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Reporting In The Blogs *updated*
Blog Reporting
In the past, before the upgrades and the downtime, reporting things in the blogs was a complicated mess of PMing BlogAlert, linking the content, describing the broken rules, and hoping someone read the BlogAlert account in a timely manner.
NO MORE!
The "REPORT" buttons on comments and entries DO WORK. Before the downtine, they did not. Now they do! Hurray!
So, in short, if you have something to report, click that button, describe the offense, and a blog staff member will receive the report and an automatic link the the offending content. (Please do not use this to report signatures)
This is much easier on us, on you, the general populace, and also on kittens everywhere.
-The Blog Staff
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Lost In The Stars, With Stories To Tell…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. As a child, I'd always stay up late under the covers, reading every book I could get my hands on. And where other kids would read novels on the bus ride into school, I’d be scribbling stories of my own in a notebook.
Over the past twenty-or-so years, I’ve probably produced dozens of unfinished story drafts. Some handwritten, some typed, some even submitted to publishers, but none that I was truly satisfied with. Many of them had their genesis in a single character or concept or cool scene, that I struggled to then build a coherent story around it.
But we all have to start somewhere. And for me, that start came in highschool, when the idea of someday becoming a published author went from wistful dream to tangible reality. My bus driver at the time published a book of his own, and chatting with him in the lead-up to his book’s release gave me an invaluable insight into the realities of the industry, and ignited a fire that’s stayed with me ever since. It was proof that the dream was possible, and gave me hope that I could achieve it for myself.
In my adult life, I secured a degree in Creative and Professional Writing at university, worked as a journalist, DMed a D&D campaign, and so much more. But my goal of someday putting a book out into the world was never far from my mind.
In September of 2017, I began work on a sci-fi story called Stars Apart, and right from the outset, this one felt different. Where in the past I would eventually hit a wall, write myself into a corner, or run out of motivation, my enthusiasm for this story never faded. I felt somehow certain that this was the one, that if I just persevered, I might finally be able to realise my dream. The story has gone through countless changes and edits since then, and has probably been sent at some point to every single publisher in Australia that accepts unsolicited submissions… but in the end, my persistence paid off. I found a publisher willing to take the chance with me, and as of today I can officially call myself an author.
Stars Apart is a space adventure story centring on the crew of the mercenary ship Iron Vyper. Framed for a crime they didn’t commit, this found family of misfits must go on the run, find new allies, and fight to clear their names. The book is available for purchase from SkyNation Publishing’s website, where the first chapter is also available to read for free. All going well, this is intended to be the first in a series, and I’ve got ideas for plenty more stories beyond that.
Now, of course, I can’t talk about all of this without addressing the Tahtorak in the room. Bionicle has been a massive influence throughout my life, especially on my writing journey. I was at exactly the right age to grow up alongside Bionicle, the theme maturing as I did. And like every Bionicle kid, I loved building my own characters and coming up with my own stories. As I got older, that grew into participating in text-based roleplays here, and eventually writing my first long-form Bionicle fanfic, Embers.
To this day, the themes and characters, the world and lore, it all still leaves an indelible mark on my worldview and writing. If not for Bionicle, my life’s journey might have taken a very different path. It's hard not to feel like the unseen hand of Destiny has been guiding me down this path... and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
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Spring Was Better
(No featured image because for some reason I never take horizontal pictures)
Did you know the phrase, "The horrors persist but so do I," was only coined in 2023? I thought for sure it was taken from the letter of an 18th century explorer or writer or someone like that. Anyway, that's relevant to the how I'm doing portion, but I'd rather start with fun stuff I've been doing since my last update entry (which was somehow last July?).
All The Boards Games I've Loved Before:
Four cards, four games. These four are card/board games that I've made since 2021. Don't ask why, but they were all designed so I can play them against myself on the computer. Not even on Tabletop or a simulator I literally just open up the jpeg file (although I've very recently switched to PNG files) and move stuff around. It'd take too long to go in-depth for all of them so a super quick run down.
End of Infinity: an attempt to make a card game you can play standing up. Cool idea, I like how quick and easy it is, but I can't balance the cards and so I have a small number of cards which makes games get old fast. Still an interesting idea.
Onslaught: a pretty obvious rip off of "Xenoshyft Alien Onslaught" which is a tower defense game as a board game. This is cool because it does have a solo player variant. Enemy cards march in waves towards your villages and you move and attack with your small band of heroes to stop them. Combat is deterministic. I think this would be better as a flash game (do they still make those?) because it's a lot of work move all the cards and keeping track of health. Not sure how well it'd work with multiple players.
