Just a minute ago I was standing outside in pouring rain, watching the sky turn white every few seconds from lightning. The sort of lightning where you can't even see where it really is, deep inside the clouds, but the result lights up everything even more brightly than the moon – including casting the clouds into sharp relief. It was incredible.
Clearly this vacation-thing is off to a good start. There were some difficulties with Brickfair MOCs (including the BBCC50 one – Tiome had to be scr
AUGH.
I'm about to be gone for about a month. Until next Wednesday, I'll be in Delaware, visiting family; after that we're spending a week and a half in Belgium, and when we finally come back we're spending the rest of the time touring New England, visiting colleges and then attending theatrical things with family friends. It's a lot to do with little rest time, but it should be fun.
BUT. I still have to finish my BBCC 50 entry and my Brickfair poster, because I have no time after tomorrow
I meant to post a few entries in the past few days, but I got so wrapped up in CGing the below poster that I ran out of time...
First and foremost! Chapter two of Learn to Fly has now been posted, now that BL10 spoilers are allowed. See if you can tell what set I drew on for Her design, though I think I made it pretty blatantly obvious...
Second, my AP scores arrived today. I got a 5 on all of them (that's the highest score, for all unfamiliar with the system). It made me quite elated.
Fully colored in Photoshop, free of outlines. With a background. And printed at a large size. Now to finish it in the next five days or so...
For freedom we rise
Learn to fly, reach the sky,
Legend will carry you thousands of miles...
Take a stand, hold the land,
Make sure that everyone's ready to win...
Find the speed, all you need
Team up for battle we rise...
~ ToM
As shown above, a delightful batch of pieces recently came to me. Takadox swords, a couple #1 angle connectors so I don't have only one in those colors, glow in the dark spines, smooth Technic panels, red Mahri tubes and black tentacles (I have no '07 playsets), and then a bunch of lime and purple and dark blue Technic pieces for my stockpiles of those colors. Because they're awesome colors and I have too few pieces in them. Plus some random pieces for other MOCs.
But the whole reason I got t
Open doors just to see what's behind them.
Be tolerant of other people and they'll tolerate you.
If you want people to listen to you, listen to them.
Always be respectful to others, and they'll probably treat you with respect in return.
If you really want to know what's going on, the only way to find out is to ask. The worst that can happen is that you'll be told it's private (or something of the sort); the best is that you'll learn what you'd never have known had you not asked.
T
I have updated Quest for Lost Dreams for the first time in many months.
Oh, I had fun with this one. Reworked the Visorak saga. Came up with two scenes in the space of about ten minutes a few days ago, wrote them, and loved them extremely. I <3 the Turaga (specifically Nokama and Vakama) so much... and getting to describe quiet scenes and night and the sea...
And I need people's on which Matoranized name for the Coliseum to use, too; see the top of chapter II for that...
As always, r
I don't often stay up until 1:30 A.M. writing.
I'm still tired even now because of it.
But oh, I love what I got written. Finally, conclusively broke the last bit of my writer's block and ground it into dust. And as a result, expect – for real – the second chapter Quest for Lost Dreams either this evening or tomorrow.
(If you want to read it before it gets even longer, now's your chance! Please?)
~ ToM
Some fiddlings with pieces...
First, Takanuva's new Power Lance. I've never really liked the set version; the head seems awfully big, especially with how short and thin the handle is. Just doesn't come together into a single, solid design.
So I remedied that with Hewkii's shoulder spikes. Three of them together make a neat, solid shape, and are also the right size for a normal Toa to wield (or even the original Takanuva)... I know Lego wouldn't do this, because they technically don't f
It never fails, I come up with a bunch of things to blog about and then forget all but a few of them when I actually have time to write...
Today's subject of discussion is the yellow Jetrax. I have gripes about it. First off, I love that there's more yellow. That in and of itself is awesome, but I don't really like the distribution it's in – it looks sort of garish to me, too bright. The arrangement doesn't put the yellow in any specific place; it's all over the vehicle, both in the lower lay
I have a problem.
Lego has made a ton of absolutely stunning sets this year, nearly all of the most amazing in the expensive range, and I want all of them.
The Agents' Speedboat Rescue and Mobile Command Center, the Troll Warship, the Dwarves' Mine (hey, it introduced this year's theme), the enormous Castle Chess Set, the Mars Mission Crystal Reaper and Hypersonic Operations Aircraft, and of course Axalara, the Jetraces, and Rockoh (to a lesser degree than the former two, er, three).
An
Very improper.
Item #1: I had forgotten that BZP and BS01's spoiler policies are out of sync, which means that it won't be for another two weeks until I can post the second chapter of Learn to Fly. I quite like this one, but alas... I guess that means I might actually have a few chapters written ahead of time, whoo! (Chapter 3 starts out focusing on Krakua, I'll tell you that. He's interesting to write about.)
