Month: March 2016

3 Body
by Kimliatach

Finished ‘Three Body Problem‘ yesterday.

It did get weird. For the longest time I really wasn’t into it. None of the characters were really interesting me and I was really struggling to care, then about a third of the way in things as I say got delightfully strange and I slammed through the rest in short order. I plan to recommend it to a friend with a more hard science background to see what she makes of it. There are some very big and uncomfortable ideas played with and as with anything that starts talking about interdimensionality wrapping my poor monkey brain around it was at times challenging. The storytelling had a different pace than I am used to and by the end at least a couple of the characters were sympathetic and emotionally interesting.

On the subject of interdimensionality Miegakure a 4D computer game is on its way ‘soon’

Creative

I’ve spent the past day taking the draft text and titles of all 44 evolution cards into the printable card template made a few weeks back.  I’ve also begun sketching higher quality thumbnail placeholder art for all 40 incomplete cards in readiness for a draft print run which will be test played at an upcoming board game convention.

#coloring progress. #colouring #colouringin #shauntan

A photo posted by @liatach on

 

Link

‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ the short from before The Good Dinosaur -which we have not yet seen- is adorable. Unfortunately this is the only complete streaming version I was able to find kind of potato quality I’m afraid.

Edit: Found better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrwrKYZ4WwY

 

 

Thursday 10th
by Kimliatach

Daily

Last minute relief call in to take a kindergarten class at 9 AM this morning, caught  me off guard and without a packed go bag, disappointing canteen lunch and a begged antihistamine from a colleague got me through the day. Host teacher has a cat. As evidenced by dander all over her laptop keyboard, which was not noticed until too late, thank goodness for cheap and ubiquitous antihistamines. School saved me from another day spraying in the fields, left me shattered all the same.

Creative

Spent last night exporting print quality copies of all cards completed so far. Tonight I am sparring myself another evenings work on the castle card and instead beginning putting all the titles and feature texts into the evolution card templates in readiness for the larger thumbnails I will create for them over the coming week or two.

 

My insect Insta photos have started attracting more attention. I’d probably have significantly more followers if I didn’t habitually block bots and follow spammers.

#Live #orbweaver #spider on her Web. Approx 45mm in the body. #macro #araneae

A photo posted by @liatach on

 

#cicada wing found in the dust. Image is approximately 5mm. #insect #macro #hermiptera

A photo posted by @liatach on

Dececed #rat forepaw. #macro

A photo posted by @liatach on

Almost forgot a link. Wait but Why has a new and informative take on the ‘Monty Hall Problem‘ up.

The Big Short and an Awful Job
by Kimliatach

‘The Big Short’ is entertaining, the script is fantastic and the acting is superb.

Christian Bale in particular can emote and adopt mannerisms with amazing attention to detail. In this he plays an ASD doctor of economics. Carell demonstrates his chops in a role not built on punchlines and bring endearing fury to his portrayal. Pitt is old man Pitt and Gosling is a douche but an engaging one.

The topic however, is not ok. If you don’t leave this film furious you weren’t paying attention. No matter how likable they work to make their protagonists the association with the great fuckup that was the GFC tarnishes them all. The seeming inevitability of an encore global financial meltdown within the next decade certainly leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the viewer.

And of course it fails Bechdel pretty spectacularly, all the women in this film are props. Some are and articulate and realised characters but they only converse with men or the camera.

Daily

Spent the day spraying woody weed regrowth on the farm with a backpack spray bottle. The job would be insufferably boring without a good audiobook. With it, it is merely very unpleasant work. The chemical being used is nasty but far from the worst on the market and we are taking appropriate safety precautions. Woody regrowth is a major economic risk to the farm because if the turpentine scrub is able to establish itself grazing ground cover all but disappears and because of land clearing legislation the woody weeds cannot be removed. It is very hot, very dull, backbreaking work made even more tedious by the cleanup which involves rinsing, filling and emptying by spray each backpack three times at the conclusion of work.

I was grateful to have a reason to stop, shower and go tutoring.

Creative

Nothing so far today and I am not long from bead but I have some work to do before then. I did make a fair bit of progress on the background of the castle card last night.

 

 

 

 

Computer Parts
by Kimliatach

Despite a brand new power supply, and two new case fans fitted today, N’s computer is still randomly restarting at odd intervals.

The fury. No logging tool or measure has been able to give us a lock in on what the problem actually is and it is so random and clearly not a function of intensity of use that solving continues to be a process of trial and error.

I also bought a network card as that was the only other suggested problem point when I had it serviced before leaving Brisbane. Noob mistake I bought a PCI network card not a PCI-E (for Express) card. I wasn’t aware they even still made plain PCI so I didn’t even think to look. At least it was only $20. I may buy another but the $10 postage burns when it is only one item. If it is not a network card then by elimination that leaves only the motherboard or the CPU, both of which were very high quality at purchase. With the brand new 240gig SSD I bought in an attempt to save my old laptop installed as the primary OS drive in N’s now, she would effectively be building a new computer as everything is out of warranty.

