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You know I've always tried to be an honest person. And while I'm certainly not perfect at it I'd like to think I've done an okay job. Except with one person, myself. I've denied the truth about myself, subconsciously or otherwise. Thinking back I realise I've been doing this for years, probably since 9th grade. I'd tell myself day by day that was completely comfortable with who I was, what I believed, and that I didn't care what others thought of me. That I always acted like me even if it got me weird looks or if I got called a 'freak' or a 'goofball' or whatever the ###### they came up with. I could roll with the punches, laugh at almost everything said about me, and tell everyone I didn't care what people thought of me. That I wasn't going to conform to make other people around me happy. Well, as a certain Tyler so elegantly put it once, I'm a moron. I cared what people thought of me, I still care what people think of me. I can tell myself all day long that I don't but that's just not true. I do. I want to be liked and loved just like any other human being. What people say about me does affect how I act, what I say, and probably even what I think. Sure, I've always kept up the facade that I couldn't care less what people would say, and maybe sometimes I really didn't, but the truth of the matter that every insult, compliment, or criticism affects me in some way or another. I may laugh it off or just act indifferent but inside it still hurts. I love getting attention, especially the center of it and I'd probably say any stupid thing to get it. I've always been the cheerful, generally optimistic, carefree person that I've expected myself to be. That's okay, it's part of who I am, it's not something I can just change, or would ever want to. I've done a pretty good job of maintaining that over the years, but on the inside I feel things that I rarely, if ever speak of, even to myself. I hate yelling, no I'm not talking about your everyday yell of alarm or trying to get someone's attention. I'm talking about that deep, loud, terrifying blood curdling scream that only the grouchiest, meanest of people can summon from their throats. Well, hello to my late grandfather, who I lived with till I was about 13. Now I loved my grandfather, but the man had anger issues like no one I've ever met since. And naturally who was the person who was on the receiving end of this howling? Well if he and my dad weren't busy screaming at each other it was me. I probably don't need to say it sucked. Kind of makes you feel like fleeing in terror and hiding where no one can find you. I don't even know why I'm talking about this, maybe I just need too. I tend to act like I'm not afraid of anything, truth is I feel absolutely terrified on some level. It might not come out every day, or even every week, but it's there somewhere. I'm afraid that people won't like me, hate me, think the things I enjoy are stupid, and I'm pretty sure I could cry if the right person decided to start screaming at me. It used to happen all the time. For a guy who's pretty much declared war against conformity, I'm pretty guilty of it. I've conformed for friends, strangers, my parents, pretty much everyone. So to really start changing all that I'm just going to flat out admit something. I'm genderfluid. Since around my early teens I've been obsessed with the idea of being a woman, I don't think a single day has gone by since then that I haven't at least thought about it once. For a long time I've kept that mostly to myself, sometimes I've wondered if something's wrong with me, or if I need help. I don't even want to think about how my parents would react if they knew how I felt. Well, I'm pretty much sick and tired of hiding it. So I've decided to just outright admit it. I'm genderfluid, might even be a transsexual I don't know. All I know is I've needed to admit it for long time. It's taken me years to get the guts to do this, and you guys were a large part of it, especially my peeps on Skype. <3 So there, my darkest secret is out, yay. God...I'm actually posting this.

The recent trend of fans petitioning Greg to canonize details of the story has been controversial. But I've been upset to see that devolve into a bunch of Greg-bashing. Let's be clear: Greg's not the problem here, or at least, not the main one. The fans are. They're the ones who decided, after Bionicle's end, to consider Greg the sole arbiter of canon. During Bionicle's run he may have been the "mouthpiece" of the Bionicle story, but he was only one member of a team. And that team, for the most part, did a great job of keeping the overall story on-track. Back in those days, there were questions that Greg DECLINED to answer simply because it was not his position to do so—some decisions could only be made with the input of the story team, to avoid conflicting with the overall thrust of the story. There were checks and balances. All that went out the window when the theme ended, the story team disbanded, and fans decided that they would rather let Greg string the story along indefinitely than consider it a closed book. And now, they're the ones badgering Greg to canonize every single ambiguous detail from the Bionicle story. So far, at least from what I've heard (and I lost interest in the minutiae of the classic Bionicle story long ago), it's not a case of him canonizing terrible suggestions. The problem is that he's canonizing suggestions that never needed to be made. The Bionicle story isn't any better for knowing so-and-so's mask, or weapon, or what this character or that would look like as a set. If anything, it's worse—fans are continually eating away at all the mysteries in a story that was characterized by mystery, and the little details that used to be open to actual creative interpretation in a brand that was intended to allow for creative play. Let's be clear: every time Greg canonizes a character's mask, it DECANONIZES every other possible mask that character could have worn. Every time he canonizes a weapon, it DECANONIZES every other weapon. To petition Greg to include your headcanon in the story is to exclude every other fan's interpretation of the story. Now, some may argue that this doesn't matter. If the canon disagrees with you, just ignore it and come up with your own headcanon! But there are problems with that idea. Firstly, the organized Bionicle community has an obsession with canon. It's why we have to deal with these idiotic suggestions in the first place—a lot of Bionicle fans CARE about the actual canon, and it leads them to want to make a mark on it. Secondly, the fans that don't like suggestions? They DO ignore it! They do like I did years ago and divorce themselves altogether from the canon—but that, of course, means divorcing themselves from huge parts of the community that they used to enjoy. I used to love coming up with theories in S&T, because it was neat to try to figure out how the Bionicle universe worked, or try to predict the twists and turns of the story. But now I can hardly follow the discussions there, because discussion of the story often relies on a shared interpretation of the story—a singular canon—and the more of that canon you ignore, the less common ground you have with other fans to base discussions on. I'm very glad that Bionicle is being rebooted next year. The old story, at this point, is a lost cause. It should have been ended definitively years ago, but fans opted to keep it alive long after the point of death, and now I hardly get any joy from it. Bionicle 2015 is a much needed fresh start, and I dearly hope that it can learn from the original theme's ample mistakes. And the biggest mistake I want it to avoid is letting the inmates run the asylum, as the original theme did.

I meant to get something like this posted earlier this weekend, but commitments to BrickFair New England prevented that from happening in a more timely manner, so I'm sorry for that. In light of some recent developments on and off BZP, I think it's important for us to talk briefly about how the staff take action. Sometimes a situation arises and the staff need time to sort things out, so member accounts are suspended to stop further posts until we can get to the bottom of things. This is generally a temporary measure. At this point there will be a lot of discussion and research before any permanent action is taken. When the staff does finally take administrative action, such as removing Proto or banning someone, we do so using all of the information available to us at the time. Often we have more insight than the general membership: for example there may be private messages, emails, or server logs that can provide information to help us make our decision. Because much of this is personal, we do not usually openly share it out of respect for people's privacy, especially since there may be other members involved apart from the ones action is being taken against. Of course if more information is brought to light after the fact we can and do reevaluate our decisions and can reverse or take take additional action. We are not all-knowing robots that monitor everyone all the time. Finally, we take personal threats to the safety of our members and staff very seriously, and this can often have an impact on the action we take. I hope that helps clear things up. If you have any general questions, I'm always happy to answer them. I will not be going into any specific details about any actions we have taken though. Thanks as always to all of our members for their understanding and support.

