Confession is good for the soul, even if I know mine is damned and double-parked at The Gates Of Hell already, waiting for the rest of me.

Here's the deal: there's so much I want to do, but there's so little time to do it in. When I can multitask, I can get a lot done.

Being able to listen to podcasts when and where I want to liberates me from the tyranny of the clock. It puts control in my hands and empowers me to enjoy content at my leisure and at my pace.

You could also say that my demand for asynchronous consumption of content is just a thinly-veiled expression of my disgust for broadcast television, which I walked away from almost seven years ago. If I'm being told when and where and how to consume information or content that has absolutely no need to be scheduled at a certain time and place and medium, don't expect me to open my mouth for you to spoon-feed the choo-choo into. I'm more likely to beat you with the high-chair and call you a pathetic, arrogant time-tyrant.

Information demands to be free of boundaries, space and time alike.

So, scroll down a bit. Notice the pretty robot sitting in the audience of the Music Academy.

That's nice, but where was I? Me. The schmuck in the Hawaiian shirt and sneakers.

ANSWER: Elsewhere.

When my avatar was at that Music Academy thing, I was doing the following:

• Taking a dump in the bathroom
• Sorting some old mail
• Prepping some stuff in the kitchen
• Cleaning up some files
• A few sit-ups and push-ups (my elbow's still not 100%, but my knee's rock solid now)
• Running some backups
• Playing with Nardo

But I was listening to the audio stream of the show while doing this. (Looking back, I probably should have gotten the laundry started, vacuumed, and cleaned the litterboxes, too.)

I got a lot out of listening to the interview. Just as I get a lot out of listening to the various Authors series and other shows on SLCN.tv.

Read that again: LISTENING.

Don't get me wrong - I get a lot out of listening to those shows, too. I have my iPod in my pocket or face-down on my desk and I go through the playlists I set up every morning for podcasts and vidcasts.

If there's nothing added by having a visual component, why should I waste 10-20 extra minutes waiting for that all to download? (As opposed to wasting a whole hour to have someone tell me when and where I have to experience this content.)

Also, When I was done, I scrolled back through the history and found very little spoken during that time, very little acknowledgment or involvement of the audience.

But if there's no community feel... no backchat... no two-way interaction flow between the guest, hosts, and audience... what's the point of being there?

Maybe I was there on a slow day. Maybe there were grid issues.

Whatever - this was something I could have experienced online or offline.

Read that again: INTERACTION

On the other hand, when I listen to Metanomics on the iPod, I actually feel like I miss out on the backchat, even though the hosts and guests respond to some of it.

The video component's still an insignificant and bandwidth-costly/space-costly element to the production, but what's lost is all those people in the audience furthering the conversation on so many levels.

It's something that, if you're engaged with that particular topic, you have to be there.

Read that again: ENGAGED

So maybe I'll be a little more wise about where and when and how I spend my limited time when I'm doing SL things. Perhaps I'll do a few more things off line via podcast or have the podcast going while I'm getting online things done.

Yeah, it's surreal to have an audience full of submarines or televisions or people holding torches to celebrate a madman's idea of a holiday, but there's a very crazy maze not getting built, and less time to build it in.

Also, there's so many other things out there... so many discussions and poetry readings and comedy acts and building classes. Things that aren't podcasted and have to be experienced then and there.

So, calling someone a tramp, tossing them a linden for winning the tramp contest - bah. Idle hands doing the devil's work again. Just a symptom of a greater malaise. Just the frustration of needing to park a digital doll's butt in an imaginary seat lashing out.

And when I lash out, I can really lash out. Major-league volcano of viciousness bubbling under the surface of this amusement park full of clowns and bunnies and laughing, playing children. (Still, she looked like a goddamned tramp, and considering how trampy most women appear as in SL, that's saying something)

My target should be the medium and the absurdity of life, first or second. When I'm picking on the weak-minded for picking-on's sake while there's a TO DO list stacked higher than the dishes, I should be putting on the rubber gloves and firing this all up on my iPod dock.

So, I will. Because most of the guests are interesting and worth hearing, it's a great way to learn about some of these people's causes and businesses, get a sampling of all the things going on beyond these Five Islands... but the time-cost for experiencing it live can be just too steep sometimes.

I'll catch ya on the podcast, Paisley's Peanut Gallery. Don't think you've won this war EVIL WHITE KITTEH, I'll always have a place in what passed for a heart in his bag of gears for Starr's Hair, and when I have time for it, save the aisle seat for me.

(After all, Kaklick's gonna be there on the 30th, and we've alllllllllllllllll been Ruthed!)