In a small town somewhere in the midwestern United States lived a boy named Stan. Stanley Q. Fiddlesticks XVII to be precise, but Stan for short. Now, Stan was just like any other boy, except Stan had an extraordinary dream: he was going to build a time machine. Yes, a time machine. You may be laughing now, but that's okay, because everyone else laughed too. Stan's neighbours, his friends, his girlfriend, even his mom laughed right in his face when he told them he was going to build a time machine. But that just made him want to build it more. So he worked at it, reading up on Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, String Theory, etc, anything that might allow a loophole for him to travel through time. Alas, everywhere he looked he found nothing. Everyone continued to laugh. It was a running gag amongst the librarians.

"Build that time machine yet Stan?" They would ask, and then laugh. It wasn't a very good gag, but the librarians were old women who laughed at every biting comment they made at people trying to learn. Many people in the town were like that, ignorant lot.

Back to Stan, who kept coming up emptyhanded in his quest for time travel. One day, as Stan had just given up hope and decided to become a travelling salesman like the 17 Stanley Q. Fiddlesticks before him, something happened. He was walking down the street to school and then BAM! a large, blue, vortex opened in front of him. A man jumped out, who introduced himself as Stan.

"But I'm Stan" said Stan, who was, in fact, Stan.

"Yes, I'm you from the future." said Stan (the one from the future).

As soon as the townspeople heard about it, they all stopped laughing. They stopped talking completely actually, since Stan not building a time machine was all they had talked about for the last several years. Eventually some of them went insane from the silence and had themselves a mass suicide, which gave the town something to talk about again, and everything returned to normal. Except for Stan.

Future Stan told Stan he had come from the future, where there had been a massive world war that wiped out 99% of the Earth's population. Intelligent machines and chess AIs were involved. Future Stan said Stan's time machine was humanity's only hope. Future Stan then began showing Stan how to build the Time Machine.

"Isn't this parodoxical?" Young Stan asked.

Future Stan just smiled, "Where'd a kid like you learn a big word like that?" and continued showing him how to build the time machine.

Just as it was completed, a cyborg ninja came through a vortex (similar to the one Future Stan came through, only purple) and killed Future Stan. Quickly, younger Stan opened his own vortex and jumped in to escape.

And thus begins Stan's trek through time to save the world.

Juan had always been fascinated by lightbulbs. Well, lights in general. The way the shimmered and glowed, a sort of constancy and dependability that thwarted the irregularities of mundane existence. And they came in pretty colours.
Juan would sit in his room for hours on end staring at the various light-fixtures he had had installed. Naturally, this did a real number on his eyes and it wasn't long before he needed stronger glasses.
He liked to have a good variety - fancy ones, dull ones, bright ones, dim ones. Some were just plain white light, others were green or blue. But he had always dreamed of having a black light. These fascinated him even more than regular lights, because he knew the light was there, but he couldn't see it! For Juan, this was as close to mysticism as he got.
So, one day Juan decided to become his much sought after black light. It didn't take too long, and his glasses really helped with the casing.
Juan was happy, being a black light. The world was so...different. He didn't only focus on one spot any more. He could look at five, may be six different lights at the same time, all over the room. He could appreciate an entire room of lights, without even having to move his head.
One day, Juan's close friend of thirteen years, Anoop, came to visit. He was worried since Juan had been spending a lot of time in his room recently. Anoop let himself into the room and looked around, stunned at what he saw.
Lights, everywhere. For some reason, Anoop felt as though there ought to be a tartly dressed gentleman or gentlewoman dealing cards over by some slot machines if this picture were to be truely complete.
Then he saw Juan.
'Hello Juan', said Anoop. 'How are you feeling today? You mom told me what you did. I thought I'd stop by and see how things were going.'
'Oh, hello you. What was your name again?'
'Anoop, Juan. You remember me, right? We've been friends for thirteen years. Close friends.'
'Of course, of course,' replied Juan in a patronizing voice. Anoop got the sense that the light that was Juan was smirking at him. A shudder ran down his back.
'Juan, are you going to come back any time?' asked Anoop after a short time. There was silence. Except for the hum or the other lights.
'Why? I'm far better off than any of you others could ever be,' began Juan. Some of the other lights dimmed some as he continued. 'My life has never been better. I have an entire room full of lights. Look at them, Anew, just look at them. They sparkle and glow, all to my whim! Do you have anyone who does that? Anyone who would sacrifice their very life-force so you could be the brightest and most powerful of the lot? Do you?!'
Anoop got annoyed. He didn't like his friend acting all high-and-mighty around him, and he definitely didnt' like being called 'Anew'.
'Hey Juan?'
'Stop! You are not fit to utter my name so familiarly!'
'What does this switch do?'
'No!'

Hehehe, that's cool. Keep the Spam section safe, I remember doing that ....

Yeah stile (webmaster over there) puts like a new one every so often. Also, for the sensitive, please disregard the banners above and below the login window. They're just another part of his business, TheForum has tons of threads much like compsci (obviously about non-CS related stuff like sports, movies, games, tech)

It's making me uncomfortable reading this, *name*

This Account Has Been Suspended

Up, down, up again. Like a hyperactive kid on a swing, the sun simply does not want to stay down. Annoying... but the rays of light, ultraviolet light, and cancer-causing hydrogen ions that were spat out in a solar flare, can't penetrate through steel and concrete of this bunker two stories into the ground. The computer lab is safe.

Time begins to slow down, as days spend awake blur together. One doesn't usually notice this until someone asks about the day of the week. Surprised. Confused. Puzzled look, and a blank stare at the watch. 8:15, no more clues. "Thursday?" That guess must have been way off, as the person ceases interaction and simply walks away. I should also stretch for a bit.

A can of coke and a bag of M&Ms. No wonder I don't sleep. Caffeine jolts though the arteries, reanimating the body. Just what doctor ordered; or advised against... Can't remember now. Return to the familiar terminal.

Nobody else in the room now. Humming noise of the cooling fans and AC prompt a wishful desire for quieter and cooler G5 hardware. Realisation that arts majors will fill the lab, if computers would actually become userfrieldly recalls the idea. Artsies are worse than Engineers trying to hack their way around PC troubles. Sigh. "Oh well..." Log on.

A stream of electrons rush though the cable wire, ping, and return with an instant message "welcome back :)". Somebody actually missed my presence. Browser loads news, forums, and all of the bookmarked comics in separate tabs. The headphones make contact with an audio output port, and a stream of music makes the rest of the world drift away.