Good song...

"Grown Up Christmas List"



Do you remember me?

I sat upon your knee

I wrote to you with childhood fantasies

Well I'm all grown up now

Can you still help somehow?

I'm not a child but my heart still can dream



So here's my lifeful wish

My grown up Christmas List

Not for myself

But for a world in need



No more lives torn apart

That wars will never start

And time will heal our hearts

Every man will have a friend

That right will always win

And love will never end

This is my grown up Christmas List



May kindness rules our lives

Not just the strong survive

Sweet tears for all the thousand years on mind

This is the world I pray

We will all share some way

Help me begin by reaching out my hand



No more lives torn apart

That wars will never start

And time will heal our hearts

Every man will have a friend

That right will always win

And love will never end

This is my grown up Christmas List



Why does this illusion call the innocence of you?

Maybe when the time believe we can find the truth

No...



No more lives torn apart

That wars will never start

And time will heal our hearts

Every man will have a friend

That right will always win

And love will never end

This is my grown up Christmas List



This is the prayer that I will keep

This is my grown up Christmas list

Christmas list

Farking Cold!

It's supposed to be a high of 14 degrees with a low 9.  Right now it's 12 and that effing cold.  That's cold that cuts right through a regular coat.  Stylish glove? Ice boxes! Slacks? Might as well be naked.  This weather demands  in-your-face-boy-your-ass-looks-huge parka, heavy scarf and big ass dexterity reducing man-mittens.  None of which I have.  So I will be chattering like rabbid squirrel with tourettes all the way to work while ham-handing the steering wheel with numb, shivering flesh clubs.

This cold that when the actual air that you breath hits your nasal membranes, your body actually goes "holy cow, my skin is freezing" and then begins to run just to keep the surface warm.  This of course freezes to your mustache along with the condensation from your breath. 

By the time I arrive at work I'll barely be conscious, frozen and frosted in the not-so-attractive way. 

Tomorrow will be just as cold.  So why don't we hibernate anymore?  I easily have a season of fat to burn...

Farking Cold!

It's supposed to be a high of 14 degrees with a low 9.  Right now it's 12 and that effing cold.  That's cold that cuts right through a regular coat.  Stylish glove? Ice boxes! Slacks? Might as well be naked.  This weather demands  in-your-face-boy-your-ass-looks-huge parka, heavy scarf and big ass dexterity reducing man-mittens.  None of which I have.  So I will be chattering like rabbid squirrel with tourettes all the way to work while ham-handing the steering wheel with numb, shivering flesh clubs.

This cold that when the actual air that you breath hits your nasal membranes, your body actually goes "holy cow, my skin is freezing" and then begins to run just to keep the surface warm.  This of course freezes to your mustache along with the condensation from your breath. 

By the time I arrive at work I'll barely be conscious, frozen and frosted in the not-so-attractive way. 

Tomorrow will be just as cold.  So why don't we hibernate anymore?  I easily have a season of fat to burn...

Thoughts on Las Vegas

Everything you *want* in Vegas is $50 more than you have in your pocket.  I'm sure this theorum is true up to a few million dollars.  While it is full of every entertainment imaginable, it is also a stark reminder of all that you don't have and probably won't ever be able to afford.  Such a strange paradox of the ultimate indulgence and ultimate despair.  It was odd.

I was much to busy to really take it all in.  Although, I did make it to one show and did manage to lose $60.  Here's another theorum, "All money won in Vegas stays in Vegas."  The idea that you "won" over the Casino is hillarious.  While you may walk away from the Blackjack table with a cool $1000 in winnings and feel like quite the gambler, you will quickly blow your winnings on the surrounding luxury.  I mean... why not? it was free, right?  Don't forget the first rule.  You will easily find the perfect gift for $1050 in a shop not 50 feet from the gambling floor.  I guarantee it.

One "luxury" that annoys me to no end is the "expensive normal item".  This is an item that you routinely buy at the normal price, but in affluent areas it costs 4 times as much.  I'm not talking about speciality water imported from france costing 4 times more than Aquafina... I'm talking Aquafina costing 4 times as much.  A normal water bottle I can get for $1 in KC cost $8 in Vegas--must be the shipping.  Cigars that I buy routinely for $4 were $20.  Same exact brand and item--4 to 8 times as much.  I'm sorry rich folks... but that is just stupid and it's one of the reasons the world hates Americans.  It basically says "I got so much money I can piss it away for no good reason while the rest of you slobs suffer in poverity--oh I could spend less on the same things and give more to help others... but crap that's boring."  You want to charge me $8 dollars for water that as been run over the thighs of naked virgins... hell yeah, I'll pay.  But don't charge 8 times as much for normal stuff.  If I'm paying for luxury, I want luxury damn it.

You could see the effect of endless unfulfilled desire on every casino employee.  They all looked tired.  Even the beautiful ones.  You could see that the endless confrontation with how much they could never do was sapping the strength from them.  While I used to think living in Las Vegas would be great, I'm now not so sure.  The weird thing is, I know I could probably be fairly successful in the environment.  But oddly, I don't think I would want to pay the price for it.

Viva Las Vegas

I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow for a work conference.  The telephone powers that be are still trying to agree on how to play nice in the data market.  So this is a big deal international conference to talk about it.

While I've stopped in Vegas before, I've never actually left the airport.  So I'm pretty excited to see it.  We're staying in the freaking Bellagio.  I didn't pick it, thats where the conference is.

Thanksgiving was good, but busy.  So busy I had to squeeze my own mom out of our visiting schedule.  But with non-stop stress and drama going on for the last month and in to the foreseeable future (trip and all), I just need the weekend.  With that extra time we actually did a tiny bit of remodeling which I felt really great about.  Then, of course, one of the kids came down with a fever.  But that's family life.

In case you ever wondered, being divorced is amazingly hard.  It never seems to get easier either.  I keep waiting for a "normal" time, but I should know better.  Every interaction is going to be a mine field of past, present and future issues.  Stack that on top of the insane goings on at work and I have this very, very bad brew of stress at work and stress at home.  I don't seem to have a safe haven anywhere.  I constantly worry about doing something wrong or saying something wrong or not doing the right thing at the right time.  Generally the consquences for mistakes result in crippling stress where I can't do anything both at work and at home.  I miss my folks and friends in Nebraska terribly.  But there is no time to visit or get away. 

I think (at the moment) I'm keeping on top of it all.  I'm signing some re-financing this week that will ease the monthly cash flow.  I've had some crucial things fixed around the house and the kid sharing schedule has been finalized somewhat.  So it's not all doom and gloom.  Of course, I'll have to go through legal re-negotiation again this year which will disturb all that again.  Several work projects need to hit (and hit hard) in January.  So I think some of the issue is that I just can't see a time when it won't be crushingly stressful.  Of course nothing can be cut or put on hold, all of it needs to be done now. *sigh*

Even the trip is really more stressful than exciting.  I could use the time at work to complete projects.  Plus, dumping the house on Amy for 3 days is uber hard on her.  Maybe this weekend will be calm!  hehe.  Oy! I just keep buying lottery tickets and the damn numbers just won't hit.  I think it's rigged.

Harry Potter (no spoilers)

Harry Potter was very good.  While all the movies have been well done, this one I think stands out as a really good movie beyond its Harry Potter franchise.  The director spends much less time showing us the wonders of magic (moving stairwells, talking pictures, ghosts, etc) and more time focusing on the characters and the story.  The effects are of course top notch.  I haven't read any of the Potter books myself, but my wife indicates that while this movie doesn't change anything, it does completely gloss over some aspects of the story--emphasizing the adventure over the brooding "it sucks to be Harry" mood.



The action is good and the overall plot is engaging. 

d20 Modern Game Notes - Find the Cure

We got a game in Sunday (Yeah!)



We last we left our Intrepid Heroes they were lost on a mysterious apparently abandoned space station.  They were transported there when Christian activated a relic recovered from an ancient undead infested ruin.



