Rudism's recent activity
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Comment on Creative short story writing contest—prize for winner! (2025-02-07) in ~creative
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Comment on YouTube Premium Lite: Ad-free viewing for $7.99/month in ~tech
Rudism Link ParentThank you for the suggestions! I have tried various casting options but (unless I'm missing something) they all sacrifice the ability to browse and search videos on the TV itself with a remote...Thank you for the suggestions! I have tried various casting options but (unless I'm missing something) they all sacrifice the ability to browse and search videos on the TV itself with a remote (the Roku remote, in my case), which is enough of a convenience to me that I'd consider paying the $7.99/mo for it. I do currently sometimes use screen casting as a backup for when Invidious refuses to play a specific video, but I find it pretty cumbersome.
As for the student plan, I'm decades distant from having a working .edu email. I do have kids who actually are students though, so hijacking one of their emails may be an option.
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Comment on YouTube Premium Lite: Ad-free viewing for $7.99/month in ~tech
Rudism LinkI watch YouTube almost exclusively on a TV, currently using an Invidious+Playlet setup on my Rokus. It works to avoid ads, but some fraction of videos I want to watch end up being not playable...I watch YouTube almost exclusively on a TV, currently using an Invidious+Playlet setup on my Rokus. It works to avoid ads, but some fraction of videos I want to watch end up being not playable (anything age restricted is unwatchable without logging in, and some random videos just refuse to play for no discernable reason). As far as I know there's no way to skip ads on a Roku analogous to ublock origin in a browser, so I'm actually interested and potentially willing to pay for this Lite subscription.
Problem is it's still not showing up as an option for me in the US, despite all the material I'm reading saying it should already be available. Have they actually rolled it out yet, or is it a partial/gradual roll out? Is it showing up for anyone in the US?
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Rudism Link ParentAhh, it's annoying when that happens. I get my kids all pumped up on an anime that I remember liking when I was a kid, then start watching it with them only to realize they probably think their...Ahh, it's annoying when that happens. I get my kids all pumped up on an anime that I remember liking when I was a kid, then start watching it with them only to realize they probably think their dad is some kind of perv now because I forgot about all the fan service.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Rudism Link ParentHere's some other good food-based anime that I've enjoyed (mostly for absurd comedy): Dagashi-Kashi Ben-To (maybe not so much focus on the food in this one, it's been a while so I don't remember...Here's some other good food-based anime that I've enjoyed (mostly for absurd comedy):
- Dagashi-Kashi
- Ben-To (maybe not so much focus on the food in this one, it's been a while so I don't remember much other than I thought it was hilarious)
- Not anime, but there's a live action show on Netflix called Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman that does the over-the-top reactions to food really well
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Comment on Everything is Chrome in ~tech
Rudism Link ParentNope, I just didn't realize there was a difference between webkit and webengine. Looks like the version I have (from the Void Linux repos) is based off chromium. Backend: QtWebEngine 6.8.2 based...Nope, I just didn't realize there was a difference between webkit and webengine. Looks like the version I have (from the Void Linux repos) is based off chromium.
Backend: QtWebEngine 6.8.2 based on Chromium 122.0.6261.171 with security patches up to 132.0.6834.111 (plus any distribution patches) -
Comment on Everything is Chrome in ~tech
Rudism LinkSome lightweight web browser alternatives worth trying: qutebrowser (win/mac/linux) - This is what I use as my daily driver. A webkit view controlled mostly by vim-like keybindings and ex commands...Some lightweight web browser alternatives worth trying:
- qutebrowser (win/mac/linux) - This is what I use as my daily driver. A webkit view controlled mostly by vim-like keybindings and ex commands in place of a GUI. Surprisingly configurable if you spend the time to figure out how everything works. Supports a vertical tab bar natively.
- vimb (linux) - Similar to qutebrowser, but doesn't support tabs natively. Qutebrowser has overtaken this one in terms of usability and stability, in my opinion, but vimb is still actively developed so worth checking out.
