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#1 Re: Martian Chronicles » Music » 2005-09-15 22:19:49

Hey that rocks!

Which track did you write those for?

Currently, I am working on another score, but school has been too busy to allow me to complete it yet.

#2 Re: Martian Chronicles » Music » 2005-08-13 20:42:39

Hey guys!

Sorry for being inactive this past while, but I have been uber busy. To make up for it, in the first bit of time I had free, I thought I would finish off the composition I have been working on with the programme Sibelius 3.


It is simply entitled A Minor. I tried to make it feel chaotic and un-easy. The real version is actually 39 beats per minute faster than this, but Sibelius saves midi files at the default tempo of 100 beats per minute. (I don't have the software to record a .wav or .mp3 file.)

I also found the first ever thing I finished on Sibelius. It is called the Final Movement. I originally invisioned it as the 4th movement to some mega-opus thing, but I never got around to writing the other three. To make up for that, it is in a wacky time signature. I love wack time signatures. Also, something is messed up with the ending; not sure what it is, and I can't be bothered fixing it.


What do you guys think?

#3 Re: Martian Chronicles » Volleyball Commentry » 2005-08-01 23:15:45

Hello! This is the commentry thread for Volleyball, so you can talk about stuff happening in there without interrupting the flow of the game.

Additionally, remember to add the genre of any submissions you make onto the list for reference purposes.


The list so far:

[Lovecraftian Mythos Tale]

#4 Re: Martian Chronicles » Volleyball » 2005-08-01 23:13:21

Hello!

Clark asked me to set-up a game of volleyball. I meant to do this earlier, but this is the first oppertunity I have to do it in where I actually feel like doing it.  tongue


Ok!

The basic premise of the Volleyball game is to improve your writing skill by continuing a storyline much like the Round Robin game currently running; however, Volleyball is different in that each post must be of a different genre. I know sci-fi is the preference here, but a good author should be able to write any genre.

There are a few rules; nothing too complex or anything:

1) Each post should be a different genre, or sub-genre than what has been posted. After a while, most of the obvious ones are taken, then you have to get a bit wacky!   tongue There will be a bit of leway as the used genre list increases, so don't worry too much about that. I will try and start a list of used genres for reference...

2) You have one hour with which to make your entry, so when you intend to post, you simply put up a message saying something along the lines of "Ok, my turn" or something like that so people know not to double-post you. You then write whatever contributions you wish in EDIT mode (and of course, delete the part of the message pertaining to your intention to post).

3) Contributions can be however long or short you wish, provided they can be written within the time frame of an hour. (If after an hour, for whatever reason, someone has not finished their addition, then it is opened up again to whoever wants to post).

4) You can take the story in whatever direction you please, as long as it reasonably follows with the storyline (your discretion here, but pretty much anything is go, as long as you don't start a whole new story or something), but of course, there will be lots of strange directions as the genres change.

5) Posts can be as serious or as humourous as you desire.

6) HAVE FUN! Making writing practice fun is what Volleyball is about!


So... if anyone wants ideas or more information or whatever, follow this http://www.ibdof.com/viewtopic.php?t=2382]link


Sweet, so I guess I should start things off with something quick (opening night for the school Production of the Merchant of Venice is in about 3 hours and I need dinner and to get to school and amp'ed up).


[Lovecraftian Mythos Tale]



I want to tell this from the beginning; I ask that you listen and do not interrupt me. I fear that if interrupted, I would lose my chain of thought and the courage which took years to muster. You, Sven, must keep this knowledge to yourself; there are those who would wish you harm if they ever find out what I am about to tell you. But you must not ignore the lessons you will be taught; you must use this knowledge to deliever as many people as you can and you must do so subtley! Our survival depends on it.

Well, you remember that Ihsahn, do you not? Yes... I first met him back when I was...

#5 Re: Martian Chronicles » Creative Ideas - Grab Bag! » 2005-07-27 22:34:23

I showed the entire story to a friend and after she decided that There was something wrong about writing such a story, to the point she totaly freeked out over it. It questioned the reality she was living in to protect herself from what was happening in the real world. She stopped talking to me after that.

