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Tufi Piyufi

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Blog Entries posted by Tufi Piyufi

  1. Tufi Piyufi

    The Empire Grows

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Lookie here, I got myself a new minion this week. Yes.
     
    Maybe this one'll be different. Maybe she won't try to usurp me. Maybe she won't 'mingle' with any of my other minions. Maybe I won't get so much backtalk from her. I'm still holding out hope.
     
    In any case, I've got myself a genuine princess now. That means she's got a much, much bigger chance of becoming Empress should I ever kick off. Yeah, that's right, guys. You just moved down The List. Bigtime. No, Kex, getting yourself pranked won't help you now. Just before you ask, yeah?
     
    Ah, this is delightful indeed.
  2. Tufi Piyufi
    It is fast. It is sleek. It sounds like the wind and nothing rougher. It is barren of all those weird programs my brother downloads, sticks on the C: drive (despite dad's pleas 1) not to go downloading random stuff like that and 2) to not stick stuff on C: anyway), and never uses after the first week. It is pure.
     
    In the traditional Piyufi naming system, it is Transframe. It is the successor of Ultraframe, which in turn was used right up to last night.
     
    It is beautiful.
     
    Also, we stopped right before the 'move all your files onto the new machine' phase, so I'm missing access to all my files, my bookmarks, and I'm using that new Internet Explorer. Regarding the last item on the list, it's not so bad, but I kinda prefer the feel of Firefox: things seem a bit too compact in IE for comfort. I'll ask dad to get Firefox back up later, though: 's'no rush.
     
    Computer-wise, I'm currently living out of a box. But oh, what a box.
     
    Finally, to answer what is prolly the obvious question: no, it doesn't, but we're waiting for the card that allows that feature to come down in price.
  3. Tufi Piyufi

    The Itemry

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Below is a large chunk of the text from my post in the official Pokemon topic. The list is the same, but some of the 'buffer' text around it is cut or altered, just because it flows better that way.
     
    Understand that I love the Underground. Also understand that I have a ton of Combees. If you remember these two points, the rest of the post runs like the smoothest water in the sleekest stream.
     
    In my time in the Underground, I have uncovered many items. Stones of all hues, rocks in varying forms, Heart Scales... Oh cripes, the Heart Scales. I have a ton of them. You really don't want to know how many. Just know that I can hook you up.
     
    When not underground, I will also spend some of my time as a Pokemon breedeuse, as the French so wouldn't say. Why, there was this one time when I was trying to get a female Combee when I kept getting male after male after male... I wound up with almost twenty spare male Combees in the end. I really don't need that many. I can spare them.
     
    Therefore, I bring offerings.
     

    What I Have Pokemon:
     
    19 male Combees - all L. 1 - varying natures (if you really have any specific request, let me know)
    14 female Igglybuffs - all L. 1 - varying natures (specify if desired)
    -2 have Sing, Charm, Perish Song
    -9 have the above plus Water Pulse
    -3 have Sing, Charm, Water Pulse
    2 male Igglybuffs - both L. 1 - natures below:
    -Timid Igglybuff has Sing, Charm and Water Pulse
    -Gentle Igglybuff has the above plus Perish Song
    All Igglybuff are named 'Doompuff' - this is not negotiable!
     

    Items: (quantity ranges from 'very few' to 'Heart Scale')
     
    King's Rock - very few
    Leaf Stone - few
    Fire Stone - tons
    Thunder Stone - tons
    Water Stone - very few
    Sun Stone - a bunch
    Moon Stone - very few
    Dusk Stone - very few
    Dawn Stone - very few
    Shiny Stone - very few
    Smooth Rock (extends Sandstorm) - very few
    Damp Rock (extends Rain Dance) - very few
    Icy Rock (extends Hail) - few
    Heat Rock (extends Sunny Day) - few
    Claw Fossil - very few
    Skull Fossil - a bunch
    Helix Fossil - few
    Heart Scale - oh cripes do not ask me how many Heart Scales I have
     

    Stuff I Really, Really Wouldn't Mind Getting In Return Pokemon:
     
    Slowpoke
    Krabby
    Cyndaquil
    Totodile
    Lotad
    Sableye
    Seviper
    Bagon
    Turtwig
     

    Items: (not necessary, but they are nice) 
    Up-Grade
    Dubious Disk
     
    The way it works is you choose a Pokemon, and then you choose the item that you want. You PM me and tell me what you're willing to toss my way in exchange for this. At some point, we reach an accord, codes are exchanged if this is the first transaction, and at that point...
     