- surf (linux)- Even more lightweight than vimb, also doesn't directly support tabs, but can be used along with tabbed to add them (horizontal tab bar only, afaik). I haven't played with this one very much since it doesn't work so well with Wayland and I'm already so happy with qutebrowser.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Rudism LinkI finally watched Robert Eggers' Nosferatu over the weekend. Maybe my least favorite of his movies so far, but that's only because the competition is so good, it's still like an 8/10 for me. Also...I finally watched Robert Eggers' Nosferatu over the weekend. Maybe my least favorite of his movies so far, but that's only because the competition is so good, it's still like an 8/10 for me.
Also watched The Last Video Store, which I picked up on bluray a while back (sight unseen, based entirely on reading a one sentence premise). I fully understand that this movie will not be for everyone, and isn't really very good by many objective measures, but to me it was like curling up in a warm, comfy blanket with my favorite snack and injecting pure fuzzy nostalgia straight into my brain for 80 minutes straight. An easy 10/10 for me.
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Comment on I've been enjoying a few tropes in 1970s TV shows in ~tv
Rudism LinkThis is one of my guilty-pleasure tropes from the original Star Trek series. Spock had his Vulcan nerve pinch, which at least made an attempt at a plausible explanation, but aside from that Kirk...A variation of this is getting hit on the back of the head with something, usually a handgun. This always reliably knocks out the person without long term injury.
This is one of my guilty-pleasure tropes from the original Star Trek series. Spock had his Vulcan nerve pinch, which at least made an attempt at a plausible explanation, but aside from that Kirk will regularly knock goons out with a single karate chop to the shoulder, which I find hilarious every time.
I remember hearing somewhere that losing consciousness due to a physical impact usually means a traumatic brain injury (or at the very least a serious concussion), so whenever my wife and I are watching an old episode of TOS and a guy gets knocked out by a Kirk-chop I yell out "BRAIN DAMAGE!" My wife usually rolls her eyes and mumbles something like "you got that all right." Not sure what she means by that...
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Comment on Stretch My Time Off - Optimise your vacation days in ~life
Rudism LinkThis is a cool idea! It doesn't really work if you don't get all federal holidays off at your job though. For example it's optimizing by wrapping PTO around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth,...This is a cool idea! It doesn't really work if you don't get all federal holidays off at your job though. For example it's optimizing by wrapping PTO around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and Veterans Day, none of which are holidays for me at my job. Might be more useful if I had the option to manually specify which days I actually get off for free and feed that to the algorithm.
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Comment on Do you have a game that you love from “before your time?” in ~games
Rudism LinkI'm sorta old so there isn't too much to draw from, but I'm a fan of Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork, which came out a few years before I was born. Not necessarily because I actually enjoy...I'm sorta old so there isn't too much to draw from, but I'm a fan of Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork, which came out a few years before I was born. Not necessarily because I actually enjoy playing those games (they didn't really age too well), but more because of how they launched and inspired a whole genre of games that I absolutely adore and are still being actively made today (see, for example, the IFDB and The Interactive Fiction Competition).
My actual experiences with ADVENT and Zork were mostly backseat driving while my friend played them on his Commodore 64, and eventually getting bored and giving up when we got stuck in the mazes. I go through regular phases where I play a ton of more modern IF though and love it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Rudism LinkI picked up Vostok Inc. on my Switch, been playing that off and on for the past couple weeks. It's sort of a mix between a super basic twin-stick space shooter and a make-numbers-go-up idle mining...I picked up Vostok Inc. on my Switch, been playing that off and on for the past couple weeks. It's sort of a mix between a super basic twin-stick space shooter and a make-numbers-go-up idle mining game.
It's not great...
