Jump to content

Blogs

Our community blogs



  1. MartinLutherKingJr2.jpg


    I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

    Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

    But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

    In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

    But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

    We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

    It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

    But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

    The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

    We cannot walk alone.

    And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

    We cannot turn back.

    There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

    MartinLutherKingJr.jpg


    I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

    Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

    And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

    I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

    I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

    I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

    I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

    I have a dream today!

    I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

    I have a dream today!

    I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

    This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

    With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

    And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

    My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.


    Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

    From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

    And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

    And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

    Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

    Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

    Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

    Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

    But not only that:

    Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

    Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

    Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

    From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

    And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

    Free at last! Free at last!

    Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

    MartinLutherKingHaveaDream.jpg
  2. I like the parts and the gear functions. Kopaka must be working out, look at those shoulders!

     

  3. Recently, while going through my browser bookmarks, trying to organize my life, I stumbled across a folder of "BZP Work", which includes mainly set reviews I did back in the day, in case I ever wanted to show them off (hint: I don't; it turns out my writing has evolved in the last 5 years).

     

    What discovering the bookmark folder did, however, was launch one of those infrequent reminiscing sessions where I log onto BZP (often invisibly, though not this time) and see what's happening. I was shocked to find very many things had changed since the last time I visited.

    • Bionicle is re-booting. Whaaat.
    • Almost every single forum has moved, and COT has a friend forum
    • The home page had links to web sites that would have been considered "advertising" in the now distant past.
    • My profile now says I'm nine. That was a lot more comical when it said 2. Now it's just weird.

    ​In a community where even people's names can change, making it difficult to determine who you know and who you don't, change is to be expected. But in the middle of this, I've found so many things that surprised me more that they hadn't changed.

    • There were no new posts in BlogAlert since I was last here.
    • Black Six's blog still has the same name.
    • I still remember all kinds of BZP-related things, like the acronyms we use to refer to the forums or the hex code of the color I post in. But this isn't exactly it, because the rich text editor confused me.

  4. stolekit.jpg

     

    Just for a change, I thought I might do something nice for someone. Effectively, I'm doing something I really should've done some time ago: I am explaining why my younger brother, Lai: Toa of Shadows, is not a kit thief.

     

    First, some background. Lai joined BZPower in mid-2006. Like me, he then got into the comic-making business, but due to his unparalleled laziness, he soon gave up and let his works slide. Two years later, he decided to start comic making again, this time taking leaves out of both my mainstay series. This idea would eventually evolve into The Story of Lai. He, with my assistance at times, spent several months trying to come up with a good all-around idea. We eventually hit on just the thing. He decided to go for an epic arching story with plenty of humour, supported by the fact that it is part of the newly-established canon of The Newsroom.

     

    the_story_of_lai_header.jpg

    (yes I display this with impugnity, because LAI IS NOT A THIEF.)

     

    Another aspect of the series was determined early on. Everyone who hasn't had their head stuck under a rock has heard of Dark709 and his (horrible) Cheesemore Omega kit. By far, it remains the most populous kit in Artwork III; as such, it seems that comics making use of Cheesemore are instantly popular, whilst comics making use of other, superior kits are typically ignored. Lai and I have often wondered whether or not this is really a coincidence. This curiosity led to Lai deciding on one thing: as a test of this hypothesis, he would use Cheesemore himself, albeit with some alterations. The first of these alterations was using Gerlicky's tri-colour upgrade to the kit as a base. It was the second of these alterations which caused the lies and controversy I am ranting about today.

     

    Eventually, his work came to fruition, and in mid-January, he launched The Story of Lai upon an unsuspecting BZPower. Reactions to it were mixed. Most praised it for "awesomeness". Those who didn't were too busy spreading lies about how Lai had stolen his kit. Unfortunately, Lai never got an opportunity to present his defence, and the topic was closed.

     

    When Lai told me about this, I was NOT HAPPY.

     

    Put simply, Lai did not steal anyone's sprites of any kind. At this stage, I am going to elaborate on why this is so.

     

    Now, some background onto the origin of the sprites Lai supposedly stole. Put simply, there's this group of guys I mostly don't like called the North Western Isles Continuity. Fear them and hate them. :P They too developed upgrades to Cheesemore. Supposedly, Lai stole these from them. Unfortunately for these malicious liars, there are multiple flaws in this reasoning.

     

    Firstly, the motivation. Lai lacks it entirely. Like I said, I don't like those people, and as such, Lai also doesn't like them. So the question is, why would Lai steal from someone he doesn't like? Sure, one could reason that he'd have no moral objection to it because he doesn't like them, but this is about using their work. It's kind of like how I don't use Cheesemore myself, simply because I don't like it or Dark709. Lai doesn't like the Continuity, so why would he use sprites developed by them, hmm?

