Messages

Hi, Sinitrena.

Especially for you, I will try to create a Trophy that will fit on your shelf. 

Yours.
Jay.

Hey, Stupot.

Don't regret posting your story.
I understood the story, and the experimental side of it all. (I Just thought it was funny... In an "OMG!" sort of way.) 

Now... Let's test your Luck.
Roll me a 'Six sided Die' or a 'd6'.
If you roll a 4, 5, 6... It's Milk.
If you roll a 1, 2, 3... It's NOT! 

Seriously though. I got it, and enjoyed your story.
The problem with story writing is... Everything has already been thought of. Your story was, at least, thinking outside the box.
Most people are too scared of doing anything different, these days.
I, for one, Applaud your effort.

Yours.
Jay.

Hi, One and all.
It's that time to reveal the RESULTS!

FWC Report

BARON:  Teachers Pet:  15 points:  Gold Trophy.


EJECTEDSTAR and BARBWIRE:  Top of the Class:  11 points each:  Silver Trophy.


MANDLE and SINITRENA:  Could Do Better:  10 points each:  Bronze Trophy.


STUPOT:  Needs to Try Harder:  3 points:  A Glass of Milk?


Thank you to everyone who entered the competition. There were some excellent stories, this time, and it was a hard fought contest.
Keep up the good work!

And now I shall take a bow and hand proceedings over to our Winner... BARON.
Congratulations!

Yours.
Jay.

[VOTING HAS CLOSED !]

Probably, Mandle.

I got it as 23:47. So less than 15 mins and the Voting will close.

Oooh! Who will win?
(Obviously I know.) And I have something a little extra for you all. 

8 mins, Now.
5 mins...
2 mins...
1 min...

VOTING HAS CLOSED !
Due to the fact I have to go to sleep and have work tomorrow... The 'RESULTS' will be announced in the evening of ... Um... Today.
Probably about 7pm.

Yours.
Jay. 

Hi, All good peeps.

All votes from the contestants are now in and have been tallied.
However, in case there are any other Ags'ers who would like to vote, I will announce the Winner tomorrow.
So, for any stragglers this gives you until Midnight tonight.

EDIT: Just thought of "Time differences"...
For me you have about 5 hrs until Midnight. 

Yours.
Jay. 

Hi, All.

The deadline is fast approaching and we are still waiting on two people to allot points.
So get off your asses and vote. 

Deadline is Midnight on the 24th.
Winner to be announced on the 25th.

Yours.
Jay.   

Hi, Baron and any other interested parties.

I will take a leaf out of EjectedStar's book and allow one week to vote.
This will give us a date of June 24th. I hope that's acceptable.

Yours.
Jay.

Hi, all Good Peeps.

Well... I must say, we have had some good and weird stories here.
Now it has come to that time where you must allot points.

The entrants are:
EjectedStar - Thoughts of Gold
Mandle - Fleeing
BarbWire - Down Down (Deeper and Down)
Stupot - The Donor
Sinitrena - The Road
Baron - Pretty Dark Things

Voting will now commence! 
Each voter will have 10 votes to spread around as they see fit, any unused votes will be spread out evenly among the other contestants. If an entrant does not cast their votes, their unused votes will be spread to the other participants. (and works out nicely this time: 2-2-2-2-2-0, with 0 being the entrant who did not cast their votes)

As usual this will be done through the secret voting system so click on the link below, to place your votes.
Click here to vote

Once all votes are in and have been counted I will announce the winner.
Best of luck to you all.

Yours.
Jay.

OMG! 
I always felt that there was something inherently Evil with 'Ronald' (Thoughts of Pennywise.)
Never again will I buy a milkshake from them.

Some good and ... Ahem!... odd stories here.
By my count we all have about six days before the end of this competition.

Nice story, EjectedStar.

It did remind me a LOT of the 'Hobbit' and the Dragon 'Smaug', though.
Never the less... A nice story and nicely written.

I am wondering whether Rosco, blinded by greed, just left poor Terren in the Dragons mouth. 

Hope we get some more stories, soon. 

