It's almost time.

OK here I go. Well I will soon enough. This is the eve of NaNoWriMo, actually it's under 2 hours until I can start posting. Like last year I'll be posting each days work here as well as on the NaNo Site, here's a link to my profile; http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/stylinsteve Unlike last year I have a plan of attack and I know what I'm working towards. Here's how I hope to have it shape up.

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! To NaNo I will go

So last year I tried the NaNoWriMo challenge for the first time. It went pretty good for the first 8 days of November, then came my birthday. After a night or two of celebrations I fell behind on my writing and my word count and I never caught up again. Overall I loved the challenge and I saved my work so that I can come back to it later. I never finished NaNoWriMo but I enjoyed the challenge and the work that I did.

Municipal Election

Another case of - this was going to be a Facebook status but it turned into a rant - instead it's a blog entry.

So reading articles this week on the upcoming municipal election, I'm noticing a trend here. The most common questions are, of course; "Where do you stand on X-issue?"

Most of the answers I've read from the Mayoral candidates have gone like this;

Doc O'Keefe - Well crafted answer, citing the issue and containing political rhetoric without actually giving an answer other than "that certainly is important."

Sheilagh O'Leary - Well crafted answer, citing the issue and containing political rhetoric without actually giving an answer other than "that certainly is important."

Geoff Chaulk - Read my blog.  (I'm serious, read here)

The first two are answers most of us have come to expect from politicians of any level, standard fare where you might glean some insight into the person and their platform.

The third, personally makes me not care about the candidate. If you can't be bothered to take the time and answer an interview question, what kind of Mayor are you going to make?

**fictional, post-election council meeting with Chaulk as Mayor**

Random Councillor - "Your worship we have a question... random civic issue."

Chaulk - "Read my blog."

Random Councillor - "But your worship..."

Chaulk - "I said, read my blog."

**End of fictional account**

Seriously, is he going to give that same answer in any debates? The interviews are one way to get to know the candidates, seeing the answer of "read my blog" just comes off as dismissive to the voters.

Personally, the Mayor's race seems like a two horse competition.

- Later

Podcast upgrades!

Well it's been a long time coming but my goal of having a portable podcast recording studio is finally coming together. Ever since myself and Shannon started The Whostorian, I've constantly wanted to improve the audio, to make it the very best that I can.  I'm finally getting everything squared away.

Auto Insurance and you

The auto insurance industry is fucked.

I have no idea who sets the regulations or the standards that companies have to follow, but there don't seem to be any standards. It's been a long road since I got my license to get my insurance anywhere near what should be affordable for one person. Today I am a very happy man.

Here's my story.

Wirtz of Wisdom

Just sittin' here, listening to some random music. You know when you just set iTunes to random and see what plays? On comes a track by The Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, he's a comedian, jazz/blues pianist, former wrestling manager, and minister of his own religion.

The First House of Polyester Worship and Horizontal Throbbing Teenage Desire Our Lady of the White Go-Go Boot Lord of the 40-Watt Undulating Bubbling Lava Lamp Apocalyptic No Pizza Take-out After 12 Achey-Breaky Love Tabernacle.

Say that five times fast... anyway, point is, this track by him called "Wirtz of Wisdom" came on and it's full of things he's learned in life and he shared them with the masses. Some of it may apply, some of it may not. Here's a transcript of it.

A story with a McCompliment

Earlier this week I read a couple of news stories and saw accompanying video of members of the public verbally berating fast food employees.  I couldn't believe my eyes and ears.

In one instance, an apparent customer yells at a drive through employee because he asked for no cheese on his burger but got one with cheese. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/wendys-customer-video_n_3455092.html

In the other, a customer berates and verbally abuses two employees, trying to make herself out as some kind of victim while the employees are polite, apologetic, calm and do their best to complete an order. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/dunkin-donuts-yelling-video_n_3416787.html?utm_hp_ref=business

Travel Updates!

*Tap Tap*

Is this thing on? Testing One-Two, Testing!

*Ahem*

Ladies and Gentletestsubjects, it's good to be back!

You may have noticed my absence these past few weeks, I have been away on an adventure your mortal brains couldn't begin to comprehend! After fixing the issues from the last power failure, the Lab Boys discovered an impressive side effect and we had a breakthrough. What I mean by that is, shorting out the cyclotron caused an actual breakthrough to another dimension! Well, several actually, so naturally when the first sucker... I mean test pilot came back breathing I decided that the best person to see the potential wonders of another reality was me! For Science!

So I've been dimension jumping, leaping from place to place, hoping each time that the next leap, would be the leap home... Wait! That was the plot to Quantum Leap! No, I've been walking back and forth through dimensional gates as easy as a normal person walks through a door. It's kinda tingly actually, with a popcorn aftertaste for some reason... anyway! Point is, I've been away exploring and I've seen some amazing places. There's the land of perpetual Wednesday, got stuck there for a few days, didn't notice what was happening. Then there's the crazy melty land and the world without shrimp. Those are just the tip of the trans dimensional iceberg!

Speaking of ice and such, I see the Weather Control Machine™ is finally working right, at least over the capital city! That last weather event was a nasty one and had the potential to completely ruin last weekend, or so the report told me. As we discovered with Weather Control Machine 2.0™ we can't totally eliminate precipitation, but we can convert snow to rain to make it less of a hassle. Turns out there is some truth to cosmic karma after all... lousy balancing of nature... Lab Boys are working on that though.

So now that things are humming along nicely and seem to be under control, at least that's what Joey Knuckles tells me, I'm going to take a couple of months and keep exploring these new dimensions and claim them in my name! So many possibilities and so many versions of me to leave in charge! Yes there are other versions of myself and other versions of the Bunker© and even a few where there was no bunker! Well I couldn't have that, so there are now! None of them have made the dimensional breakthrough though, so I'm the link between it all and I'm willing to guide the other me's to it and share our technologies between us all. For Science!

I should be back in September or October with all sorts of new doodads and whatchamacallits to amaze and astound you all!

Until then, I'm Steve Johnson, we're done here!

Powerful Possibilities

**Tap Tap**

Could I have your attention please!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends, Minions, Test Subjects... et al, I'd like to apologize for this mornings incidents with the electricity. Call this a lesson learned, never plug a blender into the same extension cord as your cyclotron!

We thought first it was just a blown circuit here in the bunker, turns out we blew out most of the island!

Rest assured the problem is being corrected, I've assigned a team to help with repairs and I've fired Lou from janitorial for using an unauthorized blender on company time.

Some good news though, what crawled out of the cyclotron after the blow out seems to be a new form of life, and it's friendly! Well... it was... as with all new discoveries, it was immediately euthanized and sent to the lab for dissection and study! Lab Boys tell me it will be very informative and beneficial to humanity and by that I mean me!

So to sum up, sorry again for the power issues, Lou is fired and new life was found here and killed before it became a threat!

Until next time.

More Hotel Hauntings

Well the resident ghost is still in the hotel and he's more active than ever it seems. There have been stories that I've gotten from some of the other staff that they'd heard things before, but that was long before my sighting that I posted about previously. This past week, two members of staff reported things happening.