    ... oh, the caveat. Seeing as how my wireless access is not actually within my home, I can't just fire it up and start the trade right away. Therefore, not only will trading times be restricted to between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM Pacific, but we have to decide exactly when we go about the whole thing. This will be part of the barter banter, but just a heads up.
     
    Different Pokemon to come whenever I feel like breeding a whole bunch up. Well? Anything up there interesting enought to PM me about?
     
    Also, if you have anything in particular you'd like to see, just let me know. I'll see what can be done, but no guarantees.
  4. Tufi Piyufi
    Number ratings.
     
    Made you jump.
     
    THey're the most horrific insult to the artist or builder imaginable, right? Every time you use one, a baby seal dies or something like that. They're four, five, six, even seven (and they can go even higher) characters of pure, putrid horror. A stain on the Creative Outlet or some othersuch.
     
    I bring forth the most modest of proposals in dealing with them, and I can vouch for its efficency on even the smallest of scales:
     
    Ignore them.
     
    Don't post huge things in the first post stating how horrible they are. Don't verbally roll your eyes at every instance of them. Don't get on people's cases just for using them, even if the words in the post itself are perfectly fine. They're four, five, six, even seven (sometimes higher) characters. You can skip over them. Just act like they aren't there in the first place. It's really not that hard. Once you get in the habit, it's the easiest thing in the world.
     
    I started doing this myself many moons ago. I'd like to think I'm a happier denizen of the Creative Outlet for it. You guys call them 'irrelevant'. If they're really so irrelevant, why do you get so uptight about them?
  5. Tufi Piyufi
    I think I need to clear up something on what I said half a year ago.
     
    When I said that Nuva shoulder armour just didn't work for breasts and I went over the reasons why, I did not say 'but oh, Rahkshi heads are just superb for the job'.
     
    They're even worse, folks. They're not even remotely the same shape as the real things. They're never positioned (and can't be) in a way that reflects the way the things really work (I'll give you a hint: Roodaka got it backwards). You're not doing a favour if you use them. I can say with the utmost confidence that no, they do not work on your MOC.
     
    Cripes, Roodaka really didn't do anyone any favours this way. Thanks a lot, Lego. From an actual female in charge of looking at what you've wrought, thanks a million. Hats off to you.
  6. Tufi Piyufi
    As progress should, lest it forsake the meaning of the word itself.
     
    Exhibit three: random things. Half general BBC-ish things, half tablet practice. I think I'm getting the hang of this thing. Well, both, really. And messy Tufi-tablet-writing cheatsheet:
     
    original shape
    current shape
    sigh
    glaivescythe
    hate
    strangulation
    puffin glaive
     
    It's really really really hard to see in the picture, but the princes are wearing what sorta turns out to be tuxedo coats. They don't have either of their tiaras in that one, though Schizo is trying on the Empress's tiara. Yeah. Fun could abound. Fun could really abound here.
     
    Look, I even made a new category for all this. That shows commitment. Right?
  7. Tufi Piyufi

    The Reality Hits

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    So I was going through my stuff in one big blitz of speed-get-stuff-out-of-room-ing last night, and I saw some things in there.
     
    For one thing, while dealing with my closet? Skirts. Also, dresses. Yes, in that very closet. And on the desk? Jewellery box. With things like bracelets and necklaces in it. Some of these had flowers and stuff on them. Let's not even get into the Clikits I found scattered across the room. And then the nail polish... I've been thinking about it all day, but only now have I been able to put words to it.
     
