OK if it takes a long time then maybe I am good! I will let it run and just see what happens.
I presume that part of the time is that it is generating the speech to text, and I have an mp3 file that I am ready to use, but I decided to run it first using the Google TTS just so I could step through making the program work as you yourself have it running. I did substitute my own text file (the Vatican Sayings, in pure ascii) in place of yours.
WOW that would be even better! I am afraid I am asking too much! 
At any rate, I have all the python dependencies loaded, I believe, and the program appears to start, (the selection box moves to the next line) and there are no error messages, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything very fast, and I don't see a process I can identify as running. It did however create an audio.mp3 file that was not there in the beginning
I should maybe say I am running debian stretch (MX-18)
THANK you Kyle! I am working with my first effort now....
Edit: Well it is taking me a while to install dependencies but I am getting there. No doubt most people of normal experience will not be able to do that, so this is something that can be handled through an installer?
What kind of text-to-speech engine are you using? I am familiar that Androld has something but is your engine something that is native to Windows or Mac or Linux or Python or what?
In the end I am thinking that human voices will be the main use of this, but as text-to-speech improves (IF it improves) then that will be viable too. I say "if" because my experience was that the Ivona packages were leading the field before they were bought (by Amazon I think) and effectively removed from the market.
I can imagine using this in at least two ways: (1) using it to produce just the scrolling text, and then dropping the resulting video into a video editing program to customize the area around the box with the text. (2) as is, just as you are doing, combining a user-spoken MP3 with the text that is being spoken. You're adding options that will make option (2) very viable, but if it gets to be to huge a project, option (1) should always be workable too. My experience is that it's next to impossible to drop a large amount of text into any standard video-editor program, so this will solve that problem elegantly!
Hmm did you mean to include a link to a video?
Amazing! I am out but will try as soon as I get home. Thank you!
Elli: Because according to Myth Cyprus is the birthplace of Venus/Aphrodite. 
Cassius: I never knew that! Venus was born in Cyprus? Why Cyprus? Is there some mountain or temple or some other feature that connected her or her parents with Cyprus?
https://visitworldheritage.com/.../d4a87816-4a22-44d0...
visitworldheritage.com
Birthplace of Aphrodite | World Heritage Journeys of Europe
Birthplace of Aphrodite | World Heritage Journeys of Europe 3d view! Is one of these rocks the important one? https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%…D-YJ8kpmkgB976k
360cities.net
The birthplace of Venus, Cyprus 360 Panorama | 360Cities
This question isn't chargeable to Epicurus or Lucretius, certainly, because the engraving in this photo is only a couple of hundred years old. But I wonder why, in this portrayal made for the opening of Lucretius Book One, the artist decided to feature a map of CYPRUS at the bottom left of the drawing. And specifically - it says Cyprus - in case anyone didn't recognize the shape. Is Cyprus a particularly delightful place, or something? Or thought to be so in old England? Or is there in fact a connection I am missing?
It looks like Amazon now has a range of 3d printers that cost under $200.00, so this is light years ahead of where we were when I scanned my Epicurus bust 5+ years ago (I know I am mixing the technologies - printing is not the same as scanning) but I am not up on the latest developments on how to scan.
Edit: Looks like prices have plummeted there too.
Yes Joshua I think that is a great goal. We ought to be able to design nice-looking items for which the 3d design files can be downloaded by anyone and printed at home. We worked on that in the past with the model of the Epicurus bust, and those are out there "somewhere" but they were not as quality ("sharpness") as could be done today. We really need to restart that project from scratch (re-scan the Epicurus busts) and then come up with a range of things that can be printed.
Thanks Samj - good info!
Friday, October 11, 2019:
By the same rule, the visible heavens, the surrounding walls of this great world, must tumble down by continual attacks, and fall to ruin. It is the nourishment that preserves things in being by constant supplies, but ‘tis all to no purpose: For neither are the veins capable to receive what is sufficient, nor can nature afford a proper and needful recruit. Even now, the age of the world is broken, and the Earth so feeble and worn out, that it scarce produces a puny kind of creatures, when it bore formerly a lusty race, and brought forth such prodigious bodies of wild beasts. Or I cannot think all species of creatures descended from the sky by a Golden Chain upon the Earth, nor were they by the Sea created, nor by the waves that beat the Rocks, but the same Earth which now supports them, at first gave them being. At first she kindly, of her own accord, raised the rich fruits and delightful vines for the benefit of men. She freely of herself offered her sweet produce, the corn and tender grass, which now scare rise to perfection with all our labor.
We wear out our oxen, and the strength of our husbandmen; we can scarce find plowshares sufficient to till the fields, things are so averse to grow, and our labors are forever increasing. And now the lusty plowman shakes his head, and laments the pains he took was oft in vain; and when he compares the present times with the glorious days that are past, he blesses the good fortune of those that were before him; he talks loudly how the old race of men, filled with piety, no doubt spent their happy days within the narrow bounds of their own field, (for then every man's share of ground was much less than it is now) but has no notion, fond fool! that things by degrees decay, and, worn out by old age, hasten to ruin to the utmost period of their duration.
