So I've decided to expand my horizon. Since I'm somewhat limited in how much I can do in VR. I've always been interested in the whole file sharing controversy. I'm a musician and I have a lot of sympathy for musicians who feel ripped off. But then it seems to me that those who bitch the loudest about file sharing always seem to be fronting for a multinational RIAA affiliated corporation that has some scheme being ramrodded through Congress to tax ISPs for their lost revenue. (Remember the tax on cassettes? I do! Is that still in effect? How much are they making off that, huh? Ho ho!) Brian Eno says:

On the end of an era “I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

Making some progress. Check this: http://fuckyeahlazycat.tumblr.com/

Sweet heaven! I haven't put anything up here for noone to read lately! Well.. I have been suffering the grind of poverty stricken unemployment and, while I've kept up an active virtual life, I've not felt spunky enough to bang out any snappy commentary on life online. I have some thoughts percolating. I am curious how the parlous state of the economy is affecting online fun. My benchmarks are pretty dated and I'm not able to afford a spiffy new computer to run WoW even. So I may just put this on ice and pursue my blog fever some other way.

Unemployment means that while you have all kinds of time with noone breathing down you neck, you have ample worries that distract you from enjoying VR.

Wow! They changed the format. I like this better. I'm looking for a job 24/7 so my ability to analyze cultural trends has been sadly deflated. I would like to comment on the computer game industry as a whole. An analogue to global finance capitalism, the computer game industry is driven by short term profit taking and endless growth. And like modern capitalism, it's hard-wired for failure. People have been happily buying and selling stuff and inventing things for as long as handicrafts have existed. But this idea that we're supposed to buy a new computer every two years to run games that are artificially hyped is insidious and unsustainable. This is why I'm still playing Neverwinter Nights. First it's a great medium for virtual storytelling. Second, it's stable as all get out. Windows users sadly are starting to have some trouble with running it on Win-7 but there are workarounds apparently. Windows users have always had to put up with this kind of thing and are usually fairly adept at dealing with it. Anyway- long live classic games! See you in fantasy land.

Virtual Pets don't have the advantage of not jumping off cliffs like real ones do.

I have not abandoned this

Life's a real twist sometimes. It's not like I haven't had any deep thoughts. I just need a couple hours to put them down.