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31 Mar.2361
Went with a girl last night to PS5, the museum in Long Island City, to see a movie, a 2D projection with no feedback. It was transmitted in a courtyard at night. As we approached the entrance, I noticed some kids jumping over the wall with their rocketboots around the block. I paused before buying a ticket.
"It's a date," she said. "Part of the realtime experience."
The movie was called a musical with dancers around fountains twirling their umbrellas. Even paid for the popcorn.
19 Mar.2361
Tonight, the moon is so close in orbit you can see the lights of Apollo Base in Mare Imbrium. The top of the Armstrong Tower can even be seen with docking beacon flashing. Check it out.
7 Mar.2361
Panza and I were having a drink this weekend at the Eastern Seaboard when I put my beer down at the bar and an ad popped up underneath for a new helicar. When Panza put his scotch down another ad rezzed for skinpaste. Every sip a new ad. Annoyed, we crawled to another pub called Dick's Last Resort with an only organic wood bar. Tasted better.
14 Feb.2361
She walked into the building with a rose clipped under the strap of her goggles.
"Those don't grow around here this time of year."
"Found some roses outside my door today," she smiled.
"Who from?"
"Someone who wrote a note. By hand. On paper." She pulled the rose out from her headgear and gave it to me. "I have more upstairs. Happy Valentines."
"You too." I pulled my diary out from my bag and put the stem in between the torn page.
31 Jan.2361
I had to realtravel for business to Toronto today. When crossing the border, my neurotech was reduced to singlestream because cost to connect is so high. Walking around this city, Canadians realcrowd around giant screens and watch a monosource of scheduled information while drinking coffee or beer. Lots of hockey always on.
27 Jan.2361
So much snow this morning that many airwalks are at halfdrift from so much weight. I waited to cross at the corner of 5th Ave. and 8th Skyht. with a gap of at least five feet. Only those with rocket boots or mechs could get across. Pures that couldn't make the jump turned around or tried to hail a cab. Some simplebots fell right off.
17 Jan.2361
It's cold enough that the nanogripping in my gloves are frozen so I have to take them off when I'm outside to get anything done. A line formed behind me to get on the train and I got no link from holding my coffee this morning so was sluggish until inside to plug in at my office.
12 Jan.2361
Snow crash.
11 Jan.2361
Panza is logged in today for Beatle's extended neurotech to the spine. He's excited to go running with it and getting more accurate feedback from his backleg when he jumps out of range.
6 Jan.2361
Snow expected. Mayor says snowbots fully charged this time. Wait and see.
1 Jan.2361
Happy 2361. May everyone have a good new year.
30 Dec.2360
Here are what I thought were the best sims for 2360:
1. Cold Steel - This timedive back to 1845 on the border of Texas and Arizona in a town called Providence was fun because it was more frontier and less shootout. Therefore, I was prospecting for gold, visiting saloons and singing songs around a campfire. I had my big day in a showdown that ended in a draw when One Tooth Jim forgot to bring his pistol. I didn't shoot but rode off into the sunset.
2. Eat, Drink, Freefall - I went on a date to this femsim to shadow a woman who gets divorced and disconnects from everything to get her halo back. She realtravels to Rome, India and Spain eating food and experiencing cultures to finally fall in love with a man again. It was better than I thought, but still an inefficient way to reformat goalsettings. I never got a second date.
3. Disinfection - This flush of a persons corememory had a warning for people to experience only with a ghost. The reason is that real and cybertime get crossed and so timekeys and mapping fold on each other. The goal was to get out under the layers and blankets. Am I still skipping?
4. Cloudburst - This sim offered a recreation of the totalcrash when all was lost. You play a father trying to reach his family in the course of that historic day and getting them all safely to a backup without losing anyone, even the dog.
5. Mars Needs Guitars - It was so much fun being the guitarist Ben Driscool as he and his band played across the Martian towns in the early days of the great migration. Playing classics such as "The Green Morning" and "Night Meeting" at famous venues like the Echodome in Arnus Valles while the crowds flicked their night beams at the Earth on a clear night and sang along was an ememory to burn forever.
7 Dec.2360
I went to get an immersion of freesource news from a public fountain uptown today and discovered it was offline. CommEd has been shutting off fountains at random around the city due to leaks they are trying to stop. The hole hasn't been found so finding one that works is hard. Panza says some kids have broken the pipes outside his apt and data is streaming off the skyheight.
24 Nov.2360
An efossil from the early twenty-first century known as an iPhone was sold at auction for a record CC$116m today. These devices people had to carry with them at all times and put up to their ear to transmit each other. The object was found in an underwater excavation along the coast of Nevada.
16 Oct.2360
Women are wearing longer video dresses this year so the images are fuller. A popular screen are water patterns that adjust to the weather. So on a rainy day, they show sunlit tide pools and on a sunny day raindrops ripple across the surface. I saw a woman outside on a bright day with an umbrella and rain splashing on her underneath. Pretty.
