Haha! Well, if it makes you feel better Dash, tomorrow anyway you’ll probably be having more fun than us. My poor husband goes in for an endoscopy. And it’s his birthday...The rest of the time though we’ll admittedly be watching murder mysteries and eating mass amounts of Asian food ;p

I'm back.

I must offer my deepest apologies for my complete disappearance. I'll try to catch up and see if there's a chance to post within the next day or two.

Glad you're back, Rosabelle! We missed you!

In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 496):

Glad you're back.

I'm back, too! And I don't even know where I went! I'd say I was on a Nirvanitol 7-hour vacation, but I can't afford that stuff!

I may have taken a wrong turn in Albuquerque and wound up in the Twilight Zone. Not, forbid, the Saga!

Glad you are both back.

In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 498):

That's a relief.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Hallowe'en. The weather here was sinister --rain, fog and high winds. No children showed up for trick or treat on our street, but fortunately the city had a Hallowe'en party for children at the city building which seemed to be well-attended.

In reply to Grimsby Baskerville (msg # 502):

Nobody showed up at my door...I ate all the peanut butter cups...I blame a Martian Conspiracy!

No one ever comes to my house either. Our street is very dark. I still bought a ton of candy just in case. Unfortunately it’s mostly gone...the consequence of having a bad day and a ton of candy at my disposal...

I won a charity raffle prize which consisted of a basket of candy, and then we got all the Hallowe'en candy, so we are eating our way through vast amounts of candy.

In reply to Grimsby Baskerville (msg # 505):

I can relate, Marian!  My Sister in Misery!

I, too, fell victim to the horrible consequences of having a ton of candy at my disposal and ... having a ton of candy to dispose of ... {buuuurp!}

On a different subject...

Even though Dash isn't a part of this discussion, a thought occurred, after reading this...



     If I understand this right--either after hearing ("receiving") a Galton Whistle frequency that he's been equipped to recognize ("programmed"), or after being directed to perform this function (including self-initiation of such)--Thorn will emit a Galton Whistle frequency specific to each member of the Team (including, perhaps, a "General Call"?) which, upon the receipt of Thorns whistle-call by some kind of device upon said individual, that individuals device will then auto-respond.  Thorn will continue to whistle-listen-follow-repeat this process until he has searched out the location of the individual?

     Is that the gist of it?

     I find the concept wonderful, but I wonder if there might not be a simpler way to do it.  As proposed, this system would require the development and creation of...

1. A device for Thorn to not only "hear" Galton Whistle frequencies but, as stated, identify and distinguish between several different frequencies in that range.  With Clockwork tech, this would likely involve the use of several crystal chips, each of which vibrated only at the specific frequency (like the way crystal radios tuned to different RF channels).

2. A pneumatic device capable of "blowing" a Galton Whistle at several different and distinct audio frequencies--individually.  Admittedly, this could be as easy as just having a rotating cylinder equipped with several whistles, each producing a single frequency, attached to a spring-work bellows.  But Thorn will still need a clockwork system to select the needed whistle.

3. A guidance system capable of following, and adjusting course, to follow the responding whistle-calls.  As Thorn--presumably--already has some kind of guidance system, this step may only involve making adjustments/upgrades to an existing system, whereas #1 and #2, abouve, are involving the creation of entirely new systems, from scratch.

4. A device for the repetition of #1 and #2, but limited to recognizing a single incoming whistle-call (unless a General Call option is also used, then 2 whistle-calls would be recognized), and then broadcasting only a single outgoing whistle-call.  One such device must be constructed for each Team member.  And consider just how small this could really be made to--I don't think this is going to fit in a tie or hat pin, or even in a ring or brooch, for that matter.  A pocket watch, maybe...

     This is all Weird Clockwork Tech!  I'm not saying it's impossible!  I'm saying it's Impossible for Anyone Else!!  ...And I'm pointing out how complex it's going to be to create the devices you've been discussing.

     Perhaps, if Hugo were to give Mercy a double serving of orange juice with her breakfast, Mercy might recall that suitcase-sized, battery powered Hertzian device that we captured from the spanish Lady Vril scientist we defeated back in Graustark...?  Y'know...the device that looked like it had components of both a telegraph and a stock-ticker?