Dumb Card Game: the name is fitting. Both players have a line of 7/8 cards and attack with dice until only side remains. Some cards of special powers, but the game can't really have that many so this one gets old fast too.
Dumb Board Game: maybe the best if not the most original. This is basically a combination of all my favorite board games: Star Wars Epic Duels, Summoner Wars, and Heroscape. It's a simple skirmish game, but uses cards instead of miniatures. Roll dice, deal damage, and use special powers. The only problem might be how much of a copy it is.
None have a strong theme and I just use whatever images I have on my computer. But since I've been doing this for years I now have a folder of 700 pictures just for games like these. The main image is of a character from my books, because turning any of these into an official "Law Bringer" board game might make it worth trying to share these online but that's beyond my means right now.
What I Consumed:
I obviously I can't talk about ever movie, TV show, and book, I've consumed over the last few months, even though it's a short list because I don't enjoy any of them as much as I used to. BUT, I learned the other day that Youtuber Raven Chantal tried to have a music career. Which is "I Don't Care (Nanana)" is my fave song right now. It takes me back to 2019 despite being from 2022.
Writing:
I don't know what I said about these in my last update, but I'm making the final edits so I can send it off to beta readers next month. I have a hard publishing deadline of December, but it's going to come down to the wire. I'm honestly speed running this edit because I think finishing is more important than anything else. Focus on the character arcs, plot points, and important moments and just hope the rest is good enough.
What I've learned from trying to be a writer is that being successful (in terms of readership let alone sales) has more to do with marketing and having good people skills, Needless to say my career is kinda stuck right now. It's a good question why I keep going, but that's a whole 'nother thing I could go on about.
Since I'm already be depressing, that's the perfect Segway into...
Life:
Lately, I've found myself saying that the spring was better. That sounds weird because I don't think it was that great either.
A question I think over a lot lately is whether or not it's worth talking about what's wrong. So far I've come to the conclusion it's just better to keep all inside, but also try and be matter of fact about things. Hence, "the horrors persist but so do I." Things aren't looking great, but I don't think my life has changed much over the last year, so I'm not sure what might be coming in the future. Although, I'm turning thirty next month though so that's something big.
Okay, I think I'm done. I've had several ideas for topics I want to make (Overthinking The Great Beings, The Most Bizarre Greg Quotes), but either lose interest in them or never find the time to write, but that might happen in the future.
-JAG
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The Scale of Bionicle
It was some time ago on the BZPower Discord server that someone made a comment that perfectly summed up what exactly gave Bionicle such a unique tone. I wish I could remember who said it or when, I would literally pay someone money to track the original comment down. Its main point was that the plot of Bionicle was grand, dark, epic and Lovecraftian but, due to the fact the characters all talk like goofy 1950s comic book characters, the actual fact of the plot's scope is never commented upon. It applies particularly to the truth of the Mata Nui robot, Tren Krom, and the sheer scale of everyone's ages. Even young and energetic characters like Gresh are over 100,000 years old and the way Greg had to address this (like saying Gresh was young during the Core War) feel so hard to take seriously sometimes. Imagine having a midlife crisis when you're 40 and then still having 99,960 years to go.
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june: 15 days late (maybe more)
June was one of those months where very little happened. well, very little good things happened. Some people i know went back into self-destruction, choosing short-term satisfaction over long term stability. I wish more people would stay away from drugs. it's the great lie of happiness. the big event this month was heading to another anime convention, and doing some photoshoots there. i also tried to make it to a pride event, but other things got in the way. working on some more cosplay projects for the future.
the photoshoot: https://kumakamera.pixieset.com/animedays2026/tacmaid/
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Profile picture added
(post copied and mildly edited from https://www.patreon.com/DanPikora/posts/profile-picture-127689643)
I've decided to begin rotating through zoomed-in highlights of my creations as profile pictures. The first is live on Patreon, Flickr, Discord, and now - my BZPower profile! This one is based on a snapshot I took at Bricks in the Six 2024 while the lights were out to show lit LEGO models clearly. I had converted one of my Metropolis Square skyscrapers into a Moonbase module, which glowed nicely with a battery-powered floodlight.
Additional photos of Charm City LUG's cyberpunk layout that this was built for have been made available to my collaborators in and around Charm City LUG and to my Director-level Patreon supporters.
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June Days
Woo, on time! Kinda probably!
So, June.
Started off with my birthday, as Junes do. Wife and I went out for a fancy meal, started playing 007: First Light and started building the LEGO Death Star together with cocktails. All told, a perfectly lovely birthday.
