I'm artistically exhausted, you know? Spent the last few days drawing, and not for a single project either. It was more like practice sketching today and yesterday and ink drawings for my lab logbook today.
They were pretty good ink drawings, even if I do say so myself.
Anyway, this is not my style. My style is to think about a sketch for days and weeks before committing it to paper (I'm a lazy artist - sue me) (on second thoughts, don't). However, I have another lab session tomorrow and that one will also require an illustrated log, so unless I wanted an overflowing pipeline I had to finish that log today.
For the record, overflowing pipelines are icky, even when they are mere metaphors.
Other stuff - went to meet friends on Saturday, watched Infection [Kansen] with them. It's a J-horror film about a horrible, understaffed hospital which just happens to be the scene for a creepy, supernaturalish infection.
(I don't know why I still watch J-horror. I thought The Ring had taught me a firm lesson, but apparently it hadn't because the next thing I did was to watch Shibuya Kaidan).
Anyway, I agree with most of the Internet reviews for Infection. Creepy for the first 90%, an utter mess for the last 10%. At the end of it we were all looking at each other and asking, "What just happened here?"
According to this site, they're remaking it for release this year, presumably for an English audience. Huh.
Anyway, we got the VCD of the movie from a rental store. As we were flipping through the clear plastic folders of VCD case covers, choosing films, I suddenly found the Bionicle 3 cover staring straight up at me.
Yup. Web of Shadows. Here in Singapore where I had once lost hope of ever finding a Bionicle movie.
Too bad I already have the DVD, and too bad it was my least favourite of the three movies.
There was also a copy of Advent Children. I so have to get hold of that thing.
Sunday nothing much happened - other than completing the final mission for Nod in Tiberian Sun two seconds too late to get a mission accomplished (I actually won - just that the ending cutscene took up the spare twenty seconds and apparently if that cutscene doesn't end on time, you lose) (curse it!). That depressed me, which is probably why I stopped gaming at that point and started to draw.
Monday - lab session for my final year project, for which I had to write a log as previously mentioned. Spent one hour adjusting the pH of the MS media. Bah.
Tuesday - ah, that would be today. I used the day to write the log entry - yes, it used up the whole day, especially with periodic breaks for food, checking of webcomics and general slacking off. Also, I had four drawings to do and I wanted all of them to be properly inked and shaded, thank you very much.
Speaking of webcomics, Nokia camera-toasters totally for the win. Of course, the real reason I'm sticking around is to see what Bun-Bun does when he finally digs himself out of the rubble Aylee so thoughtfully flattened into the ground.
And... for what happened before Saturday, I really can't remember. Not as if I care. Not as if anyone else does, this is just for catharsis and the pretence that I'm actually doing something meaningful.
Ah, pretence. The basis for the majority of human relations.
Tuesday 27 February 2007
Saturday 17 February 2007
Why the Polish Fades
I've seen so many forum topics on the subject of how Bionicle (thank you, O all-knowing encyclopedia) has been going downhill. It's as if there's a secret Disillusioned Bionicle-Fans Club dedicated towards publishing at least one such topic per month, with rewards for persistent authors. Many of these topics have poor reasoning, though there was at least one recently with well-articulated points and a solid logical base. B-Rex himself takes on the subject in a news post today at BZP.
What does this all mean? Well, mostly that a lot of people care about a toy-line and have invested so much into it (both personally and monetarily) that they feel they should have a say in its future. Lego should be proud that it has created such a memorable toy-line.
But I think it also serves as yet another indication that interest in something rarely lasts long. For instance, someone who flies in an aeroplane for the first time would find it exciting, exhilarating. Someone who travels to other countries on a regular basis would not consider it any more interesting than a bus trip. Of course, this is due to the effect routine has on interest. I believe the issue with Bionicle is a little different - it comes about because of change, coupled with routine.
