A Boy Calling 2015-03-12

[Thor]

LINK

A further complication? That's just what we needed!

And the good news is that no one seems like they are ready to gather a mob with torches to go and tar and feather Nadette--due in no small part to the fact that Atsali was all "Whatevs!" about the catsuit incident.

The bad news is that this boy on the phone is almost certainly Jacob, and unless he's calling to cancel, he'll be the cause of ore pain for Nadette.

[GlytchMeister]

Somebody mentioned that sirens can shrug off romantic affection or that Atsali was doing so partly due to her siren nature. I can't remember who, but they get a cookie.

Ugh. This is a bad time for stuff to be added in. I already mentioned this issue was like staring too closely at a fractal. Adding more elements to the story will just make the thing into a three-dimentional fractal.

[Thor]

The parenting class mention is a nice touch. Since Kath is over 20 years away from childhood, I was wondering how she was able to dredge up such good parenting skills out of the blue. And the fact that they have a supernatural bent helps explain how she has managed to keep body and soul together over the last few months.

[Sgt. Howard]

Somebody mentioned that sirens can shrug off romantic affection or that Atsali was doing so partly due to her siren nature. I can't remember who, but they get a cookie.

Ugh. This is a bad time for stuff to be added in. I already mentioned this issue was like staring too closely at a fractal. Adding more elements to the story will just make the thing into a three-dimensional fractal.

... fractals AREN'T three dimensional...?

[jwhouk]

Somebody mentioned that sirens can shrug off romantic affection or that Atsali was doing so partly due to her siren nature. I can't remember who, but they get a cookie.

Ugh. This is a bad time for stuff to be added in. I already mentioned this issue was like staring too closely at a fractal. Adding more elements to the story will just make the thing into a three-dimentional fractal.

Kid, haven't you seen the Omnibus? This is like storyline #279!

[GlytchMeister]

... fractals AREN'T three dimensional...?

Ehhh... As best as I understand it:

Well, the classic Mandelbrot Set isn't really 3-D. It's just a rediculously complicated 2-D image.

Well, strictly speaking, it's a kind of 2.5-D, the added .5th dimension being "roughness"... Sorta. Look, it's spacey-wasey, ok?

A three dimensional fractal would be like a sphere with a bunch of smaller spheres budding off of it, and each one of those has a bunch of smaller spheres, and then those spheres have more spheres...

But it's not exactly 3-D, no is it? More like 3.5-D... Or something. Maybe 3.7? Or 3.55? Because it's rough... But along three different axis!

[insert twilight zone theme song here]

[GlytchMeister]

Kid, haven't you seen the Omnibus? This is like storyline #279!

Well, I meant this particular storyline is turning into a 3.5-D fractal.

All of Wapsi Square is an entirely different universe, infinitely large, infinitely complex and beautiful and fun and COOL. Also magic.

Because all universes that contain nice people are cool, that's why.

[My2Cents]

I guess we are in for an "Ohmygod! I'm late for my date" moment. And it will be the Friday Cliffhanger.

[shadowinthelight]

Good for her. Even if Kath was an experienced mother, classes would still be a good idea when raising a different species.

[AnotherFairportfan]

The parenting class mention is a nice touch. Since Kath is over 20 years away from childhood, I was wondering how she was able to dredge up such good parenting skills out of the blue. And the fact that they have a supernatural bent helps explain how she has managed to keep body and soul together over the last few months.

If Wapsi Time is contemporaneous with our own time, then Katherine is something like thirty years away from Atsali's age.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Have some 3D Mandelbrot derivatives:





...and then there's this one:



...which was generated with this software (which i plan to download and check out).

[Opus the Poet]

So Atsali is oblivious to Nadette's amorous intentions, and there is a boy on the phone. Ready for round 2?

[GlytchMeister]

insert 3-D Mandelbrot derivatives here

I either want those to be made in a videogame or I want a planet to be terra formed into that, just so I can explore them.

Those.
Are.
EPIC!

The first two look like Scanning Electron Microscope images of super-cool-as-crap things, and the last one needs to be put into Minecraft. It just has to. Before the month is out, I need that seed.

[oldmanmickey]

This is starting to sound like a soap opera, "as the stomach turns"

[Thor]

This is starting to sound like a soap opera, "as the stomach turns"

"Starting to"?

The interpersonal drama has been going on for longer than the supernatural stuff has!

[AnotherFairportfan]

insert 3-D Mandelbrot derivatives here

I either want those to be made in a videogame or I want a planet to be terra formed into that, just so I can explore them.

Heh. Have you read Alan Dean Foster's Sentenced to Prism, about a corporate troubleshooter sent to a world where all life has fractal extensions into other dimensions (as i recall it - i read it thirty years ago) - a world which the Corporation he works for is planning illegally exploit?

===========

The third reminds me of Roger Dean's cover for Yes's Yessongs:



or Roger Dean's art in general:

[Sidhekin]

... fractals AREN'T three dimensional...?

Ehhh... As best as I understand it:

Well, the classic Mandelbrot Set isn't really 3-D. It's just a rediculously complicated 2-D image.

Well, strictly speaking, it's a kind of 2.5-D, the added .5th dimension being "roughness"... Sorta. Look, it's spacey-wasey, ok?

A three dimensional fractal would be like a sphere with a bunch of smaller spheres budding off of it, and each one of those has a bunch of smaller spheres, and then those spheres have more spheres...

But it's not exactly 3-D, no is it? More like 3.5-D... Or something. Maybe 3.7? Or 3.55? Because it's rough... But along three different axis!

[insert twilight zone theme song here]

Well, yeah, fractals are so named because they have a dimensionality expressed as a fraction. But a plane set doesn't suddenly jump out of 2D, just like a linear set doesn't jump out of 1D. But a curve, now …

For a fractal curve, this dimension might be log(3)/log(2), or if you like, log₂ (3). Not that log₂ (3)D isn't still a mouthful.

But the boundary of the Mandelbrot set, this fraction turns out to be integral, equal to 2. Yup, the circumference of the Mandelbrot set has the same dimensionality as the set itself. That's kinda like saying, if you could draw a Mandelbrot set on a sheet of paper, both its area and its circumference could be measured in square inches!

There is really nothing special about a plane figure being 2D. Most of them are. But for a circumference to be 2D – that's notable.

[Qivittoq89]

"Be careful with her." Be careful with her how? Like in the "She's taking advantage of our friendship" be careful or the "You're blind to what she's feeling, don't hurt her" be careful? Aargh, my head hurts...

[illiad]

Somebody mentioned that sirens can shrug off romantic affection or that Atsali was doing so partly due to her siren nature. I can't remember who, but they get a cookie.

Ugh. This is a bad time for stuff to be added in. I already mentioned this issue was like staring too closely at a fractal. Adding more elements to the story will just make the thing into a three-dimensional fractal.

... fractals AREN'T three dimensional...?

well , only because humans cannot see ALL ELEVEN dimensions!!!...

But remember, Mandelbrot is only a tiny section of fractals... there's Sierpinski, koch.... and more...

http://3dprint.com/50133/3d-printed-fractals-2/

[DilyV]

Kudos to Kath for not flying off the handle and judging the situation with incomplete information. Still... that contrite look on Atsali's face today and yesterday's search for the truth... I still say she may not be as oblivious as she lets on.