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Saturday, September 20, 2008 Lend me your approval! Thank you to Varaka for inspiring me to start a content block for blog approvals. Now I need it to grow. So yeah, if you're happy with this blog, I encourage you to drop your approval image in the comments. Or you can clap your hands, but that's not as fun. Thank youuuuu. --- In other news, we have serius plumbing issues at home. Any water we run, drain, or flush gurgles up in our basement. Haven't showered in days (it's cool, it's a long weekend). Roots from the bushes on our front lawn are blocking the pipe leading to the street. So we don't just need a plumber who charges us way too much to poke a rod down our pipes, we need guys to come in and excavate our yard. What's next, are they gonna find dinosaur bones? And it's all because of Ike. IIIIIIIke. Also, if you'll notice, I revamped the header in the first content block, which looks quite nice.
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Thursday, September 18, 2008 Ike ruined the carpeting in my basement. We had been together for a long time, now it's time to say our good-byes. Rugs typically don't talk, so we were short. I have a killer sore throat today, so school didn't seem appealing. I didn't go, just ate soup and crackers. In my house. Alone. I think I have strep throat. I certainly have something throat. Looks like I'm giving you Farshtey Feed 2 tomorrow.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Here's the thing: this MOC was too cool to die in BBC. So I'll cheat and post it in my blog instead, where I can see it getting more comments than in the MOC forum. BBC was pathetic. People come in saying things like "I don't see any flaws except..." as if that's all you look for when you judge art. So constructive criticism -- or even just supportive comments -- on parts like the legs (I suggest taking a look at how they are jointed to the body), wing design, or the body would be appreciated. I think we can beat three posts, don't you? And if we don't, I won't cry myself to sleep, but it's just a courtesy. Side-notes: Can't wait til Heroes Season 3 on Monday! Finally. Saw my first thermite reaction today.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 I don't have anything interesting to say today. Why don't you go comment my profile, make it seem like I'm popular? =]
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Tuesday, September 2, 2008 > Vote Here < So, this is my plan for the KanohiJournal contest. Trying not to sound too pretentious, I consider this version of Nuparu's aqua blaster blade to be the solution to a problem. Nuparu’s aqua blaster blade is mentioned and seen in action in the books, and, if you want to be particular, is therefore considered part of the canon storyline. Here’s the thing. The weapon is only mentioned in the books because the prototype Nuparu set that Greg Farshtey was given to work off held a blade weapon. But here we have the final, marketed version of the set that has a shield instead of a blade. And supposedly now both the shield and the ABB are part of the canon. This creates problems. Nuparu shouldn’t be able to carry so many weapons. Carrying a Cordak blaster, shield, and his aqua blaster blade would make Nuparu prohibitively bulky, and he just doesn’t have the hands to carry three weapons at once. It also stinks to have a set that doesn’t even include the character’s main weapon that is featured in the story. Now, I have an entry that reconciles all the story and even set problems concerning the ABB quite elegantly, I think. This ABB is a dual-function ability of Nuparu’s shield. Now Nuparu doesn’t have to deal with the problem of juggling three weapons anymore; his protosteel shield and aqua blaster blade are now one and the same. It’s the same difference as calling Pohatu Nuva’s climbing claws the Kodan ball when they are latched together. Just as the old Toa Nuva and Toa Metru’s tools had dual-function abilities, Nuparu can now switch his weapon between shield and blade modes. Nuparu can split his shield apart, holding one of the halves in his hand like a blade and attaching to it the power cell kept on his back to power its shock-wave function. He then relocates his leg armor to act as a brace for the blade. With this armor removed, he now has ample space to store the other half of his shield on his back. Now anyone who has the Nuparu Mahri set to begin with already has all the pieces he needs to build his melee weapon, because the blade is now in the set. For anyone who wants to put the nagging inconsistencies of the aqua blaster blade to rest, assuming the contest is going to be poll-based -- this is the entry to vote for. If not my entry, choose another one with dual-function idea, although I don't know if there will be many. If you want to lend support to what I consider to be the smoothest possible resolution to the story problems of the aqua blaster blade, you can use this banner. [url=http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=59&showentry=41689][img=http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/DihydrogenMonoxide/Bionicle/MOCs/NuparuABB/abbsig.jpg][/url]
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Thursday, September 11, 2008 9/11 No one has rated this blog for almost two years now. But it takes only one to tip the scale from 4.0 to five stars... It would be nice to have that, having cared to post some pretty good entries in my time. On that subject, I'm posting the first OGD Weekly Digest entry tomorrow.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 I was quite impressed today at school. My friends knew what I was talking about when I said, "So, you hear what they did in Switzerland?" I got into this fanboy discussion with one guy about Nikola Tesla and how the FBI stole away the blueprints for his particle beam, like the real-life plans for the Death Star. Another friend told me that his uber-geeky physics teacher compared the likelyhood of the machine creating a black hole that would swallow up the earth to the chances of the machine spinning around and turning itself into a 1980s Buick. Be wary for the Buick, my friends.
