HalcyonSpirit

As a student of Virginia Tech, and currently on campus, I can tell you that it's been absolutely horrible here. The death toll is at least 21, possibly more, with at least 8 injured. I don't know the status of them. I was in my second class of the day, at about 9:30AM, that I heard the first sirens going to West Ambler Johnston, a dorm, where the first shootings occurred. One of the dead was killed there, and I think one or two others were injured. At 10AM, when I got out of my class, the reports were coming in to get indoors and stay there. Sometime between then and 10:30AM, the shootings at Norris and Holden Halls occurred; those are academic buildings with classes running in them. That's where most of the fatalities were. They were mostly students, if not all students. There was at least one professor injured (shot in the arm/shoulder). Classes are canceled for today and tomorrow. I will keep you updated as things come in on my end.

Whoo! Congrats to Barnsalot and Manic Cinq! Also, good job everyone else! I was hoping for at least runner up, but hey, it's both my first short story competition entry and my first short story ever. Can't exactly expect to win anything like that. *raises hand* Not that it'd cause a problem about entering, though; my poetry is not fit to see the light of day. The odds of me entering a poetry contest ever is 3,720 to 1. Also, G_D, are you going to update the other thread with the entries that were linked?

EDIT: Issue has been resolved. Turns out that the backup CD I was using was improperly copied, and thus didn't function correctly. The person that made the backup for himself (and then let me use it) didn't include all of the necessary files from the original. Not sure how one does that, but whatever. Issue resolved, thread can be locked/deleted. The title is the short version. Here's the long: I've been playing Microsoft's Freelancer for a few days now on single player mode. Essentially everything works just fine; no bugs, no problems, no issues to speak of while playing the game, aside from one issue I will detail later. I now want to play it on multiplayer mode, but there's obviously a problem. I can get to the Server Database screen perfectly fine. The servers that are up are displayed and I can select one and read the description. However, when I press the "Connect" button, the game immediately minimizes to the desktop, freezes, and after about 20 seconds, crashes. For the first few seconds after the game minimizes, I can't do anything with the computer, but I can still hear the music from the game playing. Once I regain control of the computer (ie: the mouse), the music stops playing, but the game is still in the taskbar. At this point, I can either try to go back into the game or wait. If I wait, the "____ has encountered an error and needs to be shut down" type message pops up with the option to Send or Not Send an error report. If I try to get back into the game, I can't do anything with the computer again, the music begins to play again, but nothing else happens until that same error message comes up. Once it comes up, the computer is fine, and I can immediately restart the game. Also, the Event Log indicates that the Event ID of the error is 1000 (there was also a 1001 for the last time I tried it). Here's what it said: I have my suspicions that the remoteserver.dll mentioned is the problem, but I don't know much about these Error Logs. Now, I already know two of the things people are likely to suggest, so I'll bat them down first: 1. Since the game runs fine in single player mode, it is unlikely that the graphics/sound cards/drivers are causing the problem. In regards to the drivers, the card I have (nVIDIA GeForce Go 6800) doesn't seem to have any newer drivers than the ones I have already, and it seems like my sound card (SigmaTel C-Major Audio) is the same. 2. I've tried doing this with and without my Firewall/Antivirus running (ZoneAlarm). Neither method works any differently. Now, I do know of one issue that occurs with the game. When I manually minimize it myself (or if another program does it, like an AIM message window coming up), then bring it back up to play, it isn't long before my computer BSoDs; typically within a minute of resuming play. I believe the error code was 0x0A or 0xA1... something of that nature... I didn't look at it carefully the last time it happened. I might try to induce it again so I can get the details down on it. Anyway, perhaps there's a connection between the two problems? Alright, yeah, long post... Stopping now. Thanks in advance!

I already PM'd G_D about it. He's just waiting for Joyzilla to get back to him about the sig badges for the winners. To quote him: "Results should be up shortly."

I have two songs that stick out in my mind that need to be properly remixed, and I'd do them myself if I was capable: Cast Roll theme from Mega Man X. Star Salzman did a good remix of it, and the 2:04-310 section had a similar feel to what I want to see done to it, but it wasn't what I was looking for. More guitar, less "electronica"-based music(?)... I can't really describe exactly what I'd like to do with it, since I'm horribly bad with musical discussion, but if you listen to the section listed above, you'll get a vague idea of what I'm thinking. Ending Theme from Super Mario 64 (yes, I know, this was already brought up earlier, but it deserves to be mentioned again). This one would be more of a cover, as I'd like to do this one with actual (and more) instruments while sticking fairly close to the original music. But alas, I cannot pull these off because I suck at making music! Perhaps someone else would like to do them? (I really ought to put these into the Requests forum, now that I think about it...)

Put a mark next to New Jersey, and also two more in Virginia. I'm from NJ originally, but I go to college in Virginia (Virginia Tech). I do know someone from here (who doesn't post often at all) that is in some of my classes. Also, I don't know who it was, but I saw someone last year wearing an OCR hoodie on campus. So there's at least 3 of us floating around this place.

