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It's day one. We are going on very little, and it will change as the day goes on. In later days, of course, bringing things to the table earlier is much more important. As for your fingerpointing ("you refuse to help us begin being productive"), well, I'm the only one who's offered a suspect. Sorry, I guess. Oh, and I missed your apology for needless insults... Must have missed it... What? Just not to detract from the topic at hand, but when was I "insulting everyone's intelligence"? If you're going to make claims like that, I suppose I could start insulting your intelligence, to prevent you from being a liar, but I'd rather not have to do that I am fully baffled by some of the attitudes about me here today. I'm about as nice as I ever have been, and I'm told I'm insulting, obnoxious, a chicken, a dolt... Seriously, this is pretty uncalled for. The worst thing I've said today was calling someone a detective.

Well, since there are no movies, or games of life to be spoken of, you'll have to trust me that that is said with a sense of humor, a seasoning of flavor, on the content of the rest of my statements. But, I'm not posting every post in order to state I'm innocent... Except now that a bunch of you are seizing on the logic that I'm not proven innocent by stating as such Sorry, from now on, I promise to keep it in terms that you guys like and understand: cock, slut, balls. Now we're getting somewhere

What the heck's up your butt, Mr. Apu? You call me a dolt for listing the suspicious stuff I saw about Memhet... So when I explain that to you, you complain I'm not throwing out a list of other suspects... Yeah, it's because I'm chicken. Very plausible Basically, there's no value in throwing out any other names until voting opens... But I already said that, didn't I? I've already contributed by giving the one suspect I think has muddied up the day thread from the get-go, but you seem to feel a need to put me down all the same. If that's what you want to do, that's up to you And for the record, I'm not more town than the rest of you, I'm more town than the Cultists. I'm 100% town. That is the towniest a townie can be. Not 98% town, not 99.99% town, but pure, unadulterated town, 100%. If you do not think that is the towniest of town, well, I don't want to live in your town

I'm just playing with you guys, geez. No, somebody saying they're innocent 20 times doesn't make them innocent. But, it's just a little thing I like to do when I'm innocent, and have some fun with it.

Sure, no problem, right after you tell me your doctoral thesis on Egyptology, your social insurance number, and a cataloged list of all the sites you've discovered, professor

Just to clear up any misunderstandings you're trying to create: -When you said that I'm "the guy who keeps insulting other people's intelligence", you were referring to one statement; "Good detective work " -The comment to him was not based on him being suspicious of me, it was him finding it curious that I hadn't replied to his statement about voting when I'd already said enough of my opinion of it... But, you were free to ignore me explaining that, or him acknowledging his mistake after. You're just muddying things. Looks like we have a second detective here folks! Looks who's cracking out the insults What's the fight? I wrote the things he was doing that looked suspicious to me, since they aren't really going to change on day one. I can't possibly fathom how else I should have stated it. It wasn't a fight. Would you like me to sprinkle sugar on it next time? Everyone is fair game for votes, other than me, of course (since I am the most transparently town at this point, and am already working double-time for the sake of our beloved town). At the very least, when we do it, we should have some sort of justifiable reason for it, and not just a hunch. I'm sure some of the under-the-radar folks need a light shone on them though.

I think it's safe to say this guy has a good chance of getting my vote day one, for a few reasons: starting off with a bunch of spam posts; when he starts talking about things, he mainly obsofucates the rules for everyone, rather actually ask the host; making stuff up about me, since I haven't insulted anyone (yet), so I think that's a weak attempt to irritate me; and jus generally looking like he's out front enough to be town without being useful But there are others worth looking at. Not me of course, I'm utterly innocent, in case you haven't heard

Maybe because I was one of the ones who helped start all the talk about voting today, I've made a number of clear concrete statements on the position, and I don't need to repeat myself. But feel free to find that curious if you think that's detective work Great minds think alike

In Egypt? On an expedition?

No worries, I'll do it if nobody else gets around to it. I may just start with Stools, just for the heck of it

In no way can that be said to be showing my list. Have you seen my list? Are you looking through my pockets?

