Team J.A.F.

Palm Pilot

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:09:00 +0000

So, way back in the day, there were these devices called Palm Pilots or something. They could include calendars and notepads and other stuff on them. Basically, I always saw them as hand held computers, although clearly they were limited compared to desktops. This was like in the early 2000s. I know a couple of my classmates had some.

And back in 2003 or 2004 (I forget when) I wrote this adventure story that I'm sure I've mentioned here before. It was about four friends getting trapped in a virtual game, where if they die there they die for real, and the only way out was to win the game. (Rip off of Sword Art Online? No, I finished this before then. It was a rip-off of some other cartoon idea. ) But one guy was able to keep out of the game, and he spend the story hacking into the program and trying to free the friends. At one point, his desktop is compromised, so he downloads the data onto his palm pilot and goes mobile. The palm pilot is integral to him finally figuring out the coding in the end.

The problem? Well, I'm updating the story again, and something occurred to me. Palm Pilots totally want out of style, and were never quite the extravagant hand held computers anyway. But... well, what I described does sound familiar, doesn't it? Oh yeah, smart phones. Everybody and their dog has one nowadays, and they're clearly not a passing fad.

So, should I replace the palm pilot in the story with a smart phone? It would be a little more accurate and true to current technology. But it's also a classic part of my story which follows the technology of that era. So, opinions?

(I know, first world dilemma for sure!)

Game Idea: Need Artists

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:37:00 +0000

I mentioned this idea to Kakaru when I met up with him last week, and he mentioned I should make a topic, but I'll do a blog post instead.

So I have this idea for a Flash game. Nothing nearly as complicated as MNOLG; basically a "find a hidden object in a picture" thing, Bionicle themed. I've been practising on writing code for such a game, and I'm pretty sure I could get this completed with ease. But... well, first, I need material. I can animate and code, but I can't draw, and I especially can't draw complicated images with hidden objects located within them.

So that's where you can come in! Are you an artist who excels in designing complicated landscapes? If so, PM me or contact me somehow, and I'll tell you the specifics of my idea! It's not a ton of work; as I mentioned, it won't be the MNOLG with hundreds of scenes, but rather maybe just 6 scenes, 7 tops. And, of course, the artwork needs to be digital and easily transferable into Adobe Flash. Vector art would be appreciated (PowerPoint yay!) but I think I can make due with something drawn in MS Paint. Hand drawn stuff might not work too well tho.

So yeah, let me know if you're interested. If not... well, might as well try and ask.

Oh, and I got to hang out with Kakaru and his family last week on my drive from Dallas to Portland. It was a blast! Except the part where we looked at our old BrickShelfs...

Leaving Dallas

Fri, 10 May 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Hey, an update from me, yayz!

So this past weekend I got to meet Toaraga in person. (Turns out there are other BZPers in Dallas!) He was a pretty cool guy, and it was fun chatting with him. Toaraga, you need to come to a convention sometime.

I also visited the Dallas Lego Store one last time, and bought a handful of Series 10 figs. There were a lot of people in there looking for the gold fig, and apparently at least 5 of the goldies have been found in that store. (By customers) But they still had a ton of bags to feel through, and I got the figs I wanted. (Librarian, Medusa, Roman General, Warrior Girl, Bee Girl, Sailor, and Baseball Player.) I know some people get tired of these collectible figs... but I'm not one of them.

I'm also set to move out of Dallas this weekend, and then it's another road trip back to Portland, so I'll be offline for a week again. (Because I've been soo active these last few months.) That, and I'm losing Internet tonight, so... yeah, gonna be away from BZP for a while. (Well, I'll check up on it via my mobile web on my phone, but I rarely use that to post.)

Anyway, need to find a job to pay for the next Lego convention. See ya!

End of an Internship

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:50:00 +0000

Man, I had an awesome time at my internship in Dallas, TX, but sadly it is over. Now I most likely have two weeks of downtime before I drive back to the Pacific Northwest, unless I can get a job with them before I leave. (Seriously, as interesting as Texas is, I do kind of want to bail before the HOT weather shows up. It's already been a little too hot for me and the locals are calling it mild spring weather! Well, at least I can drive in the rain compared to most of em!)

But yeah, for the most part, I had an amazing three months here. See, I didn't do anything exciting in college; I studied and spent time online, so I didn't do many fun activities, make many new friends, or go to many cool places. (Lego Conventions aren't included in this analysis, cause they're considered super fun vacations from real life for me. ) But I got to meet a bunch of awesome people here, go lots of cool places, and got some invaluable work experience, so I couldn't have asked for more. Although I just graduated, the internship finally gave me the chance to have the college experience.

And for now... well, technically unemployed, but hey that means more time to do online stuff until I find my next job! I've been lurking BZP for the last few months, but I haven't done a whole lot, so I need to increase my presence here again. (Or at least start posting news again, if just to escape from B6's angry gaze for a bit.) But then again, my laptop is still about as sucky as it was three months ago, so I should probably focus on the job that will give me the money to replace the laptop... yeah.

So anyway... anything exciting happen while I was away having fun in real life?