    Folks, I'm not half the man you thought I was.
     
    Your understanding during this time would be appreciated.
  8. Tufi Piyufi
    Late one summer night, there was a topic... There was a member, but nobody else could be seen around... The member came and left a post, then turned around... but when he turned back to the topic... the post was gone!
     
    This is why I never tell the bonfire story at camp. Now I shall provide you with something a bit more technical:
     
    Life of a Spam Post
     
    -Spam post is posted
    -If lucky, spam post is reported
    -Moderator comes across spam post
    -Spam post is deleted
    -Spam post ceases to exist
     
    Despite all the evidence, I had a friend/failed love interest in Grade Seven who insisted that Darth Sidious and Chancellor Palpatine were two different people.
     
    The forum does experience some hiccups from time to time and the occasional post is lost in invisi-post limbo, yes. Much more common these days, however, is the member utterly convinced that their post, where they managed to actually only say 'good work' (if it's even that relevant) in a paragraph's worth of words, actually added anything to the discussion and wasn't spam. Since, you know, only the new are capable of spam, and once you hit a certain length of time on the forum, all your posts are gold.
     
    Put effort into your post. Go into depth about things. Elaborate. Please. New members taking their first steps in a whole new community can be forgiven. I expect the more adjusted, established members to know better, simply because they should.
  9. Tufi Piyufi
    Hi. I made the BBC Contest #46 prelim polls. I'd like to talk to you for a second.
     
    If it were up to me, there would be a program that could take a posted entry list and turn it into perfectly random polls with but a press of a button. This would be simply marvellous. I even know all the things it would have to do: I'm just not a codemonkey in the least. Until then, it's all gotta be done by hand. And believe me, it's all hands. Copying, cutting, pasting, creating thumbnail URLs... There's not a lot of room for higher thought in there. Just about all the thinking involved is 'wait wait wait the URL didn't copy' or 'no, no, numbers are too close, numbers are too close...'. Coming up with a group of poll names is difficult because I have to switch my brain from repetitive task mode to higher thought mode.
     
    Also, you heard correctly in that last paragraph. Numbers. It's the entry numbers that affect what poll you go in, and nothing more. It's a matter of spacing entries out best as I can get them (though the fact that the entries never divide up evenly always makes for fun at the end of this stage). I remember when polls were 'the first ten entries, then the next ten entries, then the next ten...'. People would purposely avoid entering near entries they feared. This system was changed long before I ever became a host, and if it should ever come to that, I will rise from my grave to kill the host of the future who brings that system back.
     
    I make them as random as a human who wants to get the polls up within the month can make them. And you know what? There's always people who deem them 'rigged'.
     
    Not that the 'r' word itself has come up this contest, mind you, but the accompanying attitudes are still there. 'Random' apparently means 'not sharing a poll with an entry other people might think is better than yours'. Guess what? That mindless program would still wind up creating polls people think are 'rigged'. It doesn't know who's popular or who's really good or what have you. It just sees data.
     
    You know what would be rigging the polls? Arranging them so that no two 'good' (as deemed by the loudest crowd, of course) entries are in the same poll, so that they all go on to the semis. That would be rigging. And, sadly, that seems to be what some would rather have.
     
    Hey, folks? Sometimes life just ain't fair. It's a contest for building with children's toys, for god's sake. Stop acting like I killed your puppy.
  10. Tufi Piyufi

    Things To Be Said

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    or, A Numerical Listing
     
    1. You post a link to your entry picture in the post where you give me your entry info. You don't make me dig around for one in your gallery. You especially do not make me dig around for one in your topic. You are provided with a format for submitting your entry: it would be ever so nice if you did something even remotely similar to that.
     
    2. You do not just give me a link to your topic and run off. I will only acknowledge your topic as long as it takes me to get an entry pic out of it. You ignored the entry format: do not expect much more attention than that in return.
     
