Day #280 - Roger R Robertson

3R Snr was a man that was born for business, he had no time for anything else, cheese was his whole life.

When he reached his 40s he realised there was a hole in his life, his legacy. Sure 3R cheeses was massive but who would look after it once he was gone?

So he made a trip.

In a secret laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, well actually it's a secret laboratory behind a Capoeira Gym, Dr Jairo Santos was a geneticist, but his speciality was the most illegal kind on earth. Only people with extreme wealth could afford his services.

Within 3 weeks Robert was 'born', to get around certain laws the only clones that were created were newborns and fake papers were drawn up and they were legally classed as adoptions.

Everybody knew that this occurred but the wealthy would pay for it to be covered up.

Unfortunately the cloning technique that was used wasn't with issues.

As Robert had no mother he lacked the love that a mother could give and although Roger would spend all of his spare time with Robert he still had a huge conglomerate to run.

Robert was pretty much raised by his Nanny and his X-Ing LD.

Roger was devastated when Robert ceased but he saw it as another blip on the 3R cheeses road, he knew he had to have an heir so he went back to Brazil the day after the funeral to have another Robert made.

He knew the business needed an heir.

Day #279 - Robert R Robertson

Robert was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he lacked the self confidence the wealthy normally excrete.

Robert was extremely introverted but he was the sole heir to the Family Robertson fortune, the family fortune was vast actually, the 4th largest in the known world and the 2nd largest Swiss fortune, behind Victorinox. The family fortune is due to their 3R Cheese range, the greatest cheese in the world, actually one of the few that is still made and not synthesised.

Robert's father Roger R Robertson loved him like nothing else so when the X-Ing LD was released Roger had to buy one for his little 3R.

3R and 'Robbie R Robotson' (the name he gave his X-Ing LD) became instant friends, the alignment procedure completed when you first initiate the android meant that 3R and Robbie would remain together until the day one of them ceased to exist.

3R was always a target for kidnappers, due to his high profile but thankfully his shyness kept him out of the public eye for the most part and it would be times like during the annual cheesefest that he would venture out into the general public. Robbie would be on high alert but Robert would be completely oblivious to his surroundings. He would sit there not making eye contact with anyone until the ceremonies had completed then he would just quietly slip out the back into his private car and head back to the palace (anybody who was anybody in Switzerland had a palace).

This year, the ceremonies had just completed and Robert slipped out the back to his awaiting vehicle but his vehicle wasn't there, instead there was a young Austrian Socialist standing there with a rail gun, he let go of one round, in a flash Robbie had positioned himself between the assailant and Robert, he took the round in the left shoulder which removed it clean off, then remembering the rules in his BIOS he removed the gun from the assailant, although he couldn't harm the assailant he was able to destroy the gun. The assailant had other weapons and each time he drew one Robbie disarmed him, when he then flung his self in Robert's direction Robbie simply rendered him unconscious.

Robert called for the backup car which whisked them away, all of the action though was too much for Robbie and the loss of limb meant that he had lost his important coolant and overheated on the way back to the palace. Robbie was fried. Robert was heartbroken, he became a hermit and mourned for Robbie, he refused to eat and eventually withered away till he himself overheated, lost his coolant and expired.

Roger was beside himself.

Day #278 - Wan Long Dong

unlike his name suggests he was not well endowed in the trouser department but instead Wan was endowed with an amazing brain, he excelled in the academic world. He was a real self starter and unlike his brother was self driven.

His life was uneventful really, he did well at studies, didn't get into any trouble and had invented many things, including the X-Ing LD a new type of artificial intelligent combat training robot. He was lucky that his brother had been so knowledgeable and a willing participant but that was only for the base operating system within the robot as it was truly an AI, well, by truly it still had so rules hardcoded into which it could not break, Wan had to put these in as one example would be the 'due force' code, it simply meant that the robot would only apply enough pressure for the victim to feel the pain but not be permanently harmed. Wan had to include this rule as when testing the prototype model it pulled Wan's left hand straight off his wrist.

the X-Ing LD was a huge success, obviously only the high income earners or conglomerates could afford these devices but it was a great investment, the X-Ing LD had a life of approximately 10 years although this could be extended to 15 or even 20 with proper servicing. As Wan was a businessman he put a safeguard rule into the robots, the day they turned 20 they wiped their memory banks and shut down for good. The general public don't know the rules Wan set in the robots, although he did release the documented rules in the press release, obviously the ancient Asimov 3 Laws of Robotics had a presence although they were slightly modified.

All of the major syndicates purchase a constant stream of the X-Ing LD as it works great as a teacher and a bodyguard, many lives have been saved by this robot.

Robert R Robertson is one such case.

Day #277 - Abbot Xing Lin Dong

Xing Lin Dong had a different path to Abbot-hood than most Abbots before him, you see, Xing Lin Dong didn't enter the monastery until his late teens, he actually entered the monastery seeking asylum, after 4 years he realised he would never leave again, the monastery offered him that which he had never had in his life, structure and order. Unlike his brother Wan Long Dong the great inventor and scientist, Xing Lin Dong was always on the run from the authorities and always in some sort of trouble.When he'd crossed the local triad boss he knew the only place he'd survive would be the temple. So he fled there.

Wan Long Dong was an amazing pupil, so passionate and committed but most of all naturally gifted. After 2 years he'd already progressed to "Blood Monkey Master" a rank which would normally take a decade to reach. He progressed this way in every discipline and after 8 years was the highest decorated monk, studying was in his genetic make up, his brother was world renowned for his abilities and soon Xin Lin Dong would be too.

