My Tiny Meandering Mind

D for effort - D for intent...

2012-01-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

2011 hasn't been a terribly productive year for me, LEGO wise which has resulted regrettably in less posts on this blog (which is now 3 years old).

album of the year (in my onion)

On the other hand I'm having a great time, discovering the joy of live music in back alley bars where half the audience are members of the bands playing, living within walking distance of record stores (bad for my bank account), cooking - most of my Christmas presents this year were kitchen utensils, and somewhat less excitingly, just doing uni work - occasionally.

Just to say it, once: I love being a student. If for nothing else 2011 will stay with me as the year I became a student - although I will have to start doing more work if I wish to remain one for longer than a year.

four walls and adobe slats

2011-12-31T13:40:00.000-08:00

look at that, I'm back, and with LEGO

That there is my annual effort for the Colossal Castle Contest at Classic Castle. It's meant to be for the category of timber castle. You may say: well this model is neither colossal nor entirely timber based. Well... Last time I tried to build colossal it didn't go well , plus I built this model in just two weeks - which is pretty much a record for me.

And the timber question? The category encouraged builders to stay away from stones, but who am I to sacrifice my artistic vision just to conform to some rules! (if I still listened to rage against the machine like I did when I was thirteen I'd know what song to reference now, as it is I'm now eighteen and listen to different music) ...Anyway, I still think it looks like a good timber castle and I'm pretty happy my second attempt at oriental style architecture.

Here are some more but basically the same photos.

Goodbye.

still alive

2011-09-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Having left my collection at home and relocated to Nottingham for university, don't expect to see anything much new from me for a while. On the other hand, I am determined to maintain an active presence in the community while at uni and to this effect I have decided to leave on the first weekend to attend (for the third year running!) the annual Great Western LEGO Show at the STEAM railway museum in Swindon.

What's more, this year I will be exhibiting at the show for the first time. Doing this meant packing up the model before I left for uni and bringing it with me. It is currently languishing in the box my Maersk Train set came in under my bed. However, I did manage to snap some photos of the model in an almost finished state before I left:

It is a vikings diorama, as you may be able to tell.

I really like how the landscaping turned out on this, that was really fun to do. I'm less pleased with the buildings and the action as I have been unable to satisfactorily finish them in time for the show. Plus I think I just prefer doing landscaping, buildings present too many problems, too many niggling details that have to be gotten right which tend to make the building process more frustrating and less fun. Some people like that; I don't think I'm one of them.

And that is that, an update on this now seldom updated blog. I may build more at Christmas, when I'm home, but I doubt I'll have enough time to do anything serious for a while.

build a bit

2011-08-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah I built a bit. Saw this way to inset a 22x22 building into a 32x32 building off the grid using wedge plates and just thought I had to use it for a 32x32 castle. Add that and an interesting colour scheme which I haven't used before which stretched my collection and made things interesting. Interesting meaning I had to photograph it so the gaps don't show - but no-one reads this blog so the secret's safe here!

Went with the name Mousehole Manor (pronounced mowzel) because of the tiny door at the bottom which reminded me of the tiny entrance to the tiny harbour in the tiny fishing village of Mousehole in Cornwall where my favourite childhood book is set.

Regrettably, this will probably be the last 32x32 of the year for me, despite having another one on the go I need to move on to another model for a public show which needs to be started/finished before the end of September when I go away to university.

don't touch my katana

2011-07-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to build some Japanese or Oriental style architecture for some time - since I started watching Samurai films basically. But I wasn't sure enough of how to build in this style to tackle a full-scale castle or diorama. What to do. What to do. Obviously, this was a chance to build a 32x32 castle.

The thing I love about building these small castles is that they are easy, quick and clean. This can be a contrast to the slow, lengthy projects that larger castles can become, with which I have had problems with in the past.

However, this time I fear the speed with which I built the model has impacted upon the quality of the build. While I am happy with it, it seems others have found it to be a little plain and I recognise that it lacks perhaps the architectural details needed to make it a more polished model. So, although it was a fun build, I think I may come back to this castle at a later date, perhaps having actually looked at some reference material and explored the nuances of Oriental architecture somewhat more. So, for now, my first 32x32 for this year's challenge done - onwards to others, but return I shall.

Space: the final frontier

2011-07-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I displayed at a LEGO exhibition with the Brickish Association (my LUG) for the first time ever. It was a space-themed event in Leicester which was supposed to celebrate the somethingieth anniversary of Comrade Gagarin's boldly going [...] but with the joint purpose of advertising LEGO's new City Space range.

So anyway, I mentioned a display:

There we are, micro moonbaseketeers. Alright, so it was a hastily planned display - somewhat chaotic and certainly not my finest building hour but it went ok in the end.

The best bit, however, about this event was all the free stuff I got! A free LEGO t-shirt for exhibitors and a free (if not completely above board) rummage in some parts bins that TLG brought along resulting in some interesting new parts to add to my collection. As well as the inevitable joys of LEGO I got to spend some time among fellow members of the Brickish Association and being there for a whole weekend allowed me to get to know people more than before - now I feel like a proper member and will definitely try to exhibit at the Great Western LEGO show in October if possible!

this is a blog?

2011-07-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

No posts in 3 months? Phwooar.

I ought to be ashamed of myself. Now that my exams are finished I really have no excuse whatsoever not to be posting here more often. Unfortunately the WIPs are stacking up and the only thing I've produced has been an 8x8 for a Classic Castle challenge. As amusing as it was to build it's hardly substantial.

BUT

I'm prepping for an event - which I'll cover on here.

And my favourite month of the LEGO calendar is approaching, 32x32 season starts soon.

So, while I build and read and watch movies and generally enjoy myself during the long wait for exam results I will endeavour to keep posting on here.

brb

2011-03-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Those books are my current occupation - just an update. I still buy lego (maybe even more now than I was before) and I am severely tempted by the new Maersk train and in the summer after my exams I should be building like crazy! So... brb

New year I love you, but you're bringing me down

2011-01-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

Another year comes around, goes around. The blog is still going, crawling, dragging itself along the ground like a three legged spider. Have averaged about 2 posts a month in 2010 which is not too bad I suppose. Substantial creations have been pretty thin on the ground but I have had some successes, namely this and this.

But once again, I've been upstaged by my own failures and the greatest failure came right at the end, the colossal castle for CCCVIII that I could not finish simply due to lack of bricks.

I overstretched myself! It's frustrating when this happens. I shall have to try not to do it again this year. Not that I'll be building much anyway...

...To Ameliorate the Socio-Economic Conditions of the Disadvantaged.

2010-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

I won't lie. This one is less impressive than the first one. I knew that it would be, so I've tried to alleviate the stress upon the boilerplate-ness of the actual model by including A: an interesting technique for thatched roofing and B: light yellow, a rarely used (greatly underused and underproduced in my opinion) colour.

