Flash Fiction Fridays?

Though I don't have all of my 2015 resolutions ready, I do know that "blog 4x/month" will be on the list, since I still struggle with that.  However, I'm also hoping to add some regularity by specifically posting a sudden short story on the 3rd Friday of each month, with the next day as a backup day if  I'm busy that night. 
Hopefully, this will prevent me from going long stints without writing, since I'll go no more than a month between stories.  This will also at least partially mitigate the last-minute factor of my meeting my self-set quota. 
This should also mean more stories,  overall, which should make my fan happy.  ;)

Sudden Short Story 68

A glowing orb appeared before him.  It was hard to miss on the desolate planet with the thin atmosphere.  He had a suspicion of what it might be, so he turned around.  The orb moved in front of him.  He waited, and it started making noises, soon progressing to the old dial-up modem sound. 
"I wasn't sure if anyone else was still around, really." 
"You speak modern English," came from the orb. 
"Indeed I do," said the man.  "Though that only works as a technical description, since the language is hardly 'modern' any more, since it's been so long since anyone had cause to speak it.  I'm honestly a little surprised that you became energy beings," he said frankly. 
"I'm surprised that an antique human still exists.  You're very probably the last one," replied the orb. 
"I hope that you're wrong about that," replied the antique man. 
A moment passed - a small eternity to the energetic human being.  "What are you doing?" it asked. 
"I'm waiting," replied the antique human. 
"What are you waiting for?" asked the orb, from a wrote phrase. 
"You wouldn't understand," said the antique, confined to his physical form.  He was certain that it wouldn't understand what he awaited or why he awaited it. 
Another moment passed.  "If you find another antique human, would you let me know?" 
"I will," said the orb. 
After a while, the orb lost interest in its find, and left. 

Sudden Short Story 67

"All rise," announced the bailiff, as the judge returned from his recess. 
"Be seated," said the judge, as he sat down, himself.  "Will the defense rise?" 
The defense rose. 
"Mr. Allister, you have not contested any of the specific claims made regarding your activity on the day in question, but you contest the accusation itself.  Is that correct?"
"Yes, your honor," spoke Mr. Allister.
"However, you say that your singing a song did likely influence your wife's emotional state, but that this does not constitute witchcraft.  Is that correct?" 
"Yes, your honor." 
"Further, it arose in your testimony that you believe that you come from another dimension, where this singing is commonplace, natural, and at least partially understood by neurologists, but that you lack the expertise needed to describe this to us, because it is not your field.  Do be aware that this belief, in and of itself, will not be considered when I render judgement, as it is not, itself, part of the charge.  However, I do wonder:  Why did you choose to stay in this dimension?" 
"Well, your honor," began Mr. Allister, "to put it simply, I rather like trains and airships.  We don't have many of them in my home dimension.  Our culture, writ large, values speed, so we have a road system of independent vehicles, and we use heavier-than-air craft, despite their inefficiencies." 
"Do you think, Mr. Allister, that you could sing that same song again?" 
"Well, I could sing the short version, as I did then:  The full one is in The Lord of the Rings - a franchise from my home dimension - but I only know the abridged one by heart." 
"And do you think that you could reproduce the effect?" 
"I can't guarantee that anyone would cry, but I suspect that people would be emotionally affected." 
"In that case, Mr. Allister, I wonder if you would be willing to sing that same song here, in open court." 
"Your honor," called the prosecution's attorney, "this is highly irregular!" 
"Trying someone for witchcraft is highly irregular," snapped back the judge.  "The only reason that this case hasn't been thrown out for spectral evidence is because the prosecution, the defense, and the only third-party witness all agree on the events as they happened.  Your objection, if you have one, is overruled.  Be seated."
Begrudgingly, the prosecuting attorney sat back down.
"Yes," began the accused, realizing that he was catching the judge's meaning, "I would be willing to sing.  There is no magic to it, no need for smoke and mirrors."  
"Then, please, proceed," said the judge. 
Mr. Allister sang, as best a nervous amateur could, a film version of a poem from a novel, a small piece of a lengthy book, that he'd managed to remember from his own dimension: 
Home is behind, 
The world ahead, 
And there are many paths to tread, 
In shadow, to the edge of night, 
Until the stars are all alight.  
Mist and shadow, cloud and shade.  
All shall fade.  All shall fade.  

