Gacha, gacha

Yardsales browsed: 3 (good); Gacha items bought: about 35 (bad)

Madness that is the quarterly Arcade gacha is upon us again. As reminder, gachas are money sinks: will contain supercute selection of items, you throw in your 50 Linden or whatever, and out comes the randomly selected item that you least wanted to own. Arcade is king of gacha events, with all top names in cute stuff designing items to extract lindens from purse.

Is pointless trying to get into Arcade itself in first week or so, so have been browsing yardsales. Yardsales are places where can offload gacha duplicates, or can at least hope that having 18 Apple Fall "side tables with plant" will sound v. appealing to some random shopaholic.
Thus zillions of Zaara's fishermans pants and Dustbunny's vintage towel rolls (the stall with the huge pile of boxes is Dustbunny one), and v. few rare Zaara chill tents or Dustbunny cute houses. Shown in pic is The Pea yardsale, which is at least organised i.e. the plots are in alphabetical order of designer. This is improvement on most of them, where principle is that people hire booths and shove in whatever they like, so e.g. if searching for the Truth hair in Colours, have to go round all the booths with fine tooth (or should that be truth) (well perhaps not) comb.

Most attractive yardsale is at la Venta (or is it Las Ventas? can't be bothered to check) where not only in alphabetical order but display vendor pic showing what all the items are. This is v. useful as since can be seen in 1st pic, above, box containing items generally gives no clue as to what is within.
Will not list all gacha items bought, as would be too embarrassing/tedious, but may be able to see one purchase in 1st pic, viz unicorn companion which is standing beside me.

Is definite vogue for attachable companions, already have wombat, pig, and various other creatures the species of which escapes me, but this is first unicorn. Has leopard patterned skin, which was not something that I though RL mythical unicorns normally had. Was only about 49 Lindens and is cute (it walks when I walk, it gallops when I run etc.)  although is no use when one sits down as simply then have unicorn body parts poking out of the cushions.
2nd pic shows another creature, namely a jackalope, which had completely foregotten about but found in SL pics folder when searched on word "gatcha". Think was meant to be cross between rabbit and red nosed reindeer. Pic was taken Christmas 2012, so likely this rare breed is extinct by now.
Have attracted COMMENTS for last post which is doubtless why have bothered to do another blog post so quickly.  Feel obliged therefore to put some utility into post, namely:
a) link to yardsale list on the Seraphim site: http://seraphimsl.com/2015/05/31/the-yardsale-list-jun-aug-2015/
b) SLURLS for the cat cafes:
- Juicy Cat Cafe (one kittycat):  (this is a rather minamalist cat cafe as only have 25 prims to play with, but have selection of coffees and cute cat themed sofa, as well as the kittycat) http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Juicy/73/174/25
- Eagle rise cat cafe: (one kittycat; she's on the main decking): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eagle%20Rise/151/4/21
- Shore Thing Cafe: (5 kittycats): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/64/160/22
- Sakura Cat Cafe, Noyo: (lots of kittycats): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noyo/188/32/47
Kittycats spend good deal of time asleep: can try waking them up but do not always respond. If awake they will roll, and run around, chase butterflies etc. Is possible for anyone to pet them and they may possibly come up to you and make personal remarks which are meant to be be cute. All can say was, it wasn't me that programmed them.

Victims of obsession

No. of dead fish: 2 (v. bad); No. of fishtanks cleaned: 1 (too late); Pinches of fishfood put in tank: 1 (too late)
Every obsession has its casualties and innocent victims of the Slice of Summer hunt were blue and gold 7 Seas fish that had I copied into tank and then heartlessly neglected whilst pursuing watermelons.
Happened to wander into Jason Farradane centre when hunt was over and saw fish bobbing sadly at the top of the tank. Here they are. Tried Cleaning Tank and Feeding Fish, but they stayed there, inert, so had no choice but to Remove Fish.
Must be said that is not total tragedy, since original fish are still in inventory, so just needed to wear them and transfer them in again.
But anyway, what is this stuff about virtual creatures needing feeding? Surely main points of having virtual pets is:
- They do not need feeding
- They do not need exercising
- They do not need cleaning out
- They are perfectly toilet trained (i.e. they never need one)
- You can keep them in unsuitable places with no food and exercise and noone will call Pet Resue or prosecute you.
Yet see that there are, for example, virtual chickens that pine and die if not given suitable food and housing. In fact they die anyway in the end, so frankly pointless in investing Linden in them since is possible to buy walking clucking virtual chicks that will keep clucking and walking even if fouly mistreated (pun) (sorry).
However, now find that am already wondering if should go inworld and feed the wretched fish. Will all end in tears, I am sure. The fishes', if not mine.