I reckon I could have pulled it off if the photography wasn't so rubbish.

Rob the Rich...

2010-12-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. It's wet and cold and grey and dark and people have started to play christmas music (but that's another rant for another time/blog) It's also the Colossal Castle Contest VIII hosted by Classic Castle and despite my greatest ambitions I have built disappointingly little...

But! We have set aside some time, we have laboured, we have produced:

'An heroic band of outlaws liberate some tax money from the foolish Crown Knights...'

left

right

Painstaking attention was paid to the landscaping, rocks are tricky - and easy to do crappily. I wanted to make these at least a little bit less boilerplate than normal... I think I have been relatively successful. Criticisms would be: the photography is weak, rather dull, the composition of the model isn't great, somewhat difficult to tell what's going on but these are probably minor. One thing is certain though; the next scene (a necessity of the category) will be decidedly more boilerplate.

an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy

2010-11-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

or a dick.

That's what some people thought he was anyway. This Eric guy, something about LUGnet and making an ass of himself. He faded into obscurity, a relic of brickshelf and the aforementioned lego users group network... A vaguely loathed figure of the past.

But now this: paedophilia - it's the one thing the 'community' (hah) really fears, I mean, we are already adults who play with childrens toys so it's not that great a leap in the minds of muggles. Anyway, reactions have varied among the 'community' (hah hah) : some have laughed, some have cried, some have frothed at the mouth with outrage as people tend to with stories like this while most people I'll wager have simply frowned, sighed and closed the tab.

But! Guys, guys, innocent until proven, remember? Definitely. Not that it matters though, with an article like that one the damage is done, if he is released his life will probably never be the same again. And what about the damage done to the 'community' (hah hah hah) ? Minimal, in all likelihood, unless this reaches the mainstream international press, negligible.

anyway, I'm off to build for the CCCVIII

Great Western LEGO Show

2010-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

There truly is nothing so re-affirming for an AHOL as a damn good convention. For the second year in a row yesterday I attended The Great Western Lego Show at the STEAM Museum in Swindon. It is one of the largest LEGO events in the UK and as a member of the Brickish, I could have displayed. I didn't... But I could have. So I slip in the back entrance, grab my 'exhibitor' pass and set out, nervous with the excitement!

There it is, the overview of the main hall. Heaving with people and I'm informed that over the two days there were well over six-thousand visitors which is pretty impressive. This year was even better as I got to meet people but this meant that my documentation of all the displays was less thorough that last year. However, the displays this year were certainly much better! Some of the highlights for me were William Howard's castle layout and the micro-scale space display from Tim Goddard and Peter Reid.

Experiences abounded, I did my first build in a bag and Will and I unwittingly took part in a US style draft (admittedly on a smaller scale) as we decided to split a Winter Toyshop set between us. We discovered that the real difference between a US and a UK draft is politeness, 'would you like this?' 'No really, you have it' No, I really couldn't' Yes, really, I insist!...' All in all, it was a truly wonderful day.

does it look like I'm here?

2010-08-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

This will be my fifth post this month, compared to last August when I only posted once. Not that I'm counting... Or anything.

Anyway, that will soon change. I'm taking the LEGO habit down a notch in recognition that this will be my final and most important year at school and I need to be focusing on learning to speak French better. Other years, my work/play balance leaned slightly more towards the latter rather than the former but now I need to get my academic act together.

I was planning on going to STEAM (Great Western LEGO Show) in Swindon for the weekend in October but funds and time dictate a No-Go on that now, I'll probably still go just for the day but that means that I won't be able to display anything; but that's a partial relief since now I won't have to build anything between now and then.

So, don't expect much from me from now on. Call it a dark age, call it a dim age, or a self imposed exile.

P.S. I reserve the right to still build, contrary to everything I have just written.

dirty, dirty beast

2010-08-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I finally finished the space ship that I have always wanted to build. It's been through various incarnations and has even been several different ships at some stages but at long last I managed to finish it to a standard I'm happy with!

The Salbet, originally a tramp freighter out of New New Orleans, she was wrecked on one of the moons of Valgard 5 and eventually salvaged by a then minor smuggler named Desmond Faversham [now wanted for various crimes including murder, intergalactic fraud, impersonating a space police officer and drugs and arms smuggling]. After repairing it and making various modifications he put it to use in his smuggling fleet. Warning! The ships current Captain is known to be an extremely dangerous non-human [objective: terminate] and the first mate is a human, ex-Templar wanted on charges of desertion [objective: capture]

More photos

It may be big, ugly and boxy but it has an interior with shower, toilet and kitchen area which is something I wanted to incorporate and I think I've done okay given that I don't consider myself to be a great builder of space.

(Name is a derivation of sale bête, or dirty beast, for those wondering)

my highs are high and my lows are low

2010-08-21T03:52:00.000-07:00

"more about it later"

Well, it's later, so here's more:

I call it 'Cartref Castle' because it felt sort of homely, a place of residence for some minor noble perhaps. Cartref is Welsh for 'home' for those of you not up on your Welsh vocab. Actually, neither am I but it's the name of my Grandparents' house and it comes from the Welsh proverb "Cartref yw cartref, er tloted y bo." which means "Home is home, however poor it may be." Quite appropriate, now that I think about it. I was going to do an interior since I made it fully modular (if you look closely you can see some of the seems where tiles allow sections to be lifted off) but I've just got so much to do, to read and to write! The holidays seem to have slipped by in a daze.

Slightly better view of courtyard, here but that's all you're going to get, I'm afraid.

In other news: Results. Exam results. AS levels which constitute the first half of a two year A level course which precedes University in the UK. So... Quite important. I'm sorry to report I got my first B grades (in serious exams) ever; two of them in fact. Out of the four subjects I took I got a B grade in both French and Art. Art I no longer care about (already dropped it) but a B in French means a necessary retake in January to hopefully try and claw my way up to an A. It's only eleven marks or so. My other two subjects: English Literature and History, went better. Two A grades and a solid 94% in the English exam.

So that was my week. Soon I will start my last year at school. Then things will really get busy.

if you go your own way I will go my own way

2010-08-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

Had this half-hearted gatehouse sitting around for a while, built after I finally got some of those prefab corner wall pieces. Superseded by other projects it languished, gathering dust and hoarding parts that could be used elsewhere.

There. A crappy, hastily constructed battle scene. Not my finest LEGO hour but at least now I have disassembled it and re-sorted the parts. Call it a building experiment, rather than a failure.

Bright were the Castle buildings...

2010-08-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Do you recall, dear readers, one year ago? The time has come again!

In the early fifth century the Roman Empire was under pressure, harsh winters across Europe meant that more and more Barbarians were crossing the Rhine into the Empire. Emperor Constantine was forced to withdraw troops from Britain in order to combat these attacks, leaving Britain open to invasions of Angles, Jutes and Saxons. The Romans had given Britain an infrastructure and population levels that would not be rivalled again until the Medieval period, but all this soon began to crumble as Britain entered the Dark Ages.

