Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Various'.
-
Hi guys, these are just various mechs that I build. (I call him X2's little brother) More will come!
-
Prior to one week ago, my repertoire of BZP members I had met consisted of only two: Black Six and HauNuva (if anyone even remembers him). That has changed now, and so I shall list everyone as a sort of thank-you for all the amazing memories they provided me! Smeagol4 (attacked me as I got out of the airport)Janus (see above)Darth Vader (protected me from the above two)Hahli Husky (Disney singalong <3)Senjo (is a spectacular cook, and can do just about anything!)Nikira (is beautiful!)TwingDing (we became friends after about two days and <3)LehvakLah (one-letter-difference name!)Friar Tuck (is highly responsible and highly cool)Rayg (gives excellent art advice and is a sexy fellow)Nuju Metru (dude, why have I never talked to you before? We need to sing together!)Kohaku (<3)VampyreAri (is cuddly)Primus (is a really cool guy and we had an awesome conversation while waiting in line for an hour and a half at the Lego store)Nukaya (was looking dashing in her polo shirt and explorer hat, and is super adorable and cute and and and)Sisen (is quiet but neat)Arpy (fun with posing for photos)ChocolateFrogs (those mosaics were epic. cc: Nukaya)Vezok's Friend (is a good artist)Waffles (pretty sure the entire BZP staff wants to adopt him)Kanohi Zatth (Janus and I spent a good while looking through an enormous tub of Bionicle pieces for sale with him and Waffles)Stubbed Toa (didn't get to talk to you much, but your art is cool and you know itdablackcat (no one's ever asked to take a photo with me before!)Spink (wishing we had hung out more)Disky (see above!)And lots of these lovely people took equally lovely photos, which I can't wait to see because they're all better than mine. I like this one a lot (thanks, Arpy!) of the ones that have shown up so far. And can't wait for the Hahli Mahri and Hahli Mahri shots that I know a few people took. :3 ~ ToM
-
Oh my god. Brickfair was basically the best weekend of my life. In brief. I'll be going into detail a lot more in later entries, but I think that will do nicely as a summary for now. I met so many awesome people and we had epic times hanging out and at Brickfair and dressing up in fancy clothes to go to completely non-fancy restaurants (with Steve Witt!). It was amazing getting to see all these friends I knew online in person, and their MOCs and art (had some fun sketchbook exchanges with Rayg and LehvakLah), and I'm really really sad that I had to leave and come back to my normal life afterward. I miss everyone so much. For now, I'm going to give you a statistical breakdown of my time at Brickfair: original 2001 Kanohi acquired: 37awesomeness of Janus: 100%misprints acquired: 2Lego sets bought: 4Lego sets gotten for free: 2total value of sets acquired: ≈$163amount paid for said sets: $75members met for the first time: 24 (I think)volumes of Scott Pilgrim read: 5dipping sauce references made: at least 4hours of sleep gotten per night: never more than 6generosity of everyone I met: 100%birds sighted flying around the jetBlue terminal at JFK airport: 7things people said that I wish I could write down because of how funny they were: too manyamount of people who love Waffles: infinitehugs: too many to count. <3More details will be forthcoming! ~ ToM
-
I feel the need to splurge about this somewhere. Yesterday, at long last, I watched Glee for effectively the first time (all I had seen before was about fifteen minutes from "Wheels"). Since, you know, I've been at college the whole time it's been on (no time to watch) and don't ever watch TV or TV shows anyway. But, a couple friends and I got pizza and had a Glee-watching party for the benefit of the two of us who hadn't seen it before. And. I'm in love. Only an afternoon and I'm addicted to Kurt. And Chris Colfer. It's only been eight episodes! I felt great pain handing in the DVDs we had rented; I didn't want to part with them so soon. Sigh. Forcing myself to wait for the next time we can do this will not be easy. (Though I already had a few things spoiled for me thanks to wikipedia... oops.) Real life needs to include more spontaneous musicals to express our feelings. I do my best to make them happen with my friends every now and then. ~ ToM
-
