Journal mcgrew's Journal: Grommler 4
This story takes place in a bar on Mars over a century later than "Mars, Ho!". Kudos to slashdot for finally fixing its handling of smart characters.
âoeJoe? Is that you? You're still tending bar? I thought you'd be retired. How you doin', you old rascal?â
Joe frowned. âoeSorry, son, I must be getting old, do I know you? And can I get you a drink?â
âoeIt's Dave, man. Give me a Knolls lager, draft.â
âoeSorry, Dave, we're sold out of Knolls. We have some Guinness, that's almost as good. But I'm sorry, but I still don't know who you are. Memory ain't as good as it used to be.â
âoeDave Rayfield, Joe. Of course it's been a lot longer for you than me. Yeah, Guinness will do.â
âoeDave Rayfield? I haven't seen him since I was twenty. You his grandson?â he asked, pouring the beer.
âoeNo, Joe, I'm Dave. Same Dave you knew back then.â
âoeBut you're so young!â
âoeIt was the trip. I piloted the science expedition to Grommler while you were throwing rocks from the asteroid belt at Mars.â
âoeThe terraforming is still going on here. I'm a little old for space hopping. Hell, if I spent any more time traveling through space I'd live forever. But how the hell did you stay a damned kid?â
âoeSame way you're not dead at a hundred twenty five. Time dilation. Most Earthians die before they're ninety five, but speed stretches time. You'd be dead by now if you hadn't been a spaceship captain. It's been a hundred years since you've seen me, but it's only been ten years since I've seen you.â
âoeSo where have you been for the last hundred years?â
âoeTen years to me. We went to Grommler.â
âoeWhere's that?â
Dave laughed. "It orbits Sirius, but it was the least serious place I've ever seen! Really weird place.â
âoeWeird how?â
âoeEvery way weird goes. First off, there was no fauna at all, not even insects. Only flora, despite having more oxygen than Earth. The geologists said it was because of the CO2 from volcanoes that there could even be any flora.
âoeBut the weirdest was the plants. We were there for two years, and that's in real time, and every single plant the biologists tested had cannabinoids and other psychoactive components. There were a lot of brush fires because of the wind and lightning, so every time you went outside you got stoned. Hell, some of the guys practically lived outside!â
âoeNeed another beer?â
Dave eyed his glass and downed it. âoeYeah. Jesus, Joe, things sure changed in the last ten years.â
âoeIt's been a hundred years since you left, Dave. It only seems like ten to you.â
âoeI guess. But you know what, Joe? I'm going to clean up!â
âoeWhat do you mean?â
Dave pulled out an envelope. âoeThese. Grommlerian tomato seeds. Grommlerian plants have a completely different ordering than our plants, it's something different than DNA and the scientists are still trying to figure it out. But they make seeds like Earth plants.â
âoeTomatoes?â
âoeNot really. They look like tomatoes but taste way different, but they taste really good. And they get you really stoned.â
âoeWell, okay, you found a reefer planet. When you find a beer planet, let me know.â
Damn it, slashdot... FIX YOUR CODE! (Score:2)
It looked like they had fixed it when I previewed. Why in the hell do smart characters work in preview but not posted? What's the point of previewing when slashdot's retarded code will fuck it up anyway?
For a version that hasn't had slashdot's garbage generator shit all over it, go here. [soylentnews.org]
Re: (Score:1)
Wow, man... Are "replace all" and "save as" really such horrible things? Offer somebody a beer, and they'll do it for you... Are you approaching the age where the sledgehammer is the only tool left in the shop? And you can edit JEs.. in case you want to make it look all pretty and stuff.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, I need to add, you won't see the edits in preview either. You have to submit(don't you just love that word?), close, and reopen the JE to see what happened. It might take two or three tries, just take another hit while the page is reloading. Believe me, you'll feel great!
Re: (Score:2)