Owl and I are finishing up redecorating the apartment. We have these stick-on decals from Owl's store, with chalkboard and whiteboard fronts that can be written on, and we've put one by our media room---Crow's old room, in which we've put our TV and computers. We're putting on it a list of what Rivendell (our apartment's nick name) is watching, and I thought it might be interesting to have a brief review of the shows on that list as they change.
So. Here's what Rivendell is watching currently:
Daredevil
This Netflix original series was released today, with thirteen episodes making up the first season. Daredevil is one of Owl's favorite superheroes, and she's been busy reading the Bendis and Maleev Daredevil omnibus. So she's been anxiously awaiting the Daredevil release all week, and we're huddled up in the media room (it just sounds so fancy, right?) watching.
I have to say that so far I've been incredibly impressed with all of the Netflix originals, and Daredevil seems to be living up to their standard of quality. It's definitely a dark and gritty superhero adaptation, a la Nolan's Batman series or Snyder's Watchmen, but it has a persistent and delightful humor to it as well.
Granted, I say this as we watch a man skewer his own head on an iron spike, so take the TV-MA rating seriously. They don't shy away from gore.
As we get further into the series, I'll talk more at length about the series, as it looks quite promising.
Steven Universe
Oh man, where do I start?
So, let me right off the bat just clarify: this is a children's cartoon. There's been an upwards trend in kids' TV towards smarter, more self-aware, and often much darker and more mature shows. Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time is perhaps the most famous example of this, but shows like Gravity Falls and the five-night, ten-episode Over the Garden Wall follow in the same vein, and often have overlapping creative talent. Steven Universe is a show created by Rebecca Sugar, an Adventure Time writer and storyboard artist. Steven Universe is the first Cartoon Network show to be created by a woman, and the show is one of the best examples of strong female casts I've ever seen.
The show is a ton of fun, silly and light in tone but often asking serious question and providing insightful answers. An anime-inspired story about the Crystal Gems, intergalactic warriors who protect the earth, it consistently does a stellar job on talking about gender roles and family dynamics. It has also introduced an openly gay romantic pairing, going so far as to show one character kissing the other on the cheek---a degree of affection henceforth denied to on-screen gay couples in children's TV. Both Adventure Time and Legend of Korra have been hindered in attempting to portray lesbian relationships by network restrictions, and Steven Universe is breaking ground with this relationship.
Ouran High School Host Club
I first started watching Ouran High School Host Club in high school, and though its appeal is far from universal, I have a deep and lasting love for it. I hesitated before showing it to Owl, as she is not nearly as fond in general of anime as I am, and Ouran can be a lot to take in at once.
A satire of Shōjo anime---a subgenre marketed towards teen and preteen girls often with heavily dramatized romantic relationships---Ouran centers around a group of high school students who are part of a student host club. Popular in Japan, host clubs are typically bars with male staff that entertain predominantly female clientele who come for conversation and light flirtation. They are a newer take on hostess clubs, where female staff cater to a predominately male audience. The show takes the concept to humorously drastic extremes by setting up a high school host club composed of heavily-exaggerated tropes---the dramatic, princely character, the cute boy-lolita, the "cool" one, etc. The protagonist, Haruhi, stumbles upon the club by mistake. Because of her short hair and androgynous style of dress, Haru is mistaken as a male student, and as she sees little difference she doesn't bother to correct the assumptions. She accidentally breaks an expensive vase belonging to the host club, becomes indebted to them, and joins the host club as a natural entertainer. Hijinks ensue! Haruhi becomes the lens through which the outlandish antics of the host club are highlighted.
It's an odd list, to be sure, but we've had a lot of fun with these shows. We're in the middle of watching quite a few shows right now, and the Rivendell is watching list only highlights a few and is far from comprehensive. Hopefully we'll have some more shows to put up on our board soon, and I'll talk more about those then!
Any recommendations for us, readers? We're always on the lookout for new shows.
See you Sunday,
Raven
Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Merging Libraries*
Night shifts make for inconsistent bloggers. Sorry guys. I've been working all night shifts this week at work, but we just hired someone new so things are looking up for my blogging future.
