Paul

Warwidow

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 10 2011
I was home sick with the flu when my manager at the bank called a bit hysterical sounding and told me to turn on the TV. I sat and watched this unfold and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was there watching things unfold when I saw the second plane hit the tower it was like trying to grasp something so huge you couldn't understand it. I just kept thinking about the poor people there. Then seeing the towers fall I just was in shock I couldn't grasp it. I remember that they evacuated the downtown core of Toronto as an emergency precaution and my roommate at the time said it was like the city was dead everything and everyone was unbelievable quite. There were lots of people in Toronto that knew people in NYC some who knew that worked at the WTC. A friend of mine had knew someone that was due to be at the WTC that morning and he was frantic to get ahold of them. He finally did and it turned out she was in the bottom floors and was evacuated. I remember sitting there and hearing the recorded phone calls of sons to mothers saying they weren't sure they were going to get out and that they loved them and just feeling so overwhelmed and powerless to help these people I just wanted to make everything better but I couldn't. I recall there being tons of firefighters and policemen going to NYC to help out and how a small town in the east coast opened its doors to New Yorkers who's flights had been diverted there.

I think the biggest impact for me was when I met my ex-boyfriend on New Years Eve in Toronto we were very enamored with each other and I ended up going to NYC the following week it was there that at my request he brought me to the site and I remember seeing the board with peoples pictures and standing beside a building and looking up and seeing a spiderweb of cracks in the glass and looking out over the devastation and breaking down and him hugging me. It was so incredibly powerful you could feel the wash of emotions in the area. I will never forget any of it for as long as I live.
2 people liked this
JT

Varel

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 10 2011
Let me start off by saying that this isn't something that I go into quite often, I know it was a while before DakonKor even found out I was in NYC on 9/11. I digress though.

I was about 5 blocks away in Speech class at Pace University (My freshman year and about 2 weeks into the semester) when the first tower was stuck by a plane that morning. I remember that there was a loud crashing sound that at the time reminded me of someone knocking over a big food cart with lots of aluminum trays on it. No one in class knew what had just happened at the time so class ended as usual several minutes later. One of my friends and I left the class to return to our dorms upstairs, and as we were crossing the courtyard of the school we noticed people staring at pointing, we couldn't see the towers from where we were but we saw lots of smoke. So we ran for the elevators and headed back to our rooms.

When I got back to my room on the 11th floor of the building I had a decent of view of everything that was happening. I picked up my phone and called my mother, who was about 350 miles away at work, and told her that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. Needless to say she didn't believe me, because the call went to her before most news agencies started reporting it. I hung up with her shortly after, not knowing that I wouldn't be speaking to her for about another 10 or 11 hours.

I went to one of the common rooms on the floor to see if I could get a better view of what was happening, while I was there watching the horrific things that were happening (I'll spare the details for my own sake), the second tower was hit. 5 Blocks away and 11 stories up, we felt the heat of that explosion. I can't remember how much time went by, or how many times I tried to call my mother again and couldn't get through because the phone lines were being swamped with calls. I remember I was in back in my room when the first tower actually came down.

I can honestly say that watching the dust cloud rush towards the building was the most terrifying moment of that day for me. The dorms were evacuated, and we were all rushed to the underground gym. At that point we even had business professionals from the surrounding area taking shelter in the school with us. We were sheltered in the gym while the second tower came down, there was a lot of rumbling and the gym shook a little bit. About 30 minutes after the second tower came down our school was evacuated because apparently there was either a gas leak reported near the building or a bomb threat had been called into City Hall across the street.

I managed to find 4 of my friends and I stuck with them. One of my friends' Grandmother lived quite a ways into Brooklyn, and she said we should head there since everywhere around the school was chaos and no one knew what was going on. When we tried to cross the Brooklyn bridge on foot we were told by the officers there it was closed and we had to make our way to the Manhattan bridge. We ultimately made it across the bridge and were able to catch a subway train (they were still running outside of manhattan and were free to help get people out of the city) out to her grandmother's place. She took us in for the night, let us use her phone to call our families, we got pizza and just watched the news all night trying to process everything that happened. The next morning She walked us all to the nearest subway station and we caught a train to Penn Station.

The school was closed for about a month and was used as a triage center as well as a temporary morgue for some of the bodies that were found. When we were finally allowed to return to school you could still smell the scent from the rubble in the air, and everything inside of the dorms was covered in a layer of dust.

Well that's my story. I'm just happy that my original plans for the day fell through. Myself and a few of my friends in the dorms had planned to head up to the observation deck of one of the towers (the tops floor) that morning. Luckily they all wanted to sleep in and I felt guilty skipping class and decided to go.
2 people liked this
Brandon Felczer

CapnBranFlakes

Re: Star Trek: The Journey

September 10 2011
:ds9:


Episode 376 - Deep Space Nine - "Hard Time" - 04/15/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=3419

O'Brien is incarcerated for 20 years on an alien world on charges of espionage. However the experience was implanted into his mind, and O'Brien struggles to re-adjust to station life.


