The Box

[Nephylim]

I like the look of this story already. I wonder what's in the box. Why would someone keep something and then write do not open EVER... I mean if there was every a bigger incentive to open it I don't know what it could be. Hmmm.... a severed hand? A pair of balls from someone who spurned her? Her lover's head? The possibilities are limitless

 

 

[mmike1969]

Since Mark already mentioned this story is going to involve flashbacks, I am guessing it contains photos, journals, newspaper articles and the like. Perhaps a trinket from a past celebration that brings back memories?

 

Of course, some good blackmail material in that box would also bring some meat to the table.

[Mark Arbour]

I like the look of this story already. I wonder what's in the box. Why would someone keep something and then write do not open EVER... I mean if there was every a bigger incentive to open it I don't know what it could be. Hmmm.... a severed hand? A pair of balls from someone who spurned her? Her lover's head? The possibilities are limitless

 

 

 

You are just so deliciously bloodthirsty.

 

Sadly, I am not.

 

 

[Mark Arbour]

If not Bill who? Tonto is born in 1903. Jack Crampton's sister. My guess this happen in the 20's or during WW2. Its got to be somebody who changes the relationships in the family. The six of them are there for a purpose. Only three great famiies. My second guess would be odd one of the Hayes? I can't see Tonto and Fred Hayes with Jeff or Frank as the son. To weird for words. Why is Mark reviesing CAP? plant more clues? Who are the master of mystery Mark.

 

 

Mark is revising CAP because grammatical errors, as well as some continuity errors. Anyways, doing a genealogy for CAP would be problematic, since so many of the characters did not come from a traditional nuclear family, and very few were actually raised by their biological family.

 

There were some changes in Chronicles, Chapter 4, that were more than just spelling errors. It could be a clue.

[KJames]

There were some changes in Chronicles, Chapter 4, that were more than just spelling errors. It could be a clue.

 

 

Mark, you're a devious brat! (But I love your writing anyway.)

[GLH]

Trying to construct a family tree for CAP sounds as problematic as trying to construct one in Southern Illinois, Southeastern Missouri or Eastern Kentucky...

[Conner]

People are coming out of the wood work to comment on this new story.

 

I have to believe that, given the wording Tonto uesd on the box, she very much intended that it be opened. So I see the contents of the box as her "gift from the grave" to her loved ones, mainly family.

 

I suppose that everyone has their secrets, but this is Tonto we're talking about. She will bear all.

 

Excellent start to this new story, Mark. Can't wait for the next chapter.

[Mark Arbour]

People are coming out of the wood work to comment on this new story.

 

I have to believe that, given the wording Tonto uesd on the box, she very much intended that it be opened. So I see the contents of the box as her "gift from the grave" to her loved ones, mainly family.

 

I suppose that everyone has their secrets, but this is Tonto we're talking about. She will bear all.

 

Excellent start to this new story, Mark. Can't wait for the next chapter.

 

Thanks Conner. It's really cool isn't it, that there are new people posting.

[Hoskins]

Alright, I'll think about it. Anyone know which program is easiest to use for family trees? And I'm talking about the basic Microsoft/Open Writer family.

 

 

ch1: I thought Nicholas was getting mellower when he got nearer thirty...

 

imo Brad should take Matt to meet his paternal grandmother.

 

 

 

 

as genealogist, I say that all genealogy programs feel to be crap. In a way or another.

 

Their output will in all likelihood not be the most suitable for this, since anything those programs do, they do mechanically - and that's helpful only for handling big amounts of data. In this task, the amount of data is relatively low.

 

Besides, any genealogy program will have distinct difficulties with same-gender relations.

 

this would be best presented as a tailored drawing on simple paper.

 

____________________________________

I I

Crampton m Marie a Hendrickson Tonto m

I I ._____________ I__________.

Crampton JP Steven Schluter m Janice a

m m Isidore c I _________ I__ I

I Stefan Nicholas Bitty Brad c Robert a Laura

I I

list kids Darius JJ Will Matthew

 

 

 

---

 

actually, I am looking forward whether these stories get as noted as to deserve an own article in wikipedia. Then someone there is bound to make a family tree..... and some others a cast list, with canon descriptions.

 

 

Mark is revising CAP because grammatical errors, as well as some continuity errors. Anyways, doing a genealogy for CAP would be problematic, since so many of the characters did not come from a traditional nuclear family, and very few were actually raised by their biological family.