As many of you already know Crow has left us for the great western frontier. He left us with a lot of empty space, a lot of his less treasured possessions, and a huge number of books. Not to mention some serious holes in the beloved roommate section of our lives. But this week and last we have been aiming to fill the physical holes left by his departure. That has meant turning his old room into a media room for entertaining nerdy guests (and also an insomnia room for when Raven can't sleep - ironically, I, as an owl, am not a night person).
As anyone who has ever shared space with a significant other can tell you, decorating a shared apartment or house can be a make or break experience for many relationships. What one partner may think is a lovely shade of green the other partner may think is a trashy throwback to the 70s and makes them physically sick to look at. And let's not even get started on artwork! Fortunately for Raven and me this particular area of discord has never been much of a concern.
Though we have slightly diverging tastes in some areas of decorating, we find ourselves in agreement more often than not. And when we don't agree usually one opinion is fairly weak and easily overlooked. For example, I have never put much artwork on my walls, but Raven loves to decorate wall space. I didn't have strong feelings about the issue and now that our apartment is decorated with tons of wall art, I have to say I have come around one hundred percent to Raven's way of thinking. So, Raven and I seemed to have weathered that relationship test relatively easily.
Today was another story. The mother of all relationship tests. At least as far as we were concerned. Joining and organizing our divergent libraries. Raven has Feelings on how a library should be organized and where books belong. I have (admittedly weaker) Feelings on the subject as well. I have fewer books than Raven, but most of them have been with me since middle or high school and I cherish them deeply. Fortunately we have few duplicates as literary taste is one area where our interests diverge a bit.
But organizing and categorizing our massive library was quite a trial in itself. And caused more than one minor disagreement and a very near existential crisis for one of us! But a couple hours later all our books are carefully divided into a few huge piles across our living room floor. The broad categories range from non-fiction to poetry to fantasy. There is a sizable romance collection (my influence and a definite divergent area) and a huge science fiction section (her influence and my great fortune as I am getting to the genre more now than I ever have before). There is also a reference section and a non-fiction section, piled so close they are almost indistinguishable. This is not an accident since their initial separation was the cause of the narrowly averted existential crisis mentioned earlier.
Soon we will have smaller, more numerous piles of subgenres like steampunk, literary reference, distopian YA, anime, and comic fantasy. Out of the chaos will come order. And out of strife (or more put more accurately, academic discourse and bargaining) Raven and my relationship remains intact. Another test passed, another milestone cleared. Hopefully shelving doesn't prove to be our undoing...
*Title adapted from Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. "Marrying Libraries" is the title of the first of her essays in the book and is one of my favorite essays of all time. Thank you to Crow for introducing me to this marvelous book (and author). If you love books and haven't read Ex Libris, you ought.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
“Today is declared an unscheduled holiday”
Hi Owl,
It really has been awhile. Sorry, everybody!
I really loved the segment of your story you shared with us yesterday, Owl. It was wonderfully written, and it brought up a lot of interesting concepts. I particularly liked the distinction made between artificial intelligence and simulated intelligence. You asked me a particularly hard question yesterday about what I like to see in science fiction, and I will do my best to give a partial answer today.
Science fiction is my all-time favorite genre to read and write, and it's the questions like the ones your story is starting to pose that make it so. In my mind, the best science fiction has always been that which uses the fictionalized scenarios in the story as a lens through which contemporary issues can be viewed. Generally, these pieces can be seen as sociopolitical commentary, or as imagined outcomes of certain real-world issues. In that regard, dystopic science fiction is a strong contender for my favorite sub-genre, as it lends itself particularly well to this sort of commentary, since it imagines the drastic extremes of social engineering gone wrong. George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are perfect examples of this.
There's one thing that I really loathe about most writing advice, and that is that it presumes there are hard and fast rules that one must follow. For virtually any "rule" of writing you can find, there is at least one exception of something that breaks that rule, and does it well.That said, when attempting genre fiction, there are certain guidelines that are often followed. Very broadly speaking, fantasy creates a world that can never be, realistic fiction portrays variants of the world that is, and science fiction imagines a world that ours might one day become. In many ways science fiction is best outfitted to be the ideal mechanism for the hypothetical. Many story concepts start with a what if. Good science fiction is often the conclusion of those particularly elaborate or ambitious what if questions.
There are hundreds of aesthetic, philosophical, stylistic, and atmospheric elements that I can list that I like to see in science fiction. Without narrowing it down to subgenres I could talk for days on what factors I most like to see in science fiction. Try me sometime----I'll do it, really.
