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bonesiii

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  1. bonesiii
    Just a few updates on various things:

    -Contest: Well, I took most of Tuesday and Wednesday off, thinking I could catch up on Thursday with updating lists n such... the contest's been such a drain of my energy I needed a break. Then of course the weird glitch hit that took the server offline all day Thursday. Today I am rushing to catch up.... >_>

    -Paracosmos: In the meantime I was able to begin (just barely) work on the RPG again. We're almost ready to release a version 1.2, actually, fixing some glitches and such. Unfortunately poor Agents of Surrender's getting slow chapter updates due to the contest... will get to that today too if the server will let me. *glares at server*

    -Moderating: I've had to put off reading tons of reports thanks to the contest... and mostly the evil server. *glares* Tryin to catch up, man, tryin to... Also, an official Bionicle Legends#3 official topic needs to happen, and I haven't even been able to think about it. Anyone that reads this--just post a review in the "Catching up" topic in M&B, and first one posted will probably get the topic (PM me once it's posted). I don't have time to answer PMed questions about this right now.

    -My inbox: Oh, yes, that. Still about two pages or three that need getting to... trying to catch up. Please do not be concerned if I do not read or respond to any PMs for a while now... Gotta prioritize.

    -My computer: Windows Updates are evil, I tells ya. This latest one is obsessed with restarting my computer... regardless of what I'm working on at the moment. Thankfully there's a "Restart Later" button. But yeesh. And the one before that has convinced my computer that my Windows isn't "Genuine"--which I guess means it wants to re-install my OS. *grrr* Never mind what bad side effects will inevitably come from that... like lost files... Why can't Windows learn the almighty truth of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

    It's almost enough to make me want a Mac...... almost.

    -Server: It's been conquered by Evil Lord Survurlode! RUN!11!1! Ignore the bubble wrap! It's bait for a trap!

  2. bonesiii
    More contest updates:

    -I planned to read through all the 3000+ word entries--just finished that. From here on out I'll focus on ones already marked as having possible story problems. Beginning with the disqualified ones or likely to be disqualified ones; time for the second chances.

    -If this can't all get done before Sunday is over, the polls will go up anyways. Probably Monday around noon; we'll see. That means that's the final deadline... sort of. Read on...

    -All the time till the 18th will be for preliminary polls. Semifinals will be in S&T, as well as finals (again, dates will be announced later).

    -Typos and grammar and such do not disqualify. Keep that in mind. The Leftover Judging Topic will remain open when the polls go up, and we will keep working on any "doubly leftover" such things.

    -When the polls go up, any stories that are still DQed remain DQed. So consider Sunday, midnight, or soon after it, to be the deadline for second chances. However:

    -I'm a forgiving guy. So minor, minor story errors that still remain can still be fixed after the polls are up. It's not like I'd toss you out of the polls if one sentence has an issue.


    I think that about covers everything. Except this: Please, please, if you've PMed me asking me to edit your entry, realize that won't happen till the last second. Already my inbox has two pages of stuff that I have to postpone getting to. Please use the new post with new version method of fixing errors.

    (If you have no idea what the banner's about, ask Utopia. )
  3. bonesiii
    Just a heads up on plans for the rest of the S&T Contest #2--Obviously the deadline for judging did not turn out to be noon today. For now I'm extending it to noon Wednesday, the 5th. (Sorry, The Infection! ) Final deadline will be announced probably at that time. (No guarantees.) I'd expect it to be Friday, the 7th if I were you. I'm hurrying as fast as I can, even delaying the almighty lunch, just to get as many as possible done.... But it is still a slow process. I'm starting with the long entries though, so it should get faster and faster as I go...

    For the voting, most likely what will happen is the preliminary and semifinal polls will be in the contest voting forum as usual. Then the three finals will be in S&T. I'll divide it up so the vast majority of the time until the 18th is taken up by the preliminaries--it will take quite some time for everybody to read the entries. The semifinals will likely be very short--either that or they will be moved to S&T too--I don't want to go the route of interfering with other contests to extend the time the polls are in the voting forum, not at this time at least.

    Then for the finals I'd like to leave them up for at least a week. Specific dates will be announced later.

