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I've had a few people ask me about Kraata. I'm not sure how I can fairly offer them out, but I guess if I put them here then everyone has a fair chance. I'll check later what I have - I recall that I've a reasonable number of shadow kraata. Apologies to those whom I was supposed to reply to yesterday and didn't - it's been a bit hectic.

The term "swansong", meaning last creative output of an artist before death or retirement, originates from ancient Greece, and almost as long standing is the pertaining myth that some swans sing a beautiful final song before death, following a lifetime of silence. The whooper swan, which was known to the ancient Greeks, is known to make a series of notes upon death as its lungs and air cavities in the neck collapse. This is thought to have inspired the myth, and then term - I think it's a beautiful term. Even if not aware of this background information, you must well know this story from Aesop's Fables, this one being evidenced as far back as the fourth century, which I remember hearing at infant school: A certain rich man bought in the market a Goose and a Swan. He fed the one for his table and kept the other for the sake of its song. When the time came for killing the Goose, the cook went to get him at night, when it was dark, and he was not able to distinguish one bird from the other. By mistake he caught the Swan instead of the Goose. The Swan, threatened with death, burst forth into song and thus made himself known by his voice, and preserved his life by his melody.

Favorite metal band yess, they deserve it. So what's your favorite band that so unjustly dethroned Katatonia? The Cure. gothic rock/post-punk band that was most active in the 80s, if you haven't heard of them. they were a huge influence on Katatonia and their album Disintegration is, in my opinion, the greatest album ever recorded. Gotta love The Cure. That's a good answer. Disintegration is great, I think homesick is my favorite track on there. It's so spacey. It's one of those albums you have to lie down and listen to with the lights off, and it creates a wonderful atmosphere. Have you seen this video?

Favorite metal band yess, they deserve it. So what's your favorite band that so unjustly dethroned Katatonia? I bought a few CDs today: Soundgarden - A-Sides (Black daaaaayaaaayssss~), The Best of Radiohead, Disturbed - Believe, Nirvana - Unplugged in New York, Velvet Revolver - Libertad, Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill (Yiss, I didn't have floods on CD.)

Ah, righty Thanks! Primarily guitar. Bass guitar is a lot of fun too. xP How about you? Alto saxBari sax Soprano sax Piano Conducting Conducting, wow, that must be hard to learn, it's not like you can just hire out an orchestra for your lessons xD How did you learn piano? Can you recommend any good books? I've got some weeks of holiday left before university and I've got access to a keyboard I'd like to learn on. These two books should give you a years worth of material.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0877180059/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FXKVW0341DYZHQN1P9N9&dpPl=1&dpID=51paToKguKL https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0877180202/ref=sxts_sxwds-tsp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501936020&sr=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3155181382&pd_rd_wg=zbmhw&pf_rd_r=FKN4V2XZET39SEKVGTJK&pf_rd_s=mobile-sx-top-slot&pf_rd_t=9701&pd_rd_i=0877180202&pd_rd_w=hMgAT&pf_rd_i=piano+books&pd_rd_r=SWCZF6FW4HGVS2DE0M61&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65 Ah, that stuff's not really gonna cut it. I had a look at material from the first few grade books a while back, it's all way too basic, let alone first grade stuff, that's hysterically simple. Don't worry, I'll find something, but thanks anyway xP I guess I'll dig out the keyboard and just start playing songs. Hm, what for today? Ok, North America and South America didn't used to be joined, and both ecosystems existed pretty much independently, at-least as far as large mammals are concerned. Around 9 million years ago, ground sloths from South America started island hopping to the north; more species were able to do this by about 7 million years ago, and this exchange of species peaked at about 3 million years ago, when a land bridge joined North and South America. This event is called the "Great American Interchange". It is very interesting because it gives a clear context to the effects of biodiversity on natural selection - in all cases where both North American and South American large mammalian species filled the same role in an ecosystem, the North American species replaced the South American one, and only specialist South American species such as ant-eaters with no northern counterpart flourished in North America. The reason for this? North America was large, had a wider range of habitats, and had been attached to Eurasia previously - the result of this is that North America had much greater biodiversity, and survival was more competitive, so natural selection took place more effectively, and the North American species simply became better adapted than the South American ones, hence simply eradicating many of them when the land bridge joined their respective habitats. To give a specific example, this is why you don't see any tapirs in North America - the proto-horses of the North American planes were better adapted, and the tapirs could not compete with such a better evolved species which filled the same role in its own ecosystem. Many northern species spread to the South, but only a few specialist species such as the ant-eater spread to the North. Sorry that wasn't very brief, but it's very interesting and makes for an excellent primer on biogeography.