In his 12th year in the monastery Xin Lin Dong was appointed Abbot, the head of the monastery after the untimely death of his predecessor.

Xin Lin Dong's bravado would open the temple for outsiders to have the ability to learn his teachings so long as they proved themselves worthy.

His brother Mo-capped his fighting style and used the captures in the OS for his "fighting monkey" combot, a personal training android for use at home. It would become a best seller.

Day #276 - Morten Magnusson

All his life all Morten wanted to be was a warrior, like father before him and father before him.

In fact, Morten was bred to be a warrior, genetic splicing and manipulation had made Morten the perfect warrior, he was tall, fast, nimble and as strong as a horse.

An insatiable hunger for victory no matter the consequences.

In fact in his teenage years, in search for becoming an even greater fighter than what he was destined to become he went out into the wilderness to hone his skills, already able to live off the land he went on a crusade, his mission was to travel from Norway by foot to learn from the famous Shaolin Monks, it took him two years to get to his destination, he travelled through IKEA (formerly Sweden) and then across NOKIA 2 (the former Finnish republic) and then into the rugged lands of the former Federation of Russia which now were a barren post nuclear wasteland. He then travelled south through 4 Stans then across into the most densely populated country in the world, ICC (which now stood for Indian Cricket Country), over 4 billion people lived there and there was immense poverty and crime, Morten would spend almost a year crossing ICC becoming an expert in Kushti on the way, he was an amazing grappler. Finally he headed north through Nepal (the richest state outside of vatican city) and finally into China proper.

Morten studied under Abbot Xing Lin Dong at the Shaolin Temple for 3 years, he mastered Da Hong Quan (Big flood fist), Liu He Quan (Six harmonies fist) Qixing Quan (Seven star fist) and Qi Lu Quan (Seven animal fist). He became adept at Dan Dao (Single Sabre) and Long (Dragon technique).

After this Morten travelled back to Norway and entered Ny-Norsk. He quickly worked his way up the ranks to the position of Lenndman, from here he was able to lead an entire regiment in sorties.

Morten was entrusted to lead Ny-Norsk across the seas an to setup base in the US, unlike the other militia groups that operated there Ny-Norsk would not seek land or a base but purely be available to the highest bidder. As it turned out the highest bidders were almost always politicians as they had the largest disposable income.

After the "Assassination" of Senator Saunders Morten returned to his homeland awaiting their next engagement as their current contract was null and void once Mart was gone.

Day #275 - The Viking Senator

If you are in politics, it’s known you are bad-ass and have an army at your beckon call, whether that be the Chems of the Newppies, the Mafia, the Yakuza (now defunct), the NEWSAMs, or the USSF or a group of Mercenaries.

Mart as his name suggests can trace his ancestry to the Norsemen, his army are the most feared in the melee arena, the true strongest men on earth. Ny·norsk as they refer to themselves have retained the ancient genetic make up of the Vikings and are so ruggedly adaptable to any terrain they are feared like no other. In fact, if you know they are coming for you and you don’t leave, they’ll wipe every trace of you from the planet. Then get drunk and dance the night away.

Ritualistic killers without remorse or fear.

Morten Magnusson was the leader of Ny·norsk and a close friend of the Nevada Senator so when Mart placed the help call out Morten gladly picked up the reigns. This war would be ugly but that's exactly how Mart wanted it, those swine in the NEWSAM had murdered his only son and they would pay.

The NEWSAMs though were no pushovers, they knew that they couldn't stop Ny·norsk in a ground battle so they retreated to their stronghold in Montana. The NEWSAMs were big, in fact next to the Hindus, Muslims and Catholics they were the 4th largest religious groups around and had easily the biggest band. the NEWSAMs were 25 million strong in the New USA and would be a nasty nemesis but Mart had planned it that way, the Ny·norsk carved through every local branch in the country turning the skeleton staff into skeletons. It took 2 years but they finally had the NEWSAMs isolated to their stronghold in Montana, this is were Mart played his masterstroke. Nuclear Weapons had all but disappeared in the early 2200s so a weapon of mass destruction was out of the question. Mart's cunning knew no boundary, he brokered a peace talk with the NEWSAMs within their stronghold, the deal was that he would come alone, in his capacity as senator he had the ability to enter these negotiations with an element of trust by the NEWSAMs (this was still their only weakness).

Once inside the compound Mart explained to the leaders of the NEWSAM that they would all be extinguished for what they did to him, Mart explained that it was personal and that he himself would take the responsibility of the ultimate revenge. You see, the pin that he wore on his lapel that looked like the insignia of the Nevada Senate was in fact a nano tech GPS locator. Mart had been working with the Newppies for the past 4 months to develop this tech, the Geo Thermal Dynamics farms were at this moment channelling all of their stored energy straight upwards, bouncing that energy across the Newppie satellite network and at the moment Mart said his goodbyes and then pressed the button on his lapel pin all of that energy shot down from space into that massive compound in Montana, in the blink of an eye the entire compound and every soul within it became ash.

Mart had cleverly set it up to make the NEWSAMs seem like they did this to themselves in an act of defiance and therefore lost their religious license in Nth America for committing a political assassination and mass murder.

the NEWSAMs were no longer the 4th largest religious group, in fact they'd dropped out of the top 10 behind the Snow Crash Sumerians and just below the Scientologists.

Buddhism was now 4th.