9 Oct.2360
Beatle just announced it's going to make available it's bestselling neurotech for the spine of its users. The bestselling biotech has been exclusive to the brain, but expanding to the spine will increase touch IO factors and open up broader markets. I know Panza has been waiting for this since he likes playing sports so much.
4 Oct.2360
"Did you lose weight?" the girl from upstairs asked as I was leaving the building this morning. "New clothes," I said. She didn't buy it. "I'm worried about you." I watched her fly into traffic as I walked to work like mecha buzzed from the rain.
3 Sept.2360
My doctor was fixing the utilities in my wristwear and came across an entry for audio that was a colored spinning disc. These diecons are always strange to find. I've seen one for something that looks like a monolith with a circle and square in it. Another is a rectangle with a circle in the middle and a small nob on the upper right corner. The strangest, and most famous, is a flower with blocks for petals. These must've grown everywhere before the great-tides, but botanists can't find it in fossil or digital records.
31 Aug.2360
There has been rumors that Beatle's next device will be an upgrade that combines all the multiple functions of the homeOS with a new navigation. Since every home runs on AI with little input from owners, it's curious why they would add anything. Low res leaks show a thin cord or thread hanging from the ceiling that someone pulls so the room is illuminated. We'll find out soon.
26 Jul.2360
The Octagon was hacked and codes for droid operations were leaked over nets for wars in the zonistans. Spiders are being sent to retrieve, but so much damage has been done that mem bombs and new codes are expected.
24 Jun.2360
Waited 4 hours to get my neurotech updated with new sys from Beatle Corp. The download was too long that I put a remote so I could work realtime. The new sys pixelates so you can tell difference between real and cybertime. That's especially helpful to kick circularity.
28 May.2360
I love spring in New York. The tides are down, the weather gets nice. Women start wearing dresses again. I was standing at the corner of 110th Street at Columbus at 10th Skyheight stop and this woman dressed in a beautiful white shirt and video dress was standing near the edge. A gust of radio wind came by and her dress went to static showing her legs, before going back to resolution. Spring in my step.
6 May.2360
An update on the algaeradial leak in the Gulf says that one of the unintended consequences is larger fish populations because of the increase in food supply. Therefore, quotas were lifted for more fishing in the next 5 years. Scientists say it's going to take at least 10 years to grow another floating radial equal in power to the one unwinding now.
5 May.2360
My alarm didn't go off this morning. We've had three days of radio winds and the static has been affecting my alarm, vscreen, even the homeop has been totally screwed up. It made me late to work. I told my boss that another bot got stuck on the trains. Ever since they were allowed to ride the skyway, they get stuck and slow things down. My director bought it, saying he saw a bot fall off the the 86th Street at Lexington at 7th Skyheight station yesterday. The bot hit a helihover somewhere near the 6th Skyheight below. They should have separate cars for them.
20 Apr.2360
Panza found a flat metal device in the bathroom at a memorybar in the village the other night. It has a glass front and back with only one sensor on the front. Panza tried to ping it on his neurotech but no bounce. We've tried to crowdsource it with no success. We still don't know what it is.
18 Apr.2360
Everyone has been able to have multiple profiles of oneself running on the net for the last 100 years. But a new skin offers a new type that prioritizes tasks and auto shuts down those things that you're not doing regularly so you can trace longer. This selective optimization is supposed to make our memories more efficient and therefore our virtual time more responsive. The trade-off is less multi-dating, friendsharing and neofamilies for no upload times. I'm still debating the outcome, but one good thing is not meeting oneself on another date.
11 Apr.2360
Spitter, the social network program that tags people with a sub link directly to their halos just bought Spittie. Now you can 'spray' multiple links at groups of people instead of lone targets on the street. Watch out.
2 Apr.2360
Lines are forming at Beatle Corp's kiosks for their new product called iPen. What is it? The device is a pen that can write. Anywhere. No tags, apps, pulse, script, fin, cart, jive, or reload needed. All movement in realtime carves through every plain. Translation is scalable. Some clerics are complaining it's a move backwards when nonstandard gestures led to foofighting. But how can freedom this easy be contained. That annoying light in my eye is progress.
22 Mar.2360
On the hundred year anniversary of the Asimov amendment which gave health coverage for artificial modifications to people's bodies, a parade in Washington of people with mods ended with a concert in the mall. I have a brain pump and Panza has an enhanced backleg for better jumps. There's no way people could live to 150 and above without the universal access to technology.
1 Mar.2360
Raining for five days straight. When the weather is this bad, older service mechas are not seen outside as much. I helped a messenger cross an airwalk the other day that was clearly drowning. A hardware rain washes away dated models. When the sun shines again, I'm always a little sad.
