Aww Damn! ~looks at the clock~ this is going to be a long couple of days... where’s that damned No-Doze? ~begins making another pot of coffee~ how in the hell am I going to get a week’s worth of work done in two fucking days? ~exasperated sigh while looking thru cupboards and cabinets for the pills~ what the hell was I thinking?! ~grabs a coffee cup and takes it over to the pot~ I know I need the money, but I know better than to accept impossible projects! ~pours a cup of coffee, adding sweetener and creamer~ I really am in trouble if I don’t get this shit done… ~looks through another cabinet~ AH! Here they are! ~opens the bottle and downs a handful, following them with the full cup of coffee~ Shit! That’s fucking hot! Serves me right though… ~makes another cup of coffee, sitting down at the computer when it’s done~ Now… ~click... click… click… opening the programs needed~ where is that email with the text he wanted added? ~click... click... click... and lights a cigarette~ Here we go... ~takes a long drag from the cigarette before setting it down~ now, this needs to go here... ~takes a drink of coffee~ and this needs to go here ~another drag~ and this- what the fuck is that doing there? ~another drag, another drink~ There, now... where was I? ~another drink, looks in the empty cup~ shit. ~gets another cup of coffee~

This goes on for hours as I got wired on caffeine and nicotine while I worked my way thru building this web site. I had gone through a full bottle of No-Doze, 8 pots of coffee, and 2 packs of cigarettes in a little less than 12 hours. I sat there uploading pages as I finished them, browsing thru them from a second computer as I went to make sure they were working properly. Somehow I found myself somewhere I had no clue how I got there... I looked around for a little while, trying to figure out where I was, when I see this guy messages me wondering how I got there...

“Who are you?” The message reads.

“I am...” Something inside me tells me not to give him my real world name, “I am Illiannya... friends call me Weaver, though.”

“Do you even know where you are?” “Uh... no... some new jacked up server?” “Found us by accident, huh? Let me guess, a hacker?” “Nah, I’m a builder.” “Really? Well, no matter, you’re here. This is the Digital Web...”

“Digital Web?” A confused look crosses my face... We talked for a little while before it hit me that I still had work to do... He said he’d catch me on the other side and explain it. I don’t know how, but somehow I was back in my house, staring at the computer screen. I looked at the time and only a few minutes had passed. Thankful, and still not understanding, I got back to work, barely finishing the site on time.

It was a few days later when I saw the guy again. I was sitting a computer at a place close to home called “The Data Dive”, drinking a cappuccino when he stepped up to my table and asked me if he could join me. I said okay, and we sat there talking for a while. He told me some about the digital web, what it was, how it came about... He offered to show me more, teach me all about it, how to get to it on purpose instead of just by accident... of course I accepted... We met on a regular basis after that, sometimes at his place, sometimes at mine, over the next couple months, and he showed me a whole new world.