Music: Wait by Get Set Go - From the Music of Grey’s Anatomy
          [ Download mp3 here ]

Sometimes, information such as these defeats my being a tech geek when I am posed a question I can sadly only answer with, “huh?”

But let me see if you can defeat me:

Do you know Second Life?
[   ] Sure.
[   ] Huh?

Second question:

Is your information of Second Life NOT anything remotely related to the after life and karma and all the other celestial information that buddhists would like to talk about, if not something so inspirational it could merit a new paperback from Mitch Albom or Og Mandino?
[  ] Uhm…no. So I got it wrong?
[  ] I was pertaining to the preservation of the body for use in the future.
      What were YOU pertaining to? [Damn you medical geeks!-JC]
[  ] Who’s Mitch Albom?
[  ] Who’s Og Mandino?
[  ] What the fuck are you fucking talking about?!

Okay kids. Let’s get back to our usual ramblings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

The term Second Life or SL, if you were able to beat me at Google, is a virtual world created by Linden Research Inc.  similar to the UI of Sims except instead of hosted in your powermachine and cooped up in your OWN virtual world, SL attempts to bring it maybe five notches further by elevating the environment and hosting the information on the internet. And just when all the neighbors you used to grope in Sims (hah! Huli ka!) were unresponsive simulated coded characters, in SL, they might just thrust and twist a knife in your innards—yes, they are responsive, not because they were programmed to, but because they are actually manipulated by real end-users all over America as well.

There are two kinds of accounts: basic (free) and premium. Basic accounts can let you own a character and get them around the places, but premium accounts lets you have a lot of your own which you could utilize to make a house you want, plus it lets you in on some clubs that sort of require vip entrance (vip being the premium). So it’s almost like Sims meets Ragnarok peppered with all the commercialism. Yesss… doesn’t the concept excite you? It was released only about between the last quarter of 2006 and Q1 of 2007, but it has so far garnered so much media attention and commerce that it has become the biggest, hottest thing since sliced bananas. Drop your Sims II like a hot potato–and run like you’ve never even heard of them before.

You kinda wonder, how hyped can it really get? Well, given that everyone doesn’t want to look like they’re attached to their barbies, SL gave users the power to make all users vain and beautiful by creating 3d characters that look exactly like them, with modifications under the users’ hearts’ content. They go around and socialize, create their own reputation, and even live their lives as they’ve never imagined it could be. And the best thing about this is, it’s fueled by commercialism. Yes, kids, in SL, you can actually have your own money converted to Linden money and buy Nikes. Yes, Nike has its own store in SL, and so does Wired, Cnet, Reuters and other stores. You can even pay for an espresso for your character, which you will only be seen bringing around in your hand.

Hmm. Intangible commercialism at its finest.

Ger and I are still marvelling at the minds who created this. She chanced upon the segment on NatGeo while she’s sweating on the sit-ups. She suddenly couldn’t recover from the hype of its technological ingenuity. Yes, folks. If you were fat, ugly, stinky, incommunicable, and a little soft around the corners, you’ll be the instant hunk of the virtual world by buying your character a good hair cut, tan, 6 pack, contacts, and even maybe the newest Nikes, then pay for your premium account to get access to the best club spots, and boom, you’re the talk of the town. Talk about an instant turn-around. This is the perfect world. This is…your second life.

Di ba. Parang epilogue lang.

Of course, it’s not JUST about the technology. This, is the evolution of intra and interpersonal at its finest. We hear of Second Life stories of people who never left their desktops yet managed to communicate with someone about 4 hours of time line difference. They were able to create cliques, choose their online buddies, and even build their families with a few clicks of the mouse and maybe a couple of hours and electricity burned. A couple married in SL, and when they finally met in person, they decided to get married as well.

Technology gloats of making a gateway for easy connection. Log in to a chatroom, and you find a soulmate. You create a networking profile, and a bunch of people add you up and voila, it’s instant connection. Someone from New York finds you while you’re in Asia - yes, it’s instant connection. You log in to SL and immediately, you make friends. People, say it with me: instant connection.

The question posed, is how much exactly does technology allow for connection?

Let’s bring up the fat person. He creates an identity that’s totally opposite of what he is, maybe a hope of performing someone else’s life. He meets someone and connects. Since his information isn’t exactly coherrent with his virtual make-up, he creates an identity within. He becomes someone he likes. He becomes someone he wanted to be.

He becomes…someone else.

