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In lugnet.mediawatch, Steve Hassenplug wrote:
> At 04:05 PM 12/13/06, Aaron Sneary wrote:
> > A TV show that is seeking to mock and poke fun
> > at our group is a detriment to our hobby/sub-culture.
>
> There will always be people that just live to mock and poke fun at
> others. That's their hobby. It's what they do.
>
> On the other had, you can't believe how much fun I've had in the last
> year, sharing my hobby with people all around the world, talking
> about LEGO, Mindstorms, robots and all the stuff I enjoy.
>
>
> Now, I need to practice being judgmental and extreme...
>
> <Extreme judgment>
>
> I'm shocked that you stupid people don't have the vision to see an
> opportunity when it's handed to you. There are millions of people
> who would die for this kind of chance, and you morons are too scared
> of what mocking idiots will think about your precious hobby...
>
> </Extreme judgment>
>
> Well, that's about the best I can do. :) Please note that was
> intended to be sarcastic. I'm just trying to practice in case they
> do put me on the show. I do understand how the show may try to take
> things out of context (like the above statement), but I hope I can do
> a good job of presenting myself and our hobby. And, maybe I'll even
> end up a better person, when it's all done.
>
> Steve
There are plenty of people who think we are nut cases already, a Wife Swap
episode mocking AF'sOL won't make things any worse. :D
The thing I think is most worrisome is that on some of those episodes the new
wife comes in and clears out objects she doesn't like. In one recent episode
the Evangelical new wife broke to shards a large platter with Wiccan symbols the
absent wife had on display. What if the new wife comes in and donates or tosses
all the LEGO? For a lot of people here the $20,000 compensation wouldn't begin
to cover the value of their LEGO collection. If you are selected, maybe you
should entrust your most valued parts / sets / creations to a friend or relative
for the duration.
Maggie C.
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At 04:05 PM 12/13/06, Aaron Sneary wrote:
> No offense to anyone that has decided to participate, but I find this highly
> offensive on two counts.
>
> ONE - I am a happily married man that believes there is a special bond that
> marriage embodies. A TV show that exploits that is a detriment to a positive,
> family-oriented society.
There are, of course, different ways of looking at this.
It seems to me that at the end of each show, all four spouses end up
talking about how much they appreciate the person they're married
to. Usually even more than when the show started. And, generally it
appears both families end up making changes that will make them
better people, and make their families stronger.
> TWO - I am a proud adult LEGO enthusist that believes our hobby is a positive,
> family-oriented hobby that may come to be respected at least as much as Model
> Railroading one day. A TV show that is seeking to mock and poke fun
> at our group
> is a detriment to our hobby/sub-culture.
This week, they had a family where the 5 yr old daughter participated
in beauty pageants. Maybe I missed something, but they didn't appear
to mock that. I can't possibly imagine doing that with a 5 yr old,
but maybe I'd feel different if I had a girl.
> I for one will not be watching that show at all. I hope that if you choose to
> participate, you will be keenly aware of the producers' attempts to mock you
> (and hence us) on national television.
My family has decided to apply, and as it turns out, we are moving
right along in the application process.
I'm not worried about anyone attempting to mock us. I'm very
comfortable with our choice of hobbies. I'm 100% sure, no matter how
positive they make it, there will be people that say, "those dumb
adults play with legos."
On the other hand, no matter how negative they make it, there will
also be people that say, "You mean I'm not the only adult that builds
with LEGO?"
There will always be people that just live to mock and poke fun at
others. That's their hobby. It's what they do.
On the other had, you can't believe how much fun I've had in the last
year, sharing my hobby with people all around the world, talking
about LEGO, Mindstorms, robots and all the stuff I enjoy.
Now, I need to practice being judgmental and extreme...
<Extreme judgement>
I'm shocked that you stupid people don't have the vision to see an
opportunity when it's handed to you. There are millions of people
who would die for this kind of chance, and you morons are too scared
of what mocking idiots will think about your precious hobby...
</Extreme judgement>
Well, that's about the best I can do. :) Please note that was
intended to be sarcastic. I'm just trying to practice in case they
do put me on the show. I do understand how the show may try to take
things out of context (like the above statement), but I hope I can do
a good job of presenting myself and our hobby. And, maybe I'll even
end up a better person, when it's all done.
