Jump to content

Swert

Premier Outstanding BZP Citizens
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,852

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Swert

  1. Swert
    I already have the Mangai Volcano built. One or two little things to modify it, and it's perfectly ready to go.
     
    I also had a "business" meeting with Dan about it. Stay tuned for updates on that front, and for you Pacific Northwestern members to gain a chance to participate (if you can)!
     
    Likewise, I'm going to be plugging this on a certain media site (of the social kind) via the company's page. That way I'm promised to get builders and/or people involved.
     
    And finally, most importantly, I also managed to convince Dan to bust out the Bionicle play pack (used in our education camps and birthday parties) so we can have people build Bionicle stuff while we build the island. Hence, it's a large event.
     
    I will be taking photos, of course.
     
    Stay tuned! : D
  2. Swert
    So, I mentioned before in my ignored blog post that I wanted to build Mata Nui the island. Xccj and I discussed it, Dan Parker and I discussed it, and we're ALL on the same page to get this done...
     
    in March.
     
    Now why do you, the reader, care?
     
    Cause at some point, we will be asking for fan-submitted Mata Nui System-Based locations. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO MAIL ANYTHING TO US. We are going to have as much material as we can muster for this project, and so long as you provide good photos or instructions, we can rebuild it. If you are like me, with limited material -at home-, feel free to use LDD Extended. We don't need it immediately, we're nowhere near ready for anything at all yet. The scale we're looking at in total (for now) is 10 32x32 stud baseplates in length, 6 baseplates in width, and maybe 2 plates in height from the baseplate up (this figure is flexible for now). It'll be a sculpture, not a mosaic.
     
    When we do ask for models (Feel free to build a few now) we'll tell you. Meantime, the following are already taken by either myself, Xccj, Dan Parker or someone I have asked:
    Ga-Koro Naho Falls (with the Kaukau mask, Gali's)
    Po-Wahi's Six Toa mask statues
    Mangai (We'll handle it )
    Toa figures (Dan has an idea for them, we'll most likely have a few models.)

    Now, the earliest we can even begin to plan this is November. I myself can't even begin to build towards it in the shop until January, maybe December of this year. We also have plans for Kini-Nui, but will welcome all suggestions
     
     
     
    Please, we ask if you do build in LDD Extended, build using known actual parts. For example, if it's tan in your photo, but no tan exists, we can't use it. Also, if it's a premium part with a premium color, assume we may not have it. That's sad, but we can adapt it. (Example: Dark Red may look nice in Ta-Koro, but we can use regular red too.)
     
    I hope to have more information for you all soon, but for now keep it in mind.
  3. Swert

    Sick Day Koff Koff

    By Swert,

    But in reality? I'm working on the island project from home. And I was too tired to work anyway.
     
    Soo... how's dem ToyFair pics? Yeah and stuff. Oppression from Admins and stuff. *running out of blogging material*
  4. Swert

    More Work!

    By Swert,

    The Onyx Night, a pure black Emerald Night modified to look more American.
     
    I'll post more later, I suppose... work time. I just felt like showing off this one with only one photo.
  6. Swert

    Bs01's New Main Page Nav

    By Swert,

    Was really trying to avoid showing this off until we implemented it, but whatever.
     
    http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/User:Shadow_Kurahk/Sandbox
     
    Now you can see what madness I had in mind in the first place.
  7. Swert
    So, undoubtably the Pink Floyd fans of BZP know of the Why Pink Floyd? campaign, which is the reissuing and remastering of all 14 studio albums, plus 2 special releases of the top three albums they created (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall). The first of them being Experience, with the second being the subject matter of this entry: Immersion.
     
    Now, I may have mentioned it once or twice, but I subscribe to something known as the Zune Music Pass. With this pass, I have access to -all 14 albums- for only $15 a month (I'm still on the old plan, it's now $10, but I get extra perks to that which can be saved for another blog entry) and the first two albums' Experience releases. Not included, sadly, are the content from the Immersion pack. That's fine, I expected that. We are talking over $100 for each set.
     
    Now the conflicting problem: I know I can live without DSOM, I love it and all but I've got the complete album like 3 times over (Studio, Live from the PULSE tour, and live from Wembley Stadium via DSOM Experience). I would love Wish You Were Here, but there is the small issue of one of the discs being Blu-Ray (I do not currently have a player capable of reading this format). The Wall, once it releases later this month, does not have this problem, and it has seven discs (2 for The Wall, 2 for demo tracks, 2 for The Wall, live in 1980-81 and one DVD) but is really expensive being $119.99 as of this blog entry.
     
