-Sidorak-

Yep, I saw that. It was incredible. - Sidorak

Thanks to everyone for the encouranging remarks about my last MOC. Incence'n'Peppermints recently left a nice comment in my profile and got me thinking about doing another one. So here is the new MICRO one along with the original for comparison. It was pretty difficult to capture all the details while transferring the original design to micro-scale. But eventually I figured it out. Click for the topic.

You know what they say about assuming stuff: makes a "donkey" out of u and me. True. And I like what you did there with the "____" blanks, very clever. For this story it's Christians pushing Christianity, I suppose for other events like this it might be different. Same here. And to be honest, I think forcing your religion on ANYONE is a recipe for failure. Preaching Christianity everywhere is not going to win any converts. Faith is a personal thing, and no one is going to change their religious beliefs because I had a conversation with them. A more reasonable approach would simply be to have a strong command of the Bible, be a positive example to your friends, and if they have a question about your religion or are having a hard time with something in life, be able to give them sound advice (not quote random Bible verses). Sorry for getting sidetracked... Mods, please let me know if I'm delving too far into religion here. Yes, our system is deeply flawed. I could talk (read: rant) about this for hours; I turned in a 20-page report last June about how the American school system needs to be completely restructured. I go to a public school in California, where we have a budget crisis. Money is being wasted on useless programs, teachers are getting paid next to nothing, etc. Yet I am surprised at the number of GREAT teachers I have had the past 11 years. For a smart person to enter a system where they know they will not be promoted or receive a professional salary is pretty incredible, and I have a lot of respect for them. Anyone who thinks the American school system is high-quality is in denial. If you're actually into this sort of thing, I'd suggest reading Smart Kids, Bad Schools by Brian Crosby. It's a good book that outlines a top-to-bottom plan for rethinking the American school system.

Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Uh... yeah, this is ridiculous. Removing Lincoln and Washington in favor of Limbaugh and the NRA??? I'm a Christian and I hate when these kinds of things come up, because then a lot of people assume all Christians are unreasonable cool dudes that want to rewrite history (or whatever). - Sidorak EDIT: Heh, "cool dudes," completely forgot about BZP's filter during my 2-month hiatus.

Use non-English characters.

Can't stand NCIS... Law & Order SVU is way better. And I really can't stand Monk. Stinks as a comedy and as a crime-solving show.

Exactly!

Up near San Fransisco? I hated that place. I was there with my school band for a whole day. The first two rides I went on broke down and everyone had to climb out of them, so I was scared to go on any others. A friend and I went to the arcade and they had that game where you maneuver a mechanical claw to grab stuffed animals. Except, instead of stuffed animals, there were iPod Nanos and PSPs. My friend put in a dollar, and on his FIRST TRY, got a PSP! Then I spent nearly $40 trying to get one, and finally gave up.

When reviewing MOCs, you've got to keep in mind that only so much can be done with Bionicle pieces. "It's too smooth in parts and too jagged in others" doesn't really tell him how to change it, just that it needs to be changed. I'm sorry if I sound really harsh or something. >< Super-negative reviews really get on my nerves because, as I said before, no matter how right they may be, they can make the artist/MOCer/writer feel horrible. Just a mere change of wording can make a world of difference and gain you more respect. Turakii No, you didn't come across super harsh; you're one of the nicer people on this site. I think the wording of the review is personal preference - when I have post a creation, I just want the criticism. I don't really like number ratings or extra information, I want to know what parts of the MOC are badly constructed and need to be fixed. Most people don't like such blunt reviews. Either I'm weird, or my creations really suck. One thing we can both agree on is that it would be nice to tell the builder what they are doing right -- that adds a positive aspect to the review, and it's useful for builders because they get an idea of what works well. I understand what you're saying about reviews suggesting changes not in the range of possibility. MOCers have limits on time, pieces, etc. Those are problems everybody runs into. But there's no way for reviewers to know how much time you've got or which pieces you have, so they make all the suggestions they can think of. (At least, I do.) Then, you can pick and choose which ones are actually feasible and apply them. To quote Darth Vader, "constructive criticism =/= positive feedback." I know how disappointing it is to spend hours upon arduous hours on a creation, only to post it and receive negative reviews. I spent a LONG time building this castle and was upset when some people didn't like it. But I eventually learned from my mistakes (there's waaaaaay too much going on and the MOC should be simpler) and now I'm a better builder. Not that that's saying much. Does that make sense? Anyway, I'd like to hear what Primus has to say. - Sidorak

I guess I'm the only one here who thought Primus' review was good. It got to the point. It gave examples on how to improve. It didn't have a number rating. It didn't butter up the MOC or the builder in order to take the edge off of any negative comments. Did you read the whole review? Plus, some of the other comments imply how to fix it. When he says "the eye is too high up," he is obviously implying to move the eye down a stud or two. You're right that it's two ways of saying the same thing, but I disagree that one is more polite than the other. Ferhago, I don't personally think this is a bad MOC. It is mediocre. You've got the basic concept down, now it's all about finessing the MOC. When you have time, read over Primus' (and everyone else's) reviews and apply some of the ideas. Continually revising and changing the MOC will make it as accurate as possible to the original Ravage. The best builders go through multiple revisions of their work before the final version is done. Hope I don't sound too high-and-mighty. - Sidorak - Sidorak

Click.

Beach houses are so relaxing. I tried to read A Clockwork Orange during the school year but the language was too confusing and I didn't have time. I'm going to tackle it again this summer, though.

Lewis Black is funny, but his special last night wasn't that great. I watched it for about 15 minutes and then decided to watch Conan.

2005+ storyline for me...

I thought an old member had returned to BZP...

Oh no.

Gotta love the filter.

Make your topic easy-to-read by formatting your lists. If you're sorting your sets or pieces by year or by set or whatever, do it like this: 2001: Tahu Gali 2002: Tahu Nuva Gali Nuva Set reasonable prices, and be persistent.

"####, ####, ####, ####, ##########, ############, and ####"

Squidgie and A Common Dream.

Fusion Capsule and Testudo Minimus.