Big Mama has a set dinner time.
If by rare chance I'm late, she just cries to let me know.

Her dry food bowl is also rarely empty.
But if on that rare occasion it is empty, she goes to her bowl and
sticks her head in it to show me "it's empty", then looks at me.

She's usually very subtle in her methods.

She does do the whizzing by me thing though
if I'm headed to the kitchen...but that's only
because she wants me to watch her eat, not
because her bowl is empty.

When cats do such things as run past you, they are trying to
be the "leader" so you will follow them.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
----
There was a very amusing cartoon done a while back...

where the woman has a load of laundry in her hands
but has to step over the cat that's laying down in front of her.
She tells the cat "no reason to move, just lay there"
as she steps over kitty...
then kitty does a big stretch forcing her to do a big
stretch over the cat or trip and fall down.
As she says something like;
"good thing you listened and just laid there".
----
Why do cats feel the need to trip people?
Cause they can...and then they blame it on you!

My cat has dry food in his bowl all day long.  If for some reason I don't
notice he has eaten it all, which rarely happens, he just stares at me.  
Then, when I notice him and go to pet him or get up, he runs in front of me
to his food bowl.  He then again looks at me like "Hey idiot, I'm out of
food!"

He has a new trick as well.  I get organic wheatgrass for him at the store
and leave it on the kitchen floor for him.  I made the mistake a while ago
of feeding it to him by hand.  Now when I am in the kitchen he stands by
the grass looking at me until I bend down and feed him a few blades.  It is
the only way he'll eat it now.