Collibus, anyone? Interesting band that popped up out of Manchester, I think it was, a few years back, and they just put a new album, too. Yeah, the music might not be especially complex in structure, but nor is Black Sabbath. It's pretty listenable and I love the vocals. I'd be interested in writing for your blog. I could do a weekly basis, for example. I like writing n I can rite lots of good English when I try. I can see it's kind of dead, but if you're interested in undeadifying it, perhaps message me?

Heya, Well, I just came back after over 3 years, and couldn't remember my login, so I had to try and make a new one, and failed twice because the server kept timing out - I guess I've got a poor connection from this side of the Atlantic. Yeah, dual accounting, I know, I'm bad, but I didn't think I'd be able to get into this old account - turns out I could. I never received any validation emails etcetera and I couldn't complete the new account process, but now it says the username "Kocytean" without the underscores "_" and its corresponding email (my current email, of course) are taken, so I couldn't update my details to them. Could you help me with this please, perhaps wipe the offending account or something? I have access to the email used for registration if you want me to confirm I actually own it. Thanks, and sorry for all the trouble!

Ah, righty Thanks! Primarily guitar. Bass guitar is a lot of fun too. xP How about you? Alto saxBari sax Soprano sax Piano Conducting Conducting, wow, that must be hard to learn, it's not like you can just hire out an orchestra for your lessons xD How did you learn piano? Can you recommend any good books? I've got some weeks of holiday left before university and I've got access to a keyboard I'd like to learn on.

Ah, righty Thanks! Primarily guitar. Bass guitar is a lot of fun too. xP How about you?

Due to recent events, how unfair the world is - that good people have to deal with awful things - has been on my mind a lot. Sometimes I feel too much. Recently, the concept of death. I was fine with it till a friend brought it up, and all my ideas which I'd decided relating to it to pacify myself came falling down. How terrifying, absolutely terrifying that one day we won't be here, our consciousness will be gone, there will just be nothing, and one day everything we know will fall to entropy. My way of dealing with it is that an end is what makes things special. If they were infinite, they'd be taken for granted. And besides, my concept of time is that it is another dimension. We might die, but we always existed once, and still do, if you turn back the pages of the infinite(?) book which is time. It's not that I don't believe in time, but I don't believe in the present. There is no experimental evidence to suppose that there is anything special about the present time - it's not even universal, Einstein figured that out. We are just inhabiting one part of the dimension of time, helplessly moving through it. The present moment might as-well be both long ago, and long in the future - nothing distinguishes it. That concept makes me feel tranquil, and privileged, actually, that I'm written somewhere in the history of "Things that happened", as a footnote somewhere - we are all written into the universe. I'm at risk of digressing. Sorry. I hope self-existential crisis is allowed within the BZPower rules. Here's a nice thing I've always liked to think about, if you believe in the big bang: Assuming deterministic laws, which is likely true since the quantum randomness due to quantum indeterminacy is emergent, then the lives of you and everyone you care about are coded into the initial blob of plasma and physical laws, like an encrypted piece of data on a computer chip. Perhaps what I most agree with is that "We are tendrils of the universe experiencing itself". I said that, and then I found out some guy said something similar before I did. The point is, I see no other explanation for consciousness - yet it is plain to see that we are conscious, and we are part of the universe, so we are parts of the universe experiencing itself - that's just what we are. How noble.

Cicadas, if you are not aware, are a type of insect that cocoons and "hibernates" for a long number of years, before they all hatch at once, reproduce for the next generation, and die. Their survival strategy is that by all coming out of "hibernation" at once, they completely overwhelm all their natural predators and literally fill up their bellies, hence saving the rest from predators. What a strange behavior to come out of altruism of genes. Now here comes the cool bit: Different species of cicada hibernate for different numbers of years, always prime, to minimize years on which awakenings coincide, which save them having to compete each-other for food. Who'd have guessed that nature was capable of selecting maximin common factor algorithms? Can I check you actually mean the key of F? What scale on F? Notes in the key of F major, perhaps? Or do you mean the tone is an F? Not trying to be pedantic sorry, just confused.

Huh, isn't this a bit weird? xD Ok then, Toa Nikila. See, she was always my favorite Toa - I thought I'd invented the Toa of Possibilities when I was a kid, then found she was real, then was gutted to find out she died on the Lesovikk team. And I mean, how cool does she look: Alternative answer: Turaga Vakama. Ew.

