Real Life and What's Happening...

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Well, dang. This Summer, I got off most of the social medias, because I found them to be a net-negative in my life. By and large, that was a good decision. However, without those pesky birthday reminders, I realized as I woke up this morning that I had neglected to wish not just one, but two of my good friends a "happy birthday" within the past week.
 
Still working steadily on nanowrimo. The first 16,000 words came fairly easily. Ever since then it's gotten significantly more challenging.

Those first 16k pretty much laid out the gist of what happens in the story, so what I'm doing now is going back and putting in better descriptions, rather than, for instance, just saying "thing X happens," and putting in more of what I think of as "the human parts," meaning characters' thoughts and feelings and such-like.

I hit 23k words today, so I am on pace to hit 25k tomorrow, which is the halfway point. I'm still enjoying the project and intend to finish it; it has just gotten a lot harder lately.
 
My oldest boy turned 19 a couple of weeks ago, which is old enough to drink here. That felt like a big step, I feel ya.

I have a 20 year old, basically just a big kid though. I don't mean that to imply he is immature, or irresponsible just that it is hard for me not to still see the 7 year old in him. I don't see that as a problem, "never grow up" job done. :smile:

Also loving that he has online D&D nights with his (2 years older) uncle and some friends.
 
I have a 20 year old, basically just a big kid though. I don't mean that to imply he is immature, or irresponsible just that it is hard for me not to still see the 7 year old in him. I don't see that as a problem, "never grow up" job done. :smile:
We're all something like 10 years old under all that responsibility. :grin: That's why fart jokes are still funny.
 
Wear a Hawaiian shirt in Hawaii. I couldn't walk two blocks without being asked if I wanted drugs last time I did that.
So this is similar to looking like a tourist in Amsterdam?
 
So this is similar to looking like a tourist in Amsterdam?
I've been to Amsterdam a few times and never been approached the way I was in Hawaii.
 
I've been to Amsterdam a few times and never been approached the way I was in Hawaii.
You probably didn't sufficiently resemble a tourist. It also depends on where you go in Amsterdam.
 
My oldest boy turned 19 a couple of weeks ago, which is old enough to drink here. That felt like a big step, I feel ya.

Old enough to drink used to be a rite of passage in England, when a proud dad took his 18 year old to the pub for his first drink.

One of my friends says that his Dad took him to a nearby pub on his 18th birthday and bought him a drink telling the landlord that "this is my son, he's just turned 18". the landlord looked at this young man, who had been a regular for 2 years, and said "18 are you? Well, congratulations". He didn't know where to look, as he was so embarrassed.
 
I think I live near a meth house. For the past few months, every weekend very late at night I either smell strong chemical smells like fingernail polish or our eyes will start burning until I shut the window. There are no obvious suspects, all the houses on the street are tidy and manicured.

I was today years old when I found out about this:

uIecYlE.jpeg
 
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Keeping up with my nanowrimo writing; re-committing to regular exercise and relatively good nutrition; currently waiting for the comic book store to open so I can go buy my BFF a birthday present, most likely a Spider-Man Funko Pop; trying to not be bummed out that I won't be doing much of anything for Thanksgiving.

Chicago is rolling back to a more restrictive phase of the re-opening plan starting on Monday, since we've had a huge spike in Covid cases lately. None of the changes really affect me, though.
 
Trying to keep on track with Nanowrimo even while sick... it seems that this year is going to be 10 days of 5k words per day at this rate. When I sit down and write, I remember the idea and it flows.
 
I think I live near a meth house. For the past few months, every weekend very late at night I either smell strong chemical smells like fingernail polish or our eyes will start burning until I shut the window. There are no obvious suspects, all the houses on the street are tidy and manicured.

I was today years old when I found out about this:

View attachment 24216
More specifically for an emergency procedure performed when the baby is trapped and a cesarean section is impossible. Doing it with a scalpel took a long time and hurt like a motherfucker, from what I've read.

Also those weren't giant gas powered monstrosities. They were tools used for surgery. :tongue:
 
More specifically for an emergency procedure performed when the baby is trapped and a cesarean section is impossible. Doing it with a scalpel took a long time and hurt like a motherfucker, from what I've read.

Also those weren't giant gas powered monstrosities. They were tools used for surgery. :tongue:
Yeah I understand that hand cranked contraption was an improvement over the previous method but that makes the whole thing even more brutal.
 
