Just came back from Whistler. A jolly great trip for me, a disaster for LeStorigo. Predictably, the visitor count and visit length both plunged due to lack of update and promotion.
Jason came and took away his Lego that I borrowed for the winter. I asked him for 2 last hours for me to take the last pictures and say goodbye.
The worst news for LeStorigo: the start of term 2 tomorrow. I will frankly tell everyone that I study the most when a term starts, because everything is still fresh and new and exciting. Hence, I think my beloved Lego will be put to rest for some time until they seduce me again.
But! I think I will try to finish The Story with a Kick-Ass Ending soon, because someone (hopefully) might be looking forward to its completion.
Showing posts with label Side notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Side notes. Show all posts
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Monday, December 25, 2006
Ron & Poodle VS. A story with kick-ass ending
A question
So I've started this new story that I called "A Story with kick-ass ending" which may or may not have a kick-ass ending depending on how much faith you have in me as a story teller.
A major difference between the style that I am presenting this story is how little effort I put into editing the pictures compared to the extensive photoshopping in Ron & Poodle. The results: fast and sweet production of SKAE, and quality but painful progress of R&P.
So the question is: should I stay with the photoshops for R&P at all? Because after I tasted the sweetness in SKAE, it's somewhat dragging and bogging to go back to so much computer cranking.
Photo Resizing
The most computer cranking that I had to do during the production of the first 2 chapters of SKAE was resizing all the huge (1600x1200) pictures to an economic 640x480. I could have just been smarter and set my camera to that resolution, but no, I was in my Lego mode (ie. 10-year-old).
It was quite painful to resize every picture using photoshop, so after I finished chapter two, I googled for a better solution. And I found this!
So I've started this new story that I called "A Story with kick-ass ending" which may or may not have a kick-ass ending depending on how much faith you have in me as a story teller.
A major difference between the style that I am presenting this story is how little effort I put into editing the pictures compared to the extensive photoshopping in Ron & Poodle. The results: fast and sweet production of SKAE, and quality but painful progress of R&P.
So the question is: should I stay with the photoshops for R&P at all? Because after I tasted the sweetness in SKAE, it's somewhat dragging and bogging to go back to so much computer cranking.
Photo Resizing
The most computer cranking that I had to do during the production of the first 2 chapters of SKAE was resizing all the huge (1600x1200) pictures to an economic 640x480. I could have just been smarter and set my camera to that resolution, but no, I was in my Lego mode (ie. 10-year-old).
It was quite painful to resize every picture using photoshop, so after I finished chapter two, I googled for a better solution. And I found this!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Blogger layout
1224 Better part of the day
I was quite frustrated with the Layout and additional functionality of Blogger.
The Blogger help site provides users with tons of good hacks, like recent comments in sidebar, listing commenters of a post - stuff that can help make the blog so much better.
But no, can't get it to work unless I switch back to the "classic template", otherwise the code provided by the help site seems to work as well as garbage. And classic template is crap, because I need to do crazy CSS coding every time I want to do any tiny thing, like changing the order of or even removing some sidebar items. Gah!
Hopefully I can find some stuff that can actually work with the new templates...
I did add the "Search by Label" and "Dunno where to start?" widgets that will hopefully improve the reading flow of the website, and my precious readers will be less lost and actually come back in the future.
I was quite frustrated with the Layout and additional functionality of Blogger.
The Blogger help site provides users with tons of good hacks, like recent comments in sidebar, listing commenters of a post - stuff that can help make the blog so much better.
But no, can't get it to work unless I switch back to the "classic template", otherwise the code provided by the help site seems to work as well as garbage. And classic template is crap, because I need to do crazy CSS coding every time I want to do any tiny thing, like changing the order of or even removing some sidebar items. Gah!
Hopefully I can find some stuff that can actually work with the new templates...
I did add the "Search by Label" and "Dunno where to start?" widgets that will hopefully improve the reading flow of the website, and my precious readers will be less lost and actually come back in the future.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Yay!! A second author!!
1221 Night
Tina took pictures of her house, photoshopped them, and posted her first Lego post as a co-author of this blog! Now we just need some kind person to leave her a comment so that she will work on some more pictures.
Later that night
Tina built the interior of the house while I made some random stuff with the Lego. Till 1:30am. Now she's really looking forward to getting some audience attention. I think she finally understands why most bloggers like visitor traffic.
On a side note, here's an idea that I've been kicking around for awhile: a story rally on the website that gets implemented with Lego pictures. Meaning someone can start a few lines of a story, and someone else can take those few lines and continue it anyway they like. Meanwhile, I get to go crazy on the Lego's trying to play out the who-knows-where-this-is-going story.
You in?
Tina took pictures of her house, photoshopped them, and posted her first Lego post as a co-author of this blog! Now we just need some kind person to leave her a comment so that she will work on some more pictures.
