Leaderboard

I find it amusing that the locking of three dead topics is cause for such jubilation.

I concur with all of these Ambage was a terrible decision for me to join and then it deflated into nothingness later on

I may have bought the Biznis Kitty figure for this exact purpose. But probably not. (No, not really, I need all the kitties.)

Nah, we still meet regularly to discuss the meaning of zombie bubbles eating shoes. You know, the important stuff.

HAS BIZNIS GONE TOO FAR?

Something I have been seeing lately that really bugs me is the notion that if there is more of something, it is automatically better or more laudable. That a 500 page book is always more commendable and more artistic than a 150 page book, or a three hour album of 27 songs is automatically better and more engaging than a twenty-minute, five-song EP, or a three-part trilogy of four-hour movies is inherently more entertaining than a single, self-contained two-hour movie. This idea that bigger automatically means better is something that has bugged me for a long time. Don't get me wrong, big can absolutely be outstanding; look no further than The Wall for a great album that is almost an hour and a half long with 25+ songs, or 450+ page Catch-22 for an outstanding book that is also pretty long, or the Lord Of The Rings trilogy for a collection of ridiculously long movies that are also outstanding artistic pieces. However at the same time, I have never felt that something should be commended purely on its length or size, and I see that done so often, particularly on the internet. The Great Gatsby is only 180 pages. Heck, Animal Farm isn't even 150! Is anyone going to argue that those aren't classics of literature purely because of their length? 12 Angry Men, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Dr. Strangelove are all barely above the hour-and-a-half mark. Toy Story and The Lion King are both under it, though you can argue their validity in this argument since they were targeted at kids(short attention spans). Casablanca is only an hour and 42 minutes. Would anyone argue the quality of any of those movies? Dark Side Of The Moon isn'y even 45 minutes. Sgt. Pepper's, Born To Run, Ziggy Stardust, 2112, and many other hallmark rock albums, aren't even 40. Disraeli Gears, one of my favorite albums ever, doesn't even clock in at 35. Van Halen's 1984 is even shorter. Tell me any of those weren't majorly impactful on the history of rock music or that they weren't laudable artistic pieces, and I will laugh at you. Again, I'm not trying to say that big art can't be good art, because it absolutely can. What I am trying to say though is that being big does not automatically make a movie/book/album/story/etc. better. Length for the sake of length, at least in my mind, is self-defeating because it bogs down any artistic message with excessive filler and prose. And it bugs me that people don't recognize this, and use the long length of a piece of art as something that automatically makes it better. Is it long? I don't care. Does its length serve a purpose? If so cool. If not I'm not interested. Is it short? I don't care. Can it deliver its message in spite of its brevity? If so cool. If not I'm not interested. Length means nothing as far as the quality of a work, whether it's particularly long or particularly short, and I'm sick of people acting like it inherently means something in terms of quality.

this would be a whole lot funnier if image-only comments were allowed, now wouldn't it

If I started an ask Wyldstyle tumblr, would anyone send stuff in? There's an ask Rita Repulsa tumblr that is delightful and she uses gifs in her responses, so maybe something like that?

Creativity unhampered by point totals! This is THE LIFE.

I say this on behalf of all the writers in BZP. Or at least my behalf. -Dovydas

At first I didn't know what you were talking about Now I can't stop. Please send help ;-;

Hey, folks. I thought I pop back in again to share some of my thoughts on the LEGO Movie since well, I actually managed to see it today. Before I start though, I guess I should take time to mention that I am looking for feedback in the previous entry on what you think I should do with my extra Oh, Tonight albums. So yeah, I appreciate it if you could leave some for that. Thanks. Alright, I am going start right off by saying that I rather liked this movie. And well, I felt it really captured the heart of LEGO in a lot of ways. So I definitely can see why a lot of people here (From what I seen at least) seem to have like it. Of course, I guess for me though, part of it is nostalgic to some extension as I reminds me how I used to play with my LEGO stuff as a child. Really it also makes me want to try and put more of effort into building stuff again (Although I still have space issue, so it might be awhile before I can do that.). But anyway, I think you get the point. I enjoyed the film. And honestly I can't think of any criticism of it really (Of course, if I had viewed a few times, I might find that I didn't like or whatever. Well, actually maybe Emmet and Wyldstyle relationship annoyed me a little as I feel like that trope is overdone a bit too much in media. Eh, not that I didn't like the characters. But I wish writers could of done something else, you know.). Hm...I know my friend didn't really like twist at the end, although he didn't tell me his exact reasoning. *shrugs* I am not going to say more on that since I don't want to spoil things for folks that hadn't seen this film yet. As for whether or not I would recommend this film for people to check out, I say if you are at least somewhat of LEGO fan that you should give it a look at some point. I mean I am not saying it is going to be most life changing film that you have ever seen or something, but it is certainly entertaining and it has nice bit of messages to it. I know I am certainly getting DVD for it when it comes out. Oh, I almost forgot...Do I think this film should have a sequel? Honestly no, I kind of feel like it has told the story that it wanted to tell already, so I feel like it would be forced if there was a sequel. I don't know. If they do end up doing it, I might at least give it a look. Oh, and I thought it was nice that BIONICLE got a bit of cameo in it. I am kind of disappointed that I didn't see Johnny Thunder anywhere though. Okay, it is getting a bit late here and I doubt you folks are reading all this anyway, so I guess I should just call this entry. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you all have a great day. Talk to you later, BZPers. Spaceship...Spaceship...Spaceship...Spaceship... - JMJ 2014 Fact of the Day: According to JMJ's sister, JMJ is Lord Business. XD