Day #274 - Steck Saunders

Being raised a Newppie was an interesting livelihood, it meant that instead of the usually subjects of Math, Science, Geography etc you instead learned crop rotation, irrigation, sustainability, seed management and chemical warfare. The Organic weapons the Newppies developed were second to none as the production costs were almost nil and they had a renewable ammunition system. The ‘Cucumber Flute’ was the handgun of the Newppies, I’d love to tell you about it but unfortunately it’s design is a closely guarded secret,all I know is that it’s the more powerful than any other handgun or laser you can get, not until you hit the Rail Guns do you surpass its power. Concussion melons are used to brake structures and the rotten flesh of one ‘hound tomato’ would provide enough noxious gas to elimate all animal life in a 50 metre radius. And these were the basic weapons, the Newppies had been developing these weapons for the last 400-500 years and had them refined to the nth degree.

It was ironic that all the genetically modified foods turned to be bland mush that all tasted the same, this happened around 2150 and the Newppies were the only ones with tasty organic unmodified foods and therefore cornered the market and gained a very much upper hand in society, although they were a registered charity they were clearly not a not for profit organisation, they were asset rich and quite the land owners. But they needed to be, geo-thermal dynamic power plants weren’t cheap to operate, solar farms were expensive to maintain and the security of their seeds and methods were paramount and para-military in their defense.

Steck was born into the order, all he knew was the Newppie way of life, outsiders intrigued him as he did not understand their ways but taught them his anyway.

His mother was a 8^th generation Newppie but his father was a senator for the state of Nevada, therefore as Steck was born as the result of a love-in with the Newppie fundamentalists whilst Steck’s father was an intern with the state office he had to deny any knowledge of his son when he finally made it to office although he passed several bills to allow the Newppies more control over their lands.

Steck’s father, Mart Saunders was brought to power by a campaign funded by the NEWSAMs, passing bills to allow more control to the Newppies was political suicide which he knew but hey, his son was there so he though ‘fuck em’.

He was not to know that his actions and these bill would be the catalyst that the NEWSAMs would use to aggressively wipe out all traces of the Newppies from the state of Nevada.

Mart was pissed.

Day #273 - Sarah Kael

Sarah lived the party life, all through college she jumped from partner to partner sometimes simultaneously, she lived the college life.

Studying journalism at college was far from where she thought she’d be, nowadays journalism is completely without integrity, since the birth of the internet in the new millennium journalism became to most popular profession and through this true journalism died, the magnates got what they wanted, so many journalists would blog their opinions on things that it was impossible to tell fact from fiction any more, the wealthy employed the best ‘independent’ journalists to help persuade the masses into believing the hype, back around the turn of the century the old ‘rags’ started handing out their journalism documents free of charge at mass public transport junctions, they would pollute people’s minds with their filth, the moguls would sit back and laugh at how easy it was to control the masses, Journalistic control was a new form of religion. Print media and physical books died out around the year 2050, Libraries became solely ‘online entities’ and Journalists were now evangelists.

Sarah was a new evangelist, the power however was emotionally consuming. She would secretly put subliminal messages into her reports just for fun, and watch the reactions of the minions, now that everything was avatar driven in a virtual universe it was easy to conceal or over release emotion. She was a natural and sought after by the largest conglomerates but the load was almost unbearable on her conscience, she’d single handedly persuaded governments to invade other territories just through her words.

She got a taste for the ‘Blue’ and would often complete her assignments whilst completely off her tree.

She needed an outlet, once a week she’d go to the local organic farm and volunteer with the Newppies, a modern verison of the ancient Hippie movement yet with a militant agenda as well, sort of similar to the New Salvation Army Movement but less violent, NEWSAM were bad mother fuckers.

Steck Saunders was her Newppie commandant, he was born and raised a Newppie and knew everything that you could possibly need to know about organic food and weaponry.

The one night wasn’t enough to address her conscience though so under the advice of her online therapist (which was really just a macro) Sarah sought out some of the ancient arts, she stumbled upon a Japanese calligraphy class, she was in love with the humbleness of it the moment her first class began, her teacher was a 63 year old Japanese man whom looked mysterious and rugged yet supremely gentle at the same time. The more she learned about this gentle old man the more she wanted to learn, it was something about his demeanour, he seemingly had nothing but had no concerns over material possessions nor external influences.

Over time their relationship got stronger and she frequented the Newppie Compound less and less.

This irritated Steck.

She decided that she wanted this old Japanese man to be the father of her child, she never wanted a child and knew that she could order one from the ‘Farm’ but the old man was what she found she wanted, she hatched a master plan, she’d get close, when she knew she was ovulating and get him drunk, she’d also take the egg enhancement pill to ensure fertilisation.

Then she put her plan into motion.

She didn’t want the old man to be concerned nor have the burden of raising a child so she decided that night to never see him again. And that’s exactly what she did.

She hired a full time Nurse to assist her during her term and once delivery had taken place the Nurse would be employed until the child reached maturity.

Hideo Ozawa (named after his father) was born.

Sarah had increased her time with the Newppies to 3 nights a week, shortly after Hideo’s 5^th birthday Sarah was spending one of her nights at the Newppie compound, the NEWSAMs invaded and wiped the place clean in an act of retaliation, nobody was spared.

Sarah was asset rich so there was a significant trust in place to raise Hideo as well as pay for the nurse to continue to his adulthood. It stipulated in her last will and testament that should Sarah disappear or die then and only then would Hideki be introduced to his son.

Hideki was stunned and excited to discover that he had an heir, he had not seen the woman he loved since that fateful night. He longed for her, it was his guilty pleasure. But parenthood was not his game, he raised Hideo the only way he knew, the samurai way, it was harsh and made Hideo resent his father, when Hideo finally reached manhood he severed ties with his father but his father always kept an eye on him. Hideki could not get across the carpark on that fateful night, in fact he got there only in time to witness his son’s final breath and see the smile in his eyes before he left existence.

