Wednesday, 27 February 2008

Brick wall


Brusque IMs received from new neighbour: 2 (bad); Huge brick warehouses erected next door: 1 (v.v. bad); Elven bands as neighbours: 1 (good, I hope)

Came into work yesterday to 2 emails redirected from SL from new neighbour. Both demanded that I move trees from neighbour's house & 2nd message all in CAPITALS indicating some strong feeling I presume. In due course go inworld and discover that said neighbour has purchased land next to seaside house and covered entire plot with windowless brick barn (see pic). Am not sure this qualifies as "house", however shift trees so leaves no longer encroach through walls, though frankly such is bleakness of barn that would think would be grateful for sign of life.
As can see in 2nd pic now have total brick wall view from some windows of house, though obviously is neighbour's inalienable right to do what dreadful things he likes with own land.
Fortunately rest of land on that side has been bought by Elven band, who (as one might hope) seem inclined to grass, trees and Elven dwellings. Hope will maintain pleasant relations with them since fear that Brick neighbour is unlikely to be someone that want to invite round for afternoon tea.

Monday, 25 February 2008

Evaluating, education, SL


Chatlogs posted: 1 (good); Notecards published to web: 1 (good); Valentine's cake consumed in SL: 2 slices (good); Calories gained: 0 (v.v. good)
Have finally posted the chatlog of the meeting held on 14 Feb 2008, on Evaluating educational interventions in Second Life, particularly education for information literacy , at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=234. Also since had made rather lengthy notecard decided to post this as document to the web as well: at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/evaluating-notecard.pdf
Notecard includes links to material from the Eduserv meeting that attended a while back (and never got round to blogging), since part of notecard summarises some of the points from that.


1st pic shows 14 Feb meeting - can see heart shaped Valentine cake in the middle although not everyone stayed to taste it. 2nd pic shows meeting at Eduserv, alluded to a while back, on Measuring impact of SL in education. Advantage of waiting a few weeks before blogging is that someone else will have already done it for you, in this case Art Fossett with v. coherent account at http://artfossett.blogspot.com/2008/01/
thinking-about-learning-impact-of.html
. Also he uses same chatlog function as me and the chat from the Eduserv meeting is linked from his post.

Thursday, 21 February 2008

Voice, Interviews, Meetings


Interviews given: 1 (v. good)

Realise that heading of last post. i.e "Consumption, farewell" sounded as though was bidding farewell to consumption. Given content of last post this might have been somewhat baffling. Title meant to convey that was bidding Hello to consumption and Farewell to my first ever land parcel. Oh well.

Most notable event recently, apart from discussion on island that will blog separately, was being interviewed for Metaverse TV by Dousa Dragonash. V. exciting. She and MTV CEO/camerman visited Infolit iSchool and we chatted in the offices, Sakura House and the shoreside cafe, the Sure Thing (named after a RL Australian cafe).

Not sure when interview will come out, but obviously will post it here when it does. Because of interview have finally succumbed to Voice. Now have natty headphone set in RL and am Voice Enabled. Seemed rather strange after all the Chat. MTV had just been floated on SL exchange so general excitement around. Is now large TV on beach so visitors can watch me. Anyway am looking forward to final result.

Earlier this week attended panel in which people from RL media organisations e.g Reuters were talking about RL media in SL. Was v. popular and audience never fully emerged from grey lumpiness that indicates great lag (see 2nd pic). One message was that reporters still weren't making much money in SL. However some media companies saw it as brand building. So content of panel quite interesting but visit to Black Library in Hyperborea for usual Monday night discussion about education was more enjoyable, as fewer people there and when felt in need of distraction can poke virtual black labrador or collect freebie rat that was on offer to celebrate new Chinese Year of the Rat.
3rd pic shows me discovering giant banana on roof of library. Enough said.