23 Feb.2360
I had trouble sleeping due to memorechoes going through my head last night. Ghosts of myself, old friends and relatives, and even girlfriends were appearing in my room and reloading multiple strings through my history. I rebooted the timekeys, but they still wouldn't filter to realtime. I'm getting old enough that my corememory is running out of space. I'm going to have to do a migration soon. I'm really tired.
17 Feb.2360
A datadiffusion bug is going around that drills through to someone's corememory and starbursts all primelinks to everyone on the net. I've been uploading buzzpills so I don't catch it.
11 Feb.2360
Panza bought tracetickets for both of us to the Olympics starting this weekend in New Vancouver. He got access for the men's and women's downhill and semifinals to the US team for snowboard hockey. Unrestricted forceback has been opened to add to the excitement. Can't wait.
26 Jan.2360
This morning, the man sitting next to me on the subway watched me writing in my diary. He asked me what it was, and I showed him using the pen.
"Not linked?" he asked.
"Offgrid," I said. He put his hand on the cover and made a scan. "There's no reference."
"I'll risk it," he smiled. "I collect outdates."
19 Jan.2360
An ice storm blew in last night. Very treacherous walking airwalks this morning. Be careful.
13 Jan.2360
The Open Source Museum in Beijing opened their exhibition on the great firewall with the largest release of declassified code recovered from its archives. A sample is in the main atrium rising two stories. It's amazing to think how the hack of this barrier was the precursor to the infowars that ravaged networks through the early twenty-second century.
9 Jan.2360
I was in line getting coffee from my usual hovercart at 4th St. and 6th Skyht. when the bot behind me started fizzing out and walked away to another one down the block. When I got to the counter, the Japanese woman said she put a magnofield around her cart to keep others away since many are run by bots. I asked was she worried about losing mecha in the morning. She said the loss in serving powerpacks was worth it to keep the space.
1 Jan.2360
Happy 2360. May everyone have a good year and a better decade.
29 Dec.2359
Here are what I thought were the best sims for 2359:
1. Out of Sight - This simulation comedy where you played someone offgrid entirely without a neurotech was funny trying to get through a typical day in complete realtime. I was disoriented after I got out of the shower not being able to read my feeds with some coffee then getting to work with no nav. I missed my skyheight something like six times. Up, down, up, down. People thought I was dancing when waving to ask for directions.
2. The Hacker - This sim about the early hacker that stalked networks in mid 21st century London was scary and a real hit. Jumping in as the detective hunting down the ID was a real thrill. The puzzles were challenging due to working through old protocols and old hardware like tablet computers.
3. Dynaman - Transforming into a superhero and saving the world was a thrill. I played both versions. I had more fun with the superpower of flying than invisibility.
4. Remote Force - Shadowing a commander of an elite drone unit during the infowars of the late 21st century was a blast using period tech. It was fun trying some of the first cyberweapons like static bombs, log-out guns, and bricks.
5. It's a Wonderful Life - This remake was inspired from an old movie in the 20th century. This sim has you be someone named George Bailey, a man with only one alias and never able to leave his homeaddress to cross all nets. You're about ready to freefall when an angel comes down and shows you that you've been connected all along by showing you all the subscripts created through a life of pinging. The redownload is very moving. I can see why it's a classic.
25 Dec.2359
Woke up to find New York covered in snow. Looks pretty. Merry Christmas.
23 Dec.2359
I bumped into the girl upstairs at the door as I came home from work. I asked her what she was doing for holidays and she said staying here and her sister was going to realvisit from California. She looked real cute in her red pants and rocketboots. We talked about what we thought were best sims of the year. I said I would send her some skins hoping to get her halo, but she immersed the addresses on the back of her hand, said thanks and I've gotta go. I looped the moment on my retinas all the way up the stairs into my apartment.
16 Dec.2359
I found out today that the LouZoom tags I use to ping my contacts were invented by an obscure singer in the twenty-first century. They're easily readable from a long horizon with their clear text and large letters. No filtering or rescanning ever needed. The only bug is for anyone I have to recall with the name Nico. It then drops the O to only transmit Nic. Never understood why, but since it's machinelatin will never know.
12 Dec.2359
The temp has dropped to the teens today. It's cold enough that it took a few seconds for the heat on my jacket to boot up. Be careful of ice on skywalks.
6 Dec.2359
Snrkkl erected their own GCS this week making navpaths free for everyone to lookup. Tried it and have jumped to destinations faster. Have had some deadrez that needed retrace to rebalance at upload, but feel fine. Recommend.
2 Dec.2359
President Caroline Sanchez addressed the nation last night that she has decided to increase troop and drone allocation to Turkuzbekistan and Tajikistan. She said threats to the nation's networks and security from hackers and reapers in that sprawl continue. Our allies in Iran and India have also committed their drone and access since they border the region.
