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Tue Jan 7 06:00:01 EST 2020 ======================================== Slept from eleven to six-thirty. Woke briefly around three. Mostly cloudy early in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Scattered snow showers in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 40s. Southwest winds up to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Chance of snow 30 percent. Work ---------------------------------------- - Review VPN stuff with Scott Done. - Prep for Entrata contract call Done. Fifteen-minute walk at lunch. Home ---------------------------------------- - Work on Tilecast a bit Done. - Go to bed early Ugh, I had to let out a belt loop this morning. Time for a diet. When Ed and I played Blood Red Skies over the weekend, I remarked that we should be able to field Godzilla. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a popular choice for kaiju wargamming. How would I want one to play? GAAA!!! Giant Atomic Animal Attack One side is human city defense, the other side plays a giant monster. The giant monster always has a redoubt, whether that's the sea, an underground cave, or a moon base. Play would always be in one of two phases: monster attack or regrouping. During the regrouping phase, the monster retreats to its redoubt and slowly regenerates. During the regrouping phase, the humans can build new defenses and units. The monster regenerates more the longer it waits to attack, but the longer it waits the more build points the humans get. During the attack phase, the monster doesn't regenerate and the humans can't build. The monster player chooses when to regroup, and the humans must follow along, unless they've developed enough to be able to attack the monster's redoubt. So, the human player has some kind of build tree, where early development requirements (infantry, tanks, maybe scientific discoveries) must be met before they can build more advanced weapons (rocket ship, atomic submarine, etc.). Perhaps also the drawing of some sort of event cars (oil refinery explosion, comet strike, a second monster appears, etc.). https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1408/gammarauders https://www.collectiondx.com/toy_review/fortress_fangs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21967830 https://www.slac.stanford.edu/~rkj/crazytime.txt > Why is Wednesday, November 17, 1858 the base time for OpenVMS (VAX VMS)? > November 17, 1858 is the base of the Modified Julian Day system. > The original Julian Day (JD) is used by astronomers and expressed in days since noon January 1, 4713 B.C. This measure of time was introduced by Joseph Scaliger in the 16th century. It is named in honor of his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger (note that this Julian Day is different from the Julian calendar named for the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar!). > Why 4713 BC? Scaliger traced three time cycles and found that they were all in the first year of their cyle in 4713 B.C. The three cycles are 15, 19, and 28 years long. By multiplying these three numbers (15 * 19 * 28 = 7980), he was able to represent any date from 4713 B.C. through 3267 A.D. The starting year was before any historical event known to him. In fact, the Jewish calendar marks the start of the world as 3761 B.C. Today his numbering scheme is still used by astronomers to avoid the difficulties of converting the months of different calendars in use during different eras. > So why 1858? The Julian Day 2,400,000 just happens to be November 17, 1858. The Modified Julian Day uses the following formula: > MJD = JD - 2,400,000.5 Read a few pages of The Mothman Prophecies. Watched some anime. Servings: grains 3/6, fruit 2/4, vegetables 4/4, dairy 1/2, meat 2/3, nuts 1/0.5 Breakfast: coffee, egg, tomato, banana Lunch: popcorn, yogurt, apple, banana, avocado Afternoon snack: coffee Dinner: hummus, tabbouleh, rice, chicken, fries 135/82

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