"Roofs are fallen, ruinous towers,
the frosty gate with frost on cement is ravaged,
chipped roofs are torn, fallen,
undermined by old age."

- The Ruin

This year, there is a new aspect to the challenge! Not only are we challenged to build within the confines of 32 x 32 studs, but our castle is to be built of primary colours! Yes, red, blue or yellow! At first I baulked at this, not having much in the way of any of these colours. So, I rejected the proposition in favour of building an ordinary castle. Boring old grey! However, I got about 3/4 through building that (more about it later) when the idea for this creation came to me. A ruinous wreck meant that I would not need to strain my meagre collection of red bricks. Furthermore I have always wanted to build a castle in a snowy setting.

Principally, this creation was inspired by one of my favourite Anglo-Saxon poems, 'The Ruin' and the way it describes once magnificent Roman buildings destroyed by the wyrd of time, seen through the eyes of an Anglo-Saxon.

left

right

back

That is all.

this is why we can't have nice things

2010-07-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

What is it about WIP pictures? They seem to be the kiss of death for me. I was building this for the FBTB bounty hunter contest. Alas, ambitious plans will always go awry.

you're a pro now, son

2010-07-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

This was a fun table scrap which may or may not have an associated larger build which I am not prepared to disclose. Making catapults is really fun y'all, by the way. When you fire them you get to make noises. It's like the spacers with their swooshing and their 'pew pews' - but this is some sweet action that the castlers can get in on!

Confessional of a professional. I recently sold my soul to the devil, or bought flickr pro from Yahoo; it depends how you view it. Now I can look at my stats... Yay. The novelty wore off pretty damn quickly. One of the main reasons I finally gave in even though I had ten photos left of my 200 free upload limit was because the pit-house got blogged by the brothers brick and I wanted to view the stats spike. Sure enough, it was quite impressive. Another factor was that I had enough money in my current account to feel okay about spending the $25.

So, I got TBB'd again. Even though I was more than a little scathing about the blog in this post but my stomach is a rumblin' and it feels like words eatin' time! Seriously, despite what I said, I still felt that warm fuzzy feeling from being blogged there. Perhaps I was just jumping on the brothers-bashing bandwagon. Whatever, don't mind me.

You want to talk to God? Let's go see him together, I've got nothing better to do.

2010-06-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a pretty huge fan of Indiana Jones. Unlike many, I loved the new one and my favourite is the Temple of Doom. Recently I watched all four films again (in a single day, because I'm just that cool) and felt like building the map-room scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It was just a quick build, and I know it has been done better before but the new Prince of Persia headgear allowed for a more realistic Indy and I wanted to build the vignette on two levels. I think the photography could be better, but otherwise it turned out well.

"Where is the noblest of all this crowd?"

2010-06-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

The other day I finished reading the modern translation of the medieval English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and was inspired to make this scene from the beginning of the story where the Green Knight rides into the hall of King Arthur at Camelot. I have actually taken some liberties with the appearance of the knight. Mainly these changes were for practicality as I gave him a green helmet because I don't have any green hairpieces and I think he looks more intimidating with a helmet and shield. The axe is, however, accurate to the description given in the poem.

I've also been experimenting lately with photography set-ups which encompass the whole scene, with no non-lego gaps, kind of cinematic style - but less refined. Now that my exams are finished (woohoo!) I should have a little more free time for building to develop these ideas!

late sixth century dream

2010-06-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ahah, I finally managed to make a Superchunk related post title! Excellent.

So, exams, pah, exams. Although I may well have blown my chance to do Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies at Cambridge University by fucking up my French exams (and by fucking up, I mean probably only getting a B, so really I'm being melodramatic but shit, this is the internet, not a truck) But I can still build Anglo-Saxon themed creations:

It's historically accurate too! Although, houses like these would probably have been in a village, but I simply didn't have enough old brown palisade bricks to do more than one roof. This build was also slightly inspired by seeing the Lord of the Rings fan-film 'Born of Hope' which used a replica Anglo-Saxon village in West Stow which I am amazed to say a fellow Brickish member pointed out on flickr - nice to find people who are on the same wavelength! Ah the internet, you marvelous beast; I'll look past the questionable content, the debauchery, the tentacle rape porn, for instances like this.

On a separate note, this has also recently reaffirmed my faith in humanity.

one WIP down, many, many more to go.

Lenin Hood: a film review

2010-05-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

So anyway, as much as I hate to leave the house, I crawled all the way to the cinema to watch Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe's new motion picture that goes by the name of Gladiator. No wait, no, Robin Hood. But, dos it really deserve the chance to represent that most famous of English heroes and does it truly do justice...

Now, I'm no patriot, but this is Robin Hood, it's a part of my childhood. Oh god, I'm having a flashback of when the video of the disney version stopped working. It still hurts. Anyway, Scott seems to have taken on too much with this version - like his 2005 epic 'Kingdom of Heaven' it has clear parallels with contemporary issues, only this time, it doesn't come off. Think Robin Hood meets Magna Carta with what is effectively the Battle of Hastings mixed together in an utterly confused mess. Robin the Revolutionary? Whose idea was that? Helgeland! I liked a Knights Tale; what went wrong here? The true spirit of Robin Hood lies not in politics but in fighting for the poor, getting the gold and eventually the girl, defeating the baddies - not pseudo alliances and conferences of Barons.

Crowe was dull, his performance typically stony faced, his accent ranged from Yorkshire to Newcastle back and occasionally a hint of Irish - this was dissapointing as I was loving the Northern accents "Yoo bastuds" yells Maid Marion (Notice the change in spelling, pretty much underlines the needless changes made throughout this film). Crowe was too old for the role, it's ten years since Gladiator, a long time in Hollywood years. I don't think he engaged with the role of hood, I'm sure it was down to him that there was a distinct lack of impressive archery throughout the film, he seems detached from the concept of Hood that we are most familiar with.

The messages I get from Scott are mixed, almost undecided, I thought he might do something interesting with the haunting orphans of the greenwood, pagan symbols were rife, with crosses and the mask of the green man, but they didn't come to anything - in the end the only thing we got from these characters was a cringeworthy entrance onto the final battle scene on shetland ponies led by Maid Marion (Really Helgeland? Really?) A cheap shot that added insult to injury, a bitter taste in my mouth.

Typically, it seems, of Scott's films, the one thing I really felt was done well in Robin Hood were the sets. There's no doubt the man has a great eye for setting, remember the giant reconstruction of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven? And who could forget the cyberpunk city scapes of Bladerunner or the groundbreaking Giger inspired sci fi sets of Alien. So, standard stuff from Scott, but enjoyable nonetheless.

