John is a doctor, and he had been trying out some new voice recognition software for dictation, and he brought along a short-short story that he'd dictated, and Bob thought I should post it.

John stared into the dark fire, the embers remained but a twinkle. His life had taken a dramatic turn in the past 24 hours. One friend was dead, the other missing. In the distance he could make out the war drums of his enemy. The dastardly Democrats, spawn of the devil, had been his nemesis since his childhood.

Merlin spoke, "Do not despair, my furry friend. Vengeance will be yours, sayeth me. You shall revenge the death of your comrade and eat the flesh of the Democrats' cats." The old wizard spoke with the certainty that gave John a feeling that he might just eat a Democrat cat if it were prepared correctly. "Little Dick died bravely," Merlin said, "and your compadre Stuttering Bob will not be hard to locate. We will just scour the local pubs and brothels until we find him."

John's spirits rose with the thought of pubs, brothels and correctly prepared cats. This had the makings of a truly heroic adventure. "Tomorrow we shall begin our quest. Good night, old Browneye." And with that, the two adventurers fell into a much-needed sleep.

So, I continue to play with the Handspring Visor. I downloaded a Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary, and I've been filling up the PalmReader with fiction--I downloaded some free ebooks from FictionWise, and also bought a few short stories, most of which are under a dollar. It's pretty cool to be able to have a half dozen books or more stored in a package the size of a deck of cards. Okay, tarot cards, not regular playing cards, but still.

And I've looked in vain for a digital travel guide to Puerto Vallarta. I just thought it would be fun to have one on there, but no luck.

What's on my Visor

Avantgo Channels:
Astrology.com
Bible Minute
Books@Random
Fiction Folio
HandHeldCrime
MSNBC.com Headlines
Salon
short-stories.co.uk
The Weather Channel
USA Today.com
Willa's Journal
Yahoo!

eBooks:
King James Version New Testament
A Cat Horror Story, by Gardner Dozois
And the Angels Sing, by Kate Wilhelm
Asimov's Science Fiction, Feb. 2002
Buddy Holly Night at the Bone-God's Lair, by A. R. Morlan
Facts Relating to the Arrest of Dr. Kalugin, by Kage Baker
Forever Yours, Anna, by Kate Wilhelm
Inconstant Moon, by Larry Niven
Lemuria Will Rise! by Kage Baker
Mom and Dad at the Home Front, by Sherwood Smith
Noble Mold, by Kage Baker
Pueblo, Colorado Has the Answer, by Kage Baker
Scherzo with Tyrannosaur, by Michael Swanwick
Spirit Dump by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Strange Horizons, December 2001
Strange Horizons, November 2001
The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything, by George Alec Effinger
The Eighth of December, by Dave Smeds
The Fourth Branch, by Kage Baker
The Gallery of His Dreams, by Kristin Kathryn Rusch
The Queen in the Hill, by Kage Baker
The Two Old Men, by Kage Baker
The Wreck of the Gladstone, by Kage Baker
The Reality Break Interviews

I'd link to the eBooks, but I think all of them were from FictionWise.

And, of course, games. I downloaded a bunch to try and see which ones I want to keep. I'm pretty sure I'll end up buying Bejeweled and Mahjongg, both from Astraware. I've got a couple of solitaire games, and a crossword puzzle application, and minesweeper (which I like), and several drawing programs--I'm trying to decide which one(s) to keep. And a photograph album. So I think I'm pretty well set.

Bob's dad is doing better--he was transferred to a different hospital yesterday where he can get some physical therapy, and Bob says he's tired, but doing a lot better. The insurance company would only approve another few days, so hopefully he'll be feeling well enough to actually go home sometime next week. It's been a long, scary time.