Dear diary...EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! ...no, no, not going there ^^ Though I have seen my fair share of spaceships and hundreds of other designs today. The day started relatively early compared to my old job and got interesting immediately as I met my colleague who got hired through the same workshop I attended. We had a camera team at the workshop filming some of us for a documentary on Channel 4 on UK television and apparently they hadn't had enough yet since they accompanied us all the way to the front door at which point they were not allowed to follow anymore. Our respective mentors welcomed us and while I spent half a day with a visitor pass, I now have that little thingy saying I'm an employee. Way cool! =D I got taken on a tour of the department and saw pretty much everything from City (which is where I work) to Ninjago to Bionicle. Oh the things I have seen and can not talk about. It will keep the frontpage busy for a looooong time ^^ The Bionicle guys heard I was a fan though, so they were super nice and gave me Kopaka, who is now master of ice and my desk until I return tomorrow, along with somebody else I might get to talk about in the future. I didn't do much designing today yet, it was mostly learning where everything is and getting used to the work environment. I did get to put together some new sets though, which was pretty sweet. Stayed well after work was over and got to do some free building and hung out with some of the other designers. Let's do it again tomorrow! =D

I want to take a moment to just give a shout out to Windy for all she does! She is one of the best here, and I want to celebrate that fact right here. So thank you for all you've done for us so far, and all you'll continue to do, Elisabeth! You are amazing! ^^

I have slept for so long. My dreams have been dark ones. But now I am awakened. Now the scattered elements of my being are rejoined. Now I am whole. And the darkness cannot stand before me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skhXDoblzYs So long and thanks for all the fish.

The past few days have been full of milestones that really have been putting things in perspective for me. I was born on August 5th, 1987. Today I turn twenty-eight! Go me for surviving this long! I joined BZPower on August 2nd, 2001. I've been a member for fourteen years now. This site has become a huge part of my life for so many reasons. An interesting thing happens when you combine those two dates and do a little math. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I can tell that I was alive for 5111 days before I joined BZPower. Similar magic tells us that 5111 days after August 2nd, 2001 was July 31st, 2015. So as of last Friday, I had been a member of BZPower for the same amount of time that I hadn't been a member. That means that as of last Saturday, I've now been a member of this community for over half of my life. That is crazy and scary and awesome. Tomorrow, August 6th, 2014, will be my fourteenth anniversary of joining the staff. I was not always the most active staffer, but I've managed to hang in here for almost a decade and a half. This came up at BrickFair this past weekend, but it's worth reiterating here, I think. I just can't imagine what my life would be like without BZPower. There's so many meaningful relationships I've made through this site, both personal and professional, that I wouldn't have otherwise. Without BZPower, I would have likely fallen out of Bionicle and LEGO in general. I probably never would have gone to a LEGO convention, especially as an exhibitor, let alone the twenty-six that I've been to now. (That is scary!) I wouldn't have run a podcast for four years, or be a LEGO Ambassador, or have gone to New York Comic Con to help relaunch Bionicle. So many things that have helped shape my life would not have happened that I'd probably be a different person. All because of one little website. I'm so thankful that I stumbled upon this place fourteen years ago and that the community has been so open and welcoming to all the fans that have come joined me here since then. You all make it worth coming back to each day and working to do better and make the site even more awesome. Here's to another fourteen years?

An open letter to the people who like the things that I do not like: Get over yourselves! Who do you think you are liking those things? Have you no self-respect? Have you no shame? They say there's no accounting for bad taste, but you take the cake. I bet you even took the worst flavour of cake. You have formed your opinions on incorrect or incomplete information and I lament the waste of humanity that you have become because of it. An open letter to the people who do not like the things that I like: What's the matter with you? Are you deaf, blind, and completely lacking of all sensory input? How could you not like those things? Did you even try them? Did you even deign to spend an instant of your precious time to gain a greater understanding of the world before retreating into the dank, enclosed prison of familiarity? It's people like you that have been a thorn in the side of true innovators and prevent society from reaching its full potential. An open letter to the people who like the things I like: Where do you get off liking the things that I like? Do you think that makes you better than me or even just as good by association? I will have you know that I like the things that I like to a much more appropriate degree than you do. Your varying amounts of interest and disinterest across a variety of subjects have been poorly allocated and your poor management of this has brought ill opinion upon me by association. Perhaps it would be best to reduce any revelations of your opinions on these matters until such time as I can verify your qualifications to do so. An open letter to the people who don't like the things that I don't like: Keep fighting the good fight, we'll beat them someday!

I'm going to do a write-up about the entire NYCC trip, but I want to edit my photos first. For now, here's the image of all the parts and masks I ended up with after NYCC. But first, a little explanatory background: Several months ago, I got an email from a woman on the LEGO CEE team, asking if I wanted to be part of a project she couldn't tell me about. I, of course, said "uh, only absolutely." She sent me an NDA, and I signed it. The next email started out with: "So we're bringing BIONICLE back in 2015." This was before Brickfair, and I learned in that email that Black Six had known for another six months before that. Later that day I'd get an email saying that Tufi Piyufi was also under NDA now, and the three of us have been a core team working on the NYCC promotion and trying to get fans to NYCC without letting on that we knew about the BIONICLE thing, until, of course, TLG got tired of the leaks and just said "yep, it's coming back, go to NYCC". (That part made it a lot easier, lol) Eventually we were told TLG wanted to send out a bunch of preview parts to a handful of MOCers (as well as Andrew and Jen), so we came up with a list of ten MOC builders around the world (which included me, so nine others) to have parts sent to. This, unfortunately, was then narrowed down by TLG to two slots outside of me, so parts were sent to the three of us, and then to Kakaru and Retinence. Oh! And Roa was sent parts separately as well. When the parts went out, the CEE team member told me that she was sending us less than she had planned, because not all of them had passed through legal yet. Fast-forward a month or two to Brickcon, and I was talking to her there. She told me the rest had passed through legal, and she would have them for me, specifically, at NYCC. At NYCC she handed me a big bag of parts, with the direction to share them with Andrew, Jen, and Micah. In this bag was that giant bag of clear Tahu masks. We decided the fair thing to do was to part them out in a manner we deemed most fair in the hotel room with the people who attended the con with us. This included the clear Tahu masks, as from what we were told they were supposed to be part of the original shipments out to the group of us under NDA, at leas the three core members of the team. Before we parted the Tahu masks out, though, we saved several dozen for BZP giveaways, with the acknowledgment that we didn't all need a ton of them, and several of us would probably be willing to give more to the cause at some point if we feel like doing so. So the bag photo was a bit of a troll, I'll admit. Not all of those are for BZP giveaways, some of us probably ended up with more of the masks than BZP itself did. But like I said, it's not like we all need those extra masks, and I can guarantee some of mine and Nukaya's are going to filter out a small amount at things like BricksCascade. Anyway, that all said, we're almost to the photo! Some of this is from the VIP building event at the LEGO store, but most of it is from that big bag of parts. And again, massive thanks to LEGO and the CEE team for all they've done for BZPower, the general community, and yes, for me personally. These people have invested massively in us as a fanbase, and especially in BZPower. Words don't really express how amazing these folks are, and how much hard work went in to planning these things. We were only involved in what was most likely a small fraction of the real planning, but I can tell you it was a lot of planning. These people are amazing, and they really really love us. Full size on Flickr.

