happy birthday, blag

About five years ago we were just about to start our second year of college. That spring semester we had taken a humanities class that spanned from Ancient Greece to the Renaissance. The theme of the class was terrorism and the professor had us look at all the primary texts and interpret them through the lens of the state and terrorism. This class fundamentally changed how we think about the world and set us on a course to becoming more and more left-wing in our political beliefs. Also, Kevoh started this blag and asked us to write on it with him and some other AHOLs.

Unlike leftist party leaders, we (I) never had a plan for what this blag would be like in five years, what we (I), want to use it for, and how y'all will interact with it. Nor did it even occur to us that we might still be updating this blag five years later. The layout is more or less the same, we still write in first person plural, try to keep images about 500 pixels wide, and think that our opinions matter enough to share them with y'all. As we said a while ago, we're not really sure why we care anymore and if y'all care that we care (yes, college made us not only into a socialist, but also a nihilist), or even if we still like playing with our legos.

Most kids go away from home when they go to college, which often results in those who played with legos to to stop doing so, at least until later in life when they are lucky enough to land well paying jobs that enable them to get back into the hobby. We were one of the exceptions who stayed at home with their parents (and are still doing so because bachelors of arts in German and Linguistics are nearly useless except for when you need to correct someone who claims that all languages descend from Latin or for when you need to tell someone that Gesundheit actually just means "health"). This afforded us the luxury of still playing with our legos but, ironically, our interest in playing with legos has decreased dramatically over the past two to three years, despite having a pile of legos four feet from where we sleep every night. It may also be that our collection remains largely unsorted in large bins that make it nearly impossible to find parts and that we actively avoid researching prototypes and finding inspiration.

What do you do to find inspiration? How do you motivate yourself to build? To sort? Post a valued opinion below on what you do to play with legos. Post a valued opinion below so that I know that you care.

3 comments:

  1. balls to sorting; built with the neat bits you find while rummaging

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  2. Hi, I never posted anything here although I've been following your blag for a few years now.
    As for inspiration, it sometimes comes from video games or movies from which the idea of building "something that would look a bit like that" slowly grows into my tiny brain. Then I have to admit I have to somehow force myself to sit at my building table (or when I've seen every episodes of the series I'm following). But when I'm sat, I just have to browse through my (sorted) collection and then I'm gone for hours. One time I realised it was two in the morning and I had forgotten to cook something, you know, to survive.
    So sorting is important, I think. It makes you see the parts you own as a tool more than a toy (but still fun). My motivation to sort is simply the mental picture of my cleeeaan lego table, because it's a specially made glass desk I made with my father and I love it. Plus it's exciting to know that you can build more quickly (if you decide to start).
    Now I don't feel any more guilt about not building all the time, like some scary guys on flickr who post something every two days. I just know that I will always want to create something at some point, and still enjoy the process.

    I hope this will be considered a valued opinion.

    Paul, 25 years old french (music and movies) librarian.

    P.S: My humble work area : https://www.flickr.com/photos/polelie/14871791454/

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  3. (Wrote a whole essay in here and when I clicked publish BOOM GONE, dangit)

    Inspiration is something I've usually got plenty of, motivation is where I'm lacking, at least since 2011 (stuff happened, things went bad), having everything unsorted and/or stuck in builds doesn't help either, plus now I'm half a continent away from all of it. Usually I start a build when I either find a bunch of bricks that combine in a cool way when I'm sorting or just rummaging, or there's an event/bandwagon going on that I don't want to miss. The best part is when the MOC takes on a vague shape and you can kind of tell what the end result might be, even if you have to start from scratch halfway there because what you planned simply doesn't work, the hours usually start ticking away when focused on a build, but it's the best feeling in the world. And then when it's finally done... photography rears its ugly head, eugh (a huge motivation hurdle for me, especially with serial MOCs, which explains the lack of those on my stream).

    By the way, this blog is my favorite blog and the fresh twee-affect breath of cynical realism should forever waft across the community, I think it needs it. So don't let this place die, please. The style you've got going and the critical look on other things are treasures that should never be lost to the void (wow that got pretentious real fast). Anyway, love you guys, you're awesome.

    -M. G.

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