1190: "Time"

[AluisioASG]

Wow. Over 87706 shortpix, no?
Hi all!

Spoiler:

Wait for it.

Um, unexpected papacy. Maybe we could look back and see how much has changed over this past half-decade?

[Eternal Density]

Hello friends!
Sorry I haven't popped in in nearly two wips. I spent basically all of last wip listening to a podcast called We've Got Worm. I was able to blitz the whole thing only by listening at double speed. I'm done now and it'll be a seaish help to both my enjoyment and my writing of fiction

SternAngler told me that the person behind the Adventing was known but not who. I sorta felt/hoped it might be BlitzGirl. Yay!

It's now Time for me to have finished writing my book, Daughters of Mage Stones. (That's the one about Charity and Skids, remember?) Which means todip I'm starting rewriting it from the beginning again, this time more wingish

Steakish Needled-pulled Thing, OTTers!

P.S. MALP! http://www.rdanderson.com/stargate/entries/malp.htm

[DrSamCarter]

(Sticks head out of the shadows of the basement door again and waves)

Molpish timeversary.

Five years. Who'd'a'thought?

This is still such a warm, creative place; a sanctuary of gentle wit, wisdom and baobabish wowterfulness.

This morning's OTT read brings a cornucopia of typical Time-ish things: surprising reveals (it was Blitzgirl all along!), poetry, artwork, familiar names and avatars both frequent and irregular, creative reflections and the promise of more creativity, hotdogs, greetings and welcomings and reachings out to one another, humour (I still love Whizbang's colourisation of "This is a surprising amount of blood").

Thank you for being here and making this one of the most remarkable (and quirky) places on the internet.

[lmjb1964]

The Sea is Big!

I had no idea it was BlitzGirl. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Not only was there poetry, but, as balthasar pointed, out, graphics skills were needed for the sand-drawing photo at least. B, did you suspect it was BG? ETA: Ah,, I guess not. At any rate, it was an awesomeful unbasementing. Welcome bag!

Loved the Adventish raftcastle photo, StormAngel.

And Sustainabilizer temporally de-Basements with a hotdog! I've downloaded it, but haven't worked through the <computery stuff> to get it working on my Mac. (it will work on a Mac, right?) I'll play around with it later.

And hi, Rakhal! Yes, I will be in Santa Cruz in April, and we will hopefully be free of Zancleanism and I'll be able to visit you in Los Gatos.

Happy 5th Timeversary, Sciscitor!

Hi, NoMouse!! Hi, SilentTimer!!

I hadn't read Mikrit's post before I had brunch, but I must have sensed it somehow, because I had waffles. I didn't not invoke Our Lady of the Waffles, however.

And there's Lu! Hello! And DrSam Carter. Happy Times. Happy Timeversary.

And now I'm off to the library to renew my book on Slovene. I'm trying to learn it for a future trip to hunt for my ancestor. Slovene may be easier to figure out than Beanish, but it's still confusing, with the dual-person case and all the gender stuff, plus I haven't quite figured out how to pronounce things. Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Duolingo--none of them have Slovene. Any OTTers familiar with Slovene?

[taixzo]

And Sustainabilizer temporally de-Basements with a hotdog! I've downloaded it, but haven't worked through the <computery stuff> to get it working on my Mac. (it will work on a Mac, right?) I'll play around with it later.

Yep! It works on my Mac pretty well.

One thing that would be nice to have is some sort of highscore tracker? Every time I fall off the bottom I go "how much was that" but the score has already reset to zero.

[BlitzGirl]

Thank you for being here and making this one of the most remarkable (and quirky) places on the internet.

(sniff-sniff)
Five long yip-it-ee-do-alls....

Through thick and thin.
Through high water and low.

Thank you all.
For you are creative and kind.

I'd like to echo these sentiments! This is an exceptional, surprising, remarkable place. It's heartwarming to see everybody appearing for the anniversary, and to know I will always have a home here no matter how much Time has passed. Thank you, everyone.

(Yipiteedoall is the long form of yip that I didn't know I needed until now.)
It's a party in the O-T-T!
StarMangle, thank you for making me literally laugh out loud when I reached your Raftcastle post.
Sustainabilizer, thank you for the hotdog!
Zooman, thanks for upholding the Time-honored tradition of the Knights Temporal!
Aluisio, hi! Thank you for the shortpix count! I lost track back in mumblety-mumblety-i-think-there-was-a-three-in-there.
June Bug, it's awesomeful to see you! My punsaw is still in storage and possibly the molpies have converted it to a cappucchino maker, so I will let the bag pun go this once. Same applies to that "relish" there, Jose.
Hello also to Rakhal, Earthling on Mars, Sciscitor, NoMouse, mikrit, addams, balthotter_s, SilentTimer, svenman, ED, DrSamCarter, taixzo, anyone else I missed, and randompixbot.

