June 18th - 13:00 Hours

Patrick Jane pushed slowly back from his desk, still piled with papers from the project he was working on. A satisfied sigh escaped his lips as he lifted from the chair, making his way across to the minibar to mix himself a drink. Everything he had compiled was already 'public knowledge', although only to members of 'this thing of ours', and as far as he knew, had never been compiled into one list.

It had taken some time to gather up all the info, but it was ready, and he set off to make sure those that needed to could access it. After getting many copies sent out to every city, he headed down to a local popular speakeasy to get some feedback, tacking the sheet to the wall and stepping to the side as onlookers perused the information.

Family Leaders Activity Trends

 

Insanely High Recent Activity

10 Crew Leaders

3 Right Hand Men

3 Left Hand Men

 

Obscenely High Recent Activity

2 Crew Leaders

2 Right Hand Men

2 Left Hand Men

 

Extremely High Recent Activity

2 Crew Leaders

2 Right Hand Men

2 Left Hand Men

 

High Recent Activity

8 Crew Leaders

8 Right Hand Men

1 Left Hand Man

 

Average Recent Activity

13 Crew Leaders

4 Right Hand Men

4 Left Hand Men

 

Low Recent Activity

2 Crew Leaders

9 Right Hand Men

9 Left Hand Men

 

Extremely Low Activity

3 Crew Leaders

9 Right Hand Men

12 Left Hand Men

 

Obscenely Low Activity

5 Crew Leaders

5 Right Hand Men

5 Left Hand Men

 

Insanely Low Activity

1 Right Hand Man

1 Left Hand Man

 

---

 

127 Upper Structure

a staggering 64.5% of which are Average or below activity.

 

45 Crew Leaders

51% of which are Average or below activity.

Patrick stepped back to watch and study the reactions before adding his own thought and opinions...

Ox slowly scanned the sheet The-Mentalist had tacked to the wall. He wasn't sure what was worse: the low leader activity or the fact that it wasn't very surprising.

Instead of forming a reply, Ox sighed and made his way back into the streets in hopes of finding something more intriguing.
 

As he took a sip of whiskey from his flask, Blu_Blank looked at his watch. Knowing he had already put 40 hours of work in this week, he was surprised to find out that he only qualified as "High" for his activity level. When the effort put in is equivalent to a full time job, and he barely amounted to an above average rating, he spoke up.

I wonder if the amount of time and effort put in is truly reflected in the activity level of the upper structure. Maybe this is something that Management needs to look at. I also wonder if the activity level reflects time spent in the world, or the work done. Does being around, but not doing jobs, not count? How exactly is activity level determined? I wonder if anyone could actually break it down for the citizens of this fair world.

Taking a step back, he drew a cigarette from his pack, and lit it with a small puff of smoke.

Kittyhawk read the 'cold hard facts' nice and hard. Quite a few times,actually.

Of course! Blame the upper structure! Why has no one thought of this before?

I wonder what would happen if none upper structure members were rated in the same way as the uppers are. I have a feeling that most people would find out they are well below average activity levels.

Dante was taking a rare leisurely stroll, away from the distractions that so often occupied his day. He decided to stop and take a look at a local noticeboard, which he noticed was surrounded by some familiar faces. The list in front of him - or rather, the subject of the list in front of him - was an often repeated one in the Streets. But what intrigued him was that the flyer had stopped with the facts. Just the numbers and little else. 

I believe it may be rather premature to start discussing the issue without the perspective of the person who has put up this flyer. But as far as first impressions go, I believe I will side with Blu. I notice that I would be ranked Insanely High. But with this being an indicator of the gross amount of time spent in a place of work, rather than a more in-depth analysis of actual work, I think this cannot be a total indicator. A serious thing to take into consideration, but not damning evidence.

I slipped into this speakeasy as it was called I think, for the first time. I thought I would come check it out, and see what all the excitement was about. Then I see a noticed tacked to a post, entitled cold hard facts. Looking it over, I realized I wouldn't be included as I was not upper anything. I did wonder if there was anyone I knew included, but I guess I will never know that. I am a lil bit surprised at the lack of the levels of activity.

I look around and see where the drinks are served, and make my way to the bar, for a good quality rum. Looking around, everyone seems to be having a good time. I see some of my crew here, and decide not to bother them, and they can come to me if they want. I want to look around some more. This place is interesting to me. I grab my rum, and take a sip, thanking the barkeep, and start walking around to see what I can find.

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

Those figures are bullshit, for several reasons.

Firstly, it, as has already been said, takes no account of how much work a person is putting in while they are active in our world. They could basically be sat there with their fingers up their arses for twelve hours per day, and they'd still be counted as insanely active. 

Secondly, like it or not, the coffee shops are a big part of our world. Obviously, these figures do not take any kind of activity on there into account. 

Thirdly, although The-Mentalist has failed to provide us with any kind of opinions or argument to put this data into context of any particular stance he may hold, I'm going to assume that he's trying to call out uppers based on these stats for being inactive. But have you, sir, thought about factoring in other parts of our world before you condemn? If these uppers are running active crews, for instance, that's a much better indicator of the work they put in, in my eyes. As is the amount of time spent on the Streets - although I will admit that I am the type of person who doesn't like to see uppers too lazy to come out here and talk, because I feel it is a duty of theirs to set an example. Are you able to contact your crews uppers in the coffee shops for most of the day? Well, that's probably a sign that they're putting the time in too.