As an aside, when the Death Star was announced, we both really liked the look of it, with the dollhouse-design instead of the ball of old. I was wavering on getting it (a grand remains a lot of money, even with a fairly established career), though the wife was all for it. It's a pile of money, but it's something I like and I'm rigorous in setting aside money for Lego and staying in that budget — why not spend it on something you want. So we walked out of the Lego store with the Death Star the weekend it released. And only just now, near eight months later, are we building it. Because sometimes you gotta wait for the time to build something.
Anyway, I bought Minas Tirith too, so that's next up probably.
Elsewise, June was June.
Oh, the World Cup started too and that's always a delight.
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Half-Year Happenings and Mishaps!
What a wonder that it’s already July! The days feel long but the weeks pass swiftly!
As usual, I don’t feel as though I’ve been very productive, even though I’m always spinning in circles/perpetually in motion. This month threw some curveballs and a concussion, so perhaps that contributed. Got a few more drawings stashed away. Sometimes they’re ready six months early, so it’s hard to remember that I’m accomplishing anything. Still working on that same oil painting, my first oil painting and first cityscape. I’m 76+ hours in, but I’m counting it as a learning process. And to be fair, my last painting (acrylic), which was a little smaller than this one, took over 120 hours. And, a few months ago I could not sit upright at desks for any length of time, pre thyroid improvement and figuring out how to elevate feet under desk in wheelchair. Tis such a treat to get to use my beloved old art desk again!
I’m amazed by people who can quickly churn out creations! What is life like without obsessive perfectionism?
Merely a few makes and mishaps below. Not a lot happens in my little hermit life, for which I’m grateful. ❤️ also, the ugly links here are because I take excessive photos and don’t want to overload the site spamming them and am not sure if my written descriptions cover stuff I’ve not screenshotted. Think I won’t bother next time because UNSIGHTLY. 🙈😆
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZXg4x4EWt3/?igsh=MWZmYmxubGZ6bXg1aQ==A 2x3” 8hr #randomartsofkindness drawing for an old friend of ours, it’s her birthday today! This is their new grandchild. Plus birthday card-doodles in coloredpencil. And other cards sent + life miscellaneousness afterwards. 🌼
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZXjoT8EYkD/?img_index=1&igsh=bTQyZnExNHA5M3Ni🦌 🦌 Visitors. The child’s swing box still needs another coat. The moto’ tag was found by my mom outside our gate.😆. The landscape is getting a bit of love this year, but is very much a work in progress. Tried to paint the concrete things a more clay color, but I mixed it a touch too pink. 🤭I also was paint sponging new bricks to match the existing landscape boarder granite slabs. And I made this coffee can purple beaded “lantern” for the front door to hide where there was damage on the metal doorframe. We then fixed the dear old lamp post! I do hope the Narnians would approve. It’s wounds were as follows: decapitation by our famfriend cutting a tree, 2022 and later, the (former) furnace oil delivery man backing into it and breaking its post/spine (just prior to him rolling and flipping the oiltruck down the hill in our field, 2024). 😂🙈 first, I used picture hanging wire to weave the head back on and removed the zip ties that had been on it the past few years. Then, I covered the tan with this hammered black spray paint (found in the basement), and sewed these faux glass panes for it. I sandwiched a clear plastic fabric between two layers of window screen and handsewed four of these together with Tex 70 thread. It’s held in with twist wire on top and a can lid ring inside near the bulb. Next, my mom and I dug out the base, joined the broken post with epoxy and 6 inch metal braces, then wrapped it all in an oatmeal tube and poured quickcrete around it. Worked perfectly! Mom picked up a few more d retaining stones for the flower bed below. In other garden gossip, I broke the handle off the ancient wheelbarrow when dragging these massive landscape stones in it. 😳🙈They were from the old walkway that my mom is in the process of replacing. So I hand carried them away instead, thus resulting in a couch-stuck flare for a few days. I have no regrets. Have to get stuff done! 😂🪨 🪨 🪨
My mom’s mini garden is coming in nicely. it’s her first time seriously landscaping after 4 years of rebuilding life here. Is it weird that I like to pet and kiss flowers and wish them good morning, noon and night? Probably so! But is that going to stop me? Perhaps not…🙈😆
