Tagged - 6 years jubilee

Hey guys,

 

as you may have guessed already, yesterday 6 years ago I posted the very first picture on my photo stream. (I know I am a day late. Somehow I have missed it. :O )

As every year, I’d like to thank all of you for your continuous support. Since it has been a while since my last tag picture, three years, to be correct, I thought, I’d give you a little update on that.

 

So here we go. Another 100 facts about me, including some updated older ones.

 

 

About me in general

 

1. I am now 20 years old.

2. I’ve been posting photos on Flickr for 6 years now, which is more than 25% of my lifetime so far.

3. I started studying media design one and a half years ago.

4. For my studies I have been creating a lot of interesting projects, including advertisement campaigns, event planning, creating a website and an animated short film.

5. Sadly, the clip was never published, though the company we did it for said so and even paid for it (though that took some words of persuasion).

6. While I have postponed the idea of becoming a director for now, I am still interested in writing my own stories and who knows, maybe I’ll get back to it later.

7. I switched from Windows to Mac a while ago, because of university and I have to say I can work much better with a Mac than with a PC.

8. Along with my hardware my software saw great improvements and I now have the professional and full version of photoshop, which does make editing photos much easier.

9. While I used to take photos with three cameras, now it has come down to only one, the Pentax K-5.

10. Most of the time I use macro lenses like a 35mm or 100mm lens.

11. For those who wonder, the camera I build for the photo is not my Pentax, but my secondary camera, a Fuji X100, which I don’t use for photographing Lego, but which certainly looks great.

12. I have developed a certain fondness of using a low aperture when taking photos, it seems.

13. I have committed myself to a healthier lifestyle for a while now. For example I stopped drinking sugar filled soft drinks and try to eat less meat. Also I plan on taking up some sort of sport as a hobby.

14. I met a lot of nice people at university and have made a whole bunch of new real life and online friends over the time, which is nice.

 

My hobbies

 

15. One reason there have not been to many builds last year is, that I have taken up a lot of new hobbies, at least it feels that way.

16. I still play the guitar, though, I don’t get around to it to often anymore.

17. I actually have been starting to learn how to play the piano a bit.

18. I even composed some little songs, though, I have not yet shared any of them.

19. Also, I have put much effort into drawing recently. I am still far from where I want to be with my art, but I have certainly improved a lot.

20. If you want to have a look at my drawings, head over to my DeviantArt gallery.

21. Also, for more art related stuff and crazy fandom discussions, you can also follow me on Tumblr.

22. Drawing takes up a lot of time, but still is more flexible than building, so it is perfect for short periods of free time during the semester.

23. If you are interested in learning how to draw, I highly recommend watching some of Sycra’s videos on YouTube. I learned a lot from him and he even goes over some motivational issues one might have when starting out.

24. I have also gotten a graphic tablet for digital drawing, which is a lot of fun.

25. When drawing digitally, I work in Photoshop.

26. I have developed a certain interest in art books and am somewhat building up a little collection of them.

27. While the most prominent theme in building remains Star Wars, my drawings are mostly Korra fan art pieces. I think the range of themes for drawing might soon expand, though.

28. I am thinking about starting a webcomic at some point in the future.

29. For those who are interested in webcomics, I can highly recommend The Silver Eye and Romantically Apocalyptic.

30. While writing an assignment on design theory, which dealt with comics, I used the latter as an example.

31. As you can see, I have been getting very much into art as a hobby. But don’t worry, I won’t neglect Lego in the future.

 

Series and movies

 

32. Since movies and series are a big part of my hobbies, I will make this a separate category.

33. My interest has slowly shifted from live action to animated movies and series in the last few years.

34. One of the main reasons for that was re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my good friend Mr. Grievous. I was amazed by the series and it soon led me to watching The Legend of Korra, too.

35. The latter has become my favorite TV series.

36. After reading some stuff about the production of Korra, I turned to watching all series by Shini’chiro Watanabe, who heavily influenced the team behind ATLA and LoK. While the three series he made so far do not have much in common, they all are true masterpieces. If you are curious, he is responsible for Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Terror in Resonance.

