9/11

I joined Sal in Times Square this morning. It broke my heart. How can I begin to describe what it's like knowing what happens at 8.46am. I was standing there, looking at my watch a minute before, and looking around and seeing everyone doing their normal things, and I could hear...I could actually hear the distant hum of the jet engines of the first plane approaching.

And I watched people begin to look up at the sky as the engines rose in pitch and it got louder and mouth's open and eyes widen.

Then the moment. It was horrible counting the last minute down. Poor Sal does this everytime the field office loops around. She sees all of this. Hears the cries and screams of shock. It was all too much. I cried.

I cried like a child, because it reminded me of this day, when I was only ten, and watching it all happen on a telly in high school. The other girls in my class all screaming and the boys all yelling 'no way!' as loud as they could. And there was and me knowing my cousin Julian was in there somewhere.

God that memory really hurts still. I'm not doing the Sal-run for a long while. That was enough for me.

LIAM WATCHING 'TITANIC'

Me, Sal and Liam sat down and watched the movie, TITANIC. The James Cameron one. Sal's never seen it before, which is understandable. She's from 2026 so it's a real old film for her. Liam, of course, having worked on the ship was a complete pain in the ass. All the way through, I mean ALL THE WAY THROUGH, he was going on about how 'a steward wouldn't talk that way to a passenger', or 'that's not how steward-service works for steerage'. Sheeesh. He was a pain.

But when the iceberg bit happened. Then he went very, very quiet. I sort of felt guilty for moaning at him to shut up. I think that the 2nd half of the movie affected him quite a lot. See, he was there, he went through it all. Liam told me he was below decks through most of it, flushing out all the passengers from their rooms so he didn't actually 'see' some of those scenes you see in the movie...you know the bit where the ship breaks in half, people hanging off the back, falling into the water, sliding down the deck etc etc. He didn't see that stuff, but he certainly heard it, he said; all the screaming, the string quartet playing on the top deck, the sound of the ship's hull stressing.

I asked him how 'real' the movie looked to him, and I swear he was crying. He didn't say much in answer. Just nodded.

It's pretty strange to watch a movie like that with someone who's lived through the events being depicted on-screen. When I was small I once watched 'Saving Private Ryan' with my great grandpa. He was in the US Rangers. And he reacted much like Liam did. Very quiet, not saying much. Doing more thinking than talking.

Anyway, other things? Not much, bubble-days pass although they're the same days you'd think that they could get boring, right? Wrong. We've had fun with it. I mean, being able to 'predict' what every person out there in New York is going to do means you can have a laugh. I might blog sometime soon about that.

Anyway....so. Byeeee.

Postcard from the edge

I'm teaching Liam how to use computers. How do you start though? He's from 1912 and the closest thing to a computer that he's seen before is an old typewriter. Honestly it took him a whole day to get over the the concept of a mouse; the idea he could move around one thing and see the cursor move around on a screen at the same time. He struggled with the idea the two things were related!

So now, I've got him using the mouse okay, and he's getting his head around the internet interface software. That was knew to me, by the way. It's a data collater from several decades down the line, perhaps of interest to microsoft and google it isn't developed by either of them, but the same company who appear to have manufactured our clone grow-tubes. 'WG systems'.

Anyway, Liam can now actually 'surf' the net. (I won't bore myself explaining how much of a job it was explaining hyperlinks to him...fact is he gets it now).

Oh, got a new webcam. The old one stopped working for some reason. Took a snappy snap of the field office. But it's a bit grainy because it's so dim in here. (sheesh my desk looks messy)

Mum and Dad, miss you.

Love M xxx

RECENT EVENTS

I haven't written for a while. Things have been hectic. There was an incident, I best not say what exactly in case anyone is actually reading this, but it was something that happened in 2015 and we had to go forward to sort it out.

Well, it was my fault. Things went wrong. Horribly wrong and Liam and some other kids got sent back...I mean way back in time. It's all okay now. They're back. Everyone is where they should be and stuff, but it's damaged Liam. The travel, it's damaged him and I feel so guilty about this.

He's been sick and he looks so pale. Sal's worried about him too. Sometimes I wish I didn't choose this. Sometimes I just wish I'd gone down with that plane in 2010. It would have been quick and terrifying but it would all be over now. I'd be dead. And maybe if there is something after death I'd be doing that instead of doing this.