How about a truthful person? Someone logs in at three am. She meets another person, chats with him, and exchanges thoughts. But the suppresion of free flow thoughts, the loss of spontaniety, the personal interaction–all are masked by the wall that is the monitor and the cyberspace. When understanding relies on mere interpretation of the words on the chat, and emotions are based on smilies.

It’s not that I mind. Personally, I have been a fan of online chat as well. But as how SL has been described, it is addictive because of the fact that they do get to live their lives how they want it to be in this simulation, to a point that, maybe, it’ll even be their lives. Hmm. come to think of it, it IS the whole concept of SL–it’s not about winning, but having fun with your second life.

Or, as some non-gamers would say, the players should get a life—and the geeks would then retaliate: if our lives WERE better, then why the hell would we be playing it in the first place?

True, true.

Music:  Girlfriend (japanese verion - yea, you got that right) by Avril Lavigne
          [ Download mp3 here ]
 Iche
 Ichije
 Ijichi

Sigh.

Doki.

Alright, I know I owe it to you guys to tell you something about the new guy, but I waited till we came up with a better name. For the non-aware, I normally name my gadgets after philosophers, OR if influenced by someone I really like (or whose name I really like, depending on which came first). Which is why my pod is named after Leah Danielle Height Certeza–Ger, Eggie and JC’s perennial crush–but I took her name mostly because I have been crushing on the name Danielle since time immemorial. I had a walkman I initially named Plato, but scrapped since I wasn’t into naming then. My thumb drive was named Descartes, but since it got used by my brother, the name got transferred to my 6260 and my card reader. Which created confusion for Ger when I refer to things, so she named the 6260, Descartes silver.
But now, I kinda ran out of better-named philosophers. There was this one named Dessoir, Max, but since I couldn’t find an english version of his works, I skipped that one. His concept seemed interesting though. So now, what I did was leave the german descendants and go back to Asia–welcome, Japan. A few choices and a few translations after, we came up with a splendid, spanking anti-geek name that Ger swears to be as complicated as the phone itself.

Meet my O2 XDA Mini-S, Ichijiteki Doki. It means temporary anger, or temporarily angry, depending on context.
Try it. Ichijiteki doki. Ichijiteki doki. Ichijiteki doki. Chichichi oki. Jekijeki yoki.
Blegh.
Ger says the name suits the meaning. It arouses temporary anger just trying to say the effing name. Heh. I like it. It was picked over Souzouteki Doki which means creative anger, and  Souzouteki uchuu, meaning creative space. It rooted from Tina’s explanation of my angst: she says anger is great because it makes you creative. Ger agrees by saying you tend to look for a diversion of your anger when you’re on the brewing state. That sometimes explains I’m more into blogging  when  I’m  angry or angst ridden than bored. Blogs become a space of frustration where you air your unanswered theories or rants which then benefits some readers, depending on the usability of your untoward information.

So there he goes. He’ll be assuming that name to remind me to be creative on the go. Naks. So far, I’ve been eliciting reactions as to why I’ve switched to O2–which is funny, because being the eye candy that it is, everyone’s just, “wow, wtf is that cute thing in your hand?!” Eh I wanted to see how far I can go with a smartphone, para ma peke na smart ako. Or, maybe because I’m tired of looking too stereotypical with common people having the newest Nokia they can get their hands on and not even be able to utilize them to their extent. Yung tipong pang yabang pero hindi alam ang ibig sabihin ng Symbian, at hindi alam na may programs pala for such phones. Ang alam lang nila, pag nainstall ko na ang Capsule SE sa N70 nila ay pwede na nilang gamitin ng matagal sa kubeta.

So far though, I have installed some programs but since I’m currently trouble shooting activesync to work and since I haven’t bought a 2gb mini SD, I have yet to maximize everything. There’s something in ipmart (yes, for the eternally curious and cheap because of the freewares) which is a compilation of applications for ppcs (pocket PCs) that’s downloadable but it’s about 50mb of a rar file, and that’s just 1 of 4 compilations. I’m excited to start but, hey, I need to sleep too. I only have almost about 2 hours of idle time to spare everytime I’m at home–and that includes hygene, nourishment and all the other essentials.

Mum has asked me if it’s already a laptop. No, I said, but it may be a little just like it. I have yet to show her what it can do because of the limited space. But as far as for functionalities my convenience go, for now, I have got everything covered. As long as sms, camera, call feature, and phonebook works in the basic, and MSDict, MSPaint, Group SMS (ja, massive sending sadly ain’t for the corporate), MobiReader and UITweaker (user interface color switcher) works in the add-ins, I’m so far fine.

But I am still so effing excited about the wifi. Ooooh. I can almost imagine being finally a hotspot whore.