Category Archives: Travel

Pedal thinking

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I don’t know what category to put this entry in
 
15°C, much variety of sky, no rain.

Cycling today, ( incidentally 73.4 miles) – my head was full of thoughts.

think one:

The "Sprite" painting has to change- (NB :not only have I changed it’s name…), but the image needs to change also. The head is faaaar to big and needs ot be angled diffrerently. If you get your pictures down from the shelf regularly, you get to "know" them. Then you visualise  them when out & about. I thught this over and over while cycling today. So changes are afoot in the underpainting. This MUST be done before overpainting oily layers .

 

3D :The other think was "Mentalray"

Mentalray is a renderer that was included in my copy of 3ds max 6. Been running max 6 for 18 months now, particle flow is great, as is reactor 2 and all the new mapping tools. Just overlooked the new renderer, but having read some enthusiastic chapters in 3ds Max6 Bibile.

Later: Tried mentalray- it’s very fast! Faster then Max’s scnline raytracer. The difficult bit is using shaders it seems.

Clean arm

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only 44.8 miles today. Windy warm & close. Rainy bits too.
My hand doesn’t smell of that incident yesterday anymore.
AW38 Whitley renders. the mesh is near enough finished, so made some sample renders today so the Whitley-project people could have a look.

Infuriation

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23°C, SW winds
Flat tyre made itself noticable on Muckley corner round-about as the back wheel slid outwards. It’s odd how soft tyres behave on cornering, a bit like severe understeer.
If proved to be the most infuriating to fix. I put the spare tueb in to inflate when it in turn went straight down. So with a nearby garage, I sought out a bucket of water to find out which tube was the best. The bubble test failed- there were no bubbles. Then the obvious thing to do is put the tube back in the rear wheel then that went immediately flat too. I really hate it a perfectly fine thing that has nothing wrong with it except it doesn’t work.
 "narked"
there was an old guy who stopped to watch at first. He stood in a coat with a dried rollie cigarette stuck to his lip. He ended up helping out a bit. His voice was unclear but meant well.
Anyway- even after fiddling about with a bucket of water and the two innertubes, no inflation. Then after changing it around it decided to co-operate in part- so I rode home with only 70psi in the rear wheel.
Oh well, rambling to a quick finish- arrived home 40′ late.
Narked to pieces.

Wasps

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Hot & sunny, 27°C. blimey
 
wasps– you’re late this year. Only saw the first one today. Come on my little stripey foes, you only stung me once last year and not at all the year before! Your average is dropping, you’d better do some catching up!
51 miles today in hot sun, few clouds and it’s set to be same tomorrow. Last mad rush before new term.
Paint: that seascape is driving me nuts. How difficult is that ?!

Never seen it looking so good

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Wales! what stunning weather over the last 24 hours. No one on the beach at Harlech. Had supper at a quality beach-side cafe. wales really needs more of those- for as long as I can remember- Wales has aimed at the cheap & cheeful market. The days we have searched for decent places to eat has left us feeling a low opinion of the place. The silly picture below was taken just behind the beach this morning, there are similar ones at all the entrance routes to the beach.
READING:
"Swastika in the Gunsight" by Igor Kaberev.
It must have been written at a time of strong Soviet censorship, the writing style is quite different to what I’m used to. The storyline breaks up in unconventional ways which is refreshing.  I’d like more info on cultural references, some customs sound rather strange, or at least they sound strange. Apart from that- the book is full of action and the pace is good once you get past the first third. You get used to the oppressive propaganda language of the "party"- or at least you can read past it.

full up

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25°C; !; no wind. Perfect conditions.
Summer is moving into it’s last phase, the colours are fading, straw is everywhere and most of the grain harvest it is in. That means no more arriving home with a deep-chest cough from the clouds of brown dust whippped up by combine-harvesters. The downside of that is that the tractors are being released for hedge-trimming- the cause of 4 punctures already this week. I’m not complaining though, it is quite rare these days toget that many flats.
Dead trees everywhere.
Where are the wasps? Most years I have clocked up a few stings by now.
I have clocked up 68 miles today, but got home unusually tired which I blame an inadequate meal yesterday for that. The last ten miles near home I could see purple spots, and I felt quite wobbly on arrival.
One spoke needs fixing.
More on the dead trees: Royal forestry Society
Tomorrow I go to Wales for a few days. There are reports of large schools of dolphins inshore so I wil pack a pair of binoculars. The dogs like the beach as much as we do.

Snakebite

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Had a snakebite puncture today. It happens when the tyre hits something that pinches the innertube against the wheel-rim. Characterised by 2 holes that are lined up and are slightly elongated in shape. Whatever it was I hit it shot sideways into a hedge, possibly a stone or whatever. So there was puncture number 4 ( of the week). Is this interesting?… er… thought not.
Try this instead:

3 punctures!

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It’s hawthorn trimming season. Farmers drive up local lanes with hedge-mowers cutting back rapidly growing hedgerows. It scatters shredded plant debris over the road-surface, some of which poke tiny little holes in bicycle tyres. Us cyclists can only carry so many spare innertubes and patches, so that after a point we have to put back in a tube that is known to be deflating the slowest, then ride the shortest route home blowing up the tyre each time it gets too soft.
fortunatley, it’s a nice day, warm, no wind and so on…
Results
Thursday is A-level results day. Time for an annual arguement that they are getting easier, or is it the teaching is getting better. I will keep an eye open for anyone saying that it’s both- easier+ better teaching. Here is a pre-amble BBC.

Sparrowchick

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72.4 miles in wind, sun & cloud. Only 20°C.
 
Coming home, passed a sparrow standing in the middle of the road. A car passed over it without causing injury but I couldn’t leave it there waiting to get crushed. Quickly turned round just as a car was approaching and another turning in a side road. I pointed to the lilttle bird and the driver stopped as she seemed to understand. The bird ran under the car when I reached out to pick it up, then it ran out the other side onto the grass verge twittering as it went. What was it thinking , perhaps it was injured & couldn’t take off.
 

Grain harvesting

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Dry (apart from few heavy showers) 21°C, light

 
The Grain harvests are well underway which can be a problem when cycling because the dust makes you cough badly for the rest of the day. It makes it sore to open your lungs fully so the last few years I have taken wide detours to avoid combine harvesters if they cause dust to drift across my path. Oh yeah, nearly forgot- it was 33.4 miles.
 
New monitor arrives tomorrow.
Family came back from Canada today, they are thoroughly disorientated by the time zones thing. the plane was four hours late so I hung around Manchester airport with little to do apart from sketch. Don’t think I was spotted though, sometimes it appears to make folks feel uncomfortable. Discretion my lad…
 
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F’nurps!