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

Hey friends! Today is Rare Disease Day. For those of you who don't know, Rare Diseases are those that (in the U.S) affect less than 200,000 people. Nonetheless, there's over 6,000 Rare Diseases, and this is an important issue for me because I suffer from Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome Type 1. Yes, it's the reason why I seem to spend half my time in a hospital. These diseases are called rare, however, because we don't understand them. Because we don't get as much funding as other better known diseases. Because there's such lack of knowledge doctors don't know about them. Because so little people know about them we can be called liars, or hypochondriacs, and all because of an illness that's not well understood. And for every Pablo that that survived to this day and can live a relatively comfortable lifestyle, there are ten of me who have never been diagnosed correctly. Who have never had the financial access to support them. Who, like me, may have started in a third-wield country, but unlike me, didn't live past three due to the lack of awareness. I write this all today because I recognize how lucky I am. I know it sounds horrible to say, but I don't deserve it. So I use the little time I have to speak out about these issues; so that twenty years time a child with a rare disease can know, so their families don't treat them like a shameful secret that must never be discussed, so they can have one specialist that knows what they have and treats them. John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Stephen Hawking, all suffer(ed) from rare diseases. And look at what they did. How many have we lost because of our lack of awareness? If anything, I hope you read this and do a bit more investigation on rare diseases. As long as you know we exist, as long as you know that we are present, as long as you know that we suffer but push through, then I feel like my advocacy will have educated a bit more on this issue.

Finally.

Things I have learned in my first week as a model shop assistant at LEGOLAND, CA: Turn signals are a foreign concept in California. So is going the speed limit. It's either five under or at least ten over. WHY IS THIS. The average teenage lifeguard at a LEGOLAND orientation training is very confused by the concept of an adult liking LEGO and will ask if they need to call security if they see an adult without children walking around. Also being one of five people out of the 75 at training who are older than 17-19 will be weird. When you are asked which high school you go to and you respond "...I graduated high school seven years ago?" you will break their teenage minds. The training book has "Weeks and weeks of fun!" as the subtitle, and they mean it. You will spend fifteen minutes staring at the sculpture you replicated trying to find the one plate that you forgot to add and it will be AWFUL. If you accidentally forget your coworker's name during pizza and beer night, he will show up the next day with a gigantic name tag. There are daily Super Smash Bros. games during lunch and sometimes all day tournaments on the weekends, and your boss is super into them. The corners of LEGO bricks will cut the daylights out of your hands if you are not paying attention while prying something apart without a brick separator. POWER TOOLS. Throwing your glued and unglued creations to test durability during training is common. Sometime either at the end of this week or early next week I get to throw a glued sphere I made off the roof and see how it holds up. LEGOLAND is still awesome 11 years later. The Tahu statue isn't red and orange, he's now red and yellow??? The model shop is stuffed full of crazy cool sculptures and it's super AWESOME because you're just constantly surrounded by super amazing creations. ...and a lot of other things that I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about yet, but I will if/when I can. Yeah!!!

Happy New Year everybody! Long time no see, eh? Even longer since I had anything to blog about. But that's about to change. Tomorrow I'm flying to Denmark to start my new job on Tuesday. Amazing to think that in more or less 48 hours I'll be a part of the LEGO design team in Billund. Allons-y!

Little busy from my usual loafing around today... Chose to finally ask my long-time girlfriend to marry me. She did indeed say yes! Soooo... yeah haha. Wow. ~|ET|~

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So, as of today, Bionicle's return in 2015 is confirmed. Which means LEGO is banning the Hero Factory toyline, even though it's story didn't even get to finish. That's why I want all the fans of Hero Factory to come together and barrage LEGO with complaints. Demand LEGO finish Hero Factory! Bring back my favorite toyline! Force LEGO to repeal the ban on Hero Factory! Who's with me?

At NYCC, Julie had an extra gift for the three of us who had been under NDA with her for several months: It is signed by the designers, and is apparently one out of ten total posters printed of this image. We finally got a custom frame for it, and now it's all pretty! Just in time to get packed up to move to California, lol.

What is it about plastic construction toys that make people so unpleasant? I'm just trying to have fun and talk about magic robots but I spend most of my time tiptoeing around battlegrounds and eternal grudges, heated disagreements about things nobody has any business even caring about, avoiding saying the wrong keyword of the week like I'm avoiding a landmine, lest it revive a nasty discussion whose only real conclusion is the immediate and permanent derailment of any topic, or get myself on someone's naughty list and see my name pop up in random places in unflattering contexts. I go to BZPower, tumblr, other unsavory and unfriendly sites, anywhere to just find a safe haven, but all the same calamities of the day are being blown up everywhere in addition to the general nastiness due to all the rivalries. Do you have a personal vendetta against someone for whatever reason? Private message them and sort it out, instead of vagueblogging and making nasty passive aggressive remarks about them in all your comments and topics on BZPower, and waging all out war across several other platforms. Have a strong opinion about the Matter of Pure Personal Preference of the Week? Post to your heart's content in the relevant topic, but don't inject it into every other discussion, or cram it down anyone's throats and be extremely bitter about it for the rest of time, waiting for someone to bring it up again. Hate an entire community? Stop visiting it and ignore it like a rational person, instead of obsessing over everything they do and actively complaining about it and attacking anyone and everyone associated with it. Keep it to yourself, or keep it between yourself and your target, and for broader issues keep it where it belongs and don't say it more than it needs to be said. It saturates and pollutes the entire community and it ruins the fun for everyone else. There's a time and place for everything. It'd be nice if the default wasn't "all the time" and "most places". The Bionicle fandom has been more vile than ever, lately, and it's not even for anything actually Bionicle related, usually. Either lighten up or deal with your issues directly because the rest of us shouldn't have to see all the negativity and be left with no choice but to: join in on it and argue with the rest and get drawn into a nasty, hostile war; stay quiet and not enjoy ourselves, watching everything go horribly wrong around us; or just leave and find someplace nicer. I'm close to just leaving. Lord knows I'm tired of the negativity and the hostility and trying to defend friends or diffuse arguments or avoid the hot buttons, and I definitely can't stand just watching everything go down and hang around and associate myself with it. Maybe I'll just buy my sets, watch my webisodes, post my fanart when I make it, and not check in on anything the rest of the time. I don't have it in me to start fresh with another (hopefully much more pleasant) core of the fandom, like the Russians. Mata Nui, give me strength. I've tried so hard to ignore it and be patient and stay for the good stuff. Don't make me regret coming back in the first place.

I haven't been active on BZPower a lot recently, and there have been some pretty big life reasons as to why. None of it has been blasted publicly or shared on social media, and only a few close people knew. Today at 7:43pm my best friend Olena (Disky) welcomed our little beloved Agnes into the world. We had a small ceremony early this month to celebrate our nuptials as well. Excuse me while I resume my inactive status.

