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ToM Dracone

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  1. ToM Dracone

    Summer

    By ToM Dracone,

    Wow. I hadn't quite realized it had been a full two months since I updated this. Admittedly BZP was offline for one of them, but still.
     
    So. I've had a lot going on. Biggest being that I'm leaving for college next Monday. Yeah. I'm somewhere between excited and downright terrified. Not so much of going there, but because it's such a huge change for me and I'm worrying about things not being as good as I'm hoping (roommate, dorm life, etc.) and things like that. Plus, I've always liked being a kid. I don't want that to change. But anyway, I've been spending the last few days intensively getting ready for that, and before then just gathering stuff here and there...
     
    In other news, I also had a job. I was working for NYPIRG, the New York Public Interest Research Group, on a grassroots environmental campaign. I spent a month and a half going door-to-door trying to get people involved, either by becoming members of NYPIRG or sending calls and letters to our senators.
     
    It took a while getting used to, but I made some useful money, and, just as good, was doing something about environmentalism! I've stopped now, and I don't miss the hours or rejections at so many doors, but it was a good experience to have had.
     
    In the realm of Bionicle things, Janus and I reinvented all of 2009 and made it -so- much more awesome. I'll make a full entry – in fact, several – about it later, but in brief: it's set in the Matoran universe after the Nuva awaken Mata Nui (WITHOUT Makuta taking over – in other words 2008 has a happy ending that wraps up everything before it). The enemies are the Zyglak – and we developed a whole culture for them.
     
    And it has the best Toa team ever. Two female Toa (Water and Lightning), three ordinary male Toa (a Toa of Plant Life, a Toa of Ice, and Krakua), and a gay Toa of Fire (mainly because we couldn't make him female). I'll go over all of this at some later time.
     
    *runs and hides from the swarm of blogs* It is good to be properly back, though.
    ~ ToM
  2. ToM Dracone

    Yellow

    By ToM Dracone,

    A thing I noticed some time ago, reenforced dramatically yesterday:
     
    Take all the canister series we've had since yellow-orange replaced brown. Inika, Barraki, Mahri, Phantoka, Mistika, Glatoriana, Glatorian Legends. There is only one color of the six that I have bought out of every series: yellow (or whatever it was at the time).
     
    Hewkii Inika was -iron grey- and had an awesome chain. Carapar just looked cool; the trans-grey and yellow-orange blend was awesome. Hewkii Mahri I got mainly because he had the potential to be cool, and for all his godawfulness he had some nice pieces. I thought Pohatu was the only Nuva Phantoka who actually looked good, and the -orange-! Bitil I got because he looked interesting and had lovely pieces like his wings and black short double-sockets, plus yellow Rahkshi legs. Vorox, well, TAN. And now I've finally gotten Mata Nui, because even in yellow he looks pretty cool, and is the only Glatorian (possibly excluding Ackar) with enough new stuff to make the price worth it.
     
    Common theme here: the yellow-whatever sets have awesome recolored pieces. And half the time they're completely out of left field, which makes the sets even cooler – orange? straight yellow? TAN? plus all these suddenly yellow pieces on Mata Nui.
     
    And on top of that, the other colors just don't hold up as well as far as recolored pieces go – so much of the time, we see the same pieces in the same colors used over and over again. Yes, part of this discrepancy is because yellow is newer, so there are more pieces available to become yellow, but if you think about it, there are roughly the same amount of available pieces for the other colors. Even black has a bunch we've never seen yet – Bitil wings, Mahri shoulder pads, Kongu's chest, thin Inika armor, lots of stuff from the Barraki, weaponry... the list goes on.
     
    But, instead of recoloring some of these things, so often sets just have, say, old armor pieces in colors we've already seen them in. Gelu is really the worst here – sure, he looks really cool, but there are only four new OR recolored pieces in the whole set. Throw a little creativity into the pieces used for his armor and we could have a lot more than that.
     
    Discuss.
     
    And yes, I did get Mata Nui. You can discuss him, too, but we'll get to that properly in another entry.
    ~ ToM
  3. ToM Dracone

    A Need

    By ToM Dracone,

    I find myself in need of album cover art for Gravity Hurts. Now that I have an iPod I want to put it in there, but I also don't want my cover flow to become un-pretty because of it.
     
    I was able to whip something together pretty easily for Creeping in my Soul and Closer to the Truth using one of Cryoshell's wallpapers, but as far as I know no such thing exists for Gravity Hurts...
     