To conclude, battle and sets, we know Ridley Scott can excel at, but this film was mediocre at best, Crowe was a limiting factor, in my opinion - if you want to see a film that gives you the real Robin Hood experience, the fairytale, the myth, the legend; go and watch the Errol Flynn version, hell, go and watch Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner because this film totally missed the mark for me.

Fun with collectifigs!

2010-05-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, LEGO released a new line of Collectible Minifigures, released in random packaging - sixteen to collect and where; oh joy of joys, did they come to first? That's right: Albion. Fuck you America with your early Prince of Persia, now who's laughing? I am. Anyway, I walk into my local toy shop during my Wednesday afternoon off school and the cashiers are just unpacking the boxes!

So I spend all the cash I have on me, and get a reasonable haul: true, the crash test figs, clown and magicians weren't really what I was looking for but the forestmen and the spacemen are excellent and hey, the randomness is all part of the fun! So anyway...

'And now, I will transport a member of the audience, from their seat - into my hat!'

Robin Hood, nuff said.

I've decided to call the spaceman, a Classic Space Templar - because he's that cool.

And finally... Uh, yeah

So, that was fun!

Happy Birthday to me...

2010-05-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yes readers, dear readers, all minus one of you - it is my birthday. It is also the illustrious war criminal and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair's birthday. It is also election day in the decidedly un-glorious realm of Albion, Grod the economist is about to be voted out of power in favour of Dave the slimy bastard professional politician (I could be wrong, but probably won't be) and then, the cash grabbing conservatives will take away the money I get given to go to school, bastards. But enough politics.

As if today could be any more depressing, I also had a French oral exam, which went utterly horribly and I feel quite ill. On the plus side I ate steak and received presents!

I just can't get enough Akira Kurosawa, it seems! Other dvds too and some more Icelandic literature! Not pictured is some lego, 7570, 7571 and 7196. So, a mildly crap but generally okay and totally oxymoronic birthday. Given that exams are bearing down upon me like narked bantha there probably won't be any more posts for a while...

Hopefully I won't commit suicide.

Mourning a man whose name we never knew

2010-04-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, a blow has been struck at the heart of the online LEGO community, the loss of a comrade so well known, so prolific and at times so genius in his manipulation of the brick that the outcry has been magnificent, the flow of tributes unending - a true credit to the impact this creator and innovator made upon our small community.

As I look through his photostream once again I realise that he was one of the first people I interacted with on flickr, he was the third person I made a contact, as it happens. He answered some questions I had on photo manipulation and processing, I greatly admired him as a space builder so while it may seem false or foolish to mourn for someone I never really knew, except from a few brief words over the internet and shared nothing with but a love of the brick, but that's the exact thing. It's this passion for our eccentric hobby, this children's toy that links so many of us, all around the globe, what makes this community what it is and what makes this loss so devastating.

Last night I contemplated building something space as a sort of tribute, taking a break from the castle diorama I've been working on, but anything I put together felt inadequate as a tribute to such a truly great builder - I'm not saying he didn't have his misses but he sure as hell had a lot of hits, so rest in peace, Nate Nielson, or as we knew you: Nnenn, a colossus of the community who will be much missed.

Checkmate!

2010-04-11T04:58:00.000-07:00

Classic-Castle.com have recently been holding monthly build challenges, the first one was to build a life size medieval weapon from LEGO elements but this didn't really interest me so much. This Month the challenge was based around the theme 'chess' and with no real rules on what we were allowed to build - my mind was buzzing with crazy concepts of half chess, half real battle scenes with soldiers dashing around great stone monoliths and such...

However, as usually happens, those concepts didn't really bear very much fruit, apart from this doodle:

I wanted to emphasize the idea of the chessboard as a battlefield, by having a stone chess board pattern erupting from the green grass just as the Knight has eliminated the enemy King; hence the title: checkmate! Also, I finally managed to use that ridiculous little armoury sword in a creation. While I do love that sword for its overstated magnificence and grandeur, it usually seems a little ridiculous but as a chess figure weapon, I found it looks marvellous!

Like I said, just a fun doodle to participate in a community event.

'They have a cave troll...'

2010-04-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

I love that line in the movie, obviously the fellowship of the ring was the best out of the three films although two towers was quite good but I just feel the first one was the most balanced. I'm not even going to mention the travesty that was the third one - gods that was trash. I wonder if the hobbit will be good? Of course it will: Guillermo Del Toro. Although, Hellboy 2...

Anway, my interpretation of the cave troll scene in FotR

People said that the hands were too simple (I posted it on Eurobricks, I should have known better...) and naturally I started to say: well, I only wanted them to grip things, the scale is small - you know, excuses excuses because truth be told; I was quite happy with the overall thing. This made me realise I'm perhaps not very good at taking criticism - oh well.

Boilerplate is back baby!

2010-03-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hell yeah!

Defeated, he wept for his fallen sons...

Nothing special here really, just a simple bridge dio (everyone loves a bridge diorama) to show off the variation of my fantasy horde along with a sprinkling of Brickforge and a dash of Little Armory.

Too much to scream so instead I just started to laugh

2010-03-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

I am resolved. As the dust clears and the tears dry after the carnage of yesterday or last week or whatever; I am resolute. When the Jolly Roger contest for which I submitted the Scarlot Harlot has run its course, I shall delete all of the current pictures of the ship on the internet, as in my opinion they did not reflect my best work. Then, I will strip the rigging and sails and take better photographs of the ship in itself which will hopefully do the creation better justice than the current, hastily taken, even more hastily edited ones. I will then upload these photo's and breathe a deep sigh of relief.

As you can probably tell, the JRC debacle bothered me intensely and as a result of this I have given quite a lot of thought as to what caused this lapse in form - as I see it:

Currently, I do not have much building time available as I have my AS level exams coming up and unlike last year with GCSEs, I am finding it difficult to ignore them as the workload increases and deadlines have to be met, et cetera et cetera. With last years exams I was able to get by with minimum effort - things have changed, if you fall behind, you get left behind. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, with little building time available in the last few months I have found myself only really building for contests. Don't get me wrong, contests are usually great fun - like Time Twisters, I pumped out a few little builds for that and it was good. Increasingly, however, I find myself mired in large builds, up against the clock and running out of enthusiasm which forces me to cut corners like I did with the Scarlet Harlot. This takes out all the freedom of LEGO for me and I fear it could eventually lead to a dark age.

I do not want to let that happen.

I feel that contests are like WIP pictures, you commit and then you're trapped; it's your creativity that suffers in the end. Consequently, I have decided not to build for contests for at least six months, or a year - until the next CCC basically. Not that I'll be building much anyway for the next few months as exams are creeping up behind me in preparation to kick my creativity in the crotch. But anyway - no more contests!

Shit, I think I may have peaked (earlier)

2010-03-15T14:23:00.001-07:00

the scarlet harlot: an experiment in shittyness

Hey look at that it's a (TURQUOISE WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING!)

fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I keep wanting to delete it from flickr but it's like, I mean, it was like; a lot of effort.

