I sat down and pondered just what sort of time dilation we'd encounter in Fenspace, and discovered that well my brain would asplode if I tried to get the proper numbers.
Especially since it seems that NOTICEABLE Time dilation kicks in at the top speed of even our slowest ships.
If I'm reading the formula right...
With delta-t being the time between two co-local events observed by one entity [Specific ticks of a clock, frex] and v being the velocity of a second entity relative to the first ...

[img]file:///C:/Users/Logan/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/img]Link to graph from Wiki article
We're getting into situations where, well, the nice "three hour tour" of the solar system takes a month of vacation time on earth.
And don't get me started on the FTL problems...
Someone traveling for an hour at 500c has a relative time dilation of approximately 22i. Never mind the time spent at infinite dilation at c.
I know, I know, MST3K Mantra or Bellisario's Maxim... (warning! TVTropes links)
But it got me thinking how Fenspace!Mikuru might be a Time Traveler after all. Especially if a time dilation of 22i means effectively going backwards in time at a "dialation" of 21.
So, say our intrepid explorers going on a trip in 2015 to some star 500 ly away arrive on an inhabitable planet in 1994 and raise a family/community, their granddaughter leaves to help fight the Boskonians in 2032 and arrives to join the nascent SOS-dan in 2011, besides... It's fun watching Grandma Haruhi beating up on Grampa Kyon before she got too weak to hold the harisen...
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Random Topic Of Conversation!
Anyone ever play any of the "18xx" series of railroad games? I've been considering purchasing one (or getting one of the print-and-play kits).
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Some of us like to go out and see things being performed live, I went to U2 & Muse's last tour. Saw Robin Williams when he was here. I've got Top Gear Live and Weird Al on my cards and my sister's half-jokingly saying that I should take advantage of some cheep flight deal on the go atm and do a quick trip to Japan, with her......

Back to the gigs. William Shatner's apparently doing a tour and he's coming down here. Has anyone heard of it, been to it, is it any good?

--Rod.H

Ayn Rand was a tsundere.
Add your own!
-------------
Epsilon

In a move certainly designed to infuriate the organization in question, a new restaurant in Williamsburg, VA, will serve you a steak dinner... and a handbag made from the skin of the cow in question.
I am Amused.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

So....

About six years or so ago, I was just starting out on my own, had just picked up my first computer with my own money, and was reveling in living my own life. A friend of mine took me over to a friend of his, and he was playing a strange game on his computer: he had a man he was dressing up in different costumes. Now, he *said* that this was just the beginning of the game, that there was a whole world after it. I was intrigued, and a few weeks later I picked up my own copy of the game.

You of course know what game it was.

It started out simple for me. I1 - Through the Looking Glass - had just come out. Fifty levels of content just waiting to be explored. I picked a server that seemed lightly populated: Infinity. Only, I was lacking any idea where to start. So, like the Fanfic author I was, I ripped an idea off of someone else, and made Anduros, a MA/SR scrapper dressed in red a black. Anduros, however, never really got anywhere. I think level 7 and Kings Row was where he fell into obscurity. So, back to that wonderful Creator. I had decided this time that my naming scheme was going to follow a pattern: "A", Male; "B", Female; "C", Huge; "D", Male; and so on. Hm. "B" stands for "B"laster, so!

Brahela was born. A Fire/Ice Blaster that I *liked* and was *fun*.

When she was about level 14 I wrote up a story explaining her background. You can read about her http://florestica.com/drogan/coh/purpose.htm]Purpose here. Brah was fun, exciting, and I was looking forward to a fulfilling journey with her.

By the time I had her at level 18 or so, I had already made "C", my only Tanker that was played once and deleted a few months later, and "D"erunichin, a Katana/SR Scrapper, who I wrote about in http://florestica.com/drogan/coh/discovery.htm]Discovery. So I was back to "E" and Female when I was playing Brah with a group in Boomtown, and had a defender on the team. A FF defender.

Brahela fell to the wayside to my new love, El'yia, a FF/Dark Defender. After writing about her http://florestica.com/drogan/coh/darkness.htm]Sorrow, abandoning my naming scheme to make an apprentice of her's called http://florestica.com/drogan/coh/meeting.htm]Xyn'el, El and I shot up through the levels quickly. (for me!)

El reached level 50 about three years after I first made her. At that point, I had made and played other toons rather frequently. I had explored redside with a MM and a dominatior, had made new toons, and had started concentrating on a new server, called Virtue. Reyshal took off where El'yia retired. A Grav/FF Controller who had another 50 levels in front of her.

