Once again, I've been goofing off the last couple of days. After a hectic week tring to get everything done for last Monday, there isn't much that I have to do until next Monday. Primary product is shippable, although it hasn't been tested all that much. I have another project to do, which right now doesn't work at all but it should only take a day or two to get into good order. Assuming I have the willpower to actually do it...

I'm starting to prep for my second Star Trek episode. This one will be one from the Starfleet Academy set, with some added subplots to keep it interesting. Depending on who shows up, this may only take one session to run, or it may go two or three sessions. I try to have a set of subplots and incidents to throw at players randomly. That's my version of the role-playing experience. It's very off the cuff and doesn't depend that much on who actually makes it to the game...

I decided not to go to England. It's just too much trouble to go to another country. It'd also probably be expensive with the way I do things. I can think up of the excuses, but laziness is the real excuse. If I could give someone $10000 and have them arrange everything, I'd have a better chance of going with it. As it is, it just seems like too much hassle for the gain...

So my insurance agent told me what they'll pay for the car. It comes out to $5000, which seems about right considering the milage and age of the car. I looked at iMotors and it was about $6000 for a similar car with only 70000 miles instead of 140k, so it sounds right. New Powerbook :-) I shouldn't think about that...

In the last couple of weeks I've gone back to my old eating habits. Skip lunch, big dinner. I could say it's all the work I've been doing, which is somewhat true. If my life is concentrating on something else, I'll tend to neglect some things and go back to old habits. It takes some abount of work to enforce a new routine. So we'll see if I can get back on track. My exercising has been almost the same. Not quite as much as I should be doing, although not zero yet...

I also started playing Marathon Infinity. This is my first time and I'd totally forgotten how scary the game can be if you don't know each level and where all the bad guys are. I'm already to level seven and already there have been three levels where you have to watch your oxygen usage. Particulary bad in that one level had no oxygen recharger, just two oxygen canisters, so you have to run around and not dilly dally or the oxygen supply runs out.

Infinity seems more schizophrenic, since at times you're working for Durandal, and on other levels you're working for Tycho. Same antagonists and graphics, as they didn't have time to develop something totally new. One new weapon, a needler machine gun, which is not that impressive. Only 20 shots, good range, low damage, not good against armored targets. Regular machine gun is much better since I like getting up close to make sure I hit. But it does work in a vacuum so it's been useful. The pistol now works in vacuum too.

The first level was particularly ornery, as it was a bit of a maze with passage- ways going over each other and crisscrossing. Another level had a big underwater cavern running underneath the complex, which really messed up the automap. It's definitely a different feel than Marathon 2, not too sure if it's harder, as some M2 levels were quite hard until you figured them out...

Looks like I'll be taking my brother to a Britney Spears concert in August, near Sacramento. Should be fun, as I also like Ms Spears...