As most of you know, I mainly use Gmail as my mail client. This is a puppet “movie” on why Gmail is awesome!

You think over the things in your house you could do: Medieval Warfare, homework, and Medieval Warfare. It occurs to you that ever since you started playing there had been nothing else important to you. Medieval Warfare took priority over friends, education, family, and physical health. The last one could be taken care of so you grab your unused MP3 player and head for a cool, morning jog.
After getting home you decide to play some pool. Mostly because you’re exhausted from your first run in about a year. Your day continues like this; doing anything but Medieval Warfare.
When you finally crash, around 2:00, you feel great, for real. You feel like you’ve never done anything more productive ever, well, then again, you probably haven’t. Again, for the thousandth time, you go over the list of today’s accomplishments:
Mile run
Trumpet practice
Pool
Reading
Homework
Soccer
You decide that you just have to tell Robert about the great new soccer moves you learned today. But you forgot, he’s still obsessed with Medieval Warfare. Then it strikes you. All this past year, since last summer, you started playing Medieval Warfare, you got hooked, and now you’re obsessed. You sunk low and when you spread it to your class they got obsessed too and now you pulled them down with you. Now you entire team is sitting lower than low and you’ve done nothing about it. You now realize what you have to do, get your team off Medieval Warfare. You had to get the obsessed off Medieval Warfare.

When your family comes home you become an excessively helpful middle child: helping your mom with dinner, giving your dad a hand with the dishes, and even helping your younger brother with his homework. The rest of the night went perfectly. During dinner your mom asked how your day was and you told her all the productive things you did today. The rest of your family listens intently. You, the Medieval Warfare obsessed, had spent a whole day home along without playing. That night you sleep peacefully.

As you step off the bus the next day a tall, sandy-brown headed kid starts towards you.
“Hey, Alex, I heard about yesterday, are you all better now?” he asked you.
“Yeah, I’m fine now. Thanks Robert.” You reply. It was then, as if on cue, four other kids start towards you. You recognize them as:
· Sean Paras, Ballandchain42, commando of heavy weapons
· Lauren Barnson, CIA07, commando of intelligence
· Julie Neveeras, Eyeofnewt58, commando of withes
· Dan Lonas, Monkey888, commando of transportation.
This was your commando group that died under your command on Monday.
“So, what did you do yesterday?” Lauren asked you suspiciously.
“We all know you were faking,” Sean added.
“You betrayed us on Monday, we want to know what’s going on,” Julie said threateningly.
“Seriously Alex, that was not cool,” Dan said even more threateningly.
“Tell us, it’d better be good or we’re going to kick you out of the guild!” Robert finishes aguishly. You’re surrounded; your mind races and you finally land on an answer.
“Hey, Robert, I learned some great soccer moves while I was sick, want to see them? I brought a ball,” you exclaimed, completely and totally changing the subject.
“Alex, where the heck did that come from!?!” Sean was practically screaming.
“You didn’t play any Medieval Warfare!?!” Lauren was screaming.
“That world doesn’t matter!” Julie yelled.
“Exactly! It’s all Medieval Warfare, the real world!” Dan exulted.
“Wait, hold on, let’s let Alex show us his cool soccer moves first,” Robert said slyly.
“Okay, if you insist,” you answer, already uncomfortable. You take out your ball and quickly review the tricks you taught yourself over in your mind. Your first trick was doing a ball juggle. Your start is slow and nervous, but eventually you settle down and continue problem-free. Your skill starts attracting other kids in the lineup area. They start towards you. Soon half the grade is watching you juggle and more are continuing to pour in.

“So, you are listening to my suggestion.” said Matt pleased.

“It makes more sense now after that news. What should we do?”

“Go to NOVR?” suggested Matt. I nodded and ran out the door too. Soon we were inside the glass dome.

“Sam! Did you hear on the news that Jack is missing?”

“Yes, of course. The only place he could be is in VR, since he never left since yesterday. I haven’t told anyone yet, but you.”

“Do you think I could go and search for him?”

