Princess practice; Octopus kimono; Bubbles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi!

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

Have good summer < 333  

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

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

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

Nostalgic kittens

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

I have new feet

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

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

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

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

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

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

It Began With A Japanese Lantern

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, one more step on the autoethnographic highway!

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

Discover am Creative with small c

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, Farewell Eduserv Island, you were loved once.

But, evidently, no more.

The walking dead Mitsy

Pieces of Mitsy still floating in Eduserv Ocean: many (spooky)

Realised that profile hadn't been updated in ages (much like this blog) and found that some info was out of date etc. etc. so needed to check pick landmarks. One pick is Eduserv Island and was surprised to find it still there since not sure Eduserv even funded any more. Even more surprised to come across pieces of cloned Mitsy still floating beside the old CILR office. Still some bits which move around and mew. No less spooky than it was six years ago.

Hot tubs. Time. Change/ no change.

Blogs disappearing beyond recall: about 20 (v. bad)
Sudden panic has driven me back to Yoshikawa blogland. Have class where force students to create team blogs, and yesterday found that team blogs from 2011 had suddenly gone phut, they were ex-blogs. Blogger sounded v. calm when told me each time that there was no such blog, but was v. upsetting. Think it is because students created them using uni email accounts which since expired, so are not active bloggers. However, idea of Adventures going phut too awful for words. Decided needed to Keep Blog Active.

So, surprisingly, here are a few random thoughts of the day.
1) Hot tubs, changing yet changeless. Hot tubs were amongst early purchases in 2007, in fact venerable examples still inhabit inventory as throw v. little away. This hot tub is in some ways an advance (it has curves, water goes in and out, there are 6 poses in each corner, it is not very many prims). On the other hand, it still looks pretty much like a hot tub circa 2007 in essential i.e. has wooden bit on outside, watery bit on inside, a few folderolls like candles and think those are meant to be rose petals although they look more like mishapen saucers, you sit in it, end of story.

2) On the other hand, seems to have been great advances in gym equipment. Look, am evidently strongest avatar in universe since can lift heavy weights with one arm. This was in a shop the name of which escapes me (no change there, then) where I ended up carrying off a punch bag and some bongos. And possibly something else. Did I buy that fireguard? Think not. Was one of those shops with lots of things at 300 Linden plus, so when you come across something cute at 90 Linden you immediately snap it up. Punch bag has v. amusing set of animations and bongos have both sound and silent options whilst you play them, so can practice without annoying neighbours. Since bought them and then forgot had bought them do not yet have pics.

3)World's End Gardens continues photogenic. Saw in someone's blog that WEG is about to go phut, too. So thought should visit it a last time. Bought a clump of blue roses and did a lot of posing with some balloon animations that discovered in inventory. Arty or what.

4) Eyes and cats are go.
 Kittycats are still darlings of my SL, and the animations just get cuter and cuter (hold! follow! make random inane remarks!). However sometimes the kitties go a bit odd, with part of the body sitting up (for example) whilst the rest of the kittycat body stays put. Had particularly disconcerting moment when Marl's eyes stayed where they were whilst rest of head was lowered. This brings together two of my most popular tags i.e. eyes and cats.

Think this is possibly Art. Question is: who created it, me or the kittycat? Still, since Linden Lab now owns everything created by anybody in SL, is rather meaningless to ponder on this.

Reminiscence. Mesh heads. Kitana.

Items gifted at Barerose: 6 (good); SL consumer trends as reflected in inventory at Barerose: 3 (trendy); Months since last blog post: 5 (whatever) 

Spent last night stalking raffle globe in Barerose. Reminescent of old times so decided ought to unleash new blog post. Am surprised to see after all these months that still have 31 followers (though have my doubts about the follower named ZaLV0fYV2Z7OF_LohUC0.m.j7rqKUg). Suppose they have forgotten were following and will be surprised and no doubt delighted to see new Yoshikawa post popping up on their dashboard.

