<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0086</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0087.txt">Next (Page 87)</A><BR>"<P><P>"If I was storing valuable games in a remote, insecure location, I might protect them with an airborne virus trap. But that's just me," Carne said.<P><P>* * *<P><P>"It seems like everyone has a website these days. Even my Moisture Detection Friend has one," Carne said.<P><P>"I'm gonna have a website," Pacer said.<P><P>"Oh yeah, what's it gonna... Whoah!"<P><P>"Hey! Come on man! Stop driving like a psycho!"<P><P>"It wasn't my fault, that guy totally cut me off!"<P><P>"Well, I don't know. Just you're always supposed to be in control of your vehicle, y'know? Anyway, my website? It's gonna be of imaginary cat food. It's gonna have all graphics and shit. This friend of mine? He knows a guy in the city who does artwork and logos and stuff, and he says he can draw all the fake cat food cans and make them look, y'know, real."<P><P>"So, what, like something like 'Frothy's Buffet', and have a rabid cat foaming at the mouth--something like that?"<P><P>"Um... not really... we're not really going for that college humor sort of direction. We have some stuff like 'Nuts and Bolts Cat Food for the Robotic Cats'. Or, 'Lumber Scrap Cat Food for the Wooden Cats"' all stuff like that."<P><P>"So, is this meant--is it meant as comedy, or as..."<P><P>"It's mainly the artwork. I saw some of what this guy does. I tellya, it looks--y'know--totally professional. Anyway, we're gonna let people see like two or three of the cat food cans, and then they can pay a monthly fee to see the whole collection--like ten dollars a month, or something. Not that much. And then we'll split it with this guy, the guy in the city."<P><P>"And you think people are gonna be... um... signing up for this?"<P><P>"That's the beauty of it," Pacer said. "There are millions and millions of people online. Say ten million. If we just get, like, I don't know, one percent of the people out there, that's like, a hundred-thousand people. And each of them paying ten dollars a month, um... well, I figured it out, and over the course of just one year, we'll make like over ten million dollars. So my split will be, like, three million dollars or something. And that's just one year!"<P><P>* * *<P><P>"I was at a beautiful place," Carne said. "My Moisture Detection Friend had been there a week earlier. It's kind of hard to describe. It was a glass lodge on top of this hill, with a killer view. Everyone just sits in there and smokes these great cigars and drinks this awesome iced coffee."<P><P>"Yeah?" Pacer said. "That sounds pretty cool. So when the fuck is this ride gonna start up again? I'm tired of sitting here in the 'Amethyst Cave of the Ancient Way'. This ride sucks, man."<P><P>"I don't know. I think all these rides have great character. Maybe from the viewpoint of whatever modern aesthetic you adhere to you might think of this ride as 'corny', but giving it such a simplistic label would be doing it a disservice."<P><P>"Did you see that Erica I was talking to before? I told her I was gonna meet her at the 'Major Frolicking Waters' stage show thing, y'know? But I'm sitting here in this friggin' dark ride. No, it's not a dark ride, it's a dork ride."<P><P>"What I am often fascinated by is the application of the term 'artifical reality' when referring to rides such as this one, or places like that lodge I was telling you about. Is not all human architecture and design meant to evoke something beyond the natural world?"<P><P>"You know man, I don't wanna get into this with ya, and I'm just about to jump off the ride and head for that exit sign over there, though I know I'll get jumped by security before I make it ten feet. But your argument is wack. It's not a matter of strict black-and-white definitions, it's a matter of extent! And what the hell does a crystal, fairy, jerk-around cave have to do with my life?"<P><P>"Yeah.<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0087.txt">Next (Page 87)</A>