We had a second great night with Mary and Blair in Qtown, toasting marshmallows by an open fire, drinking another couple of bottles of red and listening to Mary belt out a few tunes on the guitar including some rehashed Demitri Martin. We got on the road again headed to the West Coast, and it is finally starting to feel like we are on the road.
We arrive in Haast around 7 and the weather is perfect - nothing like we had been told it would be. We fuel up at a ridiculous $1.76 a litre and head out to a holiday park at Haast beach. Its quiet, calm and aside from the mosquitos its really nice. There is a large group on a bus with matching tents dotted all over the grass, but the camp has a great atmosphere and we settle in for the night.
We make noodles for dinner in the community area, where a bunch of tourists are watching Harry Potter and playing cards. A large tattooed Swedish man is wandering around drinking straight whiskey and chatting with a couple of older guys, who it turns out are from Dunedin as well.
Despite the mossie fight its a great place and we fall asleep with the crash of the waves just outside the camp
It has taken a while to get started but the much anticipated migration offshore is finally underway. It's a hot sunny day in Queenstown and the town is alive with people enjoying the sun - as well as those trying to escape from it in the air conditioned stores.
Mary's house is perched up on a hillside about 20kms out of the centre of Queenstown. It is a custom designed home that is a shadow of its former glory, but the bones are still there hinting at the once modern wooden angular home it used to be. A large concrete sculpture adorns the front yard made by a local artist back when the house was first constructed. The design was featured in a womans magazine at the time, but is now in dire need of some real tlc to bring its back to its glory of days gone by.
After lunch in Gore yesterday (an extended stay due to the headlights being left on...) we arrived at Mary's to spend the evening on the deck, sipping Peregrine and chatting about life and what we have all been doing. The sky came alive after dark and we stargazed for a while, spotting sattellites and shooting stars with an almost child like delight. The serenity makes it really feel like an escape - something I could definitely get used to.
Briefly catching up on emails now, hoping to hear from those scattered north so we might catch up along the way! Our next stop will be somewhere along the west coast, perhaps somewhere near Haast. Suggestions welcome!
More soon,
Em ^_^
Out of one of my RSS feeds jumped a website called Games With A Purpose, which looked to be worth a visit. I’m always sceptical about how ‘meaningful’ games will look and feel, but the GWAP web interface is shiny and cute so at least we’re off to a good start.
GWAP’s motto is, quite literally, to make “games with a purpose” – in this case, using 5 simple (yet strangely addictive) games to train computers to ‘solve problems’ in a similar way to how we humans do it.
There are five games currently available which are all designed to teach computers to be smarter – ‘human smarter’. Initially this seems like it might be a bit of a chore. The games vary between having to choose between images, listen to audio or describe words, but after a short sign up, I am a level 1 gwapling and ready to play.
Initially, and as always, I am hesitant about playing with other people online. I still feel quite uncomfortable about that. But GWAP overcomes this by automatically pairing you with another person online as if you were just waiting for the game to load. You simply select to play, and they will match you with someone else who is ready to play. You don’t need to know their name, where they live, or what elf costume they are wearing.
I tried ‘Verbosity’ first – a game which requires you to take turns in both describing and guessing a random word with a partner. You have 4 minutes to guess and describe as many words as you can, each word being worth a predetermined amount of points. If you get it right as a team, you both get rewarded with points, and the system stores your responses for future use. The time limit adds a sense of urgency, and it is self-moderating as it is in the best interest of the team not to cheat. The other games follow much the same pattern – you play with a partner to gain points by trying to communicate with each other using drawing, sound, key words and so on.
In a few plays I had levelled up to a ‘gwappie’, and I find myself surprisingly addicted. What is effectively a glorified data entry system becomes an interesting challenge with a game wrapper around it. And while we play to score points and challenge our knowledge, the data is incredibly useful to make search engines more effective and accurate, ultimately better for everyone.
GWAP shows that using a simple game mechanic with a clean, quirky style can make even the most mundane of tasks enjoyable. Couple that with accessibility to everyone, and you have a great wee example of meaningful play.