Initially, I was going to go into some sort of rant about what abominations these sets are, but I've come to realize that that would be quite pointless, for a number of reasons. Instead I shall explain why I am disinclined towards them, including those reasons. It's possible, even, that this entire entry will be filled with things you already know. First, for clarity's sake, the best adjective to describe my feelings towards them is 'disappointed.' Not in the way I was disappointed with the 2008 Nuva, since I lack any sort of fondness for Ben 10 like I had with the Toa Nuva, since I had no idea what the show was so much as about until basically tonight. Rather, I'm disappointed with Lego for making them the way they did. Clearly, Lego has created sets that will sell well, and already are. I think it's pretty simple to say why: Ben 10 is a popular thing, and these sets look impressively like the aliens from the show (so much so that one wonders, if basing a set on a familiar image is clearly a ticket to success, why they didn't make the Nuva actually look like the Nuva we know, but that's another matter). Therefore, kids see them, like both Ben 10 and Lego, say "cool!" at the combination, and they fly off the shelves. Thus they achieve their purpose (making money for Lego), and you know what? They're pretty good-looking sets, from an aesthetic standpoint. Solid colors, smooth pieces, and we get some nice stuff out of them. But – I wish Lego's goal in them were more than just to make money. That is what I find so disappointing. They've done what's needed to make them sell well – now why not go a little bit beyond that? Why not actually, say, make the builds slightly more creative than Avotoran on a massive scale? I'm not talking UCS-type complexity here, or 2001-style functions. I'm talking about the level Bionicle's been at for the past few years, if absolutely nothing more: where the feet are separate pieces from the ankles and the torsos are made of several pieces, not just a front and a back, and the upper limbs have a 'bone' piece and then armor over that. Was it really necessary to strip all of what little complexity there is in the Bionicle style, leaving the Ben 10 sets with exclusively ball-and-socket joints as the connections between all but two pieces? The Ben 10 sets are made pretty much exclusively of big, clunky pieces. While I recognize this is what many AFOLs (and heck, some of us Bionicle fans) have complained about in Bionicle for years (see things like the Piraka torso), there's a crucial distinction between even the clunkiest Bionicle piece and the Ben 10 pieces: something like the Piraka or Avotoran torsos is riddled with Technic connection points of all sorts, and (minus the Avotoran-clone sets) every Bionicle set has been filled with Technic connectors of some sort. Ben 10 pieces are lucky to have an axle hole in them, and if they have anything more, it's just a minifigure rod-sized hole (the kind viking horns attach to, for clarity). We've already seen several creative folk make lovely-looking MOCs with the Ben 10 pieces, so clearly they're not useless (and some of them are in fact quite appealing, even to me). But what gets me is this: the Ben 10 pieces look as if they were not designed to be usable in ways other than what they do in the sets. And that is the essence of why I feel enormously disappointed in Lego here. They look like they're the result of some line of reasoning like "Hey, these sets need to be solid builds that look like Ben 10 characters. Don't bother making them work as anything else; the important part is that they sell well, not that their pieces are modular." Some are better than that. The lower legs are a welcome addition to the lineup of Bionicle limbs; the new torso is intriguing and does have a fair amount of connections, but is limited severely by how huge it is. But the rest... are just oversimplified and disappointing. ~ ToM
-
In several senses of the word. The winter decorations are back up, I'm back here on BZP... and an awful lot of things have happened since I last blogged here. My life has been extraordinarily busy for the past month. I've had a research paper, several other papers, massive amounts of homework, an all-weekend camping trip with my earth science class (in 30ºF weather). I bought three scarves. I've spent more than a couple nights staying up until 5 AM talking about, in a word, love. I could go into more detail, but I'd rather not here. I also finally got to do tech work for theater again, and realized how very much I had missed it because of how good it felt to sit up in the lightbooth in the dark controlling the lights of a theater. And then there's the Bionicle end of things. About the whole thing ending, I feel a mix of meh, sadness, and disappointment. Mostly disappointment. Partly because Bionicle's ending, for goodness' sakes, but also because it went out so ... blandly. We never got a new design for the canister sets after the Inika/Piraka torso and accompanying frame. Set-wise, 2009 had a brief spark of life and then died again – we had some cool stuff in the Glatorian, but then the Legends were more of the same. Literally, even – the summer sets were just more of the winter sets. I think I should just make a whole entry about the Stars. On the whole, I like them, and I like the idea, too, of releasing new, Avotoran-sized versions of some of the best folks from Bionicle. But the fact that they're the last Bionicle sets ever makes their flaws (as usual, some of them -really- easy to fix) even more annoying. And about that last set thing? Go check out this poll. It would be utterly amazing if the last Bionicle set ever were a big, solid, really well-designed set form of the Great Spirit. Is it likely to happen from the efforts of a few forums? I don't know, but I like the idea so much that I'm all in favor of trying. I'd buy one. That would certainly take Bionicle out with a bang. ~ ToM
