Champagne?  It’s not really my drink is it now? If I’m really treating myself, a good spirit or liqueur is more to my liking. A nice scotch … or – benedictine, perhaps.

For me the  luxurious decadence of champagne isn’t about the beverage – it’s about the rich images that populate my colourful imagination.

Burlesque. Lush textured champagne coloured feathers against red velvet curtains and plush leather lounges. Cigar bars – not that I’m particularly partial to cigars.  The two times I indulged, however, were as memorable as the lingering taste of cigar the next day – which, to be honest, was quite disgusting.  One evening was a boys night out to celebrate the birth of a baby boy with the proud daddy. I was quite the minority being one of two women honoured with an invite and an Aussie  amongst a small crowd of European men from all over the map.  The other occasion was some wacky-on-a-whim night out with friends. You know how those things go – you suddenly out-of-nowhere get the idea to go out for a drink. You call a few friends and end up on a wild ride full of cocktail bars, magicians, cigars and the question of whether you’ll answer the phone if  the stranger you gave your number to happens to call.

Oh… where was I? Ah, burlesque – feathers, velvet, leather, champagne glasses -  and bathtubs that one imagines full of champagne. Lush costumes. Glitter, glam, lingerie, the stage… the costumes (oh the costumes!), the sparkle… the bubble of excitement and a taste of the decadent. Fabulous stuff.

I close my eyes and there I am – the excited and low tones of the audience as they take their seats… the hush as a slight movement on the stage is spotted from the corner of the eye… the silence full of anticipation as the spotlight lights the wooden floor boards of the stage. AND then… the unconscious leaning forward, closer to the stage as the music starts and the emcee steps into the light.  There’s the sounds of awe at the physical dexterity on display; laughs of appreciation at the repartee – all mixed with a smidge of healthy voyeurism as we watch classic glamour and the tacky, sometimes vulgar, wonders merge into art.  All too soon, the show is over – what to do now? Surely it’s too early…? can’t we just…? oh.. and how about?

My mind wanders off to other luxuries… a hot bath in an aged and worn claw footed tub. Candles flickr lighting the walls as music fills the room. I lie back, listening as the suds whisper their last breath. I stretch my toes and arch back, arms folded toward one another above my head as I sigh happily.  My hand reaches out, wrapping around the thin delicate neck of the glass. The fizz and pop of the bubbles in the glass is complimentary to the bubbles covering me and it makes me smile.  I lay in the tub, warm and content not wanting to move but knowing that I must, lest my skin become wrinkled and puckered – beaten by the will of the water. I stand and water cascades back into the tub, dripping on the floor as I step on to the thick mat. I pat myself dry and wrap myself into the luscious towel, half yawning – sleepy and relaxed as I head to my bed and curl into the rich silken champagne coloured sheets, my senses fulfilled.

Champagne? It’s code for luxury, decadence… lush textures… bubbles…  sparkling goodness… hedonistic scents. It’s divine and awe inspiring. It the things that tease and tantalise the senses.

Colour sample for Luna Jubilee’s 52 Weeks of Colour Blogger Challenge II

Listen to this post on audiofarm

* This post was brought to you by the letter M, the number 1 and the colour of champagne.

In the meantime, I’m sharing recordings of me saying a list of words as per a meme circulating Plurk – the point is to hear how different people from different places and with different backgrounds pronounce the words.

Unfortunately, I had to leave half way through. I did ask a friend to scribble down titles and links for me in my absence and between us we managed to note down a number of links.

Some readily recognisable examples she gave of gamification in every day things include the Khan Academy, Biggest Loser, Weight Watchers, Fitocracy/Get Addicted to Fitness.

Gamifying your classroom activities can be as simple as giving out rewards and badges for achievements – ie. Give rewards for achievement of microtasks.

Gamification is about creating aims/it’s about the milestones – and about getting reward for achievement.

Gamification does not necessarily involve IT or tricky technology – it can be be quite simple to include it in your current teaching without much modification at all.