I've noticed, especially on tumblr, a lot of people attempting to push the term "ohwunners" as a term for people who irrationally dislike the new Bionicle. Its origins are obvious; it comes from the term "genwunner" used in the Transformers and Pokemon fandoms, only with "ohwun" used to allude to Bionicle's first year. To me, that seems like a misnomer. People who loved 2001 above all other years actually seem to be the most vocal supporters of the new Bionicle. In fact, if anyone has shown the most irrational dislike for the line, it's the people who preferred the later years. This seems counterintuitive to what most fandoms experience, but it's pretty easy to see why to me. The reason is what it turned out to be (which, as I've said before, is pretty much the only way it was going to be). Fans of 2001-03 who grew more critical as time wore on had been begging for Bionicle to return to the feel of Mata Nui, the atmosphere and the mythical nature. They were most of the people disappointed in the 2008 Toa Nuva not resembling their former forms, and most of the people disappointed in how complex and hard sci-fi the story was getting. It's easy to see why they would welcome a reboot that returns to the mythical, brightly-colored island, with Toa that mostly bear resemblance to their previous incarnations, with open arms. (Obviously, there are those who aren't pleased with how the new Toa look, and some irrationally hate that they aren't just the Mata repackaged, but I don't think those are the majority of those angered by the new line.) Meanwhile, fans of the later years were those most likely to root for a continuation, to pick up the mangled cable of storyline Bionicle left off, to make sets for all the characters who were never meant to have sets, to finish serials a majority of the people buying the toys weren't even reading. They were the ones most likely to be up in arms about rebooting the story, and returning to a simpler premise, and only including the six Toa Mata from the original story, and simplifying things for easier accessibility to the target audience. Someone who preferred, or even just came in at, the later years of Bionicle are more likely to interpret the new story as mind-numbingly simple compared to the previous one, even though it's no simpler than the original Legend of Mata Nui. Simply put, they had the most to "lose" in a reboot. Obviously, it's not black and white in any way. People have legitimate criticisms of the new line, and people don't fall into these archetypes cleanly by any means; there are people who could be described as "ohwunners" and those who preferred the later years who welcome the new story. However, when it comes to the largest population of irrational hatred, labelling them "ohwunners" seems disingenuous, because '01 is likely not to be the year they prefer, or even the year they started at. Chances are, they preferred the story in its final stages.

So I don`t really define myself with technicalities, or at least I try not to. I also try and grant the same perspective to other people because that`s just how my mind has always worked. There is a member in my family that has different needs than most people. I never really realized it until that family member met briefly with a childhood friend of mine. I had always just thought of that person as another member of the family. "Yes, that person acts differently, but Mom acts differently than Dad. Mom is Mom, Dad is Dad, and this person is this person" That was how my mind worked as a child. I like to think I carry a fraction of that mentality with me even today, though honestly I have no clue if that's the case. I know it`s not always easy to believe other people when they say "I know what it's like to be..." You can never just trust anyone else with your opinions, especially when you feel so personally and so strongly about that one trait that you relate with. People build morals, ideals and their very identityies around those sorts of things. How can anyone trust someone else with something so personal? Even so, I still try to get some sort of message across. Just here and there mostly, but I just want everyone to stay calm and think important aspects of their lives over rationally. It doesn`t sound like a lot, but sometimes people just can`t be rational or calm. They`re too proud, too stubborn or they have something that just means so much to them that they won`t ever consider taking their ideals lightly. And that`s fine, I guess. I am only 22 years old as of right now. So, what have I learned? Things change. I used to be a bratty kid with a hot temper. Then I was a miserable adolescent dealing with depression on my own. Now I`ve gone through treatment and I`m actually more or less content with my life. Sure, things aren`t perfect, but nothing ever is. That`s life I guess. But I`ve also learned that, yeah, I am different. Now, I don`t really have a label for myself that I fully appreciate, and I don`t keep up with personality studies, though I have taken a couple. (DISC - I think I was an I\C? Myers Briggs says I`m an INFJ). Ever since I was a kid, I grew up overweight. I know it`s not the most tragic thing you`ve ever heard, and yeah I am responsible for my own life choices and it`s not something that someone`s born with. That`s just how I was and still am. And yeah, I got bullied for it. I never got beat up, but throughout my schooling I would be a target for teasing. Some kids would hug me out of curiosity and tell their friends it was like hugging a big marshmallow. My bad temper didn`t help me any either. The more I reacted, the more it happened. I ended up just shutting up and ignoring people around me. That was a pretty unhealthy way to deal with it looking back now. When I went through my depression in highschool and college, it took me forever to finally come to terms with the fact there was something wrong with me, and even then it took me longer to actually tell my family. I hated that I was different. I didn`t feel comfortable in my own skin. I would go for walks after school and other kids (while sometimes meaning no harm) would make comments. I never lost my temper despite being quiet. I wanted to fight. I wanted to punch. I wanted to scream. But I put all of that aside. It never got any better. At least by ignoring they could have their fun and then get bored. That was just the way I was. That was just the way life is. You can spend a lifetime reasoning the ramifications of bullying, but ultimately it will still happen. That was just how my life worked. They were them and I was me. I had to deal with it alone. That was just the way it was. Anyway, as bad as things could get sometimes, I always told myself I was lucky. I have a good family, I have my health (more or less =P) and I have reasons to be happy, even if I wasn`t happy all of the time. Well, I don`t know if any of you guys have dealt with being overweight. I don`t even know if any of you can relate even a little bit to what I`ve said so far. Still, I think that no matter who you are or what you do, there will always be someone who tells you who you are and what you are capable of. When I was in college studying to become a baker, a student in the culinary program told me right to my face that no matter how hard I worked I would never find a job (And he was so stuck up about it that I wanted to punch him. Still, I was set to ignore, so that didn`t happen). I think we will be told our place in the world many times before we die. That`s the world. That`s just the way it works. But that doesn`t mean you can`t do anything. That doesn`t mean it doesn`t get better. Yes, I am still overweight. Yes, people around me still take notice. Yes I can be treated differently because of it. But for the first time in my life I feel comfortable in my own skin. I am 22 and I am employed as a baker. Not only that, but my bosses actually want to keep me around. Go figure. I have no idea what the people who made fun of me or told me who I was are up to now. I honestly don`t care. Karma could punish them, or they could be super rich and popular. It makes no difference to me. I like myself the way I am, and yes, I am imperfect. Yes, I should lose weight and I should probably work on my own personal identity more than I have in the past. But honestly? Right now I'm just glad with who I am. And I know my story doesn`t end here. I`m going to change a lot over the years. That`s what life does. That`s the way it works. I say bring it on.

So if any of you remember, I got a skin biopsy a few months back. I thought they would have been well done with the sample by now, but they're still testing it, and it's ACTUALLY SHOWING STUFF UP DO YOU KNOW HOW GOOD THIS IS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? It's complicated, but how I understand it so far: They've found my metabolism isn't breaking down fatty acids properly, which my doctor is excited about because apparently it explains so many things. Poor energy, difficulty exercising, muscular discomfort, stress on the liver, the need to eat often, they all make sense if I'm unable to properly break down fatty acids. I'm not getting an important source of energy and it also causes stress on other parts of the body. The whole thing is confusing and there's much more to it than I can do justice, but you get the idea. It's a huge step forward and I'm really, really happy that we finally have a clue what's going on. It's going to take more time for them to determine exactly where in the metabolic processes things stop working, but in the meantime, they're putting me on medication in the hopes that it will aid my metabolism. It's unlikely to be the cure, but it'll hopefully be a boost/help until they can pinpoint exactly where things aren't working. I've waited so many years for this. I'm so happy.

