Reboot
I was driving to work today and, thanks to some combination of sensory inputs, suddenly had the idea that I was only moments away from waking up in a hotel room I stayed in while away on business many years ago. This distressed me, as my life's actually been going quite well since then, and I wasn't looking forward to having to redo everything I've done in the intervening years just to get back to where I am now.
I'm wholly unprepared for a reset, even a partial one. My memories of the past are incomplete and often in direct contradiction to those of others with whom I shared the experience. I pay little to no attention to sports, so I can't make large sums of money gambling on upsets. And although I'm clear on basically when things like the end of the housing bubble occurred, I'm not certain that I could recall them well enough to make my fortune in the stock market with precisely-timed selling and buying. I can't even bring to mind the names of any big companies that have sprung up unexpectedly in the last decade, such that I could invest in them or purchase their stocks at low prices.
Clearly, there are two things I need to start doing immediately. First of all, I need to study. If at any point I might wake up in the past, I need my retrograde remembrance to have detailed information on the big upcoming successes and failures. I figure I can slack off on the personal stuff; anyone who didn't make a strong, lasting impression obviously isn't someone I desperately need to either seek out or avoid, depending. This'll probably lead to regular feelings of deja vu for events I only faintly remember, but I can live with that in exchange for having devoted my memory to things that will make me rich. Besides, once I'm rich, I'll probably spend a lot of time traveling, which actually I do anyway right now, so I'll probably meet the same people anyway. I'll just ride in first class on the way to and from many of the same places.
The other thing I need to do is identify a new save point. This hotel I nearly woke up in during my commute today is in Germany, which makes it inconvenient to get to every time I want to bump up the reset point in my personal timeline. That's even assuming it'll work twice, which is obviously not a given. I'd like something a little bit closer to home, something where I don't have to worry about the universe getting all ironic on me during the half-day trip out there and resetting a decade of work just as I'm about to save it. I'm not entirely certain where to start looking, though. In games, the save points are always clearly marked, both before and after they've been triggered. I can't recall this hotel room having any unusual lights, doors, jars or other save point features.
I think I'll work on the mental notes first, and just try to keep an eye out for save points. It's not terrifically important until I actually wake up in the past, anyway; I'm just not interested in turning my life into a longer version of Groundhog Day. There's only so many times you can build a fortune on a science-fiction version of insider trading before it just gets old.
I'm wholly unprepared for a reset, even a partial one. My memories of the past are incomplete and often in direct contradiction to those of others with whom I shared the experience. I pay little to no attention to sports, so I can't make large sums of money gambling on upsets. And although I'm clear on basically when things like the end of the housing bubble occurred, I'm not certain that I could recall them well enough to make my fortune in the stock market with precisely-timed selling and buying. I can't even bring to mind the names of any big companies that have sprung up unexpectedly in the last decade, such that I could invest in them or purchase their stocks at low prices.
Clearly, there are two things I need to start doing immediately. First of all, I need to study. If at any point I might wake up in the past, I need my retrograde remembrance to have detailed information on the big upcoming successes and failures. I figure I can slack off on the personal stuff; anyone who didn't make a strong, lasting impression obviously isn't someone I desperately need to either seek out or avoid, depending. This'll probably lead to regular feelings of deja vu for events I only faintly remember, but I can live with that in exchange for having devoted my memory to things that will make me rich. Besides, once I'm rich, I'll probably spend a lot of time traveling, which actually I do anyway right now, so I'll probably meet the same people anyway. I'll just ride in first class on the way to and from many of the same places.
The other thing I need to do is identify a new save point. This hotel I nearly woke up in during my commute today is in Germany, which makes it inconvenient to get to every time I want to bump up the reset point in my personal timeline. That's even assuming it'll work twice, which is obviously not a given. I'd like something a little bit closer to home, something where I don't have to worry about the universe getting all ironic on me during the half-day trip out there and resetting a decade of work just as I'm about to save it. I'm not entirely certain where to start looking, though. In games, the save points are always clearly marked, both before and after they've been triggered. I can't recall this hotel room having any unusual lights, doors, jars or other save point features.
I think I'll work on the mental notes first, and just try to keep an eye out for save points. It's not terrifically important until I actually wake up in the past, anyway; I'm just not interested in turning my life into a longer version of Groundhog Day. There's only so many times you can build a fortune on a science-fiction version of insider trading before it just gets old.