Abadoss

Howl's Moving Castle is one of my favorites, actually. I still can't believe that they pulled in Jean Simmons (not of KISS fame) to voice Old Sophie in the English dub. Pretty cool.

Anything Miyazaki, really. Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta {1986} [Castle in the Sky], Tonari no Totoro {1988} [My Neighbor Totoro], Majo no takkyûbin {1989} [Kiki's Delivery Service]... those are just the ones in your year range. I know they're rather mainstream now, but they're really good films.

CMC: Conceptual Music Competition This competition is based on the rules of the classic TOMC (Thematic Original Music Competition). The CMC (Conceptual Music Competition) is designed so that each participant enters a piece of music based on a set theme. The participants take the theme and interpret it as they will to come up with something that fits. Any style can work, as long as it portrays a sense of what the theme is. Feel free to be imaginative! Each successive theme will be chosen by the winner of the previous competition. For example, say the theme of the last competition, CMC 31, was "Meteor" and the winner, Polly, submitted a piece that knocked the socks off of everyone, so she won. Polly then gets to decide the theme for CMC 32. This competition is open to registered members of the forums of OverClocked ReMix, VGMix, VGMusic, Gaming World, Young Composers, and GameDev. CMC 25: Sacrifice "Everything has its price. Great achievements require the greatest sacrifices. When the time comes, will you be able to give away what you hold most dear for the sake of your cause?" -Steven Kelly Results!: Text results and critiques There are 5 entries for this round... sillythewilly - "Stark Reality" "The hero dude has purged the land of evil! (cues pompous victory march music) Everyone's happy, except for the dude, who quietly sneaks out of sight and retreats to his room to be all sorrowful and such because he lost his best friend in the battle. But eventually, he becomes numb to the pain, and lies on the couch reminiscing about the times they had together in the past." Zephyr Tread - "Sacrifice" "When I first thought of what might fit the 'Sacrifice' theme I immediately thought of a doing a somber orchestral song. This is just what springs to mind when I think of the theme, and I'm sure the same happened to many of you, well I decided it might end up being a little to cliche and went with a different style instead. I whipped up this piece, I'm not really sure what this style might be called. I still threw in a tad of orchestral-ness for some dynamic variation in it, but then taper off with a thoughtful melody line with the celesta at the end. This song represents a different sort of sacrifice, not your usual 'I'm gonna just go throw myself into a bullet for someone else.' This represents a well thought out dilemma ( I tried to go for a very thoughtful like melody) which ultimately results in making a sacrifice that the person has to live with for a long time. Nonetheless I hope you enjoy my 'Sacrifice'! (Not a terribly original name-I know, but I liked it ok!? What do you people want from me!?)" Binweasel - "Heading Home" "A man and a woman, sent to colonize a distant moon. Given everything they need to redo humanity's beginning and become their own Adam and Eve. Not enough. The man, overcome by the isolation (among other things), deconstructs their machines, builds himself a rocket back to earth. Only room for one. Scanning the radio frequencies as he flies back, he comes across a song amidst the static... The woman had built a radio out of the air purifier (don't ask how!) to send him one last message. Government should have screened their heroes better for the mission." just64helpin - "Daisy's Last Day" "Daisy is just a little girl, but her most important day is upon her. She dons the specially prepared dress for the event with a mixture of emotions. Daisy looks toward the mirror a final time and stands still as the assistant covers her eyes with the ceremonial band. She thinks back to times of play and contemptment, wondering if those memories were the best she could have gotten out of life." Flik - "His Chance" "Standing at the edge of the world he knew and the new life he could have, he must make the choice of sacrificing it all for the unknown." Voting Rules!: Voters will be allowed to pick one first place (3 points) and any number of honorary mentions (1 point). Only one set of votes from any one voter will be accepted and a person cannot vote for any one piece more than once. Corrections to votes, from the original voter only, will be accepted, but corrections will void the previous votes. Basically, a voter can vote and correct the vote, but only the final form of that vote will be counted. Send all votes to Abadoss by PM. Please include any and all constructive critiques (not to be confused with bashing) about them with your votes as well, so that there's always a sense of growth in the artform. If you wish to remain anonymous, just state so in your PM. To be eligible to vote, you must be a registered member of at least one of the participating forums, prior to the beginning of the voting period. In your PM or e-mail, please indicate which forum you are a member of and your username. The voting period will last from the moment the entries are posted in the thread to the Saturday of that week. The voting period for this round ends January 17, 2009, so be sure to spend some time really listening to the pieces. Any participant in the competition can vote, but not for their own pieces. However, in an effort to encourage voting among participants, any participant who votes will have 2 points added to his/her voting score (unless the participant chooses to be anonymous). Official Rules!: Each piece must be originally composed for this competition. Arrangements and remixes will not be accepted. (Pieces composed by the participant prior to the competition will not be accepted.) Each piece must be 2:00 or longer and match the competition theme. Only one entry per person. Collaborations will be allowed, but each collaborator may not submit any other pieces. (This also means that a person cannot collaborate on two or more different pieces at the same time.) A link to the entry piece must be e-mailed or PMed to Abadoss prior to the deadline set for each competition. DO NOT POST THE LINK IN THE THREAD! However, feel free to post in the WIP:Other forum. Important: Each file must be labeled accordingly: Composer_Name_-_Composition_Title_CMC#.mp3 (For example, if Thomas Teller submits a piece called "Great Explication" to CMC 30, then his filename would be: Thomas_Teller_-_Great_Explication_CMC30.mp3) MP3 file format is required. Know that even OGG will need to be converted into MP3. (If someone is unable to do so themselves, Abadoss would be willing and able to do it for them.) Entries should be accompanied by a description and/or story to help listeners understand what the piece is about. (Not required, though.) All entries must be submitted by Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 11:59 PM - PST, GMT-8. You can find the competition threads for each forum listed below: OverClocked ReMix: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20120 VGMix: http://www.vgmix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1649 VGMusic: http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11559 Gaming World: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=76900.0 Young Composers: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/conceptual-music-competition-25-sacrifice-17738.html GameDev: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=518726 Good luck and have fun! Previous CMCs: http://www.abadoss.net/CMC.htm