The guitar sounds massively influenced by The Cure to me. And the percussion, actually. I don't dig the vocals or overall style though. It's upbeat, sort of thing you could dance to, if you dance, but not something I'd listen to normally - maybe the lyrics add something in their original language, but I can't detect any soul or heart in it. Please forgive me for not listening to all of it, I listened to the first track and then skimmed the rest. xP 3/5

That sounds way cool. 2013, huh? I hardly knew they existed back then. Love that album, I'd love to hear them play Omerta live. That's absolutely awesome. They just did "Great Cold Distance" all the way through, so I guess next up is Night Is The New Day all the way through, 2019? Hm, I guess they don't jump about a lot xD, but they do know how to interact with the crowd, they make jokes and raise tension and pretend to leave and come back, it's like they're at home on the stage. I love how straight-forward, honest and down to earth Jonas always is. Actually, Anders' shiny Mayones guitars are as much part of the show as everything else. On the topic of Katatonia I'm the lucky owner of the Southampton show drum skin - I think it was Anders that drew these, wasn't it? I was having a hard time playing "match-the-Katatonia-member-to-the-arm-tattoos" from the picture of him drawing them. Oh, since there's so many metal fans about, I've got a spare copy of "Sounds of Decay", the original card digipack, and a bunch of nu-metal CDs I'm not really into like Ill Nino, Raging Speedhorn, Coal Chamber, etcetera. I'll pop 'em all up in my trade/sale thread thing tomorrow, in-case anyone's interested.

It's probably going to take at-least an hour lots of hours to write this out, so I'll update this over time. Records: The Animals: House of the Rising Sun 7" The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, With The Beatles, Rock 'n Roll Music Vol 1, 1962-66, 1967-1970, The Beatles Ballads Billy Joel: The Stranger, We Didn't Start The Fire 7", Space Oddity 7" Black Sabbath: Paranoid LP NEMS, Paranoid & Snowblind 7", The Eternal Idol LP Bob Marley: Three Little Birds 7" The Cure: Disintegration LP Reissue Iron Maiden: 1990 "The Box" 12" Singles: Run To The Hills, Flight of Icarus, Wasted Years Joy Division: Unknown Plesures LP Reissue Katatonia: Proscenium 10", Buildings 7" (Signed), December Songs - A Tribute to Katatonia double LP Lennon-Oko : Woman & Beautiful Boys 7" Madness: Baggy Trousers 7" Motorhead: Motorhead Live 7" Nirvana: In Utero LP 2007 reissue Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz LP, Shot in The Dark 12" Single, So Tired 7" Saxon: The Eagle Has Landed Live LP Truffle: Round Tower 7" Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy CDs: AC/DC: Black Ice Akercocke: The Goat of Mendes, Choronzon, Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (Promo) Alice in Chains: Unplugged Anathema: Pentecost III / The Crestfallen LP Anthrax: Ash: Avenged Sevenfold: Bach: Black Sabbath: Paranoid, 13, Chopin: Deep Purple: Dio: Diamonds, Disturbed: Ten Thousand Fists, Believe Down: NOLA Dragonforce: Dream Theater: Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Dream Theater, Score Live End Of Green: The Painstream, The Sick's Sense Firewind: Mercenary Man, Falling To Pieces, Breaking The Silence (Signed by Gus G), On The Fire (Super rare Japanese Bootleg), Days of Defiance, Between Heaven and hll (European signed by Gus G, European reissue, Japanese, promo), Live Premonition, World On Fire (signed by band) Gorrilaz: Gorillaz, Green Day: Guns 'N Roses: Use Your Illusion 1&2, Appetite For Destruction, G'N'R Lies, Chinese Democracy, Gus G: I am The Fire (Promo, signed, & digipack, signed) Iron Maiden: Brand New World, Piece of Mind Jeff Beck: Live From The Grammy Museum Judas Priest: Redeemer of Souls Kaiser Chiefs: Katatonia: Sounds of Decay (x2), Teargas LP, Brave Murder Day, The Great Cold Distance 2017 Reissue, Viva Emptiness 2010 reissue, Tonight's Decision (Original jewelcase & promo), Last Fair Deal Gone Down, For Funerals To Come..., Tonight's Music, The Longest Year, Dead End Kings, Deliberation, My Twin, Dethroned and Uncrowned, Sanctitude, Night Is The New Day (promo), Live Consternation, The Fall of Hearts Deluxe (signed by band) Machine Head: Megadeth: Peace Sells, Youthanasia, Rust In Peace, So Far, So Good, So What, Killing Is My Business, Hidden Treasures, Rust In Peace, Countdown to Extinction Metallica: Ride The Lightning, ..And Justice For All, Master of Puppets, Garage Days, Load, Reload, St Anger, Through The Never DVD Motorhead: Snake Bite Love Mozart: My Dying Bride: A Map of All Our Failures, Turn Loose The Swans, The Light at the End of The World, Like Gods Of The Sun, The Dreadful Hours Nickelback : Nirvana: In Utero, Nirvana, Bleach, Incesticide, Unplugged in New York Opeth: Blackwater Park, Deliverance, Damnation Ozzy Osbourne: Scream (Signed by Gus), Tribute, Under Cover, Diary Of A Madman Pantera: Reinventing Hll, Vulgar Display of Power, Far Beyond Driven, The Great Southern Trendkill, Offical Proof: 101 Live Paradise Lost: Draconian Times, Icon, Shades of God, One Second, Symphony For The Lost Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon, The Endless River Porcupine Tree: Anasthesia, Primal Fear: Primal Fear (Reissue, #100/2000) Rage Against The Machine: Slayer: Undisputed Attitude, Slipknot: All Hope is Gone Soulfly: Soulfly, Primitive, 3, Prophecy, Dark Ages, Conquer Steven Wilson: The Raven That Refused To Sing, Swallow The Sun: Songs from the North System Of A Down: System Of A Down Velvet Revolver: Libertad