    I'm thinking green. Maybe something involving Lewa, but not necessarily. Because I need more green on my iPod.
     
    ... gods I am such an apple nerd.
    ~ ToM
  4. ToM Dracone

    Schnazzy

    By ToM Dracone,

    Gods, it's been a while since I've updated this. A lot of things have happened.
     
    First, I have now graduated from high school. The ceremony was nice; I went last year and it felt really weird being up on stage this time, under the lights... but pretty cool at the same time. It's one of those things that seems more important now that it's over than it did while it was going on. There were good speeches and it wasn't too long, just hot under the lights.
     
    The reception afterward was even better, though, because I got to see basically all of my favorite people in the world in the same place at the same time. It was just wonderful, and my dad took some great photos of us together... and it was made even better because even though it was the end of high school forever, I knew that I would see everyone there over the summer, so it wasn't the end after all. (And we do have some epic plans made. One of them involves a sleepover on a trampoline.)
     
    I also now have an iPod! A blue iPod nano, the latest version, which was a graduation present from my uncle. It is sexy and I love it lots. And my parents gave me some lovely speakers to go with it for my dorm room next year. They're awesome.
     
    In other news, and going back in time slightly, I had only one final exam, Greek, which went pretty well. After it I spent the rest of the week at school working on the literary magazine, while everyone else was taking their other exams, which was a bit weird, but still.
     
    And I think the only other thing to report is that end-of-year/graduation parties are fun. I had an awesome one at my friend Nick's last weekend. We had the most epic game of duck duck goose ever. It was like cross-country duck duck goose. It was hilarious. And lots of other things...
     
    And there is more to come!
    ~ ToM
  5. ToM Dracone
    We're done.
     
    I can't quite believe it.
     
    I also can't quite believe it's been a month and a half since we started this. Our performances were Thursday and Friday, and they went so amazingly. I was so, -so- happy with how the set and lighting looked (both of which were largely my design), and the actors were all great and knew all their lines and had their timing just about perfect. At least eleven people told the directors it was the best show they had ever seen at my school on the first night alone! And I think I agree, if it isn't tooting my own horn to say the set looked a lot better than some of the past ones that I went to did, and of course that all the actors were incredible.
     
    It makes me so happy when the audience erupts into applause immediately after the end. Even if tech work goes largely unthanked, it's just ... so, so gratifying when people love a show.
     
    Celia did a couple of her lighting cues too early, and I felt so sorry for Nick, because again sound stuff went wrong and it wasn't his fault – this time three different people forgot to turn on their mics (the businesspeople in The Meek Shall Inherit, inconveniently), and he couldn't do anything about it. But otherwise everything went really well, even the sound effects, which I had to teach Nick how to use the day before the first show.
     
    I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this free time now that we're done. I'm sad, really, because aside from the literary magazine, this was the last big thing I'll ever do at my school... having it be over makes me miss working with everyone on it already.
     
     
    Oh, I should mention what else has gone on in the past few days, too. We opened Thursday night. Then, Friday morning was Strawberry Breakfast, this school tradition we have that supposedly honors the graduating Seniors. Which meant we had to stand around sweltering and squinting in the sun for an hour after waking up too early anyway (while various grades performed various things in front of us). Only a couple of said performances I actually found interesting, but there were doughnuts afterward and my dad got some nice photos.
     
    Friday afternoon, then, we took our AP Latin exam, because the college advisor is stupid and ordered the wrong exam for us (Virgil instead of Catullus/Ovid), so we had to take the right one on the make-up day. And then there was the second evening of Little Shop after that. Followed by a cast party (which was fun) and then I and several other tech people slept over at Watson's again. And then we struck the set and cleaned up the green room on Saturday (after waking up around 10:30 and playing Halo for a while).
     
    So I'm really tired even now. -So- glad it's a long weekend.
     
    Also, welcome back to Le-Wahi!
    ~ ToM
  6. ToM Dracone
    For reasons utterly unknown to me, I spent much of the past couple days listening to this song. It's delightfully silly.
     
    But anyway.
     
    I survived the APs! Calculus was okay, but then I didn't know what to do for a couple free response questions and panicked and ran out of time on those two, so I had to leave a few sections blank. But otherwise I think I did pretty well. English was generally easy – I actually liked the essays I wrote, and I got to use Heart of Darkness for my prompt, which made me happy. Then US was good, because the DBQ was on a really easy subject, and though I wasn't too happy with either of my other essays, they were at least topics I could write about pretty well.
     
