Nothing new to report from the real world. In the imaginary world, my story idea seems to be coming along. Here's what I have so far.

The story's timeline splits off from ours on the morning of September 11, 2001, when one of their F-15 Eagles shot down their version of Flight 93, just as the passengers were taking the plane back from the hijackers. Thanks to that event, Americans from their timeline ended up with even more emotional baggage from 9/11 than we did.

I won't explicitly mention this deviation in the story; I'm telling the story from the first person, and our narrator isn't going to spend time musing about their version of Flight 93.

So, the setting is contemporary but somewhat different. There's a different administration running the USA, one that is Christian theocratic, authoritarian and popular. Their president, a charismatic born-again Christian, is a few months into his 3rd term (thanks to a Constitutional Amendment). His approval rating sits north of 90%, in part due to his taking swift and effective actions that crushed a potentially disastrous global pandemic.

That's the setting so far. As for our hero, he's an ex-con and on the Program, which is a privatized prisoner rehabilitation algorithm deployed by an enormous corporation (I mentioned their name upthread somewhere), the profits of which are wholly dependant on the post-prison achievements of their involuntarily-assigned ex-con clientele.

I don't know if our hero is going to tell us his name. He might not. I also don't know if he's going to tell us what his prison sentence was about. He will, however, tell us that he's a Christian, which was a bit of a surprise, with me being a dyed-in-the-wool agnostic, but from what I can tell he's going to take his Christianity in some interesting directions--at least I hope they'll be interesting. If not, then they'll be cut out faster than you can say Magic Sky Wizard.

Hero (nope, not his name, Neil Stephenson already had a Hiro Protagonist in his first book) works as an afternoon deejay at an old-fashioned terrestrial radio station, owned by another corporate giant--that timeline's version of iHeart Radio--which owns 85% of the radio stations in hero's version of the USA.

Someone or something in the Program had recognized hero's smooth, melodious baritone as an asset, so the Program sent him to broadcasting school after his prison sentence, and the Program got him his deejay gig after he graduated.

If you've been following this blog, you might guess that hero's radio station plays Top 10 hits, and their inventory is only around a dozen songs, songs which they play over and over and over again.

We won't recognize the names of most of the bands and musicians on hero's work playlist, and that's because most of them are fairly young, with careers that began after their timeline's 2001 split.

Entertainment careers are all about being in the right place at the right time. Katy Perry, for example, is still putting out moderately popular Christian rock albums in that timeline under the name Katy Hudson. Lady Gaga's second album, Beloved by Critics, was beloved by critics, but inexplicably failed to sell, and she disappeared off the radar around 2010. Their Justin Bieber, on the other hand, is an enormous star.

Older bands and musicians, like Pearl Jam, Metallica and Neil Young, are still around in the other timeline, having established themselves well before the 2001 split, though some of their circumstances are different. Tom Petty, for example, is still alive--someone having gotten to him with the Narcan inhaler in time.

The most important musician in the story is Bieber. He's the catalyst for Act I--which again was a surprise to me. Like, where the hell is this going?

When the story begins, hero has grown tired of playing the same songs over and over, and he's especially tired of Bieber's hit, Peaches. The station plays that song once an hour, on the hour, and it finally drives him over the edge. He launches into a long (albeit not profane) rant about it, on air, after which his boss schedules a meeting wherein hero is almost certainly due to be fired.

Before that can happen, hero's boss is murdered in what appears to be a professional hit. And that's the end of the first Act...I guess. Books don't really have Acts; they have parts. That's the end of the first Part.

So I need to do some research. I need to find a working deejay's blog, probably, to answer some questions. Like, do they have to listen to the songs they play? Do they even show up at the radio station nowadays, or do they record most of their patter beforehand? I need to learn some of the jargon and get a feel for their day-to-day challenges. Research, basically.


Poker Challenge Thingie

I'm down a bit from last week. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'll do a real update on Monday.

All seems to be coming along quite nicely.

Looks promising.

I think we've got enough here for a six-figure movie deal. More, if SJ is willing to write the script himself.

I’m enjoying it.

Thanks Phat Mack! It would be nice to write another screenplay. I wrote one many years ago, but it was not very good, according to a love interest I was trying to impress at the time. At least she was honest. Even nicer, though, would be to sell the rights, cash the check and rub the maneys on mah titties.

Thanks Sheep! That memory from my first screenplay reminds me that we still need a buxom love interest. And the earlier she shows up, the better. In that case, let's say that hero doesn't have to listen to the songs, instead he pre-records an hour or so of patter every day, then he ships it off to a producer, who edits it into the playlist. Hero still has to show up at the station to deal with emails and texts from listeners, but mostly he spends his workday playing tournaments on Full Tilt Poker, The World's Largest Online Poker Site™.