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZaW4fnEWdZ/?igsh=YWdleHFtNWZjYXJuAnother mostly successful Dollywood Adventure…except my sudden, uncharacteristic worry over being possibly car-less one day became a reality. Also the speedometer hitting something like 06660(?)miles on the way there 😆🙈. Crazy how God mentally preps us sometimes. On the drive home, on highway 40 (an hour from home) In pitch blackness, a giant red boulder/hard debris thing bashed under our car. So hard that it launched my mom’s GPSing phone off the magnetic dashboard. We pulled over and something was leaking clear oily stuff underneath. She got it towed and our famfriend (who’s in his 70s) had to pick us up at midnight. Thankfully, seems like the car is mostly fine, needs tires + adjustments and oil/antifreeze was leaking. We’re so grateful for mom’s coworkers and friends giving her temporary transportation as we’ve no reliable family. She’s picking it up today. Still was such a fun vacay-day. People are so nice and some asked to take pic’s of The Child.👽❤️ Being a ride junkie, I filled up all my accessibility pass time slots again and they had to fetch me another card. It’s not big enough when you’re staying 10-11hrs. 😂Thanking […] for protection!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZpepZKlkcR/?igsh=MWJhbXp0ZzI0dTNqOQ==
Sweet spring. ❤️ Shasta with the blooming Shastas, my favorite actual, non-fungi flower (but dandelions, daffodils and buttercups are close behind). Their sunshiny shapes seem so joyfully approachable. Roses and orchids, though beautiful, feel frightfully formal in comparison, to me
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZpftEXFtgX/?igsh=cjFrbnRmb2xud2w1
Met this adorable, inky garden friend by my mom’s echinaceas. 🐌The first blooms resemble the wonky “first pancake” from a frying pan. 💜😂 And kimchi restock, we have a spoon every day for probiotics! Recipe by @maangchi . I used molasses instead of sugar. ❤️
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZpiw4kluKD/?igsh=bmN5bmZhYXo1Z3Y5So stoked we accidentally have a mega mailbox now. 📫 😂❤️🩹it was taken out in the 13th, as well, but thankfully on a Saturday afternoon, so we had all of Sunday to tackle this. Really can’t believe Mom and I accomplished this, and how challenging it was. 😭🙏It actually rained for about an hour mid project, and I had to scoop a few gallons of water out of the post hole. 😂 Had fun with it, and love it more than our last one. We’ll either wood fill or caulk and paint it in a couple of months. 🙌🥹 P.S. Sanded cedar sawdust smells so sweet 🪚🪛❤️
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0nFg0FqMj/?igsh=NGx5OXUyZDRyMnJ4A fairytale flower frolic🙏💖 💐.
Good June news:
My alarming, fast-progressing neuropathy and pain and numbness in my hands has significantly (almost entirely) improved! I’m able to sleep again, and without wrist braces. It was becoming torturous from accidental months-long b6 over-supplementation with a combo vitamin.
I’m able to cut out a lot of my vitamins now as per the multivitamin is causing overdoses with the separates.
Weird news: Peanut allergy came back after years of eating them. I just had hives, lip swelling and hoarseness, so took charcoal tabs and was fine without ER. So now I have an EpiPen RX even though I have a more recent history of severe epi intolerance/carcinoid crisis type reactions. 😂 So the possible future reaction plan is: get to ER, use epi there, then if it provokes carcinoid crisis-like collapse, they could use octreotide to stop it. 😳 Unpleasant thought process. 😂🙈 Giving thanks for answers though, I already wondered if peanuts could be the trigger for my recurring episodes of enterocolitis. 🙏❤️🩹🤷♀️
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0oqOukXde/?igsh=MW1keGR3N29hdTc4YQ==Plants, piano setup & plans to finish my current painting at some point. 🙈
🙏🎨100% lifezeal, %0 brakes = sporadic limp puddle of humanity in between creativechaos ♿️🩰 ✍️🎹🫶🪡
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0ptDPEfq1/?igsh=ZzN6N3Y1a3ZuZXQ=
Forgot to post about these for a reason I’ll explain later. Rushed to make these felt, bead and leather flower ornaments. All hand sewn. Made three of them, one for each of mom’s coworkers and friends who gave her rides when our car was out. Plus one for Mom. And this little makeshift belt for her as she needed one. Real leather, but not thick enough to be superb quality.🙈💐💖
(This bit contains a little bit of my religion. I can remove it if that’s a problem, and my apologies! It’s hard to genuinely describe the joy of being alive after a jolt like that. )
