I feel more sympathetic toward the crooks in LEGO Space Police 3 than toward the cops.

I feel more sympathetic toward the creatures and fish-men in LEGO Atlantis than toward the explorers.

I felt more sympathetic toward Achu than either of the artifact-chasing European factions in LEGO Jungle Adventurers.

I feel more sympathetic toward Tren Krom than toward even most of the more likable Toa in BIONICLE.

?

Hello, BZPower! Yes, this is a building contest! Yes, there are cool prizes! No, you do not necessarily have to be someone who owns at building like Darth Vader to win!

Guidelines:

The idea is to build something, anything, that is directly inspired by a song which, in your honest, heartfelt opinion, fits the definition of a "golden oldie." So not a song from the '00s, not a song from the '90s, but, I have arbitrarily decided, any song from before 1990 is fair game. All genres of music are accepted, provided the lyrics are SFBZP. (Yeah, you can bleep out mild cuss words if you really want to use a song that has them.)

Your creation, however you should choose to present it, should use non-virtual LEGO® parts in some way. If you like, you are free to include other 2-D and/or 3-D media of a static, visual, non-virtual nature (i.e. not audio or video), provided whatever you've done with the LEGO® parts is the key focus of the creation. Creativity is the name of the game. The LEGO® parts do not necessarily have to be of the BIONICLE® variety, but some amount of BIONICLE®-derived content will probably find its way into some most entries. The tried-and-tested traditional method of building, namely connecting LEGO® parts onto LEGO® parts the way Ole Kirk Christiansen intended, will serve you well. Other methods will, however, be given consideration.

As usual, previously published creations will not qualify for entry.

How to enter:

Take a photo of your entry. Resize it so it doesn't take forever to load! Also, if you want to submit more pictures, edit them into one image file (JPG etc). Host it online at Majhost.com, Brickshelf.com, Flickr, or wherever.

Post a comment below with the following information:

Name: (the name you go by on BZP)
Song name: (title)
Artist: (who performed and/or wrote the song)
Year: (when the song was published - circa date for really old songs)
Lyrics: (full lyrics - you can put the lines that are most important to your entry in bold text if you wish)
My entry: (link/URL to the image file)
Notes: (optional - explain why you chose that particular song and/or how your entry relates to it)

Judging:

Entries will be judged based on two criteria: 1. how well they fit the song, and 2. creativity. NPU, as we MOCist types say, counts for creativity, but so does anything else that demonstrates imaginativity on the part of the builder. Think outside the box. Well, at least think outside the dot. Please. This isn't the average, everyday hum-drum of the BBC forum, here. You're allowed, and encouraged, to be original. Take a classic song you love and see what it moves you to make, without preconceptions. Of course, you're still subject to criterion #1, so it's not just "anything goes." We will require that your entry be somehow related to your song, whether it's through a scene, a mood, an object, an idea, or whatever. Abstract symbolism is fine, as long as you make clear how it fits the song.

The contest judges' panel consists of myself, Little Miss Krahka, and Arpy.

Prizes:

What could be more appropriate for a "Golden Oldies!" contest on BZPower than... "old gold" BIONICLE® parts? You know, the ones we used to get before that talentless hack shiny, warm-hued brute, Brutaka, came along and ruined music BIONICLE® gold forever. (Tongue firmly in cheek there. I like the new gold just as well.)

First place:

• 1 Kanohi Vahi
• 1 Knight's Kingdom sword (Danju)
• 1 Nuva chest armour
• 2 Nuva shoulder armour
• 1 Kanohi Hau (Lhikan)
• 1 Metru chest armour
• 2 Chronicler's staves
• 2 Metru feet
• 2 Metru thigh armour
• 2 Metru shoulder armour

Second place:

• 1 Kanohi Vahi
• 1 Kanohi Kualsi
• 1 Gahlok-Kal hand shield
• 1 Rhotuka shield
• 2 Rhotuka spinners
• 1 Chronicler's staff
• 2 Metru feet
• 2 Metru thigh armour
• 2 Metru shoulder armour

Third place:

• 1 Kanohi Vahi
• 1 Kanohi Pakari (2001)
• 1 Gahlok-Kal hand shield
• 1 Rhotuka shield
• 2 Rhotuka spinners
• 1 Chronicler's staff
• 2 Metru shoulder armour

The above prizes will go out physically to the winners, while here in virtual-land, they will receive the usual spiffy victory banners.

