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SPIRIT

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Blog Entries posted by SPIRIT

  1. SPIRIT

    What Have I Been Up To?

    By SPIRIT,

    It's been nearly a month since my last blog update and I'd like to say that it was because I was busy, but quite frankly, I'm just lazy.
     
    Since I last updated, I was promoted to Reference Keeper, finished that sound project that I had been promising you, ripped off an idea from Exo, filmed my first staff set review, and wrote a new chapter for Wildfire (which no one has reviewed yet ). From there, I finished the script for my next PSA (a script that I started writing back around AC#12 and never finished ) and so I just need to give it to the cast members as soon as they sign on to AIM/MSN. For my PSAs, I've been doing a bit of thinking and depending on the quality of Rayg's 2.5 kit, I MIGHT turn them into an actual series, but I will need someone who is willing to draw human sprites for me as well (if you're interested, drop me a PM with a sample of your work). Other than that, I've done another 0.5 of a chapter for Wildfire, but it needs quite a bit of cleaning up.
     
    Lastly, I was fiddling around with Flash and came out with something that you Harry Potter fans might find very useful:
     
    [flash=250,100]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r162/BZPSPIRIT/deathlyhallows.swf
     

    [FLASH=250,100]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r162/BZPSPIRIT/deathlyhallows.swf[/FLASH]
    In case you're wondering, it's only 11 KB and I would very much appreciate credit if you use it.
  2. SPIRIT
    So after the party on the 26th, I pretty much just spent time with my family at home (although we did go bowling once and I won ) until Saturday, where we all went to the airport for the second leg of our vacation. We spent a night in Buffalo and then we drove to the airport and caught a plane to Baltimore. From there, we hopped another plane and reached Tampa Airport in the late afternoon. The rest of the week was just spent visiting Busch Gardens, going to the beach, swimming in the pool, and lazing about the condo we had rented on Anna Maria Island (on the far west side of the state, about half of the way down). I had a fantastic time, and I beat Maze of Shadows (overall, a pretty neat game). Saturday rolled around and we went back the same route we had come and arrived back home at around midnight.
     
    Now it's back to school for me.
  3. SPIRIT

    Christmas 2006

    By SPIRIT,

    December 22: Felt pretty dumb at school this day. More than half the people in school skipped and I only got work done in two classes. In French class, period 1, we had the opportunity to hand in an assignment early for bonus marks. Almost everyone there handed it in, knowing they needed as many extra marks as possible, but one poor guy thought he'd be clever and hand it in and leave before the teacher got there. Unfortunately for him, the teacher didn't give him the marks. After that, I had biology, which was pretty uneventful, and then a nice long poker-filled lunch period. When chemistry rolled around, I was surprised to find that the classroom was packed... with people from other classes that is. It turned out that it was where everyone had decided to watch movies. I caught the end of She's the Man to kill some time, but decided to leave when someone pulled out a GameCube and started hooking it up to the TV, but that was okay since my teacher cut class too. Several card games later, we had an assembly that was so-so. It was put on by the teachers and the teachers' pets and involved some skits and some songs. Really, the only good part about it was that I got out 10 minutes early and got a free candycane (but since it was thrown the length of the auditorium, it was really only a fine powder by the time it reached me). I then walked home in the freezing cold wind and rain, with an umbrella that kept turning inside out and flopped down on my computer chair half an hour later feeling absolutely exhausted. A few hours later, I found myself packing up the car and going up north to visit my grandparents (on my dad's side) for Christmas.
     
    December 23-24: Pretty uneventful days that seemed to drag on a bit with the prospect of Christmas morning looming ahead. We played a lot of Clue, Sorry!, Careers, and Oh Heck to pass the time, and I ended up seeing practically every Christmas special YTV had to offer, courtesy of my younger sister.
     