    Thanks so far to all the judges for all your hard work! I'm in the middle right now of updating the judges-notes in the entry list. Also, good luck to all who entered! I'm really enjoying reading all the ones I've read so far, even if the grammar corrections are rampant. When this is all said and done, as I've said before, even the "losers" will be winners in my book because they will be part of a big list of really fun stories.

    One simple request before I close--anyone who's PMed me for corrections, note that I will be very slow in getting to them since I'm trying to focus on reading the entries. I request that as many as can switch to the new method of correcting errors, where you post a new version in a new post in your topic (details are in the entry topic; Method #2). That will speed things up both for me and for the voters who are eagerly waiting for the polls. *It's for the greater good, man!*

    And now... must have lunch! Yes, even the skeleton needs to eat.
  4. bonesiii
    You read right -- the second S&T contest will be starting tommorrow, so I decided to give you guys some information in advance to get yall's psyches in contest mode, as it were.

    I'm not going to tell you the themes yet--and there are three closely defined ones, so you can't get started until you know what they are. But I will reveal this now: the contest will be a Short Story Contest. Members will have a chance to write a story that is required to fit with the official story, only using official characters (within the three themes), and once entries have been judged to be official-accurate, they will move onto a round of polls. ("Judges" will not be picking winners--that is done by poll.)

    The three winning entries will become considered part of the official storyline.

    Main concern with this idea is the time of those of us who are judging the accuracy of the entries--I will lead them, and at this point it looks like three of the RKs will help. We're trying not to take the burden completely off of Greg to help, except if he has extra time and feels like it--he's pretty busy right now--so that means any other help would be greatly appreciated. Stories will be posted as topics in S&T (and losing stories will later be moved to SS, where they can still work great as fanfics), so that means anybody and their brother can help comb through the stories to find innaccuracies. And their sister too.

    So any of you Fact Team members, BS01 Wiki Staff, or anyone who is knowledgeable in the story at all, I'd really appreciate it if you could make a commitment to helping with this judging. I am willing to officially designate more people as judges, so I'd like to hear from anyone willing to help with that. Entry period begins tommorrow whenever the contest topic is up (the 22nd), and goes to noon of the 30th; last day of June. Stories will be 400-4000 words long.

    And in case you worry about this -- judges can also enter, since they do not pick winners. No chance of bias that way really. Judges would be pointing out any errors in the story topics, and they would therefore have the authority to be authorizing the member to PM me with an edit so they can qualify. A judge must approve every entry before it can go to the polls (and preferably more than one judge, though that will depend on everybody's free time). Reason being no editing by the member is allowed to prevent cheating. Only I can edit changes in. And only changes allowed would be to fix typos and to fix accuracy problems. If this is unclear, feel free to ask any questions (might not be able to answer yet, but ask anyways!).

    Further details will be announced in S&T tommorrow.

    UPDATE: Well, there are now 17 judges, which is definately plenty, so for now, I don't need any more volunteers. Thanks a million to the 17 who answered the request so promptly--I expected more like three or four to join before the contest went up, but got about 12 right away. Thanksmuch!


    Well, hope yall will have fun with this! I look forward to reading your entries!


    (And no, the theme has nothing to do with submarines or Beatles.... )

    Edit: Yeesh, the whole submarine theme turned out to be very fitting for this entry. See here.
  5. bonesiii
    Bones is alive, yes! Fear not! Been very busy lately with several things for the S&T forum. One of them you all know about, the other will be announced very soon... and the third you have no clue about, but I think you S&Ters will really like it.

    Some updates on the Paracosmos: Mostly lately I've been trying to improve the quality of BP banners for the epics n such, so I've been trying many techniques at not only making cool titles with cool effects, but also having a mysterious feel to the banners themselves. To help that I downloaded a ton of new fonts today -- I've felt for a while my range of fonts was severely lacking. (Yes, the above banner's one of 'em, not that it's mysterious or anything. )

    Problem was I never did find a font that was quite what I was looking for for a specific BP thing -- basically I was trying to find a font for the writing on the tablet that Whenua found, the one that tells him he's inside this alternate universe known as the Paracosmos. It's supposed to be a distinctive style that's a mix between complex rectangular-oriented lines and knifelike ends -- sorta chinese, but with a more aztec feel to it. I'll probably just have to draw it myself if I ever need it, I guess. I'm talking about the language of the "them" in the latest chapter of Agents of Surrender that the Turaga mention, the ones whose name starts with "Kul----". I guess their style really is distinctive because I can't find anything like what I have in mind in existence, lol.

