House of Usher: Baby Sitting Madeline

Hastening to the House of Usher based on an urgent request from my dear old friend Roderick Usher, my companions and I were oblivious to the horrors that awaited us. Weary from our travels, my companions and I stopped in a village right outside the Usher mansion. During our visit, we found out that the situation was even more unnerving than Roderick's letter described. The villagers told us about an ancestral curse that hovers over the mansion and provided additional insight to our friends incurable and peculiar maladies. The villagers also informed us that they had not seen either Madeline or Roderick leave the house in many months because of their situation. My companions and I were horrified to hear about the distressing situation of our friends, so we hastened on in the morning to the house to see if we could help.


Arriving at the Usher mansion, my friends and I were astounded by the condition of the house. The exterior was dilapidated and eerie. We hesitantly entered the house and continued to the upstairs section where we encountered our dear friends. They greeted us with gracious welcome and expressed their sincere happiness that we were able to come visit them.

After pleasantries were expressed, I asked Roderick to explain more about his letter and why he summoned my companions and I there so urgently. I wanted to know what he thought we could do to help his sister and him. Roderick then explained about their situation. He said that their situation became worse after their mother's death and the family is now plagued by economic problems. They also believe that the house is haunted by a spirit and if they go outside the curse will kill them. For this fact, Roderick and Madeline do not go outside. We tried to convince the Usher's that there was no curse, but they would not believe otherwise, so we decided to investigate the house, while the Usher's rested.


With Roderick's permission, to investigate his house, my companions and I tried to find the sources of the Usher's beliefs about a curse and the house being haunted. My friends and I all took turns following Madeline around because Roderick told us that her illness was worsening and baffling her doctors. We wanted to make sure no harm came to her. Madeline's declining health, was one of the main reasons that Roderick called us to his home.

We needed to keep tabs on Madeline so while one watched her, the others explored and questioned Roderick. Opening up, he told us all about his mother's passing and how hard it was on his sister and him. They have not been the same since. He showed us a picture of her in the house and is convinced her ghost is haunting the house. There were some oddities about the house and we did randomly hear screams and objects moving when no one is around, but I was convinced that there was no ghost.

All the signs pointed to the fact that the Usher's have just been in the house too long, because no matter what I told them, they would not be convinced of anything else, but that they were cursed. So to ease their suffering we just followed them around and talked to them, and tried to take their mind off all their issues. I think it worked because the random screams in the house started to diminish and the house seemed habitable again.

As the end of our visit drew near, both Madeline and Roderick seemed to be doing better. Madeline was did not seem to be aimlessly wondering around anymore and was in better spirits. I was hoping to help the escape the faith that I found in the basement. The skeleton was scary. I don't know who it was but I did not want it to happen to either of my friends. My companions and I were going to restore health to the Usher house. We seemed to have completed that mission.


Madeline was alive when we left the Usher house, so it seemed like we successfully saved her from being buried alive like in the actual story written by Poe. We did not cure the Usher's, but I think that we did help them in a small way but showing them that they have friends to count on and help them. Our trip to the Usher house was successful.

In hindsight, the actor's playing Madeline and Roderick were very good. They were very believable and never once faltered in their character roles. However, the role play would have been even better if verbal communication was possible. Their roles could be expanded by being able to verbally speak in the diction of the times. There was also some delay in the actor's typing so they could not move and type at the same time. That was a little cumbersome, but manageable. There also could have been a doctor in the simulation to speak about Madeline's condition. Roderick could have also read tales from the book mentioned in Poe's real story. This are all things that could expand the Usher's roles.

Mission Code Name: Saving Isis and Gender and Race Switch Project

Its the middle of November already!? This month has been a really busy month for my English class. We were assigned two fun, but in depth projects in Second Life and Heritage Key. One was called Saving Isis and the other was called a Gender and Race Switch. These were time consuming projects and we had to write long Wiki projects on them, but I still managed to have fun while completing them. We worked in groups for our Saving Isis project, and I even was fortunate enough to complete at least the adventure part of our gender and race switch project with a friend.

