Beyond Alpha Centauri Discussion Thread 9

[Mr. President]

I think Sovereign is referring to your discussion of the Navy rank system a couple of posts above.

[Sovereign]

Heh.

I was referring to you getting an Admiral's rank sometime in your lifetime. :P

[Lonestar]

I don't intend on staying in that long.

[Mr. President]

I didn't know Lonestar was such a good singer!

"I Will Always Love You" Named CMT's Greatest Love Song

Dolly Parton Captivates Concert Crowd With Performance of Her Biggest Hit

By: Craig Shelburne

"I Will Always Love You," the enduring Dolly Parton hit from the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s, has gotten some more love from CMT. The upcoming special, CMT 100 Greatest Love Songs, ranked the song in the top spot -- just ahead of classics made famous by Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Randy Travis and Conway Twitty.

Parton herself delivered a passionate and feisty performance of her signature hit on Wednesday night (June 9) in Nashville during a concert of the Top 12 songs. The performances, from artists as varied as Travis, Michael McDonald, Kenny Rogers and Lonestar, will be featured in the final two hours of the six-hour special debuting Sunday (June 13) on CMT.

While some considered "I Will Always Love You" a shoo-in at the top, the rest of the lineup was trickier to predict. Though known as a pop singer, McDonald surprised the crowd with "Always on My Mind," turning in a sensitive, yet strong, rendition of Nelson’s hit. Meanwhile, newcomer Julie Roberts' take on Cline's "Sweet Dreams" succeeded with more than a hint of Southern soul, and she worked the stage more than any of the other entertainers.

Earning an immediate standing ovation, Travis was on hand for "Forever and Ever, Amen," as fans' wedding photos graced the screens behind the stage. Twitty’s "Hello Darlin'" rounded out the Top 5, courtesy of Brad Paisley. While black shirts with the word "CASH" (in capital letters) are still fashionable, Paisley made a statement of his own: His black shirt said "CONWAY."

Garth Brooks' "Unanswered Prayers" has aged well, especially with Buddy Jewell's calm and understated delivery. Lonestar's "Amazed," the most recently-released song in the Top 12, ranked No. 7. By taking the stage at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, in the midst of the honky-tonks on Lower Broadway, the band got a jumpstart on the CMA Music Festival that starts Thursday (June 10).

Rogers proved that he's still got it, providing a captivating rendition of his hit, "She Believes in Me." In fact, Rogers also earned a standing ovation -- before a single note was played. If any aspiring artists were in the audience, they surely took note of Rogers' class. While most artists wore jeans, Rogers is still savvy enough to dress up for his audience.

Duets from Dierks Bentley and the Del McCoury Band (George Strait's "I Cross My Heart"), as well as Joe Nichols and Lee Ann Womack (George Jones and Tammy Wynette's "Golden Ring"), offered prime photo opportunities for the fans. Newcomer Josh Turner kept his cool on the Merle Haggard hit, "That's the Way Love Goes," despite Travis staring up at him from the front row. Sara Evans opened the show with the No. 12 song, "When You Say Nothing at All." Evans and Nichols also hosted the concert.

Mavericks lead vocalist Raul Malo served as the evening's bandleader and stunned the crowd with a soaring, spot-on medley of his favorites from the countdown: "Crying" (No. 60), "For the Good Times" (No. 40) and "Make the World Go Away" (No. 38).

In between performances, the big screens revealed the songs ranked 100 to 13, with Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You" back-to-back with Flatt & Scruggs' "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" (at Nos. 62 and 63, respectively). Some classic songs missed the list completely, such as Johnny Lee's "Lookin’ for Love," while many current favorites made the cut, including Rascal Flatts' "I Melt" (at No. 100), Kenny Chesney's "How Forever Feels" (at No. 84) and Alan Jackson's "Remember When" (at No. 78).

Nevertheless, who can deny favorites like "She's in Love With the Boy," "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma," "It Was Almost Like a Song," "He'll Have to Go," "Could I Have This Dance," "Mama He's Crazy," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "When I Call Your Name," "Behind Closed Doors," "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" or "It's Your Love"?

If the love of your life doesn't care for any of those songs, perhaps it’s time to give back the golden ring.

http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1488299/20040610/parton_dolly.jhtml?headlines=true

[Lonestar]

I lipsynch, but keep quiet about it.

[Mr. President]

I've felt so uninspired during the end of the semester here. Usually you can count on me to throw together some worthless crap to keep Beyond Alpha Centauri at the top of the AC-Fiction thread list.

Well, I hope this is less worthless than usual. It's a long-overdue update on Derek Sorensen and Gary's visit to Berrik. Hope you didn't dislike the stuff about University space lane maintenance, Sovereign. (It's your faction, after all.)

[Frankychan]

Whoa, another post! Damn you NationStates!

Holy crap, man you still have your semester going on there? I have to take one summer course, then I graduate college in August.

So far the "State" is asking for more experience so I'm going to have to get a volunteer job probably at a non-profit organization. I plan on going into social services (my family has a history of S.S.)

When do you grad, Prez?

[Mr. President]

My semester is over, actually the exams ended just last week. I suxx0r3d badly on one of my exams (Polymers if you're interested to know), but other than that it was fine. I don't graduate for a year and a half. Next year is something called "Honors".

[Frankychan]

Holy sh*t, you're in Honors? Daaamn. I'm sure you kiced the crap out of those tests.

Sux that you don't grad for another year, but savor all that you can....I'm just finding out just how sucky RL can be.

Good luck, dude.

[Mr. President]

Sadly, I got my results yesterday. I came close to kicking the crap out of my tests. I failed the Polymers subject , but all my other grades were good .

Fortunately, Professor Edward was pretty understanding. I'll have to repeat the subject, but I can do it next year in addition to my first-semester subjects - that is, to overload.

In the meantime, I made another post, which I think is better than my one directly above it. And if you don't believe that politicians in Western countries can be that vicious, you should watch the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Parliament Question Time program.

[GeneralTacticus]

"Good to see democracy is alive and well in the worker's paradise."

Nice one

btw, if we ever do decide to use the Shivans in this story, I managed to download a copy of Freespace II (great game), and discovered a few other things about them:

- They appear to be partially mechanical in some way, including an energy weapon built into their exoskeleton.
- As far as is known, they're not a terrestrial species; they live in the vacuum of space.
- They communicate via the EM spectrum.
- They can induce supernovae.
- They have an advanced understanding of subspace (or, in our case, whatever mechanism we use for FTL).

[Sovereign]

I'm surprised that BAC is still alive. I thought BAC had finally died out after seeing nothing for more than a month.

So I will resume my duties as the Roman Emperor here.

[Frankychan]

BAC is now an "elitist" thread where we post when we can.

Speaking of which...I should really get going with that battle

But 'Poly is crapping out on me sporadically so I don't know when/if my post'll get through. I keep on seeing code or can't connect altogether. WTF is up with that?

[Mr. President]

I don't know. It started happening after they instituted Apolyton Plus. I think the pay members get the good services and we get shafted. I had that Lindsay Lohan avatar for a few weeks (at least I think I did, since my sense of time is corrupted these days) but I only saw it about three times.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Mr. President
I don't know. It started happening after they instituted Apolyton Plus. I think the pay members get the good services and we get shafted. I had that Lindsay Lohan avatar for a few weeks (at least I think I did, since my sense of time is corrupted these days) but I only saw it about three times.

I've had no problems, none, with Apolyton of late.