Gamification links

• www.khanacademy.org
  From the site: “The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We’re a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. All of the site’s resources are available to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy’s materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.” It’s a little Amercianised but many topics can be used elsewhere – history is probably an exception.
  See http://www.khanacademy.org/about for more information how you can track student participation, etc.
• Cell Craft – http://www.cellcraftgame.com/Home.html
  Subject: Science.
  You build cells (yes, as cells that form part of your body and such) that help fight viruses, etc. You may need to have the site with the game unblocked at your school if you wish to use it.
• Dafurs Dying – www.darfurisdying.com/
  Good to use as a guided exercise. It teaches about society and the environment – more suited for older students.
• Launchpad Launchball – Science Museum – http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/
  Year 3-8. With younger classes use as a classroom exercise. Older students can do work through this on their own.
• Fate of the world – http://fateoftheworld.net/about or http://store.steampowered.com/app/80200
  Topics: civilisation. The world is melting and you need to create a world where civilisation works and the world does not work.
• Chore Wars – http://www.chorewars.com/index.php
  Compete within your household or office for experience points. Win badges. This was not mentioned in the presentation but I thought it was silly enough to share – I think it’s a game where you might let others win and smirk when they do.
• Interger Jim’s math squads – http://www.mathsquad.com/
  You can buy resource books for these activities/concepts which Ambra says is worthwhile.
  • Quest for the Gold Calculator- http://www.mathsquad.com/
    Students get a map – which Ambra said she divided up into game squares for math topics for 2 terms so one square might be integers, one might be multiplication, one might be division – and so on… When students achieve they get ‘quest bucks’ – which they can then use to buy options – for example out of four quizzes that students get they can have one not count – usually they don’t get to choose which one… but if they have 20 game bucks the student can choose which quiz doesn’t count. They can also buy things like pens, etc out of their game bucks. If they forget their stuff and have to borrow items from others then this costs them game bucks – so students soon learn to remember their stuff. They can also buy activities – like extra or alternative math questions, etc. Can also be used for writing activities.
  • Adventure math journal- http://www.mathsquad.com/
    Students make an Indiana Jones style adventure journal which maps their math activities out. As part of this concept – students also are doing tech, design and art. Students often get really involved in the journal while learning math. Fun! (Can I go back to school please?)
  • Adventure Express- http://www.mathsquad.com/
    Topic: Society and the environment (this is a good activity for when you have spare time in class).
• Mystery of Time and Space (MOTAS) – www.albartus.com/motas/
  May have been recommended by one of Ambra’s colleagues.
• Tran Towers – http://www.transum.org/Software/Trantowers/trantowers.asp
  May have been recommended by one of Ambra’s colleagues.
• Stop Disasters – www.stopdisastersgame.org/
  Older students. Helps them think about disaster management. They really need to read all instructions – you can’t play without it and she recommends the easiest settings on the first attempt. This might be done this as a classroom activity where one student reads instructions and others participate.
• Space Chem – http://spacechemthegame.com
  Topic: Chemistry
• Wondermind – http://wondermind.tate.org.uk/
  From the site: “Wondermind is about a few things. It’s about the brilliant, amazing and truly mind-boggling stuff that’s going on inside your brain as you grow. It’s about the art of Alice in Wonderland, the exhibition at Tate Liverpool. And it’s about putting together both of those things: mixing art with science. Being good at one doesn’t mean you can’t be good at the other (in fact, it’s often the opposite).”
• Thingdom – http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/WhoAmI/Thingdom.aspx
• Minecraft – http://www.minecraft.net(this is the main mindcraft site – there are other links for educators below)
  • About Ambra’s example mindcraft game design for Lunchtime Bytes
    • Ambra advises teachers that they do need to build and design minecraft learning environments but you don’t have to make it that beautiful to be engaging. The example that she showed for the lunchtime bytes presentation even though it was beautiful, only took 5 or 6 hours.
    • The way Ambra used the minecraft world showed a large amount of teaching ability. She used the game as a teaching tool.  The educational design of the games was definitely there. It was a  nice balance of entertainment and learning.
    • A really good example of making students think was a math puzzle on the wall (in game).  The room had a range of doors with numbers (the answer to the math problem) on them and only one was right. All of the doors opened to more rooms but only one was not a dead end (right answer obviously). One room was a restroom where you could pause game. One was an abrupt dead end. Another looked like it would be the right answer because when you looked through the bars on the window you saw a door – but if you didn’t do the math and just focused on appearances you’d have been at a dead end (the second door was fake). The only way forward was to do the math and pick the right door.
    • To teach electricity and explain it there was a circuit with one box in one place another in another place. The electricity looked like red dust and had a path and if you added more red dust in the square to join it the electricity worked and you could keep going. You could get all the way into the game and see the missing square but if you didn’t read the instructions earlier you probably wouldn’t have had the red dust in your inventory to complete the circuit.
  • Massively Mindcraft – http://socialmediaclassroom.com/host/MassivelyMinecraft/
  • Minecraftedu.com “Bringing minecraft to the classroom” – http://minecraftedu.com/
  • A local school has it’s own minecraft server and they have minecraft sessions at lunchtime – it’s pretty much run by the students.
  • Jokaydia Minecraft – http://minecraft.jokaydia.com/ (for educators)
• Gamification video from Good Game on the ABC (feature story) – http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s3187937.htm

Some popular games available on Steam that have learning components (but where education was not necessarily the key objective)

• Bob came in pieces (Steam) – http://store.steampowered.com/app/46000
  Bob is not whole… you need to help bob become complete. You need to find his parts and put them in the right place.
• Machinarium (Steam) – http://store.steampowered.com/app/40700
• Portal – http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/?snr=1_4_4__13 and
  Portal 2 http://store.steampowered.com/app/620/?snr=1_5_9__13
  Portal makes holes in walls and you end up using to make sense of space and time.
• Windowsill – http://store.steampowered.com/app/37600
• World of Goo – http://store.steampowered.com/app/22000/

IMPORTANT NOTE TO TEACHERS: Always play the games and check the resources yourself before using them with your classroom. While they are great now, you don’t always know who owns them – or when the ownership changes hands. Sometimes the games are changed turn into something different – and this may mean they are no longer suitable for use in with students.

