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Philly Brick Fest is later this week! I don't think there will be too many BZPower members there, which makes me sad. Fortunately though, there will be a ton of your MOCs on display! I was getting worried because no one had been sending anything in, but last Friday I got three boxes (two of them were huge) and today I got four more! By my count, there will be over FORTY BZPower member MOCs on display (not including mine or any others that show up from other exhibitors). We should have a great Karda-Nui display, and BioniLUG will have a special display too. I'm really excited to put them all on display and show a new city what BZPower is capable of. You guys rock! And if you missed Philly Brick Fest, there's still time to send them to BrickFair New England, which is only a couple weeks from now. Check out this topic for more info. And please, if you send something - no styrofoam peanuts! I will take them out of your box and replace them with pain and suffering, which won't protect your MOCs nearly as well.

Specifically, with regards to the gender imbalance in modern media: I'd like to see a story where, during the writing process, the characters are completely fleshed out and developed. Genders would be assigned at random at the end by computer generation, so as to avoid any unwanted author-based prejudices. Obviously this example refers to a book, but the same process could go for anything. (I was going to say more, but I think this pretty much speaks for itself.)

TN

But is pain and suffering economical?

I don't use this blog for much, and I figured that putting it to a good use probably isn't a bad idea. So, starting tomorrow, I'm going to have a onesided discussion with myself on some random, hopefully deep subject that probably doesn't have a definite answer. I guess we'll see how bad I crash and burn then.

getting the hang of a new tablet so i decided to draw a Velociraptor colored like a chickadee, my favorite bird. it's a very nice look for it. too bad they almost certainly did not look like chickadees.

Well finally got moved into my new place.. after a year of no hot water and having to boil water when i wanted to take a shower I am finally in a place with running hot water.. far bigger than my last place and life is generally good. Still have alot of boxes to unpack but right now i am sore from all the lifting and what not I have had to do.

It's best to just completely stay out of anything political or religious, especially on the Internet. The only possible outcome is ... well, the one that you experienced.

Happens to me, probably more than I realize. Unfortunately some members here aren't very forgiving...

easter's too mainstream

That's not how it woooooorks also very sorry if the gif is too big I've been so inactive that I need a refresher on the rules

hats

So there's no wrong answer but there is a right answer? What is this, public school?

If that title doesn't immediately set off some sort of bell in your brain you might want to watch this real quick. Anyway... I've always found the monomyth interesting. Why? Because it tries to link stories that have little to do with each other together, and it can be a great way to dissect the meaning out of stories, as well as a way to compare and make connections with other stories and show patterns and discuss the greater meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Just. Like. That. (I saw my chance and I took it.) And I'm going to use the hero from one of my favorite TV shows who has, quite literally, something like a thousand faces. (Coincidence?) The avatar. Aang. His story pings something like... all of the points in the cycle. I'm not going to type all of it out because most of it's obvious and it would take awhile. But the show hits most of the points in a way that is almost literal. Where the symbolic death is usually just stretching to reach that, Aang actually dies. It is one of the most literal versions of the monomyth I know of, and it's a great show even when following this formula. And it shows a great deal of character growth. More interesting than that is that the book stands to make all heroes of the same mold and find the formula that makes a good hero. But it seems like fitting a formula would be bad, as then we're sort of just copying someone's ideas. Which is probably true. It's been said that "There are no new ideas", which is probably problematic with the way copyright and patent laws work, but it seems to be true, as most heroes line up with the monomyth. For example: A person doesn't decide he's hungry and than suddenly make a weapon that makes hunting a breeze. First they would use a rock, than put it on the edge of a stick to make a spear, than sharpen it to make a better spear, than figure out how to fire it with a bow. That's generally how innovation works. And stories aren't much different. Why make a new story structure when this one works? Heck, even stories that don't ping everything on the list ping enough things to fit it. But I'm thinking it may not be that universal. There are some stories that don't start out quite right or don't have the right sort of main character. The character starts out too powerful or are obviously aware they are the hero. Some examples that come to my mind are Orion Pax, Link, Mario, Samus (that list actually came from watching a video and where just the ones I thought of.) and countless more who start out as just normal guys doing their day to day business. Until that normal day turns out to be not so normal and we end up with the stories we know today. But Aang isn't. he never wanted to be. He was called by his elders to be bigger than himself, to change the world in a way that nobody else could. On his journey he takes advice from many teachers, from Master Pakku for waterbending, Zuko for firebending, Toph(who is still my favorite.) for earthbending and the lionturtlre for energybending. he takes his skills and becomes the hero his world needs him to be. And that's what heroes do. They get called to action and put their skills to use for the greater good. Not just in fiction, but in the real world too. Which makes the monomyth significant. We write stories about things that creep through the night and the things that keep those things in check, and we do that in the real world. Stories aren't separate from the real world, they are part of it, and they link with it through philosophy. Think about it this way. You are the hero of your story. You are the main character. (Wow that got deeper than I was planning.) Everyone has a story. And I'm as guilty as anyone who says that theirs is unimportant. Huh. seems like a good place to end it. I didn't see it going there but that works.

