NEVER PLAYING RISK AGAIN...

...not with Liam again, anyway. See, I found a battered, secondhand copy of that classic old boardgame 'RISK' in the charity shop around the next block. You know the one? Global conquest with fiddly little plastic pieces and a handful of dice. I remember playing it with my cousin and some friends when I was a kid. Great fun. So I figured the guys back in the archway might have a blast playing it. Good idea, right?

Wrong.

I never imagined things could get so testy. The problem was Liam totally got into it. I mean the complete evil-genius-overlord thing. He was completely horrible. Complete change of character. (Which if I recall is what kind of always happens when somebody gets control of all of North America early in the game; they get all George Bush on ya.)

What's worse, not only was he quite obnoxious, he also bullied and cajoled Bob and Becks into supporting him and constantly attacking me and Sal. I swear those two meat-dumbots are like his sidekicks, his personal lackeys, sometimes. I can't help suspecting that Bob thinks Liam is God-Almighty and Becks thinks he's God's Gift.

Sheesh.

So that's how most of the game played out. Both support units being Liam's little pet monkeys and me and Sal fighting a pathetic rearguard action across Europe and Asia. Until, that is - when Liam took a toilet break - I convinced them both that Liam was finding the game unsatisfying and boring without any challenge left and might enjoy a sudden and unexpected reversal of fortune.

So when he came back they betrayed him thinking that he was loving it. (Invaded America from south America - what a glorious sight that was.)

LoL.

Then he just had one mighty goddamn hissy-fit and - supposedly - knocked the board over onto the floor by 'accident'. (Yeah, right) I've got to say right up to that moment in time, I have never, NEVER, seen Liam lose his temper like that. So-o-o-o wound up. He was literally shaking with board-game rage!

LoLzzz.

He's gone off for a walk to cool down as I write this. Probably for the best since me and Sal have been high-fiving for the last half an hour.

And Bob and Becks? They don't understand what just happened. They look kinda lost. Like a pair of lost sheep.

Actually, I've changed my mind. We definately need to play Risk again.

nb: the picture at the top is my personal attempt at art. I'm no Picasso, but I think that's a pretty accurate rendition of Liam totally 'Orking-out' on us.

This is me

So Maddy is teaching me about the computer machine. This is a photograph of me. I amm Liam O'Connor and I took this photograph with a camera. You can see me in the photograph and the computer screen. Behind me is Bob and my bed.

Maddy has just told me to right this diary the way I would talk. I am trying. But it is hard using this keyboard and it is hard to imagine how I talk. And even harder with her leaning over my shoulder like this. What can I say? This is strange. Better if she let me write it all down on paper first I think.

We are going to eat soon. My favourite food is the handburger.

Apparently it's called HAMburger. Not HANDburger. I wish they werent watching me trying to type this diary slowly and laughing at me. now. Anyway we are going to eat dinner soon then we are going to see a flicker.

Maddy has just said I sound like a simpleton. Which is rude. I am just not use to doing this kind of thing. And apparently it is not called a diary. It is called blog. Never heard of the word.

Hello Mam and Dad. I dont know why I typed that. Maybe they will read it.

This is Maddy. I'm finishing off Liam's post. He's crap at it. *sigh* Anyway. We're going to see a movie then have some food. Then maybe, if Liam dosn't act like such an old fart, I'll try and show him some other stuff on the computer.

This is Liam again. Madyy is very rude! I am younger than her, so I am. I have hair on my chin and cheeks now. Sal says I should shave it off. I like it. It makes me look like a man. I have to go now. I shall try doing one of these blogs again as long as I do not have these two cretins laughing while I type.

Weird Stuff

It's a weird thing being marooned nine years earlier than you're used to. There's all the silly things that get on your nerves, like the crappy old web pages, no Facebook, no Myspace. And worst of all no smartphones! Actually, I got my iphone and I can recharge it using a USB cable, so at least I still got my music, but that's pretty much all I can do with it. I can't do any internet on it, because there's no viable internet-enabling smartphone software written yet! That won't happen for atleast another five years!

So...I keep thinking how weird it would be for me to take a plane up to Boston and go visit my folks. Can't imagine what it would do to Mom and dad for me to turn up and say 'hi'. Even more so...what about me? Nine-year-old me! That would be totally trippy. Maybe one day I might do that, just as longt as I can guarantee a flight there and back before the field loop resets. Maybe what I could do is just go and look, you know? Not say 'hi' or anything, just look in on my family, on me. That way I wouldn't cause any contamination.

This really messes with your head. I was thinking about this the other day. If I dropped by Boston, and say, followed myself walking to school and just casually said hello to my younger self as I passed by, would I remember that now? Maybe I already did go and do just that and here I am nowe trying to remember if I ever passed a grown up with red-frizzy hair who looked a bit like me and nodded, said 'hi' or winked at me or something. Sheeesh...being nine years old, you're never really paying attention are you? You never remember things from one day to the next. I think...thing is I vaguely recall someone who could have been me winking at me. But then I don't know, maybe I'm sort of inventing that memory, because I just wish it was true.

