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fishers64

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Blog Entries posted by fishers64

  1. fishers64
    So my semester of college is going to FINALLY FINALLY end on the 17th of December. I have two incomplete essays to finish and two tests to take before then.
     
    Then I have to finish the Secret Santa thing in that time too, because my parents are going to drag me out of town on the 19th and back (late) on the 24th. I've now been informed that getting time to do ANYTHING on the 18th is going to be problematic, because my dad is going to be packing that day, and whenever dad wants to do something like that he keeps dragging the rest of us into it and making things really stressful in a way that he really doesn't have to do.
     
    After Christmas, I'm going to be dragged out of town AGAIN for another three days. This is exasperation. And when I get back from that, I have two rounds of jury duty that hopefully won't run into or conflict with each other.
     
    When do I get a real vacation?
     
    All of this is going to make running the HF RPG really difficult. I need to get my act together and get through some major events before I leave, otherwise it's going to be a real mess. Yi yi yi.
     
    So that's how things stand.
  2. fishers64
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr5ozlQyUA&list=WL&index=3
     
    I'm 17 orange again! Wheeeee!
     
    (Also, that is probably my favorite song by the Fold as of yet.)
     
    (And this is basically a head-off of all of that "Congrats on the orange!" nonsense. I was there, then I was not, and now I'm back, and should have never left.)
  4. fishers64
    ENTRY DEADLINE: MAY 19, 2016
     
    For shame, Lego. Seriously, you missed the opportunity for a good villain in Von Nebula, you forgot about what good comic art was when you hired Sayger, and darn it, that battle with Skull Basher was waaaay too short. Fortunately, you have your loyal fans to tell you all about it. And now they are going to fix it for you.
     
    That's right, for this contest you are going to take a moment where Lego had so much potential and threw it out the door, and instead use that potential for your own creations. You shall develop Von Nebula, redraw that ugly Sayger scene, and give Skull Basher the battle he deserves - or whatever else you saw a potential for greatness that was trashed in the name of the almighty dollar.
     
    The winner will receive ONE 2016 Winter Wave set of their choice. I will make every reasonable effort to ensure that you get your prize. (If you are in some country not named the United States, you are responsible for telling me about any problems I might have delivering your prize if you win that UPS won't tell me about. If you know that it will cost over $100 to ship your prize to your country, don't enter.)
     
    HOW TO ENTER:
     
    Post your entry in a topic on the BZPower forums, and link the topic to this blog entry by posting a comment on this blog entry below.
     
    RULES:
     

    READ THEM, ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE ANY 1. MoCs, games, stories, artwork, comics, and basically anything you can post in the Creative Outlet will be accepted as an entry. However, your entry does not have to perfectly fit there - if you have some other lack of potential you would like to address, go for it. (Bionicle website redesign, anyone? )
     
    2. Entries MUST be posted in a topic on BZPower forums, which MUST be linked to this blog entries' comment section. The actual entry may be hosted offsite, but there must be a topic linking to it and drawing attention to it. This is required for this contest - I know, it's weird, just live with it.
     
    3. Entries must have never been posted on BZPower before the contest began - March 3, 2016. Anything after that is fair game. Posting it anywhere else doesn't disqualify you, period.
     
    4. Entries must USE Lego's untapped potential for something CREATIVE. Whining on the forums about Lego's lack of ambition is NOT an entry.
     
    5. Unlimited Entries are allowed per person, but PLEASE do not post 10 MoC topics in one day and enter them all. Please be courteous to your fellow forum browsers. Otherwise, go to town.
     
    6. All Lego themes, past and present, are fair game for entries.
     
    7. Every BZPower member, from new members to staff members, are allowed to enter. Having a higher site rank or popularity will not increase your chances of winning - so yes, new member, you can win too.
     
    Except for me. fishers64, as this contest's host, may not enter.
     
    8. Collaborative Entries ARE ALLOWED, with the following IMPORTANT WARNINGS:
         A. MAXIMUM of 3 PEOPLE. You are NOT allowed to recruit the entire site against one person; that's just wrong.
         B. You are responsible among yourselves for deciding who gets the prize of the Bionicle set. I will assume that the person who starts the topic for your project is the one who will get the prize, unless you specifically tell me otherwise. If you argue over who gets what in front of me, you both get nothing.
     
    If you are a lone contributor, you do not get the right to complain if a collaborative team wins. Someone convinced someone else to work for them for free, or they bribed them somehow. That's called life skills. Learn them.
     
    9. For Fan Created Games, your epic plan to redesign a boring Lego game will be accepted as an entry. However, entries must reflect actual capability of developing the game described - you must have an actually feasible plan. Renders and screenshots of partially completed games do help. (An exception to rule #2 will be made in this case - you can post the full text in a comment here, since planning topics are not allowed in FCM. For collaborative teams, the name on the comment is getting the prize unless otherwise indicated.)
     