The combat is frustrating, the whole manager rescuing system where your bonus can completely tank just from dying once (which can and will happen in an instant even against the weakest and most basic enemies if you get unlucky) is rage-inducing, the idle/clicker aspects are even more monotonous than is typical for the genre, and the upgrades you slowly unlock (for both your ship and the idle mining part) often don't make any sense for how much they cost, because by the time you can afford them they make no significant difference to anything.
All that being said, I did play all the way through, beating all the bosses and unlocking every possible upgrade, so obviously it scratched some kind of itch that kept me going despite its mediocrity.
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Comment on I want to hear about good relationships in ~talk
Rudism Link ParentI think the best advice I got from my parents was to never go to bed angry with each other. Even if it means staying up half the night talking stuff out, it's important to not shut each other out...I think the best advice I got from my parents was to never go to bed angry with each other. Even if it means staying up half the night talking stuff out, it's important to not shut each other out and stew over whatever the argument du jour happens to be. My wife and I always follow that rule, which led to a fair number of long, frustrating nights during the early days of our marriage. Over time it's less and less necessary because it becomes clear that the things you fight over are almost always misunderstandings or miscommunications, and you get a better feeling for where your partner might be coming from and start to give them the benefit of the doubt when those kinds of things come up.
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Comment on I want to hear about good relationships in ~talk
Rudism LinkI met my wife in a Star Trek role playing community over IRC in the late 90s. I lived in Canada at the time and she was in the southern US. We fell for each other over a shared love for all things...I met my wife in a Star Trek role playing community over IRC in the late 90s. I lived in Canada at the time and she was in the southern US. We fell for each other over a shared love for all things nerdy (this was long before it was cool to be a nerd like it is today). Online dating and long distance relationships weren't really a thing back then (the internet itself was just barely a thing back then) so everyone thought we were nuts. I remember I had to write my own software that would take snapshots from our webcams every 10 seconds and automatically upload to and download from each other over FTP, because the only real-time webcam conferencing software back then was insanely expensive (targeted at commercial licensing to businesses). We would mostly chat on IRC with the webcams on, or on rare occasions she'd get her hands on a long distance calling card and we'd talk over the phone. Against all odds at the time, we stuck together--we visited each other a few times and I ended up moving to the states on a fiance visa after I graduated from university. When we got married, she was still three weeks away from being old enough to drink at her own wedding. It hasn't all been smooth sailing, but now we've got a couple of our own kids in high school and this month we celebrated our 22nd anniversary.
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Comment on Severe case of midlife crisis in ~health.mental
Rudism LinkI had a similar skin cancer scare recently. Mine ended up being malignant, but it was successfully excised and a lymph node biopsy showed it hadn't spread there yet, so I'm probably OK now. This...Yep, some pretty dark thoughts were swirling in my head. The good thing about it was that my usual worries lost importance.
I had a similar skin cancer scare recently. Mine ended up being malignant, but it was successfully excised and a lymph node biopsy showed it hadn't spread there yet, so I'm probably OK now. This bit of your article really resonated with me. While I was waiting for the results of the lymph node biopsy I was constantly thinking of all the little weird feelings, aches, and pains that I probably experience all the time and assume are benign, and magnifying them in my mind to the point where I felt sure my body must be riddled with melanoma and I was going to get bad news. My worries shifted from my usual anxieties to trying to come to terms with the idea that I might be gone soon and all the things I needed to do to make sure my wife wouldn't be left in the lurch on all the various things I handle for us (email subscription, self-hosted password manager, all my auto-renew domains and various tech services that could be canceled, stuff like that). I had a similar epiphany to yours, where I realized my normal problems and anxieties can be rather trivial and I shouldn't let them control me as much as I do. It also made me realize that there are a couple life goals that I've had since I was a kid that I've been putting off forever and need to get cracking on.