-
Aretha Franklin's hat was amazing. ~ ToM
-
It's not quite Project Nuva, since it's missing a few things, but it is at least what my version of Tahu Mistika will look like. Posts in the topic are nice, but if you feel like commenting on the set design more than the art or something like that, feel free to do so here. Anyway. Hi everyone. I'm not back yet. The yearbook has not yet released me, I have exams the week after this one, and there are other things attracting my attention besides. You'll be seeing some stuff from me in the next few days, some in this blog, others in other venues. Gresh is awesome. So are Vorox and Berix, since I never blogged about either, but I'll be raving about them for a while. And I never did say what I got for Christmas... might as well now. Some clothes (I got more and better ones a few days later), including this fabulous green tie. Three Mars Mission sets. Heart of Darkness. Money. And Winter Came by Enya, A Christmas Celebration and Celtic Woman by Celtic Woman, the Iron Man soundtrack, Iron Man itself, The Dark Knight, and A New Journey. Let's talk about those last three. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Celtic Woman's concert A New Journey. That's one of the most peculiar combinations I've heard all last year. It lends itself to some amusing rearrangements, like Dark Woman or Iron Woman or Celtic Man. Also, the most entertaining phrase I heard last week was "intoxicated meteorologist." Discuss any of these. ~ ToM
-
Two days after Halloween... and two days until the election. At this point I just want it to be over; there's no way there's going to be a dramatic upset by Tuesday, so all we can do is wait and see... and make sure that CERTAIN PEOPLE (or person, you know who you are) vote. But anyway. I wanted to go trick-or-treating, but the people I would have gone with didn't want to go the night before they had SATs, even though some of them really wanted to. And all of my friends I went with last year went off to college. So I had to content myself with wearing a cape and making a Barack-o'-Lantern. :3 Also, I realized yesterday that all four major candidates are named after their parents. Barack Hussein Obama Jr., John Sidney McCain III, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., and even Sarah Palin shared her mother's name before she got married, Sarah Heath. This seems a little excessive... ~ ToM
-
Seriously. In my class's skit for Spirit Week next week, I play the role of God. I get to wear a white suit and a crown and sunglasses and it will be awesome. Those of you who know my last name will understand why this is particularly appropriate for me. :3 Our first goal is to be hilarious; our second is to avoid sacrelige so we don't get points taken off for that... And helloo again to all of you! I'm back. I have a variety of things to report on and a variety of things to show you all, like school and the yearbook and my own Avotoran and then Turaga Nuva. But those will all have entries nicely to themselves. For the moment I would love it if someone could tell me who or what this is. I got the idea completely out of the blue as usual and I'm still not quite sure who he is... ~ ToM
-
I received the package containing my MOCs that went to Brickfair (Viridian, Ellengo, and Grievous) today. Inside were a bunch of Mardi Gras beads. (the picture's blurry, but I don't care) I do not know whose idea these were, but they are absolutely fabulous. I suspect KIE was involved. Just because. But I do not know whether Sméag, DV, Mak, Kohaku, Six, and Rayg were or were not. Even if they weren't, they're still awesome (that refers to the people, but the beads are too). You probably want to hear about the first day of school, too. It was good. My grade lost three people, but gained three more, two foreign students from Italy and Romania, and one from Korea (I -think-) who had spent time elsewhere in the U.S. before. My Latin class is now only four people, Ally and Adam and I being the only ones who've been there all four years... I miss Leigh Ann. But we have Dr. Jones again! This class is going to be totally amazing. It's AP Latin, Catullus and Ovid edition, and we translated two-thirds of the required Metamorphoses two years ago. It's going