    Friday, after US and rehearsal, I saw Star Trek with a few of my friends. I actually liked it a fair amount, which was surprising because I've just never been interested in Star Trek before. This was my first time seeing anything from it at all, actually, but I was at least still able to appreciate all of the classic Star Trek lines...
     
    And then after that I had a sleepover with my friends Watson and Nick. (Nick is the one I drew that picture of a few entries ago) I actually played Halo and Guitar Hero for once. They were fun, though Nick absolutely owned me at Halo. And then desecrated my corpse. But that was expected.
     
    Other life happenings... well, prom's this Friday. It should actually be fun; I finally found a date last week (it turned out both of us had still been looking for someone to go with, so that worked out perfectly), and it'll be great going with her. Also, I have now acquired both a shirt and tie in this electric blue color, so I will be -fabulous-.
     
    LITTLE SHOP IS IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AUGH
    ~ ToM
  7. ToM Dracone
    I'm going to Vassar!
     
    First, though, Chicago was extremely awesome and I had an amazing time visiting there. Part of it was because I spent a lot of it hanging out with my friend Henry, who went out there with me, and then with Katie, who's a Freshman there now, and they're always fun in general. But then I also sat in on a couple classes and met some more really cool people, one of whom showed me around their theater space and asked me to come to a show she was in later, which I did, and that was lots of fun. (I dragged Henry and some fellow admitted students we met with me) The dorm I stayed in was also really nice, and since you can basically request which dorm to be in, that was sorely tempting.
     
    But eventually I decided that Vassar fit me better. I like the small liberal-arts college feel in general, which Chicago definitely doesn't have. And even though Vassar's Classics department isn't world-renowned like Chicago and Brown's, if I do stay with Classics as my interest, such places will still be there for graduate school. And Vassar won't.
     
    So that's that. I'm pretty excited about it now.
     
    Also, there are APs next week. US, English literature, and Calculus BC for me – and then collegeboard was stupid and sent us the wrong Latin exam (we're Catullus; they sent us Virgil), so instead of just fixing their mistake, they're making us take the (correct) exam on the make-up day. A week later.
     
    Which is the same day as Strawberry Breakfast (this school tradition thing) AND the second night of Little Shop of Horrors. Ally and I are going to have quite the day.
     
    And speaking of Little Shop, it's coming along well. I finished the posters for it earlier this week, now we're putting them up everywhere to attract audiences... it's going to be -so cool-.
    ~ ToM
  8. ToM Dracone

    Visitations

    By ToM Dracone,

    So, over the next week, I'm going to be visiting colleges again. At the end, hopefully it will be easier to decide where I'm going next year.
     
    Tomorrow and Sunday I'm going to Vassar and its glorious library, then Sunday evening and Monday I'll be at Brown. I'm actually having lunch with one of the Classics professors at Brown, who is familiar with my Latin/Greek teacher; that should be extremely interesting. And just seeing the colleges again will be, well, interesting, especially because I've only been to these two in the summer when there were barely any students around.
     
    Then I'm back for a couple of days, might get some Little Shop work done, and then I'm off to Chicago.
     
    I'm actually taking the train out there with one of my best friends, and then spending two days there and sleeping in one of the dorms. It should be fun, especially because I'll be with one of my other best friends, the one who actually goes to Chicago, for almost the whole time. I can't wait to see her again – and to see the place! And I've never visited the University of Chicago before, period, so I'm hoping it lives up to my expectations. But gods, I've heard so much about it.
     
    Hopefully, this will be not only helpful, but fun. I know Chicago will be fun, at least.
    ~ ToM
  9. ToM Dracone

    Day Of Silence

    By ToM Dracone,

    Just so everyone knows, the thirteenth annual Day of Silence is this Friday, the 17th.
     
    If you don't know what that is, it's a day where you stay completely silent in order to raise awareness of the bullying and oppression of LGBT students in schools. The point is to let people know that there's a problem here, and then to create discussion about it. I know that sounds contradictory, staying silent to create discussion, but it's basically this: if a lot of people stay silent together, other people notice them, and it brings the issue to people's attention, and they start talking about that. It's also for solidarity – staying silent all day is really hard, and some people are forced to because everyone around them is hurtful and homophobic.
     
