Digital archaeology; Kittycats are adorable

No. of unfinished blogposts: 67 (bad); no of kittycats 12: (v. good); no. of days before share SL insights with baffled, indulgent or indifferent colleagues: 5 (good/bad)

Had another go at retrieving unfinished blogpost drafts. Blogger says there are 67, earliest is from June 7 2007 (so just one month after rezzed) and the only text is
"In RL consider attending advertised event "Getting to grips with the Google generation: a hands on event" but fear that if lives up to title could be dismissed from post for Gross Moral Turpitude"
Golly wouldn't risk posting that now, though suppose I just have. More to the point, cannot imagine anyone would NAME an event like that now, unless they wanted a Twitter pile-on and a dismissal notice. 

Anyway, draft post decided to focus on was from 23 May 2017 and had headline "10 years; Kittycats are adorable". (actually, full disclosure, there was another phrase in the middle but have deleted it and now can't remember what it was). Full extent of draft post was:

 
[2017/05/04 13:13] Sheila Yoshikawa: yes you ARE adorable
[2017/05/04 13:13] Sheila Yoshikawa: oops sorry wrong window
[2017/05/04 13:13] Sheila Yoshikawa: lol
[2017/05/04 13:13] person1: lol
[2017/05/04 13:13] person2: awwww
[2017/05/04 13:13] Sheila Yoshikawa: and I was talking to a kittycat (hides face in shame)
[2017/05/04 13:13] person2: kittycats are adorable XD 

Any SL resident will immediately know what's going on here - you have various group windows open in chat, you have been lurking in some conversation in, say the Apple Fall group, about where to find a particular cute chair in their shop, then you notice how adorable one of your kittycats is, can't resist telling them, and there you go, wrong-window situation. Fortunately in this example (as is usually the case) other residents kind and forgiving, and am just grateful wasn't venting or sharing secret/embarrassing info. First pic is obligatory one of adorable kittycats, it was difficult to choose, they are all so cute, this is Beltane (asleep) and Rosebud in one of the cat cafes.

10 years part of draft blog post was celebrating 10 years since first rezzed on 3 May 2007. Can't remember doing much to commemorate it, so perhaps that why post never got posted. Looking back at chatlog, day appeared to start with

[2017/05/03 10:42]  Second Life: Unable to load gesture [KUE!] /pixie.

a lack am sure was able to bear this with equanimity, though may be a sweet gesture. Then appear to have attended talk from Kali about her research, can't tell for certain where, as evidently tped straight there, but later chat said "You have added "Ethnographia Island - Parcel 13" to your Landmarks folder", which may be a clue. Appears went entire 3 May in SL without rezday greeting, bit saddo, however next day was VWER and must have celebrated it then as announce at the start that am wearing original avatar to celebrate 10 years and topic was "Milestones, Epiphanies and Turning Points in virtual worlds". 

[pause of approx. 30 mins...] 

Have just tried to find whereabouts of May 2017 photos and failed dismally - have ones up to March 2017 and then from 2018 onwards: think 2017 was when got new computer? or something dire happened to computer? Anyway, SL stuff dotted around in various places. Finally resorted to Flickr and hurrah had uploaded pics from that VWER session so there they are (a) me as I rezzed in 2007 (gaaahhhh) and also (b) some of the others. 

In (b) the orange item on the table was some kind of Australian Uni mascot that I trailed round in 2007, for no particular reason, except suppose attached creatures were still a novelty for me at that point. 

Since the 2007-me is so ... 2007 ... have to finish with me looking much more me after hoovering up stuff at The Arcade yesterday. Even got some arty shadows in the pic, so, life moves on.

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.

