9.11

[mmike1969]

EVERY single time there was a happy ending of a book, the next book opened up in near disaster. .

 

Can't wait for the next story

Thank you Mark and Team for keeping me entertained.

Edited February 25, 2014 by mmike1969

[davewri]

I was partly kidding when I said I expected a "Jerry Springer Thanksgiving". It makes me a little nervous when things get too calm. There are so many potential situations right around the corner you know all this warm and fuzzy can't last long. And Mark will surprise us with whatever comes in the next story.

 

Thanks again Mark and team for the best writing on the net.

[PrivateTim]

In so many ways this must have been the hardest CAP book to write. I think so many people enjoy CAP because of how real life entwines itself in the story, but things like the Vietnam War, the sinking of the USS Thresher, airplane crashes and skating competitions are either history to us or foreign territory. But September 11, 2001 is different. It is a day and events that touched everyone who reads these stories and we all probably have different reactions, but I suspect most were deep and visceral and the echoes of that day still reverberate around the world. For many people is it The Day That Changed Everything.

 

Mark and his support team did an amazing job, through meticulous research, keeping the story true to actual events of that day and maybe bringing back a bit of the pain to those who lost someone or maybe created that feeling of loss for those who didn't. I also think it is important to never forget the pain of the day and days that followed so we don't forget those that have sacrificed since and are still sacrificing as we speak.

[Kitt]

I know Tim and I don't see eye to eye very often, but can I like his last post two or three more times?

[watcher]

Mark:

 

Great story - great series;

 

Very much liked Odessy  and it's earlier books.  

Edited February 26, 2014 by watcher

[Mark Arbour]

As we've moved onto Flux and this once-busy forum now lies dormant, I thought I'd revive it one last time to thank all of you who voted for 9.11, and made it the GA Readers Choice Winner for Best Hosted Story.  To have such an emotional story capped off with that honor is really overwhelming.  Thank you all so much.  Thank you. 

 

[Kitt]

We should be the ones thanking you and your team. You all did a phenomenal amount of work on the story and deserve every word of praise we can come up with.

[Daddydavek]

We should be the ones thanking you and your team. You all did a phenomenal amount of work on the story and deserve every word of praise we can come up with.

AMEN!

[GLH]

We should be the ones thanking you and your team. You all did a phenomenal amount of work on the story and deserve every word of praise we can come up with.

 

Most indubitably so. 

 

 

 

I've been a bit remiss in posting the final statistics for 9.11, but I've been a bit distracted of late (leaving your smartphone on the back of the pickup before taking a 25 mile road trip tends to do that).  That being said, I have built a highly functional spreadsheet that provides me with all kinds of arcane factoids to PIQUE one's curiosity (or show the utter depths of my OCD).  So without further ado:

 

Shortest posting interval:  Six hours, 28 minutes.  (Chapters 37-38)

 

Average posting interval:  Four days, one hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds.

 

Longest posting interval:  Eleven days, thirty-three minutes.  (Chapters 52-53)

 

Length of Publication:  317 days, four hours, 25 minutes; or 10 months, one week, four days, four hours, 25 minutes.

 

Number of chapter posting intervals that fell within one hour of the average posting time:  two (4-5 and 15-16)

 

 

So now you know that when Mark says he's going to slow posting down to once a week, start looking for the next chapter in about 4 days.  It's just the way he rolls. 

 

Thanks again Mark for the wonderful and enthralling entertainment you and your team provide through nothing less than Herculean effort, I'm sure.

 

Sincerely,

Gerry

Edited March 3, 2014 by GLH

[Kitt]

You are rather attached to numbers aren't you?  Interesting stats.

[PrivateTim]

If he would just let a damn cannon ball take out Granger he could focus.

[Mark Arbour]

For those of you who want to download 9.11, it is now in e-book format here.

[Mark Arbour]

Most indubitably so. 

 

 

 

I've been a bit remiss in posting the final statistics for 9.11, but I've been a bit distracted of late (leaving your smartphone on the back of the pickup before taking a 25 mile road trip tends to do that).  That being said, I have built a highly functional spreadsheet that provides me with all kinds of arcane factoids to PIQUE one's curiosity (or show the utter depths of my OCD).  So without further ado:

 

Shortest posting interval:  Six hours, 28 minutes.  (Chapters 37-38)

 

Average posting interval:  Four days, one hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds.

 

Longest posting interval:  Eleven days, thirty-three minutes.  (Chapters 52-53)

 

Length of Publication:  317 days, four hours, 25 minutes; or 10 months, one week, four days, four hours, 25 minutes.