    3. If you want your entry to be named on the list, then you say what its name is in your entry post. This is like #1: the entry name is one of the fields of the oft-forgotten format.
     
    Okay, I might sound a teensy bit irked there. Maybe 3+ years of built-up irkedness coming out in a single night. It's possible.
     
    Seriously, folks, note this. And don't even try the 'lol noobs' comment. If only this was something commited solely by the inexperienced. If only.
  11. Tufi Piyufi

    Thirteen

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Been meaning to see that for a while now, actually. Anyhow.
     
    So there's this hullabaloo about the summertime canister-class sets being $12.99 USD. Outrage, 'how can they dare to charge that much', and so forth. All of a sudden, it is now a massive strain to buy the sets. The world is crumbling and things like that.
     
    Meanwhile, there is Canada, as of 2006.
     
    Hey. Guys. We've been taking the thirteen-dollars-plus-tax hits for quite some time now. We're still taking them (I think: no idea if Lego's gonna use this as an excuse to try to slip us the $14.99 gutpunch again). We've been dealing with $12.99 even as the value of the dollar justified it less and less and less. 2008 drew near, the loonie was looking spectacular, and oh look, $12.99.
     
    So to the Americans just now joining the $13 Club: it's all been done. This isn't new or unique in any way. Just sit back and 'enjoy' the Canadian experience. Or join with us. Gods know we could use the extra weight on our side.
  12. Tufi Piyufi

    This Is The Issue

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    I've been a BBC moderator for over four years now. That's four years of having my eye trained on the place. Four years of watching the Western Bionicle building community. That stretch of time includes the Rahkshi, Metru Nui, the Hordika, the Piraka, and the Barraki, among the other sets released over the years. There's quite a shift to be found in there. We went from the Nuva with incredibly limited articulation, to the Rahkshi with their knees and working necks, to the Metru with just about everything except for torso articulations and full shoulder movement. That's a massive shift in three years.
     
    That's the sets side of things. However, I'm not a Sets moderator anymore. The days of my attachment to Sets have worn off for a long, long time. Besides, everyone and their dog is blogging about sets these days. This is about the more MOC-ish side of things, and the folks who favour showforum=6 over showforum=2.
     
    If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned 'the declining state of MOCing' during this time, I'd have enough money to bother suing myself for using an overworn cliche and be able to live in luxury for the rest of my days. Those who summon this phrase often go on to elaborate why they think it's that way, typically citing something along the lines of 'too many bad builders'. Too much new, inexperienced blood muddying up the pool.
     
    No. No no no no no no no no no oh for no.
     
    There is an issue, yes. It has nothing to do with the quality of appearance of MOCs. It is so far removed from that, it's not even funny. It's the typical Internet boogeyman: blame it all on the 'noobs' so you don't have to look at yourself and maybe see that there's something up with you and the other established members. As much as I could go on and on about that in general, tonight I speak about how it manifests itself in the building community.
     
    It's all the bloody humanoids.
     
    They're the only thing a vast majority of people build. So much time is spent banging at the typewriter, trying to find the magical combination of parts that is the best. They're the only things a lot of people know how to review. Heck, there are people who, when thinking about a MOC to build, will only think in terms of humanoid. That is, 'what should I do for the head, arms, weapon, torso, etc.'. To so many people, that's what a MOC is.
     
    And you know what? It's even worse than the boogeyman. The whole spectrum of building skill is plagued by this, right up to the ends. It's a death of imagination. Creativity. It might be a bit hard to see at first, but you have to look past the new pieces of each year. Once you do, it becomes more and more apparent that you're looking at the same bloody thing. The pieces are pure distraction. It's a blur. It's all one big blur.
     
    Now that those contests are long over, I can tell you that I was just ecstatic when Roa's wreath won contest #39 and Shan's stone-Mata Nui won contest #40. It was proof that the public doesn't actually hate different concepts like those. They won't shun you for trying something new and different. They're not the obstacle here.
     
