The McDonald's Breakfast Bagel Conspiracy

I spent several months in Cleveland, Ohio back in 1999. Now, in general, I really didn't like the city (except for Lake Erie, cardinals, fireflies, the Cleveland Library System, and the city parks). But I really learned to love bagels there. There were several bagel sandwich places, and I still crave a Leonardo da Veggie sandwich on a fresh salt bagel. Delicioso, trust me.

So anyway, while I was there, McDonald's introduced these nifty new Breakfast Bagels - I was hooked. I had previously hated McDonald's breakfasts, and always frequented Burger King for their croissants (if I was eating fast food breakfasts). Well, when I came back to the Pacific Northwest, nobody seemed to have a clue what a Breakfast Bagel was (and good bagels are still impossible to find over here, let along a good salt bagel sandwich).

Not too much later, however, and this part of the country caught on at last. Once again I was happily eating McDonald's Spanish Omelet Bagels.

A year or so ago, however, the local store decided that the Spanish Omelet Bagel wasn't selling well enough, and pulled it from their menu. I was devastated and complained loudly. I could still drive 40 miles to a neighboring town, and they had Spanish Omelet Bagels, so why didn't my local neighborhood McDonald's!?

Because they were idiots, I decided.

Well, one of the girls convinced me to try the Steak Bagel - I reluctantly did so, and was surprised to find I liked it. It was no Spanish Omelet Bagel, let me tell you, but it was still good. So I've grown accustomed to the Steak Bagels, and had accepted that this was The Way Life Is and I shouldn't fight it.

Today, because a thunderstorm was threatening my home computer, I took my laptop to McDonald's about 8:30 a.m., expecting to have a reasonably yummy Steak Bagel.

But it was not to be.

My local McDonald's has now discontinued the Steak Bagel.

*sigh*

I'm sure I can still get it 40 miles from here, or at any other McDonald's in the entire civilized world. But the 24-hour McDonald's that's only a mile from my house? Not a chance. Both the Spanish and Steak bagels are still listed on the McDonald's web site, so it's only my local McDonald's that seems to think they're not worth selling.

Lamers.

So now I'm down to the relatively dry and unenjoyable Bacon Breakfast Bagel - which, oddly enough, is not listed on the McDonald's web site. Go figure.

Next thing you know I'll be back at Burger King eating croissants.

Either that or I'm moving back to Cleveland.

What Went Down Officially Gone

It's official: Fright Night: What Went Down was emailed to Hogshead Publishing at 1:35 a.m. PST.

I'm inordinately pleased with the end result. I was faced with trying to create an adventure that would put a band of Western civilian salvage and rescue workers aboard a top secret Russian nuclear attack sub that had mysteriously gone down. Top that with trying to come up with a credible explanation for the mysterious horror that now stalks the sub's corridors, and I was stymied for a while.

Thanks to some suggestions from andi jones and Gene Moyers (thanks guys!) I managed to come up with a workable solution. (Oh, and get the entire 22,000-word project written in less than seven days). I'm happy with the end result; let's hope Mark Ricketts at the new Hogshead is as well.

What Went Down Goes Down

As of 10:41 p.m., PST, on Friday, September 26, 2003, the first draft of What Went Down, a 20,000-word d20 modern horror supplement for Hogshead's new Fright Night series, is done!

I fired it off to three helpful friends - Adam Debus, andi jones, and Gene Moyers - and hopefully I'll get some quick comments back from them so I can do a final edit tomorrow and send it off to Hogshead.

Only two more deadlines to go - a 10,000 word bit for GURPS before Oct 7, and a finished draft of All the King's Men by October 15.

Almost there. :)

Deadline Fever

There's something about working under pressure that not only drives me crazy, but drives me to produce. To recap, from September 1 to October 15, my schedule included running two playtests (concurrently for the most part), turning in two final drafts to SJ Games (for a total of about 130,000 words), writing 10,000 words for a new GURPS supplement, writing a 20,000 word adventure for Hogshead's new Fright Night line, and creating three small - but rules-intensive - bits for Alderac's Spycraft.