    10. RPGs need to be approved and running by the end of the entry period to qualify as an entry, as per rule #2. Don't make an RPG for this contest that you have no intention of running; that's just cruel. I expect you to run your game; otherwise it will be DQed. If you're stuck in the middle of the process, you may ask me for an extension - I tried to make the entry period long enough for you to get through the approvals and into running the game.
     
    HOW WINNERS WILL BE DETERMINED:
     

    IF YOU CARE, READ ON The entries will be judged by me on the following criteria:
     
    1. Validity of the potential squandering. Think less of "I want this from Lego and they didn't give it to me waaah" and more of "They could have done this, and it would've been more fantastic than what they did, but they didn't, so now I'm doing it."
     
    A less valid example than the ones in the top paragraph would be if you handed me the plans for a BIONICLE MMORPG. We don't have a good case that Lego has the potential to do that. Again, this is partly subjective - and it doesn't have to live up to chir-brother standards of potential, just that the lack of the potential's use resonates with some people.
     
    Generally, smaller remakes are better than large ones. Remaking Sayger's artwork is better than remaking the entirety of the Lego Group's corporate direction. (XD)
     
    2. How well your work actually uses the potential Lego squandered.
    3. Quality of the resulting work. (Epicly Awesome? YES GO FOR IT.)
     
    If I get a high number of high-quality entries that are high in all of the above attributes, a poll will be held. However, you will not be able to throw a low-quality entry in here and expect to capitalize on your popularity or rank.

     
    This is an open contest across all forums - I'm looking for a wide variety of entries. The more the merrier!
     
    ENTRY DEADLINE: MAY 19, 2016 - GO!
     
    ENTRY LIST:
     
    1. Slizer Dome by Pahrak #0579 (Games and Trivia game)
     
    2. Hero Factory: Contagion by Timeimageness (Epic)
     
    3. Strakk's Best Friend by ZippyWharrgarbl. (One-shot comedy)
     
    4. Toa 2015 - Worth the money? by Ghidora (MoCs)
     
    5. RoboRiders Re:Start by Pahrak #0579 (Epic)
     
    6. Spybotics Playsets by Disty Says Hi
  5. fishers64

    TTTTL/TTTTO

    By fishers64,

    I wrote this blog entry awhile ago and batted it around for some reason in debate over posting it. Mostly because I couldn't tell whether this quote is related to the actual entry or not:

     
    I have concluded that it is only somewhat related, but hey. Free donuts.
    * * *
     
    Also known as Truth Truth Truth Truth Lie or Truth Truth Truth Truth Opinion.
     
    It's one of the most common fallacies out there. It's also the oldest trick in the book to deceive people. The problem I've noticed is that people can type it themselves...and trick themselves into believing it.
     
    For example, Bionicle is biological chronicle, Gali is blue, Tahu is red, solar flares are red sometimes, the sky is red.
     
    Did you catch it? Pshaw, you were looking for it, and it was kinda obvious.
     
    TTTTO is more common though. The practitioners of this commonly believe that the O is a T, because of all of the Ts that came before it. Big mistake.
     
    For example:
     
    Some flowers are purple, some Legos are purple, some Mixels are purple, purple is awesome.
     
    Of course, it really doesn't matter how many T's are in front of it. And usually RL applications of TTTTL and TTTTO are waaaay more subtle than my blatantly obvious examples. Then, of course we have TLTTT, TTLTT, TTTLT for the truly wicked. Opening with a true statement and subtly weaving in the lies as you talk is the hallmark of true villainy.
     
    Or, if unintentional, true stupidity.
     
    The way to avoid the latter is to insert degree measurements (increments) of certainty when you talk/type. For example, "I think", "I'm pretty sure", "I know", and QUOTE (The source). Or if you're IRL, "this said that", wave the source in their face, etc. If you can slap "I think" or "I feel" in front of the sentence, it is most likely an O. If you can slap "I want this to be true" in front of the sentence/phrase, then there is a high possibility it is an O or an L.
     
    Of coarse, if you're really smart, you use the increments of certainty when lying. This is actually extremely hard. In fact, one of the easiest ways to spot a liar or opinion-presented-as-fact is lack of the increments of certainty. But "I think" *insert lie here* is actually one of the best ways to lie, because if you're exposed you can just play dumb and get out. It actually works as a shrewd shield, especially since not only do the opposing party have to prove you're wrong, but also prove you knew. Humble people can be the worst.
     
    And now that I've told you how to lie and get away with it, I shall end this one on a comparable sour note. Check everything. And be careful.
  6. fishers64
    Yes, you read the blog entry title right. I'm quitting BZPower.
     
    Go and yell WHYYYYYYYY!!! at me and scream your heads off now. Let the panic wash over you like a big bucket of ice water.
     
