This task is done in the spirit (and letter) of Ten Dollars Worth of Surplus. All of the supplies for this praxis except for adhesives were purchased at Ax-Man, for a grand total of less than 6 dollars. Not bad. For those who don't know, Ax-Man is an awesome surplus store where you can buy all sorts of random awesomeness for dirt-cheap prices.

My original thought was to attempt to build an Aeolian Harp, but I couldn't figure out how to get metal strings to vibrate using wind, so the plans shifted to a wind chime.

Supplies purchased at Ax-Man:

Metal D-Ring
Large metal circle
Kite string
Champagne Flute
Amber medicine glass
Small brass container
Small square of glass
Champagne flute
Sleigh bell
White pole*
Baby doll's foot*
White t-shirt*

*Used elsewhere

Which turned into this:



While the champagne flute had the nicest tone of any of these, it proved to be too heavy to support itself and it unbalanced the whole thing, so unfortunately it was out. The glass square sounds the best of the rest of them, and the remaining 'chimes' sound with varying degrees of success. It's no symphony, but then my entire operating budget was one crisp Hamilton.

While it holds itself together decently, I think if I make another trip to Ax-Man I will purchase more different-sized panes of glass, which seems to make the nice tones.

In a light wind, it sounds like this:



And when I push it a bit, like this:

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Postscript: Tasking add-ons: An idea for sf0. I propose this here because it fits in with this praxis. You'll see why in a second.

Many tasks have played with the idea of doing a task in a certain way, or doing more than one task at once. The problem with these is that when someone submits a praxis for these tasks, we've either already seen the main praxis, or will have to see it again. This generally leads to annoyance or disappointment, and occasionally, calls that the player is trying only to get points. These types of 'add-on' tasks should be making tasks more fun, not less!

Here's I propose it be done, in a hypothetical beautiful future: The types of tasks I mentioned before would be eliminated. Instead, when adding a task, tasks can either be 'main' (what we have now) or 'add-on.' Any number of add-on praxes can be added on to one main praxis. Then, when that praxis is submitted, the scores for all would be combined (the score for add-on tasks would likely be low) and it would show which add-ons had been completed in addition to the main task.

This allows people to modify tasks in a way that they currently can't do without watering down two praxes or just not submitting one. Here's a few ideas for add-on praxes that could be implemented:

-Collaborate on the task in the real world with a player whom you've never met before

-Travel over 50 miles to complete the task

-Complete the task using materials acquired at a surplus store for less than $10 (see how it ties in to this praxis?)

-Wear a silly hat while completing this task, in public

-Have a run-in with the police while tasking (See how these sorts of things could eliminate need for clunky tasks like the Police Encounter one, while still allowing documentation of the cool things in an official game channel?)

Add-on praxes wouldn't necessarily be a one-time thing. For some of them, it's just a way to make the praxis cooler every time, or to document something unique that happened during the task.

Please let me know what you think!