In a station far above some far flung planet of some anonymous yellow dwarf, a chief scientist compiles reports from his team. He checks in with the signals intelligence operatives, and tries to clarify what he's been getting. "So they've mostly stopped all activity, and are idling?"

Do you remember back when 2020 was supposed to be the glorious future? It was supposed to be this bright future where everyone would be happy, everything would be beautiful, and technology would solve all our problems. It's 2020, so I'm officially living in the future, but none of the good parts happened, nor did my clothes transform into polyurethane (not that anyone wanted that). From where I stand, 2020 feels a lot like 2019, just like 2019 felt a lot like 2018, and so on for every year, back to the dawn of time.

Imagine that you're a loyal Google fanboy. You've had an Android phone in your pocket for as long as you can remember, and buy a new one every 8 months (at least). You believe that other search engines don't work. You died a bit when Buzz and Reader were killed, but you bought the rationale behind it. If a video isn't on YouTube, you don't watch it. You stood in line overnight for Google Glass, Google Home, and every Nexus device. You faithfully attend most Google conferences and product launches, live Plussing them on your Chromebook (to the annoyance of your friends), followed by an in-depth Blogger post. When you see a non-Google advertisement, or someone not using Chrome, you retreat to your brightly colored safe space.

Early Wednesday morning, the US Dollar dropped below 0.001 BitCoin, causing epic economic upheaval in the hours leading up to Black Friday.

I think I haven't made you wait long enough for this. I had to wait almost forever to get it, but I don't want to have it lying around anymore. And now the stunning conclusion:

This is not a dream of mine, but from a friend about 10 years ago. I think it predates Toe Stew. Things were a bit odd at the time, and as far as I know, nothing described here has happened. I have changed the real names used in this to protect the guilty, except for yours truly. This is a rather long dream, and was delivered to me in two parts. It is divided at a rather convenient cliff hanger.

I had this dream a day before or after my last one, but don't let that make you think that they are connected.