I time-travel a long way forward... though the future feels strangely medieval.

At last I reach a legendary time, where a young girl with a sword is charged with a heroic task. It's near-undoable, but she might just manage it; for her sword is magic. Well, this is the future, so it's done with microcircuits inside. That's handy: the magic sword is programmable.

Unfortunately, her sword's programming seems to have a bug that brings her terrible luck.

I brought along what I hope is a solution--a small wad of art paper, squeezed so tight it's like a crystal. In this future age, doped crystals function like our microchips. This one's doped with ink--it's a crushed drawing of mine. I borrow her sword, pop open the hollow hilt, and substitute my paperwad for the crystal that's been causing so much trouble, so many bad breaks.

It installs correctly! Close up the sword, and she hefts it. Seems fine. She runs through her practice moves, sweeping the great sword round her kitchen. It performs beautifully. She's back in business!

A clean reboot won't solve everything. She's still beset by external troubles, some of them inherent in her quest, some brought on by that bad-luck program. But at least this new crystal won't attract any more trouble! From here on out, it's just cleanup time.

I've been trying to change that core program for months, for years--and at last it's done.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Paperwad = art. The discipline of art applies to much of life!: ignore inner critics, just practice, crumple up your failures, and quit when you're tired--do something else till you're fresh again. Then come back and hack away some more. Practice until terrifying activities become natural!
• Reprogramming = my hellish childhood taught me to expect misunderstanding and loneliness. It goes beyond an attitude problem--I have amazingly bad luck around dating and job-hunts, though my luck's just fine in other areas. For years I've dreamed that I needed radical reprogramming--that something like this crystal was mechanically guaranteeing disasters. Not even a character flaw--that could be fixed, after all, with diligence. Something even deeper...

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