Okay, now that we have stability again, I want to look into those MP3/soundfile player options. Some time today I'll head back to MediaWiki's page of player extensions and try to decide what one would work best for us. After that, well, it depends on the extension, but I'll probably just make a recommendation to Geth and Brent, and possibly post a link to the documentation page here for other folks to review and add their thoughts.

If this is a go, though, I'd like to ask people to suggest pages where the ability to play back a short sound would be suitable to the subject matter. Off the top of my head, the following seem to be good candidates, and should provide a clear idea of what I'm looking for:

The Minsky Pickup

Shave and a HaircutNoblewoman's LaughKabuki SoundsWilhelm ScreamRimshot(that sequence of 12 notes that says "Arabian Nights" or "Snake Charmer" whose name I'm forgetting right now)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Cannot into Fenspaceball


________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

You don't get as many Marines as Tom Lehrer's Send the Marines but the one you do get is superhumanly strong and competent, rather than the Keystone Cops version.

Best used for defense/bodyguarding or a fighting retreat than assault, due to the leanings of the Camouflage simulacrum.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Someone tell me it aint true
Why my heart belongs to you
Well, at the end of everyday
Ah, you take my breath away
'Cause I'm flyin' high on a rocket in the sky
Sonic boom boy
Ha. Sonic boom boom boy

In the stars I see your eyes
They come to me yeah all the time
hip hop rock to me now
and it aint gonna slow down
'Cause I'm flyin' high on a rocket in the sky
Sonic boom boy
Ha. Sonic boom boom

No one would believe me
This thing could be so easy
just. Just say what's all in my mind
I'll be round some time
I'm flyin' high on a rocket in the sky
Sonic boom boy
Ha. Sonic boom boom boy
I'm flyin' high on a rocket in the sky
Oh, yeah
I'm flyin' high on a rocket in the sky
Sonic boom boy
Ha. Sonic boom a boom boy
Sonic boom boy

You'd think this would be fairly straightforward, a supersonic flight song, but Doug happened to see the video for it and well... it also ups the random chaos feature of his passive AoE by a significant degree. Though usually the results are only temporary with this song, it's enough to put this one well down on his list of flight songs to go through first, unless he specifically WANTS to make strange things happen for some reason.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Quote:Soldier: Hey...
Soldier: Yeah?
Soldier: You ever wonder why we're here?
Soldier: It's one of lifes great mysteries, isn't it?  Why ARE we here? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence or... is there really a god, watching everything - you know, with a plan for us and stuff? I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night.
Soldier: What?!  I mean why are we out here, in this snow ,on the edge of this dumb lake?
Soldier: Oh... uh... yeah...
Soldier: What was all that stuff about god?
Soldier: Uh... hmm?  Nothing.
Soldier: You wanna talk about it?
Soldier: No.
Soldier: Sure?
Soldier: Yeah.
Soldier: Seriously though, why are we out here? As far as I can tell, it's just a frozen lake with no real strategic value.
Soldier: Uh-huh.
Soldier: The only reason we have a base here, is because Steelhead has a base there.  The only reason Steelhead has a base there, is because we have a base here.
Soldier: Yeah, that's because we're fighting each other...
Soldier: If we were to leave... today... they would still only have a base at the edge of this lake.  Whoop-dee-doo.
Soldier: Hey...

Road Trip: http://what-if.xkcd.com/113/
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