Isn't that interesting?

My favourite author L.E. Modesitt, Jr. writes storys that force you to think about what you would do, for example, would you kill millions of people in order to prevent a twisted regime from murdering billions if you were the only person who could make that decision - and there is a twist, you have been blessed/cursed with an extremely long life, so whatever decision you make, you will have to leave through the consequences.

Thus why he will never get on the Bestsellers list; He forces people to think, which many do their uttermost to avoid. But in saying that, he has many, many extremely dedicated fans.

#6 Re: Martian Chronicles » Creative Ideas - Grab Bag! » 2005-07-25 22:36:54

Building on the thought of a villian winning; to move away from the good guys vs bad guys sorta thing, give the protagonist some kind of negative trait which impacts largely on how he relates to people (but not enough so that we aren't turned off the story), and also have the antagonist have some endearing traits as well. For example, a 'goody' who is a compulsive theif versus a 'baddy' who champions animal rights, or something like that.

You can go further, and make your otherwise moral character put in a situation where they have to make a very hard choice (eg in L.E. Modesitt, Jr's Ethos Effect), or make us see the antagonist's point of view, and make that point of view just in their eyes (For example a kind and moral tyrant, who is forced by whatever forces to be harsh on his/her kingdom).

Goody vs Baddy stories suck! It is the amount of grayness in between the extremes that makes a storyline interesting.  smile

#7 Re: Martian Chronicles » Creative Ideas - Grab Bag! » 2005-07-25 03:31:34

One thing that we do in another http://www.ibdof.com/]forum which I regular (which is a book forum, hehe) is something called Volleyball. Each person has a score and at the end of the week, the person with the highest score wins a "sherlock" (which is just a little scoring system in place to give things a little friendly competition.


The basic outline is here. It could be changed a bit for purposes here, but just as a reference...

1. GENRE HOPPING: Just to make things interesting, each new post must switch to a different genre style (i.e, Sci Fi, Horror, Gumshoe Mystery, Romance, Fantasy, Juvenile, Comedy, Anime/Cartoon, Superheroes, etc.). You must announce that genre at the top of your post, before actually beginning.

2. CONTINUITY: A given post must end abruptly, in mid-story, with an elipsis (...) and the next person to post MUST pick up immediately where the previous post left off, using their new genre style - after that, all bets are off. You can steer the story wherever you wish, being as conservative, or as crazy as you desire.

3. TURNS: Participants are not allowed to respond to their own posts - after you post, you must wait for at least 1 other person to post before posting again. To avoid crossing posts, we'll use a 'token key' system - if the thread appears open, and waiting for a response, post "OK, MY TURN" ... after that, you have up to TWO HOURS to make your post. If more than one hour goes by, it's thrown open to all comers who wish to declare it's THEIR turn. However, if nobody else has claimed the turn by the time your delayed post is ready, then go ahead and post it.
n.b. - once you have grabbed your turn - for your post simply "edit" your turn lock. Dropped tokens will at some stage be edited out...

4. EFFORT: Dont trivialize - put a little effort into making your post interesting & entertaining, otherwise there's no point in playing. Be as funny, or as serious as you like. The whole point is to have a little mutual fun bouncing around a constantly evolving plot - like a crowd with a beach ball.

5. LENGTH: There is no minimum or maximum length for any given post - provided you can write it in less than 1 hour.

6. RATING: The forum is essentially PG13 - we will exercise some lattitude in this area - but if you wish to cross the line you do so at the risk of censorship!


Scoring Rules:

1] Post count [This is more for keeping an easy eye on active participants]
2] Originality [has this material been used before on this thread]
3] Continuity [Did this post successfully close on the preceding post]
4] Rule Breakers [should be obious... ]
5] Bonus Points [WOTD, answer to other game (MQG, etc...) etc....]

Each post is eligable for 1 point in each category - The idea with category 4] of course is to keep your score low

Additionally, while the Volleyball round is running, there is a commentry section so that people can talk about how the game is running, possible storylines, scoring etc etc. At the end of the year, the thread is closed and compiled into one big file called Volleyball *Year* for future reference.

