Here are two of my tech-related short stories:

DISTANCE (55 words)
Sacha Chua

The cellphone rang, a welcome interruption to my dreams of him. I woke up smiling and reached for the phone in the dark.

It lay still. No missed calls.

Suffocated by silence, I curled my fingers around the phone–around his hand, 3000 miles away–and tried to sleep for the third time that night.

NO SIGNAL (160 characters)
Sacha Chua

“Searching…” Step back. Wave it. Turn it off. On. Damn. Three days in a row? This time for real, but she’ll never believe me. Long-stemmed roses? Might work.

You can find more of my stories at http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/FlashFiction.php .

Flash fiction is perfect for people on the go. Try it today! Post your flash fiction in the comments below.

I’m not talking about the Nokia digital pen that (gasp!) lets you send handwritten multimedia messages through your cellphone. Nor am I talking about the Logitech io2 digital writing system. (Hah. There’s the obligatory mention of high-tech gadgets I will never buy.)

I’m talking about my trusty Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V5. There’s something about black signpens that make me go ooooh, particularly when I’m writing on smooth, medium- or heavy-weight white paper. Of course, this preference means I have to be careful about the notebooks I get. If the notebook paper is too thin, the ink will be visible on the other side. Too rough, the ink will blot. Too smooth, the ink will smear. Signpens are picky, but they’re worth it.

I’m also quite fond of gel pens. Silver ink on dark blue or black paper, gold ink on burgundy, mahogany ink on beige… Ooooh. The wide array of papers and pens available at your nearest bookstore means you can easily experiment with various colors until you find a combination that appeals to you. If index cards came in colors like that, I’d be completely sold. Must get around to cutting my own index cards.

I hear 4-color pens are really useful for taking quick notes. I’m not really a ballpen person, though. I’d love to find out where I can buy a sign pen or gel pen version…

For the PDA-obsessed among you: check out Stylus Central’s 4-point pens and see if you can bug your favorite PDA accessories dealer to bring some of them in. (There, I mentioned gadgets again. =) ) Hmm, that red pen/black pen/mechanical pencil/stylus combination looks very interesting; I wonder where I can get that locally? I’d love a combination pen/mechanical pencil for my deck of index cards, as I occasionally need to pencil things in.

For the anachronistic among you: check out Hobbes in Greenbelt 3 for quills. Yup, quills. They’re made of glass instead of feathers, but they should give you a properly medieval feel. You can also get sealing wax from there.

What’s your favorite kind of pen?

… my Hipster PDA.

“SACHA?!”

(more…)

I’m Sacha Chua, open source geekette and m|ph guest blogger for the month of June. I’ll be writing on a twice-weekly schedule (Wednesday and Friday), so check back often!

When m|ph asked me if I could guest-blog, they probably remembered me as the wearable computing geek who wandered around with a
head-mounted display. Little did they know I’d come a long way from my gadget-oriented pursuits.

“I don’t blog about gadgets or high tech,” I warned them. “I write about productivity and what people can do with what they have.”

“Sure. You’ll bring balance,” they said.

(What, balance to the Force?)

Over the next few weeks, you’ll hear about podcasting and productivity, free software and fun gizmos that will expand your mind without hurting your pocket. I’m here to share some tips and help you kick ass with whatever technology you can get your hands on.

To give you a sneak preview of what’s up ahead, here’s my
favorite portable device: the Hipster PDA.

Shocked? Read more about why the Hipster PDA is the latest and greatest this Friday.