The House of Usher---A New Ending

I recently went to the new House of Usher location in Second Life. Once I teleported up to the floating island, I immediately noticed now gloomy the entire setting was. It was dark outside, and the house was even gloomier. I walked inside of the house and immediately noticed that the hallways were suffocatingly narrow. Everything was quite dark. There were hardly any windows, which would not have helped anyway since there is pretty much no light on the outside.

Roderick next offered me and my partner a tour of the house, which we gladly agreed to. One of the first things we walked by was the crypt, which we were immediately told not to explore. This of course made me decide that I would surely tour it--I would just have to wait until after the tour to do so. Every room which we were shown agreed with my immediate reaction that the house was incredibly gloomy.

As I walked around the house I picked up various notecards---some of which were interesting, and some of which seemed somewhat pointless. One notecard was a map of the crypt, which I thought was pretty cool. I saw a lot of minor details, and could tell that a lot of time had been put into the house.

As we got upstairs, things started getting a little weird. Madeline started hallucinating and started talking to a wooden horse. She started saying things about getting some rest to which Roderick responded that she needed her medicine. When we saw that medicine was being offered to her, me and my partner immediately both said no and that she should not take any medicine. Roderick insisted that she needed it. Both Madeline and Roderick said that Madeline needed to be left alone to take a nap. I thought this was strange and argued against it, but the actors insisted and we left her alone.

I next went to do some exploring on my own. My first stop---the crypt---exactly where I was told not to go explore. There was a very green glow about the entire crypt. A lot of time passed and all of a sudden I found Madeline laying inside the coffin. I tried talking on the local chat, to which Madeline would not respond. I then decided to instant message her. She communicated with me through that venue, claiming that all of this was coming to me in a dream-like state and that she could not talk or move. She told me that I must convince Roderick that she was indeed not dead.

I told my partner and Margaret to all convince Roderick that she was not dead. Never was Roderick fully convinced, but he obviously had enough doubt to question it and not bury her while she was still alive. The chloroform which Roderick gave Madeline eventually wore off. Her eyes started fluttering and she eventually stood up and began talking again, to which Roderick was very surprised.

I did notice a few clues that gave me a heads-up of what is going on. In Roderick's room I found a notecard which was called "dosage." On it it said that he had made several "attempts" with other medicines and next he will give Madeline chloroform but did not know how much to give her. Also, there was a bottle of pills on his dresser in his room.

If I were to change a few things about the architecture and structure of the house, I would firstly move the crypt. It seems weird that there is a stairway leading down to a "crypt" so close to the front door. It is almost as if you walk in the door and are immediately presented with a off-limits place with a green glow. Also I would add a few hidden compartments/rooms and sliding bookcases, maybe a book that can be pulled to rotate a bookcase around. The Usher's house seems like it would be one of those houses that has those kind of things.

Renovating Roderick

Edgar Allen Poe presents a horrible death in his story The Fall of the House of Usher. In this short story, Roderick, a mad man, buries his sick sister while she is still alive though he thinks she is dead. Though this death is unimaginable, the house is set up in a way that allows this and perhaps even encourages such an act. For this reason, if I were to change an aspect of The Fall of The House of Usher, I would change many of the physical properties of the house.

The house is referred too multiple times as dreary and dark. This dreariness and darkness encourages depression, which can cause people to act irrationally. This story should be presented in a newly built house, with no cracks or inconsistencies in the foundation and with light or bright colored walls. This would certainly put a "pep" in Roderick's step and would surely not encourage any time of depression.

Multiple studies show that many physical characteristics of the house in which one lives play a role in the demeanor of those who live within its walls. The cracks of the house suggest that it is old beyond hope and can not be fixed. This hopelessness is passed on to Roderick, who is hopelessly insane. This insanity is perpetuated by the darkness in every corner of every room. When I imagine what the house of Usher would actually look like, I see no need for Windows whatsoever. It seems like even if there was light the house would somehow manage to keep it out.

I would also change the floor plan of the house a bit. I would not include the crypts in the bottom of the house where Madeline was buried. The fact that these are present encourages a death so that they may be used. Without these crypts, there would be no place for Madeline to be buried alive and Roderick therefore would not have done so.

Problems with SL....

The biggest problem with communicating with Second Life is its isolation. Second Life is a very large and vast virtual world which has more areas than most people could think to visit. All of this virtual real estate, however, is surrounded by impenetrable brick walls. By this I mean that Second Life does not agree with other virtual worlds that embrace "open source" software. In other words, it is not possible to take one's avatar from Second Life in to any other virtual worlds and communicate with others who spend little to no time in Second Life.

