I made this thing to let people know a bit about me so I guess I should post something ;P

This week’s been nice.  I redid my budget and it appears that I can save somewhere around 900$ a month if I’m conservative with my spending.  Hopefully this means I’ll have enough money saved up to go buy a house next winter when the market has hit rock bottom.  It’ll be nice to stop having to rent. 

Speaking of renting… I pay a pretty hefty price (790$/month for 920sqft), but I caught a break when I renewed my lease today; they had completely screwed up my paperwork.  My rent was supposed to go up somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 dollars (fueled by the number or people defaulting on home loans and going into apartments), but when I reviewed the lease agreement they had completely forgotten to change the amount of my lease… so I signed it quickly with a chuckle and counted my self lucky for saving about 360 dollars. 

Yep, I love saving dough… its little wonder I listen to Clark Howard on the radio (clarkhoward.com) or suffer the cafeteria at work (free food!)… though that cafeteria food may lead to my early demise some day.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... GB's 52" LCD TV is getting delivered tomorrow.  His check cleared, so I guess I have to give it to him ;P

And now for today’s randomness:

(disclaimer: these are intended to melt your brain and stuff like this helps me unwind after work)

 

MC Hammer mixed with “don’t’ taze me bro”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzkd_m4ivmc

 

Ted Kennedy sings for Obama.  Note the guy behind him to the left who appears to be grimacing in pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdl86KNkt_M

 

I want one of these guns…

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f6e_1203989047

Austin Texas - Local residents were startled by reports that several military units from nearby Camp Mabry have been moved into the JJ Pickle Center for an indefinite period of time.  The head of the operation, Col.Richardson, said that extremely sensitive testing of materials and procedures was occurring and the military was taking extra precautions to prevent any sensitive information from leaking out. When asked about rumors that a research accident of some sort might have occurred Col. Richardson responded that the notion was "preposterous" and that everything was "business as usual."

After arriving back at the apartments, everyone went inside except for Paul.  Concerned for the safety of his chick magnet (sports car) after being away for so long he went around back to check on it.  He found a bum in army fatigues with a small chihuahua on a leash leaning against the driver side door.

The bum begged a few dollars off of Paul.  During the exchange the bum accidentally dropped one of the dollars on his dog which became enraged.  The bum became extremely frightened, repeatedly said he couldn't control the dog, and ran away leaving Paul alone with the chihuahua.

Paul was curious about the bum's reaction and was unsure what to do when the chihuahua rushed him, knocking him to the ground.  After a few vicious bites, Paul managed to knock the dog off of him and it ran away.

Coming inside, Paul performed first aid on his wounds and discovered that the bite marks were more consistent with a doberman then a chihuahua.

While Paul finished wrapping up his wounds, Jamie decided to relax by taking a shower.  She was just starting to relax when she set her foot down a long piece of jagged glass which caused a nasty gash.  Her scream brought Siegurd and Jonas smashing through her door to see what was wrong.

After tending to her foot, everyone examined her apartment thoroughly and found no sign of where the glass had come from.  There was nothing in the apartment that was broken or damaged.

While tending to her foot, both Paul and Siegurd noticed that for a few seconds the shadows in Jamie's room were completely wrong.  Instead of the shadows that would have been normally produced by her overhead light, they saw shadows consistent with the room having no roof, the walls being extremely irregular, and the sun shining in from above.  When they pointed this out to everyone else they noticed the same affect.

After this Jonas decided he needed some sleep and headed back to his room.  He went inside and closed his door, but when he turned around he realized it was pitch black.  The smell of dirt and smoke was in the air and the sound of distant explosions could be heard.  Looking around he realized that the room was about to collapse and that there was no longer any door behind him... just a smooth wall.

Moving carefully he noticed a very small source of light across the room.  A small 11x7" window was letting in a dim light.  As more explosions rocked the room, he made his way over the debris on the floor to the window and found that it was opaque.  He hefted a large rock and threw it through the window...

