So who the heck is tall, green, and ugly?

Like the ever classic tune performed by The Who playing during the intro of that TV show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, “Who are you?” except in this case, who am I? After a rather ridiculous amount of posts and topics starting with my very first one titled “Stargate in LEGO?”, I realized me of all people has yet to actually introduce himself whatsoever and figured what better way than to blog about it now? Perhaps this will get me better acquainted with everyone here as well as helping you understand what goes through my oddball mind. Ahem….

A long time ago in the state of sunshine, I was born in a year when Medicare came into effect for Australia and John DeLorean was acquitted of all eight charges on possessing and distributing cocaine. Well, enough of the history lesson; let’s jump ahead about four years later. After playing with Duplo since the ripe old age of one and finally being considered mature enough, I was given my older sister’s collection of Lego and there was the start of my brick addiction, friends. Starting out with sets such as the original 6075 Castle, 6375 Exxon Station, 6373 Motorcycle Shop, and even a couple Fabuland characters, it took little time at all before I found myself hooked. Now I hardly built anything one could even consider to be a ‘real’ MOC in today’s traditional sense as it were but more like a bunch of bricks that just so happened to be lying around and got slapped together for the heck of it. The best I can recall of anything semi decent far as builds go was a small store built on a 32x32 baseplate featuring a billboard across the front reading “LEGO MART” with a very yellow color scheme from all those Castle bricks and an interior consisting of a couple checkouts and some odds & ends stuck on shelves, and then there was a storybook opening type tree/fort/home for my favorite minifigure at the time, Majisto the wizard, mainly comprised of parts included from 6048 Majisto’s Magical Workshop.

Surprisingly enough despite having so many City related sets, I always found myself drawn to all outer space and castle themes and still have a fondness for them. I must confess back in the day, City was my least favorite area. The builds seemed rather plain and uninspiring compared to most anything else honestly which was a completely different outlook from today seeing how I found my reason and passion for all things City some years ago and has since become one of my top themes. In my opinion, the current City builds bear a closer resemblance to anything from the real world way more than in years past and designs seem to keep improving all the time. Now if only they would release more housing units for pedestrians. Ah well, that is what Creator is for now, isn’t it?

To give a brief highlight of my collective habits and help speed things along to present day, I have purchased or in the past been given a number of sets under various themes over time. While I don’t quite have all of any single theme on average, I am pretty close to for many like Ice Planet, the first run of Adventurers, or more recently Ninjago. I certainly enjoy smooshing my way into finding a complete set of all Collectible Minifigures in a series which for me is a must; no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. I also try and purchase a good number of extras for potential custom ideas down the road and a little kitbashing for fun although I still am not a decent or serious MOCer by any means. If anything I am always learning all the interesting tips and unique tricks you would typically see on Flickr and other related websites. My skills lay elsewhere within the realm of drawing, writing, and computers which in a way goes with my profession.

I am a videogame tester who is working his way on learning to be a designer for himself. I will not speak of whom I work for as it really is not impressive anyway unfortunately and would rather keep that bit to myself. To help clarify on what I do basically, if you think all a videogame tester does is sit on his or her butt all day and just play videogames then let me give you a slight reality check. Yes, it does have a rather daily requisite to essentially ‘play’ a videogame but imagine ‘playing’ the same exact area and/or part a thousand times over and over again. Oh, and don’t forget to write down every little odd thing you come across no matter how insignificant it may seem because chances are it isn’t. Then add the part where a good majority of all the time you typically perform this debugging there is a whole bunch of numbers and variables sprawled across the screen which must also be kept track of. Now imagine this whole process going on for weeks or even months on end, and guess what? That was only level one. Still at the end of the day, it is my job as well as a hobby and passion so it isn’t all that bad. Perhaps tiring day in and day out but beats working at a job I would absolutely loath to no end.

You already know a good number of my musical preferences so there is no need to go back down that road, and with the newly started Flick Picks you should eventually get a feel as to what I enjoy watching in my spare time when I have some to spare to begin with. To form a quick summarization for anyone not willing to go through something like probably half a billion posts by now, I will simply say I enjoy music with nicely harmonic rhythms and mostly watch cartoons and comedy films with a couple horror and suspense movies on the side. To name but a few of my top bands, on the guys’ side are The Doors, Billy Joel, and Judas Priest, while for the girls it is Stevie Nicks, Garbage, and Evanescence. Some of my favorite films of all time are Spaceballs, Wizards, and Rear Window, cartoons would be The Real Ghostbusters, Ren & Stimpy, and Samurai Jack, and animes are Guyver, Ghost in the Shell, and Cromartie High School. To end my ‘quick favs’, some top video games would be Mega Man (any of them), Red Asphalt, and Doom.

Well, that was a rather long winded and overdue introduction, wouldn’t you agree? For everyone that actually managed to read my entire ‘great wall of text’, to Ed and Jeff for creating BrickPicker, and to my fellow moderators, I thank you. Every one of you has made me a better person than I was before and I honestly cannot think of a greater gift.

Thank you my friends,
TheOrcKing