Later that night
Tina built the interior of the house while I made some random stuff with the Lego. Till 1:30am. Now she's really looking forward to getting some audience attention. I think she finally understands why most bloggers like visitor traffic.
On a side note, here's an idea that I've been kicking around for awhile: a story rally on the website that gets implemented with Lego pictures. Meaning someone can start a few lines of a story, and someone else can take those few lines and continue it anyway they like. Meanwhile, I get to go crazy on the Lego's trying to play out the who-knows-where-this-is-going story.
You in?
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
A big pile!
1219 Met up with long-time-no-see friends Jason and Harvey
Tried to secure a tutoring job with Harvey's sister, since I just found out that I spent almost every penny earned in tutoring in the past month on Lego. In need to secure more funding sources. Thinking about starting a tutoring business that will make more bucks, whose profit will go into my other ventures. A tutoring business is a much more secure, traditional, and reliable source of income than say Lego dealing.
Talked to Jason, and it turned out that he had loads of Lego sitting around in the garage for many years. Too bad his mom is also a Lego lover who wouldn't give or even sell me their Lego. So I just borrowed a box full of Lego and promised to return after winter break.
Spent the remaining of the night playing massive Lego with mom, Tina, and Charlie. Pretty neat outcome after some 6 hours of Legoing. Perhaps we can use it in the next Lego story.
1220 Harvey and Jason joined the Lego party
Afternoon, Jason came and played with his childhood toys that we diligently categorized last night. "Why did you do that? I always play like this," he said, and dig randomly into the big pile.
With this much Lego, we were able to build some pretty cool-looking stuff. Jason liked my robot monster the best, and surprisingly, Charlie's flat aircraft the least. I thought Charlie's little bird was pretty darn cool.
Charlie took Jason's criticism and made his little bird even better.
And I started to have some ideas kicking around again...
Tried to secure a tutoring job with Harvey's sister, since I just found out that I spent almost every penny earned in tutoring in the past month on Lego. In need to secure more funding sources. Thinking about starting a tutoring business that will make more bucks, whose profit will go into my other ventures. A tutoring business is a much more secure, traditional, and reliable source of income than say Lego dealing.
Talked to Jason, and it turned out that he had loads of Lego sitting around in the garage for many years. Too bad his mom is also a Lego lover who wouldn't give or even sell me their Lego. So I just borrowed a box full of Lego and promised to return after winter break.
Spent the remaining of the night playing massive Lego with mom, Tina, and Charlie. Pretty neat outcome after some 6 hours of Legoing. Perhaps we can use it in the next Lego story.
1220 Harvey and Jason joined the Lego party
Afternoon, Jason came and played with his childhood toys that we diligently categorized last night. "Why did you do that? I always play like this," he said, and dig randomly into the big pile.
With this much Lego, we were able to build some pretty cool-looking stuff. Jason liked my robot monster the best, and surprisingly, Charlie's flat aircraft the least. I thought Charlie's little bird was pretty darn cool.
Charlie took Jason's criticism and made his little bird even better.
And I started to have some ideas kicking around again...
Sunday, December 17, 2006
eBay Lego market report
1217
Ladies and gentlemen, I. Spent. Again. But wait! Hear me out. This time I was seriously just doing my eBay Lego market research, and I stumbled across this amazing deal of 10 lb of Lego for $26US. Remember that I spent $9.99 on the first pound of lego.
Let's let the graph speak. If you would kindly examine the first figure, you will quickly see the expected positive correlation between Lego weight and total price. More Lego cost more money. Note that the seemingly ripped-off-ness of my first Lego purchase at $9.99 per pound follows the trend at the lighter-weight Lego packages, meaning I wasn't ripped off after all.
But please take a closer look at my most recent purchase at $26 for 10 pounds. Note how much lower it is compared to the neighboring dots. As my seller pointed out, I had a lucky win because the other 10lb shipment that he sold, was bidded at $56. Notice how this price fits the trend much more closely than my abnormally low $26.
Please take a look at the second figure. This graph shows the negative correlation between the unit price of Lego and the total weight. This is also expected, because as we buy larger packages, we usually get more discount. However, note that my abnormal $26 purchase is even lower than the 50lb purchase, which was sold at close to $180. This says that my more recent purchase was more economical than even the super size purchases.
Hence, my overspending after vowing not to overspend is justified.
Thank you for your attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, I. Spent. Again. But wait! Hear me out. This time I was seriously just doing my eBay Lego market research, and I stumbled across this amazing deal of 10 lb of Lego for $26US. Remember that I spent $9.99 on the first pound of lego.
Let's let the graph speak. If you would kindly examine the first figure, you will quickly see the expected positive correlation between Lego weight and total price. More Lego cost more money. Note that the seemingly ripped-off-ness of my first Lego purchase at $9.99 per pound follows the trend at the lighter-weight Lego packages, meaning I wasn't ripped off after all.
