Fulltimer Urban Boondocker

[VickieP]

As requested, Annie is now added to our Member Map!

[Colliemom]

Hi and Welcome Annie, for northern MI. Glad to have you aboard.

[Anniepoo]

Whoo hoo!

Gotta watch out for them soldiers from Fort Ord.

You all were clamoring for pictures, so here they are!
Forgive the lack of me in them, I was behind the camera.

You'll have to forgive the lack of decoration and the mess - I just got her a few months ago, the priority has been making her run well.

This here's my baby on the outside



And looking back. You can see I've got a rear kitchen. It's got big sunny windows, I like that. The jalousy windows on the side are a real benefit.



A shot of my garbage can (isn't it frustrating how you see those things only AFTER you take the picture?)



And up front



That's ma' home sweet home! Hope you folks enjoy the pictures.

[BirdbyBird]

So glad you found us. You will be an inspiration for many! I love what you have done with what you have! You found what works for you and you just do it! I look forward to meeting you down the road. I do so want to drive out to CA in my RV.....

[gjkl]

I like ur clipper. welcome to the group. i would love to visit Calif.

[sharon]

Hmmph......everyone wants to come out here, but no one ever does, which is why I make the annual trek east just so I can get my GTG fix with my buddies!

Very nice rig Annie! Looks comfy.

[Anniepoo]

Sharon!

Come North!

[mtngal]

Yeah Sharon come north!!! . But not
while I'm in Texas!!!!

[sharon]

Sharon!

Come North!

Been there....lots of times!!! When I get home maybe we can get something going with Char (excel)

[sharon]

Yeah Sharon come north!!! . But not
while I'm in Texas!!!!

Yeah, Diane, cept' when you're in Tx I'm here and when you're here I'm back east!!

[Travelinana]

Welcome Annie....you sound like one who marches to her own drum I might have missed the name of your RV. She appears to have been well cared for. It's great when you find what suits just you. I have a 24' Chinook, don't think it would work for full time but for the amount I travel, it works fine. I too like to be able to unhook quickly and take off knowing all is with you so you never forget something. On one trip I went to a craft show and had a thought while looking that I'd left all my cash at the RV (in my mind that was at the RV park). I wanted to buy a few things but darn it didn't think I could because I forgot my money. When I arrived back at the RV it suddenly dawned on me..I felt like an idiot and was glad no one knew about this senior moment. Keep posting..it's what makes this forum fun.

[mitch5252]

..

Annie, can you please explain what a "Virtual World Specialist" is?
Certainly sounds interesting...

..

[AlmostThere]

Adding my late welcome!! Very nice rig, too!

[Anniepoo]

Travelinana - I haven't named her yet!
I like to let the names come slowly, on their own time. And, I just got her.
If by name you mean "American Clipper" - that's what she is, a 1978 American Clipper.


mitch5252

Annie, can you please explain what a "Virtual World Specialist" is?
Certainly sounds interesting...

ok, you asked for it....LONG POST WARNING....
It's a bit complicated, cause I do indeed have a weird job.

Anybody who'se been around a teenager in the last 10 years or so has been exposed to the sort of video games where you control a little 'you' character and 'you' run around in an imaginary world shooting at bad guys.

Given the general stupidity of computer bad guys, this gets old, and so some bright soul figured out they could connect teenagers together on the internet and let them shoot at each other.

Along about 2003 one of these kids, a bit more grown up and rich off his last internet startup, wondered what would happen if, instead of just paying artists to make a single world, he gave the people playing the game the ability to make the world. And, somewhere along the line, people realized there were other things the people could do than blow each other up.

So, Second Life was born. It's a so called 'virtual world'.

The idea took off, and people started building everything from vampire castles to comfy homes to who knows what.
Learning to actually make things isn't overly complicated, but it's complex enough that some people started offering classes in how to do it. And then somebody said, "Hey, we could teach OTHER stuff using this thing!"

The 'somebody' included the Department of Health and Human Performance at the Unversity of Houston.