Showing remarkable stamina, the troup slogged through every last room of the outer level facing murderous aliens.  Slowly the team is ground down.  In one climatic battle Ryan is struck down by a mighty blow.  Fortunately the group had recovered a number of plasma pistols that seems most effective on the creatures.  Russ (full vampire now) finds 3 dodecahedrons that all seem to vibrate at a nearly undetectable frequency.



Eventually the group stumbles on to a protected room.  In this more function portion of the ship the team works their way to an observation chamber.  Great windows display a view of the earth with a single robed figure keeping watch.  He stand motionless apparently carved of crystal.  It holds a glowing vial--the Cure.  Ryan takes the cure but decides not to drink immediately.  The crystal statue appears to move, but only when no one observes it.  It seems to be made of animated glass.



When Russ presents the dodecahedrons it touches them on each facet simultaneously and they morph in to more crystal aliens.  Once all are animated they open a passage to the center of the station where there is a fully operational starship.  The ship appears to be constructed by humans for humans.  But how it could remain here undetected in near orbit is a mystery.



The 3 vampires, with no food source on the ship must leave for Earth via one of the 6 shuttles on the Starship.  They land on a night side forest somewhere in euro-asia.  Christian, Atanaska and Jeff remain on the starship which also appears to be well stocked with provisions.

October is Over

October seems like a simple harmless little month, but for the Owings family it is packed 31 days.  Two of our children have birthdays in October.  School activites are in full swing including teacher conferences and field trips.  In addition to the kids, no less than 3 other relatives also have October birthdays.  And then there is the tiny child super-holiday that is Halloween.  Costumes times 3, decorations, parties and planning.



The surprise this month was the mini-van breaking down.  So in the middle of all the above we had to scramble to get a new car while I had to ferry everyone around in my Jetta (five of us).  It wasn't bad, just "one more thing" in already busy month.  But the net results are great.  We got a used 2002 Kia Sedona.  It seems pretty good... it has a new DVD player in it and most of the regular stuff.  It does have pretty high miles... 85,000.  But beggars can't be too choosy.



I've not gamed at all the whole month (aside from WoW).  But I have done relatively well at keeping up with some household chores.  I also adjusted the brakes on two child bicycles--gotta do the man stuff. 



I'm really looking forward to Nov and Dec though.  I love the holiday season... I think I must be sappy, but I could sing Christmas songs for the rest of the year.  Give us some snow and put up some lights!  What's wrong with 3 months of Christmas?  Better than 3 months of tax season! 

Serenity rocked

The Serenity movie was great.  I only saw 1 or 2 of the TV episodes and loved the movie.  Not sure how continuity held up with the series, but i knew enough to follow it and enjoy it.  My wife had not seen any of the series and she liked it too.  It's a throw back to what Star Wars was originally ony a bit more gritty.



Not a good movie for children under 10 in my opinion.

Time is infinite

I've been ponder a few deep thoughts lately.  The basis of most of them is this, "Time is Infinite."  This is both big and small.  There is no smallest measurement of time.  So, perhaps alarmingly, each second contains an infinite amount of divisions.  The measurement of time by us is completely arbitrary.  Our physiology defines what we consider a long and short time.  But what if we could change our perception of it?  And just what is time anyway?



Lets say that I can think 10 thoughts in a second... So to me a second has a definition, I can roughly guess what it is and my lifespan would appear to be something like 80 years.  But what if I could tweak my processor and think 100 thoughts a second?  Would my 80 years suddenly feel like 800?  Time is infinite.  We don't need to extend our "time" we only need learn how to subdivide it.  There is an eternity in every second if we could use it.



What is time?  How exactly do you measure it.  When it come right down to it, we have no means to observe time except by observing a completely unrelated change.  We have to see a stop-watch tic.  What if everything stopped moving.  This would include molecules and chemical changes... your brain would stop of course, but now... is time passing?  With no way to measure and no movement to track it, what has happened?  Did time stop too?  Our standard formula for time is T = distance/rate.  Distance... thats movement.  Oops!  Something has to be moving to measure time.



Just needed to capture these thoughts.



So a little more...  Time is infinite.  So any portion of it measured against the rest of it is infinitely small.  A single day in the span of millions of years is insignificant--unless you're a May Fly of course (they only live one day).  But in the span of billons of years, even a few million years is simularly insignificant.  This makes any portion of time insignificant compared to the rest of infinity.  Soooo, that second you think is completely insignificant to your life is no more or less significant than a million years when compared to the rest of time.  But it certainly appears that you can do more in a million years.  This is an illusion.  Every moment in time has infinite smaller divisions and all moments are about the same when compared to the rest of time.



Step back... way back... okay farther.  Look at the whole of the universe in its entirety.  All time and everything.  Now poke your finger in it somewhere.  You've poked into a space and a time.  Now take your finger out and do it again... another space and another time.  But the universe is pretty big so there is a lot of space and a lot of time.  You could experience the universe this way for, more or less, forever.

The Northwest is great

Spent a week in the Northwest attending a great telecommunications conference and visiting my brother.  The conference was all work, but just driving to it was fun since it was about 2 hours north of Vancouver.  It's always fun to fly to Canada.



After the conference I worked remotely from my brother's house.  But while I was there I was able to walk to the mountain spot where he and his wife were married. (close to the spot above).  My camera phone, of course, does not do it justice.



It was great to visit.  I haven't been to the area in 15 years or more.  My brother comes down regularly so I was glad to be able to get up there.



Work calls...

T-bones Baseball Game

We went to a minor league baseball game on Sunday night.  It was unfortunately the last one of the season.  It was a great time.  While I've been to a number of MLB games (the KC Royals), this was unlike any other game.  I'm not a baseball fan, I don't watch it on TV and I rarely even keep up with the World Series.  But this was a slice of midwest heaven.



In a small, yet well made stadium just on the west edge of town is where the game took place. We parked only about 4 car rows from the entrance.   It only has a single seating level.  Our tickets were front row right behind the dugout on the 3rd base line.  I could have hit an umpire with a half-eaten slushie.  Of course there were hot dogs, peanuts, pop and beer.  Oh and cotton candy.  It was just about 2 degrees in to hot, but the sun was going down behind us and we were sitting in the shade of the stadium. 



There is something about being at a baseball game that makes you love it even if you don't think you're a fan.  I think it might be the crack the of bat on a solid hit and watching the slow arch of a home run.  The crowd hushes at that sound and all eyes watch.   Will it clear the wall?  Regardless of the outcome, the crowd thrills.



A great midwest thunderstorm loomed off to the North.  The sky was dramatic, but the front held off until the 9th inning.  When it did wash over us, it was like a cool blanket draped over the field.  A gusty wind turned the flags around.  But for the last few moments of the game, no one cared.



In the end our home team (the T-bones of course) lost by 2 runs.  I didn't care.  That game was the best baseball game I ever saw.

Dawning Star - d20 Future game

I started a little game for the tiny weasels (they are 6, 7 and 8 years old).  So I wanted something easy and flexible and ready made (for the most part).  I water down the rules significantly (or keep track of them in my head) and just let the kiddos roll dice and listen to what happens.



1st Lesson learned: Small kids require something to look at.  They don't understand the game unless they can move their figure somewhere.  I have a big tear away grid map that works to draw out homes, buildings, caves, etc.



2nd Lesson learned: Kids like to be silly.  This is hard for me to keep up with as the Ref.  I like silly, but I can't stay at the  6 year old silly level for long.  But they didn't seem to mind when I moved them along.



The setup:



Dawning Star is a futuristic campaign based on the notion that Earth sent out 40 million colonistes in 20 giant vessels just a few years before the Earth was to be wiped out by a massive (moon sized) plantoid.  On the way the fleet encountered an alien "jump gate".  The gate was ancient, abandoned and malfunctioning.  The primary terra forming vessel, the Dawning Star, was winked away to an alien system with several inhabitable planets.  The jump gate would not function to return the Dawning Star and they were forced to make landing on a new home--the planet Eos.  The new system was dubbed "Helios." The game timeline takes place 60 years after the Dawning Star lands on Eos.  It is a roughly Earth equivalent world, with compatible life and atmosphere.  The planet held other humanoid life at some time, but appears to be nearly vacant now.  Their is a race of humanoids that live as nomadic tribes across the planet known as the Velin.  They have a roughly Native American culture.



