dear_mun | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Dear Mun,

I dunno what you're talking about, lady. You can't make things explode with cute. I know.

And why would I want to explode the Grid? That would just be mean. Jeeze. It just got fixed!

It would be cool to visit again though. I have lots of summer vacation left.

Sincerely,
Sam

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That sounds cool. I know how to work the portal! I got a disk and a key and Dad let me use my key when we left.

[Ok the not remember part isn't as fun, but that's fine he can meet Clu all over again!]

But you can still visit for vacation! Vacation is important!

[He smiles.] Alright then. You'll probably have to talk to one of the other Users about the proper calibration, though. Anything to do with the workings of the portal is way outside my line of functioning.

[And that gets you a curious headtilt.] It is? [Pause.] What is 'vacation', anyway? You mentioned you had plenty of 'summer vacation' earlier; is it any different from standard 'vacation'?

Vacation is when you take a break from working and go do fun stuff. Only for days instead of just a while before bed. Um... so like lots of millicycles off. It's 'cause everyone needs to take breaks or they get cranky or start making bad choices.

Summer vacation is vacation from school! School is like work for ki-- beta-Users. 'Cause we don't get to be programmed with knowing everything and have to learn it.

I know about school. A User named LeeStetson told me about it. All Users go to school while they're children, though some fully-developed Users also go to school to enhance their skills in specific functions.

[Clu can't help but seem a little proud of his User-world knowledge there.

This 'vacation' thing has him a little confused, though. Why would someone avoid their function for that long if they could help it?]

I don't think I've ever had more than a few millicycles off at once, unless it was due to being damaged. I mean, I know it's important to know your limits and to have some fun every so often, but well... don't you get bored or restless if you don't have any tasks to do for that long?

Yup! Just like that!

[And all the horrified looks because Clu don't you know what having fun is?!]

That's why you do fun stuff! Or go new places and try new stuff!

It's like.. like field trips! Enrichment!

[No, he's not sure what that word really means, but he heard it used to describe field trips and field trips are like tiny vacations from school too.]

[Of course Clu knows what having fun is! In fact, he knows a few definitions of it that Sam (hopefully) won't find out til he's a good bit older. But you must remember that you're talking to a program, here.

Clu processes over that notion for a moment.]

But... what if you enjoy your normal tasks too? Like, for example, I enjoy hacking and data-gathering. I liked working on my tank too, when I still had one. To me, that's fun.

Does that still count as 'vacation'? Or do you have to do different activities than usual for it to count?

[Bear with Clu here, Sam. The concept of deliberately avoiding work just because you can is kind of alien to a program.]

Well work can be fun sometimes. Dad's job looks really fun. And Clu thinks his job is fun even if I think it's kinda boring. Nobody cares about efficiency reports... at least not for bedtime stories!

But vacation is like doing new stuff. [Sam pauses because he never really thought about this too hard before. Vacation was just something fun that he did.]

If you go new places or do new stuff, you can learn new things! And then you can go back to work later with all your new stuff you know to help with that. Or... Dad likes to go to the beach when he's stuck on problems 'cause he said sometimes you have to let the problem go before you can solve it. Whatever that means.

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