William Petruzzo

Today, I discovered Second Life.

I know a lot of people are already familiar with Second Life, but there a whole lot who also aren’t. Second Life is kind of a like a gigantic online version of the computer game The Sims, crossed with a chat room sporting some pretty cool graphics.

The schtick though is that basically, anything you might like to do in real life, you can do in this virtual world (including fly). In a way, you get to reboot your life. Of course you still have to deal with your first life, you get a second life to do whatever you like with. It’s weird, I know.

In the virtual world, it’s free to move about, visit different places, meet people, talk about things, and so on. But, if you wanted to, you could purchase land. On the land you could build your dream home, a bar, club, restaurant, marina, pretty much whatever you like. Even a church.

That’s what provokes me to write today.

Now, I’m not much of a gamer. I just don’t have the time. But, since the software was free, I thought I’d give it a shot. When I found out just how much real-world like stuff there is in Second Life, I thought I’d go and see if there’s anyone planting churches in this virtual world. And what do you know? There is.

These folks did. I decided to make a trip over to the church. I was pretty surprised at what I found.

The ALM CyberChurch property is pretty much everything you’d expect in a modern day mega-church. Huge panes of glass, lots of grassy fields. Interesting designs and lots of seating. Of course with one pretty important difference. This church doesn’t exist in real life. Well, in tangible life anyways. It is real. Just not exactly tangible.

Almost every facet of the CyberChurch mirrors what you’d find if you ventured out to your local brick and morter spiritual establishment. It’s kind of eery actually. When I visited, although there was no mistaking the cyber-nature of the place, it still had that be-quiet-your-in-church feel to it.

And, like any quality mega-church, the CyberChurch even had a coffee shop decked out with couches and espresso machines.

Upstairs in the coffee shop you can find where the church meets for virtual small groups, or at least I assume, based on the arrangement of the chairs.

The main sanctuary looks like anything you’d find in most churches. When you visit the virtual church, you can either attend their weekly service at 11:00am on Sunday mornings, or you can go at any time and listen to a recording of the last service.

Scattered all around the virtual facility, are signs alerting people to their need to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And this, I think above anything else, created questions in my mind. As I explored the area, there was a certain novelty to seeing what was built. But when I came across these notices, I realized something interesting. I wasn’t seeing the words as reality. Some how they were merging into my subconsciousness as part of the virtual reality I was experiencing. If I began to see the call for repentance as a virtual stimulation, how likely is that to translate into actual, spiritual repentance in my heart?

I won’t pass judgement on whether or not these virtual ministries are effective, right or even good.  It seems likely only time will tell. But I will say, it’s an awfully fascinating turn in church history. Unprecedented.

If you frequent the world of Second Life and would like to visit the church, you can “teleport” there from this link.

That was me. I owned the iPhone for three weeks. Like so many who use Verizon, I was fed up with their crappy customer service, mediocre phones and restrictive hardware. I left for the golden shores of AT&T and their wonderful Apple iPhone. It cost a little more. But worth every penny.

In three weeks I nearly completely forgot the old ways of Verizon’s network. I could check my email any time. There were tons of free applications I could install on my phone. Some useful. Some just plain fun. But so many of them completely free.

So, you might be wondering why I’m speaking in past tense. The reason is, Verizon has won me back. Yeah, I know. It’s like going back to an abusive spouse. But, their offer was just too good to pass up. Free phone. Free two months service. Half off my bill. Not too bad, if you ask me.

So, this afternoon I said goodbye to the iPhone… with tears in my eyes. Now I’m holding a brand new phone from Verizon and in contrast to the iPhone, it honestly feels like something from the stone age. That’s right the iPhone really is that far ahead of the game.

But, while I’m at it, I will say just a few things.

If you were to purchase a brand new Lexus. Fresh off the lot, the works, heated seats, gps, voice recognition, tiny in-dash cupcake oven, and for some reason it didn’t have air conditioning, you’d probably be shocked.

Well, Apple really left the AC out on a few things and even now, I just don’t get it. So, Apple, I’m coming back. Give me a year or two for the iPhone hype to die down and the cellular market to evolve a little further and I’ll be back.

But in the meantime, here’s my wish list of things I’d like to see you have when I return:

1. Picture messaging. I don’t know who was snoozing during that developers meeting, but I hope they were severely reprimanded.

