bonesiii

Amen man.

1) Thanks. 2) You're opening quite a can of worms here. I fear not worms though -- just be aware that there are many different opinions on that one, some of them strong. (So I don't want any flame here, everybody. Feel free to disagree respectfully and hopefully with logic. ) 3) Well, remember I said that if something absolutely is necessary, it isn't really selfish -- if a person kills an animal in order to survive, that's different. With animals only, morals don't really come into play because they aren't sapient. With people, if it's the last choice left, it's clearly okay. 4) Where you're going to find gray areas is when it's not technically the last choice, and especially things like hunting and fishing purely for sport. Like buying meat at the grocery store, eating a cheeseburger, etc. As I do all the time. The disagreements in these areas are based in religion so we can't discuss details of that. 5) Logically speaking, my reasoning has to do with mental health and taste; I couldn't stand eating nothing but vegetarian foods. Especially not Vegan. But I'd agree that purely non-religiously speaking, those who avoid killing animals at all costs for nutrition do have the safest moral approach. (But logic forces me to consider the religious viewpoints too.) 6) Killing someone who tries to kill you -- depends; is it self-defense? Meaning, the best defense is a good offense -- in that instance, is killing them the only choice? Toa don't kill because it often isn't, at least in Bionicle physics. But is it literally a choice between you dying and them dying? Then it would not be wrong to kill the attacker in self-defense. And keep in mind in the heat of the moment, and the shock of it, it's quite easy to misjudge and in that situation it might be better to "overreact" than to try to think it through, because if you waste time trying to be extra cautious you are likely to end up dead. So usually, killing in self-defense is considered morally sound. 7) If they try to kill you, does it give you the right to kill them? It's a good question, because I said a murderer forfeits his life, but if he hasn't actually murdered you yet, has he technically forfeited it yet? Lemme answer that with a question -- would you wait until he had murdered you before you killed him back? It's not even possible (well... barring killer ghosts ). Since he does have the intent to kill, and the intent is what defines evil, he has already forfeited his life by both having the intent and acting on it by attacking you. 8) That's not the reason in Bionicle -- the reason is that in most situations the hero does not actually have to kill the bad guy. There are other options, and the Toa use them. If a Toa literally had zero choice, heshe would kill, and they have done this. 9) No, the lion isn't being selfish. Remember the difference between selfishness, which seeks to cause unnecessary harm for personal benefit, and taking care of yourself -- i.e. doing what IS necessary for your own survival. The latter is not selfish. 10) Of course, if the question is between a human eating another human because it's necessary for survival, that would be a whole 'nother can of worms. (Again, back to religion again, I would say it is still wrong, but it's a gray area.) 11) Balance of nature -- well, it is now, heh. Yet again another religious topic; many do not believe it was always this way. But I would just point out that all lions eat meat, so when each one does do what it must to stay alive, it keeps the whole species alive, which does help the greater good. If all lions stopped eating, there would be no baby lions, and nobody hunting for the whole pride, and they'd go extinct. Keeping yourself alive can definately be a good act done towards others, since you can help others when you're alive.

Not bad at all, Icy J! Reminds me of the Hoth monster in Star Wars, heh. Main suggestions are try lighting gradient effects, and add more clicks to the mock curves. As far as coming up with innovative shapes goes, great job!

It's science fantasy.

So do I get a "Head" of Logic, or a "Skull" of Logic? I wanna skull! Gimme gimme gimme! I claim the right to a free one for inspiring it.

For the record, I'm reading too.

