At the beginning of my MOC obsession, I was constantly buying City sets. I was literally at the Lego Store at BGC twice a week, if not, less. Sometimes, I would go there to study the pictures on the boxes because there was no way I could afford to get all the sets I wanted. I started buying individual pieces here and there so I'd have to meet up with the sellers. I'd end up talking to them about their life with LEGO. They would share ideas and techniques on how to build. One seller though! He became my "GO TO" Guy when it came to Lego MOC. He taught me the best lesson on collecting pieces.
My biggest problem in starting these MOC buildings and stuff was not having enough pieces. I NEVER had enough pieces. At first, I'd try to build something but then I didn't have this piece or that piece, so I had to settle with waiting for months and months until I could build something substantial... AND TADAH! I had all these City sets. I started to dismantle all of them (except my modular buildings!) and I was overwhelmed with sorting the pieces. I went to Ace Hardware to buy those drawer organizers so I could segregate my pieces. I felt successful! Hahahaha! I've been practicing a lot in the past few days. Building and then taking them apart. Building and looking at how I could make it better with lesser pieces. Playing with hinges to make a slanted roof. Using little pieces to create knobs and levers. Looking at how other people built their details and getting techniques. So, here are 4 MOCs I've done so far! I made a mini Street Cantina for my Legomen Workers! I made a Mini Grocery for the City Peeps who need to rush home! I made an Coffee/Espresso Machine (because i looooove coffee haaha). I made a Canteen detail because I failed to feed my craving for the S&R pizza. Haha. The client explained to me how RAYO came from the phrase, "Rays of the Sun". Their target market are women, but they didn't want to see a feminine logo. They wanted to see an emblem with a very bold font. Amongst all the other logos that I came up with, they chose this one. The next stage was coming up with the Brand Identity. The client explained to me the color and feel they wanted to see so I searched for Stock Photos that would represent their idea. Thankfully, I was able to understand it. This is in progress, but the logo is finalized. I'm happy about it because again, the clients were so nice and easy to work with. They gave me all the information I needed which made the creative process fast and easy to comprehend. I love clients like these! They make work fun!
I don't know about you, but at the end of the day, how we treat people who hurt us means more than how we treat the ones we love. When it comes to the people we love, we will do anything because we feel grateful, but what about those who don't matter to you? Today, it's so easy to put down someone, especially online. The world wide web makes it so easy to be non-confrontational and it's so easy to bash and humiliate someone because you can gather troops in a second with just a click. It's also easy to put on a mask and live a life full of lies because online, it's easy to hide the truth, especially to the ones who don't know you. There are so many bits and pieces that come in and it ends up being some kind of back and forth war... it's all so complicated. You reach a point in your life wherein you can't welcome that anymore. It's so useless.
My heart changed a long time ago. People still hurt me... but I'm not going to go and humiliate them and gather troops on my side to hate and humiliate with me. I don't think it's about how people see me, it's about how the ones who love me see me AND how I see myself. What matters most is how I treat the ones who hurt me and the ones I don't know because I don't owe them anything. I learned this from my parents. They never taught me to hate on the ones who hurt me. They were around me and saw the pain and guilt I went through when I made mistakes. They were there to listen when I'd open up about my troubles, but never once did they tell me to get angry and act on hate. There were times I didn't listen of course, but now that I'm old enough to actually have kids and raise one myself, I get it. I super duper understand why they taught me to treat things with love in my mind and never hate. They told me to go get angry, but don't use that anger to hate. If I have a child who takes pride in hurting someone else for whatever reason, I know I'm not going to be proud. It only shows my child is a coward and needs some kind of evil energy to show their power and strength. How you treat someone shows who you actually are. It's those times you really can't hide your personality or characteristics. You can say you're strong or even brave... but when you treat someone with physical and verbal cruelty for whatever reason, you're not better than the one you're accusing of making a mistake. It's really as easy as that. There are no "buts" or "ifs" anymore... because that person made a choice to be cruel back. That's the thing... you don't have to be cruel back and that's what every respectable adult knows. Kids will be kids, but you hit a time in your life wherein you know it's all cowardly. When you take down your pride and take a breathe, you see how it's not right even if you're the victim of negativity. Someone can hurt you, even to points of wanting to die... but it's still your choice to be strong for yourself and strength is not about how you 'take down' a person... it's how you can sit yourself down and tell yourself there needs to be a positive change in your life. It's never my business on how much someone should suffer because who made me a god? Who ever said I have the power to make someone feel about themselves (even more than they already do?)