    One of my friends and I are organizing it at my school, and so far a fair amount of people have shown interest. It makes me happy. (Of course, it's not like you have to participate in order to support LGBT folk. It's just a nice gesture.)
     
    So, just throwing that out there, if people are interested. We're actually having our Day of Silence at my school on the 16th, because the 17th is Earth Day and that would just complicate things unnecessarily.
     
    Best part: I get to wear my LGBTerrific shirt to school.
    ~ ToM
  10. ToM Dracone
    I have decided that this book is so totally awesome that it needs an entry entirely to itself.
     
    (it should be self-evident that this contains drastic amounts of spoilers, if anyone reading this plans to read the book but hasn't yet)
     
    Seriously, The Amber Spyglass has just about every single thing I love in it. Evolutionary biology, mythology, gay guys, witches, familiars, forest scenes, mystical places (namely the rainbow valley), and – and and and – as many women as men in positions of authority! Probably the only thing missing from my list of favorite things is some linguistics.
     
    I just love everything about it. It works itself out so perfectly, too. I wouldn't have had Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter die any other way, and Pantalaimon and Kirjava's final forms are so cool and fitting for them. And then ... Lyra and Will. Saddest young love story ever. And yet it's so fitting and works so well.
     
    That's another thing I love about all three books, they're not just fantasy trips – they actually have well-thought-out plots and such deep and complex characters. Mrs. Coulter. Mrs. Coulter! She was -amazing- in The Amber Spyglass! Utterly impossible to tell her motivations until the very end. It's so suspenseful.
     
    And I must throw in a word about Mary Malone. She's so lovable.
     
    Oh, this isn't the place to discuss the religious aspects, but I do have to say that if you're Catholic it -totally- makes sense that you might be slightly miffed about the series as a whole. Like, when I was reading The Subtle Knife and got to the revelation of Lord Asriel's plans, I thought "WOAH OKAY now I understand why the Catholics are up in arms over this." So yeah. Displeasure over that is rather justified.
     
    But anyway, I love all three books so much. I could go on raving about all the parts I like for ages, since I like almost everything in all three. They're very very high on my list of favorite books of all time. They're -such- beautiful stories.
    ~ ToM
  11. ToM Dracone
    I'm not sure if I've mentioned this here before, but a couple of my friends are directing a production of Little Shop of Horrors for their senior study project at school. And I'm in charge of tech and set stuff for it.
     
    It's going to be so fun. We started rehearsals last night with a read-through, in which I sang for Mushnik and Orin because neither of their actors were there. Needless to say, I make a terrible Orin. I'm not nearly tough enough. And his part is -not- in a good range for my voice. It was rather hilarious.
     
    Anyway, tech is starting stuff on Monday with building the set, and I'm looking forward to it. It feels really odd being the one calling the shots for this. But it's also fun, especially because it's just us students in charge, so there won't be any rowing with the normal director! (yes I did just use a Britishism; I like the word) It's going to be awesome. I can't wait for the show.
     
    Also, this is the sketch I mentioned last entry. I'm still amazed at how well it turned out. Isn't he precious?
     
    Also also. IOWA. VERMONT. YES!
    ~ ToM
  12. ToM Dracone
    First performance of our play was today! It's called Saturday Mourning, based generally on The Breakfast Club, and the aforementioned song is played at the beginning. It's hilarious and I wish I could just, like, show you all of it. I would rave for a while but none of you would really understand without having seen it. So I'll just share a couple favorite lines:
     
    Ethel: *storms up to the arguing Brady and Joe, banging on her gong* "I said — *CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH* ... I hope I've made myself clear!"
     
    Dylan: "Was that a cuckoo clock?"
    Ethel: "Yes. And it still is."
    Dylan: "... Why do you have a cuckoo clock in your bag?"
    Ethel: "So I always know what time it is; why else would I have one?"
     
    Ethel: *brandishes her rubber chicken* "I have a chicken, and I'm not afraid to use it!"
     
    But it went really well! Especially after our disaster of a dress rehearsal last night. Nobody got their lines absolutely perfect, but there were also no catastrophes – a few lines were missed, but no continuity was lost and everything still flowed great.
     
    And the audience laughed. Oh, they laughed. And they applauded. It was very rewarding. Anyone who's ever been involved in theater (even just doing tech, like me) knows how that feels.
     
    Second and final performance is tomorrow... looking forward to it!
     