Okay.
Let's see if I've done this all correctly.

After my wonderful victory (I'm still expecting the cheque in the post.) 
I have been thinking of a topic for our next FWC.
After our trip to the stars how about, in the words of 'Status Quo' we go "Down Down Deeper and Down"?

This can be anything from under the sea, under the Earth or the actual Underworld. (Anything, as long as it's below us.)
Let your imaginations run riot. 

If I've done something wrong, please let me know. 

Yours, Jay.

Hi, All good Peeps.

Thank you all for your kind words and congratulations.
Yes you are right, Sinitrena, it was indeed my first time in the competition. 

I really don't have a clue what I'm supposed to do now.  Bear with me and I'm sure I will work it out.
I have an idea for our next competition. I will explain when I see you on the new thread.
Hope to see you soon.

Yours, Jay.

p.s. The next FWC topic has been posted.

WOW!!
I've actually won something. That makes a pleasant change. 

Thank you VERY much for all those who voted for my story.
I must congratulate all the other entrants on their great stories, I enjoyed reading them all.

I will have to give some thought as to the subject of the next competition.
Unfortunately I am at work until Tuesday and so it gives our brains time to cool off. 

Yours, Jay.

I also like the secret voting system.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading ALL the stories and did my votes last night.
Personally, I know when a story is good when I can actually SEE it played out in my head as I read.
Some nice stories here and two in particular made me actually see the story.

Thank you, Sinitrena, for your critique on my effort.
I would tell everyone what I thought, of their stories... Unfortunately I can't be bothered. 

Good luck, peeps.

[HUMANS]

Hi, all good Peeps.
Here is my contribution for the writing competition.
I hope you all enjoy. 

                                                                                                        HUMANS
Reverse thrusters fire as the transport ship, from Earth, approaches the international Space station. Since all nations finally agreed to unite, in one global space effort, money was no problem and so the station had grown into a vast and impressive hub for all nations to work on and indeed live happily, most of the time. As with all things there was the odd argument, between the stations operators and inhabitants, but nothing to take away from the sheer scale and beauty of the behemoth, orbiting silently around an altogether unhealthy looking Earth. “What a shit hole!” Anderson thought, as he took one last look out the starboard window before Earth was, thankfully, obscured by the station.

An hour later, after a lengthy list of checks on him and his transport were over, he manoeuvred his craft to docking bay 13. “Hmm... Unlucky for some.” he though. The reason for his journey here was to pilot the latest leap in space technology. For years the worlds 'greatest minds' had been working on 'faster than light travel'. As wonderful as all this sounds the fuel it required was known as 'Helium 3' and was only found on the Moon. Anderson had a moment of nostalgia, as his craft glided through the open hangar doors, and thought to himself “I used to love looking at the Moon. Probably one of the best things about Earth and then one night it was... Just... gone, forever.” Extensive mining, for Helium 3, had taken its toll to the point where the man in the Moon couldn’t take it any longer and died in a spectacularly grim fashion. That was pretty much the end for Earth, not that it was doing that great before.

However, the whole Human race was counting on Captain Anderson. His mission? To pilot a state of the art ship at the speed of light. With all the money, time and resources that had been thrown into creating this 'marvel of science' no one could agree on a name for it, so it ended up with the unimaginative label of 'Enterprise'. The idea was the on-board computer would use half of the fuel tanks to travel as far as it could, beyond our solar system and then use the remaining half to get Anderson home. His transport now in a designated spot in the bay disembarked to a fanfare with scientists and many of his other peers cheering and smiling, although only on the outside.

He had never been popular, since the dreadful incident on another mission where he had jettisoned a, rather expensive, payload into the nether to get back home alive. Anderson had then endured a long and drawn out court case stating “You may call it anything you like. I personally call it self preservation.” As you can imagine, that went down like a lead balloon and so he was surprised when his name came up as the man to undertake this mission. Anderson knew why though. He was outspoken and had stepped on many toes during his career and in general wasn’t liked. Deep down he knew that if this mission went south then no-one would give a damn about him. They had 5 other Enterprises, this was just the first test and he was a crash test dummy.