    Now let me reassure you, please, I shall not just cut and leave all of the loose ends to rot like a dead tree like some other people I happen to know. That is a terrible thing to do, and I shall not do it. Before I leave, I will do the following things:
     
    1. The Categorical GregF Reference will be finished.
    2. Mafia XXIX will run.
    3. Tales of Externix will be finished.
    4. The contest I started will be finished, judged, and shipped as expected.
    5. The HF RPG will be resolved, minimized, or handed off. I will be running Mission #4 as normal, and I want the players who want to continue it to be able to continue it. I expect that it will take a considerable amount of time before I can pull myself out of it (several months)
     
    There is a few other private things and minor details I will be attending to. What you will see change immediately is that I will stop doing things that are NOT related to 1-5 above, and I'm asking that you should not pressure me to take on more of them. I know that some of you make it a practice of not listening, but now is not the time to use that skill.
     
    If there is something legitimate that I forgot about, however, do bring it up.
     
    * * *
     
    Some of you might be wondering why.
     
    The reason why has nothing to do with life or the demands of college work or any of that nonsense. I refuse to blame external circumstances for my problems. I always found that to be pathetic - you make time for what is important to you. You use the time you have for what is important to you. In fact, I could indeed balance college and BZPower easily enough - I have done so easily for the past 3-4 years.
     
    What I have found is that there are things more important to me than BZPower. In fact, I have found that BZPower is now at odds with my purpose in life and existence. (Some fools would call that an existential crisis - I think that too is the wrong definition. An existential crisis is when you discover your life has no meaning and you try to patch it. I have always known that my life has meaning, so need for that. What changed was understanding what the meaning is. The question "What is the meaning of life?" has a different meaning for each person. )
     
    This was not a change in me as much as a change in BZPower. I didn't change to not fit BZPower; BZPower has changed so it no longer fits me. I don't blame BZPower or anything, or even the people who left to make it this way. I'm going to miss some friends anyway, who didn't leave.
     
    But I can't sit here and watch my more important projects go by the wayside and watch my life slowly drain away. As old Vakama said, it is time to move on. Or, you know, whoever said it.
  9. fishers64
    Or because I was feeling like making a bombastically awesome blog entry for no reason.
     
    1. Refrigerator - This is where you put lots of other vitally important things like Sprite, orange juice, cheese, sandwiches, other sources of protein, possible fruits and vegetables (optional), and takeout.
     
    2. Car - This is how you get your obligatory Sprite, orange juice, cheese, sandwiches, other sources of protein, possible fruits and vegetables (optional) and takeout from the grocery store to your house.
     
    Also good for hauling books, Lego Bricks, irritating people, and anything else you need to get from Point A to Point B.
     
    The neglect of these two vitally important items will cause you much misery and pain.
     
    3. Three Desks - Desk #1: This is the computer desk. This is where your computer is. To-do list must be visible from this desk. Poster yelling at you to stay on task and not check BZPower for the 400th time is, unfortunately, optional.
     
    Desk #2: This is the writing desk, i.e. the math homework/paperwork desk. Stuff still has to be done by hand.
     
    Desk #3: This is the Lego construction/modeling desk. Better be big enough to stretch out that concept model and contain the biggest WIP imaginable, and its second cousin.
     
    4. Three Rooms, a Bathroom, a Roof, and a Door - Room #1 is that kitchen space. And where your TV is. And whatever you sit on when watching the TV. Preferably there's some carpet in there somewhere.
     
    Room # 2 is where the three desks hang out. This is so when your computer has 124 Windows Updates at 2. A.M., you can walk into Room #3 and sleep without the monitor glaring IN YOUR FACE.
     
    5. Clothes, Bed, and access to washing machines - This is so when other people come over to your place, your place is ready for them. It's for keeping up appearances. It's not optional, though.
  12. fishers64

    A crazy weekend

    By fishers64,

    On BZPower, this is isn't evident, but in real life, I am a liar. By all appearances, I am naturally good at it. Either that, or my parents and friends are all bad at noticing them. I am very good at hiding things, half-truths, and all forms of illusionry, easily keeping track of what people know about me with the greatest of ease...and what they don't.
     
    It's even evident in how my eyes work. I struggle with holding eye contact with anyone for more than a few seconds, and my eyes are prone to darting around the room. It's been so evident that my dad has called me "shifty-eyed [fishers]".
     
    On BZPower, I don't lie. At least, not unless it's in a Mafia game or something like that. To lie, one must have reason to lie, and on BZPower, I don't really have a reason. But in real life, it's much easier to just avoid risking other people's opposition to whatever you happen to be doing.
     
    That's where my writing career started - telling wild tales to my mom in answer to the "how was school today?" question in the back of the car. I didn't want to tell her that my teacher had chained me to my assignments and took away my recess, so I spun outlandish yarns. My mom actually believed me for several months.
     