26 Nov.2359
Ghosted into the Thanksgiving parade but didn't stay long due to all the crowds. I'm going off-line rest of day to eat some turkey. Happy Thanksgiving.
22 Nov.2359
I checked out the new Beatle Store that opened on the Upper West Side close to Lincoln Center this weekend. It has an electromagnetic roof to keep everyone dry. Making a field that large is difficult. I watched some birds fly through and a bot floated up before they turned it off to get it down. I guess bugs still need to be worked out.
13 Nov.2359
My neighbor, Peg, grows fresh herbs in her hydrogarden and often gives me huge bunches of basil and mint which I use when cooking. I asked what's her secret. She said she uses nothing but moon water. Of course.
9 Nov.2359
Today, marks the 370th anniversary of the fall of the wall in Berlin. The 20th century was one of the worst in history to be alive with two world wars. Two nations, called superpowers, built a real wall in Berlin to divide the power. It seems strange now, that people back then thought a physical wall would stop people from being mobile, but it was analog times without DC. They sourced everything in front them. A barrier wouldn't fall again until the great firewall collapsed in China in 2069 which flooded networks sparking the world's first surgefall.
5 Nov.2359
Yankees won! Rescascade down lowerheights Broadway tomorrow.
31 Oct.2359
Panza and I are going to a Halloween party tonight. I'm downloading a trace of Frankenstein while Panza is doing a trace of killer virus ILUVU from the new sim "The Hacker." Trick or Treat.
28 Oct.2359
The Yankees will be playing in their 79th World Series tonight against the Phillies. Panza and I are going to a bar to watch it. With the new stadium and higher prices, there's a lot of virtual seats available. I offered to try and log into some, but Panza gets ivertigo easily, and wanted to just take it easy with a seat at the bar and a beer. Should be a good game.
22 Oct.2359
Windows 257 is here.
21 Oct.2359
It was beautiful today so I had lunch in Central Park. I caught some people sucking leaves from the ground with shouldervacs. Because no trees grow on the upperheights, people spray leaves on airwalks and hoverparks during the fall, usually imported from New England. It's illegal taking them from the ground anywhere in New York. They left before I could crimetag them.
16 Oct.2359
Microsoft found the missing data. Official word is that it took extra time for them to reconstruct the index on their servers. Insiders leaked that there actually was a mneumonic who died in an unfortunate accident while jumping between skyheights a year ago. So coders had to go to the cemetery to dig for the data.
14 Oct.2359
Microsoft had a disaster last week when they created a deepend for users with neurotechs using a profile known as Deputy. Unfortunately, when they jumped in, there was no memorypool available. The upgrade failed and freefalls started. The most amazing evidence is that Microsoft had no backups to regenerate a cushion. They have exclusive license to orbits around Titan for storallites, but none were launched for that protocol. Moreover, there were no terrestial mnemonics to recall indexes. No one wanted the job. That's a lot of static. I'm sure memory police are investigating.
5 Oct.2359
I was doing laundry in our basement this weekend when one of my quarters fell underneath the machine. Just then, that cute girl with no halo came down with a load to wash. "What ya' doing?" I told her trying to find a lost coin. "Where is it?" I pointed underneath. She reached down and extended two fingers and the quarter slid out and into her hand. "There you go. These magnotips I installed are more handy than regular plug-ins." I thanked her and let her put a load in before me.
25 Sep.2359
I'm seeing more people in newsbars and on trains reading with paper, the new tech that I wrote about in an earlier post. Paper is an old way to present text and it's getting popular due to its unlimited source and portability (you can actually fold it to any size). But one added bonus is security. It's completely offgrid. The content is not linked to anything so people have exclusive immersion. Many security programs have tried to offer a burnwall, but none have succeeded. Reading in purestream is a big jump in technology and major selling point for the format. I watched a woman miss her stop on the train the other morning while using the device. Amazing.
21 Sep.2359
The iFCC proposed clearsight to the horizon for everyone on the net at hearings in Washington today. Many carriers want to charge higher fees, saying the market should decide the cost of perfect vision, but iFCC said that would be unconstitutional under the 53rd amendment that prevents static for the disabled on the net. Corps could challenge and take it to the Supreme Court.
20 Sep.2359
Central Park looks beautiful with the leaves changing this time of year. I've been walking through the park when going home at the end of the day instead of taking the skyway. It's inspired me to change the scenesaver at my home to a sim of a Vermont forest. Yesterday morning I was making coffee as I looked out the window and was startled to see a deer looking back at me. When I jumped, the deer darted away as I watched its white tail disappear into the woods. I didn't know it had an option for animals including feedback.
8 Sep.2359
The Beatles estate is releasing their music catalog on simulations to download this week. The idea is to play as one of the Fab Four and experience what it was like to be a rock star circa 1968. This has been done by many other performers, but The Beatles historic importance will have classical music buffs eager to try it out. A virtual sim concert series is to be shown this fall at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the release and the Met is doing a revival of Yellow Submarine.