     

    Secondly, as illustrated in the header image, there's the sheer impossibility of it. As soon as these accusations started to be laid against Lai, I, to prove my point of the sheer impossibility of the "theft", went through the Brickshelves, Photobuckets and Majjes (:P) of the five members of that possé. Wouldn't you know, NONE of them had these supposedly stolen sprites on any of their Brickshelves. In fact, Lai and I have it directly from one of them - Lewajohnson, FORMERLY one of my friends - that their little ringleader distributed the sprites to them through MSN Messenger or something. Eljay there seems to believe that somehow, Lai hacked into an MSN conversation or something and got them. You don't get more flawed logic than that. Seriously, neither Lai or I have any experience at all with MSN or similar programs, let alone the ability to hack any of their conversations or something.

     

    "But Evil Emperor Dlakii", you cry, "Lai could've ripped them from the comics of those five." That's where you're wrong. Firstly, as far as I can see, only two of them have ever actually used the edit - the ringleader and his awesome sidekick Tapika. Secondly, I've gone through all the works of both of them; in the case of the former, my sanity barely survived the awfulness. :P In every frame using the sprites, the sprite is covered by:

    1. Another body part
    2. Some special effect (read: MSPaint scribbles :P) which renders it completely theftproof
    3. More and more frequently, both
    Hence, if you really think about it, they kept their sprites completely theftproof. So the question remains, how did Lai steal them?

     

    Simple. HE DIDN'T. I myself bore witness to Lai pixeling the kit himself, so I know firsthand that Lai was too busy pixeling stuff to steal ANYTHING, let alone the fact that theftifying that kit is impossible, as I've just explained.

     

    aaainnocentlaithumb-1.jpg

    (click it for full size of course)

     

    Furthermore, I think you'll find that I have a fair deal of evidence showing that Lai isn't the "OMG LIEK IZ AWSUM I STEEL NAO" type. Lai, as it turns out, actually does have some imagination, and is very fond of drawing. As such, he likes to practice drawing stuff before making the real thing. So, back to the story I was outlining to being with. As a second alteration, he wanted to make Cheesemore look slightly better, because he tends to be that attentive to detail. So, to further develop the sprites, he spent some time trying to come up with a good quality alteration idea for the kit. He soon came up with a rather good one - MoL-style Matoran. Before he started work on the Cheesemore mods, he sketched out a rough idea as to how he wanted the end product to look, then scanned it to use as a guide while designing the redesign. He has kindly allowed me to put this on my Photobucket, so as to prove his innocence; click the above (colossal :P) thumbnail to view the sketch.

     

    I, as a footnote, really should add that since unfairly owning Lai, the Continuity has gone on to have, on Gavla's advice, try to track down another BZP member who also "stole" their kits. The thing is, they don't even know who this member is, or if he even exists.

     

    So there you have it. I have laid down the evidence pointing to the truth. The odds of anyone actually reading this are slim, but.... I have locked this entry, because I'm kind of sick of having to put with Eljay's doglike loyalty to Rangan being expressed as spammy flames toward Lai at the least appropriate of times. ><

    • 1
      entry
    • 0
      comments
    • 3455
      views

    No blog entries yet

  5. Bionicle Dragon
    Latest Entry

    I thought it's been seven days...

     

    HAS IT!!?!!???!!!!1

    • 298
      entries
    • 1248
      comments
    • 17839
      views

    Recent Entries

    -MX-
    Latest Entry

    Two years have passed already? Time flies I guess.

     

    twoyear.gif

     

    To another year at BZPower. :)

     

    |MX|

  6. So I'm not gonna tell you guys in great detail what is happening in my life, so I'll just condense it.

    I'm in an acting group, we had the last show saturday night one of our original productions. I'm in love with an amazing girl. School sucks. I was joker for halloween. My ex is also now my ex-friend. Guitar Hero World Tour rocks. yeah, thats mainly it, no detail, sorry, I'll try to get into habit of blogging again, I'm just not really into LEGO Bricks anymore so this site hasn't been on my top list of sites. But yeah.
  7. Daiker
    Latest Entry

    2018? Woah! No clue if anyone still follows my blog but I figured I'd drop by the old forums and reconnect. It's been 2 years since my last post. I'm now in college in Manhattan, and have had a nice part-time job for the last year. I'm still really big on retro video games and my collection is growing by the day. Right now I'm at about 400+ games. I also bought a Switch! Really excited to play more of that. A couple weeks ago I actually broke out some Bionicle parts and tried to finish a project, but didn't get to. Would honestly love to get back to building, but right now I have no time! What free time I can manage I spend on Youtube, with friends, playing video games, or playing guitar.

