Wow, what a busy day. There's a couple of announcements for today. The first is, you'll notice now that this page redirects to inproximity.org. The old URL will work, but feel free to update if you wish. It's almost like it's a real blog now.

Second, go on over and check out my new article at Relevant Magazine, "The Trap of More." Who knows how much longer it will be highlighted on the front page, but in case you have troubles finding it, you can check it out here.

As many of you know, Friday is now story time, and thus we continue the story of the crazy dream. Feel free to check out part 1 and part 2 if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

The atmosphere was ecstatic! The threat was over, we could live without having to be filled with terror. It wouldn't make up for all of the loss that most of us had suffered, but there was hope on the horizon. So we all started marching towards Minneapolis, hoping to find some kind of relief, some other survivors from this whole mess.

There's dancing and singing in the streets. I have to admit, it's hard to juxtapose the feelings of complete horror no less than 2 hours ago to feelings of complete satisfaction now. But life is like this anyways, an emotional roller coaster. It's how we choose to handle the ride that shapes who we are.

But as we continue to march on, I stop suddenly in my tracks. Oh no. This can't be happening. This is just a bad dream. If only it was. Those machines were back and were moving towards us. Those lasers ate up everything around them, leaving nothing but devastation and destruction in their wake. What once was voices of joyful singing turned immediately into sheiks of fright. I stood, shocked, stunned. It didn't work.

So my mom and I started running back north, trying to find some semblance of safety. For some reason, we are able to get ahead of everyone else and keep gaining distance as we keep running. And then we look behind us, and the unthinkable happens. Large cyclones of fire come out of these machines, and I watch as they burn up everyone that we were marching with. Before my eyes, these people that were once filled with joy are now combusting. It's unthinkable. It's tragic.

So we do what we know how to do, we keep running. We are able to find an apartment to hide in, hoping that these machines won't notice two piddly humans hiding from their presence. I look out the window, and most of the machines are passing us by. But then I start to see something weird. One of the machines, shrinks down to the size of a human being, and starts making its way to the apartment we are in. This is it. I am going to die in this very moment.

We hide behind the couch, knowing that it's not visible in plain sight. Then, the door slams open and this robotic creature makes its way in. What looks like infrared beams come out of it, and I know this has to be some type of seeking device. My mom must be thinking the same thing, so she makes a break for it. She tries to jump out the window, but as she jumps out, the machine hurls metal shurikens at her, and she falls to the ground. Dead. This is it, surrounded by death and destruction, how much longer can I avoid my fate?

So I make a break for the door. I'm able to get out of the complex and the machine chases me down. As I make a break for the street, I am surrounded on all sides by the robotic creatures. It's like a blur, but then they all hurl shurikens at me, from every which direction. It's like being impaled in every place of your body. I fall to the ground, and everything begins to turn white. Is this it? Is this the end?