I thought some of you might be interested in this.
Prometheus Music, a small independent label (I think that is the right term), which specializes in filkmusic, is currently having a sale.  Through Wednesday, if you buy their new cd, you get 25% off any of their other cds.  I'm particularly a fan of their album To Touch The Stars, which is filled with some excellent space filk music.  Julia Ecklar's Divine Intervention cd is also really really good.
All the details are in the link at the start of this post.
Also, if you go to their catalog page, you can then go to each album's page, and listen to the full songs on each album before buying (and download mp3s for a few of the songs).  Its really nice.
Edit:  Changed the thread title slightly.
Also, it's been a while since I last bought a cd from them, but IIRC, when I ordered the cd, I seem to recall being sent an email with a download link for the songs on said cd, so I could start listening right away.  It was quite nice.  I don't know if they still do that, but I expect that they do, unless I am misremembering.
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

Sooo after Skyreiko got me interested in Fensapce. (which turned out to be pure muse crack for me) I took a shot at making a character.

Still very much a work in progress, so any feedback would be welcomed.

Quote:Name: Joshua Greenway

Gender: Female (born male)

Ethnicity: Australian

Citizenship: Australian

In 2012 after much saving and planing, Joshua had finally got enough Handwavium to create something he had always wanted, a personal suit of power armour. But not wanting to be another Tony Stark wannabe, he started working on a suit of Majolnir Mark 6 battle armour from the halo series.

Once the suit was completed, in a fit of fanboyish stupidity, He climbed in and powered it up. Unfortunately, the suit was every bit as good as the fiction made it up to be. As he went to pick up the helmet, his simple movement effectively turned him into a human bouncy ball, sending him through the remaining wavium and half way down the block before the suit safety cut off power.

Eventually he came to in the Leonard H. McCoy Memorial Medical Center, When he crashed through his remaining handwavuim, he coincidently ingested/inhaled most of it, resulting in an extreme biomod. Josh's body is now on par with that of the Spartans he was trying to mimic, but as expected, the change had several quirks as Josh is now a seven foot tall elfin woman that with some a blond wig, could pass for Powergirl.

Quirks. 
Amazon Brigade: Stands seven foot tall, with a body that’s a mix of super model and pro athlete.
Stormtrooper accuracy: When using pistols, machine guns or stranded rifles, could not hit the broad side of a barn from inside it unless...
AoE FTW!: Any weapon that would cause an area of effect will hit dead on. (this also includes shot guns for some reason)

Armour Quirks.
What the hell is this black stuff?: when the suit is exposed to extreme environments (hard vacuum, extreme heat/cold), it gains a strange layer of black ash/sludge.

At least, I think it's from that plane: some authors work in multiple settings, and Mercedes Lackey might be one of them.Anyway, what do you think Doug's magegift would make of Kerowyn's Ride? (Lyrics by Misty Lackey, Kethry's lines sung by Leslie Fish, and Kerowyn's lines sung by Heather Alexander.)

Quote:Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where are you going?
Dressed in men's clothing, a sword by your side
Your face pale as death, and your eyes full of fury
Kerowyn Kerowyn, where do you ride?

Last night in the darkness black raiders attacked us
Our Hold lays in ruins below
They've stolen our treasure and the bride of my brother
And to her aid now I must go,
To her side now I must go

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where is your father?
And where is your brother? This task should be theirs
It is not seemly for maids to be warriors
Go back to your valley, and to woman's cares

My father lies dead at the hands of their leader
My brother lies raving in pain
The raiders left no man unwounded to free her
But in their hands she'll not remain,
I vow she'll not with them remain

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where are your senses?
What can you hope to accomplish alone
You have no knowledge of war or of weapons
Why loose your life, for a girl you scarce known

This is for more than a matter of honor
And more than a matter of pride
She's but a child, all alone and unaided
And someone at least should've tried,
So now to her rescue I ride

[Bridge]

Grandmother, grandmother I need a weapon
I'm one against many, and I am afraid
The raiders have bought them a dark wizard's power
I cannot help Dierna without magic aid