    Speaking of contests, why do you think we had #41 and #42? Rahi contests. Because even Rahi are so scarce. Heck, the typical vertebrate configuration, when you lay it out, is pretty dang close to the humanoid. It's just build and postured differently from animal to animal. Even this deviation seems to be too much. #41 and #42 were the biggest contests we've ever had, but good luck finding a Rahi from May on. Or before March.
     
    I already know what #46 is. It's not a question. The responses gathered by my 'Curiosity' entry only reaffirmed this and told me that no, I wasn't so crazy for thinking it up. Just so you all have a warning.
     
    The concept of 'fusion' is a big one. Mixing System parts in with Bionicle MOCs is regarded as one of the higher-end skills. It ends at the parts, though. It takes the parts and leaves behind everything else that is Lego. It leaves behind the very creative soul of Lego. Remember how you'd build all those ships and robots and animals and forts and what-have-you from your System when you were young, building the wildest things you could dream up, and you loved every minute of it?
     
    Go back and pick that up.
  13. Tufi Piyufi

    Three More Years Ago

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    So three years ago today, I became a moderator. Standard blue-type, nothing too fancy yet. I go in Sets; considering the catalogue wounds were still fresh, a given. Movies and Books; hey, Mask of Light just came out, the place needed all the help it could get. BBC... I'd actually been poked towards asking for BBC, and since I didn't know what in blue blazes I wanted in terms of forums, I figured 'what the heck.'
     
    Over time, I picked up Artwork and G&T, got assigned to Artwork II through that bit of forum mitosis, temped in S&T (yes, you heard me... hey, an assignment's an assignment), finally got into GD (once a GD Junkie, always a GD Junkie), dropped G&T, lost M&B somewhere along the way, and I've even had my name on the contest voting forum a few times. And then, a good while later, I got guest keys to all the forums anyway.
     
    But BBC has always been the unchaging, permanent fixture of my lineup. Not that I mind, as I have kinda grown to absolutely love it to bits. Yeah... you might've been able to tell that already.
     
    I mostly remember it was today since it was a very good week in general: school was back in, the 'What Will You Make?' tour was in town, I met up with the local club at said tour, impressed them with my ability to touch Bionicle pieces and not recieve unholy burns (this was a few years ago, you must remember)... It was a very good week.
     
    So, in short, wow. Three years. Wow.
  14. Tufi Piyufi

    Top Ten Tunes

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    On UltraPuffinPod. A fairly fresh list: the data's only had a month or so to build up.
     
    The concept is simple: a childhood with a noticeable lack of opportunities to listen to the songs I do love so has resulted in a young woman who finds the best feature of any music player to be the 'repeat song forever' option. Thus, highly skewed song play stats! Listed in order from most played to least. Gaze and be amused.
     
    I Can't Decide - oh, Master.
     
    The Way - old people ambling off to die. I'm a total sucker for that sort of stuff. Plus, the tune adds like thirty plays by itself. These two are somewhere around 130-140 plays; the next highest playcount is 40. Yeah.
     
    King of King's Song - ah, there's my Katamari tunes. This is the song sung by the King himself during the credits level of We
     
    Mesaze Pokemon Master 2002 - but one of many versions of the first Japanese themesong. While the others lean more towards rock, what with the guitars and the riffs and all, this one's a bit dancier. It's enough to squeak it ahead, anyway.
     
    It's the End of the World As We Know It - see note about childhood song scarcity. Did you know that, in the 90's, Animorphs fan pages were all about the little 'jukeboxes' of MIDIs? Those were the awesomest things at the time. Those and Realplayer. I think those are why we're looking at this song in this position.
     
    So Long, Marianne - it's non-gravelly Leonard Cohen! And he can still write songs! Such a thing was possible. Such, such a pretty song.
     
    Crazy - radio keeps me anxious no more. Also, Sheogorath is the bestest and this is the perfect song for a romp in the Isles.
     
    All Good Things (Come to an End) - my, but Nelly Furtado has a lovely voice.
     