     

    I figure I'm not 13 years old anymore and can actually say things like my full name and stuff without minding. I came here when I was 11, freaking 8 years ago. Wow! Anyway, I surmise you all know I don't frequent the forums anymore, so if you would care to follow my social media, I wouldn't mind to follow back! I honestly consider you guys as friends, so feel free to follow my instagram, @derekteut!

    • 9
      entries
    • 16
      comments
    • 13957
      views

    Recent Entries

    Khols
    Latest Entry

    So this is the new site design, eh? I have to say it's not what I expected, but I'll have to deal with it.

     

    I just came here to stop by, I'm not considering doing anything special or important.

     

    Also uh

     

    What does the spinning Rahkshi head mean again.

  8. As of July 26th, 2020, I am resigning from BZPower staff and voluntarily requesting to be banned. I can no longer trust or vouch for this site as a safe place for users in light of the admins' failure to meaningfully condemn or punish multiple instances of abuse or harassment perpetrated by staff members against fellow BZPower members.

    I will not elaborate at present, seeing as these are not my stories to tell and I do not want to give staff members who disagree with my decision any motivation to censor this message. But rest assured that this is a decision I've been contemplating for weeks, even as I naively held out hope that matters like this might finally be taken seriously.

    I would like to extend my condolences to those who have been victims of abuse or harassment by members of this site, and forced to endure the trauma of seeing them maintain good standing within the community, even among those who knew of their actions.

    Goodbye, BZPower. I'm grateful for the experiences I've had here, but it's clear to me that my continued involvement in the community will never be enough to make it the kind of safe, healthy, and supportive community that I used to believe it was.

    ~Skye (Aanchir)

  9. Gavla
    Latest Entry

    I like to use Scouts as bait.

     

    If I have the Intel and know a Sniper is watching one of the two exit doors, I'll let a team mate Scout go first, get killed and quickly escape as the Sniper reloads.

     

    2013-08-01_00013.jpg

  10. I don't know? This freakin' website and it's freakin' inability to keep me away from it.

    Okay, yeah, actually it's been doing a fair job of keeping me away from it, since it's been what, like, a year? Several years? I don't even know anymore.

     

    So, howsabout those Bionicles?

  11. By almost a full month this time, I'm really bad at this lol. Makes me feel so old, though, seeing a spinny Tohu.

  12. My unexplained absence may have caused one to think that I no longer even cared about my blog. Well one would be wrong.

     

    May I just say, thank you to the BZP admins for giving this feature to everyone, because I like it. A lot. XD

     

    ....

     

    Man I wish I could reset my rating. :P Some people just like to hate. :lol:

     

    Well anyway, as this is my first blog entry in a number of unaccounted months, I would like the shout out about the most exciting non-political-related happening since my last entry:

     

    HAIRSPRAY!!!!!!!

     

    hairspray-poster-750.jpg

     

    Oh my gosh, this is DEFINITELY the best movie ever. If you haven't seen it already, go see it now, it owns beyond belief.

     

    Moving on to other stuff:

     

    I don't know if any of you guys watch the Daily Show. It's a political show on Comedy Central-- thus, we should not really be discussing it here. However, I must say that I was watching it one day and something caught my eye: Barack Obama ringtones!!!!!!!!

     

    This is perhaps the strangest political campaign I have heard about in my life. If you go to BarackObama.com, you can download 7 ringtones and 4 wallpapers for your mobile phone. I'll go low enough to admit that I did, indeed, download all 7 of the ringtones, and that I am currently using one of the ringtones and one of the wallpapers. Most of the ringtones are just fragments of his more well-known speeches, but the first one is what I like the best. It can be simply described just by giving the lyrics:

     

    "Go, Go, Go, Obama, Obama - OHHHH!!!! Go, Go, Go, Obama, Obama"

     

    And you thought you'd seen weird.

     

    Well, that's about all I have to say for today. Remember when discussing the last item of interest to keep it down to a dull roar, not actually turning this this topic into a political discussion, because I can be sure that a Moderator will be here to close the topic promptly if you choose not to abide by BZP rules.

     

    ThanK - yA.

  13. or that I'd see things differently when I was older.

     

     

    I'm looking at some very old post of mine and I'm amazed at what a retard I was.