4 Sep.2359
Panza and I are going to the US Open this weekend. We have real-time seats for the men's quarterfinals. Derek Ricard will be playing. He's the first Martian native to win a grand slam. He grew up playing on red-sanded courts half a mile underground when he was growing up. Critics say he shouldn't be allowed to play due to his training on another gravity which gives him an advantage. He's the first sports star from Mars. The match is being simulcast on both planets.
1 Sep.2359
There's something nice about the first day of September. The anticipation of autumn brings an extra step to everyone's walk. The streets are crowded with people returning from summer. The sky is full of airships. It's also fun to see what people are wearing for the new season. The current fashion is to broadcast extended reality from a video dress to show a trace of yourself when standing still. The multiple profiles are supposed to show off your fine taste in fashion at any angle. Many are casting themselves in different colored outfits. It's dizzy on the eyes when more than two women at a street corner are waiting to cross and their traces fill up the airwalk.
25 Aug.2359
It gets hot in August in New York. Weatherbarges try to create more coolclouds to bring down the humidity, but it's never enough. I'm not a fan of AC so I just leave my windows open and try to sleep at night by setting the homeOS of my wall and floor mirrored to a beach. The surf flows under my bed across the room. My cat, Felix, runs around chasing the waves.
12 Aug.2359
Microsoft today announced an alliance with mobilink manufacturer Movo to distribute the Office suite on their devices. Many have predicted the demise of Office, but the program is 300 years old and is a classic of code - so much that some of it is in unreadable machinelatin. Making it available to Movo users should please those unhappy with users of Cubicle, the competing productivity suite that many feel is too restrictive.
12 Jul.2359
A feed sent out today states there are only four public jackport stations left in New York City. These stations were enclosed booths where one could jack in if they didn't have a connection to the net. Just twenty years ago, you could still find these on many corners. Some older bots used to boot in and many of us had to use them due to heavy traffic before subnets became standardized. I used them a few times when I was running late to a vector and had to remotely put a ghost until I got there. There's a move to put the remaining in preservation or simulation for history.
11 Jun.2359
Just got back from vacation and am still feeling the effects of gravlag. I'm a little out of step as I walk around. I've downloaded a pulsewalk that's supposed to help get my stride back from recent planet jumps, but I'm still bumping into people. Mars was great. The dust storms were low this time of year, so I had a clear view from Olympus Mons. The Martian desert, apart from being red, is so different than Earth's. I tried to see if I could spot some sandbugs that sneak out from the ground, but no success. It's very quiet and beautiful. Nice to get away from the rat race.
19 May.2359
I'm going on vacation to Mars for the next 2 weeks so will not be updating. Will be staying at the new resort at Olympus Mons. I'm going to hike to the top with two guides. Looking forward to watching the sun come up over Tharsis desert. Wish me a safe flight.
23 Apr.2359
Ford announced today it is selling its hovercar division due to the shrinking onlyplanet market compared to the its outerplanet business where it dominates in transports. I remember my Ford BlueSky that I would drive across Minnesota when I was younger. I gave up an air license when I moved to New York because it was so expensive. Now I make jumps with a floater and airwalks to get around. I use a shell when I need to make a business trip for an important meeting. The end of an era.
15 Apr.2359
I just filed my taxes today. I went to the IRS office and they scanned the barcode on the back of my neck. I then swiped my card and I was done. Waited in line forever, but I'm done.
9 Apr.2359
I was just hit on the street by someone with Spitter, the new social network program that tags people with a subscription link. It's being heavily used by corps and agents to spread ads underneath the net by sending uplinks direct to people's halos. It sucks if you don't want it. I'm getting feeds on my face that's about someone's day ordering coffee, surfing, and shopping for high heels. I have to go through a near sub-root canal to get the execution off my halo. I hate Spitter.
6 Apr.2359
Baseball season opened in New York today with two new ballparks. Yankee Stadium has been restored to it's 2260's glory with digital scoreboards in monobroadcasts, standing bleachers, and blue neurotech hubs. Seats in the outernet have been given zoomfields so they can get closer to the action without interfering direct links. The statmining is impressive with ghost replays going back 200 years.
The Mets new stadium in Queens with chloroturf that doesn't need washing and seats below the field for mirror resolution, effectively, doubling the seating capacity from the old park.
They both look great and I expect to visit both in realtime soon.
26 Mar.2359
The Federal Reserve continues to recalculate the perimeter of the sinkhole found a few months back on the exchange site that clears real estate transactions. The radius was at 53 djdaq points but now is much further at 99.5 djdaq points. Brokers are missing trades because reconobots are getting swallowed up. Moving all markets online with quantum exchanges wired a century ago was done to eliminate the old boom-bust business cycles that existed before the totalcrash. With auto-profit AI's, it's going to take a while to parse the code to find out what's causing this. Breaking 100 djdaq points is scary.