    Katamari Dancing - my favourite Katamari theme, the one for the game I'll probably be waiting a good while longer to ever play. Made all the more horrible by the number of songs on the Beautiful Katamari soundtrack I love to pieces. Ah!
     
    Katamari Tea - like here. Were people really complaining about the sound of this game? Ye gods. And here I am, shot down fiercely. I hope you guys appreciate what you have. Appreciate!
  15. Tufi Piyufi

    Upon Reflection, A Plea

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    As noted in the previous entry, I've been a BBC moderator for three years as of today. I've seen a lot of MOCs in that time. It'd be madness to try and work out how many (though it would be a fun rainy-day project). I've seen a lot of not-so-fantastic MOCs, but I haven't turned to the System-side philosophy that 'nothing good can come of Bionicle parts' in the least. I've seen an incredible number of generic humanoids-with-weapons of every quality, but I haven't given up on the imagination of the general building populace yet. Generally, I have remained as optimistic as I was three years ago.
     
    But, oh, there is one chord that drives me insane every time it's hit. Contest #30? Oh, oh, oh. And it hasn't healed since. It's only grown worse. Thus, the following plea:
     
    Please, please, please, use anything but Nuva shoulder armour for the breasts of female MOCs.
     
    This is not because they are shaped incorrectly. Indeed, if positioned at the right angle, and placed on a MOC of appropriate scale, they are possibly the best option in such a scenario.
     
    However.
     
    This hasn't happened yet.
     
    Instead, there's MOCs with Toa torsos (and the more custom torsos as well) of all makes with 'em mounted on there, in all sorts of ways. You've got 'em mounted like a big silver watermelon. You've got 'em with the flat tops pointing out and forward, which actually bears an ironic resemblance to male pecs. You've got 'em stuck on there like a Toa Nuva stood in front of her and folded their shoulders in to their chest by ninety degrees. Sometimes, in this last case, they may be tilted a bit.
     
    None of these work. None.
     
    All you get is a MOC who looks like she's patronized the fine med grads down in Beverly Hills on one (or more) occasions. They (or in the case of the watermelon, it) just sticks out like a pirate at a ninja convention. Unfortunately, this tends to prompt some rather inappropriate comments from the folks replying to the topic. Fortunately, neither I or the rest of the BBC staff are willing to put up with this. So, that's one thing we can directly deal with.
     
    (And I will freely admit that I have done this for some of my MOCs in the distant past; however, you couldn't pay me enough to do it on a non-joke MOC in the past two years or so. I learned. It's possible.)
     
    However, there still remains the issue of the shoulder armour. That isn't so easy. I can't exactly make it a rule: yeah, there might be a thing or two wrong with that. I can't go to each of your houses and pry the pieces away from you before you make such a placement. Really, the most I can do is ask you to seek out other options, and frankly, that's the only route I'd take, even if the others were open. This has to be a voluntary thing: you have to be willing to find other, better options.
     
    You don't have to have each and every point of the curve defined. You don't need to differentiate between left and right. Just build something that fits the MOC. In so many cases, that isn't Nuva armour. That isn't a mask for each one. It's something else. It's something smaller. I don't know about individual areas, but the D-cup isn't the average size.
     
    Please, please, please give this a shot.
  16. Tufi Piyufi
    So, one might say that the opinions on the sets shown at Toy Fair are a bit passionate. That's fine. Passion's fine. Looking at things as a whole is fine.
     
    But cripes. Take a look at the playsets, folks. Do you not notice those beautiful little things?
     
    Black whips.
     
    It is glorious.
  18. Tufi Piyufi

    What Have I Done

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    [twitter=3]tufipiyufi[/twitter]
     
    See above.
     
    This alone puts me where I would not expect to be. But this was not enough! No. I just had to rush out and nab an appropriate app for the iTouch. This puts me in some very high ranks of... well, I'm still trying to figure out what happened. You will be the only app of the sort I use. Yes. I swear to cat.
     