My line disliked the addition of these indicators when they first appeared, because they are a poor calculator of effort and take, in my opinion, one of the least significant factors in order to tell whether or not somebody is putting work in, as it simply requires being here, and values it over all thoughts of what actually makes a hard work. This is misleading to new comers in our world, in my opinion.

Although I have to say, for anyone who does not have a line that is literally fresh off the boat, if you set too much store by these figures, you are incredibly short sighted, in my opinion.

Tyrion tries to speak but the words forming in his mind are suddenly caught in his throat, after a moment to compose himself he pushes the words out

I agree entirely with Maria.

After recovering from his shock, Tyrion steadies himself once more to give a little more insight into his reasoning

Like Maria and others have said, the actual work done by someone isn't taken into account here. The time used in the above math is simply the time you spend committing criminal activity and such like. That old whore AlabamaWorley was commonly seen as between Average to High and yet she was around virtually 16hrs per day either talking with family, working with family or generally just making herself available, she wasn't always out there robbing 7/11's or Organising any crimes so her work rate wasn't very accurate of her presence, so I dare say that even without the names attached to the accused above, that it is indeed likely to be a poor reflection of the actual work each person has put into their time here.

Also as Maria has touched on, I would much more value the likes of leaders that here less, but are putting in a lot of effort in the time they are here, such as using that time to interact and build relations with their family and also bringing their ass out to the streets to give their thoughts on the matters that may be discussed there.

Not to toot his horn as he does it far too often and easily for himself, but lronSight is a prime example of the type of leader I enjoy seeing. Someone thats willing to graft and give their thoughts regardless of how someone may view those thoughts. If we had far more leaders like him I dare say this world would be a better place.

Tyrion gives himself a little shake in an attempt to discard the dirty feeling after his ending comments

Tyrion... What the fuck little man? Did I just hear all that correctly?

Maria faints into a heap on the ground in shock. 

Sadly Jono my good man, you did indeed hear that.

I have given myself a really good rinse, I still feel dirty though.

lronSight taps Tyrion on the head with a wrench,

"Thou shall not use my name without permission! And I speak of my glory so much because it deserves that amount of attention and no one else is qualified, obviously! Who am I supposed to have do it for me? A scouse? A mostly inactive man? A midget? A crossdresser? Some woman who once wanted to be a scouse? None of you qualify!"

lronSight turns to The-Mentalist,

"This has very little to do with measuring the success of a leader. However, it could be used as a reason to directly insult Jono and Ajani and that's something I can get behind. If you specifically speak of their ineptitude I will force myself to get behind this idea... otherwise, as others have previously stated the cold hard fact is you're harping over a pointless statistic. For those of you who put faith in this (if there is anyone else) being any kind of a sign, will my Organized Crime success rate or total number of Pick Pockets be how I'm judged next?"

lronSight begins to walk away then remembers he forgot to mention something,

"Down with Mako! He's a tyrant! Sorry, it needs to be said more frequently."

Maria clears her throat and cracks open one eye to glare at lronsight.

I will remind you, lronsight, that my bloodline ended the age of wrenches being controlled by your bloodline. We have the mail saved in the family archives to prove it! I think this alone makes me qualified!

"I did not save the mail but I also remember a mail informing you that you had crossed a line and that I was taking the wrenches back! I have many unique rules so I honestly don't even remember which one you broke, but I'm certain you did!"

If you didn't save the mail, it doesn't count and I win!

Maria picks lronsight up into a hug, twirls him around in circles and runs off with the wrenches.

lronSight pulls out one of his newly colored wrenches and with one mighty throws snipes the woman before she can get out of his range.

        (U)                       

          \\                                                 

            \\                                                 

             (O)                                         

"No one takes all the wrenches! It's impossible! And the notion of saving mails that aren't scouse-bashing related is nonsensical at best. I need all the space I can get for those gems of mails."

Runs out into the middle of the crowd and smacks lronSight as hard as he can on the back of the neck.

"I might be a tyrant, but you're a redneck!"

Mako then looks around at the crowd with his GrrrFace. After taking a look at the list, he gives off a small laugh, followed by and hardened smile.

"On a serious note, those numbers are so watered, it's just there for looks. Some people are lazy, sure, but does that thingy determine who is lazy and who isn't? Not too all or any point, at least in my eyes. It's based off how often your face is seen around these parts, but it doesn't show what happens behind the scenes. For instance, I don't want you to see the Illuminati.... We're only seen whenever the fuck we wanna be seen. That comes on our time, not this activity momentumizer thingy. But yeah, it's a hax. If you're looking to judge how hard people work off that thing, then you need to take a step back and reevaluate what that thing exactly stand for. Not hard work,but  time put into being seen around in the open."

lronSight begins rubbing his neck,

"How dare you!"

lronSight grabs the next wrench in his arsenal and hits Cory square in the orbital bone.

"I might not have any snappy insults to relate to my violence, but you might need surgery to prevent a loss of functionality in that eye so I think I win this one."