Sounds pretty clear to me. It'll end at the set time, unless we're unanimous. And we shouldn't be unanimous on day one unless this town is full of sheep Lot's of time to vote and play. (Patrick writes Attabar's name on his list )

Except this is day one, and all we have to go on is behavior. Why, do you know something I don't? Honestly, when voting opens, I'll throw out a vote and give some reasons, and they can be taken however you will. But for me to list the behavior I'm looking for right now is not to Town's advantage. (Patrick quickly scribbles Apu's name to his list of potential votees )

You vote someone out, see how people jump on it and react. AKA use your head. No, the top one, not that one! We can unvote as much as we like, so there is a lot of time to play things and see where they go. One thing is for sure; if a single townie votes, scum will vote. The highest vote gets it, not the majority, so the scum can somewhat confidently take out who they like. I don't see any need to list my vote candidates yet, since that would show what I'm looking for in day one targets, and allow them to adjust their behavior accordingly Were you listening to the hosts?

Ahum, er, good morn~ er, afternoon. William Fitzpatrick at your, er maybe that's Patrick Fitzwilliam, anyway, at your service. I'm glad to see I've led this expedition so compete~ er, adequat~ uh, I've managed to lead this expedition I think I will be most defiantly, er, definitely, voting today. Whether I hit a cultist or not, it is the best way to smoke out evil: by giving them a chance to give themselves away. Why, I heard in a movie once, er, in a game of, er, well, that's the way to smoke them out, and that's what's going to happen. For the record, I am as innocent as a lamb in a womb. My purity is unimpeachable. My blood, as harmless and sweet as a strawberry smoothie. By the time I die, my every word will have been proven true. So don't waste your votes on me I'm surprised at you, Sheila, a woman such as yourself with such a wide range of experience, becoming all conservative all of a sudden. Hmmm. Who the heck is this samurai-alien that keeps talking from time to time? What is this, Halloween? Do we have Halloween with all the costumes in 1936?

That's pretty close to it. Marvel licensed movies, toys and TV separately. Spider-man is the most confusing one. Sony has the rights to the movies, as long as they keep making them (maybe there's a five-year window they need to fill, something like that). They gave up the TV rights, and the next Spider-man show should be made by Marvel, last I heard. I don't know how the Mega-Bloks deal works, but it's obviously still operating using the movie characters (whereas the TV shows are independent). The craziest thing is that Fox has the rights to 'mutants' in movies, meaning Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch can't appear with "Marvel" properties outside the comics. Hopefully in the future, it all gets consolidated within the next few years

I really don't know. The main MOCs were advertised as being done by きたブリ, which would be translated roughly as "north brick." There were about six profiles of builders. But the city, I don't know. They couldn't have made that without the support of the company, could they? I'll look into it somewhat, if only because I'm interested in keeping up with the Japanese scene, but it's really a hassle for me to read Japanese. I can do it in general, but it's a little slow <edit> No, North Brick was the exhibition name, not a group. More investigations to come http://ameblo.jp/bricklabo/entry-11129233916.html

There was a LEGO aquarium which had a lot of amazingly designed fish. It was easy to just glance over them at first, but on a closer look, there was an amazing amount of detail and design to them. An oji-san (old man) I love the detail of the toe popping out of the sock Li'l def in the Duplo pit The "White City". The centre-piece of the show. The middle 'city' was pro-LEGO builders work, with two white trains circling around. The part coming out are an interactive part of the show. Kids (and families) can make buildings on a set baseplate, and they get added to the city. They started it last month at a shopping mall here as pre-promotion, and are continuing it here. I imagine that when the show ends next weekend, it will have become massive. This is a really unique thing I've never seen before, limiting the build to white. Sapporo is most famous for its snow festival in February, which has remarkable world class snow sculptures the size of small houses, so this seems an appropriate event to be held here. Really classy, and just typing this makes me wonder if I'll go back next week to see how it turns out. There were lots of the big builds. I don't find these all that exciting myself, and didn't take many pics. I like mini-fig scale. They also had Darth Vadar, R2-D2, and the Cars characters who I don't know. So, that's it! A fun time

Pics from the event: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64457&view=getnewpost&hl=&fromsearch=1 I enjoyed it. Whether it's worth a flight depends on how much you like the MOCs. There was a lot for sale, and I wouldn't be surprised if the selection is different by next weekend. Not a pile of sales, but some good deals were there. A few Harry Potter sets, lots of Toy Story, some Kingdoms, and 2010 Star Wars sets were about 10-20% less than Amazon. All sales were through Click Brick (the Japanese LEGO store). They also have a 600 yen lottery, where at worst you get a prize that cost at least that much (I got a Sensei Wu minifig that I'd been wanting) and at best, a 10,000 yen plus set. We played a few rounds, and I got a 2,000 yen Cars set for my daughter. It's not an exceptional deal, but it was a nice afternoon

