Reflecting on glitches

Shapes lost by Linden Labs: 1 (v.v. bad); Times trapped under umbrella: 1 (OK); Times part of land unexpectedly disappeared then unexpectedly reappeared: 1 (fortuitous)
Talked to yet another person in RL who was sceptical about SL because they found it difficult, kept bumping into things etc. Ruminated today on how you *keep* bumping into things in SL, but suppose difference is you get to know:
a) bumping into things is ok;
b) how to get out of places when you are stuck;
c) when you do, and do not, need to worry when strange things happen.

For example: when I teleport in somewhere and find myself about 10 feet off the ground unable to move and with my arms and legs waving - know that this is usually because there are loads of people tp-ing to the same spot and I'm stuck on the top of someone's (currently invisible) head. Normally if you just wait they will move and you can proceed as normal, or at least you need to wait til things rez and you can see what the problem is. Glitches over the past days include:

1. My shape disappeared from the Database. I noticed this 20 mins before giving a presentation on Thursday and it did not exactly reduce the mild sense of panic I already had. Had noticed a message about something not being found in the database but simply clicked it away and it was only when I cammed out to see the poster I was preparing I suddenly realise my feet were larger than my shoes (see first pic) and my hands were like dinnerplates. A quick inspection proved that other parts of the Yoshikawa Shape were also different. Attempts to Wear "My Body Small Feet" failed miserably and so had to disappear underwater for a quick slider session, reducing (e.g. foot size) and increasing (e.g. body fat) various aspects of appearance.

My Body Small Feet is still Absent Without Official Leave. This is indeed Worrying as perhaps is sign that having reached 25,000 items my inventory will go AWOL piece by piece ... on the other hand is problem (apparently) with central database rather than actual inventory. Not sure which is worst.

2. When trying out a new DSN gift, namely parasol table and stools, placed stool too near table so that, on standing up, was catapulted onto table under parasol and trapped (see pic). This is one of those situations where one's Virtual Literacy skills come into play, since know now that easiest thing to do is to find something to sit on (in this case, stool) and then sit on it.

Also since have editing skills, could move stool backwards so didn't get trapped again. In early days would have wasted time struggling this way and that. Associated is the "when it's very laggy rez a box, sit on it and move that around" solution (see also: jumping from pose stand to pose stand to move in a crowded fashion store)

3. Teleported home to create poster during Educators Coop retreat (see last post) to find that the bit of my land that is in another sim had disappeared. In fact the sims on BOTH sides had disappeared. However, since this is mainland & my payments are up to date, did not panic. Instead took the opportunity to take mirror-water reflection of the land that HADN'T disappeared (see third picture), so actually saw it as happy chance.
Opened Map to see whether the sims were offline, but there they were, as usual, and when teleported to the land-on-other-sim - everything was as normal. Odd.
Perhaps this is actually example where should be panicing - is this the beginning of the end? The whole of the mainland flickering in and out of existence? But seems more likely that it is glitchy business-as-usual.

Daily dose

Items received from DSN: 15? 20? (who knows); Ratio of interesting to uninteresting items: 1:1 (not bad)
Have continued to log in eagerly to Accept the items from the Designers Showcase Network (see prvious post). Boxes of free stuff rattle into my inventory like rain onto ... onto land that is pretty damp already. However, present are always good, in my view.
On a serious note (to get that over with) I hope this is still going when I bring in students next academic year, since I could "persuade" them to sign up and it would give them regular practice in opening boxes and learning how to tell what you are supposed to do with stuff (wear, drag to ground, contemplate in wonder, send to trash). Also they could get some decent clothes out of it, because the stuff that is otherwise genuinely ok to pass round full permissions looks a bit dated in terms of textures and prim work.

You see here booty from a couple of days ago: a waterful complete with rocks and plants, a rose bush in a pot, a vase of flowers, and a little brazier. This was actually the box that the real present came in, but I thought the box was more interesting than the contents.

If asked who produced them, I'm afraid that all I can tell you is that the fire-thing came from a designer with the word Phoenix in their name, and the waterfall was from Perfect Prefabs. I know this as it is the first designer where I have gone and looked at their stuff, and I was sorely tempted by their Waterfull Cave grottos. I may yet indulge in another waterfall, though goodness knows I have enough of them already in my inventory. This was a good example of a designer I've visited some time ago, and it was useful to be reminded to go and look for new stuff.