to be so easy. And SO MUCH FUN because we'll go off on all sorts of awesome tangents. Also, AP US is going to be interesting. It's the inverse of AP Euro last year: then there were us four Juniors and a bunch of Seniors; this year there are us three Seniors and a whole bunch of Juniors. And I am going to DIE in Calc BC. We're only fifteen minutes in (shortened classes today) and I already have no idea what's going on, nor does anyone else. It's going to be like Advanced Algebra all over again. However, in the end we'll have way more practice than we need for the exam, or that's what the teacher we had last year says... But Greek will be interesting. It's just the two of us, Dr. Jones and I, this year, since Katie graduated... We went down to the creek and under the bridge, since it's all dry now; we intend to have classes down there at some point... for today we just wrote scandalous Greek words in chalk on the concrete. :3 And we're Seniors now. It's scary. ~ ToM
-
I'm in love with this song. It and The Passing of the Elves are now my two favorite songs from all of the Lord of the Rings movies, though Into the West certainly gives them competition. Are you confused yet? They're from the Complete Recordings editions of the Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King soundtracks. Things I discovered last winter and immediately looked for The Passing of the Elves on, but I didn't think to look around for The Houses of Healing until just recently. And then I discovered it lurking around on iTunes and bought it. Liv Tyler's voice is so wonderful for it. It's etherial and beautiful, but not so much haunting (the way The Passing of the Elves is); rather it's peaceful and leaves one feeling content and absolutely calm. Whenever I need to cool down or just relax, I will listen to this. And The Houses of Healing may also be my favorite chapter out of all three LotR books. I don't really know why; I just love reading through it so much... It has so many of my favorite characters and lines in it. (My favorite lines, for the record, are Éowyn confronting the Witch-King.) The song also evokes this feeling of wonder and discovery, plus its quality of beauty, and for that reason I had it in my head while writing much of the third chapter of Learn to Fly. A chapter I should apologize for in advance, because Takanuva doesn't show up at all in it, but oh! it ran away with itself and I had no desire to stop it. It somehow managed to reawaken my appreciation for the beauty of Metru Nui. You'll find out just what the heck I'm talking about tomorrow or so. <3 ~ ToM
-
I'm baaaaack. Some of the things I've done in the past two weeks: Visited seven different colleges in the New England area and discovered that I would be perfectly happy at just about any of them, so it will be nice having the choice limited by whichever ones accept and deny me. Next April or so will be very interesting, because Katie and Leigh Ann and Sam and Brook will all be trying to persuade me to go to different places if I get accepted to them.Fallen helplessly in love with the library at Vassar.Re-read The Two Towers.Discovered that the Natick Mall is the most beautiful shopping center I've ever been in and the embodiment of everything I like about contemporary architecture.Visited the Lego store in the above mall and found that the latest Mars Mission and Agents sets are even more amazing than I thought they were, and found the Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon to be a true work of art.Bought Krika and Bitil and a Troll Warrior and a lime Lego brick keychain (a lovely thing), but not Takanuva. He was out of stock and due to be replenished that very day, but alas! we could not stick around. So I'll get him later this week.Acquired two new umbrellas, one bright lime green and the other neon blue. And a nifty wooden bookmark from the same place.Spent a week in the Berkshires with two of my mom's friends and their children, residing in a house rented from someone with an atrocious aesthetic sense (the bedroom I was in was purple with awful lighting and the bathroom dark green with a single dim lamp) and with no curtains anywhere.Received confirmation of the fact that two teenage boys in a house results in food disappearing quite quickly (being an only child, I had never experienced this before).Saw wonderful productions of Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which had a highly amusing Cherubino.Got a shirt at the former reading "The soul of this man is his clothes", which I love.Saw an absolutely riotous farce called The Ladies' Man, which is based on two works of the French playwright Georges Feydeau. I have never seen anything comparable to it in utter hilarity but Noises Off!, which just happens to be another farce. There were times when my throat hurt and