Journal Ongoing

More instances of random interference. Open Office Write seems to be pre-empted by Open Office Calc in attempted pinning of program to task bar. Sudden arrival of 4.1.2 patch.

The details didn't really matter, the reaction to them was the same. A vague awareness of a cascading effect, a slightly worried contemplation about what would happen next. He realized that it would be pulling out the rug of certainty about everything. A vast precipice into the unknown. He resolved to be more assertive toward it in the future.

It had happened before. A few years ago now. A window of clarity into the possibilities of time. At least that was how he liked to remember it. Nothing particular happened, nothing that hadn't been buried in the mists of memory – but everything just made more sense.

Logorithimic Scale of Temporal Interference

The temporal effects of various interactions has a scale based on the alphabet. A level is the most severe and down through the remaining letters. It's a reverse logarithmic scale based on the effect to number of humans affected and how severely. The first letter is always 'who', the second 'when' and the third 'what'. Unofficially it's based on people in history and how influential they are/would be.

Adam – People, events and decisions that affect all human beings. Period.

Bonaparte (Napoleon) – Pivotal role in history. Inventions, actions, ideas that affect more than half the population of the earth at any given time. With the caveat that they are unique and not replaceable. Several people were working on telephone technology, so the name 'Bell' is not used here.

Caesar (Any) – Major role in history, but the space is easily taken by another doing similar research, holding similar position of power

Disney (Walt) – Significant role in history, pioneer, but in non-critical areas – eg entertainment

Elvis (Presley)- Significant in history, an outstanding example, but not completely unique. Cascade effect in major changes to their life – choice of career

Ferdinand (Archduke)– Significant, but a quirk. Due to domino effect, relationships or other connections their death will have a serious impact, but lesser actions unnoticeable.

Goodyear (Charles) – Co-discovery or rediscovery of an important inventions or technology. Significant interference would still leave the process intact.

That said, there is a large discrepancy between perceived effect and actual result. As suspected, most people tend to view their own timeline as, for lack of a better word, sacred. This is an unfortunate setback in research, as very few volunteers come forward – and those that do, have to have a personal radius of 2 degrees of removal sign at least an acknowledgement of testing.

In limited trials, however, it seems that even deliberate changes seem to be overwhelmed by exposure to what is general referred to as renormalizing forces. As much of human experience is less live changing moments as it is long term habits, chance interactions tend to be downplayed.

It is the opinion of this writer that the degree of removal be limited to one, and waived in the instances including by not limited to - history of mental illness, pre-existing eccentricity, prior interest in temporal phenomenon, windows of opportunity (i.e. long periods of isolation).

Day in the Life

He woke up shortly after 8am. If he went back to sleep now, there was a good chance he would pick up his last dream where it left off. Sleeping on his front he alternated between facing the room and the wall. It was the only way to get back to sleep. An hour an a half later he woke again. The dream did pick up where it left off. Already facing the wall he decided to get up that way. The blankets were stuck under him again. Shifting his weight and tugging he was eventually free. Taking off his watch, although it was water resistant, he put it on the desk in front of the window. Swinging his legs off the bed he pushed sideways almost losing balance. Lurching over to the bookshelf he grabbed it for support. How much longer would he still be walking. He didn't think about it. His room door slid open and he saw it was snowing. A right turn into the bathroom and the first toilet break of the day. Should he sit down? Better now than later. His dad helped him up again. He leaned into the shower to turn it on. At least the shorter hair made it easier to clean. The body wash was disappointingly runny – rather than a gel, it had the consistency of pulpy orange juice. He lamented about how boring everything seemed. It was always worse first thing in the morning. Exiting the shower and back to his room he waited for his mom to help him dress.

The computer and Internet setup was already on. He checked his various Idle games. He had saved up enough money overnight to get the next major upgrade – 900% profit. He decided not to soft-reset till he could quickly get back to that upgrade again. Selecting from a short list of microwave dinners he waited for brunch to be heated. The mac and beef was a little bit spicy, but not overly so. He had his orange juice and two vitamin C tablets. He went back to his favorite gaming site at played a few badge days ahead. He stopped for a bit to read the daily text and accompanying reading. Figs. Never understood it.

In a few hours he would head out the the living room and go through the stuff on the PVR. Hopefully the entertainment show at 4pm would be new, and not a series of specials – like last week. Usually during commercials he would play his handheld gaming machine. A free tileswap game and claw grabber game would take up a majority of the time. He had been considering getting a gift card for it for a while. The swap game was getting to the point where the default chance for beating a level was getting fairly slim, and there was a cheap RPG/shop game he was debating getting. The demo for it had a limited number of plays, a rather cruel limitation.

There wasn't much else on TV. Despite having a fairly good satellite package, there were only a dozen channels that had anything worthwhile on. Too many sports, PPV movies and news stations. Most of the science channels were playing repeats of manufacturing programs, reality tv mining or repeats of astronomy features. Most of the decent shows were on after 9pm, and with the PRV there was no need to stay up late. Besides, it was worth watching later just to skip over the commercials.

The Beginning

A long dark gray corridor of thick mist stretched out into the dull distance. It seemed large, but there was no point of reference to judge it by. He looked down, his body was gone. His perception of this place seemed to enter his mind directly. “Where am I?” the though echoed down the hallway. “Beyond” was the answer, that was both him, and not. With an odd sensation, he could move forward. After a passage of time, hours perhaps, he came to the end of the gray length. It opened into a endless vista. White nothingness was above the horizon and blackness below. He floated out of the gray tunnel and looked back towards it. He hovered higher into the whiteness until he felt as if he was dissolving into it. With that perspective he could see that tunnel was part of a larger shape a lone plus sign below a featureless grid. He must have started somewhere near the center of it, but too far away to see the crossroad.

He went back into the grayness and drifted as fast as he could manage to where the plus joined the grid. The transition was abrupt, the mistiness of the tunnel became impossibly smooth tiles, all somewhere int the millions of shades between black a white. Each tile was no more than 3cm square, not that size had any meaning here. As he moved into the space, the tiles grew and shrank and shifted into various geometric patterns. “Stop” he thought, and everything quit moving.

Empty

     There was a dull ache where his feelings should be. He didn't care. Well, that wasn't quite true. He still felt something akin to that, but his connection to it was shapeless and unspecific. Goals, planning, odd thoughts and concepts had vanished over two years ago into a empty silent static. There was no direction, no progress, no change - just a numbing sense of sameness. Still there were things he knew to be true, even if he couldn't picture them at the moment. It was like being stuck in an empty waiting room, without anything to accomplish other than passing the time. If writer's block had a giant, relentless older brother, this was it. The motivation to do anything was at a lousy five percent of what it should be. The body was trapped, but so was the mind.