But please take a closer look at my most recent purchase at $26 for 10 pounds. Note how much lower it is compared to the neighboring dots. As my seller pointed out, I had a lucky win because the other 10lb shipment that he sold, was bidded at $56. Notice how this price fits the trend much more closely than my abnormally low $26.
Please take a look at the second figure. This graph shows the negative correlation between the unit price of Lego and the total weight. This is also expected, because as we buy larger packages, we usually get more discount. However, note that my abnormal $26 purchase is even lower than the 50lb purchase, which was sold at close to $180. This says that my more recent purchase was more economical than even the super size purchases.
Hence, my overspending after vowing not to overspend is justified.
Thank you for your attention.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Big day for LeStorigo
1216 Morning before o-chem final
I talked to Tina and David about announcing the existence of this Lego blog of mine, and Tina, the week-long exclusive audience, was quick in posting a message on (almost) every post on this blog.
The announcement was smooth, spanning my Facebook, MSN messenger, MySpace, and my Wretch.
Afternoon after o-chem final
Excitedly checked for new visitors. No new comments. Oh well, you guys are either all busy studying or busy partying. Nothing to feel so disappointed about.
Tried a thing called AutionSniper or something. This thing works as follows: At the last seconds of bidding, this tool automatically bids for me. Whoever was waiting to win the auction, assuming that my bid is higher than his, of course, will watch me win at the final seconds and not have time to outbid me again. So to try out this new toy, I set it to snipe an auction of 12 minifigs and an alligator at $15 US.
Same night
After a celebration dinner and movie, I checked and found out that the sniper worked. At the last 3 seconds of bidding, I outbid that whoever by 50 cents and won the auction at $13.50. Now I don't know whether to celebrate for winning or not, because that means I am overspending. AGAIN!
Still no new comments. Added a site counter thing that records the statistics of this blog. To measure my new-found publicity, you see.
I talked to Tina and David about announcing the existence of this Lego blog of mine, and Tina, the week-long exclusive audience, was quick in posting a message on (almost) every post on this blog.
The announcement was smooth, spanning my Facebook, MSN messenger, MySpace, and my Wretch.
Afternoon after o-chem final
Excitedly checked for new visitors. No new comments. Oh well, you guys are either all busy studying or busy partying. Nothing to feel so disappointed about.
Tried a thing called AutionSniper or something. This thing works as follows: At the last seconds of bidding, this tool automatically bids for me. Whoever was waiting to win the auction, assuming that my bid is higher than his, of course, will watch me win at the final seconds and not have time to outbid me again. So to try out this new toy, I set it to snipe an auction of 12 minifigs and an alligator at $15 US.
Same night
After a celebration dinner and movie, I checked and found out that the sniper worked. At the last 3 seconds of bidding, I outbid that whoever by 50 cents and won the auction at $13.50. Now I don't know whether to celebrate for winning or not, because that means I am overspending. AGAIN!
Still no new comments. Added a site counter thing that records the statistics of this blog. To measure my new-found publicity, you see.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Overspent
1214
So I officially overspent this week, buying that samurai collection along with a mummy, Hermione, peeves, that self-loving showy professor that turned up in HP2, and a bunch of orange/blue/green fires. These amounted to $30 CAD. So I overspent about $10 this week. (Deng deng deng!!)
I should really stop eBaying for a while, perhaps a week or something. But there are still a few good deals coming up in a couple of days. eBay is evil in that it allows users to "watch" items that they are interested in, and once they watched it, they can't ignore the temptation. Shivers. Perhaps I will just turn into a Lego hobbyist and do professional Lego dealing for life. That way I can spend money on random "pieces of plastic junk" according to Tina without feeling guilty.
The success of my Lego dealing business will depend on where I get my Lego from. Not from eBay of course. I need to find ways to buy cheap cheap Lego in large quantities. Garage sale is the obvious way to go. Perhaps there are some auctions of illegal Lego import too, like those ones with jewelry. Nah, I will probably have to stick to the garage sales of families with grown-up kids or cruel parents who want their kids to grow up.
So I officially overspent this week, buying that samurai collection along with a mummy, Hermione, peeves, that self-loving showy professor that turned up in HP2, and a bunch of orange/blue/green fires. These amounted to $30 CAD. So I overspent about $10 this week. (Deng deng deng!!)
I should really stop eBaying for a while, perhaps a week or something. But there are still a few good deals coming up in a couple of days. eBay is evil in that it allows users to "watch" items that they are interested in, and once they watched it, they can't ignore the temptation. Shivers. Perhaps I will just turn into a Lego hobbyist and do professional Lego dealing for life. That way I can spend money on random "pieces of plastic junk" according to Tina without feeling guilty.