A slight panic stirred in the audience, comprised almost entirely of people who had never heard lyrics sung, as they had emotions stimulated in a novel way.  The judge tapped his gavel to restore some order and quiet the murmurs. 
"The prosecution will rise."  And so they did.  "Mr. Henry, can you verify that this is what you heard on the day in question?" 
"I can," said Mr. Henry, with a wary confidence that justice would side with him. 
"Good.  It is this court's understanding of the scientific process that the properties of the natural world are determined by experiments to measure reproducible effects.  Since the emotional effects of this song were reproducible, it is this court's opinion that they are natural, and thus not supernatural, and therefore this singing is a poorly-understood science, rather than witchcraft or any other form of magic.  Therefore, this court finds the defendant not guilty." 
BANG! went the gavel. 
"Everybody go home," said the judge, relieved to have found a way out of sentencing a man before the congress could put a more permanent patch over some old, broken laws. 

2014 Wrap-Up

Well, I never made a Minecraft mod, and I never got around to playing LEGO Indiana Jones, though I probably will in January. 
On review, it turns out that LEGO Indiana Jones wasn't on my 2014 resolution list.  Well, I still want to do it at some point, since I do own it. 
Beating Myst again (after so many years) won't happen this year, unless I manage to squeeze that in tomorrow, which is unlikely. 
I did at least get into Minecraft for a while, though I haven't played in months. 
I did beat the Elite 4 in Pokémon X, but I didn't manage to catch 'em all. 

As far as blogging 4 times per month goes, I've got a note for each of 2 sudden short stories, so I just need to type those up to bring me to 3 this month, and then I need one more topic somewhere.... 

Sudden Short Story 66

"Hey, Jerry," Benedict said, waving his friend over. 
"Hey, what's up?" Jerry asked when he got there. 
"Well, since the port's having some down time, we're swapping anecdotes about our home dimensions.  This is Ken, by the way.  Apparently, even though our dimensions are close to each other, the celebrities are wildly different.  Like, um... Ooh, tell me about Michael Jackson." 
"The musician?" Ken asked. 
"No way!" Jerry interjected, "He stayed with music?  We're talking Mad Michael Jackson, the pro wrestler, right?  Well, no, I suppose not.  But did yours start out in The Jackson 5, too?" 
"Yeah, that's the one.  He died of a drug overdose.  Just as well, really." 
"Oh yeah," added Benedict, "That's one thing:  In both our dimensions, drug overdose is a really common way for celebrities to go." 
"So your Michael Jackson was a pro wrestler?" asked Ken.  "What about your Dwayne Johnson?" 
"He was a pro wrestler, too," said Jerry, "but then he went on to sell these electric grills that drain fat into a catch basin." 
"Oh, that was our George Foreman's schtick.  Our Dwayne Johnson became an actor, but still started out in pro wrestling." 
"Oh.  We've basically got it the other way around:  George Foreman went on to be an actor in B-grade sci-fi movies." 
"Oh, weird," said Ken.  "Let's see... Our Bob Ross was a painter, what was yours?" 
"He did comic books back in the 20th century," said Benedict. 
Just then, they all got alerts.  Each saw that the other had just checked one, and correctly assumed that they were the same:  The port was back to up time.  They parted ways, and each left with the thought of how different-yet-similar things were between dimensions.  Each was also glad that he wasn't a celebrity. 

Sudden Short Story 65

"I am told that you can free me," she said to the foreigner, as she sat by him in the tavern.  Priestesses were uncommon there, but nobody would think to question her presence, either. 
"If your will is bound by a deity, then yes, I can free you," he replied. 
"And what do you seek in return?" 
"I need access to the temple," he explained.  "I also want me to tell me whatever you can about your highest priestess, as it will help me in my cause.  Otherwise, I need little." 
Hope stirred in her, that she might be able to escape her fate.  "I must have something to call you, if I am to take you to the island.  What is your name?" 
"I have had many names, but I go by Asura-Anatakartta.  It was given to me by a people from my home plane, after I slew the threefold god of the west." 
The idea that he came from another plane of existence was very surprising to her, but she was trained to spot lies, and this man was not lying.  "What brings you to our plane?" 
"I have been exiled from my home plane.  I do seek to return, but it is a long journey that I undertake." 
"You slew a god, and you can free people from them.  Who would want to exile you?"she asked. 
"Other gods, of course.  Deities think that they're untouchable until someone kills one and lives.  Though, even that was not enough to warrant my exile, the first time.  It was not until I slew Brahma that the rest of the Trimurti mustered enough power - theirs and their allies' - to banish me." 
The priestess realized that she might be a bit out of her depth with this one, but there was still the mission to do, and she would be free.  "Let us go, then," she said, standing.  "Once I am free, perhaps I can help you on your journey home." 
"You cannot, but thank you," he replied, as she led him out.  She sensed that she should not ask further on that subject, and so she remained silent. 

