Prims, glitches, trees

Prim gateways to the cream of British academia: 1 (v. good); Retrospective tree house posts: 1 (good) (if retrospective).

Am currently on travels again, trying to fit marking around doing academic things in exotic (Thessaloniki) and less exotic places (Manchester) (OK, suppose Manchester is exotic to some people). Am thus getting few opportunities to meander round SL. Am restricted to brief sorties to see what is free this morning from the Designer Showcase Network (see previous post) and pick up IMs and the odd prim.
Most useful prim is not from the DNS, though DNS has subsequently yielded some cute household goods from Second Spaces (cushions - you can never have too many - and bathroom vanity jars - well, why not?), and more useful poses. Also one gown which will try on when can prise self out of current outfit. Other stuff more dubious, though sure will find a use for the operational swing door, they always come in handy.

Will note here that, whilst unpacking, noticed odd glitch in SL, that everything was being rezzed and copied twice over. This was baffling at first when rezzed box containing various DSN objects, and they appeared to still be there even after deleted them. Then noticed that was getting 2 sets of objects, landmarks, notecards etc. and also when examined land, list of of Object owners was duplicated. Hmm. Am hoping this is strange quirk to do with wifi connection in Thessaloniki hotel.
Anyway most useful item is from Graham, who has produced simple prim that when you click it turns into searchable database of UK university SL properties. Cool or what. Includes Infolit iSchool, am pleased to say, plus 40-ish others. When you select a university, the map pops up with the right place marked and you can teleport in with one click.


Have placed this useful prim in the library on Infolit. Could not resist texturing it with pic of me and Nigl in academic garb on a seesaw. First picture, above, shows 3 stages in the process of tp-ing to a university. Image for first step has illegible text because a) This is a small image b) "twinning" glitch appears to have affected this prim as well, so here you see 2 conflicting hover texts and c) did this quickly in Photoshop and think I stretched the photo by mistake.

Actually the whole thing is illegible unless you CLICK on it to see the picture full size. If you do, you will see the hover texts and dialogue onscreen. Best thing is to visit the library in SL and have a look.

Speaking of places on Infolit (to change the subject) appear to have failed to blog the new tree house on Infolit. This is serious omission.

Had been feeling that previous tree house was starting to look its age, and then spotted a feaure about tree houses on a blog. Thus the Denmark tree house somehow found its way into my inventory. It is v. atmospheric and has operational lift. Came with candles that emit fireflies (romantic!) or butterflies (colourful!) and candles that emit bird sounds (some of the birds actually sound like they are being done to death, but still).


Took off roof of top house in tree house to make romantic/utile platform, and this is where last week's infolit discussion was held. Since still have not uploaded chatlog etc etc will give sneak preview of one of the participants, namely Pancha, who was wearing a supercute butterfly Avatar.

Rattling around

Talks given: 3 (good); Of those, no. given about SL: 2 (good); Number of unexpected duckings in SL sea: 1 (bad)
Have spent last few days rattling round country giving talks, hey ho such is life of busy academic, high tailing it on trains whilst students beat vainly on RL door, ahem. On Wednesday gave talk about future of library profession in meeting needs of millennials (and so forth), so although not actually ABOUT SL feel was some excuse for showing couple of SL pictures. Actually zippy title of talk was Cutting through the hype to make a confident future library and information profession so can see that am able to Talk the Talk if not always Walk it.
Presentation on Thursday was Collaborating in SL given to European Business School Librarians Group (when I put this online I will link to it). Used my FUMSI “10 techniques for business in SL” article as framework and also asked Ishbel to talk in SL about what St Andrews Uni Management School is doing. Had originally been due to start at 11.30 but management guru who was due to talk at 9 couldn’t make it in time, so ended up doing the early morning slot instead.

Fortunately Ishbel was able to be in SL at 9.30 too so went famously except for when found myself unexpectedly falling through floor in Management School (in SL, that is). Turns out that management lecturer has multiple choice quizzes which dump students in SL sea when they answer wrongly. V. droll except if this happens when one is demonstrating SL in front of 40 eminent librarians from length and breadth of Europe in RL palatial surroundings of Ashridge Management School.
Ashridge is v. v. impressive being ex-Stately Home with amazing gardens and woods. In fact whole thing is a real SL fantasy of gracious living and landscaping, especially at springtime with bluebells in beech woods, wisteria climbing over ancient stone walls, hydrangeas, tulips and other props of SL landscapers, not to mention RL deer and assorted birds with associated birdsong. Recorded some Woodland Sounds with new MP3 player and will see whether can turn these into a sound effect for the woods in Infolit.

3rd talk was actually given nearly 2 weeks ago, but have failed to blog it, indeed could not remember exact title (it was about inquiry based learning in the first year), but all ppts from the event have now gone online here .

Did not take any pics at these events, so here are some I prepared earlier... the first one shows me flying past Hobbiton on the witch broom tour of the island. I finished by setting myself off on the tour whilst I answered questions in RL and one delegate said she liked the witch broom best. The second picture is one I used in the presentation - of a recruitment exhibition at Clemson University Graduate School.
The last pic is one of those SL moments - I tp-ed into my personal plot of land to find the sky filled with a giant prim. Where did it come from? Where did it go? Who knows. Anyway, it has gone now, as have (incidently) a couple of my neighbours. Fortunately no new night clubs, when I last looked, though.