    December 25: Needless to say, I didn't sleep well this night. When I first woke up, I was all excited, but when I checked the clock, I was appalled to see that it was only 11:30; it wasn't even the 25th yet! After falling asleep and waking up a few more times, I decided to just get my stocking and watch TV for the next few hours until everyone else got up. So for the next four hours, I entertained myself by watching early morning TV and sustained myself with some of the chocolates from my stocking, knowing that it would be ages until breakfast. Finally, I heard the sound of little feet running around upstairs, which meant that my sister was awake and that present opening was imminent. After everything was handed out and opened, I found myself with the following:
    Defilak Dekar Morak Thulox Axonn Brutaka BIONICLE Legends #5: Inferno LEGO Star Wars II for Nintendo DS (surprisingly good graphics) BIONICLE Heroes for Nintendo DS Maze of Shadows for GameBoy Advance Two funny T-shirts The Risk boardgame Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, by Eoin Colfer Voyage of Slaves, by Brian Jacques A photo album A new umbrella (my old one having half of its spokes bent out of shape) December 26: Woke up early to get back home fast enough so we'd have enough time to prepare for my mom's side of the family coming over to visit. After hours of back-breaking work, everything came together and we all had a great time. Around the end, we had a present exchange where I came uncomfortably close to winning a cake plate, but luckily got to trade it for a boxed DVD set of the Da Vinci Code. 
     
    So that's been how I've spent the holidays so far and with a week and a half still to go, things are looking good.
  4. SPIRIT

    Oh, The Irony

    By SPIRIT,

    Just after I post something in my blog to say that nothing of interest happens to me, something happens. Yesterday was the longest day I've had in some time. It started off around 7:00 AM where I woke up early so I could get ready and go on BZP before my final driving lesson. After 10 sessions, I'm kind of sad to be done with it, in a nostalgic sort of way, but it certainly gives me a lot more free time! That day was also the first time I was let onto the highway (which is legal as long as you have a certified driving instructor in the passenger seat). All in all, it was a very stressful experience that I think will only be served poetic justice if I show you what it was like using emoticons as visual aids.
     
    SPIRIT is happily cruising along at about 60 km/h:
     
    His driving instructor then tells him it's time to go on the highway:
     
    He descends the entry ramp at about 40 km/h, the highway coming ever closer:
     
    He reaches the merging lane and notices that at the rate he's going, if he doesn't bring up the speed fast enough, he's going to crash into the bull nose:
     
    Desperately, he floors the gas and goes from about 50 km/h to 100 km/h:
     
    Two minutes later, he pulls off of the highway and back to regular streets:
     
     
    So yeah, like I said before, pretty stressful.
     
    In the afternoon, I went to my church to help set up for the Christmas dinner. It really only involved me setting tables and passing things from one person to the other, but I had some exciting moments: like when I had to open juice cans with a broken can opener (ended up opening my hand instead :annoyed2:) and when I had to squeeze about 20 slices of cheese cake on plates into a fridge (not as easy as it sounds). After that, I pretty much acted as a waiter and a dish cleaner (once again, just passing dishes from one end of the kitchen to the other) until 9:30 when we were finally finished. To celebrate, some of the other youth helpers and I went to Deck the Halls and called it a night at about 12:30 AM. As far as Christmas movies go, Deck the Halls wasn't that bad. It had Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick in it so that certainly helped the humour along.
     
    Anyway, after this long day, I slept about eight hours that night and then had another half hour nap today so hopefully I'll be awake enough to survive another week of school (only 2 weeks left!).
     
    Oh yeah, I also got 100 % in BIONICLE Heroes today.
  5. SPIRIT

    Up To Speed

    By SPIRIT,

    It's been nearly a month since I've last updated my blog so I think it's high time I bring you back up to speed. Since I last posted here, I've seen Over the Hedge, Cars, and Casino Royale; all great movies that I recommend seeing. I've also been hard at work getting sounds and music off of the BIONICLE DVDs and I just finished recording everything I need from LoMN (almost 2/3 of the way there!). My report card came a few days ago, not the best one I've ever gotten, but still pretty good just the same. It's been snowing recently, but it really hasn't been collecting in large enough amounts to be of any use. From what I've heard on the news, it seems like everyone's getting snow except me; I hope I won't have another green Christmas this year.
     