24 Mar.2359
Everytime I walk past the corner of 9th Street and 5th Avenue at 6th Skyheight I get a brainboom. I've checked my neurotech many times and have uploaded security scripts to stop the many streams that are broadcasting at that corner, but I still can't filter everything out. My corner deli is just past there, and I get so annoyed with the visual and audio in my head, that I now walk down 8th Street towards 5th Avenue then up around the block to avoid that corner. It's really annoying that I have to do this, especially in the winter when it is so cold, just to get my favorite pastrami on rye.
17 Mar.2359
Today, the St. Patrick's day parade airwalked down Fifth Avenue between 2nd and 8th Skyheights. I saw many pubs full when I went out for lunch. Panza and I are going for a pint of Guiness after work. Cheers.
12 Mar.2359
The architect, John Philipson, died earlier this week at the age of 118. Many of his buildings are seen on the New York skyline including the Travel Exchange which resembles a suitcase with its famous roof line that mimics a luggage handle. One of his most famous buildings will be the Cement House. A home he designed for himself to live in that is a minimal structure of four slabs of cement with only a door. The building is remarkable for having no view of the outside, and therefore, the viewer is enclosed in a space free of location. This type of design influenced virtual architecture and the noform style of the late 24th century. I was always a fan of his work. He asked that his DNA not be upgraded. I will miss him.
4 Mar.2359
I bumped into the girl that lives above me at the corner deli today. We were both in line at the register. She has an empty halo so I still don't know her name. She was wearing a thermojacket, jeans, leather gravboots with magnetic goggles atop a wool hat. She looked at me and smiled then asked me "How's it going?" She said she's not used to so much snow because she was from Atlanta. I asked her what brought her to New York and she pointed her finger to the ground and said on-site work. "See ya around," is all she said after paying at the register and walking out. I saw her lift up to the 8th Skyheight to catch an airwalk uptown and she was gone.
3 Mar.2359
Snow, more snow.
27 Feb.2359
People read newscrolls to know what's going on in the world. The information they give on their thin, clear displays are the news broadcasts from sites on the net. People could get these broadcasts just from their neurotechs, but people still like the habit of viewing sites on a display as a legacy from the way people used to read newspapers two hundred years ago. Because there are so many sites to see, a new technology called headline only syndication (HOS) has come out that enables people to read only the headlines from all the sites in one list on their screen. People no longer have to go to each site on the net to get the latest updates. What this has also done is make newscrolls look like old newspapers, because they have reduced the information to black and white text in one long column. The days of graphics, movies, interviews, and music coming from their newscrolls is disappearing. People who use the technology are just reading. It's making the skyway and delis less noisy in the morning.
25 Feb.2359
President Caroline Sanchez gave the State of the Union address last night to the nation. Her most controversial proposal is the overhaul of the social security system that was started with President Roosevelt, reformed with President Bush, and reformed again with President Simpson after the totalcrash. The President claims the current system will go bankrupt by 2389 because the market experienced a severe decline three years ago and current benefits extend to people who do nextgen cloning. Sanchez wants to return the system to the conservative goals of the 20th century when all taxed income was put into government bonds. This program at least guarantees a payout. Right now, one out of every three retirees is only receiving more money than what they invested while they were working because of the current lackluster market. Recent stock scandals have also depleted many retirement reserves. Nextgen cloning is still expensive for many people, so the benefits are paying those who already have enough money to extend them into second and third versions of their lives. It's the freshgens that are worried. With only one version of life, they want to make sure that their remaining years will be paid for.
17 Feb.2359
I live alone in a 23 floor walkup on 8th Street and 6th Skyheight between 5th and 6th Avenues. The building was built in 2132 in a pretotalcrash style. My apartment is on the 14th floor facing the back where my kitchen looks out on a fire escape. I can see into the windows of the building across from me where a young couple never turn on their radioshades. Last night, I watched them argue in their kitchen when the woman suddenly grabbed a knife and threatened to kill her husband. I was ready to call the police when they vanished like ghosts in front of the window. I then realized the two people were holograms designed by the homeop to make it look as if someone was there while the couple were away on vacation to prevent the house from being broken in. Talk about extreme settings.
14 Feb.2359
There is a beautiful girl that lives in a studio two floors above me that I sometimes bump into on the stairs. I think she is single because she wears no wedding ring. Since it's Valentines Day I was thinking of chasing her numbers to see if she'd like to go out sometime, but she has no information on her halo. Not even her name. The law says your halo has to have your name and homeland script. My halo has that and bio clips. Having an empty halo makes her mysterious and breaking the law even more fetching.