    Really need to get around to the RPG part II, I know, I know... but I came up with a great idea for an epic just after the Kal Saga, and had to write it. It involves what I think is one of the coolest villains I've thought of, and it's all treated as mysteriously as I can. It was something I knew I needed to write ahead of time, because the things that are revealed in it and even only hinted at tie in closely with both the Bohrok time stories and the later Rahkshi ones... and it even ties in with "Sacrifice" -- the bonus episode that's already published. I had said a while ago that there must be something important in the middle of the Koulshra Island--well, there is, and this other story begins to delve into that. (Note, however: the Kal-era story doesn't involve the Koulshra themselves of course. A later story will return there, however. )

    Also, the next epic after Agents of Surrender is about two-thirds written--I got to a point where basically I couldn't continue until I planned several other things out, and those have been done. So I'll try to get back on that and the RPG ASAP... *yell at me if I don't. * Main reason the RPG's being delayed though is Ojhilom, my brother and genius programmer, is busy until later this month.

    Also got a pretty cool artwork sketch that I'll put up once the Artwork contest's done. I think moving the comics to the new forum has done wonders for my artistic side--now I feel like art-for-art's sake has a fair chance again in artwork.
  6. bonesiii

    On Mystery

    By bonesiii,

    Recognize that console? I'm sure if you haven't figured it out before you now know I'm a huge fan of Lost... well, I'm not one of those people that decodes every little hint and writes tons and tons of detail on what it could all mean -- I save that for Bionicle. But the show is just awesome. That season finale, man, that rocked!

    What I love about Lost is the mystery of it (as well as the coolness...). Sometimes I wonder if they borrowed half their ideas from Bionicle -- the idea of a mysterious island with this mechanical-sounding monster... that ends up looking like an arm of black smoke... Makuta anyone? Not to mention the Hatch that contains civilization... underground. Plus Cathy Hapka is writing a Lost book.

    Of course, this is all coincidence -- these are really things that tie in with mystery itself. The concept of the Hatch (what is in it?), the concept of the button (what happens if it isn't pressed every 108 minutes?), the concept of the monster (what is it?), and the Others (who are they exactly?) -- all major themes of Lost. We know a lot more about some of them now, especially the first and second, but still, mystery is involved. Mystery is one of my favorite elements of a story. It's what keeps S&T thriving with theories about Bionicle, it's what enabled Bionicle to open up a whole new world of coolness with Metru Nui, it was the theme I asked about in one of my favorite topics (The Mysterious Feel -- What Creates it? -- Don't post there. He's dead, Jim.), and it's the number one thing I try hard to make my fanfics about.

    The Bionicle Paracosmos was originally just my random roleplaying with sets back in 2001. The whole story of The Sword Is But The Focus was largely invented that long ago, played with my very first Bionicle set, Kopaka. That was back before I'd even heard of BZP, and back when I assumed I would never participate in those weird online forum thingies. When I discovered BZP I always tossed around the idea of doing my own fanfics based on my original imagined stories--I consider myself first and foremost a writer. I've always hoped that someday I might get published, and I've even got an entire world and series planned out that I want to do that with eventually. So I wanted to treat these fanfics very seriously; as practice for the "real thing."

    But I came to beleive I could not do it unless I had some deep, core mystery to base it all around... and then build more and more layers of mystery on that. Somehow I seized on the concept of an alternate timeline story, that tries to be literally an alternate timeline, the Paracosmos. One of only two "real" timelines, and this one should not exist. It only exists because of "The Event," and somehow, it mirrors the official timeline, yet builds on it, deviates in places. And I've got the entire backstory, the big secrets, and the general story arc planned out now. My main goal with these stories is to keep a level of mystery throughout the series, up until the spectacular end. Along the way the Toa and Matoran discover the mysteries along with the reader -- even the Turaga are clueless about the deep secrets. Levels upon levels of mystery.