Consumption, farewell

Plants bought: 38 (v.good); Statues of Bastet bought: 1 (high prim); Blouses bought: 1 (good); Pairs of shorts: bought: 2 (good, but rather piontless); Pairs of tights bought: 1 (good); Bracelets bought: 1 (good, though not quite as good as hoped); Pairs of pink ballet shoes bought: 1 (good); Pairs of silver silk jeans bought: 1 (good); Strange capsule lamps bought: 1 (OK); Amount of land sold: 2048 (v.v. good); Amount of land bought: 1024 (good)

After approx. 36 hours after submission of ticket, random Linden replies to say that credit card details have been obliterated in order to clear fault and must now input them again to resume normal purchasing behaviour. Thus am able to plunge into SL and make up for lost time by buying items listed above and here I am with/wearing a selection of them.
Cannot remember if mentioned that had put up 2 parcels of land for sale and sold one. Person who bought has already sold up again to one Sarah Nerd, who according to her profile buys any land which is set to sell to her at a certain rate, for resale. Decide this is worth trying since 2nd parcel shows no sign of shifting and bingo! she indeed buys land within few hours. Land immediately put back on market at higher price, but land is out of my account which is main thing.

Go about clearing rest of parcel that was my original first land. In fact next part to go includes first 512 sq m. I ever bought. Certain nostalgia as delete or take wisteria trees, tea house, carp, steaming green tea etc. etc. Set this bit to sale prior to clearing rest and go offline.
Within an hour this has been snapped up by some eager buyer who also immediately sets it to Sell, but in this case only at 900 Lindens more than was bought for. Can it be worth it, considering tier costs? Anyway, the pic shows me examining the for sale sign with some bafflement.
Bouyed up by this sales frenzy and the sight of all those Lindens in my purse I revise plan of keeping some of old land, empty, to boost prim count in new home (which is on same sim). Decide instead to sell it all, and buy small plot that has just come up for sale next to new home, for same purpose. Of course as soon as have bought cannot resist putting in plants, trees, a small brown bird and a purple butterly. But will try to keep it at that.

Last pic just shows Farradane House by moonlight.Soon I will turn the island to spring, so am enjoying snow whilst it lasts.

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

I want

Hours without Linden: 48 (v. bad); Items on shopping list for when access to Linden restored: 8 and counting (v.v.bad)
Due to SL glitch am currently unable to buy more Linden. Keep seeing merry messages on Linden Labs' blog saying "Service restored" but these are lies, since whether try in or out of world still get same gloomy message that transaction has not gone through. Blog acknowledged that "UK Lindens" were having problems but concentration seems to be on sorting out concurrent PayPal problem. Humph.
In meantime am making list of things to buy when SL restored. Top of this are spring flowers from Heart Garden Centre. Have been visiting frequently since was evident that space was being cleared to advertise New Lines and now, hurrah, can splurge on (1) daffodils, (2) snowdrops, (3) tulips, (4) orchids and (5) another flower I forget the name of.
Have not been totally deprived since fortunately today received my weekly L$300 from LL for being a premium customer , so hot footed it to Heart and snapped up 2 snowdrop plants and one daffodil clump.
In RL these would scarcely fill a flowerbed, however as can see in pics, in SL daffodils are apparently 5 feet high, so 3 plants plus a couple of freebie bluebells was just enough (see 2nd pic).
Am also hoping to purchase (6) some implausible pink denim shorts that hope will go with new cream and rose shrug and pink tulle skirt, (7) Egyptian statue of Bast to adorn new Morrocan home; (8) Stone hinge bracelet from Fae Designs.
Of course is possible that should be taking opportunity to quell consumerist urges but that does not seem much fun.

Dance, dance, dance


Dances attended: 2: (1 = v.good and 1 = ok)
Lots of catching up to do, so will start with some social events. North invited me over to the Educators Coop disco. Will apparently be regular event. Was already wearing pink satin evening gown so teleported straight over. Added Undine hair for swooshy effect (am on far right of pic above, North is on far left).
DJ was v. cool (see 2nd pic) and also played v. good music, including oldies reminding one of Youth. By the end we were dancing in synchronised manner so felt v. cool too. Left as dawn chorus was tweeting, actually almost so in RL as event started v. late in UK terms.
2nd dance was launch party for a "British Invasion" exhibition on Infotainment, featuring Beatles etc.: pics, informative notecards, videos, sort of re-creations of rooms of period (although not as I remember from the time, ahem). Some others were in 60s mode, but I went for 70s hippy look.
Was pleasant, but did not really know anyone, so, as in RL, was less enjoyable event. Also omitted to say "Hi" to everyone as arrived and did not comment on awesomeness of exhibit, so is probably own fault that no-one said Bye when left. Or perhaps they thought I was wearing too many prims? Resolve to make more social effort at next dance. And wear fewer prims.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Valentine's hunt at La Reina!