The game I've set up is on this world with 3 players (the kids).  Logan and Rose are siblings living outside the smalltown of New Haven.  The primary economy is ranching and farming.  Both are 16 and free to roam most of the time.  Their family owns a dragon farm (dragons are oversized lizards that act as horses for ranchers).  Logan prefers his hover bike to the dragons and wears the latest pilot gear.  His sister has made friends with the Velin.  She rides a dragon very well and has a fine set of Velin leathers.  Logan is a crack shot with a rifle, his sister prefers the bow.



The last character is my youngest boy.  He wanted to play "a monster" so I had him look through the Star Wars Alien Anthology and pick one.  He, of course, picked the biggest one possible.  A Craigmodon (or something like that).  Basically a huge elephantine humanoid.  He doesn't have many skills, but he smashes things really well.  He named him "Hiyah" (like the karate chop).  Hiyah is a alien that crashed on this planet some time ago.  He's lived alone in his cave for several years, he can't really remember how he got here.  Logan and Rose found him a couple of years ago and they've all become friends.  No one in the town knows about Hiyah and the kids' parents think he's made up.



Their very first adventure was exploring the new passage in Hiyah's cave.  A recent earthquake exposed a new fissure in the back of his home.  The passage leads back to a few natural chambers filled with giant spiders.  But one chamber held robots of a strange design that activated when they walked in.  Further exploration revealed a constructed mechanical doorway.  Eos is known to have many abandoned ruins of the lost civilization that it once held.  The 3 set to expore the new discovery.  In the first room they encounter 5 more robots that are very tough.  Hiyah has been doing great smashing things to bits so far, but even the giant can't stand in front of all the weapons fire and he goes down.  Logan and Rose barely knock off the rest and then spend the next 3 days nursing their friend back to health while avoiding mom and dad (sneaking out).



That's was the first part... I'm sure they'll do more...

d20 Modern Game Notes

Another record game session with all 5 players...

Project: Last Hope

 

With no mafia to harass (at the moment), the group turns to internal projects.  A while back Ryan, Amelia and Atanaska took a South American jungle excursion to find a cure for initial vampire infection.  For several levels an infected host isn't lost to the night and can still travel in the day time.  During this brief window, there is hope. 



While no cure was discovered in the ancient temple, a message was discovered.  It wasn't clear, but modern interpretation seemed to indicate an alien space station in orbit around Earth were the cure was kept.  But of course, there is no ancient alien space station floating around at last check... or at least the public doesn't know about it.  Other parts of the temple talk about a cure called “the Hope.”  It depicted the gods coming down with the Hope to cure the people, but there wasn’t enough and the people fell and then the gods fell.  A single artifact was recovered at the temple--a smooth steel rod with a sphere at one end.  In the murals of the temple it is depicted as an icon of power wielded by the high priest.  It summoned the "gods".



Christian went to work trying to decipher the strange device.  After a few weeks he's tapped into it's power channels and found a way to power the device.  Theorizing that it must be some type of communicator he funnels all the power he can must off the power grid in to it.  He predicts the signal radius will be something like 100 light-years.  While this would be pointless with any known transmitter (taking a 100 years to reach it's maximum range), he hopes the technology has some means to overcome the speed of light.



Christian summons the team and powers up the device.  At full power he triggers what he hopes is the "transmit" function.  There is a loud snap with sparks then the room goes black.  Russell was ready with a digital camera and snaps a picture in the darkness blinding about everyone.  The room has changed.  In fact, it's not the same room at all.



A quick search reveals this room to be part of a series of chambers it what appears to be a space ship of some kind.  The entire team has be transported somewhere in space.  Worse, the team discovers the ship is abandoned, but not empty.  Large insectoid creatures with devastating speed and attacks lurk in the barely functioning ship.  Some rooms have lost air integrity... some passages are prone to collapse or gas leaks.  And know no one knows how to get back.  The "transmitter" did not arrive with the team.  All they have is the gear they were holding and each other... will they make it back?  Is the cure here? How long can they survive on the dying station?

Something on my mind today

An article by the Kansas City Star...

Posted on Fri, Aug. 19, 2005

_krdDartInc++; document.write('');    R E L A T E D   L I N K S   •  Sprint-Nextel Corp.  •  Nextel-Sprint  •  Sprint-Nextel profile, stock charts on MarketWatch  •  More Sprint-Nextel news and commentary if (typeof(krd_topix_property) != 'undefined') { document.write('var topixcats = new Array();'); } var topixcats = new Array(); Sprint execs exercise options, gain millions By DAVID HAYES The Kansas City Star While Sprint and Nextel celebrated their merger this week, a few top executives sold more than $35 million of stock. On Wednesday, Gary Forsee, Sprint’s chief executive, exercised options on 626,250 shares — acquiring 417,500 shares at $11.87 and 208,750 more at $8.47. Forsee sold those shares for $26.50, for a total of $16,595,625, according to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forsee cleared about $9.8 million on the transaction. According to the documents filed with the SEC, Forsee still owns 762,950 shares. Forsee said this week that the company, which has seen its share price more than double since he became CEO in March 2003, is the best positioned for growth in the telecommunications industry. The combined Sprint Nextel Corp. is competing primarily with fellow wireless giants Verizon Wireless and Cingular. “There are lots of opportunities for investors to look at Sprint,” Forsee said at a news conference this week at the New York Stock Exchange marking the completion of the merger. “This is going to be a must-invest play for investors who are looking for growth.” Two other Sprint officers also took the opportunity to sell while Sprint’s stock price was near or over $26 a share. On Tuesday, Thomas Kelly, Sprint’s chief strategy officer, exercised options at prices ranging from $3.86 to $22.62. He sold 625,042 shares at $26.02 a share, for a total of $16,267,468. Kelly cleared about $6.4 million on the transaction. He currently owns 226,939 shares. Also on Tuesday, William Arendt, Sprint’s controller, exercised options on 160,080 shares at prices ranging from $3.86 to $21.03. He sold those shares for $25.87 a share, for a total of $4,142,566. Arendt cleared about $2.02 million in the transaction and now owns 46,702 shares. In another document filed with the SEC on Thursday, Sprint set new compensation for outside directors on the Sprint board. Outside directors will receive annual cash retainers of $70,000 plus $2,000 per meeting. The chairmen of key committees, such as the audit committee, will receive additional retainers ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. The outside directors also are to receive $100,000 in restricted stock units that vest a year after they are granted. The directors also will receive telecommunications services and products. Sprint Nextel shares closed Thursday at $26.05, down 30 cents. First glance ■ Several Sprint executives make millions of dollars by exercising stock options and then selling their shares, SEC files show. ■ Gary Forsee, Sprint’s chief executive, clears about $9.8 million in his transactions.

This comes one day after it was announced that Sprint would no longer offer a pension plan to it's employees.  Other benefits were put in place to offset, but it's difficult to determine if they are equivalent... Regardless, I doubt these executives will have any problems with retirement.

d20 Modern Game Notes

A record game group this week—5 players!  The “Night Security” team of TSI is…

 

Ryan Anderson, founder, ex-CIA spook.

Amelia Logan, co-founder, popular theater actress and vampire.

Atanaska Andropovich, ex-CIA spook with KGB connections.

Russell Barnett, ex-military gone rogue and now a full-blood vampire.

JJ Nethersoul, a man with a passion for cars and handy with vehicles.

Christian Logan, co-founder, gadget wizard. (NPC)

 

Ryan finally had the strike team capable of taking on the mob-run casino that housed the child prostitution ring.  After last week’s hit on Reverend Carlos both Russ and JJ end up infected with the vampire virus.  Russ decides to dive in to it and emerges a full vampire.  JJ avoids fate for now, but is infected none the less.

