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bonesiii

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Everything posted by bonesiii

  1. Lately I've noticed a trend on BZPower--it seems that the Voting Booth Forum gets very little attention. Polls are a valuable tool, at least for BZP, and sometimes even for the LEGO company (although we must always keep in mind BZP represents a minority). But they become worthless if only around ten people vote in them. Lately it seems many polls suffer from this disease. The problem? The MVPs--the "Most Valuable Polls" get buried in a slew of polls that are less important. From now on, if I have time, I'll keep a very short list in this blog of what I think are the Most Valuable Polls--the ones that lotsa folks should be voting in.
  2. And believe you me, I appreciumnate it. Now if only someone else could go through my inbox for me.... >_> Righ now, my sympathies go to anyone judging the Epics contest. After this summer, BZP will need to fund a "Save the Eyesight" campaign...
  3. Well, yes and no, Utopia. In the interests of saving time, feel free to focus on entries that have more votes... But if you have the time at all, judges, please do continue to judge based on what needs judging, because everybody deserves a fair chance at winning. You never know, last minute votes can change things.
  4. bonesiii

    Milk.

    Lol, I agree about milk in cereal---that's like purposefully rotting vegetables before eating them to me. XD But milk as a drink... it tastes good, it's healthy, it makes the glory of ice cream, it's rediculously common, it comes in handy-dandy jugs, and it's natural. Not to mention... without it we would die from Lack Of Cheese. Why the heck would someone not drink it? Seriously, I've always been baffled at you "I hate Milk" people. Unless of course you're lactose intolerant. In which case you wouldn't even need to say that you hate it... So like, you've got no excuse, man! (I'd say it's just a difference in personal taste thing (the literal kind)... but of course it's impossible not to like milk's taste.) *milk is good for bones*
  5. Since Lord Survurlode temporarily conquered BZP last Thursday, the voting period deadline for the S&T#2 preliminary polls is being extended to noon EST Friday July 21st. Paracosmos fans, note that the lastest update to the RPG Part 1 is available for download now. Today I'm trying to get through my inbox... *dives into giant mess of PMs*
  6. 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!
  7. Oh, yes. Saw it this morning. It is definately as good if not better than the first movie, IMO. It's a must see. Have fun!
  8. 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. )
  9. 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.
  10. As I type another storm's on the way and it's purple. Purple = bad. Infection and bngi, you're in too--I don't think we need anyone else, but both of you I know fit the bill so that works. I didn't expect so many to sign up so fast at last minute's notice--thanks, folks! Edit: Wir haben ein Contest.
  11. I was trying to comment here about eight hours ago, but the weirdest thing got in the way. A monster storm just ripped through my area, so I had to shut down the comp. And man was that storm nasty... three tornadoes touched down in the area, one only a few miles from home, and rain so bad that a faucet-sized hole burst in the side of the basement, where everybody and the cat and dogs (boy was that fun ) were camped out. This basement -never- floods but it would have this time if the hole hadn't been directly next to a big ole drain that thankfully did -not- decide to get plugged today. Didn't end up losing power, but the floor under the other computer, the one I was on of my two networked ones, is soaked from a seperate minor leak. And then in the middle of a doorway on the first floor (above ground...), water started coming through the ceiling, making the paint there bulge. Just a drip, but that's never happened in this house. The faucet hole had mud coming through it at first, from under a basementless section of the house--especially concerned that dirt under the foundation might now be missing. And apparently tommorrow we cut down a tree-sized weed that grew next to the house--roots probably helped the damage along. When I picked the submarine theme for this blog entry earlier today, it was just random, cuz the Yellow Submarine font is cool, lol. Amazingly ironic 'cuz now it felt a bit like being in a submarine for a few hours. With leaks. So yeah.... Please bear with any delays to the contest, though I expect I will have it up sometimes tommorrow anyways. Sarcasm, bonesiii. 4000 is plenty enough. So question, there will be what seems to be three catagories. Will there be three winners for each catagory, or one winner over all catagories? Edit: Nice obscure reference... Lol--Personally 4000 words is nothing (my SSes go into the 7000 word range usually). But yeah, guess I missed the sarcasm... Seriously, though, it is possible that I'd extend the length, but at this point probably not likely. Depends on if a big number of yall can judge. One winner in each of the three categories. SPIRIT, Tahatu Taluka, Mikerahk--you're in! This is probably my own fault more than yours, but I'm not really sure that you qualify... Could you perhaps describe about how much you know of the official story? I've seen you around, but never quite noticed you much in S&T--again, that might not mean anything and might speak more to my observation skills than anything. But I'd like more details from you... Regardless of whether you can be a judge, though, you can always help by posting in each entry topic anyways! ------------------------- Judges so far: bonesiii, QB, Toa Pilak, bohrokwill, Electric Turahk, Makaru, SPIRIT, Mikerahk, Tahatu Taluka, Dr. Bionicle, *onua nuva* fan, and Aoran. Good amount, so I'm pretty happy now that we can handle the load. That said, the more the merrier so don't hesitate to say if you think you can help, folks. Also, as the contest goes on I can still authorize more judges. For now probably not absolutely necessary. There will be specific instructions for what judges will do in the entry topic, which is as far as I can tell all ready to be posted tommorrow. *submarine surfaces*
  12. Well, the latest limit for an SS contest was 3500. It kinda has to be short to make sure we can all read. On the other hand, if we get more judges... maybe I can lengthen it. Did you have a maximum in mind? Thanks for volunteering. Judges so far: me, QB, Toa Pilak, bohrokwill, ET, Makaru.
  13. 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.
  14. Thanks. I'm seconds away from posting a teaser blog entry about what that something is -- it will be fully announced tommorrow. I kinda wish I could, but not really gonna be possible -- it contains spoilers about the RPG: Part 2. Doesn't tell ya how to beat the game or anything, but it would ruin a few surprises. On that subject, BTW, pretty much the only BP thing left before I can start work on the RPG is getting a bunch of art done for AoS ahead of time. Got about three chapters ahead done already. Probably gonna cut down on the number of art per chapter, and probably not gonna be coloring a whole lot. I understood whatcha meant so it's all good--I beleive what you said is correct too though. Tried googling for something, anything, in the way of free font editors... seems nothing worthwhile is out there, at least not within the first few pages of hits. I can't afford 300 dollars for one itty bitty font (yeesh, money racket). So I guess I'll be drawing 'em as lineart in Powerpoint, sigh--plus side is I now have paper sketches of each and every letter looking exactly how I want 'em.
  15. bonesiii