Kerowyn, grand-daughter, into your keeping
I'll give you this sword I once wore
Need us her name now ride fearless to battle
She'll aid as she did me before, her magic is strong as before

Grandmother, grandmother, why turn so willing
Why did you try to persuade me to stay
Whence came this weapon of steel and of magic
And why do you choose now to give it away

Kerowyn, not for the weak or the fearful
Is the path of a warrior maid
You've passed all my tests, now ride out with my blessings
And trust in the spell of the blade, ride now and go unafraid

I know I mentioned this before on the other thread, but I'll mention it again for anyone who is interested.
A guy called Anime Addict is trying to make his own Wikia style TV Tropes like website, located here:
http://tvtropesmirror.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
His goal is to bend every effort to make the site as much like TV Tropes, within the limits of Wikia code, not to mention he plans to throw up everything TV Tropes is taking down in some form or fashion as long as Wikia doesn't object.
Unfortunately, his biggest problems is that he needs help.
I've spoken with the guy, even gave him a link to the torrent/DDL links because honestly, I want another alternative to TV Tropes to exist (in fact, the more TV Tropes monopoly is reduced, the better in my book), and so far, he's gotten a pretty good head start, he's an extremely reasonable guy who was very supportive of the efforts to archive TV Tropes and what they were censoring, and right now, he needs people willing to donate their time (if possible) to help him out, especially in porting over trope and work pages and formatting them to Wikia format.
The Wikia website was originally owned by Jack Butler (who now is owner of The Trope Wiki), but after he decided he didn't like Wikia formatting and went with a Wikipedia style setup, Anime Addict adopted the domain, and is currently bending every effort to make his site replicate all the essentials of TVT.
He also has decided to roll back the clock somewhat on some policies of TVT that he didn't like, such as nuking some of the more interesting discussion pages, homogenizing witty trope names into something bland and sterile, and generally, he just wants people to have fun because he agrees TV Tropes in its current state is turning into a place riddled with Serious Business types, and he wants to make a more casual alternative.
If you're interested, please check out the site.
NOTE: Despite his name, he is neutral on what works and tropes can be ported, and has told me personally he holds no bias against any media, eastern or western, and believes firmly that if can be troped, it should be troped.

...that might be of interest: Space Command, a series of SF films visually based on the classic space artwork of the 1950s and 1960s, but with a modern sense of story telling. The people involved in the project are a who's-who of fantasy and sf TV over the past 15 years, both on the production side and in the cast. It looks like it might be worth a few bucks:

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Kelly Clarkson "Dark Side"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ArpRWcGe0
There's a place that I know
It's not pretty there and few have ever gone
If I show it to you now
Will it make you run away
Or will you stay
Even if it hurts
Even if I try to push you out
Will you return?
And remind me who I really am
Please remind me who I really am
Everybody's got a dark side
Do you love me?
Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect
But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it
Will you love me?
Even with my dark side?
Like a diamond
From black dust
It's hard to know
It can become
A few give up
So don't give up on me
Please remind me who I really am
Everybody's got a dark side
Do you love me?
Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect
But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it
Will you love me?
Even with my dark side?
Don't run away
Don't run away
Just tell me that you will stay
Promise me you will stay
Don't run away
Don't run away
Just promise me you will stay
Promise me you will stay
Will you love me? ohh
Everybody's got a dark side
Do you love me?
Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect
But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it
Will you love me?
Even with my dark side?

'theme' music for a scene where somebody is being all angsty?  (Buffy or Shinji maybe?)
******************
Aqua 'Cartoon Heroes'

We are what we're supposed to be
 Illusions of your fantasy
 All dots and lines that speak and say
 What we do is what you wish to do
 
We are the color symphony
 We do the things you wanna see
 Frame by frame, to the extreme
 
Our friends are so unreasonable
 They do the unpredictable
 All dots and lines that speak and say
 What we do is what you wish to do
 
It's all an orchestra of strings
 Doin' unbelievable things
 Frame by frame, to the extreme
 One by one, we're makin' it fun
 
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
 We are the ones who're gonna last forever
 We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
 And walked out on a piece of paper
 
