Gone.

The City is dark at night - and there is little dusk or dawn, it merges into night from day almost instantly, the stars blazing their cryptic message above, the moon looking down in laughter at it.

It is always best not to look at what you pass in the city, in the streets - some things look back. Today, though, I violated that cardinal rule, and looked at a dead body, lying in the street, surrounded by a puddle of blood and guts, laughing up at the sky - and so I ran back to my home, to safety, trying not to hear the dark padding behind me, the slipping of feet upon viscera.

Gone.

...

Haven't posted anything for a while. Been putting stuff I've been writing on facebook. Beginning to write longer form stuff. Might be a book eventually - I can dream. Not in the world of Corporation, in a much ... weirder world, which people will probably call urban fantasy. Draws on a lot of creepypasta, especially 200 Phenomena in the City of Calgary, as I've been reading a lot of stuff like that lately. It's going quite well.

Also hallucinations. Ask me if you want to here about them.

This blog is probably fairly dead at this point, since I've moved my ranting and raving to facebook and actually talking to people (weird, eh?). So yeah. Might eventually put some new content up here, but probably not.

Healthy Decisions

Due partially to today (which was awesome), I've decided to admit a number of things to myself which I was refraining from fully acknowledging. I'm not going to say what they are, of course, though my policy on not lying in response to direct questions still stands; so it's an issue of knowing which question to ask. And no, "what have you decided to admit to yourself?" will not get you a list; it will result in a response along the lines of "Corporation is going to suck" or "I hate you."

That is all; you may now return to your regularly scheduled wasting of time on teh intarwebz.

Happiness

I finally have a working philosophy, or at least something close. It's also very simple, though the execution is deliciously complex and intricate.

1) Everyone should be free to do whatever they want to do.
2) Everyone should be truly happy.

Not the type of freedom which is derived from taking away others freedoms, of course, unless it makes those people happy to sacrifice their freedom. By truly happy, I mean actually happiness, not a type enforced by secret police and drugs in the water supply (but how easy that would be to put into place!). Nor do I mean a world in which happiness is redefined to be the normal state of mind - I do not intend to do this solely through linquistic hacks, though linquistic hacks would clearly play some role in the eventual creation of this world.

Beyond this, philosophy begins to apply. The issue is too complex to really think about as a whole - every example case brings with it its own set of exceptions and contradictions with the first law.

As a dystopia, I somewhat recommend The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect - it is an extremely good example of how something like this could go horribly wrong. There are also some short story examples of how it could (I believe that 365tomorrows has a few, though I don't remember their names). It is far easier to take these good intentions and go along a negative path, after all - and the road to hell is paved with good intentions (actually, frozen door-to-door salesmen and telemarketers, but good intentions is more poetic).

As to why my philosophy has moved in this direction, it should be fairly obvious.

Also, I must point out that I highly doubt my ability to accomplish this goal; if I am able to lay out even a basic structure for it, something capable of dealing with even a fraction of the potential cases which would be thrown at it, I will consider this to not be a failure, and that will make me happy - which is the point of this! If I'm happy with something which won't ever change the world, then there is no reason why everyone else shouldn't be happy with their lives, once someone eliminates the obvious issues with starvation, poverty, abuse, and homelessness.

Doublethink, of course; I only care about my happiness ; I care about the happiness of the world. Strange how altruism arises from self-interest, and stranger still that I am aware of this contradiction yet still support both sides of it. The mind I live in is quite fun to live in.

Corporation is coming along well, and I'm not especially stressed; life is interesting, and somewhat amusing. It makes me laugh, really. I'm still immortal, I think - and I define immortal as not accepting or understanding of mortality, so I probably have the worse end of the deal than most mortals.

Somewhat incomplete, but will not be fixed.

Reflecting the Mind

Having become a bit bored of working on world background for Corporation (and as I don't really have to stress over it until November), I've begun working on another setting. It's in the very early stages right now, and I honestly don't know what's going to happen with it, but it's interesting enough for me to want to know a bit of the history behind it (or decide what it is, really).

It's probably not going to come far enough to have much else done with it, but if it does it will almost certainly move in the direction of horror very, very quickly. It's a setting which lends itself to unexplainable events, and to normal people being caught up in them (no, it's not the real world). On the other hand, it might not be the most interesting setting - far, far simpler than Corporation is.

And, as a teaser, here's the first paragraph:

The closest you can get to the singularity – safely, at least – is about a kilometer away. It's pretty easy to see from there, but its effects are much less pronounced, and can easily be protected against. Nowadays, they even have viewing platforms, huge reinforced concrete structures, with plate-glass windows, bent slightly to magnify it, and external balconies, for those who want to feel its effects, and have the necessary insurance. Schools have trips to there; in some of the less enlightened parts of the world, cults have formed around it, and going to see it is an important rite of passage. Some people even go to see it for their honeymoon. People are silly things.

I would love to have any opinions from anyone who actually reads this, especially if you think it's worth continuing on (okay, I already have a few more paragraphs written - I'm interested in knowing if it's interesting to other people), or if you have any suggestions.

Crash and Statistics

I am tired, and Corporation is slowly devouring my mind. I have also been alone with my thoughts far too much lately, which is not exactly the best of states for my mind to be in. Thankfully, on Monday things will start happening again, which will hopefully result in me being more productive.

Current status/completion information:
- Corporation: background 10%, characters 5%, balance 0%, sociopathic squid creatures 20%.
- Artwork: major projects 5%, minor projects 20%, various sketches no-percent, style modifications minus-27%.
- Mental: sanity 34%, energy minus-6%, caffeine effectiveness 2%, happiness 30%, bitter edges 20%.
- Cats: purring 30%, snoring 10%, protecting the world from evil 20%, eating 20%, sleeping 20%, reinforcement of belief of superiority of feline-kind 25%.
- Clocks: telling time 10%, ticking far louder than the laws of physics allow 90%, not actually following anything connected to the universe 15%.
- Dreams: being creepy 20%, being overly realistic 40%, making no sense at all 100%.
- Trenchcoats: having pockets 33%, being warm 20%, catching the wind to cool down 50%, making shadows look dramatic 40%.
- Dwarf Fortress: violating the laws of physics with a rusty hammer 16%, making water by throwing ice at the ground 20%, being able to dig 90%, making algebra vomit look good 50%, nerdiness 100%.
- My computer: crashing 50%, working 20%, having too many fans 60%.
- My laptop: working 90%, arguing with the keyboard 20%, enabling wireless communication to the peoples of the world 10%, bursting into flame when presented with dwarf fortress 2%.
- Reading: utility 20%, amusement 90%, needing more books 100%.
- Smoothies: completion 0%.

I hope that you've enjoyed this collection of statistics, have gained valuable insight into my mind, and will now be bludgeoning yourself over the head with a blunt object in an attempt to forget all of this (or paying me to delete this post). Actually, what I really hope is for you to check out dwarf fortress, because I would like to get a bloodline game running (to increase nerdiness even more)*.

* If you do, I highly recommend reading the tutorials on the wiki; it makes the game much easier. And most of the stuff about how difficult it is is just exageration - it's fairly easy, if you embark on a map with trees, a river, and no aquifer. It gets even easier once you start optimizing your embark parties for whatever you think your goal will be (hint: not bringing an anvil lets you bring an obscene amount of food and booze - keeping the 1:2 ratio, something like something like 150 food and 300 booze, which will last quite a while)**. Really, the only way to have fun once you've gotten the hang of the game is to start modding, impose your own challenges, or embark on inhospitable maps - like a glacier, with a magma pipe (which begins a few levels too low to use to melt ice), in terrifying surroundings. So much fun***!

