[AUTHOR'S NOTE] Hello, everyone! I'm back from a really really long writing hiatus, and this time, I wanted to try something different from the adventure and SI fanfiction that I've been absorbing while on break. If you're familiar with the Day by Day Armageddon series of zombie novels by J.L. Bourne, the premise is rather similar. This is the journal of a clueless college student thrown into the fight against the Reapers with Commander Shepard leading the charge. I will try to stick to the canon as much as possible with this story, though the protagonist will obviously make some effort to deviate from normality. Anyway, if you're looking for action, this is just the first bit and I'll be introducing our protagonist to the universe of Mass Effect reeaally soon.

By the way, as an obligatory disclaimer, all characters except the protagonist are not mine. The Mass Effect franchise and its characters all belong to Bioware/EA. Any other games or properties mentioned belong to their copyright holders.

Finally, I'm rather unused to this writing style, so any comments, reviews, or ratings shall be very much appreciated. Now, without further ado, I present to you…

DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON

[TRANSCRIBED AUDIO LOG – December 24, 2012 :: 10:30PM]

Hehehe.

One hour and thirty minutes until our traditional midnight Christmas dinner, and here I am, sitting like an idiot and talking to myself. I don't care, though, to be honest. My parents surprised me pretty badly with the Macbook Pro I'm using to record this right now, and to be honest, I can't believe they got me something this big for Christmas, because I was honestly expecting something small. It's better than an iPad at any rate. Thanks, mom and dad.

Anyway, I'm finally done transferring all my files from my faithful, trusty, and old-as-nails polycarbonate Macbook. I can't believe I made this old clunker last until 2012, but its slowness and smudginess is betraying its age. First thing I did was to get Dictation running. I promised to keep a journal of sorts last year, but I'm lazy and I like procrastinating, so I kind of failed that. That's probably going to be my New Years' resolution for 2013: Keep a log. I think this really is a rather good start for my journal, but I'm known for my lack of follow-through. I'll probably work on that as well in 2013.

At any rate, I'm off. The food beckons to my empty stomach.

[December 26, 2012 :: 8:46PM]

I spent Christmas day with my relatives, and Christmas night with my computer. I created a Boot Camp partition to allow me to game (I know I'll get flack for that but hey, it's the best of both worlds), and I migrated my Windows install to the laptop. Finally. I'm planning to go and finish Assassin's Creed 3 before the Christmas break ends. Connor and Haytham, here I come! :D

Another thing, I just got in touch with my classmates from high school and we're going to have a paintball match on the 30th. I better get my paintball marker checked out. We lost last time and I want to win the crown back from Team Alpha. I'll also be informing my bros to get ready. Team Beta FTW.

Before I actually got on with post-Christmas gaming, I took the time to open and/or count all my presents. Most of my relatives chose to send me money instead of goods, but I think my Uncle Chris, who sent me an N7 mug, deserves a special mention here. This must've been costly since this is the real deal from Bioware. Wow. I'm thankful I got a good haul of presents this Christmas, and I'm thankful for having a gamer uncle. Merry Christmas, Uncle Chris, and I hope you enjoy that copy of Journey I sent your way.

[WRITTEN LOG - 11:28PM]

By the way, I just got the Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3. I'll probably end up playing it after AC3. Going to sleep now.

[TRANSCRIBED AUDIO LOG - December 29, 2012 :: 10:23AM]

A friend of mine linked me to this awesome video from the guys who made Mass Effect 3 vs. Marriage, and of course, it was hilarious as hell. That's what you get for marrying a woman who likes Fifty Shades of Grey. I think that vid made my morning. I'm finishing up my AC3 run, but I have to admit, I'm getting bored. I'll probably open up my ME3 install and check out the Omega DLC earlier than planned. I've been hearing some rather unsavory stuff from my friends about how they ended Desmond's story and I fear that this will probably end up with my separation from the AC series at the very worst. I trust that the team behind the wheel would do this right, but you really can't help but worry after what happened with Ezio in Embers (Seriously, Ubi? That wasn't the all-out heroic final breath I was expecting). Also, I need to brush up on shooting stuff for the paintball match tomorrow.

Since the New Year is approaching, I'll start grabbing everything I need to stay entertained into my computer. I want to spend the New Year offline. I'll probably keep gaming when I get really bored but the Internet will be off-limits. It's family time.

[2:36PM]

I just learned that we'll be doing this match in that new paintball place in the province. I've been hearing some good stuff about it. Supposedly, a subdivision developer started clearing out a patch of the forest before the government found out that they managed to bribe the head of the local planning council and that the area was protected. The developers didn't manage to wipe out a large enough swath of the area before the government shut their little operation down but the area that they damaged couldn't really be restored to its original state. So what they did to utilize the land was to create a trail, some areas for picnics and parties, docks for canoeing, and of course, a lightly-wooded paintball field. Our plan is to have the match first, eat up, and then explore the area before going home.

I also finished Omega, and it was pretty good. My only qualm about it is that Aria and company feel… off somehow. Aria herself is just a little too mean in this DLC for my tastes. But it doesn't really matter. I think it's just leaning pretty heavily on my experience and my own personal biases. Anyway, I'm off. I have to rest my mind and my body for the big game tomorrow.

Team Alpha will have hell to pay.

[A/N] So how was it? I promise, the next chapter will be much longer and more action-packed since this is where he falls down into the proverbial rabbit hole. Don't forget to leave a review if you're interested! :D