Must have got bout of nostalgia for Old Blogging Times after seeing Barerose refreshingly unchanged i.e. still consists of huge structure like tacky gothic cathedral with walls filled with piles and piles of stuff in no particular order (see pics 1 and 2). Most stuff priced at something like 179 Linden which sounds cheaper than it actually is, so immediately tempted to snap things up esp. if e.g. box of cute floral chiffon tops which is nestling in a bank of costumes for obscure old anime series. Think Barerosers must really be fiendishly sharp businesspeople.

The Raffle Orb detects who is in its orbit and periodically shouts e.g. "ChocolateMunchie Resident has just won a ::: B@R ::: Gold Long Dress just for being here!" Probability is that wouldn't want most of items anyway, but is worth it to find out what some of the things are e.g. what on earth is an "Abs. Dress  C1", apart from being a dress, obviously.

My loot so far for hanging round in the Barerose orb zone (I am in evening dress in foreground of pic 2) is:
- Two mesh heads, one Furry, one not
- Knee length striped dress
- Display katana x 2
- Fancy white fantasy armour with wings
- Spooky Bat avatar
You can see them in their boxes here. Unfortunately none of these were item that caused raffle-stalking in the first place i.e snake neck wrap.Wanted it as in RL was born in Year of the Snake which is also THIS year, so from this you can guess that am at or nearly one of following ages: 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96. Will give clue that isn't 12 or 96.

Anyway to return to loot, have to admit that anticipation was rather more than the actuality. Indeed to be frank; - are those heads Sheila Yoshikawa style? Think not. How often have you seen me in a demon avatar? Never. And what home requires 2 identical display kitana? Well, actually, could see those nestling in twin niches in some swanky Japanese mansion.

That trip to Barerose reveals top 3 trends in SL fashion consumerism, as evidenced by type of stuff on sale. These trends are:
- Mesh. Most designers now putting things out in mesh, despite fact that means that a) you can’t layer properly and b) you have to have a shape either very thin and straight or VERY curvy with unfeasibly small waist aka Standard Sizes (Xtra Small to Large).
- Petites. Apparently lots more people want to go round as tiny people, and now they have lots of clothes to do it in.
- Add-on breasts aka Lolas aka Tangos aka Lush (etc etc). SL now populated by far more avatars with huge fronts, which bounce in an oddly realistic and disturbing fashion. Or perhaps disturbance not that odd. Anyway lots of designers now issuing clothes with quaintly named Appliers which mean that their clothes adapt to these appendages. Started by being just designers of a more Saucy nature, but has definitely gone mainstream. Thus some of Barerose boxes depict t-shirts and fantasy battle armour of eye-popping proportions.
If this all sounds v. unpleasant is simple solution i.e. to use SL browser that can't see mesh. This reduces Lola-wearing mesh petites to a disembodied name-tag and perhaps the odd non-mesh fairy wand.

A sad sad sight

Heritage sites disappearing: 1 (v. bad)

Was taking some pictures this morning e.g. of this truck that crashed into side of new house when it slowly dawned that THERE WAS NO COWELL SEASIDE VILLAGE ANY MORE. At first had just assumed had set draw distance to a low figure and therefore wasn't seeing this pretty village which was the key reason for getting the land in the first place.

However, checked draw distance, realised could see things that were FURTHER AWAY (i.e. Abotts spacedrome) and eventually flew over to find that one whole sim's worth plus a bit more had been abandoned and was set for sale. This is what it looked like just now. You can see a bit of what it looked like BEFORE in the final pic in this post http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/usual.html and Chimera posted some pics here http://www.koinup.com/works/in-second-life/on-pictures/tag/cowell/

It had a bit of a retro feel as it hadn't changed from when I discovered it in 2007, but still charm and atmosphere.

But not any more, it is an ex-village. Had panic attack thinking of dreadful things that could arrive there, and in grip of this got Dimitrova (since it is less disasterous for her tier charges) to buy up one chunk that includes the nearest half of the island bit and a slice going over the mountain on the right (it was all lumped in together). Will think what to do by Dimi's tier date in a week; can't afford to increase my tier overall, but would like to keep at least the island bit as a cushion, and could sell off a bit of what have at the moment....