I remember what first attracted me to Bionicle. There I was, wandering about the Lego site debating whether to play Robohunter 2 for the umpteenth time (great game, by the way, easily one of the best on the site) or picking something new to play, and then my eye fell on MNOLG II. Deciding it would be better to play MNOG I first before going on to the sequel, I opened it up... and was immediately thrust into a foreign world. Standing on a sandy beach, some weird metal canister thing draped in seaweed standing by the shore, some blue robot-thing waving at me and babbling something about Rahi, a green crystal on top of a cliff winking in the bright sunshine... I realised it wasn't just a game. It was an adventure.
Three days later, I was finished with the game, and completely hooked. I wanted to know more about this strange world. I wanted to know more about the Matoran, the ordinary "people" of the Bionicle world, the wise old Turaga who headed each village, the powerful Toa warriors who kept the villagers safe, about the island of Mata Nui and the Great Spirit Mata Nui after which it was named. I wanted to know about the Rahi, the animals of the island, and about the evil Makuta who had influenced them to attack Matoran and cause mayhem. I hunted up the site and read voraciously, catching up on the three years of storyline which preceded the point I had first discovered Bionicle. Some stuff took me aback - like the Toa going Nuva, and ending up looking all ugly and stuff - but overall I was a fan.
Then came the first Bionicle movie. It changed many of my perceptions from the original game - for instance, Takua, the character whom you adventured as in MNOG, turned out to be an irresponsible character who liked to shirk his duty. (Hey, I was responsible when I played him! I solved all these problems and stuff!) Jaller, whom I had envisioned as a gruff-voiced general, appeared with high-pitched speech and a somewhat childish attitude. Hahli, the shy chronicler you play in MNOLG II, ends up all sassy and strong-willed and completely the opposite of shy. It was as if all the games I had played (and by the same reasoning, the adventures I "had" in that world) were retroconned in favour of this new state of things.
(I am aware this sounds unreasonable. Hear me out.)
It was disorienting, to say the least, but I got used to it. I got used to Takua suddenly becoming the Toa of Light. I got used to another island - Metru Nui - appearing, and apparently being the original home of the Matoran before they moved to Mata Nui, when Mata Nui felt more like home to me. I got used to Voya Nui and Mahri Nui appearing from nowhere again in an expanding world, and my old Matoran comrades from MNOG - Jaller, Hahli, Nuparu, Matoro, Kongu and Hewkii - becoming Toa as well.
The problem was, this wasn't the story I started with. This wasn't the story I fell in love with from the beginning. And herein lies the crux of the matter.
When I first started following Bionicle, it was because something attracted me. Duh, or I wouldn't have followed it in the first place. For me, it was the whole attraction of a wonderful new island with an appealing mythology and imaginative characters. For someone else, it may have been the attractive sets, or the exciting comics, or... something. It depends on the person.
Of course, as the story went on, things changed. For one thing, more things were explained (such as how the masks came to be scattered around the island, and how the whole Makuta problem started). I guess some people were happy that these things were explained, but others would not have been happy, because by the time these were explained they would have formed their own explanations as to how these things came about. For these people, the "official" explanation would have completely ruined their own pre-formed opinion.
It's like what I was saying earlier, about the "irresponsible" version of Takua being completely different from the perception I had of him that he was responsible, just that he liked to explore more than other Matoran. Of course I have no right to demand that my version be the correct one, but in the absence of information on Takua's character, I had formed a view which I liked, and which I didn't want to abandon in the face of the "inferior" official version. It's a result of investing in the story, and investing in the character.
For another thing, the story is deviating from the old formula. It is no longer about six heroes fighting a single enemy on a single island. The original enemy is more or less defeated; there are new enemies now, and the world keeps getting bigger island by island. It's inevitable that the elements originally enjoyed are replaced by other ones. That is why you get a lot of people giving different reasons for why they think Bionicle is going downhill, only agreeing that things are different from the original 2001/2002 storyline. People were attracted to different elements in the first part of the story, and these elements may or may not appear in the newer storylines. That's also why everyone seems to agree that the first storyline was the best - because that was where everyone started from. If they weren't interested in the first story arc, they wouldn't bother progressing to the second, and so we never hear about them.