Hey everybody. Sorry it's been a while since I last blogged! But we're less than halfway through February and already there's been more than enough news in the last week and a half to fill a blog entry. On Saturday, January 31st I was invited by Black Six to become a BZPower News Reporter. I jumped at the opportunity. I already report news to BZPower rather frequently, and this was an opportunity to both do that in an official capacity and help other people get the news THEY find on the front page. The news was announced two days ago. I'm still learning the ropes, but hopefully soon I can be posting news articles. But in the meantime, something has come up that might make me even busier. You see, just a day earlier, I learned that the LEGO Group had liked an application I had put in for a design position in their girls' category and wanted a Skype interview with me that coming Monday. The interview was a great experience. I got to speak with Rosario Costa, the design director for the LEGO Group's entire girls' category. It was an honor for me to even be able to speak with a designer so influential, and I felt like the interview went well. I was told I'd hear back within the next week about whether I would be moving on to the next stage of the recruitment process. In the meantime, I finished inking my Gali drawing from December and got set up to receive BZPower news e–mails. Yesterday I got another e–mail from LEGO recruitment. It was an invitation to an all-expense-paid trip to attend a recruitment workshop in Billund! The workshop will be on the 23rd and 24th of this month. The e–mail also included a design assignment to work on over the next two weeks (the LEGO Group will be shipping me bricks to use). I recognize, if I get this job, I will have to give up my recently acquired BZPower news position. But even if I do well in this workshop, I have no idea how long it might be before I hear whether I got the job, let alone before I start work. In the meantime, I hope I will be able to help the news team report on LEGO news, including the impending release of the Elves theme which I've been eagerly anticipating. Working as a LEGO designer has long been a dream of mine, and even if I don't get the job I'm thrilled to have made it this far, and that confidence will help motivate me to apply for other LEGO job openings in the future. And the workshop experience should also give me a taste of just what it will take for me to achieve this lifelong dream.

G1 and G2 are not related. Yes, they're reusing names, and they're reusing elements, and the Vahi keeps cropping up in hidden ways. But other franchises have gone through reboots, and no other fandom has attempted to connect generations as I've seen here. Please stop trying to connect them. Sincerely, Sumiki

Nice, try. bucko. i joined Bionicle in 2004. anything i hadn't heard of would have been something that the general bionicle fan public would also have been unaware of, and thus. problematically obscure. :/ :burnmad: !!! (I include this quote to explain why I'm mad. It's from a discussion that I read over and over again, and it's in the archive and gone, so don't go looking for it. I remember that after this there were several lines about stuff bones knew because he had been around since 2001, and I started in '05 with '04 story. As such, I might be overreacting a little.) I don't claim the moral ground here. I could be really, really wrong, but there is nothing on this website that ticks me off more than elitism. Elitism is the very wrong claim that "I know more than you, therefore you should listen and accept all of my answers." How about NO! On BZPower, it comes as "we know more about Bionicle than you, therefore you should listen and accept all of our answers." That's our position about Bionicle story as opposed to everyone else. And how about this. I started Bionicle in 2004. I read every offical story source that I could get my hands on, followed the Bionicle websites regularly for years, and me and my brother put effort into making sure we completed all the Bionicle games. I was confident walking in here that I knew everything that there was to know about Bionicle. Or at least, all of the important things. Even if I didn't know all of the details, I would be able to have a conversation without being told that I didn't know stuff. If I complained about something, I didn't expect to be...attacked. Probably me being stupid, sure. Because BZPower has decided more answers about Bionicle than even the official story has. They decide all the answers. And then they shove them down the new members' throats when ever they complain or ask a question. "This is what we decided, and this is how it is, buckwheat. Suck it up. Oh, and good luck finding out all of what we know - it's all over a semi-reliable wiki and buried in Greg answer archives that is all wound together in the worst kind of information spaghetti ever known." And who is this "we"? The people of BZPower, under the strong influence of the Reference Keeper Team. Even if they didn't make the canon laws in the first place, they will beleaguer every one with "canon" until everyone marches to the same drum and salutes smartly to their opinions based on the canon that they decided to accept! Now me, I'm a girl, and in some respects I'm awfully patient. I'd like to believe that problems can be fixed, that if someone "new" showed up someone old and told them that they didn't know the laws as well as they thought they did, I'd send this attitude packing - and it did seem to work for a time. A lot of my work on the Greg Ref was for this reason. Put it in the stars! Show everyone why these people think this way! Fix it! Mostly I just wanted to ignore that this attitude existed - people came in here looking for answers, and so I brought them. I like having more answers and shoving them in everyone's face. Don't we all? Such desires are evil! But you see, all of this is just a pillar of sand in our minds. If BZPower and BS01 did not exist, I could go back to my 2010 knowledge of Bionicle and say that it was complete. That knowledge was enjoyable to me. BZP and BS01 hold up Bionicle and say "You can't understand this. Our Bionicle is better than your Bionicle. Our details fill in your gaps, and if you don't know what we know, you don't know Bionicle." And you know what that claim is based on? Peer pressure, group agreement that I wasn't consulted about. Which is absolutely nothing. In my brighter moments I laugh at such absurdity. My response was to learn, because I wanted to talk about Bionicle story with people. Ticking people off does no good. And it is partly in my taste to understand things in more depth and detail, as I find that leads to more opportunities, like with fanfiction writing. The other problem is that I don't have the answer to this problem, and I really wish that I did. Based on this, though, the people who suggested the moratorium on canonization? That would give BS01 and BZ's elites even more control over canon. I'm starting to think that I trust GregF more on this. He never told people to "read up" on Bionicle canon in order to ask him a question. There's a difference between giving people the answers they want and shoving answers down people's throats, too, in the middle of a debate. Okay. This is calmer fishers speaking. As you can see from the above, elitism ticks me off. The above is my immediate feelings (emphasis, emphasis, emphasis) upon reading the above quotes. I'm not sure what the prudent thing is to do here, but I do want to say this: I respect the staff, and I respect bonesiii. This blog post is not to implicate him specifically, only to show why I brought this up now -- in context, it is not as bad as I make it sound, and I have seen worse. I have seen many other instances of this on BZPower in 2010 in a lot of forums with a lot of people, and I dug in to fight it in every way I could. If this starts again, I will dig in again until my last post, because I know firsthand how much this hurts, both online and off. I won't stand for this. Ever. EVERYONE, new member or staff member, deserves to be treated with respect. --fishers64

Let me make this clear: I do not hate TTV. I do not enjoy the TTV podcast (mostly just personal preference — I do not enjoy getting my news in video form when given the choice), but I respect them for what they do — and I reserve the right to be disappointed when they do it badly. If a BZPower set review made similar mistakes, praising or criticizing features that do not exist when the set is built correctly, then I would want them to be held accountable as well. In fact, I have vocally criticized instances when I feel like BZPower set reviews have fallen short of expectations, such as when a Legends of Chima set was criticized earlier this year for a building mistake made by the reviewer, or when reviewers poorly "estimated" the piece counts of those and the summer Hero Factory sets, despite the official piece counts already being publicly available from several reputable sites. "Fueling the excitement" is not necessarily an honorable goal in and of itself. Even excitement ought to have real substance behind it, or it devolves into tabloid-level sensationalism. But even if it were unquestionably honorable, having honorable goals does not mean freedom from criticism. People DO make mistakes, and when they make mistakes they should be held accountable. And a mistake by a well-respected YouTube channel with hundreds of viewers is not the same as a mistake by a random dude on a message board. The wider and faster misinformation spreads, the more of a mess it is to clean up. I do not criticize TTV or try to correct misinformation originating from them because I enjoy taking them to task. To be honest, I'd rather I didn't have to. I'd like to be able to just trust them completely to keep people informed. I'd rather not feel a sense of apprehension when I see they've "reviewed" a set months before its release. But if I see them saying something untrue and see others repeating that information, I feel like I'd be amiss if I didn't correct it. So please, if you see me (or anyone) criticizing TTV, don't assume it's because I have some kind of petty grudge against them. The fact that I have high expectations of news outlets like BZPower News or TTV means that I care about what they do, and consequently, about how well they do it.

