I Am a Masterful Scriptist!

So I have been super busy with school and work and life. And I realized something I'm not going to be able to update this blog with any sense of normality. So from here on out, no more promises of incomplete work to be posted at some ungiven time, and no more apologizing for not updating in forever. So without anymore blogy business, I have a post!

So this semester I have been taking a Theater Appreciation class. This would be great, I thought to myself, I already love theater so I'll just breeze through the class. Turns out that Theater Appreciation is more then just learning how to like theater.

So we've  done some interesting stuff and I thought I might share some of it with you. So the first thing I wanted so show off is the set I designed. Our task was to design a set or a pair of coustumes for a one act play  that we had written earlier. I used one of my CAD programs to whip something up real fast, Here's what I made:

I 

This is what I wrote about it:

"When I was writing the short play “Artifact of Imagination” I knew that I wanted a feel that was a cross between Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. Those two franchises have created a interesting genre, where archaeologists rush bravely into old forgotten temples to rescue the magical artifact before the evil bads or villain could lay their filthy hands on it. Saving the world, dodging traps, facing snakes and other heroic deeds.

The only scene in Artifact of Imagination, takes place in the villain's basement, which he uses for storing some of his less displayable items along with his equipment. To convey this I started with a cement floor and walls. Two plain wooden doors on either side of the stage provide exits.

Selves and crates contain artifacts as stage dressing, and one crate contains a sword rusted firmly into it's sheath. Canvas tents and other iconic archeology equipment would fill in the remaining spaces. The chair is a central point of focus in the play. While it isn't a complex item it is central to the plot. We start with Katie tied to it and later Dr. Steed it tied to it by Katie. So we have two main point for the chair to fill. First that someone can be tied to it, and second that it isn't too complicated (so it doesn't distract the audience)." 

This of course doesn't make much sense if you haven't read Artifact of Imagination. Artifact of Imagination was my submission for our play with a single scene with two characters who both want something. (For those of you who don't know, a beat is a way to signify a short pause. Such as "What? (Beat) NOOOOOOOOO!")

 

Characters:

Dr. Steed: An arrogant archaeologist. Well respected by the general populace but not his peers. It is known that he often hoards artifacts in his massive mansion and rumored that he will do anything to get his hands on anything over a few hundred years old.

Katie Brend: A new comer to the field of archeology and a recent graduate of University of Rostock. Katie has not had much luck finding a job that she can stand for more then a few months and was unemployed when she accidentally found the dig of the century, in her grandmother's back yard.

Scene: A partially lit cement room with doors on either side of the room and a few plain wooden crates in the foreground. In the background are more crates, canvas tents, shovels, and pickaxes.

Artifact of Imagination

(Dr. Steed is pacing behind a chair that Katie is tied to. Katie is unconscious.)

Katie

(Wakes up and groans.)

Dr. Steed

Ah, good you are awake.

(Walks around the chair.)

Katie

Where'm I? Who're you?

Dr. Steed

Surely you recognize me?

Katie

Oh, Dr. Steed! It's a please to meet you. My name is- (Beat) Um, Doctor, why am I tied up?

Dr. Steed

Because Katie Brend, you incredibly lucky girl, you have something that I want.

Katie

I do? I have something that a world-wide known millionaire archaeologist wants?

Dr. Steed

Yes!

Katie

If you're talking about my signed copy of The Hobit--

Dr. Steed

Do not play innocent with me, young miss! (Starts to pace.) I am sure that you know the item that I speak of. In your paper on the archaeological dig that you finished exactly 4 months and 9 days ago you mention on the third page that you removed an artifact that appeared out of place with the surrounding artifacts.

Katie

Yeah, there were a few things like that. Do you have a picture of it?

Dr. Steed

Arrg!

(Walks out the door on stage left)

Katie

(Frees herself. She then opens one of the crates. Inside she finds a sword in a sheath. She tries to pull it out but it is stuck.)

Dr. Steed

(Enters with picture and sees Katie)

You! Put. That. Down. Do you know how much that cost me--

Katie

(Brings sword, sheath and all, down on Dr. Steed's head, knocking him out. She drags him to the chair and ties him to it. She notices the picture that he was carrying and picks it up.)

Dr. Steed.

(Groans)

Katie

Dr. Steed, from this picture I gather that you are wanting the half of the fabled Oozamalakian pendent that I found.

