Bought Two New Toys, Got Hit By a Car

To call today 'eventful' would not be overselling things.


I finally got paid, and after cashing my check, promptly set out to purchase a new tower for my desktop, to replace the one that got fragged last week. Unfortunately, the 200 dollar desktop Wal-Mart was offering on their website was out of stock, so I hit Best Buy, Circuit City and some of the other electronics stores in my city's sprawling 'stripmall hell-zone'.


By the way, I was on my bike. (Not a Harley kinda bike or anything cool like that- two pedals and a seat that hurts your ass like prision-sex). Why? Because I am God's Chewtoy. My car died last year. My computer died two weeks ago, and now....


Crotchety old white man in a SUV way too big for him, making a right on red, without looking.... me being stupid enough to think a glowing walk sign protected me like a divine aegis..... crunch. It's not the first time I've been hit while biking, and no harm was done to me, but unfortnately the front wheel of my bike now looks like one of Salvador Dali's clocks.


Another fucking thing to spend money I don't have fixing. Lovely.


Equally lovely was the fact I was humping the shattered remains of my two-wheeled comrade in arms about 2 miles back to my house. I'm a little bit sore from that. After that, I dumped the bike, dumped my first purchase on the phone and did a bit more walking, to a computer store about 1 mile from my home, a little mom and pop place.


Good news there. I ended up getting a 40 gig desktop with all the usual office stuff and Win98 installed.... bascially the same as I've been working on for exactly 200 dollar. I got it home, and in addition to the stuff I saw in the store, I noticed it came loaded up with Adobe Acrobat 6, which is fricking like recieving a submissive supermodel for Christmas! I figure this fun little bonus is karmic payback for spending my money with a real, local small business owner rather than throwing it at some soulless mega-corp.


By the way, the first thing I did since this was a used, refurbed computer was to take it home, open up the Documents folder and see what kind of porn the previous owner was looking at (mostly making sure there's nothing with children or donkeys, I'm cool with pretty much anything else). No porno, drat. Turns out the previous owner was a sweet little old granny, who kept copies of all those stupid inspirational e-mails that get sent around, which is kinda funny. She also kept her will, with every bit of personal secure info (including SSNs, driver liscense numbers and bank account info) on the thing, which isn't.


I'll definately be deleting THAT. Yikes, I feel really bad for that woman if she knows that little about opsec.


Anyway, my new desktop is my first new toy. The second, which I actually purchased before the crash, and the one thing I can't stop smiling about is my newest Iron Man action figure, which will join the small but growing army of Tony Starks protecting my desk and bookshelves.


I stopped by Target in my quest for computational goodness, and though I learned they don't actually sell computers, like I always do I stopped by the toy aisle, and picked up this little honey: "Repulsor Red Iron Man", which is a Target exclusive appearently, and one of the coolest bits of corporate synergy I've ever seen.


Target's colors are red and white, and their logo is a stylized, circular bullseye. This Iron Man, a combo of Adi Gradnov's absolutely awesome design and the old red and silver Iron Man suit from the 80s is red and (metallic) white, and has a circular uni-beam projector on his chest. I don't know who came up with this figure, if it was somebody on the Marvel side, the Hasbro side or if it was a Target executive's brainchild, but this is probally the coolest store-exclusive action figure I've ever seen.



You know, even after being hit by a car, I'm still in a pretty good mood. Maybe becuase I just got paid, and my financial situation is slowly straightening itself out. Maybe it's because 3 different people stopped to offer me a ride when they saw me humping my bike down the street. Maybe its because I've got two days off in a row, a rarity at my crappy 'civilian' job, maybe because I can write again, which I'll be doing after I post this. Maybe because broken bicycle or not, it's a beatutiful day in Corpus Christi, Texas, and I've seen more pretty girls in tight shorts today alone than I have in the previous two weeks. Probally it's because of my new Iron Man though. I've got messed up priorities.


Also, in other good news, I recieved my author's copy of the "Rust Borg" from Reality Devaints Beyond Modern line. I really had fun writing this one. I was asked to create some classes for a grim, violent Mad Max or Rifts-styled post-apocalyptic D20 Modern game. Rusty here is the first of three: the Slaver and Memory Singer (a modern magic healer, source of courage and inspiration similar to an after the bomb Bard) will be coming out shortly. Anthony (the hardest working artist in gaming) did the art, and it's always a treat to see his interpretations of my characters.


Anyway, a couple of secrets about this class. It was inspired almost completely by the "Four Horsemen" sculpt of Trap-Jaw from the revamped He-Man line; I basically built the "Trap-Jaw" advanced class, which is one of the absolutely coolest things I've ever done. Another thing, the name of the Rust Borg gladiator who got killed during the opening flavor text.... he's a small time gang banger in my home town who keeps graffiting my mom's back fence. Seeing that little SOB chainsawed to death, even in a work of fiction, warms the cockles of my heart. So naturally, I'm having a great time with Reality Deviant's post-apoc stuff, and I've been comissioned to do some more work for them.



I love getting cool emails saying things like "give me 30,000 words or so on a post apoc magic system" with a few very fun and very flexible writer's guidelines to follow, most of which consist of me and the clinet BSing about favorite books and cool movies. The post-apoc magic stuff for Reality Deviants will be one of the first things I'll be working on now that my computer is back up and running, along with Psi-Watch and Otherverse America.


Anyway, I'll talk to you all later, and I'll probally share my thoughts on Final Fantasy x2(which I've been playing addictively during my involuntary hiatus from writing), interactive storytelling techniques and confess my undying love for Rikku.


Blessed Be, and Adios,
CHRIS