 

::raises hand::

 

A genealogy is very definitely doable, so is Wikipedia. I'm a genealogist as is Enric, but I have a different opinion than you, Enric - genealogy software isn't that difficult, it's freely available, and the data it generates can be schlepped around pretty easily. MW85, non-traditional relationships are pretty common in modern genealogies, so the software can accommodate a fair amount.

 

I've got a fairly large, diverse family tree that's online and stuff, so I'm pretty familiar with what's possible.

 

I'm going to do some goofing on the CAP family tree, I'll get back to you... nobody panic.

 

In the meantime, Enric has a GREAT idea about putting it on Wikipedia. Workload could be distributed, and simply creating some stub articles, fill them out, and link to them from GA and the yahoo group.

 

Mark, what kind of reference material do you folks use to track the backstory and data around CAP? How do you guys maintain continuity? Is it all in your head?

[KJames]

There were some changes in Chronicles, Chapter 4, that were more than just spelling errors. It could be a clue.

 

Mark, I just reread Ch. 4 of CAP, and I wasn't able to pick up on anything strong enough to be a clue insofar as who Gail (Tonto) Schluter might have been pal'ing around with on the sly... But if Maman was seeing Bill Hendrickson, hence JP's envelope in his safe. That would leave Gail/Tonto with one of the Hayes' men, Fred then?

[Mark Arbour]

Are you freakin' kidding me? A Wiki page? That's amazing!

 

I gave Jeremy the bones of my reference stuff and he organized it in the "CAP Timeline" thread. That's pretty much what I use, that and memory, and the help of my team.

[JimmyZ]

Mark, I just reread Ch. 4 of CAP, and I wasn't able to pick up on anything strong enough to be a clue insofar as who Gail (Tonto) Schluter might have been pal'ing around with on the sly... But if Maman was seeing Bill Hendrickson, hence JP's envelope in his safe. That would leave Gail/Tonto with one of the Hayes' men, Fred then?

 

 

I don't recall Steven or the mysterious other Hayes boy and their joing the Army together. Can't see how that would have an affect so far down the line but this is Mark we are talking about so who knows.

[Mark Arbour]

but this is Mark we are talking about so who knows.

 

Strangely enough, I'm flattered.

[Mark Arbour]

You know, Paya should be here, figuring this whole thing out. Where's he at?

[JimmyZ]

Strangely enough, I'm flattered.

 

Good because that is how I meant it. If your writing were predictable I would have lost interest long ago.

 

 

[Hoskins]

Are you freakin' kidding me? A Wiki page? That's amazing!

 

I gave Jeremy the bones of my reference stuff and he organized it in the "CAP Timeline" thread. That's pretty much what I use, that and memory, and the help of my team.

 

I just stuck a stupid little family tree test in there, I'm skeptical.

 

Wikipedia is pretty challenging to learn, I've never used it to create pages before but I have edited existing pages. If you want a Wikipedia entry, there's gonna be some studyin' to do.

 

On the other hand, Google sites have some of this stuff built in, all that's needed are some gmail addresses...

[Ivy]

love the start of the new story! Yay for Steph as the voice! Can't wait to see what's in the box, mysteries are cool. Didn't realize you were going to start a new story so soon, thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Mark Arbour]

love the start of the new story! Yay for Steph as the voice! Can't wait to see what's in the box, mysteries are cool. Didn't realize you were going to start a new story so soon, thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Well you're welcome, and thank you too. I had a void where I had a few chapters of the new story almost ready to go, with the next chapter of HMS Belvidera still in edit, with no real hope of coming out until early next week. So this fills the void.

[Mark M]

i cannot read all these posts from everyone in one sitting it's just to much!! tomorrow i will re-read the form and possibly make comments on some of your comments, as for now i appoligiese as the snow up here in canada 27-40cm (16-20 inches) really put everyone in a down turn and jeepers it was alot!! lol. Waste high on me.....sadly there are probably very few naked canadians for Mark Abours liking.