    Now, what drives my confliction even further? Wish You Were Here is, quite easily, my all-time favorite album from the Floyd. My sidebar with all my interests is a clear indication of that, given I have used its cover to represent Floyd. However, what good is a box collection when of the five discs, 2 I already have via Zune, one of them can't even be read by any device I own, and the last two are DVD format, thus negating using them with most of my technology again. Alternatively, I -can- use all six discs from The Wall, including the live edition, but blaaaah.
     
    ... Maybe I should sleep on it? Any ideas, people with enough knowledge in this band to give me helpful advice and what they think I should do? (Keeping in mind it'd probably be 3 paychecks before I could afford even one of them right now.)
  8. Swert

    Super Bowl

    By Swert,

    Go Seahawks!
     
    "But Swert, Seattle didn't make it to the playoffs!"
     
    Who cares?
     
    "We do."
     
    Fine... GO 2012 SEASON!
     
    "*facepalm*"
  9. Swert
    So I have to work very quickly tomorrow. Starting first thing in the morning, I need to do 3 Paradisa based LEGO sets for a birthday party tomorrow (LEGO Friends is the main theme, we're padding it up with stuff).
     
    Oh, and I just know I have only one hour to do it in.
     
    Keeping in mind it took me about 2 hours to work on one model already in something my boss said would take him "30 minutes."
     
    Well that's fine, I'll have instructions and I can be flexible on the actual design, but for the most part it'll be pretty crazy whatever we do. And boy will it be tough, given my 1 hour restriction.
     
    In other news I also built a brown building yesterday. It's nice. Might post photos later.
  10. Swert

    Big Changes Coming To Bs01

    By Swert,

    So, I've decided that a redesign of the main page was in order, given we just lost our last one (forgot to back it up, oh well)
     
    I have a preview of the style the new Wiki Nav (not the Main Page Nav) up on the site here: http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/User:Swert/Zunebox
     
    I think I'll share the main page nav once the design is done, but for now I wanna know what everybody thinks.
     
    Other than I'm crazy, that much I knew :B
  11. Swert

    Cryptic Metaphor

    By Swert,

    This entry is everything but what the title says it is.
     
    So I'm snowed in. 7-8 inches of snow on my roads, and of course we're not used to it here in Washington. I'm certainly not used to it, but I love it nonetheless.
     
    I was scheduled to work today, in fact. Called my boss at 8 AM and he said "Yeah don't even risk it." I'm scheduled so far for Friday at the earliest now.
     
    BS01's host had some issues today, so we were down. Nothing was lost, it's all still there, and we're back. I promise it had nothing to do with current events that happened -today.- Honestly.
     
    I'll probably post some stuff eventually, assuming anybody even reads my blog any more <<
  12. Swert

    Power Outage

    By Swert,

    Like all of Washington state, I too was hit with the snow "dump" as it were.
     
    And like most of Western Washington, I'm stuck with Puget Sound Energy with no way to change.
     
    And like most of the PSE customers, my power's out at home.
     
    Unlike them? I can go to work in a building UNDER A DIFFERENT POWER UTILITY, and charge my laptop (and use the internet).
     
    So yeah, no work on BS01 until next week at the earliest.
  13. Swert
    One of the major perks I have working in a LEGO art studio, I don't feel guilt for my hobby as a LEGO builder when I go to buy a set. Even more so when I buy said set on the boss' computer, at work.
     
    I was browsing the LEGO store while waiting on a ride, and I came across the LEGO hard-to-find items. Set #10215 caught my eye. I had seen it before in 2010 in catalogs. Of course, it's a $100 normally. Oh I couldn't justify buying it now...
     
    What's this? It's only $59.99 right now?
     
    ... I THREW MY WALLET AT THE SCREEN, AND IT DID NOTHING!
     
    So after ordering this lovely image on Dan's now broken screen (I should get rid of that metal on the front of the wallet), it finally arrived today. And I was happy.
     
    I proceeded to wait 30 minutes before starting. (Long story there, pay of no mind.)
     
    So without further delay...
     
    Set #10215!
    The Box

    Note, I'm not going to use BZP's review system to review, mainly because I was too busy timing myself to see how long it'd take to build. I didn't want to stop every five minutes to take pics of parts. Sorry, guys. Let's just say there's plenty of parts.
     
    Now, as you can see from this box, it's pretty big. It's -really- big. The beautiful thing about this packaging is the top of it is held down by two pieces of tape and can be lifted back to make a tray of sorts. That's how I contained all the loose parts when I was assembling. It's wonderful and I recommend it highly. Keep in mind, I also recommend you leave each and every bag alone until the steps require them.
     