Today the Bones Blog brings you a contest an information gathering drive about Pet Peeves, creatures that feed on things that are annoying. We believe they might be useful in the war against Evil Lord Survurlode, so we want to find more kinds! All of the following is placed inside a spoiler tag, because our sources tell us that Evil Lord Survurlode and his minions cannot open these tags due to a glitch his own minions caused. » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « Contest Theme Research Impetus: You may recall my interview with the Chief Gremlin, one of Evil Lord Survurlode's highest ranking minions, in which he told us about his Pet Peeves, and mentioned there are many more. You can see all existing Pet Peeves in this art topic with bio info, including a new image of a Stolen Thunder. We recently discovered through classified espionage that Evil Lord Survurlode is allergic to all types of Peeves, to the point that he can become unable to summon forth floods to swamp our servers when they are around him. The allergy gets worse with different kinds of Peeves. But we have a problem. I only learned of a handful of species in the interview. The Chief Gremlin has been unavailable for further comment, and his book on them keep getting eaten by the Plural Apostrophe's every time he makes a typo. So we need you to give us any information you have about Peeves, which will help us find them in the wild and capture their smell for use in a allergenic weapon against Evil Lord Survurlode. So, the question: What kinds of Pet Peeves exist? Do you own any? Have you heard of any? Winners will ultimately be chosen by me, but I'll factor heavily "votes" if you comment who you would pick too. Winning entries will have the Pet Peeve idea drawn by me as Powerpoint vector art, and their names listed in a Winners blog entry. Rules Research Methods Regulations: 1) Enter up to three species per person by posting a comment here. 2) You can enter a peeve concept someone else entered, as long as your concept is your own; i.e. different enough to not be copying. Be aware I'm more likely to choose the first enterer of a single concept than the second, so try to enter something new. 3) Post info; pics aren't the point of this. I'll draw the art -- that's the prize. You can include your own concept art but I'll make my own anyways. Please don't "vote" based on whether someone has pics, as not everyone has the time or capability.) 4) Add comments supporting anybody else's entries. These will be factored for (but do not guarantee) winning. 5) There's no set number of winners, but each person can only win once, not twice or three times. 6) No spamflame, etcetera. 7) Don't do anything bad. Prize Compensation: Winning Pet Peeves entries will be listed in a blog entry, and a new art topic once the Peeves are drawn. A permanent sidebar content block will be added to the Bones Blog highlighting the entries and the entererers. And you get a cookie. How to Enter Survey Format: Copypaste this format and fill in the info in placeof the bracketed explanations: [b]Pet Peeve Species:[/b] [Name of creature.] [b]My Name:[/b] [The name you want to be listed as you in the winning entry, content block, etc, in case you change it later.] [b]Bio:[/b] [Explain the Peeve, briefly. Try to keep it fun-ny! :P Helps to mention if you own it.] [b]Description:[/b] [What's it look like?] When it's over: Contest closes Thursday November 29 2007 (probably around midnight EST). NOTE: There are also Wild Peeves, which simply happen to have no owner yet. Once we get information about a newly discovered type of Peeve, we will be able to capture the Peeves from the wild. Which would make them Pets rather than Wild, but yeah... NOTE #2: No Peeves will be harmed in the making of the allergic weapon. NOTE #3: Evil Lord Survurlode WILL be harmed in the making of the allergic weapon. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!1!!

A future version of you was put in jail for not having insurance, in the cell next to a supergenius who told you how to make a time machine, and you went back and got insurance for youself.