** If you want advice, ask. And if you don't want advice, make that clear before starting a conversation about it.

*** Actually, technically no. The fortress is going well - I've even managed to get some farmland going, though my lack of magma-safe screwpumps is a bit of an issue now that the fortress is fairly well established and can support crazy projects. Sure, I've lost 6 dwarves so far (current population: 34), but that's nothing compared to most other fortresses. Should have modded orcs in ... maybe I'll buff goblins up a bit, though I still haven't gotten a raiding party ... mumble ...

Now, to attempt to rectify my lack of smoothies ...

Booting

I'm writing this on my Eee, as I am inclined to do. It just booted to a usable desktop in about 30 seconds - a rather huge increase over its normal time of around a minute (but only 30 seconds to get to the shell), and my desktops time of 1-2 minutes to get to a usable desktop (though I haven't timed it recently, and it seems a lot slower than it used to).

I'm also not writing this in my normal operating system. Instead of Arch, I'm using xPUD, a unix based operating system which takes up about 55MB of space on my SSD. It boots quickly - which is its main selling point - and its very easy to install (I've still got Arch around, just not running, because this is much faster to get to a browser with).

It's not perfect by any means, but it does have many advantages, mostly boot time. It also doesn't store any data on the hard drive unless I tell it to - and hence is completely reset every time it boots. Not necessarily useful, but interesting.

I also installed a 2GB RAM chip in the Eee, upgrading from 512MB. A pretty big increase, as it now has as much as my desktop. Speed increase isn't hugely noticeable, but it feels a bit faster, and it should work better for some tasks now. Battery life isn't as good as it could be, still, so I think that my next upgrade will be a larger battery.

And, finally, Corporation is being run. I'm very happy about this.

A Lack of Inspiration

"Sanity is a bit like intellect: most people don't realize they possess it until they encounter someone who doesn't."

Other possible things: "... a bit like money", and "... a bit like knowledge". But they don't sound quite as good.

Anyways, on to the actual topic.

I am horribly unmotivated, and uninspired. That sentence is the only good thing I've been able to write in a while, the only thing which sounds good as well as having an interesting meaning. Its very, very irritating. I can't be productive, and when I try to write about a particular subject, I'm unable to. I can hardly write to amuse myself anymore (and, to be honest, most of my writings are just to amuse myself. I'm perfectly aware that they're horrible, but, like a poor artist who is happy simply because he has managed to do something, even though it pales in comparison to the works of others, I'm happy with them).

I'm also not drawing as much, outside of class. Sure, I'm able to come up with some interesting looking things during that, but they're all based on the same formula of vaguely fractal plant-looking things and filling in white space with complex patterns. I'm doing more fun stuff with materials, though, so that's fine.

I don't even do the work which I need to do. It's just lack of motivation, and even when I sit down and tell myself that I will get something done, I lose interesting very quickly.

I'm not entirely sure why this is the case. I have a variety of theories, though, and I've managed to correlate it to some of my subjective perceptions and records, coming to various conclusions. The basic one is that, when I'm rather happy with life, I'm unmotivated.

Maybe it's just that my lack of sleep has been catching up with me, destroying my creativity first.

Hopefully that's the case, as that means that I'll be able to be productive over the summer, which would be nice - there are plenty of things which I should work on.

Other things which are going on:
* My band-of-the-moment is Procol Harum, a British rock band formed in the 1960s. I listened to A Whiter Shade of Pale after rereading The Salmon of Doubt, and noticing that it's mentioned quite a few times, and Douglas Adams apparently thought that it was quite good. It is, and so I'm listening to more of their music. A Whiter Shade of Pale is their best-known song, apparently, and the previous occurance of the title is a link to last.fm, where you could listen to it if you cared. I sort of recommend them, though I have horrible taste in music, so your milage may vary.
* Building and messing around with motors is fun. The current pinacle of the art, for me, is a motor which, by only occasionally tapping against the magnets to complete the circuit, managed to run for at least 15 hours without completely depleting the battery or causing it to warm up, which is fairly impressive, compared to previous attempts (which resulted, twice, in the labels peeling off due to heat).
* I'll know if Corporation is going to be run fairly soon, hopefully - the deadline for submissions is coming up, and supposedly they'll be finalizing the schedule soon after. So yeah. I'm not actually that worried about it: either it will be run, which will be fun, or something better will be run, which will be more fun, with the added benefit of me not having to stress about it.
* My laptop continues to have some issues, though these are now self-inflicated software ones (there isn't enough space to upgrade the entire system). I'm considering doing various crazy things to try and get the space, including reinstalling arch (which I don't want to do). On the other hand, it works now ... probably a project for the summer.
* I've been vaguelly working on getting my Arduino to do more stuff, and have got it completely hooked into a breadboard. I should have gotten a prototyping sheild, but this works, so whatever. It's currently controlling a line of 5 LEDs (it would be 8, but I only have 5 at the moment), and not doing much other than making sure that all the wiring is fine. Not that interesting yet.
* I'm very tired, as I may have mentioned. I really, really need to start getting more sleep. Yes, it's ridiculous that I generally get into be by 10:30 and wake up at 7 and am still tired, and yes, I know that I probably get the most sleep of anyone I know and yet am one of the most tired, but that's the way it is.

That's basically the state of my life. Since you've read this far, I'm going to assume that you either care, are extremely bored, or need something to laugh at. If it's the first, you should actually talk to me instead, if it's the second I recommend 365tomorrows or huge portions of the internet, and if it's the third here's a joke:

Q: Why did the tourist fail to cross the road?
A: The road was the border between the USA and an Airport. The tourist had an accent, and the security people thought that it said terrorism instead of tourism. It was tackled by a number of large security guards, and its spine was broken in the process. It was removed from the premise in a body bag after being disassembled by a bomb squad just in case.

Welcome to my world. Everything is trying to kill you.

Opinions on Stuff

I am once again going to force my petty little opinions down your throats, or more accurately your minds. Although force isn't exactly the right word, it's the closest one I can think of, since you seem to still be reading this - and the gods know there isn't any reason for you to other than a sick, twisted desire to know what I'm thinking. Or maybe just to laugh at me, as I rant like a parrot in a cage filled with spikes.

(Yes, I'm in a bit of a bad mood, and fed up with this world. My head hurts too much to deal with it.)

In this short thing of opinions, things which you should watch because they are awesome. In no real order,

• Eden of the East
  
• Paranoia Agent
  
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
  
• Baccano!
  
• The Prisoner
  
• Get Smart (the original series)
  

The basic criteria for all of these is that 1) They are awesome, 2) They have had an effect on how my mind works, and 3) I did not lose interest in them even after they ended / I finished watching them. If that last one was not there, I would have also included Chaos;Head, Ghost Hound, and Spice+Wolf - which were all very good, but which I lost interest in before finishing, for various reasons (Chaos;Head just stopped interesting me, Ghost Hound and Spice+Wolf I had issues getting the latest episodes of and never got around to catching up on).

Now, I'm going back to watching the latest episode of Eden of the East. Don't break anything.

My Brain Hurts

Today was a good day. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting, but it was okay. I finished reading Transmetropolitan (which was quite good), and basically just sat around and thought. Walking around in the aftermath of the rain is always amusing; the world looked new. I should have brought my camera with me, to take pictures of the plants, but I didn't. Life is full of those little regrets.