I dunno, are you dissapointed? I know I am.

Time Twisters: Part two!

2010-02-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, it's the revengawakenationing!

... Not really, I lied, it's actually just another medieval cart based creation.

See this; it's 8092 Luke's Landspeeder. It's a set that TLG (The Lego Group) has produced in three different versions over the years, this being the latest one. I don't own this set because it's ridiculously overpriced like most Star Wars sets these days but I did own the version from 4501 Mos Eisley Cantina back in the day. I was going to make a More Castley Cantina (OH MY GOD, SEE WHAT I DUN THAR AGAIN I AM ON FIRE WITH WORDS AND STUFFS YO) but anyway that didn't turn out so good so I just did the cart.

"These aren't the Dwarfs you're looking for."

Set authentic details ftw!

You know in 'A New Hope' when Uncle Owen says to Luke "That Wizard's just a crazy old man." in reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi... Well here, yeah, it's not really that hard to grasp my train of thought is it...

Time Twisters!

2010-02-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

Mere minutes, hours, days after the conclusion of the Colossal Castle Contest on Classic Castle another contest was announced on the very same website. The Time Twisters contest, however, is hosted by members of the site rather than the admins and is a breakaway from the conservatism of the CCC. So the idea of this contest was to take a set produced by TLG and twist it into the castle genre, giving rise to the term: castlification or to castlify. I thought this was a great idea as what set wouldn't be better in the castle genre? Because everyone knows that castle is the greatest genre of all time; rivalled only by space... Sometimes. So, my mind was buzzing with ideas and unusually for me, I actually managed to build a couple of things!

First off, a little seven quid town set: 8402 Sports Car

My version: 8402 Sports Cart

See what I dun thar?

Screw it, I'm gonna split these two creations into two posts, because I'm a freakin' post-whore baby!

O SHI-

2010-01-30T07:57:00.000-08:00

Anniversary post! I know, shocking isn't it that this thing that I created on a whim, a product of boredom on a Friday night, a steaming pile of inanity, ennui and occasionally LEGO, has survived a whole year. Admittedly I haven't posted all that frequently - probably averaging at around three posts a month. If I was a different kind of person I might say, 'Hey now, it's been going a year, lets step it up a little, lets make an effort to post more!' But I'm not that kind of person. And lets face it, it's meandering along nicely as it is. Gosh, I love apathy.

Might as well do an overview of the year?

My LEGO hobby has continued to develop healthily during the course of the year and I'm almost certain that as a builder, I have improved. Indeed, in June I achieved some prestige when one of my creations was blogged on notorious LEGO blog, the Brothers Brick. I admit it, at the time I was overjoyed - I had always wanted to build something worthy of such recognition. However, the blog soon fell out of fashion among the community, people started to criticise the increasingly low standard of blogged creations. Honestly, I could see their point. I half felt the other two creations of mine that were blogged (this and this) didn't really deserve it and when this was blogged I stopped reading. Because. But anyway, my favourite creation that I've ever built was this, it rawked. So much so I'm thinking of doing another bridge based battle diorama at some point.

In more recent news: Yesterday the results were out on the seventh Colossal Castle Contest; regular readers (who am I kidding?) will remember I entered a few categories and, glory of glories, I received an honourable mention in the Brick Castle category! That made me happy. There was hardly time to breath between the Classic Castle contest finishing and her sister site, Forbidden Cove devoted to Pirate LEGO, started up a contest of it's own: the Jolly Roger contest. My love of pirates and the booty up for grabs make this almost impossible to resist. I have some stuff in the works but the rules of the contest forbid WIP images (es ist verboten!) so you'll just have to wait and see.

Future talk?

Build more. Blog more, at least a bit. Make the next castle I build not square and boring, like my last two were. They were, I see it now. But I'm making progress. And progress is good.

Chateaux Delione

2009-12-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

This was built for Classic-Castle.com's Colossal Castle Contest for the category of Brick castle.This category really interested me as it provided the chance for colour variation in a castle. Often castles can be big, grey and boring. I have been guilty of this in the past and on this castle I resolved to try and liven up the colour scheme with the red sections. These are meant to simulate damage done to the castle from battles past repaired with clay fired bricks. This gives a contrast to the original grey stone of the castle and makes it more visually interesting.

Boring behind

Courtyard Shot

I said it would be a creation.

Lets wrap it up.

2009-12-13T03:43:00.000-08:00

Consider this a loose end tying up post. Just a couple of trivialities. First off, there was a thread in the LEGO pool on Flickr inviting people to post pictures of their 'LEGO area.' A sort of nerdy AFOL show and tell really and well, since I've recently achieved a fairly maintainable level of organisation in my little LEGO corner in my bedroom I thought, why the hell not? To an outsider of the LEGO community it might seem a little weird to share pictures of stuff like that, but I guess that's just another oddity of us FOL's - as if it couldn't get any odder, eh? Oh, I said 'maintainable level of organisation' didn't I? Well, appearances can be deceiving. And yes, those are hand written labels...

For the residents of United Kingdom only:

Picture the scene; Tuesday the 8th of December, just weeks before Christmas. The nation is watching their favourite London based soap opera and what should pop up but 5974 Galactic Enforcer!

See, I told you. Trivialities. But still. All's wrapped up now, the next post will be a creation. I promise.

*Yes, I watch Eastenders, don't judge me - Oh, you already did? Well then...

I've been busy, but I don't have anything to prove it.

2009-12-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Been busy lately, shit to do, you know? Work mostly. Don't get me wrong I love Shakespeare, French and the Russian Revolution (s) so that's good. But it does mean I haven't had as much time as I used to for building, or even looking at what other people have built through the intertubes; let alone blogging here. This is frustrating when there are so many great competitions going on and I've tried, I really have. But a few weeks ago I decided to quit a model I had invested quite a bit of time and a little money in so I guess what I'm saying is, here it is in shabby bedroom backed badly photographed glory:

It could have been something, couldn't it? But I underestimated it. I was in too deep. A number of reasons contributed to the discontinuation of this project. Actually it was two really. Money and motivation. I needed to spend more money to complete this project and I wasn't willing to do that. I also couldn't see where it was going, sure a model can look good and be basically about nothing. But for me a model has to have a spark, a focal point, a raison d'être or else they're nothing. For me, it's all about the concept and on this one it was distorted out of all original recognition. Still, holidays soon. And another project in the works. Bigger too - I just hope I can pull this one off.

Maybe I should stop listening to Mogwai and decrease my homicidal thoughts.

Or maybe I should download a discography.

CCCVII - Custom Crusader

2009-11-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

A captain of the holy Templar Guard.

My second entry for Classic-Castle.com's Colossal Castle Contest VII, this time for the custom minifig category. Admittedly customisation is not really my forté but hey, worth a shot eh? The painting is a little rough, especially on the shield but I'm calling that battle damage ;-)

*Torso sticker by Roaglaan

**Shield by Brickforge, painted by me

***Sword by Little Armoury, also painted by me

funtimes.