It's sort of like how I started reading Harry Potter the wrong way around - from Chamber of Secrets - and that book is my favourite to this day. That book was the reason I read the entire series, and it held all the elements which attracted me to Harry Potter, which the other books possessed in varying degrees.
The third problem is that, since the story is planned for about twenty years or so, there is an element of repetition. We're having Toa who have to save the world, or at least the island... again. We've having evil nasties who come in gangs and can't be subdued easily... again. We're having new islands and funky Rahi and colourful weapon ammo and short-ish characters, usually Matoran, who need saving from abovementioned evil nasties... again. And once again, all this is in the ongoing quest to save Mata Nui, who at the very beginning was put to sleep by his evil brother Makuta and still hasn't been woken up yet. Because once he wakes up, it's all over.
This ties in with the fourth and last problem, which is that Lego isn't working on this storyline for our benefit. They are working on it to make money. And in order to make money, they need to make collectibles (ammo), small sets (Matoran who need saving), medium sets (Toa heroes, evil nasties), large sets (evil nasties' boss, Toa heroes' boss) and really large sets (whatever Lego can think of - usually playsets though). So every year they have to come up with some excuse for six new Toa to turn up - and mind you, these Toa cannot in any way resemble last year's six Toa. They have to come up with new enemies and new collectible thingys. And then they have to come up with a story which makes sense and binds everything together - but the element of repetition is difficult to avoid. So you end up with routine, and people getting bored of airplane flights. Because even though the in-flight movie is different, and the food is new, a flight is still a flight.
So what now? Well, I actually think Bionicle is going to do well and continue to do so because:
a) It has some loyal fans who stick to it no matter what.
b) It keeps getting new fans who accept all the previous story arcs reviled by older fans, since it is all new to them, though in the next year they will post a topic about how the new story arc is awful, an insult to the spirit of Bionicle, etc.
c) Lego actually does listen to the fans, and accommodates some of their wishes. Like putting back MNOG back online two years after it was removed from the web. That move made many existing fans happy, and Lego is still working to keep these fans happy.
Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk about this is because, well... I think analysing Bionicle and how it changed over time has explained a lot. Why I liked the original Star Wars, endured the sequels and could not abide the prequels. Why many old fans of Megatokyo mourn the days of Rodney Caston, while new fans don't understand what the fuss is about. Why the first episodes of Knight Rider are my favourites while I could not bear to watch the last one. It's all a complex mass of entitlement and expectations and that old schemer, Change.
Hey, Change? Just want you to know that I've grown past hating you. You take Bionicle where you want, and I promise I'll be here for the ride.
What does this all mean? Well, mostly that a lot of people care about a toy-line and have invested so much into it (both personally and monetarily) that they feel they should have a say in its future. Lego should be proud that it has created such a memorable toy-line.
But I think it also serves as yet another indication that interest in something rarely lasts long. For instance, someone who flies in an aeroplane for the first time would find it exciting, exhilarating. Someone who travels to other countries on a regular basis would not consider it any more interesting than a bus trip. Of course, this is due to the effect routine has on interest. I believe the issue with Bionicle is a little different - it comes about because of change, coupled with routine.
I remember what first attracted me to Bionicle. There I was, wandering about the Lego site debating whether to play Robohunter 2 for the umpteenth time (great game, by the way, easily one of the best on the site) or picking something new to play, and then my eye fell on MNOLG II. Deciding it would be better to play MNOG I first before going on to the sequel, I opened it up... and was immediately thrust into a foreign world. Standing on a sandy beach, some weird metal canister thing draped in seaweed standing by the shore, some blue robot-thing waving at me and babbling something about Rahi, a green crystal on top of a cliff winking in the bright sunshine... I realised it wasn't just a game. It was an adventure.