Anyone in bands? Or play an instrument?

I think the last book I finished was Haruki Murakami's "1Q84". I don't recommend it. It's draggy and nowhere near as good as his other books. My first recommendation of his will always be "Norwegian Wood", but I'm also fond of "South of the Border, West of the Sun", "Colourless Tzuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage", and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". At his best, his works are hauntingly beautiful and reflective. At worst, shallow and sexually depraved. Wait, actually the last book I finished was Douglas Adam's Starship Titanic, authored by Terry Jones - and supposedly written whilst fully naked. A hilarious, slapstick light read I recommend to anyone without a stiff upper lip. Also, I've just about finished Volume 1 of Attack on Titan, but I'm not sure Manga counts xP Currently working through "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", which I am enjoying greatly, and is very readable for a late 19th century piece; a biography on Stephen Hawking, "Stephen Hawking, A Life in Science"; a popular maths book called "How Not To Be Wrong", which is interesting enough, focusing largely on statistical fallacies as these books often do; and lastly "The Greek Myths" by R and K Waterfield, which is very enjoyable, and simply written out in the format of fairy tales, as if they were true stories, how they were originally meant to be told - I've been a long time looking for a good Greek mythology book for the layman, and this book succeeded in delivering that. I've currently put on hold the Ray Coleman John Lennon 2-volume biography, and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - of which I'm kinda ashamed, since I respect the author and thought I'd enjoy it.

Hm, does a scalloped fretboard Fender Malmsteen strat count? xP Well, I bought three of the 1990 Iron Maiden double LPs the other day; Run To The Hills & The Number of The Beast, Wasted Years & Stranger in a Strange Land, and Flight of Icarus & The Trooper. Wasted Years was dead mint, never played, so I took it out the packet and couldn't bring myself to play it xD You like Agalloch? And Katatonia? Katatonia is my favorite band... Have you seen them live? Their Proscenium LP sounds amazing, it's got so much depth... And Queen of Liars too; Paradise Lost, huh? And Baphomet, Sentenced is amazing, I love that album, Frozen.... Christ, you guys are so cool. I'm staying here. Seriously, how come you're all into like this kind of music? Hardly anyone even knows death-doom and stuff exist, and yet you represent the majority of the BZPower music fans? xD PS. Heard of a band called Fragile Hollow? Previously named Rain Paint? They're like a gothic rock influenced alternative metal band in the Katatonia-ish genre, they played on the December Songs tribute album, and yet they're criminally little heard of.

Hi I've only the following non-set masks unfortunately: Golden Kanohi:Tahu, Pohatu, Onua Silver Kanohi:Kopaka, Onua, PohatuGreen kaukau nuva. As part of the Woolworths exclusive I have an infected Hau. Other than that the barakki, makuta, shadow matoran, metru nui matoran, etcetera, all have interesting masks, but they're not kanohi of course.