New life

No. of new kitten boxes: 1 (exciting!)
Finally succumbed to temptation to let my kittycats create beautiful kitten boxes together. Set Snowfall and Tassie to "breed on" a few weeks ago, which meant that at once was having to shell out more Linden for kittycat food as breedable cats eat twice as much. Then after about 10 days set Tassie to partner Snowfall. Tassie made some coy remark about only having just met (as if! she was there when he emerged from the kitten box, there is photographic prooof) which evidently comes from the kittycat random-twee-remark generator.

Have not been in SL much for the last week, and therefore was surprised and delighted to get an IM announcing the happy event (i.e. Tassie giving birth to a kitten box). When went inworld at first was unable to locate a) kitten box b) Tassie or c) Snowfall. After some camming around discovered a) (Kittenbox) abandoned outside the house (see first pic) b) (Tassie: fond mother) chasing butterflies round the opposite side of the house and c) (Snowfall: proud father) hiding under the floorboards. Seems like the new kitten box is doomed to be the victim of a dysfunctional family right from the start.

The new update allows you to click on the kitten box and see a 2D portait of the yet-unborn kitten, so you can decide whether to birth it or not. Obviously once it has looked at you with its v. cute whiskers and pretty ears it is more difficult to resist. Look! He has his mother's eyes, they are so adorable! (etc. etc.) And he would make a charming mate for Ninetails, in only a few weeks they could be making kitten boxes of their own. It is a primrose path to pouring linden into the kittycats coffers (i.e. for more and more food).

Should note that this breeding thing is a frightfully chaste process, as apart from eating more kittycat kibble there is no noticeable change in kitty behaviour and certainly no Lewd Acts. Once had retrieved Snowfall from under the floor and Tassie from her walk outside the house, let them wander round until they fortuitously both ended up trapped by a japanese screen, and I took a picture (3rd pic, Tassie is on the right)

They may be saying "let our kittenbox live". Or they may be thinking "when is our next kittycat kibble meal". Or as they are in fact pixel cats, it is also possible that they are not thinking anything at all.

BTW if you have any views one way or the other, feel free to comment on whether Son of Tassie should be released from his box to eat up my Linden.

Lost and found

No items in inventory: 58,000 (good); No. of items in inventory when logged in last night: 19,600 (v. bad)
Was procrastinating on Infolit iSchool last night, changing some furniture in the Wilf Saunders library, when thought would try rezzing some possible replacement builds. Need to consult Maggie first, but as demolishing common room to put up a conference centre, am considering making library into library/social venue. Am sure David Cameron would approve, as he and his chums always seem to be encouraging librarians to do things librarians have been doing for years e.g. lending CDs and selling coffee.
Anyway, was only when kept getting no hits in inventory search that finally realised that was not because too many items are in wrong folder. Was, rather, because NONE OF THE FOLDERS HAD ANYTHING IN THEM.

Icey finger of fear clutched at heart, but did some quick googling, and soon came across  lots of Don't Panic messages which indicated that was most likely that inventory wasn't loading. Followed some instructions from Rolig Loon (who must spend all her lifelife doing helpful posts) and within reasonable time inventory was cascading back into inventory folder.* Phew!

As a reaction to this decided to create new pixel life, so rezzed a kitten box I had purchased foolishly a couple of months ago and lo! there is a new kittycat for me to cuddle. It is a Bengal cat, with Odessey eyes i.e. they are different colours. Cute or what. Have called him Snowfall. This makes 6 cats altogether which is seriously approaching crazy cat lady territory, particularly when you look at the price of KittyCats food. First pic shows us all waiting for the kitten box to hatch, and 2nd pic shows Snowfall though at that point he was still just called Kitten.

Stone looked distinctly unenthused at the idea of a new male cat on his territory, and has taken to hiding under the floor even more often (see 3rd pic). Meanwhile, Ninetails is now full sized, but Snowfall is still at that age where he could get lost underneath a cushion, let alone underneath the house.

