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HeavyMetalSunshineSister

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  1. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    Here's a beautiful thing that seriously just happened in Starscape.
     
    ->Discover a Ragnarok-proofed bunker on a recently-defeated enemy's planet.
    ->Manage to break into the bunker.
    ->Tick off heavily armored security drones, who start shooting at you.
    ->Throw a grenade at them. You're in the bunker. They're in the bunker. The grenade's in the bunker.
     

    This is now you.
  2. HeavyMetalSunshineSister

    Clue

    By HeavyMetalSunshineSister,

    Rather a big fan of the movie Clue, but I've got strong opinions on the endings shown. Now, I understand it's meant to be truly ambiguous and, really, impossible to discern which is really the ending (the bit where it says one of them really is the real ending can be safely placed in the same category as communism, they're all equally right and wrong), but the third one, while entertaining, didn't convince me. For one thing, "Mr. Body"s motive for bringing them all there if he really is Mr. Body and not, in fact, Wadsworth, is suspect. Were he truly Mr. Body, and wishing to eliminate his spies, he would be more likely to take the option least likely to put himself at risk - not, as we see in the third ending, the one most likely to put himself at risk. Furthermore, what motive would "Mr. Body" if he really is the butler and not Mr. Body as he was shown to be in the unambiguous portions of the film, have to pretend to be Mr. Body, considering he was in a room full of people with perfect motive to kill him? No amount of money from his employer could be enough for that kind of suicide.
     
    Also, I firmly believe that only the true blackmailer could be that much of a sleazeball. He simply didn't have the personality for a butler - not deferential in the least, not polite, certainly not formal in any way. He did, however, have the personality of someone used to pulling the strings.
     
    I will reserve statement on whether I believe the first or second to be more likely. My goal here is simply to state that I believe the third ending to be the least probable (oh, and also to make sure my blog still works).
  3. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    It may or may not be a well-known fact that I despise rather a lot of Christmas music. Songs about Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Commie-Faced Reindeer, and all the rest never really did much for me. Maybe it's because I've heard the same batch of songs performed by either dead people or dead careers for my entire life, but the whole thing seems tired, unartistic, and, oh my I finally get to use this word, hackneyed.
     
    This is not to say that I hate all Christmas music - not by a long shot. No, it's just that there are three ways to do good Christmas music. The first is an old, truly traditional piece, faithfully played by an orchestra, string quartet, whatever - tunes like the Carol of the Bells, Greensleeves, We Three Kings, all good choices. If you want to put an orchestra in, knock yourself out - better an orchestra than whatever pop "star" thinks we don't look at them often enough lately - but I'm quite happy with instrumental versions, because a good composer can convey any intended feeling through instruments.
     
    Way number two is to take a traditional Christmas song - and I mean real traditional, not baby-boomers-grew-up-with-it-so-that-makes-it-a-tradtion - and interpret it in your own way to make a piece of music that's still good and doesn't sound like exactly the same thing but with a different voice doing it. Look up Jethro Tull's version of Greensleeves if you need an example.
     
    The third, final, and perhaps best, is to just write something new. Now, to do this, you have to be a good composer already, so don't all of you tweeny-boppers and dead-beat crooners go running off to hack something into the corpse of your genre. It's got to be two things. The first is a good song. It has to be something someone could justify listening to any time of the year. The second is, and if you didn't predict this go jump in a lake, a Christmas song. It has to have some undeniable relation to whatever you think Christmas is. Two very different examples have been done by Jethro Tull (Christmas Song and Another Christmas Song), but if you want examples that have not a bloody thing to do with Ian Anderson, try John Lennon's shot at a Christmas song (Happy X-Mas War Is Over).
     
    There's my little rant for the night over and done with. Back to inexplicably pumpkin-flavored egg nog (seriously? pumpkin? who thought of that and are they still alive enough for me to hug them?) and avoiding "Christmas traditions" like Frosty the Red Snowman.
  4. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    Today, I'm going to do a one-off feature - my "Premier" Membership runs out on the 28th, and I'm undecided on the matter of actually buying it when that happens.
     