Three days later, I was finished with the game, and completely hooked. I wanted to know more about this strange world. I wanted to know more about the Matoran, the ordinary "people" of the Bionicle world, the wise old Turaga who headed each village, the powerful Toa warriors who kept the villagers safe, about the island of Mata Nui and the Great Spirit Mata Nui after which it was named. I wanted to know about the Rahi, the animals of the island, and about the evil Makuta who had influenced them to attack Matoran and cause mayhem. I hunted up the site and read voraciously, catching up on the three years of storyline which preceded the point I had first discovered Bionicle. Some stuff took me aback - like the Toa going Nuva, and ending up looking all ugly and stuff - but overall I was a fan.
Then came the first Bionicle movie. It changed many of my perceptions from the original game - for instance, Takua, the character whom you adventured as in MNOG, turned out to be an irresponsible character who liked to shirk his duty. (Hey, I was responsible when I played him! I solved all these problems and stuff!) Jaller, whom I had envisioned as a gruff-voiced general, appeared with high-pitched speech and a somewhat childish attitude. Hahli, the shy chronicler you play in MNOLG II, ends up all sassy and strong-willed and completely the opposite of shy. It was as if all the games I had played (and by the same reasoning, the adventures I "had" in that world) were retroconned in favour of this new state of things.
(I am aware this sounds unreasonable. Hear me out.)
It was disorienting, to say the least, but I got used to it. I got used to Takua suddenly becoming the Toa of Light. I got used to another island - Metru Nui - appearing, and apparently being the original home of the Matoran before they moved to Mata Nui, when Mata Nui felt more like home to me. I got used to Voya Nui and Mahri Nui appearing from nowhere again in an expanding world, and my old Matoran comrades from MNOG - Jaller, Hahli, Nuparu, Matoro, Kongu and Hewkii - becoming Toa as well.
The problem was, this wasn't the story I started with. This wasn't the story I fell in love with from the beginning. And herein lies the crux of the matter.
When I first started following Bionicle, it was because something attracted me. Duh, or I wouldn't have followed it in the first place. For me, it was the whole attraction of a wonderful new island with an appealing mythology and imaginative characters. For someone else, it may have been the attractive sets, or the exciting comics, or... something. It depends on the person.
Of course, as the story went on, things changed. For one thing, more things were explained (such as how the masks came to be scattered around the island, and how the whole Makuta problem started). I guess some people were happy that these things were explained, but others would not have been happy, because by the time these were explained they would have formed their own explanations as to how these things came about. For these people, the "official" explanation would have completely ruined their own pre-formed opinion.
It's like what I was saying earlier, about the "irresponsible" version of Takua being completely different from the perception I had of him that he was responsible, just that he liked to explore more than other Matoran. Of course I have no right to demand that my version be the correct one, but in the absence of information on Takua's character, I had formed a view which I liked, and which I didn't want to abandon in the face of the "inferior" official version. It's a result of investing in the story, and investing in the character.
For another thing, the story is deviating from the old formula. It is no longer about six heroes fighting a single enemy on a single island. The original enemy is more or less defeated; there are new enemies now, and the world keeps getting bigger island by island. It's inevitable that the elements originally enjoyed are replaced by other ones. That is why you get a lot of people giving different reasons for why they think Bionicle is going downhill, only agreeing that things are different from the original 2001/2002 storyline. People were attracted to different elements in the first part of the story, and these elements may or may not appear in the newer storylines. That's also why everyone seems to agree that the first storyline was the best - because that was where everyone started from. If they weren't interested in the first story arc, they wouldn't bother progressing to the second, and so we never hear about them.
It's sort of like how I started reading Harry Potter the wrong way around - from Chamber of Secrets - and that book is my favourite to this day. That book was the reason I read the entire series, and it held all the elements which attracted me to Harry Potter, which the other books possessed in varying degrees.