Dr. Steed

Of course you silly girl, nothing else in that silly dig of yours was worth my attention. The pendent has the secrets of an entire civilization locked inside it. With the whole thing I could-- (Beat)

Katie

Go on.

Dr. Steed

I will not fall for that mental trap.

Katie

But I think you could do the evil mastermind monologue very well!

Dr. Steed

This is not one of your useless books! Knowledge is power. And the masses of information that pendent could unlock are incredible! The accounts, scattered across the world, all imply that if you can combined the two fragments then you will be able to accesses this gloriousness knowledge!

Katie

And you want this knowledge?

Dr. Steed

Yes!

Katie

And guessing from the fact that you kidnapped me you'll do anything for it?

Dr. Steed

Yes!

Katie

And you already have half of the pendent?

Dr. Steed

Yes! No. Why would you think that I have half of one already? Both halves haven't seen the light of day for hundreds of years. All we have are scattered accounts of people finding a half and disappearing.

Katie

This picture you grabbed. Who sent it to you?

Dr. Steed

Why should I tell you.

Katie

An exchange of information. A mutual increase in power.

Dr. Steed

What could you tell me that I do not already know?

Katie

I know something about this photo that you don't.

Dr. Steed

Fine, I agree. What do you know.

Katie

I'm not the one tied to a chair anymore Doctor. (Pause) That was an invitation to spill the beans.

Dr. Steed

The picture was sent to me by a man called Roechmen. Perhaps you have heard of him? Why would you want to know? You said yourself that you have the half of the pendent.

Katie

I've heard of Roechmen. If you'll excuse me Doctor, I have a reclusive archaeologist to find.

Dr. Steed

Wait. I gave you what you wanted, now what is that I do not know about that photograph?

Katie

This isn't a picture of the half of the Oozamalakian pendent that I found.

(Exit stage left.)

Dr. Steed

What? (Beat) Oh. Drat.

Katie

(Off-stage) Where are the bloody stairs.

Dr. Steed

I have not lost! You can look all you want Katie Brend, but you will never find your way out of my labyrinth of a basement!

Katie

(Enter stage left)

Or I could just try this door.

(Exits stage right)

Dr. Steed

Drat!

Well I think that's enough for now, until next time zombie killers!

Zombie Killing Technique #95: Ultra-short pulse lasers.

Writing and Role Playing Games - Part 2

First of all I must share a link. My blogger buddy Esther is taking a trip to Europe with People to People and she is blogging about it in a blog dedicated to the trip. You can find links to both her blogs on the right of the screen, my blog list. Now back to your irregularly scheduled blog.

Once again I've vanished on my faithful readers. The few that I have. Well when we last met Barret was a vaguely defined character, he had to start somewhere. So that is where we are going today.

First I started with something that was not my creation. The world's back story.

"History: It has been 75 years since the nuclear exchange that caused a holocaust on a global scale. In the Atlantic Ocean a US carrier fleet somehow managed to avoid the ensuring global annihilation. For years the fleet tried to establish contact with the Pentagon and the government stateside. After a while they began to give up hope, and they switched the broadcasts to an automatic loop. After 70 years someone finally answered the call, and gave the all clear. It two months since then and the Admiralty have been debating whether to answer the call, and return home."

Now that about a year ago. Since then Rook, the GM, has added bunches of additional story, most of which our characters still haven't found. Now I started to build the framework that would become Barret.

At this point, Barret had no name or personality. I just wanted to play a sniper. I knew that I needed to play a Marine or Navy type person with Marines being slightly preferred. Once I had a very basic idea of what role I would play in our little group of adventures I could start working on back story.

I think the first thing I came up with was his parents. His father would be some sort of mid-ranking officer in charge of a small island base and his mother would be a disabled Navy Seal vet. Soon after that formed in my head I decided that he would be a trouble child. And that's how it went, small bits and pieces coming together to become a character. Finally what I ended up with is this:

"When Barrett Black was born in a small look out/agriculture base on one of the islands in the Azores archipelago, great things were expected of him. The youngest of three children of the Navy Commander in charge of the base and a retired Seal sniper. And even at a very young age it looked like he would follow his mother’s footsteps and become a Seal, sometimes sneaking up on trained Navy crew and Marines.