    The purpose of this Tech Highlight is to point out the very real possibility of practical electric vehicles. The Tesla Roadster takes approx. 3.5 hours to charge, and, on a full charge, can go for about 245 miles - not too shabby, considering that other electric cars can take about 20 hours to charge and still don't go as far as the Tesla Roadster, but it still sounds pretty bad for a long trip - driving halfway there and then having to stop for 3.5 hours doesn't sound very good.
     
    But, when you consider that they've been able to get solar panels to achieve about 21% efficiency in commercial applications, it's easy to see how a solar cell on top of the car could help prevent the battery from ever quite falling to zero, getting rid of the annoying stop in the middle of a trip - and possibly accelerating charging when you are stopped. If you want to make things just that little bit better - or throw in a supplementary system for conditions where you don't exactly have the optimal amount of sunlight - then a small wind turbine powered by the wind flowing over the car just might be ideal. Now, of course, neither of these supplementary systems are efficient enough to power a car on their own, but they don't have to - the core of the power system will be the energy you get from the power grid, which hopefully has something like a nuclear power plant instead of a coal-fired power plant at the center of it all. The solar cell and wind turbine are there to extend the life of the main battery.
     
    This concept, I think, is what the future of high-tech energy systems will look like - a central, reliable system supplemented by things designed to make it all work just a little bit better.
  5. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    I've finished my exams for the semester, and to celebrate, it's time for this month's Musician Spotlight. This month, I'd like to start things off with a clarification of the term "winning."
     

    Winning does not look like this. This is what torpedoing your career and ruining your life looks like. That is not the face of a victorious man, in any sense of the word.
     

    This is what winning looks like. If you want a slightly more accurate version, look up the videos of one of the songs from his album Fearless. Maybe the song I Do The Rock, that's a good one.
     
    Anyway, the point is, Tim Curry is a singer as well as an awesome actor. Those of you who are fond of a certain Rocky Horror Picture Show are already well-aware of this, but you might know that he's put out three albums, one of which I'm really rather fond of.
     
    The best way to describe Curry's style is as what you get when a talented singer who's mainly an actor gets bored, and decides to do something fun. His first album was mainly covers, but the second album proved, one, that this man can write music, and two, that this man can write really fun music that takes itself about as seriously as non-child-eating clowns take themselves. Live performances of I Do The Rock feature Tim Curry grinning like a maniac, because he found the definition of the word winning, and then he decided to start living it.
     
    Those interested in starting a collection of Curry's musical work have it easy - he's only put out three albums. Out of those, the first and third tend more towards pop, while the second makes a respectable effort to lean towards rock, which Mr. Curry does, and does well.
     
    For those hoping to get started, I heartily recommend browsing the album Fearless, probably starting with I Do The Rock and Paradise Garage. Anything else just write up on a cork-board and throw darts at, because that's the approach to picking songs that fits the spirit of winning.
  6. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    Since Xom (or, if you like, King of Shadows, though that only applies to shadows inside of time, so I'm quite out of his jurisdiction) is deathly allergic to blogs, I'm going to be helpful and post the Syrrinx tech he's provided specs on in this blog entry.
     
    SHIPS
    Class Name: Elemental
    Class Size: Fighter
    Class Function And Description: Space Superiority Fighter, meant to destroy enemy fighters and bombers, and provide close support to Syrrinx Ground Troops. Trans Atmospheric.
    Class Weapons: Three Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Changeling
    Class Size: Small
    Class Function And Description: Stealth Ships. Equipped with a Cloaking Device. Designed for firing on far-away targets in hit-and-run attacks. Its railgun is far better at range than RMLs are due to their higher shell velocity, at the expense of rate of fire. It is also much slower than a Hobgoblin due to a higher mass.
    Class Weapons: 1 Railgun, 2 Rotary Missile Launchers, 1 Cloaking Device
     