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Comment on Peeves, opinions, and hot takes about style in ~humanities.languages
Rudism LinkMy peeve applies to online articles more than academic papers, but it's pull quotes. I hate them. I'm already reading the article, I don't need you to shove some bit of it that you thought was...My peeve applies to online articles more than academic papers, but it's pull quotes. I hate them. I'm already reading the article, I don't need you to shove some bit of it that you thought was poignant in my face again five paragraphs later. It's like if you were watching a Mission Impossible movie and all of a sudden in the middle of an unrelated scene they show a slow-motion replay of Tom Cruise doing a stunt from 10 minutes earlier in the movie for absolutely no reason. Of course they wouldn't do that, because it would be so stupid and it would ruin the movie. Just like your stupid pull quotes ruin your article.
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Comment on Audio enthusiasts share your audio setups in ~hobbies
Rudism Link ParentThank you for the suggestion. The speakers are definitely the first thing I'll upgrade when I get the itch to spend a bit more to improve things. These ones are R980Ts and I think I got them for...Thank you for the suggestion. The speakers are definitely the first thing I'll upgrade when I get the itch to spend a bit more to improve things. These ones are R980Ts and I think I got them for around $80, so I never expected to be blown away by their sound, but they're good enough that I haven't felt a strong urge to replace them yet.
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Comment on Audio enthusiasts share your audio setups in ~hobbies
Rudism LinkI bought some cheap powered Edifier speakers and an Audio Technica turntable for my home office a while back, and recently added a WiiM Pro and a tiny desktop CD player to the setup. Most of the...I bought some cheap powered Edifier speakers and an Audio Technica turntable for my home office a while back, and recently added a WiiM Pro and a tiny desktop CD player to the setup. Most of the time I feed the WiiM using a Lyrion Music Server with all the music I've ripped over the past few decades, or cast audio to it when I want to listen to myNoise or podcasts, but every now and then I'll throw on an actual CD or some vinyl when I'm feeling nostalgic and just want to relax and listen to something.
I'm sure a real audio enthusiast would probably scoff at the low budget gear, poor speaker placement, and all the other things I'm doing sub-optimally, but I use it literally every day and love the shit out of it.
edit: photo
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Comment on Creative short story writing contest—prize for winner! (2025-02-07) in ~creative
Rudism (edited )LinkBeen struggling a bit, trying to get back into writing stories. Your prompt (plus some recent other threads on Tildes) inspired me though. Wrote this today in a new app I'm trying out on my...- Exemplary
Been struggling a bit, trying to get back into writing stories. Your prompt (plus some recent other threads on Tildes) inspired me though. Wrote this today in a new app I'm trying out on my tablet, which doesn't seem to have any kind of spell check built in so apologies if I messed anything up.
I'm calling it "One Time," and let's say the license is the WTFPL.
Full story text below.
I woke up when the alarm went off at exactly 6:05 AM; I turned it off, then rolled over to give Carol a kiss. She wasn't there. It didn't make sense. It was Monday. On Mondays the alarm wakes me up at 6:05 AM, I give Carol a kiss, she takes a shower while I start the coffee, then at 6:20 AM I take a shower while she makes scrambled eggs, then at 6:35 AM we eat together before leaving the house at 6:55 AM to head to our jobs.Could I have been mistaken? Was it not Monday? I turned back to my side table and checked my phone. Monday. It didn't make sense even if it wasn't. Every day is the same, except for Fridays and Saturdays when the alarm goes off at 6:30 AM instead. There was simply no possible justification for Carol to be gone. I looked again to make sure I hadn't imagined her absence. I definitely hadn't.
Was she ill? The thought made me shiver. Nothing throws a wrench into routine worse than being sick. If I had to make both the coffee and the eggs I might even be late to work, and then my whole day would be off schedule. I leapt out of bed, put my slippers on, then headed out into the hall and looked toward the living room. I could see Carol sitting on the couch in her underwear, holding what looked like a tub of ice cream. It took me a second to recognize her, on account of her baldness.
"C... Carol? Are you sick?" I stammered. "Why are you up? What happened to your... your hair?"