Washington has entered a sort of lock down again too. We're basically back to where we were in September.
Past. This is as bad as it's ever been in Washington. But hey my kids school is still trying to open up Dec 2nd.
 
Chicago, and I think the whole state of Illinois, although I haven't been keeping up with the news that much, are also worse than ever.

So, although I've lived in my current apartment for about a year and a half, I've never really settled on how to use the space. I'm currently entertaining the notion of converting the master bedroom into a dedicated gaming room. I have a full week of vacation coming up, and there isn't really anywhere to go, so I will need a project.... if I decide I don't like it, I can always change it back.
 
I made a very difficult decision today. As of this morning there has been 942 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 3 days alone here in Spokane. Because of this, the new restrictions and a couple of students testing positive (All seem to have contracted it outside of school) the faculty of my culinary program have decided to end in-person classes on the 4th, a week earlier than normal. Additionally my class has been given the option to not have to opt for finishing online, effectively having to only take the final in person.
Today I decided that the risk for finishing this quarter in-person out-wayed the benefit.
I'm tired, frustrated, angry and most of all sad.
 
So, I've been wrestling with how to design spaceships and (more importantly) space stations and not come up with any satisfactory solutions using 2D drafting software. I've been drifting to the conclusion that I really need to get ofay with a 3D modelling app. My hand, with 30+ years of OOS is going to hate me.

Blender is quite powerful but really works best on Linux; Sketchup is relatively cheap and it's supposed to be easy to use and fairly good, but it appears to be rental-only. A few years ago, when I was working out of town, I used to rent a room from a chap who did trade show display stands for a living. He used Cinema 4D and swore by it, but it's quite dear - about £3,000 for a non-rental licence.

Realistically, I think Cinema 4D's price tag is out of the question at the moment, which makes it (I think) a toss-up between Sketchup and Blender, plus a not-trivial amount of quality time frigging with the system to learn how to drive it.

In unlrelated news, Fractal World Explorer is still churning on its erosion simulation.

IN related news, Fractal Mapper and Fractal World Explorer are quite slow on large models. Definitely some scope for performance optimisation there.
 
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So, I've been wrestling with how to design spaceships and (more importantly) space stations and not come up with any satisfactory solutions using 2D drafting software. I've been drifting to the conclusion that I really need to get ofay with a 3D modelling app. My hand, with 30+ years of OOS is going to hate me.

Blender is quite powerful but really works best on Linux; Sketchup is relatively cheap and it's supposed to be easy to use and fairly good, but it appears to be rental-only. A few years ago, when I was working out of town, I used to rent a room from a chap who did trade show display stands for a living. He used Cinema 4D and swore by it, but it's quite dear - about £3,000 for a non-rental licence.

Realistically, I think Cinema 4D's price tag is out of the question at the moment, which makes it (I think) a toss-up between Sketchup and Blender, plus a not-trivial amount of quality time frigging with the system to learn how to drive it.

In unlrelated news, Fractal World Explorer is still churning on its erosion simulation.

IN related news, Fractal Mapper and Fractal World Explorer are quite slow on large models. Definitely some scope for performance optimisation there.

If you just want to do 3D modeling, then Sketchup isn't bad, that is what it was made for. If you are thinking about 3D printing look elsewhere as it isn't so good for that.

Granted I haven't used Sketchup since about 2016 when I discovered it really wasn't a good choice for 3D printing. I started using it around 2008 when it was Google Sketchup. It was bought from Google in 2012 and it seems like with each update the free version does less than the year before. I did the full Pro version for a year (under a student license which was like $50 / yr) and can do a lot of cool stuff, but it costs too much for hobby use (in my opinion) and the free version cuts out too many of the useful tools so I quit using it. Plus the whole not so great at 3D printing aspect.

I moved onto Fusion 360 which offered a free "hobbyist" version which was not just a gutted version of the pay program. Unfortunately they are now cutting back on what you can do with the free version, so I am once again on the prowl for a good free or at least inexpensive 3D CAD program. I don't mind paying for a program, but I'm not a commercial user making money with it, so paying hundreds of dollars a year is not on the table. Currently looking at TinkerCAD and FreeCAD but have not yet done much research on either. I really had my hopes on Fusion 360, so the news they are reducing the free license is disappointing. Whatever I go with next it will be open source, so the corporate overlords can't rein in the content.
 
If you just want to do 3D modeling, then Sketchup isn't bad, that is what it was made for. If you are thinking about 3D printing look elsewhere as it isn't so good for that.