    Also, I have found my muse. He is adorable and also on tech crew, and because we have long stretches in the play where we don't have to do anything, Celia and I decided to draw him a couple nights ago. And mine turned out really, really well. Best drawing I've ever done of anyone. Then we both drew him again last night and ... maybe he's just easy to draw, and the fact that he's sitting completely still helps, but somehow or other I can draw him pretty much perfectly every time.
     
    So, he is my muse. <3
    ~ ToM
  13. ToM Dracone

    Rock The Night

    By ToM Dracone,

    Lyg did this, so I figure I might as well:
     
    Accepted:
    the University of Chicago
    Vassar College
    Cornell University
    Brown University
    the University of Rochester
     
    Waitlisted:
    Swarthmore
    Williams
     
    Rejected:
    Harvard
    Yale
     
    Being waitlisted is at once more frustrating and so much better than being rejected. It's irritating because I'd rather know now if I should still be hanging on to Swarthmore, but it's better because there's still the possibility I can get in. So yeah. I liked Swarthmore really a lot, probably the most out of what I applied to, but then I loved all the others I applied to as well... except the U of R. That was my safety and it is not being considered further.
     
    So I really have no idea yet where I'm going. I still have to visit Chicago (going there over April break), but I've been to the other three and I loved all of them. And I'll probably spend a night at each, anyway, before I even really begin to decide.
     
    Since I know it'll be asked, I intend to major in something to do with Classics – Latin and Greek and such. All four schools I got into (UR is out, remember) have amazing Classics programs. Yeah.
     
    And of course financial aid will have some impact as well. I've only heard back from Brown on that.
    ~ ToM
  14. ToM Dracone

    Eighteen

    By ToM Dracone,

    So, I turned eighteen last Sunday.
     
    I've had an interesting week since then.
     
    First, I got rather severely sick the night after my birthday. Descriptions of my symptoms would get a comedy closed very quickly, let's put it that way. It was pretty awful. I missed two days of school recovering from it – spent Monday mostly asleep (I barely slept sunday night), then Tuesday lying on the couch re-reading The Golden Compass and listening to Little Shop of Horrors.
     
    It was some sort of stomach flu, we've determined, from which I've mostly recovered at this point. I'm eating regular and full meals again, at any rate. Though I'm still leery of some foods. Namely anything with large quantities of cheese on it.
     
    Anyway, on my birthday itself I finished reading The Amber Spyglass. Gods, I love that book (and the rest of His Dark Materials). It has, like, everything I love in one book. -So- cool. I've developed an odd fascination with Madame Oxentiel. And Mrs. Coulter is still awesome.
     
    Also on my birthday, I saw Sweeney Todd with one of my best friends! And then last night I watched Les Misérables as well. (a high school production, admittedly, in which two of my freinds were in the chorus, but still) I found it rather interesting that I had not seen either of these before, nor listened to their soundtracks, and I saw them with the two gay guys from the grade above me last year. Rather an odd coincidence.
     
    They were both great, for the record. Feel free to attack me for not having seen/heard them before.
     
    The rest of the week was spent finishing up the yearbook and making up a Calculus problem set due when I was out, and then doing Calculus homework and English reading the rest of the time. The absolute-you-will-die-if-you-miss-this deadline for the yearbook is this Monday, and we are so close to being done it's awesome. But it did mean I spent most of my extra time in school (and after school) working on it.
     
    Or sitting outside playing the bongos during 8th period. That was fun too. And then hanging out with my now-in-college friends, who were back for spring break! (the two aforementioned guys are in this group)
     
    The last activity was rehearsal for the spring play. I did not enjoy getting up 45 minutes earlier in the morning for rehearsals. I'm doing tech crew again – which is really just set for this, anyway. I'm more looking forward to Little Shop of Horrors after this is done. :3
     
    Oh, and I got into college! I've heard back from five places I applied – got into three, of which the most notable were the University of Chicago and Vassar. The other two I got waitlisted at. I was really sad to be waitlisted at Swarthmore, but at least it's not ruled out for certain... I'm waiting on a few others next week.
     
    So that's where I've been. Thanks for all the birthday wishes in the topic, too!
    ~ ToM
  15. ToM Dracone

    New Sig Quote

    By ToM Dracone,

    FEED ME
     
    Does it have to be human?
     
    FEED ME
     
    Does it have to be mine?
     
    FEED ME
     
    But where am I supposed to get it?
     