Enjoy!
David

CptDavid

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 10 2011
I was 15 in year 10 at high school. The planes hit during the early night here and i was alssep. By the time I found out it was the next morning, September the 12th, I remember my dad shaking me awake and showing me the news paper. I didn't comprehend it at the time, I just wanted to go back to sleep but as I lay there the reality dawned and I got up. I devoured the paper and watched the news until I had to go to school.

I remember the whole school stood for a minute of silence during the first perioid.

Our Prime Minister was in Washington during the attacks and due to the plane groundings he could not return to Australia for three days. Our PM at the time was from the conservative party and he felt very personally affected by the attacks being so close. I think he and GW Bush got along quite well. Australian troops were on the ground in Afghanistan three weeks later.

We have always felt splendidly isolated at the bottom of the world in my opinion, but the world changed that day. Bali was attacked, our embassay in Jakarta bombed. Our troops are still in Afghanistan and Iraq. Domestically our politics become more divided, immigration became a hot topic and racial tensions rose.

I remember a news commentator saying at the time that they (the terrorists) had awoken a sleeping bear (America) and the world would not be the same. How true that was
2 people liked this
Patrick

Van

Re: Idle chatter :D

September 10 2011
Smuggler or Trooper,,,,it's a toss up for me on which class to start with. The video was interesting as we get to see the healing abilities of the smuggler.

I'll eventually have a light saber twirler as well...heck probably one of each.
Liastnir

Liastnir

Re: Idle chatter :D

September 10 2011
The Smuggler video released today almost makes me reconsider starting off as a Jedi hehehe.

CJ
Patrick

Van

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 10 2011
woot, thanks hon it's working.

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 10 2011
The following tags can not be placed within a specific tag: center in b
Quote by Van
Thanks hon, but it looks like that code was already used or so the error msg I receive is telling me.


Okay, then give this one a try:
SCBK1-LLKJH-CBR8Q-ML7FT-VFM7A
Jay Eudy

Six-of-Nine

What do you want for KDF events - FEEDBACK NEEDED

September 10 2011
So the past two days I've tried to run the Klingon Leveling Clinic event that used to be somewhat popular, but each times nobody came and I had to cancel.

Running events that nobody comes to doesn't help anybody, so I'm asking you, the fleet, what KDF events WOULD you attend? What times are best for it? If leveling isn't your interest what is?

Please give feedback here so I can offer the events that you guys want.

Unknown Person

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 10 2011
I was awakened by my Mom early that morning. She said something like; "hey Jason the World Trade Center's being attacked." In my half conscious delirium I could not fully grasp what she was saying and thought she was probably kidding so I slurred into my pillow; "so what?" I got up a few minutes later and saw that one of the towers was indeed on fire and sat down to watch for awhile. While I was watching and listening to the newscaster all of a sudden- faster than I thought possible- another plane crashed into the second tower.

Of course all thoughts of it being simply an accident quickly dissolved. I was in my 2nd semester of college and I had class that day so I rode my bike the 4 miles to Pasadena City College. I had never seen the campus so quiet. It wasn't as if there wasn't anyone there, there was. Everyone was just really quiet and speaking in very hushed tones, I'd never seen anything like it. I went to my Film History class and we talked about it a little bit and then Professor Foster did his lecture on Akira Kurosawa. Afterwards we were supposed to watch Toshiro Mifune but I just wasn't in the mood. I think I just spent that whole day in a sort of disassociated detachment, trying to hold my emotions at arms length because I was afraid I'd break down if I let it all in. I kept playing all the details including what I was hearing from others and what was being reported and trying to put them all together to help answer those questions we were all asking ourselves; who did this? why? how? I remember thinking how much everything would change after that day. My two best friends were in the military at the time and I was really worried about them because I couldn't reach either for almost a week after that.
2 people liked this
Doug Goodwin

doogiegood

Re: Stonewall Loser starts September 1

September 10 2011
I have created an event that will have the weekly challenge and also the link to submit. At the end of the week, I will cross that challenge off.
Will Tubbert

MarkNine

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 10 2011
I had taken a couple of days off from work because I had a college friend visiting from Delaware.

Just the day before, we had stopped at EBGames and were looking through the games when he saw Deus Ex: Game of the Year edition for like $15 because it had been out a while. He highly recommended I pick up the game.

That night I installed it and he watched as I played through the first "level" of the game. A level that takes place in the remnants of a destroyed Statue of Liberty (destroyed by French terrorists).

The next morning, my mother wakes me up to tell me the Twin Towers had been attacked by terrorists and that I should probably get my friend up (he was sleeping in our guest room on the first floor of the house).