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Friday, September 5, 2008 Oh, and I have a question for anyone who can help me: does anyone know where I could easily host an mp3 file to link to in an entry? I don't think Brickshelf and Maj allow that.
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Sunday, September 7, 2008 I was reading through my ancient PMs to GregF, and my face was figuratively turning red as I noticed how obviously I was searching for the clearest, most congenial way to say "Hello, Greg" and "Thank you, goodbye" and never quite finding it, sounding more like I was supplicant to him for his almighty knowledge. Alright... I'll give you an example: Granted, it gets a lot better after that, and that's really tame compared to other PMs I've encountered in which the asker is practically saying, "Please, almighty Greg the Sun-god, lend me the answers I seek. I'm deyeingg!1!! ='( " In my experience, it is of no immediate consequence how you address Greg when you PM. For one, he never comments on it. But, of course, you should know that he is always happy to receive questions from fans -- you do not need to beg him -- particularly so when your questions are thoughtful, maybe clearly phrased, and have not been asked a million times (but 999,999 times is okay, lol). Nowadays, I keep it simple. I usually ask one question that's on my mind, although of course there would be nothing wrong with asking more. Although Greg wades through a tide of PMs every day, it is a task he says he enjoys, but I recognize that it is one that no one would like to be bogged down by, so I eliminate the fluff out of my messages. My typical message to Greg goes as follows. It's my generic template, and if you're unsettled about how you're currently messaging Greg, you can use it.
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Saturday, September 6, 2008 What's interesting is that all summer I put off blogging almost entirely. Now that school has started, I'm posting something every darn day. Oh, and thanks for all the help yesterday, lol. I am waiting for an answer.
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Saturday, August 16, 2008 Just to warn you, this is sort of a storyline rant. Don't take it the wrong way -- I like the story, always have, but sometimes things just need to be said, you know. This time around, it's about Hewkii's mask power. I'm reading through Prisoners of the Pit again, and Hewkii is using his mask of Gravity to make a 200-foot venom eel slam into the sea floor and a Takea shark float helplessly away to the surface. And I'm thinking this is just one of the most miserable plot defects I've encountered in Bionicle. When you're maneuvering underwater, what is the force that makes you sink or rise? It ain't gravity. It's bouyancy. Density determines "weight" underwater, and mass is almost a negligible factor. The hardcore theorizers will blame it on altered physics, but honestly, do the same tweaked physics that allow for a life-supporting ocean magically cause water pressure to cease to exist? Gravity is the most useless power to have in the ocean. Consider this: the same multi-ton ocean liner that sits like a permanent fixture on land stays afloat in water. That's what it's engineered to do. It's all about density. A compressed block of steel of the same exact mass of the ship would sink like a stone in the ocean, but the ship is constructed with specialized, hollow chambers that make it of greater volume without ever increasing its total mass, therefore decreasing its density. And that turns that hopelessly sinkable block of steel into a reliably bouyant sea vessel. See how relatively little it takes for density to overcome the "mighty" pull of gravity? How could Hewkii use the force of gravity against sea creatures endowed with natural floatation mechanisms? Just thinkin. =] BTW, I will be away from the net until a week from Sunday. Also, if you would be so kind to read this post, tell me what you think.