 http://www.youtube.com/v/u2FDvxUAIyE&ve ... tube_gdata
Spent last winter playing in the sandWith the prisoners of the motherlandDamn hotel is feeling like a cell
And even paradise can be so cruelSitting by the swimming poolTrying to keep my head togetherIn that hot Australia weather
Three days to kill and my per diem's getting low'Cause I spent all my money calling long distanceCalling long distance, such a long way from home
Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through?Twelve thousand miles but I've got not resistanceLong distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
Now the Road Hog's face is turning redLarry's still asleep in bedRomeo he can't get no head at allAnd the Doctor looks on so annoyed
You disappoint me, Mr. BoydAnd the Electric Dwarf wishes he was six foot tall
Now Romeo's patience is wearing thin, c'mon baby, let me inIt's five a.m. and I've been creeping 'round the hallGot no resistance calling long distanceYou sound so close but you're such a long way from home
Am I talking to long distance, can you put me through?Twelve thousand miles but I've got not resistancelong distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
Still no points for my merrymen except Ricard, he just scored tenNow Road Hog's getting drunk againAnd I only get to hold my penInstead of what I love to hold the most
I feel so lonesome, I could cryCount the hours as they roll byIt's day time nowI think I'll make a call
Hello long distance, calling long distanceYou sound so close but you're such a long way from homeYou're such a long way from home
Have to admit, I got no resistance to the red light on the wallThe message said I got a callLong distance, long distance, long distance, long distance
-- The Kinks, Long Distance 
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Simple - choose one of your heroes - and use them to tell a joke (the worse, the better.)
"Okay..." Bella rested her head in her hands, trying to decide if the situation warranted tearing out her hear, or banging her head on the desk until the voices told her the world was a sane and calming place.  "I've read the report, what is your side of the story."
"It was just a night dancing."  Jackie admitted.  "Zee Club D was packed.  Zey played zee Twist, so I did the Twist.  They played the Frug, so I did the Frug.  They played Jump Around, so I jumped around."
"You are the soul of innocence."  Bella growled, deciding that incineration may be more therapeutic than concussions or a new hair style.  "Then what happened?"
"Zey played Come on Eileen."  Jackie admitted.  "And I was asked to leave."

New Fenspace Snippet. Needed to get it out of my system.

While I'm working on what I posted earlier I had a bit pop in my head and decided to get it written down. So here's a bit around a semester later with Rhett the accidental catboy. Utterly first draft and unedited.

Quote:Rhett was busy at his cluster of monitors when Jake leaned into the room.
"Darcey and Alice are christening the pizza oven, what would you like?"
Wireframe designs flickered across the six mismatching scavenged monitors for a few seconds before Rhett's chair leaned back, "Pizza?"
"Oven's ready, dough's being spread, time to decide on toppings."
"Cheese, more cheese, and no peppers."
"Your usual, got it. What's all this?"
"My new pet project." A small object suddenly was arcing through the air to James, in the sickly green of the cheap 3D printer filament they'd found. "I'm not making the same mistake again. This time there will be blueprints and manuals and all that."
"And all that?"
Rhett gave a short laugh, "Well, last time around I got in a hurry and just grabbed what I had on hand and well... You know how that worked. Save one really good result."
"Thank you," came Ema's voice from the speakers on the desktop. "I thought I'd need to be upset for a moment."
"Yes, you're definitely the really good result. But clearly that was more luck than planning. And well, look what that did to me."
"Well the girls like the result."
"At least Darcey and Alice will stop petting when I ask. And it's not just the girls, you know what a pain Greg's been."
Jake sighed and went back to examining the model. "Yeah, well he's banned from here and Dwayne's if he starts anything at another Fantastic. What about this? Looks like a flying saucer."
Rhett made a few clicks and a slide show started up on the rightmost screen. "That's exactly what it is. A one man, all electric, flying saucer in need of a good name."
"Split back seat? Oh, right, for your tail."
"Yep, five point harness too and any other safety features I can work out. I'll get some more eyes on it before I build it but I want to do as much as I can on my own first."
"This why you've been talking about learning to weld?"
"Yep. I shouldn't have any trouble with the electronics but it's not like I can go down to the local junkyard and ask if they have any '57 flying saucer bodies sitting around."
"True... oh great, what are you purring about now?"
"I just remembered, there were some built! Whatever happened to the Avrocars? To Google!" A few clicks later the purring stopped. "Ew, no, too big and that fan is where the cockpit should be! What were they thinking!"
"That they didn't have any 'wavium?"
"Bah! Poor excuse!"

Quote:From: NotAButler_7
To: nntp://fen.support.biomods
Time: 13:55 MST (-0700)
Date: September 12, 2015
Subject: Hello out there

Hello out there, your friendly new Earthbound feline biomod here. I had no idea that newsgroups were still a thing or that there was a whole fen hierarchy.