    The Set
    At about the halfway point I took a break and I decided to take a photo. My desk is a clutter, I'll be cleaning it eventually:
     

     
    Now, one of the striking features of the body is the technique of using SNOT (Studs not on top) building to apply most of the curved and/or angled elements. The entire underbelly on the front was actually built using SNOT plates, while the top is held on using good ol' fashioned headlight bricks. A whole lot of them (I didn't count, but there's -a lot-).
     
    I finally fully assembled the model, and I got a lovely set out of the whole deal.

     
    For more photos, check out the Flickr set.
     
    Overall Thoughts
    I'm optimistically happy with this set. Sure, it's not a pick up and play model, but I'll be honest when I say I'm way past that point in my life and LEGO building career. I wanted to see if I was capable of building a larger set, and this is the first -large- model I've built in my life (any sets I build in the studio is either smaller, or converted into other things, such as taking the Firehouse set and making it a Ghostbusters Hook and Ladder #8 firehall). It's also my first Ultimate Collector's Series set, and I'm happy with that, too. It's also probably the most expensive LEGO set I have personally paid for, which is also a milestone for me.
     
    What set is next down the line, who knows? I'm just happy to say I have a LEGO set that is so epic, and was so fun to build, that I will be proud to display it on my desk.
     
    Oh, and how long did it take for me to build it? 2 hours and 13 minutes. I think I slowed myself down with the sticker placement and not sorting the parts better, which didn't help.
  16. Swert
    Should I review it once it gets here? Also, it was on sale. $60 vs $100. That's -not bad.-
     
    In other news, I worked myself to death yesterday... building Toa Nuva. I'm serious, I had to repair the Nuva (2002) in the shop.
     
    This is a chronological timeline of my thoughts while repairing, in order of Toa:
     
    Pohatu: Oh come on... POHATU'S TORSO GOES ON THE OTHER WAY! OTHER WAY!!!
    Onua: Why is his head so funky...? Oh duh, they put it on the gear axle. Slap that back on the armor aaaand done.
    Kopaka: Yeeeahh I think he's okay.
    Lewa: Oh god, the shoulder armor's on wrong. Fix that aaand good.
    Tahu: Wow, the two Toa who do not get along are also the ones that were fine. Hilarious.
    Gali: Lewa armor syndrome. I've seen this before somewhere... oh right, on Lewa. Fixed.
     
    And that was it.
     
    Oh, and then I put away parts. Not much fun.
  17. Swert
    You may or may not have wondered what exactly I do at my job. If you have not, I forgive you and won't hold it against any of you. Honestly. If you -have-, here's a simple explaination: I'm a builder. I do building.
     
    So, what do we build? This blog entry will be dedicated to one of them.
     
    The LongNow Commission was very unique. The premise is there is a foundation setting up a 10,000 year clock in the Rockies. The model we had to build came from a component of this clock, a tooled out prototype element for something. There are numbers on this component, so we believe it is the indicator.
     



     
    Another unique feature about this model is how the egg shape continues on downward through the model. It isn't just an extrusion that has been rotated, it's actually changing its shape from top to bottom to match each other. It's VERY fascinating.
     



     
    When assembling, we went with a simple approach of "stack them up and rotate." Obviously we had to glue them using a special method and glue we use to lock it all down, but once it was done it wasn't going anywhere.
     



     
    The numbering you might remember from an earlier blog entry. I designed the system, and Dan Parker (my boss) designed the sequence and built them. They are perfect and they fulfilled the client's request of "the geekiest system you can imagine for our numbers."
     



     
    This is the final product. By far, this is my favorite product of our studio of all time. It was truly a labor of love, and hard-fought race to our deadline that felt so far down the line when we started, and coming at us too fast when it got there.
     
    It was -awesome.-
     

    The Flickr Set

  18. Swert

    Updated Status Of Bs01

    By Swert,

    For once, I bring -good- news on this 26th day of December. Nothing really special happens today for me, sorry.
     
    But in regards to BS01, and believe me there's good news to it, we're finally settling in on the server quite nicely, and HS01 is up and running quite well. BS01, however, is being a naughty boy and we haven't even started the road to Christmas 2012 yet. No matter, we're speeding up the process internally, and images are (SLOWLY) being reintroduced.
     
    I honestly do wish to apologize to all members of BZPower, viewers and editors of BS01, and people who don't read my blog but saw the word "Bs01" in the blog title and clicked on it. I was not immediately aware of how long this process would take me, but I'll share with you a few details to explain why I chose what I did and why then.
     
    In October of 2011, I took over paying for BS01's server by returning to my job at City Blocks in Tacoma, WA. I spent two months paying for the site at the beginning of the month, a whopping $151.97. Now, I'm not ashamed to mention this price any longer, since I don't pay it any more. Keeping in mind I did this out of my own pocket with no ads, I looked down the line at my financial status and so forth, discussed it with staff, advisors, family, my boss and finally myself and decided moving to a cheaper, SMALLER solution would be best.
     
