So I went to look at an old story to confirm that I did indeed have a character named "Stewie". The thing is, when I got a new computer, I stopped using Microsoft Word because Bill Gates and his copy protection software made it a pain to transfer my existing copy over to my new computer.

Anyway, I went to open the story and tried using Notepad to do so and found it was a garbled mess. Surprisingly, there were a few lines that weren't... And I didn't remember them from the story at all. So I went ahead and opened the story with the expired copy of Word that came with my computer (You can't save with it, but you can read with it) and sure enough, the passage below does not show up in the story anywhere. But yet it exists, nestled between the lines of code in the notepad version.

Kind of creepy. Anyway, here's the hidden bit:

---

"Did I ever tell you about the time Jarvis and I switched bodies?" Visionary asked, leaning back against the nothingness. According to Fleabot's internal chronometer, they had fallen out of reality at least three days ago, and had since been stuck in a big, empty, beige plane of nonexistence.

"Only slightly fewer times than you retell that whole Christmas story" Fleabot noted. "And I was with you for that one."

"Er, yes sir... I've heard both of those as well." Quoth hastened to add.

"Have you ever thought of finding some new material?" Fleabot prodded. "I mean, once you exist again, and all. Not that your adventures in beigetopia here haven't been enthralling."

"Well, I've kinda been saddled with a desk job, recently" Visionary noted defensively. "I mean, sure... I've never exactly been a front and center kind of guy, but I did use to get out more. I even used to have a scary archenemy. I wonder what he's up to these days?"

"Higher doses of sedative, with any luck" the tiny robot speculated. "How about you, Quothy? Got any juicy stories we haven't heard yet? Sordid tales of the cosmically elite?"

The raven sniffed indignantly. "I hardly think this is the best use of our time."

---

Not bad... I mean, not terribly original for the characters, but what do you want for mystery text?

So anyway, if people want to know why I used to write so many more stories than I do now, the answer is apparently that they self-generated on my old computer.

.

Just a thought here, why don't we take Vizh's miraculous mystery scene and write a short story around it, integrating it into the larger story? It doesn't have to be a long story by any means, but it might be fun to see how everyone sees what Vizh and friends are up to.

~Hat~

> So I went to look at an old story to confirm that I did indeed have a character named "Stewie". The thing is, when I got a new computer, I stopped using Microsoft Word because Bill Gates and his copy protection software made it a pain to transfer my existing copy over to my new computer. > > Anyway, I went to open the story and tried using Notepad to do so and found it was a garbled mess. Surprisingly, there were a few lines that weren't... And I didn't remember them from the story at all. So I went ahead and opened the story with the expired copy of Word that came with my computer (You can't save with it, but you can read with it) and sure enough, the passage below does not show up in the story anywhere. But yet it exists, nestled between the lines of code in the notepad version. > > Kind of creepy. Anyway, here's the hidden bit: > > > > > "Did I ever tell you about the time Jarvis and I switched bodies?" Visionary asked, leaning back against the nothingness. According to Fleabot's internal chronometer, they had fallen out of reality at least three days ago, and had since been stuck in a big, empty, beige plane of nonexistence. > > "Only slightly fewer times than you retell that whole Christmas story" Fleabot noted. "And I was with you for that one." > > "Er, yes sir... I've heard both of those as well." Quoth hastened to add. > > "Have you ever thought of finding some new material?" Fleabot prodded. "I mean, once you exist again, and all. Not that your adventures in beigetopia here haven't been enthralling." > > "Well, I've kinda been saddled with a desk job, recently" Visionary noted defensively. "I mean, sure... I've never exactly been a front and center kind of guy, but I did use to get out more. I even used to have a scary archenemy. I wonder what he's up to these days?" > > "Higher doses of sedative, with any luck" the tiny robot speculated. "How about you, Quothy? Got any juicy stories we haven't heard yet? Sordid tales of the cosmically elite?" > > The raven sniffed indignantly. "I hardly think this is the best use of our time." > > > > > > > > Not bad... I mean, not terribly original for the characters, but what do you want for mystery text? > > So anyway, if people want to know why I used to write so many more stories than I do now, the answer is apparently that they self-generated on my old computer.

See "Mob Rules" for details: http://home.comcast.net/~vizh/stories/mob1.htm