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Thursday, September 4, 2008 If you were a blogger back in the days of olde, you probably remember that the cute little squares that tell you if there are unviewed comments in an entry... were colored orange. Actually, that was a site-wide thing. All the little tags -- you probably don't even pay attention to them -- next to the title of a topic or next to the comment count at the bottom right of a blog entry used to be bright orange, at eye-grabbing contrast against BZPower's light blue background. But BZPower's changed them to blue now, ever since the same forum upgrade that jazzed up everyone's user page to include comments and friends listings and all that junk. Strangely enough, I've been noticing how different it is without the orange squares. When I was first writing in this blog, I was overjoyed to see that familiar orange dot on the screen to see that someone had actually found something I said interesting enough to comment on. I didn't get a lot of comments then. But now the new blue squares are just boring. It's like they're just there -- they have to tell you there's a new comment, they don't really want to be there and they hate their job, and they just want to blend in and stay out of notice, like ungrateful night guards for a box factory. The orange dudes, on the other hand, were always so full of life and yelled, "Congratulations, someone said something! Someone cares!" So, I'm nostalgic for the old guys, and I wish they would come back.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2008 Impulse comment. Do it.
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Monday, September 1, 2008 Labor Day Now that is cool. Reminds me of Halo.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008 :angry: :angry: :angry: The point :angry: of subscribing :angry: to Brickmaster :angry: was that I wouldn't :angry: have to call them :angry: in order to get the next issue every two months. But when it's the 31st of the month, and my magazine, as has happened WAY too many times before, has not shown up -- and this time, my Lego set hasn't even arrived in the mail either -- what choice do I have? :angry: :angry: :angry: I'm trying to vent my frustration in this entry. Seriously, I have the worst post office in the US. I'm not joking. Literally -- type in "Worst post service in US" into Google, and my city is the first hit. It's just not cool anymore. It never was. When I expect something to come in the mail, I want to come on time, and I don't want it damaged. I could show you pictures of one of the Bionicle comics from last year that I got in the mail, but... it's a little graphic. I could show you the ugly crease on the otherwise beautiful box that my Mutran & Vican set came in. I could show you the shipping box that that came in too -- it was big enough that it wouldn't squeeze M&V's box like that, but obviously something heavy must have been kept on the box and squashed it. I hate my mail service. Seriously, it gets really annoying to have to call Lego Customer Service for a fresh copy every other issue. And nothing ever gets done about it. :angry: :angry: :angry:
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008 I just came back from K-Mart. Sure enough, the Mistika canister sets were selling for a reduced price, although they sold for $10.99, not $9.99. But I still saved. Add six Mistika to my collection...
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Friday, April 4, 2008 A week before last Tuesday, a new Battle for Power game for Tanma was put onto the Bionicle website. The player needs to reach the end of a long tunnel, moving forward only by pressing the up-arrow key for upward thrust while drifting forward. The player picks up powerups for speeding up and for refueling. Pressing the space bar causes Tanma to release a powerful light blast that destroys any Makuta in your way. Federation of Fear Chapter 6 was posted on www.bioniclestory.com a week before yesterday. Brutaka is in the clutches of Tren Krom. After the others enter his cave, Tren Krom explains in monologue that at the universe's beginning, the Great Beings created one organic being to serve the same purpose that would someday be fulfilled by Mata Nui: maintaining the universe through his power of will from within the Universe Core. When Mata Nui came