Yeah, I think I'm getting hooked.

Spike Luckstone put on an amazing virtuoso guitar performance for a select group at the Lost Lovers Club

Brad Paisley could almost have been singing about me. I'm a sci-fi fanatic and a mild asthmatic. I don't, however, work at a pizza pit or drive a Hyundai. And, sorry, I've been past second base on a few occasions. Despite this, I'm so much cooler online.

For a good couple of years, a friend of mine had been trying to get me into what he's been doing on the PC. It was a couple of years ago that I gave in and logged onto Second Life to gave it a try. No dice. The old computer was woefully inadequate. At that point, my second life was stillborn. But a few cosmic forces came together. A thunderstorm and power failure finally killed off my old PC. Family members and I pooled resources and got something that is at least better than what I had. After a few days, I remembered my old account and wondered if this new machine would be up to the job. But surely my account would be gone after all this time.

Well the folks at Linden Labs have a pretty good digital cryopreservation system. After all this time he was still in stasis, blossoming forth into a full-blown avatar. I wandered the streets of the virtual world peering into doorways and touching everything - just like any other newborn. But it started to get pretty stale in a hurry. I hit a couple of virtual bars but it's hard to have a good time without a stack of L$ in your back pocket. (Linden dollars, their currancy acquired either by actually getting a job, or by purchasing them with real dollars.) Then it happened. I wandered into an outdoor auditorium and heard the unmistakeable sound of live music.

There was no band in sight. They were likely in a studio in some corner of the world or another. The dance floor was packed with avatars bouncing in their programmed loops. On the surface it was pretty cheesy. Under that was the fact that people were coming together from around the world and communicating not only with each other, but with the band as well. The lead singer, with his connection, calling out to dancers by name between songs. Requests were made with a click of the mouse. Maybe there was something to this after all.

Last night I was dancing at an 80s bar (and for those who don't know me, stupid diabetes has it so I can hardly walk, let alone dance) and trading musical knowledge and trivia with the DJ while he's doing his set. Try that at a real bar. A quick change of clothes outside and it was off to a jazz club. Later I donned the jeans and leather jacket (my IRL "uniform") and was line dancing to Charlie Daniels. Bar hopping for the digital age. For what I used to spend for a night on the town, I could probably own a nice home and car in SL.

It's amazing how many women there are in Second Life and they spend a lot of time making sure their avatars look just right. Some of them are actually played by females, too.