    And now you're up to speed.
  6. SPIRIT

    Giving It 110%

    By SPIRIT,

    How many times do you hear this expression on TV/in gym class? Have you ever wondered if its possible for something to function at 110% capacity? Well I'm here today to tell you that it is.
     
    Last Thursday, the general consensus was that my computer was working at 100%. It had no errors, spyware, viruses, and it worked at a pretty good speed. Then, for some reason or other, disaster struck. Programs kept shutting down on their own, Firefox wouldn't open, my firewall wouldn't activate... After rebooting it several times and giving it many virus scans, I was able to get the computer to a state so that the firewall was working again. A few more virus scans and deleting of certain files and now everything is working great. The best part is that I now have updated versions of Firefox and Flash, as they had been infected by the virus as well.
     
    So now everything is back to normal and I have two new spiffy programs. As my computer is working better than it was before, it is therefore working at 110%.
  7. SPIRIT

    Nowhere To Hide

    By SPIRIT,

    The great SPIRIT Empire grows ever larger as another forum is added to my control. Quiver in fear as Bionicle Software gets a new moderator: me. I can only imagine the high-jinx that will ensue now that I'm working with Dr. Bionicle; races to see who can close a particular topic first and whatnot. Bets can be placed at any time, just send the money to me and I'll sort everything out.
     
    Basically, here's what happened: Black Six IMed me yesterday and asked me if I'd be willing to take on another forum. I obliged and he gave me a choice between M&B and Software. It was a pretty tough decision, but I decided that since Bionicle Heroes was coming out soon, Software would start to see quite a bit of action in the upcoming days.
     
    Well, let's hope this works out as well as my other forums. And just think, if Black Six keeps up his pattern, I'll be getting another forum in about two weeks from now.
  8. SPIRIT
    Another forum has fallen before my might. That's right, the BZP Voting Booth now belongs to me and there's nothing you can do to stop me!
     
    *cricket*
     
    Yes, I know it's an easy forum, but at least I have 3 forums like everyone else now. And who knows? Maybe this is a temporary solution and I will be eventually shunted to your favourite forum. *lame spooky finger gestures*
     
    I don't mind, though. I'll help out wherever I can. Sometimes the forums have up moments and others they don't. Currently, things are moving pretty slowly in all three of my forums, but they'll pick up eventually. For instance, in my first week, I was able to close about ten topics in a row in S&T, but now I can barely get one. Oh well, hopefully it's just a dry spell and it will clear up soon.
     
    In summary, beware my spreading of peanut butter terror! *more lame spooky finger gestures*
  9. SPIRIT

    Weevil Story Concluded

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, it's nearly 20 days since I got the weevil in my cereal and today I noticed an interesting e-mail from Kellogg Canada. They apologised greatly for the incident, thanked me for telling them their cereal was "unsatisfactory" (), and are going to send me reimbursement coupons in the mail. Whether or not I'm going to chance the cereal again once I get the coupons is debatable.
     
    Now that they've appologised, though, I feel sorta bad about spazzing out on them. I mean, when I wrote the e-mail, it was pretty early in the morning and I was pretty tired since it was a Friday and all. Even so, I did almost get a little more crunch in my cereal than I wanted...
     
    Either way, the moral of the story is that you should have waffles for breakfast.
  10. SPIRIT
    Third day on the job and after suffering several hardships at the hands of the other staff (like the loss of my Flash banner ), I finally have forums to call my own: Storyline & Theories and Short Stories. I didn't really mind too much about the SS position- I mean it's nice and all, but I'm ecstatic about S&T. Ever since I joined the site I had dreamed about one day working there. Finally getting a job there, although angering just about everyone who works on BS01, is probably the best thing that's ever happened to me on BZPower.