 

The new team scouts the casino.  The security is appreciable, but not military.  With a little luck and planning a relatively bloodless hit can be planned.  Ryan uses the ring to ghost in and find the girls in a second scout session.  JJ lifts a key card off a pit boss and has Christian make a copy. Atanaska and Amelia help with general distractions.  Russ plays cat and mouse with a pit boss in the parking lot before getting bored (spotted) and walking off.

 

Ryan calls Sergeant O’Neil of the KCPD to “be ready” to collect evidence when Ryan signals.

 

The team is assembled.  Ryan will go in and film a solicitation (sans actual participation).  Team A (Russ, JJ and Amelia) will break in to the Casino facilities and make their way to the service elevator that goes to where the girls are kept.  Team B (Atanaska) will take out the 3^rd shift NOC staff.

 

Ryan goes in and gets the film.  He successfully talks the girl in to a rescue.  At 4:00 AM he neutralizes the guards in the VIP lounge.  He then rescues the one other girl working the VIP floor and forces her john to march naked to the service elevator.  Ryan hooks up with A Team.  Russ beats the john unconscious in the elevator.  The 2 girls are escorted out of the casino to Nevel’s waiting limo. On the “dorm” level (where the girls are kept), Ryan ghosts in behind the 4 guards.  Once in position, the A Team advances in to the hallway with weapons drawn to intimidate the guard in to submission.  Amelia catches their attention and Ryan steps out to catch the table of guards in crossfire.  It’s a tense scene of drawn weapons, but the guards choose poorly figuring this is a mob hit and they’re dead anyway.  A wild gun battle ensues.  In the first round Ryan sprays the table with auto fire, Amelia drops a guard in one shot and misc other wounds are dealt.  In round two Amelia shoots wild ricocheting shot in to Ryan—the first TSI wound in the operation.  In another 3 rounds it’s all over and the guards are dead.  The 3 vampires take the opportunity to tank up.  The remaining 3 girls are terrified, but are eventually herded up to the waiting limo.

 

B Team whacks the lone operator of the NOC with 2 cleans shots to the chest.  Popcorn in hand she watches the entire combat on the monitors with much amusement.

 

With the girls safe, JJ goes up to the NOC to destroy the security recording devices.  The team exits except for Ryan who waits for O’Neil.

 

O’Neils is all business when he arrives on scene.  Ryan is immediately arrested and detained for 2 days.  However, few charges are actually applied.  In the end Ryan is charged with “reckless discharge of a weapon” and serves 2 days in jail.  TSI picks up the tab on his legal fees.  The front money is recovered.  The girls are transported out of the country by Nevel for safe homes he has abroad.

Dodge City circa 1877

I'm starting a Sidewinder campaign to alternate in with my d20 Modern game.  The setting will be Dodge City, KS in 1877.  Here's some interesting things I've discovered about this amazing city while researching for the game.  I selected 1877 because it is the year that Colt introduced the double-action revolver.  However, as luck would have it, it's a great year for Dodge City.



Dodge City was established in 1872, the same year that the Santa Fe, Atchison & Topeka railway was connected to the city.  Originally founded to support the Buffalo hide trade Dodge City saw millions of Buffalo slaughtered.  In just 5 years the Buffalo were extinct and the town shifted to cattle driving.



While the Golden Spike was driven in Promitory City, UT in 1869 by the Central and Union Pacific railways  other railroads had yet to make their east coast/west coast connections.  This  created fierce competition between railways to complete east/west routes.  In 1877 the Santa Fe, Atchison & Topeka line would be driving for Santa Fe, NM.



Also notable was the local law enforcement.  In this year the chief deputy marshall of Dodge City was none other than Wyatt Earp himself.  Appointed only the year before, Wyatt would only be Marshall for another year before moving on to Tombstone where his legend would be made.  He would leave behind another legend to be marshall, Bat Masterson.



Kansas was a "dry" state in 1877, but the laws didn't seem to affect Dodge City.  It had a reported population of only about 1200, but still maintained 16 registered saloons and many more unreported dance halls and brothels.  A cattle driving Cowboy could make as much as $90 on a drive from Texas to Kansas and there was nothing to spend it on until they arrived in town 3 months later.  Needless to say, they were ready for the splenders the city offered.  Times were wild and cash flowed.  The legal system of the town funded itself by "fining" the saloons and dance halls for alcohol and other violations.  However, none were ever shut down... as long as they paid the "fines".



The players will start in the employ of the Santa Fe, Atchison & Topeka railway.  This allows a wide variety of character types since anyone could work a track gang and even the gunslinger types would be necessary for protection out in the field.  What happens after the initial start is up to the players.  I need to come up with some ideas that will play in to a campaign.



So far I have...

• Players find a map to a gold mine deep in Indian territory.
• Players have a bad encounter with a killer who ends up wronged or dead whereupon his 6 brothers declare vendetta on the PC's.
• Players get entangled with the law somehow and have to continually avoid legal pursuit.
• Players are hired to help a wagon train in to Utah.
• Players told by the railroad to scout the next run of track through Indian territory.

Other ideas?

Joint Birthdays

As it happens, my wife's birthday is 7 days after Gabes.  So this weekend was a double birthday party with about a dozen guests.  We had 3 cakes... lol.



The gift haul was Monty.  That means we got a lot of gifts to any non-geeks.



It was a great time and it's always nice to see all the grandparents.  Gabe got a bicycle even!  Of course he is completely scared of it, but I bet he'll come around.



Also new this weekend is a new car... well a new used car.  The Ford F-150 I owned was just 20' of gaz guzzling high payment.  So I traded it at Carmax.  The experience was alright.  Carmax is pretty "no fuss" about stuff, but no matter how you slice it, buying a car is a pain.  I now own a nice petite Volkswagon Jetta (2000).  It's black with cloth grey interior and a sun roof.  Very zippy compared to a truck.  I've never really experience german engineering first hand and I gotta say my initial impression is "hey, nice!"  The little sucker goes to 105 at 5000 RPM in 5th gear and handles like it's only going 60.  No wiggle or float.  That's kinda fun.  Of course the truck was a white-knuckle drive at 85.  After 85 it drifted all over the road and felt like it would flip from air flow at any moment--even when loaded with 700 pounds of sand.  But then it was a truck after all.



Anyways... life is good in Lake Woebegon.  See y'all soon (digitally speaking).

Gabriel Stephen Dorsey Owings - August 2nd 1999

My youngest son is 6 years old today.  He'll be starting first grade this fall.  He is tall and lean (entirely unlike me), blond and blue eyes.  He's a poster child for arian youth...  All those long limbs tend to impair his dexerity, however.  He's constantly whacking a toe or smacking his head on something.  I'm sure I can use that an excuse anytime he acts up as a teen... "you hit your head too much as a child..."

Gabe is almost never angry.  He is always trying to make someone happy.  He has a comical intensity about small toys.  One must be present at all times.  He also thinks there is a minimum TV watching requirement for small children. *giggle*  I think his ears are broken.  But I think that might be true of all children.

And despite all the "dont jump on the couch", "eat with your mouth closed, please", and "don't throw things in the house" phrases that seem to constantly be my only communictation with him, he loves me anyway.

It's his birthday today.  My son is 6.

Mark Twain

I have a strange affinity for Mark Twain.  When I read his stuff I think I identify more with him as I read than the characters in his book.  It seems he lived a great life that was still full of sadness.  I can't decide if his life was tragic or marvelous or both. 

My favorite piece of his is the diary of Adam and Eve.  It's a very short "book", but it always strikes me as one of the first self-help books on the differences between men and women.  This quote still chokes me up when I read it.  It's the last line in Adam's diary.

"Whereso ever she was there was Eden.  ~Marked on Eve's grave"

I was reading that book when I met my wife for the first time.  I'd read it many times before, but still I like to remember it.  However competent men appear to be, we are pretty much hopeless without our wives.  Thank god we found them.

