Chapter 40-2 Monsters

[Cabbage Patch]

Major police action going on right now in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California. The news is reporting a gun battle, a hostage taking and police reinforcements pouring into the area. No word on riots, earthquakes, explosions, or strange mists forming.

[LiamKerrington]

Major police action going on right now in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California. The news is reporting a gun battle, a hostage taking and police reinforcements pouring into the area. No word on riots, earthquakes, explosions, or strange mists forming.

Uh-ohhhhhh!

Would they even tell you about things like this? In order to prevent panic they wouldn't tell anyone more specific stuff ... To quote a famous chick from the WA-verse: "You better start runnin ..."

[LiamKerrington]

@Unit9014

I am not so certain about CJ being all alone with her decisions. Yes, I agree in so far as she has no official council or leader-staff or sh*t ... But from what I see she manages the people and allows them to persude aims in their tasks - Datu and Glen may experiment on new devices, Pegs established the Cows, Michael and Soldiers are out on their own doin' their own business (although as of lately this seems to botehr CJ more and more ...). So in a way she heavily relies on specialists.

And yet I agree with you: CJ is very solitary and very much focussed on surviving for her own sake. The idea with the books is something that struck me odd as well. But actually we have no idea what is available at the Colony or if certain books were brought in from Dunbar. And since we had little air-time with CJ during and since the time-jump covering 4 months we actually have little information about how well she performs as "My Little Dictatress" ...

Best wishes!
Liam

[Red Shirt]

Talk of the outbreak patterns got me to thinking. And I'll try this later is no one else does, but I'm at work for the evening.

could we plug in the pattern of outbreak into the Fibonacci sequence? Basically start in Inglewood and make a golden spiral...im not sure if it works...but might be worth checking.

Here's something to try with that: Don't just compare the recorded times given in PST, compare the difference in time between the locations as expressed in either minutes and/or seconds. Doing calculations in HH:MM annotation can be confusing and messy, but converting the difference in time to the raw total of minutes may be more revealing. That said, I may just jump into this a bit latter.

Rarely is the head leader the most knowledgable person in the group, they need the smarts of others, and then use their own leadership skills to implement plans.

If you are the smartest one in the room, you are in the wrong room.

[Verse]

I think as far as leaders go, both would be screwed. When you have these end of days issues... your only as good as what is going on at the moment. Take Michael. Sets up the Tower. Everyone is living rather well (all things considered). Not a whole lot of issues (Besides.. I no like him). All in All.... people had it pretty damn good at the Tower. Mallers attack and it is "Screw that Guy! He let us get drunk. Replace his butt!" then when Burt took over ppl went dropped him as soon as the Lizzy thing happened. Glenn left to find Michael... but as soon as CJ tossed some ideas to him he was all about screw Michael. As soon as Burt and Riley had a chance they ghosted as well. B/c they wanted Scratch right then and there. Neither leader would give them what they wanted right then... so screw you guys.

As soon as people realize that they have an issue with the water and such they will dump CJ and pick up someone else. They will blame Michael, but when the Biters attack again (and they will. No way Kelly said the Retaliation line and it not come up. If we learned one thing so far is KC doesn't really do throw away lines) and Michael saves them... he will be the Golden Child again. That or they blame Michael for causing the attack. We'll see how that plays out.

Now that the "People are stupid sheep" rant is done.....

Wonder why they have not sent anyone to the fuel depot the Mallers used. I know that they drained some stuff, but one would think that there would be others. If not at that one Depot then some other areas. No way that there is only one fuel Depot in all of LA.

[Unit]

@Unit9014

I am not so certain about CJ being all alone with her decisions. Yes, I agree in so far as she has no official council or leader-staff or sh*t ... But from what I see she manages the people and allows them to persude aims in their tasks - Datu and Glen may experiment on new devices, Pegs established the Cows, Michael and Soldiers are out on their own doin' their own business (although as of lately this seems to botehr CJ more and more ...). So in a way she heavily relies on specialists.

And yet I agree with you: CJ is very solitary and very much focussed on surviving for her own sake. The idea with the books is something that struck me odd as well. But actually we have no idea what is available at the Colony or if certain books were brought in from Dunbar. And since we had little air-time with CJ during and since the time-jump covering 4 months we actually have little information about how well she performs as "My Little Dictatress" ...

Best wishes!
Liam

The only thing I can say about this that semi supports my observation is that Datu and Glenn were working on their experiment behind closed doors. Datu didn't want to tell CJ about it because she would get mad and Glenn agreed with that.