    Dear god, next I'm going to be updating the thing from inside a Starbucks. How does this happen? Please keep me away from the hipsters.
  19. Tufi Piyufi

    What Is This?

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    So I change my avatar one night, see. So I post the strip I got it from in that same night, see. And before I know it, poof. Four instant copycats. Outrageous.
     
    Argument #588 against blog bumping: killing the original post dates of entries
     
    That's right, baby. I'm the original.
     
    What's more, the two FAs in the bunch have their avatars set to 100x100. This is not standard procedure. I shall find that treacherous admin who granted this irregular glory to these mere minions and make him pay with his blood.
     
    But wait, what's this? A minion daring to claim the origin as all his own?...
     
    I will be busy for a while. Excuse me.
  20. Tufi Piyufi
    I've done a bit of counting, folks. I managed to finish this particular count very quickly. Did you know that we've only got one female set this year?
     
    Now you do. Remember this: it is an important part of the entry.
     
    One female set. One. That means we only really have one female character in all the story this year. Yeah, yeah, so there might be those 'book-exclusive' characters. Honestly, folks, does that really make much of a difference? Not everyone's going to know what goes on in the books (and chances are, you're gonna have to ask 'well, what exactly does she do?': it's not exactly going to be big or meaningful or vaguely memorable). Yeah, sure, and you can also claim there's more back in the village. Like that hasn't been used before. "You've got a whole village out of six: isn't that enough?"
     
    Apparently, 'boys don't want to play with 'girl sets''. Apparently, the current belief is that boys will develop cooties sores and die or something if they're exposed to more than a bare minimum of femininity. Apparently, you have to market toys to one gender or the other, but certainly not both. Oh no. Boys and girls liking the same things? That'd be like cats and dogs playing together!
     
    Apparently, a whole half of an age cohort doesn't count as a potential market in any way, shape or form.
     
    There's more, gentle readers. One of the reasons given for making only one element female (and it's barely even a hard-and-fast rule anymore) is that 'it makes them special'. Speaking as an actual female, let me say that this isn't exactly a compliment. We're not 'special' just because our chromosomes landed a certain way. Being female just means we're female. We've got some crazies. We've got some geniuses. We've got some morons. We've got a lot of folks that, regardless of gender, you would describe as 'normal'. You know, regular people. Making femininity something 'special' sort of makes masculinity 'normal' by default, and I'm not exactly fond of that. We're talking about beings that are partly mechanical. The 'normal' should be the indeterminate.
     
    We only get one or two female sets a year. Last year, two: this year, one. We just might get another one next year. Wow. I don't care for the whole 'it's a boy's line' excuse: do you honestly mean to tell me that young boys/girls (because 'girl's lines' suffer this same problem, I assure you) should be kept away from a proportion of female/male heroes that reflects the population they see every day?
     
    I don't know what to say if you do.
  21. Tufi Piyufi
    A little poem thing about various puffin-Vahki, you see. To keep sharp and all that.
     
     
     
    A is for Amy, her voice a great drawl,
    B is for Beatrice, her tattoos and all.
    C is for Coraline, more curious than wise,
    D is for Desdemona, the throne in her eyes.
    E is for Eleanora, a great drain on mood,
    F is for Freya, the source of the feud.
    G is for Guinevere, her pathways askew,
    H is for Hecate, whose mercies are few.
    I is for Imogen, destructor of polls,
    J is for Juliana, far too fond of souls.
    K is for Karenina, quickly lead astray,
    L is for Ligiea, who pulls folks away.
    M is for Melissa, a boss to many,
    N is for Nigella, queen of the sav'ry.
    O is for Ophelia, maddened by love,
    P is for Philomela, sonics of a dove.
    Q is for Quyen, her wings great and broad,
    R is for Rhiannon, her magic mere fraud.
    S is for Sara, whose mind's flown the coop,
    T is for Tabitha, true witch of the group.
    U is for Umeko, too sweet for the fight,
    V is for Victoria, amateur of flight.
    W is for Wendy, the Vahki of style,
    X is for Xixitho, with weapons stockpile.
    Y is for Yaelia, keeper of the Hoto,
    And Z is for Zinia, who drank too much Proto.
     