On Wed, the 17th, I took a tad of tumble. Thanking God for protection. 😭🙏😳I went out to swingset like I do everyday for 30ish mins (♿️joy) and the plastic side piece broke (guessing sun damage, swing age and how gloriously high I swing). Was all happy, praying and had worship music on and… click..I was thrown backwards into that cinder wall/stairwell. I later measured and I was flung 6 feet back at a considerable speed into the wall. I screamed 3 times but stayed conscious between blackness flickers. My head took the most force and hit first. Messaged and FB called my mom. I was able to get up and inside. My head was profusely bleeding, elbow, hand and ankle hurting. My mom came, left work (4 miles away) and drove me to closest ER. They CTed head and Xrayed limbs. Giant bleeding head hematoma with 1.5/3cm laceration. ER Dr “tied” it up with glue and my own hair. While I bled on everything in every room they took me to.😳 Lying in a CT like this is a painful, puddle producing activity.Small fractures/chips on my ankle and mid finger on dominant hand. So I got a head wrap like this🤕, foot boot/cast and finger cast. 🙈
I definitely feel like I got a concussion from the lasting symptoms. 😵💫So grateful to God I didn’t get serious injury! 🥹 I check the swing hardware frequently because I actually thought “if I ever fall down there off the swing, I’m going to die. God, you know this” Angels are no joke. 🪽🙌My mid body hit nearly nothing. We are definitely moving the swingset in the future. 😂😳 I really thought I’d fractured my skull and might not survive it. 😭🙏 I’m recovering okay ❤️🩹, it’s just hard to slow down/notice injuries with existing chronic pain, so am wilting mid project more often 🙈🥀😆 Hoping wound will seal soon so I can wash hair and get in the infrared sauna daily again. The regular pain management/energy is noticeably worse not using it. Seems like the healing is taking longer due to ehlers-danlos . I’m able to do doubly adaptive ♿️ ballet, still stationary bike with pedal adjustments, and do all the art my heart desires. God is so merciful! Giving thanks and I love you all. ❤️🩹🫶🙏
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaIjelnEWIZ/?igsh=eDQ2MDU1cWc4Z2t0
☀️🌼💛I will never understand why the words “celebration of life” usually means that a life has ended. What if we just celebrated life while we were living it? Celebrating the close calls, the “almost didn’t make it”s and just the sheer joy of waking up another day and feeling the sunlight on your face?
This was a simple celebration of washing the concussion wound out of my hair. 🤕I’ve always dreamed of wearing a daisy crown like Alice in Wonderland, but never did before. I can confirm that frolicking in a boot cast is risky business (especially when usually in 🦽)but the Plush Pham didn’t mind! 💛😂(Also, yes, not my dress and it’s pinned to pseudo-fit with random garments layered like a crazy cake. 🎂 never too old for dress up 💛. Still waiting for the day that my thyroid medication starts to aid in the metabolic issues+ me not having to semistarve and exercise chronically to try to manage the monster (my body temp is finally in the 98s instead of 95!) Starvation is just something I’m used to with the severe GI dysmotility, but to deal with that while looking normal totally twists ones mind. My self worth is so distorted over these things I can’t control. 🫠 So glad [..] doesn’t care what I look like! ❤️🩹🙈) I also realize it’s the two year survive-iversary of near occult GI bleeding to death 2 years ago. [..] mercy never ends! 🫶🙌
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaIlrOBkfb7/?igsh=MXBlemF3ZTdkajMwcg==
Petted a Persian Silk tree( finally!), and the bachelor buttons are in bloom. So hard not to adopt a bunch of leaves on the occasional frolic.
& enjoyed the sweetness of spared life, summer’s start, Second Mother’s Day & [..] Day. 🙏🫶💐💖☀️🫂Had to hobble to garden runaway a lot lately, not being able to swing stole a bit of my sunshine, so was finding ways to fill it. Fields and forests are great for rest. I feel like I’ve missed on a lot of living for never having laid on the bridge watching clouds and trees above before.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaMFBr0kQL4/?igsh=aG9yb3I4NzQzamtw
Canyon, 3x4”, 5hrs for a new friend. Big thanks to them for allowing sharing! 🐶❤️#randomartsofkindness
I hope it’s okay that I’ve declassified this project?. Made these 4 pairs in April-May. 🫶 Was I too early? Did I jump the gun? Apologies if so, I never quite know. 🙈 I so wish I could make a set for everyone here. 😭❤️https://www.instagram.com/p/DaQiWyKEX_I/?igsh=MXRnbWZyNnd5ZjNqNg==
I think that’s all! It’s been a little two weeks since the fall. My head wound unexpectedly reopened after a week. Giving thanks that it’s sealed now. EDS wound healing is…interesting. I can’t really tolerate the finger cast, so I hope I’m not doing any damage there. The boot cast is also a sensory disturbance with existing knee braces. I’m trying to wear it as little as possible since I’m mostly in the wheelchair anyway. We are kind of wondering if I also broke the left ankle because it’s been swelling massively. I’m really bad at pain assessment because I’m used to chronic pain. I’m supposed to see an orthopedic at some point? I think the concussion is a bit better! Definitely the worst one I’ve had. I’m not sure how extensively it has impacted my cognitive ability or memory. I’m sorry if there are obvious deficits.