  14. Brave Dragon
    Latest Entry

    Just popping in to say hi. Guess no one cares anymore. Times have changed so fast.

     

    Also, I am in a need of a moderator/admin help for an artist friend of mine, named Evil_Accret. She's got some sweet art to post, but she forgot the pw to her account. Sadly in her attempt to reset, the account is linked to an old e-mail, in which she forgot the pw and the question required to change said pw.

     

    And the BZP system is not so willing to give her a second account since she shares the same computer with another BZPer.

     

    If anyone is willing to help return her account, send a PM my way for further discussions.

     

    Thanks.

     

    B_D

    • 333
      entries
    • 1321
      comments
    • 21046
      views

    Recent Entries

    mercenary vahki
    Latest Entry

    I'm alone in a old house in rural Minnesota. There's creatures living in this house, let's call them bats. Bats have been known to forcibly enter my living space, but they have not been a problem since late summer.

     

    I hear them. Above my skull and within my life. Creeping and scratching. Probing for weakness.

     

    I shall not let this end in my defeat. I down a potion of strength. The scraping grows louder.

     

    Nothing can kill me. I am eternal.

  15. Ta-metru_defender
    Latest Entry

    Well, after a brief Invision Board-based hiatus, we're back!

    Did you like that video review of Tahu and Takua? I haven't done one in a while and it was fun to dive back in, especially since, over the past year, I've moved to doing video post-production full time. I was freelancing for around a year at a couple of documentary houses until last month when I started as a staff Assistant Editor a trailer house. If you saw the trailer for Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, that was us. I had nothing to do with that Indy trailer, but I did see a TV Spot I helped out with on TV on New Year's Eve, so that was pretty dope. There are a lot of projects in the pipe that I can't talk about (I'm NDA'd within an inch of my life) but it's super cool to, y'know, be doing this professionally.

    Part of the fun of the gig is getting to see how those trailers are made and see all the ways the Editors make them work. And then learn from them and use them when cutting something else.

    Like a video review for a Bionicle site.

    bioreviewsequence

    I put more effort into this than the other reviews I did, part because it's Bionicle and part because, well, I wanted to take stuff I've learnt out on a semi-dry run. There was an AfterEffects project too to enhance the glow in the opening too, plus some foley and externally-recorded sound. Then some funky sound design too 'cuz this stuff is fun.

    Because hey, I am a proper professional.

     

     

  16. 2015: Okoto

     

    ~ (I have 13 of 13 total.) ~

     

    Protectors ~ 6/6

     

    #70778 Protector of Jungle

    #70779 Protector of Stone

    #70780 Protector of Water

    #70781 Protector of Earth

    #70782 Protector of Ice

    #70783 Protector of Fire

     

    Masters ~ 6/6

     

    #70784 Lewa - Master of Jungle

    #70785 Pohatu - Master of Stone

    #70786 Gali - Master of Water

    #70787 Tahu - Master of Fire

    #70788 Kopaka - Master of Ice

    #70789 Onua - Master of Earth

     

    Creatures ~ 1/1

     

    #70790 Lord of Skull Spiders

    ~ Credit to

    Dorek for the inspiration on these.

  17. Grey Snow
    Latest Entry

    Back in about a week or two full time. If C.I.R.C.L.E. voting should, somehow, come up, I'll be missing.

  18. bvgroup.jpg

     

    It's funny to look back on this blog after being away from it for over a year. I read some of the things I was talking about, and it's funny to think where it's ended up. It's funny to think, but since my last blog entry:

     

    1) I've bought my first home.

    2) I've recieved my first promotion.

     

    But neither of those would've been possible without the third thing: I met the love of my life, who motivated me to push myself harder than ever to get to where I am now. I've completed my first two half-marathons, gotten into better shape, and found a regular place for myself in a company softball team.

     

    Most importantly: I'm getting married in Novemeber. The woman I met just a few days after my Jan 23rd blog post ended up being just the person I needed in my life. So I apologize for disappearing off the face of the Earth, and I hope that those of you who have been doing your best to stay in touch don't feel like I've left you behind. This forum was a big part of my life for a long time, and I'll always hold a spot for it in my heart.

  19. Kallista ~ Little light
    Latest Entry

    it's my birthday today....

     

    yep... 20 years old....

     

    I am not quite sure what to make of it today.

     

    Have some cake :)

     

    Job is great, hands not so great... have an old Valvo to drive around... been driveing other people around a lot.

     

    sorry for the half energy post but I'm pretty tired and I have to look peppy for work.

     

    Blessings

     

    K~LL

×
×
  • Create New...