Monday, July 03, 2006

Joy

I've always been amazed by the internet, and maybe that's because I came to it late - not growing into it, but plonking. The idea that my computer connects to your computer connects to their computer... it's too big, it's too amazing. What a world we live in.

I've just come across a prime example of this amazingness - but a word of warning beforehand: if you have a dial-up connection (as I do) this file took 44 minutes to download; and if you have a fucking useless computer (as I do) the thing may crash (as mine did, twice). But still, it's worth the aggravation. So: guitar, a video at YouTube.

It shows a kid in a bedroom playing a guitar. You can't see his face, he's wearing a baseball cap and looking down. All you can see is part of a bed, a table with computer gear, and him playing guitar, and maybe he's just miming (I can't tell). Actually, I can't even say for sure he's a he - maybe it's a girl. But the music: ahh... I love Pachelbel's Canon in any version (even the uber-tacky ones) and this one is very fine. Somebody, hopefully this kid, is a guitar fiend.

Watching this video, the tone of my day turned around. I've been a tad unhappy for a while now and I was crying so much while eating lunch, I nearly choked on a piece of toast (which then seemed so ridiculous, after regaining enough oxygen, I had to laugh). The point is: some anonymous kid somewhere changed the shape of my day. Me. Here. Now. He doesn't know me, I don't know him, and he'll never know the effect he had, or how grateful I am, but the day I'm living now is better, thanks to him. He could change the shape of your day too, if you download the video.

And here's the headline: this kid and his video have been viewed - at present count - 6,071,573 times.

Did you get that? Six million, seventy one thousand, five hundred and seventy three times. That's a lot of joy, and all thanks to a kid sitting in his bedroom, playing guitar.

Do you see? The net, reader: you, me, him. We're in it together. It's a new world, and it's good.

\(^o^)/

UPDATE:

A number of sites allow you to download and save this video. Two examples:

- Google Video (.avi files) Sadly, sadly, very very sadly, I tried two files from here and neither would play on my elderly Windows computer. I think they require the Google Video Player, which in turn requires Windows XP/2000 and a 1Ghz+ processor.

- Metacafe (.wmv file, 17.3MB). Works just fine. Yee-har.