3: Relaxation Made Easy

 

You probably have a hobby or two. Maybe you collect stamps or coins. Perhaps you enjoy playing golf, cooking, or restoring antique cars. Maybe you like dressing up your cats in little outfits and having tea parties, talking in a high, squeaky voice and pretending they're conversing with you. Whatever your hobby, you can find people on the World Wide Web who share it. (Including imaginary conversations with cats, we're sorry to say.)

Here are some of the diversions you'll read about in this chapter:

 

The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia

It's the latest party game sweeping the nation! It's madcap fun for the whole family! It's "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!"

You've heard, perhaps, of the theory of Six Degrees of Separation? This doctrine suggests that, by mentally connecting people you know with people they know, and so on, you can reach any person on the planet within six such links. Your first school principal's neighbor's son once knew a guy who was Demi Moore's hairdresser…you get the idea.

The rules of the game are simple. "Think of an actor. They have to have been in an American mainstream movie (no porn, no art films, etc.). Now, try to link that actor to another actor, by way of a movie that both of them have starred in. For example, Kyra Sedgwick would not be a good link to Kevin Bacon because they were married, but she WOULD be a good link because they were both in 'Murder in the First.' Got it? Now keep going. I guarantee that, with judicious linking, you will get to Kevin Bacon within six links, from any starting point." Whoever comes up with the shortest chain for the given actor (the lowest Bacon Number) gets a point, and the game continues, with much hilarity.

Sure, Schwarzenegger and Cruise are easy. But can you link, for example, Benji (the dog) to Kevin Bacon? How about the long-dead '30s actor Al Jolson? Or "King Kong" damsel Fay Wray? Or "Fantasy Island" sidekick Herve Villechaize? The "Bacon Game" Web page gives these and dozens of other astounding examples:

The bounties of the Web offer an automated Bacon Game player, known as The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia; just type in an actor's name, and the computer solves the links for you.

 

MIDI Karaoke

We've always had our reservations about applying the lively verb surf to the utterly sedentary act of sitting and using the Web. Even the terms multimedia and interactive only rarely apply to the act of Web browsing -- reading andwaiting are generally the applicable verbs.

Not so, however, at the MIDI Karaoke page. Here, for your entertainment, are the lyrics for song upon song, from the Brady Bunch theme to "Every Breath You Take." Click a song title, and suddenly -- don't ask us how they do it -- fully orchestrated music bursts forth from your computer's speakers. If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, the lyrics scroll across your screen to fit the music. The Japanese have a word for this confluence of multimedia: karaoke!

Of course, you may find that some of the thrill goes out of karaoke when there's (a) no bar, (b) no other singers, and (c) no audience. But still, it's something; now, instead of sitting there in your chair, sluglike and alone, staring dully at a computer screen, you can sit there in your chair, sluglike and alone, staring dully at a computer screen and singing.

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