Note: From your Editor in Chef of the AW Virtual Life News letter. 2020.

May I sincerely wish you & your families & the Citizens of ActiveWorlds far & wide. Happy New Year 2020.
Every Year leaves a trace and something is taken away. I wish the bright days ahead of all of the citizens of ActiveWorlds in 2020.
May the New Year bring you Joy & Happiness & Good Health for you & your family.

Leaving things of Old behind may new adventures fill your days ahead. We face new challenges with every New Year.
We face these with courage and strength and the wisdom to achieve our goals so I ask you have you made your New Years resolutions for 2020 yet?
A New Year is like empty book, the Pen is in your hands. It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself, build in ActiveWorlds, explore the many amazing builds and worlds that are before Us all. Were rich in talent, long on hope & joy fill the days of our lives in ActiveWorlds with these beautiful things we See & seek.

Can you find these two objects. Explore all over Alpha and other world. If you do find these objects gram me with the cords and your citizen ship name will get bragging rights.

If you have a build or a site that you would like people to find gram me and the staff will check this out. jloawsac@gmail.com

Many talented builds are here in this world. You will want to be sure to visit all the sites of this world. There is a vast array of themes and talented inspiration. Here is a sample of some of the great things you can see.
Mystica will be 18 years 24 Jan 2020…Size is p60…Team is Fantasy…old style..Builders is only Me + Zanna.

Send us your builds and coordinates. Any description or comments you would like to add will also be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, you can email jloawsac@gmail.com.

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Recipes

Hello from the Virtual Spoon.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year. New Years Day Traditions around my house was the following, Watching the Rose Bowl parade and football. And taking down the Christmas Decorations and cleaning the house good to start the New Year off right. As far as the kitchen goes It was making home made corn bread for dinner, & cooking a big pot of black eye peas.
Do you know why Southern People eat Black Eye Peas On New Years Day?

New year food folk lore
* Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck in the new year.
* For the best chance of luck every day in the new year, eat 365 black-eyed peas on New Year's Day.
* When served with greens (collards, mustard or turnip), black-eyed peas represent coins and greens represent paper money.
* Cornbread, often served with black-eyed peas and greens, represents gold.
* Black-eyed peas eaten with stewed tomatoes represent wealth and health.
* In Hoppin' John, each pea represents a coin, and a whole serving equals prosperity.

Others say you should leave one pea on your plate, to share your luck with someone else (more of the humbleness that peas seem to represent). Yet others say if you don't eat every pea on your plate, your luck will be bad.
It's also said that if you eat only peas, and skip the pork, collard greens, and the accompaniments, the luck won't stick. They all work together or not at all.

I hope the recipes below will help you when you can not think what shall I make for dinner. If you have a recipe you would like to share. Please send it to jloawsac@gmail.com

This time it"s a quick and easy recipe, which is useful if you want to spend a bit more time in Activeworlds :).

The quantities are calculated for 1 person

Take ½ courgette (zucchini) and cut it into pieces, put them in a pan with some water and cook the courgettes with olive oil or butter until they are soft.

Meanwhile cook a pot of water with 2 handfuls of short macaroni or penne or farfalle pasta. Pour the water away and keep the pasta warm

Meanwhile take also another pan with olive oil or butter and bake in here the meat of your choice (i chose a chicken cutlet with mushroom filling).

Then take another pan where you bake some mushrooms during a few minutes.

Serve the 4 ingredients on a plate.

Finally add 2 or 3 teaspoons of pesto sauce to the pasta (you can buy pesto in small jars. Green pesto is made with basil, and red pesto is made of dried tomatoes) . I chose green pesto this time, and finally stir the green pesto in the warm pasta.

Enjoy your meal !

Activeworlds update

A Happy New Year 2020 to all Active Worlders in the 3^rd Decade of Activeworlds

In December 2019 Activeworlds 6.6 received some Feature Updates. These were, aside of the obligatory CEF / Chromium updates, an additional option to the rotate action command, and fixes towards continuous avatar animation playback.

Many thanks to Gremot and Panne for testing the new features for 14 days.

The long time issue with e.g. sit animation sequences has been fixed, that avatars stay sit continuously for observers.

The rotate action command got a pivot option to define offcenter rotations of an object inworld. Here is an example:

activate rotate 4 pivot="-3.5 0 0“

This will rotate the object around the Y axes (points upwards) with an offset in the X axes (points west / east).

Selected object shown in offset to the building axes.

The pivot option is given in meters telling the offset of the object's native rotation center in world coordinates. In the above example the avatar walks in a circle with a radius of 3.5 meters.

Where to obtain Products & Services in Activeworlds

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The Peacekeepers have been a strong and loyal organisation for over two decades. We are here mainly to help ensure that being in Activeworlds is a fun and safe environment for everyone. We also like to help and assist if/when the need arises.