I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard.Eaten at least three box-things of strawberries mostly by myself. Yum.And last but not least, finished writing The Iron Ghost, a short story I had started before we left in July, and wrote some more of QfLD.And last night I went to Brook's going-away party. There was food and swimming and fun, and even though it was the day I got back I wasn't really tired by the end of it. I did get there just as Youri and his brother were leaving, annoyingly, but some time this week we're all going to get together and do something before they go off to college... It's annoying that almost all my friends are a year older than me sometimes, but ah well! To come: musings on Onua Mistika and Bitil, my BBCC50 entry, and the fruit of various other ideas I had while gone. ~ ToM
-
The time has come, the walrus said... Just so everyone knows where I've gone, the second half of my vacation begins today. We're off looking at colleges until Friday, and then meeting some family friends and going to the Berkshires region of Massachusetts to see a variety of theater-things with them and generally enjoy ourselves. Interestingly, the two colleges that most interest me out of this round we're visiting at the very end... One of the plays we're seeing a Shakespeare comedy, and though I can't remember which one it is, the place always makes them absolutely hilarious. And I'm also finally going to another Lego store on the way. :3 I know for sure that I'm getting Takanuva and Bitil, but Krika's been severely tempting me lately... so I might get him as well, in addition to a couple "Impulse" System sets. Since I'm using a gift card for most of them, I figure I can go over its limit a little with my own money. We'll see what I end up getting, shall we? See you all in two weeks! ~ ToM
-
Open doors just to see what's behind them. Be tolerant of other people and they'll tolerate you. If you want people to listen to you, listen to them. Always be respectful to others, and they'll probably treat you with respect in return. If you really want to know what's going on, the only way to find out is to ask. The worst that can happen is that you'll be told it's private (or something of the sort); the best is that you'll learn what you'd never have known had you not asked. There's nothing wrong with not knowing something. The problem is if you don't bother finding out. Read between the lines, but don't forget to read the lines themselves. Keep an open mind. Welcome new ideas, even if they aren't quite to your taste. Try to see things from points of view other than your own. There are many amazing people and places and things in the world. If you're patient enough to look just a little bit, you can find them. Go after what you want, even if you're told it's impossible. Don't give up until you've tried every last thing you can possibly think of – or you decide that it's not really worth it in the end, and you can be perfectly content without it. And in corrolary to the above, always try asking for it politely before anything else. That will sometimes get you what you want all by itself. You'll never know until you try. Love is real. ~ ToM
-
Very improper. Item #1: I had forgotten that BZP and BS01's spoiler policies are out of sync, which means that it won't be for another two weeks until I can post the second chapter of Learn to Fly. I quite like this one, but alas... I guess that means I might actually have a few chapters written ahead of time, whoo! (Chapter 3 starts out focusing on Krakua, I'll tell you that. He's interesting to write about.) Item #2: That did, however, somehow or other give me a sudden rush of inspiration for QfLD's second chapter, so hopefully that will be up soon. I got rid of everything I had written and been struggling to make work and rewrote chapter 2 from the beginning, and it turned out so much better than before... hopefully I can make this motivation streak last. Item #3: Finally started the internship I'm doing at this writers/literary stuff place. What I'm doing is mainly assisting in classes for the 8-12 range; there's only one, all-day class for this week, which is... interesting. Some of them are insane; some are mellower and thus more agreeable to be around. But AUGH to the crazy ones. Item #4: Mistika are coming soon and some of them will be gotten by me. Most likely firsts are Takanuva and Bitil, possibly followed soon by Gali (whose set and mask I love, though I hate both in regards to who she's supposed to be). Thoughts? Item #5: The T-shirts I ordered have finally arrived! Now I can go around with a purple plaid elephant on my chest proclaiming that everything is ruined forever. And give certain people post-graduation presents. Yaay. ~ Soundwave
-
