ChocolateFrogs

I dunno, I'd be less interested in getting that Spider-Man set for Electro and more interested in getting it for his parts—specifically, all that luscious lightning in such a small set.

My point being: aside from lightning, the parts that come in that set aren't too luxurious.

-CF

New York Times bestselling author, everyone.

-CF

I'd be down for a Chima Constraction draft at BFVA. Once the new sets come out in the summer (if available).

-CF

Not 100% percent sure I completely get this post but I do love Crash Course and those are some of the best Nerd quotes I've ever seen. Also fantastic badge.

John and Hank also do vlogs weekly on a variety of subjects, from world politics, random musings, music and jokes, and anything in between.

I've been a Nerdfighter since its beginnings in Brotherhood 2.0 (about June/July 2007). DFTBA, fellow bringer of awesomeness.

 

By the way, the second quote comes from one of John's best videos, which is about Shakespearean insults. Which everyone should go look up if they haven't seen.

Woo!

I just looked up that video. Now I want to memorize Shakespeare insults and get weird looks when I use them!

-CF

Thanks!

This will definitely return to BFVA for its 4th year!

-CF

Anyway, these MOCs are pretty good. I especially like that in the case of the UFO, Insectoids, and Roboforce models, they pay earnest tribute to the the actual defining motifs and design standards of those themes, rather than just being generic spacecraft painted in the colors and emblems of a retired theme, like a number of "throwback" models sometimes tend to be. The Exploriens SHIP is nice, as SHIPs go. However, other than the colors and logos, it doesn't totally call to mind Exploriens for me. I feel like the Exploriens line was mostly characterized by flared shapes, lattices, bulky lasers/signal transmitters, and reflective satellite dishes. Of course, that's just my opinion. Perhaps a vessel as massive as this one would not adhere to the same design constraints of the smaller vehicles.

I agree it doesn't have the exact feel of the Exploriens sets, but I think part of the spirit of the revamping a theme so it is "Neo" is to break away from the mere plate-as-wings and openness that a lot of 90s Space ships and Classic Space had and use some new techniques and shapes available now.

It would be interesting to have a more in depth discussion about this with fans of Neo-MOCs. (I'd suggest the Neo 90s-Space Flickr group, but I can't seem to post pictures there....)

-CF

 

I am splitting the cost with a roommate. I met him online, and he seems okay enough, but he is new to the city, so hopefully he won't get too confused by real civilization. As long as he pays rent, doesn't burn the place down, and tolerates my Lego collecting, I'm sure it'll work out. (I've had worse roommates in the past anyway.)

I dunno, that guy sounds pretty sketch. You better watch out.

 

Congrats on the move!

 

Jason, I think he'd have to worry about you tolerating his LEGO collecting!

-CF

I finished And Another Thing... just a few weeks ago. It was... okay. Nothing particularly bad, but nothing that good either. You're really not missing much if you choose to skip it.].

There are a number of books I still ought to read. Three that I've been putting off reading are Out of Oz (fourth and final book in The Wicked Years), Inheritance (fourth and final book in The Inheritance Cycle), and Wonderstruck (the most recent book by the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret).I don't know if I'll end up reading any of these books this year. Honestly, ever since high school (when I read such beautiful travesties as Of Mice and Men, Flowers for Algernon, The Scarlet Ibis, and The Great Gatsby) I've been squeamish about reading unless I feel absolutely emotionally secure. Books are powerful things, and therefore dangerous ones. It's very easy to enjoy a book, or think you're going to enjoy a book, up until you realize what it says about you or the things you take for granted. And then if you have a hard time turning against the book you end up turning against yourself.The books I am most likely to read this year include the Ninjago graphic novels (there are at least three due for release this year), the My Little Pony chapter books, the My Little Pony Journal of the Two Sisters guide book, the My Little Pony Daring Do Adventure Collection, the new Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels, and maybe the new series that Lemony Snicket started last year or the year before.There's a reason that a great deal of my time in bookstores anymore is spent in the children's section. It's a place of comfort. Books for children and young adults, especially if they're tied to a commercial franchise, are rarely depressing, and never soul-crushingly so. They tend use agreeable characters and agreeable stories to convey agreeable messages. Sometimes a children's book will tell a story that is maybe a bit sad, about people going through unfair or trying circumstances. Sometimes characters even die. That's reality. But generally, nobody's life is wasted, and nobody would be better off dead, and nobody will make a foolish decision that will haunt them in their every waking moment for the rest of their lives.I suppose I'm not in a really good place emotionally right now (I just tried and failed to fill out a job application, which is enough to ruin any good mood, even one that results from seeing The LEGO Movie twice in two days). So maybe I'm being a bit pessimistic. But back in the day, reading was often an escape for me — it'd be what I'd resort to when I was feeling lonely or bored or frustrated or hopeless. If my classes were going particularly badly, I'd take refuge in the school library. These days, the only way I can use reading as an escape is if it's something I've read before, and beyond that, something that I'm confident will impart the exact same comforting messages it told me the last time I read it.

