whispered English translation of Czech talks into my ear.
However, by time of SL workshop (given in afternoon by Zdenek, who have mentioned before in this blog) she had gone. This was not v. important as I was merely set decoration, with Zdenek doing hard work inducting Czech newbies into SL in Czech.
Was one element in which I was newbie also since have not yet Bitten the Viewer 2 Bullet but have been skulking along in comfortable old Viewer 1. This has not mattered since haven't done any how-to-use-SL sessions over summer. Now new academic year is upon me, though, will have to come up to speed v. rapidly, since think should use it with first years. To be more precise, will have to start teaching using Viewer 2 in 9 days time.
As can see from screenshot above, Viewer 2 was what was installed in lab, so took opportunity to find out where things were (in which partially suceeded). In fact was not very first time had experienced V2: went into it by mistake on someone else's machine last week, then took fright (Where had new IMs gone! Where was the map! Why was inventory taking 10 minutes to load! Why is the chat box so small! etc etc). This time had been in a good 5 mins before realised that clothes was wearing were not clothes was wearing when logged out yesterday, but clothes had been wearing when last used Viewer 2. Remembered others discussing this glitch, and know this means must plump wholeheartedly for this viewer 2 thing.
Anyway, ppt, Using Second Life as a learning environment, is here on Slideshare: and this is the video, made with Screenr and then Animoto. Have also put it on Youtube, but it isn't (for reasons am too lazy to fathom) as high res on Youtube, so this is the Animoto version.

Digital designing

Venues retextured for event: 1 (good); No. of items of clothing created: 7 (or 9 if you count all the bits of shoe separately) (good); Neon cherry blossom balloon dispensers deployed: 1 (good); Notecards created: 1 (good); Magic bottle created: 1 (good, if accidental); Quantity of floor mysteriously disappearing: half (bad)

In fact did all the above yesterday: today was digital literacies seminar that advertised a few days ago, where was being Chair and organising venue. Am now in brief post-event Euphoria, and chief desire is to zoom round SL acquiring new clothes and getting new Home to rights (in fact am going to have to do Emergency Marking even if it IS a Saturday night, v. depressing)
May or may not write more about the event on this blog: can legitimately put something on Serious Blog about content. Therefore on this one will mainly concentrate on fripperies i.e. clothes and decoration.
Had already retextured the venue used for ESRC conference in March, picking up colours from cute poster. Decided to push out boat with seminar memorabilia, starting with a skirt using semi-transparent textures of the poster, then to get a bit more creative did t-shirt (the well-worn template from Robin somethingorother) and Jeans (a template on some LL site), using the bluebird from the poster to create patches. Reused bolero template (bought for last event) putting said cute bluebird on the chest knot. Also found some sculpty full perm shoes on xstreetsl (I hope legit, they didn't look good enough quality to be ripoffs) and made blue shoes and stockings to match.
In fact for first time decided that could bear wearing my customised clothing for the event, though with some Shiny Things flats rather than my shoes. The Infolit Week in SL necklace and earrings rounded out the look, and also a small bluebird on my shoulder.
Before this had tinkered around with other sculpties, to make some kind of artifact to put in the pack. Ended up by stretching bottle sculpty, putting a sort of label on it with the seminar banner and "sit on me" and when you sit on it it disappears and you are sitting in a meditation pose in mid air.
This was not altogether deliberate. I WAS intending to put the pose in the bottle, and I was able to change some of the parameters, but I didn't know it was going to disappear when you sat on it (think the script must be assuming it is a pose ball, that you would want to disappear). Didn't work out how to rotate the sitter round 90 degrees either, but in the end thought it was quirky enough to pass muster. You could have a circle of them as seating, then when you all sat you would be suspended in air. Cool or what (don't answer that one)
Other disappearing thing that will mention was the floor. The venue floor is taken from the "Cercle" build that used as HQ from Infolit week in SL, rather a nice stone round. When standing about chatting afterwards noticed that half of this had vanished. Also could no longer see a variety of other things e.g. posters, Farradane Centre, half of Hobbiton. Had had a couple of people in the event who dashed around fruitlessly for most of the afternoon (and continued to do so as we stood and talked) so worried that had been griefed. Going back in later, it seems that the buildings are ok, and the posters are back, but the floor isn't. Did I delete it by mistake?