    I had initially planned to purchase this server in mid-November. I would install MediaWiki on it, get the other MediaWiki on there, slowly upload BS01 and HS01 over, test its progress, then switch over same-day when I cancelled my old server. Well as we all know, that didn't quite work out that way.
     
    So here comes early December. BS01 and HS01's old server was now acting up through some weird event, and I decided to just let it die and go get a new one, which was already planned. I cancelled my server that day, having taken the day off Dec. 6th, and initiated the purchase of my new server shortly thereafter. I now own two Virtual Private Servers, one optimized for the DB, and both run in sync with each other.
     
    In regards to content, we did back up every inch of BS01 and HS01 of the IMPORTANT documents. We tried to save all user pages, but we did miss out on BS01's subpages (or some anyway) and talk pages were deemed unimportant (we are sorry, keep in mind I lost some logs, too.) Once HS01 was backed up, and BS01 99% backed up, I saved the images (every single image was saved), the users' DB (nobody lost, I swear!) and a few extensions (not many, but some).
     
    Now for some issues on why images are taking forever: Turns out you don't just get to upload images into a folder on the site and expect it all to work. Turns out I forgot to save the images database table, so we gotta reupload each one, one by one. Or well, 10 at a time once I installed the Multiple Images upload extension (might keep it, might not, who knows.) I'm handing off images to volunteers over here to upload slowly over time.
     
    So there you have it, BS01's status explained from the guy who did it. Now, one more final crucial reason why it's taken me a whole month despite having it all up and running within days, I do apologize. Let's just say work was rough all month, but the final result is well worth it. (I might upload the images of the products we did in the shop in another blog entry, just for fun.)
     
    I hope my explaination wasn't -too- long and let's hope we get it all done before too much longer.
     
     

    -


  19. Swert

    Sbc #1: I Entered

    By Swert,

    So yeah, I entered XD
     
    I like the original source more, of course... but I'm proud of what I built.
     
    Because I've been requested to do this, I'll share it here in the blog:
     
    Model built by Steven Wert, parts provided by The TbP Group, assembled in the City Blocks Tacoma LEGO Art Center.
     
    Thar, now my boss won't say I didn't say it xD
  20. Swert
    Man, I am really looking forward to the theme launch. I'm a huge fan of the novels, and I think it'll be amazing to collect the minifigs.
     
    First one to a complete set of Fellowship (assuming they don't just release them all in one set) wins nothing at all but are still cool by me!
  21. Swert

    Vectorin' Stuff

    By Swert,

    If you guys want advice on it, only one I can give:
     
    Don't start out on ponies. Too complex a shape.
     
    How did I start?
     
    I traced around this with a simple box in Photoshop to begin with:
     

     
    After tinkering around a bit, I managed to graduate up a level to design more complex shapes... and logos by extension.
     

     
    Oh, and want an example of one you see every day now?
     

     
    So yeah, before you work on ponies, work on simple stuff. You'd be amazed at how much easier it'd be in the long run.
     
    Edit: How I roll in PS CS3:
     



  23. Swert
    5: Five total commissions.
     
    11: Eleven days of in-shop work.
     
    57 1/2: Hours put in for these five projects alone since the last paycheck.
     
    560.63: What I earned.
     
    Infinity: Knowing full well I put a Monolith in one of the projects, and then turned around and knocked out a 2 week Mosaic in 2 -days-. Oh, and we glued it down too.
     
    Infinity+1: My head's altitude after 8 days of nonstop gluing with some fumes. @_@
     
    And finally:
     
    1: How I feel after overexceeding my boss' expectations that we could knock out five projects between 6 employees that's worth well over $40,000.
     
    Oh, and 1: Days off I'll have until I work again. And even then I'm still working off-the-clock <<;;
     
    But I have the weekend off ^_____^
  25. Swert
    So let's briefly break down my sleep schedule from the past few weeks...
     
    Every day prior to last night: 1-2AM sleep. This is in between working on BS01/HS01, moving the files from one server to the new, cancelling the prior one, getting the new one tricked out, and then moving on to webcomics and/or internet videos of the funny kind (no ponies >: O) and generic sit down and talk to friends online.
     
    Last night was different. I was asleep at 9 PM. No webcomics, no funny videos, no friends. I was just asleep.
     
    I think I finally cracked.
     
    I did end up waking up at 3 AM, 5 AM and finally 7 AM this morning, however.
     
    And worst part? I'm used to five-six hours of sleep for my daily routines now. So to get from 9PM to 7 AM with brief interruptions? My body isn't used to this bliss.
     
    Oh and I work today.
×
×
  • Create New...