37. Be warned though, that the latter will emotionally crush you at the end. :D

38. This is one thing that I think animation is especially capable of. Breaking down emotions to the core and displaying them in the most relatable and simplest way possible is an asset of animation, that live action movies are bound to miss, since they always rely on actors or actresses and their abilities.

39. Besides animated series I have been watching more and more animated movies recently.

40. While I am still working on watching all 22 Studio Ghibli movies, I have seen all movies by Makoto Shinkai by now, who became my favorite director over time.

41. Shinkai’s best work in my opinion is „5 cm per Second“, which is only about 60 min long, but has become my favorite movie.

42. For those of you not familiar with Shinkai, he mostly creates reality based stories with breathtaking visuals, which let you question whether it is still an animated movie or a live action film sometimes.

43. I could now go on and tell you to watch about 40 animated movies, which I think are awesome, but I guess I’ll save that for another time. If you are interested, don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments about it, though.

44. Most recently I watched the online series RWBY by Rooster Teeth. While I knew the soundtrack was awesome, I never expected the series itself to be that good. It takes a while to get used to the style of animation, but once you are accustomed to it, it is really engrossing.

45. It also is still in production, which makes being a part of the fandom a lot of fun.

46. While I am mostly into animated movies right now, let’s not forget about my ever extending collection of live action films. Some recent movies I can recommend are „If I stay“, „John Wick“, „Ex_Machina“ and especially the new Star Wars episode.

47. While I was a bit worried at first, Episode 7 of Star Wars turned out to be amazing, with only a few minor flaws. One of those would be the character Supreme Leader Snoke, who really weakened Kylo Ren’s position as the main villain and also is called jellyfish lord by Mr. Grievous and me now. I mean, come on, his CGI head looked like a jellyfish, didn’t it?

48. Now I am curious about Rouge One later this year and of course most hyped for Episode 8 in 2017.

 

Music

 

49. Coming from movies, I think it is a good point to put music next. I certainly have discovered a lot of great music in the last few years, of which some might be worth mentioning.

50. First, let me say that, even if you don’t watch RWBY, you should definitely listen to the amazing soundtrack by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams. It is a good mix between different genres and astonishingly well made.

51. If you are familiar with the series, you should listen closely to the lyrics and count how many references to the events of season 3 you can spot. There has been a lot of foreshadowing, in my opinion at least.

52. You should also listen to the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop, which is a kind of modern Jazz.

53. Overall my collection of soundtracks surely has grown over time. Sometimes I seem to prefer instrumental music over something with lyrics.

54. As for other music, I have of course continued listening to my favorite artists MGMT and Florence + The Machine, as well as Kanye West and others.

55. One mentionable discovery of mine would be the British rapper Scroobius Pip. His lyrics are just amazingly poetic and always on point. For everyone interested in rap or just in good lyrics, his stuff is a must have. After all, he might even have become my new favorite solo artist.

56. While I have discovered much new music, my favorite song of all time still remains „Time to Pretend“ by MGMT. I hope I can write this down again after the next three years. :D

 

Gaming

 

57. Next up on the hobbies list is gaming, a hobby which importance has certainly decreased over the years.

58. Not too long after my last tag picture, my PC started slowing down, making gaming almost impossible.

59. When I switched to Mac, it was clear that I’d also had to switch to a console for gaming. So I got a PS4 after a while.

60. I do not have many games for it yet, but I am cool with that for now.

61. My favorite game for it so far is the Legend of Korra game, which I know by heart by now, closely followed by the new Star Wars Battlefront, which is just amazing.

62. Another nice little game I may recommend is „Child of Light“. It is mostly hand drawn and also has a great soundtrack.

63. I miss my PC sometimes, especially since I never got around to finishing Knights of the old Republic. Also, I’d like to play some games like Mass Effect, Remember Me or the older Assassin’s Creed games again some day.

64. One game I am curious about is Life Is Strange. Also, I can’t wait for Horizon: Zero Dawn.

 

Literature

 

65. I have mostly given up reading Star Wars novels, especially after the new canon was proclaimed.

66. I still enjoy reading some of the older Star Wars novels, though I don’t do that too often.

67. In general my interest in books has shifted more towards works about drawing and animation, especially art books, which explain the production process of animated movies and series.