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
 Welcome to the toon town party
 Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
 Welcome to the toon town party
 
We learned to run at speed of light
 And to fall down from any height
 It's true, but just remember that
 What we do is what you just can't do
 
And all the worlds of craziness
 A bunch of stars that's chasing us
 Frame by frame, to the extreme
 One by one, we're makin' it fun
 
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
 We are the ones who're gonna last forever
 We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
 And walked out on a piece of paper
 
Here comes Spiderman, arachnophobian
 Welcome to the toon town party
 Here comes Superman, from never-neverland
 Welcome to the toon town party
 
You think we're so mysterious
 Don't take us all too serious
 Be original, and remember that
 What we do is what you just can't do
 
What we do is what you just can't do
 What we do is what you just can't do
 What we do is what you just can't do
 What we do is what you just can't do
 
We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
 We are the ones who're gonna last forever
 We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
 And walked out on a piece of paper
 
There's still more to come
 And everyone will be
 Welcomed at the
 Toon - Toon
 Town - Town
 Party
Powers: 2 options occur to me
1) Simulcrums of Bugs Bunny and Co (since they are Doug's "cartoon heroes")
2) Everything/one in Doug's AoE is under the effects of Cartoon physics
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Recently, me and vorticity decided we didn't like what TV Tropes was turning into, so we decided to archive as much as we could (within the bounds of their Creative Commons license), and even though it was perfectly legal, they got mad and used a shoddy pretext to ban us.
Regardless, we recently released some torrents, which you can get here:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7359083
http://kat.ph/tv-tropes-...ip-2012-06-t6454367.html