There's a Valentine's hunt on the sim where my shop is, La Reina, from now til the 17th February. Lots of lovely pink hearts are hidden, with lots of goodies hidden inside them. My shop, Pictures do furnish a room (see below), sells mostly pictures (as you might expect) but I also make a few "matching" t-shirts. The Valentine freebie from me is indeed a tee, as pictured here, all pink for Valentine's day. The photo of a rose (as featured on the back of the tee) is the regular freebie instore. My pink hair is "Rainy Day" from Armidi, in Candy.

Valentine hunt at La Reina (155, 185, 24) (just turn round once you are inworld to see my shop!)

Thursday, 7 February 2008

Hobbiton, Meeting, Beer

Discussions held: 1 (good); Wardrobe overlap encountered: 1 (good); Beers offered: 1 (good)
Led a discussion session on 7 Feb reporting back from the Information strategies for researchers conference (held in Dublin on 31 Jan) and discussing issues to do with researchers' information literacy. The transcript of the talk is online at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=222 and notecard with info is in the Centre for Information Literacy Research on the Infolit iSchool. Am also blogging most of notecard over 3 posts at http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/ Seemed interesting discussion: anyway, you can read it for yoursef.

Had emailed lis-infoliteracy discussion list and seemed to have picked up most of participants through that. Used Hobbiton House for discussion for first time - Bobbin seats have disadvantage that some poses are slightly odd, plus with most of them you can't see whether someone's about to chat (i.e. computer typing animation is supressed). Saw that one person was wandering round island at same time and assumed she was trying to find meeting, but in fact was sighteseer. Encountered her later - she turned out to be from a Canadian college and later she brought a friend back and offered me some beer, which was companionable.

In meantime had visited Flower's new office again and found that I was wearing a cardigan she had and she was wearing a dress I had. Whilst twittering thus, male avatar who had been attempting serious conversation about pets had quietly melted away....

Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Talk, CILIP


Presentations posted to Slideshare: 1 (good)
Above you should find embedded my presentation given on 29 January 2008 at the annual general meeting of the CILIP Commercial Legal and Scientific Information Group, in London. I firstly present some basic information about Second Life. I go on to talk about my own experience as educator, researcher, shopkeeper, procrastinator etc etc. I talk about the value of SL in business and professional life, and indicate opportunities for library and information professionals. This is the meeting where people were merry and asked nice questions.

I'll also mention that the CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Office has vanished, along with the Wales1 sim it was in. My gift of an ikebana was returned to my Lost and Found, so I zipped over and found a primless landscape - rather soothing. Anyway this prim-free zone was only there for a few days, then phut! gone. I emailed someone at CILIP HQ and they said they don't think they'll have a new office in the near future as they need to concentrate on core member services. Hmmm......

Tuesday, 5 February 2008

Goggles, office, hair, skirts

Cats bought: 1 (good); Hair bought: 2 (bad); Offices visited: 1 (good); Valentine freebies collected: 4 (good); Land sold: 1024 sq m (v. good); Skirts lost from inventory: 3 (bad)

Had big inventory problems last week. At one point all objects in Object folder (i.e. lots) disappeared, as did all landmarks not already in folders and several skirts including favourite scripted skirt from Nyte 'n Day. Tried not to panic and fortunately all objects and landmarks reappeared (though not skirts). Have learnt nothing as all good intentions to sort unsorted Objects properly into folders evaporated immediately I had the Objects back.

When not hunting valentine day freebies have been purchasing more hair. In fact only intended to buy one set of hair, but found afterwards that had inadvertantly bought proper version of one type of hair (in green) when thought was buying demo for 1 Linden. Did not notice Lindens leaking away as have managed to sell part of my land and so am flush with Lindens.