End of Book Two
This reminds me that I have been playing with designs for a coin / memento. The different graphic elements which make sense to include are pretty obvious: fig leaves, leaping pig, atom, skull, then with an inscription / quote on back. This is very raw and just proof-of-concept stage:
Here is the original post at NewEpicurean that Samj mentioned.
By Cassius Amicus Published October 10, 2012 Epicurean Art, Introductory Material
The topic of memorable rings has come to my attention today, and that reminds me to discuss another aspect of Epicureanism: the use of images of Epicurus and Epicurean inscriptions on rings, cups, and other mementos.
Bernard Frischer’s book “The Sculpted Word” provides an excellent background into the use of images by the ancient Epicureans as both a self-help device and a device for recruitment of new converts to the philosophy (the very idea of recruitment being contrary to the view of Epicureanism as hermitic). The Sculpted Word focuses largely on the monumental seated sculptures of Epicurus himself, a number of which survive at least in pieces from antiquity. In addition, Cicero records the use of rings and cups apparently used in a similar way.
The question I would like to pose today is the title of the post “What Would You Like Inscribed On Your Epicurean Ring?” An image of Epicurus is the first obvious choice. Munro records in the overleaf to his translation of De Rerum Natura the existence of an oval ring bearing an image that appears to be marked as that of Lucretius.
We also have busts of Metrodorus and Hermarchus that survive from Herculaneum, so images of those important Epicureans are also available.
But what if you wanted a more simple ring inscribed with only a particularly meaningful phrase? What would that phrase be? Any number of the Authorized Doctrines or the Vatican Sayings lend themselves to this, but selecting one short enough to use is a little trickier. Here are a couple that come to mind:
At present I think my favorite would be one of the first two, as I think of those as starting points on which the rest of Epicureanism is erected. Nothing can be created from nothing because a ring is something physical that can be touched, something which has a clear and certain reality, a tangible example that nothing is created from nothing, which leads to all the other physical observations about the universe. Death is nothing to us, as a constant reminder that all the pleasure we seek must be experienced while we live, and that it is worse that folly to worry about a past or future existence of the soul.
I would be interested to know your thoughts and suggestions!
__________________
We definitely need to add here images of the rings from the British Museum:
Samj could you share a link to the source that you used to make that for you and any helpful commentary that would let others do that?
Also I wonder if we could do designs that could be translated to 3d files where such things could be printed at home on 3d printers(?) I don't have one but I gather they are becoming very common and inexpensive.
Excellent Samj and great choice of lines!
I see this translation: Therefore death to us is nothing, nor concerns us in the least,
But given my small amount of Latin that's one that is easy to follow as is without rewording:
Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum
Nothing therefore death is to us; neither does it concern in the least.
I had to look up "hilum" but the rest is really basic!
https://latin.ucant.org/
WOW KYLE THANK YOU! I was hoping that there might already exist some kind of sourceforge or github project to do such a thing, but it never occurred to me that it might be possible that someone here could make one specially for this use!
The demo looks great! I looked over the code and it seems so simple, but I don't know the first thing about Python programming.
I see you have a place to specify the color of the background, and the video size. That's excellent too. I can imagine that someone doing this might want to take the resulting video and surround it with some kind of frame or Titling, and the ability to specify those settings ought to be easy enough to take the result and do that in any video editor. I can see someone's first request might be the ability to specify a fixed title, a special font, and a background image instead of a simple color, and if I were to dare to make requests those would probably be it, but even as is this looks highly usable. (As to the font I mean the default font for the entire scrolling text, not the ability to change fonts within it - I presume that would require it's own word processor. But it's not clear to me whether the python program is being input text in Ascii format, or RTF, or what.)
Many many thanks for taking this initiative!!
I am thinking ahead to the Lucretius book review discussion, and I am realizing that we have a continuing need for computer method that will allow us to create video that is mostly the spoken reading of text that scrolls by on the screen as it is being read. In other words, for example, creating a video of an audio reading of a letter of Epicurus while the text of the letter scrolls by in the video.
I have confronted this issue before in creating the "Foundations of Epicurean Philosophy" video without really coming to a satisfactory conclusion. It is very tedious to match text to the audio and flash it by in segments, so what I am wondering is this:
It ought to be possible to record a segment of text on audio, and then move that audio file into a video processor where it can be matched to a text file of the same material. When I say "matched" I mean that in most video editors the audio file shows up on screen as a picture of the waveform of appropriate length. What then needs to be done is to add the "text file" of the text into the editor, and then drag that out to the same length as the audio waveform along with a "scroll this" command - kind of like the opening scene of the original Star Wars movie, but not necessarily fading into the background but simply scrolling from bottom of the screen to the top.
We ought to have a number of people who are capable of creating text excerpts like this, so I would like to develop a recommended procedure in which we identify the program and the method to recommend. In order to make that accessible to as many people as possible it would be desirable if the programs were free (such as, for example, the AUDACITY editor for editing audio) .
But the first order of business is probably to find a method that as many people as possible will find convenient, whether it is "free" or not.
I will work on this and report back in this thread.
My preferred tool is linux, but we aren't limited to that. As for free programs, the Audacity audio editor will do all the audio editing that we need, and such free video editors as KDENLIVE and OPENSHOT may do some of the video, but not necessarily the scrolling effect that is really needed.
If you are knowledgeable in computers and have a suggestion I would really appreciate it.