Standard Asteroid Terraforming Kit - 17/Jun/2012
The creator of this thought everyone who wanted to homestead an asteroid would want one.  Everything you needed to land on an asteroid and get it transformed into just where you wanted to live.  In a box (well, several crates).
Unfortunately, there were problems...
The basic idea was that the whole kit would fall under the "life support equipment exception" of handwavium, and so be just about quirk-free.  This is, in fact, true.  This kit will ensure you can survive indefinitely on your new asteroid home, but, 'survive' and 'prosper' are two different things.
The kit takes the form of a set of crates, none weighing more than 25kg (55lb).  These contain the starter kit, hard tech and waved devices, and a set of skinny robots, all folded up to fit in small crates.  There are also three AIs, with their basic three avatar robots, that need to be customised to know what you plan to build.  That's one place the problems start...
The customisation process involves choosing different but related roles for each of the three AIs.  The idea is that they keep an eye on each other, and help correct each others errors.  There are three so they can vote, without a tie.  You need to define the final roles that the AIs will take after building has finished, their 'motivation' - they all share in controlling the robots and the terraforming, then environment maintenance, process.  One example might be Cook/Companion, Butler/Housekeeper, Gardener/Handyman.
Providing the AIs with lots of information about how to carry out their roles, and not just DVDs of your favourite 'maids' anime, would be wise - otherwise they will have to make it up as they are going along, which could be really bad.  Structuring it into a pattern of duties would be good, too, rather than just dumping the appropriate tree of Wikipedia entries into their config files.
The upper bodies, and just the upper bodies for some quirky reason, must be shaped, made-up, and dressed from the naked skinny robot avatar to suit each role.  Note that once things are running any spare robot could be converted by its AI into a proper-looking avatar if an original is trashed - but this will take a little time, unless there is a 'spare' already prepared.
The AIs are quite dedicated to their roles, and unless you think through everything very carefully there will be some quirky behavioral traits.  Arguably they are sub-human in their overall intellect, though in the terraforming and final role they are quite brilliant.  Putting Three Laws[1] constraints on them might be a good idea, but that doesn't mean they have the Zeroth Law ('consider the overall good of humanity'; they're probably not smart enough to be given this), and their Fourth Law ('fulfill your role and purpose') will over-shadow or at least colour all the rest.  The more constraints you put on them, the more weird and quirky they'll get, so working with a broad stroke design is probably best.  Consulting an author who's good at character design might give you livable results.
Unfortunately, it isn't possible to activate the AIs until just before they start the terraforming process, another quirk, so it's difficult to debug them.  They also don't come with an 'off' switch, as they are a critical part of a life support system.  Some of these kits have been customised and then not used, because their owners never got to an asteroid.  Rumours that owning one of these kits in a customised state brings bad luck on the owner (the kit somehow always survives) are of course superstitious nonsense.
Once you get to the asteroid there can be other problems.  First of all, the kit isn't 'magic', and can't give you anything that isn't there to convert.  So, an asteroid made of a mineral which can't be chemically converted into air and water can't provide you these.  Ditto carbon if you plan to grow things there.  The asteroid must have enough CHON[2] and trace element resources for what you want to do - old water-ice comets with plenty of organic material and some minerals are likely best.  Of course, there's no reason you can't truck these in yourself, but you'd better keep the terraforming process fed, or there will be problems.
This is also not an 'instant home' job, you're not dealing with magic nanotech that ignores the laws of thermodynamics, here.  Depending on the size of the job this will take at least a few months, if not years.
The AIs don't play well with others.  While you might get away with one human or equivalent engineer supervising, anyone trying to work with the robots is likely to have an industrial accident.  The AIs will be very sad about this, of course, particularly if they are Three Laws, but it is a blind spot, nothing malicious.
If you're interested in the process, it takes at least a month before the mining and reprocessing reaches the stage of making spare parts, for machinery, or to repair or build new robots.  If there is more than 25% damage to the robots and equipment before this point its likely the whole terraforming sequence will fail, though it may take some time to totally stall.  After this happens the AIs may be grudgingly willing to accept external assistance.  Note a similar problem will always occur if more than 25% of the original crates were missing - nothing will even start without all three AIs and their avatars, though.
Cunning people might try and let the AIs nearly finish the job, then 'deactivate' them.  Unfortunately, you'll find they are so embedded in the infrastructure, quite a bit of which wont work without them, that you'll probably need to redo at least a third of the work.  Deactivating one or two of the AIs and replacing them makes the remainder very upset, and inclined to mope.  You don't want a moping life support system - it could drip ice cold water down your neck in the middle of the night, and the sighing sounds from the ventilation system can annoy, as could bright blue milk on your morning cereals.
Finally, the instructions.  There aren't any.
Some joker keeps deleting any put up on the web, as well.  (Hackers are pretty sure this is somehow a handwavium quirk.)  Consulting someone whose used one of these kits, before, seems to work, though.  Though any notes you take tend to disappear...
The creator had worked on terraforming so much they considered things obvious that most people would need to carefully think through.  After all, you can always ask an AI.  One particular example is that the kit is missing the at least 150kg (330lb) of high quality refined organic materials needed to get things started, along with at least 25kg of refined metals and inorganics.  Fortunately, these can be recycled from human foodstuffs and common equipment.  But, this is the sort of thing you'd like to know, up front.
See!  It's easy!  Go track one of these down, and buy it, today! [grin]
Open Source:  Just to make it quite clear, anyone can mangle one of these, in any of their stories, any way they like.  Though, remember, it is supposed to produce a survivable environment!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Lieutenant McAfee sighed as he examined the warehouse that the recent
shoot-out occurred in. The only thing approaching good news is that the
'target' of the various factions involved decided to run instead of
fighting back. This meant he was either caught off guard or didn't like
weapons. If it was the latter, arresting him would be relatively simple.
Assuming they could find him.

"Ell Tee, you might want to take a look at this," The voice of Reed, the
detective assigned to the scene broke into MacAfee's thoughts. "While
the suspect  took a lot of stuff with him, he didn't take all of it.
Looks like an external hard-drive."

The lieutenant quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? That is good news. Take it to the evidence room."

"Yes sir."

***

"Okay, Ell Tee, we've gone over the files on the hard-drive. Just a
bunch of CAD designs for powerplants and some audio files. We're going
to play the audio files now, and thought you might want to be present."

"You thought correctly."