I became a Peacekeeper December 1999. The times were different and the ground zeros were manicly busy – we were certainly kept on our toes, so much so that to take your eyes from the keyboard for one second was just impossible. My family knew not to try and distract me when I was on shift and regularly brought me tea and coffee, knowing I couldn’t leave the computer.

In the early days I was scared to death and was thankful when my then team leader, Miksam, was online with me to hold my hands if things went belly up!

Good days! Yet who says we won’t have those days back again? Activeworlds was the first ever virtual world on the internet. It has outlived many rivals and is still going comparatively strong.

SO we need more Peacekeepers – we need a new generation who will make their own history and who will help shape the Peackeepers for the future.

After training we only ask for one hour of your time a week on patrol..you can do more if you want! Not too much to ask?

So do you need training? Sure you do but it isn’t so scary. Our training is second to none and encompasses:

Computer security, Browser Training, PK Document training, Report training (we write a few and are accountable for any eject we have to do) Garbage training i.e how to handle a case of vandalism, Tactical Training which involves ejects, and harassments within AW, Bots and how to handle our renown PK bots in worlds.

Lastly we have the Sims. This is where each PK trainee gets to put what they have learned into practice when they are faced with angry and misbehaving citizens. You even get to eject known PK’s..me included! Such fun so what are you waiting for? Give us a go..you trial us and we will trial you! It’s fun!

If you are over 18 and have been in Activeworlds for six months then send us a quick application form to https://peacekeeper.net/application.php

See you in world! PK20/GolderUK/PKCore

Forcing Spring Bulbs for Winter Bloom Indoors

Ann Joy and Brian Hudelson, UW-Madison Plant Pathology - Northern gardeners do not have to give up growing flowers during the long winter months. Many plants grown from bulbs (also those grown from corms or rhizomes) can be forced to bloom indoors during the winter by giving them the combination of cold and dark conditions that they require to break dormancy, develop roots, and flower. If you can spare a corner of your refrigerator, you can enjoy flowering hyacinths, narcissus, tulips, crocus, or other spring-flowering plants during the winter. What plants should I select? Look for varieties that are specifically recommended for forcing. Select top quality bulbs with no soft spots. DO NOT purchase bulbs that are damaged. When selecting bulbs to force, keep in mind that late-blooming varieties need longer cold treatments than early-blooming varieties. Also remember that taller varieties may need to be staked, and thus may not be appropriate in all settings. How do I plant my bulbs? Plant bulbs from September through November for indoor bloom. Use plastic or preferably clay containers with drainage holes. Proper drainage is crucial for forcing bulbs. Use a potting mix that is equal parts soil, sharp builder’s sand, and peat moss. Partially fill containers with potting mix, arrange bulbs so that their necks will be at or just below the surface, and gently add more potting mix around the bulbs. Amaryllis bulbs can be planted with the top 1/3 of the bulb above the level of the potting mix. Smaller bulbs like grape hyacinth and crocus may be covered by one half to one inch of the potting mix. Separate bulbs by about half a bulb width. A container that is six inches wide and six inches deep will hold roughly 10 to 12 crocus, five tulip, four hyacinth, or three to five narcissus bulbs. Plant bulbs that have one flat side (e.g., tulip bulbs) with the flat side facing the outside of the pot. This will yield a display of large leaves towards the outside of the pot, surrounding the flower stalks. Fertilizing bulbs is not necessary, but be sure to water your bulbs if the potting mix is very dry and add potting mix as needed if settling occurs. Bulbs require some moisture during their cold treatment, but too much moisture can promote growth of rot fungi. If the potting mix in your pots is overly wet, allow it to dry a bit before beginning the cold treatment. Hyacinths and paperwhite narcissus can be grown without potting mix. Hyacinths are often grown in special glass containers shaped to hold a single bulb, but any container with a neck narrow enough to suspend a bulb over water will work. Paperwhite narcissus bulbs can be grown on sand, gravel, pebbles or marbles. Place whatever material you select around the bulbs high enough to support them and keep them upright. Space bulbs as described above. For both hyacinths and paperwhite narcissus grown without potting mix, add water to the container, keeping the water level just below the bottom of the bulbs. If water touches the bulbs, they will rot. How do I get my bulbs to bloom? Most bulbs require cold and dark conditions that simulate winter conditions in order to bloom. However, amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus bulbs do not require a cold treatment. Cold treatment guidelines for several bulb species are given in Table 1. Ideally, temperatures should decrease gradually. Bulbs should spend the first three to five weeks developing roots at 45 to 50ºF, followed by about three weeks at 38 to 42ºF, and the remainder of their cold period at about 35ºF. However, the constant temperature of a home refrigerator (typically between 35 and 45ºF) also works. Be sure NOT to store fruit (particularly apples) in the refrigerator while forcing bulbs as ethylene gas released from fruit impairs flower development. Also be sure to shield the bulbs from light. Check moisture every few weeks. If the potting mix is very dry, add a small amount of water. When the cold period is complete, the bulbs should have shoots that are one to two inches tall. Bring sprouted bulbs out of refrigeration into a sunny spot where the temperature is between 55 and 60ºF. Shoots initially will be white, but will turn green when the bulbs are brought into the light. Most bulbs will bloom about three to four weeks after they are removed from the cold. Amaryllis bulbs will bloom six to eight weeks after planting. At warmer temperatures, bulbs may grow faster, but flowers will not last as long. Keep bulbs moist, but not overly wet. Bulbs will require more water as leaves begin to grow rapidly. What do I do with my bulbs after they have bloomed? Hyacinths, narcissus, tulips, and crocus cannot be forced two years in a row. However, bulbs that have been grown indoors in potting mix can be planted in the garden. Keep the bulbs in pots through the spring and summer, watering and fertilizing them regularly until they naturally die back. In the autumn, plant the bulbs in your garden at the recommended depth. The bulbs may bloom the following spring, but most likely will need a year of leaf growth before they rebloom. Bulbs grown without potting mix exhaust their resources and often won’t bloom again, even in the garden. To get an amaryllis to bloom again, it is important to allow the bulb to store food during its growing season and then give it a dry dormant period. After bloom, remove the flowers, give the plant plenty of sunlight, and fertilize it. Stop watering in early September and allow the plant to dry out completely. The foliage will die back. If taken outside during the summer, bring the plant inside before frost. Starting in November or December, begin to water the bulb again to repeat the blooming cycle. You may want to consider repotting your amaryllis bulb every few years, but only into a pot no more than one to two inches wider than the diameter of the bulb. Keeping a log. Keep records of the varieties that you force, the length and temperature of cold treatment, and weeks until bloom after cold treatment. This information can provide a valuable reference for your future winter horticulture endeavors.

