Question You know you've been reading too much Whateley, when...

You know you've been reading too much Whateley, when...

you've read most of (or all) of the canon work and a good portion of the fan-fic as well and you start making your own, only to realize how poorly you do at writing!

Malady wrote: You know you've been reading too much Whateley, when...

When you name your son Ayla Jade.

When you decide to take up Parkour even though you are 5'4" and weigh 250 lbs.

When you wake up every morning and silently ask if anyone is there your head with you.

When you stare at you kitchen appliances to see if you are inspired to combine them.

When you wonder if the President has Diedrick's.

When you see a pictures from a fashion show and wonder if Jericho is infecting the world with his bad taste.

When someone says a wise crack too you and you ponder how would The Fabulous Imp respond...

When you Wish life was just a fraction as interesting as the world of Whateley!

Valentine wrote: When you wonder if the President has Diedrick's.

When you wonder if the President was created by someone with Dindriks.

Anne wrote: you've read most of (or all) of the canon work and a good portion of the fan-fic as well and you start making your own, only to realize how poorly you do at writing!

And then trashing it refusing to try and submit it for ridicule.

I, at least, am not so thin-skinned as not to submit my horrid writing. Either that or I'm utterly arrogant and think that it is worthy of being seen even when I probably should trash it!

Not so much thin skinned as appalled as to not like the dribble that comes from ones fingers as they try to present oneself as being competent in its abilities and finding themselves lacking.

Oh I'm very guilty of creating drivel, and even posting it. Long ago (I'm not sure when since I've got close to 40 years of long ago to go over...) someone told me to save even scraps that I thought were worthless. At the time I think I'd jotted a bit of blank verse on a highschool desktop with a pencil. The teacher If I recall correctly said to use a pen and transfer it to paper. Then she made me complete the task I'd started of removing the penciled verse from the desktop. I have lost lots of bits and pieces because my life is at best chaotic, but from that time to this, I've never deliberately destroyed another bit of my writing. I strongly suggest you do the same. Some may look utterly childish in a year or two, others will show you a new way to proceed later or show you a direction you shouldn't go, or map a bit of area that you know holds the Swamp of Despond....

There is drivel that is utter nonsense when compared to the spittle that comes out of ones mouth. One is coherent as its in formed into some working state whereas the utter lack of cohesion one leaks from the corners of ones mouth fails to give rise to what one is trying to say even if collected, thus it sloshes around only to be discarded as utter uselessness.

Just dump the ideas to the bad idea thread. That's what I do.

Valentine wrote: When you wake up every morning and silently ask if anyone is there your head with you.

I don't ask, because there already is.

When you're convinced you have your own BIT and it just happens to be opposite your assigned gender.

When you start instinctively classifying supers from other universes with the Whateley system.

Angeldude wrote: When you start instinctively classifying supers from other universes with the Whateley system.

Oh god I do this all the time. Which is especially problematic when I developed my own ranking system that I use in most of my notes on things like superheroes for campaigns I run. Especially since the two systems don't translate well.

When you go to submit a Bad Idea, and realize that you already submitted that idea - 2 years ago.

You know you've read too much whateley when you build a 1:120 scale model of tiny tim with motors, sensors and a tiny pneumatic air gun. No seriously, I did it for the shits at giggles. I assume it's four legged with a BFG on top??? Mine's about the size of a manhole cover. Guess I'm putting my mechatronics degree to good use!!!

CrazyMinh wrote: You know you've read too much whateley when you build a 1:120 scale model of tiny tim with motors, sensors and a tiny pneumatic air gun. No seriously, I did it for the shits at giggles. I assume it's four legged with a BFG on top??? Mine's about the size of a manhole cover. Guess I'm putting my mechatronics degree to good use!!!

I think it's described as bipedal in "May Your Death Be Sweet":

Bardue watched. It was impossible. It was a fucking miracle, is what it was. But Tiny Tim lifted its foot.

And it fell over.

The goddamn giant robot couldn’t walk. Everyone on campus knew that. It had armaments in its arms and head, but they wouldn’t engage until you opened the roof and operated the lift platform. As those Syndicate bastards found out at Halloween.

But it could fall over. And whoever was helping him out knew that too. It lifted its right foot just the correct way so it would fall forward and to the right.

Actually...in engineering terms that isn't really a problem. Sure, we haven't done it. But it is possible to build giant robots. It's just that the cost of doing so would be astronomical, and the onlyreal use is military. Pacific Rim-style Jaegers are not really a practical method of waging war, unless you want to fight monsters with monsters of your own.