CCCVII - Becoming a True Knight

2009-11-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

A true Knight perseveres.

A true Knight fights with honour.

A true Knight leads his men with courage.

This series of vignettes was for the seventh annual Colossal Castle Contest on Classic-Castle.com in the Training a Knight category. The idea was to have the same knight-in-training throughout every vig, but aging (notice, different hair, and faces and accumulating more Knightly attire.) The first vignette is him performing menial tasks such as polishing tarnished armour in the King's armoury as a young boy. The second vignette is him as a teenage Squire competing in a tournament. The third was the vignette I had the most trouble realising, but in the end it was supposed to be him in defending Jerusalem in the Holy Land with his men, fighting as a true Knight would, for his God and the King.

:-)

T-59 Snubnose

2009-10-04T04:30:00.000-07:00

The rebuild, but posted late, I forgot - had a lot going on lately.

The Admiralty of the Psu Takai space navy realised early on in the war that their customary mass swarm fighter attacks were proving too costly against the enemy capital ships. In order to win the war, a new craft was commissioned. It was fast, powerful and heavily armoured. The pilots called it 'Snubnose.'

Tasting Cold Metal and the Lingering Scent of Gunpowder

2009-09-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ugh, it is friday night. A mere two days back at school have left me in a kind of apathetic coma. Decisions and shit, who knew? Naturally day one was completely pointless; spending most of the day wondering what patterns might form in mess of my brains, blown against the wall. Perpetual bliss. Build your own team you fuckers, I'm not a team person.

I work alone. Soo Low.

Day two, things can only get better? No? I have all my subjects in one day (Excluding General Studies, but that's not a real subject.) should be a good taste of what's to come. General overview?

Art, missed it due to assemblies - none that we had to attend (Fuck that or thank fuck)

RE, eh, meh, pleh... Dropping candidate methinks.

English, read both of the texts we are to study already, A Clockwork Orange and Brighton Rock incidentally. Fairly pedestrian if you ask me but hey.

History, cutting and sticking. Colouring in for homework. But I think it will improve.

But hey, things can only get better?

In other news, shit is kicking off in the LEGO online community. Sly link digs in blog posts and elitist forums. Some people ask why can't we get along? Why? These people are jumped upon and savaged like dogs. This is the internet. Drama must be had. I will watch and I will enjoy it.

I felt like I should post something that wasn't just a creation.

Dalebottom Keep: a 32x32 spacial challenge build.

2009-09-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

...And challenging it was indeed. So much more careful and thoughtful planning is needed when working at this scale and even more so since I am a freak for modularity, realisticness and playability; which is why I decided to build this castle with a fully modular, playable interior. But one of my hatreds of the castle genre is when people build castles with puny, one stud thick outer walls which is why I resolved to build my castle with outer walls at least four studs thick, to bring some realism into an otherwise unrealistically small castle anyway.

Brickshelf gallery (For lots more shots of the interior, details, features and whatnot)

This is actually the first full castle I've built, I was going for a Norman kind of style with plenty of curves and arches to act as architectural features to break up BGW (Big Gray Wall) syndrome without over-decorating and to retain the simplicity of Norman castles.

Also, a little haiku type thing, (I'm not sure what the definition of a haiku is and I wouldn't want to label this incorrectly.) which I wrote partially because I was feeling nostalgic and romantic about the beauty of some parts of England (Wild and wonderful places like the dales and the moors, living close to Dartmoor can do that to you) and partially because I didn't want to write (or indeed know what to write for) a description for flickr:

O'er the dales, the great Hawk sails
Down to the dell, like a bolt he fell
In furious pursuit of his prey.

Who goes there?

Thanks for looking.

... Spacethingy

2009-09-01T01:34:00.001-07:00

Wasn't really too sure about this, but got a lot of C&C on flickr and from CSF and have now decided to pursue a rebuild when I have time, rather than just dissassembling it as soon as it is uploaded which is my usual procedure (Nothing ever lasts long when I'm on a parts scrounge) ;-)

IMO more attractive (shows off the angles and transitions better) posterior view:

Thanks for looking.

The Sheriff...

2009-08-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

...He may be a maverick, but he gets the job done.

Sci-Fi western doodle.

The Battle of Burning Bridge

2009-07-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

"Travelling through the mountains had become more dangerous of late, but none of us realised the danger we were in until it was too late..."

I started this build with the bridge, then built up (or down really) each side of the canyon until they each were finished, then joined them together which was a total bitch and the most annoying part of the build but I guess that's the way you pay really for starting from the top ;-P Then I tiled the water out and constructed the waterfall. Finally I added vegetation and the actual battle scene, putting the flames and the final touches on the bridge. This build took almost all of my light bley.

Brickshelf Folder

Daniel Rutherford

2009-07-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Wanted in three sectors. Dead or Alive.

Charged with crimes against the peace and stability of the Galactic Federation of Nations including murder, forgery, impersonation of a galactic police officer, impersonation of a member of the galactic parliament, arson,armed robbery, grand theft auto, espionage, fraud, possession of unlicensed weapons, possession of illegal weapons, drug trading, smuggling, kidnapping and hostage holding, torture, treason, extortion and grand conspiracy against the GFN.

Sci-Fi Western minifig for a contest on flickr.

Custom Knight

2009-07-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Haven't really built much lately (Got a few things in the works though... Ho yhes...) but I did make a couple of 'figs, one was a custom knight using decals purchased from the wonderfully talented Roaglaan from his Bricklink Store and using a helmet and a shield from Brickforge that I painted myself and a sword from Brickarms. Truly a child of the growing art of minifig customisation along with the production of fantastic custom accessories!

Post-Apoc Shopping can be a bitch...

2009-07-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

God I built this aaaaaages ago but neglected to blog it until now for some reason. Anyway, picture this, rather than the happy go-lucky trolley dash with Grandaddy in 28 days later...

Gentlemen, this is the day you will always remember...

2009-06-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

Quick little vig built upon recieving my first Brickarms order.

Left to right, top to bottom: AK-47 x3, baseball bat, combat shotgun, magnum revolvers, random free gun, damien blade, rapier.

I have to say that the quality of these home-produced weapons really has surpassed all my expectations. They are magnificent.

Post-Apoc Lorry

2009-06-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

This was my first real try at something in this genre, both post-apoc and vehichles.

Reasonable, no?

Brickshelf - For more pictures.

The taking of the Township of Veygroth

2009-06-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

My final entry for the CC battles contest, I almost didn't get this finished, what with GCSE exams and all that, so I will freely admit that behind the wall was a rushed job, nothing worth any attention.

Backstory

Twelve days ago we received word from the mountains that villages were being raided by Orcs, increasing in numbers and confidence. The prince rode out with three-score men to put a stop to what we all thought was a small problem, easily dealt with. How wrong we were...