Note: I am not an educator – the comments here are from a talk by an educator who is also a gamer. I work closely with a number of educators but mostly I’m just interested in stuff – and often that stuff seems to have some cross over with the world of education.

• the #tags you add to your profile to describe yourself are clickable and will take you to a ‘hash tag profile page’ – you will see a list of people on this page, they are all of the people that have used that tag to describe themselves.  This means they are a quick way for members of your networks, communities and people with shared intersts to find you.You will also see any conversations/threads that feature that #tag – where they are public or posted by someone who has you in an aspect.Second lifers for instance will find people from that community on the following hash tag profile pages (click the hash tag to view) – #secondlife, #avatar, #virtualworlds- they’ll also appear on a range of other pages depending on their profile.To find contacts and conversations, it’s really worth exploring hash tag profile pages – just replace the keyword at the end of the URL/web address when you are on any hash tag page.
• google+ users will recognise aspects as being similar to circles and #tags as being somewhat similar to sparks.  Use Aspects to group people so that you can readily share with the groups you want to share with… or read the groups you want to read.
• to post pretty pictures to your stream – add the cubbie application. You’ll need to use your diaspora ID to link cubbies to Diaspora – your diaspora ID is the thing that looks like an email address that you were given when you joined your Diaspora pod. For example – mine is: moggsoceanlane@joindiaspora.com (you can find this in your account settings on the account tab).
• #tags are a great way to find people, conversations and posts of interest- I like a mix of real and virtual world discussion so I wanted to know how to find others outside of my immediate communities. You can click on a #tag in your stream to access a ‘hash tag profile page’ or you can just directly type a URL to randomly browse hash tags as keywords/topicsHere’s a few to get you started:
  #diaspora – joindiaspora.com/tags/diaspora
  #secondlife – joindiaspora.com/tags/secondlife
  #photography – joindiaspora.com/tags/photography
  #science – joindiaspora.com/tags/science
  #fashion – joindiaspora.com/tags/fashion
  #art – joindiaspora.com/tags/art
  #art – joindiaspora.com/tags/designNote the hash tag matches the keyword at the end of the URL.You can select to ‘follow’ a hash tag from the ‘hash tag profile page’ – the follow is in the same place you’d find ‘add to aspect’ on an individual’s profile page (top right of page).
• Once you have contacts and want to add a number of them to a new aspect or existing aspect, create the aspect and then edit it.  To quickly add/remove people to/from aspects, go to your aspect list and edit your aspect… and tick and untick the people from your contacts you want in that aspect – or that you want to remove. Easy peasy!
• To send  a message to more than one aspect/social circleclick on the aspects on your left menu bar one after the other – the aspects will go from looking like a link to looking like bolded regular text (this indicates you have them selected).When you write a message to share with your stream it will go to ALL selected aspects (unless you remove some before you hit send).
• You can make a post public and share with the world by selecting the little globe/world icon at the bottom of the post box. You can also choose to share with facebook, twitter or tumblr networks. These are the icons under the message/post box.
• The only people that appear in your stream are those you’ve added to aspects. If you don’t want them in your stream, remove them from all of your aspects.
• To add someone to an aspect either:
• Edit the aspect (if they are already a contact) OR
• Go to their profile page and using the button at the top right of the screen near their name, add them to one or more aspects.
• To get a URL that will take people directly to your profile page, select your account name (top right) and then from the drop down menu select ‘Profile’. You will navigate to your profile page. The URL in the address bar will be a unique URL for your web page. You can share this with your contacts, networks and communities to enable them to quickly access your profile page. Much quicker and easier for many than having to search on your diaspora name/ID (Your ID/account name is the diaspora ‘email’ address).
• The number of contacts in the top right of your aspects page and profile will probably continue to show 20, however if you click ‘show all’ or else choose to edit an apect, you will see all of your contacts and if there are more than 20, you’ll see them all.
• #tags don’t work in private messages, they only work in the stream.
• you can delete single posts and responses in the stream without deleting the whole thread.
• In private messages you can only delete the whole thread you cannot delete single messages.
• It seems there is no editing of posts available – something many of us came to expect and appreciate from our short time on google+. You can’t edit posts on facebook or plurk either … we all want this now… oh how quickly we adapt.

If, however, you make what could be public messages private just because you want to make sure that everyone sees them, you should be aware that this can be perceived by others as the equivalent of spam, annoying phone calls or door-knockers. In some cases you will annoy people so much that they’ll just permanently mute, unfollow or delete you.

Most people will forgive one or two indiscretions, but if you make a habit of doing this, you’re going to piss people off. Really. One or two “could-have-been-public” bulk private messages to everyone in a year is fine, lots become annoying – and won’t endear you to the masses.