11 Feb.2359
Yukon released their latest version of paper yesterday. Paper 2 is a thin sheet of wood from trees that can have a static display printed on it. The advantage of the technology is that it doesn't need power, can be folded to any size and resolution is better than full reality. I've been writing Futurediary on paper and I've enjoyed it. The interface took some getting used to, but after a few weeks, writing with a pen is a type of I/O response no other device has. This could be a hit.
9 Feb.2359
It snowed again on Sunday night with about five to six inches on the ground. After I got to work Monday morning, I watched the snow bots plowing the skywalks and platforms from my office window. I never really watched before, but they have a syncopation that's amazing. Snowbots line up on the corner of a street for at least 12 skyheights then the one at the lowest level goes across, followed in about 5 seconds by the one on the skyheight above it, then the next follows after another 5 seconds. The snow is collected in the large waste bins by the snow bot below. When it's working, it looks like a waterfall of white paint streaming down the entire block. Of course, they get stuck due to parked floaters, hovercarts, and crawlers. The police issue tickets and sound blast people to move before the process starts. Watching the chaos while drinking my morning coffee, I have to say I am officially sick of winter. Please, no more snow.
5 Feb.2359
The government pushed the February deadline for upgrading neuroimplants to final reality to June of this year due to slower adoption rates than expected. Millions of people aren't ready for the signal switch and still need to buy the converter chip if they don't have the latest FR ready neuros. The government has a waiting list for the coupon which gives a discount for an upgrade. I've been ready for a while. The depth of field on the net is amazing with FR. The farther horizon line makes you see inter, intra and outernets in one scan without any distortion. Skipgridding has never been easier. People should upgrade before they get left in the static.
2 Feb.2359
I went to a Super Bowl party last night in Brooklyn. The Mexico City Mayans won against the Biloxi Bombers 23 to 14. The host paid for great virtual seats, so we were only 8 rows up from the 30 yard line. I had to bounce back to get chips or drinks now and then from the fridge, but uploading back in was no problem and didn't have to step over anyone in their seats.
28 Jan.2359
I had to take a detour on my way home from work due to so much snow and walked from the 6th Skyheight on 4th Street to the 1st Skyheight. When I got down there, I walked to Bleecker and passed over an old bus with wheels sticking upward from the trashcoral like an ancient sundial. With the fallen snow over everything, some kids had taken the powerwheels off their rocketboards and were sliding down the snow covered roof of the bus with just the naked board. Some fell hard, but laughed when they did, and got back up to climb to the top and go down again. I watched for twenty minutes, amazed at how fun it looked. So this is what our youth does now for kicks in the bottom of the city away from all grids and any transmits.
26 Jan.2359
Woke up this morning to find the city covered in snow. People were jamming the 4th street and 6th skyheight stop waiting for the delayed skyways. About 20 people have died from being hit by ice falling from upper heights. The city requires heat strips on all buildings but there are many pretotalcrash buildings that don't have them. I'm glad I'm not driving.
22 Jan.2359
The temperature has dropped below ten degrees today and we are expecting more snow tonight. When I go outside I turn on my winter hot clothes and set my body suit to over seventy degrees. The OS on my jacket is an OutdoorSys version 4.0. It's able to coordinate temperature from my gloves to my shoes and make sure it all stays constant, but it still is not enough to protect me from the wind chill. My sister made me a wool scarf for Christmas which I am wearing whenever I go outside now. People think I look odd with this bright red and yellow clothing around my neck, but I don't care because it makes me warm. Someone even asked me how I broke my neck.
20 Jan.2359
Happy Inauguration Day. President Caroline Sanchez is sworn in today as the ninety-first president and only the sixth woman in the country's history to take the oval office. After a divisive election last year, she takes it hoping to unite the many parties and factions in government. The event will be uploaded on all nets in both english and spanish.
19 Jan.2359
The snow has been so bad that the large drifts are crowding out the skywalks and making it hard for people to walk anywhere. Many are not shoveled, and those that have been are very icy. I was walking yesterday to get groceries from my local deli, when someone bumped me and I slipped on the ice and fell over the balcony of the skywalk. I was hanging for my dear life! Two people grabbed me quickly, and a police catcher didn't get there until twenty minutes after I was pulled back in. Be careful.
18 Jan.2359
It's a blizzard in New York. It's coming down so bad, that my snowvision goggles don't even get a good resolution. The plows on the high skyheights are having problems keeping up with the volume of snow. If you do go out, watch out for falling snow drifts.
17 Jan.2359
I went with Panza to an analog club last night on 11th and Avenue A at 4th Skyheight. These places are a refreshing change from the memory bars you find on every block. Instead of jacking into some lame recall from your youth with friends, you walk into a place that resembles a nightclub from the 1930's in New York. At front is a stage where an actual band plays jazz with replicated instruments from that time. Then someone comes up to a microphone and sings. It's incredible to hear what a voice can do unfiltered. The singer last night called herself Billie Holiday and the band was trying to recreate covers from a club called the Brunswick on the night of July 2, 1935. People even get up to dance. Going to these clubs is another symbol of the analog movement, those people that disdain modernity for a simpler time. It's nostalgia, and incredibly fun.