The 2nd pic shows me peeking out from behind yesterday's boxes before I unpacked them, then using a couple of them: a corridor "set" (mainly aimed at fashion bloggers), another plant, the hat with flowers & a veil (cool, I think), a heart-emitting cookie (in my mouth) and the pose itself.
The final set of pictures are from Friday: longing in front of the boxes and then using the sofa. The reason I couldn't use the sofa to start with was that when I clicked to Sit on it, it gave the message "no place to sit", which is not the kind of feedback you expect from a chair.
In the end I found a place to click that allowed me to sit, but I would say I have identified a design fault.

The companionship of the Lucky Chair

Lucky chair dresses snaffled: zero (bad); Hours spent stalking dress in lucky chair: 1. And a Bit. But of course you can do other things whilst stalking a lucky chair (who am I fooling; bad)

Spent some time today stalking a free dress from Icing in a new lucky chair. Could have been writing thoughts on Education in SL, could have been marking, could have been getting an early night, but no. Did this as my alt, which somehow feel should be excuse - but - it's still my time, isn't it.

For those to whom a Lucky Chair sounds alien and rather Dubious, this is a device to lure people into dress shops, boost their traffic numbers and possibly get you to buy some other items either by mistake or out of sheer boredom. There is an item for free in the chair, but you have to wait til the first letter of your name comes up, at which point you Sit in the chair, there is a fanfare and the item (in this case, the Pizzacato Poppies dress) drops seamlessly into your inventory.

Or not, if your name begins with D and you have the letters P (x2), Q (x2), B (x5), O (x2, my alt is pictured next to an O, above), H (x50 million) coming up. Lucky Chair stalking is classic procrastination activity, and also becomes addictive as you wait for Just One More Letter.

A Brit makes money out of devising new types of lucky chair (e.g. the lucky random Easter Egg version), and a couple of months ago he blogged his RL redundancy and said how at least he was still keeping the wolf from the door through his SL Lucky Chair business.

Anyway, after you have finished looking at all the other items in the shop, Inspecting any moderately attractive clothes worn by other Lucky Chair stalkers to see who made them, and sorting your Inventory (all traditional Lucky Chair activities) you might actually start talking to the other Stalkers. People tend to be very polite & celebratory and this is an extract from the dialogue today (with people's names reduced to initials)

[16:25] *ICING* Lucky Chair: Hello J... M...

[16:25] *ICING* Lucky Chair: I'm looking for a player whose name begins with J. Your name begins with J.

[16:25] *ICING* Lucky Chair: We have a winner!

[16:26] *ICING* Lucky Chair: Please enjoy your prize. I'm now selecting a new magic letter....
[16:26] M... M...: YAYAYAYAYAY!! J....!!

[16:26] J... M...: YAY!

[16:26] *ICING* Lucky Chair: Next Prize: *ICING* Pizzicato Poppies

[16:26] *ICING* Lucky Chair: Looking for a winner whose name begins with.... R.

[16:26] J... M...: thanks M....!

[16:26] M... M...: you are welcome! a well earned prize for the hardest working person in SL!!!
[16:26] J... M...: :)

[16:26] J... M...: See ya later!

[16:27] M... M...: : Dimitrova..I love your outfit

[16:27] Dimitrova Shostakovich [for that is the name of my alt]: thanks! The dress was only 75 Linden

[16:27] Dimitrova Shostakovich: from Sari's

[16:27] M... M...: : oh! love Sari's

[16:28] M... M...: haven't been there for awhile, tho'

[16:28] Dimitrova Shostakovich: the textures had improved since I last visited

and so forth and so on, riveting stuff as you can see.

Feel there must be some research possibilities in this aspect of my (alt) life e.g. a discourse analysis of a random sample of Lucky Chair conversations, or an ethnographic study of SL fashionistas in their Lucky Chair habitus. As can be seen from above dialogue can qualify as participant-observer. Will add this to my huge list of Research opportunities Not Followed Up.