    That's that goal. It's easier said than done though. I know all the answers to my story; I cannot read my story the way readers do, seeing something as a mystery to myself rather than a clue I'm planting, and being able to revel in its mysteriousness. For that I absolutely depend on my readers -- you guys say when you think a chapter is mysterious, and so far it seems I've kept that up well, slowly revealing the answers while opening up new ones, all the while with rocking action and the best characterization I know how to do. The story I'm in the middle of posting now, Agents of Surrender, is one of my favorites, and it is very mysterious because you guys don't know what the hidden enemy is -- by the end of it you will know at least part of it. Currently I'm putting off work on the RPG a bit so I can write the next epic, which delves in more deeply into this enemy, the history of an important one, and Kopaka's struggle to deal with the enemy's attacks. The action, to me at least, is exhilerating. But this is a story where for the first time I'm attempting what Bionicle did with Metru Nui -- I first begin to explain some of the background and details about one of my big mysteries. It's uncharted territory for me as a writer, and it's a constant struggle to avoid giving away too much too fast, yet not confuse the reader. There are mysteries, that's for sure. For one, Bhukasa, the non-Matoran guy you met in the bonus episode, shows up for the first time chronologically, and beleive me, I'm not telling you guys a thing about his past yet. There are deeper levels to the plans of the hidden enemy that are not revealed. But how to emphasize the mystery of all this and make that enjoyable in and of itself? Tough thing to do, especially since as the one who knows the answers I'm "writing blind."

    Which is why I am so thankful for stories like Lost and Bionicle. They allow me as a writer to see through the eyes of readers in a way. I know as little about the deep secrets behind them as yall know about the Paracosmos. It's an invaluable resource. I'm not active in the Lost community, but I obviously am in the Bionicle one. That topic I made about the Myterious Feel shows that a lot of people have big disagreements over what is mysterious and what is not. I and many others found Metru Nui very mysterious, because even as old, lingering questions were answered, about ten more popped up alongside it. Others found the fact that anything was answered at all ruined mystery for them. This year of course, we've got probably the most mysterious island in Bionicle yet, other than the fact that Mata Nui being the first made it seem more mysterious than it was, and yet some complaints have already been put forth that it's not mysterious enough. Mystery seems a very hard fish to catch and keep caught. It's slippery because by its very nature we don't understand it.

    The best we can do is try, and learn from other stories... I hope that as you Paracosmos fans are led deeper into the "Classified Information" you enjoy my attempt!
  7. bonesiii
    I've just launched an LDDE MOC project to make lotsa Bionicle stuff at Minifig and similar scales, as System MOCs (primarily). I'm starting mostly with Rahi, and the first batch is up! Plus, a Kini-Nui is thrown in.
     

     
    Going with one of the MOCs, and releasing early, is some more art for my retelling:

     
    And in case you missed it, recently I also released a sketch of the Mask of Creation.
     
    Enjoy!
  8. bonesiii
    So I've been launching stuff left and right this week.
     
    The one I most want people to see is my brand-new Altacosmos (standalone) short story. Clicky banner for link:
     

     
    I started a poll: Did You Use DesignByMe?
     
    Launched the first General Art contest since it changed to a LEGO-in-general focus (and since I took it over):
     

     
    Documented LEGO Universe:
     

     
    And finally, reposted my collection topic:
     

     
    And in case you missed it, scroll down here for the Best of the Bones Blog archive.
  10. bonesiii
    NOTICE: "Tag doesn't work for me" is NOT an excuse not to use it. For spoiler tags to work for you, you must use the "default" skin, NOT the "default blue" skin. That is most likely the problem if they're not working for you. Even if it isn't, you MUST use the spoiler tag as the policy outlines for others' sake. See here for more.
     
    A lot of people seemed to need this notice, so just posted a new rule explanation topic in S&T, and the above notice text has been edited into the Complete BZPower Spoiler Policy and One-Stop S&T rules topic. Figured to post a blog entry about it too juuuust to make sure lotsa folks see this.
     

