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


EDIT2 (29th April): Yeah, I had to lose the symmetry in the main gear train. The smaller driving gear attached to the "day of the week" gear (third from the bottom... I should probably label these on diagrams...) has to go at the back of the mounting to connect to the next gear down (second from the bottom), but that means that it (the "day of the week" gear) needs to be moved further away from the gear physically directly above it, which results in the intermediate gear in the gear train (the one physically off to the left) crossing over the central vertical axis, meaning that it can't have a gear directly mirroring it (the clearance is also pretty small around there as well, as it turns out, e.g. half a centimetre between a couple of gears, but that feels manageable)

What I might do to kind of bring it back is have what originally the mirroring go directly behind where it was, and have it take the role of a drive gear with a weight attached, which would make it somewhat central within the gear train, which might be okay. It also means that the pendulum and the weight are both then behind the gear train and the displays, which feels sensible, in case they need fiddling with at all


EDIT3 (1st May): Think I've got something I like. As before, it'll be a case of building up a physical "test" version to make sure the dimensions work out (I mean, they should, it's a really minor change), and then try and make a version that works (at least in principle). Main limitation is still tools, resources, and skills, but I think I'm getting a better feel for the clock in general, and how is should all come together, which is a big step from a month ago when it was still just, effectively, a 2D diagram




EDIT4 (3rd May): So actually trying to produce the "depth" model, I realised that almost every single gear can be directly mounted on a single back board without any overlap (as long as the axles are narrow enough), and all but three gears can be held in place by a single front board (the three that can't all need holding place in the same plane, and have roughly similar surrounding environments, so holding them in place should be fairly easy)

The main problem came from the 12hour and 24 hour hands, with the former needing to be mounted above the latter. I'm fairly certain I can think of a way to do this, but this has lead me to abandoning a distinct 24hour gear, and switch wholly to a single 12hour gear

Strictly speaking, the gear that juts off to the left is a 24hour gear, turning once per day, so I could modify how I want days to be displayed down there, but up in the top right, it'll just be 12 hours, rotating twice per day, which should just be easier to make, probably easier to read since it's what people are actually used to

[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.

[Khemehekis]

For Honesty Day, two songs about presidents who lie.

"The Bush Lie Song"

"Would Trump Lie to Me?"

[Khemehekis]

Last night, I had a dream that I was back at school, and we had a class assignment to write what the teacher called our "actually" poem. This is the "actually" poem I started to write in my dream:



I am a singer-songwriter
But I actually have fewer than a thousand subscribers on YouTube and could never put a steady band together

I am an artist
But I actually have trouble with visual thinking

I am highly intelligent
But I actually really suck when it comes to understanding spatial relationships

I have OCD
But I actually do a number of taboo things and have messy hair and an unkempt desk and dresser

I put my hand over my left eye
But I'm not actually bothered by bright lights; I just don't want to see spiders, pajamdras, Spider-man or Winnie the Pooh when I'm walking down the aisle

I love sleep and dreams
But I actually can't stand pajamdras

I love Frappuccino
But I actually can't stand the thought of drinking a milkshxke

I have dozens of thousands of entries in my English-Kankonian dictionary
But actually "whxxps" isn't one of them, because there are a number of English words tiat will set me off and get me purging

Socializing feels like sugar to me
But I actually might have a break a conversation off if my interlocutor says a word like "whxxps" or "ice xxxxx" and I have to go off and purge

I have dozens of friends, whom I love to death
But I actually have a hard time reaching so many of them, because there are days when I dial a dozen friends and all I get are a dozen answering machines

I love the animal kingdom and get angry when a cop shoots someone's dog
But I actually can't stand spiders, and will kill one when I see one

I love the plant kingdom
But I actually can't touch a plant, lest it have cobwebs growing on it

I am Jewish
But I don't actually practice the religion (I never had a bar mitzvah) and consider my culture to be modern Western counterculture

I am bisexual
But I've actually never dated anyone, boy or girl

I believe in civil rights for youth
But I actually get uncomfortable around children younger than about 6 or 7 or even the sound of a high-pitched voice


Does anyone else want to try an "actually" poem about themselves?

[eldin raigmore]

Does anyone else want to try an "actually" poem about themselves?

I’ll have to think about that! Too much of my poem will seem to be plagiarizing yours!

[Khemehekis]

Does anyone else want to try an "actually" poem about themselves?

I’ll have to think about that! Too much of my poem will seem to be plagiarizing yours!

Which parts of yours would sound like mine? I know you're not extroverted, bisexual, Jewish, a singer-songwriter, a 93K-word-conlang-creator, etc.

[vampireshark]

Today's projects.

[Arayaz]

Wrote a piano instrumental the other day.

[Visions1]

It's nice. Jazzy and reminds me of Japanese stuff.

I composed a couple pieces myself, but I struggled to write them down, so I only have my memory to go off for them. They were partly improvised anyways.

[Khemehekis]

Cool, a synaesthetic video! Like Fantasia!