Entry for July 25, 2005

I've been waiting for some good news to occur randomly before posting... Who'da'thunk that it would be over 10 days... sheesh.



Well still nothing to report on the Good News(tm) front.



Life is still good of course, just extremely stressful as well.  I find myself staring at random businesses and wondering what it's like to work there... Odd stuff like that.



Well I just remembered this cool poem I heard on World of Warcraft... You can have the characters says random things, each race has its own selection of phrases.  This is a Troll phrase. They have a Jamacian accent.



I kill 2 dwarves in the morning

i kill 2 dwarves at night

and i feel alright.



I kill 2 dwarves before

 I kill 2 dwarves

and then I kill 2 more.

The Pirates of Numos

Like a jagged hole in space lies the entrance to otherspace.  Nearby drifts the Landry Space Station; a Telos military base and the last bastion of that empires civil authority before entering the Fringe.  Three star systems are within striking distance of the station.  The most remote is the Numos system.



Numos has seven planets and a medium-sized red star.  There are two gas giants (Saresad and Oassen) that are both centers of gas mining.  There is only one habitable planet in the system, Caliban.  Caliban is mostly desert with few resources.  Numos contains a large asteroid belt that is currently owned by Lightwave Industries.  They have a mining operation active in the belt called Faltz #4047, run by Felix Redback; a Lightwave Executive.  The operation is infested with pirates, but is the only fueling station on the way to the inner planets.  Besides Caliban, the other inner planets are hellish worlds of searing heat and fracturing cold.



Naturally occuring holes to otherspace are known as "ainniq" an old word for "hole in the ice."  The ainniq are the primary means of travel between the vast distances of space.  However, the skills necessary to navigate the ainniq are a closely guarded guild secret.  Ships that do manage to run the blockades around the gates never arrive at another gate.  The Telos empire claims it has the ability to construct "man-made" gates, but to date has not does so--although they claim they have "secret" gates for military purposes.



Over the last few decades the Telos empire appears to be decaying.  There hasn't been a new starship design seen in over 20 years.  While the existing designs are still quite functional and modern, it is the longest break in development any can remember.  The Telos navy patrols the space around the Landry Station and will occassionally escort a Lightwave transport to Faltz and other facilities in the area, but no farther.  These large ships would make quick work of anything other than a coordinated attack effort from the pirates in Numos.



Still folks are beginning to ask why Telos has been so inactive for so long.  Rumors abound about political infighting, a repressed civil war, war with xeno's, plagues and even the destruction of Telos itself.  But rumors in the Fringe are common and rarely accurate.  Besides, what happens core-ward has little to do with life on the Fringe.  Why worry?



The leading crime family in the Numos system is the Demosid clan.  Based out of Oassen, the Demosid militia is the dominant force beyond the range of the Telos Navy.  The Demosid's take by force any resource that seems to have value in the Numos system.  The only areas where they have no control are Saresad and the Faltz mining op.  Saresad has it's own militia, but chooses to only defend its immediate area and trade routes.  Faltz is a Lightwave Industries resource and while only lightly defended, if it ever were attacked, the resulting corporate response would be bad for business.  On Caliban the Demosids run drug manufacturing, gambling, slavery, smuggling and about every other criminal racket possible.  On Oassen they control dozens of mining colonies (floating spheres inside the upper reaches of the gas giant).  The family has enough influence to get it's goods through the Landry star gate.  They pay large bribes to the local Telos authority for the priviledge.

d20 Modern Game Notes

Played a short little game last night.



Ryan received a package from the vampires good for 3 free months of food.  It seems a member one of the lesser racket operators was taking a little too much off the top and was now beyond his useful existance.  The package contains the details of the mark including home address, vehicle, base of operations, and a photo.  Ryan packs up his Barret light-50...  Russel Barret is the hit his is also a vampire.



The layout of buildings around Russ' condo is pretty sparse, but there is one hotel facing the windows of his 8th floor living room window.  Ryan spends the day watching Russ.  He follows the hit to his bar/brothel downtown.  Ryan spends the night in the bar casing the joint and ultimately a couple hours talking to a hooker.  He decides the condo is a better spot.  During the day he acquires some special Incindary rounds.



Ryan catches some sleep.  At about 1 PM he calls Christian for some help setting a C4 charge on the target's vehicle.  Christian motors up in his Ford and brings his "bag".  The underground parking garage is relatively secure, but there is a fire exit.  Christian examines the smooth featureless metal exterior of the fire door.  In a smooth moment with a thin strip of metal he pops the door in a couple of seconds (rolled a 20 Disable Device). 



Moving inside the stair well is easy.  The garage itself has several stationary cameras.  By crawling around the edges the pair make it around to Russ' black caddy.  Christian has 4 lbs of C4 with him.  Ryan says "Use it all."  Christian shrugs and sets a shaped charge under the drivers side that will be triggered by radio.  Christian's opinion is, "This will turn anyone inside the car into chunky salsa, but won't destroy the vehicle."  On the way out Christian inadvertantly stands up in front of a camera.  Ryan gripes and works his way up to the automated security tapes and removes the offending tape.  Christian heads home after giving Ryan the radio control.



Ryan sets up watch again.



About 30 minutes after sunset, Russ pops out of his bedroom and sits with his body guard in the living room.  Ryan is locked and loaded.  The rifle will make a heck of a noise, but it's the best chance of a single shot kill.  At this distance making a head shot is too iffy.  Ryan targets center mass.  If Russ is a full vampire a single shot (Massive Damage Threshold save) will be unlikely.  But if he's just on the edge, it might still work.  He pulls the trigger.



Ryan deals a cool 29 hp damage.  Russ fails his massive damage save and promptly explodes in virus laden mist.  Much hiliarity ensues.



Russ's bodyguards loot his apartment and bolt in the caddy.  Ryan resists the urge to blow them up.  The rifle shot was heard for blocks, but a single shot doesn't cause much comotion.  Ryan "ghosts" in to the apartment and loots the wall safe the 2 mooks couldn't open.



Back at the ranch, Ryan cuts open the save to gain a +2 wealth bonus in cash.



Interesting NPC I need to flesh out... Anita.



"Anita" is the vampire soup kitchen manager.  She is an old woman dressed in young goth.  She is also an old vampire.  The soup kitchen imports human cargo and chains them to poles in small stalls.  Vampires on the meal plan can show up from 2 AM to 4 AM to feed.  The organization takes care of the bodies. 

Timeline to WorldNet

I've started to seriously look ahead at technology and how it might change society.  This is a rough timeline...

2020 – The first “wearable computer” devices hit the market in the US and Japan.  Comprised of a small wireless PDA, Display Glasses and a pair of wrist bands that detect muscle movements while typing (allowing the user to mimic typing in the air without a keyboard) subscribers are able to use low-powered computers in any area with cell phone coverage.  Battery life is still an issue only lasting for a few hours before requiring recharge.

 

2030 – The typing wrist bands can be replaced with implanted chips, becoming one of the first Bio-Terminals available.  Typing now only requires slight movements.  With training even those paralyzed can be trained to use other nerve pulses to type.  However, wrist-bands are still common.  Small footprint computers weighing less than a pound are now powerful enough to run most entertainment software (games) as well as function as full featured computers.  Battery life doubles.

 

2035 – Ocular chip implants are widely used for the blind.  Vision is only 60’ and only a grainy black & white (-4 Spot), but can be used effectively in low-light.  These chips have an external interface connected to a pair of glasses that mount pin-hole cameras.  The external interface also allows other inputs directly to the optic nerves.  This becomes the 2^nd big leap in Bio-Terminals.  Suddenly the modified blind become invaluable in “Specialty Vision” careers.  Their optic nerves can be directly connected to security systems, 3D virtual worlds, electron microscopes, and another other device that outputs visual media.  These individuals use enhanced versions of the wearable computer that attach directly to their optical Bio-Terminals.