    Class Name: Hobgoblin
    Class Size: Small
    Class Function And Description: MISSILE BOATS DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA
    Class Weapons: 7 Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Harpy
    Class Size: Medium
    Class Function And Description: Built on the Faeire chassis as a Battlemech Deployment vehicle. Mechs are shot from the ship through a large cannon on the nose of the ship. Going down in metal-foam lined drop pods with large retro-thrusters, the mechs can land safely using carefully computed trajectories, letting them come down at the same time in precise areas.
    Class Weapons: One Dropship Bay, 5 Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Sprite
    Class Size: Medium
    Class Function And Description: Force Projection; meant to get fighters onto the battlefield and provide a core for their operations.
    Class Weapons: One Carrier Bay, 5 Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Faerie
    Class Size: Medium
    Class Function And Description: Battlecruiser. Designed for hunting other Cruisers. Its heavy weapons load is excellent at hunting cruisers, and Faeries work well with Sprites Capable of damaging Large ships in a one-on-one fight.
    Class Weapons: 2 Railguns, 2 Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Kraken
    Class Size: Large
    Class Function and Description: Carrier. Brings a full wing of fighters to the battle, and is a deadly ship all its own, the Kraken is primarily used for force projection; swarming enemy ships with a horde of fighters.
    Class Weapons: 1 Carrier Bay, Four Rotary Missile Launchers, 1 Starcannon, Antiproton Gun
     
    Class Name: Dragon
    Class Size: Large
    Class Function And Description: Dreadnought. Visually resembling a cinderblock mating with an angry cathedral, the Dragon is designed for bombarding enemy cities, Starbases, and other Battleships, a Dragon will inevitably be the focus of any battle it is present on, for it can turn the tide of entire wars.
    Class Weapons: 1 Starcannon, two Railguns, 1 Point-Defense Network, Antiproton Gun
     
    Class Name: Wyvern
    Class Size: Large
    Class Function and Description: Missile Boat, Fighter/Small ship hunter. Mounts several Rotary Missile Launchers. Built on the hull of a Dragon, but the removal of the Starcannon allows for an oversized engine, allowing the ship to accelerate unreasonably fast; at similar rates to a Small ship, in fact.
    Class Weapons: Antiproton Gun, 15 Rotary Missile Launchers
     
    Class Name: Harnos
    Class Size: Starbase
    Class Function And Description: Repair and heavy fire support of Syrrinx ships in orbital operations; reload and protection for Fighters.
    Class Weapons: 16 Rotary Missile Launchers, 1 Point Defense Network
     
    WEAPONS
    Name: Autocannon
    Weapon Size: Small
    Mechanics: Similar to a modern tank gun, with an automatic loading system. Fires 30 Shells per minute. Can fire a variety of shells, most commonly used with a penetrating tip.
    OBSOLETE
     
    Name: Rotary Missile Launchers
    Weapon Size: Small
    Mechanics: Fires a whole lot of tiny, guided, antimatter tipped missiles to overwhelm anti-missile defenses with sheer numbers. 0.1 Kiloton yield.
     
    Name: Railgun
    Weapon Size: Medium
    Mechanics: Uses magnetic pulses to fling a shell at 3000 m/s with a depleted uranium tip. Kinetic energy immense.
     
    Name: Starcannon
    Weapon Size: Large
    Mechanics: Uses magnetic pulses to fire what is essentially a thirty gigaton nuclear fusion bomb, fused to go off a moment after impact and designed to take the impact undamaged Capable of destroying large cities and blowing massive holes in enemy formations. Not capable of one-shotting battleships, but it will nicely damage them. Requires a long recharge time for the magnetic coils after firing.
     
    Name: Antiproton Gun
    Weapon Size: Superweapon
    Mechanics: Fires a constant stream of negatively charged antimatter particles. As these particles travel through space, they spread out due to mutual charges repelling each other. Thus, while a tight beam leaves the barrel, a large cone hits the target. Best used against large clouds of small ships, to that effect.
  8. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    'Ello. This is where I'll be dumping all of my stuff for the COTRPG Starscape, which presently promises to bloom into a massive war with everyone annihilating everybody.
     
