It's interesting to consider ways in which computer and Internet have changed our lives. Tasks that once required visiting certain locations and interacting with specific people, such as booking a holiday or accessing your bank account can now be performed online. Often when you do go somewhere to talk to an assistant they end up performing task online in same way you could have done yourself.

Online banking intrigues me greatly. We've almost lost need for real currency. I get paid by check, which goes straight into my bank account. I then access my bank account using Internet and transfer some money over to my savings account, which is at a different bank to my regular account. If I ever need money from my savings account I log in and transfer it back to my main account. I have never given any 'real' money to this bank, nor have I ever received any from them. The majority of my purchases these days are made using Eftpos. I hardly ever actually have cold, hard, real cash on me. Basically we purchase things with data these days. Numbers flit all over place, being subtracted and added from one variable to another. Presumably there is still real money somewhere being couriered between banks but I generally never see it. It makes me wonder how long it will be until we actually don't technically have money.

The Internet is sometimes criticized (usually by parents who think their kids need to be outdoors more often) as leading people to be sitting in front of their computers all day growing bulbous, lethargic and (depending on who you talk to) stupid. I think that opposite can often be true. My friends and I have recently been inspired to new creative ventures through time spent online.

I have long been a fan of movies, martial arts movies in particular. It has been said that they’re kind of like modern musical with finely choreographed dances (although in this case ‘dance’ is a fight) showing fantastic physical ability, timing, and grace. Recently I have found that there are many online groups of people dedicated to making their own martial arts films. Most of these guys are really talented and I’ve seen film fight scenes that are better than majority of American made ‘martial arts’ movies. Where commercial films focus on special effects, from wirework (attaching wires to an actor in order to allow them to do extraordinary feats) to computer rendered effects (sometimes even using a computer animated actor in fights as seen in ‘The Matrix Reloaded’), these independent groups get out there and make impressive films through sheer physical exertion and amazing ability.

It’s amazing what a bit (well, a lot really) of hard work can do for you. These independent action crews perform wall runs, flips, falls, tumbles, and flying kicks without use of wires or special effects. There’s no insurance to worry about or studios to get sued so they try some pretty incredible and dangerous things. My favorite stunt crews are ‘The Stunt People’ who can be visited at http://www.thestuntpeople.com, and Zero Gravity Stunts who have their homepage at http://www.zgstunts.com. There are also Jabronie Pictures (http://www.jabroniepictures.com) and VJ Films (some of whose videos can be found at http://www.my5minutes.com/thumbnails.php?album=1115) that are both worth a mention. These sites also provide many links to other similar websites, so your collection of independent short films can be built up to a fearsome size quite quickly.