 

 

Anyway the box brings us to clarmont once again.....hmmmmmm i think this could be interesting, i really wish Isador would have a bigger line again, especially with the impending trip to france....in fact i can't believe steph forgot her. Actually i don't think i can blame steph but Mark! i blame you for forgeting isador in all this i am....outraged that she is not in this.....actualy i'm not that outraged just wondering why not. lol

 

Nick....forgot about him but good to see he's chipper then ever. As for this box thing........i think a relic or some real family history will be stored in it. Maybe a diary maybe a map? maybe another box which has another box....untill it gets to a note that says tonto is really a murderer.....or she made a sex tape :S

 

Fml i have no idea.

 

 

Steph as narrator, i can't say i'm a fan, being inside an old mans head is wierd.......i liked the younger teenages my age. (Surprisingly though steph uses a vocabulary i understand!! YAY! he's not that wise and advances as i thought it might be) this could even get more disturbing as now we much go through stephs sex scenes........ah just great.....this willl be a interesting read...

Edited January 26, 2010 by Mark M

[Mark Arbour]

i cannot read all these posts from everyone in one sitting it's just to much!! tomorrow i will re-read the form and possibly make comments on some of your comments, as for now i appoligiese as the snow up here in canada 27-40cm (16-20 inches) really put everyone in a down turn and jeepers it was alot!! lol. Waste high on me.....sadly there are probably very few naked canadians for Mark Abours liking.

 

 

Anyway the box brings us to clarmont once again.....hmmmmmm i think this could be interesting, i really wish Isador would have a bigger line again, especially with the impending trip to france....in fact i can't believe steph forgot her. Actually i don't think i can blame steph but Mark! i blame you for forgeting isador in all this i am....outraged that she is not in this.....actualy i'm not that outraged just wondering why not. lol

 

Nick....forgot about him but good to see he's chipper then ever. As for this box thing........i think a relic or some real family history will be stored in it. Maybe a diary maybe a map? maybe another box which has another box....untill it gets to a note that says tonto is really a murderer.....or she made a sex tape :S

 

Fml i have no idea.

 

 

Steph as narrator, i can't say i'm a fan, being inside an old mans head is wierd.......i liked the younger teenages my age. (Surprisingly though steph uses a vocabulary i understand!! YAY! he's not that wise and advances as i thought it might be) this could even get more disturbing as now we much go through stephs sex scenes........ah just great.....this willl be a interesting read...

 

 

I've got to go to bed now. I hope that, while I'm sleeping, all of the guys about 55 or older don't verbally smash you into mush.

 

 

[Enric]

 

Wikipedia is pretty challenging to learn, I've never used it to create pages before but I have edited existing pages. If you want a Wikipedia entry, there's gonna be some studyin' to do.

 

 

the big problem, or 'challenge' as some put it, is the existence of a number of nasty deletionists there, who would destroy a wikipedia page if they can vote it to be non-notable topic.

 

they have a number of twisted criteria (and mentally twisted people doing interpretation and application) what is notable. I fear that un-printed publications are too easy targets (usually, printed and published book series can have their articles).

 

because of the mentally twisted nature of that editor community (it's inevitable, I think: who else than unemployable wackos have enough time to live in wikipedia...), wikipedia deletion votes are a test for several things, one of them being the accreditation of notability and prominence it tests. I.e, if an article wins a much-participated vote, its topic is notable and attests to prominence; if it does not win, then that's a nasty thumping of possibly a good thing....

 

Some of those in-wikipedia-daily-living wackos are in nasty habit of resurrecting their deletion proposal from time to time.

 

This is not against those sane people who usually edit only now and then wikipedia articles. I tried to outline above some features that help to recognize deletionist nutcases there.

[Enric]

 

A genealogy is very definitely doable,... I'm a genealogist as is Enric, but I have a different opinion than you, Enric - genealogy software isn't that difficult, it's freely available, and the data it generates can be schlepped around pretty easily. MW85, non-traditional relationships are pretty common in modern genealogies, so the software can accommodate a fair amount.

 

I've got a fairly large, diverse family tree that's online and stuff, so I'm pretty familiar with what's possible.

 

 

I think you missed the points in my critique.

 

I was not saying that genealogy programs cannot produce a tree. They certainly can, and I say probably in this case the result is not illustrative of the relations at play.

Like I said, the programs do things mechanically. These relations here are in part difficult to be put to such mechanism - the mechanical output will not be illustrative.

 

I was not saying that genealogy program is difficulkt to use. actually, a ready genealogy program is easy to use - a trained monkey (that's a joke-like expression) can feed the input to that, since most of what is involved, is simply copying. Yepo, for most, a trained monkey can use the program....