However as he grew from and child to a young teenage he found two things: a intense love for and ability with guns, and a talent for getting in trouble and often getting away with it. The first was fine, his Father was the most likely cause for his love of guns and his Mother for his talent with them. When he first demonstrated his powers with and firearm to his amused parents at age 12 he surpassed the requirements to become a Marine. His talent for getting in trouble on the other hand would cause a good deal of strife.

Constantly going though restricted areas, especially the armory, had him thrown into the brig on a dozen occasions. Not only that but at age 16 he found a book about slight of hand magic tricks and taught himself how to use them. Again his knack for trouble took over and he learned that the magic tricks could be used for more then just entertainment, and swiped an ID card from an officer.

This was the final straw for Barrett's Father, who requested transfer to a ship command. With in the month he was MIA presumed dead and his ship sunk. This was a huge blow to Barrett, doublely so because his oldest brother had be aboard the ship as well. Left with his Mother, his Sister, and a gaping hole in his heart, Barrett threw himself into his training and shooting he finally began to live up to his Fathers expectations, it would grieve him for the rest of his life that he would never see his Father's approving smile.

Barrett's family

Father: Commander Vendrie Black – MIA (Navy)

Mother: Lieutenant Commander Marry Brent Black – Honorably discharged (Navy Seals)

Brother: 1^st Lieutenant Mak Black – MIA (Marines)

Sister: Lieutenant Valarie Black (Navy air force, fighter jet pilot)

Himself Corporal Barrett Black (Marine DM)"

One part of Barret's birth was choosing his name. His surname, Black, was simple, however I often have a problem choosing  first names. One of my friends cheerfully suggested I use Lastat. I thought this was a interesting name and was going to use it until another one of my friends informed me that my first friend got the name from a homosexual vampire. Yet another friend suggested Barret, which suited Barret quite nicely. Not only does the name fit his personality, but it also happens to be the name of a well known gun manufacturer.

 Well this post is no doubt getting longer then your attention span so I'll come back to this another time. Coming soon, (yes I know I said that last time too) a post about how to be a good patient and my experience with getting stitches!

Zombie Killing Technique #96: BOOM! HEADSHOT!

Writing and Role Playing Games - Part 1

I enjoy making characters. I like imagining how they look, how they dress. I like to think of how they would act in different scenarios. And I love to ponder their back stories, where they've been and what has happened to them. So, with that being said, I would now like to introduce you to one of my characters: Corporal Barret Black of the US Flotilla.

Barret is the most detailed character I have ever created. I have pages of plain back story and haven't even started recording what he has actuality done. This is because Barret isn't a character from one of my stories. He is my character in a RPG. It should be noted that when I talk about a Role Playing Game that I mean the table top variety, and not video games. For those of you who are unfamialier to table top gaming it works like this.

First you have two kinds of people: Players and the Game Master. The players control the PCs or Player Characters, and go on quests, gain loot, set things on fire, and generally give the GM a headache. The GM plans the adventures that the PCs go on; build the world (or use someone-else's if they're lazy); control the monsters, NPCs or Non-Player Character, and other bad- and good-guys; and yell at the players for ruining the entire plot within the first five minutes of game-play. Table top gaming includes the famous/infamous Dungeons and Dragons, and other game systems. The one that we are using for the game is called d20 Modern.

Now you are now, no doubt wondering if this post has a point. The answer is that it does, but you have to dig deep to find it.

Barret is, in gamey lingo, is a 7th level Fast (4)/Soldier (3), has a to-hit of +11 with his normal attack, and a range of 225ft with his rifle before he starts taking penalties. He is a Marine sniper capable of striking from the shadows thousands of feet away. Not only that but he has enough weaponry to take on a small army, and has. Granted, he did have help.

Now the world Barret lives in is an alternate of ours meaning that much of it is the same. In this most of history up to around the 2000's remains the same. Around 2012 countries started trowing nukes around. Fast forward to about 2069 and Barret enters the picture. Unfortunately he was just born and not all that exciting from a story perspective. So we skip forward again to 2087 also known as the present. (You are taking notes aren't you? You mean I didn't tell you about the surprise quiz at the end?) Barret has just fled a large city along with roughly 20 other Marines and Navy personal. He had to do this because his brother wasn't playing fair. And even before that he and the rest of his squad held the courthouse of before mentioned city against hundreds of locals, who happened to be mutants. Those are just some of the high points of Barret's recent journey to what use to be the United States of America.

