Author Archives: essiep

Is it finished?

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A sudden feeling hit me, while cleaning the edges of a glaze. How uncanny, the suddenness I mean, and relief – it’s worked well enough.
It’s finished!
Oh, what am I talking about; the Angelica painting. I’ll take a photo tomorrow and upload soon after.
Next some portraiture, but I don’t like posting them on here.

I’m painting daily of late, playing with watercolours and finding it
rather fun. It’s a surprisingly precise medium despite all of the
blobby washed puddles that many artists work with. I’m using it for
portraits, something I am honing about now.
I’m getting there too.
The
route through works like this: do portrait sketches a few times to
discover the "issues"- the things that can go awry. Play with the
details in close-ups, as well as drawing from memory, this serves as a
warning. By now, you get to know where erronious elements can creep in.
Sketch it again in colour several times working away from the
dependence on tone until you understand the colour.
Only then, draw it up onto the canvas.

Collected Verse

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Dry, warm with a sweet smelling southerly wind..

Noël Coward:

I am no good at love
My heart should be wise and free
I kill the unfortunate golden goose
whoever it might be
with over articulate tenderness
And too much intensity

I am no good at love
I batter it out of shape
Suspicion tears at my sleepless mind
And, gibbering like an ape,
I lie alone in the endless dark
Knowing there is no escape

I am no good at love
When my easy heart I yeald
Wild words come tumbling from my mouth
Which should have stayed concealed
And my jealousy turns a bed of bliss
into a battlefield

I am no good at love
I betray it with little sins
For I feel the misery of the end
In the moment that it begins
And the bitterness of the last goodbye
Is the bitterness that wins

….what gorgeous bitter melancholy.

Goodnight.

The Wackness

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17°C, rain has finished for today

Electric Cinema, Birmingham: what a superb cinema- cosy, small, with a bar next to the ticket office, we took our drinks in to see the film- "The Wackness" by Jonathan Levine (2008). the film was superb too. Ben Kingsley put on a captivating performance as s shrink who develops a relationship beyond his profession with a male client. The result was full of charm and wit- he clearly thoroughly enjoyed acting that role, the character was often funny, vulnerable and absurd. The cinematography was good, control of lighting, the very wide-screen format (and the compositions that allows)- assisted by the fact that were were watching 35mm stock. No doubt I missed worthwhile asides, images or other subtleties, so this is high on my list of films- To See Again.

No blind spots

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18°C, windy morning, very wet afternoon. 35 miles

Eye test: now the blind spots have gone, the optician thought that was strange. I’m not so confident in the test, I suspected a false positive 3 years ago, despite the optician’s insistence. He couldn’t see any vitreous floaters either today, I can though. The prescription remains the same, so no new specs. A good result.

The rain, the rain…

Tapping on the wheel

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Cloying, milky air, warm & very humid. 19°C,

Only 32 miles but I must be careful. Last year I was bugged by a persistent chest infection that cut so many miles off cycling. This summer’s rides total 1,000 miles on the bike. So I have answered my home-life-falling-apart with exercise to keep myself sane and sleep through the night. The result is that is I am as fit as I can remember.
Enough of me, let’s talk of something interesting.

 
….that is less humid.

Bose Dock “popping” fault

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16°C, cloudy but dry.

Bose Dock doesn’t work? No life from your iPod, no recharge and certainly no sound. All you have is a repeated soft popping sound?
FIX: the power jack is inverted. Despite having chamfered pins on the power jack behind the dock, it is still easy to put the jack in upside-down.
REMEDY: just turn the jack over so the brand name is facing up then it should be back to normal.

It worked on mine anyway.

the same pattern…

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16-22°C, warm but dull overcast.

It follows the same pattern, being ill I mean. Yesterday was the worst, ending with going to bed in a fever, shivering under thick bedding. It always feels like such a waste, so many things I could be doing now, most notably, I have scrapped the idea of climbing a Welsh mountain.
Note: the fine "Dockleaf Bug", who watched as I  cleaned the car this afternoon.
shieldBug

Praise indeed

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19°C, light clouds, clearing later.

Nice response to my Chernobyl scenery for FSX:
Simviation Forum, he said:

I just want to praise this scenery, it’s probably one of my favorite all time spots to hover around now in fsx. My only request is that this scenery be expanded to add the city of pripryat (cant spell it worth a crap) and mabe the unfinished reactor… oh and chernobyl 2 http://pix.fine.kiev.ua/egor/gallery/0000b02w I just really want to have it feel like when i fly in that area that i’m actually flying there….

It’s broken the 1000 downloads point now just on AVSim alone. There are numerous other hosts that don’t detail the number of downloads. Anyway, I do intend to work out how to add in Pripyat; the current landclass poly is hardly ideal. It would be perfect if I could place the Ferris-wheel, the Polyssia Hotel and the tower blocks.
Here’s the link to the v1. if any readers want it (Microsoft Flight Sim X only): ChernNPP
ChernNPP_v2