jeffc

jeffc, 5 months ago

@futurebird I'm trying to figure out if the watch is a reference to society's focus on time since the industrial revolution (when factory shifts and railroad schedules suddenly made exact time important) or maybe about the fact that everyone's clock is on their phone now.

jeffc, 3 months ago

@mastodonmigration
It might be lean times for GOP down-ballot races, though so many of them are self-funded, it's not clear what effect it might have on the outcomes.

jeffc, 3 months ago

@arstechnica
I wonder if this ruling means IVF clinics can seek child support payments to keep the freezers running, and what the criminal consequences of a power failure might be.

jeffc, 9 days ago

@z_everson
@Forbes
It's been a busy week for team Trump Media: a "we're blowing our deadline" notice and several "interesting" 8-Ks.

Here's the notice: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001849635/000114036124026277/ny20026576x18_nt10q.htm

jeffc, 6 days ago

@VisualInspiration

Basically, I'm in solitary for the duration. (Don't never piss off no warden.) I'd be crazy if I hadn't found the gate.

It's in the cell, but you can only see it from certain angles. Go wherever you want; time stops while you're gone. Stay too long, it'll yoink you back.

I got no money 'cept what I can make on day job, so I'm "on a budget," but it keeps me sane while I'm doing time. Even if the clock stops while I'm gone.

#MicroFiction

jeffc, 10 days ago

@VisualInspiration

"Have you seen my arm?"

"It's not with your other parts?"

"Find My Body Parts says it's around here somewhere. What a pain! The world's gone virtual. Why do we still have to vote in person?"

"They were worried about vote fraud. You could skip it."

"After the Great Mess? No way."

"Found it!"

"Where was it?"

"On the table, thumbs-up, with an 'I Voted' sticker."

"Oh! From the selfie last time!"
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 7 hours ago

@VisualInspiration
Style, that's the thing. Do it with panache.

Browns makes the best boots, but they're ugly. If one wanted to change the situation, one would need to blend with the Kowloon ship traffic, like so. Then slip into their factory control, like so. One would--oops! avoid those cameras, perhaps by (carefully) walking across the beam they hang from. Then update the design... and everyone gets nicer boots. With (ding!) a special delivery for oneself.

Aways with panache.
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 11 days ago

@VisualInspiration
Now I have this vision of a UFO yard sale, where they've laid out tables full of magazines pulled from different points in Earth's history. "Check it out: Scientific American, volume 1! And look at this pamphlet from 1790!"

jeffc, 11 days ago

@VisualInspiration

"It's just floating there."

"I know."

"There's a force field. No-one can get near it."

"Yeah, I know. Even 'People' said that."

"I want to see it."

"Why go see a used car?"

"Huh?"

"It's like a parked car with a 'For Sale' sign. UFO for sale."

"I wonder how much they want for it."

"You couldn't fly it."

"I could learn."

"You're crazy."

"Bet all the celebs in 'People' would want a ride."

"Huh... I wonder how much they want for it."
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 3 days ago

@VisualInspiration
When Toothbrush was old enough, Modem Song took him to see the spirit casks.

"The Old Tribe made spirits work for them. There, in the white tower. Then they put them in these casks. The spirits are still angry--feel the warmth? They give anyone who gets too close strange diseases. This symbol is an Old Tribe warning. There's good hunting here in the winter, but don't go near the casks."

"How long will they stay angry?"

"Thousands of years? Who can say."
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 12 days ago

@VisualInspiration
At some point a civilization figured out, first, that they were alone with no one to talk to, and second, that other civilizations were more likely to appear if there was a spacetime.

So they created it.

jeffc, 13 days ago

@VisualInspiration
"Why's reality offline?"

"A couple white holes blew so we paused spacetime. Engineering's working on it."

"Any calls?"

"Some of the Advanced civilizations. Once I explained, they were chill."

"You don't make it to Advanced unless you're chill. What about the Precocious ones?"