You're reading tastes are definitely very different than mine- I tend to stay away from a lot of science fiction stuff. S. sounds like it could be interesting, though, and I may look it up just to see how it's written. As for myself, I'm currently finishing up The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen and plan to move on to Doctor Sleep from there. I'm generally not a huge fan of King, but I loved The Shining (book and film) so I'm really curious to see where he's taking the story. That's as far as I've planned- but I also plan to read A Lion Among Men, and possibly (hopefully this year) follow that up with Out of Oz. Even though I felt Son of a Witch was a little unfocused, from what I understand it also received the weakest reviews. So here's hoping those two are a good (better) continuation of the story. I might as well add that I'd like to read the original Baum novels at some point, but wether or not that happens this year is up in the air. I'd also like to read the original Peter Pan story(ies?), but I'm not sure where to start. Do I start with The Little White Bird or Barrie's adaption of his play? I have no idea. And then there's The Art of Tangled and The Art of Frozen which I want to read if I can get my hands on them. I love reading about a film's production almost as much (if not more) than watching the movie itself so these should both be pretty good. And finally there's Storm of Swords (George R.R. Martin), Fault in Our Stars (John Green), Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T.E. Lawrence), and The Terror (Dan Simmons) which I may or may not get to sometime within the next five years... what I want to read and when I want to read it changes quite rapidly. I guess if I want to set realistic expectations for myself, I plan to read everything in the previous paragraphs (not including this one) this year.

The Fault in Our Stars

 

legit

It's fantastic! I'm going to reread it before the movie.

-CF

Yeah, Eoin Colfer wrote a sixth book in the trilogy called "And Another Thing" a few years ago. I guess I haven't been motivated to finish the fifth book (I started once!) and read this is because I'm not an Artemis Fowl fan.

-CF

Wow! So cool you got to meet him. I was just thinking how cool that would be a few weeks ago...

That's really neat how you could have such a long conversation with him at the con. Just hang out...

-CF

The clear dish is a 10x10 inverted dish from the Hailfire Droid. (While we're talking about styles it comes in, let's not forget the two awesome dishes that come in Grievous's Cycle Chase.)

I'll see what the white shield piece looks like, but I think it's important to highlight the grey bits too.

Thanks for sparing me some criticism, though this is probably the best Toa MOCs you'll see from me for a while until I start building Bionicle a lot more regularly. (I took my System to college and pretty much have become fluent in starfighters, but lost some Bionicle groove.) I'm always interested in a bit of "this is good" and "this is bad," etc.

-CF

The Unikitty tail in the background is pretty terrifying, TBH.

Other than that, excellent vignette! (Really tempted to get this set for Wyldstyle and Unikitty.)

-CF

@ Ben--Cool, thanks for your thoughts/recommendations! I'll definitely be checking those out, and adding them to my ever-growing list of books to acquire. =P And at the Millennium Trilogy, yeah, I've heard the same. Though I've also had a couple people tell me they're a little hard to get through...not sure if that was because of content or writing style, but either way I do plan to read them eventually (probably once I find the third book for really cheap? In case they are really good, I don't want to have to wait to read the third one =P).

 

But yeah, still haven't gotten around to reading many graphic novels. >_< I'll definitely be messaging you then, thanks! I think part of the problem is that a lot of good graphic novels are part of a series, and with all the other books/series I "need" to read...haha. Plus, graphic novels are generally a lot more expensive, because they don't usually have ones I'm interested in at used bookstores (at least, not ones that I know I'm interested in haha), and I don't buy many books new. Anyway, I do hope to read a bunch eventually, it's just the when that's the question. =P

I was lucky enough to get the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as a gift, and find the second for $2 as a paperback and the third for $2 as a hardback!

I'll be sure to mark "the other books in the series aren't essential reading" as part of criteria for you.