? Who said I should use someone's insecurity as a weapon and make them even more insecure? It's never my business. It's not yours either. Do you really want to know who you are? Ask yourself what you would do if someone hurt you so much and if you'd actually push through with it. Popular Media teaches us cruelty, so are you going to allow media to tell you who you should be or are you making your own choices and siding with your humanity? Your reaction is worth more than a thousand words. It's worth more than this entry. When you purposely make someone else hate, you're not better. That's all it is. You can be the victim of bullying and hate, but once you spread it yourself, you're no better than the bullies and haters out there. Always (ALWAYS) treat others well. It doesn't matter who they are, where they are from, or what they've done. The real power in that is you don't know what people are actually going through and your act of kindness can makes a difference. Big or small. Life doesn't stop for anyone so don't hold yourself back from all the awesomeness that can happen just because you're spending your waking hours feeding the hate you feel. It catches up on you pretty quickly but it's even worse when it decides to come back at you years later. Life will always find a way to show you the truth about living and being alive. The first time I was able to sit and talk to the guy who runs this show, I was hooked. The man behind all of this was so passionate about his idea, philosophy, and goal and I could really tell he had a vision for this website. It was so easy to work with him on this. The direction for this website was to be more bold and modern, even if the branding of the company was more vintage. There's this style going around today wherein designers are combining vintage with a modern touch so that's what I was going for here. I didn't want their blog/news website to look like every other men's lifestyle blog. While researching, I noticed most of these websites were either black, blue, and white. Even the layouts were similar! I took a risk and chose this color and layout instead. I wanted the website to be user-friendly. Some blog websites have too many ads and links, it drives me crazy! There's no flow into the design! I had to work on not doing that. This website will be up and running soon enough! I'm pretty excited to see the final design online! http://thegroomsmen.sg/
This is one of the newer Lego Modular buildings that was released this year and WOWWWWOWOW! They really worked on the details for this one! Compared to the others that I've built, this one was really different! The way they designed the details for the windows, columns, bedroom, and attic were amazing! SO AMAZING!
I'm glad that I purchased this set because it showed me how you can take your building skills much further. The kitchen alone blew my mind! My favorite room is the artist's attic! It comes with the palette, paintbrush, and 2 canvas pieces because they're all so cute! Lego versions of the things I love! Hahaha. The details of the fireplace made me go "WOW... that's soooo cool!" Hahaha. I enjoyed building this set. I tried my best to take my time and really observe the building strategy. It's all so amazing how you can turn anything you see into Lego. I really saw the creativity that was used into making this set and it makes me so happy! PALACE CINEMA NEXT!!!! WOOT! I'm so excited already!!!! The client specifically wanted to see something with a vintage touch but very minimal. So, this is what I came up with. They didn't want something with so much detail and i understand why.
I've dove into this hobby and I'm on the deep end. I know I can go much deeper than this. hahaha. Okay, so this all started when I won a bet and ended up with a LEGO Architecture set (Villa Savoye). I built it in an hour or so... but I super enjoyed. A few days later, I went to the mall and saw a 10% off sign on top of the Lego section and bought two boxes. Next thing I know, I'm at the Lego Store buying a box of the Expert Creator Modular series. During this time, I was struggling with some life problems and I needed a fix. I needed to fill the emptiness I was feeling inside. So, I thought I was splurging on Lego because I needed a safe way to release all my frustrations and anger, but nope, it became something much more.
I've always been into Lego. I'm sure my parents spent so much of their money buying me Lego sets when I was a child, but today, it's a different story. My love for Lego and building things only grew. Now, I'm actually studying how to make these creations like an engineer... hahha. It's a little funny because I should have seen this coming. It's like opening a door into another world and you're so mesmerized with everything. I love it. I made the decision to build my very own Lego town. The biggest problem is finding the pieces to be able to build all these buildings and each building consists of 1,000+ pieces, depending on how detailed you want your design to be. This is not an easy task. It's also very expensive, but anything to feed the passion within, right? I'm understanding everything though. I understand how to look at something and know which pieces will make it look as realistic as possible (IN THE LEGO WORLD, OF COURSE!). I understand the geometry that comes in when you build walls, partitions, windows, etc. I get the dimensions of a 1x1 brick vs. a 1x1 plate/tile. It's actually not that hard to figure out, but really, the hardest part is finding all the spare pieces. If you're willing to drop your dough in one go, then look for a seller and just hoard all his or her pieces, but for the little people, we need to collect and hope that one day we can just sit and build. There are Lego Fans out there who already have studios with drawers and drawers of Lego, so they get to build as much as they want. For beginners like me, it takes time. It'll be months before I can build something. So, for now, I'll keep buying the modulars from LEGO until I'm able to build on my own. This is a great hobby. It tests your creativity and motor skills. Personally, I enjoy the 'zen' that it gives me. I need to set myself apart from work and personal problems because my anger issues come out faster when I'm in a negative space. Lego helps me stop myself from going there. It's like Yoga for me. I'm at peace with myself. If I have to think about my problems and figure out solutions, I can do it while building. I get to talk to myself in my head and at the same time, move my hands and mind towards a good goal. This is perfect and I can't wait to meet more builders who will give me awesome tips and tricks. I'm lost in Legoland and I don't want to get out! Ever! I hope other people will join this too! It's such a great stress reliever. So, get up and buy a Lego set! Build! Play! Use your imagination! |
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October 2022
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