"... and the virus took over his body, the last untouched body in all the earth. All was lost... yadda yadda yadda..." Jeremy was complaining about how all the sci-fi of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first was completely predictable.
"Yeah, I know..." his wife feigned sympathy from the other room. What they both found comforting in those novels was the irony. "But you finished it, and that's what entertainment is!" Jackie was such a realist, that she found it hard not to be optimistic about another accomplishment, even as tiny as finishing a book.
"It's rubbish, not entertainment, and it kept me up too late, now I'm tired and bored..." pause for effect "... but not by you." she smirked at his corny remarks. "Go to work Jeremy" she nagged, he left.
Jeremy pulled up to the complex, exhaled and got out of the car. Once outside, he began his ritual. Thirty three steps to the door; sixteen breaths by then; full contact with handle and fake a cough once inside. Now it was to the elevator, hit each call button, then make sure the elevator stops on floors 4, 11, and 23 but his own hand, since those floors were statistically, the highest population. If not, he would go up to 27 and back down to 23, sometimes taking the stairs. Once on the floor. Just go sit down and get to work.
The work wasn't bad, nobody would say they love being an auditor. But Jeremy found a great deal of satisfaction knowing that he was a safeguard for the company. Knowing that a large corporation put this kind of trust in his department made him weary, but he was satisfied nonetheless. It was simple through. Follow a trail, use randomness to select the trail, mold your logic to the personnel's and follow the path they need to. Once you're at the end of the path, write it down, make sure it's right, wrap it up with a bow and send it to their manager, your manager and file a copy for yourself. He prided himself on conserving the paper and prided his ability to manage data. Something that several auditors couldn't seem to get a handle on.
Bathroom break, to the stall. Wipe off the toilet seat. Sit, wipe, flush. Everything had a process. Jeremy always laughed at the sign "Employees are not required to wash their hands before leaving the lavatory." Jeremy's love for science fiction allowed him the ability to think outside the box, and then to see the humor in their author's portrayal of "the future of man."
"Did you hear about Len?" was the topic of his cube-neighbor's small talk. "He's in the hospital, wasn't doing his routine again..." Len did have a way of forgetting the necessary tasks to protect oneself. "I don't think Len's ever gotten the feel for pack mentality." Jeremy offered up a defense for the absent. "If doesn't soon, he never will"
Len was thirty-five when the baby Kim accident occurred, and had a tendency to be obsessively clean before the accident, and therefor was particularly cleaner than anyone else Jeremy knew. Jeremy had caught Len on several occasions saying "To get that cleaned up..." and did his best to help Len out. As he did with anyone who was used to trying to stay clean.
The Baby Kim effect or just BKE or BKS to civilians now, was a cocktail of poor habits, combined with poor education and the result of incorrect living practices being handed for generations. BKE was a flaw in reason, a flaw in humanity. How BKE was discovered wasn't strange, there was no U.F.O., no atom bomb blast, nothing. There was a baby that died; perfectly healthy. Doctors did test upon test. The parents were testing, the grandparents were tested. They kept searching for months. Months became years. The media lost interest, the doctors lost interest, the family moved on.
Then it happened again. Exactly the same situation. Sterile doctors, the best. Sterile hospital, hundreds of babies delivered in that room. Normal parents; in fact, they had done a complete genetic analysis while the fetus was developing. The child simply died. But this time, the child flagged a test with a false-positive. During one test, one time. The child came up HIV positive. This was a fluke. This child did not have aids. But, it did instigate further investigation on the coroner's behalf into the immunity capabilities of the child.
(will continue)
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Ino cont...
"When Ino first laid eyes on the envelope, there was no doubt what it was for. He didn't even open it. He didn't have to. His life was now devoted to his country."
To any citizen, it was a blessing to be chosen to serve. The army had millions of coveted positions, and it's members were paid well. Not only all this; but hundreds of soldiers were able to work from home, commuting to a local base and do their work from there.
It was obvious why Ino was chosen. The military had millions of uses for radio technology and Ino was one of the best. The offer was for more than double what he made, and he was able to choose his own hours. The work was good, but very demanding.
"What are the specs on our 32D transceiver?" quiz time on the first day!
"Well first off it has user-selected scan, duplex mode across several 400+ frequencies, the ability to switch into duplex mode, and my personal favorite; the ability to transmit both analog and digital data lines." Ino paused, "the units were de-commissioned three years ago, but still see a lot of action due to the data versatility."
