Avatar Statistics from SLBuzz.com

http://stats.slbuzz.com/

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dirty/162/116/26

Wow, what a find. Now my avatar can wear a watch now in SL. I do not even wear one in RL. LOL This watch is FREE from the SLBuzz store and will track certain statistics in SL such as time spent in SL. "SL Stats is completely passive, and, much like the rest of SLBuzz, neatly integrated into Second Life. If you want to partake in this venture, go to the SLBuzz Store and grab one of the watches (they're FREE!). Then simply wear it. It will analyze your stats and create a customized profile for yourself. The watch is modifiable, too, so you can even put the script into your own creations."

SL gets better and better each day.

Regards,
Dembe

Website for Kids: Webkinz and The Merbs

Okay, Second life definately is not for kids. But we know they want into SL. Teen Second Life is better for the adolescent, but are they ready for Second Life? Are there social networking skills up to speed? Do they have the Internet literacy and safety skills?

Well leave it to a few entreprenuers to figure out a way to get kids socially ready for this at the elementary age. Regardless if kids are ready, these types of sites are beginning to emerge and a new generation of teaching/learning/gaming is emerging. Take a look at http://www.webkinz.com/ and and http://www.precisionmath.com/. Both are exemplary for school age kids/

At http://www.webkinz.com/ take the tour by clicking the Tour button on the buttom left of the screen.

At Precision Math (http://www.precisionmath.com/), "The Spoils of Civilization was created as a supplement to many mathematics curriculum's. The supplement was specifically designed to illustrate applications of math topics that are usually covered in secondary mathematics classes. The Spoils of Civilization provides a classroom teacher with a constant reference point to make math topics relevant to life. The game was also created in such a fashion that is produces a wide variety of data that allows students to generate statistics for mathematical and economic analysis.

The structure revolves around the population of the Merbs. The Merbs build an economy through the production and trading of resources. The algorithm behind the game provides a realistic representation of how an economy grows and changes. The students can play the game as a separate exercise or can utilize classroom activities to earn more currency in the game. Once game rules are understood, the game can be played in a single class period or over the course of an entire year!"

There are many other programs such as there that are beginning to appear daily on the Internet. The above are definately worth a look at by any level educator.

Meeting some Builders in SL

Many of us have heard of the Electronic Sheep Company or http://www.aimeeweber.com/Portfolio.html, but I have had the opportunity to meet a few builders in SL and look at their designs as well in SL. These individuals are just a sampling of the many talented people building and creating in the virtual world of SL.

First is Firefly Bates, who is very talented and very sweet. Firefly took Dembe on a tour of her creations for Dembe's Blog.


Above you see Dembe and Firefly on the third floor of her Ice Castle. To me, it reminded me of the Ice Hotel. (http://www.icehotel.com/ or http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/images/photos/index.en.php) This ice castle is also complete with a few fireplaces.


In the above picture you see Firefly showing Dembe one of the Bedrooms in the Ice Castle.
Front view of the beach house. The next house we went on tour to.


Here we look at the property from the back. Again, this property is a beach house in a Snow Village. It is currently for rent at a low $400 Lindens a week. Renters can rent it and place up to 250 Prims (Max) of items in this house.

It comes complete with a virtual hot tub bar for all seasons.

This is the first floor of the beach house. You see Firefly looking at some family photos in the background.
This beach house has three floors. From this view we are on the second floor, which over looks the main entrance and living room. The blinds on the windows open and close.

This is the third floor of the beach house. On the ceiling are two sets of blinds that open and close as well.


Firefly currently has a new home not far from here. It is just walking distance up the mountain. Above you see her new entrance lounging area.


These windows Firefly created as a privacy panel for her bathroom and as a changing area in her home. They are very pretty. To enter the room, your avatar can just walk through the glass to get in and out.


Of course, the new home has to have the same amenities as the previous. Therefore, this house is also equipt with a hot tub as you can see above.


She also wanted a larger house to have room for all her virtual pets. She currently has three animated dogs. Above you can see Fireball and Snowball running around the floor. The older dog does tricks such as lay, sit, beg, etc. She also has two birds.


And how could I forget the horse. lol


Before we move on to the next builder, I will show you her new bedroom, which you can see above, complete with dog bed.


KM and Dembe where on an adventure and came along this interesting space station, which has wonderful animations and spaceships. The designers seen above, are both from Spain.


This was the inside of the space station. It converts into a galaxy simulator, which you can view space, the planets and the galaxies. Very interesting and very cool simulation.


This is the spaceship port. With the click of a button, it instantly converts to open air for crafts to take off and land.

KM even got to fly the Millennium Falcon replica.

KM and I met both of these individual in our journeys over the past month in SL.

Regards till my next blog,
Dembe

Fun Things in SL

Just as in RL the weekends in SL I have reserved for some fun adventures. Here are some things that can be done in SL that are fun and free.