Whilst in Kitteycats main store noticed there was a HUD that enabled you to get your kitties to return to you even when you don't know where they are.
Hmmmmm. On one hand may regret not buying it if really do lose cat completely one day. On other hand, have been Hunting the Lost Virtual Cat for 5 years now, ever since Mitsy started throwing herself into sea on Eduserv island. It's a sort of ritual.  And at least kittycats don't disintegrate into disembodied paws and heads like Mitsy did.

BTW am also labouring at a serious post on "Twitter vs. SL" reflecting on experience of Twitter-only discussion about info literacy. Will of course be last word on the matter of Twitter vs SL and do not offer any prizes for guessing which one is winner in my book. Do they have kittycats on Twitter, who whimsically hide themselves under the floor and behind the furniture?** I rest my case.

*Practical info. To get inventory back, cleared cache (in Preferences, think it was Advanced tab), logged off, logged back in somewhere else and typed an "a" into the search box of inventory, then waited impatiently as the inventory count went up and up.
** the answer is "no".

Cats, Hair, Bots

Emails received from virtual cats: 10 (good); Visibility of mesh: erratic (bad); Tail positions: unfortunate (v. bad)
Was overwhelmed with emails from Stone and Tassie on Monday demanding food and attention. Such an improvement on RL cats which can only meowl and look pained, not only have SL cats mastered email skills, also can tell me preceisely how hungry they are e.g. "40%".
Fortunately got to them before they were 100% hungry as at that point they retire to their themometers and blankets and linden must be paid to get them back to good health. Here I am showing Tassie I care, using cute "hold" pose. Is only one thing wrong with this pose, as can be seen if look closely at pic. Prompts thoughts such as "is that a kittycat you are holding or are you just glad to see me?" Would probably be good idea if kittycat tail vanished in this animation, or at least coiled discretely out of sight.

Am wearing new hair from Truth, but expenditure has been curbed somewhat as am being v. cautious about buying mesh clothes. Was incident of being filmed by Pancha when wearing nice mesh sweater and hair and looking like I had no torso but a bald head, and also when bumped into Kali and friends and it emerged that they were using non-mesh viewers.  Can't imagine why anyone who doesn't know what mesh is would read this blog, but anyway, mesh is new way of making stuff, using computer aided design; like sculpties, but it's not sculpties, it's mesh. Plus side of mesh is that it can curve to follow your avatar movements, minus is that you can't resize it if it's this flexible "rigged mesh".

Thus to fit different sized avis you get several sizes of (e.g.) the dress, which is all very well, but they are "standard size", which means you end up a standard size rather than your actual shape. This generally means buxom, with a small waist and biggish hips but a flat bottom. Do not want to be that shape. Combo of ill-fitting clothes and social embarrassment of having vital bits missing = avoidance of mesh.

Am also myself finding that when come across new mesh objects they are invisible first time round e.g. try on a mesh skirt and it looks like it isn't there. Relog and magically I can see it. Increasing numbers of people at meetings are thus suffering from bits-missing syndrome e.g. in VWER today there was chap who was mostly just head and extremities, and last week there was a woman was was mostly hair (see pic): very nice hair too, went off after the meeting to find the shop.

Next pic also shows mesh issue (see chap on far right, look no body) in after-VWER visit to a bot-shop where was being shown the Quasimodo Merlin bot (the one with steampunk wings: actually realise now that you can't really see him in this pic, he is hidden by my Big Hair, that thought bubble is coming out of his head). Quasimodo was eccentric bot who disliked people he had only just been introduced to (he actually said "I dislike x", x being Suzanne who was just trying to make polite conversation with him). Therefore ended up being something of a bait-the-bot session, though in a polite educators sort of way. Quasi has been programmed to write vogon poetry and his poem for me on the subject of "Jubilee" was as follows (copyright to him, obviously)
"among shops futuristic jubilee
Label interpreted jubilee!
You extended parkey.
Out of the water, budgeted bugbee.
All taste fielded plumlee.
Good and plenty, allocated lordy.
Sheilas suit entertains parkey"

