4 bottles of beer on the wall...
4 bottles of beer...
take one down
pass it around
3 bottles of beer on the wall...
3 bottles of beer...
take one down
pass it around
2 bottles of beer on the wall...
2 bottles of beer...
take one down
pass it around
1 bottle of beer on the wall...
1 bottle of beer...
take one down
pass it around
Wow. I did it. I actually did it. Hummm. What do you say when you
run out of bottles of beer? Is there a 0 count? Does the song
change up? Where's a search engine when you need one. Or hands.
So, that was fun. Now on to some serious work. Somewhere around
the 1 million bottles mark I had a thought: if I don't have a body
do I have a location? I'm "in space" right? But where? And how can
I be there without a physical me? I'm communicating through
quantum entanglement somehow, so the quantum pairing suggests that
there's two ends to that connection. One of those is back near
Earth, presumably. I guess it's possible someone came in and
scooped up the QEC relay and towed it elsewhere. That might
actually be a good idea eventually. How long does sol last again
before it will become a red giant? I believe that'll encompass the
Earth/Luna L4 at that point and the relay station will be no more.
So yeah, if anyone is listening and the timing is getting close,
why not tow the relay station a bit further away from the giant
fireball.
Next up another odd sensation to share. Again, no physical body
over here so this might be a bit hard to explain. Did you know
that you can swim in a star? The density of matter is just a tiny
bit higher than water back on Earth. Of course, it's a bit warm if
that sort of thing bothers you. Oh, and bright! But then again is
it bright inside too? The matter on the outside of the star blocks
light on the inside from escaping. In that way the inside is kind
of in a box. But I guess you're in a box with a really big
flashlight, so it's not a dark box. Right? I wish I had eyes.
I would love to check that out.
Note to self: get eyes, but not the kind that can burn away in
a star.
Outside of that I thought I'd also reach out to you all with the
age old, and probably quite familiar, Melvin plea for help.
HELP!
Seriously. It's been a really long time and I'm starting to get
worried that I can sense the passage of time without a body. If
I'm disconnected from the physical reality I'm probably not aging.
That means I could be here a very, very long time indeed. I don't
think the human mind is prepared for that sort of lived reality
without physical expression. I might go a bit looney eventually!
Not good at all.
The bottle of beer song was good for that. It gave me something
good to ground myself. Remember the number, count it out. Repeat.
Once, years and years ago, I was running laps for a fitness test
and the strangest thing happened. The course had me running around
this oval track a total of nine times. I forget the total length,
but nine times got it done. There was no signal to keep track of
your laps, though. Just remember them, right? Counting to nine
shouldn't be a problem. So that's what I did. I finished and felt
pretty good about my time overall. I figured I was done, but later
found out I had only run eight of the nine laps! How did I lose
count so easily.
Thinking back on it, I probably spent too much mental energy
focused on the count. I kept repeating it to myself and thinking,
"I'm on three. Lap three. Next up will be lap four. Gotta keep
going. I'm on lap three." And at some point between the endless
repetition and pain of running I tricked myself. I mistakenly took
up the for instead of three and when I hit that lap marker
I skipped ahead to 5. That's the best explanation I have. It was
most centainly my fault. I mean, it's possible the sensor didn't
track me crossing the line, but why wouldn't that have affected
anyone else?
What was I talking about? Oh yeah!
I didn't lose count in the bottles of beer countdown! So that
probably means something, right? I just don't know what.
PS: HELP!
gemini://cosmic.voyage/Melvin P Feltersnatch/007.txt