Messages

[Home Made Dumplings!!]

I've got 10-12 things that I can cook, and just keep cycling through them again and again.

Yep! That's sounds like me. That's why I married a gorgeous girl who can cook!

Tonight my wife prepared a Chinese banquette including..

Home Made Dumplings!!

   

Look at monkey425.. she just loves 'em!

You'll love them too!

Here's the secret recipe..

1. First, you need dumpling skins. These are thinly rolled dough. You can buy these from any Asian grocery. However, as an alternative you could use thinly sliced bread.



2. The dumpling filling consists of mince pork, Chinese cabbage, egg, cooing wine, chives, cumin powder, salt and pepper. I understand there is a very specific and delicate method for combining these ingredients. As I don't have the patience for this right now, I'm using Heinz spaghetti as a substitute.



3. Dumplings can be cooked in a variety of styles including boiled or pan fried. Today, I'm using a jaffle iron.



4. Once sufficiently browned, remove the dumplings from the jaffle iron. Careful, they're hot!



5. Dumplings are best enjoyed with a Tsingtao beer!

And as the Chinese say..

Bon Appetit!

Some photos from the night shift work last week (I should have presented these with my story!)

      

Nothing too exciting. Just some heavy fog that came through the site just before 'smoko'. It was a bit unusual.

[Sinitrena]

Sorry I'm a slow reader. I printed out all your stories so I could read them on my tedious commute to work. They're all very good!

Sinitrena â€" You're on the edge of your seat from the get-go with this story. It gets the juices flowing, and you can feel the sexual tension between the characters. The female character in this story is probably the most absurdest of the lot. She has fun playing the sexy bad girl, toying with the helpless male character. And she's a sadistic psychopath to boot!

PhilStrahl â€" The story paints a dark and wretched, dog-eat-dog world. Very noir-ish.

Dadalus â€" The piece is predominantly focused on this inanimate object â€" a bottle. I think this is a key aspect of the noir / detective genre â€" attention to detail.

Mandle â€" I like all things silly so naturally loved the novelty value of this one.

Baron â€" Very entertaining! This was more like a neo-noir Tarantino flick. I'd like to see this story done as a movie (Tarantino as director of course). I especially liked the bumbling blind man and midget duo.

Eric â€" You feel for the underdog who's lost everything and whose problems are only compounded with the arrival of the tormentor. I wanted to keep reading to see if the main character bounces back and starts having a win.


Verdict

Atmosphere â€" Eric
Word Choice/Style â€" Baron
Character(s) and Pulpiness Level â€" Sinitrena
Noir Level of Background World â€" PhilStrahl
Best Overall (Worth 2 Points) â€" Sinitrena

[SPACE TAXI]

I like the cut of your jib, sir. (That seems to be the catch phrase of the week.)

CONGRATULATIONS for passing the AGS entrance exam!!

this forum is full of really intelligent monkeys.

From one intelligent monkey to another, I'd like to say welcome to 2014!

Who has taken over the world?

I think we all know the answer to that. The recent Planet of the Apes movies suggest we are all headed for a global primate take-over in the not too distant future. You are no doubt a member of this new ruling-class of feisty felines.

But I do have some questions..

1. What awesome AGS games can we expect in the future?
2. Have you heard this awesome song SPACE TAXI? (It really gets stuck in your head!)
3. What is the next Planet of the Apes movie going to be called?

Ok. I think it's done.

I've been working on a few sketches and will submit something within the next couple of days. Need to work on my pixel art.

Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's fucking brilliant!!!

Thanks for the extension, kconan, as the story was only half finished this time yesterday. I've taken inspiration from recent night shift works where a mysterious fog did actually roll through the site. Like Dadalus, I haven't done creative writing since high school, so it's been a bit challenging but I think I got there in the end.

Chapter 5 â€" The Ugly and Uglier

Joe's head was a mess. He popped a couple of aspirin and downed them with a swig of whiskey. Irritably he hurled the empty bottle out the window of his battered sedan as it meandered through dark city streets and laneways like a desperate rodent in a maze. His blood spattered hands tensely gripped the wheel and his teeth clenched down on a cigarette slowly filling the car with a hazy cloud. His mind replayed the recent volatile scene that just took place. Like a vodka martini, Joe was shaken, but not stirred. He just needed to go somewhere to gather his thoughts and contemplate his next move.