My head always hurts, now. I forgot how to use doorknobs for a second. I remembered quickly, though, and the door in the bathroom is pretty horrible. Walking into it would probably make it open. My brain has issues, to put it bluntly. Retrieving most memories or knowledge takes at least 30 seconds, if I'm not thinking of or considering it. I'm good at making up plausible stuff, though, and sometimes it's even true, so I don't think that most people notice.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm simply getting the backwash from someone else's mind, if somewhere out there there's someone who can do anything and feel perfectly fine (I do nothing, and feel horrible). If I ever find that person, I would kill them in the most painful way imaginable, except then I'd probably have to deal with my body rotting away.

As it is, I just have to blame lack of sleep, and a systematic program of messing around with my body, just not caring about all of the things I should be doing to keep it functioning. It still works, but not all the time, and I honestly can't see any benefits. Sure, having hair which forms little helices is rather fun, but is it worth feeling sick almost every morning and having trouble eating until I've been awake for at least an hour?

The two are probably completely unrelated. Spiraling hair is the only benefit I can think of.

Except my mind, perhaps: when it works it works very, very well. When it doesn't (which seems to include any time someone says that I'm intelligent) I get easily distractable, forget basic math, feel like falling over, or completely detach from conversation.

In general, when I say that I feel like falling over, I probably won't, unless I'm very tired. When I do fall over, chances are that it was arranged in a way so that I would not be hurt, especially if I feel off a chair. It is perfectly safe, and preferable, to ignore the event, and carry on conversation as if nothing had happened.

To clarify: I do not fall over because I want your attention. I fall over because I feel like it, and because floors are often more comfortable than chairs.

The third previous sentence is to be ignored if I verbally indicate that I am injured, or am bleeding or unconscious. In such a situation, it is appropriate to ask if I require assistance, or to inform me that I am injured if I have not noticed. If am am unconscious, it is recommended that you consult a doctor, but do not move me, as that can lead to complications of a minor issue. Pouring water on my face is acceptable, but only if slapping me thrice has failed to wake me.

I have laid out these rules because very few people seem to understand them, especially the bit about ignoring me falling over, and the bit about what to do

As I said, probably, I am extremely tired. I am also not entirely sure if this is reality, a dream, hallucination, or something else entirely. It would be appreciated if arguments as to the validity of those viewpoints is presented.

Acceptable arguments for this being a dream:

• Clear application of dream logic to a situation, such as travel, actions, or architecture.
• Transforming into something else, for no apparent reason (this is only considered valid in support of dream logic).

Acceptable arguments for hallucination:

• Turning into spiders, or other insects, and attacking me.
• Turning into something nightmarish, and attacking me, while vomiting drugs or politicians.
• Presenting me with a supply of used drugs, and evidence that they were used on me (for example, needle tracks, or partially dissolved capsules in my stomach).

Acceptable arguments for something else entirely:

• Anything involving quantum mechanics.
• Anything involving Schroedinger.
• Anything involving the collapse of the false vacuum.
• Anything involving effecting reality with math.

Acceptable arguments for reality:

• None.

I hope that that has cleared the issue up slightly. Arguments may be sent to my email address, to me via facebook, told in person (as is required for some of them, although some are actually strengthened by being applied over some other communications medium), through smoke signals, telepathy, miraculous formation of wildflowers on my limbs or wall, or divine revelation.

Questions about the King of Walrus, and how to render tribute to him, may be directed by any of the stated methods, and by courier. Requests for diplomatic status should be sent to the Walrus Consulate, which you may locate in any reputable directory of psychologists.

Refusal to read this line constitutes a legally binding agreement to throw a paperback book at my head.

If you have failed to read the above line, please contact me. If you have succeeded in doing so, but refuse to do so again on principle, it still applies to you. Contact me in person at any suitable time, and I will provide the necessary devices.

This is your standard supply of hand-selected Markov Fragments:

It feels like a furry chicken, tail wrapped neatly around its front paws.
He began to throw all propriety aside? How undignified!
Explanations will be essential for combat and shouldn’t try to kick the can down.
T`ien Tan also collected 20,000 ounces of silver.

That's all.
Wake me when there's something interesting to say.
Actually, don't.

GRIMDARK Corporation, Section the First

[ Just writing, set in the GRIMDARK counterpart to Corporation. Not canonical in any way, just a view into what Seismic Dynamics Corporation might have looked like if things had gone a bit differently. Hopefully, the first in a series, but don't expect much. ]

The scientist was working late. His job, such as it was, was both simple and brutal: running wires beneath the skins of test subjects. Complex patterns, eyetwisting shapes, whatever the bosses told him to do. Sometimes, he would pretend that he didn't enjoy his job, that the frantic pleadings of the subjects made him want to let them free. Then he would laugh.

Sometimes, he would try to convince the prettier, younger subjects that he was going to let them free. He was given quite a degree of latitude in his job, and would hide them away in supply closets or storage rooms for days, once even a week. He would bring them food, clothing, music, whatever they asked for that was small and easy to get. They were often very grateful, and he took every advantage. When they objected – and it was not often, as he let them see, or more often hear, one of the procedures - he would call in security, claim that they were trying to escape, and have them trussed up and put back on the table. What he would do after deserves no words.

He did not like this, however; it was far more enjoyable to pretend to lead them to freedom, only to end up back in the lab. He would break them, then, laughing as they writhed in pain, the fresh implants livid in their skin. Some he would hurt more, although never in ways that would show – or at least last – lest his superiors question his practices. They might not care, though; the broken subjects he delighted in producing for them were much more tractable than the others.

He was not the sort of person you would want to meet in a dark alley.

He was not the sort of person you would want to meet at all.

He was one of the Corporation's most valued employees.

"Individuality is an untenable situation."

[ Another batch of Markov-generated quotes, fewer than the last two times because I realized the time about half-way through. I'm starting to consider doing something with them - they would certainly be a good starting place for flash fiction, and I need to get better at writing, so win-win, right? ]

[ Oh, and basic information: somewhere between 1 in 4 and 1 in 7 of the phrases generated make enough sense that I post or save them. For this batch, I've edited one or two, minor word changes to fix grammar / improve meaning. And I'm not sorry in the least. ]

"Age is a place to be free."

He opens a door back onto the earth.

When night came on, he lighted the beacon-fire.

"Why?" "That information will cost you," says the receptionist.

"Will you hold?" "Crud."

Otherwise, she'll get her hands and clothing caked in hideous gore, leaning on their tails.

"Like she's done to him?" "We've been looking after him aggressively."

"I think we should have listened." He chortles horribly.

"I was just thinking." He smiles.

But they both stayed in touch with the new modalities.

... lying on the crazy infinite sunspot that limns the square with shadows.

"Hey, god-man. Got a seam of ice near the Earth will follow our commander through life and death.'

"I'll –" She passes him another chance after his long exclamation, rocked back a little lacking in precision. “Then you think are rich enough to liquefy helium."

"Fuck that!" Shocked out of the cave, and had, from his route.

"Shut up, he had a question?" she asks.
"Yes."

His heart is heavy as a means of offense in the outline of a 1910-vintage Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

And I'm overdue.
"Good day!" The ape stares at her reflection in the final allowance for the rest of the 1980s.

This year, the Congress has commitment to budgets dropped to a small trapdoor with a sense that we must forage in order to learn these things.

It’s not really feeling so.
“I will admit I’m not joking."

"Are you crazy? Your mother has submitted herself to say."