After an unnecessarily long attack, by the world’s press and briefing, he finally settled into the cockpit of the Enterprise. As the canopy closed, with a swoosh, the outside noise thankfully ceased and Anderson, powering up the craft, faultlessly piloted out of the hangar doors. Reaching a safe distance from the space station, using conventional thrusters, his headset crackled and mission control gave Anderson the go ahead, with what seemed to be a rather abrupt count down from ten to zero and with a quick “good luck Captain” thrown in, almost as if it was an after thought. Pushing a red button the Enterprise computer came alive, in the guise of a calm female voice “Powering up Helium 3 core.” The whole vessel shudder and a low whirring sound could be heard, that reverberated through his entire body.

For a second the ship seemed to lurch back and then the computer said calmly “Systems online. Jumping in... 3... 2... 1...” Anderson was pushed back into his seat as the ship violently pounced forward, in a roar of the igniting thrusters. He couldn’t really see anything, other than lines of light and different coloured patches, outside the cockpit window. The ships computer announced, after only about five seconds “Leaving Solar System. All systems operating at normal temperatures. Phase two in 3... 2... 1...” Anderson’s ears popped as the ships secondary thrusters ignited.

The computer calmly exclaimed “Distance from Earth... 20 million Light years.” What!? Anderson began to panic “No! You stupid bitch!... You were supposed to stop at 10! Mission control... Do you read?” No reply and to Anderson’s terror the Enterprise continued to speed up. “40... 60... 80.. 90 million light years.” At this moment Anderson realised there was no return. The engines would cut out any minute. He was morbidly surprised that they had got this far. The eggheads had obviously underestimated how potent 'Helium 3' was. Resignation had set in, almost instantly, as he felt strangely calm with the prospects of his non-existent future.

“Wait! What’s happening?” Outside the window, space seemed to be gradually turning from pitch black to a dark blue then to light blue and then, finally, a blinding white. The last thing Anderson heard was the ship’s computer say “500 million light years away from Earth.” The light coming in through the window was so intense that it was burning his face and he tried to shield his blistering skin and then... SMASH! ... Anderson and the Enterprise were no more.


Entering a brightly lit room, through a heavy oak door, an elderly man with a long white beard, long white robes and holding a staff walks over to a large alcove, where upon several shelves he has many ornate 'snow globe' like orbs, each on their own wooden plinths. Looking down, at the smashed crystal shards on the floor, he says solemnly “deary me! What a shame. For all their transgressions I actually had high hopes for this particular creation, of mine. Oh well, I suppose I could start again, one day. Maybe with Ants?” Brushing the broken crystal into a dustpan he empties it’s contents into a container, marked 'Rejects'. Before he places the empty wooden plinth, of the destroyed globe, carefully back on the shelf he removes a gold plaque from its base that simply reads “Humans”.

Hi, KyriakosCH.
Just read what you said about the AGS "Download" Button, saying "enable javascript to download".
I have noticed that for me I see this for about a second or so and then it changes to say "Download...(Whatever the game name is)".
Have you tried waiting longer to see if it changes?
I'm just interested. 

Hi, RetroLee.
Thank you for your Birthday wishes. I didn't eat too much cake. I left a few crumbs. 

Hi, BarbWire.
Thank you for your Birthday wishes.
Yes. As you know I've not been myself, lately. Hopefully I will get out of the bad place in my mind and get back to normal, soon... Whatever normal is, for me. 

Hi, All.
Great to know that it's not only me having this problem. 
This isn't the only site that I have received this message for, lately. I also get this using Microsoft Edge, too. Seems it's that time of year for everyone to update their certificates.
I was beginning to worry that I had a real security issue. The messages you get don't help, they just fill you with dread.

Yours.
Jay.

This is mad!
I'm going to give one more clue, added to the clue I gave earlier.

The boy plays the spoons... He collects wire and has a ball of it that he makes models out of.

Okay. 
Surely someone must get the film.
It can't only be you and me that has impeccable taste in films.