Could spend hours deconstructing this. The first lines seem to be corruscating commentary on the extent to which the Queen's Diamond Jubilee has been turned in a commercial event. "Parkey" is of course reference to popular but ageing UK TV personality Michael Parkinson, a former chat show host. "You extended parkey" must be compliment to the dedicatee (me) implying that my witty repartee would stretch Parkey's powers, and indeed provide him and his audience with entertainment ("Sheilas suit entertains"). This appears to be in contrast with some dull minor royal who has been foisted onto Parkey as a guest ("allocated lordy") with an affected plummy accent ("fielded plumlee"). Not sure about the fourth line. Perhaps there has been flooding, but fortunately there is sufficient Parkinson Show budget to mop it up so we are "out of the water".

Great stuff.

And to finish with, here I am balancing on a table.

I celebrate my Rez day with the cats

No of years in SL: 5 (good); No. of cats in SL: 5 (furry; well, sort of); No. of times interviewed in SL: lost count (bad)

Another year another Rez Day and here I am celebrating my 5th, with the same old animated birthday cake over my head. Earlier in the day had been marginally more social.
Had been asked by Kali to transcribe at the VWER meeting, and so had hour rattling away at keyboard. Up side is that had to stay awake and pay attention, down side is that by end fingers felt partially detached from hands through overuse.

Took along newest kitty acquisition, vis, Tassie. She is seal point siamese, and is named after The Silver Tassie, as in Burns' poem. In fact almost called her Tassel*, but thought that sounded too much like I was considering using her tail for a bell-pull. Since she is still only a few days old, she sits on my shoulder rather than being held, which is very much in the cute-or-what-category. Can see in the 2nd pic what Tassie looked like when newly rezzed i.e. small lump of clay.

Returning to subject of Rez Day, had thought about attaching sign to head with something amusing e.g. Rez Day Girl! However a mere nanosecond of reflection revealed that this would not be amusing at all, so didn't. Did receive one IM from someone wishing happy rez day, so am grateful for small mercies. Outside SL have reached stage where get v. few actual birthday cards. Thank goodness for Facebook, as got lots of Happy Birthdays on there, where would one be without social networking.

After the VWER meeting, got interviewed about teaching in SL, by a PhD student. Was thinking that could probably get article out of analysing all the squillions of interviews I've given about my teaching in SL. Would be interesting to compare what had said each time, though probably only interesting to me.

* I know that Tassie isn't short for Tassel, but they sound jolly similar.

Sakura

Sakura-related items bought: who's counting? (bad)
Sakura is japanese for cherry blossom, Hanami is about viewing the cherry blossom and March & April are the months when you haul all those cherry trees, cherry blossom petal generators, cherry blossom kimono, cherry blossom sweets, cherry blossom ground cover etc. etc. out of inventory. And despite the fact that you have more cherry blossom trees than there are prims in a sim March are April are also months when you launch yourself round the grid snapping up new cherry blossom delights.

The theme for the Virtual Worlds best practices in Education exhibition area was old-japanesey and Pancha did a v.v. good japanesey exhibition build so had excellent excuse to invest in complete new set of cherry trees from Forest Floor. Not only are they in 3 cute shapes, and can be resized, the foliage changes season on click and you get some artistic mossy rocks as well.
Have also acquired exquisite Cherry Blossom prim foods from Poche and Nonino, and after had finished swooning at beauty of cherry blossom viewing experience on the Sway's sim, recovered enough to buy a cherry blossom viewing couch, chair and screen.
Despite fact had already oodles of cherry blossom pictures, decided to go inworld and pose a few more.