Steve
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Aaron M. Sneary wrote:
What he said.
Well said.
JOHN
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Marc Nelson Jr. wrote:
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I just received this email - my address was apparently culled from the
WAMALUG list: snipped
Anybody out there thinking of volunteering? And who would you be swapping
with? A MegaBloks fan?
Marc Nelson Jr.
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Yea, I got this email too.
No offense to anyone that has decided to participate, but I find this highly
offensive on two counts.
ONE - I am a happily married man that believes there is a special bond that
marriage embodies. A TV show that exploits that is a detriment to a positive,
family-oriented society.
TWO - I am a proud adult LEGO enthusist that believes our hobby is a positive,
family-oriented hobby that may come to be respected at least as much as Model
Railroading one day. A TV show that is seeking to mock and poke fun at our group
is a detriment to our hobby/sub-culture.
I for one will not be watching that show at all. I hope that if you choose to
participate, you will be keenly aware of the producers’ attempts to mock you
(and hence us) on national television.
END SOAPBOX
Aaron Sneary
Husband and AFOL
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Marc Nelson Jr. wrote:
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I just received this email - my address was apparently culled from the
WAMALUG list:
(clip wife swap solitication)
Anybody out there thinking of volunteering? And who would you be swapping
with? A MegaBloks fan?
Marc Nelson Jr.
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She’s been making the rounds of the Internet. Check out
my latest blog posting for some fun with this.
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Jack Hawk wrote:
> In lugnet.mediawatch, Marc Nelson Jr. wrote:
> > I just received this email - my address was apparently culled from the
> > WAMALUG list:
> >
> > {Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a casting producer for the show Wife
> > Swap on ABC television. I am seeking families who involved in the
> > subculture of adult Lego hobbyists. I saw you on the forum and thought
> > you may be interested in applying!}
> >
> > {Families on the show receive $20,000, and anyone that refers a family
> > that is selected to be on our show is paid $1,000 per referral. Each
> > family should consist of two parents, at least one child between the
> > ages of 6-17, and should reside in the U.S. and have BIG, outgoing
> > personalities.}
> >
> > {If your unfamiliar with the show, the premise of Wife Swap is to take
> > two different families and have the mom's switch place to experience
> > how another family lives for one week. Half of the week, mom lives the
> > life of the family she is staying with. The other half, she introduces
> > a "rule change" where she implements rules and activities that her
> > family has. It's a positive experience for people to not only learn,
> > but teach other ways of life.}
> >
> > {If you would like to apply, please EMAIL ME DIRECTLY at
> > jodi.friedman@rdfusa.com with a family description, photo and phone
> > number. Hope to hear from you!}
> >
> > {-Jodi}
> >
> > {Jodi Friedman¬
> > Casting Producer¬
> > ABC TV/ RDF Media}
> >
> > Anybody out there thinking of volunteering? And who would you be swapping
> > with? A MegaBloks fan?
> >
> > Marc Nelson Jr.
> >
> > <http://www.lugnet.com/~326/
> > <http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/manjr/LUGNET/thumblink.jpg Marc's
> > Creations>>
>
> LOL!!!
>
> I {just} put up GtwLUG's forum on Tuesday and this same message was posted;
> our member's haven't even started using the forum yet. I found very similar
> messages posted on other community sites for other "sub-cultures" - so it
> seems legit.
>
> --Jack
> AFOL, GtwLUG, St. Louis
Hi,
I got this through LEGOFan today. I guess we could make money more quickly by
sueing them for massive spamming :-/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wifeswapabc
Gee, if they would be based in Germany, or at least in the EU, this would be MY
chance to make "some" extra Euros :-)
Leg Godt!
Rene
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Marc Nelson Jr. wrote:
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I just received this email - my address was apparently culled from the
WAMALUG list:
Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a casting producer for the show Wife
Swap on ABC television. I am seeking families who involved in the
subculture of adult Lego hobbyists. I saw you on the forum and thought
you may be interested in applying!
Families on the show receive $20,000, and anyone that refers a family
that is selected to be on our show is paid $1,000 per referral. Each
family should consist of two parents, at least one child between the
ages of 6-17, and should reside in the U.S. and have BIG, outgoing
personalities.