"Well I won't say I'm not impressed", his supervisor knew long ago that Ino would be the perfect fit, and a huge resource, "but they were de-commissioned five years ago, we just didn't tell anyone until three!" They erupted in laughter, a great bonding moment even though both of them felt slightly self-conscious in new company.
"You'll be doing basically the same thing here Ino, as your last job..." Ino's heart sank. "But here, you'll be given a team of 10 engineers underneath you to actually put your ideas into practice and develop prototypes." His heart leaped, his mouth dropped, and his brain took mental note of dozens and dozens of projects he knew worked already and could be applied here.
"They'll report to you, and you'll report to me. If you need more of anything, you ask, and if you're running on low on time, let me know." He stopped for breath, "your team is anxious to meet you and get to work, we've got two catalogs on your desk. A list of available materials and a list of materials only we have access to. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the second doesn't exist, now get to work damnit!" he said with a smile and a wave to the door.
Screw the team, I need to see some examples in the catalog! Ino basically ran to his desk and flipped open to a random page. One of the lowest power silicon transistors was something he didn't even knew existed, specifically for an N-channel!
"Couldn't wait to get your hands on the toys I see..." Ino spun around and was met with the stare of his best engineer; Aine. "I guess that's a huge perk of getting hired here, the equipment is top-notch, nothing you've ever seen in a civ-shop." They shook hands and exchanged niceties before Ino started showing him an idea for a modular radio setup.
(switch to another storyline, then more of this; eventually a great thing comes up and he's uniquely qualified because he has no wife nor children)
To any citizen, it was a blessing to be chosen to serve. The army had millions of coveted positions, and it's members were paid well. Not only all this; but hundreds of soldiers were able to work from home, commuting to a local base and do their work from there.
It was obvious why Ino was chosen. The military had millions of uses for radio technology and Ino was one of the best. The offer was for more than double what he made, and he was able to choose his own hours. The work was good, but very demanding.
"What are the specs on our 32D transceiver?" quiz time on the first day!
"Well first off it has user-selected scan, duplex mode across several 400+ frequencies, the ability to switch into duplex mode, and my personal favorite; the ability to transmit both analog and digital data lines." Ino paused, "the units were de-commissioned three years ago, but still see a lot of action due to the data versatility."
"Well I won't say I'm not impressed", his supervisor knew long ago that Ino would be the perfect fit, and a huge resource, "but they were de-commissioned five years ago, we just didn't tell anyone until three!" They erupted in laughter, a great bonding moment even though both of them felt slightly self-conscious in new company.
"You'll be doing basically the same thing here Ino, as your last job..." Ino's heart sank. "But here, you'll be given a team of 10 engineers underneath you to actually put your ideas into practice and develop prototypes." His heart leaped, his mouth dropped, and his brain took mental note of dozens and dozens of projects he knew worked already and could be applied here.
"They'll report to you, and you'll report to me. If you need more of anything, you ask, and if you're running on low on time, let me know." He stopped for breath, "your team is anxious to meet you and get to work, we've got two catalogs on your desk. A list of available materials and a list of materials only we have access to. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the second doesn't exist, now get to work damnit!" he said with a smile and a wave to the door.
Screw the team, I need to see some examples in the catalog! Ino basically ran to his desk and flipped open to a random page. One of the lowest power silicon transistors was something he didn't even knew existed, specifically for an N-channel!
"Couldn't wait to get your hands on the toys I see..." Ino spun around and was met with the stare of his best engineer; Aine. "I guess that's a huge perk of getting hired here, the equipment is top-notch, nothing you've ever seen in a civ-shop." They shook hands and exchanged niceties before Ino started showing him an idea for a modular radio setup.
(switch to another storyline, then more of this; eventually a great thing comes up and he's uniquely qualified because he has no wife nor children)
Friday, September 21, 2007
Ino ran across an oil convoy one day on his way to work. It was huge, like one long train of tanker trucks. The trucks didn't have a lot of security, they didn't need it. There is one vehicle at the front of the convoy with just a few sensors is all they needed. Determine threats, then blow them up, then keep driving. Repeat. To be honest the whole convoy could be destroyed and it didn't matter, most enemies would keep the convoy going to simply find a reserve.
"Sorry I'm late," Ino apologized to his supervisor.
"Not even an issue." Came the expected response.