 

2065 – Ocular chip technology advances to full color and 120’.  Inside this range, “Chip Vision” is as good as 20/20 normal vision with enhancements for low-light and night vision (60’).  Display Glasses remain, but the chips can be placed inside the retina allowing for a normal appearance.  Real-time language translators are created.  Individuals of different nations can see subtitles to any single spoken language selected by the user.

 

2080 – The military begins to use ocular implants in soldiers.  Wearable computers are now completely devoid of wires (each element is powered separately) and the devices communicate with each other wirelessly.  Display Glasses have replaced monitors in most business applications.  Wireless coverage is global.  Implanted Bio-Typist chips become the norm at universities and in tech shops.

 

2090 – The first private ocular implants are used electively.  Primarily used by individuals with poor (but adequate) vision or for vanity (larger, prettier eyes) voluntary ocular implants are approved for use by the FDA.  Integration with communication devices is immediate.  Language translators now automatically translate text as well as spoken languages.

 

2120 – Ocular implants are common.  The Data Hood is developed.  This stylish piece of wearable technology acts a cell phone, video player, computer terminal, wireless network, day planner, advertising medium, radio/music player and fashion accessory.  The fabric of electronics drapes over the user’s head and shoulders like a coif or snood.  It can be used with Display Glasses or can be connected to Ocular Implants.  The “Internet” has evolved in to a complete 3D information network.  Virtual travel is a blooming industry.  Taste and scent implants are developed.  Some art galleries specialize in digital media where images are broadcast to viewers.  The physical picture frames are blank and the Display Glasses or visual implants of the observer fill in the artist’s work.  Conventions like TV sets, radios and voice-only phones completely disappear from modern society.

 

2125 – Virtual Reality applications advance to such a degree that individual real objects can be completely “wallpapered” with user selected visual textures and designs. A common fold-out table can be made to look like a rich oak antique of the same size and dimensions. Home décor industries are vastly affected switching from real techniques to digital. Tactile senses are not affected, however. A cold metal table still feels like metal even if it looks padded. Still the effects are powerful and popular. Keying information into your own personal computer (Data Hood) is now accomplished with a combination of eye movement and thought. However Bio-Typist chips remain common. Language software becomes perfected with real-time audio translation. Some common medications are automatically delivered to the blood stream through an individual personal computer via refillable cartridges. The military has been using this technique to boost the effectiveness of soldier secretly for years.



2127 – The first murder by VR is documented and prosecuted. Alan Kitchner is condemned to life in prison for the murder of his wife. A VR programmer/designer himself, Alan alters the programming of his wife’s data hood to conceal a broken balcony rail. Mrs. Kitchner falls to her death. Alan forgets to also disable his wife’s “Emergency Heart-Rate Trigger” that immediately summons medical and law enforcement when detecting a panic in the user. A standard process of the feature is an immediate diagnostic snapshot of the caller’s data set. The programming hack is detected and Alan is imprisoned. New VR safeties are demanded by the market. While partially effective, the only truly safe VR is no VR. Communication companies downplay the risks and profits continue to rise.



2150 – Wal-Mart Corp buys Taiwan. Immediately after the purchase Wal-Mart declares itself a sovereign nation. Employees are offered citizenship which ultimately removes them from the tax base of the countries in which they reside. This will start a trend for the next several decades. The advances in communication, virtual travel, video conferencing and tele-commuting now allow people to work for anyone in any country. Most new construction is generic and featureless allowing VR to fill in all the artistic details of a physical environment. The elite are cyber enhanced at young ages—while the poor fill in the few remaining service and manufacturing industries that still exist. Physical warfare is only useful in its ability to disrupt the digital economies of the Sovereign Corps or other nations. Digital warfare rages in the background. Cyber-terrorism takes new meaning as real deaths result from manipulations of VR and malicious alteration of medical treatments. These terrorist attacks are known as “wet hacking.” The WorldNet, now essential to world economy also contains many dark e-zones that deal in illegal software known as “ciphers.” Cipher is a generic term for any program that removes normal safeties on VR software to cause harm or mis-direction.

Title Deleted

I discovered this morning that many of the game sites I frequently visit from work were blocked.  ENworld, Blue Devil Games, rpol.net and I'm sure others, all hit the following message...

Forbidden:  You do not have permission to access this page.

CLIENT_IP: 10.119.4.82             DATE: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 13:46:48 GMT             CATEGORY: Computer Games

ERROR: Access denied due to authentication failure.

URL: http://www.enworld.org/                       

---

Internet Conduct:  Employees are expected to comply with the following rules of conduct while on the Internet.

• Do not violate any Sprint policy or guideline when accessing the Internet.

• Do not represent being affiliated with Sprint or as speaking on behalf of Sprint unless: (i) it is in the furtherance of job duties; and (ii) you have received the approval of a director-level or above individual within his or her department to do so.

• Do not transmit, post, display, print, forward, or otherwise disseminate material that is fraudulent, illegal, harassing, offensive, sexually explicit, obscene, threatening, infringing, defamatory or otherwise objectionable.

• Do not initiate or forward to others chain letters or other offensive messages.

• Do not engage in any activity or conduct which is contrary to the best interest of or disloyal to Sprint.

---

To read the entire “Acceptable Internet Use” policy please access Section 2.9 in the HR “Employee Resource Guide”.

If you feel the Internet site you are trying to access should be allowed or is needed for business reasons "Click Here" or type "helpdesk" (minus the quotes) in your web browser and click the link to create an online ticket.

What is especially funny about this is that no where in this policy does it say "computer game" sites are forbidden.  I guess some one in Corp Sec couldn't conceive why such a block might be demoralizing and thus negatively impact productivity.  I suppose they'll be searching my laptop bags for books next or maybe censuring what music I'm allowed to bring.



It's going to be a pretty funny day when we discover that, while we may be "free citizens" we are still slaves to the system of corporate dominance.  After all, you gotta eat.  You can't drop your family medical insurance.  You are a slave as sure as if you were chained to your desk.  You can chose masters, but it's still the same.  Someone else will chose when you get up, when you can work, when you can eat, when you can be sick, when you go home, whether your children will get medical coverage, whom you can chose to cover, and now... even when you can chose to think about something other than work.  Security of assets... controlling costs... maintain productivity... bottomline... money... money... money.  Go forth and generate wealth.  Waste no thoughts.

The politics of Celluar Technology

Since I'm heading out of town today to attend a conference on the future of data on CDMA networks, I thought I'd throw down some explanations of radio technology in layman terms.



When it comes to cell phone technology it boils down to this... The US is Red and the rest of the world is Blue.  Phones for the Red networks don't work on Blue networks and vice versa.  The Red and Blue networks both offer two basic services; Voice and Data. 



Voice is of course the original reason for Telephone Companies in the first place.  In the 90's we experience this little phenom called "the Internet" and suddenly Telephone Companies were suddenly interested in Data.  We all fondly remember the days of modems and dial-up.  Some of us are still living that dream... *cough* Then came digital access and then some fool decided that even wired digital access wasn't convenient enough and Telephone Companies delivered "wireless."



So back to Red and Blue networks... Wireless was a "Big Deal(tm)".  It was the greatest growth business for the Telephone Companies in a 100 years.  At the time it happened, Blue networks were established and Red networks were "experimental."  Europe went Blue and the US went Red.  Red worked better, but Blue was cheaper.  Countries often chose the cheaper techology.  Thus the world went Blue.  Just to clue you in, Red networks are CDMA and Blue networks are GSM.  Means a lot to you I'm sure.  Now this data thing... Blue networks did data right from the start--only no one cared at the time.  Red networks delivered data right when it mattered and it worked better than Blue.  However, since Blue had been technically doing data longer, Blue carriers had more kinks worked out.  You could use Data on anyones  Blue network.  This is called Data Roaming; much like Voice Roaming.  Now here's where the Red networks fell on their sword.  They didn't make their data work on other Red networks.  We're working on it.



