The Scribbler

I travel a lot around cyberspace, trying different sites out, but I can't remember the last time I was left truly gobsmacked. As regular visitors will know, I've been playing around with the Second Life application quite a bit (I wrote about it here ). So far, I've been hang-gliding, enjoying a trip in a Gondola around an authentic looking Venice and even walking around virtual Heaven. Nothing though prepared me for what I stumbled upon yesterday, when I decided to visit Second Life's Van Gogh exibit... You get a chance to tour a museum displaying intricately scanned images of the artist's portfolio. This sounds interesting, until you realise that you can actually enter and walk around 3D rendered tableau's of his more famous prints. Last night however, I discovered a site Van Gogh museum that allows you to view virtually all of his paintings as you stroll through online gallery. At times, it is literally jaw-dropping. Look at this shot below: You can see my c...

The atmosphere is one of total peace. Calm vibes soothe the air and I sit myself down and meditate on life. My hands are in total control of my emotions and they take on the ancient ritual of elevation and descent, fingers meeting together a few millimeters away from the front of my chest. Silence. Then the gong is struck. It is over. No, I'm not smoking something I shouldn't be. I am simply describing the experience of meditating in the Beit Binah virtual community centre which can be found at the Second Life online site. I've tasted the program before, but didn't realise how strong the Jewish presence had become. "We" have built online synagogues, a ritual bath (Mikve), a Holocaust museum, a Jewish Historical Museum and yes, even meditation rooms. Yesterday night, I found myself boogieing to silent music on a sunset beach in Ir Shalom , the rapidly developing and expanding Secret Island where we "New Jews" are getting on down. On the beach, noch. ...