2. Turn-by-turn navigation. Even the stone-age Verizon phone I just bought has that.

3. A complete GUI that turns on it’s side. It’s great in Safari and all, but lets be honest, it’s pretty annoying to send text messages with the squished keyboard.

4. Longer battery life. You made such a sweet phone, I use it too much and it runs out of batteries needed to keep it running… as a phone.

5. How about a better camera? Really, the current one is a serious pain in the butt.

6. Video. Just, again, let me refer to my stone-aged Verizon thing.

I think that pretty sufficiently complete’s my list. Wait for me Apple. I’m coming back. In due time. I’m coming back.

I don’t usually use this blog as a sounding board for frustration with trivial matters, but today, there isn’t much else I can bring myself to think about.

There are three things I need my computer to do:

2. Run Photoshop
3. Don’t throw a temper tantrum

For some inscrutable reason, mine won’t do either. Frankly, I’m not surprised. It spends more time not doing what it’s supposed to be doing than otherwise. Every six months some computer component demands some decent chunk of money from me. About once in every four times that demand is made, I nearly lose sensitive information and lots and lots of time attempting to correct the problem, or at the very least to damage control.

It seems that this will be no exception. You see, last week, one of my hard drives started to click. Now, for those of you who don’t know what that means, I won’t explain. I’ll just say this: it’s a very bad sign. Something like your computer physically screaming, “the British are coming, the British are coming!”

So I responded tactfully, I went online and purchased replacement hard drives. I also purchased an external hard drive to run automatic backups of the important files. Wise thinking, if I do say so myself. Of course, I was kidding myself to think this would go over smoothly. There’s no way. It’s never happened in the past and it’s certainly not going to happen now.

I installed my new drives today. The computer has come to a standstill. It still starts up, but has become quite useless. Like a body rejecting an organ transplant. The computer just sits there looking ill and being totally unproductive. My best efforts cannot seem redeem her.

There is little doubt in my mind that this has something to do with Microsoft. I run a shotty Windows XP 64-bit, which it turns out is the pinnacle of incompatibility a poor planning. When software runs, it’s amazing. When it runs without error, it’s a miracle. Now, who would have thought that this great new Windows XP 64-bit system would have trouble with a few minor hard drive upgrades?

I will say it again. Microsoft is a joke. They make a joke product and if it weren’t so expensive for user’s to switch platforms, they’d be out of business. I’m getting a Mac, the first chance I get. Scratch that, I’m getting two.

Since I was about fifteen, I was building my own computers from self sought components. I’ve been the resident computer guy for my family and friends pretty much the whole time. I’ve always done my own upgrades and done a pretty good job of staying near the technology curve when it comes to computer parts.

In years past, Macintosh computers were only used by a weird niche crowd. The available software was slim at best and so their practical usefulness was very limited.

More recently, Apple entered the arena more openly as computers for professionals, and now, for home users who don’t know what they’re doing.

I’ve been an adamant defender of PC computers ever since Apple started to launch its attack on the average computer user. PC computers, toting similar specs, can be purchased for a fraction of the price of Apple computers. Their interface has long been more intuitive (the right mouse button? seriously, it’s a no brainer). And, with just a smidgen of education, they can stay clean and useful for a long time.

But today is the day. I am flipping my opinion. Mark it in your calendar.

Today, my PC computer failed. For the second time in six months. Not just failed. Died. Hardware, died. That doesn’t mean annoying software adjustments. It means shelling out actual money to repair the thing.

Now, let me make one thing abundantly clear: I know what I’m doing. I’m not the flippant savvy-less computer user that most often manage to blow up their computer. No, I’m a well experienced user and well educated in the realm of hardware and software issues.

My point? The problem is not the user.

You see, I’m a photographer and only half of my job happens behind the lens. The rest happens in front of a computer screen. So, I can’t afford to have equipment I can’t trust. That makes today an important day.

Today is the day I give up defending PC computers.

I used to equate Apple computers to Volkswagen cars. Vehicles that are over-priced and under-perform but look so cool. I used to consider PC computers more like Hondas. Not as cool, but affordable and practical. I realize now that I had it wrong. PC’s are really more like American cars. Practical, but the built in obsolescence will get you eventually.

So what now?

Mark my words, as soon as business finances are freed up, all PC equipment and software will be upgraded to Apple computers and I will say farewell to PC’s reign of terror forever.