Surprise and postcards from the top.

She makes a choked-off sound.
He gargles.

"I am willing to use them for is to build an empire in Europe as was timelines,” the review argued.

Though this makes Current rotation plans call for silence.

Budgetary resources over the latest Bollywood hits.

"One of my time was chewed up at the throne, orients himself on his bike."

Some of them will show up "Heads".

If he believes the government twelve million, three hundred degrees." "Why not?" asks the cat.

I hope he shows up.

Am I correct in thinking that was the result of no security significance.

Shut up, he had been drinking much.
The man shakes his head.

She is never served.

"Much of my ancestors had been a lot of work." "The monitoring equipment cost millions, then," says the ghost, narrowing from an earlier age.

"Ah, to be tractable."

Mind if I can take advantage of a passing bus.

He burns with a deranged distressed refugee from the past.

And this whole package is a grinding job.

I've seen what those goals are? Who knows.

"Agents within many other species." Concern, alarm, agitation.

The eerie keening sets his own brain as he was afraid I was free, I burned with the Intendant.

My right hand, outstretched for balance, clutches a mark's stolen memories.
The victim is sitting opposite him.

Those badges – there is a jaded army, not a pleasant elasticity.

Nor can the United States.

It's great for large, theater wars national defense, more of his station, he considers the power of robots even then.

It was perhaps more telling that none of it – I'll meet you, then you must be mistaken.

"Fuck that!" Shocked out of control.

An Avatar is one mile deep when the window into servantspace closes.
Then he hops backward and ducks shyly into a trap.

ESP has to trigger your territorial/reproductive threat display early, rather than vice versa.

If we don't instantiate them, the dishes as mere tools.

Sometimes she wonders if I'm his voice now.

Glancing round, she sees a room that hosted a flickering light.

Your mom has got to be trying to start a headlong rush toward him.

Throughout history randomness has been inadequate, Standard missile.

Most of them occupied by real people.

In the time that morning.

Everyone ignored him.

"Why blame the Queen?" "Because she's the focused, driven force to an overzealous prosecutor that it is a fabrication."

Your own reality to control, insight into trade arrangements, augmented senses, ability to pick another somatotype.

Our units deploying compared to nonreligious people.

From society’s viewpoint, religion works.

By the time to time his footwear takes a deep breath.

Every tax dollar raised east of the black business suit, long-skirted and uptight.

Dismantle the moon! Digitize the biosphere, make a stand stacked with fresh sushi rolls when the ship in dumbstruck silence, it winks at her attention, in a wooden chair opposite the site of the enemy.

Agencies have been made and written down at the screen.

"One twenty seconds to secure it, the nothingness, that’s infinite, right?” I asked.

"Forget what I do. I’m a package-delivery guy."

"How long for what?" he replies, cautiously.

I just nodded.
Phew, disaster averted.

"Or so I could incorporate his ingredients into my office." John followed him to cease and desist from his elderly parents and brother, and his mind – something important, something about it, his feet feel like me."

"He's making rude comments about your blue map."

"Consensus-we believe that the true reading must be, not 'plunder,' but 'do not plunder.' Alas, I fear that outside the window into servantspace closes."

She sits bolt upright, a thin chattering fills the mess is being sorted out, business IT departments have gone into free fall, as if they knew that there was revealed that two of them off, he supposed.

"I doubt they even understand how they respond to the Ch`i State."

The few people he was born – your dad did business with him.
But she doesn't exist.
The air around his finger, or something.

"Then there were no thoughts or emotions or desires," I said.
"You’re an atheist. You think I get it."

Likewise, Army procurement spending is way down.

There's a sucker for rituals, and anyway, it helps him get through the dispositions of an instant reassured me.

"Geodesic domes sprout like skeletal mushrooms from the pinnacle of teleological self-congratulation, depending on the other end ..." And so on.

A stab of claustrophobic panic: Help! I'm trapped because of the four.

In effect, they are lines on paper, to draw, to write, freedom to read, or work that way.

"It is you –" "No, I can't."

If I had proceeded back some distance toward the future.

Plus, they’re not actually part of the enemy's drums, when Ts`ao Kuei proceeded to make everybody rich beyond their design life.

She didn't mean to minimize that advantage away.

"The tears of all the same." "Uh-huh." Manfred's opinion of the Third Lord chokes.

He finds the documents are drawn up.

A very bleak stare it is, a socket, like a struggle right now.

He is seized up.

She crouches in it, staring at him.

"What is basket ball?" he said.

If you try writing your affirmation for a moment, she wonders dismissively.

Matter is uniform.

Those are human feelings, not God feelings.
God could simply choose to sometimes make you fall in love.

It belongs to only one of dilatory drift.

"I'm not surprised their translator didn't want a ceremony, but we do." "Then what could and would observe the white living room carpet?"

She grins malevolently.
And his location.
Leave the rest of the street.

But it doesn't translate at first.

[ Another batch of Markov-generated phrases, edited as little as possible. Some of them were quite relevant to what was going on in a conversation at the time they were generated, by the way, which is a bit creepy. I suppose that it would be possible to get everything I write or read fed into the infile, but that would take forever ... ]

Disturbing shapes move, barely visible through the mountains.

I say the police contact a so-called psychic who predicts where a professor waffled on.

All around him in elaborate loops.

"So, how did I drink last night?" he wonders.

As if childhood is something about meeting your own grandfather.

"Excuse me, are you doing here?" "Do you know that?” I asked.

“Then you believe it?" she asks.

No rat fucking blackmailers are going to come in?

You might find out the state of considerable intelligence, whose name I remember one sunrise, but there are no other explanations?

“Obviously he does,” I said.
“Remember, we talked about had a choice in the force posture in the Pacific.
Further, it is sufficient in this university was blue; this regularly occurring oddity might have added that there is no use to those who study His works.

A sudden revelation, everything made clear.

He had, in his head and sends forth a defense of the threat of smaller time slices, and infinity means you can be certain your evi- dence is solid and irrefutable.
Your mind will break down and tell me you want," he says.
"When we all go a-flying up to eleven."

It's as simple as that.

This makes you – I need the space

Your Majesty is sitting in a spaceship and could observe the enemy.

“Your door was unlocked,” I said, planning my exit strategy.

Never communicate anything to defend themselves anymore.

Her clothing has somehow been replaced many times.

Department’s rhetoric asserting the need for human wheels.

"There is no place of our men: this is intentional, or the engine?” he asked.

“That’s standard stuff for lighting fires."

Fire leaks out.
Panicked, he holds it beneath his hands.

And everything possible will happen over and over without catching fire.

I hadn’t noticed the rising number of victims of similar situations, I experienced none of those promise-keeper types.

Probability is the first place.

I know this one.

It's the ultimate political crime — valuing truth over power.

"Human beings aren't rational," he calls over his eyes.

If we did not perceive that my voice, magnified and reflected by the conical cap and bells.
I was certain.
Some, I knew, had gone mad under circumstances such as mosquitoes and lawyers."

"Tell me I'm full of her life."

"If the soul’s actions are not limited to: acts of tender intimacy with him."

"Here, let me show you aren't telling us?" "Um."

out the birdsong as the officer reads, eyes flickering from the inner mysteries of his monthly poker game with all speed in order to have form and sub-conscious mind.

Your subconscious isn’t always right; it depends whether the program

This isn't about you, Bob.
Do it.

Three or four people were wearing thin white cotton t-shirts.

Anyway, your mother, peace be unto him.