For our Saving Isis project, we were challenged with the task to find a way to save the mural Howard Carter destroyed when he uncovered the Tomb of King Tut. He had cut through a beautiful mural of an Egyptian Goddess, just so he could remove the sarcophagus of the King.  Carter discovered the tomb in 1922 and didn't have the same technology we have, so my group of peers and I set out to devised a plan to save her. After extensive research and much bickering between our group, we came up with a final solution. We wrote and explained all about our plans in our wiki's how we bypassed the mural and rescued King Tut's sarcophagus an treasures without destroying Isis.

Our second project was a gender and race switch project, in which we had to switch our avatar's race or gender. I transformed into a African American female and my friend transformed into a blond haired girl. Our task was explore Second Life and see if we were treated differently. I was fortunate to share this experience with a friend. Luckily, I was not discriminated against at all in Second Life and instead I was actually flirted with. As me and my friend explored, we took pictures of the people we met and interacted with, so we could write our project about our experiences in our new skin. We both had a pleasant experience and was able to write about something happy in out Wiki's. I had a blast.

These projects were long and time consuming, but they were the most interesting ones of my English class so far. I enjoyed solving the Isis mystery and my experiencing Second Life as an African American avatar. I had an intriguing and insightful experience working with these projects.

YoVille vs. Second Life

On Facebook, there is a miniature virtual world called YoVille that fairly resembles Second Life. In YoVille the avatars are very short with heads larger than their bodies. The avatars are very unrealistic, but I still play YoVille religiously. I am very addicted to YoVille, beacause it is very simple to understand, unlike Second Life. Second Life, I find, is much more complicated than YoVille, but definitely more sophisticated than it.

In YoVille, you are able create an avatar and dress it just like in Second Life, but in YoVille you are automatically given and apartment to decorate and use. This differs from Second Life, in which you need to purchase land if you want to build or decorate anything and you pay with real money. In YoVille, you are allotted two hundred coins initially to purchase furniture and decorations for you apartment. There are many shops were you can buy food, clothing and flowers because YoVille is its own little town. Once you run out of coins, though you can go to work and earn more. You can buy YoVille dollars with real money if you wish, but you don't have to. You can also earn coins by visiting your friends that are members too. Second Life does not allow you to earn Linden dollars and instead you have to pay real cash for them.

Second Life and YoVille are complete opposites. Second Life is much more realistic than YoVille, and much more advanced. There are also nowhere near as many avatars in YoVille as there is in Second Life, but to me YoVille is more fun to me. It is much more simplistic and sometimes simpler virtual worlds are better.

Altering Poe

"It was the work of the rushing gust- but then without those doors there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emancipated frame." The lines describe the mysterious Madeline Usher, who in Poe's story there is very little detail about who she was and what malady she suffered from. Her brother, Roderick Usher, is just as mysterious suffering from a different illness, which source is never found out and only hinted at in Poe's story. Why are these characters so mysterious to us and why does the narrator and Roderick's friend not explore more about the situation.

To change Poe's story, I would play Roderick's friend that he asked to come visit him. The friend/ narrator seems to be a bystander in the whole story. I would be a more active participant and try to uncover the cause of my friend aliments. I would definitely not just take my friend's word for it about his sister that the physicians could not cure her. The friend just seems to accept everything that Roderick says and does not question the mysterious nature of the the house and his friend and his sister. I would never let this happen. I would try to uncover the mystery so I could aid my friend's suffering instead of just letting him continue to slid into the darkness of his mind. If I was in the story, I would try to talk to Roderick about what happened since the last time that I saw him and then when I had the full story I could decide the best way to help him and his sister.

Roderick might be resistant to telling me about his history but I would press him until he told me. I would also have to be careful to determine if he is telling me the truth or not. Roderick did not seem in the right state of mind, so he might not be able to recall how he came to be in this condition. I would not let that deter me. I would try asking the servants what they have seen and heard. Once I could understand the problem I would be able to find the solution.