I actually attended the Second Life Ballet. It was rather good. I am providing information from the Second Life Ballet Note card below. The Second Life Ballet's Director is Inarra Saarinen.
I highly recommend looking at it in SL, and going early if you plan on attending this event because of high teleport volume:

INFORMATION ON SECOND LIFE BALLET
Group = Second Life Ballet
http://www.slballet.org/

Second Life Ballet produces professional works that creatively utilize the Second Life environment; we produce neo-classical, contemporary, and eclectic ballets for and with the residents of Second Life.

Roles are available for dancers, designers, composers, animators, supporters, and audience members. All welcome!

Our debut ballet was the premiere of "Olmannen", an original 3-act story ballet written, choreographed, and directed by Inarra Saarinen with original music by Alazarin Mondrian, and danced by Amber Shablin, Alina Mikadze, Chryssie Bunnyhug, and Amelie Dibou. The ballet plays Wednesdays and Sundays at 4:00pm SLT through February at the Second Life Ballet theatre (Quat 45, 19, 108).

There are currently 105 members in Second Life Ballet. To join, see the group "Second Life Ballet"; there is no cost to join.

We audition dancers for each ballet. We are looking for commitment first and foremost -- you MUST be able to attend 99% of all rehearsals and 100% of all performances. If you cannot, even if it because of RL commitments, please do not audition or accept a role. Sorry, but we all need to be fair to the other dancers. To give you an idea of the amount of time required, we rehearsed from November through February twice a week for 2 hours each rehearsal for our debut ballet. Out of 32 rehearsals plus private coaching, each dancer only missed one rehearsal.

For reviews and notices of "Olmannen" see:

1. Second Life Herald review
"Olmannen Premiere Performance"
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/02/olmannen_premie.html

2. AvaStar's "Event of the Week"
Issue #7, p.32
http://www.the-avastar.com/pdfs/2007/TheAvaStar_Issue7.pdf

3. AvaStar review
"Ballerinas Wow Crowd" p.16
http://www.the-avastar.com/pdfs/2007/TheAvaStar_Issue8.pdf

4. New World Notes "Rik's Pick of the Week"
February 4, 2007 "Olmannen" premiere
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/02/riks_picks_for_.html

5. New World Notes events listing
"Second Life Ballet to Present 'Olmannen'"
http://secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=451066&date=1171238400

6. Second Life Insider story
"Second Life Ballet Performs 'Olmannen'"
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/01/30/second-life-ballet-to-perform-olmannen/

7. GNC review on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaHtSEVDb5s

8. Flickr Photos by Pathfinder Linden
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/379916298/

9. Great Dance Weblog
"Stealth Ballet Company in Second Life"
http://greatdance.com/danceblog/archives/animation/

10. NMC Observer
"Stealth Ballet Company" under #2 Comments
http://www.nmc.org/sl/2006/11/28/zerog/#comment-12741

11. Short video by Osprey Therian
"Olmannen" premiere on February 4, 2007
http://www.slballet.org/

12. FOX News
February 8, 2007 at 12:50pm EST


Enjoying a sunset on one of the many beaches in SL when RL does not offer this tranquility.

Sitting and talking with friends at many of the floating ice skating rings.

or just simply ice-skating with SL friends. Many of these locations provide free skates, in the choice of your colors as well. lol

Windsurfing on the virtual ocean.

Wind surf with friends (KM).


Snowboarding in Valle with friends (Victoria and KM).


Go horseback riding with a friend (here is Firefly and Dembe).


Go Sky Podding. Do not forget to pack a parachute for your avatar. These can go as high as 4000 meters.


Take a hot bath, yes this avatar has its clothing on. It is a PG blog. Seriously, the animation was fantastic on this. This was Firefly's creation.


Blow bubbles with friends (KM).


Experiment with new looks on your avatar.


Get dressed up and go to events, such as the Oscar Ball in Virtual Hollywood.


Hang out with friends and watch a sailing race. In this picture is Milamber and Victoria, both are RL friends. Just as in real life, some friends just can't seem to stay awake during the conversation. lol


Go hang gliding off of many locations in SL.


It is even funner when you go gliding with friends like KM.


Do some yoga with a friend (Victoria) at her floating house. Or, go the the Support for Healing Island to do some Yoga and/or meditation exercises.


Look for land and meet some interesting Avatars on the journey. I am still landless in SL. Beginning to wonder if I want the land headache - but this is another blog.


Explore some of your favorite movies, such as Stargate. At the Stargate Store, you can even get a uniform for your journey.


Volunteer for organizations such as ISTE or attend trainings or classes. (It seems a lot of these happen on the weekends.)


Visit famous landmarks such as the Seattle Space Needle, when real life and resl life finances do not allow such trips.


Get together with colleagues to discuss work and socialize outside the office.


Go sailing with friends. Above is Victoria and Dembe in Victoria's new boat.


Go shopping with a friend. This is Fireflies Native American avatar.