There's ~50 boxed/canistered sets here, and a large number more loose - to give you a rough idea I'm looking for about £150 for the lot if anyone is interested in going that way, and if you want I'd throw in what Hero Factories I have - they're all boxed, there's a Von Nebula, Bulk and Vapour (not sure where the box is for that one, I should have it somewhere), Stringer 3, Nex 3, Breeze 2, Raw-Jaw. I'm happy to throw in Power and Dust Robo-Riders. Something approaching a set of Knight's Kingdom first gens, red blue green purple black, not sure if all complete, again, just if you want them! Seems good value to me, there's the best part of £50 there just in Hero Factory. Hi ok, I'll check if I have another, and I'll get you that picture £5 on Lesovikk if you like? There's no vehicle or instructions with him but I'll check he's 100% complete. Could you message me a postcode or an address please and I'll let you know a quote for postage? All the best

Probably not, but it can't be far off looking how full it is. £5 as is, £10 and I'll check each part against the inventory and make it 100% complete. Not sure what postage to the US would be. I'm UK situated.

PM sent

Hi all, I've a large collection to sell off entirely. It's probably half the size of what it once was, because a couple years ago I sold a large number of complete sets and Rahi, etcetera, but there might be some interesting bits here. I'd actually primarily appreciate a rough valuation so I know how to price this lot for eBay etcetera, since I know most of these are pretty common and won't interest you lot here, and I don't have much time these days so I'd like to sell as a lot, but I'm also happy to take offers on the lot or just particular sets from you guys, and if you want more information on the condition/presence/completeness/photos of an item, I'll check that for you. I'm situated in the UK. If you'd like to deal with me but are unsure of my reputation - since it doesn't actually exist; I haven't been on here in years - I'm happy to put stuff up on eBay at a prearranged price, so you have that extra layer of protection. I deal with PayPal and MyHermes - I've sent hundreds of parcels with them and never had a problem. I've also have some Hero Factory stuff, gens 1, 2, and 3, & roboriders, but no-one cares about that, right? Here goes: Cahdok & Gahdok - Incomplete w/ instructions. Box existed at one point, not sure now.Boxor - Complete w/ box & instructionsTakanuva + Usannami Vehicle - I think there's two or three of these, a couple sets of instructions, at-least one must be complete.Nui-Jaga - Incomplete w/ instructionsMakuta Teridax - Complete w/ instructions ( x 1), Incomplete w/ instructions ( x 1)Lessovik - Complete w/o instructions, w/o vehicleNorik - Complete w/ canisterIruini - Complete w/ canisterJaller & Gukko Bird - Complete(?) w/ instructionsTakua & Pewku - Incomplete(?) w/ instructions8991 Tuma - IncompleteExo-toa - might be complete? w/ instructionsWoolworths exclusive - Complete I think, box bit battered. Ya know, the one with the infected hau, comic book and turaga vakama. Golden Kanohi:Tahu, Pohatu, Onua Silver Kanohi:Kopaka, Onua, Pohatu Canister sets: - may or may not have instructions, most are complete. Rahkshi:8587 Panrahk8588 Kurahk8589 Lerahk8592 TurahkA lot more loose. Hordika:8736 Hordika red (no lid)8737 Hordika blue (no lid)8738 Hordika Whenua8739 Hordika Onewa (Lid only?!)8740 Hordika Matau8741 Hordika Nuju Vahki:8618 RorzakhA lot more loose Toa Mata:8532 Onua8533 Gali8534 Tahu8535 Lewa8536 KopakaSome loose Toa Mata Nuva:8566 Onua Nuva8572 Tahu NuvaSome loose Toa Metru:8605 Toa MatauSome loose Visorak:8742 Vohtarak8743 Boggarak87448746 KeelerakSome loose Bohrok:8560 Pahrak8561 Nuhvok8564 Lehvak8565 KohrakA lot loose Bohrok Kal:8573 Nuhvok-Kal8574 Tahnok-Kal8575 Kohrak-Kal8577 Pahrak-Kal8578 Gahlok-KalA lot loose Barraki:8917 Kalmah8921 PridakA couple loose 8932 Morak - Complete w/ box & instructions There's about fifty loose bionicles unlisted by name, mostly incomplete, but including a set of Rahaga, a couple Axonns, Mahri, partial Inikas and Piraka, etcetera. A large number of Bohrok and Rahkshi. Some Phantokah. It's an incredibly long task to try and list them all. I think I might have a copper mask or two somewhere as-well, thinking about it, not sure. Bunch of kraata and krana of course. Oh, I might still have a couple of those 500 piece tubs from the metru nui era as-well. I think I have at-least one left. I might still have a big foam light-up sword, I think it's one of the Piraka swords, isn't it? - like one of these: No idea if you guys collect that stuff or don't care, lol.

I'm glad to see gears coming back. Hopefully it will be the start of Bionicle moving away from Hero Factory construction. And gears are more reminiscent of Bionicle anyway.

I didn't dislike any of them. Lewa and Tahu were a bit meh, but still worthy of existing. I liked Lewa in the films though.