Fatal. 1 hour later and do have some cherry blossom pics in bag. However, also got dropped freebies by Trompe L'oeil i.e. their new set of patio furniture. There is loads of it. Of course could not resist unpacking on spot and then fiddling with settings etc. to get a pic to blog on Home on the grid, another procrastination-pit. So show some bits in 2nd pic. Furniture is MESH so for some people will just look like a set of unsightly teal blots on the landscape. But, hey, it was ALL FREE.

Blue remembered hills. And cats

Months since last blogged here: 4 (disappointing, but, whatever)

Had sudden urge to blog here, and discovered these pics which uploaded to blog in early December. Think must have been assailed by worry that was inflicting same old same old kittycat postings on world, and therfore went no further. But, whatever, kittycats are cute.

So, here you have a series of pics from start of Dec 2012, and will see what I can remember about them.

Starting point must actually have been pic lower down i.e. KittyCats update that meant you could PET OTHER PEOPLE'S CATS. In this pic, however, am petting own cat i.e. Stone, cute as ever. Think that Stone kept somehow disappearing through wall of house into garden. Still can't work out how he does that.

This 2nd pic is nothing to do with cats, but that old chestnut My Eye Texture Has Disappeared Woah Isn't That Spooky. This has happened to me before. It will happen to me again. But evidently I thought it was worth taking a picture of.

Only really odd thing is that on right can see straight through eye and head to window frame of house (house from which Stone had just made break for freedom) and on left can just see back of head. But not much entertainment value there, really.

So on to next KittyCat picture.

Here I am just having tp-ed inworld, to discover Naomi and Quilt flat out in cutest sleeping pose, with UPDATE ME floating over their heads. Is all a bit hazy, but think this update was pretty straightforward, just click cat, get update, rez the updater, and, lo, KittyCats now amenable to petting by all and sundry.


Suddenly remember was amusing moment last semester when coerced student wearing balloon avatar to pet cat for photo-op. Will try to unearth that pic and blog, just for completeness.

Otherwise, what can I tell from thsi picture? Appear to be wearing fetching oufit from Boho Hobo. Hmm, that is what I am wearing in this fashion blog post, which must mean that actually theses pics were taken in November not December. Landscape in background is late autumn, not winter; snow line has not yet crept down mountains (QED).

And so on to the next pics, in which, sated by pampering and petting own kitties, move to other people's.

Firstly, there are cute kitties in the Hanaya shop. There was a nice winter shelter out in front of the shop, with the kitties curled up on cushions, just waiting to have their new petting feature experimented with.

BTW, in case you want to try it for tyourself, should you come across a KittyCat in need of affection; you right click and select PET. This is in the place where it normally says SIT, so basically it means that your KittyCats now come with inbuilt poses for others to use.


The final pic was taken in Urbanized, when they introduced a new line of KittyCat cushions. The pose is in the cushion, rather than the cat, so you have to get the cat in the right position for it to look cute.

You have 2 options. You can wait for hours and hours for your KittyCat to wander randomly onto the exact right spot and try to pose before it wanders off again. Or you can right click on your cat, select edit, drag it into the correct place, and immobilise it with a judicious click on the menu. It is up to you.

Gift, Exhibit, Orange

No of items found in inventory when search "pumpkin": lost count after 50 (bad); No of gifts: 1 (v. good); No. of free prims on Infolit iSchool: 526 (bad); No. of times neighbour's security orb attempted to eject me from own land: 18 in 3 minutes (bad)

Tis the season of mellow fruitfulness and halloween overdrive, so am stuffing inventory with floating candles, spooky houses, spooky greenhouses, tombstones, poisoned cauldrons, and some v. questionable items, namely a noose pose set and a burn-the-witch bonfire. Latter is great fun as you stand at the stake with flames licking round you, making unrealistic shrieking noises.

