Other Creativity

[vampireshark]

More money.

Spoiler:

[Khemehekis]

"I'm Justin Timberlake" (Warning: sexual lyrics)

[Reyzadren]

Continuing to the next song from the new album last year:
Darken Crystal Line (metal/core soundtrack)

[Khemehekis]

Here's a song parody I wrote when I was 17. I found it in an old notebook in my go bag.


"You're the Pits"

At song-creating so adulating, I never was inclined
When writing music, I always find
Lyrics kind
Slip my mind
My sole objective is the invective -- my pen is never stuck --
So if the wording gets disconcerting, at least it will tell you how much you suck

You're the pits, you're a street cop's warning
You're the pits, you're a Monday morning
You're the not-so-slim stats of Rush Limbaugh's weight
You're acute depression, hairline recession, you're Watergate
You're SCUD craft, like the kind Saddam used
You're the draft folks in Vietnam used
You're an ugly face that can't erase its zits
But if, baby, I'm the cherry, you're the pits!

You're the pits, you're a wrinkled forehead
You're the pits, you're a nuclear warhead
You're a piece of crap, worms in my applesauce
You're a transferred cootie, you're jury duty, you're memory loss
You're pas chic, you are diarrhea
You're the leak in my sopaipilla
You're a total airhead, smart as Cher Horwitz
But if, baby, I'm the cherry, you're the pits!

You're the pits, you are stale carpaccio
You're the pits, you're a gran borracho
You're the ugly facts, the shark attacks in Jaws
You're a head-on c'llision, you're long division, you're menopause
You're a bum -- could I make this plainer?
You are scum, you're the Macarena
You're a fallen soul, a tasteless bowl of grits
But if, baby, I'm the cherry, you're the pits!

You're the pits, you're a reckless driver
You're the pits, you're some wet saliva
You're the joint of pot the pres "did not inhale"
You're a creamed-corn supper, a screwer-upper, you're Danforth Quayle
You are hell, you are heavy traffic
AOL, as it loads a graphic
Every epithet the chip in the Net permits
But if, baby, I'm the cherry, you're the pits!

Music by Cole Porter
Lyrics by James Landau
(C) 1997

[sangi39]

Finally have the feeling of having my own space (no-one looking over my shoulder), so can make a start on what should end up being a handmade pendulum clock:



The plan at the moment is that it will measure seconds, minutes, hours (both 24 once in a day, and 12 twice in a day, although the set of gears for the latter isn't shown above), days of the week, and then, just for the hell of it, phases of the Moon (although that falls behind by about half an hour ever synodic month

One big thing I wanted was for each thing to be measured with different hands on different faces, so you've got a second hand in the top left, vs. a minute hand in the middle, and hour hand in the top right, etc. which should make it easy to see the gears moving bit by bit in the final design. It does mean it takes up a fair bit of space, as a result (I think it's about 50cm wide and 75cm tall, but I'll be mounting it on a 3m tall wall in the living room, so it being big actually works), but it also means I can keep the gears pretty simple (although that does leave me worried about things like wear)

I'm not 100% sure why but I've chosen to mark the day has having one set of 24 hours as the larger hour marker, which then feeds into a smaller marker for the more typical 12 hour cycle

I did want to try and have sort of feed into a fully geared calendar, that would progress day by day, month by month, and include leap years, but looking at the kinds of gear systems your need for that, I might have to leave that for now




The plan for the moment is to just create a sort of "proof of concept" using card and pins, haha. Using geargenerator.com, the gear ratios should be right, but I just want to get a proper feel for where they all are physically in relation to each other, and how they actually interact, before going back for a redesign that takes depth into account properly (like, how the gears should be mounted within the mechanism to avoid it becoming too deep, but avoiding any overlapping), and then once that's sorted as a kind of "middle stage", start working on something closer to a final version

In earlier stages the gears would probably be solid, but in the final version I would like them to have spokes so that, again, you can see more of what's actually going on. The same would probably be true of any plates, which ideally I'd want to make as narrow as possible, so as to not obscure anything going on behind them


I'm also very aware of my own limitations (time, tools, materials, skill), so while the ideal is for the final version to be made entirely by myself, there's a good chance that at some point I'm going to have to rely on laser-cut parts and hopefully replace those over time

[Glenn]

sangi39, that sounds like a very ambitious and impressive project! I wish you the best of luck with it!

[Visions1]

Quite the work. I look forwards to seeing it chime!

Here's Mike! He's a character I made for a friend, but he let me keep him. (I have other pictures of him, and his friend Charles. Charles is also mine now.)


I kind of need to relearn how to draw. But he's still cute as a button.
Two of you I owe drawings to - I'm getting to them! Just need to find my bearings a little...

[Khemehekis]

Some parodies for 4/20!


"Hey, Marijuana!"

"Tokin'"

[sangi39]

Finally have the feeling of having my own space (no-one looking over my shoulder), so can make a start on what should end up being a handmade pendulum clock:

It's coming along. I think the gear layout will work, and this should, I think, be what they look like face-on. I'm missing the second gear on the middle right, mirroring the one off to the side on the middle left, but that's I, to start, forgot to make it, and then decided to not make it, just in case I had to mess with the layout a bit, and couldn't keep the symmetry (looking at it, though, I should be able to fit it in, which is quite nice)




I think I've worked out the correct "depth" for each gear, relative to nearby ones, so that the overlapping bits that aren't where teeth should actually meet don't cause the entire mechanism to just jam, so next step is to actually test that out, and see what happens



EDIT: Just realised the "second" gear up in the top left is actually in the wrong place. The next gear along connects to the inner teeth, not the outer teeth

[Arayaz]

Looks cool! I don't know anything about clocks, but I'd like to. You seem very knowledgeable on the subject, though!

[sangi39]

Looks cool! I don't know anything about clocks, but I'd like to. You seem very knowledgeable on the subject, though!

GOD NO! I'm absolutely not at all. This is my first step into clocks on a practical level. I don't know anything about how teeth are designed to reduce wear, material properties, the best ratio between gears (again, to reduce gears), or even how to anchor them in place, the best place to add a main wheel and drive weight to balance stuff like torque (so that components don't just break, but so that the weight actually drives the mechanism), how to develop a winding mechanism for the drive weight, the best kind of escapement for the materials, forces, etc., and gear ratios still trip me up no end. There is a lot I don't know, but, you know, learn by doing I guess

[thethief3]

Not sure this is the thread to post it in but.

I'd be interested in DMing a game which could be a oneshot or a oneshot that grows into a campaign of DND fifth edition in my own setting (the one i mentioned above) and would like to gather potential players from here and the ZBB. I don't know which online roleplaying thing to use so someone would have to suggest one. I'll provide character options when i get access to my DND books (which are currently at my brother's place) however on a base level the character options will probably just look like modified versions of the variant human. If you want to play suggest which factions/faiths you would like to see although faiths and factions are intertwined. You could also suggest your own factions for the campaign/oneshot probably either a variant of a merchant or noble clan but possibly something else i'll see if its suitable.