Friendl-e

I have two, much younger, actually one incredibly, one so-so younger e-friends who (or with whom) I have never met. I guess as Christmas draws nearer, my desire to actually meet them is increasing. Could be good, could be a disaster . . I'm literally twice one of their age so who knows.

Arkenstone in Melbourne used to work on a helldesk that I frequently called to ask the usual inane questions and received the usual inane support - "Turn your PC off and on again", "Are you putting in the right password?", "Have you turned your PC on? His patience was admirable and we struck a chord with each other and have had long email conversations on subjects as diverse as the history of Metallica to home renovation. He's since left but we keep in touch sporadically with silly emails and links to each other's blogs and photos. Even a quick video of each other's abodes has been exchanged but lately things have been a little quiet. He's easily distracted and I'm high maintenance apparently.

During the slow periods, we've had a few chats on the ether and become quite pally. Arkenstone who has a number of pseudonym's including Crispy (I thought that's what happened to hard drives when they burned out?) has some interesting geeky obsessions which are very entertaining. He comes with, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Lego, light sabres, Kiss T-Shirts, Swamp Thing underwear, a huge Mercedes, an incredibly patient girlfriend and a plethora of gadgets that allow him to take macro pics of matcheads and ice cubes . . occasionally . . and very occasionally, there's a photo of note. Sorry Ark but I like human studies!

The other is Johnny Dodge in Christchurch who's NZPubcasts with his trusty companion Shifty Rob are sometimes boring as batshit, sometimes very entertaining. Lets' face it, get an Irishman and a Canadian in a bar with a PC and just listening to the accents is a cack. Don't know much about the dodgster other than he's a lefty with wide opinions and a hunger for general knowledge and a number of failed attempts to achieve his pilot's licence plus a vitriolic (that's my word this week) hatred of George Bush, aptly named il Diablo. Keep up the good work Johhny. I suspect he spends a lot of time reading the newspaper on line and digging out obscure stories about Pitcairn Islanders and Vicars trying to overcome the shortage of underwear in small English towns. C'mon, you've gotta love it!

Either way, I've come to enjoy the e-company of these two, even though I have no idea whether we'll ever get to share a beer or shake a hand. Keep it up boys you're my solace on Sunday mornings when I log in and check the podcast and photos.

And of course, when in Sydney . . gimme a call . . I'll show you mine if you show me yours. (City that is).