Earl is currently away on business in the lovely red state of Ohio. It’s the first time he’s been away that’s he’s been able to use his new iBook on the road. And following the lead of many others, his hotel has free wireless internet access, so we’re able to chat and cam via iChatAV (Apple’s contribution to the AOL Instant Messaging community). It’s the first time that we’ve ever done this, and I find the experience to be absolutely wonderful. In the past I’ve wondered why video phones didn’t catch on as predicted in the early 1990s, because being able to see a loved one face to face while they’re hundreds of miles away is a warm, fuzzy experience.
I did have initial concerns about Earl using a public internet connection to do our chatting. I had visions of some pervert sitting in the walls watching Earl and I chat back and forth and listening in on our conversation, doing something interesting with his private parts. But then I decided that I really didn’t give a care. I mean, let’s be honest, I have a blog that I basically use as an outlet for many different facets of my life. I pretty much write any aspect of my life here. Reading through my blog entries, anyone could find out any number of things about me. I have no idea how many people read my blog daily, weekly or whatever. I don’t bother to look at the usage stats. The crowd of voices in my head are all the audience I need.
Besides, as long as you’re on the internet, you can not be anonymous. Don’t let anyone fool you. I’m currently writing this blog entry on my lunch hour. I’m sure that the people across the street from my parked car are blissfully unaware that I am currently using their unsecured internet connection. That’s right, Verizon sent them a little package of parts and cables, told them how to hook it up over the phone, never advised them to change the default settings on their equipment, and now here I am, in wireless range, happily chugging along on the internet. With the right tools, I could probably see what they were doing online. But I don’t really care, so I don’t bother.
I must admit that I find these people with webcams throughout their house wildly exciting. Watching a guy type on his keyboard and work on his daily business (well, maybe ‘daily routine’ would be a better description) is interesting to me. Yeah, there’s always the chance that you’ll see a ‘full frontal’ and I’m not going to turn away from that, but since I’m an avid people watcher this just adds an amazing aspect to the genre. People are fascinating.
So tonight Earl and I will be chatting on the webcam again. I don’t know if the neighbors will be watching us, though since I password protected my wireless network, I feel pretty confident that they won’t.
I’ll leave the webcam focused on me sleeping naked as the unsecured connection. Maybe they’ll enjoy that.
