Author Archives: essiep

Thujone

Posted on by
Reply
8°C, very strong winds. Dry though.

Gales forced me into driving to work today. Damn.
 
Sap’s rising, inlcluding my little Artemesia plant, which now smells. It didn’t last autumn when I bought it. Such a strange smell too. There must be other exotica hidden amongst our ordinary overlooked weeds in this landscape.

A great storm approaches

Posted on by
Reply
9°C, few heavy showers so far.
Duxford – to take some Japanese Visitors to leer at aeroplanes, who called this practice “transport porn”? Here is an old Cockpit from a VC10 airliner.
This coming storm could be fun, for me anyway. Not so good if you’re at sea in the southern approaches.
_DSC6186
 

Control Panel scrambled.

Posted on by
1
11°C, windy and grey.

Tracking down faults: so apparently, the control panel can be corrupted by some reg server32 getting unregistered (are you following this), – that is something that can easily be re-registered. At least the machine has net access so I can pose questions of Google and get workable answers.
 
Beyond that, the 3D scenery design will have ot wait for a week or so while I get a two graphics jobs done first.
 
Cinema: or why I like Tarkovsky’s films. They don’t sound great on paper; for example: Stalker: a science fiction film; with no special effects; long scenes heavily dependant on dialog; mostly in b/w, no music and don’t forget: it’s in Russian. Currently I am watching Andrei Rublyev in installments. these are films about the present, none of the Americanish obsession with plot, and what’s going to happen next. These films are full of scenes that concentrate on the now; they look long, hard and without distraction at themes like the weather, dogs, water and tinge it all with anxiety. Read this site to get a more articulate explanation http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/tarkovsky.html
I don’t expect you to wat one though.

STOP 0x000000IE

Posted on by
2
8°C, Windy, but milder

STOP NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM at NTOSKRNL.exe: I have a poorly computer. In the week I changed the RAM but not soon enough, one crash caused by it has scrambled the anti-virus’ database so it won’t run. It won’t uninstall either, nor does the update patch work. Looks like a re-install of windows is the only resort.
 
Nevermind, at least I have had more success with the other PC, the Chernobyl scenery is substantially done. The main site of the accident is done, so now my attention turns to the town of Pripyat, and possibly the famous Ferris-wheel.
2008-2-28_21-23-42-687

Anslow Emus

Posted on by
Reply
8°C, grey, plus a band of rain at 2pm. Cy=54 miles.

Odd the things you see, riding through a rural farming area, passing houses on the edge of the village of Anslow, I heard loud bird noises, and looked over to see 2 large grey Ostrich shaped birds. they were grey so must have been Emus I presume.
 
I took lots of photos of Rugeley power station. There is somethig mysterious, slightly menacing but intriguing about that place. Maybe it’s the industrial architechture, designers must have a field-day when they come up with ideas for them. It is a mixture of old Art deco, and new age sci-fi, but all covered in soot & dust.

Handlebar ice

Posted on by
Reply
-2 to 3°C, freezing fog but some sun.

It’s hard to keep warm on days like this.On arriving at school today, the handlebars felt oddly slimy. It wasn’t until I took my gloves off that it was obvious that they were covered in a layer of ice. The rest of the frame must have been similarly afflicted too. It was as if the air itlsef was freezing and forming ice crystals, looking like snow.

LOD Export now works

Posted on by
Reply
7°C, light winds, grey. 

Yesterday: a day in London. The best bit was in the Tate Modern: Juan Muñoz who makes figurative sculptures. One room was filled with these grey figures, all with the same cheerful expression but in different poses. They seemed to be in conversation, and rather pleased to see one another. The effect was almost animated as you walk around the room which reveals different figures as they eclipse and uncover each other. See the picture below. 

FSX:
It’s been a long, frustrating but addictive quest- but I’m getting 3D models into that sim at last. After a hint from FSDeveloper forum, I roughed out a Max Teapot file, with a standard FSX material, and exported. It worked! There is a big red teapot at the end of the runway in Seattle. So perhaps it needs a clean Max file, so:

reset Max; Merge the mesh in; generate new GUID & “FriendlyName”; make a new FSX material, through it apply the bitmap (pref a photoshop file) and export to X/Mdl/placement file.
A curiosity still lingering is that recently, the default placement launches the sim on the equator in the Pacific even with the placement set to Seattle.

Procedures have been put in place…

Posted on by
Reply
9°C, clear, still andSun again!

How that phrase grates every time it is said on the media. It is said on most news reports about one thing or another. There is something remote that forces a divide between the listener and speaker, something dehumanised.
Adults are just as bad as kids in repsect of mis-use of English. An example that is growing in frequency is using "anticipate" in place of "expect"- as in "we anticipate that your expenses claim will be submitted by Friday".
Obviously: Some are using this in every sentence, often twice. Listen out for it; then wish you hadn’t.

Kids are more likely to adopt Americanisms, like missing word endings: " we need to get to our next lesson quick(ly)"- quite a different meaning, often it is clear thay have used the wrong one. The least bright ones will mix "of" & "have", as in " I should of known". I’m not even going to mention apostrophes.
Oops- I just did.

FSX:The Chernobyl scenery is coming along apace now.(see picture below). The rivers and lakes are all done now, I’ve had a break from trying to export 3D meshes today, though the NPP model is now mapped ( but not textured). While playing about with the Sim, I discovered that there is a firework display over the Eiffel tower if you set the game clock to 00.00 on Jan 1st. Quite nicely done I’d say.

It’s been a while

Posted on by
Reply
10°C, Sun, still & cloudless. C=39 miles

…’ been busy though. Unlike most terms, I’ve made time for 3DS Max. This has beena very nice, mild and dry half-term, short too.
Still, I persist with trying to get 3D objects into that flight simulator (FSX), sometimes it gets tantalisingly close. The second picture shows an aerial view with only a shadow where the model of a generic Church should be. Good grief.

Firefox crashes: Re-install and update, with a root file clean-out in-between. Over here we are nervously hoping that thos crashes triggered by web browsing will desist.
That derelict part of Tatenhill airfield was interesting this afternoon. It would be good to get in there with my new camera for some quality shots.
Found a fab site today- with the rather predictable name of "Urban Assault". There is some great stuff in there though, have a look.

Black swans

Posted on by
Reply
7°C, grey & rather windy. C=54 miles

Got it wrong today, I was quite warm setting out but the wind-chill soon got to me. By half-way I was regretting not wearing that woollen tee-shirt.
Laid eyes on two oddities today: 1- a pair of black swans ( post photo later) 2/  two scrambler motorbikes only seperated by a piece of rope. I’ve never seen a motorcycle towed on a rope before.
Still haven’t warmed up properly.
I’m deeply shocked and disgusted by this: BBC story "Indian Rhino looses fight for life"
There is not a thread of evidence that the far east’s "Chinese medicine" has the slightest foundation in fact. I can see it getting worse as China’s wealth becomes  greater. There is a noble creature, making an honest attempt at bringing up its youngster, and both their lives are taken for some arbitrary fantasy, a pseudo-science that is closer to religion.

"The conflict between rangers and poachers has claimed the lives of 60 people
over the past 20 years"

I hope none of those lives lost were the rangers’.

That photograph is going to haunt me.