Day #272 - Hideki Ozawa

Ozawa-san is and always has been a man of honour, well, except for one night.

Hideki had retired for some time and would receive his income from teaching a Thursday evening class he would hold on Japanese calligraphy, it didn't pay much but supplemented his pension and it would feed him and that's about all he needed, he was 63, alone but content.

He'd had a hard life and the scars to prove it, he'd survived and now was time to relax.

one of his pupils was a young journalist for a technology publication, her world was high pressure and always online, instant publishing to the webnet, she used this class to relax and unwind towards the end of the week, nobody was interested in this old Japanese man so there was no interest except her personal interest. Her journalistic instincts made her seek out this man's story and they built quite a friendship over time, she learned of his time in the Royal Japanese Protection Force as a bodyguard of the Emperor himself, after his service he emigrated to New US with a posting in the Japanese embassy, well really he was in charge of the security of the embassy and directly responsible for the safety of the diplomats. As he was trained in the ancient Samurai arts he was responsible for training the protection agents.

After his tenure in the government he retired to the outskirts of Vegas, the furthest distance from the embassy within the New US.

He was intrigued by this young white woman and why she'd be interested in this old man, he was nothing special in his eyes.

But she saw something different and would stay back after class yearning for more knowledge of this interesting man's past.

Hideki never knew love only service, for once in his life he was experiencing a strange new emotion and he wasn't entirely sure how to manage this intoxicating feeling.

Sarah Kael had a different agenda though, she, one night after class convinced Hideki to share some Sake with her. After the first two bottles they were overtaken by the Sake Ghost and ended up in an erotic embrace.

That would be the last time Hideki would see Sarah, for 9 months. Hideo was destined to be a bad boy, he was conceived under the power of the Sake Ghost.

Hideki tried to persuade his son to the noble ways but he had too much of his mother in him that led him to addictive ways.

As a birthright he passed on the only thing that was of any value to him, his Katana from his time in the Royal Protection Force, he'd keep his Wakazashi. He explained the significance of the Katana and how the only way that he should use was in self defence, that it should never draw blood in anger. Hideo would carry it around more as a showpiece than a self defence mechanism as he had his twin gold plated Desert Eagles for that job.

Once Hideki learned of what had happened to his Katana he kept an eye on it's new owner. When Hideki learned of the beheading of young Benny Velasquez he knew instantly that Jesus had used the Katana to behead him as no other weapon would do such a clean and efficient job, it was a disgrace and Hideki needed to balance the ledger. He picked his mid nineties body up, put on his best white linen suit, grabbed his Wakazashi and headed off to 525 Lanes in the early hours of the morning. He entered the establishment, identified his target and made his way across. Jesus focus his attention on Hideki and as he realised (God told him) the resemblance he was about to yell an abusive self defence comment to the old man he got as far as 'what the f....' before his own head was severed from his body in one clear motion, for the next 60 seconds Jesus was finally alone without the advice of his 'father', it was blissful, then his pulse stopped and his viewed dimmed forever.

Hideki had only one wrong to remedy, he took himself out to the car park and settled into the handicapped space on his knees, he drew his Wakazashi for one last time and committed the ancient ritual of 'sepuku' otherwise known as hari kari, the only course of action for a disgraced samurai to take.

Day #271 - Hideo Ozawa

Hideo was a gambler, a business man and a gangster.

Living around Vegas was both good and bad for him. Good in the sense that his organised crime business was thriving, bad because he has a nasty gambling addiction and Vegas was like Heroin for a gambling addict.

When times were tough he'd get a line of credit from a number of loan sharks, back in December was such a time, he was 200k in the hole to one of these sharks and down on his luck. The shark called in his marker. Whilst returning to his car he was confronted by a collections agent, as Hideo was not allowed to carry weapons into the casino he'd leave them in the back seat of his car, a pair of gold plated desert eagles and his father's Katana.

The collections agent stood between Hideo and his car, dismembering rail pistol pointed at Hideo's chest. Hideo was toast!

Just then Hideo noticed a dark figured flying across the car park and whilst Hideo dove out of the shot from the rail pistol the collections agent's rear skull was caved in. Jesus had struck him over the back of the head with a steel pole killing the man instantly.

Hideo got back to his feet, dusted himself off and cautiously approached the heavy breathing Jesus. Hideo thanked him for saving his life and Jesus merely said "I was just doing what God told me to do", Hideo was extremely impressed at how humble this man was.

Hideo opened the back door of his car and took out his father's Katana, he handed it to Jesus and asked that he accept this gift as a thank you for saving his life. Hideo explained that this was the weapon of a warrior of honour and dignity and that Jesus was far more qualified to possess it than he was. Hideo took Jesus out for a drink and they formed an instant bond. Jesus took Hideo bowling, it was nice to have a friend that wasn't a gangster.

At the turn of the new year Jesus wasn't quick enough across the carpark and Hideo took the round straight through the chest, Jesus cried for a week until God told him to stop and move on.

Day #270 - Jesus

What's in a name? When you name your child you really need to consider what reaction that could cause in other people and in your child.

Jesus Juan Pablo Villalobos Sanchez was the perfect argument, whilst he had very strong names given to him at birth his mother insisted on focusing on one name only, his first. She'd tell him how Jesus was the son of God and he led the people of his time because his father would give him instructions. By the time Jesus was 12 he was able to identify with his namesake. He would hear a voice in his head telling him to perform certain actions, of course to him, this was the voice of God.

When he was 15 he killed a dog because God told him to.

When he was 17 he killed a homeless man under instruction from God.

Jesus kept killing but he never got caught.