15 Jan.2359
I get my coffee in the morning from a hovercart at the corner of 4th Street and 6th Skyheight. An older Japanese woman runs it, and she always serves it with a smile. Yesterday, she wasn't there because another hovercart took her place with a bot serving. More and more hovercarts are having bots serving in them because it's cheaper. I grudgingly bought a coffee and when I got down to the skyway platform for work, I discovered my coffee had no cream. Ruined my whole morning.
13 Jan.2359
The city has put a restriction on taking scans on any of the skyway lines. They claim it's due to security. Last year someone broadcasted a staticbomb on a Metro in Paris. The transmission put a void on everyone's neurotech in a mile perimeter of the device. New Yorkers spend a lot of time on public transportation and pass the time talking, blissing to iMems, jumping through simclips, or catching up on sleep. Making illegal the chance to recall a part of public life, we will lose a chance to capture a mundane, surprising part of our own daily lives.
12 Jan.2359
Whenever you take a taxi between the 3rd and 8th Skyheight, you now have to pay an extra $15 above the normal fare. The city is trying to lessen the traffic between those blocks, because they are the most heavily congested. They've also imposed a $3 per minute fare on data streams between networks at those heights as well. I get on the skyway at 4th Street and 6th Skyheight and the platform is so full that safety nets now stretch below if someone falls. I never wait near the edge.
10 Jan.2359
Here are what I thought were the best sims for 2358:
1. The Collector - This thoughtful emulation from European designer, Victor Sebado, was so complete. From the start he has given you enough history uploads. Not just retail, but fresh knowledge that you understand how to be an art and antique collector specializing in works from late 20th century to the totalcrash. The excitement of hunting for objects and verifying what are real and what are fakes says so much about own contemporary culture. A must see.
2. Strange Love - The best romance of the year. I jumped into this at least five times to experience falling for Lolita over and over again. Forget the controversy. This is delicious.
3. Knife in the Dark - I don't like horror, but creeping around this house with only ten matches and a candle was pure brilliance. The virtue of simple mapping. Why aren't there more designers like Alfred Poe. He raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
4. Neopoleon - Shadowing a biography is dependent on who the person was. Napolean Bonaparte was fun because it involved strategy trying to command his armies across Europe. Also, the costume design was textured from primesource scans which made the experience so close to truth I was scared of data burn. I didn't like being so short though.
5. Singin' in the Rain - This remake was inspired from an old movie musical in the 1950's. This sim jumps you into the sequence where the original star, Gene Kelly, danced in the rain on something primitive called a soundstage to replicate spectralspheres. As I danced and sang with drops gently falling on my raincoat, I felt so blissed out. Short and sweet. I can see why this is so popular.
7 Jan.2359
Yesterday Beatle Computer introduced their latest model of the iMem, the popular device that has everyone jacking into the favorite memories of their past. The new iMem is called the iMem shuffle. It's small enough to fit around your wrist and the all white biojack has no interface. Just put the eyephones on your irises and the transmission begins. What makes this special, is that it shuffles your memories automatically, instead of scrolling to find the recall you want. The random mems are supposed to give an added value of surprise. Jump from your twenties to your fifties. Go from your wedding to your first date. College graduation then back to kindergarten. As anyone who's read my diary repeatedly knows, I hate memory bars and memory immersion in general. No thanks to reliving my own past. Loopers don't even come back. The present is where I want to be. Will it be popular? The cheaper price will make it available to more people which means I think we will see even more of these devices clouding the eyes of people on the skyways of New York.
6 Jan.2359
I found the wildest thing last Saturday. My friend, Panza, and I put on our lungvents and went down to the zero level of Canal Street. I've lived seven years in New York, and I've never gone below the 3rd skyheight. We went down because I've always heard about antique markets there. I mean old stuff pretotalcrash from the nineteenth, twentieth and twentyfirst century. It was amazing seeing so much material. At one stand selling books, I found a blank diary. It was leather bound and on the inside cover it read, "Fatto a Firenze" - Florence, Italy. Being an art history buff, I bought it. The dealer told me the diary was printed around 1999. I've only seen paper books like this in libraries or museums. It was a lot of money, but it was wonderful to touch and flip the pages back and forth between your thumbs, imagining how people years ago used to search for information like this. Since the pages are empty, it gave me an idea about keeping a diary in this old format. I found another dealer that sold ink pens. It seems crazy to deface this book with my own writing, but this was how people recorded their memories before neurotechs. I'm interested to find out what it was like. The dealer told me she has a small, dedicated following of people who keep diaries like this and that it changes their lives. So let this be my first entry. A new year is coming up, and this can be a resolution. Panza thinks I'm crazy. Happy New Year.