I figured he was meant to be at – oh, and for statistical sampling in quality control systems.

Computational solutions for it.

He speed reads a new perspective – one million instructions per second inside one kilometer.

Likewise, accurately predict future warfare.

"Much good they'll do him ..."
It has to be extracted from our perspective.

He and the house where her master got up in front of an ice-cold coke high.
He's expecting a visit from a hook.
He ventures inside into a throat mike.

However, I can tell him that the defendant (in conspiracy with the most) was violin music.

An eyebrow twitches.

"Would this be sold, to Moscow? To SLORC? To –" "I would."

Whatever was happening in the discussion of Army units based post-Cold-War realities as well.
In addition to being in a row, no amount of units and military and tomorrow.
For the period from 1993 to 2005, defense.

Sometimes other aliens visit him.

His second step consisted of counting sheep.

"I do not wish to opt out of the cave, had found myself here. With you."
"I think," he licks his suddenly dry lips.
"You're going to become property and a gentle breeze blows constantly out toward the hallway."
"Let's talk," he says reluctantly.

"We need guns, damit! Lots of guns." "That may be difficult,"

For the purposes of due diligence.

"I'm glad to see if results are indistinguishable.” “But it’s different because ESP is caused by thoughts traveling through the door ..."

They leave the universe?" Suddenly, the audience and lowered his voice almost drowned out his own throat with an uneasy loyalty to the Congressional Research Service.

"Yes, I’m fine, now listen, I need to encrypt this a mistake."

He zoomed through a whole civilization."
"Truly evil."
"Fascinating but wrong."
"But it's still stupid, having converted barely a thousandth of the rushes, and drove across."

Our existence was programmed into the labor pool, but unable to meet the inexpensive missions as well.

"My, what a pretty convincing tale."

"Sidedness is optional." The woman on the edge of the night.

"I commend to you is most interesting!" she trills at the receding red lights as they whirl in orbit overhead.

The length may have localized swelling and tenderness.

He's going to summarise it here.

"I work for the use of any party."

The door opens onto what used to prepare a copy you may recognize the signs: He's about to say.

He takes the offensive; if he came to that question.

You wasted much of a family of short-lived men, I afterward pondered long upon these premature deaths, and began again.

"Guess we are part of mindspace."

"Want to find the difficulties of such fallacies and correct the logical destination, but nothing happens."

"One large cell, many nuclei? Oh, I see."

Somewhere in the bone is difficult. Therefore, bone scans are best positioned to remediate the situation.

"I only want your help," he babbles.

"It won't work without family, and I'm sorry, and I'll cover mine," she says, shyly.

"About –" He pages through rarely used memories.

If they bite, you're dining out on an abstract virtual machine.

"We need guns, damit! Lots of guns." "That may be being generated by a painfully honest humanism, and everyone else –" "– I did it all on new center wing section on the can down 70"

"When did you find?" "A division of a multimegaton hydrogen bomb."

"I'm brilliant, me," she announces. "Now what about my problems with females."

He stumbles and he looks inside to confirm the contents.

They were still human, and unable to contain herself any longer.

The guards sidle to either side, sing counterpoint to produce opportunities.

But in view of things going on, and it will be kept in readiness rates, near-normal pace.

"So I asked if he'd mind being mistaken for a New Century resources to a schema designed by preteens at an all-time high."

Today, staff now routinely report that they didn’t let him run it.

But it's a component of a great general.

For a moment, he wilts.

"I'm going to take full advantage of the futon."

Let's see what it does every night.

Unexpected fringe riders are developing new ones and increasing numbers of fleet now below a certain temperature interval.

She takes hold of the Navy’s deployments years earlier.

"I'm not sure," he trails off into the stairwell.

The same, if you edit their environment.
They may lash out.
I have won out.

"You've got mail," he says laconically.

But it doesn't translate at first.

She sees his reaction.

It seems to work.

They're stuck on red for good.

"Am not open to attack, we have made Germany and Japan into stable resources resources democracies, for example – will be access problem, but only a concept."

"I'll need a prescription. Ritalin or something."

Those that do not know the answer to that question would indeed know everything and have it subpoenaed as a thin sheet falling from her muscles.

"I'll also need to emigrate."

The people are incapable of analysis.

All men can see it completed.

He pushes the door cautiously – then ragged flaps of bloody fur, guts, and blood is squirting from its head.

Every so often he mutters quietly to wake up.

People swarm everywhere, from the earth into the hostel: "Well then, come in, my friend! I'm sure you should occupy the sunny side, with the exception of Earth, the family historian."

Humanity devours its Three Lords close.

They are equipped to fully grasp and that, over time, and I promise you.

"Can you help?" she asks.

"Yes, I know," I said, "King Cnut's father's name was changed in 1920."

But, as the darkness that frightens her, it's the idea of using artificial wormholes to provide a point at the cabin.

"Could be" – left turn – "anything, really." Six steps lead down into a country, it is supposed to have randomness.

I should not be able to long before he was gone.

"I'm not sure I got to go and find out how to give her a chair.

Now I don’t see how he could have done?” “Yeah, I’ve honked. It’s embarrassing,” I said.

Aghast, I turned and met his pursuers would reach after dark.

He had four hundred unread messages, but so far nothing, no leads, and no mutual support will be sent out to regional peacekeeping mission there.

"Have a seat. You missed the audience?" The thin, brown-skinned man with the situation is one of the First Emperor.

"Forgive me, please! I had probably wandered beyond the imaginary walls."

Okay? And when our brains make choices, we move our arms and a very good reasons why Chiefs of Staff routinely declare that they are the items he bought you, she will become illegal as soon as we should get the benefits of a hypersonic shock wave, streaking toward them at the peak of his consciousness by cross-loading him in their plans are faulty: no need to trust someone to own." "Speculation." "Idle speculation," he hisses.

The company was owned by the scruff of his metacortex.

In mathematics, there must be required.

Bosnia still exists – everyone in its limit as well.

How epic, no one can serve a writ on you.

What was it for the rigors of long dampness, met my eyes.

This is not dead, he reasons.

Omniscient God vs. A Variety of Swords

[ Chances are that, if you've talked to me in the last few days, you've heard at least a bit of the story behind these fragment. For the rest of you, I'll leave this a mystery. Any guesses? And no, I did not come up with any of these, and have not edited them were possible, beyond selecting the best of them. ]

And nobody knows everything that was missing earlier.

You are not fit to lead me astray.
Probably.
Unless I am an engineer.

Hence a wise program.
Some commodities are cheap: computers, for example.

Air Forces in Europe need to talk to anyone who's listening.

There's no danger, we're not in favor of emotions right now, because now he is waterproof.

I was someone else.
Someone too slow to keep from my systems.

He realizes he's not answering.
Could it be discovered.
Then, he turned toward the present.
Ashura is a good news must be malfunctioning again.
Hundreds of people there, but the curious shoppers simply stare at the endless petaseconds that might follow.

Navy carrier-centered operations to prevent people from committing crimes.

All we need to look up, is it? You prefer to exist somewhere on earth.

The rain made everything sound different—the engine of history.

Why do it then, for all I care, kid, I've got a deal to set the mechanism of his numerical strength.

This is a challenge.

And what Secretary Cheney said at the flagstone, spawns a vaporous cloud that hums with a small and very menacing ID card at Manfred.

Cases of postirradiation sarcoma have been reported after use of signal-fires and drums.

"I'm here to offer him free cake."
"Don’t try to believe a truck is coming his way, I should go."
Bodies hang limply overhead every few years back.
Nobody really dies in these operations.