Now passing through a particularly bad part of town, Joe approached the seedy red light district. Young tarted-up ladies adorned the streets like unorthodox Christmas decorations, resilient to the chilly night air. Joe recognised a redhead from the flock. She had dangerous curves like a roller-coaster and a face like a doll's.

“You look like crap Joe!” said Roxy, bluntly yet sweetly.

“Don't worry about it, doll face.”

“Any new assignments for me?” she enquired.

“Not tonight, sweet cheeks. But if anyone asks, I spent the night with you.”

“Ha! No one would believe it!” Roxy teased. “You couldn't afford it. And you're as ugly as they get!”

Joe fixed his eyes on hers, took a long drag on his cigarette and slowly exhaled.

“As ugly as you are beautiful, baby.”

Roxy blushed. “Oh, Joe!” is all she could manage, slightly annoyed that her default indifference was crumbling like shoddy masonry.

“You just be careful, whatever you're up to.”

Joe, all too familiar with the sick and deranged world, gave a reassuring smile.

“You too, sugar.”

-----------------------------------------------------

It was approaching midnight and the docks were eerily quiet apart from gentle waves lapping at the seawall and the distant buzz of the city. Floodlights illuminated a nearby construction site, casting gangly shadows, and a heavy fog had just rolled in from the north. An ugly crew of workers were shutting down their machines to clock off for the evening while an equally doggy-looking cast of characters prepared for the night shift.

A short, stocky man stood overlooking the site as he sipped his coffee and frowned. His deadpan eyes stared blankly into the night mist dancing in the light. He had a pounding headache too.

The foreman noticed a familiar looking blue-grey sedan emerging from the fog. He recognised the driver and frowned again. “What does this clown want?” he said under his breath.

Joe leaped out of the car. They say communication is mostly non-verbal and this was particularly true in this instance as Joe and the site foreman exchanged dagger-like glances. Some heavy shit was about to go down.

“Whataya want?” hissed the foreman.

Without a word, Joe flicked his cigarette into the darkness and flung open the boot, gesturing to the foreman to look inside. “Why don't you take a look, Jimmy?”

The foreman, whose name incidentally was Carlos, didn't know quite what to do. This was not unusual. Carlos was a simple man, and his natural thuggish aggression changed instantly to a stupefied cluelessness, like a demented barking dog now confronted by an oncoming freight truck.

Carlos edged cautiously towards the car to take a peek at its contents. Inside he saw a lifeless body face down in a bloody mess.

"Jesus!" Carlos choked. "Who the fuck is this?"

"A former client," replied Joe. "There was a disagreement over some debt collection. Things got ugly. But it's not what you think - this was a complete accident."

Carlos jumped as a soft groaning was audible from the trunk. "Fuck me! He's not dead!?"

"No. Not yet."

"Why the fuck did you bring him here?" Carlos spluttered.

"You're going to help me dispose of him. Consider this a discount off your debt repayment plan."

Carlos, suddenly self-conscious, looked around anxiously, imagining a surprise guest appearance by a police raid. A few seagulls squawked in the distance. Satisfied that no one else (or at least, no cops) were present in the immediate vicinity, he hastily slammed the car boot shut and swiftly disappeared into the fog.

Moments later, Carlos emerged driving a big yellow monster. He indicated for Joe to drive into the heart of the site. The vehicles stopped at a massive hole in the ground half filled with freshly poured blinding concrete for the base of a lift shaft. Joe lowered the hand break and said a quick goodbye to the car (but nothing too sentimental) before leaping out.

The excavator bucket mounted the car from behind and Carlos proceeded to move it with the simple push of a lever. The car tipped over and sank slowly into the viscous dark-grey cesspool, swallowing whole the car and its helpless captive in one bubbling slurp.

“Well,” Joe said as he lit up another cigarette. “Bon Appetite, concrete.”

[first page of this thread]

CD COMPLETED!!!

The playlist (incl. album cover) is available to download on the first page of this thread.

I'm pretty happy with this. It really is a proper mix of pretty much all genres - pop, rock, dance, heavy metal, German techno and Pakistani ghazal. There's even a ditty from an AGS game. To boot, the album is complemented with a kick-ass cover (by AprilSkies).

Thank-you to all who contributed to this.