Ino like his job. He had always played around with radios as a kid, so he fit right in at a development firm for radio technology. A lot of his work was creating ideas that are unrealistic, and making them realistic. Many people also contract him to fix their radios and/or be oncall to fix their business radios. When television was labeled red, and people realized they shouldn't be watching it, the business boomed, the government took an interest and things changed quickly.
When Ino first laid eyes on the envelope, there was no doubt what it was for. He didn't even open it. He didn't have to. His life was now devoted to his country.
"Sorry I'm late," Ino apologized to his supervisor.
"Not even an issue." Came the expected response.
Ino like his job. He had always played around with radios as a kid, so he fit right in at a development firm for radio technology. A lot of his work was creating ideas that are unrealistic, and making them realistic. Many people also contract him to fix their radios and/or be oncall to fix their business radios. When television was labeled red, and people realized they shouldn't be watching it, the business boomed, the government took an interest and things changed quickly.
When Ino first laid eyes on the envelope, there was no doubt what it was for. He didn't even open it. He didn't have to. His life was now devoted to his country.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sarah and Joey re-write:
Joey sat down to the supper they had prepared and they played. The way they liked to play;
"How was work honey?" Sarah prompted him like an actress reading a script.
"Tough, my boss is riding me to get a project done..." the charade stops as they erupt in laughter. The mockery was over, their lives continued. The truth is that Joey quit his job. Sarah had already quit hers too, but not of necessity.
It didn't take long for two clean-minded people to realize that the best source of energy isn't something you can burn, buy, collect, save or earn. Humans. The Matrix was right, humans are where the real energy is. To grow and raise food, to clean and build and burn; requires backpower combined with knowledge and experience.
Before the wars were out of control, the two spent one night a week at the library doing research on living and learning applicable trades. There are endless resources online and lots of ancient books from workshop dads who love nothing more than their wives, but if they did it would be there hobby of woodworking, or solar power, etc etc.
So Joey quit his job. He didn't care, it's not like he truly loved it.
(no more time tonight)
Joey sat down to the supper they had prepared and they played. The way they liked to play;
"How was work honey?" Sarah prompted him like an actress reading a script.
"Tough, my boss is riding me to get a project done..." the charade stops as they erupt in laughter. The mockery was over, their lives continued. The truth is that Joey quit his job. Sarah had already quit hers too, but not of necessity.
It didn't take long for two clean-minded people to realize that the best source of energy isn't something you can burn, buy, collect, save or earn. Humans. The Matrix was right, humans are where the real energy is. To grow and raise food, to clean and build and burn; requires backpower combined with knowledge and experience.
Before the wars were out of control, the two spent one night a week at the library doing research on living and learning applicable trades. There are endless resources online and lots of ancient books from workshop dads who love nothing more than their wives, but if they did it would be there hobby of woodworking, or solar power, etc etc.
So Joey quit his job. He didn't care, it's not like he truly loved it.
(no more time tonight)
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Joey and Sarah subplot in "petro wars"
joey sarah
"What if we turned off the electricity in the house?" That's how my husband proposed this self-sustainable lifestyle. Can you believe that? Talk about tact. That "boy" of a husband had the audacity to sell the harshest idea with the most basic of questions. Well, looking back, I'm slightly embarrassed at my response. Something along the lines of "hair, alarm clocks, freezer, cell phone, laptops, reading at night" etc etc.
Two weeks later the idea had rooted in my brain to throw the question back at him by marching downstairs and turning off the main breaker. When he got home and the garage door opener didn't work, we got our first taste of what we weren't even thinking about. He came inside, whispered "thank you" and we made love a good three or four times before passing out.
There is more to life than the distractions we force into our own.
Don't get me wrong, there are times when we used power from the grid initially. We love to entertain and many forms of entertainment require power. So we basically used it until our entertainment took different forms. Instead of playing console video games, we have a bonfire and play backyard games.
Eventually our power saving and power creating devices were saving too much energy. So we took some old car batteries (not too old though) and converted a shelf or two in the yard-shed-thing to an energy outpost. So now we're able to charge our cellphone (which we share) laptop (which we rarely use) and even bake in an oven, use a dryer in the winter or if we're really feeling wasteful, turn on a light.
The hardest part for us wasn't the energy loss. It was the daylight. What time does the sun set? What time does it rise? If you can't answer either of those you are still a slave to the lightbulbs in your house. Our schedules match the natural rhythm of the daylight, and I have yet to miss seeing a sunrise or sunset.