Sorry. I feel crap and I realise I'm rambling.

I just can't do this job. I don't know what I'm doing half the time, and I apparently have the fate of the world in my hands! It's living with the knowledge that one little mistake I might make could kill billions of people. That's crazy that I'm in charge! Who's freaking bright idea was that?

Like I say, I'm rambling. Enough already.

2001...and Music still Sucks!

Music in 2001 sucked. Sorry sucks - present tense. Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys. It's all frikkin' Divas right now! I thought it was all garage band back here; you know? Nirvana and stuff. But I realise now that was, like, earlier...mid-90s. So, the FM radio stations, digital radio online, it's all warbling R&B crap. Mind you, the weird bit is...well, actually, the cool thing is, there's no X Factor, no Pop Idol yet. No Simon Cowell. Yayyyy!!!

How cool is that?!!None of that phoney rubbish has happened yet.

I'm almost tempted to step out of the archway and into time and join the auditions the first time round and tell Simon Cowell how totally crap his contribution to the music biz will be over the next decade. That'd be fun. Actually, me and the others pretending to be a band. Mind you, I don't want to imagine Bob trying to do a N-Sync Boyz routine.

Ugghh. I've got that image in my mind now. Him and Liam with baseball caps perched on their heads, bein' all wicked an' street.

Nite out

The three of us went out to Greenwich Village to see some bands. Thaat was so funny. I can't tell you how funny it was watching Liam listening to thrash metal. He kept turning rounf to me and asking if the band were alruigt, or if there was a prbelem.

Sorry about the typing. I had too much beer this evening. Feeling a little worse for wear and I can't focus too good on these monitors right now.

Sal liked the third band we saw. Said they reminded her a bit of one of the bangra-thrash bands she liked in 2029. Weird. I keep forgeting she's from the future.

I'm feeling ill. We had some curry on the way back home and I thinlk I might jus be ready to puke it all bak up.

Not good. I feel totslly crap. - Madsdty

George Bush's inbox

I've been trawling through numbnut's Presidential inbox again this morning. Seriously can't believe the dumbass mail he gets from his mates, and the dumbass stuff he replies with! It's all beer and fart gags. I'm serious. And this is THE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA'S INBOX!!! THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD!!!!

Sheesh.

You know I was a kid the year he got elected. Lemmesee...I was eight. I figured all that stuff in the papers about him being a dumb-ass rich fratboy was just the 'others', you know, the Democrats bitching and whining coz they lost the election. Looking at this stuff, I guess they were right all along. He's a total doofus.

Mind you, I'll have to post Donald Rumsfeld's fart gag, sometime. It is pretty funny.

*sigh* Liam's just looked over my shoulder and asked what a 'fratboy' is. God, he's so-o-o-o nineteenth century.

The weirdness of 2001

You know what the weirdest thing about being in 2001? It’s the internet. No Facebook, no Youtube, no Twitter and every webpage looks totally retarded. It’s the little things like the fact that there’s nothing moving on screen – every graphic is totally static, no animated pop-ups, or banners. I used to find those things distracting. Now I sort of miss them. Our computer system here has got a broadband feed. But this is old broadband. You know, snail-speed broadband, so it’s probably for the best that I’m surfing low-graphics pages.

Want to here something cool? I’ve even got access to some very sensitive government sites – the White House for example! I can actually view the President’s email inbox/sent mail! You wouldn’t beliecve the sort of dumbass ‘funnies’ Prez Bush and his cronies send each other. Jeeez. He’s sent about two dozen emails this morning already. And I thought the guy had a fricken country to run or something.

Oh, and I’m bloated. We over-ordered on the chinese again. I always do that. x

Testing routing from 2001

I’ve sort of hacked the computer in the archway. It’s simple really – I’m here in 2001 posting blog entries to a server that I know is still around in 2010. Then rerouting those posts to this website. Seems to work.

So, if anyone’s out there, this is me, Maddy. Madelaine Carter. And Mom, Dad, if you’re seeing this…I know it won’t make sense, you’re gonna think this is someone messing around with your mind. But you know, it’s okay. I’m alive, I didn’t die on that plane. Actually, they won’t ever see this. They don’t do computers. They can barely send emails.

So, I guess this is just me talking to myself. Something to do whilst I’m waiting for Sal and Liam to come back with our chinese takeaway.

More later. X