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ChocolateFrogs

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Blog Entries posted by ChocolateFrogs

  1. ChocolateFrogs
    Easy to ask my roommate to borrow his car. Easy to feel the bags. Easy to successfully guess each fig I wanted that was in the bags:

    Bonus pic!
     
    I also wanted a garden gnome, but there were none left. That's ok though, because I didn't really need him. I'm just glad LEGO finally made a garden gnome minifig. So I got a second HAZMAT guy instead, because they're really easy to feel.
    And I guess the others are easy to feel too. Geisha had the slope brick, Musketeer had the hat, surfer had the board, and scientist had round squishy hair (not to be confused with the rocker's squishy hair, which was also easy to find, as were parts from the werewolf, skateboarder, and ice skates for either two figs. Artist and sailor aren't too hard either).
     
    The Musketeer is really cool. Like, neat hat, nice torso, cool sword, clever face. Everything one would expect of a musketeer.
    The surfer girl is pretty neat too. Cool board, and, as xccj mentioned, the hair in a new color is refreshing.
    The Geisha is pretty much for an Inara Sera minifig, but looks nice. That fan is cool.
    The HAZMAT guy(s) are one of the best, because of the keetorange color, the size of their suits, their guns, and their facial expressions! (I'm just disappointed they didn't have a second face on the back of their heads like the LEGO website teased.)
    Finally, what caught my eye in the first place, and which I didn't find until last when sorting through my TRU's one box (one! geeze. And only half-full by the time I got there.), the mad crazy scientist. But the hair gave him away. The goggles will be cool for steampunk stuff later.
     
    Good luck. What are you searching for?
     
    -CF
  2. ChocolateFrogs

    Devious

    By ChocolateFrogs,

    I have the entire apartment to myself.
    Naked time!
    One roommate is at home. Another is doing some sort of on-campus science conference. The other doesn't come around too often. (And the honorary roommate is at home.)
     
    My friend and I plan on watching Children of Men (There are some sci-fi movies I should have seen long ago...) and then the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special because she just caught up. (I was able to convince her to put down Merlin for a while so she could be all caught up before Series 6. )
     
    After that, maybe I'll go prank my roommate who pranked me last week. I'm thinking cling-wrap over his shower head.
     
    -CF
  4. ChocolateFrogs

    7 Hours Later

    By ChocolateFrogs,

    And I have most of the work done:

     
    Modularity for transportation!
     
    Next up: Clean up the underside, greeble the top, add on a nose (ie. add on 8 more studs to make 102, a stud longer than xccj's SHIP/Submarine), fix up the engines, and work on some tiny design flaws (mostly from lack of pieces).
     
    -CF
  5. ChocolateFrogs
    March 22 was my roommate's birthday, and he's a big Trekkie.* Normally for my roommates' birthdays I just bake a standard cake and add some frosting and sprinkles on top. But considering my mom has made fantastic and creative cakes for my 21 years alive, not to mention for the rest of my family, I decided to get a little creative and make something he wouldn't forget:

    And here's his reaction, and another, and a nice smile. (Sorry, ladies, he's engaged. )
     
    The store-bought Pillsbury frosting isn't exactly the best for shaping, but I had to make do as I've never tried making my own, nor do I have the proper tools. I would say that, for a first attempt, it turned out pretty good.
     
    -CF
    Incidentally, William Shatner was born 59 years earlier. Coincidence, I think not. What a copycat though, taking my roommate's birthday.
  6. ChocolateFrogs
    Product placement can seem pretty obvious in some TV shows (like the Milk Duds in The Big Bang Theory), but last night's Chuck made it acceptable, as an art.
     
    Chuck has a long history with Subway (being their #1 sponsor, so much so that when the show was in danger of cancellation fans showed their support by eating at Subway frequently. I know I would have if I had been a fan back then), so it's no surprise to see it appear in obvious places here and there. But last night, with Big Mike (BM) describing how delicious his Subway sandwich was (emphasis on the breakfast burrito bit) with the banter and description between him and Morgan, it was practically written into the script so well and so cheesily that it wasn't as bad as other product placements can be (I'm looking at you, Myka Bearing and your Twizzler cravings despite not liking sugar or whatever in season 1 of WH13).
     
    Gotta love Chuck.
     
    -CF
  8. ChocolateFrogs

    They're Robots

    By ChocolateFrogs,

    Spoiler alert: The counter-argument to this post is "It's just a story."
     
    In the latest LEGO Mag's Hero Factory comic, the upgrade process is described as "too dangerous to use again" in reference to Evo and Nex. It is then said, "Upgrade. So powerful a process even the bravest heroes feel fear at its name." Excuse me, but they're robots. They don't get "upgraded" in magic tubes. They get ripped apart for scrap, rebuilt differently with new and improved armor and mechanics and reprogrammed with the latest hardware.
     