This is not a healthy state since am swiftly running through them. Have been toying with idea of buying another cat, and so visited Zooby's where was intrigued by Held Cats and bought one in black. Is strange sculpty creature with googling eyes, so have decided to call him Goggles.
Googles looks quite cute when am standing still as cat appears to animate me into stroking movements. However when move about or sit in chair with its own animation poor Goggles simply flops about on the end of my arm or disappears into some portion of my anatomy as I stretch and fidget. So in fact is also an amusing talking point, which can't be bad. The triptych show various perspectives on Goggles, including Goggles doing fearless freefall without parachute with me (on a visit to an island which houses new office of Flower, a Friend who comes to some of my discussion sessions, see middle pic). The last pic is a "spot the Goggles" item.

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Talk, wine

No. of talks about SL given: 1 (g00d); No. of minutes spent trying to access SL unsuccessfully during talk: 20 (v. bad); No. of bottles of wine consumed by audience during said period: several (v. good)
Have discovered secret of successful SL presentation, namely alcohol consumption by audience. Yesterday gave talk about SL for Commercial Legal & Scientific information group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Venue was smart lawyers office in central London. Powerpoint presentation went well except that laptop battery gave out towards end, resulting in blank screen, and after battery replaced attempts to access SL resulted in endless display of "SL may appear frozen" screen i.e. nothing was happening.
Whilst technicians were contacted etc. etc (not my laptop) audience took opportunity to consume wine and nibbles, and it is perhaps this fact that led to the jollity when did eventually get into SL and was able to display shop, island and also new friend Kitty (see pic) who happened to be inworld. At any rate was much exclaiming & happy questions and no-one saying "creepy" so perhaps will take along cases of wine to all future presentations.

Monday, 28 January 2008

I am on the feeds

No. of blog feeds I am added to: 2 (v. good); No. of hours wasted crafting entry for fashion blog: 2 (bad)

New feeds for Fashion and Life have been created. Have been wondering in aimless fashion how to get onto main SL fashion blog feed, so signed up with new feeds asap. Was v. excited to find yesterday that Dimitrova's blog had been added to fashion stream (http://fashion.iheartsl.com/) so immediately spent considerable time selecting outfit, posing, photoshopping, checking clothing details etc etc. all of which time should have been spent marking, writing peer reviewed papers, collecting data for annual review of learning and teaching and so forth.
Have now added Yoshikawa blog to lifestyle feed (http://grid.iheartsl.com/) so suppose this will be first post to show up there. First pic shows screenshot of Dimitrova's blog in fashion feed, yay.
Am now determined to spend today doing proper work. However:
a) am actually giving RL talk in London tomorrow about "uses of SL", so every excuse to dip into SL;
b) have meeting with Maggie and Ishbel this pm in SL about our SL workshop at a RL conf. in March and
c) this evening is the regular educator's meeting in the Black Library (Hyperboria) - how could I miss that. (answer= easily)
Hmm. 2nd pic shows me and Ishbel in a pre-meeting last night i.e. she IMed me "are you busy" and I said "No".

Thursday, 24 January 2008

More hobbiting

Novelty bobbin seating sets bought: 1 (good); Cute postbox with seating animation bought: 1 (cute); Provision jars bought: 3 (good); Rustic seat bought: 1 (good); Terracotta pots bought: 2 (good); Standard lamp bought: 1 (good); Red squirrels bought: 1 (v.v. good); Carrots bought: 2 (good); Rabbits bought: 1 (a little weird, actually).

Have made further embellishments to cute hobbit home, encouraged by interest of North Lamar (who sent me 1st pic shown here, of himself outside same, cool or what) and Peregrine, of whom more when I write up more serious meeting that attended yesterday.

2nd pic shows house at dusk so cannot see all detail of new installations, namely a couple of artful pots with flowers in, the rustic seat for contemplating horizon and postbox arrangement on one of the walls. Can Sit on post, and am shown doing so in 3rd pic.

