Virtual - a term that has become a victim of its own success. My virtual life still hangs over me like the shadow of a much larger creature. I look up hoping to find a clue to its whereabouts. My head starts to ache. It joins my back and wrists. They ache in comfort. The comfort of my situation, my old situation that is. I try to come to grips with what is and what was. The flash of my virtual life before my eyes...images still burned into my retinas. Cinematic soundscapes at every turn have disappeared. Now there is just a daunting silence. I am certainly alone, but also slightly afraid. The ultimate loner is afraid of being alone. I can feel panic setting in, but it too feels somehow muted.