    -CF
    (And it felt not dissimilar to creating the Toa Nuva.)
  9. ChocolateFrogs
    See what I did there?
     
    I've loved the Alien Conquest theme ever since the pictures were out. Like an alien B-movie, LEGO style. If I had money I might even pick up each one (ok, not really, but that mothership is cool).
     
    Here's what I'm thinking:
    The $10* set is cool. Blue human defender fig (that helmet!), new guns, older newer guns, and looks like a good amount of pieces for my buck.
    I was all set for buying the $5 set as well and calling it a day, for another human defender fig and alien, but then I got a closer look at the $20 set. It looks cool (tripod and slight saucer design) and has some good pieces, but the best part is the alien pet appearing in such a small set! (Shame there is no human defender though.) The second best part is the human victim so I can use the blue-striped suit for my 10th Doctor minifig.
     
    As much as I want to rush out to TRU and get these two ASAP, I am probably better off waiting for a BOGO sale or going home and buying them from my LEGO Store (10% off!). (Same goes for the Series 4 minifigs.)
     
    But plenty of time until then to keep building other things!
     
    -CF
    *My own price estimations.
  10. ChocolateFrogs
    So hear at camp, we got stormed last night. Big time. Like there was a little swamp in front of some people's tents and some tents were leaking.
     
    BTW, we're using platform tents, the Boy Scout kind. Me, being the SPL, was outside for most of it. It was so fun! The lightning made it as clear as day out side, only for a moment. I had to go outside to make sure everyone was OK and no other tents were leaking, if they were I'd hand them some plastic for the top of their tent.
     
    The thunder started when most of the camp was in a field doing campwide games. So they had to stop those short (my staff was awesome at it, though) and rush everyone back to camp. I go to the comfort station to do a little bathroom business I don't want to do in the latrine, and a scout master yells in that the camp issued a siren for a storm warning. Everyone should rush back to camp. So I did, and got into my tent just as the rain started to pour. Then I get my rain gear and hop out!
     
    So we're also worried about rain tonight and tomorrow, but hey, we're Boy Scouts, a little rain won't hurt us! (we play with fire after all...speaking of which I've confiscated two lighters and a can of ax and bug spray because they were making flame throwers)
     
    -CF
  11. ChocolateFrogs
    Wow, I was on last night too, after I got it nonetheless.
     
    Anyway, last night was my Eagle Scout Board of Review.
    *drumroll please*
    And I am now an Eagle Scout!
     
    That means, in the Boy Scouts of America, that I have served as a leader in my troop, have camping experience, and overall am a great scout.
    In short it's really important, special, and a high honor.
     
    (Um, xccj, did I miss anything?)
     
    So now I have to send papers to the Council, and once those are approved I can plan a Court of Honor.
     
    -CF
  13. ChocolateFrogs
    Off to a free Carbon Leaf concert! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
     
    Edit: It was really fun. I went with a few friends, and the music was good. We got there are few minutes late (technically half an hour early but they started early) in the middle of Shine. We heard some favorites like Big Strong Man, The Boxer, Toy Soldiers, and they concluded with Mary Mac.
     
    -CF
    (I know they didn't write Mary Mac. It's just one of my favorites of theirs. Also Shine and Big Strong Man.)
  14. ChocolateFrogs
    I come back to my room this evening and what do I find? My desk chair in the living room. Big deal (though I suspect something is up).
    I walk into my room and what do I find?

    If you can't tell, there isn't a mattress under there.

    (Sorry for the blurry pic.)
     
    Also, look down now up. A slipper is missing.
     
    All be told, everything is back to normal now, but my roommate's message relayed to me is that it was to "keep me on my toes."
    I was about to hide his mattress (he's off working all night--it's his job) and lock the door to the bedroom I hide it in, but that would be unsportsmanly and not very original (and his door is locked). So right now I need a good prank idea to pull on him in a few weeks. (He already filled up cups of water outside my door last year.)
     
    -CF
  15. ChocolateFrogs
    I should totally catch a flight out to California for Bricks by the Bay in a few weeks. Why? Because at the very same time in the same hotel is Nova Albion, a steampunk convention. It's like two cons in one! LEGO goodness at one part, cosplay fantasms in the other! I'm going to have to keep an eye on the internet for reviews of folks who attended both.
    In the meantime, someone make a DC steampunk convention, pretty please? Or give me money to go to Dragon*Con? Love, CF.
     
    -CF
    Note: Dragon*Con is a sci-fi/fantasy convention, not steampunk. It's just too awesome (and contains steampunk) not to pass up.
  18. ChocolateFrogs
    The writer in me was thinking about an answer to the age-old question: "If moonlight is a reflection of sunlight, why don't werewolves change in the daytime?"
     