“Sadly no, rules say that only members of NOVR can go in”

“What if I went in and you supervised me? I’m sure you could watch me, and pull me back as soon as you see any trouble.” Suddenly, the doors behind me opened and a cold breeze entered the building. John and Sara ran in.

“Kevin! I knew we could find you here,” said Sara.

“We heard that your brother is missing and we call your house. You mom picked up and told us that you went out. And Sara suggested that we should come here,” said John.

“What happened?” Sara had a worried look.

“Okay, here’s what happened. Yesterday, Jack went into VR and hasn’t come back since. So that means that he is still in there.”

“VR? There? What are we going to do?” asked John, “Go after him?”

“Well, I don’t think we can do anything else to help”

“Sam? Do you think you can watch over us three to find Jack.”

“I guess…” he said with concern, “but only because this is an emergency. Go into the transfer room and go into a pod. I’ll send you to the main control area, that’s where he should be.”

“Okay” we said and walked through the metal doors. Each of us went into the same kind of pod and were sent into VR.

Of the many thought flying through your mind one strikes you suddenly. You lost. You, Alex Baker, Yoshiyo100, the third best player of Medieval Warfare in the whole world, had been defeated by the tricks of the Dynamite Duos. You lay down on the ground because you know there is no hope. You’re in a corridor six feet wide and outnumbered ten to one-hundred. After what seems an eternity you see the two words of death appear on your computer screen. Game over.

You wake up in your guild’s kitchen, but you don’t care. You lost. It had never happened before. Questions cross your mind like why now? You begin to cry. You’re crying harder than you did when your dog died. You’re crying harder than you were when your grandfather died. You’re crying all because you virtually died on Medieval Warfare. You turn off your computer and cry yourself to sleep.

Your dream that night involves the same situation you were in in Medieval Warfare the past evening. Except, instead of a party of royal guards you find the throne room and you jump for joy.

“Yes we won,” your dream avatar cries.

“No!” you wake up sweating. You know that your mind is just trying to trick you. How were you going to face everyone tomorrow? First you get put in detention for playing in school, then you lose in the attack against the Dynamite Duos, and now you’re actually sleeping! Slowly a plan forms in your mind, a plan that just might pull everything off. Then, after making sure everything was set you go to sleep peacefully.

“Alex, you look horrible?” your mother wakes you up with her sharp remark.

“Ugh, I don’t feel good either,” you reply, faking it all.

“I’ll be out doing errands but you can stay home today,” she tells you in a soothing voice.

“But mom, I really want to go to school,” you try not really hard to convince her.

“No, you stay home and get some rest, I’ll check on you when I get home,”

“When’s that going to be?”

“Oh, I don’t know Alex, around one or two.”

“Okay, bye mom, have fun.”

“Bye, get well!”

You wait for the garage door to open and close then you leap to your computer and start it up.

The familiar game screen pops up with the character evaluation, messaging box, item screen, and status bars. You log in.

Username: Yoshiyo100

Password: *****************

Again you’re in your guild’s kitchen. You wake up to find no one around you. Well duh! You think. They’re all at school. You move your armor bodied avatar with your keyboard’s directional keys and walk around the giant castle home of the butterfly’s guild. The Butterfly Guild consisted of all your classroom’s students and the students of the surrounding classrooms. You were a small guild, maybe only ninety-four kids; which was small considering that guilds could be up to 250 members. The widgets on the main screen inform you of the time and your location. It’s 9:32 and your walking away from the Butterfly’s Guild Castle and towards the Dynamite Duos Fortress. Your red Shrianeer armor glistens in the morning sun. Suddenly, a message appears on your game screen: “The hot sun is making you thirsty; you must drink two quarts of water or find shade in the next five minutes.” A red timer appears on your screen counting down the time until you die of thirst. You sigh. Medieval Warfare was a survival game, you had to eat and drink regularly. You check your drink supply, five glasses of water, some beer, three cups of tea, and three packets of hot cocoa. You take out two glasses of water and drink; the timer then disappeared. Then you continue on your plight. Your objective was to make up for yesterday’s failure. Since no one was in the castle it would be easy to get in the throne room and dominate the entire fortress. The plan was flawless. As you head up through the grounds of the fortress carelessly.

