Visit to THE HOUSE OF USHER

I enjoyed my visit to the House of Usher. I thought the dress my avatar was wearing complemented her very well, as opposed to her usual outfit. When I arrived, Roderick, who said “hello dear Madame, glad you’ve arrived”, greeted me. This was my first shock to touring this house; I knew they were actors but I did not think the way they talked would be that different. But, I felt that this really helped make me feel like I was in the House of Usher back in 1839. But, I knew I had to fit the part too, and I found it humorous when I tried to speak the language too, saying things such as “tis very nice” with my kind female manners, but I just found it humorous which in a way took me out of the scene.

I really enjoyed the part when we walked into Madeline resting in her bed; it really allowed me to immerse myself in the scene as if I were in a movie. She told me about how Roderick takes care of her, and then we went to the guest room. I saw a large rat crawling on the ground; I thought that was a good animation addition. Then I looked around and noticed that the rooms are all very large and open. They are so large to the point that there is not enough that you could put in the room to fill it up. In the 1800’s, what more could you put in a bedroom besides a bed, desk, and dresser? The objects that they did place in the bedrooms though were very complementary to the time period – I liked seeing the candle lit on top of the barrel.

I thought Roderick’s bedroom was very cool because I liked the theme of dark red. The red windows and the red bed added a very dark and gloomy mood to the tour. This was perfect timing, because right after this, he left me there. And a minute later, I heard screams! When I walked back into Madeline’s room, I found Roderick accusing Jamie Wonder by saying “Jamie, what have you done with my sister?” Then Roderick uses his question marks and exclamation points to the best of his acting abilities to convey his shock of his inability to know where his very ill sister is. Then I hurried down the stairs with Roderick to find Madeline, but we waited for Jamey, who was having navigation problems. As we waited, there was one last chat message from Madeline saying “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”, then Roderick says “I am afraid that the time has passed”, and then “everyone meet at the front door” as if we failed to complete the tour. Even though our tour has a bit of a “let down” ending because we did not get to see what happened to Madeline, I still enjoyed the suspense.

I thought the actors, the house, and the props were all great and very precisely constructed and designed. Just by going on the tour I could tell that much work has been done to the house to make it what it is today. The only problem I encountered is that the timing of the events that happened on the tour really depends on how fast the visitors can follow Roderick. Since Jamey Wonder was late to come downstairs with us, we did not get to see what happened to Madeline. But, there is nothing you can really do to change that, it is not the actor’s job to push the visitors around the tour, it is our job to be able to keep up! I really appreciate the actor’s role in the house, because they really do set the stage of how interesting people will find the house. I found the house to be bare at parts, but you cannot really fill it with objects back in 1839. The tour and the house were very spooky and suspenseful, and overall I give the effort of the actors and designers an A plus in this project. They really could not have made the place any better.

The Narrator Made Rookie Mistakes

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a typical horror movie plot in which I am constantly questioning “why don’t they just leave the house?”. In the Amityville Horror for instance, the family just never left the house, and the same thing happened in The Haunting in Conneticut – being two of a very minimal amount of scary movies I have ever seen. So if I were in the House of Usher, I would run out of there SO fast. I would not care for Roderick or his twin sister Madeline; I would just care for myself and get out.

This being said, if I HAD to stay at the House of Usher, what would I do? I would make sure Madeline is dead before I buried her, first off. That’s just a rookie mistake. Second, if Roderick is freaking out, I wouldn’t read him a story to help calm things down – especially if there is a bizarre gas surrounding the house. I would figure out what is causing his emotions, and what is causing the eerie gas outside. If Roderick could have figured out his sister was buried alive earlier, then he would not have died from fear. Handle problems as they come; don’t try to avoid them.

SL Technology Problems

I do not mean to make a sweeping generalization here, but I think that Second Life is about to be taken over by some other major online virtual worlds. I think this for two major reasons.

First, Second Life is just too complicated for me. If it weren't for Dr. Essid, I would have no idea what I am doing with this program. They have a very mediocre tutorial stage, and do not give proper direction on how to change clothes and appearance. I still only know how to move, fly, chat with people, and teleport. People who don't have a teacher explaining how to go about SL will just give it up from the start. Along with this, it is hard to find people to communicate with. I still do not really know how to teleport to places other than the landmarks given to me in my inventory. Second Life took too long to get used to, and there are many other virtual worlds that are simpler and provide better instructions.

Second, Second Life takes a certain kind of person to really accept. Having a virtual world where people definately do not create their own true selves would "creep" many people out. Usually when you communicate with someone, you know who you are talking to and can hold a serious conversation with them. If your talking to a naked woman on Second Life, for all you know it could be a large hairy fat man. Facebook does a better job with that because you can at least get an idea of the person's appearance and interests, even though people tend to modify themselves and make themselves look a little better than normal. Also, Second Life does not have enough users to begin with, so it will never get the attention that Facebook or Myspace has. Along with this, with using a communication device, people usually want to communicate with friends; SL has no real way of adding and finding friends like Facebook or Myspace.

Second Life, hate to say it, but you could be doomed....