Attend a conference, the one above is in Dublin and was on a Tuesday, but they do take place over the weekend as well. Dublin was a very nice area in SL. It is worth checking out on SL. Again, this is a subject for a blog entry all its own.


Relax in a hot tub with friends. Above, Dembe is with KM and Victoria.


Get a pet avatar and teach it tricks. Above is Firefly's pet dog. This dog does many tricks. I was very impressed with the animation and is ability to follow commands give.


As you can see, I have a pet penguin, but it does not do tricks. It just follows me around SL like a shadow. I have to say, the penguin does not even follow well. When I teleport he frequently gets lost and them IM's me to come and get him. Figures, of all people I would be the one to get the virtual needy pet.

This is just a sampling of what can be done in SL and what Dembe has taken part in in the last month. I do not spend a great deal of time in SL and am currently not a premium (paying) member of SL. (However, I am considering it.) Most of the activities above where free or the cost was minimal - $1 Linden. Remember, I pick my Lindens off a money tree. For entertainment, SL has many things to offer. Many which I have not even began to explore yet.

Regards until my next blog,
Dembe

Dembe at the OSCARS and Playing Video

Yes, it is true, my avatar in Second Life officially has a better social life than me. lol Seriously, Dembe is a member of HAM in SL. HAM stands for the Hollywood Academy of Movies. Member in SL get advanced notice of all cinema related events such as the OSCARS and Hall of Fame Movie Inductees.


Interestingly, members of HAM can have a cutout of their avatars placed in the gathering area in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater by contacting Nber Medici for more information on how to do this.


In addition, HAM members will vote in a special OSCARS poll and compare their SL choices with the RL winners. (I did not vote this year.)


Individuals can join HAM by clicking on Find/Groups, do a search on Hollywood, click on the group Hollywood Academy of Movies and click join. There is no cost for belonging to this group.

Okay the OSCARS, well Dembe did not have a lot of RL time, so she attended the preshow and Ball briefly. Yes, the OSCAR Ball in SL offered video. To play a movie in second life:

1) Make sure that you have the latest version of Quicktime installed on your computer.

2) Go to Edit (top menu bar), then Preferences, then Audio & Video, and make sure that there is a check mark in the box labelled: Play Streaming Video When Available. NOTE: do CTRL P to go straight to Preferences menu from your screen.

3) Once you have clicked this and said APPLY (see bottom right) then you will see a MOVIES control panel at the bottom. If there is no movie currently loaded to view, then you will not see a Movie Control button and the bottom.

4) As soon as the movie is loaded it will begin playing.

There is no Linden charge for playing or watching streaming video. However, there is a 10L charge for uploading animation, video, image, sound or bulk upload each.

Regards,
Dembe

Profile and Giving Items

Wow, in the virtual world you can drop your note card for your Avatar or give other items very simply. All you need to do is create a new note card in your inventory giving it an appropriate label, such as Dembe Introduction. Then whenever you want to give this note card or items to others, all you have to do is open their profile, open you inventory and then drop and drag the note card or items you wish to give to the Avatar.

This does not work on items that are not transferable. To find out if an item is transferable, look after the item in your inventory. It will state if it is or is not next to the item.

Regards,
Dembe

Show and Tell in SL

Yes, I said, Show and Tell in SL. This Show and Tell is sponsored by ISTE and is put on so educators can share what each other what they are doing and how they are using SL for teaching and educational purposes. This is a fabulous event sponsored by ISTE and I highly recommend it to any educator.


Above, you see Dembe and Victoria watching the first presenter. The first presenter was from the Chicago Public Schools. Her SL name is Elaine Tulip. She has found a way to create books in SL through the THiNC Program. They create story books by using jpegs in PowerPoint. For 10 Lindens, these presentation images can be uploaded to SL. Each photo albumn can conatin up to 1000 pages. These books created are on Eduisland in the Talis Building in the Cybra Library on the second floor. Anyone may view these books.

In between these two presenters was Decka Mah (her SL name). She has found a way to blog directly to her blogger account from SL, called Blog on the run. A picture was not available for this presenter. My computer was not cooperative with my avatars camera and kept shutting down the SL program at this point in time. Decka's blog can be viewed at http://www.sl-pod-blog.blogspot.com/ .


Above is Albert Leidesdorff. He is doing remarkable things teaching chemistry and physics in SL. To his right you will see the compound for cellophane. He is developing a way for his student to manipulate and build these compounds in SL and then see how they interact. He is currently looking for science teacher to work with him. He may be reached at his URL at http://www.agls.uidaho.edu/

Until my next posting,
Dembe

Disasters in SL

Yes, disasters in SL. They do occur. There seems to be no undo button in SL. Therefore, when you save a change it is permanent. Just as in RL some changes are good and some changes are bad.