    Here's my explanation for it: They need a certain amount and type of light. Direct sunlight is too much, and anything but a full-moon is too little. They need that perfect blend of darkness and reflective sunlight, which is why it won't work on a really cloudy day or early in the evening either.
     
    -CF
  20. ChocolateFrogs
    I don't know about you, but if someone adds me as a contact on Flickr, I don't immediately add them back. I look at their photostream and consider the value it gives me to have updates from it.
     
    The point is: If you want me to even consider adding you as a contact, you'd best allow me to look at some photos first. If I walk in and only see, "This member doesn't have anything viewable to you, but here are some from their friends," I'm just going to walk out, never worrying about you again.
     
    -CF
  21. ChocolateFrogs
    I am further intrigued. Figures they don't give us a complete story and idea of what the film is about, but I guess that is OK.
    They might even be banking on Speilberg's and Abrams's names to pull in viewers, and it just might work...
     
    -CF
  23. ChocolateFrogs

    Spite

    By ChocolateFrogs,

    So here's the thing: I haven't read Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or The Return of the King.
     
    I'll wait for all of you to recover from the state of shock.
     
    I'm currently working on Towers, but it's hard with all my schoolwork and stuff.
     
    Also, I haven't seen those two movies, because I'm picky like that.
     
    Now, my friends say they are going to force me to sit down and watch the movies this semester whether or not I finish the books.
     
    Regardless of if I finish the books, what if I really, really like the movies? I mean, they're epics, the third one won one of those big awards (imagine that, a fantasy movie winning an award!) and the soundtracks are constantly talked up. Sounds like there is little reason for me not to like them. Now, as soon as I realize the movie's awesomeness, my friends are never going to let me live it down. Just wait, they'll be talking about how good the movies are, and I'll pipe in my agreement, and then they'll suddenly turn on me saying how it took me a billion years to read/see them. Then what?
     
    It's a lose-lose situation. I was better off saying I hadn't seen the movies because I couldn't trudge through the books.
     
    Granted, this is all hypothetical. Maybe I should just give them all a slap in the face (literally or verbally, or both) and it'll never happen again. Maybe they'll be nice.
     
    .....
     
    Maybe part of me just wants to watch the movies, not have to pick up the books (which stop to examine every passing flower in detail, ug) and get on with other things I want to read. But that's not how I roll. Especially someone like me who likes to read, and wants more time to do so, it would sound silly to say, "I really liked the movies but never finished the books." (Granted, I know people do that for Harry Potter, but that's not as respectable a series overall.)
     
    -CF
    Cool quote from Aragorn (one of the coolest characters IMO) while reading early in The Two Towers: "There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."
  24. ChocolateFrogs
    Looking over my notes for my current English class (American Lit 1850-1920), the focus is on realism, which the Power Point slides say is a "Strong attempt to represent the typical, average," the "Prevalence of ordinary events," and, here's the kicker, that "Characters are on the street, no larger-than-life heroes who engage in romantic adventures filled with courageous acts, daring chases, and narrow escapes."
     
    So, revisiting the recent entry about stories being believable, where I discussed movies and then segued into books I like to read, I realize that I really don't like realism (known to me as what all my literature classes force me to read, save a few specific stories).
     

     
    Heh.
     
    -CF
  25. ChocolateFrogs
    What really annoys me is when a fictional story is called implausible.
     
    This message brought to you after reading a quick review for Liam Neeson's latest thriller movie Unknown, which I saw this weekend. (Enjoyable, nice twist, not as good as Taken.)
     
    The review said it was too implausible to be really enjoyable. I have come across the problem in other instances, all the while being fine with whatever implausibility there was. (Example: Eagle Eye.)
     
    My response: Suck it up and suspend your disbelief! It's like they walk out of Star Trek and complain about it because it's not real. Or there could never be the monstrous gorilla in King Kong. Or that robots will never rise up and enslave us (The Matrix) or kill us (The Terminator--also note the time travel and paradoxes in this series). And just about everything in any fantasy series (especially Lord of the Rings.)
     
    And that is why I will always like science-fiction and fantasy more than the realistic stuff out there. I need to escape this dull world where the only news is about the latest killing in some far-off country. (That, or celebrity gossip. Take your pick.)
    (OK, in my defense, there is some good "realistic stuff" that I have read. I am more pointing an evil eye towards the books I have to read for school. At least a hundred years old, no longer relevant, and not pertaining to me. (Does sci-fi pertain to me? No, but at least it's being cool.))
     

     
    I'm going to be writing an essay for a scholarship in school where I have to list what books I would buy with the $1000 B&N gift card prize, and why, and how they would help my college career. I plan on making it slightly satirical where I talk more about enjoying books relevant to my interests than needing specific books that are "classics" and are quite respectable.
     
    -CF
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