All of a sudden you hear an alarm go off, guards start charging in from all sides. You smile, unlike royal guards these were a simple kill. With a combination of keystrokes you swing your Nicrododeer sword, the third best weapon in the game, around and into your enemies’ bodies.

Soon they were defeated. You continue up the fortress’ front entrance and it’s as you’re doing this a thought drives into your mind this place is probably loaded with guards, better be careful.

It was as you were walking up the front walk that a completely random thought crosses your mind: Wow, without anyone with me this is the most boring game I’ve ever played. You attempt to push the thought away. It couldn’t be true. But, it keeps coming back like a boomerang. Wow, without anyone with me this is the most boring game I’ve ever played. No! You’ve been obsessed for almost a year now! You were not going to quit, you were not going to stop, you couldn’t, and it wasn’t thinkable, you were at the top of your game. No, you were obsessed and you were going to stay obsessed. Even if everyone else quit you would be there. Still, the though kept coming back again and again.

After ten minutes of this mental conversation/argument you get mad and turn off your computer. There, I’m not playing, now what do I do?

During the past few days I have been installing the Funknowledge Wiki which is located at: http://funknowlege.awardspace.com/wiki/index.php It is based on Mediawiki, which is also the basis of Wikipedia. Feel free to add anything you like to the wiki, your contribution is appreciated. We also need a logo,help us think of one and send it to funknowledge@gmail.com.

This is a science fiction story that my friend wrote. A note to readers: this story is written in 2nd person (as if the events are happening to you).

“Hey! Alex, you doing okay?” you hear your best friend Robert chirp through your headphones.
You reply, “Yeah, detention is actually okay, great really. Nobody pays attention to you and you can do whatever you want. Some of the kids around me are just sitting and starting into oblivion. At least I’m being productive!”
As you settle down to mindlessly killing some boggarts you listen to his reply.
“Guess what?” Before you can guess he tells you, “I just thought of a brilliant new attack plan against the Dynamite Duos!”
You recoil in surprise and respond, “But those are the guilds that just triumphed over the best miners in the game! They have access to some of the world’s strongest ore! How do you expect to win?”
“Well I heard on the forums that they’re looking for four Doranear war hammers. How about we give it to them, take the prize, and attack!”
“But we can’t make Doranear war hammers! Those need a level twenty-five smith workshop and we only have a twenty-two!”
“Well, wait until I tell you this! We just captured the Gorugan mines and got access to their smith shop. It increased our skill by three and right now our constructers are building the new shop. I can’t believe you didn’t hear the news!”
“Well, I guess I’m kind of out of touch, maybe?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot, you get kind of confused where your buddies are when playing”
“Okay, yeah, that’s great! Well, anyways I need some thinking time so I’m going of social mode, bye!” You turn the chatting off before you hear his response. Your eyes revert back to the games main screen. Suddenly an image appears: Congratulations! You have advanced to Swordsman level 455! Your new rank is master swordsman!
“YES!” you shout for joy. Everyone in the detention area looks at you like your some alien from another planet. Well, maybe to them you are one. Ever since you started playing Medieval Warfare you basically lived in cyberspace. Your next-door-neighbor is a Bluetooth mouse and the car you drive is an Intel processor. You apologize for the interruption and continue playing.

“And why were you in detention again?” you mother is screaming at you when she comes to pick you up.
“I forgot to do some homework over the weekend and Mrs. Marchello got mad at me because I was trying to do it in class, that’s all,” a lie, of course. The truth was that Mrs. Marchello had caught you playing your game in class. It had worked for four periods straight so you didn’t see a problem with it. Then you remembered that he was one of your teachers that didn’t play any video games. What a sad life to live you think.
“I thought you said you were all done with your homework on Saturday!”
“I told you I forgot it, how can I say I remembered it?” She ignores you the rest of the ride home. You know you can’t play in front of her so you start your homework.