    Although, I can't quite use my powers yet because Black Six has yet to tell me how they work.

    EDIT: I'm fully certified!
  11. SPIRIT
    I never get tired of that line...
     
    Anyway, the more observant of you may have noticed that something is ary with my blog today. That's right, I had a bit of free time on my hands and shifted all the content blocks "two inches to the left" . I am well aware that the space between the two sides may or may not be two inches long (not sure, being Canadian and whatnot), but I just couldn't resist throwing that line in one last time.
     
    Why the shift?
     
    Well I finally got fed up with people's comments crashing into my content blocks and becoming unreadable. Hopefully this solves the problem and I also hope that you don't mind scrolling a bit if you have an 800 x 600 resolution like me (if you do, well then you probably need the exercise anyway).
     
     
     
    And this concludes one of my most pointless entries.
  12. SPIRIT

    General Grievousitus

    By SPIRIT,

    The worst part of whatever sickness I had seems to have passed, but now I've progressed to a stage where I sound quite a *cough* bit like *cough cough* General Grievous *cough* (if you *cough* catch my drift). It's driving me and my family insane- I can down a whole bottle of water in 30 seconds and still be thirsty! I'm not quite sure what sickness I had, but it's certainly done a number to my immune system. The good part is that sleeping and eating are working properly again and they're much more important than breathing is.
     
    In other news, it's actually snowing now (♫I'm dreaming of a white Halloween...♫), which is odd because my part of the country barely even has snow at Christmas any more. When I used to live further north, though, there was usually a metre of snow by November! Well, it's a good thing that the heavy snow didn't start until night- I reeeeeeeally didn't want to walk home in a blizzard wearing October-appropriate clothes.
  13. SPIRIT

    Another Virus

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, sort of.
     
    This time it's inside me as opposed to my computer. This morning I had trouble waking up and felt really nauseous. When I wasn't even able to take two bites of cereal (which hopefully was weevil free), my parents decided I should stay home for the day. I had a nap and a small piece of turkey pot pie (leftover from Canadian thanksgiving) and I'm feeling better now, but certainly not 100%.
     
    On a more positive note, I beat Lego Star Wars II over the long weekend and I'm almost done VNOLG so if my other computer is fixable I will have a charmed life.
  14. SPIRIT
    I should have guessed that a day that started with a weevil in my cereal would not turn out great. Yesterday afternoon, my computer got a fatal virus. First it took out the Task Manager (so I couldn't shut it down), then it started to drain my memory, then it took out my keyboard. I might have been able to save some key files if I had refrained from rebooting it so soon. Now it won't boot back up! My dad said he's going to take it in to see if it can be fixed, but he said it might take two weeks!
     
    Luckily, I have a laptop with internet access, but it doesn't have any of my programs or files (including the almost completed episode 12) so expect everything to go on hold until I can get it fixed (hopefully they won't have to fragment it ).
     
     
    EDIT: It's all fixed now!
  15. SPIRIT

    Weevil Woes

    By SPIRIT,

    This morning, after finishing a box cereal and munching down on it, I noticed something odd in my bowl. I scooped it out with my spoon and looked at it closely. I then saw that it was a...
     
    WEEVIL!!!
     
    That's right, as small brown beetle was in my cereal. Now it was dead, so it wasn't that gross but the scary thing is that it looked just like a broken off piece of raisin. I immediately taped it to a piece of paper and e-mailed the company in complaint. I'll keep you updated on their response.
     
    Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to now try my best not to lose my lunch (or breakfast as the case may be).
     