________________
notes: I don't like this format... she's preaching... I'm going to create a more storylike method of revealing these points, but it's nice to have them written down.
"What if we turned off the electricity in the house?" That's how my husband proposed this self-sustainable lifestyle. Can you believe that? Talk about tact. That "boy" of a husband had the audacity to sell the harshest idea with the most basic of questions. Well, looking back, I'm slightly embarrassed at my response. Something along the lines of "hair, alarm clocks, freezer, cell phone, laptops, reading at night" etc etc.
Two weeks later the idea had rooted in my brain to throw the question back at him by marching downstairs and turning off the main breaker. When he got home and the garage door opener didn't work, we got our first taste of what we weren't even thinking about. He came inside, whispered "thank you" and we made love a good three or four times before passing out.
There is more to life than the distractions we force into our own.
Don't get me wrong, there are times when we used power from the grid initially. We love to entertain and many forms of entertainment require power. So we basically used it until our entertainment took different forms. Instead of playing console video games, we have a bonfire and play backyard games.
Eventually our power saving and power creating devices were saving too much energy. So we took some old car batteries (not too old though) and converted a shelf or two in the yard-shed-thing to an energy outpost. So now we're able to charge our cellphone (which we share) laptop (which we rarely use) and even bake in an oven, use a dryer in the winter or if we're really feeling wasteful, turn on a light.
The hardest part for us wasn't the energy loss. It was the daylight. What time does the sun set? What time does it rise? If you can't answer either of those you are still a slave to the lightbulbs in your house. Our schedules match the natural rhythm of the daylight, and I have yet to miss seeing a sunrise or sunset.
________________
notes: I don't like this format... she's preaching... I'm going to create a more storylike method of revealing these points, but it's nice to have them written down.
Monday, September 3, 2007
insert for "blah blah" on Chuck substory
just a sketchy idea after re-reading the petro wars entries...
--
talk of dog fight, owner being furious, chuck teaching him a lesson. Chuck defending himself. Chuck and Winter run. Lost, suburb of Chicago south. Keep heading south oilfield? Job?
--
talk of dog fight, owner being furious, chuck teaching him a lesson. Chuck defending himself. Chuck and Winter run. Lost, suburb of Chicago south. Keep heading south oilfield? Job?
Off the grid
There were two really bad decisions we had made before we even started. The first was that our house was huge. Twelve hundred square feet for two, maybe three people? The second was the location. Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes and sub-zero winter temperatures.
We wrote these two obstacles into our plans and decided to deal with them as best we could and then just improve on them as we needed. In retrospect, my husband Joey and I should have started from scratch to save money, but tearing down a house in the middle of suburb wasn't our best way to garner support from our neighbors.
"Sarah's place always smells like caramel corn..." I caught our neighbor saying one day. They had forgotten we don't close our windows in the summer because don't have air-conditioning. I actually took the time to explain it to them too. We had fired up our corn stove early summer because that night it was supposed to get below freezing and we couldn't risk bursting any water pipes. It was also nice to have really hot water that morning.
If you hadn't gathered it yet. My husband and I converted our suburban cookie-cutter house into a self-sufficient energy producing home. We are completely "off the grid." We haven't paid an energy bill in years and we don't ever plan to. But it wasn't easy to get to this point.
-----------------------------------
notes: This is going to be a side-story to the petro wars. The narration format doesn't really leave a lot space for lexicon, or prose, but I think it might be a great mix-up to be able to switch styles during the writing and reading....
We wrote these two obstacles into our plans and decided to deal with them as best we could and then just improve on them as we needed. In retrospect, my husband Joey and I should have started from scratch to save money, but tearing down a house in the middle of suburb wasn't our best way to garner support from our neighbors.
"Sarah's place always smells like caramel corn..." I caught our neighbor saying one day. They had forgotten we don't close our windows in the summer because don't have air-conditioning. I actually took the time to explain it to them too. We had fired up our corn stove early summer because that night it was supposed to get below freezing and we couldn't risk bursting any water pipes. It was also nice to have really hot water that morning.
If you hadn't gathered it yet. My husband and I converted our suburban cookie-cutter house into a self-sufficient energy producing home. We are completely "off the grid." We haven't paid an energy bill in years and we don't ever plan to. But it wasn't easy to get to this point.
-----------------------------------
notes: This is going to be a side-story to the petro wars. The narration format doesn't really leave a lot space for lexicon, or prose, but I think it might be a great mix-up to be able to switch styles during the writing and reading....
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