Monday, March 26, 2007

Real Car, Virtual Car - Same ANNOYANCE!


This week there was a curious synergy of car problems - both with my real car that I drive to school and such and with my virtual car that I drive around on Whyville. My real car needed a renewed registration - a 3-month long hassle of DMV letters that never arrived, checks sent that were sent back, and finally a last-resort visit to the DMV. My virtual Scion (a limited edition winter scion - see picture with me in my new fedora posing suavely next to it) had a similar barrage of problems this past week as well. Trying to be on top of my Whyville banking, I had paid my weekly car payment early (I owe 1086 clams a week through April) but unfortunately Whyville's server had a bug in it and while the money was deducted, they didn't "see" the payment. This resulted in my receiving a letter about a LATE PAYMENT!

Now, I am doing all right for myself on Whyville, with three accounts now, and one beautiful head selling pretty well, but I can't make two car payments in a week, so I quickly ymailed a City worker who ymailed back and told me to EMAIL City Hall, from whom I recently got an email saying they were investigating it. But meanshile, they've already deducted the extra 1086 clams from my account, as soon as the money had been earned (they watch the bank account carefully, I guess).

I guess virtual cars can be frustrating too, but I wasn't expecting virtual ownership to be such a pill!

Debbie/Oriahsiri

Monday, March 19, 2007

early results on speed in Whyville


So I finally got the ruler to work - it's pretty fun. I already had one person race for me and recorded two pieces of data. Then I went to the data upload site where they told me what I recorded "oriahsiri ran 500 pixels in 6.7 seconds" and I had to divide the distance by time to get the speed and submit it.

Then I went to the graphs - here's one. I don't think there' much of a correlation.

But here's a really nifty thing! You can see which data points you entered! In part of my other life as a graduate student I'm working on a project where kids are analyzing statistical data about socially relevant issues (race, income, crime, school 'scores'). They're not collecting their own data, but if they were, and if they were dumping it all together in a collaborative thing, how cool would it be to pick out your own contributions! I was proud of my two data points, seen in the picture here.

:)
Debbie/Oriahsiri

Sunday, March 18, 2007

new 'science' research on Whyville


This is pretty funny and kind of cool. I logged in today to find out that there's a new activity on Whyville. Why do some people (i.e. avatars) move faster than others? By collecting data on how fast you can move in different parts of Whyville, and accumulating data as a community (you're awarded 4 clams for each data point you give - i.e. 'oriahsiri moved 300 pixels in 5.4 seconds) they're trying to develop theories about why some people move faster than others. Do too many face parts weigh you down? Does a higher salary make you go faster? It's kind of science, somewhat related to real life (distance = rate x time) but totally done in the context of Whyville.

I already tried to do my part but the 'ruler' and stopwatch aren't working yet, at least not for me. The room had a bunch of people though!

Debbie/Oriahsiri

Friday, March 16, 2007

Keeping up with Fashion: St. Patrick's Day on Whyville


Well, we've been talking about identification and avatars, and March 17, aka St. Patrick's Day is a case in point for me. First, there's a Whyville party (and probably fashion contest as usual). I don't know whether I'll be able to make it, but today I spent 256 clams on my new Irish look. I have to admit, it parallels my own practice on St. Patrick's Day because it's my birthday. Being both Irish (descent on both sides), red haired (first in four generations on either side), and born on March 17, this has always been an important day for me. Before I understood genetic, I actually believed my mom, who would tell people that I got my red hair because I was born on St. Patrick's day (actually since both parents have brown hair, I was quite a surprise coming out of the womb!).

So historically I would always dress to the tee in green, shamrocks, pins, etc. on March 17. In fact, I had an entire set of shamrock jewelry (necklace, earrings, pins) from my great-aunt before it was stolen in high school. And you wouldn't believe the number of birthday cards there are for people born specifically on St. Patrick's Day! I know, because I've probably been given them ALL.

So I had to dress up not just in person (I made sure to wear all three pairs of socks with clovers/shamrocks, shamrocks & Guinness beer this week) but also in Whyville. After all, some kids took the time to make face parts special for the occasion - I'm only sporting a small percentage of them! I tried to make my own emerald necklace but it hasn't been approved yet.

Supporting the fashion economy of Whyville,
Debbie/Oriahsiri

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Dark Skin in Whyville- new popularity?


Hey, so this is my first attempt at a post on cool news and ponderings about Whyville happenings. We recently finished a paper on race and avatar design in Whvyille, and I can't help but notice some neat looks that kids have designed. I've recently noticed a lot more cornrows on dark skinned faces on Whyville, like this one above. A new trend?

*Plus*, I have to say that my "rich brown head" on Whyville (one of only two face parts that I sell) is very popular, or at least seems to be. I think I've sold over 20 of those heads in the past month. Is this a sign, as some kids have hoped for in their Whyville newspaper writings, that peach skin might not be as dominant as before? I'm trying to get a cool looking matching skin body approved too, but no luck so far.