This is one of my poems from the Poetry class I mentioned I'm taking at my college. Lemme know whatchall think of it. The Orange Fades I saw a carved pumpkin on a porch yesterday. It made me think of an old Autumn-themed scrapbook from my childhood. I pick it up, feel its orange-leather cover. I open it and step into all the photos I wish I’d taken. An unpainted, wooden storefront towers over me, barrels of gourds and miniature pumpkins out front. Orange, red, yellow maples and oaks wreath the building. Five plywood planks climb over wild grass to the front door. Photograph taken by a heavy black camera, leather grips on the sides. Reels of cider film inside, developed in a red darkroom somewhere in the city. I struggle to remember more about the scene. What was inside the store? Did I even go in? No, I stayed in the car. Was that the rusty blue Aerostar? An eyeless face with dry off-white fur and orange pimples. Pumpkins everywhere in a field full of what might be hay, might be straw. Some with brown rough spots. Others neon orange. I turn around, my sneakers crunching the hay or straw. All I see is pumpkins, like an ant in a vat of candy corn. Two photographs. First taken with a panoramic camera, printed in vivid colors, patterns of curvature of orange dots created by the panorama. Second taken from a helicopter directly above me, looking down at the field, the smiling road, the wild apple-orchard hair. A barrel lodged in the middle of a wall, made of rich, dark wood paneling clothed with shelves full of cinnamon candy sticks, mugs, pumpkin carvers. The smell of apple cider draws me to the barrel. Paper cups catch cider from the tap, and I don’t care that liquified worms might also be soaking my tongue. Photograph taken with a disposable camera. Smell of cider captured inside a sealed plastic tube that I filled with for a week, and only open rarely. After ten years, the smell is almost gone. A row of characters I imagined with my carving knife and markers. Obese green and yellow gourds with warts. White and yellow speckled midgets with crowns. Titans with jagged orange teeth. One squat miniature pumpkin had a blue and white snowsled origamied and markered from posterboard, and a paper hat with an open top for his stem. He had a name. What was it? Photograph taken of the whole group that year, seven in all. An eighth later preserved, a softball-sized pumpkin with white-out eyes, hollowed and laminated, the clear plastic so thin I can still feel the texture. But it didn’t fit in the scrapbook, so it became a windowsill decoration. The dust blurs the texture and the sun washes out the orange. But I stand in front of the house with that pumpkin, carved by another’s hands. It’s not the same. The scrapbook in my hands crumbles to dust. The orange mist fades from sight, from existence. I clench my fists, knowing that in ten more years even what’s left of the memories may be gone.

I can't relate to much of this, but that wasn't the point anyways. I think this could benefit a lot of people. Note: That award belongs mostly to Tilius, sorry Ikki. You can claim like 10% of it for hosting this. There's only two things I would add: 1) If enjoying Bionicle "in your head" as you put it is important to you, you might want to consider that Bionicle does need financial support to keep alive. You can opt to only buy small sets. To me, I feel I have a duty to at least spend some money on Bionicle each year, as I don't think it's fair for me (for ME, I wanna emphasize) to enjoy it as much as I do without doing that. Of course, that's me and I still love buying sets, so this probably won't apply to everyone, and I can understand deciding not to do this if you know that the sets are still selling well. 2) Kinda along the lines of what Heir said, I do think a lot of this can apply to people all at once. As I always say, people are like snowflakes -- no two are the same -- so some might fit with bits and pieces of this advice in different combinations.

It would have been, yeah.

Yeah; see these two blog entries if you didn't already. Vector Art In Powerpoint: Quality, Inexpensive, Easy Coolifying With Powerpoint Vector Art

Powerpoint, you mean, or the other one? That would be iPhotoPlus 4, which came with an old (now deceased) scanner.

Just a heads up that I've posted an Artwork topic for lotsa Survurlode artwork, mostly vector, some edits, from all four interviews, here: Spam Troll, Orca, & Other Evil Lord Survurlode Art Contains some new art too, including a revamped Orca with bonus wallpaper, another Pet Peeve, an improved THE Chief Gremlin, and the iHouse in both knob and house modes! Any posts/comments on this artwork would be greatly appreciated. NOTE: Includes bio info, allegiance status, plus some brand new classified info in Survurlode-proof spoiler tags!

Oh, yes. You can see the rest by clicking the Evil Lord Survurlode category banner in the sidebar, or, here's the list for convenience (which I'm thinking I should include from now on anyways): Interview: Chief Evil Clock -- Exclusive! Interview: Evil Lord Survurlode Interview: The Chief Gremlin, Minion of Survurlode Interview: Gollaga, Enemy of Survurlode Then what is Achoo? -Omi Perhaps it's another secret project!

Huzzah for approvals!