When sifting through inventory for suitable furniture discovered unused set comprising table in form of bobbin with 6 seats in form of cotton reels, some with pins sticking out to form back of chair. On grounds that if start with Hobbit house then there are few upper limits to cuteness, set out these half dozen stools/ reels and then bought some more so that could use it as fully fledged discussion area (can just be seen behind North in 1st photo). Also bought jars and lamp as decoration and installed Christmas Gluhwein barrel and tea, as appropriate Hobbity beverages.

Hobbit House is near Magic Apple Tree which unfortunately has lost some of its magic since what used to be a seat at the base of the trunk on which one could picturesquely recline appears to have been eaten by tree. Now if one Sits one is aborbed into tree with only feet sticking out. This is what comes of sculpted prims. Animated Squirrel, though, retains charm and after gazing fondly upon its scurrying and chirping for a while decided 2 squirrels are even cuter than one so bought Red squirrel to join Grey one, but at opposite sides of tree as we all know how grey squirrels deal with red in RL (i.e. beat them up and let them starve).

When buying red squirrel in Second Wildlife (advert) also fell to temptation of Rabbit, in fact initially lured in by 15 Linden carrots which one leaves lying around for Rabbits and are meant to encourage them to hop about in lively fashion. However rabbit appears only too lively and frankly rather malformed. Is shown in final pic as blob in foreground, next to carrot. Have put rabbit on hillside behind Hobbit home where sort of blends into landscape, it seemed the best thing.

Fabrics

Leather trousers purchased: 1 pair (good); No. of time term "leather trousers" used in this post: 4 (or 5 including this one)
This post prompted by way in which found self describing clothes worn yesterday, namely "leather trousers". Suddenly realised that am so much beyond idea of avatar clothes as mere prims and pixels that in case of this garment actually went searching for "leather trousers" (specifically, searching blog of fashionista Michami with said terms) and after purchase felt satisfied that was now in possession of "leather trousers".

Is common for designers to launch new line in terms such as following "This classic gown has a full skirt of finest moire silk, speckled with glittering sequins, and a generous ruffle at the hem, the bodice is in toning silk velvet with chiffon garlanding the neckline and the deep sleeves are also ruffled with delicate lace."

On reading this, response would tend to be "Whoa, way too many ruffles!" or "Why isn't she doing this with a scripted skirt" or "I want it! Now!" rather than, say, "Silk? Velvet? Chiffon? What is this, it's all pixels!".

Is this wrong? (Discuss)

Am here depicted (in Fleur sim) wearing shimmering raw silk skirt with delicate golden coins sewn into the hemline. This is complemented by a lycra and silk-cotton top, and a necklace crafted from gold and a real peacock feather. Yay.

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

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.

Friday, 18 January 2008

Discussions

Discussion chat sessions edited and mounted online: 2 (good); Chat sessions to be edited: 1 (bad); No. of blog posting written about immersion: 0 (bad)

Today hosted discussion session in Sakura House, with Maggie Kohime (shown here) leading discussion. Topic was assessment for information literacy so have blogged about it here http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
2008/01/assessment-of-information-literacy.html
and full chat transcript is at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=217. Is always relief when someone else is leading discussion so I could concentrate in helping people catch up if they arrived late etc. though in fact you will see from transcript that I ended up saying rather a lot too.
Discussion was held in Sakura House (see 2nd pic) which had previously purged of Mitsies (the cat), having discovered that not only was she falling in puddles but also had been crawling under house and getting stuck. Was alerted to this when had removed her from office prior to meeting but still heard meaow and finally discovered two wedged Mitsies underneath the floor. Considering she was bought for cuteness she is being a suprising source of Spooky.

Another achievement was finally mounting chat log (+ poster with updated notecard etc.) on Ishbel's talk about ideas from the online 2008 conference. This was the discussion that was postponed because first time round there was No Second Life and it was rescheduled to 17 December (see 3rd pic). That chat is here http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=216 and there is an entry on the information literacy blog about it at http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
2008/01/wikipedia-virtual-worlds-etc.html

However still leaves North Lamar's excellent session to write up, and all my Immersive Experiences, including the SL part. All can say is Argh, must do better.

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Flaunting purchases

Wedding dresses flounced about in SL: 1 (good); New hair bought: 1 (good); Handbags bought in SL: 2 (bad)

This post is merely to show off arty pics of some of yesterday's purchases, namely one of the wedding dresses and the Ginny jacket.