    FEED ME, SEYMOUR
     
    FEED ME AAALL NIIIGHT LOONG
     
    I am excited. <3
    ~ ToM
  16. ToM Dracone

    S S C Prizes

    By ToM Dracone,

    Now that we've finally gotten a few things resolved, I thought I'd share with you guys what the First Place prize in the Short Stories Contest 5 will be:
     
    1388 Huki and 1390 Maku, the Tohunga from the 2001 McDonald's promo, MISB.
     
    Second and third place are being resolved. HH and I are still investigating things for these.
     
    (I don't get to use this category often enough)
    ~ ToM
  17. ToM Dracone
    Figured I'd post this here, too, to help HH with getting the Library back on track:
    Keep re-posting and submitting your SSC stories! If you lost your entry and didn't have it backed up, PM Senjo. Yes, you are allowed to post multiple chapters per day to get an epic back to where it was. I forgot to mention this yesterday, but this was actually a very convenient time for BZP to be down, because it meant I could spend lots of time working on the yearbook without BZP as a distraction. (We were supposed to be done yesterday, but we're getting there... There's only so much left to do...) 
    Also, I feel a compelling need to say this somewhere:
     
    HALLELUJAH!
    ~ ToM
  18. ToM Dracone
    ... this isn't too bad of one.
     
    For me at least. I haven't posted altogether that much, as far as I remember, since September, and most of it hasn't been creative stuff. Lost Tahu Mistika's topic, though. Did I lose any stories? Don't think so... The vast majority of what I've posted was staff-stuff or news, I think. I've done much more non-staff stuff in the blogs, so I'm glad those are okay.
     
    But if you did post a lot of stuff... that's pretty bad. Yeah. And this doesn't exactly do anything good for the SSC. We'll see how that all works out.
     
    "Catastrophe" is one of my favorite words. I don't really know why.
    ~ ToM
  19. ToM Dracone

    Dæmons

    By ToM Dracone,

    I finished reading The Golden Compass today. I love that book so much. Lyra is the most perfect child ever and there are witches and bears and I love Pantalaimon and Mrs. Coulter is cunning and devious and awesome. I have an odd thing for murderous, beautiful, intelligent women in literature. They're always the most fun characters. Mrs. Coulter is no exception. "Do you like chocolatl?" *shiver* She's a lesson in why you should not accept candy from beautiful strangers.
     
    And I love the idea of dæmons. They're so cool.
     
    On a Bionicle-related note, they actually reminded me of an idea I had forgotten about for quite a while. I want to see someday a team of Toa who are all accompanied by familiars. (for those who don't know what a familiar is, it's an animal companion spirit.) Like Jaller and the Hahnah crab. They could take the route the Hahnah crab does, and make a new mold that's used both on the familiar and somewhere on the Toa. You'd simultaneously fill the quotas for a new-body-armor-piece and something unique to each canister set!
     
    I'm thinking the Water Toa would have a crab, and the Stone guy a scorpion, and the Air guy a bird, akin to a Taku. Something small and twittering.
     
    Also, I have power. Fear me and my mop.
    ~ ToM
  20. ToM Dracone

    Baaaaa

    By ToM Dracone,

    I received a delightful bunch of pieces yesterday.
     

    ::  
    Most of these are just parts I've been wanting to get ahold of for a while, and others that I just happened to come across while looking around. Dark tan is a wonderful color; I wish more of it existed. I threw a few of such pieces together with some other pieces and decided that tan over dark tan is one of the most perfect Stone color schemes one could manage. Mata Nui anyone? And I've been wanting transparent black Bohrok eyes for years.
     
    Just looking at this batch, I think I've fallen in love with the colors in it. Sometime, I'm going to have to make an earthy MOC of some sort that uses all of them together, because they look amazing. Like, wow.
     
    But, there were a few that I actually got for a specific reason. The tan ones were among them:
     

     
    MAHA.
     
    I will take a non-blurry, better-angled picture some time.
     
    Nothing more needs to be said.
    ~ ToM
  21. ToM Dracone
    Because I'm sure these are going to be mentioned and observed and discussed at some point (and some have already), I thought I'd just address all of these here: the 2009 Bionicle names taken from Latin. We might as well start from the beginning.
     
    Malum is Latin for "evil." (There is another word malum that means "apple," but we all know which one of the two meanings is relevant here.)
     
    Vorox comes from the word vorax, meaning "hungry."
     
    Metus is Latin for "fear."
     