For now, though, I think it's time for another list. Since I talked earlier in this post about dystopian novels best demonstrating the speculative nature of science fiction, here's 5 of Raven's Favorite Dystopian Science Fiction Novels
1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2. The Giver
3. 1984
4. Brave New World
5. Feed
(Title quote courtesy of The Giver, Lois Lowry)
It really has been awhile. Sorry, everybody!
I really loved the segment of your story you shared with us yesterday, Owl. It was wonderfully written, and it brought up a lot of interesting concepts. I particularly liked the distinction made between artificial intelligence and simulated intelligence. You asked me a particularly hard question yesterday about what I like to see in science fiction, and I will do my best to give a partial answer today.
Science fiction is my all-time favorite genre to read and write, and it's the questions like the ones your story is starting to pose that make it so. In my mind, the best science fiction has always been that which uses the fictionalized scenarios in the story as a lens through which contemporary issues can be viewed. Generally, these pieces can be seen as sociopolitical commentary, or as imagined outcomes of certain real-world issues. In that regard, dystopic science fiction is a strong contender for my favorite sub-genre, as it lends itself particularly well to this sort of commentary, since it imagines the drastic extremes of social engineering gone wrong. George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are perfect examples of this.
There's one thing that I really loathe about most writing advice, and that is that it presumes there are hard and fast rules that one must follow. For virtually any "rule" of writing you can find, there is at least one exception of something that breaks that rule, and does it well.That said, when attempting genre fiction, there are certain guidelines that are often followed. Very broadly speaking, fantasy creates a world that can never be, realistic fiction portrays variants of the world that is, and science fiction imagines a world that ours might one day become. In many ways science fiction is best outfitted to be the ideal mechanism for the hypothetical. Many story concepts start with a what if. Good science fiction is often the conclusion of those particularly elaborate or ambitious what if questions.
There are hundreds of aesthetic, philosophical, stylistic, and atmospheric elements that I can list that I like to see in science fiction. Without narrowing it down to subgenres I could talk for days on what factors I most like to see in science fiction. Try me sometime----I'll do it, really.
For now, though, I think it's time for another list. Since I talked earlier in this post about dystopian novels best demonstrating the speculative nature of science fiction, here's 5 of Raven's Favorite Dystopian Science Fiction Novels
1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2. The Giver
3. 1984
4. Brave New World
5. Feed
(Title quote courtesy of The Giver, Lois Lowry)
Monday, April 6, 2015
A Return
Hey! Wow! It's been a while. Sorry Raven (and everyone reading). Crow's departure and then a week of misadventures has put us very off schedule with posting. That stops this week. Back to every day updates. Starting with some puttering from me (Owl) in the new space world I'm trying to piece together. I am so new to writing science fiction it's actually a bit embarrassing. Raven, if you feel the inclination to make a post about things you like seeing in science fiction (and maybe some things you hate) that would help me out! Everyone reading this please feel free to do the same in comments. Or chime in with some problems, changes, gadgets, or new ideas you think the future might hold (when we're all living on spaceships searching for lots of new worlds to colonize and stuff).
Security Bot Protocol Scan
11.3.5382
Keyword Search: Artificial Intelligence, AI, Simulated Intelligence, SI,
Searching...
Retrieving...
Retrieved.
Commencing scan...
....Even before our ancestors left Earth in search of new worlds the question of an artificially intelligent machine loomed large. The now defunct Council of Twenty, made up of the highest earning corporations and countries of the day, came together to decide the issue at the 3892 Beijing Summit in the Earth city of Beijing. The resulting months of negotiations have become known as the Turing Summit and the document it produced was named the Turing Protocol. The Turing Protocol did many things, but the most important and lasting effect of both the summit and protocol was the legal distinction drawn between a simulated intelligence machine and an artificial intelligence machine.
An artificial intelligence machine would duplicate human intelligence or surpass it. It would be able to reason, respond, evolve, and think independently from its creator. A simulated intelligence was viewed by the Turing Protocol to be anything that fell short of that mark. This vague legal definition persisted until 3920 when the Watts v. Micropolis case forced the issue. The Council of Twenty reconvened, this time in Earth city Mumbai to more concretely define the term simulated intelligence. The resulting definition decreed that a simulated intelligence could not change its own programming, or make any value judgments that were not built in by a human creator. For example, a programmer could build in a fail safe that would change the programming of a Rover bot from exploring a new planet and gathering data to protecting itself and returning to a docking station when it was damaged.
