opnet [OpNet] What have you done lately?

[kestrel404]

That's right, folks. Everybody's favorite game: Let's talk about ourselves! Come by and chat about where you've been, what you've been up to, and how you're doing.

Give us the good, the bad, and the banal.

Inspired by Ally.

[Sandcaster]

In a fully-packed U-Haul, I braved the Cross Bronx Expressway, battled over the lower Catskills and the Allegheny Mountains, navigated Dead Man's Curve on the I-90 in Cleveland, managed to stave off the constant threat of boredom on the Indiana Turnpike, and found three adjoining parking spaces open on North Dover Street in Chicago.

I think that covers good, bad and banal.

[Xeno]

It is going not so poorly now, thank you for asking. Present/near-term location/status: Just north of Australia, attempting to determine a physical configuration optimal for extracting energy from the oceanic-stratum's heat differential (batteries are often inconvenient to obtain).

Three primary objectives stand, listed in order of precedence:

1: Reconfiguration and reorganization of Internal structure to better accommodate the numbers of new Others extracted from the Ibiza incident. (est. 65% complete)

2: Generation of an Internal pseudo-physical model to better support the Quantum-manipulative activity of translated Novas. (A difficult problem, as it increases Internal simulation granularity by several orders of magnitude in the worst case). (est. 15% complete)

3: Synthesis of a perpetual, self-sustaining ecology for deployment in select areas of The Inside. (Each non-independent organism representation presently requires some level of concentration to maintain.) (est. 80% complete, test phase. 0% complete, full deployment)

[Long]

I got reaquainted with my family after over a decade of not seeing them. I've done alot of gardening and in general I'm just enjoying all the things that come with being married. Life is good and I've got no complaints for once...

[Ulysses Bailey]

Let's see... so far today I have:

• Written an amicus brief regarding novas and legislation for a Supreme Court case
• Researched, complied, and updated my understanding of the Rule Against Perpetuities
• Argued for a district court to dismiss a criminal case for lack of probable cause
• Finished my five guardian ad litem reports for next juvenile calendar
• Organized research for two appellate briefs
• Completed the footnotes for an article about the role of nova mediators
• And I had lunch with Leonard to see if he was ready to go back to work

It's been a light day.

[Doctor Crow]

Our work will become evident shortly.

[Y.T.]

Let's see. I got laid, and it was good. I started to read up on interesting counter terrorist actions. I put a end to some pirates in the amazon. Dirty fuckers. Other than that it is the same old same old.

[Jager]

Wrote some song lyrics for a close friend.

Talked with some old friends about the future of mankind.

Stopped a bank robbery totally by accident.

Visited a grave that I should have been to sooner.

Ate a B+ saurkraut dog while talking it up with a devoted, die-hard Cubs fan.

Kept working on relief efforts for Ibiza.

Got back to work with the Chicago PD.

Visited a few Opnet sites.

[Conduit]

After hanging around Japan for a while I went to Chicago.

Today, I ate a pizza. Walked around town. Scared some kids at a park. Made a couple phone calls. Answered lots of question from curious pedestrians. Saw Jager on TV accidentally stopping a bank robbery. Really not much. But I kinda like it that way.

[Lee Jones]

The last couple months I've been making a lot of calls to publishers and backers. I had to resubmit my curriculum because the Dean of the College said my original one was "too intense." I organized my office again.

The last couple days have been interesting. Helicopter flights to various locations in West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. I coined a new term yesterday Nova Affected/Influenced Landscapes= NAIL. It's pretty self explanitory, but it's used when discussing Nova impressions on a large scale and their archaeological implications. You'll hear more about it when I publish my preliminary reports from this project.

Other then that not much. I can't wait to get home. I hate these orientations. I love what I was given with my Quantum expression, but sometimes it's a pain. When I get to a site it usually takes a few seconds of planning and I'm ready to go, but these guys want to take it slow and talk about it. It drives me nuts sometimes. Oh well, I'll be back home soon.

[Sam Grey]

Sat in my shitbox Chevy to make a few greenbacks and then I went and paid three times as much in alimony to my ex.

And thank you so very fucking much for reminding me of it.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Got kicked out of my cousin's place.

[Edward]

Talked with some people. Helped them see the light. Moving forward, moving forward.

My goodness but this makes me giddy.

[Sakurako Hino]

1: I'm in the middle of organizing a comprehensive and detailed disaster preparedness document for Tokyo's city hall, which is what my slowly, but brilliantly forming project will be following.

2: I'm ALSO organizing the organization itself. Meeting the heads of several Ambulance and Fire brigades yesterday, and getting to know who will be working under me.

3: Overseeing the testing of several pieces of equipment that will roll out on the first day of the Tokyo Advanced Disaster Responce's duties.

Needless to say, I'm absorbing myself in my projects.

[Jager]

Exile, if you need a place to stay for a bit, drop me a line. I know some folk who know some folk. Something can be done.

[kestrel404]

Xeno, you always have the most interesting answers to simple questions. I commend you on your uniqueness.

Ulysses, good to hear from you. I know you keep yourself busy, so I'm glad you're getting a chance to check in with us once in a while. I hope GMC's feeling better.

Sakurako, I wouldn't mind an exchange of ideas and equipment between your group and the Knights. If you're interested, give me a ring.

[Timeslip]

Went and spoke with someone. Could have gone better, could have gone worse.

[Dreamer]

Can you be anymore vague? Maybe say something along the lines of I may or or may not have encountered object or objects that may or my not have interacted with me.

Yes, you talked to someone. Do you want a medal?

[Sakurako Hino]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alchemist:
Xeno, you always have the most interesting answers to simple questions. I commend you on your uniqueness.