You have no idea.. After a year of not having a hot shower I swear my body was going to go into shock

but there is one particular right answer I'm looking for. All other answers will receive zero credit.

All answers are rights, but this answer is more right than others.

It's nice when your IDE can define your problem for you. Apparently I'm going to have to take something back - the categorization is probably (not certain, but probably), NOT going to take hundreds of hours as previously thought in the last blog entry. Due to the amazing powers of Java and JavaScript, I have rigged up a much more sophisticated search system than the Ctrl-F bar, which returns all of the posts that contain a certain word. (This is the net equivalent of the archives search feature, which, for those who don't remember, was agony. Much scrolling.) Using the same system of code, however, I can narrow the search "frame" down to the answers themselves, as opposed to the posts, to an extent. This will help extremely. (Oh how long have I dreamed...) Also I found this, which is much cause for celebration. Not only is this exhaustive list of almost all categories related to Bionicle, courtesy of a certain wiki staff near you, but it also comes in alphabetical order, to which I am extremely grateful. (I might need to prune it a bit, though. ) (Did you know that there were pillars of salt in Bionicle? I didn't.) Anyway, so getting the reference (in theory) is just a matter of throwing the categories into the search system, and pulling the results. And thanks to the wonders of modern programming, this can be totally 100% automated. (Do not destroy Google. ) This means that it can be done rather quickly. However, given that my answer-winnowing system is based on numbers, and otherwise the thing will return the post, I'm going to get a lot of discussion posts (with no answers) and tons of dupe answers, because answers were quoted and repeated twice. Also it's inevitable that some of the answers will escape even the finest of search nets. But all of those problems can be solved. The last problem appears to be the easiest, because I can just search the categories against the original document and remove any auto-categorized answers. This will leave the rest, which I can do by hand. Dupe answers might be eliminated on a string-matching system. The discussion post problem I'm not sure about, but if worst comes to worst, I can remove them myself. (Although I've thought of, since I have all the numbered questions and answers, I can just pull those, search separately, etc, and avoid this problem, although not all Qs and As were numbered, so I'll have to go back after and grab the others. I have options.) And then I have to check through the whole thing in case any weird errors and stuff happened, and make sure all the categories are complete. (Computers are brainless.) And all of this has to be done for all three documents, and the categorization stuff merged. The original Greg Discussion is probably going to be the hardest, because some of the answers were numbered using <ul>s and <li>s, not actual numbers, so I'm going to have to adjust for that somehow. But I will. Then I have to work in those Greg Topics I scrambled from after the archive crash. Most of the stuff is from 2003, although there's stuff from 2008 in there I don't want to see disappear. (Lazy fishers hasn't released that, because I have to rename all of the ~460 topics somehow. I also need to merge them together so they're searchable (easy), and categorize (hard)...don't know how to automate that. Maybe I'll think of something.) Lastly, I have to do the Erebus topics and JAG18's LMB stuff, but that's a snap (bones already helped. Thank You, although I will check your work. ). Mostly the big deal is getting the three OGD topics categorized though, and back on BZP! So I'll get back to it.

Thanks for the update! *wishes we had Star Trek computers*

Anything said on here will inevitably offend a large group of people. That's just the way BZP is. Don't worry about it. -MT

Sounds better than having to work on your birthday at least! And I'm going to keep a lookout for those BZPower shirts. You better hope I don't see you.

this made me breath air out of my nose faster than usual

They're nifty little models, but I'm really feeling like mocing them into mechs, that seems cooler to me than chibi fighters, even if I am pretty fond of the chibi Millennium Falcon. I definitely have enough pieces I can use as joints in the X-Wing to give that one leg and shoulder joints.

