Well, I'm getting more and more fully "connected" from an online standpoint. I have both Yahoo and MSN ("Live") Instant Messenger accounts, and found myself chatting online with a former coworker at HealthSmart the other day. It's a great no-cost way to stay in touch with people. Anyone who wants to interact with me can contact me under either username: jaredway{at}yahoo{dot}com or jaredway{at}hotmail{dot}com – I'm connected to both, simultaneously, whenever I'm on my computer, using Pidgin, an opensource chat tool that speaks both protocols.
Also, I've in the past experimented a bit with Second Life, and recently got the client for Linux running on my computer (it's an alpha release, but to appearances pretty darn reliable). I had a weird moment of synchronicity last night – I was experimenting with Second Life and at the same time listening to Minnesota Public Radio via streaming over internet. Anyway, the radio show had well-known folk/rock/pop artist Suzanne Vega in studio, and were having a fairly broad-ranging conversation with her. I've always liked her music, and she had several albums from the 80s that are among my top 50 favorites.
And just as I sat there poking around in the Second Life virtual reality, the subject of Second Life came up during this interview: it turns out Vega has been what you might call an "early-adopter" of this technology, having actually conducted concerts in Second Life. Furthermore, she said that when she's "on the road" she often goes "on dates" with her husband (who's home) inside the Second Life universe, and she was extolling the amazing virtues of virtuality, and the weird feeling dream-like intimacy that it can provoke. It was quite the endorsement, and I confess I spent too much time last night exploring this weird online world. Anyway, if anyone's in there, look me up: my avatar's name is Jared Eun (they let you choose a first name but the list of last names you're allowed is limited – so I opted for something nice and short).