Losing your Net connection is a real pain, but Netropolitan is increasingly
seeing such 鈥渙utages鈥� as a force for good, forcing surfers to abandon their
computers and interact with the real world. Happily, the Web has many sources of
information on things to do when the Net鈥檚 down, so get surfing in preparation
for your next outage.
The last time the Net went down, I stifled my cries of joy and decided to
do something that I hadn鈥檛 done in ages . . . fly a kite. Anthony鈥檚 Kite
Workshop, a site hosted in Queensland, Australia, includes varied plans on
building your own airborne creation, including 鈥淭he Quick and Dirty Plastic Bag
Kite鈥�. Catch it at www.sct.gu.edu.au/~anthony/kites. Or else you can try a
virtual stunt kite at www.best.com/~bsteele/java/kite.html. Alas, I soon got
weary of the loops and dives and decided to go elsewhere for entertainment.
Inspired by an earlier wander at www.bioblitz.org/nobells/cyberhik/index.html,
I decided there was no better way to enjoy the wonders of the natural world than
taking a hike.
Looking for wildlife is another fun diversion, but it鈥檚 tough to spot
creatures in an urban environment. A rather unusual wildlife society, at
animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/students/awinfrey/coneindex.htm, provides a helpful
field guide. Some human wildlife that鈥檚 stuck up one of Netropolitan鈥檚 favourite
trees鈥攁 giant redwood threatened by the Pacific Lumber Company鈥攃an
be found at www.lunatree.org. Here you can download details of Julia Butterfly
Hill鈥檚 600-day treetop protest about the threat to America鈥檚 ancient forests to
peruse in those offline moments.
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If you鈥檝e found that life offline is just too much, calm yourself down by
taking a cyber pup for a walk at www.virtualdog.com when that connection comes
back online鈥攇o on, give yourself a second leash of life. As for me, well,
it certainly felt good to get away from the computer for a while.