I would alter Poe's story in this way, because as Poe wrote it, there are too many unanswered questions left at the end. The mysterious ending fascinates some readers, but I was left very frustrated and annoyed and would really enjoy be able to change the story.

Second Life...A good communications technology?

How do you work this? The biggest problem SL faces as a communications technology is its not easy and accessible for everyone to use. Second Life is a difficult technology to decipher without have an "inside" source, e.g. an experienced Second Life user. I don't think I would have every been able to figure out how to create and modify my avatar without the assistance of my teacher. He has been involved with Second Life technology for a while  and I never would have figured out how to teleport anywhere or talk to anyone without him! Most people don't have time to sit down and read pages and pages of instructions or tutorials. They want to just be able to easily communicate and navigate around. Second Life lacks this quality factor of a distinguished communication technology.

Second Life software, in simplest terms, needs to be "dumbed" down for even the most technologically challenged person to understand how it works. I believe when Second Life is  easier to use, then more people will join to be able to explore and talk and hang out with friends that they rarely get to see. It is just too complicated right now and less people are joining, so the world looks empty. Second Life has loads of potential to be an excellent communications technology, but work still needs to be done to promote and search for new members and expand the world by making it business-friendly. Only then in my opinion, will Second Life be an awesome way for people and businesses to communicate. Once Second Life is simpler I believe more people will join.

Avatars Have Feelings Too!!

Cinderella and I, It and I or how should I refer to my extension, since we are not the same? This is the question I now propose since it has been brought to my attention that I have been assimilating myself too much with my avatar, Cinderella. To what extent can an avatar be considered a person? If avatars are not people, well virtual people, what is Cinderella? A virtual computer thing just shaped like a person?  It's not me, it's a digital copy, just an online representation of my personality, or is it?

Ahhhh! All those many questions are daunting me and just roaming around in my head. I have actually contemplated and reflected on them randomly many times already in my classes. I still cannon figure out the best way to refer to my avatar without always saying "my avatar." I believe that Cinderella is a part of me, an extension of my personality, so I don't see any reason not to say "Cinderella and I" but is that correct way of referring to it/her? I do not believe that I am at the point where my avatar and I have become one, as some people have mentioned to me, because my avatar lives in a completely different world than I do. Possibly on some rare visits Second Life, Cinderella and I have become one, only because I have found myself being immersed in SL as I am sure many of you have. I do still know the difference between reality and virtual reality and i have not blurred that boundary yet. So Cinderella is not me, but then again what is it/she? I created her and control her and tell her what to say, so what does that make it/her?

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I feel like I have gone around in circles trying to figure theses questions out and so now I am asking for help. My question to everyone is..What is your avatar to you and how do you refer to him/her/it? I am so confused!!

Another Virtual World to Explore?

Another account activation + another software download + another avatar created and appearance changed + a ballon ride to Egypt= joining the Heritage Key Virtual World. A few days ago I joined the Heritage Key Virtual world and began to explore. Even though all the control buttons were the same to handle the avatar, congruently there were multiple differences between Heritage Key and Second Life virtual worlds. 

Some differences were Heritage Key avatars were uglier, in my opinion, and the world was much more based for education than Second Life. Heritage Key is a re-created simulation of the excavation of King Tutankhamun's tomb which gives it a historical base and Second Life has places that are educational, but it is not based in education, more for just entertainment. Also there were still very few places to visit and explore in Heritage Key and the world is not fully developed. Joining this new virtual world was another assignment for my English class that we will have to learn how to save the Isis mural that was destroyed when the tomb was first discovered. This is going to be a difficult task and I am going to have to do an abundant amount of research about archeology to even start to tackle this task.

Heritage key could be so much more interactive than it is now by telling us the history of the tomb or what the hieroglyphics on the walls mean. Some parts are really amazing replications of ancient Egypt artifacts, but the world is still under developed. I need to explore much more to see the real benefits of the new Heritage Key virtual world.