OUTSIDE IN PRINT
A Digital Imprint
Bob whistles beside the masthead ~ view Idle Times on Steam

Outside In Print weekly sheet

Bob's Almanack

Issue 23
I am a big smile factory.
~ Robert

Note from Bob

This week brings a little company for the desk and a few questions about what we choose to do with our time. Make room for something you enjoy.

New from Outside In Print

Idle Times · New Pet Bob mode

Bob Has Left the Desk

I spend a lot of time writing on my computer, and I thought it would be fun to have a little desktop writer companion to keep me company. So I made one!

Meet Bob, the little author at the heart of Idle Times. With the new Pet Bob mode, he can join you on your desktop as he researches, fact-checks, and furiously scribbles alongside you while you work.

He has a few rare animations tucked away, too. I hope you enjoy discovering them.

You can meet him right now in the playable demo on the Outside In Print homepage. If you’d like to give him a home on your Windows desktop, the full game is available on Steam.

Windows 10+ · $4.99 on Steam
Mini Companion · Pet Bob · Full Desk
Eight original lo-fi JUKE-BOB tracks · 114 illustrated collectibles

A walker carrying a blue water bottle follows a sunlit trail toward a mountain ridge above a lake, leaving an open hatchback and cooler at an overlook.

The Other Side of the Mountain

From the essay

Imagine pulling off at a mountain overlook. There’s food in the car, cold water in the cooler, and a whole afternoon with nowhere you have to be. The weather is beautiful. If it gets too hot, the air conditioning works.

“I can’t really get much more comfortable than this.”

That thought came up in a conversation about technology and where it might be taking us. The stuff we’re able to do with phones is crazy to me.

Read the full essay →

An ant stands beside a torn piece of bread on a weathered picnic table, framed by two men seen from behind as dark, blurred foreground silhouettes, with a river and trees beyond.

The Ant Problem

An ant carrying bread leads Syd and Oliver to questions about powerful machines, well-meant protection, and the freedom to choose a path.

Two men fold a table in a warmly lit parish hall as an older man hands a ring of keys to a woman by the open doorway; diners and serving tables remain behind them.

Infrastructure

At a parish supper, one volunteer keeps leaving his dinner to help; Syd and Oliver consider gratitude, service, and handing over the keys.

Two men seen from behind eat pie beneath a county-fair tent while a woman in a blue dress and white apron serves them; a cut apple pie, plain blue prize ribbon, and open ice-cream cooler fill the foreground, with a Ferris wheel beyond.

With Ice Cream

A county-fair pie contest has just one entry, but Syd and Oliver find plenty to appreciate when the homemade vanilla comes out.

A person stands at the open doorway of a stone church, with warm light falling across the threshold.

Precious and Honored

A Catholic reflection on receiving God's love moves toward confession, an honest apology, and repairing the harm we can.

From the Bookshelf

Black cover for 2045 with a small OIP Exclusive mark, an oversized ivory scanline eye, a blue radial iris with red and ivory circles, a grid of pale squares, large ivory numerals, binary digits, the subtitle Ten Dark Fables from the Machine Age, and Robert V. Ussley’s name.

2045

Ten Dark Fables from the Machine Age

By Robert V. Ussley

Ten short stories follow people living with machines that promise to make life easier. Here are three lines from “The Cracked Pot.”

“Pottery’s messy. That’s half the point.”

“Get clay under your nails.”

“The clay resisted him.”

~ The Cracked Pot

Explore 2045 in the Bookstore →

This Week's Virtue

Gratitude

Gratitude starts with noticing. Taste the pie before finding fault. Thank the person who has stayed to help, and give them a chance to sit down. Accept the love offered to you. We can enjoy what is good without pretending nothing needs repair.

Worth Reprinting

Mingo County: Mud in the Water

Mingo County returns this week beside Infrastructure, our parish supper story. Both ask who does the work we take for granted. Brown tap water and repeated outages show what care left undone can cost a town. This March 2025 report follows those failures into homes, schools, and fire hydrants.