Today the Bones Blog brings you an interview with the creature Gollaga, former wielder of the One Refresh, the weapon of our enemy, Evil Lord Survurlode. We believe that this artifact is tied to Survurlode's powers just like Sauron was to his One Telephone Ring. Let's hope we can figure out how to find and destroy it! But don't tell Gollaga that, please... bones: Thanks for agreeing to talk with us, Gollaga. We've been trying to track you down for months ever since Evil Lord Survurlode told us of your existence, and that you once owned the One Refresh. Gollaga: My precious. bones: Yes. My precious. Gollaga: MY precious! Nasty Survurlode stole it! It's MINE! bones: Sorry, that's what I meant. YOUR precious. Anyways, why don't you begin by introducing yourself to our readers? Gollaga: We are Gollaga, my precious. We shows it, yes we does. bones: Well, I didn't mean your name. But where does your name come from? I haven't heard any strange coughs yet. Is it just because you're similar to both Gollum and a Rahaga? Gollaga: No, no. It's because when we sneeze, it sounds like "Gollaga." bones: Okay then. Why do you call yourself "we", though? Most people don't do that. Gollaga: Why does it ask us this? It called itself "we" too! bones: What? Uh, no, I meant "we" as in me and my fellow BZPers. But back to my question -- I meant, details about your life. Gollaga: We eat cheese puffs, precious, five times a day. bones: ... So I've heard. I don't blame you -- I love 'em too. But I mean, you know, about your past. Gollaga: My what? bones: You know, what you were like a long time ago. Gollaga: We ate cheese puffs yesterday too. And the day before that. Seven times a day. bones: I... I thought it was five? Gollaga: Was it? We forget. We hates math, we does, precious. We think we used to be good at it... But no longer. bones: So, you do remember something about your past? Gollaga: We remembers that we were once not that different from a Hobtoran. Gollaga: But then we found my precious. It changed us. Gave us unnatural long life, hunger for cheese puffs, and a Rhotuka power of Verbosity. bones: Say what? Gollaga: Big words, precious. We shows it, yes we does. *fires at himself* The target becomes incapable of communication without the dialectical aesthetic of a Lawyerahk. bones: Wow. That sounds like torture. But what is a "Lawyerahk"? Gollaga: A shapeshifting, complexilinguistic species of minion for Lord Survurlode, that has infiltrated the legal justice system. At the temporality when Survurlode captured me, I saw one, and took the liberty of capturing a visuodigital image: Gollaga: In regards to the aforementioned torturosity, grammatical precision becomes paramount, despite the latter being a requirement which even the topmost perfectionist is incapable of. NOOOOOOOO! I ENDED A SENTENCE WITH A PREPOSITION! ABOMINATION AND DOOM! AAAAAGH! "DOOM" is a short word! AAAAAAGH! bones: Calm down! It's okay! Gollaga: SHORT WORDS! AAAAAAGH! MUST. CONSUME. CHEESE PUFFS. At this point he stopped talking for several minutes, his mouth being otherwise occupied. I mean, eating. Yikes, some of that Rhotuka power must have contaminated me... I mean, got to me... Gollaga: We offer our deepest apologies for the aforeseen outburst. We shall endeavour to maintain our composure by remembering to refer to ourselves as "we". It is composed of two letters, unlike "I", my precarious. bones: You mean "precious." Gollaga: What? Yes, my predacious. I mean, my preconscious. Anyways, the pointaciousness of this dialogue is that Lawyerahks are a contingent of Survurlode's minionosity that he has endeavored to keep secret, thus you are now privy to classified information. bones: Thanks. So, the Lawyerahks are part of his "Dreaded Real Life" attack wing? It sounds like they're trying to drain life out of conversation. Am I right? Gollaga: Yes, they feed on the aforementioned linguistic life-force. They have also infiltrated certain professorships, especially in the English and History departments, in order to vampirate said life from written communication as well. bones: So that's why my History professor was ranting against the word "very" the other day... Anyways, next question. You mentioned you like cheese puffs. Tell us more. Gollaga: Yes, precursacious, cheese puffs are the exploding device in common colloquial tongue. bones: You mean... the bomb? Gollaga: They are the bomb. NOOOOOO! SHORT WORDS! AAAAAGHISHNESS! "No" is a short word too! I