The problem is now that Red is so popular (in the US and a few other places), there are a lot of Red carriers.  We all have to agree on changes if we all want to make money off you (the consumer).  All phone companies are big with too much money.  That makes them believe they are important.  Important people tend to want to dictate more than cooperate.  So that's where I'm going this week.  The Red network "lets all cooperate" shindig.  A 2 day festival of every CDMA carrier trying to be compatible while at the same time angling for a technical advantage over the other carriers.  The corporate expense budgets are going to flow...



Also worth mentioning in closing is the "Holy Grail" of this story.  Getting Red data users to work on Blue networks.  Technically we don't care about Blue subscribers... being a Red network and all.

A typical day in the life

8:30 AM        discussion with <vendor deleted> about pricing

10:00 AM      Review of two projects to be expedited

10:30 AM      (double booked with above) Traffic Filtering discussion

11:00 AM      Follow-up discussion with <vendor deleted> (competing with vener above)

1:00 PM         D2405 Project Status Meeting

2:00 PM         EVDO timer meeting



Okay... that's the scheduled meetings--about 6 hours worth.  Now I have 2 really hard hitting projects right now they are numbered D2405 and D0840.  D2405 is huge, like mega-huge.  It involved setting up a new IP data service between Sprint and all other carriers.  The number of possible combinations is large and each possible combination has to be documented in detail with network diagrams and flow diagrams.  Each object on those diagrams has to have details about where it is, how many interfaces it has (each interface has to have where it goes and it's own particulars), how the device will be managed, how the device will be monitored, what will happen when each of it possible failures occurs, and how much it costs.  Each device also needs to be compared to other devices so that the "correct" one can be selected.  Every possible system failure must be documented and the microsecond steps of what happens documented.  As well as "logical" diagrams (of what device connects to what) you have to have "physical diagrams" show exactly how the devices will fit in to a rack.  You have to capture power requirements and cooling requirements (Remember for *each* device).



On top of all the techincal documentation you then have to tie every single technical decision to a "Business Requirment".  Like "Knives were required to deliver on the Sliced Bread requirement."  There are literally hundreds of business requirements...



You can't just buy equipment.  Vendors have to slog it out in a battle of contracts.  Who ever can deliver the most product for the least cost wins.  Sounds good, but it takes months of testing and negotiation.  All the while you have to... guess... document all the tests and results and empirically compare them so that you can prove to your VP (no technical ability at all) that your technical decision is sound.



After all the vendors are selected, you have to build a replica of everything in a lab.  You then test every possible use case and failure that you documented.  You have to, of course, document all the elements of the lab used for testing and all the results.



Once testing is complete, you can deploy your first production test site.  Again with the documentation, testing and results.



Once all these simple tasks are complete you're done and you move on to the next project.



I have two of these going on at the same time...



I'm currently trying to document the first production test of D0840 and I'm trying to get the vendor out of negotiation for D2405.  I'm waaaaay behind on the documentation.



Between the 6 hours of meetings I have to get all the documentation done.  I only have 2.5 days this week since I'll be flying out to Flordia for a conference on Wednesday.  The conference is a meeting of all the carriers to discuss the new IP data product and how we're all going to interconnect.  90% of the attentees will be speaking english as their second (or possible third) language.  All of them will have a PhD in something (I don't).  All of them are going to decide to spend millions of dollars on using an intermediary rather than save millions by choosing to connect to some directly.



So there's the work load.  I also have to keep up with my own Sprint paperwork (performance reviews, etc).  My house still isn't unpacked, my gutters need to be cleaned (or my basement is going to start leaking), my truck needs to be washed, I really want to finish the decor in my kids' rooms and the rest of the house... I'm just wondering if I ever really get to catch up.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Well I just got back from the Atlantic.  The ocean is pretty special to us land-locked Americans.  I will probably only visit the ocean some 20 or 30 odd times in my life.  So I treat each time as very special.  There's something about the ocean that just makes you think.  It is a physical representation of endless, tireless, and life.  Not human life, but the big circle of life.  So many things come together at the ocean shore.  Water, earth, air and fire are all representing in the waves, sand, wind and sun.  It is as if the entire shore line is a conjunction of that which made us.



At night the stars light the sky over the waves.  For a guy stuck in the middle of the country, it's nearly indescribable how that view feels.  For me it made me wonder at the entire universe.  Why is here at all... What is this "something" that exists? Is there a "nothing"?  So much of it out there.



It was amazing to me to rediscover what just having time to think is like.  When you get knocked out of your routine it really opens you up to just think about things.  I'm sure I can do more of it even in my routine.  I just need to remember that I can afford to spend an hour here or there not thinking about work, house or family--just the enormity of life.



So anyways, what did I do?  I sat on a beach on Sulivan's Island, South Carolina just about 5 minutes south of Charleston.  We rented a house right on the beach for a week.  The kids loved it.  They would have stayed in the gentle waves 24x7 if their little bodies would have allowed it.  It was the first time my oldest two had ever been on an airplane or seen the ocean.  There was much joy.  We explored tide pools and beach combed ourselves silly.  We collected shells and giggled over hermit crabs.  We watch giant freighters cruise in and out of the harbor.  We ate on the deck overlooking the ocean every night.



In Charleston we took several tours.  While a canned tour would appear to be nothing more than basic tourism, I must say that when the subject matter is significant, even a canned tour is interesting.  Charleston was of course one of the central stages of the Civil War.  It is amazing to think how much impact this war has even today--150 years later.  I don't mean the lasting impact of freed slaves, but the very real impact of lost lives.  There is a church in Charleston that had silenced it's bells in rememberance of the lost soldiers.  It had not rung those bells in over 100 years of mourning.  There is something more to learn about a place when you actually visit it.  Even if you don't do anything other than soak up its sights and sounds.  Charleston was founded around 1640.  It has stood for 400 years.  Pretty amazing to think of that.  Perhaps not surprising, they are still trying to market slavery as "not all that bad."  In 4 tours we were told several times about how much free time slaves had and how they were given land and even how their decendents still live and even work on the plantantions of their ancestors.  Of course, none of the own the plantations while several white families continue to announce with pride that they still own their families land.  Ahhh, the South.  Still it was good to go there and see it.  Good to be reminded how significant events can become and how long a notion like racism can last when you're not looking.



Overall, I was most pleased with my vacation.  I hope the kids liked it.  I hope they remember it as fondly as I remember my own childhood vacations with my family.  I never knew how amazing those trips were when I took them.  Odd that 20 years later I still look back on them and learn more from them.

My Birthday - June 11th, 1970 at 12:47 AM

I needed some place to put my wish list.



Dawning Star

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/products.php?publisherLink=blueDevil



Star Wars d20 books

Ultimate Alien Anthology

Arms & Equiment Guide

New Jedi Order Source Book



The d20 Black Company Source Book (by Green Ronin)



Psychic Handbook (by Green Ronin)



Solid metal dice (found at Battlezone)



Eberron Campaign Guide



Arcana Evolved (by Monte Cook)



A variety of PDF... listed on RPGNow by my email address (curtis_owings@yahoo.com)

They even own our fantasy!

On a "create your own organization" thread of WotC's d20 Modern board I created an entry and then posted Exxon Mobile Corp as the next corporation for the next poster to profile.  The beauty of d20 Modern is that real life is so readily stealable for game ideas.  But I actually got this message posted back!



"No real life companies please. I don't want this thread getting locked."



We can't even question the morality of these corporation in fiction for an RPG!!!