     It looks a lot like the gear on the zeppelin Black Talon, sitting in that tiny cabin right behind the Control Cabin--y'know, with the little sign on the door that reads "Hertz-Geräteraum"?  Oh, come on, you know the little room I'm talking about! (actually, I am kidding about this part ^_^ No such room exists aboard the black zeppelin we are currently aboard.  At least...no such room exists...as far as we know!)

     We believed that the gear in the case might produce and receive Hertzian signals, but we never fully studied it...?  Maybe Miss Rosabelle would find it interesting...?  Maybe a simple spark-gap transmitter could do for Thorn what you want to do, here, better than a pneumatically powered whistle system...?

     And remember that this is just an unofficial OOC discussion...? ^_^

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 507):

Oh, thank you! This is very helpful! I didn't have the words I needed to describe what I really want to do. And yes, you have the right idea of it. I just did a post, keeping things rather vague because, even after letting it sit for several hours, I couldn't think of the words I wanted.

I like #1, but that may have to be something to work on for the future. We need this to be something that can be done quickly.

Also, not sure the extent of workspaces on the zeppelin, so Mercy and Rosabelle may have ended up in the same room as Denholm, so he could potentially help, if you care to.

In reply to Rosabelle Descant Tinker-Plumist (msg # 508):

Well...traditionally--in "traditionally" laid-out Zeppelins--the compartments in the "Gondola" will be on the very small side.  Many of us born in the Late-20th Century really don't appreciate just how small a space folks at the turn of the 20th Century would put up with.  Well, okay, if you're in Europe, and live in a building that's over 100+ years old, you probably do understand ^_^

"Workrooms" in the gondola space are likely to be only slightly larger than the workbench--just enough extra room for you to stand or sit.  Up in the "Envelope"--sometimes called the "Hull", but I think only in the US--where the huge gas bags are, there are often several improvised work areas and storage areas located along the bottom of the structure, just abouve the gondola.  And, finally, in traditional zeppelins, the engines were often placed in pods that were located at the ends of open metal structures that placed them a few yards away from the hull--engineers had to carefully walk along these open frameworks, to get out to the engine pods, so the pods were equipped with their own toolkits, and often had a small amount of room for a workspace, within them.

The Hindenburg, and zeppelins like her, was the first "Liner" to move the passenger spaces up into the lower hull, absorbing as much of the gondola as possible into the hull structure, for Aerodynamic reasons (though "Aerodynamics", as a science, barely existed when she was built).

If you go to the "Game Map" link, abouve, and look at the Map for "Group R", you will see an image that GM StarMaster has given us, representative of what the Black Zeppelin--the Black Talon--we captured from the Vril sorta looks like.  As you can see from that image, the majority of our "crew-accessible spaces"--just like on Hindenburg-style liners--is located up in the lower hull, and the airship has very little of anything resembling a Gondola hanging under it.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 509):

Sorry about that last post.  Sometimes I just can't help myself... ^_^

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 510):

Oh, you're fine. :) Useful information!

And chance of posting a map of the interior of the vessel?  I am not sure where a galley or equivalent would be.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 507):

Neat.

In reply to Maybelle Diggory (msg # 513):

     The "Galley" would be adjacent to the "Salon"...of course...

 ^_~

Haha! Well thank heavens it's all gone now! Of course now there are holiday goodies around the corner...Sigh. I was doing really well until I had a bad day and got in a funk. Depression and candy are a bad combo...At least I'm out of my mood but now I have to undo everything I did to myself! The stupidest thing is I'm actually a personal trainer, hahahaha! Of course the bookmark to my exercise folder is a hershey's wrapper so that really tells you all you need to know about me...

In reply to Marian Holroy (msg # 515):

Holiday Season Alert!

It's that time of year again, so everyone hang on tight, it's gonna get bumpy...

Posting will likely get slower--but at least we can blame it on Family ^_^--so I hope y'all can hang on through this most miserable season, and see it through until after the New Year ^_^

No Drop Outs!!

I do not expect to be traveling during these holidays, aside from local events, so I should be able to keep up with posting.