CyclonatorZ

Spiders.... Actually, it's only the big ones that really scare me. And when I mean big, I mean anything larger than a quarter. However, if they're blown up in full page photos, size doesn't matter anymore - all that matters is that you get those pictures away from me. And to think, I used to look at books full of the things when I was young... ~~END~~

Grah, I wish I had your computer. I am really getting sick of Windows Vista and it's incredibly incompetent compatiblity problems. ~~END~~

Well, honestly, I don't disagree with this new rule at all. And this has nothing to do with personal beliefs, but with common sense. As Arpy said, this whole issue is controversial. No matter what people's views on it may be, there's no getting around the fact that homosexuality is a very touchy subject across the world, and it's very likely that it will never get to the point where it doesn't bring up controversy. Just like how topics like religion and politics have generated so much strife and arguments throughout the centures, same sex love has also had the same history. That is why I feel that it has no place on BZP. It's not because I agree with censoring free speech on BZP - it's just that getting into topics like this on a site with tons of kids is simply not a good idea. The moderators want to keep this site as friendly and non-controversial as possible, and they don't want anyone getting offended on either side of the issue. There's simply not really any reasonable option but to keep this issue off limits in creative works, otherwise a whole floodgate of problems could be opened. Also, I agree that homophobia is a valid and reasonable term, but I also agree that it's use has been getting way out of hand. I think both sides of the issue have been expressing hatred towards the opposite viewpoint, and it's really disapointing that so many people can't just sit down and discuss the issues fairly. That's why I'm glad that this blog entry has generated such a honest and respectful discussion - it's refreshing to see people talking on such friendly terms for once. ~~END~~

If I could, I'd go and help you for FREE. Yes, I enjoy sorting lego bricks that much - and besides, it would give me a chance to meet one of the most awesome people on BZPower. ~~END~~

Honestly, I really don't know what is going on with my dreams. You see, originally I was really not very conscious that I was in them, but in the last few years my dreams have become lucid - now I not only know I'm in them, but every time I dream I seem to make at least one reference to someone that "this is just a dream." The problem is, even though I'm fully aware of my dreams while I'm having them, I still have very little control. The most I'm usually able to do is to guide my actions somewhat, but not in a way that I'm fully in control. And I have absolutely NO control on the actual environments I'm in. Also, in my dreams, I almost always either have a very sluggish walk, a muffled voice, or both. But that's just the begining of the craziness. In my dreams, the environment around me is almost always changing. One second I could be on my street, and the next second I'm at a huge factory, and then I'm in a garden, and so on and so forth. As I said before, I have no control over this - it just happens, and the locations I end up in are often the opposite of where I wanted to go. Same goes for objects that I'm staring at. It seems that whenever I'm looking at a bionicle canister or lego set in my dreams, every time I look away for a second and then look back, the box art has changed. Then there's the "themes" of the dreams. That is, my dreams usually have no real themes. One second I could be inside my former school, and the next second the school is a comunist prison which I am escaping from. Themed segments in my dreams rarely last for more than a minute or so, and I'm almost always moving somewhere. I have a lot of phobia dreams as well. I ocassionally dream about spiders ending up in the most awkward places. I dream about volcanoes erupting in my hometown (not really a fear of mine, but still). More often than not, however, I dream about nonsensical fears, like evil exacvators coming to tear down my house while I'm still in it, or strange, bodyless dogs attacking me (haven't dreamt about that for a while now, though, although I used to dream about them all the time). I also can never tell whether a dream is going to be enjoyable, scary, or both, because they often change midcouse from good dreams to bad dreams. One interesting thing is that I ocassionally have limited superpowers in my dreams, but they rarely work as I want them too. I often dream of flying, which is a pretty common dream for people, but usually it's more of a descending float that kicks me out of the dream when I hit the ground. I dream that I have guns built into my hands, or that I can fire lasers, but they usually don't hurt the things I'm aiming at in any way. Sometimes, I dream that I'm turning into a huge, hulking, bionicle-like figure, but one that doesn't have barely any more strength than I do normally. Just recently, I dreamed that I was a superhero that was modeled after a series of drawings and concepts that I made some time ago. That one was unusual, though, because for once my powers didn't actually have any huge weaknesses. Yeah, I dunno why my dreams are so weird. Maybe it's because of the disorder that I have, or maybe it's because my mind is usually very active before I go to sleep. Oh well, at least my dreams are somewhat enjoyable. ~~END~~