Above, you see Dembe's new look. She had some plastic surgery in SL today. lol She recoved quickly. She also found makeup in SL today. This change was a positive one on her visual appearance. But what happens when you have a slip of a key and accidentally hit "drop item" or "delete" by accident and the item is gone for good. Then disaster has entered SL. Those words send chills down my spine just typing them.


Above, you see Dembe assisting Victoria rebuild her house on her First Land in SL. Victoria's first land was hit by a natural disaster in SL. She accidentally hit the delete key and dropped her house. This meant she had to rebuild her house again. For, Victoria, this was the third house in a one week time period. Interestingly, in SL you are limited to the number of prims you can have on First Land. First Land is 512 square meters (M2). On this, your avatar can have about 117 prims. This means you need a low prim house if you want to acquire items for that home. Victoria needed to find a house under 30 prims and found this lovely Japanese style home. So remember, when furnishing your home or rental, remember to buy objects with low prims.


I was hoping to acquire First Land in SL. However, First Land - is no more, Linden announced that it will no longer issue First Land because people where buying it and reselling it at a profit and it was not being used as intended. Therefore, people can buy parcels of an island or an island itself now until Linden decides what it is doing next regarding First Land. Linden Labs announced that it will give educational discounts to educational organizations and not for profit organizations that can prove. http://secondlife.com/education According to the SL Education page, "We (Linden Labs) offers a discount for Private Islands to educational institutions and non-profit organizations, and you can find details on the Private Island order page. You can also optionally buy a plot of land on the mainland of Second Life if you want something smaller and permanent (we don't offer any educational/non-profit discount for such plots)."


Just as in RL, neighbors in SL can be a pain. Victoria thought her land was locked to neighbors. It was not until this nice neighbor showed up on her porch asking for a favor, that we realized the land had loop holes. It use to be that neighbors would knock on your door and ask to borrow a cup of flour or sugar. Not in SL, they ask you to try to access things on them so that your avatar gets thrown 20 meters. However, they forget to tell you these little things when asking for a favor.


Interestingly, people will ask you to do things in SL just like in RL, especially friends. They will not explain, they will just say, "Trust me." Two little words in RL that make me cringe when I hear them. In SL, I know what can happen can be a lot worse than in RL.


As a result, Victoria decides to float her house up in the air 700 meters high. After she sent her house up, she created these two boxes and said, "Trust me." Again those words. Oh, these famous last words. Next, I knew my avatar was rocketing 700 meters high in the sky!!! As you see above, the boxes landed in the middle of her house. I was very impressed with her rocketing ability and accuracy. I know I would never have been that calm or trusting in RL.


Once we where sure the house was doing well and secure in the air, Victoria added the pretty ghost lights that pass by the house. It is a pretty setting and shows a SL full day of work as you can see the Sun setting in the background. Victoria's house is so high up that you can not even see the ground. The only way to get to her house is to have it set in your profile as a pick to teleport to. Otherwise, Victoria has to teleport you in. Pretty neat!! Wouldn't that trick be nice in real life to help prevent unwanted company. :-)


Now that Vicotria's house was rebuilt, it was time for the finishing touches. These included decorating and placing some trees, gardens and we can not forget the guest bedroom. However, with all this in mind, we have to remember that we need to keep the prims low, under a total of 117. The lower the prims on items the more stuff one avatar can have. :-)

Regards till the next posting,
Dembe

Volunteer in SL

Yes, you heard me correctly, I am volunteering in SL for ISTE. ISTE (http://www.iste.org/) is the International Society for Educational Technology. They are the creator of the NETS. :-)

"The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy, and leadership for innovation. A nonprofit membership organization, ISTE provides leadership and service to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), and the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), ISTE represents more than 85,000 professionals worldwide. We support our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of transforming education."

This was actually a very interesting experience. We did not have a lot of visitors, but those that did stop by are all educators exploring SL for educational purposes. My blogging buddy Victoria also is a Volunteer at ISTE. We have a fancy title called Docent and we even get to wear a virtual welcome tag. It is just too cute. :-)

Networking with these educators has proved to a positive experience. I learned of a whiteboard free for use in SL on CE3. It is sponsored by the Research Institute for Electronic Commerce. I will look into this more and Video-On-Demand (VOD) and post more on these topics later this weekend.

Regards,
Dembe

Valentine's Day in SL

Well, it is Valentine's Day in SL and RL. Not too big a deal here in RL, but in SL Valentine's Day is surprisingly a very big event. Basically in New England (in RL), we have been snowed in on Valentine's Day. Good thing for SL, it gave many of us entertainment for the day in between feeding our horses, snowmobile riding and shoveling out our cars in RL. However, in SL, we could enjoy a nice warm day and watch a sailing race with colleagues from different institutions in RL.



But lets see how the day started. In my home it was a 6:00AM, the phone rang with a call expressing that offices would be closed today because of the inclement weather. So, to decide what to do - I of course went to the money tree in Nantucket to pick money.