    As I grew up, lies became my tool to get around the dreaded parental "no". Some things could not be opened using this tool of my trade, and I chafed and gritted my teeth. And so I became an adult, and lying became my true and present winner's ball. It was what allowed me to stay on BZPower for years, stay up late at night, and accomplish shopping trips, see movies, and even meet a BZPower member without too much trouble. It was the things I did not and could not (or I thought I could not) lie about that always held me back.
     
    I do not prefer to tell people things. I am a very private person. I would like people to leave me alone most of the time, and just let me do whatever - at least in real life. This either leaves me stuck in a routine or playing the illusion card, and then promptly blaming the other people for their opposition if the illusion didn't fly.
     
    This is how I was wrong.
     
    It's also how things finally managed to go right.
     
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
     
    What brought this on, fishers?
     
    Recently I decided to expand my illusion circle to include the classes I was taking at college. I finally stopped nursing the futile hope that I was going to get a computer science degree - some bad grades provided the perfect rationale there. I concluded that I had any number of initiatives that deserved my full attention, and that I should focus on those in order to earn money to get myself off the ground. If those didn't work, I was getting an English degree, and use that to put myself together.
     
    Yesterday, this illusion bubble popped. I knew it was coming since the day before, since my mom learned earlier than my dad did, and I knew that she would crack. My mom, for all of her finer attributes - let's just say I didn't get the lying from her. In fact, my talents don't make much sense with my genetics. I feel like a freak accident.
     
    I expected terrible things to happen. None of them did - my dad just wrote me a nasty letter - which I filed (I felt like framing it, and I may frame it yet - it's so wrong it's funny) and told me that I would have to ride bus/bike to school. I worked my way through the problem...only to have that punishment rescinded this morning. There was no other punishments.
     
    My dad told me that he was giving up on me and getting out of my way. He said that he still doesn't believe that my projects or my writing will ever make me any money, but it was clear that I wasn't going to go with his program, so he wasn't going to bother anymore.
     
    In essence, I got exactly what I wanted. I finally got them to get out of my way. They have been a thorn in my side ever since I left high school, and the result has been mixed. Granted, I have some very valuable skills now that I need that I wouldn't have had otherwise, but I would be graduating from college right now if it wasn't for them, and their attachment to me getting a computer science degree, a futile hope.
     
    Any attachment to an impossibility will be denied. I would have been happy to serve them the degree if I could - I aim to please, and I even wanted the degree for that exact reason - but there was no pushing me through all of that coursework I didn't have the skill for. And I have this obnoxious tendency to never give up on anything, which kept nursing this hope. So I have no doubt - part of this is on me.
     
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    "No more lies, fishers. If you tell just one more lie, we're kicking you out of the house."
     
    I told them about BZPower and nothing happened. I haven't told them about my Bionicle collection yet, but my mom knows about it, sort of.
     
    So I haven't really lost anything. If I tell them the truth, they aren't going to kill me anymore.
     
    The only thing I have lost is the ability to lie, which, given the effects on my world are zero, shouldn't even BE a loss. But I still feel it, because the truth always comes with a cost. It's going to be a very long time before I can feel comfortable doing BZPower without having a program to cover the window if my parents walk by. Three years of habit doesn't fall overnight. But I'm confident that I will have to fix this tendency of mine - eventually my plans require me to work with a team, and I'm not going to be able to do that if I keep doing this, even if it did work here.
     
    I wish I could pull a big important lesson out of this, but alas, without my skill I wouldn't even be typing this, and I would not have my semester the way I have it now. So I think perhaps it's better for my blog readers to come to their own vindictive conclusions or lack thereof.
     
    tl:dr - fishers lied and got away with it, but she can't lie anymore as a result and feels weird.
     
    Now how am I going to tell my parents I am ordering two Bionicle books, an Elves book, a book on music law, and two music CDs off of Amazon?
  14. fishers64
    So last weekend, the four denizens of the fishers clan went to a Chili's in town. We haven't gone to Chili's in at least four years, even though it used to be one of our favorite restaurants. Apparently we thought that there were no Chili's in our part of the world where we now live, even though it was completely false since we drove past a sign for a Chili's at least once a week on our way to church.
     
    This is entirely dumb.
     
    We finally get into the restaurant and take a seat, and all of us comb the menus looking for one thing...Monterey Chicken. For those not familiar with this delicious menu item, it is chicken covered with barbecue sauce, cheese, bacon, and tomato, served with broccoli and potatoes covered with more of the cheese and bacon and possibly infused with more of the fattening stuff that is supposed to reduce your lifespan.
     
    But it wasn't on the menu.
     
    The four of us looked at each other in the early stages of panic. None of us knew what to order. We began looking over our menus a second and a third time, in vain, hoping that our eyes were fooling us.
     
    "We should ask about it," my mom said, ever the sensible being in a moment of crisis. But all of us knew that the odds of us getting what we wanted were slim. We tried to throw together a backup plan.
     