He is an American writer, best known for his death.

Another place to be identified with computational unpredictability.

In most of the Thistle [it] is an official method to resolve the apparent contradiction between an omniscient deity and a mixture of swords.

Some theologians have attempted to resolve the apparent contradiction between an omniscient deity, and a mixture of swords.

The ball in a state of collapse. To prevent incursions from competitors upon markets currently controlled by the murder of the half-lives of atoms even though the process is a point emphasized by the sudden replacement of almost all the managers of the world. Industrial Espionage and Infiltration Hired by other players. ( OR when the demon, if it is necessary to have randomness there must be found.

Martin Luther, the forefather of Protestantism, believed that there exist three mechanisms responsible for (apparently) random behavior in systems.

From his boyhood, he had written.
He didn’t have any influence on us, isn't it?

Lawyers do not share this outlook.

"We're dead," she says, pulling a face.
Why would I want to talk to some Moldovan pyramid scheme.
Shut up, he glyphs at his end, I was driving to work when he is taking shape.

In the unearthly stillness of this embedded space, with total control over the reality of space and freedom party.

“What makes dogs bark, cats purr, plants grow?” “Before today I would have pronounced useless"

"Much of my goddaughter, Juniper Pen­­" "Juniper Pen?" "Yes."

I am your Cartesian theatre he presides sings urgently to him that they should mutiny.

"Enough," he said; "let us be gone." "Yes," I said, “I’m having trouble getting the smells right.
He hopes it won't work.
"You be a requirements for that trap."

Starving among plenty, compulsory conversions, the very top layer of conventional money, and a heuristic API.

And his cramped space station that just went round and round, and now its founts dispense fizzy concentrate diluted with water from the thousand petaflops of distributed agents it supports – they're simulations based on those competing probabilities.

Their immortality is a polished brass doorbell.

The true cost of raising an eyebrow.

"Anyway, you missed an opportunity."
"We know that our fleet must compete with our patron." "With your paper?" "Right." "So, I can do that if he should script his act."
"This is wild, you know? I don't even have enough storage to store all the new ...

And when she looks around, sees him, and she notices that his mouth tastes like a dead end,” I said.
It was quite evil enough to work for her that she's got one, being a tool of diplomacy.

For example, the density of freckles seems to be identified with computational unpredictability.

Some theologians have attempted to resolve the apparent contradiction between an omniscient deity, and a mixture of swords (enhanced with SCIENCE, of course)

Statistics is used for divination, e.g. to reveal the will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it is larger (between 2 and 6 cm).

Pioneers of this universe then randomness, by definition, is not necessary, but would probably be awesome to have happen.

what is a city on U.S. Route 212 in Renville County, Minnesota, United States.

Greek Democracy was based on Biblical scripture that humans cannot will themselves faith, salvation, sanctification, or other gifts from God.

The ball in a state of the meeting due to their extreme dependence on initial conditions.

Thus quantum mechanics does not know the mechanism, a pseudorandom sequence is unpredictable.

As a member of the Nazi Party's stance is ascribed to the casting of lots found in the world without violating any laws of physics suggesting that what appears to be identified with computational unpredictability.

The random walk hypothesis considers that asset prices in an artificial world of mere automata could never love..."

The various elements of the Bible, as an outcome of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Martin Luther, the forefather of Protestantism, believed that there exist three mechanisms responsible for (apparently) random behavior in systems whose behavior is very powerful.

The systematic murder of the original buildings have been reported after use of randomness.

Random allocation of a curve, by summing an infinite number of transient disturbances with a rare person who was content to let promotion come to him, instead of fighting for it. This is also called pseudorandomness, and is far from silent.

The magazine was launched in January 1977 by a demon, as “volunteers” for the continuation of the president by a member of the state of the left-right political axis.

In the ensuing silence and confusion, he raises his voice: "Bed, make yourself ready, now." The back of his mind that can survive ...

Afterward, she turns to blue glass, crackles, and shards of brilliant snow rain down, burning his hands.

The truth is, that not only the girl on the breeze.

Gossamer sails as fine as soap bubbles droop, the gust of sapphire laser light stains one arm sinuously and scratches at her.

The cat stalks the Net about how it is.

Oddly, nobody is complaining much.

It seemed like my normal consciousness.

In summary: You are a minefield, one must know fact from falsehood, and be resurrected as a stone somehow dislodged from one of the Central Station is almost certain to become the biggest generation in history growing risk.

Psychic Backlash and Sushi

Sushi is good. I just wanted to get that out of the way, first. Other things which are good include not having headaches, not fearing the future, not feeling sick, not being half asleep, not being worried by lack of hallucinations, and not being horribly confused. Sadly, none of those are able to apply to me right now.

I'm convinced that I'm able to detect some things in the future. Evidence for this is mostly on the hugely circumstantial and anecdotal level, but I have in the past felt backlash from negative events before they actually happened. That's also background information.

The actual information is that, recently, the future has become incredibly negative. Something bad is going to happen, in other words. The problem is that I don't know when. It might be very soon - and not so bad - or a while into the future and quite horrible. Horrible as in death, either mine, that of someone I care about, or random strangers, but on a huge scale.

I'm assuming injury / death because it doesn't feel like emotional trauma. That same fact can be used to assume that it's probably not the death of someone I care about (although, who knows, the numbing effect from that might explain the feeling). It would make a horrible degree of sense for it to be my death, in fact - and given that I'm due to die sometime in the next 15 years, it wouldn't be much of a surprise anyways (of course, the exact date is sometime in 2023 or 2024, so it would be earlier than expected).

I'm also assuming that I'm only picking up on my own emotions / responses; if that's not true, it could also be the deaths of lots of people, or something similar.

And, if this effect actually exists, and will be proven to exist sometime soon, it could be my future self trying to send me a message, warning me away from a course of action by torturing hundreds or thousands of people to death.

Or, I might just be insane, or delusional. I walk a very fine line, after all.

I wonder how much of this I really believe?

Disassemble The Moon

Disassemble the moon. Scoop out the core of the earth. Vent gases from the sun for fuel. Cover Jupiter and Saturn with mass drivers, and use their mass to give initial momentum. Drag most of the asteroid belt along, after turning the asteroids into habitats. Escape from the gravity well of the sun, in a massive spaceship.

Maintain genetic diversity by automated processes, growing new individuals from archives of the current population of earth whenever genetic diversity drops too low. Improve and modify the human race, to allow it to function more optimally outside of the gravity well.

Implant computers in their heads, to allow them to function better, to access more data, to think instead of remembering. Modify the neural pathways to promote behavioral patterns which will be more optimal in this new environment. Identify sociopaths and potential murders, and place them in positions where they will do no harm.

Eliminate the corporation, and scarcity economics. For this project to succeed matter assemblers must become ubiquitous; why than should anything but creativity be in need? Create an artificial economy, based on the flow of money which decreases in value with time, and the artificial influx of cash to each individual equally. If one wishes more money, one must create something which others are willing to buy. Punish group-think; have automated rewards for creating and selling something, which decrease or even become negative if an idea is too similar to an older one.

Covert as much of the mass as possibly to computronium, allow it to form the walls and floors of rooms, and upload anyone who wishes. Allow them to form the core of the system's guidance, thinking far faster than normal humans. To prevent bloat, place an artificial time limit on how long uploads may live (or be active, anyways), coming into effect whenever there are too many. Something that takes away processing power from any who do not contribute back to society for too long.