After having just experienced Deus Ex, "surreal" is the only word I can use to describe the feeling I had. Every time a new attack was announced (Pentagon, then they said a car bomb at the Senate, then the plane in PA) I just kept thinking to myself, "how much further is this going to go?!" In my mind I kept seeing the dystopia that America had become in the wake of terrorist attacks and feeling like I was somehow living those exact events.

I am fortunate to not know anyone who was physically harmed during the attacks, but my fiance, MikeyNY, witnessed the horror first hand from his dorm room at Pace University. Horrors we were sheltered behind even by live coverage on TV. But I'll leave it to him if he wants to share those experiences.
nicholasjohn16 liked this
Patrick

Van

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 10 2011
The following tags can not be placed within a specific tag: center in b
Quote by NicholasJohn16
There should be a free trial that you can play until the end of the year.

You can try using this code:
SCBK1-CM8RB-U4DUX-8LYUH-6NW3E

It should give you ten free days of game time to try everything out.


Thanks hon, but it looks like that code was already used or so the error msg I receive is telling me.

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 10 2011
The following tags can not be placed within a specific tag: center in b
Quote by Van
I was going to start the game last nite but it's still pay to play. I guess I got to excited and forget to read the "end of year" part. :)

I've never been in a game that offered life time memberships, I can see that if you love a game and intend to stay with it this would be a great benefit. I played WoW for 7 years and at one point I had 4 accounts or was it 5?? Please don't ask I tend to go overboard on things I like. So having a lifetime membership in that game would have really paid off for me.


There should be a free trial that you can play until the end of the year.

You can try using this code:
SCBK1-CM8RB-U4DUX-8LYUH-6NW3E

It should give you ten free days of game time to try everything out.
Patrick

Van

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 09 2011
I was going to start the game last nite but it's still pay to play. I guess I got to excited and forget to read the "end of year" part. :)

I've never been in a game that offered life time memberships, I can see that if you love a game and intend to stay with it this would be a great benefit. I played WoW for 7 years and at one point I had 4 accounts or was it 5?? Please don't ask I tend to go overboard on things I like. So having a lifetime membership in that game would have really paid off for me.
Volkrov (Eurrsk) Ruk

Eurrsk

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 09 2011
I was 8 years old when it happened during 3rd grade in elementary school. I didn't know what had happpened until I came home after school, and my parents explained it all to me. I didn't fully understand why it happened, because I was too young fully comprehend what had occured. I was so afraid, all I could do was watch the news and cry. I didn't sleep that night.

I learned a new word that day... "Terrorism".
2 people liked this
Sam

Gravitos

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 09 2011
I was asleep when my partner came in to tell me one of the World Trade Towers was on fire. I told him to leave me alone and go to work. He made it a point to shake me until I woke up and looked at the tv. I was shocked awake to say the least and then my pager and cell phone started to go off. Showered and back out the door to the TV station where I work.

On my way in the interstate was so empty for being rush hour it was scary and I actually listened to AM radio news for one of the few times in my life. That's when I heard another plane had struck the other tower and all air traffic had been grounded in the U.S.

As I walked in the door everyone was starting at all the TVs we have tuned to multiple news stations and then the first tower fell. The silence in a room usually filled with so much noise thinking what everyone else was thinking was heartbreaking.

Seeing all the video that came in that day and in the days after was really rough. We have hundreds of tapes filled with stories and footage that i'm not even sure has ever been aired.
2 people liked this

Unknown Person

Re: BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

September 09 2011
Quote by NicholasJohn16
From what I've learned, Lifetime accounts can be a great thing for a MMO. Many times, lifetime players provide a stable player base that can be counted on for a long time into the future and help develop the social aspect of MMO games. Take for instance, this fleet. It's been lead largely by players who are Lifetime members. We dedicate our time and our money to STO because we care and we've helped build a social community because of that. The number of month subs that we've helped Cryptic gain thanks to the niche community we have here has greatly outweighed any additional cost that the lifers in this fleet have incurred. Not too mention the Cryptic Points we've purchased over the last year and a half.

Just to make the point ...Having a life time wouldn't guarantee any kind of "Stable player base". A life timer is just as likely to quit the game as somebody paying the monthly sub the only difference it makes is that Cryptic will forever include that life timer in their player numbers even if that person stopped playing a long time ago.

My brother for an example. He purchased a life time account a few weeks after launch and played the weekend following .. he has never played again. The only thing a life time account means is that the user had the money to put down at the start.
Dan

Dan1288

Re: Where were you when the towers fell?

September 09 2011
i dont remeber much because i was so young at the time but i remeber that i was in middle school in 7th grade in english class and i remeber it being annouced and our teachers turning it onto the channel and just everyone stareing at the tv and then class being ended early.
2 people liked this
Nic

nniicc

Re: SW:TOR BETA Watch

September 09 2011
Quote by Aldente

I'm imagining gladiator outfits and live streaming... ;)


Aha! That's how you got into beta!