It’s perfectly acceptable and appropriate to send private messages to selected friends only – or to privately message everyone when the topic really isn’t suitable for your public timeline because of the nature or privacy of the content – this is appropriate use.

Private messages can become annoying and rude when you send them to everyone when:

• you are too lazy to add only selected  individuals or group (you may tell yourself it’s easier but others interpret this as you being too lazy to bother adding individuals/groups/cliques)
• the content could be on your public timeline without consequence – or
• you wish you give your messages an inflated sense of importance

It’s about good etiquette/manners, appropriateness and context.

On services like plurk, you can make your timeline private so only the people you’ve added as friends can see your content. If you feel the need to mark every message you send as private, perhaps the solution is to make your timeline private. If your timeline is already private, then sorry – you’ve lost me… why are you private plurking everyone instead of a select few? I don’t get it.

When you send a private message think:

• could this be public? (if yes, make it so)
• is this relevant to everyone on my friends/contacts list? (if no, send your private message to only those it is relevant to;  if yes – refer the other questions)
• is the content of this message appropriate for the public? (if yes, consider making it public; if no make it private but think about whether you need to send it to everyone or just selected people)
• is the content of this message important enough for me to make it private (and do I need to send it to everyone)?  Making the message private is the equivalent of yelling, waving your arms and saying “Yoooooohooooooo, I’m over here… come… quick… look!”. If people are likely to get to your message and end up feeling grumpy that you’ve pulled them away from something else with your arm waving tactics, then chances are, you are better off making it public – or sending it privately to a selected list of people only. If it’s silly or seasonal enough, you might be forgiven… but mostly, it’s best to err on the side of caution when it comes to privately messaging people.

Private messages do command attention and people do perceive them as having added importance which is why people get so peeved when you abuse the right. I perceive them to have more importance than an email – because they are more immediate.  If you wouldn’t bulk email everyone that same message then why would you send it to them privately through an online networking website which gives it added importance – and no doubt, sends them an email alert too?

I found myself wondering what had happened in one person’s life to make them so hungry for attention all of a sudden. Prior to receiving lots of bulk private messages that could have been public, I perceived them as reasonably intelligent and independent but as a result of their excessive messaging, I’ve found myself thinking of them as more needy than independent.  Perhaps nothing changed in this persons life and the new behaviour is just an evolution in the way they use online networks… regardless, my perception of them has been affected by the constant demands for attention.  What you say and how you behave online does affect your reputation and how others perceive you.

In social networks, the lessons you learned about email etiquette could possibly provide a good foundation for “winning friends and influencing people” – or at least keeping the contacts and friends you do make.

A traditional © ‘All Rights Reserved’ licenses means that any rights and permissions for others to reuse the images is automatically turned off unless explicit permission from the creator/owner is obtained.

If the purpose of these groups is to share and allow others to reuse the images, wouldn’t it make more sense to request that those submitting images to the group do so under one of the Creative Commons licenses which, by default, turn on some usage rights and permissions?

Flickr allows you to override/change your default license on a single image, if you choose/need to do so. You certainly to not have to use creative commons on all of your images and I think considering that creative commons is effectively irrevocable and permanent, using a default setting of ‘All rights reserved’ and then changing the license on those images you do want to share/allow others rights to reuse makes a lot of sense.

The Creative Commons website has a wizard to help you decide which license will best suit your work/needs – creativecommons.org/choose/.  (This link is to the International Creative Commons website – you might want to check out the Creative Commons website for your country instead – or as well).

A quick and dirty ‘by Moggs’ guide to the letters that appear after the CC in Creative Commons licenses is:

• BY [attribution] =’‘you must say it’s by me’
• NC = use it for non-commercial purposes only
• ND = don’t make changes
• SA = you must share the resulting work in the same way I shared this

The most open license is the CC-BY license which means ‘you can use it for commercial and non-commercial activities and change it so long as you acknowledge the creator/owner of the creative commons licensed work’.

All Creative Commons licensed works require attribution – acknowledgement that you used someone elses work in your resulting piece (what the work was/is and who the source was/is). ‘Cite your sources’ is the golden rule of Creative Commons.

The other variables (NC, ND, SA, etc) modify the default CC-BY licence, adding additional conditions and restrictions to use. eg. CC-BY-NC means ‘say it’s by me – and don’t use it for commercial use.’

When you share something under creative commons, this permission is, in practical terms, permanent (forever) and irrevocable but you still own the IP and have rights to let people use the works in ways other than allowed by the license by special arrangement (they ask, you give permission). For example, if someone approached you wanting to use something licensed by you as non-commercial in a commercial context, you could create a separate agreement with them to allow this – and add in any special conditions about terms of use in that separate agreement – including any charges you may wish to apply.

Under creative commons licenses others are obligated to respect you and this is spelled out in the license as:

“Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:

• Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and limitations;
• The author’s moral rights;
• Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.”

Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails now applies Creative Commons licensing to works he releases online and on DVD. He uses CC-BY-NC-SA, I think. Anyway, my point is that by releasing your items under creative commons does not mean that you have no rights and does not restrict you from making profits from your works and – in some cases it in works to your benefit.Some authors who publish under CC licenses have had their works translated into multiple languages and as a result found markets where they didn’t realise they had them. Had they done tried to do this sort of market testing/research on their own, it would have been beyond their means.

The creative commons website/s contain case studies that help you understand how this method of licensing works in the real world if you are curious to know more.

Disclaimer/context: I am not a lawyer or legal person.  I do use creative commons licensing in real life and I am on various working parties related to my job that are looking at applying creative commons licensing to materials produced the organisation (and, of course, policy and around when this is an isn’t appropriate).  I believe that both © and CC licensing have their place – I’m more of a ‘grey-areas’ type than an ‘all or nothing’ type girl. I do not claim to know every thing and all of the if’s but’s and maybe’s around licensing and strongly recommend that people who have specific scenarios or concerns around licensing consult an expert.

It can take as little as 5 minutes to show your support – or say NO to the Australian Government.

Yes, there was a lot of discussion in certain circles about this topic last year – there was a little noise but still, a lot of Australians are totally oblivious and the Government has taken a few more steps forward and is closer to making this a reality.

Last year when I posted, I received a few responses from fellow Aussies (or were they Ostriches?) saying, “It’ll never happen, we are not Russia”, “It’s all scare mongering” and other such things. But here we are, in 2010, with the Government planning to put the proposal through Parliment – without providing any real response to some key questions that many Australian citizens have.

And … if we were [like] Russia, we’d probably be better off. 

You see the membership of the elite club that the Australian Government would have us join is China, Iran and Saudi Arabia – those are the countries that already have centralised Internet Filtering – scary huh? (and you know, we are meant to live in a democracy!!).

The filtering will not only limit what you have access to on the Internet but will significantly slow down the broadband network AND is likely to negatively impact the cost of your internet.

So what can you do to show your support?

• black out your online profile pictures (overlay your profile pics with a black layer)  and display the #nocleanfeed text.  What will this do?  It will hopefully help raise awareness in the media and amongst the general population who still haven’t even realised this is now a very real possibility.  New Zealand carried out a blackout campaign which was quite effective, Australia hopes to do the same.
• Inform your friends via your social networks – if you tag your blogs or twitter posts use the tags nocleanfeed and if you wish, openinternet
• There’s a petition you can sign – and yeah, it’s not some shonky ‘net petition – it’s run by the Electronic Frontiers association who are very credible when it comes to online and digital rights 
• and of course, you can write letters and more for a good list see the EFA what you can do to help list;  the great australian internet blackout website and the nocleanfeed.com website.

I am, of course, biased. I do not want my Government to dictate what I can see, do and read online and I do not want slower broadband or increased prices for Internet because the ISPs suddenly have a lot of new requirements… I urge you to do your own reading and make up your own mind- you’ll find lots of information with a quick search on Google.

Search syntax example:
(“internet filtering” OR nocleanfeed OR openinternet) Australia

And yes… this search is possibly biased but it will give you a starting point to come up with your own searches.

Smiles. Thanks for reading… I hope you’ll feel the urge to show your support.

The implications of what could happen should this go ahead – and thinking about where Australia might be in a few years if it does are … potentially horrifying.

- Moggs.

tinyurl.com/aussieFundraiser

As many of you will be aware, Australia has been struck by devastating bushfires and floods. The bushfires are the worse ones yet, having killed well over 100 people and left hundreds and hundreds of others homeless or with nothing. North Queenslanders, meanwhile, are battling floods. There are a number of fundraising appeals going on in Second Life to raise funds for the victims of the fires – these appeals started up almost as soon as the fires hit crisis state.

Donate by shopping!

Please add related links in the comments – I’ll keep updating this list as I come across information – ‘Kota Buck has now published list of participating vendors – I’ve added vendors from her list here too. You’ll find links to the Red Cross and Premier appeals at the bottom of this post for those who wish to make their donations outside of Second Life.

• The Victoriaus Ring by Ryker Beck
  Made exclusively in support of the Australia Victorian Bushfire Fundraiser.
  Only available at the Genesis Main Store (SLURL). Scripted for five metal texture changes (silver, gold, copper, bronze, and gunmetal), and transferable, so boys – you can get one for your sweetie. 100% of the sales of this ring are donated directly to the fund.
  “It is only in the face of horror do we truly find our nobler selves.” — U.K.
• Avatar Dog Tshirt from ‘The Metaverse Journal’
  