Heritage Key

For my English class, we are using another virtual world called Heritage Key for its specialization in education. I was excited to see this new virtual world as an alternative to Second Life and see how it compared with regards to graphics, my avatar, and of course the performance of the application. Well, I started by giving my avatar my roommate’s name, and I was impressed with how fast the registration process was completed. That is, until I downloaded the application software – it took 20 minutes.

Once I arrived, I found as I saw in class the same exact controls in heritage Key are in Second Life. I did like Heritage Key’s tutorial building, even though it was in a building, I thought everything was more organized and easier to understand. I found it very simple to change my appearance, but I encountered one problem; when I saved changes to my appearance my face turned gray. (See the snapshot below). Then, I decided to go check out the Kind Tut Exhibit – because that is the only place that Heritage Key had to offer. Once I got there, I found that the software lags much more than Second Life. Then, my largest problem occurred which made up my mind about Heritage Key – the application suddenly quit! Then, when I clicked relaunch, it told me that “you appear to already be logged in. If this is not the case please wait for your session to timeout. If this takes longer than a few minutes please contact the grid owner. Please wait 5 minutes if you are going to connect to a region nearby to the region you were at previously.” ----Are you serious Heritage Key?? Once I logged back in, I noticed that along with the lag, it takes awhile for the signs to fully buffer so they are readable. I took the unnecessary air balloon ride over to the exhibit, where I was immediately cynical and unimpressed with the “grey scene”. The entire place was just very unattractive and took way too long to load.

And finally, I found my way to Tutankamen’s Tomb, which I found to be the first impressive scene I found in Heritage Key. I really appreciated how you can click objects and have the narrator give a summary of the object I clicked on. The replica of the art on the walls was good, yet I would rather just see it in a picture. I just do not get the same “I feel like I am there feeling” like I get in Second Life. Heritage Key, you could do better.

Burning Life!

Well, I went through Burning Life as if I went through real life on a weekend – don’t stick to just one place, go everywhere! I traveled all over the place in search of people, and when I could not find anyone, I just danced by myself. It felt lonely and make me wish that I came earlier, but it was still interesting to see the atmosphere in which the party took place. It had a huge stage in a huge open room with cool chairs, a fake snake that basically covered the floor, and dancing cages. Lookers Paradise Lounge was a cool first stop.

Next stop is Burning Life Rabbithole – Cocktail Time that entails story telling. When I got there, I just could not understand the “incongruity” of the place. There was an airplane/space craft, huge balloon, a huge bone structure, and an enormous tent with people in it listening to live music. It was truly bizarre, nonetheless I still gave it a chance to check out. I snapped a picture of the spacecraft with a man figure staring at me, then I went over and checked out the tent.





The music actually surprised me, all the sudden I heard music coming from my laptop, and I thought my itunes library was playing Bob Marley. But, it was actually a rock n’ roll version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, which I enjoyed - I even danced! After the song and dance, i ventured over to a tent that had a zen-like garden in it that played very soothing and relaxing music.



After i cooled off, I was ready for the action again, so I went over and checked out the bone structure where people were dancing and managed to take a picture from aerial view. I forgot the name of the place I visited in the bone structure, so I went back to check it out again after I logged off, luckily while the event was still occuring. I found out the name of the structure - “The Berlin Stage”, but I got more than I asked for… I walked into a big circle of naked people dancing. And that is when I decided to call it a day and say goodbye to Burning Life… Aside from the naked people, it was time well spent.

Ready for Burning Life

As I look through Burning Life event listings to go to on my Sunday afternoon, I can not believe how much I wish this was like my real weekend. I have never seen listings for parties to attend at every minute of the day. It is like Spring Break at Cancun, only its free and I don’t get beer spilled on me! The events I am attending are controlled by the time of day, so I plan on hitting the parties that started an hour ago then the parties going on now. I am ready to party – at 6pm in the evening! The places I am going to visit are called "Lookers Paradise Lounge" and "The Rabbithole".

Free to Roam

I am very late with this assignment, but I needed to finish it to show my progress in Second Life. I hope these new pictures will demonstrate my ability with the controls and new camera angle shots. Since there were no required places to visit, I decided to roam free – with my shirt off. I decided to start my freedom trail at the Sistine Chapel, just to check out some other half naked people. Once I checked out Michael Angelo’s masterpiece, I decided to compare SL’s version of the Globe Theatre to Shakespeare’s version created in 1599. I stood at the center of the stage, zoomed out for the full view, and took the picture. This was my first realization of what Dr. Essid always insists at the point of Second Life – to see the actual building and feel that you are actually in it. Its not like a 360 degree virtual tour, because it feels as if you are actually walking into the building in reality and going to any step of the building as if I was actually there. The replica in SL is precise down to every last detail of the original.

As my last stop I decided to see the Chichen Itza, which was outstanding and very impressive. It was also where I met my first SL friend; Mercedes Elan. She was with her friend, Elizabeth Falmer, and kindly introduced themselves to me. Next thing you know, I found out things about them such as they are from Holland, love the ocean and palm trees, and apparently love to dance. They friend requested me, then brought me to a dance party. At this dance party, I found myself chatting with various people who even taught me how to dance. I never would have fathomed that a Scavenger Hunt where I looked at historical sites would have turned into a dance party. And, to make things even more interesting, 5 out of the ten people there were dancing with sheep…

I feel that this second scavenger hunt was very beneficial to me because it felt as if it were a road trip; traveling anywhere I wanted and feeling the freedom of traveling anywhere with no strings attached. I really enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt, and I hope you enjoy my pictures!

