Society Hill Storefront!

Yes, just down the street from the South Carolina State Library is the SecondLife Society Hill Library! What a cozy little place with both a Bible and a cover on display from the Dawkins book The God Delusion. Talk about fair and balanced! On-line reference materials line the walls behind me. There's a small conference room and Yohan's office. Visit and leave him a message! Note the flags at half staff; they don't miss a thing! And they have some nice Canadians for neighbors across the street!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/46/187/24

"Why Aren't We in SecondLife?" I Hear You Ask

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who wondered about that. Other libraries are putting up shingles and have storefront presences. And I was not necessarily thinking about our own library. We are in enough places, perhaps, on Flickr and MySpace, and we have a blog. There's no reason for our library to be as scattered on 2.0 as I am. But, shouldn't someone from South Carolina be there?
Well, they are. I met an avatar today who made some off-hand remark about South Carolina and I perked up. "Who's from SC? I'm from SC!" - except I don't have italics in SL chat. We chatted a bit. He invited me to join a Palmetto Librarians group (!!!). After lunch I ran into him again and he asked if I'd seen their library in Cybrary City. As soon as I agreed, he vanished in a puff of stardust (as one does here). I waited a little bit and then he sent me a tp to join him. And this is what he showed me:

The South Carolina State Library in SecondLife, Cybrary City.
Interior of the State Library. Lludmila thinks, "Today SC, tomorrow, The World!"

They are looking for input in this area. Why didn't I know about this? Are they waiting until SCLA to make a big announcement? I must plumb the depths of this conundrum. In the meantime, he has something else to show me! Lead on, Macduff!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/41/37/23

I'm Off the Opiates Now

I was having hallucinations in Real Life, so I've stopped the prescription painkillers and gone over-the-counter. Phew! There's nothing wrong with these opiates when you are in pain, but the minute it starts letting up, throw them away! I had trouble differentiating between dream and reality, chat and IM (which could lead to embarrassing moments - Sorry, Kasia!), and was having tactile hallucinations - feeling things that weren't there.
And now that it's out of my system, I go back and look at my blog and ... oh, my. I'll leave it in. It's not the content, it's the execution. I was repetitive and obtuse. I apologise. Perhaps I should go back to cartoons. From now on, all misuses of the English language are the results of carelessness rather than drugs. My bad!
Anyway, Kasia and I staggered around Book Island and above we are trying to figure out what in the name of Yehudi Menuhin (whose quote hangs over my desk at home, just below one from Protagoras) is "Mind Space"?! Book Island looks to be a very nice place for a group conversation and I think the owners said they had Voice available in some parts. I crashed twice, at least, while I was there.
Of course, I crashed seconds after arriving in Thothica this morning. Nice touch, waterfall ending in flames!

These Are Totally Out of Order Anyway

There is a Virtual Starry Night exhibit in SecondLife (Slurl? Shmurl! Don't be such a baby - look it up in Search!) with an exhibit of Dutch Masters, beginning with Vincent van Gogh. Some paintings are set up so you can enter them! Here Lludmila waits patiently in Vinnie's bedroom for him to return. I got terribly lost in the museum last week (drugs!) and at some point was automatically expelled, which was a mercy, as I was able to get my bearings and reenter. Anyone who would like to go with me sometime, IM me inworld. I'd like to see more. More Masters will be added. Perhaps I will get to yank on that darn pearl earring!

SecondLife is just getting better and better!

Even Moron Sploland

Lludmila explores the sunken ship. The sharks on the other side made her nervous, so she had to leave.
A Penn and Teller moment: are avatars really shot from the cannon? The truth is captured here in this exclusive photo! Ninia, our Schroedinger's Cat, appears to be both in the cannon and being launched from it! That is her head peeking out of the end of the cannon, still aiming straight for Boythorn's chest, which he was willing to sacrifice in the interests of science. That is also her body upright seemingly lodged in the middle of the cannon. Are there two Ninias? Is this some quantum dilemma? Or is this just some godless humanist trick?

I loooooove this place!

Moron, ummm, More On Sploland

Here the exhibit designers lash back at museum goers.