Student work

Haggis companions purchased: 1 (good); Free Scotland strips received: 1 (good); Races lost because SOMEONE distracted me with a notecard in middle of race: 1 (bad)

Visited work of students at University of West of Scotland on Thursday. Enjoyable. Consisted of Museum of inventors, model of Hampden but without presence of fans or indeed footballers, and wildlife park including Loch Ness monster. Was also a monorail but didn't work out how to use it. Inventors' exhibition on 2 floors v. informative with links to wiki. Green feet things indicated path round exhibition (first pic.).

Wildlife park also included notecard posts giving (as you might expect) notecards about various fauna. My urge for consumption was satisfied as could purchase Haggis companion for only a few Linden (strange badger like creature that follows you when you rez it, reminded me of days when Phil the Phoenix was my constant companion). Could also purchase rather large squirrel but did not think existing squirrels on Infolit iSchool would approve. As can see in this pic there was also Weather, as often experienced in Scotland.

The final exhibit was of Hampden, looking forward to Commonwealth Games in 2014 which (as any visitor to Glasgow cannot escape knowing) are taking place in Glasgow. Here there was a quiz about Commonwealth games, which I didn't exactly pass, but I was nevertheless kindly given a Scotland shirt.

This was possibly to compensate for the fact that I was completely rubbish at a game where you had to keep clicking a coloured dome to get your ball to zoom round faster than anyone else's. On my 2nd attempt was actually doing OK when someone else in room dropped a notecard on me thus preventing clicking for some crucial seconds and resulting in humiliating defeat. Not that I'm blaming anyone but me, of course.

Mitsy, Squirrel, Cockatoo: 3 kinds of animal noise

Cats moved to new office: 1 (v. good); Squirrels moved to snowy forum: 1 (cute); Shop displays mounted: 1 (v. good); Cockatoos purchased for new shop display: 1 (noisy)

Regular readers of this blog may have been asking "Where is Mitsy? Has she gone to join her spooky dismembered clones in the sea?" (see previous post)

In fact Mitsy has been safe in Inventory ("Animals" folder). Was bit hesitant to introduce her to new home, as cats well known for disliking change. However, when introduced her to office in Sakura House she settled in straight away, pacing, mewling and pushing people around as per normal.

In fact Mitsy seem to prefer new home since even with Set Cat Range Very Small, this was not small enough for Eduserv office, thus her frequent plunges out of the side of the office to a watery doom.

Can see in these pics that looks v. content, making herself at home on her Mitsy Mat and on Dimitrova's skirt (no errant cat hairs in SL). Am looking forward to next meeting in lower room enlivened by her friendly howls from upstairs (note to self: may have to explain this, do not wish visiting educators to think Unmentionable Activities going on).

Elsewhere on the animals front, have moved squirrel from under oak tree to snowy forum where is disporting itself under Frosty Willow (XL) on Crunchy Snow. Since squirrel miraculously generates own acorns does not seem cruel. As can be seen here is perky enough and merry chirping may be welcome distraction if meetings in Snowy Forum prove dull.

Also put in new exhibition in shop, featuring RL Australian pics. Have put in pic which is all blue sky plus 2 v. small cormorants as background on 3 walls, water on floor, plus driftwood, deckchair, tropical-type tree, pina colada and sulphur crested cockatoo.

Put up some Aussie photos for sale, with no great hopes of income. In fact have RL pic of RL sulphur cockatoo in Sydney botanic gardens, so should put that up sometime, thus further confirming RL globetrotting credentials. This however is SL cockatoo. Makes almighty squwawk noise which unable to Modify out, am afraid neighbours may complain.

Water garden

Water gardens created: 1 (good); Visitors to water garden: 1 (good); No of creatures in water garden: 8 (good)

Have spent some time finding right seating for water garden and this seems to be it. Plump cushions with exotic feel and straightforward poses that would not give Wrong Impression to colleagues (e.g. by animating them in dubious fashion).

Water garden inspired by mangrove swamp area of Brisbane (Australia) Botanical gardens, though obviously v. different not least through fact that that is real and this garden isn't. Have good swathe of Decking plus variety of plants including two actual Mangroves which appear to be New Line at Heart Garden Centre (and one mangrove has dreaded Large Prim so may be confiscated by irate Lindens).
Also bought v. nice marble wall fountain which have installed on own property, what with there being a lack of water features (not).

Had gratifying visit from fellow educator/research North Lamar who liked island so could bask in appreciation for short while before returning to rigours of Academic Life.

Have been shamed by jolly blog recounting progress of educational island, at http://internationalschoolsisland.blogspot.com/. This gives all manner of useful info. However, they do not seem to have had to create whole island quickly like self, so have excuse. Have decided that was unconsciously striving for (non existent) prize of Prettiest Sim Created By One Person in Under 3 Weeks.

BTW: creatures in water garden are: frog (croaks); heron (stands enigmatically still); 3 butterflies (flutter); Duck (moves to and fro, to and fro); 2 small birds of indeterminate breed (swoop about and twitter).