    Fero is in all probability taken from either ferox, "fierce," or ferus, "wild."
     
    Spherus Magna, were it really Latin, would be sphaera magna, meaning "the great sphere/globe/etc."
     
    Vulcanus (also spelled Volcanus) is the name of Vulcan, god of fire and metalworking and other related things.
     
    Vastus is the word for "empty," "desolate," "ravaged," and other such charming things.
     
    Gelu is Latin for "frost."
     
    Perditus means "destroyed."
     
    Telluris means "of the earth."
     
    Bara (as in Magna) and Baranus and Thornatus and other Latin-looking names are not actually Latin. Sorry. I think these are all of them, unless I've missed something. And one doesn't really have to know Latin to see that Skopio was taken from Scorpio.
     
    Also, I hereby proclaim Sahmad to have come from the Arabian Nights. An impression which cannot be avoided, since "Samad" actually is an Arabic name. If I ever draw him, he will be weilding a scimitar and will probably end up looking like Jafar.
    ~ ToM
  22. ToM Dracone

    Onward

    By ToM Dracone,

    With the rest of them! Now, who shall we talk about first...
     

    » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «Dunno. I might as well discuss the group as a whole. I think what it is that leaves me feeling underwhelmed about them is that they lack flair. There are exceptions, but I feel like most of them lack dramatic bits and a certain distinction that the Glatorian, for comparison, did have. Gresh had his dramatic spikes and color scheme; Strakk his torso and shoulders; Malum his huge bulk and claws; Vorox was tan and had a tail; even Skrall had a unique build and his rather epic shoulder blades. Paraphrasing from DV, they were Inika clones who looked fantastic while being so. (Tarix is the exception.) 
    But when I look at these, it's their Inika-ness that I see more than the distinctions that they do have. Except for Stronius, the Glatorian Legends (is that really their name?) all have almost exactly the same body shape, at most a couple studs away from exact Inika proportions. With the Glatorian you had hunches and new body shapes and Malum's stocky bulk, and only Tarix and Gresh were left upright and seriously Inika-like in proportion. But there just isn't that variety with these.
     
    And because of that, their lack of dramatic distinction from previous canister sets is even more pronounced. Especially because they all use Thornax. I'm all for re-using projectiles or launchers, if there's something different about them (say, the Inika's Zamor magazines or the Midak). I mean, I thoroughly loved the spiked Zamor that were prototypes for the Thornax. But having -exactly- the same launchers for two series is slightly disappointing...
     
    Now, let's see... who shall we go with first... oh, why not Kiina?
     
    Kiina ~ I love her light blue. I also love the fact that -finally- Lego has made a female set that actually has female proportions! But what I don't like is that they sacrificed all aesthetic value of her torso to do so. Would it kill them to make Hordika necks in another color, like black at the very least? Or leave the 2-axles black for Kiina if no one else? And what about the technic triangles on her back; couldn't those be dark blue too? Sigh.
     
    Also annoying is that her body is tiny while all her limbs are really long. Her fin-pieces are interesting, if nothing else... I dunno. She seems very spindly overal, and my opinion on her is not settled yet. Seeing her with her proper mask color will help.
     
    Ackar ~ ORANGE. AND. BRIGHT RED. Plus ankle covers. Loooove. It's almost enough to overrule the fact that he is literally an Inika. Which is rather disappointing. It's a great design, and the ankle guards make it even better, but it just looks like he's missing something when the only thing that's unique to him is his sword, of all things. I'm okay with using Berix's mask (it really can go either way, fire or water), but after Malum I'd like to see some more fiery-looking pieces... maybe on his shoulders?
     
    He ranks very highly for me, just because I want that red and orange. Speaking of which, where were these last year when we had a Toa whose colors are red and orange?
     
    Gelu ~ He looks quite dashing and very sleek, but my main impression is "didn't we get half of this in Strakk?" And indeed we did. I love the white Inika chest, and through such he's better with recolored pieces than Strakk was, but I'm thinking I liked Strakk better. Partly because of how perfectly Strakk embodied the element of Ice. Gelu is cool, I like his sword, and the snowflakes on his arms are a nice touch, but there's ... not that much new to him. And I think the white Inika thigh armor is getting a bit old now. (Seriously – he has exactly four new/recolored pieces. Total. That's not much.)
     
    So yeah, he looks -really- nice, and like Strakk he has an awesome and unique color scheme, but also like Strakk an enormous majority of him comes in other sets. He's even worse than Strakk that way. I might end up just getting the white Inika chest on its own...
     