I for one am glad they kept the orange. He's looking pretty sweet! MUAHAHAHAHA! ~Melon Lord

Dear friends, The past year has been really bumpy for me in a lot of ways. I’ve grappled with emotional dependency, depression, anxiety, and more. One good thing that has come about over the past year, albeit with some challenges of its own along the way, is thinking critically about my gender identity, which has led to some big realizations. For a long time I have related really well to my female peers and have felt deeply invested in their personal struggles. Many of the fictional characters I was most inspired by as well as characters I was most interested in creating in my own art also tended to be girls and women. Meanwhile my feelings about my own more masculine traits have ranged from apathy to frustration — the closest I could generally come to pride in my appearance was a vague, dubious sense that other people might like or respect me more as an adult if my appearance and presentation were sufficiently “manly”. I was never quite satisfied with the way I presented myself in selfies and self-portraits and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why. As a teenager, I would frequently try and visualize what it would be like to be a girl, sometimes in my head, sometimes with the aid of drawings or with software like the Yahoo Messenger avatar creator, and sometimes just by assuming feminine poses in the mirror when I was certain of my privacy. I didn’t really think too deeply about my motivations, though. Wasn’t all this curiosity just a quirky, introverted teenage way of coming to terms with my attraction to the female body? Come to find out, probably not! In early March I finally opened up to myself about the possibility (or rather, near certainty) that I might be transgender. By this point I had a lot of transgender friends in the LEGO community, and their experiences spoke to me on a personal level. I’d also had over a decade to move beyond the narrow-minded thinking that my after-school Catholic youth group lessons had tried to instill in me. And as soon as I started thinking about my feelings and experiences in the context of being a transgender girl, all these disconnected bits and pieces suddenly made complete sense within my life’s overarching narrative. It’s been extremely liberating to be honest with myself and with some of the people closest to me, whose support and encouragement has been invaluable. From here on out, you can call me Skye. I’m 27 years old and only just beginning the journey of loving myself for the sensitive, bright, and beautiful woman I am. I ask you to please be supportive of me as I engage with this process of self-reflection and discovery. It’ll be intimidating for me sometimes — even with as much social progress as there’s been as of late, the world is still a scary place for a woman. It’s also going to be a lengthy learning experience. It’s one thing to hear about how confusing things like women’s clothing sizes or prices can be; it’s another thing entirely to have to make sense of that confusion! But with all these big steps comes a long-overdue sense of pride and confidence in who I am, not just what I can do. I hope I can make all of you proud as well! With love, Skye

Long story short: Finally just came out to my amazing brothers Akano: Toa of Electricity and KopakaKurahk and they accepted me with zero drama. So, now that I've told them, there's no reason I need to keep myself closeted here anymore. I hope this changes nothing for any of you because it seriously shouldn't. That's really it. You can go back to your lives now. XP

She was the latest in casualties of a violent, hateful war against people like us and her death is heartbreaking in its horrificness. If this entry is not allowed by BZP rules, please let me know, but it had better be a darn good reason.

when you essentially torture and abuse your daughter, lie about the circumstances of her death in your "farewell post," and continue to demean her identity in the same breath by not even calling her your daughter, you do not deserve to be parents, nor do you deserve even the slightest ounce of sympathy this is all i'm saying about this subject because i need to go throw up now

A future that doesn't involve being sick for the rest of my life

IT'S DECEMBER ALREADY

Wow! In response to a recent news report, I got a proto energy boost, which means I've finally achieved Premier Outstanding BZPower Citizen status! To be honest, this might not change a whole lot for me. It's not like I've been actively seeking to achieve this status, and seeing my name in orange is not a huge change. Also, I'm not sure how many people actually pay attention to a member's rank when it's not indicative of a staff position. Still, I feel like it's a significant milestone... significant enough for a blog entry, at any rate.

ive noticed a very fun and very interesting and very good trend over the past few years there are a lot of trans women who are members of bzpower? i can name probably near a dozen whats the deal with that! is it the site. is it bionicle itself. is it legos. what is it that somehow attracts people like us to this site

i took a picture of myself and i like how this one came out ok (im wearin an Overwatch League shirt ok) granted this is how i look after being pretty sick all week

