Sudden Short Story 101

Derek entered the meeting room that his social club had rented that month.  He booted up his metaphorically ancient telepresence device and prepared to see who wouldn't be able to make it this time.  Though the club was down to a mere five official members at this point, they rarely all made it to the meeting, and there hadn't been five members in physical attendance since they had numbered at least six. 
The club's principal rule was wireless-off.  The telepresence device that they kept around had had an RJ-45 port hacked in where the wireless card used to be.  This need to be offline, though, led to rarity of physical presence, and only Derek was there every time.  Members would also be booted off of telepresence if they were seen to be succumbing to online distractions.  Telecommuting to club was a privilege, went the refrain, not a right.  
Derek checked his notifications, to see who couldn't attend.  Steven hadn't attended in over a year, which technically voided his membership.  Danielle's notice was more complex:  Apparently, she wouldn't be able to attend for the foreseeable future, since that was the only day of the month that her guildies were available to do Night of the Wraith-Lord raid-raids, though the principle of raid-raids was never clear to Derek.  Stephanie had sent a reminder that, since she had relocated her sleep-space to Japan, she wouldn't be able to make it to the room, and would almost never be able to telecommute at that time of day. 
Derek took a nap until the meeting was over.  Kevin had never shown up.  

New Year's Resolutions 2016

• Write 3 blog posts each month:  I'm going back down to 3 this year, so that I can get more done.  
• Finish 12 books this year:  I've actually got 4 books half-finished right now, which is why I set the goal so high, and specified "finish".  I'm hoping that this will help me figure out a reading schedule that will itself allow me to get more book reading done, as I do so miss it.  
• Do at least 1 blog post on or before the 14th of the month:  This is something to help me stop stacking these in the last week of the month.  

I might edit this post later if I think of something else, but that's it for now.  

Life Update - December 31st, 2015

If you follow me on twitter, then you may have noticed reduced activity on my part these last two months.  This is largely due to the holidays and some work-related stuff.  I've also been finding, though, that I've been getting more done lately real-life-wise.  I was a bit surprised today, though, to realize that it was already the 31st, though that's partly because some things came up at the last minute this past week that have messed with my schedule a bit. 
Look forward to a new year's resolution post later today.  Also, I've got a story seed that I'll be mulling over in my head while I go run an errand. 
Long-term, I'll probably be less active a little while longer, at least while I get some other aspects of my life lined up a bit better. 

Sudden Short Story 100

The last fully-human specimen was a curious thing.  His eyes could only see in the visible spectrum, and his neurons weren't even enveloped in chitin for their protection.  Human hybrids, of course, varied considerably, and had many improvements, even when they weren't augmentations, but the last fully-human was just that.  He was so old, in fact, that his mind had to be kept intact with a time-wheel, where causation made itself neatly circular over several millennia - long enough for him to forget each event some amount before he encountered it again.