August 16th, 2015

I knew having a second child would be rough. I didn't know it would be because my first child would start waking up in the middle of the night screaming for no reason while his younger sister sleeps through the night. If he'd go back to sleep on his own that would be fine, but he insists on curling up on Daddy and he wakes up instantly if I put him back in his crib.

The recliner is not that comfy.

Today I Wrote:

A good chunk of part three of my Vault log. So far no one's really developed as a character but I'm willing to see where these knuckleheaded Dwellers take me. Captain Terry might yet lead a rebellion against the tyrannical Overseer (me).

Today I Read:

More of Taibbi's Divide. Seriously, fuck stop and frisk, fuck Broken Window policing, fuck being arrested for standing in front of your house at the wrong time.

Today I Saw:

Pictures by some poor bastard whose home is being overrun by bears. Seriously, check it out, they're adorable. I hope they get relocated.

Tales of Vault 867 - Part Two

Well, that all went to shit very quickly.

Due diligence: here's the current status of Vault 867:

The Vault is equipped with sufficient dining halls, power generators and water processing stations to support a population of 20. It also has a functioning medical facility and science lab, storage space,  and even a radio station that Annihilatrix Lewis is running into the ground.  But I get ahead of myself.

We've reached the seventh depth stratum and found no evidence of Horrors, Nameless or otherwise. What we have found is that our goddamn Dwellers are a bunch of Stepford psychopaths. Also that every one of our building materials is highly flammable.

That's Krusher Thorne putting out yet another fire in the secondary power station. Everyone got together five days into the experiment and decided to choose apocalypse names. Which I could give two shits about, but now I have to try to write things like Dessicator Mitchell and Doctor Adreno and Gasmonger Henriquez into these reports with a straight face.

The worst is Groovy Gary, nee Richards, who still has that damn Beatles haircut.  However, he's current running our main power station single-handedly on a mix of steroids and adrenochrome, so I can't really complain.

I can report that we have had new blood entering the Vault.

Just not this guy.

Yes we got raided. Fortunately Terry, who declined to rename himself, got his hands on a portable nuke and took care of the problem. It's also been helpful in dealing with our Radroach problems.

Lately Terry's taken to leaving the Vault to play King of the Wasteland. As long as he keeps bringing back guns and armor that's fine by me. One of our Vault Kids, Richard Hill, has been tagging along sometimes.

Yes, we have Vault Kids! Here's one now!

I assume the radiation is responsible for the childhood hair loss. No idea how he got that big so quickly, though,or how he's now become an adult calling himself Critikal Jerry. Either I'm being put into a coma between entries or somebody in a neighboring Vault is dicking around with time distortions. Neither would surprise me at this point.

Anyway, most of our growth is coming from children, however that's possible. The fertility drugs we slipped into the water tanks are working wonders. Here's a happy couple just getting dressed following a one-night stand:

Anyway, life for our Dwellers is good, aside from the roaches and raiders  and constant fires. At this right we might actually get below sea level before everyone dies.

Of fire.

August 11th to 15th, 2015

And that's my first day of missed log updates. *throws confetti* *blows gazoo*

Bad night on the 10th. Up too late, again, then up around 3 to change and feed my daughter, then up again around 4 or 4:30 because my son woke up screaming at... I don't know. I could guess, but my wife wouldn't appreciate me populating the space under my son's bed with monsters.

The 11th was busy and the 12th was the day of my son's surgery, so no writing got done while I was taking care of him. He's fine, already back to normal a day later, but he has a nasty habit of snatching pen and pad out of my hand if I try to use them in his presence. Today (the 13th) is being another busy day back at work, but not quite so bad as the 11th.

...And I wrote that two days ago. A series of bad nights and busy days between now and then. Hopefully Sunday is quiet.

Today I Wrote: 

The first entry in the Vault 867 archives, which is up here. I've also pulled images for the first week or so of game, but the more I progress the more I'm running into two problems:

1. I'm having to write from screencaps I take in-game because of the difficulty of playing a phone game with a pen and notepad in the other hand. This is actually a reasonable challenge to take on, though, so we'll see how it goes.

2. I may have reached the limits of "interesting things that happen in Fallout Shelter". This is not Dwarf Fortress, and apparently I can't count on a drunken Dweller flooding my elevator shafts with magma. (Would be a nice update though, Bethesda.) If my Vault ends up being a stable society I'm going to get tired of writing this log real fast. Fortunately it looks like Deathclaws will spice things up a bit.

Aside from those, I'm enjoying playing a game my wife enjoys as well. She just got access on her own phone and I'm only slightly worried it'll turn into another Candy Crush. Well, more than slightly. She may have had to recharge her phone in the middle of the day.

Today I Read:

This Storify log of some tweets by Chuck Wendig and others, on the subject of whether you actually need to write every day or not. A subject near and dear to my heart! I recommend giving it a look if you worry you're not writing frequently enough.

Tales of Vault 867 - Opening Day

The following journals were recovered outside the doors of Vault 867. Further exploration of the Vault was deemed undesirable following a cursory review of the material.
Today the poor bastards scheduled to live in Vault 867, or at least the minority that haven't puked up their livers, arrived at the doors. I'd already ensconced myself in the Overseer's Quarters, ensured that no one would be able to find the doors without my authorization, and confirmed that the Vault's surveillance systems were fully operational. Should be a swell decade for this little blue-suited voyeur!

...Or so I thought. Our dwellers are a cheerfully stupid lot, but supermodels they are not. I guess the Basic Human Dignity Committee finally overruled Eugenics. Among our contestants are:

Gary Richards, 28, bad Beatles haircut. Strong as an ox and half as smart.

Kathy Thompson, 35, has upper-level executive written all over her. Probably not with the right connections or she'd be in here instead of me, wouldn't she?

Terry Davidson, 26, smart-ass in a sweater vest flirting with

Kelly Day, 24, co-ed in a crop top. I guess Eugenics got a win in after all.

Margaret Chandler, 33, housewife. Not sure where her family is. She poked at all the cameras and tried every door she could see: a very inquisitive woman. Naturally I'm placing her straight on sewer duty.

Jessica Mitchell, 26, apparently knows Margaret. Into the sewer with her.

And finally Diana Stewart, 31, former sous chef to Gordon-fucking-Ramsey if you can believe it. Mouth like a sailor but she knows her way around the rations.

(I say finally, but who is that on the left? The Vault is already attracting troublemakers...)

While they queued into the Vault I finally opened my operational definitions packet and found a single sheet of paper containing the words:

DIG DEEP

AWAKEN THE NAMELESS HORROR

Cute. Unfortunately it looks like my incentive program is tied to following directions, so my merry crew will be building a shitload of elevators to start their new lives. Strike the earth!

August 10th, 2015

Not a big update today. I actually slept through the night last night, until 5 a.m. I didn't get to bed until after midnight, but this is still the new "rested" in my life. I was feeling pretty good until I put my head through my computer monitor. (This is a joke.)

Today I Wrote:

Some Fallout Shelter fan-fiction, which I'm polishing up to post a little later. I'm going to end this game Dwarf Fortress style or bust.