I'm a little more than halfway through those treacherous six weeks, and have knocked out both playtests, a 40,000-word final draft, and all three Alderac assignments. But with on deadline looming this weekend, and another on October 7, I've seriously upped my word count this week:

Tuesday: 3,200 words
Wednesday: 4,200 words
Thursday: 4,500 words

I was wondering if I'd break my personal record of 5,400 words in one day (on GURPS WWII: All the King's Men, last December), but thankfully I haven't had to. I need to crank out about 15,000 more words before October 7, and do a final rewrite/edit on the 90,000-word All the King's Men by the 15th. Then I get to rest.

Nobody disturb me on October 16. I probably won't even be conscious.

Do Not Call - On Hold

I don't normally use my blog as a soapbox, nor do I generally just repeat other people's thoughts, but this news from Steve Jackson Games' Daily Illuminator has me a little riled. Here's Steve's comments in full. I hope he doesn't mind; I just couldn't say it any better:

I'm sure you're as thrilled as I am to know that a federal judge in Oklahoma has blocked the implementation of the national "do not call" list. This list would, according to the Direct Marketing Association, have put 2 million telemarketers out of work. Now, granted, that would leave more than 3 million still employed, but it was a noble first step.

At the moment, though, your tax dollars are paying the salary of one Judge Lee West, of Oklahoma, who thinks that telemarketers have a First Amendment right to ring your phone. The learned judge doesn't seem to understand the distinction between the right to speak and the right to force others to listen. But neither telemarketers nor spammers have any right to force their message on an unwilling listener . . . especially when the timing and volume of those messages constitute harassment.

The CNN story had a great reader quote: "No story regarding [Judge] West's decision ... should be considered complete without ... a telephone number where he can be reached during dinner time." - Steve Jackson

Geh. Sometimes ya just can't win.

Semi-Irregular Quotation of the Week

My friend Meredith cracked me up tonight, which was good since I could probably use some mirth in my life these days. She gets the quote of the week honors:

Me: I had six deadline fall in September and the first two weeks of October. I'm halfway through 'em. So my brain is sore.
Meredith: Ouch
Meredith: Need a brain-daid?

Cracked me up. Thanks, Mermy. :)

GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Cover Follows Suit

Since both books are being released in December, it's only fitting that the cover for GURPS WWII: All the King's Men has been posted shortly after the GURPS SWAT cover.

The original proof Gene Seabolt sent me used drab desert yellow; I liked that better. The blue is too reminiscent of the cover for GURPS WWII: Return to Honor for my taste. But the design of the cover is better in general.

See what you think:

GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Home Page
GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Cover

And for comparison: GURPS WWII: Return to Honor Cover

I still wish they'd remember to put the J in my name...

GURPS SWAT Cover

The cover for GURPS SWAT is online and it looks great. I've been told that the weapon is a SIG SG551-SWAT with a flashlight mount under the barrel.

I think it's eyecatching and stylish. Kudos to Alex Fernandez (the cover artist, not the baseball player). :)

You can view the cover on the SWAT web page, or see a full-sized image of it here.

Be nice if they'd put the "J" into my name, though. Gonna have to email 'em about that. Book's due out in December.

Avast, ye landlubbers!

Shiver me timbers, it's National Talk Like a Pirate Day! So pour some grog ye bilge rats, and do your part!

Arrrrr!

Sir! Yes, sir!

I was talking with Bob Nolan today about a D20 industry email list we're on (which shall remain anonymous, due to NDA restrictions). Now, I hate the thing, because I'm so D20 challenged, and the rules stuff is giving me fits. But I'm trying to learn it, regardless.

Anyway, we were talking about it being like a trial by fire; a boot camp:

Bob: Just like Boot Camp!
Me: No kidding! :)
Me: I'm waiting to be told to drop and do 20. :)
Bob: Drop and do D20.

If I'd been drinking pop, I would have spewed it out of my nose. :)

"Three o'clock in the morning, and it looks like it's gonna be another sleepless night..."

Five bucks to the first person to correctly identify the song and the singer quoted as the title of tonight's blog entry. Of course, this is also going to date me and indicate my preference for music back in the days of yore (well, if 1978 was one of them; whatever yore is). Pretty sure my sister would recognize it, and probably Tom Cramer, my long-time friend and bass player.