Not only does this limit communication abilities but also educational ones. If one is an avid Second-Lifer, be it for personal or educational reasons, and he or she wants to go explore the virtual excavation site of King Tut in Heritage Key, it is not possible to do so. He or she must create an entirely different avatar in the new virtual world and start a new virtual personality. Many of these open source virtual worlds are friendly with each other. By this I mean that it is not uncommon to be able to use the same avatar in multiple virtual worlds.

For these reasons I feel that Second Life surely needs to make some serious changes or they will have some very serious competition in the very near future that may slowly force them out of the market place. Second Life seems to be getting harsher and harsher on the user, while other virtual worlds are getting more and more accommodating. These virtual worlds going in opposite directions are creating a gap which will force the user to decide which road to take, and I think that they will go in the more accommodating direction. Interconnectivity will easily push isolation out of its way and take over the market place.

A Tourist Report: Heritage Key

I recently downloaded the Heritage Key software and began touring the Valley of The Kings and King Tut's tomb. I found the software to be in some ways better than that of Second Life, and in other ways worse. Since there are not many other people there on site while my avatar is (or any) there is no lag and therefore I can move throughout the landscape without having to wait. This helps because I can go there and do what I need to do and not waste any time waiting for the software to catch up with me. On the other hand, my avatar still walks like a duck and cannot add any "skins" or special effects like I could in Second Life.

The tomb of Kind Tut is pretty cool. All of the wall paintings look to be worn from time just as they are in the actual tombs. There are even heiroglyphics on the walls as they appear in the actual tomb of King Tut. Within the tomb there are several embedded audio files which one can listen to in order to learn more about the tomb or jewels. The jewels are rather detailed and seem, at least to my ignorant and untrained eyes, to be pretty good representations of what the actual jewels look like.

The process of getting to King Tut's tomb is pretty clever. Upon generating one's avatar, he or she starts in the main Heritage Key building from which he or she can go through star gates in order to teleport to the next destination. Eventually one makes it to a hot air balloon, from which one can see a map of Egypt and several surrounding countries. The balloon takes you to the final destination, the excavation site of King Tut's tomb, and the adventure begins.

A Firey Field Trip Part Deux -- Burning Life '09!

Upon teleporting to Burning Life 09 for the first time, which was not during any major event, I was both impressed and confused at the same time. I decided to first go during no major event so that there would not be a lot of lag, allowing me to freely explore the area quite efficiently. I was very impressed at the art work that filled the area. There were works that obviously took a lot of time and effort to build, such as the quite large aluminum-like robot in the above photograph.

In addition to being impressed by the progress that had been made, I was also a little confused. When I watched the video which advertises Burning Life 09 on their website, I got the impression that it would be a city, though inspired by art, in which avatars would come together to build and set on fire at the end. Seeing this video made me remember Dingo's "Starry Night" project. I thought the concepts would be rather similar--a virtual space inspired by art and then destroyed after finishing construction of the space. However upon examining the virtual real estate there appeared to be no resemblance of a city.

I learned several things through attending this event. First of all, I learned that people not only come together for educational purposes, but also for cultural and artistic purposes. My questions were answered through attending this event. I originally questioned what was meant by the term "city" because the advertisement said that they would build a city and then set it on fire. I learned that many of the terms in second life do not translate into first life. In other words I should not take the term "city" literally and should rather wait to see what the event will be like before developing any preconceived notions about what will incur. In this case all that was meant by the term "city" is that there will be large structures, but not very organized, at least how I think a city would be organized.

A Firey Field Trip

Upon searching for an event to attend in Second Life in the near future, I have decided that I want to attend "Burning Life". From what I can gather, Burning Life is an annual event that started in 2003 and is inspired by first-life art. Though learning and experiencing art is interesting to me, this is not the particular fact that drew me to this event. I came across what I found most interesting on the video that appears on burninglife.secondlife.com on the "What is Burning Life" page. Upon watching the video, I realized what the event is. It is a coming together of many many avatars to start from scratch and build a city....on FIRE! Having the mathematical and sequential mind that I do, my first question was how? How can hundreds of avatars all build a city on a first try, especially since the avatars have not necessarily met and worked with each other before.

The entire idea seems too chaotic to me. I feel like it would just be a lot of avatars building a bunch of random objects which in the end would just look like chaos. To me a city is very structured and organized. After pondering on this for a few minutes I then I remembered that the event is inspired by art, which may not necessarily follow the rules of an ideal city.

The more angles of thought I take on the idea the more interested I become. I must admit that as of now I am quite skeptical that hundreds of avatars who are strangers to one another can come together without any rehearsal and build a fantastic city on fire. At the same time, I know that deep down within all chaos there is organization. I am just curious to see if the organization can get the better of the chaos.

