The New Year

[eric_marsh]

The solar flares took out the power grid. Most computers died even if they had power, having been fused into chunks of plastic.

Howard awoke from death. The world had gone dark but then he felt new sensations. He was in a box, choking on stale air. Desperately he flailed about until he felt a lever near his left hand. With atrophied muscles Howard pushed open the lid of the VR coffin.

Dull thuds emanated from nearby coffins. In darkness Howard began pulling out the tubes that fed him.

It was the beginning of a new year, a new era.

[Mr. Tweedy]

Oh, that's cool! What a great way to start a story! What do people do if The Matrix suddenly crashes?

[ROU Killing Time]

If only you'd written that right after the first Matrix. You would have saved the world from two awful sequels...

Nice New Year, Drabble. Ya make me feel like such a slacker, Eric.

Oh well, if the shoe fits.

[eric_marsh]

Thanks guys - Janet said that one should do on New Years day whatever one wants to do for the rest of the year.

So I wrote a drabble, sent an email to a guy who scammed me out of a bunch of money and pointed him at the web site I set up in his honor, worked a bit unloading spray equipment and organizing my shop, spent a couple minutes working on my bike, looked at the bottom of my Fiero on the lift, drove up to the airport and chatted with an old timer about the airplane he is building, walked around the hanger with Janet, petted a dog and a cat, wrestled a ram to his knees, ate an ice cream cone, relaxed and generally enjoyed the day and the beauty of the country. Here's a photo I just took a couple minutes ago through my living room window: http://homepage.mac.com/emarsh/.Pictures/sunsetcows.jpg Now I think I'll go sit in Janet's tiki room and read some Lovecraft and then watch a Harry Potter DVD.

Not too bad a start for the year.

I hadn't thought of it as the beginning of a story, but yea, what IF the Matrix crashed? Lots of story possibilities there, especially if people have been in the system for long enough to be unfamiliar with the real world.

I've got another Matrix type idea too....

[strawman]

Good thing God won't hold you to what Janet proposed, or you'd have to wrestle a ram to its knees every day for the next 365 days.

[ROU Killing Time]

Thanks guys - Janet said that one should do on New Years day whatever one wants to do for the rest of the year.

I guess I'll be:
a) Playing World of Warcraft
b) cooking porkloin, cabbage, and black-eyed peas, and
c) posting on the DC forums every day...

[zZzacha]

Awesome story, Eric! It made me think of the Y2K bug that buzzed through the world a decade ago. I had almost forgotten how I spend my New Year's night in almost complete darkness, with all my computers off - just in case something would happen. Aaaaand we all now what happened...

Thanks guys - Janet said that one should do on New Years day whatever one wants to do for the rest of the year.

Well.. That means I'll be virtually farming my little bunny ass off, I'll be cleaning bed sheets in the middle of the night because a stressed-out cat emptied his bladder (filled to the top during a stressful day of fireworks) ON MY BED and ordering pizza because I didn't want to do last year's dishes.

Yeah, I guess I'll just be a very crappy housewife in ZOIO. Glad to have that info beforehand, so I won't have to stress about it this year.

Happy ZOIO, dear friends!

[strawman]

We've missed your bunniness, zZzacha. Auld Lang Syne cupp'o kindness yet.

[ROU Killing Time]

Woot, welcome back bunnygrrl. Thanks for comin by and thumping in the New Year.

wow, looking out the window, the snow is really coming down now. They say 5 to 10 inches this time.

[strawman]

Now that Portland's moved from Oregon to Maine.

[Phenopath]

I like this. Eric is in the zone.

[ROU Killing Time]

Now that Portland's moved from Oregon to Maine.

Massachusetts, actually. Pretty much a full scale Blizzard now.

[zZzacha]

Very w00t to be back! I love thumping around in Drabblezone and nibble some bits here and there.

Yeah, snow! We had some of that last year. Ha, ain't it fun to talk about last week as 'last year'? I like that. It won't be as much fun in a month or so, then we're all used to the new decade.

Ah, we never get blizzards around these parts. It would be too dangerous to have those here, I guess. One blizzard and we all blow out to see or get scattered around Europe. That wouldn't be fun. Although I hear the weather is nice in Greece now.