The 3920 definition of simulated intelligence has become standard over the last millennium and any bots falling outside the scope of SI are still outlawed by all companies and fleet governing bodies. Machine dependence on human minds keeps the human population employed and dominant, while optimizing fleet productivity and happiness...
....Scan complete...
....Threat level.... 0
....Scan concluded.
Time elapsed... 0.0000001 seconds.
--------
Micropolis Memo
Dictated by Paul York, Micropolis CEO
2.15.5367
On my way to a meeting with the board. The numbers indicate that overall consumer spending on Micro products is down by 5 percent this quarter. The board should consider raising overall corporation wage and implementing the proposed incentive buying program Li and his bot seem convinced will skyrocket our profits. I'm more concerned about getting our new research division off Teros this year. We don't have any business hanging around a settled chunk of rock. Once the colonizers move in, its time for us to move out. There's no money in colonization. Leave that for Suvidha and Ousar. Guess I'll let Li play his little game with the staff then. He'll probably want to hire back some of our old employees, too.
--------
Chicago Chronicle
December 17th 5368
Paul York, embattled CEO of Micropolis, has finally stepped down after his company lost a massive lawsuit against the family members of the ill-fated Blackbird R&D outfit. The entire outfit has been presumed dead since December of last year. Communications with the head researcher, Alberto Soriano, were cut off unexpectedly after Soriano's report of strange heat signatures and a planet with an abnormal rotation.
York, reportedly ordered the team to investigate despite strong opposition from his board of directors. It has not yet been announced who will be replacing York as the new CEO, though a source at the company who wishes to remain anonymous hinted that York's replacement will be none other than Li Yang, the economic genius behind many of Micropolis' recent workers' incentive programs and their new line of VR implants.
Micropolis' stock fell a whopping 45 percent this morning when news hit that the veteran CEO who has helmed the company for the last 37 years would be stepping down.
A few bits of world building to piece together. Thanks to Raven's brother, Rook, for showing me CGP Grey's video: Humans Need Not Apply to get me thinking about how human beings will survive in a world populated by job-competent machines.
Security Bot Protocol Scan
11.3.5382
Keyword Search: Artificial Intelligence, AI, Simulated Intelligence, SI,
Searching...
Retrieving...
Retrieved.
Commencing scan...
....Even before our ancestors left Earth in search of new worlds the question of an artificially intelligent machine loomed large. The now defunct Council of Twenty, made up of the highest earning corporations and countries of the day, came together to decide the issue at the 3892 Beijing Summit in the Earth city of Beijing. The resulting months of negotiations have become known as the Turing Summit and the document it produced was named the Turing Protocol. The Turing Protocol did many things, but the most important and lasting effect of both the summit and protocol was the legal distinction drawn between a simulated intelligence machine and an artificial intelligence machine.
An artificial intelligence machine would duplicate human intelligence or surpass it. It would be able to reason, respond, evolve, and think independently from its creator. A simulated intelligence was viewed by the Turing Protocol to be anything that fell short of that mark. This vague legal definition persisted until 3920 when the Watts v. Micropolis case forced the issue. The Council of Twenty reconvened, this time in Earth city Mumbai to more concretely define the term simulated intelligence. The resulting definition decreed that a simulated intelligence could not change its own programming, or make any value judgments that were not built in by a human creator. For example, a programmer could build in a fail safe that would change the programming of a Rover bot from exploring a new planet and gathering data to protecting itself and returning to a docking station when it was damaged.
The 3920 definition of simulated intelligence has become standard over the last millennium and any bots falling outside the scope of SI are still outlawed by all companies and fleet governing bodies. Machine dependence on human minds keeps the human population employed and dominant, while optimizing fleet productivity and happiness...
....Scan complete...
....Threat level.... 0
....Scan concluded.
Time elapsed... 0.0000001 seconds.