The Top 25 Largest Corporations in the World according to Forbes

1	Citigroup	United States	Banking	108.28	17.05	1,484.10	247.66
2	General Electric	United States	Conglomerates	152.36	16.59	750.33	372.14
3	American Intl Group	United States	Insurance	95.04	10.91	776.42	173.99
4	Bank of America	United States	Banking	65.45	14.14	1,110.46	188.77
5	HSBC Group	United Kingdom	Banking	62.97	9.52	1,031.29	186.74
6	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & gas operations	263.99	25.33	195.26	405.25
7	Royal Dutch/Shell Group	Netherlands/United Kingdom	Oil & gas operations	265.19	18.54	193.83	221.49
8	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & gas operations	285.06	15.73	191.11	231.88
9	ING Group	Netherlands	Diversified financials	92.01	8.10	1,175.16	68.04
10	Toyota Motor	Japan	Consumer durables	165.68	11.13	211.15	140.89
11	UBS	Switzerland	Diversified financials	62.22	7.10	1,115.90	89.16
12	Wal-Mart Stores	United States	Retailing	285.22	10.27	120.62	218.56
13	Royal Bank of Scotland	United Kingdom	Banking	46.65	8.66	1,119.90	108.95
14	JPMorgan Chase	United States	Banking	50.12	4.66	1,138.47	129.98
15	Berkshire Hathaway	United States	Insurance	74.21	6.36	181.86	138.74
16	BNP Paribas	France	Banking	55.08	5.80	1,228.03	64.39
17	IBM	United States	Technology hardware & equipment	96.29	8.43	109.18	152.76
18	Total	France	Oil & gas operations	131.64	8.84	98.69	151.13
18	Verizon Commun	United States	Telecommunications services	71.28	7.83	165.96	99.64
20	ChevronTexaco	United States	Oil & gas operations	142.90	13.33	93.21	131.52
21	Barclays	United Kingdom	Banking	41.22	6.27	1,002.09	70.22
21	Fannie Mae	United States	Diversified financials	52.38	7.69	989.34	56.58
23	Nippon Tel & Tel	Japan	Telecommunications services	106.30	6.17	170.12	68.38
23	Pfizer	United States	Drugs & biotechnology	52.52	11.36	123.68	197.99
25	Altria Group	United States	Food, drink & tobacco	63.96	9.42	101.65	134.75

d20 Modern Session - &quot;Find the Cure&quot;

In our last episode... Ryan and Atanaska successfully installed a tap to steal encryption keys from Lightwave.  In so doing they exposed the seedy underbelly of the mob.



However, Ryan is becoming more ill by the day.  After becoming infected months ago with vampirism, the disease is finally taking it's toll.  The thirst has started and daily taste for murder wears at Ryan's already withered soul.



A benefactor provides Ryan with a simple message.  "A cure has been found at 68W 20S."  A simple note that launches the group in to South America.  Flying to Brasilia they find Dr. Juan Cortez, an archeologist familiar with the ruins located at those coordinates.  Cortez organizes an expedition and within a week Ryan, Atanaska and Amelia journey to the site.  Being a full vampire, Amelia is carried as baggage by porters in to the wilds.



The sight contains a pyramid and a sacrifical pit.  The pit descends to catacomb of ancient rooms.  The rooms contain the tortured remnants of the "gods" the temple once served.  The gods prove vulnerable to bullets and frag grenades.  Eventually the puzzle to unlocking "the Hope" is solved.  However "the Hope" has been lost in the centuries since being placed here.  The room containing the hope is advanced and depicts a holographic image of a spot in orbit that can be used to find more of "the Hope" (thought to be the cure).  A device is found that seems to relate to the message.  Ryan pushes the button...

Slaves of a Nation

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with society lately.  It seems in USA we have fallen victim to our own most hated export - Marketing.  We believe we live in the most "enlightened" society with greatest good-will, quality of life, education and wealth of all the world.  Well it's BS.  It might have been true at one time.  But it is not anymore.  However, we seem to continue to drink our own kool-aid and act like it is true.



Let's take a stab at a few major pillars of our lives and think like a 5 year old about what they mean...



The Legal System: Would you go to court and defend yourself?  Heck no!  Why not?  Because you'd go to jail.  Because the system is so complex with literally millions of pages of laws that no citizen could hope to understand them all.  A system that can not be understood by the majority of it's participants is prone to abuse.  Despite how you might feel about lawyers, I think it's safe to say they aren't helping much.  Language is too flexible over time to pin down exactly what a law was intended to do.  Puting more verbage into a law doesn't help.  Devoting a massive portion of our economy in to the business of laws also isn't helping.  In my opinion a system that can not be used by the People is of no use to the People and needs to be re-worked.



I don't even have to mention the inequity between classes (rich people don't go to jail and are often never held accountable) or the other flaws in capital punishment, prisons, etc.



The Tax System: Do you understand tax laws?  Heck no!  Does anyone?  Even my accountant misses things.  Even the richest men in the world fall afoul of tax laws.  Again... A system that can not be understood by the People is doomed to become a tool to control them.  When no reasonably intelligent person has any hope of being able to navigate the tax law, the tax law is too complex.



The Medical Industry and Insurance: A major benefit of organized society is the ability to care for the aging, the sick and the disabled.  Each society has a means to accomplish this goal to some greater or lesser degree.  But lets look at our system here in the US...  Let's make money on it!  We will let the "market" determine the price of the "goods" sold like good capitalists.  What?  People will pay *any* price for extending life?  HELLUVA GOOD MARKET, EH!  Brilliant!  And when the individuals can no longer afford any health care, we'll bring in corporations to sell insurance so that the bills can continue to increase.  Because corporations are really good at making good humanitarian decisions.  Wait... corporations only make money for shareholders...



Charging profit on medical care was bad enough.  Adding the ability to pay virtually any price through an Insurance system was like throwing an oil tanker on a forest fire.  Now medical prices will continue to soar with both sides (the doctors and the insurance companies) claiming the other side is the problem.  No one will notice that both sides are becoming massively rich.  Oh by the way... folks in the US often pay 10 times as much for pharmaceuticals as other countries.  These medices don't cost more make here/ship here, we just pay more.



A capitalistic system based on a societal need will inevitably produce an inhuman system of profit over care.  Our system maybe better than some for the rich, it isn't going to improve the quality of life for the People.



The Media: If it is on CNN it must be true.  Think about how dangerous that statement is.  Not that the good folks at CNN are trying to rule the world.  But if one were inclined to sway the public opinion of the US, you don't have to do anything more than influence the writers at CNN.  Any war can be justified, any election won, any legal issue quashed, any minority ignored.  With just a few minutes of news time you can divert the attention of the nation from World Policy to latest Hollywood scandal.  If I were President, I'd use this tool every day to make sure no one paid too close attention to what I was doing.  Whenever my foreign policy became unpopular I'd stir up a debate about the value of religion and family.  Get the population to slog it out over bullshit issues I care nothing about while I continue to secure ridiculous wealth for myself and my family and my friends.



The conclussion:



slave: one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence



We are slaves of the nation.  We the People work 40+ hour weeks to make corporations more money to give less than 1% of the population 95% of the wealth.  We spend our spare time paying taxes, insurance and buying goods that continue to give less than 1% of the population 95% of the wealth.  We are expected to tend to our plot of land and keep it neat (or be fined).  We are expected to support this system, die in this system and perpetuate the justification of this system to our offspring.  Our cage might be gilded, we might have TV's, video games and cheetos, but in the end we spend our entire lives producing for the less than 1% that control 95% of the wealth.  Our own Marketing has made us believe this is freedom.  But it isn't.  To some degree I have a choice of owners, but I am still owned.  My sweat is still shed for someone else and I don't have the choice to not give it. Choosing to go to jail or watch my family suffer are not choices.



These elements combine to create a highly productive mass of workers that can do little else other than focus on the day-to-day of living and not on society, the goverment or humanity.  The most frightening thing about this is that it is doomed to bloody conflict if we can't change it.  While today the system might be tolerable, history has demonstrated repeatly that things don't get better unaided.  The system will continue to bleed more and more from the populace until a revolution is declared.  We've been lulled in to complacency... we believe in the general good-will of humanity--which I still believe is true.  But governments, churches and corporations are not agents of humanity.  They are dominate systems of control to extract wealth and power from the masses and give it to a few.  Fight it!