 

I was not saying that programs do not handle (and preserve) big amounts of data. You write that your large trees are in program. Well, they certainly store big amounts of data. Like I said. One of points is that for a small amount of data, the program would rather be an overkill, and in this case also produces somewhat un-illustrative output.

 

The line I draw is: a program is helpful when there's much more data than a human brain can remember at a time. On the other hand, the program is useless exercise when the amount of data is such that a human brain can remember most or all of it, if having it at display.

The latter case, a tailored 'free-hand' drawing would have more potential to be illustrative than a mechanical program making output.

 

Like I said, this genealogy would be best presented as a tailored drawing on simple page.

 

In such, many of the mechanical pitfalls of the program can be avoided, and the presentation put into one page which shows also non-traditional relationships.

[centexhairysub]

I am so excited by the new story... While I love so many diffrent people from the stories, Tonto was always one of my favorite ones and I hope she gets some due in this new story via flashbacks. I always hated that her death was between stories, I felt she was so important to so many people that her death and funeral should have been truly celebrated.

 

Now, about the box, this is Tonto we are talking about... Anything could be in the box and the secrets contained there in will rock not just the family but all of Claremont... Tonto was someone that had so many facets to her that this should be another nice long story.

 

Maybe Isidore and Frank are already in Claremont for the festival? Frank is from there as well, maybe he dragged Isidore back and they will just happen to be in town. Stranger things have happened in Mark's world. It is a great and exciting world he has created.

 

This story is already off to a great start and Mark already has us all excited. Bravo!!!

[rjo]

Why is Nicholas so interested in the box? Another thing in CAP the new chapter 4 Stephan Tonto oldest son has more of a relationship with JP. A mentor with the young JP and Fred Hayes's oldest son is friends with Stephen. I can't remember this before. I can only guess Stephen and this Hayes were maybe more than friends and the secrets are in that box, letters diaries something maybe returns to Tonto after Stephens death at the end of the war. Just like Andre things were returned to JP.

[MalicSign]

i cannot read all these posts from everyone in one sitting it's just to much!! tomorrow i will re-read the form and possibly make comments on some of your comments, as for now i appoligiese as the snow up here in canada 27-40cm (16-20 inches) really put everyone in a down turn and jeepers it was alot!! lol. Waste high on me.....sadly there are probably very few naked canadians for Mark Abours liking.

 

 

Anyway the box brings us to clarmont once again.....hmmmmmm i think this could be interesting, i really wish Isador would have a bigger line again, especially with the impending trip to france....in fact i can't believe steph forgot her. Actually i don't think i can blame steph but Mark! i blame you for forgeting isador in all this i am....outraged that she is not in this.....actualy i'm not that outraged just wondering why not. lol

 

Nick....forgot about him but good to see he's chipper then ever. As for this box thing........i think a relic or some real family history will be stored in it. Maybe a diary maybe a map? maybe another box which has another box....untill it gets to a note that says tonto is really a murderer.....or she made a sex tape :S

 

Fml i have no idea.

 

 

Steph as narrator, i can't say i'm a fan, being inside an old mans head is wierd.......i liked the younger teenages my age. (Surprisingly though steph uses a vocabulary i understand!! YAY! he's not that wise and advances as i thought it might be) this could even get more disturbing as now we much go through stephs sex scenes........ah just great.....this willl be a interesting read...

 

I'm scared of your fear of wisdom. I wonder if there is a specific phobia for this.

 

Anyway, I think you're worried about the wrong thing. Steph's sex scenes have always been entertaining and intense. I find myself fearing the anticipated explicit kink material in tonto's box (and by the way: Tonto's box. Really?).

 

I've got to go to bed now. I hope that, while I'm sleeping, all of the guys about 55 or older don't verbally smash you into mush.

 

 

 

 

 

Or hope that I don't verbally smash you into mush :2hands:

 

Steph is my favorite character from this series. I fail to see the negative at being inside the head of a witty and intelligent narrator. Steph's light attitude, coupled with his sharp and analytical mind, make up about half the reason I love the CAP saga as much as I do.

 

And Mark A., I hope you know that not all of youth Canada is so close minded

 

 

Edited January 26, 2010 by MalicSign