http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33483877

We're off to our annual week-long multifamily, multihouse vacation on Long Beach Island.  Assuming the wifi works properly, you should see no real difference in my presence (except maybe I'll be more present than I have been of late).  Anyway, we hit the road tomorrow in the early afternoon and should be settled in by evening.
Edits:  I can spell, really I can.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

New pages, a new top page for the first time in three years, stuff like that...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

In bureaucratic terms, that's the official date I entered government service. It took 4 years to achieve it, but I will have 12 years of government service officially on 9/23/2015. And that's a neat trick considering I became a government civil servant on 8/30/2010. So How did I achieve this little trick? A program for buying back your military time. You send the documentation to a government agency. They decide how much to pay back to all or part of it. The amount I have to pay back for all of it was pretty hefty. It took me 3 years to pay it off, a year to wade through the bureaucracy to set it up and another year to browbeat the HR department to finish it. So I can retire at 20 years in in 2023 or 30 years on 2033, instead of 2040. Yay!
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

An idea I had in mind, but not sure what exactly to do with her or where to really take her. Something about her seemed interesting, at least in that there's only one other android listed as having a 'combat chassis', but nothing on this level.

-------
Galatea.

Since the Boskone War, intentionally creating dedicated combat androids have been forbidden. Both on cruelty grounds (To the AI), and sheer public safety grounds. Depending on who you talk to, Galatea is either a clever dodge around the rule, or exactly what it's trying to prevent. Galatea was built to be a 'sparring partner', rather than for actual combat. (The AR-series for example seem to set a precedent that 'sparring partners' are acceptable, provided no impingment is made on the free will of the android)

More accurately, Galatea was designed and built to be a fair match in a fight to Jet Jaguar.

Currently, she trains and lives on 77 Frigga, while people figure out what exactly to do about her.

==Tech

So, what do we know about her?

Her mind is derived from the Flint-series androids, with a personality matrix formed around the perfection of her martial arts. She has full radar, radio and sensor systems. An internal battlesteel structure makes her both heavy, and solid and able to take a hit. Drives are powerful enough for a top speed of .19C. Reaction times, eyesight and senses far exceed human norms, especially when combined with an android's natural multitasking abilities.

==Appearance

Female. Tall. Silver hair. parian complection, with glassy grey eyes. Just slightly inhuman. Silver, purple and Teal hardsuit colour. Galatea has no ears, only a pair of blade-like antennae. She shares clear lineage with Jet Jaguar, having a similar general arrangement. (And potentially even sharing some spare parts).

==Personality

A martial artist, first and formost. Quiet, contemplative, curious. Galatea is well aware of what she is. She has a strong sense of what's right, but not always what exactly is wrong. Her personality matrix was grown around a core of Judo, Ninjitsu, Capoeira, followed by training in the Panzer Kunst. Not an outright pacifist, but prefers nonviolent solutions. The quiet person who no-one wants to go to war.

==

Wavium Attributes

"Living weapon,;" Built as a sparring partner for Jet. Complete with battlesteel framing. Full onboard radar, sensor suite and interwave link. Armour capable tanking a coilcannon shot and drives good enough for .19C in the limit.

"SNARC." Can synchronise wirelessly with hardware specifically built to enable it. (And some hardware that isnt) Capable of hacking, but not an obsessive hacker - it's natural for her.

"I am my ride." Capable of open spaceflight.

==

"Terminator." Combat android. With all the hassle that comes with it. She's just not welcome in some places.

"Sotai.." Prone to just synchronising with hardware rather than using it 'properly' Has little natural respect for system boundaries. It's not unusual for her to use radiocommunication and radiotelepathy with those capable of receiving them rather than speak.

Tannaloy Power cells.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/179568 ... rs/9742074
It Takes a Village (or Sometimes an Army), (Girl Genius AU)
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

Having an -odd- error over at SufficientVelocity today. Every time I try to post I get an error that says "Please enter a valid message".
ETA: Ok, it doesn't seem to happen if I use the BBcode editor. Hmmm.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

So, work is sending me to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for about a week or so and while I won't have a lot of free time, I was wondering if the board's resident Texans had any suggestions about things I should see or do while I'm there.  Specifically I'll be in Arlington, near the Six Flags if that helps at all.
So far my co-workers have only been able to suggest that it'll be helpful if I like steak, and that a cowboy hat would make me look rather silly.

-- 
With a Dremel tool and a cut-off wheel, _everything_ takes a flat-blade
screwdriver.
-- Matt Roberds in the Monastery

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you're one of a couple-dozen people involved in a series of contests on a webforum (not this one). The series has been going on for quite a while - a new contest every month for over a half decade. It's a reasonably popular contest series, with apparent camaraderie amongst the regular participants.

The person who has been organizing the contests and making sure the prizes went to the winners for that over-half-decade announces that he has to leave the contests for personal reasons.

Do you:

1) Get him a small farewell e-gift and send him a PM saying "thank you for all your hard work"?
2) Send him a PM saying "thank you for all your hard work" without getting a gift?
3) Don't send him a PM, and carry on as if nothing had changed?
4) Other (specify)

Let's put a few lines in here so folks can consider their answers before continuing ...

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...there, that should be enough.

As some folks may have guessed, this isn't a hypothetical situation.

Is it really so odd that I was the only person to choose option 1, only one other person chose option 2, and the other score-or-so people chose option 3?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Real or hoax? I can't tell...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/picture ... 26?cmp=rss
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012