 

Number of chapter posting intervals that fell within one hour of the average posting time:  two (4-5 and 15-16)

 

 

So now you know that when Mark says he's going to slow posting down to once a week, start looking for the next chapter in about 4 days.  It's just the way he rolls. 

 

Thanks again Mark for the wonderful and enthralling entertainment you and your team provide through nothing less than Herculean effort, I'm sure.

 

Sincerely,

Gerry

 

I love stats!!!  Awesome!!!

[GLH]

 

So now you know that when Mark says he's going to slow posting down to once a week, start looking for the next chapter in about 4 days.  It's just the way he rolls. 

 

 

 

Okay, so after I made that statement I kinda thought I may have overstated things a bit.  In light of that fact, I decided that a little further investigation  was in order, so I researched all the stories that have been posted here on GA since the 'change' in January 2011, from the posting of Chapter 52 in "Millennium".  The "about 4 days" would have been accurate in a '3 to 5 days' sense, but the actual average posting interval from the January 2011 posting of Chapter 52 of "Millennium" until the conclusion of "9.11" came to four days, twelve hours, nineteen minutes and 52 seconds.

 

Individually, the average posting interval of each story broke down to:

 

Millennium  ------------  2 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes, 23 seconds

 

Poor Man's Son  -----  5 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes, 15 seconds

 

Paternity  --------------  4  days, 19 hours, 50 minutes, 6 seconds

 

9.11  --------------------  4 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds

[methodwriter85]

A college acquaintance of mine posted this photo of St. Louis from the Gateway Arch and it made me think of you, Mark. Just think, this was the view that Tony and Will saw on the trip. LOL.

 

Edited May 1, 2014 by methodwriter85

[Daddydavek]

A college acquaintance of mine posted this photo of St. Louis from the Gateway Arch and it made me think of you, Mark. Just think, this was the view that Tony and Will saw on the trip. LOL.

 

 

Actually, it's not.

 

That is a picture of Busch Stadium which was opened on April 4, 2006.  Ground was broken for this new stadium in 2004.   It replaced the prior Busch Stadium which was just to the North of this one and that one was opened in 1966.

 

Here's a picture of the old one with the new one to the left as it was still under construction.  Ballpark village occupies part of the site where the old Busch was.

 

Edited May 5, 2014 by Daddydavek

[Mark Arbour]

Actually, it's not.

 

That is a picture of Busch Stadium which was opened on April 4, 2006.  Ground was broken for this new stadium in 2004.   It replaced the prior Busch Stadium which was just to the North of this one and that one was opened in 1966.

 

Here's a picture of the old one with the new one to the left as it was still under construction.  Ballpark village occupies part of the site where the old Busch was.

 

 

 

I love the way these pictures illustrate the changes in the ballpark area!  Thanks for posting them together!

[methodwriter85]

  60's/70's public buildings. Ugh. I hate that cement brutalist style so much. I'm glad that shit is often getting torn down.

 

   St. Louis seems to have stabilized itself...not quite as well as Pittsburgh has, but they seem to have stopped the bleeding out. I think Pittsburgh has the win for the better skyline if we're going to do a "Battle of the Rustbelt Cities With Populations Currently in the 300k Range", though:

 

[Mark Arbour]

  60's/70's public buildings. Ugh. I hate that cement brutalist style so much. I'm glad that shit is often getting torn down.

 

   St. Louis seems to have stabilized itself...not quite as well as Pittsburgh has, but they seem to have stopped the bleeding out. I think Pittsburgh has the win for the better skyline if we're going to do a "Battle of the Rustbelt Cities With Populations Currently in the 300k Range", though:

 

 

I'm not sure what brought you to the conclusion that the bleeding in St. Louis is over.  That's not how I see it.  I see it as a city that is ruled by the status quo, where innovation is not rewarded, but towing the line and maintaining the good old boy network is.  I would be very wary of starting a new business here.  You're more likely to have it stolen or sabotaged by the powers-that-be. 

 

As for skylines, I think Pittsburgh wins hands down, especially if you come in from the tunnel on the freeway from the airport, where the whole downtown seems to explode in front of you as you come out of it.  Impressive.

[methodwriter85]

I'm just saying that St. Louis has stopped bleeding population- they've settled in at the 300k mark after decades of massive population losses.

 

Very true about the Pittsburgh skyline, Mark...it really is magic at night:

 

 

I think the varied topography of Pittsburgh really adds to the magic of their skyline.

[Timothy M.]

 

Hope you don't mind me sticking this link in here, since very few people noticed the blog review yesterday.