You might have to click on this to make it bigger so you can read the teeny print. What it says, for those who don't have the patience, is that most folks don't follow the instructions on exhibits and instead use the mirror to look at themselves instead of a blend of the people on either side of the glass. So why pretend otherwise? Have at it. Just sit and admire yourself. After all, it's all about you, innit?

Lludmila bellydances on the molecular dancefloor,

whilst our guide, Boythorn, turns aside in mortification.

So embarrassing. I didn't know how to stop it. Heck, I didn't want to stop it! Woo-hoo!

I Just Love Being a Humanist!

Lludmila contemplates the somewhat scary entrance to Sploland

I cannot begin to tell you about this week's Humanism Field Trip. We've had some winners in the past (the Star Trek Science Museum for one), but the fun never stopped at Sploland. A herniation from the actual museum, Exploratorium, into the SecondLife dimension by way of Oppositeland, the exhibits parody known puzzles, exhibits, and ... erm, other things non-scientific. The chat box was not big enough to hold all my laughter. Outside the museum there is even more: explore a sunken ship and sealife, bellydance on the molecular dancefloor, and get yourself blown out of a cannon! Too soon the call came from our Fearless Leader to return to the Roma gardens to discuss ... I dunno, I forget. I'm still laughing.

Use the telescope to view the "black hole" (yes, that's the black disc in front of it - no, it's not the big ball of twine), bounce sideways off the trampoline on the wall, and see a face in the toast popping out of the toaster in the background (in the background ... is it Jesus? Mary? No! It's Albert Einstein! Funny what people see in things).

What Happens at BookMooch ... Happens at BookMooch

Lludmila, Hollyjean, Shiva, Sidney, Mossflower, and Wizard (with cat and duck)

It started out fine. I thought this week's BookMooch social was going to be another calm, decorous soiree it always is and then Hollyjean shows up. I met Hollyjean at the Info Island reference desk, where there is usually a trained librarian fending off some masher dressed like something from "A Clockwork Orange" and speaking sweet nothings in Spanish at her while pretending to ask serious questions about Sloodle*. Okay, that was a really unusual occurance, but it had happened the night before. We had such fun sitting around schmoozing and kibbetzing that when she contacted me today I invited her to the social that had just started. Little did I know what a catalyst she was.
It all started out fine as she steered us towards actually discussing books. Titles and pronouncements ("P. G. Wodehouse Is God!!!") flew fast and furious ("I love Dune. Anyone else love Dune?" "The movie was great." "No, it wasn't." "Yes, it was." "No, it wasn't." "Yes - it - was!"), golly, it was just like the Algonquin Round Table. Only rectangular. And then someone, who-shall-remain-nameless-Sidney, pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels with an animation that involved drinking straight from the bottle, weaving, waving arms, and then falling down dead drunk. Wizard Widdershins was so embarrassed by our behavior that he left, while we begged for him to leave his cat behind. Or was it the duck? Maybe the cow. He's an animal lover.
Anyway, I'm blaming Hollyjean because something like that would never happen normally. Ahem.
* Sloodle is a mash-up of SecondLife and Moodle, a teaching tool. It comes with awesome classroom gestures such as "raise hand" and "drop off [to sleep]" and a blog entry screen (tiny) that will post the information to the Sloodle website.

There were three drunken maidens came from the Isle of Wight

... Lludmila, Sidney, and Hollyjean.

Wherrrrrre's Marfita?

Things have been pretty busy, what with summer reading programs coming up and me having to put up my feet for two to three weeks. I apologise for not adding to this. Now that I have all the time in the world, my mind is all clouded with painkillers and my mind tends to wander and ... where was I? I am doing great. Wish I could take a nice shower, of course. Above are some flowers brought, apparently for Collage. I had to put them up on the mantel.

Fun Quiz

How's your slang quotient? I was surprised that my Aussie slang was as good as it was. Hmmmm. And my New England is Wicked Awesome, fer sher. But I live in the South, fer cryin' out loud! I guess it's time to move either down east or dahnundah!

Your Slanguage Profile

New England Slang: 100% Aussie Slang: 75% Canadian Slang: 75% British Slang: 50% Southern Slang: 50% Victorian Slang: 50%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?