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Growing Mushrooms at Home

Growing Mushrooms

University of Florida - For mushroom lovers, the idea of growing these fabulous fungi at home can be exciting and intimidating. Shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms are two great types for the beginning home mushroom grower to try. Shiitake mushrooms, while often found in stores, are much cheaper to grow at home. Oyster mushrooms are less common in stores because of their delicate, hard-to-ship nature. Purchasing a mushroom cultivation kit is the easiest way to start growing your own mushrooms at home. Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) or Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) are great choices for first timers because they are delicious and are some of the easiest to grow. How you grow your mushrooms will depend on the kit you buy. But don’t worry; they should come with instructions to help you get started.

A Little About Mushrooms

The parts of the mushrooms that we eat are actually the fruiting (reproductive) bodies of fungi. Growing mushrooms is quite different from growing plants. Since mushrooms are not capable of photosynthesis and producing their own food like plants, mushrooms depend on a substrate, material on which the mushrooms grow. Logs, straw, or other cellulose sources are some examples. The mushrooms take nutrients from the substrate as it decomposes. Growing mushrooms indoors is generally preferred since it will provide you more continuous and predictable fruiting.

Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms are delicate, with a flavor that is milder than Shiitakes. You aren’t likely to see these in stores simply because they don’t ship well. Colors will vary with the different strains but you can have oyster mushrooms that are tan, cream, grey, pink, or yellow. Generally, oyster mushroom growing kits will come with a mass of sticky white mycelium (the thread-like, non-reproductive starter part of mushrooms) that has colonized a tower of straw inside of a perforated plastic bag. After soaking, mushrooms will form on the outside and should be ready for harvest in just about a month.

Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms have a full, smoky flavor and a dense texture that holds up well for cooking. They're easily found in stores, but you can likely grow them much more inexpensively at home. Growing Shiitakes at home is rewarding. It might take a bit of time to get started, but once you’re going they can produce sporadic flushes. Choosing your substrate is a very important part of growing Shiitake mushrooms. If growing on hardwood logs, Shiitakes can be produced for 3 to 5 years once the wood has been inoculated with mushroom spawn. Shiitake mushrooms growing on a log substrate. USDA photo by Lance Cheung. Once you get the hang of growing mushrooms you can try your hand at purchasing spawn that will grow on other materials, such as sawdust and even shredded paper. You may even want to try some different—and potentially more challenging—mushroom types like chanterelle (Chantharellus cibarius), “yellow” morel (Morchella esculenta), and field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris). For more information on growing your own mushrooms, contact your local County Extension Office. Back to Top

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