Two days ago the prince returned, on foot, with less than ten men out of the sixty he had departed with. Also with them were many peasant refugees. We soon found out why.

Gnashing at their heels was an Orc army almost a thousand strong, lead by Daemons blacker than the darkest night. They only just managed to shut the gates in time and still many were slaughtered within our gaze, just under the castle walls... I pray to the Gods we will survive, but I do not hold much hope...

Bwickshelf

What? No? NO?! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!

2009-05-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

"The rich legacy of tradition, legend, myth and very real wealth of landscape and man-made structures is one of our island’s richest treasures. The men and women of the British National Party are motivated by love and admiration of the outpouring of culture, art, literature and the pattern of living through the ages that has left its mark on our very landscape. We value the folkways and customs which have been passed down through countless generations. We enthuse with pride at the marvels of architecture and engineering that have been completed on these islands since the construction of the great megaliths 7,000 years ago."

From the British Nationalist Party mission statement.

Have you ever heard such Nazi bullshit?

I can easily see history reapeating itself, a financial crisis leading to unemployment, and radical political parties like the Bastard Nazi Pigs gaining support among the desperate and somehow uninformed populus but I will say this; if these bastards ever get into power in this country, I'm fucking off - seriously.

Out of the Frying Pan...

2009-05-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

Straight into the fire...

Just another quickie for the Battles contest.

Fight or Flight

2009-05-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

As he hauled himself up the rotting wood in the shaft of the long abandoned mine, the water below him rippled ominously. Our hero gripped his sword tightly and set his sights upon the tiny circle of light, hundreds of metres above. It was no good, he would never make it. Precariously balanced upon the wooden scaffold he shouldered his shield and prepared to meet whatever evil crawled from those darkened depths...

Built for the Classic Castle battles contest, the challenge for this category was to build a vignette smaller than 8x8 studs.

Z-56 'Megsuo' Heavy Assault Fighter

2009-04-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

The 'Megsuo' was introduced into the Haviddian Space Corps in order to defend Havidd colonies in the outer sectors from the growing numbers of privately owned, rogue capital ships. Its dense armour plating made from cadium composite technology stolen during the Insectoid Wars made it the perfect assault fighter; it is still in service today.

I have been wanting to build something in this, anime-esque style for months now but I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off; certainly not as well as the builder who inspired me: Hase0 - But I am happy with how this turned out, my fighter fix is filled for this month at least.

Brickshelf Gallery: More pictures.

"Send out your Warg Riders"

2009-04-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

In the Two Towers wargs are as big as a horse and extremely powerful. In Tolkiens books, he has Gandalf explain that the Warg is a mockery of the wolf. It also one of the twisted creatures Saruman admires most. Wargs have thick matted hair and a short main. Most of them have brown or black fur. But some of them have white fur. This is caused by living in total darkness for years since birth. The Goblins had started breeding them in Moria but Gandalf was smart enough to avoid their dens during their journey.

From TolkienWiki

This is my interpretation of a black Warg from the Lord of the Rings universe. A little small perhaps but I am happy with it.

Ccythra

2009-04-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

This was mostly just an experiment with articulation (the arms are fully articulated) but I found the legs too difficult to do well in such a small scale so I just used slopes; this feels like a bit of a cop-out to me so I may re-draft this at some point.

Crappy Photography: Bad light, worked all day so by the time this was built it was twilight. Apologies.

EDIT: Did better legs and took another photo with the new legs.

The King is dead!

2009-04-10T15:00:00.003-07:00

Kingship...
Originally uploaded by Kǻrrde

Long live the King!

:D

SHIP update 27-3-09

2009-04-10T15:00:00.001-07:00

SHIP update 27-3-09
Originally uploaded by Kǻrrde

Got rid of the previous prow as I found it did not flow well enough with the angles I had in mind for the rest of the ship, hopefully going to have an open deck on top of that which the cockpit opens onto, lots more cargo space and rows of guns later but I'm finding somewhat with this build that anything could happen...

Forgotten Soldier

2009-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Thirty six years to the day Since my comrades sailed away Now, lonely Here I forever stay...

This started out as an experiment in tiled water, as opposed to SNOT water (Studs Not On Top) and then graduated into something much more, as usual with my creations. Hahaha - Also, this made Explore front page on Flickr :-)

T-34 Swarm Fighter

2009-03-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

I built this small starfighter for a contest on Flickr and I was quite pleased with the results, what started as a tablescrap, went on to a microscale ship and then to a mecha gun, finally resulting in one wing of what I have named the 'T-34 Swarm Fighter'

The T-34 was an incredibly successful fighter during it's service in the Auroran Space Navy due to its immense practicality, the combination of heavy armour, powerful engines and advanced maneuverability capabilities made it far superior to all it's competitors, however, the tendency for the nuclear reactor to overload and fry the pilot made it impossible for the continued service of this fighter and it was succeeded by more expendable droid piloted fighters.

Brickshelf for more pictures.

I am building a SHIP

2009-03-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am currently embarking on one of my biggest LEGO projects ever, the building of a SHIP. For those who don't know; this stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts because to qualify as a SHIP (probably going to be saying that a lot in this post) the model has to be at least one hundred studs long or wide. I plan for my vessel (dodged it there) to be at least one-hundred studs long but apart from that i have no real plans as I am mostly a freestyle builder. Things just happen.

About the SHIP

It will be a pirate freighter, which I envision as having a really bulky utilitarian look to it, as you can see from the cargo hold in what I have built so far. However, being a 'pirate' freighter it will naturally be heavily modified...

More updates when I have time to build

Heroes is back on Monday!

2009-01-31T05:19:00.000-08:00

I've heard tell of February the second being the date that season four will begin on: "Fugitives" is the name of this fabled (well, not really) new series and i'm hoping for lots of cool new characters and another one of those unique Heroes plotlines that will blow my mind wide open like crossbow bolt hitting an overripe melon.

But lets recap on the events at the end of series three; just for those of you who were unfortunate enough to have missed all the awesome by some catastrophic accident involving a puddle of diesel and a spoon.

Nathan's gone crazy with power, basically he has become his father and everyone is at risk from him and he's a goddamn Senator too. Peter has his powers back, but which ones, so far we know flight but will he have to gather the rest using his wireless empathy ability. Mohinder is feeling better, no more skin peely mutant syndrome and he has managed to retain his powers; all this when a big-ass vat of the formula stuff that gives you powers and all that jazz got tipped over. Incidentally, that stuff wer highly flammable and when you have a homicidal fire-handed guy trashing the place... Well.

Sylar had been holding Noah and Claire and Mrs P. in the primatech building but he is dead now... Or is he? You never know with Heroes. He's not though, however, i believe that he is now focusing on finding his biological parents?... Je ne sais pas.