--------
Micropolis Memo
Dictated by Paul York, Micropolis CEO
2.15.5367
On my way to a meeting with the board. The numbers indicate that overall consumer spending on Micro products is down by 5 percent this quarter. The board should consider raising overall corporation wage and implementing the proposed incentive buying program Li and his bot seem convinced will skyrocket our profits. I'm more concerned about getting our new research division off Teros this year. We don't have any business hanging around a settled chunk of rock. Once the colonizers move in, its time for us to move out. There's no money in colonization. Leave that for Suvidha and Ousar. Guess I'll let Li play his little game with the staff then. He'll probably want to hire back some of our old employees, too.
--------
Chicago Chronicle
December 17th 5368
Paul York, embattled CEO of Micropolis, has finally stepped down after his company lost a massive lawsuit against the family members of the ill-fated Blackbird R&D outfit. The entire outfit has been presumed dead since December of last year. Communications with the head researcher, Alberto Soriano, were cut off unexpectedly after Soriano's report of strange heat signatures and a planet with an abnormal rotation.
York, reportedly ordered the team to investigate despite strong opposition from his board of directors. It has not yet been announced who will be replacing York as the new CEO, though a source at the company who wishes to remain anonymous hinted that York's replacement will be none other than Li Yang, the economic genius behind many of Micropolis' recent workers' incentive programs and their new line of VR implants.
Micropolis' stock fell a whopping 45 percent this morning when news hit that the veteran CEO who has helmed the company for the last 37 years would be stepping down.
A few bits of world building to piece together. Thanks to Raven's brother, Rook, for showing me CGP Grey's video: Humans Need Not Apply to get me thinking about how human beings will survive in a world populated by job-competent machines.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
For Crow
Hi Owl,
As you said in your last post, our roommate Crow is moving out this week. I'm very excited for him, but I'll also be sad to have him gone. Unlike you, I haven't known Crow for quite as long, and never got particularly close with him in college. It wasn't until this past year, when we all moved in together, that we've gotten close, and I now consider him one of my closest friends. I'll miss him when he leaves, but it's been great to get to know him better.
Crow, if you read this when you're settled, I hope you like your new home. Thanks for everything, buddy.
This week, we're all helping Crow pack and hanging out together. We've had a bunch of friends crashing on our couch for awhile for Crow's last week in town, and it's been a lot of fun. Almost like being back in college for a week, when we were all living together in the same dorm. It's really nice to have so many friends in close proximity.
I don't have anything deep and insightful to say today, not like Owl's post yesterday about facing the future and setting down roots. I just wanted to post something for Crow to have to let him know we're thinking of him. Sentimental, I know, but there you go.
-Raven
As you said in your last post, our roommate Crow is moving out this week. I'm very excited for him, but I'll also be sad to have him gone. Unlike you, I haven't known Crow for quite as long, and never got particularly close with him in college. It wasn't until this past year, when we all moved in together, that we've gotten close, and I now consider him one of my closest friends. I'll miss him when he leaves, but it's been great to get to know him better.
Crow, if you read this when you're settled, I hope you like your new home. Thanks for everything, buddy.
This week, we're all helping Crow pack and hanging out together. We've had a bunch of friends crashing on our couch for awhile for Crow's last week in town, and it's been a lot of fun. Almost like being back in college for a week, when we were all living together in the same dorm. It's really nice to have so many friends in close proximity.
I don't have anything deep and insightful to say today, not like Owl's post yesterday about facing the future and setting down roots. I just wanted to post something for Crow to have to let him know we're thinking of him. Sentimental, I know, but there you go.
-Raven
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
On Tree Roots and Crow's Nests
Hey Raven,
So I loved telling you a story the other day, but today I wanted to take a quick break from writing to say something a bit less fictional.
In 4 days our roommate Crow is moving to Seattle to pursue his dream of not shoveling snow every winter. And probably some other dreams too. It's been a really rough week for me and for a lot of reasons it is a difficult transition to face. Crow has been a good friend to me since very early in my college life and a big part of my life since. He's been my roommate for 2 years post college and we lived in the same dorm for most of my 4 years of college as well. It's going to be very difficult losing someone who has been a friend and a constant presence in my life for so long.
It's also, I think the beginning of the end of an era. The era of post college, pre-Adult life. I've lived with friends a lot in the last few years. I've worked odd jobs. I've puttered around trying to find a place that I wanted to be. To settle. I'm not sure I've found the place, but I have found the profession and am taking more aggressive, permanent steps towards work in that profession. The next 2 to 4 years will be spent pursuing my future profession, living where I must to do that and living with friends who can help me shoulder the economic burden of schooling, work, and living a life that doesn't drive me mad or to exhaustion. After that will come settling and finding a place to sink some roots. The idea, while exciting and appealing, is also terrifying because it means big changes, bigger decisions, and a level of Adultness that I don't feel myself ready for just yet.
