Hovering, Osnacantab enjoys early morning in SL

I actually produced this entry, with a different text, for a unit I'm preparing on how to upload images to Blogger. But the picture is so pretty (rather romantic!) that I thought I'd share it.

If you have images of SL do, please, upload them. SL is a largely visual experience, I find, and photos are a way of recording impressions - it does not always have to be words.

Snow in Second Life

This is my favourite photo of the ones I've taken in Second Life. It was taken last week at the SLexperiments group regular meeting.

Here are two photographs of the meeting with the weather settled down.

I'm personally convinced that SL is particularly suited to conferences and small meetings - like this weekly meeting of slexperiments.

In a balloon with an unknown blond-haired woman

I was working away at my desk when I received a message saying that Phoebe Puddlegum
was sitting on one of the beanbags in my property in Second Life.

I got there as quickly as possible and found this, frankly, rather tarty woman slouched in front of my "Girl with Peaches' by Serov. I'd never seen her in my life.

I acted politely, though,because I gathered Phoebe had some connection with TEFL.

After showing her round my place I took her to see Nik Peachey's house, just two or three away from mine.

After a while "Time to fly", I thought, and we flew off towards Gavin Dudeney's. And I lost her. I flew around and looked and called, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, she turned up and as we chatted she decided to do something about her appearance. (She turned away from me and stretched out her arms and legs. Odd). She got her old hair off (Detach) but could not get anything on in its place.

But with a lot of covering talk from me she emerged with blond hair and looked altogether more comely. I spent a lot of time getting her on my "Friends" list- (A technical arrangement, no emotion involved)- and we wondered where to go off to. I suggested the SL Boracay Island and we went there and had a balloon ride. It was a bit tricky getting her back to my place because I kept getting the Boracay SLURL instead of my own in EduNation. In the end, we managed just in time. My wife had been out for the evening and I'm not sure how she would have reacted if she'd found me in a balloon with an unknown blond-haired woman.

As we were taking our fond farewells, I noticed a young fellow standing under a tree and walking backwards and forwards between the bridge and my villa. When Phoebe had left, he returned and I thought: "Now I'm going to be mugged, but it won't hurt because this is SL and you are not you you are just a set of files called Osnacantab Nesterov.

"Hi", I said and it turned out that the young lad was a very friendly Tigran Tiponi, if I got that right, whose parents prefer to call him Chris.



[The timing on this blog is on the blink. It is actually, my time, 23:38 ]

Avatar found naked

Hi there ... just a quickie ... when I found my avatar she was completely naked ... a kind Swiss lady helped me to dress (and shared clothes and sex sites!!!) ... W:)

Wednesday, December 3rd

Good morning,
I went to a workshop on Second Life about two years ago and created an avatar, but I haven't been a Second Lifer other than a few visits, so it's great to join this group. Here is my progress so far.
I made my way down half of the links in the handbook. They're very helpful. Then I decided to complete our assignment and visited ISTE. When I arrived there were a docent and someone learning about ISTE. I felt strange arriving in the middle of a conversation and wasn't sure how to introduce myself, so I went off on my own. I could see that it would be good to go back since it's possible to set up a tour. I don't have a lot of time, so it may be a while. However, I've bookmarked the site for later.
I hope we can set up a time to meet. It's awkward just entering on my own.
Mary Jane

Exploring SL

Today, on a windy day in Real Life, in between intense digital work, I took some time to start my Second Life experience. I realized my newborn avatar, which is still a newborn, was created in October, 2006. Besides some get-togethers in Edunation with the Webheads and some fun around with them, flying and falling on trees, bumping my head and feeling a bit awkward, I haven't progressed much, though I know it has great potential for language learning, connections and leisure.

What did I learn?

I think the main feature for me that I didn't know about was pressing the Ctrl + Alt keys and holding down the mouse. You can see yourself and the world from totally different perspectives. That was totally awesome, and I didn't know about it. I could see everything and everyone in totally different angles.

More than ever, I see how I am gregarious and love to go on collective journeys. The fact that I was by myself was not really encouraging. I felt lonely. Though there were people in Egypt, I felt like awkward just starting a conversation. The same way I guess I'd feel if I were at a bar all by myself. So, I'd love to be there with a group, exploring and talking to people about the experience.

Funny to have Brazil as an empty space, but totally relaxing as we could hear the twittering of birds and the soothing sound of the waves.

What I'm dying to learn?

How to accessorize Carluccia Abruzzo with nice earings, bracelets and necklace! I know, I know, this is vanity, but I want my second self to look good as I can do better than my real one!

Of course, I'd love to learn how to present in SL and to find myself around more easily, act properly, and land without falling.

And here are some snapshots of my re-start at Second Life. I'd love to meet you there!



Just a final question. I know we can make groups there. Dennis, is this something you'll set up for LwCers?

See you in this and SL.

Carluccia Abruzzo

Visit to Mystery Location

Yesterday I went to the mystery destination that Dennis has provided a link to. Overall, it was a great experience for me because I'd been so frustrated in past visits to SL. For the first time in trying out SL, I felt more confident knowing that I had a supportive network of other learners in case I got completely confused! The instructions that Dennis provided were most helpful. I was especially happy to use the information in the sidebar of our wiki to learn how to see my own face!

Great location, Dennis! I had to ask for help to learn how to dance and then even though I clicked the green ball repeatedly I couldn't stop! Not that I don't enjoy dancing, but I thought I would try to teleport somewhere else and didn't want to arrive dancing! I also had to ask for help to find how to hear the music. Dennis has the answer in our tutorial, but I didn't see it until later. I found one person at the location quite helpful. The others seemed deep in their own conversations.

Reflecting on how SL could be used for teaching, personally, I'm not sure I'd ever use it because of the steep learning curve. However, the net generation seems to pick up how to use tools more quickly than I do, so, maybe, there is potential. Perhaps, just the online and offline (if you are in a f2f class) exchanges between L2 students about how to do things might provide good, motivational language exchanges. A concern I would have, however, is that the students might be exposed to unfriendly or inappropriate comments by other visitors to SL. I'm sure that there must be certain "user-friendly" type places. Anybody know of any "safe" environments?

I'm going to try to continue our tutorial. My ultimate goal is to pet the cat at our mystery location.

Anciana Twine