You see what use to be the US is now close to what you might find in one of the Fallout games. Trashed ecosystems, mutants, high- and low-tech peoples, communities, wanderers, traders, and raiders. This is the world that our GM created, and into this world I stuck Barret. Here is where we get into the point of this post. Are you ready for the pointyness?

When a writer works on a story he has to work out what each character does and how they react. RPGing is much the same, only you tend to work only one side of the story. The writer has to play both the world and the main characters. In a game the players play the main characters and the GM plays the world. While I haven't shown much of Barret's personality yet, he does have one. When we play I slip into a rebellious, paranoid, protective, and gun-crazy Marine and go through the adventure he has.

I don't think I've done this justice so I intend to come back to it when it isn't tomorrow. I mean after midnight. The next post will be coming soon and will be a good deal larger because of some of it already being written.

Zombie Killing Technique #97: A 15 foot pit with spikes at the bottom.

General Preparedness

At any time we could be plunged into a word were we are helpless. The chances of this happening grow less and less as we grow more prepared.

...

I think my cryptic warning needs some explanation.

The future is unpredictable, we can't tell what it holds. Sure some things we can see that are unavoidable and we can say that they will happen and they will. For example I could say that there will be turmoil in the Middle East and no one will bat an eyelash. But if I told someone that someone they knew was going to have a heart attack and the only way they could save them if they had a cell phone on them and knew CPR, then do you think that person would go and learn CPR? Most people wouldn't pay attention, because I'm not a doctor, people only tend to pay attention to warnings about heart attacks from doctors, and sometimes not even then.

We never know when we will need to preform CPR; chase down a runaway train, or guinea pig; or nail that zombie about to grab your buddy with your throwing knife. This is where you say 'But there are so many things that could happen, how can I prepare for them all?' Not to worry my friends, I'm not here to teach you CPR, how to tie a bowline, or even do jumping jacks, at least not today, anyways. I just want to outline three basic ideas that everyone needs to follow to be prepared for the random stuff that can happen.

These three ideas are mental, physical, and martial preparedness. These can be broken down even further into smaller groups. Mental is the first item on the list. Being prepared mentally is half knowing what to do and how to do it, and half having the guts to do it and not give up and go cry in the corner. Seeing as I've already set a patern of going back to my CPR example and using the word "prepared" every other sentence, why stop now? If you find your friend laying on the ground not breathing what would you do? Would you know that you need to check for blockage in his throat, and to support his neck (in case its broken) while doing so? Would you have the "guts" to start doing chest compressions knowing that it will break bones? Would you know... Okay you get the point.

But despite being extremely important, knowing and determination are only the first step on the path to survival. The next is being physically fit. You know that fat kid that you're friends with? When the zombies come he better hope he has a good hiding place because there's no way that he is going to outrun even the creepers. There really isn't much to say about this one. If you aren't fit then you have to rely a lot more on the other two parts of preparedness to get you through. If we go back once again to the CPR example then we can see where this would be a problem, in two ways. First you have to break bones to do chest compressions. This being said, you just have to be heavy enough and not necessarily strong. The other problem is that it is unlikely that you will revive someone by giving them CPR. (I think the statistic is about 1 in a hundred but I'm not sure.) This means that you have to preform CPR until help arrives, this could be hours.

Finally we have martial preparedness. This would include everything from a house built in a non-flood zone, to portable generators, to the clothes you're wearing right now. As you know, my family has a portable generator, what you don't know is that our house is built on a area that won't flood, I'm also wearing clothes. Sometimes it isn't enough to be physically and mentally prepared, sometimes you need a tool or other physical object to help. My CPR example is less potent here as you do not need any items to do it. I have four items that I like to always have on me: my cellphone, my wallet, a pocket knife, and a flashlight. I find that these can come in handy quite often in day to day life and are extremely usefully in survival situations. I recommend that people at least carry a knife around with them, I use mine daily and don't leave the house without it. It's become something people expect me to have and ask to borrow it often. My dad like knives as much as I do, in fact he has two on his key chain.

Other then knives there are other items that you want to have: canned food, spare batteries, radios, tents, sleeping bags, large-caliber weapons...  Also, never go on a camp out without rain gear, I swear the sky knows when you have it and when you don't.

Well I hope this helped. Now go out there and BE PREPARED. (I am suddenly reminded of a certain singing lion...)

Zombie Killing Technique #98:A brick and a belt or a shovel.

