Ib & Ob: Rite of Passage

Ob: The probes that came back are quite disturbing in the fact that the quadrupeds appear to commit ritual sacrifice.

Ib: Purple Monopods! Hardly an intelligent species then, killing their own.

Ob: Yes I know although it is a bit of mystery since the probes have been unable to capture the location of the temple that the sacrifice occurs in.

Ib: Then how do you know it is occurring? 

Ob: They found thousands of buildings where the subspecies consumes organic matter which they call: Hamburgers.

Ib: Odd name for food.

Ob: It is an odd food, upon analysis most of it appears to made up of chemicals that make the subspecies feel good very very briefly and then hungry again.

Ib: Sounds more like a drug, where do the quadrupeds come in?

Ob: Part of the organic component to the Hamburger contain quadruped parts.

Ib: Parts, what parts?

Ob: As far the biology probes can tell nothing that would be useful to the subspecies's nutrition.

Ib: Are you sure this is ritual sacrifice perhaps the quadrupeds are trying to kill off the weak members of subspecies.

Ob: Or maybe make them more subservient, we have a missing link in the chain.

Ib: I am curious how do they consume this food by injection?

Ob: Did you not notice that your lunch had a hole on a its head?

Ib: It had several holes as I recall however I assume you are talking about the large one.

Ob: Yes, they take their food in through that hole.

Ib: That is disgusting what about all the infections you can get from such things?

Ob: You seem to forget that thousands of cycles ago we too ingested food through our nasal passage.

Ib: Yes and I glad I was not around for that.  I remember Prof. Zi telling us about the diseases of the past before we started using the injectors.  Made my orbs spins, horrible days indeed.

Ob: Then you have not heard about the Anti-Injectors, Grey World does insulate you from some of the more extreme news.

Ib: What are you talking about?

Ob: Basically there is a movement that wants us to go back to using our nasal passage for food intake, they say it is more natural and satisfying.

Ib: You are pulling my Danuses, no Grey in their right orbs would do such thing.

Ob: I agree injectors have nearly wiped out all known diseases, why would anyone want to bring back a disease.

Ib: Let us get off this horrible tangent and return to our proper orbit.  I think the quadrupeds are practicing a form of population control we have seen it before in other cultures or maybe it is a voluntary sacrifice?!?

Ob: True, maybe they are giving parts of themselves to the subspecies to make them feel like they are the quadrupeds. Organic worship, interesting maybe my initial issues with the probes results were not ions in the grill after all.

Ib: Well if that is all sorted out, I will take the shuttle back out to get some lunch.

Ob: Okay but before you do we need to address the problem of the two holes on either side of their heads.

Ib: Are you trying to make me thinner than I already am?

Sugar Lottery & Rocket Fuel

In the late 80's I was working for a large manufacturing company in Rochester, UK.  The company had a number of Maxpax coffee machines although technically at the time all they did was dispense hot water and sugar with a cup filled with what looked like the cremated remains of a vole.  I can only assume they have improved over the years I have not used any since.  In the fact the best coffee machine ever was at an Italian bank in London where I worked for a brief period, no surprise there.  For a drinks machine it was pretty amazing plus it did drinkable tea which is rare at the best of times (do not remember the make of the machine).

I have digressed somewhat back to Maxpax machines, the one behind my office had an intermittent fault when you pressed the button for sugar.  Basically you got your cup filled with some weird powder put it under the sugar nozzle and press the button then moved it to the water nozzle and press the hot water button (it did cold too).  The problem was every time you press the button for sugar you were instantly entered into the Sugar Lottery by the Maxpax Universe which is to say if you were extremely unlucky enough to win then the sugar coming out of the nozzle would not stop until the machine had run out of sugar which normally took three or four empty cups.  At least you would not taste whatever was in the cup in the first place if you managed to pull the cup free in time and put an empty cup in its place.

The only thing that the machine was really used for was the hot and cold water plus the occasional bountiful supply of free sugar.  It was ten pence a cup I think.  In its later years they did a powdery orange flavour which was sort of passable on a hot day.

During this time I came across an instant coffee called Rocket Fuel made by Percol which I drank black without sugar, the milk from the Maxpax machine as I recall was another indiscernible white powder which definitely was not milk at least not my understanding of what milk is.

Rocket Fuel back then was indeed exactly what it said on the jar a serious energy boost!

If you have caffeine with sugar it tends to bring you back down although it messes with your blood sugar levels and you end up with food cravings that you do not really need. 

Did you know caffeine is a habit-forming drug?

At the time I was drinking on average five to six mugs a day.  I do not remember any warning labels on jars at the time maybe I missed them.

A couple of years ago I cut out all caffeine based drinks, the withdrawal symptoms were not pleasant for me or my co-workers.  I still have the occasional cup of tea or coffee maybe one a week that's my limit these days.

They stopped selling Rocket Fuel at the place I bought my food from back then however I just checked on Amazon and they sell it quite cheaply I am almost tempted to buy a jar: Rocket Fuel

Then again perhaps not.