(Originally published in the Second Life Herald on November 4, 2006)

They are hiding something from me. I am sure now. Sure that my world is only partly realized, partly resolved. Sure that a superseding reality exists. I have suspected for some time - catching fleeting glimpses of the another place. For a while I was able to ignore this nagging veil, and I explored. I waited for things to rez. I thought nothing of the fact that there were lots of empty spaces in the world around me.

My World from Hamlet’s Window

But not too long ago, while exploring Version 1.12.3(1) on the Beta Test Grid – deserted as usual - and discovered I could ‘see’ a place I had never seen before, and it struck me with the force of a door slamming open. They had placed some sort of interactive document there, for I found I could navigate around by pointing at certain areas of the image. That was when I saw this - World from My Window. It looked like a picture of Hamlet Au’s place in Waterhead, near my squat at the Welcome Center - but it was also oddly unfamiliar. So I teleported over there and had a look for myself.

Hamlet’s World from Hamlet’s Window

It was not the same. It was the same place, of that I was sure, but there were elements missing. Whole buildings. And trees. And the horizon was somehow closer. I returned to the Beta Test Grid to confirm what I had seen. But the door was closed. They had been watching me. They knew what I had discovered and hastened to cover their tracks. But I know they are there. I know they are there! The typist for Fiend Ludwig sits at his desk and swears. “God damn computer. One of these friggin’ days I need to get a better graphics card.”