Shop; Repeat: Squeak

No of items bought from The Arcade: more than intended (bad); No. of hours spent decorating houses: more than intended (bad); No. of items bought which squeak on touch: 2 (good)

First first time for a while was asked by fellow researcher to write some thoughts about teaching in SL, difference SL made to Life and Work etc. Reminded me that hadn't blogged here in a while. However, followed scholarly activity of reflecting on SL practice with usual burst of shopping and decorating, so afraid this blog will be same old.
First, June 1st, as anyone knows, means a new round of THE ARCADE that Linden-pit of a gacha event. Started by buying rare Hedera Caravan from Dust Bunny on SL marketplace, the ebay of SL. In fact this was particular extravagence as only really wanted it for lace awning that came as kind of extra (see first pic.). Thought would be salutary and informative to list subsequent orgy of consumerism. Should be lesson to reflect on how many of these will not get rezzed, let alone used.

Sanarae event
barberyumyum*53B (hair) (cute Japanese hair)
Car Neon Wall Decor (half a car, in a neon colour, to put on your wall)
Dreamer Tent (a very small tent, with some frilly bits, I think you are supposed to hang it from a branch. The one I got was red)
Candy Crunchers - Moon Bunny (what WAS that? blowed if I can remember. Ah yes - it was a kind of hanging ornament with a cute bunny on a crescent moon. Obvious really. It is now hanging from the duly-installed Dust Bunny lace awning)  (which you can't quite see in the pic)
.::THOR::.. Ticket on a plate (this is a plate with a receipt on it, perfect for cafe decor)

Collabor88 event
floorplan. potted cactus
Soy. parasol indian cotton (3 colours)
Soy. metal double chair
dust bunny . darling sectional cushion ( In 3 colours - red grey and later I came back for orange plus a boho hanging cloth with lights)
dust bunny . darling hanging plant (a hanging plant in a macrame holder) (think there's one in the first pic.)
+Half-Deer+ Ceiling Drapes (Drapes. For the ceiling)
Ariskea[Wild] Boho Plant Hanger (another hanging plant in a string holder. I can't get enough of them)

Truth hair shop
TRUTH HAIR Elira - pastels
TRUTH HAIR Fenella - pastels (shown above)
(Two first-class new hair designs, both styles come with and without hats)

Fifty Linden Friday special deals
Izzie's - Assorted Beads Bracelet (bangles. I can't get enough of them)
7 - Now Serving (this is a metal sign saying "now serving" and with numbers underneath you can change, perfect for shop decor)
JIAN :: Ferret Habitat (a large cage with three ferrets in it, which sort of twitch and you can change their fur colour) (see last picture)
#EMPIRE - Xylosma (sandals in 12 colours. For only 50 Linden!)

The Arcade
+Half-Deer+ Purrfect Patisserie Gacha (4 goes - got a malformed but cute kitty to hold, one to rez, and a pice of cake and dish of maccaroons with a cute kitty theme. These are obviously destined for the cat cafes)
Le Primitif - Fashion Office (what was this? I have no idea)

Nylon Outfitters - Cat Music Icons (times 3 - clever pictures of pop icons, as cats, in twirly frames)
Second Spaces - Bake Me a Cake (cooking utensil decor)
Mutresse - Witty Cats (a cat which looks perpetually about to pounce and wiggles its bottom, seen in last pic.)
Ariskea - Tropical Paradise (um, something, I'm sure since it's Ariskea it is cute, could be wooden sign in last pic.)
Sway's - [Atepa] Tipi (a small green tent, v well made)
O.M.E.N - My Pet Adventure Gacha (some sort of ornamental thingy)
Intrigue Co. - Carousel Cats (you wear it and you are sitting on a carousel cat, bobbing up and down PLUS you get a cute tiny rezzable ornament version)
Ingenue - Melisande Heels (shoes, green I think, Ingenue do beautiful shoes)

Yard sale
D-LAB+LIZAIL Peti - P Set 10 (a cartoony small penguin, and a small paddling pool)

!Go! shop
Mercy - tunic & boyfriends (a nice summer dress with linen trouser cuffs underneath, those are the boyfriends)

LaGalleria Prefab Houses
Seashell Planter w FERN
Starfish on Stand
Bird Yellow - touch song off/on(seen in last pic.)
(Free items from someone who makes large houses and upmarket furniture of the style you see in expensive but not boutique international hotels).

