Last year, I bought myself an Oculus Quest VR headset, which is a marvelous bit of tech that really transports the user into another reality. This year, I purchased the Star Trek Bridge game for it, and it is amazing. Your controllers are your hands, and you actually punch buttons on the control panel, and interact with the crew. It isn't the Enterprise, but the Aegir (Copyright concerns, no doubt); but, you can really get lost in this game. I am not much of a gamer; but, the VR simulations of geographical locations, museums, and fantasy environments are a marvel to navigate in. Check out the demo to get a flavor of the game; but, you won't really get it until you put a headset on yourself. I can't wait to try this game after a couple of Jamesons.
Elly has a new temporary home in the living room; at least, until my full sized bust of Julius Caesar arrives. I am thankful for another day to play chess, to love my family and friends, and to look for joy in all things. Eat, pray, love.
My Xmas present to myself arrived yesterday, a SquareOne all wood chessboard, with classic wood Staunton weighted pieces, that has an AI bluetooth phone connection and chess engine, and moves its own pieces. It is magical to move and then watch the opponent pieces move without human intervention. I have wanted something like this ever since "The Omega Man". Now, all I need is a bust of Caesar to sit across the table. Anyone for a game? Wait, I don't need you anymore.
Yes, children, it's that time of year again. The smell of the cool Fall air is just around the corner. The voice of the NFL, recorded for posterity, booms from the TV and arm-chair quarterbacks plot playoff strategy. But, first, we need to prioritize our sports TV watching.
Buy Omar Sharif Bridge - Microsoft Store. One of my favorite memories of my mom was her weekly bridge club. Looking back, it was the first social media for women of the Fifties. While I wasn't too keen on having so many moms around, my mom taught me the game, and its intricacies were a close second to Chess in my youth. I can still spend a pleasant hour with the game on the computer. Getting a bunch of people together for a game that takes four isn't easy in the modern environment. If you play contract bridge, try this version. Now, if I can just remember my conventions.
I am always being asked about whether a Smartwatch is useful to practicing lawyers. Well, if getting vibrating reminders on your wrist of texts, emails, phone calls, the weather, sports updates, news updates, your heart rate, and a dozen other useful things would make your day more productive and enjoyable, then get a Smartwatch. But, the real reason to get a Smartwatch is to play useless shooter games in which you shoot down alien ships coming to invade our planet. Save the world. Get a Smartwatch. UFO Killer. Don't bother to click link unless you have a Samsung Galaxy Smartwatch. It won't work, Apple lover.
In the mid Eighties, I was already into technology, and personal computing was in its infancy. However, my first computer, the Atari 800 XL was a revelation. With a cartridge and a TV and typewriter printer attached, I could create documents, print them, and distribute them, without a secretary. I started with home correspondence; but, it soon became apparent that computers for work, and law practice, were going to be big. It is hard to believe that I learned about computers on a machine designed to play early video games. I remember driving an hour to a store that was selling the first chess Atari cartridge. Anybody have a PC before 1984?
A recent story about the new hit video game, Fortnite, that is consuming a lot of kid playtime these days got me thinking about my own kids. An early poem I wrote was begun as I wondered about the in games violence that kids were being exposed to. But, we live in a violent world. Should we be more concerned about the real violence outside? I don't pretend to have the answers; but, video game violence may not create violent adults; but, does it desensitize them to real world problems? Here is the poem, followed by a sample from Fortnite, now being played by millions of our children:
VIDEO GAME
But, papa, I don’t want to go outside, he said in a small voice as he navigated a three dimensional wonderland, populated with fairies and demons and monks and warriors. Real people playing virtual lives on a virtual landscape doing virtual things.
I understood his reluctance. Nobody ever really dies in there. Magic potions and spells renewed the body and spirit, and the only casualties were monsters and ogres roaming the virtual meadows and lurking in dark corners of virtual castles.
He wanted to avoid the harsh realities of the physical world, where accidents happen and people die and insects bite and sun burns.
How could I tell him that the truth of life is about the striving and the risk? How could I tell him that virtual happiness was no match for the real thing?
Or was that true after all?
Maybe he would tell me that reality was the real illusion, and that maybe wars should be fought on virtual battlefields where nobody dies.
Lawyer,Poet, author, educator. Practices real property, corporation, wills, trusts and estates law in Pinellas County, Florida. Writes the FutureLawyer column. Gives seminars on technology and the law. Author of "Life is Simple, Really", Poems about Life, Loving, Family and Fun, and "Poems For Lovers".