You should be banned for language like that, Mr Smeagol! :angry: BTW, Omi, was there any sort of subliminal message to this blog post? Because I'm having suspicions as to why you posted it in the first place. ~~END~~

Heh, I can relate. I'm almost always nervous around new people. Even though my confidence has been improving in recent years, I never feel comfortable at any sort of social gathering if some of my friends aren't there. Seeing my two younger brothers act so cool and relaxed around hordes of people they don't know sometimes makes me really jealous, but I just have to remind myself that I've come a long way. Well, my mom reminds me, anyway. 'Cause I always seem to go to her when I'm feeling gloomy about my life. That's what moms are there for, after all. ~~END~~

Funny, that sounds awfully familiar...

Agreed. ToDoom was and remains to be the illegitimate child of the series. Yeah, and it's really too bad. What I can't get over is that the film tried to be both a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark and a movie that attempted to shock you with gruesome scenes. Things like the comical dinner and the minecart chase contrasted with scenes showing slave children being beaten and men being sacrificed by an ancient cult. The two sides of the movie just didn't work together - and it's convinced me that Indiana Jones should never actually try to be legitimately dark and scary. It doesn't jive with what Indy's movies generally are - wacky, funfilled special effects adventure feasts with mystical background plots that are simply made to be entertaining. I forget how that scene ended. Did it break through the mouth of the temple or securely block the entrance? I can't remember either, but I do know that before the boulder started rolling, the entire idol chamber began to fall apart and turn into rubble, which is pretty nonsensical. Well, I could get political on this, but I'll just leave it at Hitler, though a bad man, didn't wake up one day and yell "We're superior! They're inferior!"... he was protecting his country from what seemed over time to be a conspiracy of foreign bankers. Aaand he went overboard. Badly. Sadly. But it wouldn't leave him blind to any magical items / clues the people may have had. If it were real, you'd think it even more possible, as raids / confiscations / searches by his military might have stumbled onto something that would otherwise not have been known of. The main point I was really making is that, IMO, the whole notion of Nazi occultism is silly to begin with, and is more an invention of popular culture than anything else. Hitler's real ultimate goal was to push foward the theory of natural selection and human evolution, and he claimed that he himself was God. I won't go any further than that, as I don't want the mods to close this entry, but I doubt anyone could really make a legitamite case that Hitler was obsessed with mythical legends and stuff, especially things that related to races he wanted to wipe out. Yeah. I mean, he was into some weird things, but the occult is more of a (documented) interest with the Soviets at that time. ...which now that I think about it is exactly what Crystal Skulls emulated. Never heard of that before, although I seem to remember reading some odd website that claimed some things that actually weren't that far away from what the fourth Indy movie said. That might at least partly explain why Russia got angry at Speilberg and Lucas for using the Soviets in KOTC... Yep, that's a blunder. Unless they thought they better make tracks to the other side, as someone on the other side may have aided his escape? Who knows, but at least there's room open for doubt... the wackiness isn't hitting you rapid-fire and right between the eyes. That's the main difference. Though ALL the Indy movies had wacky comedy scenes, errors, cliches' and whatnot, this 4th one just... man... it did NOT let up with the nonsense until the very end. Honestly, once they actually got up to the temple... THAT'S where I started liking it. But it was oh so painful getting there. Like, you wouldn't be watching a serious episode of Gundam as two pilots are exchanging blows with beam swords, then be cool if they cut over to a cockpit with a CGI Scooby Doo going, "RUT RO! *GULP*!" ... I mean, you'd probably jump up from wherever you were and let out a loud, "WHAT in the HECK did I just SEE!?!" Some things of questionable sanity in Indy is "ok". A barrage is disheartening. Well, I didn't think the wackiness was nonstop, but I do admit the scenes with the monkeys and groundhogs kinda didn't jive with the overall setting. Since they didn't take up barely any of the running time though, I didn't really mind that much. Now, if those animals had actually been major plot points, that I would have not liked at all. BTW, Jinzo, you're probably one of the few people that don't consider the aliens to be the major blundering point of the movie. All I've been reading on site after site is that they shouldn't have even touched UFO's. Glad to see there's at least someone else who doesn't think that.