• Cuddle Koala’s by Ziggy Quirk
  In order to raise desperatly needed funds for the Bushfire relief effort, I’ve released a new “bear” – the koala. (Koalas aren’t technically bears).
• Victoria Necklace by Rosie Barthelmess of Sable Rose
• Pose Prop from Dove Swanson of Long Awkward Pose
  My offering is this pose prop…it’s a sculpted set of clouds and a rainbow with 15 poses scripted in like most of my props are. I tinkered and dabbled at animating some of the poses just to give it something extra. I wanted to do something a little uplifting and light, not to lessen the tragic events in Australia….but maybe just to give a little hope or even a little smile while you do a great deed for others in need. The prop is placed on a platform up in the air where you can demo and purchase it.
• There are 2 hairs (one for the guys as well) in 3 special textures Philotic Energy from Aemilia Case
• Pendants from Faery Sola of Studio Sidhe
• Dakota Buck Savvy?
• Shelly Toonie Moonshine Clothing
• A special recolor of the Honor Gowns is yours, for a donation of L$500. Just pay the purple heart. 100% of the proceeds will be paid directly to the Appeal. This is a Not-For-Profit Gown. From Evie’s Closet, Evangeline Miles
• Marx Dudek Marxi Designs
• Ruina Kessel House of Ruin
• Ashia Tomsen Ashia Designs
• Ana Lutetia AnaLu
• Whimsy Winx Winx Home & Garden
• Sakuradawn Lei Lazy Places
• Brandy Rasmuson Shine
• Nuala Shippe Kunstkammer
• Anicia Medici Sugar Mill Poses
• Teagan Blackthorne & Laynie Link Tea Lane
• Couple Poses from Luth Brodie of Reel Expression
• Hair from Autumn Hykova of Pixel Dust
• Hair from Truth Hawks of TRUTH
• Kallisti Burns Discord Designs
• Mouse Mimistrobell Dark Mouse Jewelry
• Noirran Marx Subtle Submission
• Samara Barzane Park Galleries (Souvenirs by Samara Barzane)
• Reghan Straaf Hatpins
• SySy Chapman SYSY’s
• Leah McCullough Naive

Fundraiser Events in Second Life

Weekend Festival – shopping & music

Original information from Surreal Babii – now includes additional program and information updates – and will be continually updated as information comes to hand:

We are planning a music/shopping event. It will go from Friday Midnight 20th Feb to Sunday 22nd Feb. We are hoping to have non stop music from every genre, as well as a small shopping market where vendors can be set up. We have been fortunate to have Stroker Serpentine lend us the space for the weekend, he is very kind. We have made him an honourary aussie.

We have set up an avatar VicBushfireAppeal Fireguard and contacted the Red Cross. We have also have a Donation Kiosk and we have a script that can be put in vendors on the day.

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Saturday

• 6pm – 8pm: Michael Cela

Sunday

• 7pm – 9pm: Michael Cela

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Its so fantastic to hear of all the SLers helping for such a great cause. I was chatting to Autum yesterday , and she has had an awesome response with donations, it warms the heart. Its such a devastating event, I was myself was involved in the Christmas day fires that swept thru our small town a few years back , and of the other team members were involved in the Canberra Fires that devastated the city. So this is our way of giving back.

We are after both donations from creators and also dj’s we have quite a big list to fill and every little bit helps. People can contact me in world or else Trix Noel, Marcia Scott or nuvolino Roffo.

Please be aware that due to potential scams in SL make sure that before donating to any of the DIGITAL ANGEL kiosks – check that its an official one by checking ensuring the creator nuvolino roffo. If you see a kiosk with another name listed as the creator, please contact us!

If you need anymore information please dont hesitate in contacting me either by email or inworld. I am on Australian time, so it may take a bit, but I always answer.

Regards
Surreal Babii
Digital Angel -
The Appeal for Victoria Bushfire Victims

Make direct donations to an avatar

Dakota Buck and Autumn Hykova have organised fundraising and set up an avatar to take donations – the avatar is Victoria Farshore and all funds paid/donated to this avatar will be converted to Australian dollars and will go to the bushfires appeal run by the Australian Red Cross.

Surreal Babii has also set up an avatar VicBushfireAppeal Fireguard and contacted the Red Cross. She also has a donation kiosk and script that can be put in vendors on the day.

If you are doing your own fundraising, you may wish to get in contact with Dakota Buck and Autumn Hykova OR Surreal Babii and set up payments for your event to go to one of these avatars rather than creating yet another one. This will give Second Lifers consistent and trusted avatars who they can directly pay to make donations.

A note from ‘Kota and Autumn

As some of you may have heard, there was a devastating bush fire in Victoria, entire towns have been wiped out and the death toll is over 80 and climbing .

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25023335-1243,00.html is one of the many news articles I have been linked to.

From the article:
Premier John Brumby has described the disaster as “the worst day in our history“. He called the bushfires “a monster that couldn’t be controlled”.

This is, beyond comprehension to me, and I wanted to organize something, anything, so that I could help. Some of the people I hold most dear to my heart are from Australia, and I am hoping that we can come together as a community as we have in the past to help out the affected victims of this tragedy.