I’m very grateful to say my mom has moved the swingset to a non-deadly location. We had picked that questionable former spot simply because our yard isn’t level anywhere else. She dug out an area for it nearby. It’s been such a thrill to swing again! Feels like flying or how running used to. It’s the delight of each day to swing to songs while stargazing after nightfall. 🌌 But as I write this, my mom is removing the temporary cinder block anchors to attempt to install better concrete ones, meaning no swingtime for a while. We wish we could hire someone to do it, but who even installs/anchors swingsets professionally?😆This is an important thing disabled people need for joy purposes! I suppose we can always visit the nearby church swings again in case I need to” get my fix”. 🤷♀️😂I’m a swingset addict and have no plans of recovering from it. 🙌
Happy summer & July! 🫶
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halfway point
I've seen more movies than usual so far this year, so here they are all ranked in a rough numerical order that I have spent as much time thinking about as it takes to write this entry. Everything below the top two could change; everything Scream 7 and above I enjoyed
- Obsession
- Carolina Caroline
- Backrooms
- Project Hail Mary
- All You Need is Kill
- Disclosure Day
- The Furious
- Iron Lung
- Hoppers
- Pressure
- Toy Story 5
- How to Make a Killing
- Send Help
- Supergirl
- Over Your Dead Body
- Scream 7
- Crime 101
- Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
- Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
- Power Ballad
- Mercy
& some films I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks:
- The Invite
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- The Odyssey
- Moana (just kidding)
- Crossing
- Motor City
- at least two movies with titles I can't put on this site
- The End of Oak Street
- Mutiny (the Avengers Endgame of Jason Statham movies)
- Idiots
- Coyote vs. ACME
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Oops
Forgot to blog about May. Mostly uneventful anyways. Got back into playing Overwatch (for whatever reason) and have been having fun. I'm looking forward to Summer Game Fest and Nintendo Direct because I'm desperate for any new news relating to Persona, specifically Persona 4: Revival. P4 is my favorite game in the series, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyways, that's all for now. We shall see what this month holds.
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Epic Recommendations
See, I said it wouldn't be long before my next blog post.
Anyway, despite all my years on BZP, I've never really explored the epics forum much. Now having finished reading BZPGOT and most of the short stories forum, I think it's time to rectify that. But here, I'm more unsure where to get started than I was with short stories, so I'm asking for YOUR recommendations on what's worth reading. I'd say completed or in progress stories take precedence over abandoned ones. Feel free to plug your own stuff if you, in fact bonus points for that because it means the author is still active. I'm also willing to accept recs from pre-2011 BZP if they're archived somewhere.
For the feature photo, I'm adding another one of my Scriptorium creations.
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whoa
Has it really been this long? Geez. Do people even remember me?
When I last posted a blog entry, I had just finished college. My grandmother willed herself to live long enough to see my live-streamed graduation, and I started grad school outside of Boston rooming with my best friend from college, an organist looking to get a church gig in a big city who tethered himself to wherever I ended up going.
Grad school was way more intense than I expected. It requires an enormous amount of self-motivation compared to undergraduate work, especially in the humanities. On top of that, the pandemic meant a full 2/3 of it was online—which, in music composition, was a lot of writing music and not too many performances of it. Plus, doctoral programs cut back on admissions or paused them entirely.
2020 is also when I fell in love with the woman who is now my wife, and I have many wonderful memories of our first days together at the end of an otherwise miserable and deeply scary year. Our relationship was long-distance as she was still in grad school in Boston while I moved to Buffalo to begin a PhD. Those two years were my first spent living alone, which in a lot of ways I really liked. I'd always liked the snow (growing up in North Carolina meant we only got a full, fun, sleddable amount of it once every few years), so I've come to really like western New York in a lot of ways, from city life to the suburbs, and even to small towns.
So now I'm in the final year of the PhD, where the piece of music I wrote for my dissertation has been performed, and now all that's left is to defend it. I've been teaching a lot, including a class on the Beatles in the 1960s.
