TECHNOLOGY RULZ!!!

I wonder how many blog entries I've titled that, lol!

Okay, so I just spent the last few hours talking to a hot British chick and watching Britcoms... IN MY BEDROOM!!! :D

It's the COOLEST THING!

So, what does this have to do with technology? Well, on my days off I got involved in this online pyramid scheme, mad a quarter of a million dollars my first day (Sunday), flew to London, took a buss tour, met a 20-year-old hotty and we hit it off right away, so we flew back here to the States -- you know, so she could have a look around -- and we wound up in my bedroom...

No? Not buyin' it?

Okay, so I met her in SecondLife.

And she's really cool! She's very funny and extremely friendly, and it's astounding that we met each other because our personalities just seem to really mesh well! We share a basic philosophy for Life: Have fun and be nice to each other! (That second part is ,technically, part of the first because life becomes less fun when you're not nice to people, as they tend to react to your not-nice-ness in ways that are, to greater and lesser degrees, un-fun. But many people son't seem to clue into that fundamental fact, and so it bears stating.)

So we both want to explore SL and experience all the fun it has to offer, and the same with RL :) (Although, I suspect she's more successful at it in RL than I am, as I go to work and come home and try to make at least one movie every couple of years, and spend the rest of my time writing movies that we can -- hopefully -- make. ;P )

Anyway, we exchanged RL IM addresses and as of yesterday now communicate both in-game and out of it. (And DUDE!!! She's REALLY hot! She's got this smile that's all big and genuine, but her eyes... It's like she figured it all out a long time ago and reallizes that it's all fine, and we're gonna be fine, and we should just enjoy ourselves when we're here! And when you see this smile, you think "Yeah! She's right!") And you couldn't meet a sweeter, more straight-up just GENUINE woman in your life! I don't think she knows what mindgames or gender games even are, lol! She's just REAL!

So I spent all day yesterday with her in SL, and I stayed up until, like, 3:00 pm (I usually go to bed around 10:00 am). I end up crashing out of SL (the game's been laggy and wierd this last month) and she has stuff to do, so we're chatting in IM in RL.

She sends me something -- like a soundclip or something -- and my version of the IM program can't handle it. But she explains she's got this mic and she has to test it out. So something else comes down with an offer to Accept or Decline. Naturally I accept and the IM changes interfaces. Then I hear a female voice (like an angel, you can probably guess) and I laugh out loud, surprised I could be hearing her voice. It's a short clip -- and I didn't even think my computer could play the clip -- and there's silence for a long time. Then I hear her say something else (I don't remember what) and it occurs to me that maybe I'm hearing a live feed.

So even though I'm on a comparitively crappy computer that's still running Windows 98 and am not set up for voice chat, I may actually get to hear the live voice of this super-cool Brit chick!!! I can type and she can respond verbally! HOW COOL FOR ME!!! (I mean, it's a shame she can't hear my voice, too... But I am, basically, a selfish man and don't have a problem when I'm given more than I feel I deserve, lol.)

So I type "Am I hearing you live?" and she says "Yeah"!!!

HOW FRIGGIN' COOL IS THIS!!!

And she DOES have this great voice, WITH the great accent!!! (Though she SWEARS she doesn't have an accent... It's we who have the accents, lol! SHE'S SO COOL! And she's right, too! Because at one point she said she likes my accent, and there was TOTALLY a part of me that boggled at the concept! I don't have an accent, I sound like me... which is what she actually told me. :D ) Now, if you know me well or have read enough of my blog, you KNOW I'm a total Anglophile. I love SO MUCH about the Brits! There humor, their style, their basic take on stuff. I find Britcoms SO much more intelligent that our sitcoms (but then, since I don't get to watch British TV I don't get to see the crap, like I do with our TV), and some of the people who have made me laugh THE HARDEST are Douglas Adams, Eddie Izzard and the Pythons (friggin' ALL of 'em, though, Gilliam is, technically, one of us). So... if two identical twin women were seperated at birth, and one was raised here and one was raised in Britain, and they both (for whatever insane reason) had a crush on me... I would be attracted to the one with the British accent. I can't help it, it's just how I'm wired, for whatever reason will one day make some psychothehripist a rich, rich man.

So I'm my head is REELING at this point! How cool and surreal and just straight-up DIVINE is this! I've managed to charm this really wonderful woman into liking me enough that I get to hear her voice! TECHNOLOGY RULES! (I thought at the time...)

Then she says "I swear I heard you laugh."

Wha...?!!

I don't even remember what I said, and I'm sure it was embarrassingly moronic. But I said something out loud -- like maybe "Did you?" -- and I look up, at the tiny dresser thingy my computer monitor sits on, at the microphone that is plugged into my computer.

And she starts laughing.

You see, apparently all you have to do nowadays to chat overseas via audio with a hot British chick is HAVE A MIC PLUGGED IN. She pushes the right button on the interface, you click on Accept AND YOU'RE TALKING TO EACH OTHER.

This gave her NO END of amusement.

I swear, like, the first 45 minutes of our conversation was her laughing at the primative Texan who had just discovered the microphone.

But see... There are extinuating circumstances here! First of all, back in the late '90s when something said "Plug N Play", it meant that you have to turn your computer off, plug it in, turn your computer back on, go into your Computer Settings, click a few things -- turn some stuff on, turn other stuff off -- then go into your Internet Settings, click some more stuff, go into your Audio Settings... And on and on.

But APPARENTLY, sometime between 1998 and Now, when something says you just have to plug a microphone into your computer and it will work IT DOES WORK.

Programs: Same thing. You used to have to do a tribal dance around your computer while chanting some VERY precise incantation before a program would perform whatever magic you were hoping it MIGHT perform for you.

Still... I can TOTALLY see how someone from another country might see the similarities between me and George W at that very moment.

Anyway, we chatted and giggled (apparently I -- mysteriously -- had NOT lost all my previous charm and/or appeal with the microphone incident) and she led me to this site where I could watch clips from very cool Britcoms. (They just call them Comedies over there, lol.) She wanted me to see a show called LITTLE BRITAIN that she loves. And there's a site that sells the dvd for the first season AND has clips from the show!!! We watched all the clips that were available, then watched the 4 clips for a show called MY FAMILY (which seems really funny!) -- her on her computer and me on mine. And it did not escape me at the time HOW FRIGGIN' COOL this was!!!

Okay, remove the woman in question and replace her with some nerd-guy who's just into the Net and gadgets and making friends... To be watching a Britcom with an actual Brit IS SO ASTOUNDING!!! We're talking about ME, mind you... An Anglophile who may never get to see the Emerald Isle because he has a better-than-crap job that barely pays the bills, much less affords him international travel!

And then, to be doing it in my bathrobe in my bedroom! Technology just RULZ!

Then add in the super-hot 20-year-old who seems to think I'm pretty cool, too, even though she's seen my pics and knows how old I am... My head was ready to explode.

And now I see that it's just after 3:00 pm... and I am still awake.

Still... NICE weekend for Ray Jay :) I pray your last 3 days have been TWICE as cool for you as the last 2 days have been for me!!!