     
     
     
     
    ♫"The worst part of waking up, is a weevil in your cup!"♫
  16. SPIRIT

    Back On My Feet

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, I'm finally settling down from Lego Star Wars II. I'm ever so slightly over 80% done and I've found just about all the easy stuff which means I can start to get serious about BZP again. I've already gotten in a new Bionicle Captions Contest round as well as a new chapter in Wildfire. All that remains now is TotA and I'll be officially caught up. For Episode 12, you should expect quality similar to that of Episode 11 (Doc recorded this one too), but I've gotten a few more tricks up my sleeve since 11 that will hopefully make it better. After that, I've got to record Episode 16 and then work on a special surprise for the show with Doc. Either way, it's definitely worth keeping your eyes (or ears, in this case) pealed for updates.
  17. SPIRIT

    The Best And Worst Game Ever

    By SPIRIT,

    I have spent quite a bit of the past week playing LEGO Star Wars II and right off the bat, I can tell you that it "Roxorz my Soxorz" even more than Avak does.
     
    It's really fun getting to blow things up with bombs, customising your mini-fig, and especially zapping people with Dark Force lightning. Sadly, though, the game is so great that it chews up a lot of my free time meaning I have little or no time for BZP (sadly more delays in my projects) or VNOLG (but I have made it to level 11). I'm highly torn between the two passtimes, but for now, I think I'm going to just stick with the game for a few more days before I go back into full BZP mode again.
  18. SPIRIT

    Bionicle Book Bonanza

    By SPIRIT,

    Today I went to my local Chapters and purchased three new BIONICLE Books: Power Play, Legacy of Evil, and the Official Guide to BIONICLE.
     
    Power Play was quite interesting indeed- a nice look at the Inika, their powers, and their personalities. Basically it goes along the lines of Ignition #3, but that's okay because it goes into much more detail and the scene with Vezon at the end is MUCH creepier.
     
    The Official Guide to BIONICLE was surprisingly more useful than I thought it would be. It has many colour pictures that are now rare and hard to find. There is also some interesting information on the Toa Nuva that isn't too jumbled up by Wiki entries and the likes.
     
    Legacy of Evil was a fascinating read. I don't know how much about it I'm allowed to say, but it certainly explained A LOT about the way things are and filled several gaping holes in the storyline.
     
    Well that's about it- I don't want to spoil too much because you should all go out and buy the books yourselves (especially if you want BIONICLE Legends #7 to come out ).
     
     
    Oh my, what short paragraphs I have here...
  19. SPIRIT

    Star Wars Shenanigans

    By SPIRIT,

    On Labour Day weekend-- the Canadian one-- (note the U in "labour"), I ordered Vezon & Fenrakk and the long awaited LEGO Star Wars II. The game was scheduled for release today and so I assumed that my order would come today too. Well, I was right, but not quite. You see, the delivery men came when I wasn't home so they left a notice saying that I had to pick it up later. I'll let you know how the situation progresses, but for now, this means that I'll lose about 3 hours of valuable playing time.
     
    Update1: :angry: I won't be able to claim my package until tomorrow (some silly postal thing) so just be glad you aren't my stress ball.
     
    Update2: It appears there was a misunderstanding. The e-mail my dad got from LEGO saying the package had shipped seems to have only referred to Vezon & Fenrakk which means I have to wait another day or two . Although it is a kick butt set, I still would like to have my game.
     
    Update3: I have it now- it's mine, my own, my precioussssss...
  20. SPIRIT

    T M N I F

    By SPIRIT,

    Thank Mata Nui it's Friday!
     
    For me, this first week back to school has been really long and tiring (despite the fact that it was only four days because of Labour Day). Maybe it's because I'm not used to sitting at an uncomfortable desk for over an hour, getting up, and then going to sit at another uncomfortable desk for over an hour, but the days just seemed to drag on. It probably doesn't help that I have Bionicle Legends #3 and possibly 4 to look forward to on the weekend, or Vezon & Fenrakk and LEGO Star Wars II for the 12th.
     
    My main issue is that I have so much less free time now. Back in the summer, I'd have several days to just fiddle around on BZPower or with other things (TotA, Wildfire, etc.), but now I'm lucky to even get in a few hours of that stuff. Well, I'll hopefully get used to all this again after a while, but even so...
     

