Language Learning Tour a bust today...

We've just finished the Language Learning sites tour out of Oxbridge and, I must say, this thing needs to either be trashed or totally reworked.  It was one headache after another.

Before each tour, I go through all of the landmarks if it's an older tour and preferably talk to the people there to make sure it's okay to bring a group through--that we won't be interrupting anything.  In the vast majority of the cases, if there is an event, those in charge will suggest another time to visit.  But by and large, the owners of the tour spots seem to be appreciative for visitors and publicity.  Today, I found that was not always the case.

I'd gone to all the locations and chatted with the people working at the locations prior to us visiting.  That part is normal.  What wasn't normal was when we visited our first location, ESL SL, I was confronted by a rather rude and angry private IM from a worker there.  Boiled down, he said that they were a private school in SL and if we were not going to pay them for lessons, we should leave.  This is after another worker had given me the all clear for us to visit.  Given our experience today, ESL SL is not a true group of educators and is only interested in money.  Educators do not treat potential students the way we were treated today.  I will avoid ESL SL in the future on any of my tours and I apologize to anyone who may have visited them because of one of my notecards and been rudely treated.

The second location, LanguageLab greeted us much better though I think we overwhelmed the worker there.  The two who had been on duty during my initial "swingthrough" earlier in the day were not on duty by the time the group got there.  Also, English City (part of LanguageLab) is undergoing changes.  The person there told us that they've just revamped everything as of two weeks ago.  Once it's all completed, I'm hoping to give Aviano Gears (my contact from before) a poke and see if maybe I can tour it, since right now, most of the sims appear to be locked down to non-group members.  I just wish more were open to visitors, as the whole set-up is pretty ingenious--allowing students to rp in everyday situations in order to learn the English that would be used in those situations.  (Actually, even though I know my tour group didn't feel like they got to see enough of the place, I'd like to interview some of the top folks from LanguageLab in the future.  I think the lessons they've learned in teaching language in SL could be applicable to other subjects.)

Finally, we hit Paris 1900 which I hoped would rescue the rest of the tour.  On a good SL day, Paris 1900 is a lot of fun--pretty builds to explore, high fashion shopping, fun streetcars, French speakers to converse with in text or voice, and an Eiffel Tower to plunge off of.  On days like today, though, the rubber banding was fierce.  Only three of us actually made it to the elevator to go up to the Tower.  Everyone else gave up.  I lost my last two "tourists" at the top of the Tower when I crashed for a 5th time in an hour.  By the time I managed to log back in, they'd already taken the plunge, followed shortly by being hit on by a Bloodlines player (which is illegal on any of the Paris 1900 sims, but that doesn't mean that they stay away).

Basically, the tour overall was a bust.  I'm proud of the two ladies who stuck through it to get to the end.  (Shows that some Oxbridge women have true grit!) 

The future of this particular tour notecard is in definite doubt.  I don't care to ever darken the doors of ESL SL again, nor will I send anyone their way.  The way we were treated there was anything but professional--and if that's the way they think a "school" recruits new students, they really have a lot to learn about both education and marketing.  The staff at LanguageLab is certainly professional--I just don't know that without an "official" tour given by one of the higher ups (which would take more than an hour on its own)--there's just not enough there to see at this point for one of these "overview" type tours.  And Paris 1900?  I usually love it.  Today was just a bad day leading in and the lag on top of it there made things worse.

Perhaps I should've just called in "sick" for today's tour....

But next week, we're going to places I know appreciate visitors!  Yay!

Short Tour of Some of the SL Spotlights

I found myself in a bit of a mood tonight, so I decided to do a bit of exploring outside of Caledon. The choices weren't hard, really. I just opened the SL search feature and started digging through the Spotlight section.

I first chose the Katrina exhibit at RMB Labs. I don't know what I was expecting...maybe a museum style setup, maybe art. The whole sinking of the sim with me on it wasn't fun, nor funny. Even with the unreal nature of the sim, it was a bit too much of a throwback to the experience of going through Katrina first-hand. Needless to say, I didn't take any photos. I just kind of hovered there, in a semi-stupor until the building next to me blew apart and hit me. I tp'd out of there fairly quickly after that.

Next stop was the Bantam Dell Book Store. I figured I needed a nice calm atmosphere for a bit and I had been working on my novel off and on all evening (which I really shouldn't attempt with SL open on my computer!). B-D won't be my publisher, but I figured hanging around a virtual bookstore might give me some good mojo. I listened to a bit of a podcast and a video of a Lee Child interview, both of which were cool. It gave me just enough of a surge that I sat my av down in the shop for a while while I crunched out three more pages of rough draft (yay!).