Granted I haven't used Sketchup since about 2016 when I discovered it really wasn't a good choice for 3D printing. I started using it around 2008 when it was Google Sketchup. It was bought from Google in 2012 and it seems like with each update the free version does less than the year before. I did the full Pro version for a year (under a student license which was like $50 / yr) and can do a lot of cool stuff, but it costs too much for hobby use (in my opinion) and the free version cuts out too many of the useful tools so I quit using it. Plus the whole not so great at 3D printing aspect.

I moved onto Fusion 360 which offered a free "hobbyist" version which was not just a gutted version of the pay program. Unfortunately they are now cutting back on what you can do with the free version, so I am once again on the prowl for a good free or at least inexpensive 3D CAD program. I don't mind paying for a program, but I'm not a commercial user making money with it, so paying hundreds of dollars a year is not on the table. Currently looking at TinkerCAD and FreeCAD but have not yet done much research on either. I really had my hopes on Fusion 360, so the news they are reducing the free license is disappointing. Whatever I go with next it will be open source, so the corporate overlords can't rein in the content.
3D printing isn't what I'm after; really I want to do the conceptual design for a bunch of intrinsically 3 dimensional things like space habitats and I'm not getting anywhere with drafting tools or sketching stuff on paper. Maybe if I had a modicum of talent for drawing this would be a non-issue but unfortunately artistic talent seems to have passed by my generation.
 
So I finally got an assistant but he's an old man who has been a failure in every other department at my workplace. On day two of working for me he told he liked his previous position better and wanted to go back to it. He works very slowly and teaching him anything new is a laborious process. The few times I tried to break the ice with small talk he whines and complains. I think he is resentful being an old man in an unskilled entry level position but honestly working part time from home doing mindless data entry for $15 an hour is a helluva lot better than Walmart or McDonald's. I don't know how to get through to this guy, he can barely do his job and I have to take care of anything that deviates from the norm (explaining to him takes more time than doing it myself). I am interested in solutions.
 
So I finally got an assistant but he's an old man who has been a failure in every other department at my workplace. On day two of working for me he told he liked his previous position better and wanted to go back to it. He works very slowly and teaching him anything new is a laborious process. The few times I tried to break the ice with small talk he whines and complains. I think he is resentful being an old man in an unskilled entry level position but honestly working part time from home doing mindless data entry for $15 an hour is a helluva lot better than Walmart or McDonald's. I don't know how to get through to this guy, he can barely do his job and I have to take care of anything that deviates from the norm (explaining to him takes more time than doing it myself). I am interested in solutions.
Don't do his job for him. That way lies madness. If he screws up, make him go back and fix it. If he causes problems, make sure management are aware. Don't get sucked into doing his job for him, even if it's easier to do it yourself.
 
I think he is resentful being an old man in an unskilled entry level position but honestly working part time from home doing mindless data entry for $15 an hour is a helluva lot better than Walmart or McDonald's.
Man, if I were in this position, I'd figure out a way to automate this through scripting.
 
Man, if I were in this position, I'd figure out a way to automate this through scripting.
If you were in his position you wouldn't be a 65 year old slaving away at data entry while being bossed around by people 20 and 30 years younger. If he had a decent attitude and work ethic I would be more sympathetic to his plight.

Interestingly enough we already have scripted a lot of the data entry here but the account I now am currently responsible for has like a dozen clients and each of those clients has multiple agents who all march to the beat of a drunken drummer when it comes to submitting their data.
 
About 30 years ago I learned to use CAD software - my mother was just establishing what was to become the CAD lab at the department she lectured in and I tagged along. I'm standing at the edge of a precipice with 3D software - there are quite a few things I could use it for, mainly -
  • Designing spacecraft and space stations - I've not gotten satisfactory results from my attempts to dabble with drafting software like Adobe Illustrator.
  • 3D terrain to get shaded terrain for maps. I've gotten quite good results by building maps from openstreetmap data but I can't draw terrain in 2D to save my life.
  • Designing buildings and complexes.
My old W520 Thinkpad has a quadro video card built-in, so it should have plenty of juice to run the software - in fact the built-in graphics on my T430 are probably up to working with complex-ish models. But, boy howdy this is a deep rabbit hole to go down. Sketchup looks promising, but it's very dependent on third-party plugins to do stuff like subdivision modelling. It's rental only but not too grim at about £200 pa or so, plus the cost of the extensions.
 
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