See...if it was true. If that really was me, that means I did visit myself, and it didn't cause any time contamination, which means I can go and do that then - visit myself - and know for sure that it'll not cause any problems.

It's all circular, this time travel stuff. And that makes your head head hurt if you think about it too much. Anyway, Liam, Sal and Bob have gone out to get some DVDs to watch. There's a Blockbuster not so far away. I suggested one of the 'Terminator' movies. Thought Bob might get a kick out of watching that.

We'll see. Let you know what he makes of it, if they do get one of those movies.

Oh, and that piccy above? That's this cool band called EssZed. We went to see them the other night. They were playing in a small bar downtown. Brilliant. Sal loved them. Liam bitched about them being too loud. Me? I loved 'em. But, here's the thing, another weird thing. They disappear during 9/11. Tomorrow. No one knows what happens(ed) to them. They just vanished. I'll tell you all about that maybe, next time I post.

I feel Trapped :-(

I'm conflicted. Sometimes I realise in many ways I'm the luckiest person in the world. I should have died 'months' ago. I should've remained on that plane, died along with everyone else when that plane blew up. But I'm here. Alive. I've seen so many incredible things. I've actually stepped into history! Nothing really prepares you for that. And nothing is quite as convincing as the actual smells! I mean, you see it, you hear it. But you get that all the time with films...it's smelling the past that really makes you realise you're actually there!

Anyway, I said I was conflicted. I mean by that....I also wish I wasn't stuck here. I know I'm not exactly in a prison cell, I've got all of New York to wonder around in....even if it IS the same two days, I guess if I wondered through every street in Manhattan it would take me quite a few years before I've seen everything that happens at least once. If you see what I mean? But I can't help feeling trapped in these two days. Every monday morning, I see the same breakfast news on our tv. The same stories, the same lame jokes between newscasters. The same commercial breaks. The same weather forecasts.

Sometimes, I really do wish I could get up, walk out through the shutter door and never look back. I have been tempted you know. I have wondered what would happen. Would the agency track me down? Would the agency make sure I disappeared for good this time? And really...could I leave Sal and Liam like that?

I don't think so. It's tempting. But I guess the three of us are family now.

Oh...and here's another couple of Sal's sketches. I think the one with Bob and Liam was them playing chess a while back. Bob totally owned Liam! Not surprising really, since Bob downloaded the 'Big Blue' chess programme before they sat down to play.

Sal's an artist!

I didn't know she can draw! She's got this diary she's scribbling in all the time. I thought she was just, you know, writing a diary or something. Turns out she's also been sketching us too. Not bad either! I notice she decided to sketch me when I'm filling my face with a freakin' pizza.

And Liam? Pft! Hard at work as usual.

I spotted the sketches in her diary the other day and asked if I could take a look, but she got all shy and ratty and hid it away. So, the only reason I got to see her sketches is she's out right now and I just found it on her bunk. Lol. She has talent, she really does. I should tell her that I suppose, but then she'd know I sneaked a look in her book. Maybe I can work on her a bit.

Anyway, meanwhile, being sneak I am I've scanned about a dozen of them. I guess I'll post some more of them soon. When I'm, you know, bored again. Which is quite often as it happens.

Mads xxxxxxx

Oh God

Sal's been so moody. I wish I knew what was wrong with her. She keeps wandering off out of the arch on her own without telling us where she's going to. I kind of ask her to let me know when and where she's going, I sort of see myself as the whole Big Sister thing.

What else, Oh yeah! I've been going through the old filing cabinets and stuff in here. There's quite a few gadgets and gizmos I'm guessing from the future time where the agency's HQ is based. One particular gadget is pretty cool. They're called 'Babbel-Buds'. They look like flesh coloured ear-buds. You pop them in one of your ears and and they basically translate languages for you.

The Babbel-Buds obviously have some clever language recognition code, a voice simulator and a database of language files. Very clever stuff. Problem is you can't sepak another language. What you have to do is sau out loud in english whatever it is you want to say and then you'll hear the translation in your ear. Which you've got to remember and repeat if you want to speak the language.

Bit difficult that bit. Still...totally cool thing.

9/11

I joined Sal in Times Square this morning. It broke my heart. How can I begin to describe what it's like knowing what happens at 8.46am. I was standing there, looking at my watch a minute before, and looking around and seeing everyone doing their normal things, and I could hear...I could actually hear the distant hum of the jet engines of the first plane approaching.

And I watched people begin to look up at the sky as the engines rose in pitch and it got louder and mouth's open and eyes widen.

Then the moment. It was horrible counting the last minute down. Poor Sal does this everytime the field office loops around. She sees all of this. Hears the cries and screams of shock. It was all too much. I cried.

I cried like a child, because it reminded me of this day, when I was only ten, and watching it all happen on a telly in high school. The other girls in my class all screaming and the boys all yelling 'no way!' as loud as they could. And there was and me knowing my cousin Julian was in there somewhere.

God that memory really hurts still. I'm not doing the Sal-run for a long while. That was enough for me.