"They might notice after the restart."

"Let me know if any do. I might recruit them. A stint Backstage may be the push they need, and we could use the help."
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 7 days ago

@biped808
I didn't take it that way--sorry if I sounded defensive! Enjoy your trip!

jeffc, 8 days ago

@biped808 Sorry for the grayness! We have May gray and June gloom, but they're kind of like our climate control: they (and the ocean the leads to them) keep the temperature moderate instead of desert-like extremes.

jeffc, 8 days ago

@VisualInspiration

Sometimes the moon's so big and close you feel like you could touch it, you know?

Thing is, you can.

I tried once. First I touched it. Then I tried stepping over, but it was too hot and cold all at the same time.

So I wrapped myself up in a bunch of space blankets, the shiny kind, and got some good boots, and tried again.

It worked.

I could walk around up there.

So if you look at the moon and see something shiny, it's me. Wave, and I'll wave back.
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 8 days ago

@VisualInspiration
Thanks!

jeffc, 13 days ago

@VisualInspiration
The bus pulled up and Trilobite leaned out. "Extinction line?"

"Yeah," said Bear, "guess so. You been picking up a lot?"

"Not as bad as after the astroid. That line went around the block. But more than usual."

"Human won't be popular when it's Their turn, will They?"

"Could be worse. The Anaerobes still won't talk to the Cyanobacteria. Hey, cheer up. You had a good run. Ground Sloth's looking forward to seeing you."

"Ground Sloth? Really? It's been ages!"
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 1 month ago

@futurebird

Use this handy quiz to tell if your ants are stuck up.

• [ ] Door-woman at the nest entrance?
• [ ] Prefer organic foods?
• [ ] Prefer organic pheromones?
• [ ] NIMBY attitude with respect to other species?
• [ ] NIMBY attitude with respect to other colonies?
• [ ] Will bite the hand that feeds them?

jeffc, 1 day ago

@VisualInspiration

"No, I'm not going to tell a campfire story. I'm an axe. I chop things. That's what I do. That's all I do, and I'm very good at it. I might be a magic axe, but that just makes me better at chopping. You want a story? Ask your smart phone. You can get them to do anything for a few coppers."

"I heard that."

#MicroFiction

jeffc, 1 day ago

@VisualInspiration

"There's not enough room in the bunker for us and his new family. He knows that."

"But it's gotten dangerous out there! When we were his age, chain twisters and hurricane trains didn't even exist. What if they take the bunker and we go on the road?"

"I suggested that. He wouldn't hear of it. He said we wouldn't stand a chance out there. She grew up as a New Nomad. She knows how to dodge the weather. It scares me, too, but they'll be ok."

#MicroFiction

jeffc, 8 hours ago

@VisualInspiration
Here's hoping Mother Nature doesn't give us a preview this year!

jeffc, 9 days ago

@VisualInspiration
I'm an Earth-head. Always have been. So 40 years ago I figured I'd try to trade with them, maybe score a Walkman. I painted the saucer like one of their shuttles and snuck into their spaceport.

As soon as I landed, they came boiling out, and they looked mad. I jumped back in and took off. Then I realized I'd dropped my phone.

Today I see a native on a phone that looks like mine. I guess they reverse-engineered it. I sure hope they don't figure out the AI part.
#MicroFiction

jeffc, 9 days ago

@ixtlidekami @VisualInspiration Turn it into an acronym, then anyone who wants to rename it also has to come up with an acronym: defensive linguistics for the win!

jeffc, 4 months ago

@VisualInspiration
They say there are worlds in droplets.

If the distance from a proton to its electron is like the distance from a planet to its moon, then that between oxygen and hydrogen is like a sun to its planet, and that between molecules is the expanse between stars.

These symmetries run deeper than most know.

So I have perfected the machine. So simple in its construction, yet so profound in its symmetries, that one may step into a droplet... and vanish into the world.
#MicroFiction