If you liked Pacific Rim, listed to Miracle of Sound's song 'The Crush' on YouTube. It's F**king Awsome

Plus coordination is pretty simple. Structrual??? Hard, but not entirely impossible. A team of adult engineers could do it in a couple of years on paper. Maybe four to built, and billions of dollars to buy parts for. As for the Height to volume...seriously??? Engineers SOLVE problems, not CREATE them. That was one of the first things I heard in a lecture. Sure, you can set yourself a challenge. But the objective is to solve it in a cost-effective, logical and efficient manner, not to overly complicate a already difficult task. Tiny TIm's concept is pretty stupid, as even if it was impossible in real life, it wouldn't be. Really, it wouldn't. Humans build skyscrapers with little issue, so why should a massive walking robot be any different??? I bet you cavemen wouldn't recognise even a utility hut, so why would a problem difficult for us in 2018 be difficult to a 2006 with holograms, advanced robots, AI's, energy weapons, smartphones (before the iPhone), advanced genetech, cybernetics, psi grenades...

The big problem with a giant robot isnt building it - you'll need exotic materials for the structure, but nothing impossible.
The problem is the energy requirement for it to move. Its horrendous (a n uclear reactor wont cut it).

Some numbers.
Lets take a 2m tall human, weihing 100kg (rough numbers)
A robot equivalent would probably weight more, but at least in theory could be similar

Now lets scale our robot up to 40m
It now weighs 800 tons. Thats a lot of metal to move around.
Nuclear reactors are heavy beasts, we really want something lightweight and exotic, or the increasing weight of the power supply will outweigh (sic) the mass to be moved.
And preferably we dont want our robot to irradiate the countryside.

Also we need to make the feet BIG. Or the ground pressure will sink it knee deep.

Its not impossible, just really really difficult, which is why Tim would make a good student project.

Another factor is that while potentially doable, it would take a dedicated, focused team. Tiny Tim does not have a dedicated or focused team. He has a kitchen full of teenage chefs experiencing constant churn as the experienced ones graduate and get replaced by newbies, and some of their ingredients and methodologies are fundamentally incompatible or stop working after they're gone.

This is because Whateley Academy is not in the business of building giant robots. Tiny Tim is not a serious attempt at making something useful. He is instead a playground upon which the students can flex their creative muscles in a way that doesn't involve making excessive numbers of death rays or other fun and disruptive things. His constant flux and perpetual incompletion are features, not flaws.

Sometimes, a group of students can learn more from working on a project like Tiny Tim - even though it's theoretically impossible without devises - because they have to push themselves to learn more about the subject. So I see it as a good 'challenge' project. Kind of like the biodevisors working on a Frankenstein's monster

Even if Tiny Tim were viable as a concept, there are more things to consider. You don't just want a robot to be able to walk, but to be able to traverse uneven terrain without falling over. And you don't want it to ever fall over unless you've put in additional work to make it able to right itself and stand up again.

Well, there are a bunch of smart people working on the software and feedback systems for the "walking upright on uneven terrain" and "get up by itself" parts. Just have a look at the Boston Dynamics Youtube channel. But square-cube law is not your friend -- the larger the 'bot, the harder the problem becomes.

YKWYBRTMW when you start playing Fallout 4, go to the nearest settlement to the approximate location of whateley and build a settlement based on the school, with a cubic crystal hall, a basketball court for the quad and a cottage called Poe

When, in a dream, some guy sneaks up behind you and grabs your chest and your first thought is "Do I even have a chest for him to grab?"

Second guessing my sex while being sexually assaulted is not a dream I'm going to forget for a while.

Angeldude wrote: When, in a dream, some guy sneaks up behind you and grabs your chest and your first thought is "Do I even have a chest for him to grab?"

Second guessing my sex while being sexually assaulted is not a dream I'm going to forget for a while.

When you said that, I thought it'd be more "Am I even human" or "Am I intangible?"

'Cause everyone has a chest... But dreams and inaccuracies of language... I got what you meant, and yeah, that would be memorable!

Malady wrote:

Angeldude wrote: When, in a dream, some guy sneaks up behind you and grabs your chest and your first thought is "Do I even have a chest for him to grab?"

Second guessing my sex while being sexually assaulted is not a dream I'm going to forget for a while.

When you said that, I thought it'd be more "Am I even human" or "Am I intangible?"

"Should I tell him about the 'security features'?



Na. He'll find out soon enough."

Malady wrote: "Am I intangible?"

Sadly, I have not found a time when I have been, but it is one of the things I usually test for. On the other hand, 11 fingers on one hand is a pretty definitive result. Telekinesis and flight are about as cool as you'd imagine they'd be, but TK is much less cool if you drop something right after pulling it towards yourself. My dream self is about as clumsy as my real self.

elrodw wrote: Sometimes, a group of students can learn more from working on a project like Tiny Tim - even though it's theoretically impossible without devises - because they have to push themselves to learn more about the subject. So I see it as a good 'challenge' project. Kind of like the biodevisors working on a Frankenstein's monster

Elrodw: I don't even want to think what you have brewing in the bio-labs in the basement of your subconcious, as no matter what i think of, you come up with something worse...

When you start seeing the characters everywhere!

Lady Astarte for example.