Waiting for the start of the Lee Child interview...




Browsing the shelves a bit, in search of some inspiration...


When I hit another creativity snag, I popped back into SL, opened the Spotlight section and found, voila, the Dresden Gallery. Very cool setup...they have audio equipment that your av can "wear" while going on the tour of the gallery. Fair warning, however, it's a bit of a maze. And, the exit doors generally aren't exits (even when I go to real art galleries and museums, I want to find all the little nooks and crannies--not exactly possible here). The second half of my visit was, I'll admit, rushed (I more scanned than browsed the upper level red section). I felt the urge to write coming on again, so I cut the trip a bit short.




Probably not the most appropriate gallery-visiting attire, but I had the whole place to myself :)

This section reminded me a bit too much of nightmares...which is probably why I ended up getting inspired shortly after this photo was taken.




I'm not sure why, but I absolutely adore this part of the Gallery...the black and white floors and high domed ceilings were very much a treat.

Release of the Sumie Memorial Plane

Last night, quite the little crowd gathered on Platform Three of the Airship Yard at Caledon Middlesea. We were there to celebrate the release of the newest Caledon aircraft to hit the skies of Second Life, the Sumie Memorial Plane. Test flights abounded--some pretty, some not so pretty--as those who gathered "got a feel for" the controls.

Proud airplane pappa, Wrath Constantine, Duke of Middlesea, is distributing the aircraft inworld, free of charge in the memory of Sumie Kawashima. The box also includes links to Sumie's memorials as well as a bell that she designed, called "Hope."





Personally, I'm really jazzed about this aircraft. Not only is it a really nice design and I know how excited it's creator is to have the project completed, but it's the first SL aircraft with actual controls that I've been able to thusfar keep out of the water. I won't say that my piloting is a lovely thing to behold, but for once, this little kitty didn't get drenched! ;)

So much for my "teaching" debut

I'm both a bit irritated and relieved at the moment. I thought I'd be leading my first discussion group in SL this afternoon, but I just cancelled it. They're apparently have some major issues with the system, turning logins off and on, etc.

I knew I was having a hard time getting the question slides to load inworld so I could then place them into the slideshow viewer (which took quite a while to rez, itself). But then I couldn't teleport into Covenstead, at all. I'm thinking that if I can't, others can't, so what's the use of attempting to have a discussion group?

I sent out the notice informing everyone of the postponment until next week. Five minutes later, the infamous blue message tab from Linden Lab appears saying that they're giving the all clear and that everything should be working normally now. This begs the question...what is "normal" to Linden Lab?

I finally managed to teleport into Covenstead...after the postponement notice had gone out. I just wanted to make sure I could still do it, I suppose. (After all, I do have a cottage there still!) Once I was in, then I couldn't get back home to Morgaine. I finally had to teleport into the hub directly across from the treehouse and then fly up.

Gee, and I thought Wednesdays were bad for SL! These Sundays are killers!

First official post...at home in Caledon

As typical for me, my little av is sitting up in my treehouse in Caledon Morgaine while I'm working in another window. Periodically, I'll peer in, read back on the CalChat and comment (desperately hoping not to royally embarrass myself as I am quite well versed in doing).

Tomorrow afternoon is my first lead for a book discussion group in Second Life. We're doing Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah over at the Covenstead Conservatory. I still need to finish the notes for it, etc., etc. I'm a bit nervous, but halfway figure that no one will show. If I were doing something on the Sanguinarium Code, I'd draw all the little vamp RPers, but there are no Qabalistic RPers (or not that I know of, anyway).

-----------------------

I must somehow keep myself from shopping tonight. Last night's pillaging of Grendel's Children set off a shopping frenzy. I couldn't find a Minotaur avatar there that I liked, so I found myself at Sense, getting the Dark Unicorna Angel and the Neko Angel avs (which I had said before that I wouldn't do because they were too expensive, but I *wanted* them!). Sure, they're not avs I can wear around Caledon, but I'm not always in Caledon. ;)
BTW, upon returning to Sense, I wandered outside the main building and found that they have lots of other offerings at various price points, including a freebie area.

If that weren't enough, after a bit of egging on (truly, it didn't take too much), his Duke-ship Constantine dragged me (okay, maybe dragged is too strong a term) to Material Squirrel where I picked up the Israfiel Angel and Jinx wings.

I still haven't gotten through all the loot!