If your unfamiliar with the show, the premise of Wife Swap is to take
two different families and have the mom’s switch place to experience
how another family lives for one week. Half of the week, mom lives the
life of the family she is staying with. The other half, she introduces
a “rule change” where she implements rules and activities that her
family has. It’s a positive experience for people to not only learn,
but teach other ways of life.
If you would like to apply, please EMAIL ME DIRECTLY at
jodi.friedman@rdfusa.com with a family description, photo and phone
number. Hope to hear from you!
-Jodi
Jodi Friedman
Casting Producer
ABC TV/ RDF Media
Anybody out there thinking of volunteering? And who would you be swapping
with? A MegaBloks fan?
Marc Nelson Jr.
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LOL!!!
I just put up GtwLUG’s forum on Tuesday and this same message was posted; our
member’s haven’t even started using the forum yet. I found very similar messages
posted on other community sites for other “sub-cultures” - so it seems legit.
--Jack
AFOL, GtwLUG, St. Louis
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I just received this email - my address was apparently culled from the WAMALUG
list:
Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a casting producer for the show Wife
Swap on ABC television. I am seeking families who involved in the
subculture of adult Lego hobbyists. I saw you on the forum and thought
you may be interested in applying!
Families on the show receive $20,000, and anyone that refers a family
that is selected to be on our show is paid $1,000 per referral. Each
family should consist of two parents, at least one child between the
ages of 6-17, and should reside in the U.S. and have BIG, outgoing
personalities.
If your unfamiliar with the show, the premise of Wife Swap is to take
two different families and have the mom’s switch place to experience
how another family lives for one week. Half of the week, mom lives the
life of the family she is staying with. The other half, she introduces
a “rule change” where she implements rules and activities that her
family has. It’s a positive experience for people to not only learn,
but teach other ways of life.
If you would like to apply, please EMAIL ME DIRECTLY at
jodi.friedman@rdfusa.com with a family description, photo and phone
number. Hope to hear from you!
-Jodi
Jodi Friedman
Casting Producer
ABC TV/ RDF Media
Anybody out there thinking of volunteering? And who would you be swapping with?
A MegaBloks fan?
Marc Nelson Jr.
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Just saw this on the front page of the Washington Post’s website:
Age 35, and Something Went Snap. The first part is about the Master Builders,
but several WAMALUG members and LUGNET posters are mentioned at the end.
Marc Nelson Jr.
Age 35, and Something Went Snap
With Legos, Grown-Ups Reclaim a Piece of the Past
By Tamara Jones
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 26, 2006; D01
The masters of the plastic universe are baffled. From their imaginations, their
computers, from their calloused fingers, magnificent kingdoms have sprung. They
can re-create the Seven Wonders of the World in a literal snap. But now they
huddle in their model shop of Legoland California and contemplate the seemingly
impossible:
How in the rectangular heck do you give a Lego bride a Lego bosom?
Tim Petsche considers miniature chef hats borrowed from a Lego kitchen set. Too
big. What about a couple of Lego daisies? someone else suggests. Too weird.
Too bad.
Such are the dilemmas of grown-ups in a child’s fantasy job.
Petsche and his five teammates are the salaried elite in a vast subculture of
adult Lego hobbyists whose collections of little plastic bricks overtake entire
rooms at home -- professors and lawyers and accountants and engineers who find a
creative outlet in the sturdy Danish blocks. People who reclaim and reassemble
lost childhoods piece by tiny piece.
“You go into what we refer to as the Dark Ages, when you stop playing with them
as a kid, but come back to them as an adult. Some people stop at 12, then break
out their Lego sets again at 30,” explains model builder Eric Hunter, 36, who
landed his dream job a year ago at America’s only Legoland, in the Southern
California coastal town of Carlsbad.
Hunter and the other master model builders work in a Carlsbad shop filled with
some 2,000 floor-to-ceiling bins full of virtually every piece Lego has created,
in every color (that would include the seven shades of pink). Outside in the
theme park, their obsession with detail is why a small black Lego rat can be
found in the New York subway display, and why Secret Service men on duty in
mini-D.C. all look alike and sport tiny earbuds.