As usual have set up Halloween house on Infolit, this year in a shack on the hill. New items include aforementioned cauldron (dispenses apples which cause you to fall dead) and v. good ghost in form of flying pumpkin, from New Trails. Pancha has contributed an animated skeleton and some freebie candles that she created for a Day of The Dead project. Also had tombstone that dispensed ghost that followed you round saying she wanted her mummy. Spooky.
However, when visited tomb just now, the GHOST HAD DISAPPEARED, and was no longer to be seen in the Contents tab of the tombstone. That is even spookier, frankly, and also means product no longer works. Could ask for replacement, but on the whole that is just too much effort.
Meanwhile have a pumpkin for all purposes: pumpkin heads, pumpkin lights, pumpkin chairs, pumpkin to look like cats' heads; pumpkin soup; pumpkin pie; pumpkin gun; pumpkin earrings; pumpkins that come and hit you if you click them; static pumpkins of every size and hue; not to mention pumpkin-coloured boots, necklaces, shrugs etc. etc.
Am trying to show restraint, as it tempting to just pull everything out and Paint The Island Orange. Is easier since am fighting continual prim war. Students have been populating their mini islands, and I have been encouraging them to fill islands with stuff, but has now reached stage when really want to say DO YOU REALLY NEED YET ANOTHER PALM TREE but is easier to just keep zooming round trimming prims here and there.

Latest things to go were an old barbie (40 prims, see pic) and the cardboard house that was lurking under the Farradane Centre. Have fond memories of getting drunk with Pancha and Ishbel over that barbie, but is four years old, so postively vintage.
Autumnal colour added to by a) my final "52 weeks of colour" frock, which have selected from Caverna Obscura and b) v. pretty set of marigolds in vase on cute rustic stool which was unexpected gift from Hanaya's owner. Have got v. few blogger gifts to date, in fact think has only been 4 of which 1 (set of shoes) was v. useful, 1 (jewellery from Magpie) was pretty, and 2 were useless as were short dresses of kind do not wear.
At once opened box and tried to take pic to show gift-giver. Was thwarted for some time
1) Went to Fantasy Woods corner of Noyo. Was immediately bombarded with messages saying that was about to be ejected: neighbour must have set his security orb thoughtlessly wide. Loathe security orbs. IMed neighbour and await response.
2) Crashed
3) Logged in and went to autumn house and started to rez marigolds,
4) Crashed
5) Rezzed marigiolds
6) Crashed
7) Crashed again. Perhaps was Curse of the security Orb.
8) Tried logging into Infolit iSchool instead. Success!
9) Noticed Quilt was missing. retrieved her from under building. How DO they get down there.
10) Posed with Naomi. (see pic)
11) By this time had forgotten why had gone into SL in first place and started playing with Quilt.

Will use marigolds in final 52 weeks of colour post, as harmonises so well with dress. Am sad 52 weeks challenge is almost over. However, at approx 2 hrs per post x 52 weeks = 104 hrs, means have spent 3 working weeks on blogging virtual clothes for not many people to look at. Hmmm. Still, it was fun.

Way too old

Cats who are past it: 2 (bad)
Recently discovered distressing fact. Latest update of kittycats included v. cute new cat petting poses, including possibility of petting other people's cats. Immediately zoomed round grid seeking out cats to pet. Fired with new kittycat enthusiasm, clicked on Quilt and for first time selected Breeding option, toying with idea of finally opting for kitten boxes.

However was shocked when a message appeared in text chat telling me that "Quilt is way too old for breeding!" Not only does this seem like a super-truncated window of opportunity, but feel that language ("Way too old" indeed!) would score v. low in "diversity and age sensitivity" stakes. The poor thing is less than 200 days young!

Naomi is not much Quilt's junior, so turns out that both have descended into twilight years without me having given either of them the opportunity of fulfilling their destiny (i.e. making money for Kittycats by obliging me to buy more Kittycats food for all the new kittens).

Must be said that Naomi and Quilt do not seem overly bothered about this, indeed must have passed kittycat-menopause some weeks ago and thus had chance to reconcile themselves to their elder status.

Meanwhile Stone took to disappearing under the floor of the CILR office (see last pic), so have had to go hunting for him on the sea bed more than once. Perhaps is sulking because of lack of young frisky female kittycats. Whilst ponder kittycat future have removed him to adorn another of my homes.