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An Act of Love
2007-08-17 22:16:00
Still a little bummed about what happened in yesterday, but I had a long talk with Fixer Blaque about it and I?m starting to feel a lot better about things. Now that I?m on the active Briefing Roster, we don?t see each other that much anymore, but that doesn?t mean I don?t try to stay in touch as much as possible ? especially after what happened with Thib... CLASSIFIED
More About: Love

The Plan
2007-08-17 07:02:00
Not sure if you heard about the earthquake that just hit Peru, but in case you didn?t, it was supposedly a really bad one. Almost 500 people were killed and who knows how more injured, and this is just the beginning. Innocent people who had everything going for them yesterday have nothing at all today. It?s time like this being a Briefer kind of sucks, because you feel so powerless. If I was a Fixer, then maybe I could have done something about it?like gone down to the Department of Nature and seen if there was any way to release some heat from the Pressure Cooker? though I guess there are 35 other Fixers (and hopefully Tom Jackal) that would have done something if they could have. But they couldn?t. Because sometimes bad things happen in the World that have nothing to do with something that?s broken in The Seems. Sometimes, bad things are SUPPOSED to happen. I guess there?s some comfort in that, in knowing that even the worst stuff is part of the Plan ...but some days I won...

Ice Cream
2007-07-26 02:45:00
Back when I was young, getting ice cream seemed much simpler. There was chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, heath bar crunch, chocolate chip mint, deer tracks, rocky road, coffee, butter pecan, chocolate chip cookie dough, dulce de lece, and maybe a few others. But now, it?s ridiculously confusing. They have Carmel Sutra, Phish Food, Everything but The Swirl, and even old fashioned brands like Haagen Dasz (made in NJ!) are doing all kinds of wacky flavors. Even the brands are hard to follow. Some people say Dreamery is the best and has cool containers. Some people like Edy?s (sucks) and some people even like Welch Farms (not terrible) which has been around since the days of grape soda. But in this time of too many flavors, I highly recommend Breyer?s Vanilla. It?s a very classic product ? founded on quality and simple ingredients. The rule that me and Chud and Crozier have about ice cream is that if it has more than seven ingredients, do not purchase. That probably means you ar...
More About: Ice Cream , Cream

I don't know about you...
2007-07-22 18:15:00
...but I thought this was pretty cool. Kevin the A/V Mechanic at the I.F.R. turned me on to it, and his taste is almost always on the money. I warn you, though, it's a little on the dark side...

I - Tunes
2007-07-22 05:22:00
If you?re looking for some good music to listen to while you?re doing your homework or blogging or even just taking the long cut home through the In-Between, I highly recommend two in particular? ?Radio Paradise? (on the Eclectic section on your I-Tunes ) harkens back to those days my Mom and Dad always tells me about when there used to be DJ?s who actually just played the stuff they liked to listen to. That could mean everything from classic rock to country to new stuff you?ve never heard before, chosen by someone who actually loves the music (as opposed to some fictional guy named ?Jack? FM). These guys get on rolls that you can?t believe, and whole afternoons go by without one bad call. You can also check them out at: www.radioparadise.com. The other one I?ve been listening to a lot is ?We Funk Radio? (on the Hip Hop section of your I-Tunes). Underground hip hop, live MC?s, classic funk, and rare grooves. I?m not sure what any of that really means, other than it sound pretty...

Good Vibrations Part 2
2007-07-20 19:11:00
CLASSIFIED
More About: Part , Good , Vibrations

Good Vibrations
2007-07-20 18:59:00
Did a quick Briefing yesterday morning for Fixer#22, aka Tony The Plumber, and as usual, it was an education. The Mission itself was nothing too tricky ? The Department of Energy was having an issue with calibrating the amount of Good Vibes they were sending out ? but things got a little crazy when Tony and I found a --- CLASSIFIED
More About: Vibrations

F. Becker Drane
2007-07-17 22:34:00
A lot of people have emailed me asking how I got a name like F. Becker Drane, so I figured I would solve the mystery once and for all. I have no idea. Apparently, someone in the Drane clan long ago decided that they really liked the names Ferdinand and Becker, and thought it would be a good idea to give that name to as many of their male children as possible. There?s been literally dozens of us over the years, though at the present time, there?s only five of us left , including yours truly. There?s also Ferdinand (my Dad), F.B. (my Dad?s Dad), our crazy uncle Ferdie (a story for another day), and lastly, the one we like to call the ?real? Becker Drane? We call him that because he?s the only one of us who can truly claim to be descendent from the first, and he kind of a legend in the family, because he went to Princeton and is like a guitar genius (?Butterscotch? was in my opinion his best band) and all kinds of other cool stuff. I?ve only met him at a couple of family gathe...