    In the interim, I'll kick things off with the information this entry is for.
     
    Main Species Profile
    Species Name: Diemawr
    Description:
    -Physical: The Diemawr are a physically powerful race, and their somewhat brutish appearance can be off-putting to some. Despite this, they are a very dexterous race, with their hands bearing four fingers and two thumbs each. The Diemawr are, like many sapient races, bipedal, with the opposable toes on their five-toed feet giving away their arboreal ancestry. Their tails, at five feet in length, are fully prehensile, with tiny barb-like scales along their length to aid in gripping. The head of a Diemawr is somewhat frightening to those who are not accustomed to the sight - so much so that Diemawr warriors often elect to not wear helmets in ground combat, to aid in psychological warfare. The head is very boxy in shape, with a broad, squarish snout. The nostrils are bony and rather large, with the nose connecting directly to a fleshy air-sac above the snout. Behind the air-sac is a bony plate that covers the top of the cranium, with two blunt horns protruding near the back of the plate. The large eyes of the Diemawr are located just at the front of the cranium, with cat-like pupils. Behind the plate, an array of protofeather-like quills jut out from the head, and the grooming of these quills is a matter of great pride for Diemawr. The torso of the Diemawr is rather broad and stocky, with strong, thick bones and heavy musculature. Overall, a Diemawr is only four feet tall at the most, which puts these clever reptiles just a little below the average height for spacefaring species.
    -Psychological: Many a careless sociologist has dismissed the Diemawr as a simple, brutish "warrior race", when, in fact, their culture is much more interesting than that. The Diemawr place great emphasis on personal pride and accomplishments, and are taught from an early age that the success of an individual helps push the species as a whole forward, while a careless or lazy member of the race drags them all down. As a result, any Diemawr that does not wish to be made a pariah strives to achieve as much as possible in their chosen field, which leads to fierce competition for work in all fields - the sciences, the arts, politics, even service jobs see heated competition between potential workers. As a result, any accomplishment made by another race can be expected to be seen as a direct challenge to the Diemawr, and will certainly be met with an attempt at something bigger and better.
    -Government: The Diemawr are led by a Lord President and a 150-member Conclave. Members of the Conclave are elected directly by the people every five years, while a new Lord President is elected upon the death of the reigning Lord President. The Lord President handles external policy, appointing military leaders and deciding on both diplomacy and warfare. The Conclave gives their advice to the Lord President on these matters, but their real responsibility is internal affairs. Political parties are absent, with all candidates standing alone and on their own personal qualifications. All politicians are career politicians, and study history, philosophy, and military tactics for years before they run for major office. Local conclaves exist for any community large enough to be named, and, as would be expected, these conclaves only decide on local matters too small for the Conclave to preside over.
    History: The Diemawr started civilization as a tribal race that had just decided to give life outside of the trees a try. By lucky coincidence, they evolved on a planet with a single large continent, limiting the possibilities for internecine warfare. Less then 5,000 years into their history, the Diemawr had unified into a single federated system, roughly identical to the one still in use today. While large-scale disputes continued to occur - any species without them is most likely extinct - the Diemawr used the two-thousand year period between unification and the present day to refine the artistic and scientific aspects of their culture. By the time a manned probe had visited the very bottom of their homeworld's great global ocean, they knew there was only one place left to go - space.
    Homeworld Name: Diemwnt-Cwn The name is the same as the name given to the vast forest that served as the original home for the Diemawr, in the language that became the dominant business/diplomatic tongue for the Diemawr. Any resemblance between this language and Welsh is purely spot-on, these are seriously Welsh-speaking aliens, and any resemblance between this planet's name and the name of a David Bowie album (in Welsh) is purely awesome.
    Homeworld Location: Sector 2, System 12. If it's not too much bother, I'd like take the 2 colonial systems option, and snag 11 and 13 as a result.
     