Buying

Suits bought: 0 (good); Ties bought: 0 (good); Shirts bought: 0 (good) HOWEVER Towel rails with wearable towels bought: 1 (good); Tibetan prayer wheels bought: 1 (good) (and so forth)
Helped Friend choose interview suit. Friend is male avatar, so decided to go in as Haruki (nb NOT to be confused with Harumi who has RL person behind him) so could be 2 Chaps going out shopping, which is perhaps not what proper Chaps do, but it seemed fun.
Was interesting insight into other people's SL since Friend evidently spends so few Linden that had forgotten where you click on browser to get more, whereas clicking on little Linden icon and hearing the Linden go tinkle tinkle out of my credit card and into Linden Lab's coffers is an everday event for me.
Plus side was that as Haruki has no gainful employment he is subject to whim of Sheila Yoshikawa (me) for Linden supply. As clothing one avatar in luxurious style is quite enough, Haruki is kept on short commons and thus is clothed in freebie shirt and pants. Anyway had fun trying on demo suit in Blaze and hope that interview suit will do trick for Friend at interview.

Visit, learning, conference, time passes

Visitors from GFU: 6 (good); Conferences volunteered for: 1 (good - I think); GIS objects created: 4 (v.good); Dawns watched over Educational Informatics Island: 1 (at least)

Gosh, see that is nearly 2 weeks since last blogged. My how time flies when one is dashing around trying to do RL learning, teaching and assessment whilst maintaining one's SL wardrobe at the cutting edge of fashion.

Have been putting almost-finishing touches to Educational Informatics island, and one evening had to collapse exhausted into a hammock to recover a little before rising refreshed to face a new day of shopping. Island (in sky over Infolit iSchool) is for the RL class Inf6011 Educational Informatics. Idea is that each member (there are only 11 of them) will claim a house. In each house is a poster board with a landmark and notecard giver in it. People have to find an educational place in SL, take a pic of it, and also put in a landmark and write a notecard with an educational critique. They will talk about this in a Show and Tell session after Easter.

A few more of them have already been into SL, and the thing kicks of properly next Friday. In the meantime I was able to show it off as the final destination on the tour of Infolit iSchool given to educators from George Fox University, led by Robin. Maggie joined us for this last bit, and people seemed to enjoy it (2 middle photos show visit).

There is a tutor's room, where North (who is doing a session for us) will probably put up a link. Also installed Graham's Story Machine which people liked. Am sort of hoping that one of students will want to get to grips with it and do something interesting, as is embarrassingly long time ago that was given a demo by Graham.

Have drifted into organising committee for Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference being held in March - turned up to one meeting and was struck by lack of Europeans so felt should get involved. Have volunteered to chair one session and also suggested a couple of keynotes, one of which (Jackie) was agreed on, so that introduces a European element at least.

Also have gone to some Educators Coop meetings. With RxTopGun's CSI Austin made mistake of going home and logging in from there. Meant that couldn't see starting video properly, got stuck etc etc so didn't have full experience. Is pity, since is v. cute activity: first you enter a film theatre & see a video showing someone going to a rooftop bar and keeling over dead. Then you go THROUGH the film screen and fall down to the entrance to the building where the crime took place. You tp up to the bar where the woman died and there she is in a dramatic spotlight. Clicking on a board takes you to a website where you get different bits of info and then to have to answer some questions about what happened to her. Should have said earlier that is pharmacy course, so you can see the CSI connection.

Last meeting was more successful as logged in from work. Gadget gave demonstration of kits used in SL labs for a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) course (see picture). Very cool, and Gadget said that some students had commented about SL enabling them understand more through touching the objects they created with the kits.

Triumph and embarrassment

SL demos given: 3 (v. good); Vice Chancellors kowtowed to: 1 (good); Tiki spa & pool combos bought: 1 (good, but bad); Strange pants glitches encountered 1 (v.v.bad)
Demo to VC seemed to go pretty well. Schedule was that colleagues started off with Wimba demo, then he was shepherded off to see student multimedia, during which time I swapped SL onto the big screen. Some mild panic since 1) he zipped through our exhibits faster than expected and 2) I spent some time fiddling with connection to data projector before it and my laptop would consent to collaborate.

However, got it sorted out in time and plus side of him getting ahead was that I had nearly 15 mins in SL rather than expected 5. Maggie, Pancha, Graham and Lulu appeared to say Hi and prove that there is Life in SL. He asked some sensible questions and I managed to get in bit about students not having adequate access in the central labs, so hey ho will have to see whether anything comes of this in long run.

Other 2 SL demos were to new batch of Educational Informatics students on Friday, and as quick prelude to talk given this evening as part of CILASS programme. Was wittering on about Inquiry Based Learning in SL, trotting out rather too many research frameworks for learning & teaching and ruminating on how they applied to SL. However, am getting some thoughts together about disciplinarity and SL and if only could apply self to these thoughts with same enthusiasm as that which is employed in shopping, then sure that great educational leaps forward would be made.
On shopping front, decided to splurge on prefab poolside complex, which have arranged at one end of Educational Informatics village. First picture shows me on the Bubble Chair circle, which have installed in one of the pools. Second picture shows me encountering a student in the CILR at the weekend.