    ------------THIS ENTRY BROUGHT TO YOU BY------------ 

  12. bonesiii
    Artwork topic for Twisted Island, with a lot of new pics, just posted. Enjoy!

    Some of the art, just to give you a taste (this is NOT the best art in there, so view the topic ):





    A topic for many new BP masks (greats of nobles and vice versa) is coming soon, maybe next week.
  13. bonesiii
    Expanded Multiverse updates:



    Cipher Chronicles Episode 1: Safety in Numbers has begun! This is a short epic of ten total chapters, the first chapter of which is up now. Enjoy!


    Also, there's a Mini-Guide in episode one's review topic, with some new information especially about characters' tools and about three new species. This Guide focuses specifically on what's featured or mentioned in this episode, not the overall Multiverse per se.


    The Denizens contest has been extended by two weeks. This is mainly because I had wanted to do a front page news article on all these new EM things, from the Discussion topic to Safety in Numbers, to the unfinished BRC topic and the not-yet-quite-finished weapons guide, at least a week before the contest entry period closes. Due to real life delays on my part, I was unable to get those things done by today (which was the previous deadline), so to be fair Swert and I agreed to extend it.

    The progress report on what's coming is this:

    1) Weapons Guide has all its content, it just still needs a banner and heavy proofreading. Hoping to get that done this week, but I dunno... Got a lot of the Dreaded Real Life stuff still. Ojh and I have both gone through it once and fixed many typos, but I'm sure there's still plenty others, so I need to go through it again.

    2) BRC topic has some text ready, and I should be able to slap that together in one day.

    3) Swert will write episode two and we've got extensive plans ready for it.

    4) A guest writer is lined up to write episode three.

    5) Decided I'll go ahead and start the next blog contest next week, and focus on posting the results of old blog contests while it's open. This contest will be an EM one. Only way this gets delayed is if I fail to get weapons guide and BRC topic up this week (and that would probably mean another Denizens extension).

    6) I'm thinking of putting together an actual web page or topic or something as a Mini-Guide. The point of this would parly be for those few people who say their computers can't handle the PDF Guide or the Slideshow. The other point would be to collect the short versions of stuff used in the review topic Mini-Guides, to copypaste as relevant to future episodes, mainly for our purposes as the writers of those stories but also to be available to others. It would sum up the important basics and winning contest entries of the EM. Perhaps this would simply be in the BRC topic, not sure. Just tossin' around the idea right now.
  14. bonesiii
    Previously I said I'd do krana for my FCG entry (and put the graphic of them, Bohrok, and "Kofo-Visorak" up for yall to use too), but Bohrok are taking so long to make, what with dogsitting and all, I'm not gonna have time. Instead for my entry I will have a single type of mutated krana used in every Bohrok.
     
    (Storywise, I DID say these Twisted Island Bohrok are mutant Bohrok. But I'm drawing them essentially set-accurate, so it will now be the krana that will be the mutants, not the Bohrok themselves. These Bohrok want to clear TI specifically of plants and structures and their krana refuse to listen to Bahrag commands. These mutants will be called Krana-Tauk. This is actually reviving an idea I had cut to save time from our 2002 BP plans that I thought up right in 2002, although modified a little. So that's cool and stuff.)
     
    Note that we will include Bohrok with and without krana. The ones with, I'm just using a generic, barely-able to be seen since this is pixel art, brain shape.
     
    We miiight do ball-Bohrok -- as in for flying mode -- but I doubt we'll have time.
     

    THIS UPDATE BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

  15. bonesiii

    Da Results Be In!

    By bonesiii,

    THIS ENTRY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:


    The results for both recent S&T contests are in! Go congratulate winners!

    S&T#5: Time Capsule Results

    EM#2: Name the Expanded Multiverse Results
  16. bonesiii
    This entry is to advertise the contest again (revamp Kal!) and to post the banner I made.
     

    ^ ^ ^ Click for link.
     