Carol casually waved her ice cream spoon at me, causing droplets of melted chocolate to spatter on the couch and floor.
"I'm not ill. Hair's annoying and makes my neck sweat so I cut it off," Carol said before eating a spoonfull of ice cream. "And before you ask, I'm not bothering with clothes and I'm eating ice cream because it's hot and I'm taking a day off. Duck."
"Huh?" I asked.
"Duck," she repeated through a mouthful of ice cream.
My mind was blank. I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I slowly started crouching down in the hallway outside our bedroom door. The sound of shattering glass startled me from behind, and I fell onto my hands and knees. Something small, white, and moving extremely fast whizzed over my head and embedded itself into the hallway wall with a loud thock.
"What the hell was that?" I screamed, still on the ground.
"Golf ball," Carol replied coolly. "Don't worry about it though. You're good now for a few minutes."
I turned to look back into our bedroom at the now shattered window on the opposite wall. I stood up and stared at the small hole that the golf ball had made in the drywall, which was situated at precisely the same height as my head. I could feel fingers of anxiety tickling the inside of my skull.
"Carol, what's going on? You're scaring me," I said, fighting off a wave of panic as I cautiously started making my way towards her.
"I told you," Carol sighed through a mouthful of ice cream that dripped down her chin. "I'm taking a day off. I don't want to explain everything again; I just want to sit here and relax and eat my ice cream. Just follow my instructions and we'll be fine. If you stay home from work we can probably make it all the way to noon at least."
More of the living room came into view as I cautiously made my way down the hall from our bedroom. The table in front of Carol was a wasteland of melted multicolor pools spreading out from a pile of empty cardboard tubs. "Did you... eat all of that?" I asked.
Carol snorted. "I discovered a new way to lose weight," she said. "Eat all you want and never gain a pound." She frowned and peered into the tub she was holding, then tossed it onto the pile with the others, knocking several of them onto the floor. "Be a dear and get me another one from the freezer, would you?"
I couldn't move.
Carol sighed heavily. "What time is it?" she asked.
I couldn't take my eyes off her shaved head. "But... Your hair..."
Carol grabbed her phone, which had been next to her on the couch, and checked the time on its screen. "Time to get away from that hallway."
"I... I didn't make the coffee yet," I stammered. My head was swimming. Was this a bad dream? "You should... it's almost time for..."
"Don't you dare talk to me about time," said Carol. "Move away from the hallway."
"But... the eggs..."
Carol jumped up from the couch, dashed toward me, and yanked my arm. I stumbled forward just as a loud explosion rang out behind me. I caught my balance and looked back. The hallway had completely caved in. "What the hell was that!?" I yelled.
"Furnace exploded," Carol explained as she walked towards the kitchen. My legs felt weak. I fell to my knees, then rocked back and sat down on the floor. A flood of water spread out from the destroyed hallway, soaking my legs. I heard Carol open and shut the freezer. "Don't sit there," she said. "Come over here to the kitchen."
I couldn't move.
"Come here," Carol said, more forcefully this time.
I still couldn't move.
"Now!" Carol shouted.
I turned to look at her, standing there in her underwear, head shaved, holding a tub of ice cream. This shouldn't be happening, I thought. Right around now I should be taking my shower. The smell of scrambled eggs and coffee should be filling the apartment. That was the routine. That was how it was supposed to be.
Carol's expression softened when she saw my face. "Look," she said. "Walk over here to the kitchen and I'll explain everything. You can have the CliffsNotes version."
I managed to stand up and started trudging through the water flooding my living room. I reached the kitchen and stepped out of the puddle just as a loud pop and a shower of sparks burst from the power bar under the TV near where I had been sitting. I stared at Carol with my mouth open. She rubbed her forehead and sighed.