For me, it's more than just a late-night rerun of Name That Tune. It's the reality of laying here awake (my computer says 3:12 a.m. as I type), and getting more and more frustrated at being unable to sleep. As my pal andi jones said a couple weeks ago: "I'm being pimp-slapped by the cruel hand of insomnia." Nice visual, andi. Not that it helps me sleep.

Crawled in bed about 1 a.m., crawled back out at about 2:30, having wasted an hour and a half of valuable writing time, laying awake, thinking. At least I was thinking about work. Or rather, thinking about work is what kept me awake. All the King's Men, What Went Down, Spycraft, GURPS [Things Man Was Not Meant To Talk About].

Argh! How come I can't just have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head? Whatever a sugar plum is.

Anyway, this is pretty much a rambling, uninteresting post. But it's better than talking to myself. Eh, who am I kidding? I do that anyway. . . Guess I'd best grab a hot shower, put on some music, and crawl back to bed.

"I've been listening to your dreams and getting very low, wondering what I can do..." The song is Talking in Your Sleep, by the lovely Crystal Gayle, circa 1978.

New contest: Five bucks to the first person to send me a box of sugar plums. An extra 20% if they actually dance...

Is it a summer cold, if it's rainy?

Geh. Think I'm catching a cold. Just what I need to help speed my writing along. Woo!

And now I vanish for two weeks

The playtest for GURPS WWII: All the King's Men officially closed today. That's a Real Good Thing in many ways, but it means I now have a very limited amount of time to finish the final draft, complete the Alderac assignments (have I mentioned those? If not, I will later), write Hogshead's Fright Night: What Went Down, and the unannounced GURPS [SECRET] bit all in the next 15 days or so.

Don't expect to actually see much of me, unless you come to Kelso Burgerville. Even then, it's likely my head will be buried behind my laptop screen. That's writer talk for DO NOT DISTURB.

No, really.

And you never see them together...

Is it my imagination or does nutritionist Dr. Andrew Weil look a lot like the father of modern Communism, Karl Marx?

You can compare them side by side in this picture.

Maybe I just have too much time on my hands...

Could this month possibly get any busier?

I contacted Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) several months ago about writing for their Spycraft and Stargate RPGs. Haven't heard a peep since I sent off the Sara Wagner story two months ago.

Today, I get an email from them, and it looks like I'll be a little busy for the next couple weeks on a project I can't yet talk about. Geh. That's just what I needed. More work on short notice with insanely short deadlines. Hm... wonder if they're been talking to Steve Jackson...

Anyway, here's how the next couple months stack up (without the Spycraft stuff), now that SWAT is turned in and the Banzai outline is done:

Sep 14: GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Playtest Ends
Sep 27: Fright Night: What Went Down Deadline
Oct 07: GURPS [Sorry, Can't Talk About It Until Mid-October] Deadline
Oct 15: GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Final Draft Deadline
Oct 27: Fright Night: Ghost Ship Deadline

Good Grief

I just found out that my cousin's 13-year-old daughter is in the hospital with spinal meningitis.

Can this day get any worse?

:-(
:-(
:-(

Not a Good Day

While still struggling with the fact that Johnny Cash died, I heard on NPR about the untimely death of comedian John Ritter only a few hours later. He was 54.

I grew up watching him on Three's Company and loved his newest show, 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter.

First Warren Zevon, and now Johhny Cash and John Ritter.

:-(

Goodbye to the Real Man in Black

Most of you know that music plays a big part in my life. I learned the four-string tenor banjo when I was 5 years old; piano at age 8. Been playing the guitar for over 25 years now. I sang with my family growing up, played nightclubs and concerts through high school and college, and can't drive anywhere without a CD playing.

The legendary Johnny Cash died this morning at age 71.

I know who's CD I'll be listening to today.

"GURPS SWAT! Get down! Get down! Get down!"

Well, it's done. The final draft of SWAT was sent off on Thursday, September 11, 2003, at 2:25 a.m. PDT. It was a long road, but a good one. Thanks again to everyone that helped out!

"The David Blaine of RPG Design"

I worked all day yesterday on the outline for GURPS WWII: Banzai - my portion of it anyway - and thanks to some great help from my friend and fellow writer Gene Moyers, got a competent outline finished. Emailed it off to Gene Seabolt and Shawn Fisher (my prospective cowriters for Banzai) so that's one thing sort of out of the way.

