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[Danzilla76]

Well, it doesn't look like Alaska helped us out any today.
Stupid cold state!!!

[inio]

raining_cops 15:43 (Santa Cruz, CA)

Phone: Same as before. Right-hand phone in a bank of two, just to the right of Boardwalk Entrance #2 when looking from the street.

Question: What is my real name?

Answer: Melissa. (correctly recognized)

Clip:

[Troublecat]

code_word // 12:53 PDT // 34.10165 -118.341
(Hollywood, CA)

Axon's been activated before so I knew where to go. Rang on cue. Location's noisy and it was hard to hear but here's the gist:

[vlamidala]

Awesome job on pony_tail, creamsicle, and creepy, all you West Coasters. Sets the bar pretty freakin' high for the second pass tomorrow.

[vpisteve]

Well, a bust for me in Las Vegas.

There were absolutely no public payphones at the intersection of the Strip and Flamingo. There was a bank of phones well inside the Bellagio, which didn't seem to take incoming calls, and nothing at Caesar's, so I went across to the 'old' side of the street.

Nada in front of or immediately in Balley's, so I went to Barbary Coast Casino, and found a bank of phones inside near the elevators. I called, and the phones rang, but when I picked up, it didn't connect. :/

Nevertheless, I waited around, and one phone rang a little early. Picked up, but nothing. Waited around a little longer, past two of the appointed times, then had to leave.

As I left, I discovered another bank of payphones next to the checkin desk, but didn't have time to stick around.

So, no axons for me. But I did get to see Big Elvis, so it wasn't a total waste.

[gutupio]

My days over now, so this is how it went.

1st axon Garland good_at_my_job

I didnt know the area, so I got there about about 20 minutes early. It's a shopping center with a movie center, fast food place, and some other things. I only see one phone booth, by the resteraunt, so i grab a bite and wait. I decide to test the phone for incoming calls, and it doesnt work, so I realize there must be another phone. I head back to the theater and see a guy standing at a phone I missed. He looks at me and I nod at him. He gets off the phone and I head home. The axon is hot.

2nd Axon Mesquite standard_procedure

This is in my part of town, so I show up only 10 minutes early. This was an old axon so I knew where it was. I grab a drink from the gas station it's at and am sitting in my car, a guy walks out of the 7-11, and starts standing by my phone. He sees me, asks if i'm here for the bees, I say ya, he turns out to be Depart_From_Evil we talk and the phone rings, Axon goes hot.

3rd Axon Mesquite i_hate_you

This axon had a slightly different coord with the last one, but it was amzingly close. I don't know if the phone will be the same one or one across the street, so I bring my bro along. He stays at the old axon and i stand across the street. I'm looking over, thinking it's past due and we missed a phone because someone was on it, when i see my brother pick up the phone across the street. I head over there and get there just in time to hear my brother say repeat. Axon hot.

4th Axon Shepton/Plano right

This axon was set to go off 30 minutes after the last one i did, and it was 25 minutes away, so I get on the highway and haul, since i wanna scout out. Well because of traffic problems/ bad directions from mapquest, i didnt make it in time. No one else did either. Axon Cold

[DM]

Just so my post is more recent, I've got a file here with the current hot axons, states, nearest towns, and more.

Thanks to the people who helped me make this. If there are future axons, we'll use this format over and over.

[OmenQ]

We tried for the Plano area one, but the only phone we could find that did accept incoming calls has no ringer. The guy manning the phone tried picking it up randomly, and one time he heard silence, then a couple of clicks and dial tone. We discovered over the next few minutes that this phone does that a lot if you hang up and pick up too quickly.

So, I will be in the area tomorrow, I'll likely be earlier, 6:30 ish, so we can scout for more phones in the area. Not a lot of choices for payphone locations though.

[MrBabyMan]

1759 Burbank, Ca axon

[DM]

Just did a minor update on the axon file.

[Kobun]

Well, count me in for tomorrow's Vegas axons. Didn't find out about them until 20 minutes before the last one. Tried anyway... nothing. Oh well, tomorrow maybe...

[Ranger D]

SF Axon Update

[zeptomole]

Axon Report

Group : asset
Coordinates : 0.393508, -088.891414
City/Township, State : Biloxi, Mississippi
Time : 13:59 PDT (4:59 PM, local time)
Status : Cold

I was unprepared. I barely knew where the axon was and I had no idea how to get there. I didn't know the distance to the axon nor could I estimate the time it would take to drive there. I had no knowledge of Biloxi - I was vaguely aware that it was near the ocean, true, and that it had some military presence of some sort (Army? Navy? Fat, drunken security guards claiming to be Vietnam-vet Special Forces, at least?) but one could hardly base a decision on it. I am very short of money and shouldn't be consuming gallon after gallon of gasoline the same way I pound bottles of High Life. I shouldn't have gone to Biloxi.

I did go to Biloxi, and I will again tomorrow. This is why I'm a moron.

I had planned to leave work at around 2:45 PM. Judging from an old Rand-McNally road atlas that has been part of my glovebox garbage for the past three cars, Biloxi was an hour away. However, getting there required traveling on I-10 through New Orleans East and Slidell. Trying to drive on I-10 through these areas is like trying to get to the front of the stage at a Britney Spears concert - all you can do is force your way through blindly, stampeding over the weak if necessary. So it might add another hour to the drive-time.