And nobody ever suspected anything.

Mainly because Jesus never had any remorse nor could he see that he'd done anything wrong.

This was his life.

And he bowled.

Oh, how he loved to bowl, most people had dream jobs or dream lives, all Jesus ever longed for was to bowl.

His dream was to own the largest bowling alley in the world. Along with 525 lanes it would have the world's largest video arcade and popcorn machine.

Okay, it was a pretty stupid dream but God kept telling him to dream it, he worked night and day on his designs, logging patents for new ball polishers, lighting creations and even some virtual pin technology.

He worked out that he would need about $240M to make his dream a reality so when his distant cousin turned up unannounced with a number of bags packed to the brim with 10000 dollar bills, (100 dollar bills seemed like small change nowadays) God sent him a message.

So that night once his cousin went to bed Jesus went to the cupboard and took out the Katana that his friend Hideo had given him for Christmas, with one foul swoop he removed his cousin's head and with that his bowling alley project began.

Jesus and God made a beautiful bowling alley but when you make something that big in Vegas some people will be watching you, especially when a number of contractors go 'missing' whilst working on the project.

It was a Wednesday morning 3:55am to be precise when a lone elderly Japanese gentleman entered the alley, there were a few prostitutes and college boys bowling in about 10 lanes but apart from that the place was pretty empty, Jesus was in his favourite place behind the shoe hire counter refreshing his stock's odour levels when the elderley Japanese approached him.

Jesus (with God in his ear) quickly focused their attention onto him, noting that he had only Jesus in his sights. Before Jesus could utter the phrase "What the fuck do you want?" the elderly Japanese man removed a Wakazashi from his suit jacket and removed Jesus' head.

He muttered something about disgrace, returned his weapon to its sheath, placed it back in his jacket in one swift movement and then quietly left the establishment.

Day #269 - Benny Velasquez

Benny was always on the large side of things, he was a 14lb baby, a record in his family and he had an insatiable hunger, the more he ate the bigger he got. When he started high school he still had baby fat as he'd not really grown too tall, he was 140cm tall at age 12 and 93kg. The other kids called him some awful nicknames, the one that hurt the most was 'no knuckles' on account of his inverted knuckles, his hands were very large and he had a lot of baby fat on them. This name calling obviously made Benny extremely self conscious and in an act of self defence he just went silent. For his entire high school life Benny barely said a word, instead he just became a wallflower and observed. He catalogued (in his mind) what people liked and what they wanted and just like every other boy in his school Benny just wanted a girlfriend but by the time he had hit 16 he was 195cm tall and about 140kg, he would have crushed any little girl with his embrace. So he remained alone, and silent.

Benny's one goal was to lose his virginity and he knew that he had to change the ratio, at high school it was 50-50 but he needed to be almost the only guy with a class full of girls to stand a chance, the law of averages (which he knew well) would err in his favour sooner or later. Benny being the straight A student that he was could have chosen any of the marquee scholarships, Law, Medicine etc but Benny knew that would just be full of rich kids and Asians and the ratio would be even lower. So as a result Benny chose the one field that he knew the ratio would be heaviest in his favour. Marketing. Benny chose the Nebraska State University to further his studies, he obtained a full scholarship and had a room on campus with a young chemistry major.

His years of soaking in what people liked made Benny a natural in his chosen field, he caught the eye of his lecturer a Ms Jacinta Brown, she'd once worked for Pear Computers back when they introduced the virtual palmtop range, it was difficult to market a computing solution that involved the insertion of a nano tech full PC into the user's palm. She managed to do it though, she successfully marketed something that you couldn't even see! She had a pedigree in the industry and was the only person Benny admired.

3 semesters into his University degree Benny lost his virginity, he'd just submitted his latest assessment and Jacinta asked to see him in her chambers to discuss it, when he arrived she seduced him and 78 seconds later Benny had lost his virginity. He may have been a marketing genius but he was the proverbial time bomb waiting to explode, which is exactly what he did 3 thrusts in.

Embarrassed as hell he returned to his dorm, only to find his room mate working on a little chemistry experiment, he'd obviously figured Benny would be out for some time and was a little startled to see him return so early. Andrew was Benny's only friend, ever, so after he stopped crying he spilled the beans to Andrew about what had happened. Andrew shared a little secret of his own with Benny. He'd been working on a way of heightening the droll government issued cocaine and he'd had a major breakthrough. Together they shared a gram and it supplied the greatest high that either of them had ever experienced. Benny immediately kicked into marketing mode again (by Marketing I mean another avenue to sleep with women) he'd realised that if they sold it to other students they could easily produce more and would shortly own the University party scene, he'd definitely have a better chance with the ladies if they were intoxicated.

The hardest trick would be to get Andrew to make him 50-50 partner with Benny not actually doing any work. Andrew bought it and they went into mass production.

The business grew at phenomenal rate and they expanded operations coast to coast, but when Benny was separated from Andre (his new pseudonym) he couldn't trust Andre to remain in control and soon found that Andre had been killed in a confrontation with the law. Benny's amazing brain knew instantly that they'd be after him next if they weren't already so he walked away, he fled to his 3rd cousin Jesus' flat just outside of Vegas and with $250M in cash, Benny would lay low and when the heat eased would flee to what was left of Mexico.

Benny didn't even make it to the border, Jesus decapitated him whilst he was sleeping and kept the cash for himself, he would fulfil his dream of building the world's largest bowling alley, 525 lanes!

