Get a (Second) Life

When I was in first year college (which seems like so far far away now), I read Sidney Sheldon’s “Tell Me Your Dream.” The story, revolving around a woman and her two alter-egos, stayed in my memory for quite a bit. And I often mused what it would be like to have an alter ego. Not violent, psychopathic ones that we get to see aplenty in movies like Sybil, Psycho, Primal Fear, X-Men etc. But just as an innocuous variation from humdrum lives.

Now before you shake your head, and give me up as a probable case of another person suffering from a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome / an MPD patient in the making, let me hastily assure you that being cited as suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder is hardly appealing to anyone, not even quirky me, but hmmmm, it definitely would be interesting, to say the least.

For those who have wondered how it would all be, a website, Second Life, promises to deliver all that. Registration is relatively hassle-free, and lo and behold! You are a “Resident,” who can create motional avatars, hob-nob with other Residents, own property (virtual, of course), create buildings (now is the best time for you to build your very own private skyscraper dazzling in the azure sky), buy / sell an island (using Second Life’s own currency, termed Linden Dollars - L$- with 270 L$ = 270 USD).

Sounds neat, right?

Though parodies of the site are aplenty, and criticism / singgering rife, the site has managed to get more than 8.9 million people, oops, Residents, excited enough to sign up.

Besides finding a loyal fan in my niece, who is thrilled to bits since the time she heard about it from me.

I’m guessing she’ll buy an entire island to safely stack her army of Mattel blonde dolls, far far away from her elder brother who has a penchant for smashing all things even vaguely “girlie” to smithereens.

Go on, become a Resident here.

Shop till you drop

Check 1 - So you would like to get your hands on that bag that a certain hotel heiress was toting to a snazzy party, but are clueless where to find (another like) it, at one hundredth the price?

Check 2 - You would give an arm and a leg to become the (proud) owner of the watch that adorns the wrist of a naturally blonde footballer, who is usually in the news for his various hairdos than ability to bend the football, but again, find yourself at a loss where to find the large-dialed chronometer?

Well, help is here at hand. For self-confessed shopaholics like me, the world just became a more colorful shopping spree, what with the introduction of world's first visual search engine, Like.com.

Find similar clothing, accessories, jewelry, color variants of products; you can also upload your own favorite items or products, and search more like them, at a budget that will not have you howling at your paucity of resources and or a grumpy family ATM(read father, spouse, sibling etc).

Pretty intriguing site, I think.

I'm guessing it wouldn't be too long before video serach engines also come hopping by.

Get nagged

Don’t we all have some things that we should be doing, but thanks to our selective amnesia / indifference / plain sloth, we just don’t get down to doing them.
For instance, I know I should be keeping my place tidy, and not as if some tornado has recently ripped it. But when my OCD best friend is away, I just let the room be.
Needless to say, when she returns, she is anything but impressed.
In the same vein is another word: EXERCISE.
Aaaaargh…WhatdidyoujustsayOhmyGodyoudon’tmeanitdoyou?
Now, that’s my usual reaction when someone mentions the dreaded “E” word.
Then there is the usual refrain (from big bro, parents, friends, big bro particularly, he of the Converse-brand-fetish) if I mention that I need to buy those nth pair of to-die-for sandals or that sixth black bag.
So it was pretty nice when I came across this website, called HassleMe, a UK site, which promises to nag you for any reminder you may want, and as frequently as you want.
I have already set a couple of thingies that I want to get nagged for, on a daily basis. I love its tag line, “ Because sometimes in life, you just need to be nagged…”
There are a couple of other websites too that caught my attention.
One of them is called mySociety, a charitable volunteering project which aims to spread awareness about how the Internet can improve their lives. They also support and improve launch projects. Sign up as a volunteer here.
The third website is called PledgeBank, a psychological bet, which is geared to make people carry out their pledges, together with several others. For instance, suppose a user wants to kick smoking; he could start a pledge, encouraging others to sign up for the same. The site updates all subscribers if the pledge fails to attract enough subscribers(Sigh), or if (happy happy) attracts others to do the same, and if the target is met.
You could sign up for e-mails when people make pledges from your local area / country.
Or start your own pledge here.