~Penguin

Once inside the pyramid, I discovered the beautiful treasures that had been buried with the pharaoh.

The walls were lined with hieroglyphics.

Of course there was a throne that I just had to try on for size.

Then I came across the tomb, as well as some bones…ugg. I bet there’s story behind them!

The second sim I visited was a present day replica of the Sinai Peninsula.

There were delightful restaurants, shops, and even an ice cream stand.

First, I visited the Phantom Rose Opera House. Upon entering the front door, I found myself inside a magnificent lobby complete with several staircases and beautiful carpeting.

As I climbed the stairs, I found a piano tucked away behind a roped off area, so naturally I flew right over that rope and played a few bars of “Music of the Night.”

Then I happened to glance over the edge of the balcony and saw the famous chandelier. Fortunately, it had not yet fallen into the audience.

I also checked out the box seats in case I want to purchase tickets later on.

The top floor appeared to be living quarters for the actors….or perhaps for the phantom himself. Outside was a beautiful lake named appropriately enough, Swan Lake.

The other sim devoted to fans of Phantom is called Phantom’s Labyrinth. Instead of a beautiful opera house, I found myself walking through a maze filled with pictures and mementos from the movie.

The labyrinth also has its own version of the famous chandelier.

My favorite find of all in the labyrinth was the gorgeous pipe organ. Listen! You might just hear me playing “The phantom of the opera is here….” with all of the stops wide open. Great fun!

Upon arrival, I found myself inside a tunnel underneath the floor. I had to follow the arrows and then squeeze through a tiny hole in the wall to enter the living room area. Wow! Either I was suddenly the size of a mouse or this was a home for Jack in the Beanstalk’s Giant. Everything was huge!

First I explored the kitchen, drifting through some flour that was spilled on the counter, getting caught between 2 slices of toast, and finding a mousetrap under the sink.

Then I flew over to the living area. There was a huge computer, ipod, and camera, among other items. The friendly little green guys were everywhere, always willing to guide and help.

I rode a rocket up towards the ceiling, and ran inside a hamster wheel to while escaping from the huge black cat.

All in all, the Greenies sim provides a great afternoon of entertainment and is well worth a visit!

So, I think I’ll concentrate on the things that grabbed my attention when I first entered SL. I was fascinated with all of the fabulous builds that folks had created and, if you’ve been following my blog, you know that I have enjoyed exploring such things as city recreations and amusement park rides. I’ve decided to return to those days of fun and exploration as time allows.

I have some choices to make within in the next few months concerning my professional life, so I probably need to spend less time learning the SL scripting language and more time working with RL projects involving ASP.net and my schools’ web sites. I suspect that will look much better on a resume to most employers in my part of the country!

So, since I love playing the piano, and I wanted something that absolutely could not happen in Real Life, I decided to furnish my treehouse office with my favorite instrument. After many hours of searching and playing, I decided on the Blueberry Hill version at Serendipity Studios.

The piano came bundled with several different candelabras that were absolutely beautiful but way too high prim to keep out on the floor. They will be saved for special occasions only. Wow, talk about transforming a treehouse!

The piano also came with a selection of 12 songs from the 50’s.

My partner in crime, Tyna, returned recently to SL, much to my joy, and she took a turn playing a lovely rendition of “Peggy Sue.”

So, please come visit us at the ITRT Retreat and teleport to the third floor of the treehouse. Have a seat on the piano bench and click on the keys to start the music. Have fun, and send me a picture!

Meet Pammie Freenote, my new friend! She was just born today, so she still has on her new furry outfit. Cute, huh?

Pammie has a bit of a knack for interior decorating, so she went to work on Tyna’s office. She tried so hard to make it look like a comfortable, homey place. She even added a jack-o-lantern since autumn is just a few days away.

Hmmm, looks like she’s suspended in space above that chair seat! Don’t you just love the flamingo peering out the window? And where did that parrot come from? Looks just like the one I found in the apartment. Sure hope Tyna likes Pammie’s work, if she ever returns!

Next came some exploration with the SL scripting language. We wanted to allow avatars to choose from a list of landmarks when they click on a prim rather than just giving them a dozen landmarks one after the other. I finally found an example that changed the chat window colors using llDialog, so at least I knew what the proper function was. After a few visits to the Linden Scripting Language Portal, I was able to create a dropdown type box with the choices as button labels. After that little adventure, I found that I had a wealth of free scripts from various sources that were easily edited to meet our needs. Many thanks to the SL community for doing an outstanding job of commenting and documenting every script I have opened.