I don't know what the question is, but 42. -

Happy Easter everyone! Went by incredibly fast or maybe I'm just getting old (gulp). As for retirement my dad retired from the Navy last Friday and guess who was one of the people to congratulate and wish him luck? The one and only Michael Dorn (or Whorf)! So that was some Easter.

Worf? You mean MATA NUI. Super-cool!

Woooaaah, what? That's awesome

I feel like people don't introduce themselves enough before posts like this, and it makes people think that they're somehow just crusading machines, desperate to spew social justice on people who just want to live their lives without being looked down on their beliefs, and I'm totally okay with that, so before we get started, hiya. I'm Ty. A bunch of you guys may know me because I'm a compulsive RPer in the BZPRPG and OTC. Some more still know me because I have a Tumblr I use like once a month (haha jk no one knows me on tumblr) A bunch of my friends know me because I'm a very pretty young man. Some of you don't know me at all, and that's totally okay. Thing is, I have a little bit of an anger problem. It doesn't come out often but, as anyone close to me will tell you, when I smell blood in the water, a different Tyler is born. I get volatile. I curse frequently. I throw statistics and papers like a baby flinging spaghetti bombs in Olive Garden and I won't let you breathe long enough to so much as mount an argument around them. Why not? Because I was born and raised in an environment that has allowed me the unique perspective of knowing what fights are worth fighting, and knowing people based off merit. I am a cancer survivor. My father was emotionally and occasionally physically abusive - and not in that copout way you use to get numbers at speed dates. I am bisexual, and I realized it partially because of this website - there's a straight guy on this forum (h i y a a a r o n) who I jokingly called my first love until sometimes I questioned whether I was really joking or not anymore. I was in Ambage for a year and a half, and I made many conservative friends. Their beliefs all made me incredibly uncomfortable. They have made me incredibly angry, make no mistake. You wouldn't know it by talking to me. I have an encyclopedia of pop culture references in my head and I'm the king of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I play Cards Against Humanity with friends on the weekends. I tip waitresses 20%, I can flirt with my eyebrows, I spend ridiculous time on my quiff, Arrested Development is my anti-drug, and I put on my skinny jeans one leg at a time just like anyone else. But make no mistake. I am furious. People don't want me to be, and I can understand it - I was affectionately given the moniker 'The Oakland Mafia' by a BZP member I highly respect not too long ago, and I'm okay with that. People vanish from their keyboards when I challenge them on a point, and I'm okay with that. I've seen a couple people on this website use the defense that their beliefs are a product of their environment. And that's okay, actually - I'm completely cool with that. Because I am a product of my environment, too, and my environment has made me mad as ######. I'm mad now. Didn't mean to get mad, but I'm mad now. It all started with this, in Fishers' latest blog entry, My lecture for the night: Make no mistake, Roablin (and I plan on posting a link to this in the blog entry in question, because if there's one thing I have never done it's talk behind someone's back without the intention to shoot straight and say it aloud) I don't think you meant to offend anyone here. Your comments are innocuous enough; you looked at the status quo and followed suit, and I don't feel a thing against you specifically for it. Honest. I harbor anger, but not grudges. There's an innate difference in my mind; the worst thing I could do is delete you entirely from my memory banks and worldview, which I believe only serves to worsen the matter. So this is nothing against you personally. This is against what you're defending - a culture and environment that shapes negative worldviews in subtle, clever little ways in people who would otherwise totally be able to see what HH, DeeVee, Makaru (and other people who are totally quicker on the draw and smarter than me) fight for regularly, because while you yourself may not intend to cause harm, your beliefs certainly do. Remember what I said - I'm mad as can be, but I don't want to pummel you. I want to inform you, in frank terms, yeah, but terms that I would use and have used on several close friends before. It's what I would tell anyone. First off, I know this term is beaten to death, but I think it needs to be said over and over and over, not so it annoys you but because of the simple fact that people don't like to talk about: you can beat a million terms into the sands of time, but it rarely means you can beat down the system itself. What you are defending from your past writings is a patriarchy. The very notion that you used solely white males (presumably straight) males when until 2008 with the election of Barack Obama, we had nothing but cisgendered white men with heterosexual tendencies (with one notable exception; James Buchanan, people, look it up!) does nothing but indulge a status quo that is corrupt and derogatory to the core, and even dangerous; sexual and racial minorities are