---

He waited outside of the high priestess's abode, just out of sight to anyone who would be leaving the doorway.  The house servant was out on errands, so he had said that the house would need to be empty for his work to begin.  He had not lied, but he had allowed her to believe that he would be doing a secretive investigation of the premises. 
They were inside for a long time.  The high priestess had sensed deception in her subordinate, but was unable to tease it out of her.  Eventually, they left, headed toward a different part of the island.  He crept up behind the high priestess, then ran her through the spine and heart with his sword. 
"The thing about deities," he began.  The young priestess spun around, startled that he had revealed himself, and then more startled at the dying body before her.  "... is that most people don't really understand what they are, and each one is different.  She didn't even realize it, but the high priestess was the goddess.  I had uncovered that much during my previous investigation, before I even met you.  And so, you are free," he said, wiping off his blade.  "Unfortunately - and I am so very, very sorry for this part - she had already named you as her heir." 
She was so shocked that, by the time that he charged at her, she was only able to throw up a simple shielding spell, which was immediately shattered on the point of a blade that had slain gods.  She died free, but still she died. 

Regarding Non-Alphabetical Ordering of Reduced Fractions as Strings

I ran across a programming problem a while back, and I've been meaning to post about the consequences of it.  There is a situation in which there are fractions that are represented as strings and that, by default, sort alphabetically.  The representations were immutable, but were usually reduced, so an ordering flag had to be added that would apply before the alphabetization.  I'll try to describe the problem mathematically below. 

Let F(n) be the set of fractions m/n such that m,n , n > 1, n is not prime, 0 < m < n. 
Note:  If n were prime, then the solution would be trivial, since the fractions cannot be reduced, and therefore the proper order and alphabetical order would be the same.   
Assume that either (1) we use a high enough base that n is always a single character, or (2) every string representation of the fraction m/n, for every value of m, is equally and sufficiently 0-padded in both the numerator and the denominator.  (For an example of (2):  If n=10, then 9/10 would be "09/10", and 8/10=4/5 would be "04/05".)  For a given m, what is the minimum number of ordering flags such that, if each fraction m/n is associated with one, then sorted first by flag and then alphabetically, the fractions, even reduced, would be in ascending order? 

An Example: 
Let n = 8. 
F(n) = {1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8} = {1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8}. 
If sorted alphabetically, then these fractions would come out as "1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 3/4, 3/8, 5/8, 7/8". 
Assume that 3 flags is sufficient.  Call them "a", "b", and "c".  Clearly, 1/8 will need "a", 1/4 will need "b", and 1/2 will need "c".  Similarly, 3/4 will need either "a" or "b", and 3/8 will need either "b" or "c", but they cannot both take "b". 
For brevity and clarity, I will simply tack the flag on the front of the fraction, so that alphabetical order will put them in the proper order.  One valid association, then, produces "a1/8, b1/4, b3/8, c1/4, c5/8, c3/4, c7/8".  (In fact, I just realized that this is the only valid association on 3 flags, but I'll leave this as an exercise.)  
2 flags is not sufficient for this set:  If any {1/2, 1/4}, {1/4, 1/8}, or {1/2, 1/8} get the same flag, then they will resolve in the wrong order. 

When looking at the set, reduced, the minimum  number of flags is at least the largest number of common numerators (3, in the above example, as 3 of the reduced fractions had 1 as their numerator).  However, is there a good way to determine this purely from looking at n? 

Note:  I've also determined that 3 flags is sufficient when n=9, when n=10, and when n=6.  Demonstration of this is left as an exercise. 

Another example: 
Let n = 4. 
F(n) = {1/4, 2/4, 3/4} = {1/4, 1/2, 3/4}. 
2 flags is sufficient:  "a" must go with 1/4 and "b" with 1/2 (and 3/4), sorting them as "a1/4, b1/2, b3/4". 

Note:  In any case where 1 flag is sufficient, the solution is trivial.  That is, flagging is unnecessary. 

Conjecture:  The minimum number of flags needed to sort the reduced fractions alphabetically is x, where x is one less than the number of factors (prime or otherwise) of n. 

An example that attempts to exercise the conjecture: 
Let n = 12. 
Let H(n) be the set of factors of n.  For n=12, H(12) = {1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12}.  The size of H is 6, so x=5. 
F(12) = {1/12, 2/12, 3/12, 4/12, 5/12, 6/12, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12} = {1/12, 1/6, 1/4, 3/4, 5/12, 1/2, 7/12, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 11/12}. 
This resolves as:  "01/02, 01/03, 01/04, 01/06, 01/12, 02/03, 03/04, 05/06, 05/12, 07/12, 11/12". 
Let us try to minimally alphabetize it: 
a01/12, b01/06, c01/04, d01/03, d05/12, e01/02, e07/12, f02/03, f03/04, f05/06, f11/12. 
5 flags was insufficient, as I had to go to 6 to put 2/3 after 7/12, so the conjecture is incorrect. 



Well, that's all for now.  I might revisit this problem at a later date.  We'll see.