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[Wrex]

DO NOT SHOPLIFT. We can buy a snazzy hat for cheap.


I recomend putting 100k in a CD, and renting out the extra house for some time.

[10ebbor10]

As for our underground base, there are quite a few compagnies that construct and sell nuclear shelters. It's not going to be cheap, but it might be an option for the future.

Also people, the internet is the future for crime.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Renting out the house makes sense.

[Toady One]

Not sure if this thread has cooled off, but a thread where the OP is telling people to "fuck off" is not a thread in health.  Please try to keep things relaxed.

[Thecard]

I think it's cooled down.  Let's do that golf cart thing.  And maybe find an adviser who knows psychology?

[LordBucket]

Everyone seems to agree about renting out the Dayton house. And I see two votes to invest in CDs. And one uncontested vote to major in engineering. (Incidentally, which CD? Options 1 and 2 were both CDs. Did you want the 10% APY one year, or 15% APY 3 year?)

Before we proceed, however:

Do not consider our decision final until we make a major repost about it.

...so, do we have a consensus?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Not sure if this thread has cooled off, but a thread where the OP is telling people to "fuck off" is not a thread in health.  Please try to keep things relaxed.

If we've attracted Toady's attention, there's something we've probably been doing wrong...

Anyways, I'm fine with some sort of CD, probably the 3-year one.

[Wrex]

I would prefer for the 10% one year to occur, And I feel that if we invest, say, 150,000, it wouldn't go amiss.

We do have a mechanic friend, correct?

[LordBucket]

We do have a mechanic friend, correct?

What sort of mechanic do you mean? Gilbert is an EECS major, has built custom integrated circuits and has probably lathed some of his own parts, but he's never replaced the engine in a car, for example.

[Wrex]

Oh, that's good then. We could get a major in mechanics (of the replacing an engine of  car variety), because it would be quite useful.


LordBucket, is there anything you think we still need to cover?

[Thecard]

We do have a mechanic friend, correct?

What sort of mechanic do you mean? Gilbert is an EECS major, has built custom integrated circuits and has probably lathed some of his own parts, but he's never replaced the engine in a car, for example.

Well, he's put the motor in his robot, right?  That's all we need for the golf cart plan.

[Nny]

So are we not getting a hat then? I bet those dropouts would have liked us more if we were wearing a hat.

[LordBucket]

is there anything you think we still need to cover?

Looks like we lack consensus on major, but we have enough to proceed.

rent out the house (it's not like we're using it) and go for the certificates of deposit.

putting 100k in a CD, and renting out the extra house for some time.
the 10% one year to occur, And I feel that if we invest, say, 150,000, it wouldn't go amiss.

You list the property for rent on craigslist and sign up for a full service online brokerage account. It takes two days for approval and processing, but once it's set up you find that is remarkably easy to buy into CDs as well as stocks, commodities or anything else you want to invest in in the future. The fees are $10 flat rate per $100,000 per transaction. So, buy $100 worth of a stock/fund/etc., pay $10. Buy a $50,000 worth of stock/fund/etc, pay $10. You, however, have decided to invest $150,000 into a 10% APY CDs, and therefore pay (-$20). The money will be unavailable for a year, and if all goes as planned it will be worth $165,000 when it matures.

On the second day you're contacted by a prospective rental tenant who agrees to pay $350/month to to rent the Dayton, Ohio property as well as a $350 refundable security deposit (+$700). Shortly afterwards you're also contacted by a property manager who offers to handle all payment and collection, locating replacement tenants if this one should leave, procuring local repairmen, etc. for 10% of rent, or $100/month, whichever is more. $100 is a large percentage of your $350, but it occurs to you that managing a property yourself from halfway across the country might present difficulties. Even just mailing the keys to your tenant cost (-$10) for cross state shipping, and there may be other issues that come up later that will be difficult to deal with from out of state. You'll have to decide whether to hire him or not.

While you're looking at the email debating what to do you get a call from Gilbert:


Gilbert now has an avatar

Gilbert: "Hey, Bob! You busy? I'm going to a lan party tonight. You wanna come?"

You've never been interested in the things Gilbert does, and you're a bit surprised that he'd call to invite you. Maybe he's mistaken your recent attending of his robotics club meeting as interest in..well, any of the stuff he does. You have a witty retort on the tip of your tongue when it occurs to you that maybe this would be a good opportunity to meet more people who might be of use to you.

You "...yeah, sure. I'll come along."

Gilbert: "Awesome! We're going to have so much fun!"