rip abby & jay leno

STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART STARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTARTSTART START

left down left up left start left up a b b up start left up right start ss ticket up left start b b b b a left down jay leno #IBelieveInPidgeot

I respect you and your right to your opinion, but words cannot adequately express how wrong I think it is.

If you do that, you're getting the farm animals question. Fair warning.

this episode is a beautiful treasure that must be cherished fite me

One piece top hat + beard = WIN

I showed my sisters freind a picture of what appeared to be a doctor who corn maze. Me: look at this! Freind: wow! That's amazing! Me: Ha! aMAZEing? And than we high fived and laughed and nobody else gets and and it was awesome.

long live ambage you'll be in our hearts 4ever

Look who arrived today! Smaller than I expected, but I’m okay with that. Detail work is really nice for the money; a $10 figure won’t be super-intricate, but the level of detail on the armor and rifle is very pleasing for the price. He’s smaller than my iPod, it’s adorable! Also there was a fancy vocal microphone in the box too. Probably not that important. Certainly not next to a cute little $10 Garrus.

I've been thinking a lot about Bionicle lately. I've been thinking of the potential it had, the joy it brought me, but sadly, also its decline into something I had a harder time appreciating right up until the unsatisfying end. One thing that bugs me the most, though, is what happened to Makuta. In the early days of Bionicle, everything was much more spiritual, much more mystical, much more intriguing. Obviously, as Greg's "Sizzle and the Steak" thing was all about, it couldn't remain that mystical forever, because some things needed to be answered, such as the true nature of Mata Nui. However, as time went on, it seemed as though more and more of the mystical things had an explanation shoved into them. Masks got their powers from being crafted from Kanoka disks. The legends of Mata Nui were all made up. I think Greg, in all his talk of sizzling steaks and twelve-foot cockroaches, needed to realize that not all sounds are sizzles, and not all doors need to be opened. I feel this hit hardest with Makuta, especially with how unsatisfactory his explanation was: he was just an angry janitor. Okay, that's oversimplifying it a little. However, my point is that when Makuta lost his spiritual side, his role as the spirit of Darkness and Destruction, he also lost a large degree of what made him interesting. With his powers restrained by the limitations of needing to be an actual creature instead of a spirit, and his motivations changed from a drive to destroy to simply a jealous bid for power, he became just another generic villain. And worst of all, he became a Planner. A Planner is, to me, a villain type that is rarely written well. They're easily recognized; they always have a Master Plan, and everything that happens goes according to it. This includes any victories by the opposing side, any uncontrollable contingencies, anything down to a butterfly's wingflap. And it's so dreadfully boring. In small doses, the twist of "it was all my master plan" is tolerable; it can pull the rug out from under you when you least expect it. However, the problem with Makuta is when he became a Planner, it was at the expense of eight years of story. Eight years and at least two defeats of Makuta had to be explained away as "all according to keikaku*". The more it happened over those eight years, the less surprising it became, and the more infuriating, because there wasn't even a character anymore. Just a cardboard cutout that says, "All according to plan." This is all very disjointed and not all of it is really worded the way I want it but basically, I loved the way Makuta was written from 2001-2004. He was a spirit driven by his very being to destroy, to conquer, to consume. He was intimidating and awe-inspiring in a way that he just WASN'T from Time Trap onwards. I can barely even read his words in the same voice as he had in the movies past that point, because it's so dramatically different. The movie voice is that of a spirit of destruction; it just doesn't match the words of a mere politician. *Translators Note: keikaku means plan