mean, non-affirmation is characteristic of brevity! I mean we! bones: But why cheese puffs? I don't see what they have to do with servers being flooded by the sea? Gollaga: Well, skeletoidinous, we would submit for consideration that finned aquatic creatures have little to do with the magmatic substance inside Mount Doom... Doomah... Doomahfication. And yet the Creature Gollum liked fish. However, because you have inquired, we shall provide the answer. bones: Yes? Gollaga: My precognitious glows orange. Cheese puffs are orange. bones: You used short words! Gollaga: NON-AFFIRMATION! bones: So does this mean that Evil Lord Survurlode is obsessed with cheese puffs too? Gollaga: Oh yes. At the temporality when he enslaved us and stole my pretentious, he fed us from his spare supply of puff... puffations. He had warehouses and warehouses full of it. Once we ate an entire warehouse-full in one day. The Chief Gremlin informed us that we should likely become annihilated if Survurlode found out. It became challenging to explain our appearance then. bones: Wow. How many puffs did you eat, man? How long did you stay orange? Gollaga: Approximately a quarter of a gazillion. Our color began to merginate to black after a period of fifteen whiles. bones: I forgot about the math thing... How did you survive? Gollaga: We simply targeted ourself with our Rhotuka and explained the situation in all its subtlety to Survurlode. He was obliged to smile and nod, pretending he understood our speechification, given his reputation as a master of linguistosity. bones: So anyways, the... your precious gave you these powers. What happens when you put it on? Sauron's One Telephone Ring would make the user invisible, just like how you can't see the other person over the telephone. What does the One Refresh do? Gollaga: You mean my parecious. We mean, my precocious........ The point is, it reforminates the user with transpixelification. bones: Yikes, that is a dangerous power! What's it mean? Gollaga: Why does it ask that? Anybody with half a neural network knowledgififes it means you become pixels. bones: Sounds... pointless? Gollaga: Nonsensiness. Pixelatiousnesses are energiness, unlike matter, thus we become intangible. Means we go through stuff. Whoa, we guesses our Rhotuka power is waning in effectaciousness, so you are fortunate I was able to use such short words to aid in the definition's understandability. bones: I know what "intangible" means. But now I'm confused -- in the pic you showed earlier of you wearing the... your precious, you didn't look like pixels. Gollaga: Oh, yes. You see, the whole "Frodo go poof in the middle of the bar" was never in the intentions of Sauron's designination -- it was a glitch. Survurlode is a much greater level of geekinosity, being master of the internet rather than old fashioned phones like his brother, so he overcame that particular difficulty. The power is activated mentally. bones: I see. So, at some point in your life, Survurlode captured you. Gollaga: Yes, and he STOLE my precious! bones: You said it right! Gollaga: We did! We thinks the Rhotuka power has almost worn off! bones: But why do you say "we" and yet you call it "my" precious? Why not "our" precious? Gollaga: GAH! bones: But back on topic... He stole your precious? Gollaga: And hid it, he did. Far far away from all life, he hid it, precious. bones: Any idea where? Gollaga: The precious calls to us, it does. Far far away, in the oceans on the surface of the Bionicle world, my precious calls to me. We can feels it. bones: Hrm. That's a big ocean. But why would he hide it in the ocean? I thought it was forged in the ocean, just like Sauron forged the One Telephone Ring in the fires of Mount Doomah. Wouldn't it get destroyed there? Gollaga: No, no. Survurlode is much smarter geekitudinosity than Sauron, remember? We thinks he made my precious... OUR precious so that it needs water. So anyone foolish enough to try to destroy it by mimicking Frodo would only make it stronger. No, the only way to destroy it is to take it to the driest, hottest desert. That's why it glows orange, not blue, when it's on land. It would crumble to ash, our precious! bones: Gollaga: Why does it grin that way? bones: Oh, right. Erm, I mean, good thing it's safe underwater, eh? Gollaga: Yes, precious. Safe. But we will finds it someday. It's ours. OUR precious. bones: Right. And once we... I mean you... find it, would you be willing to help us defeat Survurlode? Us not