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Sumiki

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  4. Sumiki

    To-Do List

    By Sumiki,

    - Pack up MOCs
    - Add more twiggies to Brickeens's blog
    - Get to BrickFair
    - Have lots of fun
    - Rescue Laughin'Man
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Hats
    - Rummaging in part bins for two hours
    - Have Brickeens build with my pants
    - Hats
    - Big Sunglasses
  5. Sumiki

    SHOULD I DO NANOWRIMO

    By Sumiki,

    CONS:
     
    I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME
    I'M UNCOMFORTABLE WRITING ON LARGE SCALES BECAUSE I'M AFRAID OF BUNGLING THINGS
    50,000 WORDS IS A LOT
     
    PROS:
     
    I HAVE AN EXCELLENT IDEA
    I WOULD BE ABLE TO SAY "I WON NANOWRIMO"
  6. Sumiki
    Star Wars is back with Episode VII at the end of this year, and I'm pumped because I'm secretly Star Wars trash.
     
    The first time I saw Star Wars, Episode I was already out. I accepted Jar Jar from a young age, but it didn't take me long to realize that while I enjoyed it, it really wasn't the same style of film. Nevertheless, I remember counting down the days until Attack of the Clones came out and I remember liking it too.
     
    By the time 2005 rolled around and I was counting down the days until Revenge of the Sith, and I loved it in the theater only slightly more than I do now.
     
    Only later did I discover the immense dislike—hatred, even, in some circles—directed against the prequels, and my subsequent viewings began to take these views into account. While they're certainly not as good as the originals, they're an enjoyable series. If Lucas hadn't ever made the originals and started in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, I'd bet the saga would still be big.
     
    This brings us to the crux of the debate of prequels vs. originals: when watching the prequels, we know what's going to happen. We know that Anakin turns to the dark side, we know that Palpatine is going to become Emperor, and we know that the Jedi have to be all but wiped out. The question of how to get from point A to point B makes for an inherently less interesting set of films.
     
    Could George Lucas have made the prequels better? Certainly; even from a layman's perspective, I see opportunities to improve on existing material or even outright changed it. But even if the plots were scrapped and a different prequel trilogy existed, they would never be the epics that the die-hard fans wanted. It all goes back to the fact that we know where the story is going. Plot twists are anticipated. It's harder to get emotionally invested in characters like Qui-Gon because, well, we knew that he was going to bite the dust at some point, as would Darth Maul. The only surprise is that both fatalities came during the same battle.
     
    How does all of this affect the sequels?
     
    For starters, we've got a team unencumbered by an endpoint. With the EU non-canon, the fandom expects something truly epic to make up for their fantasies of a Thrawn Trilogy movie, but let's be real, fanboy standards are impossibly high anyway. We barely know which actor is playing what part, and we have absolutely no idea where the sequels will take us.
     
    Also, there's the advantage of seeing the originals in light of what the prequels did wrong. I'm not someone who believes that a series can be "ruined" by the release of subsequent installments of diminishing quality, but I do think that this situation bodes well for the sequels. While it's possible to mess up the sequels, what we've already seen is a good sign that the people in charge have learned their lessons.
     
    All of which brings me to the title question: is there a good prequel out there? Can anyone name a prequel that doesn't suffer because it was a prequel?
  7. Sumiki
    I rescind my earlier statements about how awful the idea seemed.
     
    It looks ... pretty good? Only so much can be discerned from the trailer, but the animation style looks pretty cool. Also, quite a cast of actors they've got there.
  13. Sumiki
    It's time for the poll.
     
    Vote for up to THREE explanations of the nature of my status updates. Vote in the comments. You can only vote once.
     
    Voting will end on January 19th ​at 11:59 PM Eastern. A tiebreaker, if necessary, will be held the following day.
     