I posted this on tumblr a little over a week ago and have been meaning to put an update here. In just the last three weeks an actual, tangible, good, potentially-life changing thing has started happening and it took me a while to accept that it was happening. It all requires a bit of a lengthy recap of my medical history to make sense, so paragraphs ahead. Some of you may remember the saga of the fatty-acid metabolism disorder diagnosis. In late 2013 I had a skin biopsy, and then early 2014 the results came back strongly suggesting that I had a fatty-acid metabolism disorder. I was over the moon at the time because it was an actual sort of tangible diagnosis and something that made sense. I’ve had for a really long time a serious problem with not being able to go more than two hours without eating, as well as being unable to eat everyday fatty foods without feeling really sick, as well as putting on weight ludicrously easily despite eating a relatively low-fat diet (also back in 2011 I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, which was confusing at the time because there was no explanation as to why my liver would be so fatty). So the diagnosis basically fit the bill perfectly, a fatty-acid metabolism disorder means that the body is unable to metabolise fat properly, so after two hours the body has burnt all the glucose from food and switches to getting energy from fat, but if you can’t metabolise the fat you’re screwed and your organs/muscles/bodily processes have nothing to keep everything going. Fat still gets moved to the liver to get broken down for energy, but because it can’t break it down, the liver gets a big build up of fat around it which impairs its function, as well as unmetabolised fat going on as weight, so it really explained a lot. That was great at the time, something finally made sense, and from that point on (though I had kind of been doing this already) I made particular care to eat every two hours and reduced fat in my diet even further, as well as taking something called L-carnitine which did me some good because it helps carry fat out of the body. The big disappointment was then that the diagnosis went nowhere. There are loads of different types of fatty-acid metabolic disorders because different enzymes or whatnot can be broken or missing, so without any specifics known there are no actual treatment options. So I went back again and again for blood and DNA tests and endless lengthy medical interviews, but they came back each time saying that they couldn’t find anything, and suggested that maybe their initial diagnosis was wrong, which was really frustrating because it was the only thing that made sense. So with things at a dead end there, the last forever has been this nightmare ###### (that's still filtered?) situation of not just having devastating fatigue/depression/anxiety/concentration problems/confusion/mental fogginess etc etc but on top of that having the EXTREMELY high-maintenence task of keeping my body going with having to eat every two hours on a wildly restrictive diet, nearly using all my energy every day just getting myself small, healthy meals non-stop, despite barely having the strength to keep going and being really really sick of eating, as well as the added injustice of struggling to hold my weight steady despite eating a really low-fat diet, and the only way to halt weight gain or lose weight being exercise, but having fatigue that’s worsened by exertion so there’s basically no winning. ANYWAY so with things at a complete standstill (or maybe more like a circle) there was one piece of the puzzle that me and mum kept coming back to, and tried on multiple occasions to bring attention to but the doctors at the metabolic unit just ignored. Going back even further in my medical history, back when I was 7 years old and first became really really unwell and was diagnosed with CFS/ME, the doctor who diagnosed me managed to find something that drastically helped me (I think by that time I was around 10 years old) which I’ve been on my whole life since. For an inexplicable (at the time) reason a particular type of omega-3 oil really helped, and actually got me recovering for a while. I’ve been on it for so long I just take it for granted, but for as bad as things have been the last however many years, I’d actually be way, way, way worse if I wasn’t on the omega-3. I’d barely be able to walk or really move much, and feeling like what I’m pretty sure dying is like constantly. I can't really overstate what I'd be like without it, really not much better than dead. So the omega-3 is some magic life giving elixir that drastically improves my quality of life some some reason or other, right?? So in light of the fatty-acid metabolism situation, me and mum noticed something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid Notice anything in the name there? Omega-3 FATTY ACID sort of screams a painfully obvious connection, right? So we REPEATEDLY tried to bring this up with the doctors at the metabolic unit but they didn’t listen. But putting the pieces together, it seems pretty certain that whatever’s broken in my metabolism, something in the omega-3 is replacing a part of it, so when I take it, it’s patching up a broken part of the chemical chain or whatever, which would explain why it’s like the difference between life and death for me. So logically following from that, if omega-3 seems to patch up a part of my metabolism but I’m still super unwell, then there might be something else that could fix whatever’s still not working/missing, right? So my mum being more competent than the entire metabolic unit did some reading to try and figure out what else would be worth trying. After a bit of research she got me omega-7 to try. On August 20th I started taking it daily without giving it a second thought, I didn’t really have a single hope or expectation on it, but it definitely couldn’t hurt to try. On day 3 I noticed that I had accidentally gone significantly past the two-hour mark without eating, which basically never happens because I can always feel it coming, I can always tell when I’m around the two-hour mark because my brain starts feeling horrible in a way I can’t describe, like it’s screaming a bit and shutting down, but it hadn’t happened?? I thought it was just like a freak incident or maybe I got the time wrong or something, but then it happened multiple times again, I’d go past two hours without realising because I was still feeling okay. I genuinely couldn’t believe it was happening and was really afraid to get my hopes up or tell anyone in case I was wrong or imagining it or something, but then the next day it was still happening, so I decided to test it and went 5 whole hours without food (which would be horrific under normal circumstances) and felt just fine. At the time of writing this on tumblr it was day 8, and by then I could go without food seemingly indefinitely without bringing on any sort of a crash. It's now day 18 and everything is still going strong. I no longer have a horrible crash if I go without food, and I no longer have to eat like clockwork constantly. Just in the first week I had a couple of nights where I was WIDE AWAKE the entire night (I'm pretty sure my body was confused by its new abilities, I was just not sleepy at all) but for example, one night I slept two hours and then was awake from 12am to 9am. If this had happened under normal circumstances, in that time frame I would have had to eat at 12am, 2am, 4am, 6am, and 8am, but instead I only ate a little bit, just once, in that entire time. So, yeah, I honestly can’t believe this is happening. It's taken a while to process the fact that this is real, this is happening, and that one of my worst torments has basically just evaoporated? And this potentially changes everything?? I’m hesitant to say that my metabolic disorder explains everything under my ME/CFS diagnosis, so I’m not putting my hopes on this fixing everything, but at the very least it’s a huge crushing weight off my shoulders just not having to eat every two hours, and it also means that weight gain is no longer an issue, and also if it's going where I think it’s going, my liver should be able to process fat properly which hopefully means that given time, it can get rid of the buildup of fat around it, and seeing as fatty liver causes concentration and memory problems and all the rest, this could potentially improve all of that. It might even improve my energy levels? Again I’m not putting my hopes on this fixing everything because it might not be the whole picture, but at the very least there’s no way it won’t at least lessen the severity of other problems and make things easier to cope with. It’s surreal being able to just do things without having to worry about what my next meal is. Also, finding out what an empty stomach feels like has been weird in a nice way. So how about that? E: Sorry, had to draft this right after publishing, what even is with the text editor here?? Trying to use my font colour in my links removed a whole paragraph???

I've announced on other websites I frequent, but I forgot to mention here on BZP. I'm currently working on a series of short comics devoted to BIONICLE, particularly during the Makuta takeover arch. Frankly, I was upset in the direction of the story after Mahri Nui, so I'm working on redoing it. Obviously, this is my AU and I don't want to force it on anyone, but mayhaps some people will enjoy it? Here's quick facts about it: - To be released January of 2016 (though will keep everyone updated with concept art and so forth until then). - Will be in a alternative universe with mostly minor altercations to the story--but does its major detour during Karda Nui. - Human Bionicle portrayal. I could go on a long rant as to why I'm doing this, but in the end, it's because I want to do it this way. - Will be separated into comic issues--each one around 20 or so pages. - Each issue will be focusing on a particular group of characters and event. Here's an test page, random scene from Time Trap: That's all I have for today. I guess I'll decide if I want to make a topic or keep it here for all the progress work. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions or such.

It's a big day over here, Ireland has legalised marriage equality by popular vote. There's still plenty to be done for LGBT equality here (particularly for transgender people) but it's a huge step in the right direction and I'm really happy. Here's to many more steps forward.

This post isn't actually about dinosaurs, I just wanted to see how fast Jess would get here.

While I do have eventual plans to use some of these on MOCs, and whatnot, let's face it. I have a bunch of this mask just sitting in a bag. I've never planned on hoarding them (contrary to the common refrain on my favourite image board ), and though I plan on handing them out at cons (like I did at Cascade a few weekends ago and will at BrickfairVA in a few months), that still leaves me with a lot of them. I'm not interested in selling them (and I'm not sure I'd be technically allowed to considering the source?) So now that the reboot has gotten a few months in fully, and most folks who want the sets have them (and if not, Targets seem to have Onua for like ten dollars now, so go buy him) let's do this. Post puns in this entry. Best four get a clear mask (without the NYCC backing, because those ones I do plan on keeping) in the mail from me. All puns based on the "Hau/how" similarity are automatically disqualified because hau dare you. EDIT: I forgot an arbitrary ending time. So, this Saturday at whenever I decide. Also, I apologize for those of you elsewhere, but I'm too poor to ship outside the US because of California.