Gami gacha
Dimitrova went to this, but suppose have to accept that she was actually spending my money. There were some random bonus tokens, Dimi got one and she threw it in the machine thingy shown in the 2nd to last pic. A present came out - think it was earrings or a septum ring, or possibly both. Anyway Dimi is very street, so she wore the septum ring.

That just leaves the things that squeak. Firstly there's the cursed creations vendor above. Dimi was hoping to get Marshmellow, because that's her favourite cat in Neko Atsume,but ended up with Evil Spirit Fox Rare. Anyway, it squeaks when you touch it. She's pictured with an evil dark spirit lord who I presume is the proud father.

Now the mystery remains, what is the 2nd things which squeaks? Know that when started this blog post, definitely had 2 in mind, but am blowed if can remember which it is. Could be penguin. Could be ferret. For all I can remember, could be Seashell Planter w FERN. Unfortunately is no way to search through inventory for THINGS WHICH SQUEAK ON TOUCH (Linden Lab take note).

Note to self: buy more squeaky things.

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.

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

Hunts, Bananas

Hunts completed:one (good); No. of times same hunt completed: twice (bad; but v. quick the second time); No. of Kawaii objects collected: numerous (but some more kawaii than others)

The Albero Kawaii hunt just finished, Albero being a shopping district covering a couple of sims and kawaii being Japanese for Cute. Did it twice since first sent Dimitrova out to do the time consuming stuff untroubled by IMs, then Dimi compiled a handy set of landmarks which she dropped to me.
Am thinking of developing taxonomy of hunts, which could become a faceted classification scheme:
Facet 1: Process: do you have to do something with a HUD BEFORE you get anywhere near the objects, or do you wander about looking for the Hunt object directly? Is there a list of hints and landmarks on a well maintained Hunt website, or are you reliant on some selfless SL resident providing an online walkthru?
Facet 2: Material: are the objects clothing, interior design, plants; steampunk artefacts etc.?
Facet 3: Energy: is the hunt object v. easy to recognise and find, or is it tiny and hidden in obscure corners that you can only discover if you are prepared to spend hours camming under the flooboards and on the roof?
Facet 4: Space: Is the hunt in one shop? one sim? the whole grid? the inifinite metaverse?
Facet 5: Time: Firstly: How long is the hunt on for? Secondly: What's the fastest you can get round?
Facet 6: Matter: At the end of it, are you flitting from item to exquisite item going mwuah mwauh you godlike creators, or have you just got a pile of random junk from shops that couldn't get into any of the quality hunts?

The kawaii would have be classified as follows:
Facet 1: Process: HUD. You attach the HUD, and then you are given a visual clue to tell you where the first hunt object is. When you find the next object, you click it. This fills up a square on your HUD and gives you the next visual clue. Eventually, after you have crashed a zillion times camming and flying round and round the 2 sims, you have a completely filled-in HUD which says "you did it" in English and Japanese. You don't get much help in solving the HUD-oriented problems (would say it rates a "4" on a scale from "no brainer (1)" to "impossible (6)"), but you do get a full landmarked list of shops. And all the landmarks worked!
Facet 2: Materials: Mostly homes and gardens.
Facet 3: Energy: The visual-clue thing was quite tricky, because you have to try and work out where the picture was taken, and if all you can see is grey lag, this means you have zero chance of success. In fact in end rather enjoyed puzzling out clues from roof colour and types of building in background etc., despite zillion crashes. One you have a complete HUD it is easy-peasy, since you then just use the list of links to shops and collect the prize from the entrance of each shop.Facet 4: Space: Over 2 sims.
Facet 5: Time: Two weeks: rather frustrating if those are two really busy weeks.
Facet 6: Matter: Mwuah mwuah.

All I need now is a notation scheme and I could represent any hunt by a string of numbers separated by eccentric punctuation.