Zombie Setting

As I'm sure all of you know zombies vary from story to story. Some zombies can only be stopped by destroying their head, others don't care if they have a head or not. Some are corpses animated by magic, others are simply diseased people who have lost their minds. The only thing that seems universal to zombies is the desire to eat and/or brutally shred human flesh. Now I want my own sandbox zombie infested world that I can tinker with and write stories in. So after a bit of thought this is what settled on. (I have also decided to only tell you what most people in the US would know in this sandbox world. This lets me make stuff up on the go and lets me sneak in surprises.)

First, this is still Earth and not much has changed ecologically or geographically. For the most part the only countries dealing with zombies are Canada and Mexico. The US is sadly only a area and not a global power. Federal government has been eaten, and was in fact, the first thing targeted.

Zombies was created by a mad scientist around the end of 2009. After this monumental, but hidden, break-through he gathered an army of soldiers and like-minded people. During the Fall of 2010 he unleashed his his disease into the water system of a medium sized city of which I have yet to chose.

The zombies are not truly dead, but rather mindless drones of terror. They seek to consume human flesh for food and reproduce by biting. They were spread by the mad scientist to all over the US from which they started spreading zombism at an incredible rate.

I will likely link back to this post often and update it as I post stories in this setting. I also want to explain some of the reasons I chose some of the details. First, the is no magic. This is for a more realistic setting to draw the audience (you) into. Make it feel like this could be you counting your remaining ammo and food.

Next, for the most part the world is the same. Especially outside North America. The reason the zombies haven't been wiped out by a joint group of world powers such as the United Nations is because no one knows whats going on and they're too scared to find out. A good part of this the doings of the mad scientist who has his own personal army and who's motto is “Today the States, tomorrow the world.”

There is a Bad Guy. This give Heroes a chance to appear. This is important to stories. Heroes typically need some goal to step above and beyond the normal man, or woman. Because I put a central Bad Guy, who has lots of smaller Bad Guys I can create Heroes to do battle with them, and not just hordes of mindless zombies.

There is some hope of outside rescue. The other countries could get off their tails and do something like save some of the survivors or take on the mad scientist. I would like to say here that I have a good deal of respect for most of the countries that I'm talking about. But for the sake of the story they have to be frightened, for good reasons of course.

I also let things open for me to chose different elements. I can say “Well this town dealt with the first wave of zombies fairly well so they don't have as many problems.” can say that because I gave nothing away as to how the zombies spread other then biting, and even with that I didn't say with what kind of regularity the bite would cause the bitten to turn.

For the most part I just left my options open so I can make stuff up as I go, because that's what I'm best at.

Zombie killing technique #99: First find a narrow ally. Then take and slaughter one, two-headed cow. Take a long length of rope and suspend the cow in a way that will cause the cow to ram into a zombie triggering a trip wire. (Please note that two-headed cows should be plentiful after long term nuclear fallout. Also note that this zombie killing technique could be non-discriminating as to zombies and survivors alike.)

I seek forgiveness for the lack of updates. Life has been crazy and I've been lazy. Now that, that is out of the way, let us get to meat of this post.

Now most of you know that a record setting winter storm blanketed Canada and most of the Norther half of the US. As it happens I live in the Norther half of the US. We knew it was coming. With every news source, from radio and newspapers to our lovely time wasting websites, was warning of the horrendous danger that we were all in. The first day that we were suppose to get snow, I knew that I would have to be prepared for anything. So I took a shower.

No, I didn't go to the supermarket to stock up on bread, milk, and eggs like everyone else seems to feel a need to. No, I didn't panic and spread rumors of how we were all going to die and that 2012 was going to be a bit early all over the internet. I simply took a shower and get dressed in what most people would only wear as pajamas, insulated underwear pants and a t-shirt.

Now before you think that I wasn't prepared (if you haven't already), let me explain. My choice of clothing was carefully thought out. When I dress for cold weather I always use a layer that is light and close fitting, this isn't to provide insulation, it's to keep me dry. Our bodies produce liquids that will act as coolant and greatly reduce our resistance to cold weather. Or if I stop pretending that I know what I'm talking about: sweat makes us cold.

So now that I was dressed in a way that would allow me to get fully dressed without getting undressed first, what did I do? I did what any self-respecting teen would do, I plopped down in front of my laptop and waited for something to happen. Well we didn't get much snow.