See you in a few more years, I guess? Or maybe I'll stick around. All my Lego is still back in North Carolina and I've only taken a few small trinkets with me on my various moves over the years. Two of our three cats would be absolute menaces with the stuff.
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I have a son
I have a son now. He was born just over two weeks ago.
Just a few more years, and I can tell him about a few things that happened in the time before time…
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a gentle hello
hello, bzp. and a warm hug to you, bzp.
This is going to be a fairly personal post. I've taken down all the other posts here for a variety of reasons, some haven't aged well and don't reflect how I currently feel on subjects, whereas a lot of it was me just being a silly teen.
You may not remember me.
I was never the most active person here, especially outside of my little circle of friends (mostly centered around CeeCee). I was probably most active in completely off-topic forum games, to be honest. For a while most of my actual chatting migrated to Skype, before kinda losing the thread of people I was close to when Discord became the platform of choice.
I've just been missing this site a lot, not just nostalgically, but for what it was. A little microcosm of forum culture mixed with an audience ranging from tweens to adults... all tiptoeing around language and content restrictions, weathering the trends and drama of the internet at large within a fansite for a children's toy line.
I'm a late joiner in terms of a lot of the real old guard, just one of those kids who lurked from around '08-09 to finally making a profile in '12 after G1s end.
-where I proceeded to do what a lot of silly kids do, post a bunch of nonsense and then rapidly attempt to seem older and more mature than I was, haha. Lots of comment begging (in retrospect, something I'm pretty ashamed of) and attempts at being provocative that were filled with angst. I'm still an angsty little ball of gloom and doom, but I think it's been tempered with a desire to just be a lot less acrid about everything. A few years back, I reached out to a few people affected by that contrarianism to just apologize. I pushed boundaries sometimes in ways that were really not appreciative of the space that I had or the people within it.
Recently I thought back on how important BZP and especially certain people on it were for the development of my art style, heck, even my views on some things to an extent. I already threw up a comment thanking probably the biggest influence on me actually continuing to make art (Taka Nuvia, thank you again!)
I wanted to make this post as a way of thanking those who may still be around (and maybe even remember this silly little ball of edge) for the hours of influence this place had on me. This post is for you. Thank you.
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18 years :o
... huh. Missed my anniversary by almost a month.
It's been such a long time, feels quite surreal. I still very much miss the golden days of recurring server messages and popping virtual bubble wrap.
But hey, this is one of the last places on the internet I know that lets me use old-school emoticons in peace
, so that alone makes it worth coming back from time to time. That, and the memories, most of them really fond ones, even.
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Bionicle Boys
A couple weeks ago, I got all the Bionicle boxes out of the shed. William - my oldest, who recently turned 5 years old - was instantly obsessed. First, we got out all of the 2015 sets, the Skull baddies, both variants of the Toa, all the Protectors...They learned all about Tahu, Gali, the whole gang, and about how the characters changed and morphed into different variations throughout the Bionicle story. William was mystified. The mythical island of Mata Nui is like a grand, colorful island full of mystery and adventure, and he is eager to explore it. After getting to know the characters, and the island, and the evil Rahkshi and Makuta - also the Kraata "slug," which William fancies to touch the good guys with and turn them evil - I thought it was time to introduce them to The Mask of Light.
William's excitement at the start of the movie was palpable. He was trembling with excitement, and stayed glued to the screen from start-to-finish. Afterwards, he asked me dozens of questions about the movie, the story, the characters...and he and his brother spent the following days pretending to be Kopaka, freezing each other; or Tahu, riding on lava.
William built a couple of Protectors, then challenged himself to build the Bohrok Kal combiner. He was so proud of himself for building the whole thing! More recently, I got together the pieces to build Takadox, which William did with eagerness. He then spent the entire evening putting Takadox in various poses, and proudly showing me each different pose. Later, we built Kalmah, and Toa Ignika. Now I've got Axonn coming in the mail, as well as a Bricklink order which will enable me to build Mantax, Carapar, Antroz, and perhaps a couple others.
Last night, I spontaneously put on Legends of Metru Nui. William was so excited, he ran from one end of the house to the other several times, and was almost vibrating in his seat at the start of the movie. Matau was his favorite, and made him cackle relentlessly. Triston is a little too young to be so infatuated with the toys, but he shares William's interest, and together, we play pretend - I'm Takadox, they're Kopaka and Toa Ignika, or Tahu, or whoever. Triston likes to say "Holy Gadunka!"