meaning just me... Gollaga: We don't know -- he might steal our precious again... bones: I'd share the cheese puff warehouses. Gollaga: WE SHALL SEND SURVURLODE TO HIS DOOMAHFICATION!!!!! bones: Excellent! There's been rumors, BTW, that he was already defeated partially with Brave Knight Binkmeister's latest blow, kinda like how Sauron was defeated once but kept alive due to the Ring. That's why Bink felt confident enough that he could afford to leave for the realm of Bionicle.com. I've noticed the server acting up a little again, though -- is Survurlode making a comeback like Sauron did? Gollaga: Yes, precious. He is now in the form of a giant tower with an "I" of water on it. bones: I've seen that picture before -- the Cheif Gremlin told me about it. I thought it was just in the planning stages? Gollaga: So there are many secret projects it doesn't know about, precious. No, the Gremlins built it many whiles ago, along with five hundred forty seven other classified projects. bones: That's a lot. Gollaga: Or was it seven thousand and twenty? bones: Do you know anything about them? I was under the impression we were aware of most of his plans already. Gollaga: Survurlode is like Makuta, precious. Plans within plans. Most things you've learned, he wanted you to learn, to make you either scared or overconfident. But we knows about two more projects. Right now, Project MiB is in action. bones: MiB? Survurlode was behind that? What does "MiB" stand for? Gollaga: Mosquitoes in Black. Gollaga: Survurlode hoped to scare the members with clones of an annoying bug he found on Voya Nui once. It can drain the passwords out of accounts if they are simple enough, and take the accounts over, but it failed so miserably that he didn't want anyone to know he was behind it. He was quite embarrased, my precious. bones: Ah, yes, that was when we set up the zappers. Zaps 'em every time. Gollaga: Yes. We hates that bug, because it wants to steal our cheese puffs. We had to buy zappers at Hut Depot for our hidden puff supply cave. So we wants your members to make sure they make long, complex passwords with letters, numbers, capitals, lowercase, whatever they thinks of. Make passwords of Verbosity, and nothing easy to guess! Use different passwords for your email, brickshelf account, etceterosity, and change your passwords every three whiles. bones: Noted... What was the other project? Gollaga: The Orkrana. That was a mission Survurlode made us go on -- to steal a krana from the prison-holes on Mata Nui. He mutated it into a squid form, and cloned it, precious, and gave them tsunami powers. Then he sent them out to possess the Orcas. bones: The Orcas, the whale-like creatures he wanted because their names sound like "Orc"? The Chief Gremlin told us Survurlode failed to tame them. Wasn't he trying to wipe them out since then? Gollaga: Yes, precious. But he still wants them under control. He just needs the Orkrana to sneak up on the Orcas. Only if that fails will he wipe them out, precious. bones: Yikes. We'll be looking into that. That could be a toughie, 'cuz we'll wanna stop that, but we wouldn't want to be responsible for their deaths either... Gollaga: The other one was the Spam Trolls. They are mindless beasts with an elemental power of spam. They throw it at anybody they see, especially themselves. We had to clean up after them many times, precious, when we served Survurlode. bones: Ah. So spammers aren't human. I always wondered... But that was three projects... Gollaga: Was it? We thought we said five? bones: There's more? Gollaga: Yes, but the rest we have been forbidden to reveal. If we does, Survurlode says he will hunt us down and imprison us in a room with no cheese puffs for a hundred whiles. And on top of that, he will put a clockcuff on our hands. We live without any evil clocks, you see, precious. We are free to roam where we wants, when we wants. To be enslaved to time would be the worst torture we could imagine. bones: I understand. I only had one other question -- how did you escape Survurlode's enslavement? Gollaga: Why does it ask us what we cannot say? If we told you that, we would be doomed if we were enslaved again. bones: True. Well, thanks for your time, Gollaga. Oh, BTW, I've got a research paper for that history Professorahk due in a month -- you wouldn't mind hitting me with one of those Rhotuka around then, would you? Gollaga: We wouldn't mind, precious. We wouldn't mind at all. bones: Thanks! ... I think...