Roderick of the House of Usher

The moment had come. This was my chance to enter the specific area my teacher Iggy Onomatopoeia had talked about all semester. I had arrived, truly arrived, at the House of Usher. My excitement was palpable as I finally had my turn to tour this amazing piece of virtual architecture, which my teacher had spent countless hours designing and creating.

When I first walked in to the visitor’s center, I attempted to put on my Victorian-Style clothes, but for some reason my avatar stubbornly refused to wear the clothes. I tried multiple times, but I was unsuccessful in getting on the Victorian clothes. Luckily, I was given a pass on the Victorian- style garments and was allowed to enter the house with the suit I was wearing.

Arriving at the house, I was instantly immersed into the world of Roderick and Madeline Usher. I instantaneously felt like I was a part of Poe’s story. With each step, tentative at first, and then becoming more and more bold, I was engrossed by every single element that had been included in the house. From the big details, such as the ornate pattern of the Victorian- style wallpaper to the intricate details in the green moss growing in the stone walls, I felt I had left 2009 and time-traveled back a few hundred years. How ironic! I was transported back more than one hundred years by the latest, lightweight, glossy-white Mac laptop, a computer brand not developed until late 1980's. My computer is as far removed from the Victorian era as the inkwell is to today

Roderick warmly greeted me when I entered the house. I was excited to have been greeted by Roderick because Roderick and I previously worked together on my “secret task” assignment, which was to discover what type of books Roderick liked and also what type of books Roderick had been reading. What I determined struck me as odd. Roderick said that he had been reading a significant number of books, but the reading had become more and more morbid. In the story, Roderick kills his sister, Madeline. As Roderick read more and more, he descended into mentally illness.

Roderick holding on to the side of a rocking horse.

Roderick’s mental illness had a personal effect on me that I was not expecting. When I shadowed Roderick in the beginning, he kept on telling me to go check on the guests, as we always want them to feel welcome and comfortable. At this point, I was the one feeling uncomfortable. I was slightly offended because I thought that I was, indeed, a guest. As I continued to shadow Roderick, I realized he had misread my name. In Second Life, my name is Jennings. In his madness, Roderick misread my name and called me Jenkins. Jenkins is the servant. It all made sense why I was being told to walk down to the kitchen and get some tea for Madeline and Roderick or constantly being told to check on the guests.

My beta test goal was to discover different improvements to enhance the House of Usher Simulation. The test goal was probably harder than my secret goal. The simulation of the House of Usher is truly spectacular. From the booming sound effects to the intricate details in the walls, everything felt so real. If I had to make some suggestions, my first improvement would be to add more Victorian furniture, as a hallmark of the Victorian Era is the very beautiful, lush, and ornate furniture. The existing furniture made certain rooms, such as the dining room, come alive with their realistic and interesting niceties.

Secondly, I would suggest the inclusion of more functional maps, as some I was given proved useless. Because this was my first time in the house, I could not wait to explore its rooms and hoped to return. If the students were required to revisit to the house and work with the actors twice, enhanced maps would definitely be invaluable.

We should check to see if they were buried alive??

If I was given the chance to be a participant and the ability to change the plot line in Poe's short story in "Fall in the House of Usher", I would have made Roderick Usher go and try see if his sister was still alive.

Roderick Usher had said he was crazy and hearing voices did not help with his sanity.

What would have happened if Roderick Usher had gone down to the underground tomb to see if his suspicions were true? Maybe Roderick Usher would not have died out of fear and shock as his sister was running towards him.

"WHAT STREET?" "WATTS STREET!" "WHAT STREET??" "WATTS STREET!"

Second Life is supposed to be a way for people with different interests, races, sexes, and, but not limited to, sexual orientations to come together, escape, and hopefully have a good time. When Second Life was first introduced, the creators hoped that eventually businesses could have meetings in Second Life.

This dream is coming true as shown through my teacher, Iggy, who frequently holds meetings with other educators in Second Life. Even though it looks like that it's really easy to have these meetings, I believe the opposite. I have reasoned that the biggest problem Second Life faces as a communications technology is that it is not very easy for the "newbs."

My teacher, Iggy, has been working with Second Life for over two years. I have been working with Second Life for barely two months. I can not think about having meetings in Second Life. I would not even know how to start one or where it could be held.

I do not think that there is any thing in the "Getting Started" guide for Second Life on how to start or where to hold a meeting. I would love to know how to start a meeting in Second Life because the future is going to make us have these meetings in places like Second Life.

