User:Thaumata Strangelove
Thaumata Strangelove
Hi. I joined Second Life in November 2005. I was doing a bit of research about how permissions combined in a collaborative artistic space and ended up sticking around. I spent quite a lot of time learning new skills here, and eventually met and married (in both lives) Kisa Naumova. We have a great business here building sims and managing other cool projects for all kinds of people, but mostly for universities. Our SL work has been featured on the BBC news (and actually, we've done some SL work for the BBC), and are always pretty excited to get involved in something new.
SL Work
I have been lucky to move the majority of my full-time freelance work to SL. I have listed some recent projects below.
Jeans for Genes (Sept 09 - Ongoing)
Jeans for Genes is a UK based charity which helps children and families affected by genetic disorders by funding support services and research into the causes and cures of these conditions. They run an annual event in the UK on October 2 where people wear jeans (to work and school) and donate £2 towards the cause. In 2009, they are also holding a grid-wide fundraising event, which I am participating in as a builder, promoter and all around get-it-done girl.
Ormesby Woods and Priory Schools (Autumn 2009 - Ongoing)
Ormesby Woods and Priory Schools are real life elementary schools in the UK which are rebuilding in the next year. We work closely with school administrators, area technology evangelists and architects to convert the blueprints into a working scale model in SL. Ormesby is a school for children with special needs which made for an interesting build. Staff will then use the build to determine furniture orders, wall colors and accessibility, and perhaps as an online community home for students and parents in the future.
For the privacy and comfort of the students and staff, this build is not open to the public. If you would like a guided tour, please contact me.
Acklam Grange iSchool (Spring 2009)
Acklam Grange School is an elementary school in Middlesbrough, England which is rebuilding this year. As with Ormesby, we worked closely with the staff and architects to ensure the Second Life model is to exact scale. Admins can then use the model to finalize real life building details. Teachers at the school are regularly using Second Life to educate their students, and will use the model to continue those lessons. Ground for the real life school broke in Spring of 2009. As Acklam is the first school using SL to teach younger pupils on a regular basis, it got a bit of press in the UK. You can see coverage of this build on the BBC site as well as on Gazette Live.
Eventually, this school will be duplicated to the Teen Grid to provide a more enclosed environment for the staff and students. For the time being, the Main Grid location is closed to the public. However, if you should want a tour of it, please contact me.
Leeds Metropolitan University (Ongoing)
I am a mentor for LeedsMet and you will frequently find me hanging out on their sim, watching my partner break things.
MUVENation (Ongoing)
MUVENation is a great project designed to help educators educate in SL. I occasionally assist them with builds and events, including an in person panel in London about optimizing virtual classrooms.
Mentoring
Along with LeedsMet, I also volunteer for Linden Lab as a mentor for new and old residents alike. I particularly enjoy working on Orientation Island, helping new users get acclimated, and answering challenging oldbie questions in the New Citizens Incorporated chats.
Emerge Island (Autumn 2008)
Emerge Island is mostly the work of my partner, Kisa, and is a gorgeous build. I built their freebie market, and have run several events for them geared towards helping new educators get started in SL.
Flickr
For several years I was a moderator for the SL Flickr group. During this time, I helped them develop better clarity in their submission policies and user help. I also did a guest panel at Orange Island about Photography in Second Life. Around the time we hit ten thousand members, I resigned in order to make more time for building and real life.
SL4B
I had a small gallery of SL related artwork on the SL4B sim.
Panoramic and Tiny Planet Photography
I've got a pretty good technical grasp of SL photography and am happy to assist if you're learning. My special passion in that arena is panoramic photography and rendering sims into Tiny Planets. You can see my entire series of Tiny Planet artwork on Flickr. I do contribute to the panorama wiki page occasionally, but I have not written a tutorial about my methods yet because they are a little higgly piggly and hard to follow. My preferred stitching/rendering programs are:
- AutoPanoGiga (professional grade and very cool)
- Hugin (open source and cross platform!)
- Photoshop's Photomerge feature (under Automate.)
Contact Me
If you would like to chat about anything SL related, please say howdy! I do paid consulting work but really, I'm always happy to just sit with a curious person in my free time and help them get a general idea of what they're going to need to make a project happen when the time comes. I like talking shop! Come talk shop with me, hah! I also honestly enjoy helping other residents sort out a variety of issues, from weird SL bugs to installing their new kitchen and re-wallpapering the house. If you do not hear back from me within 48 hours, please assume something went amiss and try again.
- IMs: They will go to my email if I'm not online. They do not cap.
- Email: thau@eyefood.co.uk
- Skype: Thaumata
You may also try carrier pigeons and messages in bottles, but no guarantees there.
- Strange Loves is my blog about interesting SL prims.
- Plurk (checked quite regularly)
- Twitter (checked rarely)
- My SL Flickr stream
Real Life
In real life, I generally work as a project or community manager for web startups, though that is slowly melding quite nicely into SL, just the way I like it. I am an American expat who now lives in England, and I wite about my experiences as a foreigner in a blog called In Tea We Trust. I've studied piano for 25 years and enjoy teaching, singing and occasionally writing music. Oh, and I have a cute little dog who enjoys walks in the park.