Early this morning, Dembe and Milamber met up at the Money Tree in Nantucket. Very similar to RL. Usually when these to meet up at work it has to do with money and is a pay day. How appropriate they do the same in SL. LOL :-)


Just as in RL a person has to make money in SL. However, for those of us that feel they day job is enough, we go to Bravo Bravo to the Master Money Tree Directory of all Money Trees in SL. You can see a picture of this above. Dembe is trying to decide which tree to teleport to next to pick from. Unfortunately, some trees will only let members that are younger than 30 days on SL pick from them. Others need to to registered, paying members of SL to pick. SO even with Money Trees, the task of picking Lindens can be timely and difficult.



After a time consuming morning of picking about 25 Lindens, Dembe met up with some of her colleagues to discuss how SL could be used in some of the Graduate courses we all teach. It was easier for us to all meet up at Victoria's Second Life home since it was not snowing in SL. Above you see Victoria with Dembe, Shelley and Marie.

It was nice meeting up with Shelley in SL. She is center in the picture above. Dembe does not get to see Shelley that much in RL. Seeing her today was a nice treat. In addition she paid Dembe a nice compliment. SHe did not know if "Dembe was sexier or the real life me." Thank you Shelley. :-)

After talking business for awhile, Victoria suggested we head from Molesworth over to Nantucket to watch the sailing races. You see Dembe above flying over the starting line.


Victoria and Shelley quickly joined her in watching the race.


However, for this trio, watching the races was just not enough. They decided to go on their own sailing adventure putting Victoria's expert sailing skills to use.


The trio sailed for a while and decided to stop when they bumped into an island with a golf course. Dembe was the first to fly off the boat to get a closer look and explore the island.


Quickly realizing that the course was not a public course and the green fees where way to high for our SL wallets, the trio teleported to Nantucket to watch the end of the sailing race.

It was at this point that Milamber decided to join us. We are at the finish line in the picture above waiting for the sail bots to arrive.


Milamber, as you can see in the picture, got very excited and jumped up when he thought the race was about to end. He couldn't wait to see which virtual SL sailor had won. AT this point, Dembe decided to call it a day so she could go get ready to meet up with KM for the evening.

KM had IMed her and requested to teleport her to his location where he had many surprises for the evening. The first was his attire. They met on Bali Hai a beautiful island with lots of activities.
First they went to the movies to see Gremlins. Surprisingly, there was nobody else but them in the theater.


The KM surprised Dembe with a beautiful bouquet of virtual roses for Valentine's Day. What could he possible do to top this?


Next, KM took Dembe to a dance hall on Bali Hai where they both had their first virtual slow dance. Again, the dance hall was empty. It was as if KM had rented out a whole island in SL for us to spend the day.


What a perfect way to end a Virtual Valentine's Day. Well it is off to celebrate Valentine's Day in RL.

Until my next blog,
Dembe

Everybody Needs A Friend

Just like in real life, everybody needs a friend, someone they can rely on, talk to, lean on and even explore with. We see Dembe above surrounded by all his real life stuffed friends. :-)


And just like in real life, sometimes in SL you have to stop and smell the roses and just look around and have fun. Since the past couple of days was part of the weekend, I strayed from my mission of educational purposes for SL and decided to have some fun with SL friends. We did the things we do in RL.


In SL, some of the people I meet tend to be a little more flamboyant. For example, I met James Bond and Darth Vader on IBM 10. Darth challenger James to a light saber battle, which we found very entertaining. We even chatted for a while with a member of the crew from Star Trek Enterprise, Jaymen. A real mover and shaker on IBM 10. Although, he was having difficulty standing. He teleported before he stood up from his last location in SL and his Avatar seemed to have gotten locked in place. He tried to log on and off, but it did not help. He was able to correct it by flying up over 80 feet in SL and his Avatar reset itself. Good thinking Jaymen. To Dembe's left is her buddy KM. They tend to go on the most explorations together in SL and have found it safer to explore together. :-) Not to mention they enjoy chatting with each other as well.



There are even days in SL that you feel invisible as in RL. That is in SL thanks to grid problems. Here in front of the money tree, you can see my sun glasses only, but I am invisible, but only to myself. Other Avatars could see me. However, other Avatars could not see themselves either, but I could see them. Does seem to parallel RL at times. :-/

Yes, there really are money trees in SL. You can pick money from them. My RL job is enough for me. But for those over achievers, you can get a job in SL or even open up a store to sell items in SL only. In the last 24 hours, over 1M US dollars has been spent in SL, "US$ Spent Last 24h: $1,104,215". There is a real economy in here.

Just as in RL, we sometimes like to change our appearance, so do our Avatars in SL. Below is a picture of KM and Dembe meeting up and getting ready for a days adventure in SL.

But, before we left on our journey for the evening, KM had something to show Dembe.