If you are interested in participating, please send Autumn Hykova a note card, it could be a new release, or portions of sales items you already have. We will have a donation box as well.

I’ve created an avatar, Victoria Farshore, who will be the account that holds any money donated, and all the proceeds will go to the Australian Red Cross.

https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp

They have the ability to donate to a specific campaign, so we know exactly where the money is going.

Thank you for your interest. Please pass this notecard to anyone who may be interested in participating.

Autumn Hykova & Dakota Buck

*’Kota has now published a list of participating vendors

Wildlife Victoria

Please spare a thought to all the innocent wildlife killed and injured in the Victorian Bushfire Disaster. Wildlife Victoria, www.wildlifevictoria.org.au, is a non profit organization, run by volunteers and specializes in rescuing, treating and rehabilitating Australian native animals. As well as the enormous human tragedy of the Fires, there has been an uncalculatable loss to Australian native species and this organization has also lost two of it’s rescue centres. You might be able to help them financially or otherwise.

Media

• Saving Australia on New World Notes

RL information and links

• Australian Red Cross Victorian bushfires appeal 2009 and Fundraising Kit – PDF
• Premier’s distaster relief appeal fund for North Queensland flooding (information via the Australian Red Cross)
• Bushfire coverage news from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
• Bushfires interactive map showing showing danger areas and human loss

This is a first for social networks. Plurk is a real life network as opposed to an avatar network and – as far as I’m aware – it’s the first to list a virtual world as a country.

Considering that many people appear on the web as avatars of one form or another, this seems like a logical progression for social networks (for instance there are a lot of people from Second Life, World of Warcraft, THERE and other online environments participating on social networks as their avatar in order to keep up with their selected communities… so why not allow them to list themselves as such somewhere in their profile?).

I am one person in multiple environments and consider myself a global citizen, an Australian and a Second Lifer. I use my Moggs accounts primarily for Second Life purposes and have separate accounts for work and personal so listing my location as Second Life rather than Australia is, perhaps, more meaningful in this context.

Related and semi-related blog posts

• Second Life – a country in Plurkistan by Vint Falken
• We are real by ArminasX Saiman
• Plurk bringing the SL community together by Nika Dreamscape
• What’s Hot from BOSL (Best of Second Life blog)
• Residents get Plurked! by Hamlet/Wagner James Au of New World Notes
• Plurk gets added as a country in Second Life by Botgirl Questi
• Plurk – sign up or read timelines (there were a lot of threads dedicated to the fact that Second Life was listed as a country today).
• Original request to the Plurk team

See also

• What the Plurk podcast – a podcast about Second Life plurkers – a podcast about Second Life plurkers (and companion blog)
• SL Plurkers group on flickr
• Plurkistan Bookclub – a bookclub for SL Plurkers
• SL Plurkers on facebook/weblin info
• SL Plurkers on SL Bloggers
• SL Plurkites on Avatars Reunited

I was telling my sister about some of the lists. Personally, I love reading them just for fun. I don’t look at them as being an authoriative guide to the Best of Second Life® or anything else… I just enjoy them for what they are.

I rarely buy trash mags in real life… I couldn’t care less what actors, actresses and other celebrities do with their time but I do love buying the December/January issues with the Best of and Year in Review lists. And often I keep them. They are like a time capsule of where the mainstream society was at for that year. And they are fun to read and bitch at in jest, laugh about or nod in agreement – but I don’t take them too seriously.

In terms of at least one of the Second Life® lists, I think my sister put it best when she said incredulously Social Butterfly?!, it’s a popularity contest – which really is what reader/viewer lists are – they are designed to answer the question “what products, people, places and things did our reader/viewers love or love to hate this year?“

For those who appear on the lists, it’s a nice acknowlegement of their efforts – it’s always nice to be recognised or thanked for our efforts, we all love it. For those who didn’t make it, keep firmly in mind that the feedback you receive from your customers, peers and people you respect holds as much or more value as any list.

When the VAIN Inc ‘Best of’ Readers Choice Award Nominations were published, there was a lot of buzz on Plurk. Agreement, disagreement, expressions of interest about those not on the list and those on the list. Some people thought there were a few categories missing – and so I decided to plurk some award category nominations for the missing categories… just for fun and to see what people thought. A few people started requesting categories (via private plurk) that appeared in the VAIN Inc list, so I ended up plurking them too. There were more categories than I thought and so I ended up being a bit mortified because I totally took over the Second Lifer on Plurk timeline (I am genuinely sorry about the flood guys!).

I will share the plurk award nomination categories below, but first other end of year awards/lists… the first being a post from Praddles, which I loved and which sums up how seriously we should be taking these lists… his closing paragraph has my full agreement – without everyone Second Life® wouldn’t be what it is, we all do our bit.