Day #268 - Andre Escobar

the son of a Nebraska state fireman of Irish descent and Puerto Rican school mistress, Andrew Martin had a normal life, the middle class life. He attended a nice little public school, where his mother taught, he went on to be an above average student in high school and then went on to the Nebraska State University where he gained a double degree in Chemistry and Bio-Chemistry. Whilst in College roomed with a young man by the name of Benny 'Knuckles' Velasquez, Benny and Andrew whilst trying to make some extra party cash started dabbling in trying to 'extend' the government issued stimulants, Andrew with his new found knowledge of Chemistry he found a secret additive to make cocaine almost three times as potent, when it was burned, it turned blue.

Benny, being an marketing major and budding amateur film-maker decided that they needed a smarter way to market this new found product. Together they decided to hit the books, surprisingly Andrew bore a strong resisemblance to a Columbian native due to his genetic make up, therefore they decided to use Andrew as the figurehead for their organisation, he'd change his name to Andre Escobar and they'd say his lineage went back to the great Pablo Escobar. Benny being a rather heavyset Hispanic man whom stood about 2 metres tall and about 400 pounds would pass himself off as Andre's personal bodyguard. This way the two of them would always be together during negotiations.

During their college years they produced enough 'Columbian Blue' to fill a small football field and subsequently made the cash of a large software company. Not bad for two run of the mill middle class boys.

A year into their operations Benny being the marketing genius that he is decided that they needed to target bigger fish and since the State of California broke away and fell into the sea in the early 2300s Vegas was now the west coast and the Mecca for excess, Hollywood relocated there in early 2233 as the Jewish moguls could sense the end of the state of California and wisely moved east. Benny decided that they would quadruple the asking price of their 'Blue' and deal it exclusively to the Hollywood elite, they'd make double what they did already and only half the work, so Benny setup Starmaker Productions, a celebrity management firm acting as a front to move 'Blue' into the Elite arena. It was such as success that Benny took over operation of the Vegas operations whilst Andre setup base in New New York, they needed to move into the financial sector.

Somehow, mostly through dumb luck they avoided the authorities. That is until one of Andre's 'celebrity' clients was convicted of murdering one of their clients and threatened to blow the lid on the whole situation. Andre tried to keep his 'cover' going and stupidly threatened the local authorities but with Benny on the other side of the country Andre pulled a laser pistol on a federal agent whom unleashed a round from his rail gun right through Andre's sternum.

All Andre needed to do was to become Andrew Martin again but the illusion had fooled him too.

Benny at the news of Andrew's demise disappeared into the Nevada desert.

Day #267 - Dante Diamante

Dante Diamante always loved drama and was drawn to the stage from an early age, he had dreams of one day being a successful stage actor and having an extended run on New Broadway. He began in high school where he played the role of Scarlett O’Hara in the musical version of Casablanca, reviews stated that a new ‘star’ was born that this young lady would really make her mark on stage.

Rather than correct them about the gender confusion Dante decided to embrace it and would only perform in strong female leading roles, Dante took this to the limit, he’d actually attend the casting in women’s clothing and pass himself off as a young female.

His changed his stage name to Dainty Diamante, this way it wasn’t too much of a lie to pull off. Dainty played 3 seasons of Antony and Cleopatra to rave reviews all round, they’d never seen a Cleopatra with such a stage presence, the role earned him 2 Tony awards.

During this time Dante decided that he needed a manager to handle all of his affairs, enter Andre “Starmaker” Escobar a young Columbian agent with contacts from coast to coast and a mysterious history, as it turns out Andre’s grandfather 14 generations ago was none other than El Padron himself and Andre was the sole heir to the family business, the agency was a front to move “Columbia Blue” to high class Players in New New York.

Shortly after signing with the Starmaker Dante found himself out of work, nobody would touch anybody affiliated with the Starmaker and the Starmaker never let anybody off his books, alive. Dante found himself being used as a go-between for Starmaker's “Blue” operations and from time to time Dante ‘sampled’ the merchandise, this led to addiction and the need for high levels of capital. This is where Dante found his acting prowess would earn him huge dollars, Starmaker would set Dante up for ‘dates’ with certain special clientele with a particular interest. Dante soon found himself permanently in drag and whoring himself to support his ‘Blue’ habit.

Dante eventually found himself a sugar daddy with a strong addiction to 'Blue', Dante saw him as his way out of the Starmaker’s clutches. The Shark was a young wealthy entrepreneur with money to burn and a taste for the exotic and Dante is the link to the exotic that the Shark was after. Dante 'dated' the Shark exclusively for 5 years and although he got treated badly it was still better than how Andre treated him.

Dante was unfortunately setup for the murder of his lover, a crime of passion they called it.

Dante now spends his days performing in the prison drama edition of Casablanca the musical, he's simply the best darn Scarlett the stage has ever seen!

Day #266 - Phil "the Shark" Cooper

the Shark's religion is greed, more importantly greed without remorse. He earned his moniker not from being a loan shark (which he is) but from preying on the innocent, he'd smell the blood a mile away and would circle his prey and then finally strike when there was no hope left.

This made the Shark an incredibly successful business man at the expense of family and friends, but that didn't matter to the Shark as his only need was greed. It was his passion for feeling on top that led him to cocaine, first he started using the the government produced drug, in the 27th century the government controlled all addictive substances and their distribution network, the government coke was cheap and whilst it gave you a short high it really messed you up as the government chose to cut this up with any number of substances to getter a greater return, one night you might be sniffing borax the next you could be freebasing talcum powder or icing sugar. Only desperate wannabes used government coke, no the real elite still had access to the pure produce of Columbia, the 'Columbian Blue' as it is called due to the colour that it turns when burned is the highest grade cocaine on the market but it's so underground it's almost myth like in it's existence.