Now if only I can finish SWAT, finish All the King's Men, write a 20,000-word D20 supplement, and research and write a 10,000 word GURPS bit - all by October 7 - I'm good to go.

My friend Tom Cramer recently referred to me as "The David Blaine of RPG Design." Feh. Hang above the Thames River in a glass box for 44 days - child's play. Try being a freelance writer, David!

Look into my eyes...

Not a lot of time to comment on this; I'm on my way out the door. But go check this out if you're into optical illusions. Freaky stuff, if you ask me. :)

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/saishin-e.html

GURPS SWAT Playtest Closes

After three grueling weeks, the playtest for GURPS SWAT is officially over. I just finished compiling the playtester list (those that helped shape the book sufficiently to get a PT credit on the title page), and here's the tally:

Five folks contributed enough new information to warrant an Additional Material credit; fourteen others get an official Playtester credit. To give you an idea of how truly global this process is, those listed as playtesters or additional material contributors included folks from - in no particular order - Texas, New York, Ohio, Arkansas, Maine, Germany, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, New South Wales, the United Kingdom, Idaho, Canada, Virginia, and California. Thanks to everyone for their help!

The book is now officially done. I'm waiting to hear back from a couple local TRT guys who are double checking some facts for me in the ms. When they say "go," the book is out the door. I hope to have the final draft emailed on Monday. :)

White Wolf Sues Sony for Underworld

Well, this is probably only interesting to gamers or movie buffs. Wish somebody would steal my ideas and make a movie out of them...

http://www.white-wolf.com/News/underworldrelease.html

How much!?

Got an offer this week to tour the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) if I'm ever in Norfolk. I gotta find a good tax-deductible reason to go there now. Hm... GURPS Aircraft Carriers, maybe?

Anyway, in talking with my pal Steve Jolly about it - he's sending me a ship's ballcap, woohoo! - he mentioned that the nuke guys get something like a $60,000 re-enlistment bonus. Good grief. I checked my contracts with SJ Games - all of 'em - and despite using my best magnifying glass, couldn't find any re-enlistment bonus! Okay, what's that all about?

I wonder if the USN would pay me to write roleplaying supplements...

Er . . . Quotation of the Week

Oh, hey, you know on your blog, that really oughta be "quotation of the week"... - Andi Jones

Quote of the Week

It's late and I'm being pimp-slapped by the cruel hand of insomnia. - Andi Jones

I know how he feels...

Website Stats for August

Thanks to the SoBig virus, my mail provider/host has been hammered so my email continues to be sketchy. It all seems to get here - eventually - but it's delayed as much as 12 hours. Sometimes I can't send or recieve at all.

That said, I went to the web site to check trouble tickets and support advisories, and so checked my website statistics for August. Here's a few highlights, if anyone cares:

Total Hits: 9,953

Total number of visitors: 1,269

Number of regular (frequent) visitors: 325

Visits from 28 distinct U.S. States: California (179 visitors), Virginia (114), Washington (87), New Jersey (77), Vermont (42), Pennsylvania (34), Texas (28), Massachusetts (26), Missouri (20), Colorado (16), Oregon (16), Georgia (10), and others.

Visits from 36 countries outside of North America: UK (27 visitors), Germany (15), France (6), Brazil (6), China (6), Taiwan (6), Netherlands (5), Japan (4), North Korea (4), Italy (4), Australia (4), Uruguay (3), Spain (3), Finland (3), Nigeria (3), Hong Kong (2), Thailand (2), Phillipines (2), South Africa (2), and more.

Bandwidth for the month: 65.42 MB

Deadlines

For those of you who haven't been taking notes, here's what my deadline list looks like for Sept/Oct:

Sep 02: GURPS SWAT Playtest Ends
Sep 10: GURPS WWII: Banzai! Outline Due
Sep 14: GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Playtest Ends
Sep 17: GURPS SWAT Final Draft Deadline
Sep 27: Fright Night: What Went Down First Draft Deadline
Oct 07: GURPS [FNORD] First Draft Deadline
Oct 15: GURPS WWII: All the King's Men Final Draft Deadline
Oct 27: Fright Night: Ghost Ship First Draft Deadline

At least, I think that's it...