There are People Even More Complicated than the Egyptians

When I first heard that we were going to explore Heritage Key, I was really excited. I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt. When we were told we were going to explore King Tut's tomb, I was even more excited. I was excited because I have always loved Ancient Egypt culture.

When I arrived, my excitement turned into frustration. It is really hard to get around Heritage Key. The graphics also take a long time to load, adding to my frustrations. What I did get to see was quite interesting, because the detail that was included in the recreation of King Tut's tomb was just remarkable. The work that went into recreating each of the paintings must have been great. I also found the footprints intended to be of Howard Carter to be quite comical. This is because you can follow the "steps" of Howard Carter.

GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!!

I had the opportunity to go to an event called Burning Life. Burning Life is one of Second Life's biggest events. I went to a concert that played electronic music. When I arrived, I was a little tentative. I was amidst about 20 Second Lifers all dancing and I did not want to ruin their party as I was a newbie that decided to leave my "home base", Richmond Island.

As soon as I arrived, I was immediately greeted by some of the attendees. I stood on the side and just watched. I will admit, I was nervous as I was entering a real Second Life function. A avatar saw me standing on the side and gave me a free dance "chip" so my avatar could dance. Thanks to this kind avatar, I was able to engage and have fun with the rest of the group.

Do you see the light??

I am so excited to go to my first Second Life function called "Burning Life."

One event that I am thinking about attending is the Fashion Show on the 17th. I love fashion and the way the show was described really intrigued me. I thought it was really cool that the models created their own outfits and they all wanted to surprise the audience.

Just keep searching; just keep searching; just keep searching, searching, searching

I get really excited about the scavenger hunts because it requires me to put away all of my biases, such as Second Life is odd, and pick apart all of what Second Life has to offer.

I would like to give you a continuation of my scavenger hunt from a few weeks ago.

One of my favorite places on campus is the iconic bridge and gazebo which connect the both sides of my university. This bridge is very historic. When the school was separated by gender, this bridge would connect the schools, and give the students a place to meet before they went on dates. The school used to lock a gate on both sides so the students would not be able to secretly cross to either side in the middle of the night.

During my perspective student tour, I was told a myth which said that if you kiss someone on this gazebo, you are destined to marry them. Some people have found this myth to actually come true!

Even though I see this place everyday, it still amazes me that I can log on to a virtual world and see this through my computer screen.

Questions, anyone??

When I was told I was going to be using this world called Second Life, I was a little bit skeptical. When I entered the world, as I have said before, I was amazed at all of the intricate structures that had been created virtually here on Second Life. Who are the "masterminds" that are creating these islands?

People spend hours upon hours working on the replicas of famous building and building their islands. Do these people have real jobs? There are only twenty four hours in a day. How can anyone have a job, work meticulously in Second Life and still have time for family, friends, and most importantly SLEEP!? I only do about a quarter of what I am describing and I still have trouble finding time for family, friends, and sleep.

Knowing all of this led me to the claim, people who create these islands, for the most part, must not have jobs, work in Second Life, or work for companies that allow them to play with Second Life.

Do you want sources with that??

Sources , sources, sources....

When I was an uninformed middle schooler, sources were the biggest pain. When we would do our big term papers, I would dread the task of finding and using the sources because I did not understand how much they added to my paper.

Sources add so much additional depth to one’s paper. In college, they are the particular aspect of one's writing that is going to make his or her point seem legitimate. Without sources, as stated by my teacher Iggy O, one's writing is a mere opinion and will not be appreciated among an academic audience.

Personally, I have found this to be true in my writing in college.

When a professor gives you a writing assignment, most people moan and groan because they do not want to do it. In these writings, the professor will ask you to use sources because they want to check to make sure you understand the book, but also practice citations.

When using sources in my writing, I have found that my writing is stronger. I have facts to support what I have to say. Because I have those facts, the professor has to concede with my opinion even if he or she does not agree with it because I have these sources.

I do not even know what my writing would sound like if I did not have sources backing up what I had said. If we did not have to use sources and my or another student's opinion did not agree with the teacher's, there could possibly be some grade changes, even if the teacher said that he or she puts their bias "away" while grading. Instead, when sources are used effectively to support an argument, the writing becomes very strong. Also, the student never has to worry about the teacher's bias because the claims are supported.