to life, however, he was cast aside and bound to the rock of this remote island. The herald of his dispatch was none other than the crazed Av-Matoran that Jaller and his company encountered in Karzahni, whose sanity was fractured during his encounter with Tren Krom. Now Tren Krom attempts to probe Brutaka's mind, although his mental shielding is resisting. Tren Krom then grabs Lariska, who faints before she can lapse into madness from seeing into his mind. In a ploy for freedom, Brutaka starts to explain how the universe will be lost to evil if they are not allowed to go along their way. He gets Spiriah to mention that if the Makuta prevail, a shadow will cover the world, their will enforced by Rahkshi. Just as Brutaka starts to retaliate against Tren Krom's grib, Carapar rushes up from behind Tren Krom in a sneak attack destined to fail -- Tren Krom grows a third eye in Carapar's direction, which then shoots a beam at him that crystallizes and disintegrates him. Knowing of the truth from Lariska's mind, Tren Krom decides to let them go, determined to let them suffer in the world they allowed to run out of control. Predictions: We are at war -- there will be more deaths, though I can't be sure who will die. Takadox clearly won't have any sort of chance to take a vengeance on Tren Krom for killing his mental slave, if he even feels any sense of loss. The next stop for the Federation is at last the island on which Miserix is held captive by Rahi, as heard in the Official Greg Discussion. The Brickmaster March-April issue arrived in mailboxes last month. Packaged with it was the first of four printed Bionicle comics this year, each of which are going to be extra large just as this one was. I am very fond of the new art style of Leigh Gallagher, much more than I was of the abstractions of Stuart Sayger. The magazine contains a pull-out battle scene. The comic advertises the three large sets currently being sold. Speaking of the comic, its animated version was finally put online on Monday. This makes all of the artwork available in digital format, given a flash object extractor. Yet another Battle for Power game, this one for Gavla, was uploaded onto the bionicle website on April Fools' Day on Tuesday. This game is incredibly similar to the Chirox game (rather unfortunately), except more difficult and more annoying. Now the player has to pick up a limited number of Tridax pods dispensed by Radiak on some part of the map. Finally, Chapter 6 of the Mutran Chronicles was put on bioniclestory.com two days ago. This entry centers around the grand unveiling of Makuta Teridax's ultimate Plan to the rest of the Brotherhood of Makuta following Mutran's enlightening experience with Tren Krom. Teridax calls a Convocation on Destral, where he presents his malevolent scheme to overthrow Mata Nui and rule the Matoran universe. Since it is so unorthodox for a member of the Brotherhood other than its leader to call a meeting as well as for one to do so without permission from him, it is obvious that Teridax was "on a collision course from the start" with Miserix. Miserix immediately objects to Teridax's Plan, although Bitil and Gorast immediately agree with the Makuta of Metru Nui's point of view. Seeing Teridax's open defiance for what it is, Miserix attacks, and a brief but poignant brawl erupts between the two. When the violence is ended, Vamprah, Chirox, Antroz, and Spiriah also come to Teridax's side. Mutran follows suit, of course uniquely knowing that Teridax is absolutely right. Finally, all the stragglers leave Miserix's side. As the new leader of the Brotherhood, Teridax orders Krika and Spiriah to carry out Miserix's execution (in this it is revealed that Miserix favors reptilian forms). Over time, Gorast and Icarax track and kill all the Makuta who Teridax eyeballed remaining at Miserix's defense unitil the last possible moment. The offenders' masks are nailed to a display for all Makuta to see, but Mutran wonders why the Kanohi mask of Miserix is absent. Predictions: Miserix's winning model will most likely be of some reptilian form, as hinted in the story. I see that Spiriah again has a problem carrying out orders, since Miserix is secretly imprisoned, not killed. And, of course, Icarax was one of those who heartlessly killed the unbelieving Makuta -- who's to say he hasn't got it in him to kill another?