"Okay, here we go again. So I've been reliving this same day over and over," she said, while retrieving our heaviest cast iron pan from under the stove. "It's probably been... shit... I don't even know how long anymore, I lost count. Just today. Just like this. Over and over." Still holding the pan, she grabbed the towel hanging off the handle of the dishwasher and balled it up in her other hand. "Again and again. The golf ball, the furnace, the electrocution, the spiders..."
"Spiders?" I asked.
Just then one of the tiles along the back wall of the kitchen popped off and fell to the ground. I caught the briefest glimpse of a torrent of black spiders with red hourglass patterns on their backs spreading out from the hole it left behind before Carol smashed the cast iron pan against the wall. She slammed the pan three times, then stuffed the hole in the wall with the balled up towel.
"Black widow nest," said Carol, panting slightly and dropping the pan to the ground. "The point is, I'm sick of it."
"Of the... time loop?"
"Yeah," said Carol. She slumped to the ground.
It turns out that when presented with a barrage of back-to-back near death experiences and inexplicable phenomena, my mind is surprisingly willing to accept what I would otherwise have considered to be a ridiculously irrational premise.
"So, what... Like that Tom Cruise movie? The day resets when you die?"
"No, moron," said Carol, looking up at me with tears welling up in her eyes. "It resets when you die."
My eyes widened. I looked at my wife. In all the time we'd been together, I thought I'd seen every expression her face was capable of making. I've seen her joy, her sadness, her worry, her anger. But the face I saw now was completely alien. It was laden with a weariness unlike anything I'd ever have imagined possible for a person to bear. An overwhelming sense of defeat that permeated all of her features, her eyes, the depths of her being.
"What do you need me to do?" I asked.
"Stay alive," she said. "Just until I finish the ice cream."
7:00 AM
As I finished putting the kitchen knives safely under the sink, an explosion sounded in the distance and the dishes in the cupboards rattled. I glanced at Carol, who was now seated at the kitchen table.
"Small meteor," she said, while opening a new tub of ice cream. "That gets you if you leave for work on time."
"You mean I manage to get out on time, even after..." I waved my hand around at our blown up, flooded, spider-gut covered surroundings, "all of this?"
"I don't know if you're aware," said Carol, "but my husband is very particular about following his schedule."
I shrugged.
8:00 AM
"The bear attack was a bit much," I said, breathing heavily.
"Since he comes in through the window I usually just block that off with the microwave. I don't think it's ever crossed my mind to trap him in the bathroom."
"You could have told me," I said.
Carol shook her head. "I want to see how far you can make it without me. You have no idea how long it's been since I've had this much fun."
12:00 PM
The earthquake finally subsided. I looked down. All limbs accounted for--it seems I had successfully dodged the barrage of broken glassware that had been hurled at me from the violently shaking cupboards.
Carol clapped her hands and squealed with delight. "Grab me another ice cream, would you?" she said.
I moved across the remains of our rubble-strewn kitchen toward the fridge and slid out the freezer drawer. "Where did all this ice cream come from, anyway?" I asked.
"I always wake up around 5," said Carol. "More than enough time to hit Walmart and get back before the alarm."
I closed the freezer and dived out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by the toppling fridge.
"My ice cream!" cried Carol.
"This was the last one anyway," I said, tossing the tub of vanilla to her.
"Oh well, we gotta leave here before the drone strike hits anyways," Carol said. "Would you mind climbing into our bedroom and get me some clothes?" She grinned.
3:00 PM
"I truly can't believe you've made it this long," Carol said as I swerved the car to avoid a brick tossed by some kid above us on an overpass.
A truck pulling a large tank wobbled in front of us, skidded sideways and tipped over. I jolted the steering wheel to the left and drove across the median into oncoming traffic as the tank exploded beside us. Blinded by oncoming headlights, I swerved again, then drove along the ditch between the highway and some woods until the engine finally cut out.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Uh huh," said Carol.
"I wonder why everything's out to kill me," I mused as we both exited the car.
"Look, let's walk to McDonald's!" said Carol excitedly, pointing to the golden arches sitting atop a tall pole in the distance beyond the woods.