The next round has been posted! Here's the link: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20120

That's where the hyphen comes in. Any self-respecting professional woman, whose maiden-name is well known does the hyphen. Observe: Jillian Goldin-Aversa Much more professional. It's either that or zircon takes her name: Andrew Goldin... Or alternately: Andrew Aversa-Goldin

Wow! Congrats you two!

Which games are you selling?

The results are in!

Congrats OA!

I too missed the deadline. For that I am sorry. I am still willing to work on the piece, but I know that part of the agreement was the WIP-a-month... let me know what you think...

Fixed! ...

The entries have been posted! Time to vote!

Uh... why oil immersion?

I both collect and read classic literature. Most of the ones on my list are ones I've already read. Some are ones that I've only read excerpts of and want the full copy. A few are ones I haven't read at all, but know enough about to make it worth the purchase.

I'm not cleaning this up...

There's still a bit left...

What? The first Half-Life came with a level designer, didn't it? Does Half-Life 2 not come with that?

Cool. Thanks. Okay. I downloaded Steam... my username is Abadoss. The main reason I want Half-Life 2 is for the level creator. I really liked the one in the first one and I'm hoping the second one is even better.

It's kind of hard to read, unfortunately. Blue against black tends to get faded out most of the time.

To be honest, I have no idea what Steam is... I keep hearing it being bounced around, but I haven't run into it yet...

Cool. Do you have a link?

It could be the full thing. There didn't seem to be any mention of it being abridged...

Is it the full thing? I had something similar for my humanities core, but it's only an excerpt. It's significant excerpt, but not the full thing by any means.

Do you have any of these? (unabridged, of course) The Merry Advantures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes The Free Choice of the Will by Augustine of Hippo The Republic by Plato Les Miserablés by Victor Hugo Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift The Science of Discworld I, II, & III by Terry Pratchett 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne Siddartha by Herman Hesse The Adventures of Tom Saywer by Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Things Fall Apart by Chenua Achebe The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo Person and Personage by Victor Tournier Infinity and the Mind by Walter Ong The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous Musicophila by Oliver Sacks The Three Musketeers (a series of six books) by Alexander Dumas

While I certainly welcome your participation, there is one caveat that could be a problem...