-CF

You know, maybe it's because I had to read it for a class (that I was not particularly enjoying), but I just could not get into American Gods. : / I don't really know why, it just seemed like a dull read. And the whole concept of the 'new Gods' never made any sense to me.

 

Ah well, to each their own. I can't say I've ever heard of any of those other books (aside from A Monster Calls, which I did enjoy, and Sandman), but it's always interesting to see what other people are reading. I might have to check out Sandman one of these days just to see what the fuss is about.

Sorry American Gods didn't grab you. Maybe pick it up on a whim after a few years since you read it and give it a shot? (I plan on doing that for a few school books I "didn't get" because rarely do I like school books.)

As for the rest of my list: I hope you can find something new on here that interests you. I suggest looking synopses and ratings/reviews on Goodreads.

-CF

Velox:

I really want 11 Doctors/Stories, but B&N doesn't have it yet. Shada here is written by Douglas Adams (kind of) and it definitely shows in the fifth of it I read a while ago (couldn't finish it, so I bought it a while later. Will read in 2014).

Firefly: Still Flying is definitely a great read for Firefly fans!

I'm looking forward to the Earthsea stories. I got the first one for 50 cents at a library sale, and a few more for free without their covers from work (don't ask). I'll read the Millennium Trilogy soon. I estimate all three will take me less than a month if they're as good as people say they are. I'm also looking forward to Boneshaker because of all the good things said about it.

If you haven't read many graphic novels (despite all the advice given in that one blog of yours), message me and I'll tell you one book to go buy and read based on any criteria you give me. The Serenity graphic novels are nice, but I can't say they're essential reading. (However, the new comic starting in January might be.)

-CF

I respect a man who keeps an AP Stylebook handy.

 

And The Onion's Our Dumb World too! I got that a few years back and it's always good for a laugh. It pretty effectively parodies every nation on Earth in addition to atlases in general (although oftentimes in ways that are NSFBZP).

I love the Vatican's page--"The Catholic Disneyland" XD

You, sir, look like you need another bookshelf. I do, too. I've gotten to the point where I need to double rows on one shelf and I just hate it. I can't say for sure if the number of books I have match yours because I can't tell how many rows you have there, or how many books fit on each row. It probably comes close, though.

 

Speaking of which, how was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? I've been reading my way up to it, but it will be a while before I get there (I'm trying to read all the author's George Smiley books and only just finished A Murder of Quality).

 

(Also + 2 for Cloud Atlas Lovecraft)

As I said, I have about 100 books; probably a tad more.

I haven't read TTSS yet. I tried reading it before the movie came out, but it's a slow read and I had schoolwork and stuff to do. I'm determined to read it in 2014 though!

Same story for Cloud Atlas.

The Lovecraft is from a friend and I'm really happy I have a full anthology!

-CF

I've never quite liked the look of a full bookshelf because it means I have no more room to add to it! (Although I haven't bought books in a long time now...)

 

I've started doubling up book layers. Mostly books I've already read or the second-half of a series.

Part of me thinks I should downsize and sell/donate some of these, but most of these that I have read I don't want to give away. A few I could, but for now these have to stay put.

-CF

-CF

I'm surprised I'm still near the top of the "most comments" sort. I do so little blogging now (ever since that 6-month BZP downtime), but it seems others do even less.

-CF

Your stuff shows up in my RSS. I'll comment if I need to.

-CF

Yayz!

 

How are you THAT fast? You must have responded in less than a minute of posting! Do you just refresh my blog every couple of moments in case I make an entry???

-CF

Bunda of all the people I wanted to come to BrickFair to finally meet, you're like, #3. But with another BrickFair having past, you are now #1.

Hotel is under $125 for 4 nights if you split a room with 3 others. Airfare? Well, everything comes with a price. Totally worth it though (as evident by my flight out to BrickCon in October.

And my blog is completely outdate too. Oh well.

-CF

Some of us have taken up calling you "Ex-cee-cee-jason" but it often sounds like "Exeejason" so that's one fanon for you.

Jason is one of the few members I prefer to call by his real name rather than his BZP name. It's just so much easier.

-CF

Stargate is awesome. I haven't watched nearly enough episodes but I'm a fan nonetheless.

-CF

If people expect me to join BZPRPG I expect someone to write me up a 'how to get into BZPRPG for dummies', please and thank you.

I second this...

Anyway, you know how much I enjoyed meeting you and sharing the week with you. More than words can say. Can't wait to see you again!

-CF