G_D, where's our results? We want results! GIVE US RESULTS!!! Ha... It's just a term. Other people use other terms. Activate is also a common one. I think "ignite" become a common one because the lightsaber often burns/melts anything that comes in contect with it, similar to what one might attribute to a flame. Plus, you know, the "fires of justice" and all that...

When I first glanced at that, I thought it said "SONIC: TIE FIGHTERS." Then I saw what it actually was. And I was sad. Anyway, I'm not sure about this game. If it turns out great, awesome. If not, meh. I'll live.

One person left? *ignites lightsaber* There shall be a hunt tonight! Do make sure you stay off my list, G_D...

Yeah, pretty much. Remember to vote, you guys. I've already put in my votes. Don't make me pull my lightsaber on you!

Short Story Entry Island of Eden The title is a half-misnomer, I think, but I couldn't come up with anything better... oh well. I'm not 100% happy with how this came out, but that is mainly because I still lack writing skills that would have come in handy for a work such as this. My artistic style hasn't been properly developed yet, so it may seem a bit bland for what I was trying to do... but considering this is the first short story I've ever written to completion, I won't be too hard on myself.

Wow, the number of entries jumped right at the end... looks like the competition is going to be quite stiff this time around. It's my first entry into a competition, too. Just my luck. Speaking of my entry... I'm essentially finished with it. A little tweaking left to be done, but other than that, it's ready for submission. ... Except I can't figure out what to call it. Naming my works is always the hardest part of writing. for me. It certainly doesn't help when the work in question doesn't really present itself with a theme for a title... Oh well. I'll sleep on it, see what I come up with. I'll upload it sometime tomorrow and submit it.

... MEEP! That makes two entries besides G_D's! Probability of extension disappearing! MUST GET ENTRY DONE!!!

Sounds good to me. I was going to finish mine tonight, but this week is test week, and in the fight between me and studying, studying has thus far decked me every time. Nothing special next week, though, so I'll have all weekend to finish mine up.

Barnsalot, I won't go into the specifics of it yet, as the judging phase hasn't begun, but I will say one thing of your submission right now: On the topic of submissions, I've officially begun mine. 225 words in as of right now, and so far so good. I'll probably get it done within the next couple of days, since I'll only be working on it at night (daytime is reserved for test-studying ). Good luck writing to the rest of you!

We'll see, we'll see. As it stands, I'm not sure whether I can pull off writing something this weekend, but I'm sure as hell going to try! I've got two tests and a quiz next week (the quiz and second test I absolutely MUST ace if I'm to have any hope of passing the class), so I can't exactly spend too much time writing, but what I've got in mind shouldn't take too long to write anyway. Long story short: Vote = Undecided (for now)

Hey, I'm still here! ... I'm just bogged down in schoolwork and test-studying. I'll be sitting down to write something sometime this weekend, most likely Thursday night going into Friday night. After that... MORE STUDYING!!!

One to two weeks would definitely improve my chances of entering considerably. As it turns out, I have twice as much work to do over Spring Break (this week) than I originally thought, and I also just found out about two tests I have that are next week. I have a workable short story for the competition in my head, I just don't have the time between now and the current deadline to crank it out. Extending the deadline is your decision, however. Don't feel you have to just because I'm having unexpected issues. (Side Note: The sheer amount of work I have right now prevents me from even starting Chapter 9 this week... blargh. Maybe after next week...)

Spring Break is in the middle of submissions for me (next week, specifically), but as far as I'm aware, most people have Spring Break two weeks later (as in the week after the submission period ends). I could be wrong, though. There are schools that have break next week and the week after, placing them in the submission period, but I think they are in the minority. Oh well. At least having the competitions more often will give more people a chance to enter, as there are more chances for them to have free time to write something.

Well, you can't exactly blame people; not only is this not in General anymore, but it's the middle of the school year. Most people just don't have the time right now.

I'm going to try to enter this one; it just so happens that my Spring Break is starting on March 3rd. However, as I've already mentioned, I'm going to try to get the next chapter in my story done first. That'll leave me about a week to write something for this... I'll wait to see what the future brings...

You don't know me and I don't know you, but congratulations anyway!!! May your marriage be a joyful one! Good luck! WIN. Absolute WIN.

Similarly, the people in my dorm that play SSBM insist that edge-guarding is not allowed. If you do it to them, they'll essentially not want you to play against them anymore (or at least gang up on you if they let you play). It's idiotic.

On top of what Smoke suggested (DO IT), I also suggest trying to run the programs that are doing it (WinAmp) in Safe Mode. If it still does it while in Safe Mode, that eliminates a lot of potential software and/or OS conflict issues that would need to be taken into consideration.

Once you choose the songs to use, try e-mailing the mixers to see if they have an uncompressed version lying around somewhere. I'm sure many of them would gladly lend them to you if they have them.