Also have (of course) bought more clothes, but most notable clothing incident was embarrassing one of realising that all textures had disappeared from lower half. This meant that underpants, pants, socks and skin on lower half were not showing, so was just white and featureless. This was actually less embarrassing than if skin had remained, since being totally white and featureless made it less Rude. Eventually discovered that this was happening because I was wearing a red Swallowtail cardigan - picture shows me WITH cardigan (and without lower textures) and WITHOUT cardigan (and thus WITH glitch pants and teal-coloured tights). I retained my skirt for modesty. Have since discovered that have same problem with red Korutsobaki cardigan which is one of my favourites and certainly this didn't used to cause problems. Odd.

Garment Making

Garments created successfully: 6 (good); Garments created unsuccessfully and deleted: 5 (bad)

Decided that must follow custom and create freebie clothing to publicise Centre for Information Literacy Research. Have decided that if create clothes of any merit will offer them free as incentive to visit office.

In RL never wear t-shirts with round necks or t-shirts with logos and have felt no need to start in SL either, however seems de rigeur to offer logo t-shirt. Therefore sought out info on how to do this.

Found good powerpoint on how to make a customized t-shirt on that excellent resource Slideshire, namely http://www.slideshare.net/trottahe/making-a-tshirt-in-second-life by Heidi TeeCee and Corwin Carillon.

This led to link to their v. good "Hit the ground running" page http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC2007_Hit_The_Ground_Running which will bookmark for use by students & colleagues. Includes link to template of a shirt (for use in Photoshop) http://www.heiditrotta.com/second_life/rswt_shirt.psd and also Robin Wood's Second Life tutorials site (template is his) http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html

Followed through Wood's tutorial for creating t-shirt with logo in Adobe Photoshop. Already use Photoshop a lot, but only in elementary way e.g. had never really bothered with Layers. Found tutorial v. good and easy to follow. Would recommend it.

Had not previously realised that if don't want garments to look strange swirly mess have to use templates which have garment elements on them. Having created the template with patterns and colours of choice in RL, then import image to SL and use it as Texture when creating garment.

There is the SL official collection of templates http://secondlife.com/community/templates.php, their Texture Templates http://secondlife.com/community/textures.php and Chip Midnight's templates http://goodies.onrez.com/shop/chipmidnight/ Also useful areTexturing Tips forum http://forums.secondlife.com/forumdisplay.php?f=109

Made some mistakes e.g.
- When using Linden Labs template forgot to hide background layer initially which led to garments all having strange lines on them. Photoshop Layers were in fact mystery to me before now and still have not quite got hang of them.
- Still can't work out where different parts of the sleeve end up (front, back or side of arm)
However, reasonably satisfied with first efforts. Pictured here are:
1) A Nigl Forder t-shirt (Nigl is one of my colleagues). There is also a Sheila Yoshikawa t-shirt.

2) Centre for Information Literacy Research t-shirt. This is female version (as with Nigl t-shirt - men's versions have higher necks and are longer)

3) Black Dept of Info Studies outfit. LL provide a black leather jacket template, which customised with Sheffield University logo on lapel, name of Dept on back of the jacket (not seen), Information Managers written on sleeve (not quite in position intended) and Information Managers down side of trousers. Also made clumpy black leather shoes.

4) and 5) Patterned shirt with no logos on (me lounging by the pool in Bedfordia, as in pic 2) It is worn with White Lily trousers, a white camisole from an ICING dress set (just seen, as they say in women's magazines), and some of the Earthtones jewels that I bought in their sale.

Feet; First shrug

Time spent editing feet: 30 mins (good); No. of pairs of shoes bought which still don't fit: All, except a pair of white slippers (bad); Time wasted trying to discover where bought these slippers: 1 hour (bad)

Have realised that have serious problem with feet, namely are so large that shoes disappear into them. This is illustrated in first pic.

Had cherished idea that fact they looked strange was due to rubbish nature of my graphics card but now see that feet look dreadful in other people's photos too.

Now have additional access to computer loaded with SL software in students' computer lab. This has better graphics card and so spend some time editing feet (as have previously said on own computer when try to edit self or clothes it crashes at once). Make them thinner and shrink to size 38. This is smallest that can make feet without them looking weird in relation to rest of body. However, most shoes still smaller and fail miserably in attempt to try and get them to stretch. Surely must be able to unless everyone in SL immediately shrinks feet down to miniscule size.

