Second Life – A Loser’s Last Frontier
I just downloaded ‘Second Life’.
I heard about it quite accidentally when I was sent on yet another education course for my birthday present. This time, I can only thank my brother. I unwittingly asked for it during a long phone conversation whereby I had expressed an interest in learning about business.
The word ‘boring’ is tossed around very loosely these days and so it should; a lot of things are boring. This course, however, was not boring. It was painful. As soon as I had realised exactly what I had gotten myself into (a day of tax law). My mind began racing through emergency procedures I had learnt at school and on television. I knew in the case of fire, I have to get down low and go go go. In the case of a crash landing, implement the brace position… But what does one do when threatened with impending painful comatose.
Luckily, I had taught myself a trick during a particularly boring high school history lesson. Newbies in cases like this, drop like flies and you can see heads crashing into desks faster than rain pelting into tin roofs. The obvious disadvantage to this survival mechanism, is it is too obvious to the teacher and the victim will inevitably be woken up to endure more pain and possibly a detention. The less fortunate who are not discovered by the teacher’s supervision, slip into a coma and usually die. I, however, knew exactly what to do.
I practice what the Hindu’s call ‘meditation’. For centuries the Indians have been practicing this spiritual technique to deal with the boringness of everyday life. They believe it takes you to a better place and they couldn’t be more correct. So, as I sat there, my mind transcended my body and went home to my warm bed where I could go to sleep. The only problem, however, was on the way back to class, my mind missed the train and I was a zombie for half an hour during the lunch break.
It didn’t really matter, because like the day at the Grace, the lunch time conversation was much the same. The only difference being, the topic of discussion was about the virtual reality web-site/program called ‘Second Life’. The girls had a strong opinion, all arguing that people who engage in too much time on the computer are wasting their time and must be losers. I looked around the table of nodding heads and saw that no one was going to fight for the little-guy, so I laced up my boots and jumped in.
For those who don’t know, it’s a program where you can meet people, play games, chat, and even buy and sell both virtual and real items. I argued many of the obvious strong points and some not so obvious which had them questioning if I was a subscriber to the program. I was not, but it was something that sounded interesting and at least worth a look. That comment alone got me tagged as a ‘weirdo’ and I was avoided like the plague. Not to worry, there’s the ‘how to not fuck up a conversation in 3 sentences’ course next week.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Where are you doing these courses at?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
These courses are run by Sydney university and are at various locations around the city.