#NECC09 Conference - Washington, DC

WARNING: rambling post with many parenthetical interjections - also, this post originally was on my Second Life blog......and I brought it over here as my first professional blog post! Don't worry, it should make sense eventually.

((2022 Note - OMGosh, this post is cringeworthy! I had forgotten that long ago I eschewed capitol letters and employed a rambling weird punctuation filled super bloggy causual writing style.  I started to correct all that and then (exhausted) I stopped and just rolled my eyes thinking that it was, though dated, a part of my history - So be it.)) 

Back to 2009--

So the NECC conference in DC was just brilliant this year! The Twittering back channel conversation was so stimulating and i made so many new Twitter following friends! 100+....lovely, smart, & cool colleagues who can continue the discussion about Educational Technology - expanded my Personal Learning Network!.....So..... I've decided to become transparent! My worlds are colliding anyway... my Interweb & SL life and my RL life...this blog will still mostly be about my SL adventures and library/technology & education work in Second Life (what little I do between changing clothes and being a Victorian Steampunk chick) but I'll maybe add more RL or at least not be so circumspect about who i am and what i do...(as a library media/technology specialist and a graduate instructor at Johns Hopkins Uni)....but because of my early years on the web (and don't we all have these stories? and try and one up each other about how hip and cool we were with appletalk, mudds, WBS, TTRconferencing, compuserve, gopher, and a 14/4k modem with a 100 foot phone cord?) i learned to stay mum about who i really was...doing my thing and being internet aware...lots of pseudonyms! i won't list ALL of them here..(sheah, right...like duh!) Anyway...mostly i didn't want my students to see what a snarky smartarse i am and to be able to let off steam with my opinions...i still worry...teachers have been fired over what they've blogged about...i like my private life well, private. i do historic re-enactment where i play a pirate wench for gosh sakes! otherwise i'm pretty tame [blinks and smiles sweetly]....so anyway...how much of your RL do you let out there? i mean...really. so, hmmm not going to over think this but i may make some past posts private. and or start a technology blog that keeps the saucier side of me out of it...(omg, not ANOTHER BLOG!) or i guess i can just blog my technology thoughts on my library blog but that has always been just for my kids & community and as a program pomotional piece...hmm WWJVD (what would Joyce Valenza do?) maybe i'll be semi-transparent then. so, ok educators....fellow technology teachers...if you found this and are looking for me i'm sure you can find the real me by what i do or you can leave a comment here and i'll hit you back. k? so one of the highlights of the conference (for the heavier and more techy stuff check out my wiki) i got to meet the lovely, gracious, funny and adorable Miss Eleanor Anderton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eleanor is one of my oldest friends in Second Life....along with Miss Serafina Puchkina and June Wozniak...anyway....it was Miss Anderton's Shopping alerts that got me in the inventory laden addicted clothes buying stocking wearing mess that i am today in SL....and i love her for it. we were trying to connect for a couple days...and with so many sessions to attend and 19,000 people there..it wasn't easy. finally in a session on creating PLN's in SL and i was hoping with this crazy red hair of mine i'd stand out...and finally as i was leaving i heard the sweet dulcet voice yelling "RED!" and Squeee!!!! huggies galore! YAY! i very nearly jumped up and down and well....YAY! we giggled over things and made our way to the second life playground where we picked up our special SL badges and our Second Lifer (snarf) ribbons because apparently having as MANY little ribbons on your badge is like crack to my geek tribe and well....we started gossiping about shoes and stuff and the people around us were looking at us a little oddly....see? Second Life is that thing that sucks you in and swallows you up! seee?!!!! LOL anyway....it was just lovely...but i'm happy i'm home and can sleep in my own bed...Mmmmm so ok...semi-transparent. i'm out and proud...as Capt_Red, a Second Lifer and a Librarian....and a redhead! \\FTW//! oh and now i'm plurking....oh the madness! thanks Sera & Ele! gah! more stuff to keep up with....what WILL i do?! LOL postscript: ok....so i'm not only semi-transparent but fully transparent ....cause here's that blog with my RL name on it...Oh the humanity! keeping up with yet ANOTHER web platform!! Blurg! LOL