Of course, this is the shit the Shark was on 24/7, when he first heard about it he knew that he needed it and in large amounts because that's how the Shark rolled.

The Shark like most men has certain urges that needed satisfying and through one of his 'transactions of the night' (he has a thing for male transvestite prostitutes) he stumbled upon Dante Diamante, whilst Dante was not very good in the sack he did have the ability to supply the Shark with a never ending supply of the 'Blue'

The Shark's heavy addiction to this meant that he was starting to slip up in his business dealings and in particular the running of his newly acquired and extremely lucrative chop shop, he and Dante would have lavish parties in the upstairs office all times of the day or night and the Shark would basically live there and not worry about his other accounts. One particular day, he had fallen asleep at his desk face first into a mound of the 'Blue' s high he didn't even feel the cold steel of the wrench around his neck, all that came after that was darkness.

as his love for the 'Blue' grew he needed to fund his habit by branching out to offer startup cash for businesses

Day #265 - 100 to go

into the home stretch now, fair enough it's a bloody long stretch.

I thought I'd try a new thing, 30 new characters in 3o days, so now to 295 I'll create a new character every day and also write a back story (i'm not a good writer so the stories might be crap).

here we go,

Character #1

"Wrench McNeil"

Wrench McNeil entered Earth DF military academy as soon as he hit adulthood, he wasn't a fantastically talented recruit but he gave it his all. When he found out that he was not up to grade for infantry it nearly broke his heart, he wanted to go to war, it was all he thought about growing up, deploying to Venus and fighting for Earth against the Mercurians, a noble path.

Wrench discovered that he could indeed deploy utilising the support path, all good mechanised infantry need support. Wrench topped his class, he was the best military mechanic in his unit.

In the year 2622 Wrench got his orders and shipped out to Venus supporting 455th Spacebourne Unit.

Whilst landing on Venus and unloading an APC backed over Wrench and parked on his head, Wrench lost both legs from the knee down, he lost his right hand at the wrist and the right side of his skull collapsed through the cheekbone and he lost his eye.

Wrench, lucky to be alive was stretchered out of the landing zone into the field hospital and straight into surgery. The surgeons attached over sized metallic feet to his knees, a robotic right hand to what was left of his forearm and a cybernetic optic controller in place of his right eye which attached directly to the brain stem and resulted in horrible headaches and nausea.

Wrench was discharged from the military but he didn't qualify for disability pension because that was reserved to the disabled and cyborgs were ineligible.

Wrench had no option but to open his own mechanic workshop but with no funding he had to borrow money from a loan shark for startup funds. Little did he know that this shark was surprise surprise a bit dishonest and that he set up Wrench for a fall, he restricted 90% of the business going to Wrench's shop and after a few months Wrench was desperately trying to make ends meet with very little customers.

The shark came back seeking his money but when Wrench explained that he couldn't pay the shark took over ownership of the business and made Wrench work for him at minimum wage whilst repaying his debt. The way it was set up is that the interest on Wrench's debt would render the debt never payable, this meant that Wrench was going to be working there for the rest of his life.

For the first couple of weeks the business remained legitimate but the shark soon saw that it was far more lucrative using the shop as a front and instead using the business 'rebirthing' stolen speeders.

One day Wrench, whilst in the midst of an extremely bad migraine thanks to the cybernetic optical brain stem attached device had decided enough was enough. He took his favourite wrench, a 5 3/4" open ender into the office and 'wrenched' off the shark's head, he freeze dried the body in the spray booth and buried it in the back yard of the workshop, 10 feet down.

He put his name back on the front of the workshop and reopened as a legitimate business.

Day #264 - hmm, no Sir, I don't like it!

quick and easy tonight, for some reason as I was walking over to draw I said, No sir, I don't like it! which made me think of Ren & Stimpy, then the horse from Ren & Stimpy.

I could have easily drawn Log, Muddy Mud Skipper or the all American George hound.

John K is a freak and when this cartoon first came out it began a new genre in cartoons and you can see this is easily where Spongebob Squarepants got its inspiration.

Day #263 - History made

Today Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen became the All Time leading scorer of 3 point shots in NBA history surpassing the great Reggie Miller's record.

So I thought I'd draw him shooting.

They say that he has the sweetest shot in all of basketball and it's hard to deny it's goodness but I think the thing that makes it so sweet for me is the fact that it's the exact same smooth technique no matter where he is on the court and in what direction he is going, it's a lazy flop of the arms and a delicate kick of the legs, poetry in motion.

Who would have thought the young basketballer in Spike Lee's He Got Game would turn out to be this amazing player.

I'm just glad that he plays for Boston!

Congratulations Ray!

Day #262 - Burgebabs

Tonight before seeing De La Soul Ed, Les, Nick and I were dining in the back of the Duke hotel.

I had the Wagyu beef burger and when it came out it had wooden skewer holding it together, Lester said that you were supposed to pick it up and eat it like a lollipop.

It got me thinking about a Shish Kebab made of mini burgers (or sliders as the US call them), you could call them Burgebabs or Shish Burgers?

I would have drawn more but it's pretty late so I settled for 3, you get the idea right?

Day #261 - 100 conversations about nothing

I tell you what if I had a dollar for every pointless conversation I had today I think I'd have at least $100 in the kitty.

4 times today I had to explain why sent mail from outlook doesn't sync on mobile devices.......to the same person!

I had meaningless conversations over a device that we don't even have because a customer won't make a decision about it yet they are trying to put the onus on me? yet I've explained that I am awaiting a decision.

It seemed that the entire day I was on at least one phone if not two.