Nonsense. Even as a kid... loved Star Wars, LOVED Empire... but even as a kid I could tell Jedi was carrying some major "Hollywood" problems. Ghostbusters... fun. Ghostbusters 2... not so fun, because it wasn't even trying to be as serious as the first. Raiders... pretty decent. Temple of Doom... mind-numbingly kooky. Last Crusade... Pretty much awesome. Crystal Skulls... crude CGI-fest of silly slapstick nonsense combined with rough errors. It's like... well, ever see what kind of "funny" movies come out of like Hong Kong? So many are just wacky... some are just crying for days awful... which can be kind of interesting in the right mood. But here you have a series with 2 good movies in it, a budget to bankrupt a small country, technological advances in film-making up the whazoo, like over ten years to get the next installment "just right"... and you get the Shia Lebouf (bad acting) brat from Transformers (UUUUUGH) swinging with monkey pals in the jungle. Dude... that's not outgrowing fun lol. I think what's going on here are your standards are too low. Just throw a bunch of CGI in your eyes and you're good to go, anything and everything else be darned. Oh my, now I know why I disagree with almost everything here. See, I personally think that Raiders of the Lost Ark was easily the best of the series, and I rate Last Crusade right behind it. Honestly, I liked Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a lot. Sure, there were some odd parts, like the Nuclear fridge scene and the ending, but overall I thought it captured the spirit of Indiana Jones far better than Temple of Doom, which I feel was not just the worst in the series, but just plain bad. And no, I did not enjoy it because of the CGI. I enjoyed it because I thought it had a good storyline, because I liked the characters, and because there was a lot of stuff in it that just felt like Indy - like the whip action in Hangar 51, the good old fashioned fist fight with Indy and Dovchenko, the exploration of the ancient gravesite, etc. Also, I think Shia Lebouf is a decent actor. Not earth shattering, nor especially experienced, but far better than a lot of younger movie stars. Besides, the good news is that he never actually stole the show from Indy, and remained what he was supposed to be: a sidekick. And that's fine with me. Also, when you consider all the other wacky things in the first three movies, I don't really think that this one is much more crazy: Raiders of the Lost Ark - Nonsensical boulder trap that destroys the very temple that it's supposed to defend, Hitler being interested in a JEWISH artifact, Hitler as an occultish freakfest, giant silly flying wing that doesn't really exist, planning to carry the ark on that same, very untested prototype aircraft, and of course, the spectacular opening of the ark, complete with freakish ghosts, face melting, giant rushing winds, sacred fire, etc. Oh, and how about the scene where Indy brings the truck into a dead end, goes into a tunnel, the market people cover up the tunnel with their stands, and then the Germans who were following him just TURN AROUND, even though it's a DEAD END with no possible escape routes. Temple of Doom - Freakish, unfitting opening with Chinese/English hybrid singing, Indy falling for Lao Che's obvious trick, Wille PERIOD, the whole entire dinner scene at Pangkok palace, sacrificial scene with the sacrifice living after his WHOLE HEART is pulled out, and then being lowered into a giant pool of lava, and the whole mine-cart chase scene, the bridge scene, and just about every scene in the movie that wasn't slow or boring. Last Crusade - The whole grave knight scene, The useage of Zeplins, the usage of fighter planes ATTACHED to the Zeplin, defeating the Nazi plane by making birds fly into it, the Hitler autograph scene, the totally wacky tank scene, the nonsensical Path of God challenge, and another trap that destroys the very place that its trying to protect grave robbers from. Basically, the entire Indy series is loaded with historical inacuracy, nonsensical traps, extremely incompitent and freakish enemies, wacky special effects, etc. Yes, Indy 4 used far more CGI, but other than that, I don't really think it's much more wacky than the first three. ~~END~~

