Category Archives: Cycling

Fusty, me?

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0-9°C, , light wind

Car-alarm birds

Riding to work just out from town, I could hear a car alarm. There were no cars in that direction, only fields of sheep. getting closer to a leafless tree, the sound got clearer- but still no cars. My ears told me I was looking straight at it, but all I could see was a bare tree and one bird about the size of a starling. Has the car alarm sound entered into the song-birds’ repetoir?
 
Excellent site found on with lots of tips on the use of good english, AskOxford.
 
Here is a quote from a forum linking to my website:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saffy
I have a copy of 3d max and, I think I said this before, I’m interested in modeling for FC. Trouble is, I am a complete noob with graphic design. I mean, I don’t know even the most basic elements of building models for FC.

What I’m looking for is a somewhat comprehesive guide, be it online or even a bit of mentoring from a more experienced designer … something that pertains as closely as possible to modeling for FC. I’m also looking for the tutorial files for 3d max, i.e. building a chess set, since I can’t seem to locate them anywhere.

Thanks.

heh, don’t worry, everyone has to start somewhere. i’ve only built about 6-7 models myself. i didn’t really have any sort of training, just one day figured it’d be fun to do – so i bugged one of more knowledgeable friends to death with questions, and looked up lots of tutorials on the net – they’re not hard to find, just google. it’s hard to find one that describes how to build a ship, plane or something really close to what you want to build, but that really shouldn’t matter – as long as you can understand how 3dsmax (and modeling) works, you can build anything you want.

when i was getting the hang of 3ds, i was building aircraft – this tutorial helped me out pretty well:

http://www.mdalgleish.clara.net/tut…uilder-tut1.htm

though the terminolgy may seem a bit advanced, it covers a lot of the basics (like welding, shaping, mirroring, etc.) fairly well, and has lots of images and animated .gifs to help you.

start on building something basic (a squarish building or a flat-deck aircraft carrier, for example) to get used to everything. usually the first few models wont be good (i still need to work on my first ones to get them to a running FC standard) but once you get the hang of things, it’s pretty easy. just remember to stick within the guidelines that are in the documents on the forum, and just go with it.

washed out from the front?

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9°C, showers, some with rainbows. C=only 33 miles

Two things while cycling today.
1/ Passing Catton Hall estate, I was looking towards the river trent. There were two black & white shapes that looked like dead cows on the banks. An odd and disturbing sight so I went to have a look. Getting closer they began to look more like dead horses, piebald ones. Perhaps victims of drowning?
From ten feet away, there they were, lying in the cold grass next to the fast flowing river. Suddenly one then the other got up, clinking their heavy metal chains. They looked startled, the nearest one had the chain wrapped twice round a leg which shook loose as it tried to gallop south along the bank. I decided to back off , clearly I was causing more stress than they needed right then. I felt quite sorry for those two.
 
2/ Coming back through Whittington I heard s skidding sound, having heard it like that before, I’m conditioned to look behind in case I need to evade. A young motorcyclist was sliding to a halt behind me about 15 yards back. No other vehicles there, I pulled over and went back to see the bloke lying partly under his bike. He was out cold, another guy was on the scene by then too, then another few. It looked like he came round a blind bend, saw me and braked hard loosing the front wheel and going down. A classic front wheel skid I’d say. He was a learner, though with a helmet on he was out cold for a few minutes. We got the bike off him and put it in the church car-park.
 
There is a technique to braking on wet surfaces, and unless he has faulty brakes/tyres he can’t have done it right. You can’t stay upright with a front wheel skid, back ones are recoverable- front ones never are. So there is no secret to applying less brake to the front wheel on wet roads. In really poor surfaces then don’t use the front wheel at all.
 
I don’t yet know what injuries he has, a broken leg is possible, and so is concussion. The medics will worry about that.

Cold, down to the bone

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10°C, wind & sun. c=42 miles.

Not today, but Tuesday left me Cold down to the bones. I was probably wearinbg just a slightly less than ideal, but over a long period of time (3 hours cycling) I became deeply cold. It took all evening to warm up. I probably needed one of those deep hot Japanese baths to warm up in. Today’s ride was in windy but warmer air- about 2°C higher, no need to wrap up. So, only a degree makes all the difference.

