| Running | |
February 15, 2016
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| He received the box of goods that he had ordered. He opened the box and took out three items: shoes, sunglasses, and a watch. But they were all high-tech. He changed his clothes into his sportswear, and put on the sunglasses-type machine (monitor and camera), as well as the watch-type wearable computer, and the special sole type shoes, and went outside happily. He started to walk. He switched on the watch-type gadget. Soon, the sunglasses monitor showed the demonstration movie. It was amazing. In the first scene, there was a big sea in front of him, and as he proceeded, the sea was divided into two, and he was walking between the two seas like Moses. In the second scene, he was walking in a modern city. When he was walking on the sidewalk, many pedestrians passed him by, and smiled and waved at him as if he was a celebrity. The people there were virtual but they were precise and looked life-like. Furthermore, if something like a telephone pole approached you in the real world, the sunglasses would switch and become transparent in order to caution the wearer about the obstacles. This system was made by 'Runner' corporation. It was a maker which
The gadget had three scene modes. He tried them one by one. The first one was 'Seaside'. He started running. The scene of a seaside appeared. It was a beautiful beach, and along the beach there was a long road. He was running on the road. From the speakers in the frames of his glasses, there was the sound of sea waves, and the crying voices of seagulls. He stepped out from the pedestrian sidewalk and into the sand by the sea. He was amazed that at each of steps, he could feel the feeling of the sand which the special soles of the shoe produced. He felt a strong urge to want to touch the sand by hand. Next, he chose the second mode 'Old Town'. He was running on the road between old brick buildings and churches. It seemed to be a European country, although he never went anywhere. When he had realized that he was running on the stone pavement, he felt it through his high-tech shoes. The last mode was 'Competition'. As he touched the button of the mode, the voice sounded, "After 30 minutes, you will start. Please move to an open space where there are no cars and traffic lights." On his watch, the time started counting reversely. He moved to the athletic park of the city which had a track that you could use freely, as well as other jogging courses. He stopped by a convenience store and bought 2 bottles of a sports drink. He got to the park and when he was running lightly on the track, the voice said that it was 10 minutes till the starting time. Soon the glasses' screen showed a stadium. He was standing in an athletic stadium. There were 20 or so runners including him there. The runners' sex and age varied. There were thousands of spectators cheering for them from the stands. He knew they were just virtual things that the program made, but even so, he felt a lot of excitement. He looked around and saw a woman athlete. She was in her 20s and pretty. She wore a number. He checked himself, and he also had. At first, he thought that she was part of the program, but an idea came up to him and spoke to her, "This is amazing, huh?" She was surprised a little but smiled and said, "Yes, indeed. This is my first try. I'm nervous." At this point, he believed that she was a real person, not part of the program. He said, "Me, too. I'm Lee from Turkey." She replied, "I'm Jenny from New Zealand." He held out his hand, and she took it, but their hands closed in the air. They laughed bitterly. They were all virtual. After a while, the starting time came and the referee raised his pistol. With a bang, the athletes including him and her started at the same time. Actually, he was running on the track in the sports park alone, although there were some regular runners. In the stadium, he was in a good position. She was also doing good. So far, he had run the 400 meter track 4 times. He could see on his monitor the distance and his time. This was a 10 km race. He had to run another 21 times around the track. While running, he checked the other runners. They ranged from young to old, men and women, and of various races. He wondered, "Are their faces similar to their original? In the first place, how do I look by others?" He didn't send his picture to the machine company. But, he thought, his sunglasses had a camera, so it could take pictures of him with the reflection from house windows or cars' while he ran; the software could then gather his appearance from those pictures. Maybe. It was interesting to think that these runners were running now in each country, different time of the day, and in a different climate. He thought about the New Zealander. Now it was winter in New Zealand. "Where is she now?" Suddenly, one of the runners, a guy in his 30s, said to the others around him, "My wife came and told me to go on an errand. Sorry, I'll quit." And he left the course waving to the others. The others waved back to him. He thought, "This is funny. This is too funny." His mind somehow lifted, and he sped up. |
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*obstacle: something that makes it difficult for you to go somewhere or succeed at something (C)