Let's Burn Some Banned Books

Lludmila in front of the Topeka and Shawnee County Library's SecondLife branch

Right across from the Society Hill Library is the Topeka and Shawnee County Library's SL branch. I was ambling by to get the slurls for the SC State Library and Society Hill to add to previous blogs when I noticed the big fire on the roof of the building across the "street." Naturally I ascended those steps on the left to see what was up. Surprise, surprise, surprise! It was a do-it-yourself book burning! You were able to get a virtual book from the stack nearby and then drag it from your inventory to the fire. Then you sign their guest book and tell them what book you burned and why. If you can't think of one off hand, there is a list to the left of the "The Big Read" poster of previously banned books.
What book did I burn? That's my secret. One copy won't be missed.

Lludmila prepares to throw a book on the bonfire.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/38/158/24

Because I Can

... I've been fiddling with my blog. I changed the color of the nav bar (no big whoop) and I added two widgets: random books from my LibraryThing account and some stuff I've semi-listened to on last.fm. I suppose I'll have to listen to some more stuff. Unfortunately, the last.fm widget does not quite seem to fit and I don't want to have to rework this blog to give it room. It's just a widget!

ISTE Social

ISTE-SL members sit around the campfire while Lludmila sets fire to her pants with a flaming marshmallow

I don't recall, but I think the cat was supposed to put the fire out. I've already tried using cats to put out fires at my house and I know from experience that it does not work. I think, though, it was kindly meant. The social was a chance to show off pets (and flaming confections) and for some to discuss the NECC conference. Boring. cnyreject (that's a name and no it isn't capitalized) provided some fireworks for us. We all turned our sun to night so they'd show up better.

Most of the people at ISTE know each other already and it's hard to get to know them. Some are friendlier than others, but the surefire way to get someone there to talk to is to find someone new who's lost. I found mine at Info Island walking around with ISTE Member over her head. Heh-heh!

Fireworks provided by cnyreject, with the campfire in the corner

Let's Go Surfin' Now!

Lludmila learns the meaning of the expression "Poking Ten"

I just love this shot. Notice how the other surfer's feet are poking out the bottom of his surfboard. This was so much fun and very easy. The waves are pretty fake looking, but the ride is convincing. I had to go back to the Weather Channel sim to take a screen shot of this (and then photoshop out the SecondLife elements like buttons, etc.) because I couldn't use the in-world camera while surfing. When I returned, there were other surfers and I ran into one every now and then, but it's about impossible to wipe out. Kasia confirmed that surfing was easy, but the skiing was hard.

I'm sure everyone will be tired of looking at Lludmila's backside, lovely though it may be. Without my camera controls (and it all goes way too fast to move them), that's all you can see.

Mountain Biking

To warm up aprés ski, Lludmila goes mountain biking in the desert

and contemplates the meaning of existence.

I guess skiing wasn't dangerous enough. However, as she is ever conscious of safety and the possibility that children might be reading this blog, Lludmila dons a bicycle helmet and goes for a pedal in the desert. Virtual bikes ride much easier in sand than real ones! The Weather Channel was nice enough to add a point of interest here and there. Lludmila just loves dinosaurs! But she wishes she could reach her handlebars. Oh, well!

Skiing the Weather Channel

Lludmila skis unsuccessfully

Someone else, perhaps Kasia, recommended the Weather Channel sim in SecondLife. Fresh from her successful jaunt into Chichen Itza, Lludmila tried out surfing and then went for the slopes. Skiing is not as easy as surfing, but she did not give up.

"I wanna try that again!"

There's nothing like a challenge. This time Lludmila bypasses the ski-lift (which was entertaining once) and takes the tp (teleport) back to the summit. On this run, she lost a ski ... and her foot. That's right, my avatar lost her foot. It's just a good thing the avatars don't die, or Lludmila would be in serious trouble: frostbite (she's still in Mayan princess garb), windburn, freezing temperatures, avalanches, blizzards, lost limbs ... Too bad I didn't think to take a picture of her with the foot gone, but it would probably only look as if her foot were in a snowbank.

So Proud

Lludmila shows off something she made all by herself: a s'less

SecondLife has spaces called sandboxes where one can go and make things. This sandbox on EduIsland is hardly ever used. In fact, I think it's located way up in the sky where passing avatars would not come across it. An avatar could stand around naked there for ages without being noticed. Not that one would do anything like that, but sometimes one needs to try on clothes and things accidentally come off ... all at once.

Anyway, after the ISTE social Thursday night, someone remarked that we had marshmallows but no s'mores. This prompted Lludmila to repair to a sandbox and see if she could build one. How hard could it be? Two tan flattened squares, one dark brown flattened square, and ... something white and squishy-looking. Lludmila used her skills from building chairs (that she adapted to making tiny things such as earrings and necklace pendants) to build a s'more. It's called a "s'less" because it might be a s'more, but not quite.

Objects in SecondLife are built from primitive shapes called "prims." The square is one, and there are other geometric shapes that can be used. The marshmallow is a flattened torus, or donut shape. It was made just slightly larger than the other shapes to look as if it were being squished down and oozing out the sides. The pieces were created, given texture (the graham cracker is actually textured with a tan marble), set on top of each other, and then linked. Lludmila copied and pasted the animation from a carelessly made food item and dropped it in the contents folder.

See how delicately she holds the s'less!

Doesn't it look yummy?

Aren't we proud?

Chichen Itza

LludiKris explores Chichen Itza in SecondLife as a Mayan Warrior

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but I've been back at work and very, very tired. But not so tired that I can't sit in front of a computer and get bloodshot eyes finding more and more treasures to investigate in SecondLife.

Fellow librarian 50winx recommended the Chichen Itza sim to me and it was well worth an extended visit. First of all, you get these cool costumes: Mayan Warrior and Mayan Princess in full regalia! I liked the warrior costume best and I think it suits Kris, don't you? Shows off his tattoo nicely. The butterfly that usually gives the flying audio tour was not available so Kris and Lludmila actually had to walk around. Next time I might click on the info posts, but there was just too much to look at: pyramid, shaman's huts, sacrificial pool, tropical landscaping, village of gifte shoppes, and outdoor bar and dance flo- Is this place run by the Mexican tourism board or what?

Lludmila shows too much thigh as she admires the waterfall at Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is just one of the high quality sims with educational (as well as entertainment) content in SecondLife. Also, there's no language barrier, bugs (well, there was a spider dangling down), amoebic dysentery ... what's not to like?