Useful stuff...sort of...

O.K. - yesterday I kind of ranted a little about how the Internet is partly to blame for some of what may be considered societies' ills (depending on your perspective of course.) So in all fairness, today I thought I'd give the Internet a few props and a hearty w007! (as some may say). Can you tell how out of touch I am?

Here are a couple of things I have stumbled across that I find interesting, or at least funny or useful.

Retarded News - there's this guy in England who puts out a news feed - mainly from the AP. The trick is, his feed randomly inserts the word Retarded or Totally Retarded into the title. It's kind of cool in a sick, twisted way. Check it out Here. I check it all the time now. Where else can you read: "US campaign broadens after Obama's retarded South Carolina win." What's not to love about that?

Blog Bumper Stickers - These are cool - cutesy things that you can "legally" copy and paste onto your blog. All you have to do is give them credit for it - and of course link to their site. Where else could you find a cool sign to post like this one?

Well, that's enough for today. Just my small way of apologizing to the Internet and saying that I'm sorry if I offended it yesterday. No hard feelings, right?

Know what I hate? Internet connections!

Sorry about the relative silence lately. Internet problems. I called my ISP provider - got to spend lots of time on the phone - waiting on hold (doo, do, do, do, doo.. do, do-ta do...). For the past week and a half our cable connection has been intermittent at best.

Of course, it happenned to resume working again right after I called to set a repair appointment. So I called back, ...more hold time (in case you were wondering - the doo,do, do should be hummed to the tune of The girl from Ipanema)

So, when I fanally talked to a human, I cancelled the appointment. (...Darn! and I was REALLY looking forward to waiting around all day for the cable guy too!).

Later, the @#$% connection quit working again! It's been up, then down. Today, it has been up - so, I've been sitting here all day gettin' my internet fix just in case it goes down again. I check things at work, but seldom post ( I'm s'posed to be working y'now).

'Nuff said. I'm going to end this post - should have several paragraphs ago. Just wanted to explain the absence.

Somebody stop me......

I have a new hobby folks. It's called E-bay. I still feel like I'm in control, but then there are those times when......I just gotta go looking for some obscure item at a yard sale- or worse yet, I start looking around the house to see what I can sell - cause it's just so much fun. (Let's not mention all the crap we've been buying lately...)

The other day I had that look in my eye (no, not the nervous twitch I sometimes get when I am tired and stressed out - those of you who know me well are chuckling right now). No, I had that wild look that said -"...what can I get rid of?" I asked Beth if we could get rid of a particular item in our house I didn't think we needed any more (we have four of them). She said - "No, I don't think its' legal to sell one of your sons on Ebay."

I do feel pretty proud of myself though - I found four 35mm cameras at a yard sale. They sat in the closet for about a year. I paid $5- .......just sold 'em on Ebay for $119 and some change.

So what's next? Do we really need that front door?????? Maybe someone wants a cat...hmmmm.

My advice - invest in a "REAL" life...

So, I have a really painful, huge confession to make. Brace yourselves....I wasted - yes WASTED about three hours of my life Saturday evening - simply because of curiosity. Let me 'splain.



I read an article a few weeks back discussing the "true" nature of certain violent crimes in light of international laws and in particular, the legal reach of certain territories as they pertain to.................... virtual space. It seems, there is a quandry with regards to the legal definition of rape and other violent crimes (child abuse, assault, etc...) in cyberspace - and in particular in the ever-popular virtual world - Second Life.



The article then went on to expound on how Second Life has grown into a whole economy of it's own - with virtual real estate, etc... Real world businesses, recording artists - even politicians are setting up virtual interfaces in this place that doesn't tangibly exist. Sweden (I believe) has even designed an Embassy in Second Life.



After hearing about this, I couldn't take it - Dangerous or not, I had to check it out.



I first heard about Second Life about 9 months ago. My good friend signed up and checked it out for a while. He eventually got bored with it and I don't believe he's been back for a few months.



The big deal about Second Life is that it has literally been taking over people's lives. There are people who are becoming overnight millionaires by creating stuff in this virtual world (virtual real estate - furnishings for their virtual houses - you name it - all because people are willing to pay real (real world dollars) for this "virtual" stuff. Crazy!!!!! I had never gotten around to checking it out. That changed after I read the latest article. (I would link to it, but I can't find it anywhere.)



Apparently there are over 7 MILLION subscribers to Second Life with tens to hundreds of thousands of people "present" at any given time. This has become a huge thing.