But, every so often, I went back to my first real toon, Brahela. From where I abandoned her for El at 18, she was creeping up levels. In Jan 09, when she migrated from Infinity Shard to Virtue Shard, she was a respectable 36. But, as everyone knows, Blasters are in debt more often than they are out of it (At least, before Patrol XP came along), so leveling Brah was a tedious balance of paying off debt and gaining XP.

Then Reyshal hit 50. Whoo! Two toons at 50! Myr'tai, my MM, hit 50. Hey! VEATS! Jan 11, and Brahela was level 42. I played her for a day. And I found, I *liked* playing her once again. She became my focus. Over the past week, she's shot up from TFs and Alignment missions from 45 to....

This morning, a PuG of Dr. Khan. I started with Brah at half a bubble into 49. I was *going* to make it to 50 before Saturday and the All-Star Thrash of Khan. For a speed run, there was much dying, debt, and XP. By the time we got to Reichs, Brah was five bubbles in. Just half a level more, and I'd reach my goal. Then came the Reichsman. And death. And more Death. After three defeats and a team wipe, we got our act together and started pulling AVs into the hall to deal with them. Vanessa, Nemesis, Gyrfalcon. The Countess hadn't been called on by the time of the wipe, but we were able to rush Reichs, beat him to a pulp, then dominated Madam Crey.

When she fell, it was "Mission Complete!"

And I noticed sparkling around Brahela. I took a look at the last few chat messages. '2206010 experience gained!' Brahela hit the magic number, six years after creation.

I don't really know why I felt the need to put all this down, but its here. Brah's currently standing by Ramiel, waiting to fight Trapdoor. In my head, of course, she's not gaining stuff from the Well of Furies, but the Well of Innocence. But like all stories, there's a bit of truth in the telling.

Salvte.

So, with Reichsman being the new WST, I've been contemplating drop totals. Reichs is incredibly easy to speed run (51 minutes on a PuG yesterday, featuring only one Thermal corr for debuffs), but it also has one of the largest concentrations of mobs in the game.
So, Saturday afternoon, I'm planning the opposite. This won't be a fast TF, but I'm looking for data. So I'm proposing something similar to what people have done on ITFs: clearing every map of every last mob.
That includes wiping out the entire exterior of City Hall, Boomtown, Axis Earth, and the interior of Reichsman's fortress.
To speed matters, I intend to bring Nene along on this, so that Fulcrum Shift can properly lubricate our damage cap gears.
Timing is probably going to be some time after 3PM PST on Saturday. Not looking to take slot reservations or anything (I suspect people will be there anyway in the channel alone), but just letting people know what they're getting into.
But I say we put a bit of a dent into the 5th's recruiting numbers, hmm?
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Take a look at this.  It's just what it says on the tin. (Make sure to click the picture.)
I really like how the Fifth Doctor is drawn, though the only one I don't like as much is the Eleventh.  It just seems a bit off for some reason.  I think it might be the eyes.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Some time in the next week, I'll be moving the site from Eclipse.net to its own domain, hosted by my provider, Netcarrier.
I'm doing this because my site's been living for the past decade on what amounts to a complimentary vanity webspace provided as part of a dial-up account, and some of the development tools and software that I thought was available to me where it is now actually aren't.  And I haven't actually dialed up to the dial-up account in something like six years, if not more.
Moving give me lots more disk space, more support for expanded features on the site -- like the dynamic blogging system I'm going to be installing on the top page now that I've got the basics for that worked out -- and a distinctive URL.  At the same time, though, Peg and I get to keep our Eclipse.net email addresses.  And to top it all off, it's going to cost about 60% of what the dial-up account cost me.  (Plus registration for the site name, of course...  but I'll be looking for a good inexpensive registrar.  Any suggestions?)
The old site will be redirecting traffic tot he new site for a while, too, so no one (least of all Google!) will lose track of me.
Right now my next step is to select a good domain name.  "Accessdenied" and "access-denied" are both already taken in most TLDs, although I can get "drunkards-walk" in either .COM or .NET.  Or I can do my name.  I'm surprised at how undecided I am...  When things start moving after that, I'll let folks know.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I'd be very surprised if it hasn't been suggested before, but Doug understands Japanese, right? Then how 'bout the themesong to The Cat Returns? Kaze ni Naru (Become the Wind) (lyrics and translation) allows Doug and one other person he cares about to become a kind of wind spirit: invisible and intangible, but detectable by the gentle breezes about their persons even when they stand stock-still. In this state, Doug and guest have all the capabilities and limitations of natural winds.