Look! Reality!

For about a year and a half now, I've worked in a basement. It's a nice basement, I'll grant you... the former home of a local winery, and comprehensively renovated with galvanized steel sliding doors and suspended plexiglass walls and recessed halogen lights and the whole bit.

But it's still a basement. From where I sit I can't see a single ray of daylight, and now that the weather's improving this is becoming a problem. So I had an idea.

I brought in these chintzy little wireless cameras I ordered a few years ago, set one on a windowsill upstairs, wired the receiver thingy to the TV sitting between James and Arnie's desks, and boom - a virtual window on the world.

It's fantastic. Our coworker Jake says it's stupid, but he's a big baby elephant.

See? Somebody just walked by with tan pants on. There's a Chevy Trailblazer parked out front. The sun is shining. All these things I couldn't have known otherwise.

I don't care that the image sometimes flickers. I don't care that it only works in one specific place or the picture turns to static. All I care about is that I can see what's going on outside, as it goes on, and I am happy.

Call it self-deceit if you want to (Jake); it's a good trick.

If you happen to be walking by, please wave.