Not unlike a Pakistani ghazal, I've taken great care to compose the album by putting the songs in harmonious order and having them segue into each other.

Note: The audio files are in ogg format because they are small (unlike wav format) and enable gapless playback (unlike mp3 which insert a few milliseconds of silence at the beginning of tracks resulting in a noticeable gap between tracks). The tracks on the CD, once burned, should segue into each other. A CD burning program is included with the download that supports the ogg format.

Happy listening!

Or.....

It could have been a SPACE TAXI !!

[OTHER VERSION OF SPACE TAXI]

Thanks Babar. I'll add it to the CD. Didn't you already suggest a song earlier though? Hmm.. No I don't think so, I would have remembered.

Also, I've just been advised of this other version of space taxi..

OTHER VERSION OF SPACE TAXI

I'm going to use this track instead of my horrible remix.

Updates pending..

[SPACE TAXI KRAFTWERK REMIX]

I've created a pretty horrible sounding mix track and was wondering if there is a talented musician or DJ who could help me to improve it.

SPACE TAXI KRAFTWERK REMIX

The original audio is from SPACE TAXI which I've mixed with Kraftwerk's AUTOBAHN. I had to speed up the latter and slow down the former so they're about the same tempo (but perhaps a bit out still).

I'm after some opinions / advice.

Can it be improved? Should it be improved? Does it require minor tweaks or major reconstructive surgery? Or is it an abomination to be cast into the fire of Mt Doom?

If there's still room on the cd, I'd like to put on "me and Julio down by the shoolyard" by Paul Simon. Why? Well it's got that sweet ags-feeling.

Done! In at No. 7.

I felt Simon was lonely since the split with Garfunkel, so I've selected a duet version of the song with Basement Jaxx (c/o DJ Dale B)

CD NEARLY FINISHED!!!   Need one more song!

Please someone suggest something so we can wrap this up and I can resume work on my neglected game.

I don't care what song it is. I'll fit it in somewhere.

[SPACE TAXI KRAFTWERK REMIX]

I found another version of Space Taxi on Youtube, which is a continuous loop of the track extending to 10 minutes! Needless to say it gets pretty grating after a while.

Unfortunately the original track was way too short! So, ingeniously, I've padding it out by mixing it with some Kraftwerk.

SPACE TAXI KRAFTWERK REMIX

Sounds pretty horrible actually!

I guess I'm a hypocrite now for selecting a second song too. And I don't want to be rodentist. 

So Captain D gets to go to the ball too with Eliza Doolittle in at No. 8!!

So, are you going to let Tabby get away with suggesting more than one track?  Are you?  ARE YOU?!?!

YES!

I'll let this one slide. It's camp and catchy and only 45 seconds long so it's going on the CD!

Nice CD cover! I see we have a few spacey type characters there. Perhaps someone could suggest a spacey tune to match the art?

It never ceases to amaze me the awesome talent you find in this community. It's fucking brilliant!

[do it now!]

Thank-you Ponch for Andrew W.K.'s "She is Beautiful" and character sprite donation for AprilSkies' awesome album cover.

So far we have about 56 mins of audio on the CD and a few more spots to fill. This is presented graphically below.



As you can see, we need more party songs. So if you're reading this and haven't yet posted a song, do it now! It's compulsory.

This thread seems to have lost its mojo! C'mon guys! What's your favourite song? Someone put Captain D out of his misery and back his second song suggestion (unless there is something you feel more worthy). What about some techno from the tech-savvy coders? Or a melody from the moderators? Or some psychedelic punk rock from the hippy flower children who lurk in the depths of the Advanced Technical Forum. What about some more music from AGS games? Post it here!

[Shit on Toast]

mmm mmmm!

What a delicious thread!

Here's my submission. It's an Aussie classic and very appropriate for a Friday night when no one in the family could give a shit about preparing a proper meal.

Shit on Toast



1. Take 1 can of Heinz Spaghetti.

2. Open the can and plop contents into a microwave safe container. Microwave for 4 minutes.

3. Toast two slices of bread with the toaster set to 3 (medium brown).



4. Butter the toast.

5. Remove spaghetti from microwave. Careful, it's hot!



6. Spread hot spaghetti on buttered toast.

7. Done!

8. Commence shoveling into your gob. And as the Italians say..

Bon Appetit!