It never fails, I come up with a bunch of things to blog about and then forget all but a few of them when I actually have time to write... Today's subject of discussion is the yellow Jetrax. I have gripes about it. First off, I love that there's more yellow. That in and of itself is awesome, but I don't really like the distribution it's in – it looks sort of garish to me, too bright. The arrangement doesn't put the yellow in any specific place; it's all over the vehicle, both in the lower layers of structural integrity and the outer armor like the Bitil wings. And then there's the fact that it's exactly the same set as the blue Jetrax otherwise. Same construction, same figure, even the same pose on the box. I've been thinking that the set would be far more interesting if the yellow version at least had a different angle for the shot, and if, say, the blue version included a simple Kopaka and the yellow version had Antroz. You wouldn't even necessarily need to give Kopaka a new mask; Pohatu Mistika doesn't have one. Truly the ideal, if two Jetraces had to be made, would be to alter the construction of Antroz's yellow one slightly. Alsru proposed that the yellow could have some sort of more evil, corrupted look to it, to which I added that something could be done on Kopaka's to make his more streamlined. Maybe the yellow version would be left as it is, while the blue would have those new large panel pieces (in dark green in Rockoh, black in Vultraz, and red in Axalara) somewhere on it. It doesn't really affect me, since I don't plan to get either. It's nifty having the choice between colors, but if you want both it really seems excessive that the two together are $100. For two of exactly the same design. I know I thought of the title "and company" for a reason... Perhaps to comment on the spiffiness of this summer's yellow? Bitil and the yellow Jetrax were extremely surprising in that way, which is a very good way... but I don't think that was it. Maybe the fact that I'm starting to eagerly anticipate the Mistika's arrival in stores? Both for Takanuva's coolness and for being able to test my Onua's leg armor once I have Bitil... Well, I'm sure I'll remember eventually. Probably right after posting this. Anyway, all of the above are just thoughts. Musings. Considerations. Ramblings. ~ ToM
-
I have a problem. Lego has made a ton of absolutely stunning sets this year, nearly all of the most amazing in the expensive range, and I want all of them. The Agents' Speedboat Rescue and Mobile Command Center, the Troll Warship, the Dwarves' Mine (hey, it introduced this year's theme), the enormous Castle Chess Set, the Mars Mission Crystal Reaper and Hypersonic Operations Aircraft, and of course Axalara, the Jetraces, and Rockoh (to a lesser degree than the former two, er, three). And those are just naming the $40+ ones. Whatever am I to do? ~ ToM
-
Really, I don't... as I've said before, I like being a Junior. I love my classes, I love my senior friends, and I also like not really having any huge responsibilities outside of classes. But next year there won't be anyone above us, and there will be the whole business of college applications, and I'll be yearbook editor and have more responsibility than I usually like. Ah well... Though, it's not over quite yet. Exams are done, but we have one last day on Monday (getting back exams, some presentations, the awards ceremony). Then I might spend Tuesday typing up Muse, since that's rather behind this year, and Wednesday is Commencement, which the Juniors were roped into to set up and such. And then there's this college application workshop-thing on Thursday and Friday. Ew. Going further backwards, exams! English Tuesday afternoon was pretty easy, but for some reason I found it really hard to concentrate. Then Astronomy yesterday morning was also mostly easy, but with a really weird essay question. And Greek today was, in a word, challenging. Took me a while to remember a few words (only left one blank), and I severely messed up one sentence because I got "to die" and "to kill" mixed up, to hilarious result. Also missed one genetive absolute. But on the whole I enjoyed it... Kivi! More or less. ~ Paradise
-
If I made blog entries more often, I wouldn't have to stick a bunch of random thoughts into one all at once, but I never feel any one individually is quite worth it... usually, at least. So, off we go again! Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is an amazing book. I've never read anything quite like it, and I'm not really sure how to describe it. It takes some getting used to the dialect, and it's definitely a book you have to stick with for a while before you truly start to enjoy it, but once you're done you realize how great it really was. I should find more of her works... Took the SAT IIs today, in English (Literature), Biology, and Latin. English was okay, though as always some of the questions about passages and the author's meaning or the characters' motivations were peculiar. Biology was, for me, a complete joke, since I took the AP version thereof (a million times harder) last month. And I was laughing throughout most of the Latin exam. I had fun with it, as I usually do with Latin tests... I'm almost done drawing Onua Mistika, my version. I'll have him colored and up in a few days – my dad's recarpeting and repainting his office, so the scanner is unavailable at the moment. I came up with the perfect idea for his legs, and now I can't wait for the summer sets so I can actually build it. And I finally settled on his accent color – green, instead of the red he has now (see Lewa/Nuva/everyone else before '04) – and a design for the Pakari Mistika. I'm looking at Takanuva, Gali, and Bitil as canidates for the first Mistika I'll get. Takanuva is just cool by himself, cool enough for me to actually buy a $30 set myself; Bitil has the most pieces of the four canister sets I want, and thus most warrants the $13 price tag; and Gali looks pretty nifty, even if not at all Gali-like. Which say you. By the end of this week, I will finally have seen the Princess Bride. I've been wanting to for ages. I expect to start quoting it shortly after I finish. There actually will be an MOC posted by me tomorrow. Took a while, but I finally came up with a suitable, if slightly boring, head design... The Nui-Rama are truly wonderful sets. Truly. As you've seen, I scrounged up the pieces for the green one, and if I can wrest some more black from the clutches of my MOCs, I'll do the orange as well. *loves them* ~ Paradise
-
My cold's finally getting better – now hopefully I won't have just jinxed it by saying that. I had thought I was doing okay on Wednesday, but then I wasn't feeling so great in the afternoon. Then yesterday I did go to school, but I only stayed until 3rd period so I could go to Greek for review (my last class ever with Katie! I was so sad!), then spent much of the rest of the day miserable on the couch. But today I finally felt actually good, or at least definitely did not feel bad, and I actually spent the whole day at school and had fun and didn't have a fever. Still stuffed up and my voice is shot, but at least I can breathe now! It's actually a really convenient week for me to be sick. There are exams next week, so I'm not actually missing anything when I'm not there, and thus I also have no homework to do in the evenings. If this were in either of the last two years, I'd be stressed to death, but this year there's nothing for me to worry about – I just have English, Astronomy, and Greek finals, none of which is exactly alarming. Greek I'm going to have to review for a lot, just because it's a lot of stuff and conjugations and declensions and vocabulary, but I'm not actually worried about it. I've gotten pretty good at sight-reading lately. Dr. Jones and I actually spent our last Greek class of the year today (Katie wasn't here) talking about H.P. Lovecraft and Lord of the Rings and comparing literary media and only barely doing any review. It was very fun... The White Witch is my favorite character in all the Narnia books. Iron Man has an awesome soundtrack. Hearing some of it made me actually want to go see the movie (I almost never go to movies; maybe twice a year), and Youri and I decided to go see it after exams. You folks are going to love what I'm working on right now. You won't see it until summer, but here's a hint: it's from 2002. (Those who know what it is aren't allowed to tell. ) I told you this would be random. ~ ToM
-
(antlers borrowed from the ingenious Arpy) Don't ask. Don't tell. Nefarious anemone! ~ ToM
-
So, I'm back from vacation. It was very productive, and in a completely unexpected way: I started and finished one short story (seven pages handwritten) within two days after getting the idea, and I also got a very good start on another one whose idea I've had for a while. That second one I've been thinking about for literally years. It started out as a few paragraphs written for an exercise in a writing class two summers ago. Then I wanted to make a proper short story out it, so I've worked on it sporadically since then, but could never quite get the proper inspiration to just make it flow and work and sound nice. I had left it alone for months, and then last week I finally got that inspiration, sat down, and began writing it again from the top. Now I'm almost done with it... *dances* And about the first one, it was quite an interesting experience writing it. Got the idea Friday evening, started around 11, then stayed up until 1:30 writing. Then I couldn't get to sleep, so I got back up around 2 and wrote some more. After that I still couldn't sleep properly (you know, one of those nights where you toss and turn constantly and your mind's in this sort of loop), so around 5:30 I gave up and wrote