The oh-so-innocent Patrick Fitzwilliam is here. I am remarkably innocent, hoping that I will not end up being the lover William Fitzpatrick upon one of our deaths I am ready to get rough and tumble with any cultists hoping to sacrifice me to some obscure desert god. Nope, none of that for me

So, I went to my first LEGO event in 20 years today, and it was fun! It was interesting to see the work of native builders, and just to look around at people enjoying LEGO. Here are some highlights from the eastern hemisphere The entry of it was a mini-LEGO museum, lots of historical objects having to do with the company, and some MOCs showing the factory. I imagine these are somewhat standard at a lot of official events. Bad English is rare with an international company like LEGO, but they ducked this poster up. So this is the AFOL community here, one I've never had contact with, but I should Some great works, that will be the bulk of this post. Sapporo Tower? I don't know the name exactly, but this is the main landmark in the city of Sapporo, a tower located down a wide boulevard in the downtown. Hakodate is a city south of Sapporo which is famous for its night view, so this is a micro MOC of that. The old prefecture office, another landmark. (Sapporo was mainly settled in the 1800's, so it's a lot more 'Western' looking than other Japanese cities) MOCs of the local services. Snow removal machines Kuroneko, the ubiquitous Japanese delivery service Amazing detailing on this postal truck Great techniques on these buses too Sports mascots Another local landmark, but I don't know it A train station More independent designs A department store An apartment? Practically the next modular building A ferry Another two dozen pics to come of the 'aquarium' and the White City, but only 50 pics per post

The average pay per month is about $6,296?! Holy crap! That's a healthy country!

Well, I think I'll be going tomorrow, but we haven't decided yet. But, if you come next week, I can meet you at some point and show you some hospitality

I share a lot of your sentiments, but I already voiced my opinion more than enough in this thread to keep it up I did want to say though, my hope is that this series is successful and it allows TLG to diversify things later on. One of the things I didn't care for about this was how conservative the sets are. The notion that it took TLG years and millions of dollars of research in order to raid the girls' aisles at Toys R Us is kind of sad But it is a first line in the series, and hopefully it is successful and this will lead them to expand and create sets that are appealing to girls without being "For Girls". Right now, the City/Town line is pretty action job oriented (Fire, Police, Astronauts, etc) and the City would be well served to have more down to earth sets. If they can build a bridge between the Friends line and the rest of their lines, there will be a blurrier line between the boy sets and girl sets. It would be great if there were other lines compatible with Friends without being Friends, the way the mini-figs from all other series are compatible. Right now the company has a very small selection with which to represent its "girl campaign" It will be a year or so though before we get to see what kind of effect, influence or long term prospects this new style has.

I had no idea he had a first He's such an incredible guy. I've loved him for years, and since I really took note of him (around his appearance in V), I've noted a lot of his previous appearances (like in Blackadder and Fry & Laurie) and later appearances (like in hosting the super great QI or the BBC docs on America or on language). My first taste of his biography was his special one-hour audience free appearance on Craig Ferguson. While I'm sure his life is somewhat more interesting than average, I know that with the quickness of his wit on a moments notice, his written work would be compelling. He's so great I haven't picked up that collection. The only short story collection of his is The Golden Child, if I remember correctly. But I was surprised when moving last year that I had more books (here) of his than anyone else. I still think his prose is chunky, but his concepts are divine. I'm at the halfway point of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, by Vladmir Nabokov. Nabokov was most likely the most gifted writer of the 20th century, and writes prose in the way a LEGO-fan should enjoy; he breaks language into parts and reassembles it in whatever way he sees fit to light a spark in you. This book, published around 1940, hits a fine mid-career point for him, before his definitive book, Lolita. In his early career, he wallowed in pulp somewhat (Laughter in the Dark), and late in his career his books became academic, (Pale Fire), but Knight just hits a sweet spot, throttling the English language without dwelling on it. Nabokov is recommended for anyone who thinks they like literature, and of his books I've read, Knight seems to be an easy entry point. No elves, time travel, or other stuff though. Be warned.