KM decided to show Dembe something "really cool". He showed Dembe another side of his personality and his alter Avatar ego. Even as a Star Wars fan, Dembe was a little cynical of the change at first, but later changed her mind. It seems when the two went shopping for First Land later in the weekend, KM's alter Avatar came in very handy and to Dembe's rescue. This is a whole other blog entry and story regarding Dembe and KM's adventures in acquiring First Land. Dembe's mantra, another day, another blog.

Conversation and time seems to go very quickly with KM. We spent four hours (real time) exploring on Saturday. Okay - since it was the weekend one of the places we decided to hit was the beach. KM knew of a great location and teleported both Avatars to the beach to relax. Don't you just love a man that plans ahead. They spent all day at the beach; in SL that can be 10 minutes. :-)


As you can see we got into our beach attire.


However, the water was infested with Sharks so Dembe decided to just lounge around and let her Avatar get some sun, while KM was a little adventurous and entered the water.



Dembe is in desperate need of a tan. The best part of the whole deal - no sand in her bathing suit in SL. :-)


Since Dembe was having so much fun, KM decided to join her in getting a tan. While they baked the conversation continued into the evening.


But, as with all good things, the night had to come to an end. Bed time was quickly approaching and Dembe needed to get her beauty rest. So they departed until their next adventure together in SL, which will most likely be in a couple of days.

So it seems in SL we have the same need for friends and adventure.


Friends go over to each others houses to relax and have fun. Above you see Victoria and I relaxing and meditating. She acquired First Land on Friday and we where enjoying her new front pouch. :-)

Yes, and we have to clean in SL as well. Inventory is another item that needs to be organized and looked through frequently. It is like our closets and drawers in RL. They can both get out of control after awhile if left unattended.

Until my next blog, regards,
Dembe

Leading a Double Life?

It seems that Second Life in many ways is like leading a double life. Or is it? My Avatar, Dembe, is looking more and more like me everyday, with the exception of her clothing choices that is. But what can you expect all of Dembe’s clothes in SL are free. I have to pay for mine in RL so I am a little more selective.

Dembe is now a blonde, she wears glasses, and she has my skin tone, nose and freckles. Wow – getting scary. Not really, we still have many differences – I think? Her feet are smaller than mine and her eyes are a blue/aqua color. Oh, and I tend to wear more make-up – sometimes. Okay – okay – so she is a virtual mini me. I admit it.

My Advatar, Dembe, like me likes to see pictures of herself taking part in educational planning meetings. She looked at a picture posted from an ISTE meeting held at 6PM Pacific Time on February 6th. Dembe is in the second row, second resident from the left in the picture. Dembe is wearing a pink top and jeans in the picture she is looking at. She is sitting next to a RL colleague who's Advatar is on her left.

One thing I have noticed is that more people than I thought are on SL. It seems that I am beginning to meet up with more and more RL friends and colleagues in SL. Take for example Victoria, in SL we went sailing together last night. Victoria rented a sail boat from Hollywood and sent me a Teleport to join her. I was very excited by this offer and accepted immediately.

Once I arrived, landed and was seated in the boat properly we where off on an adventure!

We almost had a boating accident on the virtual ocean. It was quiet scary. I have to say it was not Victoria's fault in any way. She is a very responsible sailor and has been taking sailing lessons in SL. However, her sailing coach is currently on vacation in Rome in RL with his son.

However, I must admit that Victoria is doing very well with sailing. She is new at sailing in SL, but I would have never know it if she did not tell me. So, it just goes to show that she is a quick learner in SL just like in RL. Victoria, just and FYI, I was very impressed with your sailing and maneuvering skills in SL last night.

Victoria and I also attended a mixer together last night for ISTE in SL. A group we both belong to in RL and SL.

ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education. More information on ISTE can be obtained at http://www.iste.org/. It was interesting to see people act the same way at mixers for business in SL as in RL. Food and drinks where a must and we had a selection of about seven different drinks and foods to choose from. (Thanks KittyGloom - the owner of ISTE in SL. ) There was lots of networking going on for academic institutions and a discussion of what each institution was doing in SL and plans for the future. I even met a gentleman named Romulus last night that was doing his Dissertation at Miami University on Second Life and Social Networking and the effect it can have on learning. A very interesting and timely topic. After mixing with a number of Avatars, I found that many people work for institutions that have islands on SL. However, it seems that many of these institutions now have private islands and you need approval to get access to these institution’s instructional islands.

