#oneaday, Day 148: We Live In The Future

Screw this motion control crap – I just watched a press conference on the other side of the world while lying in bed with my phone.

That was a tweet from Alex Martin that I received a few minutes ago. And when I think about what I’ve done today, it’s pretty clear that we are most definitely living in the future.

I started my day feeling a bit lonely as I hadn’t seen any actual real people for a little while. So I went out to the coffee shop and took my netbook with me. While I was there, I gratuitously solicited questions for my Formspring account (which people were more than happy to furnish me with) and also dropped in on the freshly-created Squadron of Shame Squawkbox.

I ended up sitting in that coffee shop for about four hours, discussing things with people from all over the world – some deep and profound, other things less so. Then it was time to come home, because as part of my job as a News Editor for Kombo.com I was on the “home team” for the E3 coverage.

I’m gutted that I’m not actually at E3. But the experience I’ve had throughout the course of this evening is the next best thing. I’ve had IM windows open with people frantically telling me to cover stories. I’ve had the Squawkbox open to see the Squad’s reactions. And I’ve had Twitter open to see everyone else’s reactions. As sad as it sounds, despite sitting on my own in my study in front of the computer, I’ve not been alone tonight. There have been many people with me, all following the same things, watching the live streams on their computers. It’s as if we were all in the audience together, making sly comments to one another.

Whenever Microsoft showed off the ability to watch, say, Netflix movies as an Xbox party, I always thought it seemed a bit pointless. But after sitting watching the E3 conferences with a group of friends who aren’t even on the same continent let alone in the same room as me, I think I’ve reconsidered a little bit.

Obviously there’s no substitute for real human interaction. But when the real thing isn’t possible, the fact that we live in the future makes a very adequate substitute. So big love, kudos and respect to everyone who’s helped make today a huge amount of fun, and I look forward to doing it all again very soon.

I have plenty of thoughts about what’s been shown at E3 so far but I’ve been posting news articles all day and frankly I’m completely burnt out. So I’ll save further thoughts until I’m a bit more awake.

Job interview tomorrow. Quite looking forward to it. It may not be the ideal job for my current situation, but it’s a foot back on the ladder and has the potential to lead onto better things. So right now I’ll take what I can get.

One thing’s clear to me right now as it approaches 3AM where I’m sitting: I’m certainly feeling a lot more positive than I did when I woke up this morning. And it’s thanks to you, Internet. Big love to you all.