• Meterversally Speaking Awards 2008 – a blog post from Praddles (if you follow no other links, follow this one).
• VAIN Inc ‘Best of’ Reader Choice Award Nominations 2008
• Hottest Male Avatar 2008 Nominees (Winner)
• Best of SL Live [Music]
• Best of SL Entrepreneurs 2008
• 2008 Hippo Awards
• Best of Second Life (BOSL) Award Nominations (Mid Year/June)

And now for the very very unofficial Plurk Award Nomination Categories, Yearly round-ups, etc – the rules we established as we went along were/are:

• this is plurk, we have no rules – the community decides
• if we need rules, we’ll make them up as we go along
• yes! of course you can self nominate
• no! there is no limit to the number of times you can post
• no! there’s isn’t a cut off date… there will be no ceremonies or announcements of winners… it’s all in fun and gives all plurkers a chance to acknowlege and recognise the people, brands, places and things they love.
• yes! you will probably discover a number of places to visit and to shop and yes… if you shop at all places that interest you, you probably will be SL broke for all of 2009

DISCLAIMER: Even though any SLers on Plurk could have responded, only a small minority did – therefore the answers are only representative of those who could be buggered and ARE NOT in any way, shape or form representative of the collective view of the whole SL plurk community.

• Best of SL Tech (People who script, build viewers… the techos of our community.)
• Best of Podcasts/Postcasters
• Best of Community Service People/groups who have donated time/resources to the community.

Best of Performance Art/Theatre

• Best of SL Comedians
• Best of SL Costume Creators/Costume Stores
• Best of SL Avatar Creators
• Best of SL DRAMA 2008 Category suggested by the delightful Raul Crimson
• SLs most helpful Linden perhaps this should have been called the Lindens OTHER than Torely who are helpful award nomination
• Best of SL Public Events any event that was open to all residents regardless of subculture/memberships
• Best of SLer Magazines/Publications
• Best of SL Television
  
• HOLY SHIT… someone actually made that?! Award Category suggested by the delightful Rat Grrrl, Nimil Blackflag
• Best of SL Gadgets can be a personal gadget; business gadget… whatever…. This category has some cross-over with the much broader techo category.
• Best SL Blog/SLog This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of the Newcomer SL blogs in 2008 Category suggested by the delightful Vint Falken
• Best of SL Flickr Photostreams
• Best of SL DJ’sCategory suggested by the delightful Trinity Serpentine. This is also a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of Male Skins/Male Skin Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of Female Skins/Female Skin Creators (1) / Best of Female Skins/Female Skin Creators (2) (Note: I accidentally duplicated this category which is why it appears twice) This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of Female Hair/Female Hair Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of Male Hair/Male Hair Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of Neko Wear This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of BDSM Wear This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Couture This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Fantasy Wear This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Male Formal Wear/Male Formal Wear Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Female Formal Wear/Female Formal Wear Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Kawaii Wear This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Goth/Alt Wear This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Male SLebrity (SL Celebrity) This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Female SLebrity (SL Celebrity) This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Female Social Butterfly This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Male Social Butterfly This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Tattoos/Tattoo Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Male Shoes/Male Shoe Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Female Shoes/Female Shoe Creators This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Shopping Malls/Centres/Precincts This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Boutiques/Small Shops This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Furniture Design This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Most Innovative Sim This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best RP (Role Play) Sim This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best SL Builder This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Jewellers/Jewellery This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best SL Clubs This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best SL Live Musicians This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Prefabs This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best SL Artist This is a VAIN Inc Category. Note: Some people believe this category should be broken down a little more… perhaps into sculpture, composition, immersive art or into genres but as it wasn’t… everything and everyone is thrown together without discrimination.
• Best SL Photographer This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Male Model This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Female Model This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Static Pose Creator This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Animated Pose creator This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Couple Pose Creator This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Dance – Single Dance or Syncronised Dance/Dance Creators
• Best New Designer This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best Freebie/Discount Designer This is a VAIN Inc Category.
• Best of SL Sales 2008 Category suggested by the delightful Shelby Rasmuson
• Best of SL Groups Category suggested by the delightful Shelby Rasmuson
• Best SL Slacker Category suggested by the delightful TallyHo Shawbridge
• Best SL Pixel Butt Category suggested by the delightful Dolly Voom Note: It was suggested that there should be separate male/female categories for this – but there are not… sorry!
• Most SL Lists in 2008 Category suggested by the delightful IYan Writer
• Best SL Mascot Category posted by the delightful Dazz Anvil
• People you would have most liked to orbit in 2008 Category posted by the delightful Radar Masukami
• Things you’d most like to see in 2009 in SL (other than increased reliability) Category posted by the delightful Alysha Rennahan
• Best Drama Queen Category posted by the delightful Strawberry Singh
• Most likely to try to sleep with every girl on the grid Category posted by the delightful Ryker Beck
• Missing Categories: Best particle creators/particle effects 2008, Best gardens/nurseries… and probably hundreds of other possible categories

Delightful – the Moggs Definition: People who I find delightful and who delight me in some way or other. Warning: they may not always play nicely with others.
This post was originally published on my primary blog moggsoceanlane.blogspot.com