    Finally, our waiter arrived. "Do you still serve Montrey Chicken?" my mom asked.
     
    "Yes," the waiter said.
     
    "Uh, we were just wondering, because it wasn't on the menu," my dad said.
     
    "It's on the other menu I have in the computer," said the waiter.
     
    "What is the price?" my dad asked. The waiter came back with it while we waited in suspense. It was the usual price.
     
    "So what are we having?"
     
    "I don't know about you, but I want Montrey Chicken," I said.
     
    "I want one too," my mom said.
     
    "Monterey Chicken," my brother said, with his typical throw it in shrug.
     
    "Four Monterey Chickens," my dad said.
     
    The waiter then told us that we were making his life easy - but we were ordering something that wasn't even on the menu!
     
    (Except they always told us that 4 years ago too, when it was on the menu. It baffles me how four of the same order is easy for a restaurant, but there you go.)
     
    And sure enough, after Uno Epidemic Round 2 Not-Quite-So-Weird Edition, 4 Monterey Chickens were served. All plates were cleaned.
     
    The waiter told us that apparently we had made his day and that the other waitstaff wanted to eat our meal too, and that the chef was impressed. I guess we had made him the "star" for the day with our unusual order.
     
    Except, we may not get such a nice waiter next time. I'm missing my Monterey Chicken dinners already.
  15. fishers64
    STARRING:



    Zox Tomana, as himself | Toa Smoke Monster, as himself | Driesen, Captain Tronameg, and White One by Lucina | Letagi, as himself| Portalfig, as himself | Unit, as himself | Xyron by xccj | Pahrak #0579 | and Ghidora.


     

    ALSO STARRING:


     


    Sanskrit | Vakama | Mazeka | Botar's Replacement

     

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


     
    I hope this one is shorter than Late to the Epic Failing Boat Crash With Lunatics and Lovers.
     

     
    Click the banner to read.
  17. fishers64

    Teddy Bear Factory

    By fishers64,

    I found this one going through an old flash drive of mine. I still find this one funny...and insane. Too much HF on the brain.
     
    --------------------------------------------------------
     
    “Teddy Bear Hotline – please state the nature of your crisis.”
     
    This is the Teddy Bear Factory, where the best Teddy Bears in the galaxy are built. Customized with the latest charm and technology, no matter where it takes them.
     
    When 500 wretched villains strike, the galaxy’s most powerful force against evil is ready.
     
    Teddy Bear factory – we build Teddy Bears!
     
    * * *
     
    A malicious toy dinosaur turned from the dull confines of his cell to view what was a sadly common sight – Fuzzball and Rockerz leading another miscreant into storage. Mockery sounded from all directions, including the dolls and Makuta Teridax on the first floor.
     
    “Please don’t do this” whined the cuffed teddy. She was of a tasteful shade of black, and her fur was studded with miniature lightening bolts.
     
    “Nah, I’m afraid the ride’s over for you, Voltix” said Fuzzball, whose fur was more of a crimson persuasion. He shoved the bear into the cell, laser lines springing up behind her.
     
    Rockerz turned to Fuzzball as the crane loaded Voltix’s cell into place. “That black orb staff thing – maybe we should put that thing in a more secure place. It gives me the creeps.”
     
    Voltix laughed, a sharp, shrill affair. “It gives me hope, so I can stand on mountains. It gives me hope, to fight another day…” Mesmerized by her musical lit, the boys didn’t notice the black energy leaking out of Voltix’s cell until it was too late.
     
    Fuzzball smiled. “Cool! A dimensional portal!” Red lasers blinked out, and various villains leaped to the floor, headed for the column of lightening.
     
    Snuggles appeared behind them. “What happened?”
     
    “Breakout. All the prisoners are escaping!”
     
    “What do we do? There’s too many of them!”
     
    Furno slapped Eggplant on the back. “We’re Teddy Bears. That means we stop them.”
     
    So Eggplant, Fuzzball, Rockerz, and Snuggles made a number of failed attempts to control the breakout. Snuggles found himself in front of a toy shark, who was making concerted attempts to bite his head off. “notgoodnotgoodnotgoodnotgood.”
    Eggplant meanwhile headed straight for the dimensional vortex, only to be yanked out by Snuggles, sending the shark crashing into the rift. “You’re not ready for that. What do you think you’re doing?”
     
    And just like that, all the Teddy Bears backed up. “So sorry for the damage” crooned Voltix. “Send us a bill.” And with that, she leaped into the swirl and was gone.
     
    * * *
     
    Zebra stood up in front of the assembled teddies. “This is the greatest challenge the Teddy Bear factory has ever faced. All the villains in our custody have escaped!”
     
    Skinny, a blue-tinged bear in the back chuckled quietly. “It’s not as bad as Makuta Teridax.”
     
    String Cheese punched him. “Makuta Teridax escaped, you dimwit.”
     
