Second life - not quite yet…
It seems the less I walk, the more I think.. or rather the more I type as I spend more time glued to the computer, camped like sniper in front of the msn interface and popping my target when I see one. More time spent on the Internet inevitably lead me to appreciate its beauty, as I would normally use my com as more like a gaming station than unleashing its true potential of engaging in e-activities. It percolates to me its power and potential, and possibly dangers as I walk deeper into its dark tunnel, as its as best, still an imitation of life.
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The Internet is best described as a window to the world to me.. as I’m trapped in my house, more accurately immobilised by my tendon injury. Its frame, or the world presented is circumscribed by an unwritten boundary of e-culture. How ‘big’ the landscape appears from the inside is limited ultimately by how far you stand from the window, so to speak. And that is opening of the world to you, or so it seems… as many times, the observer is fooled into thinking he ‘knows’ and can ‘measure’ the world just by looking from the inside.
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For a stranded guy like me right now, who has only traveled between school and hospital for the last 2 months. My best judgement of the world outside is sorely based on information conveyed to me, via cable, via human idealised construct of the real world. The world(virtual) is so convenient and concise, its details are only as precise as its creator allows, and discovery by the end-user shaped very much by how its architect wants it to be seen. Even totally excessive and unwanted things like spyware that slows down your computer is there to track your consumer habits, serving a defined purpose.
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As I struggle to stay afloat in a sea of artificial, digitised lifestyle, its hard to realise that my interaction is fast becoming irrelevant to the real world. I was for once, 
out of sheer boredom, contemplating of picking this game call ‘Second Life’. A simulation type of game which is gaining in popularity. That’s how dangerous it can become… for a hermit who thinks he can get 
some kick out of buying a big house a getting a girl in a comfortable alternate lifestyle. We’re sooner than the pre-Matrix age don’t you think so? To Neo’s cheesy question of ‘what is real?’, that inquiry may one day be rendered irrelevant as our lives become increasingly intertwined and indiscernible in a real-virtual world so long as there’s active mass human participation.
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Well, I just hope I don’t come to a point of picking that game soon, and be caught by a friend saying, "hey that’s a really good game! ;)"