     
     
    Just something I've been working on these past few... couple of weeks. I actually did one as the intro for a larger, Vahki-based story a couple of years ago, but that kinda went nowhere. A chunk of the names are the same, and the last two lines are identical to the original. That had to be the same.
  22. Tufi Piyufi

    Wrap, And Print

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Well, there goes my fifteenth BBC contest.
     
    There was a time (notably, the last half-hour of the entry period) where I wondered 'is it gonna be a full 300?'. With each entry added to the list, this developed into what one might call a curious fear. You see, prelims for approximately 150 entries is madness enough. Polls for twice that?...
     
    Then it capped out at 290, and there was relief. After the removal of DQed entries, entries without working entry pics at the time of pollmaking, and a doubled entry (honestly, I'm amazed I didn't make any more similar slipups given all the stuff there was to keep track of), the total was 284. This still worked out to 29 polls. Believe me, finding names for those last three polls was the least of my worries.
     
    Somehow, I got all that done. It was a flurry of copy/paste copy/paste copy/paste wait wait wait go back undo/copy/paste, and yet there were still a couple comments of 'pffft, rigged polls'. If there was s way to make all contest entrants site-wide make a set of prelim-like polls before they could enter, oh, how quickly I would jump on that. That accusation is a glaring sign that you don't really comprehend the kind of work and how much work goes into prelims, folks. It really is.
     
    Then semis. Then the final. Then the results topic. Then the unpinning of the entry-related topics. Then the blogging.
     
    And yet, I still feel like I can keep up the impression of sanity. Amazing.
  23. Tufi Piyufi
    Bionicle's rules about elements and what genders they can be are like the racing spoiler on a Honda Civic.
     
    At some point, you thought "what my car really needs is a racing spoiler." So you went out, bought the spoiler, and installed it on your car. They're not exactly naturally-occuring things: you kinda had to take the initiative on this one. Point is, you stuck a racing spoiler on your Civic.
     
    Why? Because it gives a great performance boost, that's why! It reduces drag and increases speed or something like that! If you didn't have it, you'd struggle to drive. It's absolutely critical to the operation of your car, and you simply won't hear otherwise.
     
    And it just makes it look cool. It's totally one of the high points of your car. By simply adding your spoiler to your car, you've given it a life and depth that you simply could not get otherwise. It just... it just adds something. Nobody likes Civics without racing spoilers! Everybody knows this!
     
    Sure, some of your friends totally dig the spoiler. They totally nod along and talk about how important the addition of the spoiler is. And then there's all the rest of your friends, who just ain't having it.
     
    They really don't know why you had to go and stick a racing spoiler on your Civic. They really don't see the point. Remember when your engineer friend had to excuse himself that one time you were talking about air resistance or something like that? He had to go clear out a hastily-arrested spittake. His drink went up his nose, you made so little sense. Not in, like 'guys who put spoilers on their Civics-sense', but more 'sane people-sense'.
     
    You know how you have a harder time seeing out your back window? That's the only effect your spoiler has on your Civic. A hinderance.
     
    And it's a heck of a lot less attractive than you think. Why do you think hardly anyone ever wants to go with you in your car? They're worried you'll get pulled over for going through yet another stop sign, and the cop's gonna see them, sitting in the backseat of a Civic with a racing spoiler. "Officer, I promise, I try to pretend that thing doesn't exist." They'd really, really rather go with Ted. You know, guy who bought a Civic but didn't put a racing spoiler on it, Ted. Ted with a beard.
     
    And yet, you just won't hear of any talk of removing the blasted thing. It's a part of your car! They're just looking for things to hate on! They're really in the minority! Why should you remove it?
     
    Because the beyond-arbitrary rules behind elements and genders are pointless, hindering, and so very much not a selling point of Bionicle. Even a racing spoiler on a Honda Civic has more point.
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