After all the warnings and dire predictions it wasn't until the next day that I think we got much snow. The first day all we got was ice. Nice sticky, round, balls of the stuff. Reaching outside you could grab up hundreds of miniature frozen water marbles. After a little bit of marveling at the spectacle the sky was spitting at us and the wind whipping it around, I went back to my computer. Around 6 o'clock something happened. My grandma and grandpa called my mom.

Now it is important to the story that I give some quick background on my grandparents. Neither one of them are healthy, they both smoked for years and now are paying with their health for the habit they already spent hundreds of dollars on. As it is neither of them can so much as walk across their own yard in the best of conditions.

Now the nasty weather had taken out a power line near my grandparents and the line leading from the main line to their house, denieing them power in two places. They like most people had spent most of the day getting ready for the storm, non the less, it didn't take long for them to call us. With the roads near unpassable and incredibly dangerous, more ice pouring down, and who knew how many power lines and trees could be blocking us, my family's plan was clean. It was time to activate our Boy Scout Powers.

Me and my dad both got dressed for the weather. And me and dad never feel completely dressed without being loaded with survival gear in normal circumstances, as it was we loaded our pockets and belts with everything you could imagine. Then we loaded ourselves into the Secret Mobile Survival Shelter. Well maybe we didn't, but I had to say something cooler then our minivan, right?

Here's where I explain why going out in the worst storm of my life time wasn't a bad idea. Or, not. It wasn't safe, it wasn't something I will recommend to anyone, and it isn't something I want to repeat anytime soon. Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way let us continue. It felt great.

Living on the edge of life, the horde of danger and panic held back by the shield of preparedness and shear luck. Helping people. Bringing them back to your shelter. Fighting off the brain sucking zombies with your trusty twelve gauge. Oops, wrong memory.

The roads were nasty, they were so covered in ice that we could only tell were the road led was a slightly flatter area, and occasionally, only by landmarks. This mattered less to my dad then it would to other drivers. Dad is from South Bend, where 3-5 inches of snow is “just a little bit,” not only that but he also practiced driving in bad conditions whenever he could. Even with my dad's driving skills the we still didn't go more then 20 miles an hour. On the whole trip, there and back, we saw less then 5 other vehicles, and we went along a major highway for a while. When we were close to our destination we started to stop and get out of the van to check for downed power lines with flashlights, luckily, we didn't find any across the road.

Once we got there it was only a matter of deciding what to do. It didn't take us long to decide to take them back to our house. We didn't know how long they would be without power and they couldn't do without it. We then loaded them some spare clothes and their dog into our van, checked on their neighbor, and took off back home. The whole adventure took about 3 hours total.

Once we got home we stashed my grandparents inside and went out to the garage to start up the generator, “just in case.” (Or in other words, beating Murphy with a stick.) This is where I think I learned the most important lesson. Generators need to be started about once every 3-4 months to keep them ready to start at a moment's notice. It took about 20 minutes of being in the freezing cold for my dad to get the bloody thing started, and in the end we didn't even need it.

After the first day it became a wait and see. Wait for the city to clear the roads, wait for the power at my grandparents to come back on, see if they had a bust water line, see that all our friends were OK. It took most of the week for things to settle back to normal. Of course I didn't think to check my school email until the end of the week. When I did I found that I was assigned homework to do while stuck at home. That made me happy.

Next post should come sooner and involve ZoMBiEs!

Zombie killing technique #100: Shrapnel. Doesn't matter how you make it because everything is better with flying chunks of metal.

Introduction

The last dregs of winter are melting away and we find ourselves looking for excuses to replace "It's too cold outside." Welcome New Readers, let me introduce myself. My name is Daniel. I recently turned 19, live near Terre Haute Indiana, and I am pursuing an Associate's Degree in Architecture Ivy Tech Community College. 

Now the name of this blog is slightly misleading, it implies that I intend to talk about zombies, however this is not the goal of this blog. I've started this blog as a creative outlet for talking about writing, especially plots and character development; survival, including real and unlikely situations (thus the name); and other things that I feel like sharing with the world. The lack of zombies may disappoint some and calm others. I will run the hundred and one ways to kill a zombie, one and the end of each post. Some of these will be comical, some will be serious and others just random.

I want my readers to be involved in what I do so I will look at and ask for comments on what I should do next. I will also make use of the polls that Bogger so nicely provides. This was a short post and I hope to do another one soon, most likely about everyone’s new favorite weather: Ice Storms!

Zombie killing technique #101: Bore the zombie to death with an introductory post.