Anyway, trailer for ya'

I for one am looking forward to tuesday when I will be able to watch it (because i live in the UK and instead of

waiting for the BBC to air, prefer to watch it on tinternet) as this series looks like it could be one of the best yet,

perhaps now all the doubters will believe me when I say that this show is awesome. Now it's coming into fruition!

The Cure.

2009-01-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

The absence of noise was oppressive. Not even the wind whispered and outside the window the clouds hung listlessly in the sky. The air was hot and heavy with humidity. The room was large and conventionally shaped. It's sombre walls were partially lined with shelves and bookcases. These were garrisoned with hundreds of ancient volumes still keeping their silent vigil. Some had faded gold lettering adorning their spines while others were in an even worse state of disrepair. All of the books rested comfortably in their places, undisturbed for untold years so that the dust had accumulated upon them and around them. The parquet flooring was also coated with a thick blanket of dust; through the dust sheets of paper were visible, remnants of when the wind last blew through the windows or from when the room last knew the touch of human fingers.
Besides the books, the room was also filled with curios and scientific instruments of undetermined purpose. Intricate brass paraphernalia, curious crystal formations, the grinning skulls of animals, from reptiles to primates, which watched with empty eye sockets over the silent chamber.
The sun played over all these things. It was the only thing that touched the room from the outside; days and nights passed without consequence. Each day it rose and fell over the objects within the room, passing through the thick glass of the leaded windows which were veiny with cobwebs. Over the years its ambiguous light had countered the yellowing of the aging paper, so that it still appeared fresh and white as if new. However, in the shadows where the questing beams could not reach, the antique tomes betrayed this illusion. They sat in decadent decay upon the oak shelves, their pages yellowed with accumulated age and their once glorious leather covers now peeling and falling apart.
Everything about this room was falling apart.
It hadn't always been this way though. It seemed that the room had been standing still for time immemorial; but that was not the case. Long time… So long ago, that even the room itself could barely remember its origins. The oak desk that dominated the chamber had once been stacked with the accumulated knowledge of humankind. There it was! This curious place had once been the office of a great man, a scientist of great renown...
Papers suddenly flew up in the air and a man grasped his lank hair with frustration. He had a noble face yet at this moment his lips were set in frustration and his eyes gleamed with obsession. Seemingly,this had been only a brief period of distraction for after a few calming breaths he picked up the paper scattered around him and placed it back upon the stack, which threatened to topple under its own weight. Placing his spectacles back upon the bridge of his Roman nose he bent once again over the text. As his eyes roamed from one line to another he muttered distractedly to himself. The urgency in his studies was evident, next to the books lay plates of uneaten sandwiches and half-drunk cups of coffee. As he gathered his manuscripts together, a stray elbow knocked one of the vessels over. The frigid liquid leapt from its polystyrene prison, gushing and then creeping across the desk, soaking the ivory white paper. Even sitting down, bent over his studies, he was clearly a tall man. He was slender and gangly limbed so that when sitting down; his oversized arms and legs seemed to splay out randomly. His dark coloured fringe curved down over his brow so that at intervals he had to flick it out of his eyes; these were deep brown wells that would immerse anyone who looked into them. Right now they were intensely focused upon studies unknown.

Somehow the sands of time passed and the room entirely forgot its origins. The fingers of time crept over the room, inevitably incurring the decayed state it rests in now. One hundred years and little changed in the room for it is amazing how quickly time can pass when there is no-one there to notice its steady march. The room faded, steadily as did other relics of mankind's labour. At first innocuous little things: the peeling of paint and the crumbling of paper, then cracks started to appear. Outside the silent room seasons passed and nature began her steady revenge, it was as if only now was the beginning of the end, even though the end had come hundreds of years ago, thousands of moons, seasons innumerable; in this very room.
Slowly, his head drooped and his fingers began to release the scrunched up paper as the balled fist gradually relaxed. Sleep. Quiet. An eerie prophesy of things to come. The room drowned in silence, choking upon it until its sudden release. The harsh screech of the telephone cut through the groggy atmosphere and the sleeper awoke with a jolt. Panicking, he looked at the time. His watch had stopped which meant valuable time had been lost. He took a swig of coffee and grimaced: cold. The telephone ceased ringing and he looked up, maybe he should have answered it, could it have been important? A breakthrough, perhaps? Anyhow, they would call back if it was important.
The numbers and letters on the pages in front of him seemed to be out of his grasp: random calculations he was told made perfect sense. But there was a missing link and he had been assigned the task of figuring out how to fill it. So, with a resigned despondency he brushed his hair out of his bloodshot eyes and with a tired sigh began to stare at the lines of meaningless script once again. No. Nothing... Wait, a connection? Perhaps! He didn't know what to do; his heart leapt but his head asked him to check again, he couldn't possibly... Could he? A connection. The missing link.
Rhythmically massaging his temples; he studied the pages in front of him more intensely and there was once again a gleam of obsession in his eyes as he they feverishly roamed the paper. The atmosphere was tense and his ragged breath seemed to drown out all other noises. It was as if the whole world had come to this point and stopped dead. The clock was replaced by the sound of his madly beating heart as he confirmed once and for all his theory. Grabbing his papers together into a bundle he stood up with a jolt, his aching legs filled with ecstatic energy as he grabbed his overcoat from the stand and swung it over himself with vigour. As he did this, he dislodged one of the intricate glass vessels that were perched upon the intricately carved mahogany cabinet behind him. The glass smashed violently upon the floor but he did not even look back as he lurched madly out of the door, which slammed shut behind him.
The room fell eerily silent without his charismatic presence and the fragments of glass littered the floor like diamonds. They sparkled in the sun's glorious rays and silence reigned truly over the room for the first time.
Open the heavy door and step out into the corridor, its walls lined with oak panels festooned in shimmering cobwebs and step over the toppled hat stand that was knocked over in great haste; all those years ago. Tread lightly down the darkened hallways and let the sound of your footsteps be muffled by carpets of dust; run your fingers along the walls, feel the ancient wallpaper crumble beneath even the lightest of touches. Find your way out of the ancient hallways lest you drown in the decay of splendour. Push open the heavy oak door which rusty hinges creak for the first time in centuries. Emerge out into the glorious sunlight and ask yourself, why?

H.Russell

2009-01-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

Oh Fuck. I created a blog. Oh well, better write something.

So, un peu about the blogger, he likes to use snippets of his limited French vocabulary in speech because it makes him feel intelligent. Actually; i'm told i am intelligent. Grammar school lad and all that top jazz. So, i'm a TFOL, yeah. But lets not get into all that LEGO stuff quite yet, i'm sure there will be more posts about that later as i would quite like to post creations that gain my albeit fleeting respect.

But apart from the Hobby which i really only share with the online community, i'm a fairly average person. I'm sixteen years old and this blog is going to relieve some of my boredom, if none of yours.

Thanks.