We have been bonding a lot over these toys, and I am actually able to share their excitement over the movies, the new sets coming in the mail, the old sets that have been disassembled for over a decade, now coming back together in the hands of a new Bionicle fan. The boys are huge Cryoshell fans, and every time one of the songs starts, William wants to know who the song is about, or for what part of the story it was made. We played some MNOG, and I even let him listen to my "Music of Okoto" album.
He has zero expectation of receiving any new sets, as he understands that it's been discontinued for some time, but I am absolutely getting him Gadunka for Christmas this year!
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BZP T-Shirt Contest 2025 Canceled
Hello everyone. With only 2 votes entered for the design portion of our contest, we've decided to cancel the contest for this year altogether.
There wouldn't be a point in making shirts if no one is interested. That's time and money wasted for the both of us.
I give a big thanks to all those who entered. Perhaps there will be more interest for a shirt next year!
Best Wishes.
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Cyclone no more
This will be my (new) final blog post, as merely deleting entries seems to not be an option. And I may as well use this opportunity to officially close out my activity here on BZPower.
I'll keep it brief. If you knew me back in the day, under the guise of a Toa of.... certain intense weather patterns... well, that person has thankfully been cast into the ether. I'm a much happier and well adjusted individual now. Transing my gender saved my life, as it tends to go.
Anyway, I'm still active in the Bionicle community and am on most of the big servers, so feel free to contact me there, if you care. And with that being said, it's time for me to sign out from this site for the last time. Laters ya'll.
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Big Ole Cold Snap
The polar front jet is taking a bit of a trip down to Texas and through the South letting all that nice frozen air slide right through about 50% of the country. Should be a good time if you like to freeze your booty off.
In other news, writing, working out, and reading is going well. Can't complain there.
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20 years later
Where are you now Conner??? Who did you become??? Did you get fed??? Do you still like Bionicle??? Did you ever think when you made that post, it would still be talked about 20 years later??? Did you ever expect someone to make magnets of your post???
I hope you have a good life!!!
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Fourfold of Fate
Hello, I'm planning to run a space-themed Bionicle RPG on Discord, and I'm looking for some additional players. If you're interested, let me know and I can send you an invite to the Discord server.
200 years ago, the Spaceship Artakan crashed into the desolate planet of Omega, stranding a population of Agori settlers. Even worse, when they woke up from their cryo-sleep, a malfunction caused them to suffer amnesia, forgetting their mission and their past. With no hope of rescue, they struggled to build a new settlement in the narrow Twilight Band, the only habitable zone of the planet. Currently, their population has grown, but there is unrest between factions of the Agori, and strange earthquakes continue to threaten their new home. A class of recently graduated students now have a chance to further explore their world, to uncover the mysteries of their past and the strange planet around them. This is… Fourfold of Fate: Legacy of the Starship Artakan.
Players will play Agori teenagers, recently graduated and ready to explore and put their talents to use. Players will have access to different mask powers, pets, and eventually all sorts of new tools and weapons, as they uncover mysteries, solve puzzles, and take part in occasional combat encounters. There will be four different routes the players can participate in.
Underwater Exploration: Professor Sufina Blanca has taken an interest in the unexplored ocean beneath the icecap on the Cold Side. She desires to lead a team with a submersible to explore the depths and search for signs of life. This will feature Exploration, Puzzle Solving, and Teamwork.
Underground Adventure: Eccentric technologist Fabarar DeepWood has discovered a radio signal that seems to originate south of the mountains. He wishes to travel beneath the mountains through the mines of Naxos to discover the source, in addition to scouting for new minerals and energy crystals to mine. This will feature Vehicular Operations, Technology, and Exploration.
Investigating the Maze: Esteemed Adventurer Huaju Dolostone wishes to map out a route through the rugged canyons of the Maze to reach the other side of the planet, so they can further explore for more resources. This will feature Combat, Teamwork, and Diplomacy.
Conspiracies and Politics: A lower class radical Eztli Aodh is seeking societal change, hoping to unearth conspiracies to turn the public against the ruling Orchids. She wants to lead a team to the wreckage of the Artakan and dig into the past. This will feature Politics, Investigation, and Espionage.
More details can be found in the Intro Game Documentation. Hope to see you there!
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The comic lives on...
So my 12-year-old recently read through all the comics I made on here back when I was ... what, 16? My main reason for being on BZPower for quite a while.
It was a surreal moment, and sort of embarrassing... 😅 but hey, the half-or-so of them that he understood, he thought was funny - so I guess the comedy works for that age.
Here's to feeling old and decrepit, but also sort of cool.
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oh hey
look at that, there's no delete button for blog entries that you only uploaded to see if your blog still works
guess this one is staying up
oopsa doopsa
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