As soon as you get home you head up to your room, homework not done, but you start up your computer and you indulge yourself into the horribly realistic game of Medieval Warfare.
“John, Hero588, watch the left bank!” you hear Robert order commands from his perch in the camp. The battle was on. You were inside already desperately trying to get to the Dynamite Duo’s throne room.
“Ah!” an enemy recoils in pain and collapses on the ground.
“Nice job, Alex!” your ally congratulates you on a kill well done.
“Alex, I got the map! We’re really close to the throne room! It’s just off to the left!” your commander of intelligence, CIA007, informs you.
“Great, let’s finish this!” you quickly reply.
“Alex, we’re loosing troops on the northwest bridge! We can’t hold them much longer!” Robert aguishly cries.
“Get down there and start fighting, we’re almost done here!” you order him. “Come on let’s continue guys!” your commando team heads towards the throne room at your command.
When you reach the door your specialists do a full check over.
“No hidden traps, locks, or devices of any kind sir,” CIA007 informs you. “But, there’s no door handle or opening mechanism.”
“Should we smash it?” your commando of heavy weapons questions your authority.
“Alex, there’s a group of royal guards coming up from behind us. There are three parties, we can’t hold seventy-five!” your witch, Eyeofnewt58, tells you. Your mind reels in panic. You’ve never been in a situation like this before, a door that can’t be opened, an almost squadron closing in from behind, and victory only on the other side.
“Alex, I think I’ve got it,” CIA007 exclaims. “They wanted four Doranear war hammers; those are probably the only things that can smash this!”
“Hey, Sean, do you have any of those?” you turn to your commando of heavy weapons and ask the question.
“I thought I was going to but we had to leave the castle before I could get my hands on one. So nope,” is Sean’s swift reply.
“Alex, we’ve lost all control, we had to retreat to the camp! Get us out of here!” Robert cries desperately.
“That’s it!” you shout, more out of anger than genius. “Sean smash that thing with the hardest hammer you have!”
“Okay, I hope it works!”
SMASH! The door easily breaks into millions of microscopic pieces. Your face expresses happiness for a split second before you realize what was behind it: another party of royal guards.
“Charge!” the command rings through the air but it doesn’t come from the twenty-five figures before you but the seventy-five coming from behind you.

This is the continuation of “iLife”…

“Welcome to ABC news. This is Tom Mackron with creation manager at Digibots, Chris Hallution. So Chris we’ve heard that your six year project has finally come to an end, how do you feel?”

“One, a lot less stress. Zach just wasn’t cooperation for the last few months, but we have finally got it right. In fact I’ll give you a demo right now.” He smiled and called out, “Zach?” Then suddenly a person walked right onto the stage smiling and bowing.

“Oh my god, it that a person?” said mom in disbelief.

“And to all gasping to know, no he is not a human.”

“I am an intelligent robot created by Digibot’s creation group.” His voice sounded highly realistic.

“I bet if you saw him on the streets one day, you wouldn’t even know he was just a piece of high tech machinery.”

“So Zach, how do you feel being in front of an audience.” Asked Tom.

“You’re kidding” said my dad, robots don’t have feelings. There was an strange sound and then he replied.

“A very interesting question. I would have to say… different. I’ve never gone on a stage, or even outside, only in the lab.”

“Would you want to if you had a choice?”

“Sure, after this I would do it a million times!” My mom was so shocked, she almost fainted. The camera turned to the audience where they all stared hypnotized by the robot. My mom shut off the TV.

“It is the weekend, maybe you could go outside and play with your friends.”

“Nah, I’ll have breakfast first.” My mom smiled.

“I was just about to say that” she said. I grabbed a box of Cheerios and poured them into a bowl. I heard the TV being turned on again, and I poured milk onto the cereal.

Odd day, I thought to myself. I gazed out into the New York landscape. Tall buildings, cars flying past, people walking hurriedly to their destination. I soon finished my breakfast and headed back to my room.

“Turn on” I said. A wall of my room transformed into a screen. “Look up Zackbot on Wikipedia.”