If you aren't familiar with the concept here is my lame attempt to catch you up to speed:



You sign up (there is a free trial and there are paid subscriptions - I tried the freebie - Thank God!)



You then create an Avatar (customizable online persona) - during your interaction this is the "You" that others see. Here's a shocker - I found myself designing a somewhat overweight, brown-haired, pinkish skinned guy in a baggy shirt with some facial hair (does that remind you of anyone?) However - you can make yourself an Alien, or whatever you like - and you can aquire a virtual wardrobe - you can dress like a super hero - doesn't matter. (It's also kind of creepy.)



Once you create your online self (Avatar) you then are mandated to go to "Orientation Island." There are four tasks you must complete in order to be given a "key" to the rest of the outlandish world that is - Second Life. Basically you have to learn how to get around, pick things up, walk, chat, etc... One thing I like about it was this: You can FLY!!!!!!!! There is also a teleport feature that allows you to go anywhere or attend any "event" instantly - much like an internet search engine.



So, once you figure out how to get yourself off of "Orientation Island" you can then explore Second Life. .......



Yep, the whole world has just opened up for you........ the whole thing....... yep......



So I did a search - what to do?, what to do....? Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to do - plenty of the "Mature" variety (No, I DIDN"T) I honestly didn't have to - some of the Avatars people picked out were PLENTY mature enough.



So, filtering OUT the mature content I checked out two places. First place I went was to a concert at a club. I teleported my chubby pink-skinned online self to this club. The "band" was apparently taking a break, cause the stage was empty - and there were wierd naked alien people dancing. The minute I "entered" the indoor/outdoor club people started "talking/chatting" with me - "come dance with us..." they said. Huh? Dance? I then realized that these were actual "people" - who had unfortunately chosen to make "themselves" look like naked aliens. These real people were at that moment "seeing" me, the chubby pink-skinned me - fly into this club - they wanted me to dance with them. I immediately felt a creepy sensation come over me. Would I, the real me (VERY happily married)- EVER go into a club and dance with complete strangers - for fun? Nevermind that they were the naked alien variety (This was not a "Mature" venue either - according to their online standards). I immediately teleported out of there and into another wierd place.



I Searched and found a venue that advertised ways to make "money" in Second Life. O.K. - should be interesting. Apparently, many of the things you "do" in Second Life cost you money - "Linden" dollars to be specific. If you pay for a subscription you get a $400 per week stipend - enough to do things with. However, there are folks making some serious Linden Dough by setting up "Virtual" businesses with the Second Life universe. I teleported to a location to find out how. Shock and Awe - many of the ways to "Make Money" involve "Mature" themed activities. I was again chatted with - propositioned, etc..... apparently by real people...... I got the heck out and deleted my account.



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O.K. - now it's time for my take on the whole Second Life thing (which took about 3 hours of my time - most of which was spent trying to get off of Orientation Island).



Here are some observations about the world we live in: (The REAL world)

• People spend a lot of time in chat rooms.




• People also visit web cams (and their not all adult sites - there are web cams in college libraries - at the beach, on the freeway, at outdoor deli's - pretty cool stuff I guess).




• Second Life is growing every day.

• Other "virtual" worlds - like World of Warcraft are also becoming increasingly popular.




• Myspace and Facebook tout MILLIONS of subscribers.




• Blogging is also a popular way for people to stay in touch and put their ideas, experiences and thoughts into something meaningful in a media that larger audiences can then share and comment on. (I am guilty as charged)

Given these observations I would assert that they all say a similar thing about our society at large: We all want to belong to something - we crave interaction. It also says that we aren't so good at interacting with each other on a "personal" level. We are more comfortable doing it online. (I for one will admit it!) We like to be in control of what others see.



Here's an example: I have a friend who made up a character on myspace - it isn't really him - he's pretending to be somebody else! Just think, there are millions of people on Myspace & Facebook who may be doing the same thing - they just don't realize it.



In a way, we have all become Avatars - online personas - craving interaction. We want to be known, to belong to something. Deep inside, we long to be touched by others, but we don't know how. We can't let anybody in. We are afraid to let people see who we really are.



My final ruling on Second Life is this: For all the effort, all the time and expense - do yourself a favor - invest in REAL relationships. If we all spent as much time, energy and money (not just Linden Dollars) - tangible resources - making THIS life all that it could be we wouldn't find the need to escape to a fantasy life where we are Gods, or Super Heroes - or even naked aliens.



Another thing - I will be VERY careful the next time I decide to be curious about something. My son Darian was laughing his head off when he saw me "exploring" this creepy world - and trying to get away from those aliens.