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Makuta's Name, Legends 9, March Bm Set, And Mutran 4
Planetperson posted a blog entry in blogs_blog_59
Thursday, March 6, 2008 Everyone online is raving about the recent major revelation: the true name of the original Makuta character, the one and only villain we have seen our heroes battle since Bionicle 2001. It was in 2004 when we first learned that Makuta was not the only one of his kind. We discovered that he was part of an entire Brotherhood of Makuta. Last year, 2007, when it at last became more pressing to distinguish our Makuta from others in the historical storyline, we started calling him the "Makuta of Metru Nui," since he was protector of that region of the world. Then, 2007 leading into 2008, we came to know some of the Makuta's brothers by name: first Icarax in a web serial, then Antroz, Chirox, Vamprah, Mutran, Spiriah... but what of our Makuta? In summer 2007 Greg had posted a poll topic on BZPower asking the community if they wished him to assign the Makuta of Metru Nui his very own name once and for all. The fans appeared to answer with a resounding yes, so the decision was made to pull a name off the list of 10,000-a-piece legalized Bionicle character names and attach it to our favorite Makuta. Last week, Greg released the name. Teridax: that is now the true name of Makuta. Though fans were largely satisfied, many People had a strong aversion to the presence of the letter 'x' in the name. Most older fans, fond of their old-time character, were expecting a more old-timey Bionicle name, the kind of names that blatantly borrowed the phonics of the Maori language. A whole complaint topic concerning the name quickly appeared online, wailing things such as that "Teridax" sounds too much like "pterodactyl" or "terror." The name, however, is here to stay, as evidenced by its heavy usage in Legends 9. It was Sunday, four days ago, when I bought Bionicle Legends #9: Shadows in the Sky from Barnes & Noble and started reading the book amid an intense homework load. Make no mistake: I should be reading way beyond the level the Bionicle series is written at. At my age (I'm practically old and dying), the words of the books do not leave the same mark they formerly would have left; so in my crotchety, aged state, I do not get the same sense of accomplishment of having read a novel. Of course, I shouldn't let you make this mistake either: I do not read other books for fun anyway, because I never feel like I have the time. So I turn my eye more toward the raw plot, though Farshtey does get eloquent enough at times. Now, the contents of the book formally become open to online discussion on the first of April -- and that's no joke. I am not allowed to reveal any plot details, but at this time I can convey an impression of what you can expect from reading the book. The book -- I generally like it, even if it is only 125 pages. There's plenty of real team-to-team fighting in this book. You have very powerful heroes fighting villains that are a number of times stronger than they but also crippled by loss of their eyesight. Greg describes some very action-packed combat between these super-powered characters. The name Teridax formally appears for the first time. The book beat the race against the web serials. If you like Icarax the set, I am confident you'll like Icarax the character. He's ambitious, feared, and known for being the dreaded equalizer-Makuta in Makuta Teridax's stead. Makuta's new name, Teridax, is not reserved for use in the book at all. Although not used among the hero characters, the Makuta utter "Teridax" in all casual conversation. Greg does not loan most screen-time and character development to the three canister Makuta -- much of the plot revolves around Mutran and even Icarax as well, perhaps even more so than Antroz, Chirox, and Vamprah. Those last three are mostly used as generic opponents in fight scenes. Good descriptions of the Karda Nui setting you might not have been clear about before.This month, BrickMaster issues yet another Lego City set. Being well into my teens, I've long ago fallen out of the practice of regular Lego toy buying. It came as no surprise to me that this mini-firetruck set came with a couple pieces I have never encountered before in my life. First, there are these new yellow pieces for the fron and back bumpers, perfect for attaching headlight and grill pieces. I also laughed over a new piece which is basically nothing more than two small horizontal hand-grip pieces fused side-by-side. Now I've noticed that all the new sets also include those tiny 1x1 slant pieces. They are always used to define better the shape of the model -- in this case, transparent pieces were used for the front headlights. The set achieves a very rich, solid look. No longer do sets so much appear like they are built from many separate bricks, but have clearly defined contours corresponding to what they might actually be in life-size. Of course, new pices have evolved forth to accommadate this shift. Overall, I enjoy looking at the set sitting on my desk. I open the packaging, which is placed into my store of previous BrickMaster packages, instruction booklets, and catalogues. Construction is far from difficult. I encounter a couple new pieces. The model itself. Another Lego City mini-fireboat set was already sent two issues ago. The fireman guy is loaded with gear in the truck one. I just can't wait until they send me this one. The Mutran Chronicles: Chapter 4 was posted on www.bioniclestory.com today. Mutran muses on the laughable Matoran Civil War. In his memories -- really just accounts of what happened -- the Makuta assistant to Miserix (name "Teridax" not used, nor title "Makuta of Metru Nui" as the point in history predates that designation) proves his effectiveness when he locks substantial numbers of Matoran from both sides in the Archives and unleashes the Rahi exhibits on them. This act is known as the Archives Massacre. Although Matoran might not have the same confidence of the Brotherhood being a perfectly benevolent organization, the fighting ends, and order is restored. Meanwhile, Mutran is on a mission from Miserix to meet with a legend named Tren Krom. Predictions: The Tren Krom development will explain Makuta Gorast's connection to the Tren Krom Peninsula, no doubt. -
Saturday, March 1, 2008 I recently ran across the Greek word antron, which means "cave." A quick Wikipedia search revealed that Antrozoidae is one family for bats. Total coincidence or not (probably not), "Antroz" is just one more of dozens of names this year that have real-world roots. Radiak -- radiant (light is classified as radiant energy) Photok -- photo (Greek root for "light") Kirop -- chiroptera (order in which bats are classified, literally means "winged hand") Tanma -- tan (like sun-tan) Solek -- sol (Latin root for "sun") Gavla -- ? Antroz -- antrozoidae (literally means "cave-dwellers") Chirox -- chiroptera Vamprah -- vampire Icarax -- Icarus (in Greek mythology, a character who flew too close to the sun) Mutran -- mutate and transform Bitil -- beetle Krika -- cricket Gorast -- ?