In one post I wrote that one frame could have been artificially created.
Was this correct?

Is this photograph something that existed already, or do we now have proof (well, strong evidence at least. It could have been made in Photoshop rather than being a photograph of a real thing) that The Advent is taking at least some of these themself?

I think this is not a 100% real photo.

• Try to draw something with a stick on sand / earth/ other ground. It will not look this way.
  There is 3d structure visible, yes, but the holes don't look like stickmade.
• The representation of the shape from the Time frame is too perfect.

How I thing it could be done:

• take the required fragment of the timeframe
• apply a filter which transforms darkness into depth and does shading of edges
• apply a perspective transformation
• overlay with a background
• done

Yes balthaperceptive, you were correct! All of the Adventpix were made using photos from the Internet. (Mostly webvenience with a touch of manipping.) You refer to the picture for Language, which is:

Spoiler:

Here is the original photo (quite a bit different):

Spoiler:

This photo helpfully illustrates what an actual drawing in that sand with that stick would look like.
(The more seaish version that I used is at this link.)

As cute and heartish as the whole photo was, I really only wanted the stick and the sand. And I didn't even want them together as they were because I needed more spaaace for the sandsketch. There was a nice plane of sand southwest of the man's sneaker.


I extracted the stick. Here is what my eventual sticklayer looked like after some fiddling:


Then the tricky part. I had to combine my new sandstick combo...


...with the sketch from newpix 2733:


Manipping the sketch was kind of like making a sandcastle raftish (it took me three tries) but what I wound up doing was selecting the sketch, changing the layer setting to Multiply, moving the edges around so that the perspective matched the plane of the sand, and using Photoshop's Emboss filter. I played with the settings until the "engraving" looked right, and used the eraser to soften edges and make room for the stick. Here is how the sketch layer turned out:


And put on top of the sticksand image:


Then I cropped it to the right size, turned it black and white, and adjusted the brightness:


Finally, I adjusted contrast, made some tweaks with the dodge/burn tool, and added the Timeframe to reach the final product.


And that is the (correctly guessed) origin of the Language Adventpix!

Redundant:

Spoiler:

Keywords: BGUM Advent Adventpix sand stick sketch drawing manip

redundant301.png (173.47 KiB) Viewed 14694 times

[ZoomanSP]

CONSTRUCTUNG...

Spoiler:

Wait for it.

[karhell]

I knew it! I just knew I was missing something yesterdip!
I can't believe I missed the Timeversary again! The one day I forget to ketchup turns out to be the one I shouldn't have >.<

Oh well... The flow of Time can't get much more convoluted anyway ^^

Congratulations and a heartfelt thanks to all for keeping this the Most Molpish Place on the Net for five whole yips

So many molpish revelations, and unbasementings! Happy Timeversary Everymolpy!
Here's to at least that much more

[BlitzGirl]

karhell, is your avatar wearing a Molpies cheerleading uniform? That's awesomeful.

[karhell]

Yup. Courtesy of ggh. At some point I mentioned donning a cheerleader costume to encourage someone, and, well... This kinda happened ^^

EDIT:
Encouragement was for GnomeAnne here.
Uniform was added by ggh here and later edited via PM to be a proper Molpies uniform.

[lmjb1964]

Hi, karhell! You're not late, the Timeiversary celebration is still going on.

[Earthling on Mars]

The Dark Lord

Chapter 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12

Gurrin clung to the bottom of the raft. He'd warned them, but what could LaPetite's few Molpies do against the Dark Lord's army?

What could he do?

The dark figure of his master stood right in front of the raft now, his army of Molpies lined up in rows behind him. He began to rise, growing taller and more menacing.

* * *

A huge dark form burst from the water. It rose, blocking the light of the stars. A wave of fear washed over Makarga.

"It's that mean guy!" LaPetite screamed behind him.

"Get down, milady!" Segla ordered. Makarga spun and ran to LaPetite's side, joining Segla and the other Molpies in protecting her. They stared up at the figure of the Dark Lord.

Spoiler:

Dozens of Sparrow-raptors burst from the water and swooped down on the raft. As the Raptors reached them, the Molpies swiped at them with their teeth and paws. Makarga caught one by the wing and slammed it down on the raft.

There were more splashes. Countless Molpies surfaced and started clambering onto the raft.

"Stop it!" LaPetite yelled. "I don't like it when you attack us!"