One last detail that caught my interest is the irony of the entire situation. Basically, many avatars are going to try their hardest to build a nice looking city which they will in turn set on fire. It seems kind of counterproductive to me. This is like deciding that the colosseum would be more artistically appealing if it was on fire after just having finished construction.

But then again, Second Life does not follow any other rules of the first life, so why start now with the construction of a city?

Rockets and Psychiatrists and Hopping Bears, Oh My!!

A few weeks I blogged on my first scavenger hunt, but have since had the chance to visit several other places and experience several new things. One place that I visited, and thoroughly enjoyed visiting, was "The Theorist Project". I am not sure that I completely understood its purpose, but did nonetheless enjoy being there. From what I could gather it was basically a "world of psychology". The first thing that I did, after some simple exploration, was visit Dr. Sigmund Freud in his virtual office. I even laid down on his couch so he could psychoanalyze me. He did not really talk to me about "issues" or "problems", but rather took it upon himself to explain to me exactly what "Oedipus Complex" is. I thought this was bazar but something about Freud's ethos in general almost made it seem alright. After all, Freud, at least in my opinion, was rather eccentric, so why should his avatar be any different? I did experience, if I understand the definition of the phrase correctly, and "uncanny valley" moment while in his office. Never in a million years would I be laying on Dr. Freud's, or probably any other Psychologist's or Psychiatrist's to be perfectly honest, but I did still feel like I was there in a way because I was virtually laying on a couch, and his very ethos stood out. He went right into a spiel on the Oedipus Complex and seemed to be very smart, as I would assume Freud to be.

While there, I also went through the Iceburg. Throughout, there were several surveys and experiments set up that were optional. As I went through the Iceburg, I came across what looked like were twenty stuffed teddy bears. I continued walking, trying to pass through them. Once I got close, they immediately started jumping obnoxiously up and down and even more obnoxiously saying random phrases like "feed me" or "stop that". It was a continuous attack of phrases on me that filled up my screen with text from the chatting.

The next place that I visited was the International Spaceflight Museum. The setup and layout of the place was pretty cool. I enjoyed flying around and looking at the rockets, as well as hovering over a globe so that it looked like I was "on top of the world". I also thought that the fact that I could watch NASA television by streaming it through Second Life onto a virtual projector screen was pretty cool. This really demonstrates how powerful of an educational tool Second Life can be. We can watch a video or show on a subject, then go look at the rockets up close. I can see how this would be very effective in teaching students about similar subjects.

Give And Ye Shall Receive??

I have now been using Second Life for about a month and still do not understand it completely, and feel like I never will. Specifically, I do not understand the process of building and constructing anything at all in Second Life. In one example of a video I was shown in class, the creator of a Second Life Island spend something like eighty or one hundred hours building the island. These facts and assumptions lead me to the questions: Is it worth it? What does one get out of putting that much work into something virtual?

These questions lead me to a claim that is very unsupported but is derived from simply a gut feeling: Residents of Second Life, or any comparable virtual world, in general put in much more work than they get out of it.

When someone in real life builds his or her house with their own hands, he or she can easily support the claim that it was well worth all of the work. The builder now has a roof over his or her head that could potentially last a lifetime. Likewise, a farmer puts in a ton of effort in planting and harvesting crops. The same claim, that the work was well worth it, can be easily rationalized by the fact that they now have food to eat. Also, when someone sews a sweater the same claim can be easily justified. They now have something with which they may keep warm. I just have trouble using this logic to make since of spending hours and hours making a virtual island on Second Life. There is already so much space in Second Life that adding another island would not be for the purposes of having extra living area. The only way I could make since of this is for educational purposes. My question is just for those who do it for no apparent reason.

Writing With Sources

In chapter 7 of The Transition to College Writing Hjortshoj discusses in relatively in-depth detail the process of "Writing in Reference to Others". I, fortunately, was familiar with this process and used it when writing my papers, at least by my senior year. I did not know much about it during my freshman and sophomore years, but really started learning it during my junior year, and by my senior year knew it rather well, which was helpful being that my teacher was pretty strict. Though I knew it relatively well, I knew only the MLA format, since all of my papers during all four years were written using this format. During my senior year we had several seminars in regards to citing sources correctly and not plagiarizing.

My writing here at Richmond has not included a lot of citing of outside sources because my only formal paper thus far has been in my CORE class which forbids the use of outside sources. I was only able to use the primary source, the text, in order to write the paper.

I know that not all of my papers will be like this. I feel that as I write deeply analytical papers that are trying to prove some type of thesis or primary argument.

One section I found really interesting in Hjortshoj's text was the section about having one's own voice. I have never thought about it in quite those terms, but he is exactly right when he says this. When reading academic analytical papers, one does not want to just read fact after fact or quote after quote from other sources. The author has to say what he or she thinks. I think this is done through a move that Writing Analytically calls "making the implicit explicit". Through bringing out the hidden implications in a given text, one establishes his or her own voice and makes the paper flow better and more enjoyable to read.