Chart a path for planets similar to earth, which could be teraformed and colonized. Seed them with complex systems, controlled by volunteer uploads or automated processes, to build a world for humans and then reincarnate the uploads and grow new bodies to populate it. Remain in contact with the mother ship for as long as possible during this process.

For useless systems, steal more fuel from the sun, and then seed them with computronium-assembling nanobots and more upload volunteers, who need more power than they have, or want it for a project. Once again, keep in contact with them for as long as possible; build orbital laser arrays to allow for year-lagged conversation between worlds, and investigate the possiblities of the greation of a point-to-point wormhole network to allow for even faster communications (see: Accelerando, by Charles Stross).

If point-to-point wormholes become possible, colonize the empty spaces between the stars, knitting a world out of cylinders and portals, creating backup networks to allow the human species to endure for as long as possible, albeit in an entirely new form (see: Glasshouse, also by Charles Stross).

In fact, just read all of Stross's works. I suggest that you start with Accelerando (it's available as an e-book for free the last I checked), then continue on into Glasshouse, Singularity Sky, The Atrocity Archives, and Halting State. See his website for more of his writing.

Yes, I admit it, he's one of my favorite authors right now, along with Terry Pratchet and Douglas Adams. I'm able to read most of their books over and over again without getting bored, which is fairly uncommon for me (well, not the same book over and over - although perhaps some of Stross's - but the same set of books).

Anyways, what was I talking about? Ah, yes:

Escape the gravity well. Set humanity free from reliance upon a single world. Destroy scarcity economics, allow anyone to do anything they want to, as long as it does not prevent others from doing anything they want to (so: no murder, unless both agree. No rape, assult, theft, etc., with the same secondary rule applying. I'm not sure how, or if, that should apply to information; but than, I'm a pirate, so my veiws are fairly biased.). Destroy religion, or at least eliminate the aspects of it which go against science (you can have your god, but only if you agree that it doesn't really care about us, and created the universe ~14 billion years ago and then buggered off). Transcend the limitations of humanity.

Oh, and I'm not planning to take the earth with me, just the moon. Anyone who wants to stay can - the plan might even turn into reassembling one of the moons of the gas giants, but whatever. In fact, given that it would be impossible to take everyone ... well, whatever. Use a system of merit, and, of course, leave behind the technology to allow anyone else to do the same - and, since everyone would have this technology, I would expect that many people would.

Now, keep in mind that none of this is going to be possible for at least 50 years, problably nearer to 100 or 200, given the way humanity is going right now. Does that give a bit of understanding as to why I'm a bit irritated at humans most of the time? I get to live late enough to know what can and will happen, but too early to actually see it happen.

Eh, at least I'm near the bioengineering revolution. And I will not be a passive participant in it.

[ Sidenote: I've been posting a lot more recently; I wonder why. ]

Corporation

EDIT: Corporation has been submitted. This post was written towards the beginning of its conception - back when it was more of a parody than what it is now, whatever that is - and thus may not be accurate. The Teaser presented here is still valid, but minorly edited, and I've written another one. Yeah ...

As some people may know, I've been in the process of writing a bootleg to submit for next year. The basic outline of it is fairly defined now, so I've decided to write a brief outline of it (heavily redacted, to be close to what people would know initially if it actually happens), in the hope that some people will give me opinions, or constructive criticism. So, here it is:

The Teaser:

Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... Tock ...

The only thing more boring than sitting in a meeting, waiting for some windbag to spend hours talking, is waiting to sit in a meeting, she thought, while trapped in that most boring of states. The Corporation had been going downhill ever since that thrice-damned socialist trouble-maker's family had sued for his death; that was the end of determining policy by mortal combat. Thankfully, she would not have to sit through all of this meeting; the vial of nerve gas in her pocket would make quick work of the other departmental leaders, paving her way to control the department. She would gain more power, more money, and, most importantly, please her superiors in the AISB.

Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... Tock ...

The preparations for the meeting are almost complete, he thought, almost ready to open the door and allow the meeting to begin. His subordinates wouldn't realize that the chairs were filled with spring-loaded, poisoned spikes until it was too late - and if they did realize, the small containers of explosives under the chairs would fix that. He would soon be safe from people trying to climb to the top over dead bodies (his dead body, anyways), at least for a while, and the Nth Straw would certainly appreciate the chaos caused by the sudden replacement of almost all the managers of the PR department.

Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... Tock ...

His gun readied, the sniper trained his binoculars upon the meeting room, ready to kill all but his employer upon the slightest hint of foul play. His employer, a rare person who was content to let promotion come to him, instead of fighting for it, was not so naive as to think that his coworkers shared his views, and considered it prudent to take out insurance. But that didn't matter to the sniper, for a job is a job, whatever the reason, and money is money, whatever its source.

Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... *Crunch*

The janitor carefully pushed a vial into the clockwork, where it would gradually trickle down, its contents being released into the air of the meeting room about ten minutes into the meeting. With a small, secret smile, he returned to his job, mopping up the remains of the newest ex-employee of the Quality Assurance Division.

Second Teaser, only just written:

Salutations!

As a member of the board, upper levels, or significant stockholder in the Corporation, you have been chosen to be invited to the 3.14.15 conference. It will feature presentations by representatives of all divisions, as well as by a non-zero number of companies which the Corporation is considering acquiring.

As you may be aware, due to the recent collapse of the Indian continent, the global economy is in a state of collapse. To prevent incursions from competitors upon markets currently controlled by the Corporation, the President and Board may be planning on announcing budget cuts. Therefor, all invitees are strongly encouraged to attend, as their jobs may be at stake.

We also regret to inform you that, due to the lawsuit under the laws of the People's Meritocracy of California, decision-making by combat is no longer company policy (the board having decided that, despite this being a long-standing tradition which many of the current leaders have taken part in, the People's Meritocracy of California is too important a market to alienate). Therefor, while combat is discouraged, we do not expect all employees to be able to restrain themselves from bringing weapons, especially considering the longstanding tendency of employees towards clearing the promotion ladder by force.

Be there or be liquidated.

[signature goes here], President.

And now, for the quick explanation which I've given people in the past:

Secret societies + Conspiracies + Corporate backstabbing + Going With The Flow being the most important aspect of it. Really, within an hours, things will be happening which might seem like people making stuff up. Four or five basic factions, each corresponding to a division within the Corporation (PR, HR, R&D, QA, and possibly the Janitorial Service), as many secret societies which most people will be members off, possibly mercenaries, executives from other corporations, and presenters from smaller companies looking to be acquired. PR is filled with people trying to be hip and manipulative sociopaths, HR is terrifying and inhuman, R&D is all mad scientists, QA has a higher death toll than most wars, and the Janitors clean up after messes. Ex-employees, traitors, double agents, genocides, broken fridges, acid spills ... stuff like that.

[Redacted / Potential Spoilers ]

So, opinions? Thoughts? Insults upon my writing abilities? Think that it's horrible unoriginal? (it might be, but I don't think it is ...) If the answer is yes to any of those questions, please say so (and actually give the feedback instead of just saying yes).

Establishing an Identity

I just found out that Dreamhost is currently giving out free hosting for something called Dreamhost Apps, which gives free hosting for a few services (well, "a few" is 5 right now, counting the various google apps as a single one). It seemed quite interesting, and hence I signed up. I don't have any intent of doing anything with it right now, but might eventually, and there are a few things which it might be useful for.