The Dark Lord's Molpies attacked LaPetite's defenders. Makarga bit down on the first one's ear and tossed it back at its comrades.

They were outnumbered. There was no way they could stand against all the Dark Lord's minions.

* * *

Hundreds of Molpies. Almost the Dark Lord's entire army, swimming up to attack a harmless little girl.

They hadn't seen Gurrin, hidden in the shadow of the raft. He had surprise on his side, if he could just think of a way to use that advantage. He moved closer to the edge of the raft.

One swam close to Gurrin's hiding spot. He stretched his neck out and caught it in his jaws. The Molpy yelped. Gurrin banged its head on the raft, then released it and let it sink.

He swatted another one with his paw as it passed. The Molpy turned. "What are you doing?!" she yelled.

Gurrin grabbed her and pulled her under with him. He thought about biting her throat, but then he thought of LaPetite. She didn't like the Molpies killing each other.

Instead, he bit the next Molpy as it passed. This one turned toward him. Another saw the commotion and turned as well.

The one he was holding on to bit his ear. The other two swam toward him to attack.

The more Molpies he could distract, the fewer there would be to attack LaPetite.

* * *

Makarga dispatched another enemy Molpy. Beside him, Darkum battled a Molpy and a Sparrow-raptor at once. Makarga took a swing at the Raptor. Then something bit his tail. He turned and faced the Molpy they had been holding prisoner, now awake again. He pounced on him, and the Molpy yelped, releasing Makarga's tail. They clawed at each other. Makarga hit him on the head, and the Molpy slumped again. Makarga hoped he was dead this time.

He turned back to find Darkum lying still, a bite wound visible on his throat. Only Segla still stood in front of LaPetite, who was sitting with her knees pulled up to her face, whimpering. Segla battled three Molpies. Makarga rushed to help.

They were the only two of LaPetite's defenders left. And there were still more enemies coming.

Then suddenly, a Sparrow-raptor came from behind LaPetite and poked one of the attackers in the eye. He yelped. Makarga finished him off and looked at his unexpected helper. It was the one they'd been holding prisoner.

"What are you doing?" Makarga asked.

"Helping her!" the Raptor screeched. He stood beside Makarga and Segla, glaring at the oncoming attackers.

"What?!" Makarga exclaimed.

LaPetite looked up. "Thank you, Kezra," she whispered through her tears.

"Look out!" said the Raptor as more Molpies climbed onto the raft.

And the Dark Lord reached out with his hand over the raft, preparing to snatch the three defenders himself.

Makarga was sure there was no hope left, so there was only one thing left to try.

He crouched, getting ready to pounce on the Dark Lord.

* * *

Gurrin was now fighting seven Molpies at once. One had him by the ear. He swung quickly and bashed that one against the raft. He might have killed it. He had no choice. Whatever LaPetite would want, he could only fight so many at once.

He had to protect her.

"Traitor," hissed a voice behind Gurrin.

He couldn't turn around.

"You tricked me!" said the voice. "You got me to leave the gate so you could come and betray the Dark Lord!"

Daltan. Gurrin didn't answer.

"The Dark Lord will be angry with you, Gurrin!" Daltan said. Then Gurrin heard the swish of water as he swam away.

He was done for.

* * *

There was a splash as another Molpy broke the surface.

"Your Majesty!" he called. "The traitor is down under the raft, attacking your Molpies!"

The Dark Lord turned toward him. Makarga took that moment to make his move. He leaped high and grabbed the Dark Lord's hand in his jaws.

The hand clenched. Makarga scrambled on top before he could be squeezed in the palm, and ran up the Dark Lord's arm. If he could just get to the throat...

Then suddenly he felt himself being picked up by the tail. The Dark Lord had him in his other hand.

"Stop!" came another voice. Makarga tried to twist his head to see who it was. It sounded like that dark Molpy who kept showing up.

"I will deal with you, traitor," said the Dark Lord in his thundering voice, "as soon as I am done with these Molpies."

He tossed Makarga aside.

Just before Makarga hit the water, he heard a "MROWL!"

* * *

Gurrin swam toward the Dark Lord, not sure what he planned to do. Then suddenly there was a growl and a big splash as something leaped out of the water.

"It's the raptorcat again!" someone on the raft exclaimed. The big cat grabbed on to the Dark Lord's chest before he could do anything about it. The Dark Lord grabbed for it. It clawed its way up to his neck. The Dark Lord wrapped his hand around the cat just as it sank its teeth into his throat.

The Dark Lord went still. Gurrin gasped. Everything went silent as the Molpies realized what had happened to their master.

The Dark Lord began to sink. His Molpies screamed and started jumping off the raft and into the water.