My Internet browser started and Wikipedia instantly loaded with a large picture of Zackbot on the right side. “Interesting. Zachbot is a project that was previously rejected by the US government, but later bypassed. I wonder what made the US government hesitate to make it?

“Maybe they were afraid of the “robots taking over the world” thing”

“But that’s only in movies! There must be some other reason.” We sat there thinking.

“Kevin! Jack is missing, it is reported on CNN” I was startled by Dad’s sudden appearance. “Strangely enough so is Zackbot.”

“Wait, but didn’t we just see Zachbot? On TV”

“News reporters say that the person on stage was not the real Zachbot, but a person. It’s possible that Zack found someone that he looked like and forced him to act.”

“Why would he run away?” I suddenly was horror struck. “Could Zack have kidnapped Jack?”

“Now what would bring you to that conclusion?”

“See Dad? Zack kidnaps Jack. He forces him to make more of himself and takes over the world!”

“You’ve been watching too many science fiction movies”

“No I mean it”

“I’ll go out and look for him in my car” He ran out the door and outside.

I have recently been working on a short science fiction story. Over the next few weeks I will be posting new parts of the story. I would appreciate comments, questions, and suggestions. Enjoy “iLife”!

Imagine, if there was a world where all your fantasies became reality. Flying cars, robots and high tech gadgets. Innovations have made our lives easier and different. Though many of our current dangers are gone, new ones have arisen. This is what you’ll see, welcome to the 22^nd century.

“Kevin, come here”, called Jack, my brother. We were in the National Organization of Virtual Reality Headquarters. Virtual Reality is a new technology created recently by a group of scientists. NOVR is the organization that’s developing the technology and trying to make it more reliable and helpful.

“What?”, I hollered back, and walked down the corridor into the transfer room. I entered a small, white room. On the right side of the room, there was five booths. Using these booths you could go in and out of Virtual Reality, or VR.

“I need to go check on something in Virtual Reality, I’ll be back in an hour”

“Can I come with you, please?”, I pleaded.

“No, It’s too dangerous for you. You should go home and do your homework, I’ll see you back home.” He ran into a telephone booth styled glass pod, typed in a few commands and disappeared. I waited a few moments and gazed at the wonders of virtual reality.

I left the building and ran down 32^nd street back to our apartment. People are everywhere in New York, but it’s not like back then where people keep on bumping into each other. Since cars are now in the air there is more room to get around.

“Hi, Mom”, I said cheerily as I walked into our territory.

“Hi, where’s Jack?”

“He said that he had to check on something in VR and that he’ll be back soon”

“I see, you should go do your homework, It’s getting late”

“Fine”, I chuckled, “Homework, that’s what Jack said before I left.” I placed my stuff on top of the table and began the long process know as homework. After finishing my homework, I remembered that Jack should be home by then. From my pocket I produced my Xinctra Mobile. “Matt?”

“Yep”, replied a happy voice, and a face filled the vibrant screen.

“Call, NOVR, I need to ask Sam where Jack is.”

“Dialing…”

“Hello, this the National Organization of Virtual Reality Headquarters. This is Sam speaking, how may I help you?” Sam, is the “front desk guy” and he knows all about who went in and who went out.

“Yes, This is Kevin Johnson. I wanted to know if my brother left.”

“Oh, hi Kevin. You were here an hour ago.”

“I know, where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him leave the building”

“Okay, well give me a call back to this number when you see him”

“Fine, bye, Kevin”

“Matt, open WIRED magazine, January Issue 2108”

“Holographic, or on screen”

“ On Screen” Okay, you’re now wondering: why not holographic? Holographic is awkward to work with and the text isn’t very clear, so I just stick with the old fashioned way. Sometimes innovations don’t help. Hmm, interesting: are robots becoming human? I started to read about different AI projects, iRobot and Digibots are the leading producers.

“Kevin! It’s time to go to bed” My mom’s voice startled me.

“Yeah, okay” I picked up my mobile and headed to bed.

“Kevin! Kevin! Wake up, look on the news. Digibots just announced the arrival of Zachbot.”

I was suddenly wide awake. I quickly dressed and ran to the TV.

To be continued…