"... *Kshhst*... Audio log of g~k:^*)f a@'%#l, July 16, 2008. Teosag has
wandered off somewhere, leaving me and Hera alone. While Hera's
wonderful company, she's just a cat. Even if I am beginning to suspect
she's smarter then I am. We still have no clue what to do with the
submarine now that the 'shiny factor' has worn off, which might be why
he left. If he is looking for things to do with it, I hope he lets me
know...  As long as it doesn't involve criminal activity. I'm pretty
sure my soul, if I have one, has it's fair share of stains, but those
are from just living life. No reason to actively seek out bad karma."

"Mrow."

"Hm?"

"Merrow!"

"Oh! Sure I can play with you. I need something to do other then sitting around moping anyway. End log."

"Well, unless things changed dramatically in the last few months, It's
unlikely that he was actually involved in anything we're investigating."

"It is entirely possible he is lying. Or things did change abruptly and dramatically. Play the next file."

"Mrow. Meer. Meeerow. Meeer..."

McAfee glared at the technician, who wilted. "... If this is a joke, I'm not laughing."

"No Sir! Not a joke."

"Eh?" The voice from the first recording broke in. "Hera? When did you learn to operate the computer?"

"Mew."

"Oh. That long ago? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. The miracle goop lives up to its name."

Reeds blinked. "So he is involved with Handwavium, whatever else he's done. At least he seems more stable then The Professor."

"That's NOT saying much. I don't think we're going to get anything else from this recording. Next."

"Audio log of j%!l $~(d}f, September Eighth, 2008. Hera, despite her
attempts to keep me from falling into a pit is beginning to show the
same signs of strain I've been under. If it wasn't for what it did to
granddad, I'd be tempted to take up drinking. Still no clue what to do
with the submarine. I guess we could refit it so it's more of an
exploration or research vessel then a combat one, but I have no clue how
to even begin to pull that off... and I rather suspect we lack the
funds. At least my talent with electricity is keeping food on the table
and net access available. Maybe I should take a look at some of the
online games to keep myself occupied and not thinking about how bad
things are... End log."

"Hmph. So we know things weren't going well for him then. Possible motive for what we're investigating him for."

"... You'll need a LOT more then a possible motive to say he was actually involved in drug running, Ell Tee."

"We'll find it. The idiot was mucking about with Handwavium, so he's gotta have something else hidden. Next."

"Of course, Sir. Just because one lunatic with the stuff is an
international criminal means that everyone else who even comes into
contact with the stuff needs to be shot for having a vague potential
motive. Sir."

McAfee shot Reeds a dark look, but was interrupted by the next audio
file beginning to play. "Oh, you know the routine by now. September
twenty first, 2008. Still nothing interesting. Been mucking around on
IRCs. Been hearing rumors of a decent gaming one, but haven't been able
to nail it down yet. At least looking for it is keeping me occupied. Now
I just need to find something for Hera to do. She's getting odd. End
log."

Reeds shrugged. "Still nothing useful. Next."

"September thirtieth. Found out why Hera's been acting so odd.
Apparently, she's befriended the local owl population. Not entirely
certain how she pulled that off, or why. She doesn't normally like other
animals... IRC hunt still not turning up much, but I got into contact
with Teosag again. Tossed him a couple of plans for re-working the
submarine. Let's see what he says, if anything. End log."

"So he's gathering his gang back together, eh? And 'the owl population'
is obviously a code phrase for something, probably the local talent..."

Reeds gave McAfee a disbelieving stare. "...Did you drink expresso
again? You don't NORMALLY indulge in conspiracy theories without a lot
more evidence then this. Next file, please."

"Audio log of... Oh heck. Just call me Ganti. That's all I seem to
answer to nowadays. Anyway, it's November Ninth, 2008. Still nothing
from Teosag. I've taken to designing power plants in my spare time. It's
actually pretty interesting. The owls that moved in are friendly and
easy to get along with. I do wish they'd stop leaving me dead rats, as
I'm not one of Pratchetts dwarves."

"So they've been killing spies in their ranks. If we can find and ID the
corpses we should be able to tack on murder charges as well..."