That's how things are run over in the ibdof.com; can be changed etc to fit our purposes.

#8 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Sono-Fusion » 2005-07-24 00:38:48

I am soooooo becoming a Nuclear Engineer when I finish school!

#9 Re: Not So Free Chat » Battlestar Galactica - SO what do you think about the new show? » 2005-07-24 00:26:40

I was excited when it was announced in New Zealand that the new Galatica was to be shown. However, when it arrived, I was sourly dissappointed. IMO, after the first epsiode, the storyline advanced like a turtle, and it became a chore to watch it. I also thought that random cylon lady was extremely annoying and a bit... random. I didn't watch past the 2nd.

#11 Re: Not So Free Chat » What classical composer are you? - Quiz thingy » 2005-07-14 17:04:34

http://www.gning.org/composer.html]Which classical composer are you?

You are:


Richard Wagner

This German opera composer was unexcelled both in self-importance and in artistic ambition -- he worked on a bigger scale than anyone else dared to tackle.

After changing an answer I became...

Igor Stravinsky

He revolutionized ballet with his powerful and visceral music, which brought popular audiences fully into the twentieth century.

Woohoo, my two fav composers!

#12 Re: Not So Free Chat » Political Potpourri VII - The Seventh Seal? » 2005-07-14 16:58:55

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162 … 78,00.html

The coordinated attacks by a car bomber and two men strapped with explosives on Thursday rocked the capital just one day after a horrific blast at a poor east Baghdad neighborhood that killed as many as 27 people, including a U.S. soldier and 18 youths who had swarmed around a U.S. Humvee to get candy and toys.

#13 Re: Not So Free Chat » What Are You Doing? » 2005-07-11 14:12:50

Has anyone read the book 'The Pagan Christ'?

#15 Re: Civilization and Culture » Music on Mars - To what will the Martians jam? » 2005-07-09 18:26:01

tongue

Or maybe you could setup microphones and amps outside to get a different sound from the thin Martian atmosphere!

#16 Re: Civilization and Culture » Music on Mars - To what will the Martians jam? » 2005-07-09 18:04:14

big_smile

Hehehe, definately!
...Get some weird radio-filter vocals recorded from inside their environmental suit happening.

#17 Re: Civilization and Culture » Music on Mars - To what will the Martians jam? » 2005-07-08 17:53:54

I forsee an underground culture based around a new musical genre known as "red metal"; in much the same way that black metal is inspired by the fjords, forests and darkness of Scandinavia, red metal will draw its influences from the endless red landscapes and isolated communities of Mars.
:band:

rockon.gifrockon.gifrockon.gif


tongue

#18 Re: Youth Group / Educational Outreach » Degrees/subjects for future Martian colonists - What will I need to know? » 2004-02-02 22:49:01

Soz for taking a while to reply - I find it difficult to keep active due to school and stuff.

Science:

-Geology/Geophysics.

Yup, that's what I'm ganna be doing. I'm also interested in power supply so I'll do some engineering course on that also.

But if I were you I'd never give up NZ for Mars, mate.  Heaven on Earth.

Yeah, I suppose NZ is quite nice and where I live at the moment has a lot of green and stuff but A lot of NZers take it for granted - we produce more waste per person per year than the average American does. :-\ It really sucks arse seeing all the rubbish on the fields after lunch and going around doing my bit to pick it up (while getting laughed at).

Have been thirsting for a Speight's for some time now...  or better yet a Monteith's.

Ewww!! I can't see how anyone could drink that stuff! tongue

A kiwi would be perfect for a Mars mission; in keeping with the NZ spirit of adventure, I reckon. Y'know, it really does surprise me to see the many New Zealanders enthused in the space industry. Really great to see.

smile  Hehe, yeah, there are a few of us around.

#20 Re: Not So Free Chat » Good books you've just read » 2003-12-13 23:01:56

Not so much a book but a very interesting, must read article on environmental fanatics and stuff like that. Nice bit of indirect Greenpeace bashing. smile

It's a very nice site actually - Indymedia, I hadn't heard of it before now, has anyone else heard of it?


