Missive From Strangers From Friends by JJason Recognition, rongo rongo
January 3rd, 2008 9:32 PMFor the second part of our tasking, Rongo Rongo and I set out to the hall of MIT to search out people to write postcards to our dear friends. For postcards we used some old cards Rongo Rongo had kicking around, which we had earlier addressed and stamped. We started out with six postcards, two to my friends and four to Rongo Rongo's friends, mostly because I couldn't think of very many of my friends addresses. I made a sign to attempt to legitimize the entire procedure and get people to help easier but it didn't actually successfully draw anybody in. Everybody we got to write for us were thanks to Rongo Rongo asking them.
Our first set of strangers were a pair of MIT students in a lounge, who both wrote messages in Chinese. Next we ambushed a trio outside the MIT convenience store and the final letter was written by a man who was sitting alone. All of the people seemed pretty confused by our requests and we usually had to tell them several times that they could write anything they wanted. One of the trio mentioned that he'd heard of something similar to this recently - I have no idea where. My favorite postcards are either the one who wrote "This is a postcard. That is all." or the chinese ones, which probably have something dirty on them.
After getting all six postcards written, we mailed them out right away after a short search for a mail box. One more task to go!
rongo rongo
I've decided it's much better to have company when you go out and interact with strangers. My guess is that if they see you have at least one friend, they figure you're not totally crazy. So I was quite pleased that JJason was interested in this task. Also, I think that it's good to approach small groups of people, because they'll egg each other on, and they'll feel more comfortable having their own friends around.
We walked up the Infinite Corridor looking for likely candidates. I love this hallway because it focuses what would otherwise be a trickle of people walking all around a large campus into a big two-way river of turbulence during the days. Chances are, you'll always see someone you know, since you'll walk by a few hundred people when it's busy. Even though it was pretty quiet, being evening and in between semesters, I did spot one person I knew as we walked up the hallway.
After we'd gathered up enough missives, we visited the MIT post office. It was closed and oddly, did not have any sort of drop-off slot or mailbox where you could leave outgoing mail. Peculiar. Luckily, we located a nearby mailbox. Our friends should be getting their missives in the next day or two!
I realized that my old friends would recognize my handwriting on the address---in hindsight, we should have addressed each others friends' cards. The best part was that some of the messages from these random people were perfect for the recipients! I will update with reactions as they come in.
And, I invite any of you who can read Chinese to chime in with a translation of the first two cards. Everyone else is welcome to speculate.
Updates on received cards
5 January - Saw CA, and he said "I don't suppose you're in the habit of sending postcards with cryptic messages signed AP?". Admitted that this was part of an SF0 task, and that I didn't know the person who wrote the message but assumed that their initials were AP.
6 January - JWM says he thought the postcard might have been from a Korean coworker.
6 January - Had a short dialog with EM's husband.
rr: Did you get a postcard?
dm: Yes. Is this part of a postcard conspiracy?
rr: Yes.
9 January - emailing with Moussie, asked whether he had gotten any postcards lately. He said that he got one from the MIT area but didn't recognize the sender's name.
Updates on Korean text
Flitwick the Traveler translates the card to JWM:
These lines are a series of greetings. The first line is (approximately) "I pray for your health" and is something you would say if you are departing for an extended period of time. The third is "I pray for you happiness" and is something you would say if, for example, someone gets married. The fourth is similar to I pray for your health and is something you might say commonly as a Happy New Year greeting.
A friend tells me that the card to WB says
I wish that you're happy and healthy in 2008.
From handsome at MIT
you're legit if you've got a sign
HELP US WRITE POSTCARDS
three agreeable strangers
These nice folks looked at us funny when we approached, but then wholeheartedly wrote messages.
special olympics cards
These postcards were made from a set of Special Olympics cards and feature art drawn by participants
to JWM
This goes out to a friend that rongo dated nearly 20 years ago (and still hangs out with almost weekly). He needs a little more cryptic in his life, I think.
to WB
This card went to a friend of JJason's at college who he enjoys doing confusing things to. So this is more of the same.
to EM
This is perfect, because this message is totally something that EM would say herself! EM is rongo's friend who has made an SF0 character but not done any tasks. Hopefully this will encourage her.
to CD
CD is another of JJason's friend from college (all of JJason's letters went to college friends since they all had the same adress) who will probably enjoy this short tale of aquarium visiting.
to CA
rongo rongo met CA a few years ago but only started really talking to him lately. I think this message is appropriate because he's a philosophical person and might be amused.
to Moussie
Moussie has assisted in several of rongo rongo's previous tasks, but claims to have no interest in playing SF0. Well, he gets a postcard anyways.
only slightly maniacal glee
rongo rongo is imagining her friends receiving these postcards
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Where's Flitworth? Can she translate?
I'd believe Korean. I was guessing Chinese because after they wrote the messages they asked me if I was Chinese, but I suppose that doesn't actually mean that they were Chinese.
That is *so* something that EM would say.
And yes, JWM needs more cryptic in his life. :)
Yeah, that definitely looks more like Korean than Chinese.
I'm 99.98% sure that that's Korean. I'm 100% sure it is not Chinese.
I can confirm that I have received one of the cryptic postcards. I even figured out where it came from (after some work).
I'm slightly bummed that I only discovered this game last month ~ I'd have loved to get points for this. As it is, I think I'll do it *anyway* -- Hey! Maybe next era I will make a task that is "Do a retired task" Eh, wot?!
(now is when someone points me to the "Simpsons/WoW did it" post that proves my task idea is old news? :)
Not to worry Ombwah---if you write to the folks running the game, they often unretire a task by special request. So I encourage you to put in a request and check back in a little while.
You can also do retired (and pretired) tasks for the fun of it! Although we'd love to hear about it if you do; it's worth posting about such things in the comments on the task itself. (This is known as a "level zero" completion, and there is a team consisting entirely of people who have done one. Also, sometimes people vote on your player photo if they think your level zero work is worth giving you a vote for.)
driving through downtown la you learn how to tell the difference between Ktown Jtown and Ctown....chinese = very confusing characters... japanese = very confusing characters with some simple ones korean = very distinctive because it has tons of little "o"'s on most of the letters. ...awesome tasking!
that looks like korean to me