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Sunday, October 28, 2007 Honest to God.
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Friday, November 2, 2007
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Monday, October 29, 2007 It is a harsh game you play, server of BZPower. Is it because I wronged you one day, refreshing the page though you could not provide? No need now to deny the existence of each other.
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Sunday, September 9, 2007 If at first you don't succeed, you're in good company. Yesterday I finally beat Halo 2 in legendary mode, earning the highest level status "The Great Journey on Legendary" in my profile. It feels great not to be haunted by failure anymore, if you know what I mean. Beating the first Halo on legendary this summer was no problem. It was fun. It was great knowing that every time I sat down, I would at least get past the next checkpoint. Halo 2 was different, however. Would you believe that the first level was the hardest to beat of them all? The second room with the elites spilling out of the gravity tube presented a major roadblock for me. No matter what I tried or how aggressively I played, I couldn't ever kill them all before they gunned me down, laughing. I felt defeated and decided to give up if the entire game on legendary would be as impossible as this. But just to test my theory, I skipped over to the final level and played it. Through hard work, I actually did beat that level, though it did not amend my profile's highest level status. Then I knew what had to be done. I needed to play through all of the levels; and in order to do that, I needed to make another stand against those impossibly tenacious elites and graduate from the first level once and for all. It must have taken at least two weeks before I performed "the fluke." It was exactly what it sounds like; by some ridiculous miracle, I actually took all the enemies down one by one -- battle rifle sniping, grenades, sneak attacks, isolation, even clumsily pushing the surviving UNSC officer from the previous room into the current one in an attempt to jumble the game's enemy AI algorithms until I had only two of the white elites left that don't die when stuck by a plasma grenade. It probably took about ten minutes for me to take down one of them. For the final elite, I waited until he got mad and took out his energy sword, which made him helpless against my dual plasma rifles. At last I reached the next checkpoint. It was over, and at the same time just the beginning. The last week has been a brawl through the remaining levels to reach the end. The inflated sense of self-esteem came back again as I completed at least one new checkpoint at every sitting. And yesterday I finally conquered the last level I needed to finish. Now just for laughs, I'm smoking through the game on normal again.
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Saturday, July 14, 2007 Do you ever get the feeling that the day is too short? Do you feel like you had no morning? Do you sometimes even get mad at yourself for waking up at lunchtime because you feel that you were shortchanged a few hours of your day? That's who I am. Because it's summer, my whole schedule shifts so that I sleep only past midnight and wake up only past eleven. So this morning I forced myself to wake up at 7:15, just to experience what morning feels like again. Now I remember what I hate about it again...
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Monday, July 2, 2007 Hi! Wow, Planeterson has actually reappeared in his blog! Raise your hand if you noticed I was gone! See, its just past one where I am, but I cant sleep. Well, I havent actually tried to lie in bed yet, so I guess I just dont want to sleep. And now Im blogging. Just like the previous entry -- same hotel, same WiFi, just opposite directions. So Im coming home tomorrow. Oops -- tonight, it is now.