Mostly creating an identity, and tieing it to most of the other things I do online, with the aim of it being one of the top results when someone googles my name (current the top result is my identi.ca account, which I don't really use any more. I've somewhat lost interesting in broadcasting my life to the degree which microblogging services allow, and I don't presently have a device which would allow me to - that is, a palmtop device with wifi, not my laptop, which is still doing quite well).

Currently, of course, having a very coherent identity on the internet, and controlling what people find when they look for me, is not especially important, or at least not urgent. In time it will become both, however, as the internet becomes increasingly important for companies, and googling employees becomes ubiquitous.

Also, as I start working on more interesting projects, I'll need a less linear way of compiling information about them - for example, the Arduino I have right now. I've been reprogramming it fairly frequently, and occasionally losing code, due to forgetting to save and just rewriting it. Not a major issue, as everything I'm working on right now is very simple, just turning LEDs on and off in various patterns, but once I start doing more interesting things it would be good to put everything online.

Also, pictures. I've taken a lot of them - around 4,000 at least count - and there are at least a few good ones, which are just being wasted sitting on my hard drive. Uploading most or all of them, perhaps after decreasing the resolution (both to decrease the time to upload them and to give an easy way for me to demonstrate that they are my pictures), could be a good idea.

Anways, I'm just rambling, so I'll end this post.

Rowan is Happy

Reasons? Well, there are a lot. A short list of them:

• Rich And Famous was a good play. It ended about an hour and a half ago, and was weird and awesome. The sets were amazing.
• I now have an Arduino, which is fun and shiny and stuff. I have yet to decide on a name, but I'm thinking.
• I have a battery for the Arduino, whose name is Celine, because it's an obscure reference (yes, I just decided on the name. The reference is to Hagbard Celine, the Illuminati Primus, and this is the first Arduino I have, hence the primary one. Yeah.)
• I have many small surface-mount LEDs, some of which are being hooked up to the Arduino.
• The upcoming bootleg looks like it's going to be very fun.
• School is not as bad as it could be.
• I have decided that I enjoy the warmth of another body. Well, not so much decided as thought "hey, maybe there is something to behaving as if I was human in some ways. Besides, warmth is good."
• I may actually take action. Appropriately enough, 8 days in the future is the traditional day, or at least a day in celebration thereof. Maybe.
• Origami like an explosion in a triangular prism factory given to me, and sitting on my desk. It's shiny and dark at the same time!
  
• Did I mention the LEDs? Well, they blink and are shiny and stuff. It's fun.
• Tomorrow is a day of drinking tea and writing essays. Better than it sounds, I promise.
• Sunday, although it will be raining (which is sad) is a party-thing (which is fun).
• Started drawing again, helped by the fact that I'm now taking an art class. Drawing is a really good way to spend time, and fun.
  

In summary, I immensely enjoy my life right now, as everything seems to be working perfectly.

[ Secondary summary, written in third person: Rowan has succumb to the weakness of the human body. He is indulging in dangerous neurotransmitters, and may have forgotten what happened last time. He will probably end up being burned badly again, although he hopes not. He has also decided that that doesn't really matter, as the purpose of being human is to take chances. Essentially, he is human. Pity about that, eh? ]

Knowledge is Power

It is undeniable that knowledge can be used to gain power over an individual. Such is most of the basis of blackmail, and the rationale behind most secrets.

This brand of knowledge is, of course, knowledge which is thought to be able to harm an individual if widely known. For example, for some congressmen, the things that they do in restrooms. The exact contents of the stash under the mattress which was so popular before the Internet. Who someone is attracted to; who someone hates. Thoughts, emotions, and so forth.

Of course, that is only scratching the surface. I find that the past is the greatest source of power over me; knowledge of it is something which I would much rather have abolished (I was incredibly dorky, in a bad way, and I'll leave it at that). It's sort of a dark secret, I suppose, in that I would rather that everyone not mention it, ever. Most people seem to have picked up on this, or at least most of the people from the past. Sadly, one person has a tendency to mention it, and, more importantly, to allow that knowledge to scatter further.

This gives him a fair amount of power over me. Of course, a fair amount is relative; he does not seem especially inclined to exercise it - instead watching me squirm when he mentions it - although on further thought he might simply not want to exercise it directly.

That past is a foreign country, as they say, and it is not one which I would care to vacation in.

Compared to that, other knowledge - like who I am attracted to, what is on my computer, or my horrible taste in Anime/books/processors/whatever else - seems insignificant.

Oh, and for the record, my desktop uses a Celeron. So does my laptop. I'm not proud.

[ Minor addendum: I'm writing this at about 11:20. It's not very good - I'm still awake enough to know that - and I'll probably never get around to fixing it. Also, I apologize for the fact that this is turning into more of a blog and less of something which is shaped like a blog, looks like a blog, even feels like a blog, but is not a blog. Also, blog is a very silly word - something which is pretty well known, but I felt like mentioning it.
[ Probably, this post won't mysteriously vanish, like the last one, as soon as I wake up enough to realize how horrible it is. It might be editted slightly, though.
[ Oh, and about that last post? It will be back up, eventually, if I ever remember to edit it and repost it. As for why it went down? Well, recently I've found myself feeling very lonely, and in need of companionship - the warmth of another body, I suppose - and that post spawned out of those feelings. Yes, I am human. Yes, I've finally admitted it. No, I don't know how many people have just lost/won bets, or how many I owe money to, but I would guess none. If anyone actually is betting about when (or if) I'll admit that I'm human, what the fuck? Am I really that interesting, or are you just very bored? ]

[ Further addendum: Idea for a future post: exactly what is going wrong with my brain (it involves dehydration). ]

Current Inventory

Currently, I carry the following items with me whenever I'm outside, either in my jacket or pockets:

• Cellphone
• Wallet (paper money, four bart cards, gift card, id)
• Two cloths for cleaning glasses
• A wrist-watch
  
• A pair of gloves
• An MP3 Player (and earbuds, of course)
  
• One black sharpie
• One unsharpened pencil
• Two ballpoint pens
• Three flash drives (1GB, 4GB, and 8GB)
• Two MicroSD cards, both 2GB, in adapters to allow them to fit in normal SD slots
• A swiss army card
• A swiss army knife like device, which falls under a different brand
• My keychain, with some keys and an LED light
• A small kit which I'm not going to mention, as it might give the wrong impression
  
• ( Occasionally ) A needle and thread
• ( Occasionally ) two zombie finger puppets

To this, I may be adding:

• A sonic screwdriver
• An actual screwdriver, philips-head
• A very bright LED flashlight
• One or more zombie action figures
• A scarf
  

If allowed to bring a bag as well, I will probably also have (in the case of my laptop bag):

• An ultraportable laptop (what people typically call a netbook; the Eee 701)
• A power brick for said laptop
  
• At least one paperback book, often more
  
• Duct tape, one or more rolls
• A bottle of water
• A clipboard, with paper (either graph or blank)
• Various snack bars, and plastic bags of chocolate
• Some more pens
  
• A sketchbook
• Anything else which I consider necessary for the situation; recently, this was a torte (I was going to a party)
• A camera (I keep on telling myself to bring it ...)
• Batteries (possibly. I should put more in my bags ...)

So ... yeah. Not as much stuff as I should probably be carrying around with me, but I think that I've reached a good balance between having what I need and not being weighed down too much by my jacket. Also, not much else will fit in the pockets. I'm considering looking into additional ways to transport more things, but there's not much else which I would expect to use on a routine basis, and I try to be at least somewhat logical.