The third problem is that, since the story is planned for about twenty years or so, there is an element of repetition. We're having Toa who have to save the world, or at least the island... again. We've having evil nasties who come in gangs and can't be subdued easily... again. We're having new islands and funky Rahi and colourful weapon ammo and short-ish characters, usually Matoran, who need saving from abovementioned evil nasties... again. And once again, all this is in the ongoing quest to save Mata Nui, who at the very beginning was put to sleep by his evil brother Makuta and still hasn't been woken up yet. Because once he wakes up, it's all over.
This ties in with the fourth and last problem, which is that Lego isn't working on this storyline for our benefit. They are working on it to make money. And in order to make money, they need to make collectibles (ammo), small sets (Matoran who need saving), medium sets (Toa heroes, evil nasties), large sets (evil nasties' boss, Toa heroes' boss) and really large sets (whatever Lego can think of - usually playsets though). So every year they have to come up with some excuse for six new Toa to turn up - and mind you, these Toa cannot in any way resemble last year's six Toa. They have to come up with new enemies and new collectible thingys. And then they have to come up with a story which makes sense and binds everything together - but the element of repetition is difficult to avoid. So you end up with routine, and people getting bored of airplane flights. Because even though the in-flight movie is different, and the food is new, a flight is still a flight.
So what now? Well, I actually think Bionicle is going to do well and continue to do so because:
a) It has some loyal fans who stick to it no matter what.
b) It keeps getting new fans who accept all the previous story arcs reviled by older fans, since it is all new to them, though in the next year they will post a topic about how the new story arc is awful, an insult to the spirit of Bionicle, etc.
c) Lego actually does listen to the fans, and accommodates some of their wishes. Like putting back MNOG back online two years after it was removed from the web. That move made many existing fans happy, and Lego is still working to keep these fans happy.
Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk about this is because, well... I think analysing Bionicle and how it changed over time has explained a lot. Why I liked the original Star Wars, endured the sequels and could not abide the prequels. Why many old fans of Megatokyo mourn the days of Rodney Caston, while new fans don't understand what the fuss is about. Why the first episodes of Knight Rider are my favourites while I could not bear to watch the last one. It's all a complex mass of entitlement and expectations and that old schemer, Change.
Hey, Change? Just want you to know that I've grown past hating you. You take Bionicle where you want, and I promise I'll be here for the ride.
Friday 16 February 2007
Stalker!
So I was playing C&C Generals (USA side), the second last mission where you have to fight a rogue Chinese general helping the GLA. So I snuck Col. Burton into their base, blew up a few things and was on the point of leaving when I found that an Overlord tank was following Burton around.
The thing about Overlord tanks is that they're really nasty. They're huge, at least three times bigger than anything else on the field, double-barreled, heavily-armoured, the only tank able to squish other tanks (as opposed to normal tanks, which can only run over infantry). They've got an evil voice ("They will be... crushed"). They're the pride of the Chinese side. The absolute last thing you want is one of them following any one of your troops, but especially an expensive Hero like Burton.
So naturally I was freaked out when I found an Overlord on Burton's tail, but what freaked me out more was that the tank wasn't doing anything at all. It just came close to Burton and sat there, but would start moving whenever Burton moved. Really creepy. I finally sent Burton climbing over a cliff and out of the base, well out of the Overlord's range of view - he could outpace the tank easily, they're highly ponderous. And so I left Burton far from the base, but in a good place to pick off infantry rushes.
And after about five minutes - guess what?
That tank turned up again! It obviously had to have travelled some distance, all the way round the front of the base (since tanks can't cross mountains) and it can't have been able to see Burton at all for a good part of its journey, but there it was, like a faithful puppy. It didn't so much as fire a shot.
Endearing as that was, the tank was becoming a nuisance. I sent Burton into my base, simultaneously luring the tank in, and used six Tomahawk Missile Launchers and an equivalent number of Paladin tanks to dispose of it.