The good news, apparently the local authorities are tired of playing hunt the biomod. The bad news, the paperwork. Oh lord the paperwork. I thought signing up for my first semester of classes involved a lot of paperwork but replacing my drivers license was what felt like a couple dozen pages of forms, hunting down my birth certificate, not yelling at a clerk who claimed there was no such form as the one I handed him, and an hour long meeting with the head of the DMV office in which I filled out yet more paperwork.

All that and I won't even get a drivers license since I'm to small to sit in the driver's seat of any of my friends cars and comfortably work the peddles with a seatbelt on. So just a non-driver's state ID card for me. At least I'm a little taller than the limit for Arizona's booster seat law. Sure it's got an age cut-off but needing to convince people I'm really nineteen is already getting old.

So any advice for a new catboy? Other than guarding my tail from the evil called the bus door, I've learned that one the hard way.

From: NotAButler_7To: nntp://fen.support.biomodsTime: 17:31 MST (-0700)Date: September 16, 2015Subject: Q for other fur-bearing biomods

How the bleep do you keep from getting heat rash when it's hot and humid out? The last two days have been bleeping hell. Summer is always bleeping hot in Arizona but this is insane. All I have to do is step outside and it feels like I'm wearing a lead coat and hat. In an oven. I was born here it shouldn't feel like this. If it's this bad here I'm never going to the south (right, like any sensible catboy would head into the land of dueling banjos. I barely trust that I won't get jumped by crazies here).


From: NotAButler_7To: nntp://fen.support.biomodsTime: 17:44 MST (-0700)Date: September 16, 2015Subject: RE: Q for other fur-bearing biomods

So uh, the bleeps. Apparently a friend who will remain nameless decided my newsreader needed a profanity filter. Assume that by bleep I meant, "Dear lord, it rained last night so now it's humid as a shower and 115 degrees out!" I like living in the desert. Well, I liked living in the desert. If someone warned me I was about to get modded I could have at least tried to get it to be a fennec mod. Surely they don't mind it. That much.

No. Nevermind. They're sensible and live on the night shift. Wish college was that sensible.


From: NotAButler_7To: nntp://fen.soc.biomodsTime: 22:36 MST (-0700)Date: October 31, 2015Subject: Halloween, okay this isn't too bad

I've lost count of how many times I've been complimented on my 'costume'. Only downside is they keep asking J-friend and D-friend how much their 'kid's' costume cost. Or if they know about the costumer's guild they ask them how long it took to make.

I probably could have brought in a good haul of free candy if I'd snuck out trick or treating. But that would have meant missing the local gathering's party which would have been very sucky. At [mumblemumble] House we've been having a grand time. Night unlimited snacks, friends, and B-Movies. We're watching Plan 9 as I write this. Not the worst film I've ever seen but it does have the worst Day For Night scenes I've ever seen.

Anyway, how's Halloween up among the Fen? Must be a fun time for the kinder since you can get away with much more up there than down here. That said, those 'costume' compliments? I think I might let D-friend talk me into one of the cosplay sig's group events. She'd been trying to talk me into a group play of the closing credit version of the characters from Black Cat but she's being so secret about it now I think she's found something else.


From: NotAButler_7To: nntp://fen.rocketscience.amateur
Time: 09:57 MST (-0700)Date: January 10, 2016Subject: Avoiding the FAA's wrath

So, assuming someone had started doodling designs yesterday for a small single seat flying contraption, are there are good howto documents explaining how to avoid bringing down the wrath of the FAA?

So far I've kept everything to paper and 3D modeling software (the learning curve, ow). If I ever get this thing built I'd like to be able to fly it without racking up federal charges and missing any future family reunions that aren't held in Oz. Maybe my Google-Fu will be better after some sleep but all I've been turning up page after page of rants about fen and their flying cars giving air traffic controllers heart attacks. Will they even grant experimental certification to amateur build spacecraft?

So, any M's anyone wants to suggest I RTF? Even if it is probably a pipe-dream to think I can get approval to legally possess and use wavium without a boatload of money for a decent workshop and brib^H^H^H^H processing fee money. But a cat can dream, right?