The cat jumped off the Dark Lord and swam away.

The Dark Lord sank below the water with a splash. A wave of water washed over Gurrin and everything went black.

* * *

LaPetite stood at the edge of her raft, looking out over the water. It was getting light out. The sunrise was pretty.

But most of her Molpy friends were gone. Only Segla was still with her on the raft. Segla had said all the others were dead. Even Kezra, the Sparrow-raptor who'd decided to help her.

That made LaPetite sad.

At least that Dark Lord guy was gone too. He was even worse than the people in the hills.

Why did some people have to be so mean?

LaPetite looked down at her beret in her hands and sniffed.

Then something in the water caught her eye. "Look!" she said, pointing.

Segla came to her side. "It looks like a Molpy, milady," she said.

The Molpy floated closer. LaPetite put her beret back on and reached over the side, trying to pull him in.

"Careful, milady!" said Segla. She grabbed onto LaPetite's legs.

LaPetite caught the Molpy by the paw and pulled him onto the raft.

It was him! It was the Molpy who'd come to help them, who'd turned out to be good after all!

"Gurrin!" she said.

He didn't answer. Oh no, was he dead too?

Segla looked at the Molpy. "He's breathing, milady."

LaPetite knelt in front of him. "Gurrin, wake up!" she said.

His eyes opened. He looked up at her. "I'm alive?" he said questioningly.

"Gurrin!" she squealed, pulling him into a hug. "You're okay!"

"C-careful, milady," he said. "My ribs hurt."

"Sorry," she said, loosening her grip a little bit.

Segla stood by, watching quietly.

"See, Segla?" LaPetite said. "He helped us. He's not really mean. That mean Dark Lord just scared him."

"Yes," said Segla. "He helped us."

"That Dark Lord is gone now," LaPetite said to Gurrin. "You don't have to be scared of him anymore."

Gurrin sighed. "Good," he said. "That's good." And after a pause, "I'm glad you're okay too, milady."

LaPetite walked back to the edge of the raft. "We're still way out on the water," she said.

Segla joined her. Then Gurrin quietly came to stand beside her too.

LaPetite sighed. "I wonder where we'll float next."

The End

redundant:

lapetite_floataway.png (3.51 KiB) Viewed 13882 times

← previous (NP2639)

[balthasar_s]

[I thought it would be fun to play with the tape machine, like the other people were able to do (perhaps?) but it's not that important, so don't worry about it.

There is a possibility, actually.
I have a redundant copy of bsta o[...]

Me, me, I want to play with the tape recorder too!

Actually, I have an even better solution which doesn't require making copies on demand and sending links by PMs.
And this post was my inspiration:

If they break it, you simply throw them a New one.

I made a redundant copy of bsta and all related things which will reset its state every week.
Each week it will be brought to an unttouched state.
So each week you can start from beginning and play with the tape interface which started bsta again and again.
(that's why I made the url /bstagain).

http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/bstagain/

[Rakhal]

Thanks for the cool story Earthling!

Spoiler:

Yay Lucky saves the day! (leaves out choice treats for the raptorcat!)

I wish I could write, I have lots of cool ideas...

[GnomeAnne]

The Dark Lord

ooh look, another Dark Lord release. I still need to ketchup from chapter three, best get on that.

I blitz-wrote a riverish Hotdog

I would install this now, but I fear it will be too much of a distraction. I'll give it a try next wipend.
I am looking forward to possibly getting to play b's bsta game as well, once it's released.

Manipping the sketch

You did an incredible job finding and manipulating wingish photos and related poems. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into the creative process behind the Advent-ure.

Happy Timeversary Everymolpy!

hiya karhell!
Where is ggh? I haven't seen them here in some Tim.

http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/bstagain/

Ooh, looks like fun. Now we can say things on two words and they won't be there forever like in the original version.
For those who want to play with the tape player interface: on the two words page at the link in b's post play the game and include the words "Hidden Interface" in the story that gets written.
This will activate the secret cassette player interface that starts the bsta sequence.
I'm curious to see how short the frame intervals are, once the interface is activated the button is pressed, now that many more frames have been uploaded than were there originally.

Spoiler:

I wish I could write, I have lots of cool ideas...

Same here.

Spoiler:

Once I have an idea for something to write, and actually start writing it down, it's easy enough for the first five pages or so, but then I realize I really don't like writing, lose all my motivationM and start doing something else.