    “Fortunately,” continued Zebra, “we insert chips in villain processing, so tracking them won’t be a problem.”
     
    Fuzzball nodded. “Follow your nose – the potato chip scent is hard to miss.”
     
    “But due to the large number of villains that escaped, we are sending you on individual missions to capture each one of them.”
     
    Skinny yawned.
     
    “We have new Teddy Cuffs!” announced Zebra, holding one up one with his mouth.
     
    “Why bother – the old ones worked just fine” said Snuggles.
     
    “These cuffs can be attached or thrown, and will lock on-“
     
    “Enough!” said Snuggles, snatching up the new cuffs. “I’m going after the shark thing.”
     
    Zebra snorted. “I’ve already assigned him to Fuzzball.”
     
    “Well, you do a good job, kid” said Snuggles, handing him the handcuffs. “It’s what I trained you for.”
     
    Fuzzball waved him off. “Even you know that handcuffs don’t work on sharks.”
     
    * * *
     
    Snuggles pedaled as fast as he could after his green faced adversary. His tricycle squeaked as he rounded a bend and viewed his opponent on a similar vehicle.
    A schematic popped up. “I have a reading on Speeda Clown. He seems to be headed to the planetary navigation beacon.”
     
    Zebra, on the other end of the com, snorted. “If he gets there, incoming ships won’t know where to go, and he’ll be able to broadcast his face in a blink of an eye.”
     
    “Not on my paws” said Snuggles. He frantically pedaled after the speeding clown, activating a pair of devices on the back of the tricycle. Snowballs pelted the being, despite his best efforts to avoid them. After awhile though, the machines ran out of ammo and fell to the ground.
     
    “You thought those little machines would beat me?” snarled the clown, amidst his evil clown laugh.
     
    “No, but they did slow you down so I could get ahead” said Snuggles.
     
    * * *
     
    “Why didn’t you launch?” demanded Zebra, standing two feet away from Rockerz.
     
    “Mr. Makubear said to stay behind.” said Rockerz, earphones plugged into the back of his electric guitar. “Security reasons.”
     
    * * *
     
    Meanwhile, a small black spider descended into the prison on a thin web. Above it was a floating being of darkness, indistinctly shaped but nonetheless connected to the spider – it moved along with it across the broken storage unit.
     
    * * *
     
    Eggplant called in. “I’m in a bit of a sticky situation…having trouble dealing with this…snake…” His voice was strained, and it was clear through the video com link that his fur was stuck together.
    A spider appeared above the status screen, shoving and nipping Zebra. “Urgh, I hate spiders.” He backed away, nervous. Numerous spiders hearded Zebra and his lieutenants into the center of the floor, putting them in a forcefield.
     
    * * *
     
    Rockerz wandered away, going down to the empty villain storage unit. The large space, in his mind, would make a great concert hall – a place where he could imagine his audience…
     
    But then the door slammed behind him. The controls to open it again didn’t work. He flipped on the com panel. “Hey Zeb, what’s up?”
    “Why would I tell you?” snarled Zebra. “You spend too much time with the guitar to care.”
     
    Rockerz looked around. There was an opening, a way out, but it was high above his head. He needed rope. He didn’t have one. Except…Rockerz looked down at his guitar. Well, a bears gotta do what a bear’s gotta do…
     
    * * *
     
    Fuzzball dived the best he could, trying to stay out of reach of those powerful jaws. “Help” he whined as his aqua-jet pack slammed him into the seafloor.
     
    “You don’t understand why I can here.” roared the shark. “I came to make sure that no teddy bear would be able to stand against me.”
     
    “You succeeded” said Fuzzball. “Now stop chasing me.”
     
    The world disappeared in a shower of red splotches.
     
    “Furr-o-lineum!” crowed Fuzzball’s opponent. “Instantly removes – Hey!”
     
    The teddy bear had the shark in an iron grip around its middle, his pack and his legs pushing them to the surface. “Thanks for the help, buddy – now you won’t slip out of my bear hug.”
     
    * * *
     
    Skinny snorted. The monster he had been sent to capture was arguing with itself. He took advantage of the distraction to fire the computer-cuffs at the beast, only to watch them connect. “Those computers nowdays always take the fun out of things” he said as he grabbed the incoherent babbling mess and yanked him back to the custody of the satellite. Bored, he spilt an asteroid in half on the way back.
     
    * * *
     
    String Cheese was having his own problems, mostly that he could barely see. “Vooltiix, where arrre yoooou?” he said. The response was an explosion of pain as his body crackled with electricity.
     
    “This is an insult of the highest order” she said. “They thought a rookie like you could defeat me?” She let up on her electrical attack, slinking away.
     
    “All around the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush” babbled String Cheese, running around in circles. Voltix spun around, trying to zap him, only to find herself gradually surrounded by an ever-frightening mummification of string cheese.
     
