FacheBlog!

When Apple released the ibook in pearly white some years ago, they strove to do what what a lot of computer companies could not–to make the portable computer an object of affection, rather just a tool or task-machine. To a large extent this worked, people loved their ibooks, with their blinking sleep light and warm touch pad, and people who were not mac savvy before (save for their ipods) jumped right onto the Macintosh computer train. Now, with companies like Dell and Toshiba struggling to catch up to to Apple’s successful congeniality, the master of the porcelain computer has taken it one step further with the release of the razor-thin MacBook Air. Small, yes, and expensive (very, especially if you opt for the state-of-the art solid start drive, or SSD), but is it going to redefine the friendly, best-friend(ish) notebook companion as did the ibook? The machine has no cd-dvd drive (it’s just too thin to allow for it), and instead requires one to install any desired software on another machine (apple or PC), and upload it via a wireless linkup bridge Apple has just released–or you can simply purchase an external CD-DVD drive and connect it via USB if the MacBook air will be you only machine. Some might define this as inconvenient, to say the least, especially when you consider the cost of the machine, starting at around $1799 without the SSD drive option. All things aside, I suppose the question to consider is–how thin is too thin, and when is it more practical to go for rugged durability over chic, streamlined looks?

I remember when the first Everquest came out. It was an online fantasy game with limitless possibilities for play (or so it seemed at the time), unique character creation, and a strong social element. I wanted it badly. But At the time I was younger and did not have a computer that could run the daunting graphics requirements. So I had to sit and listen to my friend talk about how great it was and how all they ever wanted to do was play. Then, I stopped hearing from them. What I later found out had occurred was that they had become so wrapped up in the game that they did little else outside of it, and that included social interaction and school. Scary? Well I though no, freakin’ awesome. If a game is that good I wanna play it. The next time I heard about this phenomenon was with World of Warcraft. I wasn’t missing out this time. I got a machine that could handle it and made the plunge with my friends. We still went out (maybe we just weren’t willing to completely give our lives to a game), however the game did occupy most of our time outside of school and work. Now its almost three years later, and WoW is even bigger than ever. But there’s a new game for the less-competitive, less fantasy-oriented gamers looking for an mmo. I speak of course about the quirky metaverse known as SecondLife. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with it, its like a solo-avatar version of The Sims, where you live a pretty normal existence (except you can fly). You buy and trade clothes, things you design, music you compose in real life, build and develop real estate, hold functions, etc. And the most important thing is–you trade real money on it. Yes, for the first time in the US (Japan has been on this for years), MMO games are allowing players to legitimately make real money–in some cases, a whole lot of it. Some people are even quitting their day jobs for full-time Second-Life online careers. So this is it now, huh? Now we don’t just play games for fun, to brag about skill, or to simulate real life? If we’re making these positions into real life economies, then we’re no longer talking about a simulation, we’re talking about a much more graphically intense version of ebay. This may be creatively rewarding, yes, but is it healthy? And is it fun?

With this glorious first entry I begin my descent (or ascent if you please) into the epic of modernity that is the blog-o-sphere of existence. For a long time now my opinion of blogging was jaded by the bane of the internet–livejournal. Though technically not a weblog of anything except the overly-emotional rantings of a few tragically distressed emokids (a diagram for those of you who are confused on this subject, and do not yet share my disdain for these individuals), it was this website, and others like it, which brought free web publishing from the somewhat “technical” realm of Geocities into the simple hands of the masses in an easy to use, black-on-black (with some purple) package that just begged for the stains of young tears. For some time now, however, it seems that even non-depressed normal people can post their thoughts and feelings, follow and explore political and historical persuasions, or just plain talk anything, even QVC. My response, for probably two or three years now, has always been, “Wow, that’s some pretty interesting stuff there, really. But do I care?” To which I always found myself responding, with little qualms, “No…no I do not care. At all. Nor do I understand why other people would.” Yet recently I’ve been reading more and more about how blogging is beginning to have an actual valuable impact on society by setting precedents and bringing to mind important questions concerning the establishment of an online identity. This, coupled with the fact that several people I know and respect have taken to blogging…and the fact that it is required for class…have driven me to take this attempt at popular culture communication more seriously that I perhaps would have had I not been aware of these things. We shall see what more there is to come.

A side note–after an important discussion Suffolk University’s official blog authority, I have learned that embedding youtube videos does not violate copy write laws in most cases. And so:

…there are things stranger than blogs apparently.