Back view of wedding dress shows graceful train: am wearing the Magika Poufy hair, which is more elegant than name implies. This is in my new home (yet another one) which am preparing before selling up old land, since even I realise must consolidate purchases.

The other pic shows the Ginny jacket, worn with some new hair from Armidi, whence also came one of the new handbags. Had resisted bags up til now except for things like cute free ones in shape of fluffy kittens. Well, except for that briefcase, and the blue clutch bag, and .... at any rate have far fewer bags than do dresses. Problem with bags is that they disappear into one as soon as one sits down or otherwise animate oneself. Also are utterly pointless, but then what is point of new jacket or indeed clothes at all in SL. For who do see a point the necklace is from Yummy and the dress from Nyte'n'Day and am in Creators Pavilion sim which has Japanese shops and flats.

They're having a sale

Unsuccessful attempts to teleport to Dazzle sim: 15 (bad); Successful tp to Dazzle: 1 (good); No. of outfits bought at Last Call sale in Dazzle: 10 (good, or bad, depending how you look on it)
Is closing down sale at Last Call, based on Dazzle sim, all v. sad as one of the RL people behind Last Call died in RL, however up side for consumers was everything in shop going for $L100. Whenever looked at Map of Dazzle could see green dots (=avatars) piled high in that and surrounding sim, and attempts to teleport ended with long silence followed by sad pinging sound indicating failure.
However eventually got into next door sim and pressed or rather oozed towards road separating it from Dazzle. Have been numerous fashion blog posts elsewhere advising people to take off all additional prims to reduce laginess, so had removed skirt, hair and animation override. I am bald purple avatar in these pics, which show generally lumpy grey nature of laggy world in Dazzle and neighbourhood.

Were red No Entry signs (which you cannot see in photo) along road, but know from experience that red lines do not go all the way up (thought most people knew this, but evidently not) so flew upwards until reached top and then over onto roof of Last Call shop. Hurrah. Was not sure how would then get INTO shop but in fact as was moving at tortuously slow place across roof somehow fell in.

Then was a matter of moving camera around, waiting for things to rez into visibility and then deciding whether or not this was the item I would forever regret not snapping up now. Of course as in RL when have made so much effort is strong temptation to see all items as essential and desirable which is how I ended up with lots more skirts, tops and glitch pants, not to mention 2 complete wedding gowns. If called upon suddenly to wed in SL will not be short of appropriate garb as already had about 3.

Once had collected booty went home and started trying them on and the rest of the pics show some of the outfits. Ah, vanity.
Title of this blog entry is reference to one of my favourite adverts ever, which saw in Australia. Cast consisted of First Man and John, who I think were RL salespeople.
First Man (entering cheap office set) "We're having a sale, John!"
John: (looking up, bemused) "Why?"
First Man (triumphantly) "Why not!!"
There followed alot of shouting about the wonderful bargains on offer - possibly lounge furniture.

Written down like that can see why it would not appear immediately enthralling but was one of those adverts that is so awful that you find yourself lingering around to see if it will come up again during the break. Or perhaps you never do that.


Saturday, 12 January 2008

Home again

Cats rescued: 1 (several times)

Am back after immersion and please to be back in my own bed. Am seen on right sunk in unconsciousness. Didn't get much access to the web whilst away. In fact started blog entry on (un-networked) computer after first day, and will put that up next.
Meanwhile, Mitsy the cat appears to still have fatal attraction for water.

Dimitrova noticed that Mitsy was trapped in a puddle at the front of Sakura House, paddling folornly, so hastened over to rescue her.
Mitsy was v. pleased to see me. Kept her under observation for a while and emerges that sometimes she wanders over to the stairwell and tumbles down to floor below, then circles around and around until falls out of house and onto ground whence she is unable to return.
Then is just a matter of mewling piteously getting nearer and nearer to sea (obviously Took her before she did this and repositioned her upstairs, at which she purred; bless.)

The blog of Sheila Yoshikawa on her adventures in Second Life. This may be very thrilling. Or possibly not.