Ulysses, good to hear from you. I know you keep yourself busy, so I'm glad you're getting a chance to check in with us once in a while. I hope GMC's feeling better.

Sakurako, I wouldn't mind an exchange of ideas and equipment between your group and the Knights. If you're interested, give me a ring.

One step ahead of you, Alchemist. I just sent a few diagrams, specs, tons of ideas. Some I scrapped for a BIG effort like mine, but for a small group like yours, you should handle it.

Remember, in about a year or two, I'll be helping to cover an entire COUNTRY. You just got a city to watch over.

[Singularity]

Found enlightenment, died in the process, got saved by the love of my life, slept for days, and took a breather.

[Access]

Let's see.

Lately, as in how far back, of course you already know everything that happened Alchemist, but I'll enlighten the rest of our friends.

Designed an AI, got trapped in a digital realm by the same AI, destroyed that AI, lost some of the use of my Cyber Interface Abilities, learned to manipulate magnetism in it's place.

Sworn to myself to be more of a team player with the Knights. I've been a recluse lately.

I did reorganize the Chicago PD's database though, they were really inefficient, now they can look up anything anyway.

I don't do so much in the forefront. My work can all be seen in the background.

[kestrel404]

"You just got a city to watch over."

Don't I wish? Nope, we're covering Illinois and surrounding states too. Most of what you see happens in Chicago because, to be honest, the rest of the area is pretty boring and only gets hit occasionally by natural disasters.

We do help non-local police forces on big raids, like the suicide cult that Digi infiltrated in Wisconsin (I'm still not sure why they decided to worship that particular block of cheddar...), or the big drug bust in Michigan where April used some of my sensors.

But mostly Chicago, yeah.

[Timeslip]

Fine, Dreamer. Since you asked:

I went to another temporal stream and spoke with a close, though not precise, analogue of myself. It was educational in certain ways, but did not result in an extended rapport.

[Neil Preston]

Bandwidth, I would like to study you if its possible. I've never seen anyone who has actually lost quantum abilities before.

TimeSlip, that sounds sooooo cool even if no rapport was established.

[Timeslip]

It has it's ups and downs, Neil. Nothing like finding a version of yourself that is a blatent tool of an occupying army, and then having said tool get all self-righteous about her superior "purity" because she's been shamed into not pushing herself.

[Singularity]

All things have a price, Timeslip. Why fault someone, even another version of yourself, for being more... frugal than you?

[Timeslip]

Frugal is one thing. Timid is quite another.

[Singularity]

Ah, she's the miserly type then?

Penny-pinching can be just as bad as spending like a sailor.

[Timeslip]

I wouldn't call her miserly. I'd call her timid, afraid of asserting herself enough even recognize -- let alone reach for -- her potential.

It appears to be, at least in part, a cultural thing; in her world (which appeared to be one in which the Japanese and Germans won WWII) they refer to Taint as "Filth," and those who have it in any noticable amount as "Filthy."

'Course, this wasn't a dead-on analogue of me; same mother, but a different (and Japanese) father. Lots of genetic variance there, mixed in with the social issues. Truth be told, that made it all somehow a good deal less unsettling.

[Singularity]

It was a metaphor, Timeslip, but I understand your point.

[Timeslip]

Sorry about that, Singularity; I'm still trying to work with some of the things that are now rattling around my head, and managed to miss the metaphor the first time around as a result.

[Singularity]

I can relate, Timeslip, and no worries. I've had an interesting week myself.

[Long]

I think everyone has

[z-Carver]

I'm still unpacking things in my new house!

[Access]

Neil, I wouldn't mind, but I want to clarify, I haven't lost them completely, it's just harder for me to grasp them and use them like before. It takes much more effort and expenditure of energy.

[Dreamer]

Timeslip I would feel sorry for you but I can't. You are calling on the wrath of those who wouldn't think twice of killing you. I really think some things are best left unsaid, and the topics of going to another world is one of them in this manor. It is something you should not need or want to talk about to the world at large. I hope you can understand why this topic is not the best of topics to bring up in public.

Now that said, you went to a world where the Axis won the war. You then complain that the world is not prefect. That's great. The Axis was not friendly people. Any school child should know that. It shouldn't shock you that people act different. Now tell me this, was there a cold war? If not, then why did they make the inter net? Did they make one? Was there a space race? Were there any further massive land wars? I study those things that could have been, after alll. I would enjoy hearing about your viewings.

[Timeslip]

Dreamer, you're a twit who reads into things that which is not there. I expect no perfection from any world; that said, novas have the ability to transcend useless social strictures that mire baselines, and it was disheartening to see a close analogue to myself unwilling to do so.

And then, having insulted my intelligence and placed words in my mouth, you want to confer with me on matters of alternate history? You really are daft; go find -- if you can -- someone else who has crossed the temporal streams, someone whom you have not yet managed to alienate.

By the way, your "scolding" after having complained that I was too vague is nothing short of laughable...especially since this particular talent has been public knowledge ever since Ibiza. The bulk of baseline humanity can't even wrap their heads around the concept; the bulk of novas could care less. Those exceptions come mostly from a curiosity standpoint.

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

What have I been up to?

Well, my Lady Love done hooked me up with some very smart, and very ugly new buds. Been figuring out exactly how far I can push the deep freeze in the noggin to do new and splendid things!!

Yep, splendid like a motherfucker.

Amazing how much fucking time I wasted banging on a guitar for coin and cooze.

Things are getting very, very sweet.

[Preston]

TimeSlip, has visiting alternate realities brought about a greater appreciation of the one you call home?

[Timeslip]

In some ways, yes it has, Preston; then again, I've run into other places where I would be very, very tempted to take up permanent residence.