My 7 port USB hub also arrived yesterday, a purchase made necessary as the new laptop only has 3 ports. Already it has been so useful I should have bought one years ago. However I did encounter an odd issue I’ve had problems with before. Fortunately I know the fix. If you are ever having problems with USB devices not being recognised, particularly after waking from suspended sleep mode, go into device manager find the USB root hub, check properties and uncheck the default setting ‘Allow windows to shut down this device to save power’. Traumatic to find and fix in the first instance years ago, an easy fix now.

Links

I’ve been really getting into film making technique videos this week, having worked my way through most of the exceptional ‘Every frame a painting‘ library. I found another source in my feed today.

Creative

Minimal progress on castle card today. I was on primary care and poor L was having a hard time with his game during F’s nap. Lots of interruptions later, not much progress to show for it. N and I are doing a film night tonight during which I’ll continue working on the castle and surrounds. Approaching inking slowly.

 

 

 

Colouring In
by Kimliatach

Daily

A less productive day today.

N and F went to the farm. L had one on one swimming lesson during which I managed to swim 650m (200m freestyle). L’s water confidence is continually improving but he cannot swim independently yet. Despite sunscreen we both had a touch of sun and were pretty zonked out all afternoon. We spent some time drawing and colouring together and I let him indulge his latest obsession Lego Marvel Superheroes for a while. They are an improvement over Power Rangers but only marginally.

 

This is going to take me a while, particularly so as it is an activity to make me draw with L & F more. It was cheap at the post office a week or two ago, broke it out for the first time today.

I actually made the first five of twenty six planned images of an ‘affirmations’ colouring book with intention of releasing the whole on amazon for a dollar in the months prior to starting this blog. I’m not going back to it, I’ve missed the boat for the colouring book mania and I’m not a huge fan of the idea, I just noticed that most of what was available was to my mind not really designed with adult colouring in mind. Meditative detail and pattern were what I would look for, not so much the affirmative words that I chose for these to match the most obvious markets. In truth I am a little perplexed by the explosion of adult colouring as a normal activity, but I am grateful in this instance as it means I get to do a collaboration with one of my favourite artists and keep the result to hang on my children’s walls.

Creative

So here is my small contribution to adult colouring anyway if you do any please send me a picture of your results. Click through for full sized versions. I am not revisiting them but if I were ‘Peace’ would be most likely to receive a major overhaul.

 

Love

feel

hope

Peace

Passion

 

Focusing on updating copyright text on all so far completed cards this evening.

Also had an idea for a simple, pretty mobile/ VR/ AR game this afternoon. Not telling here after all I’ve already discovered one of my designs made real by someone else before I got around to them. ‘Cosmic Boom’ the concentric circles piece half way down the page here is the design of a piece I sketched two years ago, I’d have used different media but the effect would have been near identical.

 

 

 

 

Progress day
by Kimliatach

Creative Day

Children and their mother went to the farm.

I Drew until my wrist ached, that’s not a euphemism.

Whichever damn fool past self had the idea of drawing a castle with curved crenelations needs a slapping.

castle progress 2

Finished paving under the washing line today. Feels like it has been weeks since I started that job and I’m very glad to have it done.

I also attached another panel of chicken wire to the seemingly never complete chook tractor. There remains a couple of areas of wiring still to do as well as a ramp and door to the roost and the matter of attaching the replacement wheels, which as I’ve mentioned before will require welding.

A new photoshere to show off the transformation we have made in the garden. Buggers still wont embed properly despite my best efforts.

 

I have returned some attention to Witcher 3 now that I again have a computer able to play it without melting. It really is the most extraordinarily well written game I’ve played in a long time. As an example last night I began the sequence described here.  I may explore a little farther this evening.

 

 

 

Trumbo
by Kimliatach

Trumbo is emotional, informative, quite witty and ultimately a bit sad. They have crammed a lot of story into the two hour length and it is never given opportunity to drags on.

It is remarkable to think what a profound impact the McCarthy era in American political history still has on American society today. Socialist still being a dirty word to older Americans being the most obvious example. Bryan Cranston is as usual captivating and I think I only had a hint of Mr. White once or twice so I am glad to see him redefining his face as an actor who I have enjoyed watching for many years. Helen Mirren inhabited the role of Hedda Hopper and Louis CK and showed that he can in fact act or at least play some one subtly different from himself. Surprise recognition award goes to Dean O’Gorman  playing Kirk Douglas, who we have just watched two seasons of in ‘The Almighty Johnson’s‘. He is also a dwarf in a set of films I’ll give a proper bollocking to someday. Elle Fanning also deserves notice in her role as Trumbo’s daughter, I was interested to note on her IMDB that she voiced one of the little girls on the English dubbing of one of ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ as a child. The film gets a limited and I feel undeserved pass on Bechdel which is pretty disappointing from a film and cast of such calibre. The film is all about him, and they do as I note above cram a lot in, but that is no excuse for not at least having two female characters having a conversation about something other than a man.