    String Cheese smiled. “Well, that about wraps this thing up.”
     
    * * *
     
    Eggplant could not move. He could barely see, as the giant snake bent toward him with a hiss. His fingertip was as…slow…as…molasses…coming down on the trigger…
     
    BLAM.
     
    The snake screamed writhing away in pain at the energy weapon.
     
    “Hey Eggplant – need some help?” Skinny swooped in, placing his foot on top of the snake’s head to keep it there.
     
    “This…wasn’t…the rules…of the game.” strained out Eggplant.
     
    Skinny turned and slapped the catch on the snake’s holding container. “This isn’t a game, buddy. This is real life.” He grabbed his friend, pulling him along toward an interplanetary craft. “Let’s hope they don’t have to shave that green off. It’s a new fashion, I hear.”
     
    * * *
     
    Rockerz walked casually up the stairs, chewing on licorice as he went. He had managed to fix his guitar and was tuning it lazily. That is, until a bunch of spiders ran down the stairs, knocking him over. Struggling, Rockerz knocked off a few of them with his musical instrument and resumed his casual jaunt up the stairs, ignoring the spiders that nipped at his heels. Playing a soft lullaby, he entered Mr. Makubear’s quarters. The view from here was impressive. A new song was definitely on order here, just to capture the essence.
     
    A red light blinked on the corner of his vision – a slight disruption in the assembly tower mechanisms, nothing to worry about.
     
    * * *
     
    “Well, all I really had to do was cuff him after that” explained Snuggles. “I did chuck a snowball at him again, though, just for fun.”
     
    String Cheese smiled at that. “I had to engage in a tug-of-war with Intergalactic Towing Services. My Teddy Bear Pod was illegally parked.”
     
    “Has anyone seen Rockerz?”
     
    * * *
     
    “What are you doing here?” said Rockerz, looking up at the black void drifting amoung the collections of wires in the assembly tower. Energy crackled, feeding into the black cloud.
     
    “I am Black Phantom, and I will steal power from this wretched Teddy Bear factory!”
     
    “You must be pretty desperate. Do you like music? It might sooth your nerves.”
     
    “Music? What is music?
     
    Rocka smiled and began to play. As he did, the black apparition began to drift downwards toward the beautiful sound, leaving the power conduits and his power grab behind.
     
    “Get away from there!” Snuggles said, heading after Rockerz.
     
    “No” said Eggplant, crashing into Snuggles. “Let him play.”
     
    “Look” said Fuzzball, pointing to the Phantom. “He’s dancing.”
     
    * * *
     
    Zebra looked at the computer files. “Mr. Makubear, this file has been sent to an unknown location.”
     
    “Probably just another glitch.” said Mr. Makubear. “We have been having a lot of those lately. It certainly isn’t part of a larger plan or anything like that.”
     
    * * *
     
    Makuta Teridax turned away from the computer screen. “Look, here’s the plan. We use the information that our operative stole, and build our own factory to create evil villains, which we then use to besiege the Teddy Bear Factory and lure Teddy Bears away from the Factory, allowing us to take control of said Factory and rule the entire galaxy.”
     
    Von Nebula shook his head. “I am so bored.”
     
    The End
  22. fishers64
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZbSjt0Qfk
     
    Everything in this set is top-heavy and falls over easily.
     
    And before anyone notices, yes, I did move Kulta's torso down a bit from the directions' specification. I don't know why they wanted it up that high, but I don't. It just looks wrong.
     
    But hey, the Mask of Creation is fantastic. Totally a valid reason to buy this set for $30.
  23. fishers64

    Who wants MoUP 3?

    By fishers64,

    For reference: MoUP |MoUP 2 ; Related: Bionicle Speed Racers
     
    If you don't care to read all of that, these are games that involve RNGs, Macguffins, and killing people. Apparently people like that enough to derail an otherwise perfectly good blog entry.
     
    I have no idea how I will do a MoUP 3.
     
    There is no way I will be able to run this before January 1st. It may suck because I may have to go in for a bunch of jury duty over my otherwise large interim break. I have at least two other projects that really should have been done last month.
     
    But if you're going to be that way, be that way. If you want MoUP 3 to be a reality, put your comments down here where everyone can see you, you spoiled brats. If you have any idea as what story I would use for such a game, go ahead and and shoot your big mouths off.
     
    If the entire reason you follow and visit this blog is to know when the next game of THAT is coming out, I shall accede to popular demand. I shall find a way, against all odds, to make it happen.
     
    OPTIONS:
     
    - Yes, I want this game to come out tomorrow if I could make it happen.
    - Yes, I have interest
    - Eh, I want that epic and the Categorical GregF Reference to come out first.
    - Not interested in any of the above
    - Other
     
    You have 24 hours to vote.
  24. fishers64

    Of the word "logic"

    By fishers64,

    The common misconception is that logic tells truth from error. That it is the study of things that lead to it. This is incorrect.
     