Remarks to the Commonwealth Club by Michael Crichton

#21 Re: Human missions » Reasons against Mars Direct » 2003-12-13 18:51:17

we're ready now, let's go!

Amen brother.

#22 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » New Discoveries *2* - ...Extraplanetary, deep space, CONTINUED » 2003-12-12 23:45:58

There was an interesting doco on the Discovery Channel in NZ (and Oz presumably) last night.

Said basically that we are over due for a magnetic reversal by likw 500k years (usually happens every 200k years but it has been over 700k since it last occured).

From estimates and studies etc the mag field is at about 10% of normal due to the abundance of areas where the magnetic field goes in/comes out from the core (currently there are two of these - the poles, actually, they said that there is an area in the south Atlantic where the magnetic thing is opposite than the area around it).

Suddenly the magnetic field kinda flips but it stays unstable for a very long time (thousands of years) where North and South move very often. They used the example of a mountain range thing which was formed my lava flows where the bottom was aligned towards the current North and the top was aligned towards the south. The interesting part was in-between the rocks varied to a large extent. There was one flow were in the time it was cooling (bout 10 days) the location of North varied by 60 DEGREES!!!!!! The whole instablility thing was like around 5,000 years or so.

For the effects, they estimated that at sea-level cosmic radiation will double causing like 100,000 more deaths per year via cancer and you may be able to view the northern lights in Central America and Europe!

But dont worry, it won't happen for a couple of thousand years. Anyway, the Earth just went through a period of high magnetic field strength. I cant remember how long the period was but there was a big bulge on the graph.

So yeah, i wouldn't really worry about it. Our core isn't going to freeze ending the field entirely and letting the solar wind steal our atmosphere.  big_smile

As a side note, apparently Mars' magnetic field was like 30x times stronger than the Earth's before it shut off.

So yeah, I hope I informed someone smile Sorry for mistakes etc, but my parents rushed me off the computer.

Rock on all.

#23 Re: Martian Politics and Economy » Nations or World Government on Mars - Nations or World Government? » 2003-12-12 22:10:05

Multy party is more difficult, for sure, but it works by a lot of negociating and meeting-each other-halfways...

That is kind of what's happened in New Zealand since we have introduced MMP (which was designed to give more power to the little parties). The main 'Opposition' party almost has less power than the other randoms and the main party in power (Labour) is a minority which needs to rely on a coalition with two other parties in order to pass laws.

so arguably(?) more people are 'happy' with the results...

haha, but I don't think the people are more happy. The right-wingers hate with the government and it lifted the moratorium on GE with like 70-80% of the country opposed to it as well as contraversy about indigenous rights to the foreshore and seabed going on etc. But no-one has the power to really do a damn thing about it.

The NZ Labour party can pick and from the two other parties in the coalition to pass laws so when the Greens are opposed (as with GE) they turned to the United Party and so managed to scrape it through. The right-wing vote is seperated between 3-4 parties who have seperate agendas so therefore they are useless.  As there are only two left wing parties and a central party - which are the ones who are in power - even though they disagree regularly, laws still get past because they have a higher percentage of votes per party than the opposition.

Well, that's what MMP does.

bmk:

The colonization of Mars in my opinion should reflect a true open society, with free markets (laisez faire) and very minimal government intrusion.

Wouldn't a form of socialism be better than laissez-faire capitalism for Mars? I'd imagine that in the first colonies people would be living together with shared resources etc.

I'm not too sure on how Capitalism works compared with Socialism, but would it be possible to sorta have a mix of the two? Just wondering aloud...


edit: Welcome bmk!

#24 Re: Youth Group / Educational Outreach » Just to start a topic :) - stuff » 2003-12-06 17:04:00

Yo and welcome to the Mars Society forums!

i think im the youngest one here

Yup!

#25 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » New Discoveries *2* - ...Extraplanetary, deep space, CONTINUED » 2003-11-20 23:48:54

Hmmmmm, maybe this is the equivalent of solar indigestion.  Sol, how do you spell relief?

Comet size Quikeze

It's a bit old but it kinda fits with the joke. smile

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