Okay, this is partly just an excuse to have a blog entry. But also I wanted to put my answer to the above question here in full. Gravitan asked me about this in my profile comments but the answer looks way too convoluted split up into 400 char segments. But in all seriousness, this is a topic many have brought up, and it is VERY relevant to Bionicle -- the answer is one of the core lessons that Bionicle teaches. On a Bionicle fansite, it's pretty important that we recognize that. So here w
Blog Question: Sidebar Content Block length. What do you guys think? Is it best if I cut out a lot of that content so that there are barely any sidebars at all and it's kept really short? Or do you guys like having lotsa stuff on the sidebars to read? I'm torn between cutting out all the quotes and the complaint topic archive, putting them in blog entries and keeping the images only except for the lists of award winners stuff -- or between cutting out just a few things to tidy up.
Dreaded Re
I'm really short on time today so I'ma gonna use a quote from one of my posts. This is from Emperor Kraggh's topic: How Do Newcomers View Nostalgia? which is, BWT, almost dead despite being an interesting topic. (Revival is 30 days in GD so there's still time to post as of this moment!)
Bold is for important points, not emotionalism.
This is just my view of it; I'm no scientist, but it fits perfectly with my observations of myself, you guys, people in real life, etc. It seems that not
My thoughts and reactions about the Toy Fair summer set images. Note a lot of this is my own personal taste, along with some predictions on what most fans will like thus will sell well. (Entry on Taste Discrimination coming in just a few days this week.)
Before I begin, lemme point out that how I am defining "cool" IMT in this entry is shown in the Ruthless Elegance blog entry (see the linklist content block). It's what I personally like in Bionicle sets, but also what generally seems to be w
Today I had planned to post about the Matoro death flame war that seems to be getting worse rather than dying down. With the death of another character in the latest serial chapter, the issue spreading to this, and the new Character Death Policy, this will be a little more general, starting with the reasons the policy was made. Bold is for important points, not emotionalism.
Why
I'll ask that we don't discuss the details of what happened -- that is just going to make things worse. But su
Okay, I'm getting really sick of this.
Almost every week, I can go into the Sets forum, and find a topic like "Why does everybody hate Tahu?" or a statement inside a topic along the lines of "We all know everybody hates the Piraka."
Someone sees one post, maybe five, maybe even fifty posts, of complaints about that set, and then they commit the logical fallacy known as Hasty Generalization, assuming that "everybody" feels that way. And that's just the ones that actually post about it in
A poem from that Poetry class last semester.
1-800-HAPPY-SMILE-KIT
Are you suffering from depression?
Do you have low self-esteem?
Do you have trouble guffawing
when the boss cracks a lame joke?
I’m Nicholas T. Bernard, and you need my Happy Smile Kit!
You’ve been told to read “self help” books,
but the authors are charlatans – frauds!
You’ve been told to count pills,
but look at the side effects!
Studies prove that most depression
is rooted in your surroundings. Your se
Enter the Pet Peeve Contest before Nov 29!
BZP must ban the bad grammers toady! Its really anoyying when member's use bad grammer and speling, their just spaming. it need's for stop! Yay of the grammer hammar! Sine hear!
If you think I'm making up the style of posts mimicked above, think again. I've seen it time and time again; members complaining about others' bad grammar and spelling, and in the same post, using bad grammar in the very same post, and worse, misspelling "grammer".
Since most people are still judging Gali's mask by the prototype from Toyfair (shown below), I thought I'd do a quick entry showing the real mask, which you can see above. Cred to Wrinkledlion for finding this.
Hope this helps you judge better.
(Personally, I like this a little more than the Toyfair one. The lines seem more consistent, and while I like rubber masks, it looks like it would fit in quite well as a new mask power among the Mata Kanohi, which I liked. I still see [almost] no r
Various Updates: For some reason, the blog software isn't letting me post my "Friends Can Disagree" entry, which is written. Although, I needed to cut down on some of it cuz it got too wordy IMO. I've had longer entries so glitch is something else. Hunting it down. (Lol, this is the first image-free entry I've ever done I think -- I'm out of time.) For now, other updates I wanted to post: Has anyone made a "What Would You Name Makuta?" topic yet? Because most of you complaining about the nam
Not a very catchy title, I know. But I wanted to make this so I could stop repeating myself so much. Today the Bones Blog brings you the truth about this much-over-asked question, and some major points to consider about where Bionicle might be headed.
To everybody asking "Is 2008 the end of Bionicle? It says 'Final Battle'! ":
No. Stop panicking.
It's the end of the first chapter of Bionicle. Bionicle will end only if the sets stop selling.
Everything from 2001 to 2008 has been abo
Today the Bones Blog brings you a telephone interview with our contact among the Orcas -- the enemies of Survurlode who BZPower has recently formed an alliance with. From a canal in Ga-Metru, let's welcome Goblahk!
bones: Hello, Goblahk.
Goblahk: Hi there. Thanks for the interview.
bones: Why don't you begin by introducing yourself?
Goblahk: Well, My name is Goblahk, and I'm an Orca.