    Now, if I had thought about this a little more, it would have been evident, simply because we use logic to describe how stories should go - they should be logically consistent with themselves. For example, X character is this way, therefore he would do this in this situation. This is especially apparent with the Arena Method, but it is true of all forms of writing - we expect the next events of the story to be relevant to the characters of the story and the events that came before.
     
    But reality check here: stories aren't real. They aren't true. At least, in terms of our world. For example, if I write:
     
    The hexagon began walking to the other side of the road.
    A car barreled toward the hexagon at 200 MPH while it was in the street.
    The hexagon got hit by the car.
     
    This is logically consistent, but every single one of these statements is false. The hexagon began walking to the other side of the road is false, because hexagons do not have legs and can't walk. The second statement is false because there are no hexagons in the street and cars don't go 200 MPH in the street - at least, not where I live. And the third statement is false because the first two are false. It did not happen.
     
    But it's a perfectly good story.
     
    * * *
     
    Admittedly, in a debate this can get blurry, because if your opponent's argument is irrelevant to your argument, then it does not prove your statement false. For example:
     
    Bionicle 2016 is one of the best decisions Lego has ever made.
    Dude, that is so wrong. Tahu looks like an overdetailed supersonic chicken!
     
    Now, obviously, the second statement (despite being hilarious) has no relation to the first statement. Producing overdetailed supersonic chicken Tahus might have been one of the best decisions Lego has ever made. Who knows?
     
    But that doesn't prove the first statement true, either. That can only be done through business sales data and registering fan enthusiasm through things like polls (sort of; sales data is way better. But you get the drift.).
     
    Clearly, there is something over and beyond the concept of logic in the human brain that allows us to discern truth from error. The author calls it justification - I much prefer the term discernment, since justification implies that you're trying to justify your lies to someone else. Despite popular belief, we do, in fact, have this ability, should we choose to use it - it's just that using the word logic is the wrong word.
     

     
    With this in view, using the terms logic and emotion as psychological polar opposites is probably an error, because logic does not fully encompass our capacity for rational thought. We may have to go back to the old thinking vs. feeling.
     
    But the other thing I note is that the book I quoted was published in 1963. It may simply be easier to evoke the "meanings of words change with time" rule and say that logic is the study of reality, the process that leads to truthfinding. Still, I think that this information may help clear up the old misunderstanding (which was unresolved), so I am submitting it for review.
  25. fishers64

    Patriotic Thanksgiving

    By fishers64,

    My family is somewhat terrible at celebrating holidays.
     
    Not fully terrible. Just somewhat. For the most part, we just treat them like ordinary days.
     
    Except we still eat birthday cake. And on Thanksgiving, we eat turkey. It's almost as if a guy who liked turkey for some reason thought it was a good idea for everyone to eat it once a year in some sort of nationally synchronized meal plan.
     
    Not that we actually fully followed the meal plan. We didn't have any stuffing. Which is okay, because I don't like stuffing. My brother likes stuffing, however, and complained. My dad said that stuffing was too much work.
     
    He then proceeded to make his usual speech about giving thanks that everyone proceeded to half-way ignore, instead sitting around taking shots at each other for the rest of the meal. After it was over, it was just like any other meal - we all took off back to our separate lairs. Me, back to trying to figure out what in the world I was going to write my literature essay on. Mom, to cleaning the dishes, Dad, to digging out fence posts, and my brother back to whatever it is that he does. Probably homework for university.
     
    I did figure out what I'm going to do for my essay - I think I'm going to attack Emerson for being wrong and misinterpreting John Locke. Or something. I don't like Emerson. He puts me to sleep. In fact all of my American Lit for this semester has been improving the amount of sleep I'm getting this semester, with some minor exceptions.
     
    That is, until my dad called us back in to watch American Sniper, which my dad had put on hold at the library and waited forever, because he is a cheapskate like me. To further reinforce this idea, we watched the movie on a 20-year old television with rabbit ears proudly perched on the top of it. The widescreen effect of the DVD was so bad that we basically watched it with a third of said TV's actual screen.
     
    Not that I really cared that much, because that movie was awful. They never did voice over to explain anything, leaving you to guess at what was happening. I always hate it when movies do that. I'm not a fan of movies with gratuitous violence or swearing either, and this one had plenty (although realistic). Plus it was just sad, because (spoiler alert) the main protagonist dies.
     
    And my dad got the movie, because apparently there was a shot that revealed the visual scanning powers of drones. Yawn. Also because he's a former Air Force pilot, and internalized that military culture.
     
    Don't get me wrong - I fully appreciate the sacrifices men and women of the armed forces make to protect our country. And the movie did help me appreciate that more. But it could have been better IMO.
     
    Oddly, being thankful for those people is appropriate for thanksgiving. So there you go.
     
    Unless you're in Canada. In which case, don't mind me.
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