I hope the next few years will bring me to a point where I am ready, but I think most changes push themselves on us before we really feel prepared for them. I know I didn't feel prepared to live far away from home for college. I didn't feel prepared to live abroad in country where I would rarely use my native language. I didn't feel ready to graduate or to find a way to life on my own. I certainly didn't feel ready for my first or second job (or a few of the jobs that came in between and after). But I also know that all those experiences were (for the most part) very good ones. I loved my life at college. I loved living abroad. I loved speaking only Spanish for days and months on end. I loved living independently and working hard at jobs that challenged me. I know, when the time comes, I'll love planting some roots and settling into a life that will challenge me in new ways.
I am also really, really looking forward to not moving once a year. Every. Single. Year.
Goodbye Crow. I hope you read this when you've gotten to Portland (like you promised you would) and I hope you know that both Raven and I miss you and have loved living with you. You're pretty much one of a kind. And if you don't keep in touch I will hunt you down.
It's a hard emptiness to face, we are all moving forward to great things. And less snow.
~ Owl
So I loved telling you a story the other day, but today I wanted to take a quick break from writing to say something a bit less fictional.
In 4 days our roommate Crow is moving to Seattle to pursue his dream of not shoveling snow every winter. And probably some other dreams too. It's been a really rough week for me and for a lot of reasons it is a difficult transition to face. Crow has been a good friend to me since very early in my college life and a big part of my life since. He's been my roommate for 2 years post college and we lived in the same dorm for most of my 4 years of college as well. It's going to be very difficult losing someone who has been a friend and a constant presence in my life for so long.
It's also, I think the beginning of the end of an era. The era of post college, pre-Adult life. I've lived with friends a lot in the last few years. I've worked odd jobs. I've puttered around trying to find a place that I wanted to be. To settle. I'm not sure I've found the place, but I have found the profession and am taking more aggressive, permanent steps towards work in that profession. The next 2 to 4 years will be spent pursuing my future profession, living where I must to do that and living with friends who can help me shoulder the economic burden of schooling, work, and living a life that doesn't drive me mad or to exhaustion. After that will come settling and finding a place to sink some roots. The idea, while exciting and appealing, is also terrifying because it means big changes, bigger decisions, and a level of Adultness that I don't feel myself ready for just yet.
I hope the next few years will bring me to a point where I am ready, but I think most changes push themselves on us before we really feel prepared for them. I know I didn't feel prepared to live far away from home for college. I didn't feel prepared to live abroad in country where I would rarely use my native language. I didn't feel ready to graduate or to find a way to life on my own. I certainly didn't feel ready for my first or second job (or a few of the jobs that came in between and after). But I also know that all those experiences were (for the most part) very good ones. I loved my life at college. I loved living abroad. I loved speaking only Spanish for days and months on end. I loved living independently and working hard at jobs that challenged me. I know, when the time comes, I'll love planting some roots and settling into a life that will challenge me in new ways.
I am also really, really looking forward to not moving once a year. Every. Single. Year.
Goodbye Crow. I hope you read this when you've gotten to Portland (like you promised you would) and I hope you know that both Raven and I miss you and have loved living with you. You're pretty much one of a kind. And if you don't keep in touch I will hunt you down.
It's a hard emptiness to face, we are all moving forward to great things. And less snow.
~ Owl
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Fern Entry One
Hey Raven,
Sorry I'm the worst and haven't updated in a while. You know the reasons. I'm going to start a story on here. My first sci-fi attempt. Be kind. And feel free to add suggestions and play in the world yourself.
Here goes...
I'm still not sure what this is exactly. My dad says it's a computer. An external processing entertainment machine that dates back from the time of Earth. He says it's a miracle the old piece of junk still works. Not that it did when a customer from uptown dropped it off at the store today. She said she found it still packed away in her family's things in the basement of their house. She didn't know what it was. Neither did I when I first looked at it. But Dad sure did! He gave her more credits than she (and I) thought it was worth and she left, very confused. Maybe it'll sell at the store for more than I think, but sometimes I wonder because Dad has a habit of buying a lot of junk that never sells. But he did manage to fix the thing. I think. It's hard to tell if it's really working right or not.