    TMNIF!!
  21. SPIRIT

    Delay Schedule

    By SPIRIT,

    This is for listeners of TotA, readers of Wildfire, and viewers of my PSAs. I am sorry to say this, but I'm going to have to put all three of those on hold for the Artwork III contest (which is actually a really short PSA). Once I have that voiced and animated, I'll put out the next chapter of Wildfire, then edit Episode 12 of TotA, get Episode 16 recorded and editted, then another chapter of Wildfire, then I'll start working on the next PSA and hopefully things will get back to normal. *smiles weakly*
  22. SPIRIT

    Asplosion

    By SPIRIT,

    Around 8:00 AM today, my mom told me that she thought she heard something hit our house. Both she and my dad checked all around, but found nothing. Later, it turned out that a nearby house had exploded and that my house (about 3 km or so away) had been hit by the shock-wave! Around 5:00 PM, my family drove over to the site of the explosion and there were people, news cars, firetrucks, and the smell of burning everywhere. The whole area was blocked off by police tape, but we were able to see some footage of the rubble on the 6 o'clock news. Luckily, no one was killed, but two people were injured (the house's owner and ironically the guy who had owned the house 10 years earlier, who was out for a stroll). Even stranger, was the fact that the exploded house in question was actually sold that very day. Police don't know the cause of the explosion yet, but they assume it was a gas leak.
     
    The scary part of it all is that I know three people who live in that area (like a block or so away), but as far as I know, they're okay.
     
    UPDATE: It turns out there's evidence that it was an attempted suicide, but police aren't sure yet.
  23. SPIRIT

    Important Inbox Lesson

    By SPIRIT,

    Today I thought it would be a good idea to go through my e-mail inbox and see if there was anything I should delete. A few minutes in, I was shocked to find an audition and an audio question for Treespeak on the Air both dating back several months! Quickly I sifted through all the episodes of the show as well as my PMs, but found nothing to indicate that I had done anything with these e-mails or even replied to them. Frantically, I sent PMs to the members from whom the e-mails were sent and waited for a response. Luckily, it turned out that in both cases, it had already been discussed and I had just forgotten about it. :annoyed2: In an ironic twist of fate, my worry about all this made me forget to ask my dad if he could pick up a copy of Bionicle Legends 3 for me on his way to Chapters.
     
    Well, I hope you can all learn from my misfortune so get out there and delete as many e-mails as you can!
  24. SPIRIT

    Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, my horrible week without TV has finally come to a close. I recently received a new one, which is much bigger than the old one and HD to boot. It's got a whole bunch of cool, new features and it even has a headphone port! The best part of this port is that I can now record music and other sounds off my TV (specifically ones from the BIONICLE movies, if you catch my drift ). My TV can also freeze a particular frame, adjust the screen quality, and even become sensitive to light (a feature which my dad thinks is the best thing since unsliced bread). All in all, it seems that five days without TV was more than enough of a sacrifice for the new one I have now.
  25. SPIRIT

    T O T A Troubles

    By SPIRIT,

    I've just finished recording what I'm sure is going to be the hardest episode of Treespeak on the Air ever to edit. Mainly it was due to the fact that we went quite a bit off topic, but that's to be expected (most shows end up like that anyway ). The real problem was that I was experimenting a new way of making the show easier to listen to and, although it worked, it sent the file size skyrocketing through the roof and right out of the solar system (we had a few complaints from the denizens of Alpha Centauri, as a matter of fact ). At the end of it, the files that made up the episode were over a gigabyte big (that's 1 000 000 000 bytes). After several failed attempts with my usual compressing software, I Googled a new one, downloaded it, and it worked like a dream; now it's only 14 MB. And so when I tried to delete the monstrous uncompressed file, it was so big that my computer's recycling bin couldn't hold it (I've never had that happen before). Other than that, it went pretty smoothly and now that the show has an XML feed, I think we're really going to get going now.
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