I had to ask people if I could call them back because I had someone on the other line about 8 or 10 times, which I wouldn't mind but I'm not normally on my phone at work.

I guess it was just one of those days, so this is sort of how I felt at the end of the day.

Can't wait for tomorrow.....................night, watching De La Soul with Ed and Les will make it all worthwhile!

Day #260 - Cliché art

Something has been bothering me since last Thursday night.

And I think it's because the wrong person won.

Secret Wars is a contest pitting two artists against each other over 90 minutes with nothing but black ink and a canvas.

there were a lot of things wrong (IMHO) with both artists but only one produced original art, although the main character of his piece (probably about 60% of the piece) was very weak it was at least original (haha just heard Brooke Shields say cliché about 5 times on the Tonight Show), the guy that won drew little characters that you've seen a hundred times over in different street art works, so, unless he is the person that is goin around doing all of these works (which I very much doubt) he's just reproducing other people's ideas.

I did like the winners lettering although it wasn't a writing contest was it?

I'm really hoping that round 2 will showcase 2 unique artists to really show what Sydney can produce, considering this is a competition with global exposure it was a little embarrassing to see what these two 'artists' produced on behalf of the Sydney art community.

HAaaaaaaaaa, now I feel better, geez I'm on a rant quest today.

sorry....

Day #259 - Where I'd rather be right now

broken sleep, a busy day and a job interview have made me incredibly tired, falling asleep on the train probably didn't help either.

Throw into the mix a 10:15pm tip off for basketball tonight and I'll be lucky to be asleep by midnight.

Right now I wish 2 things, that I didn't have to draw this picture and that we had a BYE tonight.

Day #258 - Scooby and Shaggy

For some strange reason the kids choose over everything else on TV to sit there and watch episodes of Scooby Doo each morning.

They choose this ahead of Dora the Explorer and Ben 10.

It's a little disappointing because it's such a crappy cartoon but it's actually the first one that they both like.

So I decided to draw this for them.

I hope they like it, it's almost right.

Day #257 - Clown Boss

today was stupid hot and so as a result I didn't really move too much but instead just soaked up some hours playing with the kids and the PS3.

Drawing something was the last thing I felt like doing today, so I left it to the last minute.

I've been thinking about anime a lot lately and especially Akira.

Akira is one of my all time favourites and it's mainly because of the first 20 minutes.

The Neo Tokyo setting with the bike gangs is amazing and I always want more, but, there's no more. I wish they'd do a prequel highlighting the gangs and how they came about.

My favourite is the Boss of the Clowns, he looks like Michael Clarke Duncan on a bike and a half, it has 6 or 8 exhausts and tyres as thick as car tyres.

This is not how I'd imagined this picture turn out but I'm too tired to care to be totally honest.

Day #256 - Happy Birthday FB

7 years ago today Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.

What more can I say, it changed the world by reconnecting lost friends and families.

Say what you like about the founder but it is one amazing piece of work, I mean the thing has millions of concurrent users and it doesn't go down! Imagine those SLAs!

Who would have thought that 1 little social networking website would change so many lives.

and the movie about it is very cool, especially the JT role.

I won't apologise for doing a quickie here as I'm so tired from both the week and last night that I just need a solid 8 hours and seeing as though the kids wake at 6 I'm going to bed now.

Day #255 - grumpy boy

I quickly whipped this out today as I am going to Secret Wars with Marty, Ed and Les tonight.

Today I took Hawk for his assessment and we hung out for the rest of the day. It was super cool.

For fun I said I draw him, I told him I'd draw him grumpy and show him how ugly he looks when he's grumpy.

He hasn't been grumpy at all, in fact he hasn't been grumpy since before xmas.

He did very well at his assessment, I'm very proud of him.

We celebrated with Subway for lunch and I bought him some Star Wars Lego.

Day #254 - Mr Turnip Head

Tonight on SBS aired Howl's Moving Castle.

Hayao Miyazaki is easily one of my favourite directors, animators and story tellers.

every single one of his films is an automatic classic.

It's funny, the first that I ever saw was My Neighbour Totoro, which is still my favourite, closely followed by the castle of Cagliostro, I still cry every time I watch Spirited Away.

What can I say, he just doesn't make a bad film. ever.

Howl's is a very cool movie but the character the really moved me was Mr Turnip Head, he was a scarecrow, consisting of a stick with a ball on it and an inanimate face but somehow he conveyed emotion and movement, only a genius could do that.

And it was ironic that Mr Turnip Head saved them in the end and subsequently stopped the war.

Like No Face in Spirited Away.

Hawk has his assessment day for Kindy tomorrow and I'm so excited for him that I can't sleep. I can't believe that my little boy whom I used to hold in one arm is going to big school, he probably isn't even bothered about it but I plan to have a special day with him tomorrow. I am truly grateful that my work and my boss allows me the flexibility to be able to witness these once in a lifetime happenings, I'll miss his first day of school next monday but Vic will be there for that.

Day #253 - Gong hei fat choy

I was watching 'Warlords' on SBS 2 tonight and it got me thinking about Chinese New Year, I think the thing I love about Chinese New Year is the animal assigned to the years and how people associate to each other.

It's probably the only time I can openly tell somebody that I'm a rat and get a positive response and sometimes a "ooh me too".

It's only tonight that I realised that Mika and I are both rats.

Anyway I was going to draw obscure cartoon characters all this week but I couldn't get the rabbit out of my head, damn rabbits, they tend to multiply until you can't ignore them.

Tomorrow I'll draw the Maxx instead.

I think Chinese New year begins on thursday? I love how it's a different date each year.

and everything is red, which is the coolest colour.