Around The World In 80.....Seconds?

In this picture I am at the outdoor produce stands in Morocco. I had mixed feelings about Morocco. The castle-like building was very nice and all from the outside, but was very plain on the inside. Also, there was absolutely nobody else at all in all of Morocco. When I think of Morocco, a place I sincerely wish to visit in the future, I think of it being quite dense in population. I understand that this is a virtual world and there are not as many residents of Second Life as there are in Morocco, but still there should be at least another person or two. While visiting Casablanca, I learned that items can be "locked" to others. In one case I tried to ride a car but it said that I cannot because it is not mine. I just thought that all content was for everyone but I learned that this is not the case. While in Morocco I did not experience any uncanny valley moments.

In this picture I am visiting Dublin, Ireland. My first impression of Dublin was very positive. There were many buildings which gave it a real city feel, which I like. The buildings looked very up-to-date, as opposed to the buildings in Virtual Harlem which added to the overall positive feel of Dublin. One thing that I did find odd is that the streets and buildings suddenly cut off which made it look kind of strange. One thing that I learned when I went inside one of the Irish Pubs is that not only can you dance along, but it is also possible to dance with someone else. There were no uncanny valley moments here. I thoroughly enjoyed Dublin.

In the above picture I am in Mexico. My first impression of the place is that it was indeed very pretty, but also very small. The island is not that big, and the second that one teleports there you are right in front of the Aztec pyramid, which is absolutely very nice, but to be honest I did not think that it would be my very first stop in Mexico. I thought that perhaps I would wind up in a city with many people where I could talk to people and go in and out of buildings, perhaps more like the Virtual Harlem setup. Nonetheless it was very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed riding the giant butterfly. I did not have any "Uncanny Valley" moments during my time in Mexico. I learned that not only are there unique little activities that an avatar can do within the virtual location (such as the giant butterfly), but that in addition to walking, running, jumping, and flying, one's avatar can indeed ride things (as I attempted to do in Morocco). Mexico was quite an interesting experience!

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Virtually Me

I recently, with the help of my professor, set up my avatar in Second Life. His name is "Skyler Intermenos". I must confess that I did not come up with this name myself. I went to Google, since Google does solve all problems, and typed in the search box "Gender Neutral Names". I read many names but Skyler really caught my eye. It reminded me of the sky, and to some extent I think of the sky being somewhat out of this world. To me this fit perfectly because Second Live is a virtual world, apart from this world which we currently live in. So, in essence, the name Skyler is symbolic of being a character apart from my world. The selection of the last name was rather random, but the name "Intermenos" seemed like it was a more robotic name than most, which perpetuates that it is an artificial character rather than a real one.

I must also confess that it does seem rather cool to have a character in Second Life. I personally love traveling, so in a way I can go where ever I desire by simply clicking a button that says "teleport". I can almost do almost anything I want. In reality, what human would not want to have the power to fly? Though no human physically can, I can fly with my character in Second Life. One final thing that seems really cool about my avatar in Second Life is that I am (or am at least represented) in two separate worlds. It is fun to break the laws of physics in more ways than one!

College Writing From A High School Perspective: Looking From The Outside In

At my high school my teachers tended to require us to meet draft deadlines in order to ensure that we were writing drafts before turning in the final product. That was great, but they often only required one or two drafts as opposed to the six or so that Dr. E suggests. I found myself of course doing the required drafts, but not really doing any extra drafts, even if I needed them. Also, in most cases, my high school teacher would sit down with me and edit the paper with me if I had it done a week or so in advance in order to ensure 1) that I was meeting all of the requirements 2) that I was analyzing properly 3) that I was on topic and 4) that I did not have any grammar and syntax errors. I get the feeling that in college not many professors will be willing to do that with me.

Granted we do have great resources such as the writing center, but there is nothing like that reassurance that you can get from the person who will be grading the paper that it is a good paper. Because of my teachers willingness to help, I often got A's on papers, with possibly an occasional B here and there. I know that the standards are much different in college though. I have the feeling that I will have to "unthink" that which I have learned and relearn the writing process as a whole yet again. I do feel like I have had good instruction and thinking and writing analytically in high school, but I just have no idea what to expect in this university setting.

So far in Hjortshoj's book I have noticed that he knows exactly what the high school writer's though process is and has some suggestions of how to solve it, but I still do not really know what to think or expect. I just hope that as I continue reading Hjortshoj and Writing Analytically I get a better idea of what the whole picture of a good college paper looks like, rather than just being completely ignorant as to how the process goes and what an "A" college paper looks like.