Per Diem (Patreon)

Thank fuck for people becoming habitual cellphone users. I get some vague memories from all my hosts, but it’s sketchy with things as precise as codes. Fingerprint scanners are the best, but muscle memory is pretty good too, so if they use their phone often and for a long time I’m good. Given how people place more and more of their lives in a small rectangle of magic minerals it’s easier than ever to take whatever I want.

But I don’t want any. I did a while back, mostly to prove that I could, but not anymore. I don’t need it, never did. All I want to take nowadays is information and photos. Selfies. This one, Bradly Crow, is pretty good looking. They usually are, for some reason. I’m trying to be better at keeping a record to figure this thing out. Basic contact information, geographic information, things like that. Andrei set up a “react front for a relational database and an S3 bucket on amazon cloud” whatever the fuck that means. I’m good remembering things. I have to be, since I can’t write things down. Or couldn’t at least. Now I have a slack where I can post stuff and tell Andrei what to do, regardless of where I am. Hopefully he can start figure shit out and see if any patterns emerge.

I’ve honestly been too ignorant for too long on how this all works. Obviously the first time it happened was a complete shock. One morning I woke up as Martin Gutmann, visiting his parents in Berlin. I don’t remember many details, but I mostly pretended to be sick and tried to figure out what had happened within the confines of the guest room. And the next time I woke up I was Simon Baker in Tintagel, UK. Then it just continued. A new person every morning, all over the world. Always a mid 20 white male, usually good looking, but not always.

I quickly became bored with pretending to be sick. Some were single, so I could just do whatever, but It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t give a fuck about anyone. Just get dressed and walk out the door. Or don’t get dressed. I’ll admit I was a bit destructive at one point. Got myself in jail I imagine. I wasn’t there for the trial. Every day a new body. No need to go to work. No need for protected sex. No need to worry about hangover, or withdrawal or medical treatments. I suspect that if I die, I die for real, but that never made me wear a helmet.

No one has ever understood me better than the movie Groundhog Day. Although the situation is completely different, the futility and lack of consequences resonated deep. When it came out I watched it probably 10 times. Ironic to see that movie that many times, but it taught me so many lessons. I have been going back between this being a blessing and a curse. Even ignoring the amazing breadth of lives and places I’ve seen, who else have experienced more than one body, let alone thousands?

I decided to attempt to get a direction in life. No more weird haircuts, piercings or tattoos. No more surprise participation in pornos. Instead I’m trying to be as positive as possible. Do volunteer work. Contribute to charities. My latest thing is to try to find and fix the biggest problem for each host before the day ends. There might be some set of actions that ultimately traps me in a body and finally allows me to grow old. That would be an amazing 200th anniversary gift.