Sorry; that first line of Tahu Nuva's leapt into my head as a title.
But it is over. Mercifully so. Thank-the-gods-I-don't-have-to-do-this-again-till-May so. And it will be oh so much worse then, but for now I have three whole days with not one thing to do, and will not worry about the AP exams until I have to.
Latin went well; we had an entertaining but difficult-to-figure-out passage from Martial in addition to the obvious Aeneid... History could have been better; some of the multiple c
This might feel more momentous if I had been wanting my license ever since I turned sixteen, but since I haven't, I'm unable to muster quite the normal level of excitement over this. Maybe it'll kick in in a few days.
The road test was also so quick and easy that at the end, I was left more stunned at how short it had been than at the fact that I had passed. (However, the examiner was this lovely kindly woman, so that was very nice. I had been afraid it would be some brutish drill-sargeant-ty
Ow...
As I announced yesterday, I got my wisdom teeth extracted today. All four of them. It hurts.
They gave me this type of anesthesia that left me conscious throughout the whole thing, but with no memory at all – something I'm actually quite thrilled with. One, I don't remember the procedure (just getting fillings is traumatizing enough), and two, I have no memory at all of the "recovery" phase because it was still in effect. Which means that, coupled with a copious and constant supply o
"Since you cannot be my wife,
You will certainly be my tree!" ~ Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 557-558
I want to say this to someone now. Will you be my tree?
~ ToM
Considering how much I hated it when I first walked in, I've actually grown fond of my room now. I still wouldn't mind if it were shaped differently (it's really long; most peoples' are more square) and if there were more room to sit down/hang out/do whatever, but it's not terrible any more.
Also, an update since last entry: I am now the official graphic designer for QCVC! (the Queer Coalition of Vassar College) I'm very happy about this. I will make things -fabulous-.
~ ToM
Just a minute ago I was standing outside in pouring rain, watching the sky turn white every few seconds from lightning. The sort of lightning where you can't even see where it really is, deep inside the clouds, but the result lights up everything even more brightly than the moon – including casting the clouds into sharp relief. It was incredible.
Clearly this vacation-thing is off to a good start. There were some difficulties with Brickfair MOCs (including the BBCC50 one – Tiome had to be scr
There we go. As always, you can find more pictures over in the gallery (once that becomes public). There are a few alternates of the entry picture (the far left) using different lighting; I eventually settled on the one I did because I thought it best combined aesthetically pleasing light with clarity of the details of the MOC.
And if I may say so myself, that hammer is one of my favorite things I've ever built. Had a lot of fun with it.
Now, off to enter this on BS01...
~ ToM
It occured to me, completely out of the blue, that as yet we know of no poets among all the Matoran we've ever heard of. Well, not totally out of the blue. I'm listening to Dark Passion Play and had recently finished The Poet and the Pendulum, which set me thinking about such things.
Shasa probably writes poetry, which is all flowery and prettified and asks questions without answering them and no one really likes but everyone pretends to. No one knows what Kopeke spends all that time doing ou
Hm, meant to do this at the beginning of December... Well, I haven't been on the computer much for the past two weeks, and I guess today might be the best day to post this anyway: a summary of ideas introduced in 2007's sets, and why they either succeeded or failed.
Might as well start with the biggest.
~ Non-clone sets. This succeeded generally to perfection with the Barraki, but only partly worked on the Mahri. With the Barraki, each one had his own unique "body" mold (that is, not a wea
Open doors just to see what's behind them.
Be tolerant of other people and they'll tolerate you.
If you want people to listen to you, listen to them.
Always be respectful to others, and they'll probably treat you with respect in return.
If you really want to know what's going on, the only way to find out is to ask. The worst that can happen is that you'll be told it's private (or something of the sort); the best is that you'll learn what you'd never have known had you not asked.
T
The original and forever delightful Bionicle couple... It was raining last weekend (and is right now, in fact), so I was outside as usual, and I got the idea for a few shots of the two of them:
Maku by herself, sitting on the wet deck perfectly at ease...
Huki, meanwhile, is cowering underneath using a leaf to stay dry.
This was actually the first picture I took, Maku looking down at Huki where he's hiding out of the rain...
She convinces him to come up, and they sh
Pohuaki is awesome.
So is everyone who voted for me – thanks again! The same can easily be said of a lot of the artists who entered AC12 in both categories, as there were a lot of great entries this contest ...