    [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=39&showentry=63671"][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/bonesiii/BonesBlog2/bohrokkoolsig.png][/url]
  18. bonesiii

    The Dynasty

    By bonesiii,

    Altacosmos Chronicle #2: The Dynasty

    Haven't yet linked to the second Altacosmos Chronicle. And won't have time for a fancier blog entry this week. So yarr.

    And took so long to link to the artwork topic that it is now dead lol. Just have a peek in both stories at the end (and banner at top) for the art. Here's the Bio Code link again.

    Note that there are ten freeware .ppt avs available for the Dynasty, including a coolified Ignika (as seen in banner above). As always, no sig cred needed.
  20. bonesiii
    Hey, guys--this is a quick callout to any of my fellow "S&T geeks" for the Storyline FAQ Topic. As you guys probably know, I haven't been able to pay much attention to BZP this fall due to tons of college homework. Well, the FAQ's topic's last additions (aside from one I just made, which reminded me ) were from early 2006, so there's probably a lot of frequently asked questions that could be added for later 2006 and the leadup to 2007. That topic works by linking to S&T topics where someone's asked the common question, it's been answered well, and usually the topic was closed because the answer was provided. Being out of it, I obviously haven't any idea which topics those are.

    So, anybody got some suggestions? Anything you guys have answered, have seen answered, have in your tracked topics list, or if you're staff there, have closed? You can comment suggestion links here or post them in the FAQ topic itself.
  21. bonesiii
    The Frog in the Bog

    The frog in the bog dislikes smog and fears dogs near the clog in its log near the soggiest jogger who flogs lazy hogs, drinks eggnog, and plays Pog in the foggiest fog in the bog, turning cogs using togglable progs in the log'rithmic blog about Gog and Magog typed by groggy couch-hogging green frogs who read logs while they jog in the foggiest fog by the log in the bog!


    ... You're probably wondering if I've gone insane--no, no, just felt like putting this up since I worked kinda hard on it and I think it's fun. It's what I call "Tri-Syllabic Poetry"; you find all the possible beginning sounds/letters for a rhyming sound you know, and try to write a poem with it that has some sort of coherence (as in, some sort of rough storyline...)--and it MUST rhyme every three syllables. Not that easy really. Ya gotta make charts and stuff. Had thought of it last year but never had opportunity to waste time on it, but recently in Linguistics we studied minimal pairs, which are words that basically only have one difference (Fog/Bog)... plus we're starting the Poetry section in another class, and I'm not normall into Poetry... at all... so I needed some excercise to get into it, lol.

    It works really well with Bionicle; there's so many "ahk"s and things like that. I wonder if anyone can come up with one to beat this'n:

    Kopaka's Akaku

    Kopaka's Akaku shows Rahkshi who flock near a rock as they thaw cold Bohrok and this shocks poor Kopaka who locked them in blocky ice boxes; he gawks as Bohrok start to walk and then mock him with talk--they're Bohrok Kal--and knock o'er the rock like a sock then they rocket at Vakama's Croc, which unlocks any lock, like Cahdok and Gahdok's, while the Rahkshi just balk at Kopaka like jocks--at a dock o'er in Ga-Koro, Thok and Piraka Avak come in Vahki boats, Zaktan by ox-pulled cart, Hakann, Reidak, and Vezok by Brutaka's mask, mocking Kopaka with hockey sticks, chalk art, and talk--all this knocking, unlocking, and mocking's from clocks--Evil Clocks!

    Even harder would be making it actually fit official story, XD... In case anyone is curious (and really, really bored), here's the rules I was sticking to:

    1) MUST rhyme every 3 syllables.

    2) Must use as many 3rd-syllable starting sounds and/or letters as possible, including mixes (like "smog" or "frog").

    3) Must not repeat excessively.

    4) Must have some sort of logical cohesion.

    5) Focus on sound primarily, not letters, since that's where rhyming comes from.


    Kopaka's Akaku contains every single possible beginning sound in the English language, incidentally, not counting mixes, except the "zh" sound (as in "Jacque"--if yall wanna beat me figure out how a French name can go in Bionicle ). You can "cheat" to get the rhyme too--I got "yahk" by saying "by ox" which phonetically is /bajaks/ (bahyahks).
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