The information scientists amongst you will know that I have been ALMOST using the categories devised by the guru Ranganathan for the Colon faceted classification scheme. Alas, whilst I was devising the list I had thought I WAS using them, but I see now that "Process" should be "Personality" and "Material" shouldn't be in it at all. And to think I used to teach that stuff. Still, I can't be bothered to change it, so this is officially my revision of Ranganathan's work, for application to SL hunts.
Realise have left out cost element (most hunts are free, but increasingly there are 1 Linden or 10 Linden hunts), perhaps that is an aspect of energy, since you have to expend energy to earn the money to buy Linden.

After all this only remains to show you some of the booty.
Firstly you see me doing my "52 weeks of colour" shot for tomorrow (banana colour, if you hadn't guessed). Actually only the tv and panda are from the hunt, but the picture is in the kawaii spirit. That banana phone belongs to Nigl and has been on top of the library for years, it's a sort of landmark.
Secondly, Dimi with all the hunt items, everything you see is hunt, apart from her hair and a small grey wall in the background. Thirdly, a particularly kawaii collection of panda doll, boho couch, smiley cloud decal and smiley rocket. The sack with the rainclouds was actually the box the Cleo stuff came in, cute or what. In the last hunt that had some Cleo it was about a week before I realised that what I was displaying was the box rather than the actual gift.
Finally a rather arty shot of me and the Giant Dandelion pose. I already have dandelion fields (dandelion flowers and dandelion clocks) and dandelion seed particle emitters so I can set up a nice dandelion-rich scene for the summer.

Final thought. When I have in my inventory a panda cushion, a panda toaster, a panda hug-doll and a panda hot-chocolate flask, why has it taken this long for me to use the blog tag "panda"?

Cute

No. of poses in deer: 13 (unlucky for some?)
After last post decided should actually show cute hair from Exile (have already forgotten name of hair and can't be bothered to log back in and find out. Think it began with a K. Karen? Kerry? Something like that).
Since deer on mountain automatically = cuteness, decided to choose one of the dozen poses available when you sit on deer. Was intending to use Hug Deer pose, but turned out that this meant that ends of hair were poking out of deer's nose which ruined effect rather. Am not 100% sure about this pose, though. Is it cute, or is it just a bit weird?

For second attempt at cuteness posed in new cherry blossom hillside path that leads up from watermelon shop to shrine-y building that just put in, halfway up mountain. Surely can't go wrong with cherry blossom. Think this is probably more straighforwardly charming, but slightly vacuous.

Vacuous or whacky, which is cuter? You decide.

Hobbitses

Hobbit holes bought at great expense: 1 (good); Pieces of crunchy snow deleted: 15 (good); Christmas mansions deleted: 1 (good); Snow emitter Taken to inventory: 1 (good) (etc.)

Cleared snowy forum of snow, trees, Christmas mansion, assorted chairs, Christmas lights etc. etc. However have left snow in Texture on uplands and some wintery trees round the water garden.
All this prim-clearing however offset by grand splurge on new house, namely The Hobbiton, which had seen advertised (oddly) via the SL fashion blog aggregator. This is Hobbiton as resided in by Hobbits: basically only has one room so obviously not v. grand hobbits, but opens up all sorts of role playing possibilities: Gandalf, Frodo, Mount Doom etc etc.
Teleported earlier to demo house in evening and decided that was v. cute, but at 2000 Linden a little expensive and does the island need another residence? (answer = no)
However, later on North Lamar dropped by for pleasant chat, and when mentioned Hobbiton he suggested we go and look at it. Fortunately or not North agreed about cuteness which was excuse enough to click BUY and whisk it home to install it.
First pic shows me and North looking at demo house. 2nd pic shows Hobbiton on Infolit iSchool nestling cutely between the Fairy Bridge and the Water Garden.
P.S. For those of you concerned about the animated squirrel it is now back under the magic apple tree nearby.