 

Daily

Attended a sad and sunburnt little local market. Consumed overpriced and likely carcinogenic snow cones.

Computer is set up, software is loaded, drivers installed, huge collections of images and documents are transferred, the file system has been organised to my tastes.

I am ready to make art again.

Progress has been made on the castle card I still have hours and hours to go though.

 

castle progress

 


Links

To those of you who suggested going mac… a polite but firm no thanks.

Not that I will going Occulus anyway, Valve & HTC are knocking it out of the park with motion support and actual game design experience. This I cannot wait to try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdbSk7X7oDU

In all likelihood I will end up waiting for the first decently priced AR headset instead.

 

 

 

Pop See Koo
by Kimliatach

This was stuck in my head for days.

A class I took earlier in the week was practicing for the parade performance they did this morning.

Enjoy the mind worm. L & F love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BJBJ7DOR-Q

New computer setup still ongoing, A 300 gig copy is almost finished after which there is another 150 gig from a separate drive including all my art to follow. Critical software should all be installed by the time that is all on board after which the first order of business is exporting and uploading print quality copies of all the cards made so far.

 

 

 

Tickets and Shiny Things
by Kimliatach

Tonight we bought tickets!

Our journey will begin mid May flying north to a changeover in Tokyo Haneda then over the pole to Heathrow and from there on to Glasgow. We will be returning late September via Singapore. Thanks to a very able attendant at Flight Centre we were able to lock in the bargain flight we found using this with slight alterations so we have no airport changes and no unpleasantly long layovers. Feeling rather excited to finally be locking things into place. We tried very hard to find a way to spend a few days in Japan but in the end it wasn’t achievable. We will get less than three hours to stretch our legs before the long haul over the pole.

The new laptop arrived and it is a beauty. It has so little bloatware I don’t even need to do a clean windows install to begin with which is nice. I’ve barely begun transferring things over or installing software and I need to get cracking making this lavish purchase work for me. Much as I would to see how well it can hack Witcher 3 at max settings there is no time like the present.

New computer! That’s a sand dune on my desktop I assure you.

A photo posted by @liatach on


Politic

Disappointing results from Super Tuesday in the US making a Trump vs. Clinton election ever more likely and frightening because I don’t believe she can beat him. I cannot adequately articulate the unspeakable horror of a Trump presidency…

 

tony nodding

Even Tony Abbott’s performance as PM would pale into insignificance by comparison. I believe Sanders could beat him and he is not out of the race yet but the handicap is now very, very large.

 

Link

I’m not allowed to buy things or I would be backing the hell out of this. 

 

 

 

 

Health Insurance
by Kimliatach

 

This thread and the raw deal we get out of our current provider have had us reconsidering our private health insurance. Of note is the claim by one commenter that ten years of continuous coverage can reset the loading on premiums back to the base rate, even after many years of 2% per year loading has accumulated. That is unverified at this point. But if true it would mean that if for instance we went without private cover for fifteen years we would need to pay cover plus 30% for ten years and then it would reset to base cover rate. That is still pretty crap and it could be subject to change, or be completely untrue. Also of interest is the suggestion by a number of people that an enforced savings plan of say 75% of monthly premiums into a savings account can effectively cover all that the insurance is likely to and in some cases much more. This would only be a suitable option for us when incomes are more stable and much higher.

As it stands we don’t really use our insurance very much. We only have extras to get dental and even that is largely unused. My eldest A is going through the process of bracers and without my parents help we couldn’t achieve that. Our insurance gives a maximum of $300 back per calendar year on orthodontics. We investigated moving to an insurer who would provide more but the cost far outweighed the return. We have already received this year’s $300 which went to my father. Both N and I will undergo dental checkups prior to departure but during our time in Europe we are going to pay $800+ in unused insurance premiums.

I am morally opposed to the private healthcare system. It is the hatchet with which the Libs wish to destroy socialised healthcare in Australia and it is a great fiscal cost to our society. But waiting periods suck I understand why people want to pay to skip them. In truth the only reason I have cover at all is because of the 2% loading, We don’t earn enough to have to worry about the extra tax.

Really not sure what we we’ll do about that this evening.

Found a rather cool flight search tool, it requires the assistance of a travel agent to finalise but we have found flights a full thousand dollars cheaper than anywhere else using it and yes that is including taxes, fees to be determined. We have an agent working on our behalf so with any luck we will be able to buy tomorrow.

New computer should also arrive tomorrow.

The day with kindergarten, tutoring, some wiring on the chook tractor, dinner, dishes, bed time and flight searching has left me with nothing left to put in creatively tonight.

Ironing still to be done.

This is cool. Trailer.

As is this: