Hey, how's the future?

Dear Future Me, Hey. This is you (aka me). If you've forgotten, you sent this e-mail on April 22, 2006. You should be receiving it on January 1, 2020. I wasn't sure if you'd be using the same e-mail address, but I figured it would be pointless to send this to the near future. So, I took a chance. So, how's the future? It hasn't been all that long, so I guess you probably don't have fusion power plants or flying cars. How about electric cars? Did those things catch on? I'm guessing that they're probably just starting to get popular. Speaking of cars, what are gas prices like? Here in the good old days, prices are around $3.00 to $4.00 per gallon. Let's talk about some other tech stuff. Do they have useful quantum computers yet? I'm really looking forward to those. Is the military using railguns yet? Lasers? I'm predicting that the US will field a railgun battleship with the ability to route power to a laser-based point defense system, backed by a nuclear plant. Did we get anything like that? What's your computer like? Right now, I'm running Windows XP SP2, on a rather impressive AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.2 GHz) with 1.00 GB of RAM, a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, and about 350 GB of hard drive space. Did those physics cards ever pan out? I'm skeptical of them marketwise, but I think they have some potential for better games. Heh. Do you still play video games at all? Speaking of which, did you like the Nintendo Revolution back when it came out? I'm really looking forward to playing that in the near future (ie, the past). Also, was Supreme Commander as awesome as it looked? By the way, HD-DVD just came out in the past, and it's off to a very rocky start. It looks like both HD-DVD and Blu-ray are going to have some serious trouble getting into the mainstream. I'm betting on Blu-ray to eventually catch on, but I also have the sneaking suspicion that I'll sound stupid for saying that. Anyway, you're probably trying to remember what it was like back here in 2006. Well, I'm still in grad school at Wayne State, but I'm close to getting my Master's. I'm glad, because I'm sick of this graduate program. Of course, I'm living in Detroit now, and I hate it. I can't wait to leave. This place is so crowded, and loud, and corrupt. I want a nice home in the suburbs, where I don't feel so boxed in. I hate having so many people around me. I feel like they're crawling everywhere, like I can't turn around without bumping into someone. I want to get away from all this. Life's not so bad, I guess. I'm kind of in a funk now. I've gotten used to being alone. I haven't gone out to have fun in a long time now. I'm sure it'll get better soon. I saw Camille Imbert a couple of weeks ago, on vacation from France. She was as kind and beautiful as she always was. I haven't thought about her much lately, though. I still think about Jill sometimes. I wonder if I'll get a second chance with her. God, I'm getting emotional now. Please tell me your love life is better now. You've gotten laid by now, haven't you? I mean, it's not just the sex that I'm worried about. Surely, by now something good must have happened to you. I wish you could answer me. Are you in love? Sorry for getting into all that. I really hope that isn't a sore topic for you anymore. If it is, you really should do something about it. It's been a real problem for, what? 20 years now? Seriously, that question should be moot by the time you get this. On a lighter note, have you found any really cool software lately? I just started using Altiris virtualization software, and I'm really happy with it. I virtualized my install of Firefox (with all my extensions and bookmarks and such), then I exported the layer so that I could use Firefox on Mom and Dad's computer with all my settings intact. I haven't tested it yet, but I hope it works out well. I'm also using Foobar2000 (version 0.8), Custombar, uTorrent, Proxomitron, and Open Office. Remember those? Oh, and I just took over the leadership of the Daemonhunters Mod for Dawn of War and Winter Assault. I feel a bit silly saying that, being 23 and all, but someone had to do it. I just announced that the beta for version 0.9 would be coming out soon. I'm also playing MUGEN and Galactic Civilizations II when the mood strikes me. I still think Chrono Trigger, Total Annihilation, and Master of Orion 2 are the best games of all time (Super Smash Bros. Melee receives an honorable mention). Damn. This thing is getting long. I didn't even really talk much about the big stuff. I figured you'd remember most of that. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of major current (2006) events: George W. Bush is in his second term, the war in Iraq is over for all intents and purposes but we have no exit strategy, oil prices have been rising fast, tensions are mounting with Iran but nothing has happened yet, Israel has had nuclear weaponry for quite some time, the US has very little international support, G. W. Bush has the support of only about 40% of the voters, Michigan has a horrible employment rate, and the RIAA and MPAA are starting to seriously fuck with their paying customers via intrusive copy protection schemes (high-def video formats are using HDCP, for example). One last thing before I finish. Here are some websites that I would check regularly or semi-regularly in 2006. You might want to take a look again for old times' sake: www.somethingawful.com forums.somethingawful.com forums.spacebattles.com www.schlockmercenary.com www.nuklearpower.com adventurers-comic.com I guess that's all I have to say. If www.futureme.org is still around, I hope you'll send a note to your future self again. Goodbye and good luck. I'll see you in the future. Brian