...only to find himself standing in his apartment where he had just thrown a table lamp through a window next to his bed.  The resulting sound of breaking glass brought everyone into his room where he explained what had just happened.

Theories abounded at this point... had they been affected by the germ after all?  Were they still in the tubes and this was all just a "matrix" VR?  Had Dr.Bridges lied to them?

Jonas was proactive and attempted to call the JJ Pickle Center, which informed him that Dr.Bridges no longer worked there, and that the whole facility was now under the control of a Col. Richardson.  Jonas decided that they needed to have a chat and drove to the JJ Pickle center with Paul.  They were stopped at a hastily erected security station at the entrance to the JJ Pickle Center.  An army private explained that if they weren't on the list they didn't get in.  After many minutes of veiled threats and general smarminess by Private Tony Martinez, Jonas drove away fuming.

When they arrived back they went to their separate apartments.  At this point, everyone saw the same event no matter where they were located: 

1) Lars, dressed in a full radiation suit came through the wall like a ghost and took off his helmet.
2) He shouted "Dr.Bridges where are you!  I can't see..." and appeared to be in extreme pain.
3) He collapsed onto the floor and faded away.

At this point Siegurd received a phone call from Col.Richardson, who was concerned about their welfare and said that Dr.Bridges had been fired for extreme negligence.  He was unsure as to their current status and asked if anything odd had happened to them.  Siegurd calmly but sardonically explained that up to this point only a few of them had been hallucinating, but now they all appeared to be. 

At this point Col.Richardson said that he would send a van right over so he could make sure they were really ok.  The van arrived and they drove back to the JJ Pickle Center.

No, I'm not playing video games or a MMORPG; the hacking is the sound of my lungs attempting to emerge from my chest.

I left work early today because I was starting to have trouble making coherent thoughts.  I do have to say that they take care of you at work... the nurse gave me 3 10mg doses of pseudophedrine; the good stuff.  It’s just about the only nasal medicine that has any affect on me, but it does also make me a bit loopy.  Not really a bad thing when you are feeling sick.

I'll have the next Purple Pill post done tomorrow along with one more news short.  That should wrap up game one and setup game two nicely (whenever we play it… James’s game is starting to get interesting.)

Bonus points if anyone knows what the "Wings of the Homeanise" is without having to look it up...

Current Location: my couch
Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Wings of the Homeanise

After a good night's rest, everyone got into a van and driven to the JJ Pickle Center for the experiment.  Upon arriving they were ushered into an elevator that 5 floors below ground into what appeared to be a sterile hospital like environment. 

They were let to the experiment laboratory where they were greeted by the head man; Doctor Bill Bridges.

Dr. Bridges had them sign several lengthy releases and medical addendums, take several pills, and also a shot.  When asked about the pills and shots he said they were to make sure they remained comfortable during the experiment, and that they would have no negative impacts.

Siegurd was careful to look at every page of the 100 page document.

After the final sign off, they were led into a control room with 4x6 grid of metal tubes set at a 45 degree angle when unoccupied and level with the ground when occupied.  The tubes were made of thick metal with a plus comfortable material inside and could easily fit a human through the hinged door in the front.

Several of the tubes were already occupied.

After a final pep talk by Dr.Bridges, they were helped into their tubes by Lars, Dr.Bridges lab assistant.  After the door closed on each one of them they felt a spray of air and then nothing.

.
.
.

The first to awaken was Paul.  When his door opened nobody was present, but there were hazard lights flashing.  After checking on the status of his companions, he was startled by Lars entering the test room in a full bio-suit followed by Dr.Bridges in a similar suit with the helmet off.  He also noticed that that their tubes were the only ones that were still occupied.

Dr.Bridges awakened everyone and explained to them that had been a hazardous germ release in one of the labs and that the facility had been evacuated for 2 weeks.  He said that the area had been decontaminated, and was hopeful that the tubes had protected them due to their closed systems.  He was also ecstatic that they had slept for two weeks straight and appeared to be perfectly fine.