This brings my count of rare Kanohi to find down to four: the orange Vahi, chrome Hau, infected Hau, and copper Komau (not counting misprints). I've never wanted the movie edition Kraahkan, and I'm obviously not even counting the solid gold Hau and platinum Avohkii ... But this
Guys
Guys
I just bought my plane tickets to fly down to and from Washington DC on a certain weekend early in August
I AM OFFICIALLY GOING TO BRICKFAIR.
OH MY GOD.
~ ToM
Took the SAT today, for the first time. It was incredibly easy. There were a couple odd math questions, but I got the answers to them eventually, and then a few of those incessantly annoying questions where it's a matter of preference rather than grammatical propriety as to which option is the best... There's nothing wrong with the passive voice!
But still. Piece of cake. Now to wait a month or so and find out how I did, although I can't imagine I did badly, since it was just as easy as the P
:: ::
Kind of like Knives.
Knives Chau, that is.
Except his name's actually just Matau. Not Sawblades.
There's also this one if you want an alternate view. He's still a WIP because his back needs filling in and I'm not 100% satisfied with the torso, but I wanted to post something before I'm separated from my pieces for six weeks...
Apparently this is what happens when I finally acquire the Turaga's Kanohi. I don't remember how exactly the idea for his weapons came to be, but i
Shasa would really be a fascinating character to find out more about. Think about her. She spends most of her time sitting in her hut weaving and talking about how nice it is that everyone cooperates whenever someone comes by, but evidently she has some skill with weaponry as well, or else she (and Amaya) wouldn't have been set to guard Ga-Koro in the MNOLG. Just that peculiar combination alone makes her far more interesting than I had thought she was.
One could come up with all sorts of expl
I'm not really here yet – just dropping in on my dad's computer now and then – but I might as well make a blog entry now that Christmas has passed. Also to wish people a happy if belated Solstice, Festivus by Tufi's declaration, and Kwanzaa if any here celebrate it...
It really seemed like our family tree had fewer presents under it than usual this year, but somehow we all wound up with what seemed like more than usual... I had quite a nice haul, preceded by Hydraxon, whom I got as a late bir
I'm rather enjoying myself.
I moved in on Tuesday, and since then they've been keeping us busy with orientation activities. Icebreakers, info sessions, tours, a meeting with my advisor, registration, et cetera. I hated my room at first – it's pretty old and there seems to be too much furniture than the room can hold – but my roommate and I bunked our beds and that gave us a lot more space. And it looked much better with all of my stuff put up. I also have a little plant with me – ivy – which
School starts in a week.
...I'm actually sort of looking forward to it. Glad to be seeing people again, curious about who's new in my grade... all that stuff. But as usual, I want it never to happen, because that will mean summer will be over (where did it go?? Summer shouldn't go by this fast!) and I'll have to wake up early and there will be homework and more bleh.
It also means that I have only a week to finish the evil known as summer assignments. I'm almost done with my essay for AP
Very improper.
Item #1: I had forgotten that BZP and BS01's spoiler policies are out of sync, which means that it won't be for another two weeks until I can post the second chapter of Learn to Fly. I quite like this one, but alas... I guess that means I might actually have a few chapters written ahead of time, whoo! (Chapter 3 starts out focusing on Krakua, I'll tell you that. He's interesting to write about.)
Item #2: That did, however, somehow or other give me a sudden rush of inspiratio
I came to a realization, a few minutes ago while just thinking about random stuff:
Almost all of the revelations of long-standing Bionicle mysteries that I've hated were revealed for the sake of revealing them, rather than because they had any relevance to the plot at the time. The ones that were relevant to the plot, I did like.
Where the Bohrok came from -> Avotoran? Possibly the single plot development I hate the most of all of Bionicle. Was it revealed through some actual element of
Also, me.
And this is in thanks to a couple lovely new orders of Lego pieces that just came in!
In 24 hours I leave for Brickfair. Oh my god oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD
~ ToM
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «Mata Nui.
Mata. Nui.
I am so happy right now.
That movie ... that was ... amazing. I had never really liked the idea that Mata Nui was the universe itself before now, but this ... this did it so perfectly. It's a concept that could very, very easily be absolutely ludicrous if not handled right.
But they got it right. Good gods they got it right. I'm not sure anything other than this movie could have done it so perfectly. The music was
[note: it's Valenti's (quite accidental) fault this got re-published. Not mine. That's why it and the last two were supposedly posted today.]
My turn!
As I've said, in general I like them. A lot. They're quite original in some respects, and overall look rather good, if still not as formidable-looking as I'd want Makuta to be, though Krika's quite something in looks. (I've decided that in my alternate-2008-universe, they'll be Makuta who rebelled when The Makuta turned evil, and as a result