Colorado Trip

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:58:00 +0000

So this weekend I went on a road trip to Colorado with my roommate and two other interns from work. This was kind of important to me because I haven't visited Colorado since I moved away in 2001, and I missed the place and really wanted to return to visit it's beauty. (Yeah, yeah, sappy whatev, but seriously it's the one place I'm nostalgic for.)

So on Saturday, we flew into Denver in the morning, rented a car, and drove down to Colorado Springs and toured around the Garden of the Gods. Then we drove up into the mountains to Woodland Park and Divide AKA the places I used to live and go to school at as a kid. Then we continued on through the mountains, drove into Buena Vista and then up the Arkansas River drainage to Leadwood, and eventually caught up to the I 70 freeway and headed west to Glenwood Springs. We went there for the famous hot springs, but only half of us went in (the whole bring swimgear wasn't communicated too well, I guess) and I was the only one who did any serious swimming. (By that I mean diving. And by that I mean a mix of cannonballs and bellyflops... yeah, I'm still a little sore from that.)

Today we got up early and left... so early that the sun wasn't even up yet. We drove east on I 70 and went over a couple of passes. We stopped at Vail Pass to play around in the snow a bit, then continued on into Denver, where we drove down and walk around the capital for a bit. Then it was off to the airport, where we flew to Albuquerque and then to Dallas.

Aaaaaaaanyway, it's been a loooong weekend, but it was lots of fun and we saw lots of scenery and snow capped mountains. (And drove over a few snow capped passes.) I wish we could've spent more time hanging around and doing some little things, but we just didn't get the chance. And now I have 300+ pictures to sort through... although sadly most of them are shot through a dirty car window, since we didn't stop for every scenic view.

Now I'm burned out and have work tomorrow... yay!

100% Complete

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:20:00 +0000

So today I went to the Lego store in Dallas to take advantage of the double VIP points. I also went with two fellow interns to show them the wonderful world of Lego. (See, Elly and Erin, I do blog, and yes, it is mostly about Lego!)

Anyway, I got two collections completed.

After a slow start, I did manage to collect all 16 Series 9 figs. The last two were the Waiter and Caesar. I would like to do another front page review of how to find them, ext, but I am so late on these that it isn't worth it. Plus, what, Series 10 is coming out in a month or two, right?

I also got the Garmatron. If for no other reason than to pick up kimono Zane. Now I have all four lovely 2013 Ninjas. (Technically I should get green Lloyde at some point too.) Not too sure if I want the golden ninja; he doesn't have the same appeal as these four do. (Oh, and I guess there was that Garmatron set thing too...)

And it turns out those Speedoraz things are pretty fun. No, no, I can't be into Chima yet, I still have to spend my money elsewhere first!! (But on that note, I got an extra 120 VIP points today with only $60, so that's $5 that I can spend later on some of the cooler summer Chima stuff.)

But besides the lego store visit... well, life, work, travel, stuff.

Black Female Fig Head

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 06:23:00 +0000

So since Lego has started making realistic skin tone heads, we've started wanting more shades. Characters from Indiana Jones and Super Heroes got these cool shades of black or dark flesh, but they were all male. Why couldn't we have a larger palette of female heads? After all, there are so many characters that could be made (Zoe from Firefly, Leena from WH13, Cassie from Animorphs... some examples I've been wanting anyway.) Now there have been some female heads in light flesh, but when would we get more?

I got excited when I first saw the Lone Ranger mine set. It has this one Indian fig, and based on the hairpiece, I assumed it must be a female. When I saw some slightly more detailed picts, it started to look like an older woman. Not as versatile, but still good. Now, having seen box art, I guess it's actually supposed to be an older male chief. So that was disappointing.

But then... I happened to be browsing through images of the summer Star Wars set. In particular, the Spider Droid set. Ordinarily, I would quickly overlook it. Design isn't that amazing, pieces aren't great, and it's not quite the iconic ship either. But then I saw an image of the figs, and the jedi gal has a female face printed on a brown head.

So okay, maybe I'll be picking up this set. (Because I know going for that one piece second hand is going to be horridly costly.) But yes, good for Lego for finally diversifying the female figs... even if this one came as a surprise to me.

Oh... and yeah, then there's life going on and such, but the realization of minifig distribution is so much more important to blog about, no? (And it's not technically even new news either, just me going "HEY!")

Grumble Grumble

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 07:09:00 +0000

Stupid spring break.

Flying To Cascade

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:40:00 +0000

Maybe. I leave tomorrow night right after work. I have three flights to get from DAL to PDX, and since I'm flying non rev, there's a chance that I could get pulled from any one of them. BUT I'M GOING TO TRY AND MAKE IT AND BRING MY MINIFIG TOA WITH ME. Hope to see a bunch of cool cats when I get in. (See, we got new kitties just before I left... oh, and I guess I'll meet some BZPers there too.)

I'll update entry if/when I get stuck in Albuquerque or Oakland or the Mohave Desert or Moria... as long as there's cell reception down there.

Next Word Game Challenge

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:28:00 +0000

Name a character whose name doesn't have vowels (A, E, I, O, U) or the letters T, N, S, H, R. The letter Y can be in the name, but it cannot be the second letter or the last letter.

The character doesn't necessarily have to be Bionicle.

Go!