But, gee... talk about having obsessed fans.
The thing about Overlord tanks is that they're really nasty. They're huge, at least three times bigger than anything else on the field, double-barreled, heavily-armoured, the only tank able to squish other tanks (as opposed to normal tanks, which can only run over infantry). They've got an evil voice ("They will be... crushed"). They're the pride of the Chinese side. The absolute last thing you want is one of them following any one of your troops, but especially an expensive Hero like Burton.
So naturally I was freaked out when I found an Overlord on Burton's tail, but what freaked me out more was that the tank wasn't doing anything at all. It just came close to Burton and sat there, but would start moving whenever Burton moved. Really creepy. I finally sent Burton climbing over a cliff and out of the base, well out of the Overlord's range of view - he could outpace the tank easily, they're highly ponderous. And so I left Burton far from the base, but in a good place to pick off infantry rushes.
And after about five minutes - guess what?
That tank turned up again! It obviously had to have travelled some distance, all the way round the front of the base (since tanks can't cross mountains) and it can't have been able to see Burton at all for a good part of its journey, but there it was, like a faithful puppy. It didn't so much as fire a shot.
Endearing as that was, the tank was becoming a nuisance. I sent Burton into my base, simultaneously luring the tank in, and used six Tomahawk Missile Launchers and an equivalent number of Paladin tanks to dispose of it.
But, gee... talk about having obsessed fans.
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Failure to Communicate
Changed some of the labels from "Life" to "Personal." There's a fine line between the two, but Life posts tend to be more general.
So I asked someone to do something, and they did something entirely different from what I wanted them to do. The thing they did I could have done myself, and the reason I wanted them to do it in the way I wanted them to was that I didn't have the ability to do it the way it ought to have been done. Which they didn't do.
That sounded insane. Anyway, that's why I always check and recheck my posts/PMs/e-mails multiple times before allowing anyone else to see them. Especially with a message so short, it is all too easy for it to be misunderstood.
So I asked someone to do something, and they did something entirely different from what I wanted them to do. The thing they did I could have done myself, and the reason I wanted them to do it in the way I wanted them to was that I didn't have the ability to do it the way it ought to have been done. Which they didn't do.
That sounded insane. Anyway, that's why I always check and recheck my posts/PMs/e-mails multiple times before allowing anyone else to see them. Especially with a message so short, it is all too easy for it to be misunderstood.
Sunday 11 February 2007
Update
Most of the posts are labelled "Life", I notice.
Stuff has happened of course, not that there is much to talk about. Currently waiting for Final Fortress to load (great game, reminds me of Command & Conquer). Just finished another round of Need for Madness - man, this has to be first time I've ever made it through Level 10 in one go. Played C&C Generals earlier, and had to spend two hours on a mission which should have taken one.
Made chocolate mousse earlier in the day, and used a piping bag for the first time. It's not too hard, just have to squeeze the top so the contents of the bag remain compressed. Also, note to self - thickened cream is the same as whipping cream, but has a different result from regular cream when subjected to an electric whisk.
2K-tan currently graces my desktop.
Fred Gallagher is evil, and yet we love him for it.
I'm not the only WinterShark on the 'net.
So much for not having much to talk about.
Stuff has happened of course, not that there is much to talk about. Currently waiting for Final Fortress to load (great game, reminds me of Command & Conquer). Just finished another round of Need for Madness - man, this has to be first time I've ever made it through Level 10 in one go. Played C&C Generals earlier, and had to spend two hours on a mission which should have taken one.
Made chocolate mousse earlier in the day, and used a piping bag for the first time. It's not too hard, just have to squeeze the top so the contents of the bag remain compressed. Also, note to self - thickened cream is the same as whipping cream, but has a different result from regular cream when subjected to an electric whisk.
2K-tan currently graces my desktop.
Fred Gallagher is evil, and yet we love him for it.
I'm not the only WinterShark on the 'net.
So much for not having much to talk about.
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