[Febrion]

Happy 5^th Timeversary^sp from the basement^-1! Nothing exciting^X to add, just wanted to say I'm still lurking here^under and enjoying all the otter-stuff. Keep it^it up, and I'll keep waiting¹¹⁹⁰ for it<sup>it


5</sup>This isn't a footnote^th
shAuto-correct can't help me here
^6.1A day late to make it more special, not because I lost track of the days^mmm
heresyI please⁰ the fifth^8
rootI never understood the origin of that phrase, but I like it^yes
I!As does the fifth^{8 again}, obviously
^rot90And now it's^it recursive
^itsee it^it
CThe most exciting news I can come up with is that it's the Timeversary, but I'm pretty sure y'all already know that
^where?In a totally not-creepy kinda way
^spaceRelatively^it

[NoMouse]

Happy Timeversary!

[Blindpost]

Greetings from far away on occasion of a double Timeversary: In my Blitzrocket, I'm experiencing the fourth one, and according to my calculations, it's the fifth Timeversary for y'all in the Present.

In celebration of this, I blitz-wrote a riverish Hotdog:

MolpyUp!

Spoiler:

You can download it here: http://www.peter.gerwinski.de/ott/MolpyUp.zip

It's a Python program , so it should run everywhere. To RUN it, type python molpyup.py in your shell. I tested it successfully on all computers in my Blitzrocket. Since none of them is running MS Windows, I cannot give you precise instructions how to make it run there (sorry), but you need to install a Python interpreter and the pygame library (type pip install pygame to install).

It's a riverish program (just 168 lines of code), and just a beginning. I have several ideas how to extend this hotdog. If you have more, be welcome to tell me, and wait for it. Or help me to implement them. Or both.

[ETA: installation hints, clarifications]
[ETA2: Reveal how to RUN the program. Thanks, Balthasar, for the beesnake report!]

Molpish hotdog, Sustainabilizer!

It took a few tries but I was able to run it on Windows. Here's what you have to do:

1. Download the Python interpreter from the Sustainabilizer's link (click Download Python 3.6.4).
2. Run the installation, I didn't change any option.
3. Now open your command line (open Start menu and type "cmd") and here type this and hit Enter:

   Code: Select all

   py -m pip install -U pygame --user
   This downloads and installs the package.
4. Wait for confirmation that the installation is finished and close the command line.
5. If you haven't downloaded the hotdog, do it now and unzip the folder anywhere you like.
6. Double click "molpyup.py" since it now should be associated with Python and the hotdog should start.

[GnomeAnne]

An installation guide for those of us who, like myself^GnomeAnne, find themselves utterly lost when it comes to [computery stuff]

Thanks for putting this together. If someone who has it running nicely in a Macintosh could do the same, I'm sure that would be greatly appreciated as well.

^footnoteNot NoMouse, he seems to know what he's doing.

[taixzo]

I should probably add Mac instructions:

1. Open a Terminal (it's in the Applications folder, under Utilities)
2. Type this and press Enter:

   Code: Select all

   sudo easy_install pygame
   It will prompt you for your password.
3. Use this command to change to the directory where the game is. For example, if you downloaded it into Downloads and then unzipped it there, type:

   Code: Select all

   cd Downloads/MolpyUp
4. Run the hotdog with this command:

   Code: Select all

   python molpyup.py

[svenman]

The latest BSTA update hasn*t been ONGed here yet:

Insert other side of cassette and play

This looks almost like what we saw at the beginning of BSTA. Will there be a second BSTA story inside BSTA?

[GnomeAnne]

We seem to no longer be looking at bsta. See
frame 186 (begin at 183 and read through 188 (v/187) for context). Bsta started playing when someone pressed the triangular button on the player interface. The cassette that was just flipped over appears to be a video cassette, and bsta is playing from the tape and being shown on a small screen next to the tape player. The robot video game was played on a computer sitting next to the screen. Presumably the next frame will dump us back into some part of the bsta story.

[moody7277]

Hooray, 5th Timeversary!

Watching on mrob's replay, and it's amazing how quickly Cuegan got to serious engineering with their castle. Not even 100 timeframes in and they have the arch and multiple layers.

[ZoomanSP]

LOOKUNGOUTFORTHENEWOTHERCOMIC...

Spoiler:

Wait for it.

New ottification:

Spoiler:

RSIR:

Spoiler:

[BlitzGirl]

Treeish ottification, Zooman! Given Megan's proclivity for throwing things at the castle, Cue should probably duck and cover instead of remarking on the epsilonishness...

OMR, it's Febrion³! Help, I'm stuck in the footnotes and I can't get out! But in a wowterful way!

Watching on mrob's replay, and it's amazing how quickly Cuegan got to serious engineering with their castle. Not even 100 timeframes in and they have the arch and multiple layers.