from then on. By dawn I had five pages written, and was feeling amazing. (But I still slept until 10:30 afterward.) And then I wrote the last three later on that day, and wrote the last paragraph yesterday morning. I don't think I've ever finished anything in such a short time after getting the idea. Wish it would happen more often, if wishing so doesn't jinx it... But anyway, the rest was quite relaxing. Visited a couple colleges as well, and fell in love with one of them; we'll see how others compare... Oh, and I got Toa Ignika as well, finally (belated birthday/Christmas present) – he's awesome, and the skyboard is quite a brilliant piece of work, just like Aanchir said. Also has a bunch of pieces I've been wanting (plus those delightful new (+O) ones), and will be making an MOC with soon. Related to Noctesquo in idea and somewhat in looks. And yes, now that I'm back I can get Atrokan and Kairox up, for Kame. Have to dig up a few pieces for Kairox, but otherwise... Oh, about the title, I'm now officially editor of the literary magazine next year. Not that there's been any question about it since I joined in 9th grade, but it's always nice for things to be set in stone (or in printer ink), isn't it? ~ ToM
-
Case 1: Dido. Her final speech to Aeneas is the most awesome thing in the entire epic. She basically calls him the son of a rock and a tigress, then orders him to go away, and says she hopes he drinks in his punishment on the sea. Then she declares that after she dies, she will always be there haunting him, and she'll make him pay, and that the rumor of his failure will reach her even in the depths of the Underworld. Very cool, and it's wonderfully easy Latin, too. Case 2: my grade. Henry, Ally and I spent ninth period hanging long streamers in the entrance to the lounge, made of endless amounts of little 2-inch squares of wrapping paper samples left over from the Sally Foster fundraiser earlier in the year. For no reason at all other than that the area looked quite boring earlier, and now it looks cool. Yes. Stop staring at us like that. You can't deny it. That is all you need to know. ~ ToM
-
It's a wonderful thing. Whether it's in regards to something as small as a difference in tastes or desires or as large as religious or political beliefs, tolerating people who disagree with you or whom you disagree with is really the simplest way to keep things peaceful and, hopefully, plesant. There's no reason a long, potentially hurtful, and in the grand scheme of things probably unnecessary argument should occur if it can be prevented just by tolerating what it is you disagree with, you know? What it comes down to is understanding. Try to see where the person is coming from. It's probably not unreasonable, though in many situations it may be irrational – just how one feels about something without really knowing why, and that's fine. Everyone will have their opinions on things, and it's just so much better for everyone if people can accept that fact rather than trying to change those opinions to their own. Of course, if you feel that you really have to object to something, or disagree with it strongly, you're absolutely free to take it up with someone! But for goodness's sake, be polite, and be reasonable. Being outright rude won't get you anywhere, but having a nice, level-headed dicussion about things just might solve the problem without getting anyone angry at anyone else. Reciprocally, what my much-beloved history teacher says is quite true: one of the best things to have in life is a thick skin. Don't get angry or insulted as a result of something someone says to you – let it bounce off before you respond. Think before you say something. As Tufi has said, wait before you click "Add Reply", and think about what you're posting and how it sounds. I know from experience that it solves so many problems if you let yourself calm down before replying to something. Sometimes I think it's best just not to reply, to let something drop or go unmarked instead of making a big deal out of it. So really, please be tolerant, won't you? It can be anywhere from respecting someone else's views to preventing a conversation from getting heated to biting your tongue instead of criticizing something that you might not like, but someone else does. Which all really come down to the same thing... And for the record, I've been musing over this entry for a long time. It wasn't brought on by any one event, recent or past, it's not directed at anyone in particular, and it's certainly not limited to BZP. We can all learn from it. I can. There are things in here that I might not have done in the past, but that I want to in the future. At least think about it, won't you? As dear Sméag put it, isn't it so much nicer to get along, respectfully even if we disagree, rather than to bicker and fight all the time? ~ ToM