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 1: You have invented a new form of musical notation, which uses syllables to represent notes. Your status updates are in reality short piano pieces.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 2: Written on paper strips are the words. You pull them out of a hat, or several.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 3: You ate a Q-fruit from my garden to gain Qtopian powers.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 4: Sumiki channels the amazing powers of Vezon, Deadpool, Murdock, and The Mentalist to select the exact and precise words and word order needed.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 5: You get them from commercials. Likely, you take every 3rd, 5th or 8th word spoken in the commercial, or something similar. If it was Lhik, it'd obviously be every 13th, not sure what it'd be for you. It's also possible you exclude brand names and the like.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 6: Clearly farm animals communicate these phrases to you in your dreams.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 7: They are all simply part of an algorithm, one so powerful and so intricate, that if coded correctly could ultimately destroy the very infrastructure of this world, which would let Sumiki's roam the earth wreaking havoc wherever they go. Eventually, with Sumiki Prime (the head Sumiki) as their leader, the Sumiki's would rule the world with enmity and violence using farm animals as tools of war. For him to finish these algorithms would essentially foreshadow the dark and merciless future the Sumiki's have planned for us. That is an incredibly scary thought. I pray that the algorithm will never be completed; otherwise, we are doomed.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 8: Surprisingly, it is a simple process that forms highly philosophical messages. Sumiki first takes the first and last notes of a piece by any famous composer (though he is partial at the moment to Chopin), and then converts their tones into a corresponding human pheromone. He then exposes test groups of 400 individuals to this pheromone and records their moods. These moods each have differing corresponding number values on a very special spreadsheet. Sumiki adds these values together and then counts backwards through the Oxford English Dictionary. This is how he obtains the so-called "odd words" in his status updates, so called by those ignorant souls who view his profile with empty minds. He then uses a trained blindfolded Orangutan to pick a book in the Congressional Library and a trained blindfolded spider monkey to pick a page in the book. Sumiki then replaces nouns, verbs and adjectives in that sentence with ones he chose using his pheromone method to convey cryptic snippets of wisdom from his great mind.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 9: They are just random. You try to fool us with a well laid plan. But I see through it. Pure randomness meant to distract us from something far more... less random, as it is clearly a plot of deception designed to ensnare our attention. I applaud your efforts, but you have failed.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 10: Mere mortals cannot comprehend the mental processes of Sumiki because of their fourth dimensional nature.
     
     
     
     

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    Entry 11: Sumiki listens to Broadway play soundtracks and chooses the 42nd word of the first song over 7 minutes. Repeating this process, he gathers enough words to modify sentences from ancient aramaic texts into wise sayings for the modern age.
  15. Sumiki
    Election Day is upon us, and I hope that all eligible-age Americans out there have voted/will vote sometime today.
     
    I couldn't get a proper MOC together for this week's edition of the Tuesday Tablescraps, but I did make an arm and two legs. Don't be surprised if they show up (in some form) later on.
     

     
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  16. Sumiki
    It's Tuesday once again, folks, and the penultimate Tuesday of the year. Happy (slightly early) Hanukkah to the Jewish BZPers out there.
     
    I have taken time out of a war waged upon the clutter in the house (and more specifically my room) to post an older tablescrap from about a year or so ago. (Posting a newer one is nigh on impossible, considering the general semi-reorganization of things. I do have newer ones, though!)
     

     
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    I'd also like to note that while some of the outer parts (obviously) did not come with the Kaxium, 99% of the model did, and it's completely fine without the cosmetic additions. It's also incredibly stable, able to be dropped and rolled off of tables without much damage.


  20. Sumiki

    Periodic Table

    By Sumiki,

    WHY MUST THE ELEMENTS HAVE SUCH FREAKY ATOMIC SYMBOLS
     
    TAKE NA FOR INSTANCE
     
    WHY THE HECK IS IT SODIUM
     
    PB DOESN'T MAKE SENSE EITHER
     
    OR SB
     
    OR K
     
    Speaking of K, did you know that if you take out the t, the a, and the i, potassium becomes Possum, which are guaranteed awesome by the Toxic Waste Bunny Scale of Awesome. What's not to like about a possum?
     
    Also, Tellurium and Strontium sound eerily similar to Telluris and Stronius.
     
