I outrage. I protest.

My online page-a-day Mensa calender posed the following question today:

"Pat has four more brothers than she has sisters. Her brother Jim has two more brothers than he has sisters. How many siblings in all? (Hint: There are fewer than 10.)"

My answer was 5 boys, 2 girls for a total of 7 kids.

Pat has 1 sister and 5 brothers, meaning she has four more brothers than she has sisters.
Jim has 4 brothers and 2 sisters, meaning he has two more brothers than he has sisters.

Their answer?  "9 (There are six boys and three girls.)"

I should note that it also works for 5 kids - 4 boys and 1 girl.

Pat has 4 brothers, but no sister, meaning she has four more brothers than she has sisters.
Jim has 3 brothers and 1 sister, meaning he has two more brothers than he has sisters.

I'm probably missing something obvious that renders my answers invalid.  I'll just give my head a shake and get back to work.

Mental note to self...

A quick mental note to self:  as satisfying as it might be to use the words "Steelers" and "spanked" in the same sentence, in the interests of keeping peace in the office, avoid doing so today.

I don't follow the NFL close enough to care one way or the other myself, but a couple of the guys in here live and breathe NFL (and it's probably moot to mention which team one of them follows...).

Counter-Strike

It didn't take long for me to become obsessed with the game again once they released CS-Source.  I figured that a new game deserved a new online nick, so say goodbye to such names as "Skunkbutt" and "Aimless" and say hello to "n00b".

The only problem with a name like n00b is that it doesn't evoke a very formidable image in the minds of most players.  Rather than envisioning a burly, testosterone-laden, blood-thirsty grunt packing an FN M249 Para, the other players picture, well, a n00b.  I decided that the best solution (short of changing my nick again) was to create an intimidating CS spray that I could stamp around the map - something vaguely threatening.  I wanted the visual equivalent of a primal scream that says, "PH34R TEH N00B!!"  After countless hours of labour, here is the final product.  Click at your own risk!

( If this doesn't scare them, I don't know what will! )

(no subject)

I force-fed Bit again this evening. It went a bit better than it did this morning, and she ended up with more food in her than on her. The poor cat hates the forced feedings as much as I do, but she won't eat voluntarily, and she needs the food to keep up her strengh. At least the food is staying down, which is about the only good sign just now. Aside from purring a bit louder now when she sees me, she has shown no real improvement since we brought her home from the vet. She's still very weak and depressed. She is only leaving her spot behind the door to drink and to (attempt to) use her litter box.

She's supposed to go back in for a follow-up appointment at the end of this week, but I may call them earlier if she hasn't shown any more improvement by this time tomorrow.

[edit]

Though as atara pointed out, the cat has been on, and is still on some pretty industrial-strength medication. And She has been showing a very slow improvement. The fact that she's keeping her food down, even if she's not particularly interested in eating it, is a good sign I think.

(no subject)

Because unciaa wanted to see a screenshot of it in action...

( It is but to ask. )