*applauds*

It concerns me that there is already a growing "TwitchTV Pokémon" fandom. It disturbs me that I am a part of it. ALL HAIL THE HELIX FOSSIL

That book's <150 pages scared me more than any long winded Stephen King novel ever did. Except maybe The Shining, but irrelevant. I don't have a preference for books or music collections, but for movies I tend to think that longer can sometimes be better. I just like it when a director is allowed the room to tell the story they want to tell and isn't inhibited by the demand to keep their story within a certain running time. Obviously not everything needs to be long and some things shouldn't be (*cough*Hobbitmovie*cough*) but it's always painful to walk out of a shorter movie with the reaction that a longer running time could have fleshed things out more. And that happens a heck of a lot more often than the opposite. So while I agree that making something longer does not inherently make something better, it can sometimes improve the story being told. And that does make it better.

What do you think might be the thing that makes it stale for old players and intimidating for new players? Is it perhaps that the advancement of a fighter's stats makes it so that new players can really only play against new players, and old players can really only play against old players? As in, a Class A/B fighter, which tend to be sponsored by newer players, can never really fight Class F/G/H/I/J/K fighters, and by the time they do catch up, it's likely the fighters originally at that position have moved up as well. This is where I think the problem lies, in that nobody can really fight the largest possible variety of fighters, and why I support the newer way of doing tournaments, as it's resulted in more battles. I think one solution would be to have a fighter having some starting statistics of 48 altogether, and when sponsored the player is given another 48 to distribute amongst stats, but from that point on, stats cannot be altered except by items, giving more incentive to buy items rather than a race to the highest class possible. Then, this way, we could categorize ranges of stats, like, for example, 21-25 could be average for all stats, 26-30 could be above average, 31-35 'potent', 35+ exceptional, 15-19 'below average', 14 and below 'low potent', and the fighter could boost their stats by using upgrade bonuises, or a Kanohi Pakari to boost their strength. Perhaps I may be a little biased, but I think the problem stems from the stats. By making it so that everyone was at a similar level, newer players could fight anyone and older players could fight anyone.

HM01

Dear Wyldstyle, how did you meet Batman? Do you maybe moonlight as a superhero and ran into him while fighting crime?

But what about No Joints Vakama Hordika?

Hey, folks. I thought I pop in today and well, share some loot that I got this week. So what's the loot? Well, as the title say, I got some CDs. CDs of what you ask? Well, Nervous Pudding's Oh, Tonight album, of course. Now you are probably wondering why exactly did I get four extra copies of the album. Well, folks, the answer is simple. I want to give them away to people in some way. I believe I have mention this before, but I was thinking of hosting a music theme LEGO building contest here and I was thinking about maybe throwing in some music from the Nervous Pudding and other BZPower musicians as prizes. Of course, no one really express interest in it though. So I am kind of inclined not to do it. However I still wanted to show my support to these musicians (In this case, the Nervous Pudding. I still need to buy Necro's Alien Grenade Launcher album, which I going to try to buy next month when I have a bit of extra funds to do so.), so I thought maybe I could do a giveaway for these CDs. What do you folks think? Is it bad idea? I would like to hear your thoughts before I do anything first. So yeah, post a comment with thoughts on the idea. In other news, it is looking less and less likely that I will be able to go to Northern Virginia LEGO Movie meetup (The weather lately and fact that my ride is having a difficult start to this semester have all been working against it.). I can't say I am hugely surprised by this as plans like this always seem to go that way with me. *shrugs* Eh, probably for the best really. I mean I have a feeling my nerves would of gotten the best of me and I probably would thrown up or something as I often do whenever I do anything out of my comfort zone. Oh, well. Hm...I am probably going to try and check out LEGO Movie tomorrow, if I can. *yawn* Alright, I should head to bed. I am sorry if this was boring entry to read. I hope you all have a great day and thank you for taking time to read this. Night, BZPers! - JMJ 2014

(I added bunny ears.) Not really, but they're there to balance the space out better and add more dimension to it. Also replaced the duct tape with hot glue so it's not as ugly now. I plan on possibly covering the entire thing in fabric at the end so that should help smooth out the raggedness that's there now. Still need to add more foam, though.

So...they're the Rahkshi Who Don't Do Anything They just sit at home and lie around And if you ask them to do anything, they'll just tell you "We don't do anything." THAT'S EVEN BETTER THAN MY IDEA I'M GOING TO GO LAUGH FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS NOW

nope 0/10 is not a hedgehog

In other news, nice MoC. Silver and light blue look well together, and cool multi-bladed fan thingy.