Finally, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so it was time to lighten up a bit. We put two innertubes in the creek for folks to ride. The script had to be altered to allow everyone to ride, not just the owners, but it works now! I found a plastic float that I placed under the waterfall. You never know when you just need a nice relaxing float trip under a cool mist. In the Recreation Center, there is a tictactoe board on the wall, a beach ball that responds to touch, and a trampoline that bounces you up to the ceiling. There are other goodies free for the taking in each cabin and hidden in one of the caves.

OK, back to scripting….but I’d much rather be relaxing underneath that waterfall!

I rode a llama around the center of the zoo while exploring the site. There was also an elephant ride near the outside of the zoo, but I had a lot of trouble keeping him on course!

One of my favorite exhibits was the penguins’ igloo. (Imagine that!) There was a carton seat inside of the igloo, and the penguins moved in and out visiting with me there. They probably thought I was a long lost relative.

There were lots of other fun exhibits there including an ant band that marched around the zoo playing their cute little instruments. It’s well worth a visit for all animal lovers!

You can rez your own gondola and float through the canals, although I found it easier to just stroll along the canals and enjoy the sights.

Or just find a sidewalk cafe and sit and people watch.

Enjoy your visit to virtual Venice!

Our Welcome Center cabin will have information about us and offer a free ITRT shirt. The Educators Resource cabin will offer lots of landmarks that educators will find useful. The Recreation Center cabin will be a fun place to hang out or grab some landmarks to entertaining locations in Second Life.

In keeping with our Virginia theme (you did notice the state flag, didn’t you?) Tyna added some wildlife to our property, complete with sound effects. We have our own pet squirrel and a whole family of ducks.

We spent several hours brainstorming and came up with the following ideas:

Treehouse ~ 3 levels: each of us will have an office and the other level will be a meeting spot

Cabins ~ a center for ITRT specific resources, an educational center, and a fun spot

Campfire ~ a relaxing place for impromptu meetings

Cave ~ bloggers cave

Waterfall cave ~ no educational purpose at present, but it certainly is pretty!

Well, maybe its purpose is pure fun, and at the end of the day, what educator doesn’t appreciate a little fun?

The streets are lined with colorful trees and buildings and cobblestone streets.

You can visit Fred’s house and share his popcorn and Fruity Pebbles cereal.

There’s a ferris wheel ride in the middle of Bedrock.

You can take a ride on Dino’s back or stroll around in the famous man-powered automobile.

Pay Fred and Barney a visit in SL Bedrock, and tell them Penguin sent you!

Since I help support Comcast with a pretty generous payment each month, I decided to see how my money is being spent in Second Life, and I was not disappointed. This is a well designed island with lots of entertaining features. The first thing I did was visit the jetskis. I rezzed a free one and away I went…well, until I crashed the ski on the land. I’m a terrible driver in SL!

I flew to the top of a huge tower, grabbed a parachute, and jumped, and fortunately it opened so I floated gently down to the ground. I also grabbed a free jetpack, rezzed several rings in midair, and attempted to fly through them. Actually, this is designed for more than one person to race through the rings. Thank goodness I wasn’t racing because I never got through them all before they timed out, but it was fun trying.

Speaking of racing, there is a race tube winding through the park. I was given a racing uniform, rezzed a car, and away I went again. This was really fun since the tube prevented me from wandering away from the track. I didn’t need to worry so much about control so I could drive really fast.

In another part of the island I discovered the Comcastic Lab which turned out to be my favorite feature of all. Upon entering the lab, I was walked past a soda fountain that served a very questionable liquid. I walked on through a doorway only to be told that I had to have a radiation badge to enter. So, I wore the badge and walked through a decompression chamber of sorts. The lab itself was full of “do not enter” and “do not touch” signs which were invitations to do just the opposite, if you ask me. Strange things happened, like electrical shocks and wildly growing monster plants.  I highly recommend a visit to the Comcast lab in SL!