Wonderful news about the movie, Greg. This was exactly what I was hoping for - because honestly, the first three movies were pretty much snoozefests when it came to action. And to think, just a week or two ago I sent you a PM asking about the movie. ~~END~~

Your welcome, and thanks to you as well, Greg. Out of all the authors out there, you seem to be one of the best when it comes to talking to your fans. The sheer amount of time you spend doing Q&A on this site is proof enough. ~~END~~

Okay, dunno how I missed this, but I kinda guessed it after I saw your video review of Tuma and heard that you were not brother and sister. Congratulations - you two are probably the first two bzp mods that have actually fallen in love. And that makes it all the more special. Same here. I'll be the first to admit that I actually thought for a split second that Turaki was really married. ... Um, anyone else going to raise their hand as well? .... No one? Ah snickerdoodles, now I've made a fool of myself. ~~END~~

dude how could you be wastin such an awsum gift with a little av you wasting waster :angry: ~~END~~

I agree, but not for the same reasons. See, I watch TV for one reason only: saturday and sunday morning cartoons. But now, it seems that the big move is for all the cartoons on basic cable to be replaced with pure junk like informercials and stupid teen dramas. This is bad for someone like me, who only has basic cable. I can't watch Batman, I can't watch Clone Wars, and now I can't watch Spiderman. All I really have left is Ninja Turtles and Chaotic, and I usually only watch the latter for the pretty graphics and battles. >_> Ah well, at least they're putting all the cartoons online now. Still, watching them on a computer screen in a home with four other family members is not nearly as enjoyable as watching it in the family room alone. ~~END~~

Honestly, I think I understand why they're doing this. Basically, if we were allowed to discuss this picture, then any topics or blog posts featuring it would descend into countless posts resembling this: ~~END~~

Oh. My. Goodney. How can anyone reply to an entry like this without mentioning lolcats? You can not resist the cuteness! ~~END~~

A BUSY MATORAN IS A HAPPY MATORAN - TeridaxTuraga Dume Heh, and to think this is probably better than my first theory back in late 2004. Just for the record, Visorak are not automatically mutated fikou spiders just because they are both biomechanical arachnids. Oh, and take this, please. Don't mind the odd language - it's just an, er, obsession of mine. ~~END~~

I no good at this game. Me doesn't listen to music very much. ~~END~~

TURAKI! You're downloading ROMS of games that are still being sold? Even I don't go that far! Oh, and Ledger Joker + THE Makuta = best villians ever. B) ~~END~~

Bones, you may have just helped me in more ways than one with this blog entry. As you can probably tell by my sig, I've been working on an epic, and although I haven't finished writing it yet, I know pretty much what is going to happen in the final chapters. Of course though, I want to make this into a whole series of epics, but I have a slight problem - namely that I have really no idea of what is going to happen after epic 1. Oh sure, I have a few basic ideas, but nothing's set in stone like it was for the first epic (many of my plot twists and events were planned out before hand). You may have just given me the solution though, bones. I think writing out the next epic using the technique you explained probably will help a lot And, even if that doesn't happens, at least this article has encouraged me to expand my database of info on my epic's world by a TON. That will come in handy for sure. B) ~~END~~

Wrong - the entry right before this one was the shortest bones blog entry ever.

Simple: I'd summon Xon's powers of matter reforming and turn the banana popsicle into a cherry popsicle Nevermind! I'd eat the banana popsicle, okay? I don't like lemon that much. Phew, I actually made it through this entry without making a reference to that obsession of mine. That's fortunate, because if I - GAH! WHERE'D THAT COME FROM?! Oh shishkabob, I jinxed myself. ~~END~~

You haven't been looking hard enough, Jinzo. There are tons of pictures like this for every convieceable subject.

It is official: 2009 is the best bionicle year ever. ~~END~~