One day, however, he gets a call on a line that's unlisted and that's supposed to be unknown by the public. The caller is a listener who's forced to hear these same songs all day, every day at her workplace. Hero and her go back and forth on the subject, and she challenges him to spend one week actually listening to the songs he plays. Hero makes it three and a half days through the challenge before he loses his **** and goes off on his Bieber rant. Our heroine hears about the trouble hero has brought down on himself and feels somewhat responsible for it, so she calls him again on the private line and invites him out to dinner to apologize.


Thanks Da_Nit! That means a lot to me. After that first screenplay turned out bad, I gave up on writing for quite a few years, telling myself that I didn't have what it takes. Your encouragement, and the responses from other kind people here have been a catalyst for getting me back into it, and I've been a lot happier in general for it.

ACR $0.19 to $10000 Challenge: Week 10

Down again. I would have been further in the hole if I hadn't awoke at 2 this morning with the thought that I had to win something, and so I signed up for a $3.30 on demand in the wee hours and shipped it for $30.

As I mentioned before, I have to play a lot more of these on demands. They go off fairly often and they wrap up within 2 hours. I'll need to put in a lot more volume if I'm serious about winning this. Especially given that I've raked a lowly $2 in VIP rewards in the last 10 weeks. Part of that has to do with ACR being tightfisted with their rewards, but they still get more credit than Ignition and Merge, both of whom scrapped their VIP programs without warning and then wiped my existing points totals clean, the ****stains.

Previous ACR bankroll: $251.25

Tournament: -($25.55)

VIP Points Exchange: +$1.00

Current ACR bankroll: $226.70

Yeah. Just do a treatment. Couple of pages. 4 pages tops. We'll get a couple of guys to pitch it. I'm picturing a Carl Reiner and maybe a Larry David. We'll dress em in plaid suits. We'll be rich!



Play Misty For Me. Nice. We'll get Clint Eastwood to direct. He'll bring in the money. We'll be really rich!!!

I'm way behind in this thread now. Hope you get the run good Mr Justice

It's been a while, Suited. Any updates on the story, the bankroll challenge or just life in general?

#RIPSJ

Hey folks. Sorry for the long delay. I've been facing some mental health/addiction issues and have been floating through a series of 1.75L whiskey handles. Be back soon, hopefully.

As long as you can get back on the wagon it's never too late. I believe in you Mr. SJ.

Me too. Thinking and wishing you the best.

All the best SJ.

You will, Suited. As renowned actor and great spiritual leader Rob Schneider once said: you can do it!

Rooting for you to figure it out and dry back out, SJ. It won't be easy, but you can do it.

You haven't missed much, Colin. I hope to make some noise going forward, though, so check back every once in a while.




Love you guys. Very much. November 1st is the date I've set for a new and clean start. It's going to have to be completely alcohol free. My various schemes for restricting drinking, however clever, have all come to naught.

Springfield MGM is reopening their poker room tomorrow, or this weekend, or some time soonish, so that's going to be part of the plan. More on this later.

Thanks for the update SJ. There’s an OOT thread for quitting alcohol, I’m sure you’re aware, maybe worth checking out. I know you have a job and maybe currently limited funds but you live in what I consider a beautiful part of the country. Me personally I would try to get out and explore the countryside.

Glad you've got a plan, SJ. If you're experiencing signs of physical alcohol dependency, please seek medical assistance for doing your detox. I hope you have people around you who will support you making good decisions.

SJ, best of luck.

SJ,

I'll add my best wishes. You can do this. One step at a time, one decision at a time, one day at a time.

Thanks Da_Nit! A good friend of mine lives 90 minutes away, and he likes to hike...and he's a former alcoholic, so I'll be heading down there on some of the nicer weekends.

Thanks headtrauma!

I was physically addicted to meth and nicotine; I don't feel that I am addicted in that way to alcohol, but the psychological addiction is strong with the booze.

Thanks brothers! I will endeavor not to let any of us down.



Here it is. The Last Glass.

If you want a little help on the quitting department get a vaccine booster shot. I haven’t felt like a drink since I had mine on Friday.

You can throw away that glass once you finish the drink. Ha I kid you don’t know any better. At least you’re not a Yankee fan.

This brand of glass becomes impossible to clean after a few months, for whatever reason. My folks gave it to me as a gift, but it's nearing the end of its short life.

It's my first weekday lunch in a while where I haven't poured off a couple of shots. Holding up fine so far.

I plan on visiting the poker room this weekend. I'll post anything of interest from that.

Also starting up/sort of continuing the online challenge. I've hardly played at all lately, but I still have a small roll to work with.

ACR $0.19 to $10000 Challenge: Week 20

Previous ACR bankroll: $226.70

Tournament: -($15.02)

Current ACR bankroll: $211.68