QUOTE TAGS, I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU DON'T WORK, BUT PLEASE WORK After I posted this blog entry, I found myself frequently thinking about Makuta's role in Mask of Light. So here's another entry compiling my thoughts. A lot of what Makuta says in Mask of Light gets obfuscated by his demeanor. He has a deep, rumbling voice, an oily, patched-together appearance, and he hangs out in a cave filled with thick green smoke and pillars holding creatures in stasis. On top of it all, he is very clearly the designated villain in what is a kiddy, direct-to-video film made to sell toys. Literally everything sets our expectations to "he is a bad guy," and we don't question it. But look beyond this external layer, and we find something rather different through a few curious hints. It begins in Makuta's first appearance. Before he releases the Rahkshi, he contemplates, I'm not sure how to frame this in any way other than as remorse at the idea of what he is about to do. So what convinces him? It comes back to Mata Nui. Makuta will do whatever it takes to ensure his brother remains asleep. This isn't a ruthless, power-hungry maniac bent on world domination - if that were the case, he would have no qualms with unleashing the Rahkshi. So the Rahkshi set out and start to terrorize the island, and Makuta sits back and observes. But something goes wrong - Kopaka manages to freeze the beasts within a lake, incapacitating them. Makuta can no longer rely on the fact that his sons will halt the coming of the seventh Toa, so he goes to plan B. Even though Takua himself doesn't know it yet, Makuta knows that the Matoran is right smack in the center of this matter. So he makes him an offer: If you stand down, give me the Avohkii so that Mata Nui can never be awakened, I will leave you alone. Your friends, the entire island, will be free from my grasp. Takua, like us viewers, don't think twice about calling Mukau droppings on him. Yeah, right. If you give the McGuffin to the bad guy, he'll let you off scotch free. That's likely. But what happens after Takua departs, when Makuta is left to himself, with noone listening? What does he say? Unless Makuta is in the habit of lying through his teeth to himself for no reason, his offer was absolutely genuine. With his last resort, the Rahkshi, evidently unable to stand up to the Toa Nuva, his hand was forced and he tried the next best thing to victory: ensuring that his brother could, at least, remain asleep and be spared the pain of conciousness. But Takua has none of it, so he does the next best thing: more Rahkshi. So by now, you may be asking: why? Why are all of these hints dropped in Mask of Light, of all places? What about the myriad of other story media leading up to it, why isn't it hinted at in any of it, too? For the answer, we have to dig a little into the past. If you are a longtime fan, then you might recall the earliest press releases for Mask of Light in 2002. They had familiar elements: two friends on a quest, the fate of the island at stake. But something else was mentioned in these synopses meant to strip the story to its absolute core: the island is crumbling into the ocean. Obviously, this plot element does not survive into the final film. And with good reason, because it ties into another major element of the film that was canned: the awakening of Mata Nui. Throughout the conclusion, wierd things keep happening. Everyone insists that they are descending into the Mangaia to awaken the Great Spirit, only for the matter to be forgotten once they literally do something that is supposed to awaken him. Takanuva instructs for all of the island's inhabitants to be gathered, and later brought underground, but we only get the Turaga (in the novelization, the island's population does in fact show up). This all makes sense only in the context of a film where Mata Nui does awaken; the islanders would need to be safely underground before Mata Nui could stand up and destroy the island. This explains the early island-crumbling plot. In the days before his awakening, Mata Nui is stirring, rocking the island and breaking chunks of it off. Incidentally this explains a scene that does make it to the final film: Jaller and Takua's reuniting. Jaller ends up vulnerable thanks to an earthquake, which you don't really question until you look at is specifically. An earthquake? Natural disasters like that never happen on Mata Nui outside that instance. Its a really weird anomaly in the mythos that seems solely an excuse to have Jaller mistake Takua for an approaching Rahkshi until you consider that it was originally part of a very relevant, ongoing series of quakes on the island. That also explains Jaller's wry response to the event - earthquakes were common. Otherwise, he might have been expected to be more "wow! an earthquake!" like Vakama in the Kikanalo scene in LOMN. So that's why we get all of these hints dropped regarding Makuta's true nature. Originally, Mask of Light was the BIONICLE finale, and the climax was to be the revelation of Makuta's true nature. Eventually, Takanuva is born and travels to the Mangaia. Makuta's last ditch resort is to keep his cool and challenge Takanuva for his mask, as without the Toa of Light Mata Nui cannot be awakened. This, too fails, and we get to that all-important dialogue first highlighted by Lucina: Naturally, Takanuva reacts with shock, confusion and denial. And then Makuta responds with what seems like a really strange non-sequiter. But despite how little sense it makes, it has a powerful effect on Takanuva. Suddenly, he is confident. He knows what to do. {quote]Then let's take a closer look... behind that mask! I feel like the implication here is that Makuta's badness is somehow tied to his mask (the 'real' him is 'behind' it). Takutanuva isn't, in reality, all that important in the final movie. He lifts the gate for everyone. But if, say, Makuta had been incapacitated, it seems entirely within reason that the Toa Nuva could've opened it themselves somehow. But in our supposed original version of the film, Takutanuva is all-important. He is the merged conciousness of Takanuva and Makuta. Suddenly, both understand each other, and they know what must be done to set things right. Cue the awakening of Mata Nui. Fin. So there you have it. What Mask of Light could have been.

Because the difference between linguistics and religion is just so subtle, really, websites specializing in such things can't be expected to appreciate the finer differences.

Remember back in 2010-2012 when if you so much as whispered the word "gay" your blog would explode in controversy as people tried to tell you you're wrong and disgusting as passive-aggressively as possible? Haha. Good times. Old BZP was terrible. (of course now I can say I'm a lesbian all I want thanks to the work of the administration :3 )

so i keep seeing the word 'sexism' being thrown around on this forum (and, y'know, everywhere else, but i digress) there are two (major) problems with that word the first is that it implies that gender discrimination is based on physical distinctions (i.e. sex), which it is not. it is based on people's societal status as a man or as a woman, or as a non-binary individual (because yes, those kinds of people do exist, contrary to popular belief, and are discriminated against by men and women alike). the problem is that people tend to equate certain physical characteristics (sex) with gender, which has to do with how people see themselves. there is no way that these two can be the same thing. to say as much would mean that transgender people, whose gender differs from the one they were assigned at birth based on their sex, do not exist. which, of course, they do - i'm one myself. there's quite a few more around this site, and hey, guess what, they exist in real life too. how about that but again, i digress. i could rant for another paragraph or two about how gender discrimination applies to transgender people, but for brevity's sake, i won't tackle that subject just now the second problem with the word 'sexism' is that it implies that discrimination against men can exist, which is hugely erroneous. men have just about always been seen as superior to women, and have, with few exceptions, always been in positions of power. women have been systematically oppressed throughout history, and are still oppressed by men today. what do i mean by 'systematically'? i mean that men have specifically set up laws and imposed societal rules that discriminate against women. the idea that this can go in the opposite direction, the idea that the oppressed group can oppress their oppressors, while still being oppressed themselves, is ridiculous the word to use instead of 'sexism' is 'misogyny'. since people seem to love dictionary definitions, let me throw one at you: this word describes the phenomenon that the culture of nearly every civilization throughout history has experienced. there is no 'sexism'. there is misogyny, and it is everywhere. it permeates everything humans do, the way we think - many, many women even have internalized misogyny from the sheer amount of external misogyny in their lives. we have taught ourselves (led by men who thought they were the superior gender) for thousands of years to hate half of our own species based on a single distinction, and it's absolutely horrible. to imply that there is any way that this could be reversed under present conditions is disrespectful, rude, and above all incredibly ignorant