Mjweatherwax's Weblog

Blog Assignment #6

mjweatherwax — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:21:58 +0000

The machinima I watched was called “Mask.” This particular machinima was interesting because it showed many different avatars’ faces morphing from one to the next. A song played in the background the entire time, which made it remind me of a music video. The best part was at the end, the man who made it showed his own avatar last, and it morphed into himself in real life. I especially liked this machinima because it depicted people’s actual avatars. Considering one of my favorite things about Second Life was designing my own avatar’s physical features, I really enjoyed seeing other people’s. This video highlighted not only all the different possibilities available in designing an avatar, but also the diverse characters people come up with. It showed the virtual diversity of Second Life in an artistic way.

I think machinima is one of the best things I’ve seen through Second Life so far. It connects our real life interest in YouTube with the virtual world of Second Life. Although it’s not as funny as most of the videos I tend to watch on YouTube, it was entertaining nonetheless. I just think it’s cool what people can do with 3-D animations like this, especially ones that represent real people.

Blog Assignment #5

mjweatherwax — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:28:58 +0000

My impression of Second Life has changed drastically since the beginning of the quarter. To be honest, at first I thought it was kind of a silly thing for people to join. I also found it very confusing. Now, I think it is a very useful program that many organizations should take advantage of. After witnessing what other groups accomplished within the program, I can see the benefits of a virtual world. Through the projects with the museum and the freedom center, I can see how it works as an interactive tool that brings history to life.

The thing I found most appealing about Second Life was the ability to create my own avatar and have her interact with others. The most useful aspect of Second Life was the chat function, which enabled me and my group to communicate without being in the same room. The least appealing thing about Second Life was the limited access. The program would not run very well on my computer, so I had to go to the library to use it outside of class. The least useful thing about Second Life was the many clothing items our group found which were unable to be shared on the UC Island. This made it impossible to complete our original task and was frustrating.

After this class, I doubt I will continue to use Second Life, mostly because it doesn’t run correctly on my computer. Maybe if I get a new one soon, I will be more willing to continue my adventures in Second Life!

Blog Assignment #4

mjweatherwax — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:24:08 +0000

On February 25, we were asked to visit our community partners. Because our community partner is UC, we were already familiar with the environment and didn’t need to make a visit. Instead, we as a group got together and worked on our task for this project. We searched many places in Second Life for free clothing items we could purchase and add to the shop on the UC Island. This task turned out to be very difficult because everything we found that was free was not transferable and couldn’t be used to share with others. It was also hard to find the business attire we were instructed to find. Despite all this, we still took a picture at one of the locations we browsed for freebies.

Blog Assignment #2

mjweatherwax — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:45:41 +0000

My experience at Ivory Tower was very confusing at first, but was pretty simple once I got the hang of things. After playing around with the different options, I feel that I learned a lot through the tutorial. It showed me how to build different shapes in Second Life and also how to change their position, color, and size. Building seems to be pretty easy, but sometimes re-positioning the object was difficult. This may have been a result of a slow internet connection, though. The tutorial took me about 20 minutes to complete along with figuring out how to take and send a picture. I built a pink half sphere and posed on top of it for my picture (below). I definitely feel more comfortable about building things in second life now, and am happy that I finally got my BlogHUD account working properly!

Me and my creation at the Ivory Tower tutorial
posted by MaryJane Weatherwax on Natoma using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Blog Assignment #3

mjweatherwax — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:25:02 +0000

For our community partner, which is UC, we were instructed to search for and purchase various articles of clothing for the UC Island’s shop. We built boxes to place the items in and separate them into categories, such as the men’s clothing form the women’s clothing. I felt good about working with others in Second Life because I was having a hard time figuring out how to do various things, like searching for places, taking pictures, and purchasing items. With other people working with me, it made it easier to figure everything out. We also used the chat to help each other out when we couldn’t be in the same room. My BlogHUD was not working at first, but with some help from a fellow group member, I was able to redo everything and get it up and running. Below is a picture of our group sitting on one of the boxes we made.

Check this out!
posted by MaryJane Weatherwax on University of Cincinnati using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Blog assignment #1

mjweatherwax — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:16:53 +0000

My first memory of video games was when my older brother got a Nintendo for Christmas. It was the late 80’s and I was about four or five years old. I quickly became interested in playing games with my big bro like Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We also would rent games form our local video store like Paperboy and Tetris. In the early to mid 90s, I remember my brother getting a Sega and a Game Boy. We would spend weekends trying to beat Sonic or battling each other in Mortal Kombat on the Sega, and take turns playing Kirby’s dreamland on the Game Boy. When my younger brother got old enough, he would join in our games. It was one of the few things the three of us all did together as kids. It brought more positive feelings among us and made us spend more time together.

These days, I don’t play many video games, but my brothers continue to be big gamers. Besides the Nintendo, the Sega, and the Game Boy, they also have a Nintendo 64, a Game Cube, an X box, and the Nintendo Wii. Playing with these game systems is something they do together and can bond over, despite their 8 year age difference.

Hello world!

mjweatherwax — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:29:03 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!