I had planned to leave work at around 2:45. This did not happen. You see, I wait tables. (This is a respected profession in New Orleans. Yes, I'm serious. No, I'm not kidding. I... hey! Stop laughing at me!) An old woman and her daughter came in at just past 2 PM; they sat in my section. They were celebrating the old woman's 91st birthday. This meant that not only would I get stiffed on my tip, but the old bat would slowly mince her way through a single salad, taking 12 molecules of lettuce at a time on her fork and chewing it 100 times, exactly, just to be safe. And the longer a customer eats, the longer I have to stay at work. I had all of my work done, save for serving that last table, at 2:15. I didn't leave until 3:30.

I went up Canal Boulevard to get on the Interstate system. Traffic on Canal was severely backed-up. Once I finally got to the on-ramp, I saw cops directing traffic down the on-ramp the wrong way. Apparently, a trailer had tried to make a 90-degree turn on a perfectly straight highway, and the resulting carnage left all lanes blocked. I then cursed my way through 20 side-streets and 40 red lights, trying to find purchase onto the highway. Paris Road, no. St. Bernard, no. Elysian Fields, yes!

I hit Slidell at 4:25. Traffic can be hell in Slidell; today, the roads were as pleasant as a hug from Dolly Parton. I ratcheted the cruise control up to 90 miles per hour and prayed that the Hot Doughnut signs at all local Krispy Kremes were on, thus ensuring no police presence anywhere but in front of the Krispy Kreme conveyor belt.

I vaguely remembered the TerraServer overhead picture of where the axon was located. I knew that it was just east of where Highway 90 and I-110 meet, right in the heart of the Gulf-Coast casino strip. I sped madly towards that location, changing lanes at will, slamming on brakes when appropriate, leaving a pack of angry motorists in my wake. It should have taken me an hour to get there from Slidell; I made it to Axon Ground Zero in 40 minutes.

5 minutes too late. I arrived at 5:05 (roughly); the time for the call was 4:59.

I checked out the area as well as I could, with no tools save for a dried-up pen and a sub-100 IQ. I have no handheld GPS gadget; I spit on cell-phone owners. There wasn't much I could do. But, I did locate all pay phones in the area. They all appeared to take incoming phone calls, but I had no way to verify this.

Now, if you know anything about the Gulf Coast, know this. Some years back - about seven or eight, I think - the government realized that casinos were a damn good way to suck up millions in tax dollars from the stupid and addicted. Ever since, the entire oceanfront has been under construction, with slot-machine palaces going up, assorted tony hotels built to support the casinos, and the occasional tacky gift shop selling bottles of water for five dollars, just to depress penniless gamblers further. So the TerraServer map looked nothing like the current lay of the land.

There is now a hotel (both pay-phoneless and, oddly, front-deskless) where the axon indicates. Right next to it is the Beau Rivage Casino. It is a den of vice and iniquity, soiling all who dare enter its soulless halls. It also has five soulless pay-phones, all accepting calls from human and demon alike. Across the street from the hotel is a Shell station with a pay-phone, and behind it, the proud standard-bearer of all that is right and holy in the South - a Waffle House. The Waffle House also had a pay-phone. The pay-phone receiver smelt of hash browns. Lo, a bless'd pay phone.

Further on down the street is a medical center associated with nearby Keesler Air Force Base - it too had a pay-phone, but it was On Military Property, so I didn't check it out. The receptionist there looked like she could kill me with only her thumbs. I didn't want to mess with that. The Exxon in front of the medical center also had a pay-phone. There was one more down the street, at McElroy's House of Seafood and Heart Congestion.

I did pick up each receiver and listen for a dial-tone. Every pay-phone was in working order (oddly enough). I did write down the phone number for each pay-phone. I think I left that list in my pants pocket. My pants are now in the wash. Well, so much for that idea.

Afterward I picked up a small, oily sack of spicy pork cracklins at a dilapidated gas station, and then took a long walk down the beach. The view of the setting sun from the beach was excellent. So were the cracklins. The sunset made my heart stop with joy. The cracklins made my heart stop with cholesterol.

I will make one more valiant attempt to catch Melissa in a prank call. I will go to Biloxi on Wednesday and enjoy a cup of coffee at the Waffle House behind the Shell station. (The Shell station is located at 856 Beach Boulevard.) If possible, I will play 'The Waffle Doo-Wop' on the Waffle House jukebox. Then I will wait at the phone at the Shell station. Hopefully I will be able to hear the ring at the pay-phone in front of the Waffle House,
allowing me to handle two phones at once. If anyone can meet me at the Waffle House, we can stake out multiple phones, and then toast our success or drown our failures at Mahoney's Irish Pub nearby. (If New Orleans has taught me anything, it's that alcohol is appropriate for every occasion.)

If the Biloxi axon doesn't go hot by tomorrow, I'm giving up, as the asset group has already been activated and it's no longer worth the time or the money to visit.

[Son of a Beep]

Hit up the 11:51 "frustrated" Axon in Wauwatosa. Few other beekeepers, didn't know em though.

Here's what I remember of the message

[catherwood]

Palo Alto Hive-Ku set