    On Mystery

    Thanks for the comments on the BP, DV and Drexer! Oh, definately, lol. Still waiting on that review. *kidding* I was lucky/unlucky enough to come in for the season finale of season 1--lucky 'cuz when I got to see the first episodes, then go through in order, I wasn't really confused. Unlucky 'cuz I already knew the monster was black smoke, and lotsa other things that probably ruined some of the mystery for me. But it was still rocking fun, so no harm done. Edit October 2nd 2007:
  16. Indeed -- the made-up-by-him Kanohi rock; it's something now that I look back at the old comics and I go "If only Sayger had drawn these..." Yet another aspect of 2006 that is looking very positive, towards it being the best Bionicle year ever.
  17. bonesiii

    Notes From Billund

    Exaaaactly as I predicted. Excellent--one more step for 2006 to be the best Bionicle year so far. Keep up the awesome work yall are doing, Greg and LEGO! Can't wait for '07 now... Duly buying! :salutes:
  18. 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.
  19. My approach, usually, is sorta a mix between outlining and not -- I only "outline" because sometimes I'll have an idea and not have time to write the actual scene, just jot a note... so I don't usually even call that an outline, but I do arrange it in chron. order. But I always approach the outline as just one of many possible ways I could go when I actually write, and NOTHING is ever final. (I put it in all caps to yell at myself to never forget that. ) Often my "outline" says the character wins something in a scene and I end up having him/her lose 'cuz that is cooler. XD Or vice versa. So even with the outline I'm still pretty much clueless as to how the story will end. I find, personally, that works better than pure spontaneity. BTW, took a class on writing, and what TMD said is basically what my instructor (a published writer and editor) said is best -- he had us write outlines for our stories that could not go over 20 words. And then everything else is supposed to be spontaneous.
  20. bonesiii

    On Mystery

    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!
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