A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view!

In my last blog post, I reported on my complete amazement of this new world called "Second Life."

After getting acquainted with this new world, my teacher told us that we were going to do a scavenger hunt. Sadly, when I think of scavenger hunts, I think of little fifth grade girls screaming, running randomly about, claiming to look for all the different clues. Perhaps that is because I was once one of those fifth grade girls. However, I instantly realized that this college-level scavenger hunt would be quite different. I could feel myself being thrown into this tantalizing new world called Second Life, to which I had just been introduced a mere two weeks earlier.

My excitement about Second Life came as a revelation, meaning it was not my original state of mind.

Let me take you back to what I first felt....

It was about 12:30 AM and I decided that the landmarks were ready to be divided up between my editing group. Each group member had about 5 landmarks to visit and take interesting snapshots. Since my Mom was in town, I had a somewhat feeble excuse to put off doing this scavenger hunt until the very last moment. I was completely surprised when I teleported to these islands and noticed how intricate all the details were on every building. I was being selfish in my original pre-notions about these islands in Second Life. I never realized how cool the other islands were because I had never ventured off Richmond Island.

One of my favorite places I had visited was the International Space Museum. When I first walked in, I thought, "This is a normal museum. It has some cool exhibit. WAIT! I have to take a photo here. I have to make it interesting. Let's fly! Maybe, I can get on top of this beach ball." What museum can you fly and jump on top of one of the exhibits?? ( If someone finds a museum where you can do that, please tell me!) In Second Life, you can! There are no security officers to keep you from doing these things.

Another place I visited was Mexico. I have never been to Mexico; so, I was very excited to see what virtual Mexico looked like. I loved it! What first attracted me was all of the vibrant colors; but as I walked around I started to see all of the history that was woven throughout this country. My picture shows both sides of the Mexico, the history and the bright lights.



I love New York. My best friend lives there, so of course I get excited when I get to go visit her. When we are about 10 minutes from landing at LaGuardia and we fly over Manhattan and I see those lights, people must think that I am five and not 18 years old. We always stay in and do everything in Manhattan. We might venture to Long Island or to Summit, New Jersey (which is about 20 minutes from the city), but a place that is never at the top of our list is Harlem. I got to visit Harlem in Second Life! It was so cool! I walked around for a little bit at night, which is something I would probably never attempt in real life for fear of criminals lurking in the alleys just waiting to attack the tourist from Tampa. I was attracted immediately to the Apollo Theater because of its architectural beauty and the culture that comes from within its walls.

If you want to see all of the pictures, visit my page on Koinup!

If we follow what Aladin says, we find a whole new world and new fantastic point of view!

Avatar naming..not just all fun and games

As we were all told to pick our avatar names, I looked at my teacher Iggy and shrugged my shoulders. He asked me, "Does anyone in your family have a interesting name? " I said "yes," and then chose my last name. Jennings Soulstar was born. As a first name, it sounded cosmopolitan and over the top, just like me.

Many of you may ask, "Why would someone want to be on Second Life and have their own avatar?" A week ago, I couldn't have answered that question. When my teacher first told us about Second Life, I thought he was a little kooky or was a man who had never grown up. Are college courses really made up of video games? I never liked video games as a child, so I would not start liking them in college, especially if a grade for a class is hinging on there development. When I logged on to Second Life for the first time, my opinion completely changed. The choices for the avatar are limitless. For instance, any avatar can visit the Sistine Chapel, something I have only dreamed about. Not only can your just visit the Sistine Chapel, but also fly and buy clothes for free! I can't wait for her next adventure!

WAIT! REVISION AND REWRITING DON'T MEAN THE SAME THING?!

Well, why do we use revision and rewriting interchangeably? They are not synonymous.

When students write papers in high school, they are often told to go home and revise them. When I was told to do this, I would often take a cursory look at my paper and change a few words or maybe an awkward sentence or two. I would turn it in, get the paper back, and sometimes find "How much revision was actually done?" written on my paper. I was baffled by my teacher's comments. The real definition of the word revision is "to see again"(Hjortshoj 60). So, technically was I following the actual definition of the word? I "saw" it again. Wasn't I following the teacher's directions? I thought so.

What about rewriting? What is rewriting? According to Hjortshoj, rewriting is "changing what you have previously written(60)" That sounds more like what my teacher wanted. My teacher wanted me to actually rework my sentences and make my paper stronger.