CJ sounded like she was making a snide comment about the cows and how they better be worth it for as much trouble it was to get them. Like she tried to say no to getting them but probably got overruled by the majority somehow (similar to what happened to Burt when Michael, Pegs and Kelly first took off to find a doctor and found the colony)

And again CJ is trying to wrangle Michael in but doesn't really have the power to do so.

In all those examples she is not 'letting' people persuade aims, I think in all of those she is just not powerful enough to stop it or flat out doesn't know about it at this point.

For the books I guess I am just making an assumption on them not considering that, but I make that assumption because it sounds like they aren't pursuing the things I mentioned. You would think if they went through the trouble of getting the books that teach how it is done they would be pursuing the options. But maybe the library was raided, maybe it was burned, maybe they couldn't find the books they needed. Who knows?

[Unit]

I think as far as leaders go, both would be screwed. When you have these end of days issues... your only as good as what is going on at the moment. Take Michael. Sets up the Tower. Everyone is living rather well (all things considered). Not a whole lot of issues (Besides.. I no like him). All in All.... people had it pretty damn good at the Tower. Mallers attack and it is "Screw that Guy! He let us get drunk. Replace his butt!" then when Burt took over ppl went dropped him as soon as the Lizzy thing happened. Glenn left to find Michael... but as soon as CJ tossed some ideas to him he was all about screw Michael. As soon as Burt and Riley had a chance they ghosted as well. B/c they wanted Scratch right then and there. Neither leader would give them what they wanted right then... so screw you guys. As soon as people realize that they have an issue with the water and such they will dump CJ and pick up someone else. They will blame Michael, but when the Biters attack again (and they will. No way Kelly said the Retaliation line and it not come up. If we learned one thing so far is KC doesn't really do throw away lines) and Michael saves them... he will be the Golden Child again. That or they blame Michael for causing the attack. We'll see how that plays out. Now that the "People are stupid sheep" rant is done..... Wonder why they have not sent anyone to the fuel depot the Mallers used. I know that they drained some stuff, but one would think that there would be others. If not at that one Depot then some other areas. No way that there is only one fuel Depot in all of LA.

Agreed that as a leader, no matter your style, skill or abilities, you are screwed when something goes wrong. As they say, 'The buck stops here'. But the style of CJ seems to put her under added stress of feeling like it's all on her shoulders, and the community as a whole suffers because you may not get to take advantage of the collective knowledge and ideas of the whole group. Thinking about the Mallers fuel depot, isn't that what they used to attack the Arena? I imagine it is close to being drained if not completely drained. And like CJ mentions, what is left is probably going bad. Most fuel only have a shelf life of 6 months before you have to deal with oxidization, and water contamination. Even with stabilizers added it starts breaking down between a year and 18 months, so I think we are getting there. I can't remember exactly how far in we are at this point.

[scbubba]

All this talk about CJ.... Here's something I posted in another thread on the subject of her pity party

I think we may be seeing the "good planning, poor execution" from CJ again. Tis is suddenly a lot harder than she originally planned, things didn't just go her way, she can't come up with the solutions and have everyone jump to do it.

Let's face it, CJ wants to be the smartest person in the room. When others appear that might challenge that premise, she often tries to bully them down. When it becomes apparent that she doesn't have or can't come up with all the answers, she doesn't
T know what to do. Major ego hit! She would rather throw in the towel than have others come up with solutions she didn't think of.

Like you guys are pointing out, there could be all kinds of alternatives other than the ones CJ thinks of. But instead of enlisting other people to brainstorm ideas and come up with other plans, she assumes nobody can solve the problem because she can't.

Bad leadership qualities there.

Working in Software Development in different industries, I've seen this type of person many, many times: project managers, team leads, directors, CEOs. Hell, I almost WAS one of those guys except for a great manager I had early on....

[Unit]

Spot on analysis right there!

[Storm]

Agreed that as a leader, no matter your style, skill or abilities, you are screwed when something goes wrong. As they say, 'The buck stops here'. But the style of CJ seems to put her under added stress of feeling like it's all on her shoulders, and the community as a whole suffers because you may not get to take advantage of the collective knowledge and ideas of the whole group. Thinking about the Mallers fuel depot, isn't that what they used to attack the Arena? I imagine it is close to being drained if not completely drained. And like CJ mentions, what is left is probably going bad. Most fuel only have a shelf life of 6 months before you have to deal with oxidization, and water contamination. Even with stabilizers added it starts breaking down between a year and 18 months, so I think we are getting there. I can't remember exactly how far in we are at this point.

Outbreak started on May 8th 2009, and we're now around March 4th 2010, so yeah, they're pretty much fucked when it comes to fuel.