The Horse Stalker picture may be finished. that makes two. I may get round to post ing a "fin" picture of it here. You can then compare with the photoshop prototype in yesterday’s post. I’m a good lad- I promised to get it done during the half-term holiday. Below is a picture taken in RAW format and imported into Photoshop, the image quality is better in some ways, but the skin tones are a bit flat. Clearly a need is there to use that RAW import plugin differently.

The big melt

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9°C, , flooding everywhere. C=71miles

Cycling: the snow is all but gone. All the rivers and streams around here are either full of have burst their banks already. Conditions were good for a nice long ride though, the only obstacles were the wind and several floods in the road that I had to wade through.

Overall, it was a day that deserve more photographs, a pocket camera would have been ideal, so I shall shop around.

Grateful for my illness

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6-10°C, light cloud, windy; c=60 miles

Ooh! I just noticed that we can post videos here! Scratches chin…

Out cycling, I met Rob, who I haven’t seen for quite a few years. He was recovering from a bout of ‘flu. We compared symptoms, as you do, and he was very grateful to hear of my experience, which it turns out, is the same has his. Why is this interesting- it’s not but I will continue anyway. He thought he was the only one to have a heavy cold that had a brief interlude before “going onto his chest”. Same here.

Buzzard of the day: today’s buzzard (said out-loud in the style of a certain Fast Show sketch) was seen over Catton Hall.

Jitensha

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Sunday:9°C, wind & rain. c=62 miles

Only the last 25 miles were in rain, the rest was a trivial struggle against wind. After the cafe stop I actually felt cold! It’s been ages since feeling that, what a novelty! Those new brakes are the best, no more nerves on wet-road decents.
 
Linseed: note yesterday’s new horse. Much improved – yes? Those photos taken the other weekend are the cause, finally got some prints to work from. Another day’s session (or two) and it will be darker- with just the muzzle as light as this.

Man in tights

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10°C, clear, SW winds. C=63miles.

Sunday ride today- a Saturday. I have new winter bib-tights. For non-cylists, let me explain "bib-tights". They are lycra tights, made of fleecy lined material, and have shoulder-straps to keep them up. These are good because they don’t restrict movement to a surprising degree; most pairs do. The previous pair definitely slowed me down while riding because of that. The price hasn’t changed in the last ten years either. that’s almost enough to raise an eyebrow.
 
One of the Buzzards was seen today, as well as a sparrowhawk elsewhere.

Orton’s Buzzards

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17°C, clear. Cy63 miles.

This picture ( not my own) is slightly different to those I saw today. One pair at Orton-on-the-hill, and the other near No-man’s heath. Both pairs had cleared the skies of all other birds, though one pigeon was visible hiding in a tree. This bird took flight once the soearing falcons had gone behind a copse. The birds of prey were repeatedly calling out to each other so it was easy to track them even when out of sight.
 
That picture is an edited one I had on file, but really it should  be one of mine. I have to get a camera to take out cycling on days like this.
 

There are nuts on the roads

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17°C, fog then clearing, Cy.=70miles 

There are nuts on the roads. Mostly chestnuts (of the conker variety), but a lot of acorns as well, all ground into a pulp by passing traffic.
 
Rer Megacorp have a website you can use to order albums. No need to go to London to visit the shop anymore. I stil only have albums by "The When" on tape, but they are proving hard to find.

Looking for a patch to hit.

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16°C, showers & sun

I didn’t realise that I do this, but now I do. A car pulled out on me as I rode home on drying roads after a heavy shower.
It was in a small road signalling right to go on the road I was on. Then it drove straight over, I didn’t see the driver as i was watching the front wheels , it braked hard and I veered round, but I was then watching the patch of road infront where I was likely to land after the impact. The car did stop in time, I did veer enough so that patch wasn’t needed.
Interesting the things that go through your head. Your life never flashes before you, you just look for what to do to save the situation.
Even airline pilots say this who have survived crashes.