Anyone who wishes to donate additional prizes is, of course, welcome to do so, and their contribution will surely be appreciated by the lucky winners.

Contest period:

Entries begin being accepted as of now, January 9th, and will continue to be accepted until March 1st. Don't delay, start procrastinating now!

Internet connection has become too slow to bother with. Strongly suspect chat bot incident. Will wipe hard drive and reinstall OSes when have energy. Will be offline for indeterminate period, likely matter of days. Have fun, me.

Update: This appears to have been a false alarm. Internet is inexplicably now back to normal.

but den i stolez it back.

Man, that was weird. I get an Add Contact permission request from someone named JuanitaSomebodyFourRandomNumbers. Click "Chat First." Say hi. Have a very short convo. Obvious chat bot posing as a sexy young female wanting to webcam. "[Don't use obscene language. -Shine], bye." "Block User."

All of a sudden:

"Yahoo! Messenger is disconnected." Waaht.

"Connect to Yahoo! Messenger."

"Unable to connect to Yahoo! Messenger while signed in from another computer."

Swear words.

"All services are disconnected."

More swearing.

Whole Internet connection goes *poof*. Can't re-establish.

Restart computer.

Initiate virus scan of whole computer.

Open Yahoo! account in Firefox. CHANGE PASSWORD.

Fiddle with settings in TrillianAstra. Yahoo still not working....

Success! Yahoo now working.








Lesson learned... never chat with suspicious strangers.

Similarly, custom head and back armour added.



(Sorry, no more pictures till I get new batteries for my camera.)

I came up with this 13-sided shape today. It's very strong; when it's complete, you'll be able to throw it around and not have it bend out of shape at all.

I'm picturing a purple-and-black flying saucer.

Update 01.01.2010:

Hope lives!

I've been having very vivid dreams in the past while, even though I don't always recall much. I'm sure if I recalled more, and pondered what they meant, I'd get lots of useful material. Anyway, I just thought I'd share something from a dream I had last night.

It was dark, as is usual in winter here, and I was outside. With my eyes closed, I could "see" a diffuse white glow in the vicinity of my hands. If I kept my hands balled up into fists, the light would still peek out a little, and when I opened them up, they would emit bright light all along the palm side. I opened my eyes and saw that this energy discharge, whatever it was, was visible to my natural sight as well, in a kind of ghostly way. I thought this had to do with my eyes being adjusted somehow in a way they hadn't been before. I asked the person next to me if they saw it, too. They did. Then I noticed that this strange "light" was beaming out of my hands like a flashlight. I could see patterns of light on a building some distance away when I shone my hands in that direction.

Putting it into writing like this takes the power out of it somehow. But as I was dreaming this, it really felt kind of exciting, like proof of an ability that I'd only half-believed in before. ^^ And yes, there's probably (definitely) a connection to the blog art.

Link. Source: Advance on Flickr

Yeah, the title is from Cryoshell's Murky. Which is a great song, by the way. I've probably listened to it thirty times.

So I put my slalom skis up for auction with a starting bid of 55 euros and a Buy It Now price of 85. Some dude down by Turku snapped them up for the 85 within hours. I'm thinking I could have asked for more. <.< But I don't care that much. The point is to get rid of all the things I don't need, one way or another, and just raise enough cash to get me started on my wanderlust hobo excursion.

P.S. Anyone know a better way to get in touch with the band than the site that comes up first when you Google Mikkel Maltha?

There's a gallery, too, when Brickshelf gets around to modding the folder. I'm not too happy with how the photos turned out, but the MOC itself was quite a fun little diversion.

1. A BZPower playlist for my megaproject-in-progress, the BIONICLE Rock Concert.

2. Me doing an audio book of one of Greg's serials or some fan fiction. I love reading aloud.

3. Getting rid of all my stuff, dropping all projects, and disappearing for a while to roam Europe and maybe some other places, eventually resurfacing back in BC, Canada.

I need to do some serious dowsing and card/rune work to find out whether the third idea is what I should go for, and how fully.

(Edited and republished with new content.)

Click the image to see the topic and the new pictures.