Most of the party is spent playing Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and some first person shooters you don't recognize. Since it's all online anyway, you're not entirely certain what the point is of meeting in person like this but you do grudgingly admit that it is a lot of fun. And by buying  a few pizzas (-$65) you end up being the VIP, even if you're not very good at most of the games being played.

After about an hour, you notice one of the players, a girl with purple hair, pull a cellphone from a pocket, look at it, then stand up and walk over to the corner. Gilbert notices you watching her.

Gilbert: "That's Clara."


Introducing Clara

You: "Seems pretty occupied with her cellphone."

Gilbert: "Yeah, she used to be a hard core phreaker. Did some awesome stuff before the system went digital and phreaking went away."

You: "I have no idea what you just said. Freaking? As in...sexy dancing?"

Gilbert: "No, phreaking with a "ph". Telephone hacking. It used to be an entire scene, but the phone companies replaced the old analog systems about 8 years ago so you can't do most of the fun stuff you used to be able to."

You: "Eight years? How old was she when she started?"

Gilbert: "...I don't know. She's a junior now, so probably 10 or 12. It's not that uncommon. I built my first laser when I was 12."

You: "You build lasers?"

Gilbert: "A few. Nothing huge, just little 200 milliwatt things. Good for popping balloons."

You: "Would you be able to build a big laser? Something that could destroy cars and buildings and things?"

(he laughs)

Gilbert: "Heh. Everybody asks that. Yeah, sure it's possible, but it's just not practical. It takes so much power input to do anything and you need bigger crystals to handle bigger output. Give me a half a million dollars and a five pound ruby or a big enough diode, and sure I could build a laser that could burn through a steel plate if you left it sitting for an hour. "

You: "That's not quite what I had in mind."

Gilbert: "Yeah. They're just toys. If you wanted to burn a hole in a car it would be cheaper and easier to use something like thermite anyway. But since you like lasers..."

(He calls to the guy at the computer across from you.)

Gilbert: "Hey, Stan! You have your arctic spyders on you?"


Introducing Stan

(Stan looks up and opens his jacket, then pulls out what looks...seriously...like a pair of light sabers.)



Stan: "Yeah, what's up?"

Gilbert: "Can you show Bob here the popcorn trick?"

Stan: "Yeah sure."

(The three of you go to the kitchen and put a popcorn kernal on a small plate. Stan turns on his "lightsabers" which turns out to be 1.25 watt lasers. This is what happens:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii9A0ZJ5BbU#t=1m40s

Gilbert: "Is that awesome, or what!"

(While Gilbert and Stan celebrate and start grabbing other kitchen odds and ends to burn holes in, Clara comes over looking a bit annoyed.)

Clara: "Hey, guys. Gotta run. Scanner picked up my phone."

Stan: "Yeah, no worries. Don't get caught."

(Clara hugs both Gilbert and Stan then looks at you and apologizes that she didn't get the chance to meet you, then leaves in a hurry.)

You: "What was that about?"

(They look at each other and shrug)

Gilbert: "Clara clones cellphones. She disables the GPS to make it harder to find her, but every now and then they send scanners out looking for duplicate phones. So she built a reverse scanner to pick up the pings to give her advance warning. Right now there are probably three vans driving around in circles trying to triangulate her position so they can call in the SWAT team. So now she gets to go smash up her new phone before they catch her."

Stan: "What is this, phone number 10 she's destroyed?"

Gilbert: "I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I stopped counting after the time she hid under the pool cover for half an hour just because a helicopter flew past the house."

You: "You know some very interesting people, Gilbert. We should hang out more often."

Stan: "Heh, guess I'll take that as a compliment."


The rest of the evening proceeds uneventfully


January 8, 2012

Current Status

What do you do?

[Wrex]

Yes, it is a large percentage, but we might as well because we have more pressing matters, such as gaining friends and other useful things, so agreeing to it would be useful. Is it possible for him to manage multiple propeties, should he/she take a cut of each?


Actually, this is very useful. Gilbert is an electrical engineer, Clara could be a communications specialist. Stan, we should find out what he can do. Lasers are obviously inefficent for weaponry, but... does anyone know the energy requirements of a crude coilgun? Use it to launch a shaped thermite warhead, and you could theoretically puncture the armour of a MBT if you had enough muzzle velocity. Could be useful to keep in mind.

Hereby suggesting Mechanical engineering (Or whatever it's actually called) as our major.

Continue to win friends and influence people. Behind every great supervillian, is a great army of mad scientists.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I agree, and probably would have posted something similar if Wrex hadn't beaten me to it.

Long-term, I suggest getting a basic supervillain plan created and started, then skipping ahead a few years or to the first major difficulties. Any ideas for evil plans?