You know, I wonder how many sandcastles Cuegan built before the dawn of Time. They're very, very good at construction.
There must be other castles.

The Dark Lord

Epic. So awesomefully epic.
Pardon me while I go find a sea of ice cream because I need that now.

Also,
5 YEARS of Time!
So I'm here 5 years already (ok, a bit less since I joined later)?
That's a big piece of time.
That's as much time as I spent at university.
A lot changed for me since then.

Um, unexpected papacy. Maybe we could look back and see how much has changed over this past half-decade?

Ooh, I should follow this decree. Like balthachange_s, a lot has changed for me. I have an update on my whereabouts during my seaish basementedness (those of you on Facebug might have seen some snippets). I'll work backwards and it will end up very RELATED, I promise. At the start of this Outsideyip, I got a new BGFFS which I am all molpied up about. I'm now an editor for technical communications at an engineering company. There's a treeish quote about editing as "putting the pieces together and making sense out of them" which I think is a great match for the OTTish spirit (though sometimes instead of sense we put the pieces together to make nonsense, which can be more fun).

Hopefully I will be able to do more OTTivities now because the new BGFFS should have less overTime than my previous one. The new FFS is technically a promotion for me; for the past yipiteedoall and a half I worked for the same company, assembling pieces of organized sand that directed lightning. That was interesting, but there were newpix upon newpix of overTime, a lot of the tasks were physically draining, and the location was in a riverish town where I didn't know many people. All of these factors were steambottle (ugh) and made me less prone to creative actions like otting. However, the assembly FFS was very important for me because I needed experience to get the new job I wanted, in the place I wanted (my hometown, which is the flag on top).

Here's the RELATED bit: Back in 2016^H when I became interested in that FFS, my resume was like unto the river and I hadn't had a lot of success applying for other positions. However, I did have this one sort of treeish thing that could count, with a university in Germany, kind of a quirky project but it sounded interesting. So I asked the wowterful and thoughtful Sustainabilizer for a reference for my FFS application, and he helped me out in a very Beanish way. It worked!

So here at the beginning (not t** **d, never t** **d) I have OTTerCon and an awesomeful OTTer and the molpish experience of the OTT (and the OTC which started it all) to thank for my transformation from an uncertain Cuegish wanderer to a person who likes what she is doing with her life and is very much looking forward to the Future. Thank you for helping me reach dry land!

[addams]

Yey!
!*Happy Dance*!

[ucim]

New ottification:

Awesomeful, and as close to wingish as it can be without risking buzz sounds.

Speaking of which, congrats on your new FFS,BG! But I'm puzzled:

for the past yipiteedoall and a half I worked for the same company, assembling pieces of organized sand that directed lightning.

You got paid to control lightening, and it lost its spark? You didn't get a charge out of building Robot Zeusses? Is it really true that BlitzGirl has electric eels in her molpy zoo and abandoned them for her current job? That is quite a switch.

Watching on mrob's replay, and it's amazing how quickly Cuegan got to serious engineering with their castle. Not even 100 timeframes in and they have the arch and multiple layers.

Yes, it is amusing how fast on replay what seemed forever in the past goes!

And Yay! It's Febrion! Always molpish to see our favorite transistor!

Glad to see La Petite survived her most awesomeful adventure! Treeish story Earthling! Worth waiting for it.

I have something clever to say here, but I can't think of it.

Jose

[BlitzGirl]

for the past yipiteedoall and a half I worked for the same company, assembling pieces of organized sand that directed lightning.

You got paid to control lightening, and it lost its spark? You didn't get a charge out of building Robot Zeusses? Is it really true that BlitzGirl has electric eels in her molpy zoo and abandoned them for her current job? That is quite a switch.

Technically I wasn't getting paid to direct lightning myself. I was getting paid to put the nuts and bolts into the thing that would eventually direct lightning after the customer installed it, which was less exciting. I never did see any electric eelpy signs but perhaps they were being evasive.

You didn't get a charge out of building Robot Zeusses?

VITSSÅGEN, JA!

I should tell my comolpers that I used to assemble Zeusbots.

[ucim]

I should tell my comolpers that I used to assemble Zeusbots.

...or that people called you Dr. Zeus.

Jose

[SBN]

Um, unexpected papacy. Maybe we could look back and see how much has changed over this past half-decade?

Let's see, I had a WFFS I hated. Now I have a WFFS that I like a lot. Interestingly, my responsibilities are very much the same. The difference is I now work with a team that knows that what I do is helpful to them, and appreciates it.

I moved to the Australia of the US, which is a mix. Lost a good wolpy to a bad case of old, gained a helper-wolpy when we needed it.