    Why am I pointing this out
     
    I seem to be having my daily stupid/hyperactive spell
     
    Please wait while I sit in the corner, spouting random nonsense
     
    I'll be back in a minute
     
    Bye
  22. Sumiki
    This is the sixth month that I've been doing these ... wow.
     
    I have no "new" tablescraps to show, so I had to dig up an older one. Next week I'll have to take some new pictures ...
     
    The armor on top of his head is optional and easily removable. I was going for an armored hat look - I don't think I succeeded, really, but it was just a test anyway.
     

     
    | |


     
    At least the color layering is decent.
  24. Sumiki
    Long-time Blogarithm viewers may remember a long rant I wrote about the link between Star Wars and BIONICLE with regards to their respective prequels. In it, I made the case that fans of a certain thing have higher expectations and preconceived notions regarding backstory.
     
    I thought that it might be time to significantly expand on that train of thought by considering the monstrous job that now lays ahead of J. J. Abrams, a task that is both Herculean and nearly Sisyphean in its proportions.
     
    The post-Return of the Jedi world saw the beginning of what would become known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Now, the EU is huge - not just with more licenses than you can shake a lightsaber at, but with games and books that delve into the mythology like never before. It's pretty insane how much canon Star Wars material is out there. The fans have been accustomed to the Expanded Universe and the stories that are from the EU are as - in some cases, more - revered than the movies that started it all.
     
    Let's face facts: J. J. Abrams will not be able to make a Star Wars movie without contradicting the Expanded Universe. The EU also relies so much on its own internal canon that contradicting one thing would likely cause a domino effect and negate pretty much every EU story that fans have come to love.
     
    The so-called "Thrawn Trilogy" is a good example. Set after Return of the Jedi, the Thrawn Trilogy were a series of books by author Timothy Zahn that chronicled the main characters fighting off what remained of the Galactic Empire and fighting an Imperial admiral named Thrawn. It's considered to be one of the definitive EU novels and were considered frontrunners to be turned into Episodes VII, VIII, and IX.
     
    Well, as it turns out, they're not going to be made into movies, which means that they - along with quite a lot of the EU - is going down the drain, so to speak.
     
    The only way that effigies of J. J. Abrams aren't burned by rabid Star Wars fans is if, hidden behind all of those lens flares, he's actually a genius beyond mortal comprehension. However, I hope no one takes it as an insult if I say that I sincerely doubt that, even when taking into account the existence of Fringe.
     
    The common problem is that fandoms generally expect consistently high-quality material from content creators. Star Wars had such a following that the prequels were bound to disappoint, regardless of quality. The pre-A New Hope universe was not nearly as explored before A Phantom Menace as the post-Return of the Jedi universe is right now. (I hope that made sense.)
     
    All of which brings us to Greg Farshtey. BZPower did not grow to have the most members of any LEGO fansite without reason. BIONICLE was big, and BZP's heyday saw a level of traffic and server-busy messages unheard of today, all because of BIONICLE. We appreciated Greg's dedication and his interaction with the community, which is unheard of amongst the content creators of such a large fan base.
     
    Nevertheless, voices of dissent emerged, which only became more prevalent in the post-Great Downtime BZP, after Greg disappeared due to his personal life and LEGO's new interactivity policy. Opinions on Greg's writing skills are lukewarm at best, as fans have matured and looked back on Greg's methods of storytelling with more critical eyes. (Time Trap is a great book and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.)
     
    Why? Well, we had become accustomed, as a community, to Greg's presence. Without it, I believe that criticism of his writing would have come about much sooner. We, as fandoms are wont to do, came to expect an inhuman level of quality from Greg, as the Star Wars fandom is expecting an inhuman level of quality from Abrams and his gang.
     
    After all, Lucas got enough flak for the prequels.
  25. Sumiki
    Specifically, with regards to the gender imbalance in modern media:
     
    I'd like to see a story where, during the writing process, the characters are completely fleshed out and developed. Genders would be assigned at random at the end by computer generation, so as to avoid any unwanted author-based prejudices.
     
    Obviously this example refers to a book, but the same process could go for anything.
     
    (I was going to say more, but I think this pretty much speaks for itself.)
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