Wolves howled from somewhere nearby.
8:00 PM
Carol and I leaned against a garage door, both of us panting heavily. I glanced both ways down the alley, looking for any sign of movement in the darkness.
"I think we lost them," I said.
"This is exhilarating," said Carol. "I can't even remember the last time I experienced something... new."
I looked at her in the dim light of the moon, still trying to catch my breath. "How long exactly have you been reliving today?" I asked.
Carol shook her head. "How old am I?" she asked.
"Hmm? You're thirty three, two years younger than me," I answered.
"No," said Carol. "I think I remember how long thirty three years felt. That was nothing. A blip. A single grain of sand in a universe of beaches."
"I can't even imagine..." I said quietly.
"No, you can't," said Carol. "In the beginning I thought it was a puzzle I could solve. That I could learn to lead you safely through the day and escape this... this Hell. But each path ends the same. The puzzle has no solution. I can't stop a meteor. I can't prevent an earthquake. I can't predict every lightning strike. And so for a long time now I gave up. At first I just stayed in bed. Closed my eyes while you got up and headed out to make the coffee. But it's hard to relax when that means hearing the head of the man you love caved in by a golf ball over and over and over."
"Jeez," I said.
"Yeah," Carol said. She looked up at the night sky. "You know, I forgot the moon and stars even existed."
A sound came from the roof of one of the garages facing the alley. I looked up and saw a pack of raccoons staring back at me, white froth glinting around their mouths.
"You good for another run?" I asked.
"I shouldn't have eaten all that ice cream," moaned Carol.
11:58 PM
We stood at the precipice of the cliffs at the outskirts of the city and gazed out at the lights on the horizon.
"Just two more minutes," I said. "I think we made it."
"Yeah..." said Carol. She rubbed her hand over her scalp.
"Don't worry about that," I said. "It'll grow back."
"I know," said Carol. She rubbed her hand over her stomach.
"I can't believe how much you ate today," I laughed. "Even after all that running it'll probably take a year for you to burn off all those ice cream and McDonald's calories."
"Yeah..." said Carol.
"What do you think will happen?" I asked. "Will the new day just start?"
"Probably," said Carol.
There was a pause. Carol sighed and took a step back from the cliff. "I'm not sure I want this day to end," she said.
"Well you're not the one who the whole world seemed hell bent on killing!" I said. "I'm ready. I think I could sleep for a year."
"You've shown me now that it's possible," said Carol. She was standing behind me.
"What do you mean? Possible to sleep for a year?"
"No," replied Carol. "For the day to end. I just need..."
She paused. I felt her hands rest on my shoulders. I reached up and held one of them, stroking it gently.
"I just need to do a few things different next time," she said.
I remember falling. I remember... I...
I woke up when the alarm went off at exactly 6:05 AM; I turned it off, then rolled over to give Carol a kiss.
edit: fixed spelling noticed on re-read
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Comment on Download and transfer for Kindle books discontinued on Feb 26 in ~books
Rudism Link ParentI think even after this feature is discontinued there are still ways to strip DRM using an actual Kindle device (or Kindle for PC) along with various Calibre plugins. Or at least there were some...I think even after this feature is discontinued there are still ways to strip DRM using an actual Kindle device (or Kindle for PC) along with various Calibre plugins. Or at least there were some number of years ago the last time I bought an eBook off Amazon with the intention to read it on my Kobo.
Thank you for reading my story and the thoughtful feedback, I'm super appreciative.
I think that if I had more time to spend with it I likely would have toned it down a bit, which would have been more in line with my original plan. I hit a wall trying to come up with interesting threats though, and decided to just plop down the silliest stuff that came to mind in an attempt to break through it. I guess it worked a little too well, because once I started doing that the words just kept flowing and it was so fun to write that I stuck with it to the end.
Thank you for running this contest, it's just what I needed to help kick start me back into writing again.