The mixer was located on Eduisland home to ISTE. I have to give Eduisland a rating of 5+ just for the ideas and development and educational usefulness in SL. Educational institutions that belong to Eduisland include the following:

1. University of Delaware & Cochise College

2. New York University (SCPS/McGhee Div.)

3. ARISEnet Teachers Group

4. G D Hines College of Architecture (Univ of Houston)

5. Glendale Community College, Maricopa CCD

6. Empire State College, SUNY

7. Fiction Alley (NYC)

8. Education Media Lab, Montana State University

9. George Washington University

10. Center for Advanced Technology in Education, Univ. of Oregon

11. International Society for Technology in Education

12. University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Communications

13. Otis College of Art and Design

14. Johnson & Wales University (Charlotte, NC)

15. NC State University (National Extension Initiative)

16. Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (New Zealand)

17. Loyalist College (Canada)

18. University of Cincinnati (affiliated)

19. Stanford University Libraries

I was fascinated and excited to see the schools that have an educational interest in Second Life. I was beginning to get a little discouraged since much of Dembe's adventures in SL thus far have been to very “mature” adult type settings. These settings do not appeal to me in RL, so I have not been very happy with my Advatars exposure to them in SL. In addition, shopping seemed to be a very big event in SL. Since I am really not into shopping in RL, I have to admit I do not see the thrill of shopping in SL.

Dembe

We Meet for Work in SL

Our office was out in the field (all of us at different locations as usual) and we decided to meet quickly in SL at Eduisland to discuss matters of work. We took a picture of this historical moment to remember it by. Alistar Ames, our boss in RL, is the camera ham on the left, as usual. :-) To my right is Milamber Taurog.

It was nice meeting and talking this way rather than on the phone or just a plain old boring IM.

We decided to try for another picture of the office staff. Only one person missing and we are waiting for them to join SL. (Hint-Hint -Hint - if they are reading.)

And still Alistar strikes another pose and Milamber refuses to look at the camera. Imagine what I have to put up with in RL? Yes, Alistar and Milamber I know you are reading this. ;-)

Our meeting was good and we all teleported in from our exploring of SL. Alistar expressed an article he found online entitled, "Universities Register for Virtual Future" on CNETNew.com. Look for more on this article under my news links if you are interested.

Picks for February 8th

Well, to start, I must give the island Supportforhealing a rating of 5. This was a beautiful island with a lot of useful information. "Supportforhealing is a group of people that believe that recovery from depression, emotional trauma and illness can be greatly enhanced by loving, kindness and friendship." What a wonderful idea on SL.

You will see Dembe to the left as she overlooks the island and many of its features and meditation areas.

This whole island, which is a beautiful and relaxing paradise is a wealth of resources to help people. They have two resources - supportforhealing island in Second Life and a Real Life website, http://supportforhealing.com/. Both resources are completely free and open to anyone who needs them 24/7.

Above you can see Dembe taking part in some of the things the island has to offer besides medication, yoga and classes. Dembe has gone for a relaxing swim and is floating in water that is about 12 feet deep. What a neat virtual experience.

This island functions on a completely donation basis. There is even a Support For Healing Group residents can join. Members of this group even includes Philip Linden and 506 other SL Residents this group likes to boast about. The island even publishes a monthly newsletter, which published support group meetings and other types of trainings the island offers by members for the month. It even has an individual that will teach people how to play the ancient game of Go. "Go originated in China sometime between the 10th and 4th century BC. It is unmatched by any other game for it's combination of simple rules and deep subtle game play."

I highly recommend this place in SL. I must add it is even available for SL weddings. :-) If only I had know in October of 2006.

Dembe

Meet the Real Life Dembe of Second Life

Ahhh, isn't Dembe adorable. This is my muse, my Dembe. What where you expecting a picture of? Me? ;-)

Didn’t Your Mother Ever Tell You, “Not to Accept a Teleport from Strangers?”

Well, I guess Dembe’s mother didn’t. Or at least she didn’t have to back when “she” was growing up. :-)

Teleport, I didn’t even know what a Teleport was until my Avatar, Dembe, was created in Second Life. Now the word Teleport, or the acronym tp, is a vocabulary word of my everyday life, RL included.

Okay, so what is the harm of accepting a Teleport from a person in SL? Well, I found out the other night. I innocently accepted a teleport to Bombay. Yes, from a strange Avatar. I of all people should have known better. But, I figured how bad could this location I am being Teleported to be? I did not know that up to this point in time I could actually experience fear for my Avatar, Dembe. I must mention that I am giving Bombay a 0 rating and it is definitely not a G, PG or even a PG-17 rating. Let me give you a visual; It was like walking down 42^nd street in NYC back in the mid 1970’s, but scarier. Okay, I knew for Dembe’s sake I had to get a grip. I needed to get her out of this location and fast! But, how – do I dare teleport to another location not knowing anything about this island and region, could things actually get worse? Well, the answer to this question is "Yes." As bad as Bombay was, there are worse. I just needed to keep Dembe and my wits about us and “not touch” – I mean “click” on anything as I walked through Bombay. The only thing that kept going through my head was, “Boy, am I glad I took Victoria’s advice and changed Dembe from her Princess Fairy costume to something more conservative. :-)

While walking down the street of Bombay and in shock at what I saw, I suddenly realized that I could Teleport myself out to a safe place I already knew by using my SL profile. I quickly clicked on Dembe and went to her profile, clicked on the picks tab, picked the Nantucket Tab and then hit teleport. With a big deep breath, I relaxed when I saw those wonderful words –“Contacting that region.” I knew Dembe was going to be safe again on a familiar island in SL. Wow - talk about living vicariously.