Item #2: That did, however, somehow or other give me a sudden rush of inspiratio
For some of the most powerful beings to control their elements in the world, the Nuva aren't really acting like it this year. The Phantoka did have some nice moments, like Kopaka pummelling Mutran with ice or Pohatu conjuring boulders out of nowhere, but even those weren't half as powerful as what we saw the Nuva do back in 2002 and 2003.
One of my first thoughts after we learned about the Phantoka half of this year was Lewa and Kopaka teaming up to conjure a raging blizzard, or all three fly
I can transform into a cassette player!
...that's not the surprise.
I've actually started writing that serial I mentioned in the comments of the Nuva Armor entry, about my own version of Takanuva getting to Karda Nui and his adventures along the way – no dimensional hopping involved. I got the first chapter written last night and today (faster than I usually write most things), and I've posted it in Epics over here. The chapter isn't that long, so if you could read it and leave a review, t
:: ::
The mysteries are revealed!
So there you have it, finally. The picture explains pretty much everything, but now you know how they all work – redesigned Nuva chest armor, and the mirror-molded Nuva shoulder armor pieces, which are sort of a cross between Nuva armor and Matoro's shoulder pads, now that I think about it. And the texture I'll probably end up working with in the end.
And there's also a cross-section of the chest armor so you can see the alignment of the center pin
A couple possible designs for the shoulder armor I mentioned two entries ago... The one on the left is much more finalized and is Bionicle-stylized (note the practical pistons, Aanchir), but some of the other stylization is bugging me. For instance, the rectangular indentations on the upper half – I'm not sure if they look so great where they are. I might get rid of them and leave the top smooth, or they might migrate to the middle section of the top rather than the sides...
The one on the ri
The original and forever delightful Bionicle couple... It was raining last weekend (and is right now, in fact), so I was outside as usual, and I got the idea for a few shots of the two of them:
Maku by herself, sitting on the wet deck perfectly at ease...
Huki, meanwhile, is cowering underneath using a leaf to stay dry.
This was actually the first picture I took, Maku looking down at Huki where he's hiding out of the rain...
She convinces him to come up, and they sh
Not in that order.
First, I'm a senior now? Apparently. Graduation was Wednesday, so since there is now officially nobody above my grade, that makes us seniors. But bah, I'm going to miss the class of '08... at least a bunch of us intend to do a bunch of things throughout the summer...
Going backwards once more, Monday was the last day of school. Shortened classes in the morning to get back our exams, then some presentations, commencement rehearsal for the seniors, lunch, and then the awar
:: ::
BULK!
Onua Mistika à la ToM. He actually has the bulk that Onua mandates, a hunch (neck socket plugged into the topmost hole in the redesigned Nuva armor), and also actual armor. None of which the real set has, except for the bizarre pauldron. Actually, it was looking at that thing that gave me the idea for the legs – I liked the idea of using the Bitil wing piece somewhere on Onua, and it occured to me to put it on his legs, since I had already decided to use Vahki legs. It res
If I made blog entries more often, I wouldn't have to stick a bunch of random thoughts into one all at once, but I never feel any one individually is quite worth it... usually, at least. So, off we go again!
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is an amazing book. I've never read anything quite like it, and I'm not really sure how to describe it. It takes some getting used to the dialect, and it's definitely a book you have to stick with for a while before you truly start to enj
Really, I don't... as I've said before, I like being a Junior. I love my classes, I love my senior friends, and I also like not really having any huge responsibilities outside of classes. But next year there won't be anyone above us, and there will be the whole business of college applications, and I'll be yearbook editor and have more responsibility than I usually like. Ah well...
Though, it's not over quite yet. Exams are done, but we have one last day on Monday (getting back exams, some pr
For real this time. They aren't ponies, but they are little (to us, at least), and at least they're ungulates. Maha!
It would really have been awesome to see the Maha as sets in 2001. Clearly a model was designed for them, or else one wouldn't be able to perfectly replicate their structure – I'd assume they were going to be in the Master Builder Set but weren't due to a lack of Throwbot limbs therein. Anyway, I could easily see a pair of Maha sold for maybe $10 as the smallest of the Ra
(I was going to title this "Narona and the ... well, it's not quite a Little Pony," but then I realized I had built my Maha's head completely wrong and became too embarrassed to even post it. That will have to come tomorrow. Which is just as well, because there's a Matoran who goes with it who needs a name.
Clearly, being a pretty pegasus is affecting my brain.)
Anyway, the Ga-Matoran I asked for a name for a couple entries now has one. She is Narona, based on something suggested by Gr