at greater risk of suicide, homicide, harassment, and incarceration by broken systems and broken social codes, and it is our job as a generation to begin to turn the tide. In 2008, we elected Barack Obama as U.S. President - and honestly, I think it's great that changed your worldview! It was meant to! For a country to, just a century and a half ago, go from human slavery to electing a biracial President is a huge accomplishment, and I'm really glad that it affected you. But that's just a baby step - it's only a start. You have to realize that the unspoken social rules that kept minorities like Barack Obama and strong, intelligent women like Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren out of office are still intact and out there today; when we reinforce the stereotypical image of the white man as the leader of the "free world," we're only breathing new life into those codes. But how does this relate to you, you ask? All you did was write stories, and they were purely for fun's sake, because you love writing. That's totally okay! I've been RPing for four years, and there's nothing on this site I love more (besides the people!) so I totally get where you're coming from. But you know the rough thing about the BZPRPG? I've been in it for four years, and in that time, I've seen: - Two gay relationships; both of which came about only in the last few months, and both characters were RP'd by the same character - Two lesbian relationships - One male-to-female transsexual involved in a relationship; one transsexual in general, actually And that's still a big problem, because while we just write about it, we write based on our environments and our experiences. And even if nobody ever sees it, the people who write the movies we watch, the shows we DVR, the books we read and rave about - they all were raised in the same constructs, and people do see their works and take inspiration from them. And then they show their kids. And then their kids show their kids. And it all comes back to what I was saying about breathing life into these tired, backwards notions. They're there; they've always been there; most of them were disguised, shown under different names and with different twists, but they're there, and they had impressions on all of us to some extent. That's where the saying "everyone is a little prejudiced" comes from. It's true! We can't help but be a little prejudiced! But it's part of the struggle to grow as people - it's our responsibility to overcome it so we can grow as people. You also said that race and gender shouldn't have impact on a person's decisions, but that, again, is basic human instinct. If a minority is picked on and abused for years, and then gets into power, why wouldn't they let their past experiences color their decisions and try to improve things? Who wouldn't try to make things better after working years being paid less than her male counterparts just because of her status as a woman; who wouldn't be bitter about being refused the basic human right to plan a wedding ceremony and see it through - something that is a lifelong dream of most people! - while their heterosexual friends are sending them wedding invites every year? How do you expect people to lie down and let themselves be kicked and spat on while never once implementing solutions to fix it? It's absurd! It's absurd and it's hurtful, and it's almost entirely subconscious in the day-to-day lives of most people. And what do I do all the time most people do when they feel offended, or hurt, or want to bawl their eyes out after a long day? Curl up with some Americone Dream and turn on the TV, or read a good book - two mediums where transsexual characters and even bi/homosexual characters are still sorely underrepresented, where the phrase "token minority" is still a thing, where characters like Catelyn Stark or Skyler White are hated or reviled for not stepping back a tick or two so that they can let the men in their lives make the decisions. The prejudice has already permeated our laws; as ordinary people, how can we allow it to seep into our entertainment, too? Is it so wrong to ask for a black Human Torch, or a female Doctor Doom, or a gay superhero in a Marvel film? Why can't we have a same sex relationship in the new Star Wars mythos? Why couldn't Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy at least share a bed in X-Men: First Class, I ask you? That chemistry was there and no one will stop me from saying otherwise! How does it make the lives and experiences of those characters any less realistic - and if you can't work with characters outside your normal worldview, why are you writing at all? But again, none of this is a slam on you specifically, Roablin - they're things I've wanted to get around to saying for a long time in debates and have never been able to for fear. But I'm not scared anymore. I'm just angry. Angry, and a little hopeful that someone will read this and understand what's being done wrong, and maybe think of ways we can fix it. We have a wealth of possibilities and talents that no other generation has ever had - we could be the first wave of a new beginning in society. If we let ourselves be. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go grab some ice cream. Regular cookie dough, unfortunately - out of Americone Dream. -Tyler Durden / Aegon Targaryen / Tyler St. Francis