68. Also, I have started reading the books on Hayao Miyazaki’s Work (Starting Point and Turning Point), which are really interesting and motivating.

69. After all I don’t get around to reading too often anymore, since I do so much other stuff.

 

Lego

 

70. Whoohoo! Lego! Who thought I would bring that up? :D

71. While Star Wars remains one of my most built themes, I have been getting increasingly involved in other themes, especially The Legend of Korra.

72. Somehow my motivation seems very high when building something Korra related, which leads to me having built some of my best models for it, I think.

73. All in all, I can see that my building skill has improved over time, but I know there is still a lot to learn.

74. I still enjoy writing long descriptions for my builds, though recently they have become shorter and shorter somehow.

75. I still have some issues with building cockpits. I guess that will only change with very much practice, which I am not very eager to invest yet.

76. While building, I still have the goal of achieving zero visible studs, which I have become quite good at, I think.

77. I have become rather liberal when it comes to actually connecting certain parts to the main build. Some pieces tend to just loosely lay on top where they are needed, if no connection is possible.

78. Just as in 2012, I displayed some of my builds, including the Erinye, at the Lego Fanwelt in Cologne in 2014 and I plan on being there again this year, with my Korra builds and hopefully another SHIPtember entry.

79. I have lost interest in most sets produced and usually only stop by at the store to get some PaB cups by now. Sets, especially Star Wars sets, are just to expensive and to heavily focused on the figures these days.

80. The last set I bought was the UCS Slave 1, a set I have been waiting for all my life. And it does not disappoint.

81. My Lego collection is coming close to exceeding the storage capacity of my room, so there is not much of a chance for getting more sets anyway.

82. While I have a habit of planing very big builds, I have been resorting to rather small scenes and vignettes recently, due to time limitations.

83. I often have the problem of having time at my hands, but not being inspired to build something.

84. Then again, during the semester, when even taking out a box of bricks would take too much time, I have a hundred good ideas a day, of which almost none can be realized.

85. Also, interestingly, I am more often thinking of funny scenes these days, while I used to stick to dramatic or action packed scenes in the past.

86. I have officially given up on trying to keep up a constant stream of uploads, after last year. I’ll just build as much as I can and upload it when I can.

87. I have quite a lot of fun taking close up photos of minifigures, so you might see some of those, when there is no build for a while.

 

The Future

 

88. So, just as last time, I’ll give you a little overview of things I have planned for the future.

89. As for my personal life, I am really happy with the field of study and work I have chosen and I hope everything will go on just as smoothly as it did so far.

90. When I am done with my bachelor thesis, I might even continue studying and obtain a master some time.

91. As for my hobbies, I certainly want to get much better at drawing and, as mentioned, even start a webcomic at some point.

92. If that works well, I may even try my hands at animation some day, though, that will be a lot of work, as I experienced in my university project.

93. I still want to make more music and compose some songs. I should definitely get my hands on a good keyboard and sample program (like Logic or Cubase).

94. I am continuously working on my own story ideas, whether it be for Lego, a comic, a movie or a novel. One day, I’d like to finish and publish one of those stories, in what ever form suits it best.

95. Considering Lego, I still plan on continuing my story Uncertain Ways, though I have no idea, when I will do so.

96. Also, I want to test out even more different themes and maybe come up with some original ideas every once in a while.

97. Furthermore, the kind of funny scenes I started posting recently are really worth building upon. So, there will probably be more stuff like that in the future.

98. I swore to myself to stop promising things I can not live up to, so consider all these things to be vague ideas or sketchy plans.

99. I do not plan on doing another tag picture in the next three years. This one was hard enough with all these facts, without using any of the old ones.

100. I never thought these 100 facts could be more text than last time, but it seems they have become about twice as much.

 

 

All that’s left to say now is: Thank you my friends!

 

Without you I could never have kept this up for a whole 6 years.

 

As always, a very special thank you goes to my good friends n7mereel and Mr. Grievous.

 

If you are curious about the camera I built, a closer look will be uploaded soon.

 

So, here’s to another six or more awesome years.

 

Cheers,

 

Ordo

Done