virgin: like flying for the very first time

OK, it's not nearly that exhilarating (or awkward).

Despite not being selected as a Virgin American, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. It's true that you can play Doom during it -- only it also felt just like the first time. Given the choppiness of the game, the hardware of the in-flight system feels worse than the 486 SX I had back then (oh, how I longed for a floating-point unit).Despite the gaming shortcomings, it's a pretty nice flying experience. I managed to finagle myself into an exit row seat, so I could be sitting next to a morbidly obese, crying pig baby and not give a damn. But these seats are comfy and it turns out there's no one sitting next to me.

Getting on the plane felt like walking into a club, the lights are dimmed, those that are illuminated all glow fuchsia, and a bunch of sweaty, scantily-clad youths are gyrating against one another to the dope beats of Kanye.

OK, one of those was a lie. But it did feel like I should have waited in line for an hour, got judged by a bouncer before paying a $20 cover and finally being let in, only to wait in another line just to get a drink.

All in all, not a bad flight. Jetblue still has free animal crackers and those mysterious blue potato chips going for it, though.

If you're looking to fly west on a trip out to seduce a VC or to return to the sanity of the east, it'd be worth trying Virgin; they're low-balling airfares at prices so cheap, you'd think they were indifferent to profit -- like a web 2.0 startup!