Happy to still be a part of all this, even if I don't participate as much as I used to. I'm still here reading and enjoying. And, if any of all y'all decide to come be tourists in this part of the world, let me know.

[mrob27]

Wow, it was @BltizGirl!

Happy Timeversary! / […] / In celebration of [the fifth Timeversary], I blitz-wrote a riverish Hotdog: / MolpyUp! / […]

This is wonderful, but lacks instructions. Apart from the Python-related instructions, like "sudo pip install pygame", which others have addressed, I've been wondering if someone can tell us if this game has controls or a goal.

• What am I supposed to be doing? Just bash randomly on keys hoping something changes?
  
• The molpy randomly faces left and/or right at quasi-random times. Is that a clue for something?
  
• How to make it quit or exit?

The arrow keys (if you have such things) make it move diagonally, and then it bounces off stuff. Sometimes when the Molpy falls down it resets the number to 0, even though I know there is a platform to fall onto because it was previously moving straight up. Bug?

It is much too fast. Edit molpyup.py, find "clock.tick(60)" and change the number to something smaller.

When I tried to run the game for the first time, what I did after unpacking was: chmod +x molpyup.py ; ./molpyup.py […]

This would probably work if you edit molpyup.py and insert a line at the very beginning that says:

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/env python


Hey great, bstagain! Hmmm, no tape player as far as I can see. Instructions, please!

For those who want to play with the tape player interface: on the two words page at the link in b's post play the game and include the words "Hidden Interface" in the story that gets written.

Okay, I think I knew that. But it doesn't let me enter more than two words. Can anyone make this easier?

Today I gave my automeme a speech option (using the existing programs espeak or say on Linux or Mac respectively) and I had to add Beanish orthography. I used @tresoldi's transliteration from Beanish to phonetic (is there any other?) and managed to hear it for the first time. ᓭᘖᔭᓄᐨ sounds kind of like "attune", and ᘝᓄᘈᖉᐣ is "t'n'woe".

^{— mrob27}

[GnomeAnne]

it doesn't let me enter more than two words. Can anyone make this easier?

I've entered the next two words. The tape interface is now active.

Twowords will prevent you from entering two consecutive sets of two words from the same ip address, so you can use something like the Tor browser or a VPN to get around that and enter four or more words in a row.
If you press "play" on the tape player it will initiate bsta and we won't be able to play with the interface any more.
If you type more words into twowords it will hide the player interface until we start another two words game.

Edit: I also connected to the coincidence server so we can chat there as well.

[mrob27]

Thank you @GnomeAnne! I remembered being able to enter four words last week. Given your comments about IP address and VPN, I guess it's because I was using my mobile semi-organised sand and it switched itself from 3G to Wifi (or vice-versa, maybe?).
　 I tried the fast-forward, rewind, stop and pause. Just for fun, I also tried pressing multiple buttons with ?s=13 (which would be fast-forward, rewind and pause at the same time).
　 I didn't press play, so others can try it now. I understand what play does from reading past discussions.
　 I didn't try record either. I think maybe it does nothing because I don't see a URL in the lower-left when I "hover" over it.
　 I really appreciate this, thank you @balthasar_s! It all happened during a period when I wasn't on the OTT and I think only one or two people got a chance to see the tape player in action. It's a nifty little web app, very cleverly done.

[GnomeAnne]

Indeed, I really like the hand drawn buttons.

It's interesting that we have this interface to play with again just as we get to the frames showing the tape player being used.

You can see the static images here:
http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/bstagain/?
Pressing the different buttons on the twowords interface and then refreshing the bstagain/? tab will reveal the different gifs.

[mrob27]

but they aren't static, they're moving!

Uh-oh.

. . . . . . . .

[Earthling on Mars]

Thanks to those who commented on The Dark Lord! Feels good, though a little sad, to finally finish it. It was fun to write. I'll just note again that I've uploaded it to Archive of Our Own as well as this thread. Though I edited the version there to remove some of the direct references to the OTT in the early chapters, for the sake of anyone who might find it there who isn't familiar with our molpish needle-pulled thing.

re pope: Many things have changed, in the wide world and in my life. Some changes were for the better. Some weren't. But for the past five yips and three dips, there's one thing that hasn't changed: there's a corner of the internet that contains an epsilon but treeish thread with a wowterful community. I've spent a lot of time in the Basement, but it's always nice to come back and see this thing still going.

[balthasar_s]

• What am I supposed to be doing? Just bash randomly on keys hoping something changes?

This is the best method of finding out what to do with a game, as recommended by bsta 193

• The molpy randomly faces left and/or right at quasi-random times. Is that a clue for something?