    Stronius ~ He's bulky and spiky and this is good. I think the only thing I really dislike is how big his head is. I'm not sure how I feel about the club yet. But I like him overall, though he seems a little on the simple end... Sort of hard to tell since most of the pics of him have the club in the way, and the ones that don't have the lighter, grainy prototype plastic. We'll see. I do like the fact that he looks clearly like a Skrall without being a clone of the winter set in the slightest!
     
    Mata Nui ~ I would be utterly in love with him if he were gold. What I had thought, from the leaked pics, was that he had gold armor over a yellow-and-black body – so his ankle guards, Inika legs, thigh armor, chest armor, shoulder armor, and Ignika would be gold, while his feet, hips, upper arm sockets, and hands would be yellow-orange. But because he's entirely yellow and has a new and far less appealing Ignika, I'm a lot less interested in him. I sort of think there's just too much yellow this way. It makes me think of a construction vehicle.
     
    But we discussed him and gold and how disappointing yellow is by comparison somewhat at length in the comments of last entry, so we don't need to here. I like his set's design a lot, especially the ankle covers, and the Mata Nui symbol blades are awesome and make great shoulder coverings (but they'd be so much cooler in gold). His upper arms, however, are annoyingly long. One could use a short double-socket and attach the blades with a perpendicular axle joiner just as easily.
     
    Vastus ~ The only word for him is awkward. His mask is goofy, his shoulder armor looks too organic to work with anything else on his body, the Inika thigh armor on his chest is awkward. And his color scheme is awkward. On his arms, it's lime over dark green, but then everywhere else, it's dark green over lime. It doesn't work very well. And then he has the eternally awkward Hordika legs. His staff looks awkward too. Sigh. The only things I really like are solid dark green Inika feet and the lovely clear-and-green Mahri tube – but even that pales in comparison to the absolutely incredible clear-and-lime tubes that Bunda got. Double sigh.
     
    He could be very interesting, if only he had a better texture. His mask and shoulders are organic-looking, and so is some of his staff, but then the rest of his body is all pistony and technical and the colors on his staff aren't so great. So he could look like this ancient jungle warrior if only the rest of his body matched his shoulders... his arms would have to be inverted, the armor and Metru legs dark green and the socket lime, then maybe another tube on him, and maybe Kalmah armor for his legs... Then he's have to have more organic, trailing stuff to look like vegetation, I think a few Piraka minifig spines.
     
    Hmm, this is fun. I do always enjoy making sets better, don't I?
     
    Well, at any rate, there are my thoughts on the canister sets for you. Opinions on some of them, like Kiina and Stronius, are not quite determined yet. And Gelu is too cool-looking for my own good.
     
    All of this will be resolved by summer, I'm sure. And I'm getting design ideas already, which is a good thing. Maybe I'll draw something in the next couple days. What say you?
    ~ ToM
  23. ToM Dracone

    I Can Drive

    By ToM Dracone,

    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-type guy. More afraid of that than I was of the test, actually.)
     
    But anyway, it's nice being able to drive myself places now. And not having to call my dad to pick me up or to worry about leaving him waiting... I think that's the best part, actually. It will make play rehearsal in Spring a lot simpler, too. And I can give people rides!
     
    Whooo. Maybe I should do something to celebrate for the sake of celebrating this.
    ~ ToM
  24. ToM Dracone

    Quick Mockup

    By ToM Dracone,

    So everyone can see what I'm thinking of, more or less:
     

    » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « 
    This is the color distribution I had thought that Mata Nui had – gold armor over a yellow-orange and black body. It's not perfect, since I had to use Metru thigh armor instead of Matoro shoulder pads; the latter leave more black showing in his thighs and make them bulkier as well. But it's pretty close.
     
    Minor color editing done to the leg armor (representing Inika legs with the new ankle guards) and the head (representing the Ignika) to change them from the slightly orange-ish gold of KK2. And to the legs, which are actually yellow Rahkshi legs, but pretend they're gold Inika legs.
     
    (and no, I did not actually cut an Olmak. The wonders of Photoshop.)
     
    So, pretend these are all the right pieces – clawed Inika feet, Inika legs, Matoro pads, Krika chest armor, Ignika, and Mata Nui symbol halves – and tell me, what do you think?
    If he were these colors I would be raving incessantly about him...
    ~ ToM
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