After doing some bloodworm, Dr.Bridges announced that they were in good shape with no sign of the germ.  He released them from the facility with a reminder to come back in two weeks.

They then left the compound in a lab van and were driven back to the apartment complex.

Russia Forms Strategic Alliance With Iran

Citing growing concerns about America's increasing forays into Iran and Israel's recent bombing of several cites located near Tehran,  President Putin announced that he had formed a strategic alliance with Iran to protect their mutual interests.  Putin said that the "unprecedented" attack by the West upon Iran had forced him into the alliance to protect Russia oil interests in the region.  He also announced that Russia would lend support for rebuilding Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program.  President Bush said that he was "deeply disturbed" by Putin's announcement.

So the subject is the name of the game I'm running.  Currently it’s just in backup status for James's game, which has just taken an upward tick.  Everything so far is still a mystery... which is great.  So hopefully this will stay a backup game for a while to come.

At any rate, I've got to post the details of the one game I've run or we will all forget them and it will be extremely difficult to get back into the flow of things. I'm going to divide this up into a few posts so that I don't go nuts.  If you see any discrepancies, please let me know.

I'm also going to add a feature to the game called "In the News."  This is an attempt to make the game seem a bit more realistic.  The posts will be somewhat random and will consist of shot paragraphs that summarize major news articles of the day so to speak.  I'll post 1-3 after every game... so I suppose I've just given myself more work... but its fun :)

First, the players:

 JJ as Jamie Tanner the stripper
GB as Paul Bicknall the insurance salesman
Ray as Siegurd Jarellson ex-soldier
Tracy as Jonas ?? the ex-militia member/freebooter from Ireland?

As a side note, I've only gotten an official background from GB, but I know that JJ and I've only gotten an official background from JJ and GB, and I know Tracy has written or put a lot of thought into his character, but I haven't seen the final version yet.  The special bonus for backgrounds is still open until the 3rd game... at which point the bonus will come into affect and it won't be an option anymore.

I'll breakdown what happened by scene:

Scene:  Bar before experiment day.

Everyone was enjoying themselves and having fun at the bar.  Paul successfully picked up a woman (Rebecca) while Jamie when upstairs to talk to a man privately after having one too many drinks.  Siegurd had no luck with the woman after rolling "666" and gave up.

At this point Jonas noticed two bulky looking guys who were sitting at the end of the bar.  These figures were obviously packing and one had a military like tattoo on his ankle that Jonas managed to get a fleeting glimpse of as one of the men stood up.  One of the bulky men then proceeded upstairs with Jonas following discreetly behind.

Upstairs Jamie was doing drugs with the man who had taken her upstairs (game note... ecstasy does not put you out of commission as I though it did...  it actually super heightens your senses and makes you suggestible... )  when the bulky man came over and sat with them.  The bulky man then proceeded to do something to the man Jamie was with and he collapsed (later verified to just be unconscious by Jonas.)  The bulky man then proceeded to carry Jamie downstairs and set her in a chair.

While this was happening, Paul left with Rebecca and headed back to his apartment.

At this point one of the lab guys came up to the group and told them it was time to leave.  Everyone then piled into the lab van that had brought them over and as they left they saw what looked like some sort of police action taking place in the bar.  The two bulky guys were standing to either side of the bar as a swarm of officers flooded into the bar.

End Scene

LH246246 is dead.  Long live LH642642!

I'm resetting my LJ and I'm going to start posting to it regularly. 

I think after about a year and a bit of living on my own I think I understand better how LJ can be a useful tool.  Since I live in town and my family lives out in Dripping Springs I don't get to see them as often as I would like.  I also don't get to see a lot my friends and old friends nearly as often as I would like either; a lot have moved away.

So I'm going to start posting on my LJ to give those people a little piece of my life.  Hopefully it won't be too boring.

I'll start with a plot summary of the first WOD of darkness game I ran recently.  Even with the notes I've got, I'm starting to forget a few details so I better post sooner rather then later.