Scavenger Hunt Pictures!

This is my favorite snapshot because it is a perfect example of what I picture real life Harlem to look like. I tried to get the most out of this picture by taking a snapshot where I could fully see down both roads, along with high in the air so you can see the buildings. This shot, in essence captures the dark, concrete jungle of Harlem. There is no grass and no area for kids to go outside and play. The dark colored buildings show Harlem as being gloomy and depressing – a place that you could get caught in where it would be tough to get out.

This snapshot is my attempt at capturing a work of art from a unique angle. My goal was to get the largest view possible of the Casablanca, while at the same time being able to see my avatar admiring the structure. All the archways of the Muslim mosque show the very unique design, and all the steps and open arena in the center show that it is a very special, famous mosque that can hold many people.

This snapshot is of the “How to” and tutorial landmark on Second Life. The arrows point out the first attempts of walking, and familiarizing yourself with direction. The billboards posting the information show the tutorial stage in Second Life. My avatar looks like a “newb” because he is dressed in the standard shirt, and looking up at the information billboard in the picture. The scene shows not much going on, being very simple and helpful for starting the first stages of your Second Life.

I took this snapshot because it implies a message to modern society – that we have destroyed our natural land and replaced it with tall, ugly buildings holding materialistic possessions with many advertisements on the outside. It shows what modern culture can do to our atmosphere; destroy it with material wealth. I zoomed out in this picture to show how the massive the building is, and how it is nothing appealing but some place that holds a bunch of material.

This was my first experience with taking a snapshot. My avatar is in a normal standing position, in which he is initially entering the shopping center. I found this picture interesting because there are so many bright colors that catch the eye – you almost don’t know where to start. The horizontal rows of various items make the store seem real, along with the aesthetic tile my avatar is standing on. All the pictures on the wall are models of clothing – resembling real life when they have the most beautiful models posing in underwear. You can see the outline of these model figures from where the avatar is standing. In summary, this is a basic snapshot at the first glimpse of a Second Life store.

Writing with Sources

In high school, a major problem for me was putting evidence and meaning of the quotation before and after I introduced the quotation itself. In other words, I often had only one thought about the quotation and would therefore end up repeating myself in my thoughts. My second problem is voice – I write too much how I speak – slang and with many hyphens. My greatest struggle is finding the right word because I do not have a great vocabulary, so I end up saying the exact same words I often use when I talk too – “often”, “suggests”, “like”, “and stuff”. So I end up using my actual voice way too much when I should be using my professional voice. However, when it comes to writing to a specific audience, I can be very good at that because I have paid close attention in the past to how people address one another. When they talk to their friends, students tend to use a “top dog” technique trying to prove who is coolest. But when a student speaks to a teacher, his voice is much lighter and timid, and he tends to use much better vocabulary. Then, students addressing their families tend to be somewhere in between.

My Avatar in Second Life

I still think having an avatar is “weird” and “bizarre”, but I am beginning to get sucked into this world of Second Life. When I was younger, I was always interested in games such as The Sims and Sim City 3000, so Second Life is basically the program that I always wanted to try. I am excited to enter this new world, however the stories I have heard about people romancing and men creating attractive female avatars strikes me as “creepy”. I am putting quotes around these words because they are my generalizations about Second Life. I want my avatar to be as similar to my appearance as possible because I really don’t want to fool anyone. Also, I get judged in real life for my height and physical appearance (as all people do), so I guess I am not afraid to look the same in my Second Life. I want my avatar to dress in goofy pants and a Richmond shirt because in real life it shows that I am goofy and fun but at the same time appreciate an education too. Also, I don’t want to be one of those “creepy” males choosing a female avatar. I chose the name Ihavebad Frostbite because I think it says a little about myself – pointing out I have a sense of humor while at the same time being a good choice for a gender neutral name.

The Transition to College Writing

Keith Hjortshoj's Chapter "Footstools and Furniture" examined many of the issues that I struggled with in high school when writing papers. My teachers would often write "general/vague" and "sloppy/disorganized". I could introduce the subject I wanted to write about well, but when it came to organizing my points, I had two major problems. First, I could not state my points clearly enough to the point where it just sounded like a vague statement - I wanted to express my thoughts better and more thoroughly but my lack of a (good) vocabulary prohibited me from doing so. Once my vague and sloppy thoughts were on the paper, I found that they had no "flow" and were not transitioned well. This brings up my second major problem: I struggled with organizing my thoughts and developing body paragraphs with clean transitions. I usually had points that did not fit in with what my main thesis of the paper is, making many jumbled thoughts on a paper. 

The best thing I can do for myself is proofread, and start early. I need to organize my thoughts on printer paper to make my "road map" for my paper, then I need to think about each transition and develop it clearly from point to point. When I complete the work, I need to proofread it aloud.