Mother Nature
2007-07-15 06:12:00
So I finally got to go on real Mission yesterday, and let me tell you, it was a whole ?nother ballgame. Not that the other Missions I?ve been on so far weren?t important, but when the fate of the World is literally at stake, let?s just say your heart beats a little bit faster. In a good way. Mostly? The whole thing started when my Blinker went off just as I was picking up a large pie (half-plain, half mushroom) with Benjamin at Highland Pizza. Fortunately, I always bring my Toolkit with me wherever I go, so it was no problem deploying my Me-2 in the bathroom and sending it home with Benjamin to make sure the Drane clad was well fed for dinner. It was a little bit trickier to slip out of the pizza parlour without anyone wondering why the same kid who just walked out with a pizza and a little monster was walking out of the bathroom, but the best policy in those circumstances is to just hide in plain sight and act like you?re supposed to be there. It works when me and Crozier sne...
More About: Nature , Mother Nature , Mother

Red, White & Blue
2007-07-12 16:08:00
Someone once said that it?s not the clothes that make the kid, it?s the kid that makes the clothes -- and I think that?s true. When I was younger, I used to try to dress cool but then I realized that if you try to dress cool you look like everybody else who is not cool, but if you wear the clothes you actually like, then you end up looking cool no matter what you wear. It can be a little challenging at first, because people at school may look at you funny or even call you names ("Bobby Brady" was my personal favorite), but then people start to compliment you and ask you ?Where did you get that shirt?? If my Mom wants to take me to the mall, I will definitely take her up on the offer and go to the Gap or Banana Republic, but if she gives me a choice of where to go, the best place to shop in New Jersey is this place called ?Red, White , & Blue .? "Red, White, and Blue" is pretty much like a salvation army store or a thrift shop and they have all this stuff for like 50 cents, but...

Song (and video) of the Summer
2007-07-11 22:04:00
"Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John
More About: Video , Summer , Song

Fixing 101
2007-07-10 21:45:00
So you've probably noticed that I haven't been as forthcoming about my Briefing Missions as I was when I first started this blog. Don't worry, it's not that I got cracked down on or anything, because my whole RPG cover story seems to be getting the job done. No, it's mostly because my last few Calls to The Seems were pretty much Training Missions...fix a Foible here, chase down a Bleep there, one trip back to the Drawing Board...things every Briefer needs to do, but not that much fun to write about. I did get to hang with some awesome Fixers though... Greg The Journeyman (this big Russian dude who's been around forever) and AJ de los Santos (she's an archaeologist from Brazil and like, way cooler than Lara Croft (and almost as cool as Indy was in Raiders)) were particularly great to work with, and taught me a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with the Mission at hand. Like how to cut Corners and the best way to sling your Toolkit so it doesn't bounce around when you'r...
More About: Xing

Happy Birthday
2007-07-07 16:42:00
Today is Amy?s birthday. Everything that happened to her is kind of depressing, so I don?t like to talk about it that much, but my Mom is a psychologist and she said that I should write about it in my Blog. That it would be ?cathartic" or something. So here goes... Amy Lannin was my best friend who lived down the street from me growing up and we pretty much did everything together. Like we would sit together on the bus to Irving School or do our homework at Chapter One or sometimes our Moms would just drop off us off at the Menlo Park Mall and and we would hang out at the Rainforest Cafe and drink Shirley Temples, no cherry. She was also the only girl allowed on The Slab, which is this big square of concrete in the woods behind Connell Hutkin's house that overlooks the Raritan River and is probably the coolest, most secret spot in Highland Park. Con-man was definitely not into it the idea at first, but after Amy struck him out three times in one little league game (she could t...
More About: Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday

The Fourth of July
2007-07-05 06:00:00
Sucked. They cancelled the fireworks down at Donaldson Park for the second straight year (because they're doing this huge, forever-long construction project on Route 18), and we all agreed that doing nothing was better than trucking out to Edison or making the hell trip to Red Bank again, which is packed with like a million people and you have to fight it out with the worst Jersey has to offer to find a thin sliver of grass to watch the fireworks from (though the Garucci Brothers are in charge down there, and I have to admit, it was worth the price of admission (free)). So we ended up bbq'ing at the homestead, then my Dad and brother fell asleep at like 8:30 and my Mom and I ended up watching The Bourne Identity for the fiftieth time on TNT. Like I said, sucked. Anyhow, the 4th never seems as sweet as it did when I was Benjamin's age. It's like you're always waiting for the finale to be as awesome as you remember it used to be, and I STILL think I saw it turn into an exp...
More About: July , Fourth of July

Ice Cream Sunday
2007-07-02 01:16:00
Every year in The Seems, they have this national holiday called ?Ice Cream Sunday .? It?s kind of like George Washington?s Birthday in The World, except way better, and I just got home from this year's gathering, which was WAY better than last years. Fixer Blaque got our whole class from the I.F.R. together and it was really good to see everybody again (the only one who wasn't happy about it was my Me-2?, because it got stuck going bird-watching with my parents and Benjamin in The World.) Basically, on the first Sunday in July, each of the Departments in The Seems sets up a booth in the Field of Play and it?s kind of like a giant carnival. Each booth shows off their newest creations and hands out free stuff as party favors. Like The Department of Time gave out all their Spare Time on a first come first serve basis. And The Department of Energy debuted their new power drink called ?A Bundle of Energy,? which comes in this really cool bottle (I think they are feeling the pressu...

Mission Mix#6
2007-06-28 01:18:00
Just got Blinked that I'm supposed to meet Tony The Plumber (Fixer#22) in Reality in 45 minutes to help supervise a dry cleaning of the Fabric, which should give me just enough time to finish up my new Missi on Mix. One of the best parts of the newer Blinkers is that it has like five hundred yottabytes of memory, so you can pretty much have every song ever recorded on either side of the In-Between. But I'm sick of all my other mixes, so here comes #6. Just a couple of warnings: 1) my taste in music is mostly a mix of old stuff I've found in my Dad's CD changer blended with newer tunes that some of my friends who are music freaks turned me onto (special thanks to Brendel, Siegs, Rockman & Teddy Pryde). It's not the kind of stuff you hear on regular radio (at least in most parts of The World), but it always puts me in the right Frame of Mind, so to speak. 2) This one's kind of mellow, because you need to keep calm when the fate of The World is at stake. Put...

The Best Books Ever
2007-06-26 01:18:00
One of the things that?s definitely hard about working in The Seems is juggling it with my regular world responsibilities, especially school. I really like Lafayette, and all my friends are cool, but this year my grades began to drop a little, mostly because I've been so busy. Today was our last day of school and my next year's English teacher Dr. Kole (some people call him Dr. Knoll) handed out his reading list for the summer. His class in the Fall is called ?The Best Books Ever? and everyone wants to be in it, because he?s been teaching it for like 100 years, and its supposed to get you on the right track for a good college and stuff. But seriously, it is A LOT of reading. Included on the list he handed out were: ?Catcher in The Rye,? ?A Wrinkle in Time,? ?A Hero Ain?t Nothin? But a Sandwich,? ?The Pearl,? ?Beowulf,? ?Voices of The Xiled,? "I Am The Cheese," and a whole ton of sections from ?The Bible" (to name just a few)-- all of which we're going to ...

P.P.P.S.
2007-06-21 14:22:00
I forgot to mention that the one sub in the HP area that I get from somewhere other than Tastee is the half a turkey and provolone from Highland Pizza (with everything and hot peppers on the side). Throw in one plain slice, just so you can bounce from taste to taste...

P.P.S.
2007-06-21 14:21:00
"Tastee 2" on the way to Princeton ain?t bad either, but then you?re bringing "Hoagie Haven" to the conversation, and that?s a Story for Another Day?