Tyna and I are getting a little more serious about creating a space for Virginia ITRTs to meet and collaborate in world. We are planning to purchase some land so we can have our own space….more on that after the purchase is final. We have started a group in SL called ITRT and would love to have any Virginia educators who are interested to join us. We’ll get the word out after we have our physical space a little more organized. We don’t know of many VA public school folks who are involved in SL at this point, so we believe that we’re actually on the cutting edge here. The possibilities are so exciting! With ISTE having an ever increasing presence in SL and now with VSTE creating a space too, we need to brainstorm…share ideas…and just generally learn how to use this new technology that is sometimes referred to as Web 3.0. Whether we like it or not, virtual worlds will become much more prominent in the future. Hopefully, some of that will filter into education in a form that will be safe for elementary children and their teachers.

Please come join our ITRT group! (In Second Life, click on Search, then the Groups tab, and search for ITRT. When it comes up, click on the join button. That’s all there is to it!)

ISTE recently acquired its own island and had it all dressed up and ready to go by the opening days of NECC. This evening, there was an opening reception at the Georgia Aquarium, and for those who could not attend the conference in Atlanta, there was a virtual reception on ISTE island.

It was fun and exciting to talk with avatars who were actually in Atlanta as well as those of us who were participating from home. As this was a social event, there was the usual chatter as well as an animated dance floor that seemed to be enjoyed by all in attendance. Well, there were a few folks who were new to SL who looked at the rest of us like we were crazy, but just give them about 2 days and they’ll be right in there with us!

The aquarium itself was fabulous. Naturally, my favorite part was the penguin exhibit!

If you are a technology educator, but sure to visit ISTE Island and join the ISTE Second Life group.

On my first trip to Galveston, I visited 3 pyramids and tried to enter a nearby amusement park, but it wouldn’t let me in. I was so disappointed, because I could see it and just needed to be there! Being determined to make the best of a bad situation, I spent my time exploring the town and checking out those pyramids. There was a Rain Forest Pyramid, an Aquarium Pyramid, and a Science Discovery Pyramid complete with its own Imax Theater.

Not being one to give up easily, I returned to Galveston the next day and had no trouble at all entering the inviting amusement park. Woohoo! And, I had the entire park all to myself! Life just doesn’t get much better than that!

There were 3 different water rides, and of course, my favorite was the log flume. The track actually went around most of the perimeter of the park, so I definitely got my money’s worth. There was also a water tube ride that was gravity driven, but I kept getting stuck about half way through and had to swim out. The innertube ride was fun but I needed more of it!

There were also several typical amusement park rides and games. I enjoyed the duck shoot, and almost won a prize! There was a skeeball game, but I never got it to work. It kept telling me that I had an animation override, but I didn’t. At least I didn’t think I did. Oh well, guess I’ll have to go back and try that again. The fortune teller looked rather ominous. I actually sat in the dunking booth, but there was nobody around to dunk me. Hee hee! Good timing!

I love amusement park rides of any kind, but one of my favorites at this park had to be the pirates ride. It was actually underground, very much like the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Disney. There were surprises around every turn, so if you dare ride it, just be forewarned!

I also rode a ferris wheel, a very dangerous swaying boat, and giant swings. If you’ve put in a long day at work and just need to kick back and play like a kid, give the amusement park at Galveston a visit.

Well, with a name like Penguin, how could I resist purchasing a pet penguin of my very own? When I taught in the elementary classroom in RL, my room was decorated with all sorts of penguin paraphernalia, so I had grown accustomed to being surrounded by the cute little black tuxedoed creatures. So, with the help of my good friend Tyna, I found my very own penguin. It follows me around everywhere I go, but other people can give him commands too, which is cool. He will jump, talk, march, and just generally waddle around looking like he’s having a good time. I’ve only lost him once so far when I was flying around the apartment with a jetpack and moved too fast for him. Poor thing…I’m not sure where he actually went, but fortunately, I could pull him right out of my inventory again! There are definitely some advantages to Second Life.

Now he really needs a name. Any ideas? Percy? Pete? Petunia? Not! Can’t have a male penguin going around named after a flower. I’m kind of liking Percy at this point, but still need to think about it a bit.

As we were exploring, we found a set of percussion instruments just waiting to be played. What fun! There really were very well constructed and the animations were awesome. These types of music sims would be great for music appreciation classes. I’ll be back to play some more here!