So, if you take some courses at UH HHP you'll be asked to get a Second Life account. And you'll be directed to our 'land' in this virtual world, and have a chance to do things like watch joint receptors fire, assemble models of a Patellar reflex loop, stand inside a heart that's having a heart attack, watch videos about kinesiology, and do lots of other things.
Most of this happens in a learning path, a sort of museum made just for one class. Here's a part of a learning path. This one is currently about a mile long!



Here's a picture of me getting a PET scan- a medical procedure that's dangerous and costly and we could never have the students do in real life. But in Second Life they can have this experience.
As you can imagine, actually going through the experience, at least in this simulation, is a lot more effective way to learn about it than reading a book.



We want students to remember that the scan involves injection with radioactive dye, so we make them glow blue while they're radioactive. Of course people getting PET scans don't really glow blue, but our objective is to teach - anything to help people remember and understand (There's a sign, not in the picture, that explains that people don't really glow blue).

Sometimes it's inconvenient for students to get to our campus. We're in the heart of Houston, and coming back to campus in the evening for a group project meeting is a real pain for the students. So we also use Second Life to have group meetings. Here's me in Second Life. In the background is one of our outdoor meeting areas.



We have a record of where each student has moved when they were using our virtual campus. From that information we can figure out what areas aren't clear, what's confusing students, what students are skipping. We use the ability to automate the world to give lots of short, ungraded quizzes. From those we can tell what students are actually learning. It makes us more efficient with the students time.

Sometimes learning is boring. We have a game that takes a rather dry bit of memorization - the skin receptors and what stimulates them - and turns it into a silly game where you run around on some giant skin and jump up and down on the receptors to stimulate them.

Sometimes we have exploration activities - we have a giant 'reclining nude' statue. Above her is a brain. If you touch her the portions of her brain that would be activated in real life light up.

Some activities would be tough to do in real life. We have a couple blocks of city you can wander around in, turning on and off each of your several visual systems to understand what each does.

OK, if you're still with me - obviously somebody has to build all this stuff and program it so it works.

That's my job.

I'm a software engineer from the games industry.

I plan out the lessons, working with the professors. Then I make the 3D objects in the world, and 'paint' everything. If it's interactive, I write programs to make it interact.

I love that I'm using my talents to help improve people's lives. Much better than making 'Raster Blasters VII - Montezuma's Revenge!' And I'm happier making 100 ft tall spinal cords than making guns and such.

Many of our students are studying to be occupational therapists. Much of the material I make talks about strokes and stroke rehabilitation. I love that I might be helping a student learn more, and down the line they'll be better equipped to improve people's lives. So in a way it's me helping to improve people's lives.

The job's half time.
The other half of the time I'm working on various projects related to education and virtual worlds.
I sell a product called 'Pathways' - a tool teachers can use to help guide students through smething educational.
For example, suppose you wanted to orient new employees on a cruise ship.
You'd need a 3D model of the ship, obviously, but you'd also need a way to guide the new employee around, ask them questions, show them videos, etc. I build a system that does all that for you.

I also do some consulting. I'm working now on a project that teaches 'people skills' by having students interact with cartoon animals.

So, this is what I do. I love doing it, and consider myself incredibly blessed to be in the right place at the right time to have the skills and the luck to do this for a living.

Second Life is free and open to the public (only a small fraction of Second Life users are students).
You need a program called a viewer, and an account on Second Life, both of which are free, easy, and can be gotten here http://wwww.secondlife.com if this sounds like fun.
Besides educational stuff (of which there's loads) there's a lovely live music circuit (Imagine sitting in a cafe and listening to live moroccan music played by a band in Morocco), and lots of other social activities as well. If you try it, ask somebody how to send an instant message, and say howdy to Annie Obscure (that's me in Second Life).

[sharon]

All I can say is.....WOW! That is incredible! I'm absolutely blown away by what you do, your enthusiasm, and your talent!

I have a question...I have grandaughters, ages 8 and 9. Would this be a good computer program for them? Is there anything on there for kids that young? I have one that questions everything, never forgets and is fascinated by stuff like the spinal cord and the brain. Anything to do with science and she's on it.

Can't wait to meet you!

Oh yeah, another question....can you make me look like you????