The success of my Lego dealing business will depend on where I get my Lego from. Not from eBay of course. I need to find ways to buy cheap cheap Lego in large quantities. Garage sale is the obvious way to go. Perhaps there are some auctions of illegal Lego import too, like those ones with jewelry. Nah, I will probably have to stick to the garage sales of families with grown-up kids or cruel parents who want their kids to grow up.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Oh uh...
1212
I am getting more and more addicted to eBay. This is not necessarily a good thing. I keep seeing the cutest Lego stuff, like Dumbledore and spacemen and an oh-my-god collection of werewolf, Dracula, mummy, and ghost. I didn't win these bids, sigh.
1213
I think I've exceeded the $30/week limit this morning when I bid on 3 Japanese Lego figures. A samurai, a ninja, and a cool looking dude. Spent $10 on these, with $4 shipping. The catch is, the shipping cost of each additional item is only $0.50! How can I stop here?
So I told myself, calm down, it's ok. Just one or two more small items of less than $10, then you will not exceed your limit too much. And take a break next week and don't bid on any more things. Cuz really, I should visit garage sales and buy Lego by the boxes, not by the pound on eBay.
But there are still so many seemingly good deals out there! I keep telling myself, the price I buy these things at will be the price that I can sell these things at too. And perhaps with a little business tweaking, I can even sell them at a higher price. That's it, this is just an investment, not a crazy big-boy spending spree. Right? Ha ha ha, I had to laugh at myself.
I am getting more and more addicted to eBay. This is not necessarily a good thing. I keep seeing the cutest Lego stuff, like Dumbledore and spacemen and an oh-my-god collection of werewolf, Dracula, mummy, and ghost. I didn't win these bids, sigh.
1213
I think I've exceeded the $30/week limit this morning when I bid on 3 Japanese Lego figures. A samurai, a ninja, and a cool looking dude. Spent $10 on these, with $4 shipping. The catch is, the shipping cost of each additional item is only $0.50! How can I stop here?
So I told myself, calm down, it's ok. Just one or two more small items of less than $10, then you will not exceed your limit too much. And take a break next week and don't bid on any more things. Cuz really, I should visit garage sales and buy Lego by the boxes, not by the pound on eBay.
But there are still so many seemingly good deals out there! I keep telling myself, the price I buy these things at will be the price that I can sell these things at too. And perhaps with a little business tweaking, I can even sell them at a higher price. That's it, this is just an investment, not a crazy big-boy spending spree. Right? Ha ha ha, I had to laugh at myself.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Let the story begin
The morning after package arrived 1208
I took out the Lego and played with it. By the time I looked at the clock again, it was 3 hours later. I was shocked and guilty, so I went down for a late lunch. I came back and attempted unsuccessfully at studying for the 2 finals next week. I ended up using up the rest of the 1-pound package and built a few more characters.
Then it was time to start the story. I went home, found a sketch book, and the story of Ron and Poodle began...
1209
5 pages of Ron and Poodle evolved into 11 pages with help from Tina and input from Charlie.
1210
Rebuilt a few things, and now I'm happy with the cast. Their roles and intertwined stories are forming rapidly in my head... hm... I love this part.
I took out the Lego and played with it. By the time I looked at the clock again, it was 3 hours later. I was shocked and guilty, so I went down for a late lunch. I came back and attempted unsuccessfully at studying for the 2 finals next week. I ended up using up the rest of the 1-pound package and built a few more characters.
Then it was time to start the story. I went home, found a sketch book, and the story of Ron and Poodle began...
1209
5 pages of Ron and Poodle evolved into 11 pages with help from Tina and input from Charlie.
1210
Rebuilt a few things, and now I'm happy with the cast. Their roles and intertwined stories are forming rapidly in my head... hm... I love this part.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Something starting...
Mid-November, late, late night.
I was lying in bed, and an untraceable random sequence of thought led me to eBay looking up Lego sales.
The next day. 1124.
I got an eBay account.
That weekend. 1126.
I won the first Lego bid. A pound of Lego was making their way through the North American continent from a seller in the States.
Last night. 1207.
It arrived! A whole pound of it!
I dug in for over an hour, despite the fact that I was exhausted and it was midnight. And this blog was created before I slept.
Perhaps something is starting... we will have to wait and see.
I was lying in bed, and an untraceable random sequence of thought led me to eBay looking up Lego sales.
The next day. 1124.
I got an eBay account.
That weekend. 1126.
I won the first Lego bid. A pound of Lego was making their way through the North American continent from a seller in the States.
Last night. 1207.
It arrived! A whole pound of it!
I dug in for over an hour, despite the fact that I was exhausted and it was midnight. And this blog was created before I slept.
Perhaps something is starting... we will have to wait and see.
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