What did I learn from this? Well, just as in RL there are dangerous places in SL. There are red light districts, guns and violence. You always have to watch out for your Avatar. Never accept Teleports from people you do not know. And above all, follow the same rules of safety as in RL.

Dembe

Great Article on SL

The following is a great article on SL http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm

It is the cover story from Business Week, May 1, 2006. It discusses how, "virtual worlds could transform the way they operate by providing a new template for getting work done, from training and collaboration to product design and marketing."

Dembe

Picks for the day!

My first pick of the day would have to be Nantucket.

As you can see in the picture. Dembe is standing by the performance arena. Here you can listen to live concerts by real musicians, go into the barn and learn to dance such dances as the Tango, Salsa or just plain slow dancing. Unfortunately, in the barn there is also slot machines and other casino type machines that you can throw away your hard earned Linden on.

Everyone here is so nice and polite. If you walk through the barn you come to a beautiful marina on Nantucket. This is a wonderful place to just sit and relax. In addition to polite people, music, concerts, dancing and of course the beautiful marina, there are other things on the island. There are shops to explore, historic houses that are replicas of the originals on Nantucket. Oh, and how could I possibly forget - there is a fabulous money tree on this island behind the barn. You can pick up to $25.00 Lindens off the tree. Lindens grow on the tree in 1, 5, 10 and 20 Linden amounts. Once you pick $25.00 Lindens, you have to wait to pick more till after your name rolls off the screen. This gives others a chance to pick Lindens as well. Remember to be polite at this tree and not snatch Lindens from others. Other close places include a quick Teleport to Martha's Vineyard which has a variety of houses to explore. Overall, Nantucket is a nice place. On a scale of 0-5, 5 being the best, I would have to give Nantucket a 4.

My next adventure for the day was to a location called Serengeti.

This is the home of the Zanzibar Shopping Mall and Peace Beyond Passion Park. It is a very beautiful island. There is lots of shopping and a beautiful waterfall in a jungle type setting. They call this an island for lovers, a place to get away. Most people here seem to type in Spanish. It is not very educational, but a nice relaxing experience and not a lot of traffic. It also has Jet Skis for rent, $1.00 Linden per person.

Below you can see a picture of Dembe at the Falls in Peace Beyond Passion Park. There really is no educational context to this location, however it is very beautiful.

There is shopping and the possibility to practice your Spanish with other residents at this location. On a scale of 0-5, 5 being the best, I would have to give Serengeti a 3.

The Linden and Avatars

Linden's what exactly are they. Okay, as in RL (Real Life) you need to have money in SL as well. Linden's are a currency for this virtual world. SL has its own cyber economy. Linden dollars is based on an exchange rate from L$ to US$. This exchange rate floats according to a real market in SL. For more information on Lindens and the creation of SL go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

When you join, http://secondlife.com/. You get to choose and Avatar. Dembe is an Avatar. An Avatar is the way you look to others in SL. This Avatar can be a generated pre-made Avatar from SL or you can make your Avatar look any way you want. An Avatar is just a resident in SL and can take any form. It is how you wish to represent yourself in SL.

For those of you that can not get enough of SL, you can read the official SL blog at http://blog.secondlife.com/

Dembe

Meet Dembe Wellman

Dembe began her life in SL as a Silver Tailed Fox. Her current appearance as a human occurred as an accident. Showing Second Life to a colleague, she accidentally deleted her head and was left as a hairless faceless human with a fox tail. As a result, she could not find her fox head in her inventory - she dropped her tail and for the time period has taken human form. (I find it interesting that most people is SL take human form. In addition, Dembe also gets more social interactions as a human rather than a Silver Talled Fox.)

The modifications you see above took approximately one hour to finally complete. But then again, Dembe is a woman so she had to try many looks to find one she was completely satisfied with after loosing her Silver Fox Head. :-)

When real life just is not enough!

This blog is a cyber guide to my adventures in Second Life. I am blogging about the possible educational uses of Second Life and safe sites that are New Comer Friendly to SL. Just like in Real Life SL can be a scarey place. You need to stay out of those red light districts and find places that are fun, relaxing and educational. I will look locations, interactions and of course educational purposes of Second Life. Follow along with me on a daily trip with the Adventures of Dembe. We will be rating locations on safety, user ability and most of all G/PG and mature ratings.

Those of you thinking of joining in on second life - remember to follow Internet Safety Rules and never give out any personal information to anyone in SL regardless of who you think they are.

Joining Second Life can be fun, but also addictive so limit you time there and stick to the limit.

Finally, after you join I highly recommended that you complete the tutorials and beginner orientation. It will help you in the long run understand and be able to function in SL. Just as in RL there are no shortcuts in SL either.

Dembe