I was always suspicious of those English major types (you know the ones) who would use words like "Simulacrum" and say things like "The sign is more real than the signified."
But in a window seat flying to Chicago in the late afternoon, the winter air was totally clear and I could see the western states' towns, mountains and deserts perfectly. "It's just like scrolling though Google maps," I thought to myself, proving that
Baudrillard was right all along.
The egg heads at Google maps have finally replaced their crappy image of my neighborhood (Pleasure Point was covered in fog - I guess they should get points for realism) with high resolution fog-free images (probably aerial photography). The image is so precise that you can see individual surfers on their longboards. Anyway, follow
this link then change to satellite and zoom in. The arrow points right at the middle of my A-Frame house's roof (the address is slightly wrong but the house is right). If you scroll south you can see the surfers in the water (though it looks like the waves were very small that day.)