"Oh yes. Rats is slang for spies. It has nothing to do with the fact he
can apparently hold meaningful conversations with his cat and we found a
large pile of rodent corpses next to the doorway. Or the number of
actual owls roosting in the rafters. Absolutely nothing."

"Anyway, aside from the buildup of tiny little corpses, not much has
been happening. I'm tempted to toss some of the power plant designs to
one of the electric companies just to see what happens. End log."

"Sabotaging the power grid! Add that to the list of charges!"

A deep groan from the doorway brought the groups attention to an old man
who had just entered the room. "... What's McAfee on about this time?
Weren't you assigned to investigate a possible drug smuggler?"

"I think he got into the expresso again, Chief. Also, the only thing the
suspects involved that's even approaching illegal so far is Handwavium
possession. And that's pretty sketchy. It could just be a brush with it
that granted his cat increased intelligence."

"Ugh. Thank you, Reeds. McAfee, you're on break. And don't touch any more caffeine!"

***

"Okay Reeds. Now that McAfee is sleeping off the caffeine, what's the case look like so far?"

"So far it looks like the suspect is clean with the possible exception
of Handwavium possession. And I'm not entirely certain what our stance
is on that. As a US citizen it's illegal for him to possess it over
there, but..."

"Not really our department. If you know anyone with links to Fenspace,
give them with a heads up that they might be getting another citizen
soon."

"Why would we want to do that, Sir? They can look after themselves."

"He's got a mostly functional WW2 era submarine, Reeds. They hadn't even finished De-milling it, you know."

"Odds are good he's already up there, Chief."

"True. Finish up going through the evidence, and if you don't find
anything, I think we can officially declare this case closed."

"Can do Chief. Not much more to go through anyway."

"Dismissed."

***

"Audio log, November 19th. Teosag has returned, bearing gifts. I've got
no clue where he got these papers on electric theory, and I'm pretty
sure I don't WANT to know. What I do know is that this is cutting edge
stuff. Really cutting edge stuff. That scares me nearly as much as the
fact that I can see all sorts of errors in the theory does. I'm good,
but not that good. But I can still see the errors. And how to fix
them... It's more then a little disturbing. With just a few alterations I
can make... it... work... Yes, it WILL work. IT WILL WORK!
BWAHAHAHAHA!"

"MROW!"

"Och heel, nae thes again laddie!"

"KIWICK!"

As the recording devolved into chaos, Reeds switched it off. "... Well,
at least he's pretty sane by mad scientist standards. Not that that's
saying much. Still no evidence of any actual wrongdoing, except maybe to
the laws of physics. That's a bit... out of my jurisdiction. Thank
goodness."
AN: Yeah, this was from the point of view of a bunch of 'Danelaw police. Don't expect any of them to be showing up again, with the possible exception of Reeds. The snarky detective grew on me while I was writing this.

Working for another hour tonight

Staring at the wall and let the time just pass me by

You might think you know me, but it's all just a face

Trying to ignore when people screaming my name

(Screaming my name)

Walking by a house with colorful lights

There's a sign, an invitation from the woman inside

Talk about your boyfriend, talk about your wife

It's just a different way of living your life

When something's right, then something is worth to die for

When I feel that something is wrong, then something is worth to fight for

Don't say goodbye, just leave an open door

I wanna hear you say, you give me something to die for

Searching for another reason to stay

Slowly my regrets are fading away

You leave me on my own to find out what's real

You say you want your freedom, but it's not how I feel

When something's right, then something is worth to die for

When I feel that something is wrong, then something is worth to fight for

Don't say goodbye, just leave an open door

I wanna hear you say, you give me something to die for

When I feel that something is right You give me something to die for

When something's right, then something is worth to die for

When I feel that something is wrong, then something is worth to fight for

When something's right, then something is worth to die for

When I feel that something is wrong, then something is worth to fight for

Don't say goodbye, just leave an open door

I wanna hear you say, you give me something to die for

I wanna hear you say, you give me something to die for

I wanna hear you say, you give me something to die for
-- The Sounds, "Something to Die For"
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.