Random thought thread!

divedivedive · 2013-01-15T13:51:13.000Z

With more yodeling.

RichVR · 2013-01-15T14:10:17.000Z

The novel Protector had a pretty cool description of a battle between two Bussard ramscoop ships battling at a decent percentage of light speed.

RichVR · 2013-01-15T19:15:54.000Z

So, as a responsible homeowner, it comes time to do chores. It is time to clean the bathrooms. First stop, scrub the toilets. I am not new to this duty (snicker). It was a job that I held for longer than I’d like to remember. My tools for this are a cheap WalMart brush and a spray bottle of deadly chemicals. One thing that I learned a long time ago is, Keep Your Mouth Closed.

Anyway, I’m scrubbing away and the brush decides to grace me with what I call, sprayback.

Time slows to a crawl.

I have my mouth partially open. I can see the droplets flying toward my face. I actually have time to think, “Your mouth is open, idiot.”

They come closer.

“Why don’t you close your mouth?”

::Signal sent to mouth::
::mouth not responding::

“Close damn it! CLOSE!!”

::Signal received by mouth::
::Are you sure that you want to close the mouth? YES/NO/RETRY::

Drops cover face, enter mouth.

“WHHHHAAARRRRBLLLEGARRRBLE!!!”

After many minutes of spitting, gargling with peroxide and mouthwash I have decided to never clean a toilet again.

Houngan · 2013-01-15T20:30:51.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Yeah, the most recent example of that sort of thing I’ve read was some of the Lost Fleet series, where combat took place millions of kilometers apart and weapons had to take into account near-speed-of-light relativistic targeting, gravity, time differences and all that other fun stuff. It was pretty fascinating to read.

The point I was going after is that it’s mass, not weight that is important in the armor/performance equation. Mass doesn’t care about gravity, and weight is just a perception of mass based on local gravity.

If you build a mass-heavy (armored) spaceship then your performance suffers. Just like trying to push a kid on a float in a pool vs. a boat floating in the ocean, even though both have no actual weight one moves easily and one moves not at all. If you strap a ton of steel on the side of a spaceship to soak up damage, then any change in position (acceleration, braking, turning) has to deal with that ton.

BrianRubin · 2013-01-16T09:02:18.000Z

Rich, you okay?

Houngan:

The point I was going after is that it’s mass, not weight that is important in the armor/performance equation. Mass doesn’t care about gravity, and weight is just a perception of mass based on local gravity.

If you build a mass-heavy (armored) spaceship then your performance suffers. Just like trying to push a kid on a float in a pool vs. a boat floating in the ocean, even though both have no actual weight one moves easily and one moves not at all. If you strap a ton of steel on the side of a spaceship to soak up damage, then any change in position (acceleration, braking, turning) has to deal with that ton.

Yeah, you’re likely right. Guh, I feel less than nerdy right now. Too many space games, not enough actual spacey stuff.

This reminds me that I have a copy of The Starflight Handbook that I believe someone got me as a gift and gave up on after trying to read once. I should give it another whirl. :)

Houngan · 2013-01-16T10:58:47.000Z

Brian Rubin:

Rich, you okay?

Yeah, you’re likely right. Guh, I feel less than nerdy right now. Too many space games, not enough actual spacey stuff.

This reminds me that I have a copy of The Starflight Handbook that I believe someone got me as a gift and gave up on after trying to read once. I should give it another whirl. :)

I blame the almost-inevitable addition of wings to every spacecraft in games and movies, as well as the constant animation of them banking into a turn rather than just spinning in place and applying thrust.

RichVR · 2013-01-17T19:51:03.000Z

Brian, I’m okay, just was squicked by the splash in the mouth. Sorry I didn’t reply sooner.

Okay now a serious question. Why do I seem to have long time friends that seem to explode into stupid? I’ve already described my dear friend who turned into a conspiracy guy. He was always a bit conservative but he became a full blown lunatic, Tea Party and there’s a dark planet going to destroy the world guy.

Now I just found a friend about a month ago. Yeah it was Facebook. Sue me. Now this guy was so cool. He’s a well known comic artist. When I finally got in touch with him, he was really interested in getting together and us doing a comic together. He has connections to certain comic book publishers that will remain nameless here.