Goblahk: We're former minions of Survurlode -- he thought he should have something like Sauron
All three Coolified Makuta Phantoka are now available in avatars, banners, and wallpaper, in case you didn't see the Artwork Topic the other day. Those were fun!
Note that the avatar pathnames were apparently too long earlier. I've reuploaded in the main folder -- all the avatars are listed below with pathnames that should work.
Kanohi:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/antmaskav.gif
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/chavmask.gif
http://www.bric
Often people wonder why I devote so much time and energy to logically analyzing and debating in complaint topics, focused on figuring out if there are problems with Bionicle. In general, people often wonder why I am logician to begin with. Why do I do what I do?
The following is a quote from a PM that someone (I do not know who, nor do I want to know who) sent to someone I was debating today:
This is a very telling insight. It's not often that I am privy to "behind the scenes" conversat
I may be the only person on Earth with this job.
I have/am getting a new task as part of my newspaper delivery job that I can get paid for. It's a great example of irony, because I am now making maps for the deliverers with Powerpoint. It's like the fusion of the main character of my Paracosmos RPG -- a Ta-Koronan mapmaker -- with my coolified artwork, and real life. XD
I had made one for our own half-a-zip-code a while back and just revamped it, that shows easy-to-read dots for the DNDs
Okay so it's late and I had other blog entries planned and I am out of time for this week but I'm trying to keep this a weekly blog. So this will have to do. The Bones Blog brings you today a set-related proposal that just might be plausible.
No, I haven't mutated into some monster beyond all recognition, if you've read the title and come in here thinking I was the guy that hates gears.
I do hate gears. Personally. That's just my own personal preference. They are mildly interesting gimmi
With college done and, for the time being, only a weekend job, I've finally had time to get back to the Bionicle Paracosmos. Ojhilom is away on a winter retreat next week, and I am working on taxes, which apparently as an "independant contractor", I have to file by Jan 30 (allegedly -- working on verifying that...). So right now I've decided it's better if I take some time off from BZP for the most part. I need free-time stuff that isn't quite so unpredictable right now.
As such, I'm finishi
2008 is full of Makuta -- even the canister villains are Makuta. These masters of power have quite a lot of, well, powers. Remembering them all can be tricky, but rewarding for fun roleplaying, fan fiction writing, or even just enjoying the Bionicle story. So today the Bones Blog brings you an easy way to "decode" and memorize all the Makuta powers.
Basics
First, all modern Makuta have transcended normal life and death. This means they all:Exist as antidermis energy-gas inside strong Prot
Today the Bones Blog brings you a quick blogging tip; some simple code to put near the top of your blog sidebars that can help you "hook" readers better.
Why Should I Care?
Well, if you don't have a blog, you might not, but if you're a blogger on BZP, you definately should care.
Every blog should have tracking options in a sidebar content block. If I've just entered a blog I've never read before, and I like it, I should be able to click a button that lets me keep track of the blog in th
I felt like doing this as a warmup for making the Pet Peeve Contest winning creatures -- I'm coolifying the Makuta Phantoka for avs, banners, and wallpaper in Powerpoint. I started with Chirox because he's my fave.
Here's the Artwork topic.
I'm planning on doing the rest of the Makuta Phantoka and also the Shadow Matoran, if possible.
Just letting yall know that I'll be swamped until Thursday or Friday of next week. Finals week. Just to make it clear I haven't forgotten I have a blog.
The Peeves contest entry period has ended, as you probably know. Some winners have been chosen, but nothing's set in stone till I have more time to sit down and read/think about it. A lot of great entries, and it's gonna be fun to draw the winning creatures. I think if I have time in the distant future I'll do more contests like this.
Reminder: The Pet Peeve Contest is open till November 29.
Today the Bones Blog brings you a feature on "gimmicks" in Bionicle sets through the years. This is a common subject in debate topics, often with a "gimmick" being implied to be a bad thing, and also often portrayed as something new to Bionicle. But even the definition of "gimmick" is subjective, and the definitions usually used/implied also apply to much older sets -- so what's the actual history of gimmicks in Bionicle?
What
Today the Bones Blog brings you a contest an information gathering drive about Pet Peeves, creatures that feed on things that are annoying. We believe they might be useful in the war against Evil Lord Survurlode, so we want to find more kinds!
All of the following is placed inside a spoiler tag, because our sources tell us that Evil Lord Survurlode and his minions cannot open these tags due to a glitch his own minions caused.
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
Contest Them
Please note: The following will NOT spoil the identity of a Bionicle character who recently died. I wouldn't even tell you that, but it's been basically leaked past the point of no return now, but I'll hope at least somebody didn't hear who yet. So there will be no spoiler tags here today.
This is an expansion on a recent post about this. And please note, I'm not trying to be offensive in any way about this -- if you feel I'm speaking to you, I apologize if my tone seems that way. I must ad
Reminder: The Pet Peeve Contest below is still open until November 29! Keep those entries a-comin!
Notice: Keep in mind the award is drawn by me, so you need to tell me what to draw. Some of these Description form entries are very vague. You can't win if I don't at least have some idea of what you want the Peeve to look like.
Update: We have constructed a submarine in order to more easily get from island to island as we hunt for those Pet Peeves you guys are telling us about. We've alread
