Point Range: 31-36
Water: 2 Veg/Fruit: 4 Milk: 0
Points: 31.1 Adj: 0 Act: 4 Rem: 8.9
Bank: 10.0 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 10 Point: 5 Act: 4
Bank Method: Rolling 7 days
Vitamins: Yes

Breakfast: 8.0 points
8.0: BK Croissan'wich w/ Egg & Cheese

Lunch: 6.4 points
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
3.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked
0.0: Mixed grilled veggies
0.2: Soy sauce made from soy & wheat (shoyu)
0.0: Soda; Low calorie; other than cola or pepper; w/aspartame

Dinner: 8.1 points
8.1: Cheese Pizza
0.0: Soda; Low calorie; other than cola or pepper; w/aspartame


Snack: 8.6 points
6.6: ice cream ; fudge ripple - 1 cup
1.0: Dove dark chocolate promise
1.0: Dove dark chocolate promise

Tricky, adapting to my new sleep schedule. I fell into the "up at 8 / 9" syndrome... 6am thunderstorms are pretty tough to break through on the waking side. I'll shift and adjust, though.

Good day, today.

My first experience with an actual lost child today... She went missing at 2:45 and with our help was found by the Margate police and returned to her family before 3:15.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend coming up... Planning a nice, relaxing day of comfort on Monday. I got a note that says Newt's due his six-month appointment at the vet's on the first, but that's Labor day... I'm going to have to call and confirm.

I think that I've got the knack of the primary players in the new chapter so far. If you're logged in, a minor review follows.

I get to add another contribution to the coming zombie multiplayer game by Projector Games.

Zombie voice acting sounds to record for the game. I need to record at 16-bit, 44khz, mono.

No Zombies for a while
----------------------

Where are they?
I can hear them!
What time is it?
Remember - short controlled bursts
we need a flare gun!
we're not gonna make it
maybe we got 'em all...maybe
they mostly come out at night... mostly...


First Zombie(targeting someone after X time with no zombies targeting)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
we've got company!
open fire!
need help here!
THERE!
let em have it!

Continued Attack (X seconds without a zombie hit cancels this state; Y seconds in it triggers sound )
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
they're still coming!
I'm running outta ammo!
who are these guys?
where did they come from?
how many are there????
you want some of this?
yeah you too!
c'mon baby c'mon!
come to daddy!
we're screwed!
it's just game over man!
let's go (ash)

Attack Finished
---------------
Cease fire!
that looks like the last of 'em... for now.
ammo's running low...
dammit, where's that chopper?
hail to the king baby
groovy'

Reloading (if reload time> 30)
------------------------------
cover me
comeoncomeoncomeon!
shit,not now

Zombies
-------

Zombie mutter (no player around)
Zombie pain (damaged by gun shot, etc)
Zombie die (sharp noise, dying off)
Zombie growl (seen player, alerting nearby players)

Radio chatter
-------------
"ok, we have triangulated your 20, and we're sending armed transport to the nearest landing zone. ETA is six minutes - you have hold out until then. If you can find some way to signal us, we may be able to locate you quicker. Repeat, we are on our way *crackle static*
"ok, we have triangulated your 20, and we're sending armed transport to the nearest landing zone. ETA is four minutes - you have hold out until then. If you can find some way to signal us, we may be able to locate you quicker. Repeat, we are on our way *crackle static*
"ok, we have triangulated your 20, and we're sending armed transport to the nearest landing zone. ETA is two minutes - you have hold out until then. If you can find some way to signal us, we may be able to locate you quicker. Repeat, we are on our way *crackle static*

Flare collected
--------------
"we see your flare! we're on our way!"
"we see a flare, that must be you"
"we're heading towards that flare!"


Reporter on location (Male):

[fade up] …in fact, we had arrived here to shoot another story just 45 minutes before the first attack took place, over there on the Mill Deane Estate. Since then we’ve seen an escalating number of panicked residents and there is a trail of blood are gore along several of the streets around here. Sandy, I’ve got to tell you, we wanted to leave a while back but our (cut off)



Helping Hands, Monkey Helpers for the disabled

a year ago - Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

2 years ago - that piercing woman I just saw yesterday!, lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

3 years ago - Godzilla, quizzes, added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin

8/25/03

Bro came by today, and I'm happy that he looks pretty healthy and solid. We had a nice little talk and I look forward to his getting that stuff out of the way soon. 10 days to go.

I've been reflecting on my first time out to eat, and I think it was McDonalds, to feed the ol' stereotype. I remember eating a gray burger with little diced onions, and lots of ketchup. I was out with my Mom, Vera, and Michelle... her brother Kevin, and my Brother might've been there as babies, but I don't remember them. I do remember that half a hamburger was enough, and I couldn't be bothered to eat the rest of it... which is why I knew what was inside...I took the top bun off, and investigated what was "under the hood." The bun wrinkled well, and tore under my then-tiny hand.We were taken there as some sort of reward, but I can't be sure of what, if anything I did to deserve it. We were probably in Salem, Quincy or Plymouth at the time.