I’m looking at doing something that I have always dreamed of doing.

So we talk on the phone. No details here. But I get a strange vibe.

Turns out that the guy is an anti-vaxxer. Hard core. I’m getting messages from him about how vaccines are full of poison. The Big Pharma is killing our children, the whole thing.

This is killing me. I want to work with the guy, but I’m really freaked about the vax thing.

This sucks.

CLWheeljack · 2013-01-18T08:50:48.000Z

Just do it, Rich. Some things you can’t fix, and as long as the project isn’t related, you shouldn’t let it bother you.

BrianRubin · 2013-01-18T09:59:52.000Z

That moment when you’re so tired you’ll laugh at anything, misstype “examples” as “expamples” and can’t stop giggling for the last 45 minutes. Yeah.

John_Many_Jars · 2013-01-18T10:10:04.000Z

Brian Rubin:

That moment when you’re so tired you’ll laugh at anything, misstype “examples” as “expamples” and can’t stop giggling for the last 45 minutes. Yeah.

That’s the spirit! That’s the way to approach life.

jeansberg · 2013-01-18T10:23:24.000Z

Not to mention the moment when you mistype “mistype” and don’t even notice it. BURN!

wisefool · 2013-01-23T07:43:09.000Z

So, Winter finally came to the Northeast and once again I am wondering if the Swedes or Finns have some jackets with magic filling. I mean, I have down jackets but the stores are stocking very thin semi-fashionable ones. I have 5 layers on today. They don’t really do the trick.

Mankind has sent men to the Moon. You’re telling me in all this time we can’t find some sort of sufficiently-advanced magical material for jackets other than the fur that some bloody duck makes by itself? Dude, cavemen figured that out.

RichVR · 2013-01-23T07:53:08.000Z

Duck fur? If you want to keep warm use sheep feathers. Everyone knows that.

wisefool · 2013-01-23T08:03:39.000Z

You are too accultured to sunny Florida, otherwise you would remember duck fur is good for EVERYTHING.

Dave_Perkins · 2013-01-23T08:24:49.000Z

Ducks spent like a zillion years perfecting their insulation. They can sit in ice water and be like what’s up yo.

RichVR · 2013-01-23T14:05:26.000Z

Yeah, until you dump some dish soap in the water near them. Then they sink like a rock.

Edit: I do not condone drowning ducks. I saw this in a Time/Life science book as a kid.

RichVR · 2013-01-23T22:12:57.000Z

Happened today:

Wife (upstairs, working remotely at her job): What happened to the WiFi?

Me: What?

Wife: The WiFi is down. I have no connection.

Me: (on a laptop downstairs) I have a connection. I have a strong signal. Wait I’ll come upstairs and check. Did you try a repair?

Wife: Yes. It says cannot find any WiFi.

Me: Then that’s your shitty work laptop. Maybe your internal wifi died. Wait I’ll come up and check.

So I do all the usual stuff. But her laptop can not find any wifi. Even when I try to find any local wifi broadcast, not found. This should have told me something. But I’m assuming a bad laptop. So I go downstairs and check my wireless setup via 192.168.0.1.

Then something occurs to me. I yell upstairs. “Honey did you push any buttons on your laptop?”

“No, of course not.”

So I go back upstairs. “Honey, where is the switch or button that allows your laptop to connect to the network? Did you turn of the “radio” that allows your laptop to connect to the wifi?”

“No! Of course not. Wait. Radio? I turned off the sound a while ago.”

So the button she pushed was the WiFi button. It’s right next to the volume buttons on her shitty laptop.

Brad_Grenz · 2013-01-24T01:17:26.000Z

I have diagnosed that same wifi problem many times for members of my family.

RichVR · 2013-01-26T02:09:23.000Z

Others may disagree, but sometimes you just have to eat a couple hotdogs at 5AM. YMMV.

CLWheeljack · 2013-01-26T11:11:14.000Z

RichVR:

Others may disagree, but sometimes you just have to eat a couple hotdogs at 5AM. YMMV.

That depends on if you’re staying up late, or getting up early.

In the former case, Ok. In the latter case… Ew.