Pathfinder Linden Leaves

Location: Montclair State Amphitheater

I was setting up for Roundtable when this news came in:

https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2010-March/038468.html

Note from John Lester's e-mail this line: "Due to recent reorganizations at Linden Lab, my current position (Evangelist, Market Development) has ceased to exist. There are no alternative positions available to me, so as of March 12th I will be leaving the company."

One must wonder at this. Spin it how you wish, but Mark Kingdon has said very little about the role of education in SL.

To lose Pathfinder, who spearheaded the U Texas system's large investment, is a heavy blow to those of us who teach with and about SL. Path's magic hat, which threw fireballs if you touched it, is a big hat to fill.

I'm hoping that Claudia and George Linden, long-time friends of educators, won't also be leaving.

CSU Chico Deans Visit Usher

Location: House of Usher Visitor Center

Olivia Hotshot teleported over to interview Viv Trafalgar and me about the university's House of Usher simulation. We hoped to give non-SLers, Deans from the CSU Chico campus looking "over Olivia's shoulder" an idea of what goes into a literary build in SL.

I even wore my best suit and gave the ravens a bone to keep them quiet.

Rezzable's Valley of the Kings To Launch

Location: Howard Carter's Camp, 1922

I've had a preview of what visitors see at the redone Valley of the Kings in Rezzable's Heritage Key virtual world. Viv Trafalgar's photoset at Flickr gives a sense of the changes at hand.

This is going to be stunning, in terms of visual appeal and educational potential. The quests, prizes, and improved performance all promise great things for educators. The new avatars and equipment at the Learning Center should deepen visitors' immersion in the experience.

I commend Rezzable's team for working so hard to address issues my class and others identified in the past year. Now the treasures of King Tut will be accessible to more visitors in a meaningful and entertaining way. Click over the Rezzable and begin exploring.

March Road Trip: Exile on Main Street

Location: Cruising Bay City

Armed with some serious iTunes and a desire to explore another continent, I set out. A search for "Route 66" led me to motorcycle-only regions I'd played in over a year ago, but I wanted something different: a slow cruise in a large American automobile.

In the Bay City cluster of sims, I found a branch office of ACCC Motors. For just under 1600 Linden Dollars, I put my hands on one of America's ultimate "lead sleds": a 1959 Cadillac ragtop, black of course. I'd wanted one since my early days in SL, when I had no money in-world and could never imagine actually putting money down on a bunch of code.

D'oh. Why the hell not? Reward content providers for work well done.

And what a beautiful sleek beast the '59 Caddy is! It handles like the barge it is in real life, but the Bay City sims are not for racing. The urban regions offer the perfect place to do the curbside crawl. Only six other avatars were on the first sim where, after some hunting about, I found a spot to rezz the huge auto.

At 25 prims in a built-up area, the big car did not handle sim-crossings with grace, even in first gear.


A very nice moment of tangibility--that quality that makes SL seem like a place instead of a collection of servers--came at the Metaverse Land Sales: Bay City Office.

I cammed in to get pictures of the continent maps on the wall. This showed me the names of all the major land-masses; last month I'd gotten the old mainland's names, but I'd never seen the others named before.


Then I drove slowly around, eying the architecture and appreciating the many funny road-signs.

For such a trip you need a few things. First, the perfect tunes, such as "Every Day is a Winding Road," by Sheryl Crow, "As the Crow Flies," by Richmond's own The Shiners, and "All Down the Line," by the Stones. Second, you need a sense of humor at the road-disasters that can occur to an uptight traveler.

The sim's sense of humor inspired me to end likewise.



I think ACCC's party-barge Cadillac will go on an open-road trip, next.