Also thinking about my first time out at a *real* non-chain restaurant, at that hazy age of not knowing if my younger brother had been born yet. I don't think so. I had chop suey American style at a Chinese food place that had red walls. My family would generally order a huge selection of items, and we all partook from the different steaming silver dishes of rice, egg foo young (I don't remember which kind, but I always thought it was cool that we were eating something so "gross" on a plate in a sit-down place), chop suey, rice with peas and water chestnuts in it, butterfly shrimp, and sweet and sour pork. I really liked all of those foods... I didn't do my usual "take a big pile of one thing, and leave the rest for my folks to demand I take a nibble of each. I can clearly recall having only a wee little bit of each… the red glaze on the sweet sauce being a deep, only semi-translucent red... not the almost "day-glow" you see at most "fast-food" versions, now. I was wearing a Snoopy "Red Baron Ace" Shirt, with him in helmet, goggles and scarf, shaking his fist atop the doghouse riddled with bullet-holes and a scribble of black smoke rising from the back. I think Ginny or Lugene gave me that shirt for a birthday. I remember wanting the green plastic "jade" thingamabob hanging from the tassel of one of the paper lanterns. a year later, I got a bamboo wall scroll with a tiger & dragon painted on it (very similar to this one), and it was a favorite hanging in my room until I was about 12... when I peppered it with throwing stars. (Fortunately it was hanging from a bookcase made from scrap wood, and I only actually hit the wall with them a few times...posters covered holes in the wall there until we moved, and I was never punished for them being there.

For those who don't have FTP servers, here's a quick way to get doodles online and in your blog.

Bob Smith's Dress up Pages

Insert Silence, for some artsy downtime. (Contrary to the name, there can be music... workers, beware!)

I was a naughty food eater today... within points, but not the best method. Yogurt will be a snack tomorrow rather than fast food, and there will be breakfast eaten.

Point Range: 31-36
Water: 2 Veg/Fruit: 0 Milk: 0
Points: 33.0 Adj: 0 Act: 4 Rem: 3.0
Bank: 10.0 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 10 Point: 5 Act: 8
Bank Method: Rolling 7 days
Vitamins: Yes

Lunch: 15.0 points
0.0: Soda; Low calorie; other than cola or pepper; w/aspartame
7.5: VegiMax 6" Sub
7.5: VegiMax 6" Sub

Dinner: 9.0 points
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
1.4: Bagels; egg
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp
2.4: Peanut butter; smooth style 1 tbsp


Snack: 9.0 points
4.5: Toaster Pastries; raspberry strudel
4.5: Toaster Pastries; raspberry strudel


Goodnight, dear journal. I hope sweet dreams come to all this eve.

8/25/03
Hmm.... Newt's not as fond of my "crest whitening mint breath" as he is of my prior plain ol' "tartar control mint breath", but he still digs Mr. Minty-floss. I get some, and he gets his own fresh piece of waxy-string to bat around, too. It's no mean feat to perform both proper oral hygiene and play with the cat at the same time.

I'm noticing some weight loss already, in that this morning's meeting clothes are fitting better. I'm going to pick up that silver Ganesh for my brother if it's still there this morning, and if the price is right. I'm liable to grab one of those didgeridoos too. (One of the folks there thought they might be some sort of huge bongs... pretty heavy duty sort, if that were the case!)

Glad to see back, safe and sound, and posting again, too.

The Law & Order Coloring and Activity book. I'm impressed.

Frustrated Austrian highway authorities, unable to reduce the accident rate on a particular stretch of autobahn any other way, have turned to local druids to erect stone monoliths to re-establish the natural flow of "earth energy" and bring the area back into spiritual harmony.

So far, it seems to be working. Read the Sydney Morning Herald story for all the details.

Druids have been brought in to reduce the number of accidents on Austria's worst stretch of autobahn.

The Druids have put up huge roadside monoliths to restore the natural flow of "earth energy". After the one tonne pillars of white quartz were erected beside a notorious stretch of road during a secret two-year trial, the number of fatal accidents fell from an average of six a year to zero.

Gerald Knobloch, who describes himself as an archdruid, used a divining rod to inspect the 275-metre stretch of the A9 in Styria and restore "earth energy lines".

"I located dangerous elements that had disrupted the energy flow," he said. "The worst was a river which human interference had forced to flow against its natural direction. By erecting two stones of quartz at the side of the road the energy lines were restored."

The pillars had a similar function to acupuncture, he said. "Acupuncture needles also restore broken energy lines. What acupuncture does for the body, the stones do for the environment."

Harald Dirnbacher, an engineer from the motorway authority, admitted that they turned to Mr Knobloch as a last resort.

"We had put up signs to reduce speed, renewed the road surface and made bends more secure but we still kept getting accidents," he said. "At that point we couldn't think of anything else to do and decided we might as well try anything.

"I admit when we first looked at it [energy lines] we were doubtful. We didn't want people to know in case they laughed at us, so we kept the trial secret and small-scale. But it was really an amazing turnaround."

Scientists are skeptical of the claims. "Natural sciences need evidence. Whatever can't be measured, does not exist," said Georg Walach, a geophysics professor at Leoben University in southern Austria. "These energy lines and their flow cannot be grasped or measured, and their existence is therefore rejected by scientists." But the motorway authorities are extending the Druids' role across the country, paying them about $A6300 for each investigation - a fraction of the cost of resurfacing a road.

Poor science at the end there. True scientists reject nothing, but toss stuff on the "unknown, to be researched by gathering data and reproducing results" pile. I certainly doubt ley lines, but doubting and rejecting something untested out of hand is simply not science either. Effects and trends can surely be measured, all other things being equal. Heck, I wonder if people just slowing down to look at the cool huge stone monoliths reduced the accident rate?

a year ago - heroclix improvised weapons, deadly toys, poemtag,

2 years ago - pirate joke, selectivity, amor, warning label poll

3 years ago - aliens operate on my body, rhymes, colors, stevie

115 years ago-

A plant grows in Mexteca, Mexico, which the natives call the "herb of prophecy." A dose of it produces sleep similar in all respects to the hypnotic state. The subject answers with closed eyes all questions that are put to him, and is completely insensible. The pathologic state brings with it a kind of prophetic gift and double sight. Furthermore he loses his will and is completely under the control of another. On returning to himself he remembers nothing of what he has done.

-Excelsior Cottager, August 25, 1888