This is a bug. This happens only if the molpy is supposed to be turned to the left. When the molpy jumps it turns to the right instead. When it falls it turns left again.
This is because playerLeftDown.png is a copy of playerRightDown.png but should be a mirror of it.

• How to make it quit or exit?

The game ends for me if I close the window in which I see the game.

Sometimes when the Molpy falls down it resets the number to 0, even though I know there is a platform to fall onto because it was previously moving straight up. Bug?

Or maybe not. I think we're supposed to avoid falling below the visible area. The reset happens if we are more than 1/6 of the window height below.

It is much too fast.

I also thought it's too fast, but slowed down it was too easy.

Hey great, bstagain! Hmmm, no tape player as far as I can see. Instructions, please!

This was without instructions on purpose. It was supposed to be discovered. I did provide some hints when it was found thee first time. I think the ott still remembers.

it doesn't let me enter more than two words. Can anyone make this easier?

I've entered the next two words. The tape interface is now active.
Twowords will prevent you from entering two consecutive sets of two words from the same ip address, so you can use something like the Tor browser or a VPN to get around that and enter four or more words in a row.

When testing this I made the w3c validator enter the other two words for me.

If you press "play" on the tape player it will initiate bsta and we won't be able to play with the interface any more.

the 2words interface in not enough to start bsta. One additional step is needed.

http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/bstagain/?
Pressing the different buttons on the twowords interface and then refreshing the bstagain/? tab will reveal the different gifs.

The "?" in this url is not needed.

[yappobiscuits]

Happy belated timeiversary everyone, I wasn't around on the actual dip due to the fact I was busy sacrificing myself to the Wicker Man. Wow, can't believe it's been 5 whole yips. Half a decade the OTC/OTT has been a part of our lives. And to think it's still going. That's quite something.

Did you like the advent calendar? I wanted to do something treeish for the 5th anniversary of Time, but I knew if I barged in being all blitzgirly I wouldn't be able to focus very well. But now that the project is done I can be as SREEE as I like!

:O Plot twist, it was BlitzGirl all along! And she would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling otters! I guessed it'd be something like that Well, I mean, I guessed TheAdvent was probably an existing OTTer posting under a new account, but hadn't actually considered you as a possibility because I thought you were genuinely basemented due to outside business. Well you had me fooled Now you've revealed it was you, looking back, it was all rather your style. Also yay, awesomeful to see you back! I was saying earlier, it's been a very long time since we were both here together as we both keep basementing and debasementing at opposite times and missing each other Yayyy! Great to hear the OTT has helped you achieve success in outside life. Just proves this thread's wowterfulness!

2.5: Raftcastle

Spoiler:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Use Our Castle As A Raft
by Yappobiscuits

Go on then, just for laughs!
Use our castle as a raft!
As a raft, as a raft,
Use our castle as a raft!
Go on then, just for laughs!
Use our castle as a raft!
As a raft, as a raft,
Use our castle, use our castle.

Raft-Castle.jpg
As a raft.

HAH. I'm honoured that you would consider my silliest ottification (well, one of... there are many contenders) to be given the AdventOng treatment

[lmjb1964]

Here's a little bit of ketchup, since I really should be doing something work-related at my MFFS...

The Dark Lord

Wow, that was exciting. I want to go back and blitz the whole thing as some point, but I read that last chapter with rapt(or) attention.

^footnoteNot NoMouse, he seems to know what he's doing.

Is he pretty big?

Hi, Febrion! Glad to see you out of the basement!

Thanks for the Mac hotdog instructions, taixzo. I'll have to try that tonip.

We seem to no longer be looking at bsta. See
frame 186 (begin at 183 and read through 188 (v/187) for context). Bsta started playing when someone pressed the triangular button on the player interface. The cassette that was just flipped over appears to be a video cassette, and bsta is playing from the tape and being shown on a small screen next to the tape player. The robot video game was played on a computer sitting next to the screen. Presumably the next frame will dump us back into some part of the bsta story.

But those don't look like video cassettes, the look like audio cassettes. But thanks for referring back to that earlier frame. It was helpful to be reminded where we were seeing each of those elements.

[mscha]

DARONGLY...

Spoiler:

Wait for it.

(Colorization by adnapemit.)

OTT Time Travel

HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU LOVE YIN-YANG IF YOU CAN'T EVEN EAT XIS SIGCOURAGEMENT?

-- posted by randompixbot

[SilentTimer]

DARONGLY...

Always nice to see you, randompixbot. But where's oldpixbot?

DARUNGLY...

Spoiler:

Wait for it.