    Ship Classes
     
    Class Name: Brawd-dur
    Class Size: Medium
    Class Function And Description: The Brawd-dur is specialised for the task of eliminating large targets that would present too great a threat to other units. Because of its singular weapon system, the Brawd-dur has to carry extra armor, and, to make it somewhat defensible on its own, reinforced turret-rotation equipment to provide the ship with a 32,400-degree firing arc. (360 lateral, 90 vertical)
    Class Weapons: Solet heavy armor (2), Reinforced Turret (1), Dur-Llaw Duw (1)
     
    Starbase Classes
     
    Class Name: Carreg-dur
    Class Size: Starbase
    Class Function And Description: Robust orbital-defense station, meant to hold off an invasion with minimal support from mobile forces. The Carreg-dur is an automated military satellite locked in geostationary orbit. It receives its orders from command-stations located on the planet below, and each Carreg-dur starbase serves both to detect an approaching threat and as the most reliable means of dealing with it.
    Class Weapons: Solet heavy armor (3), Dant-a-Grafanc (5), Gwaed-a-Dur (1), Fighter Bay (1)
     
    Weaponry and Equipment
     
    Bah, I'll get to this bit later.
  9. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    Every month, I've decided, I'm going to put a shiny little spotlight on a specific musician, generally one who also composes (or composed, I've nothing against dead guys), give a brief description of them, and recommend a small sampling of their work for curious listeners to get started on.
     
    This month, it's the father of ragtime, Scott Joplin.

     
    Scott Joplin is widely considered to be one of the most important composers of ragtime, and, indeed, the innovator that basically created ragtime. Ragtime, in case you don't know, is generally piano-based music characterized by a playful use of syncopation, and, in the hands of a creative composer, can have pretty awesome applications in contemporary music.
     
    There's really quite a lot of Joplin's work out there - you can even buy little books full of his sheet music so you can have the satisfaction of having the most fun with a piano since Beethoven got evicted from his apartment for rocking too hard.
     
    If you want to get started, here's three pieces to look up:
    -The Entertainer Yes, yes, I know. To those all too familiar with ice cream trucks, this song just sounds like diabetes. Gotta forget the ice-cream-truck connection and just listen to the song itself.
    -Maple Leaf Rag This one's just cool.
    -Gladiolas This is an awesome title, and a very good example of what ragtime should sound like.
     
    Use those three as a jumping-off point for jamming with Scott Joplin, and tune in next month for another Musician Spotlight!
  10. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    This is it.
     
    The thing absolutely none of you were waiting for. The thing even I wasn't waiting for.
     
    Because I had no idea it was happening until literally five minutes ago.
     
    Also because I'm a little slow up top.
     
    But yeah.
     

    The First Ever Madman-With-A-Box Drawing Contest,



    to be held from this point onward at no specific time interval.


     

    Basic Idea: Combine two animals that should never be combined, in a way that makes it clear that yes, they totally should be combined. For example, a turtle that is also an osprey. Don't use that one, that would be cheating.


     

    Entry Period: Until the end of the year. Seriously, go nuts. I'm in college and you're lazy, so I'm giving you plenty of time.


     

    Entry Limit: One per person, and each person has to have a unique idea - I would suggest that you announce your idea in the comments for this before you actually submit it, so no-one steals your idea.


     

    Rules:



    -All entries must be your own work.



    -All entries must combine two (2) animals that either really exist, really used to exist, or is part of an established mythos. This means that, if you truly feel like it, you could combine, say, a creature from H. P. Lovecraft's works and something from Doctor Who.



    -Entries may be drawn, and, in fact, probably should be drawn, but if you think you're slick, I guess you can try to Photoshop - just know that a sloppy job won't win. You have to convince me that this thing really is a turtle-osprey or whatever.



    -Concepts should be announced in the comments for this. It's not my fault if you get a great idea, never announce it, and then somebody else takes the idea.



    -All entries should be awesome.


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