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2007-03-16 - 10:06 p.m.

Shaken, Not Stirred

Casino Royale? Great flick, but not a movie to put on for the first time when trying to knit. After a couple rows, I decided to put down the scarf and focus on dropping bodies instead of dropping stitches. Wise move, wouldn't you agree?

If you haven't seen the movie, or heard the reviews, Daniel Craig makes an excellent James Bond. I had my doubts, like everyone else when he was chosen, but I'm sold. He's quite the spicy meatball.

And speaking of balls...

Never mind. You'll see.

ANYhoosens, Dad left yesterday morning, roundabouts 4:30 AM. Yep. He "couldn't sleep." Considering I'd went to bed around 3:30 and wasn't able to fall asleep with him banging around in the bathroom, I couldn't sleep EITHER. I was hoping he would go back to sleep, and I'd nearly dozed off when mom knocked on my door.

"Dad's leaving!" she hissed.

"Shit. I'M UP!" I hollered back.

After we sent him on his way, I stayed up for a quick cig with mom and then went back to bed. When I awoke in the morning (11-ish?) it was SO NICE to have the place to ourselves again. I told mom I half-expected him to come down the stairs and around the corner any minute. "Me too," she said.

It truly felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. The rains had departed overnight, and it was a gorgeous day outside. HALLELUJAH!

Later in the afternoon, I called the Mazda service place and discovered that yes, my car was ready to be picked up. Then I called my apartment complex to let them know I'd be gone even longer. Katy said all was well at my place (the balcony door hasn't swung open again, so she claims), but I told her if it does, and they have to go in to shut it once more, to push my couch up against it.

I noodled around online for many hours. Frustrated with Diaryland's server issues, I surfed around looking at articles and forums about Second Life. In case I ever play it. I found some very interesting tidbits, including the dish about actually making money on there (possible, but it takes a lot of knowledge and hard work), changes Linden Lab has made that pissed off long-time users (allowing users to jump to specific locations, thereby bypassing "telehubs" where many avatars gathered, which screwed up land values and business for shopkeepers in those areas), how to manage your inventory (keeping it to a "bare minimum" is 5,000 items or less!), folks getting screwed over by unsavory landlords, frequent overloads on "the grid" which slows down everyone's experience, psycho users (the women are particularly nutty, some say), and getting stuck between a wall and a chair when trying to do something as simple as standing up at a table in a cafe. And changes. Everything changes constantly, so you have to go with the flow.

Then there are stories of great friends, fascinating experiences, being part of a community that really cares about what they're building, and of course, involvement in a yet-to-be defined genre on the cutting edge of technology. The term "Wild West" often comes up.

Think about that for a minute. Being a part of something in its infancy, the heyday where anything goes (almost). While Second Life has been around for several years, it's still only hitting the tip of the iceberg in terms of virtual implications and mainstream media coverage.

Remember it was only a little over 10 years ago that the masses were given access to the internet via AOL, Compuserve, etc. And in this age of mergers and rags-to-riches-to-rags, perhaps Second Life will itself become a victim of the monster wave it's beginning to generate. But even if SL washes up as a virtual relic on a virtual beach, the technology will survive and grow and develop into...??

My thinking is that the Virtual Reality craze from the 90's (full physical immersion -- remember Michael Douglas in "Disclosure," and "The Lawnmower Man" movie?) will meld with SL (or a next-gen variation), and that people will BE INSIDE THE GRID. Virtually physical in another world. Like a new body you can slip into. Not an "avatar" you control. YOU are the control. There's no mouse, no keyboard, no ginky-wink buttons. No computer screen. A pair of wireless gloves and a small headset perhaps...which could evolve into picking up brainwaves and "thinking" yourself through the grid. You want to walk, you walk. You want to fly, you fly. Your real body is on stand-by (meditative trance?), while you MOVE with your imagination. Conscious dreaming with millions of other people!

Considering we only use 2% of our brains, think what another 3% would do.

Dreams are very powerful. What if we could harness that energy? What do we know that we don't know we know?

Think about how much abuse we put our bodies through in a day. Lack of sleep, too much caffeine or too little, running on empty or dragging around on a full tank of fast food. Pushing too hard, craning and reaching, easing too much, vegging and beaching. Sugar highs, drunken lows, pills and medical bills, vitamins and crash diets. Eye strain, migraines, stress, saying too little, saying too much. Should've, would've, could've.

ENOUGH.

We think, we reason, but mostly, we fret. There's another engine to crank, a universe within in us, driven to amazing extremes every night, that most people toss off as "new age."

New Age?

Exactly.

Listening to: "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell, "Die Another Day" by Madonna, and "The Living Daylights" by A-Ha. About ready to kick it old school and find me some "Goldfinger" and "The Man With The Golden Gun." ;)