This task sounded fun, and I wanted to try some distributed collaboration, so I contacted some other players who seemed bigger, better, or more bizarre than average. The plan was to perform the trading portion of this task in our separate locations during the same weekend and then compare results. I'm not actually sure if anyone else did it, but if not, maybe this write-up will spark more future interest.

I started by picking a costume that was somewhat attention getting, but not too weird. I also made a large sign, hoping to attract some attention. I enlisted a friend to be the photographer. We decided to stake out 77 Massachusetts Avenue, but it was too windy for my sign, so we went into the MIT student center. My theory was that students = backpacks = stuff.

I smiled and said hello to most people passing by. It was really strange purposely making eye contact with random people, because I usually do that urban thing where you ignore everyone else. Some folks traded, other failed to find anything to trade. Particularly interesting non-trades were a homeless person carrying many bags, but who couldn't find anything she wanted to part with, and an orthodox Jewish couple who were intrigued but could neither carry things nor trade them during the Sabbath. Also, two people carrying a huge box of theater props stopped by, but weren't able to trade away stuff.

After about an hour, we went outside closer to a dorm and hung out there for another 30 minutes. I was getting really cold, we so left once the foot traffic seemed to slow. My set of trades was not too impressive, but it was interesting trying to engage passers by. I started with a cotton ball and went through a tangerine, store receipt, game token, SpongeBob snack, RevolutionarySnakeEnsemble postcard, and block of wood. The postcard was particularly cool because it was offered up by the lead singer in the band.

I'm happy to add collaborators to this task if anyone else wants to join.

Cyber Kitty

I had to wait until the second weekend, but I finally got the courage to attempt this game. I knew it would be next to impossible to get people around the base to participate, so I decided to wait until I was on my R&R to hit my fellow vacationers up on this task. Upon arriving at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), I learned that my flight was full and that I would have to wait several hours for the next one. "AHA" said I - time to combine Bigger Better or more Bizarre with Waiting Game! The hardest part was finding something small and common to begin trading with. I finally settled on a pat of promise margerine that I had leftover from breakfast. I started at one end of the crowded waiting area and began working my way around it introducing myself and asking if anyone wanted to trade. The first table was happy to participate and offered me a bottle of water for my butter. I was then offered a tampon for the water, but turned it down figuring I would probably not be able to get rid of the tampon (men were outnumbering the women in this waiting area about 10 to 1). The next table was happy to trade a tube of lipstick they had found on the ground for my bottle of water. The next table was also more than willing to play - the captain dug around in her backpack until she found what I thought was the coolest item yet - a spray hand sanitizer/pen. I was already doing so much better than I thought I would and now that I had something pretty useful, I figured it would only get better. WRONG! The next table claimed they had nothing to trade except for a big rock nearby. I declined and kept on. No one else wanted to play. I finally gave up after three more tables and the embarrassment of my photographer (who pointed out to everyone that she had nothing to do with me, but was just taking pictures.) I went back to the last offered trade and finished off in what looks to me to be a tie with Rongo Rong with my big rock.

My thoughts on this task are that boy would this have gone better with civillians! The military folks kept looking at me like I was crazy. After I finished, I realized that the people who most seemed willing to participate were female. I don't know if that's because I was female and more confortable with other women than trying to talk to strange men or if the females were just more curious and willing to play a game with a stranger. Maybe the fact that we were all trying to get the heck out of Baghdad and had been/were going to be there for hours just killed the desire to have fun. On the off chance that this was the problem, I tried again once I was in Quatar, but I got no response whatsoever. People just didn't want to participate. sigh...