Apart from white slippers (see pic.), when wear shoes just see odd parts of them poking through flesh which is rather disturbing. Spend some time fruitlessly searching for place where bought slippers, to get some more in different colours. Will have to seek further advice.

Meanwhile, also make first attempt at clothes. Create new jacket, shrink sleeves, make shorter and have small opening at front to create shrug effect. Use texture of cherry blossom. This is illustrated in photo. Realise that easy to make clothes, but that creating all the fabric, seam and detailing effects needs expertise, which currently lack. However, may be possible to make simple CILR promotional items.

Drinking on the roof

Visits from Friends: 1 (good); Glasses of champagne consumed: many (good); Box modified: 1 (v. good); Outfits bought in drunken haze: at least 3 (bad)

Receive visit from IH and am able to show off new roof garden, champagne and smoothie maker. Consume several of each, IH also produces BYO wine. Ask opinion about seagull. IH seems to think is OK and likes windchime. Windchime also got special mention from SH the other day, so is obviously Best Buy.

We compare notes re: knowledge of CILIP meetings in SL. Seems strange that 2 meetings have taken place without notifying CILIP Group esp. since (as IH points out) Group is not exactly in the mega-size category. IH is going to Islay (Scottish Island) in RL. Envious.

Can see us in 1st pic. evidently worse for wear as animation that goes with champagne flute is quite enthusiastic, although appears to aim champagne in vicinity of right eyebrow.

After IH departs should log off but instead yield to temptation to Shop. Discover delightful new place to buy kimono (good); fans (mediocre but cheap); Russian sable capelet (judgement reserved on that one); various collections of lacey bits to stick on arms, hair and spine (good value).

Whilst on travels discover Useful Box in ISTE area, which enables people to put in or take out notecards, landmarks etc. Also can be Modified, so take one and customise it in Office colours and stick it on wall (see middle picture).

Finally dress up in glam outfit (ruffles and fur necklet) and drink champagne whilst contemplating rainbow and blue horizon. Feel v. decadent, or perhaps just tired since is well past bedtime.

Shopaholic

Dresses bought: 6 or it might be 7, or 8 or ... (v.bad, although 3 of them were free); Shoes bought: 2 pairs (3 if you count the slippers: bad); Bracelets bought: 2 (bad); Fans bought: 1 (bad); Necklaces bought: 1 (I suppose that's not SO bad); Pairs of earrings bought: 2 (bad); Computer crashes: 2 (bad); Hours spent trying on new outfits: 3 (v.v.bad); Hours spent managing inventory: 1 (good)

Have developed dreadful shopping habit. Spent hours flitting between emporia, flying up and down in front of placards deciding whether frocks would look as good on me as on model.
Fear have left Boxes (in which clothes come packed) strewn across landscape in mad drive to Open and try on booty. Have to remember to Take boxes after contents have zoomed into inventory but easily distracted by sight of new bodices, underskirts, waving ribbons, veils etc waiting to be Worn.

Wonder whether there is already sanctuary for shopaholics in SL where Residents can be discouraged from Retail Therapy. All above in fact only cost circa £6, but still that is £6 for which have nothing to show except a few photos uploaded to flickr.
On whole shopping hassle free experience. Only incident was someone trying to sell me hair. Have decided that will keep hair as identifying feature. In RL have had long hair since age 12 and intend to keep it thus, so short blue hair is novelty. Have also realised that arms have tattoos on, a fact hitherto concealed by prediliction for kimono with long sleeves. As tattoos also something not aspired to in RL will keep for present.

Photos display some of new purchases which am attempting to mix and match although this takes some care as clothes not bought together tend to interact in very odd ways.

Shoes biggest disappointment since with current graphics card simply make feet look deformed and crumbling. However still prefer long skirts so worst is concealed. Best buy is Diamond Dress which cost only $1 Linden on discard pile in fancy store, since flouncy black skirt from this can be combined with top from another outfit and a feathery thing from one of my possible mistakes (a red number) to give v. classy effect. (see 2nd pic sitting in office).

Some pleated skirts also nice (3rd pic, the traditional Flying Shot), but disconcertingly disappear into chair when sit down. This effect is shown in first pic (meditating on some mountain or other) where looks OK I think.


With new stuff raining into Inventory decided must do some Personal Information Management and discovered that key to this is Create New Window which gives you copy of Inventory and enables movement of items between folders (not possible, as far as can see, when only 1 copy of inventory open).
Create various subfolders, mostly for types of clothing (surprise) and all looks much neater now, plus have deleted various objects the function of which remained obscure but had held on to them just in case.

As well as considering and rejecting new Hair, also tried some new Eyes (see final pic) but frankly not worth it, especially as eyes are almost totally obscured by fringe.