24 October 2000
	My officemate introduced me to a fun little time-waster on Friday. It's called BattleMail. The way it works is, you download a BM client (we were playing BattleMail Kung Fu, but there's a couple of others) and tell it to issue a challenge to a particular e-mail address. You select the little cartoon figure you want to represent you, and then you select six attacks and six blocks. (You get three choices for each attack and block: High, Medium, or Low.) BM then sends an e-mail to the address you entered, issuing the challenge and including an attachment for their BM client to read. They open the attachment, enter their attacks and blocks, and then BM creates a little Flash animation of the fight, which it shows immediately to the challengee and mails back to the challenger. Points are scored for a successful hit, a successful block, or a knockout, and the person with the most points wins, though both get to keep whatever points they earned. As you collect points, you get new levels, or belts, which increases your abilities - you get more hit points (which makes it harder for your opponent to knock you out) or your attacks can do more damage.   It gets harder to go up in levels as you go, of course, to help level the playing field. And it's more fun to challenge someone who's fairly close to your own level, because otherwise you're going to get smashed. Matt had some problems with the client crashing his computer, but I haven't heard that anyone else had problems. Anyway, if you'd like to play, download the client and challenge me! (It's an addictive little game...)   Last night during the MeadeHall we were talking on the side channel about... Oh, any number of things. Eventually, it turned to politics, and from there to the environment, and from there it went into a discussion of the hybrid gas/electric cars that have been on the market for the last few years.   If you're not familiar with the concept - which the oil companies' spin doctors have done a good job of keeping out of the limelight - here it is: Electric cars have been do-able for ages, but they've been largely poo-poo'ed by the American public because they accelerate slowly, have a relatively low top speed, and have to be recharged fairly frequently. The hybrid engine uses gas for acceleration, and the engine charges its own battery for the cruising electric motor. Because the electric portion kicks in when the car isn't accelerating, they use significantly less gas than other cars of their size, and they are maintained more or less exactly the same as the cars we're used to.   I think they're a great step, and I'd been holding the concept in the back of my mind for when I'm ready for a new car. Last night, in light of the discussion, I fired up the browser to check them out a little early. The one I liked best was Toyota's Prius, which is even reasonably priced, starting at about $20K, which isn't exactly pocket change, but it's not a price that limits it to rich collectors, either.   All things considered, I hope I won't need a new car for several more years. But when my car gets to be more trouble to maintain than it's worth, I'm definitely considering one of these hybrid vehicles.   I realized last night as I was trying to fall asleep that I need to get busy on my Hallowe'en costume - the party is less than a week away! I don't anticipate a lot of trouble, but I'm toying with several ideas of how to attach the extra arms to my shirt, and various things to wear, and different ways to manage the extra arms. I need to decide, and quick. I should put it together tonight in case I'm going to have to go to the store for anything. (Or, rather, to figure out my complete shopping list for it. I've already figured that I need at least two things.)   And I'm trying to decide what to do about Hallowe'en day. I originally wanted to just use a one-day dye on my hair to turn it green or purple or something. But I can't find the dye! Target has it, but only in red or black. So I'm trying to decide whether I want to go with red or black (I'll already be getting the black for the party, I think) or just to drop the whole idea. Alas, such is the agony of my life.   Word of the Day: spin doctor - a person responsible for ensuring that others view an event from a certain point of view (usually political)
	Currently Reading: - a few comics, but mostly nothing   Current Projects: - Christmas stockings
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