“I have Lego thoughts and dreams,” Hunter says. “I’ll be driving down the
freeway and I’ll see a building and think, ‘Can I build that out of Lego?’ ”
His work is focused on a planned Las Vegas exhibit, due to open next spring in
the park’s Miniland U.S.A. Designers expect to use more than 2 million bricks to
build miniatures of famous Vegas hotels and casinos, complete with a tacky
wedding chapel and Lego showgirls.
Hunter is painstakingly putting together a miniature Excalibur Hotel, which, he
notes cheerfully, has 2,200 windows and 28 turret styles, details gleaned by a
Lego reconnaissance team dispatched to Vegas to study and photograph the real
thing.
Patience is a given for AFOLs, as Adult Friends of Lego are known. Hunter spent
a decade building his dream car out of more than 10,000 pieces: a ‘91 Acura NSX
that he fell in love with while working in a carwash. His Lego version was two
feet long and a foot high.
When he learned Legoland was holding a national competition to hire a new model
builder, Hunter made it to the semifinals with the scorpion he assembled when
given a bucket of 2,000 Lego pieces and 45 minutes to build any animal. He’d
taught himself to make a sphere out of squares, the required skill test for any
model shop hire. Hunter lost the contest, but networked in the Lego community
and visited the park often enough that the model shop manager remembered him
when another opening came up later. The pay is modest -- top scale is about
$45,000 a year -- but there’s a 10 percent employee discount on Legos, a perk
that adds up with a hobby that AFOLs say can easily devour thousands of dollars
a year.
The model builders take turns running inspection before the theme park opens
each morning. In Miniland, they make sure the presidential motorcade zipping
along Pennsylvania Avenue hasn’t been crushed by a renegade possum overnight,
and that no seagulls have strategically bombed the White House. They make sure
enthusiastic AFOLs haven’t pinched any of the discontinued bricks -- transparent
ones are particularly coveted -- for their private collections.
And they smile at their own inside jokes, such as the home brewery that the
model builders constructed and hid atop the model of the Kennedy Space Center,
and the Elvis impersonator amid the crowd of mini-commuters at Grand Central
Terminal. Then there’s the Lego body of Jimmy Hoffa, buried where no tourist
will ever see him, deep within a column of the new Freedom Tower in fake
Manhattan.
It’s an attention to detail shared by the AFOLs who gather for a monthly play
date in a deserted lounge at George Mason University’s Arlington campus, where a
dozen or so fans brought their Legos by the giant tub and jumbled boxful on a
recent Saturday.
Georgetown mathematician Judy Miller’s onion-domed reproduction of St. Basil’s
Cathedral posed delicately beneath the yellow crane that Abraham Friedman was
building higher and higher. Michael Harrod smiled bravely when a clumsy neighbor
accidentally decapitated his Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties sculpture.
“We used to have rules, bylaws, a lot of bureaucrats and heavy structure, and it
killed us,” Friedman, a software developer, says of the Washington Metro Area
Lego Users Group, or WAMALUG. “We used to have two-hour meetings and we’d argue
and discuss things forever. So we dissolved the constitution, got rid of the
rules. Now we’re just a social club. We hang out and build things.”
Besides showing off their latest projects and discussing construction
challenges, members also share sorting strategies. Dan Rubin, a 27-year-old
lawyer from Silver Spring, prides himself on his system of sorting by shape,
rather than color, the 400,000-some Lego pieces that his fiancee has consigned
to their basement.
“It’s easy to become obsessive about acquiring a certain piece instead of
building,” observes Magnus Lauglo, who is just coming out of a nine-month castle
phase to concentrate on military vehicles. His green tanks reflect a love of
military history and technology rather than a political statement, Lauglo says,
adding: “I don’t build in a sociopolitical vacuum, though. It’s impossible to
build these and not be aware there’s a war going on.”
Friedman is casting a critical eye on his finished crane. Judging from the width
of the boom and the size of the mini-figure construction worker standing on
site, he quickly calculates that the crane is not to scale: It wouldn’t be high
enough to erect a skyscraper in real life. He is disappointed, but considers the
four hours he spent building it well spent.
“Just the act of snapping the pieces together is so satisfying,” he explains,
not even looking down as his fingers connect one brick to another. “That click
when they go together.”
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