So now I'm sitting here with something that probably won't even sell and my Dad told me to write. About myself. To test it, he says. Since he's staring at me like I'm a science experiment I guess I'll do what he says. Hi computer! My name is Fern. I'm 16 years old. I live in Chicago. That's in the Northern Alliance Fleet. We're docked at the Teros Space Station Hub at the moment. That's where we get resupplied from the terraformed planets in the Teros system. It's mostly luxury stuff though. We grow and raise all the basics on the ship after all.
I live in what is usually called the Garden. It's near the bottom of the ship and inhabited almost entirely by traditionalists. People who try to live as unplugged from the network as possible. No cybernetics. Few implants. Minimal technological interference. You could probably tell all that from my name though. Most people give their kids normal names. Like Sara or John. Not weird extinct plant names like Fern. Or Heather. That's my younger sister. She's 13. My mom's name is Lavender (the extinct plant names come from her side of the family) and my dad's name is James. He was part of the Engineer Corps until he met my mom and unplugged. He's still got a cybernetic hand though. I think it's pretty cool, though it basically just does hand stuff at this point.
We, my family that is, runs a junk shop that specializes in old Earth-style technology, trinkets, and other treasures. My mom takes in most of the merchandise and my dad and I fix it up. When we can.
I've got school in the morning so Dad says that's all for tonight, but he also says I'll be doing more testing tomorrow. Whatever that means. So I guess I'll write more then. Machine off.
Apparently it doesn't respond to typed or thought commands. I'll have to get my Dad to show me how to turn it off.
Well. I hope that was okay. I had fun writing it and imagining the world. Write more soon. I promise.
Sorry I'm the worst and haven't updated in a while. You know the reasons. I'm going to start a story on here. My first sci-fi attempt. Be kind. And feel free to add suggestions and play in the world yourself.
Here goes...
7.12.5383
22:36
Muir St
Starship Chicago
Northern Alliance Fleet
Teros System
I'm still not sure what this is exactly. My dad says it's a computer. An external processing entertainment machine that dates back from the time of Earth. He says it's a miracle the old piece of junk still works. Not that it did when a customer from uptown dropped it off at the store today. She said she found it still packed away in her family's things in the basement of their house. She didn't know what it was. Neither did I when I first looked at it. But Dad sure did! He gave her more credits than she (and I) thought it was worth and she left, very confused. Maybe it'll sell at the store for more than I think, but sometimes I wonder because Dad has a habit of buying a lot of junk that never sells. But he did manage to fix the thing. I think. It's hard to tell if it's really working right or not.
So now I'm sitting here with something that probably won't even sell and my Dad told me to write. About myself. To test it, he says. Since he's staring at me like I'm a science experiment I guess I'll do what he says. Hi computer! My name is Fern. I'm 16 years old. I live in Chicago. That's in the Northern Alliance Fleet. We're docked at the Teros Space Station Hub at the moment. That's where we get resupplied from the terraformed planets in the Teros system. It's mostly luxury stuff though. We grow and raise all the basics on the ship after all.
I live in what is usually called the Garden. It's near the bottom of the ship and inhabited almost entirely by traditionalists. People who try to live as unplugged from the network as possible. No cybernetics. Few implants. Minimal technological interference. You could probably tell all that from my name though. Most people give their kids normal names. Like Sara or John. Not weird extinct plant names like Fern. Or Heather. That's my younger sister. She's 13. My mom's name is Lavender (the extinct plant names come from her side of the family) and my dad's name is James. He was part of the Engineer Corps until he met my mom and unplugged. He's still got a cybernetic hand though. I think it's pretty cool, though it basically just does hand stuff at this point.
We, my family that is, runs a junk shop that specializes in old Earth-style technology, trinkets, and other treasures. My mom takes in most of the merchandise and my dad and I fix it up. When we can.
I've got school in the morning so Dad says that's all for tonight, but he also says I'll be doing more testing tomorrow. Whatever that means. So I guess I'll write more then. Machine off.
Apparently it doesn't respond to typed or thought commands. I'll have to get my Dad to show me how to turn it off.
Well. I hope that was okay. I had fun writing it and imagining the world. Write more soon. I promise.
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