So I’ve been working on the site. I know I said I was working on a new design. Well, then WordPress 3.0 came out and twenty-ten and well.
Okay I’m working on a child theme instead, expanding my horizons. So the site should change randomly piece by piece. Fun huh?
I’m also updating my portfolio and gallery. I’ve done some new paintings I like. So I should actually get this done this year, the update that is. So yeah. Things. So if things seem wonky, don’t worry. I’m working on it.
I won a bookmark from Jennifer Tatroe. She’s an awesome collage artist, and writer. I met her through the local gaming conventions.
The bookmark is a mini-collage with pages of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and sheet music.
To see more of Jennifer’s work you can check out her web page at http://www.jennifertatroe.com/ or check out her Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/palimpsestic. I love seeing such creativity. Makes me want to squee!
My new tablet pc allows me to draw right on the screen. I can’t tell you how much fun this has been, but I can show you the paintings I’ve completed so far:
Okay, so I don’t have any pictures yet. The plan is to finish cleaning up Book ‘Splode 09, run my Serenity game, then take pictures.
I’ve been playing with blending. Most of the stuff I’ve read on it say to use some type of extender medium and water. I’ve just be using water with good results…but I thought it’d try extender.
Well, it really extends. Come on, if I wanted the pain of oils in my mini paint, I’d just use oils. Even a tiny dip kept the paint too wet to the point where it felt like I was blending with washes. Add water to that mess and it like painting on clear color.
Which is great for over blends…not so much for base blends.
My goal is to finish Syd de Kaiber for Tacticon. I still need to work on my skin tones and faces but I’m feeling confident to try out one little contest.
The call to quit IE6 has gotten louder over the years. Now with the release of IE8 and PROOF that MS can make a standards compliant browser, those calls are turning to screams.
I am one of them.
Frankly IE6 is broken and old and should be tossed with the bath water. I am less and less inclined to bother checking my sites in them unless a client requests it. Why? Because there is less need. Lets go over the arguments for supporting IE6:
Most People Use It
While not only debatable it’s silly. First of all, just in case you had no idea (don’t worry most don’t), you can see who’s visiting your site with what. Most sites I develop have seen a serious down path in IE6 users over the last 7 years since IE6 release. Most sites don’t even garner 1%. Now if you want to say most people use IE as a whole you’d be right. But developing for IE7 is much easier and only needed a few tweaks and hacks…while so far IE8 needs NO tweaks or hacks. It’s a beautiful thing.
No one wants to spend the money to upgrade
Dude it’s free. Even MS isn’t that stupid. IE8 works on XP and Vista. If you don’t think it will run on 98 or Me (I’m sorry you’re still running that) get 7.
We are limited to IE6 at work because of proprietary software the company uses
Besides the fact they should upgrade for security reasons; you shouldn’t be surfing at work. I know we all do it, but you can’t cater to those who are doing something they shouldn’t. If, by chance, your job IS surfing the web you should be making a case for updating. Hammers aren’t screwdrivers. Get the right tools for your job, especially when free.
Websites shouldn’t limit the latest bling and I don’t need to see new bling on websites
IE6 not only doesn’t see the latest bling, it’s also 8 years behind STANDARDS. That’s right, it’s not to code. Things that IE6 can’t support have been around longer than IE6 and are no longer fads. Png, CSS, fricking padding are here to stay folks. MS upgraded the browers twice now. Even they know.
You can’t upgrade without a valid copy of windows
Dude pony up or get Firefox. FTL.
It’s time to drop IE6. Drop the support and you’ll have much saner webmasters.
Vue 7 Pioneer is out of beta and it’s still free! Yah!
It’s a great way to try the software and you can buy modules to bring it all the way up to complete if you wish.
Vue long ago surpassed Bryce as Bryce suffered from a string of uninterested companies finally devolving into a plugin for a Poser knock off. I really enjoy Vue and I have both Vue 6i and Vue 7 pioneer on my machines.
Recently I’ve been painting more. Took some time off from forums (It was just wasting time and people were getting to me). So I bring you a sketch I started last night.
Just a quick sketch. I try to remember to post more as I finish it.
So last week turned into really busy work week, which hasn’t finished. Plus I had strep. Yeah me. So again this means I’m behind. If you’re waiting for updates from me, I promise I’m doing them…really.
We got a new camera. It takes some great photos. The first thing I tested was the zoom.
Zooming in on the cloud.
A cloud
On the left you see an innocent cloud. On the right is me, zooming the crap out of said cloud during our morning walk. Wait, did I say morning walk? Yes I did! Last week I started walking Aia to school and then walking back to get the car. It’s actually be a great way to get in 30 minutes regardless of how my day turns out. In fact I took a picture of the sunrise one morning during our walk.
I also took some photos to test the camera on my minis. One is in process of painting. The other is that dragon I’ve been mumbling about. And yes that wing stayed on.
Stupid wing. This weekend I wrote quite a bit and dog snuggled. Whinnie is Whinnie. Dagny is not doing so well. She’s been diagnosed with bone cancer and has about 3 – 6 months. Sigh. We’ve been trying to make her comfortable by allowing her to sleep on the couch.
I got a massage on Saturday though it was a last minute change because my appointment got lost a week before and they could only fit me in with this other girl. She was nice and all. However she really likes wax. A lot. Having my feet wrapped in wax was okay, until it got cold. Then my feet didn’t seem to hold traction for a bit afterward. I turned a bunch of stuff in to Black & Read for credit. It was good day.
Sunday was supposed to be ski day. We made to the top of the mountain.
But Aia, on our second run, fell. Not so bad. However, when she tried to get up her skis were pointed down hill and she started sliding. She ran over my skis and we had to have her taken down on a Ski Patrol toboggan. She has big bruise on her back but is otherwise okay.
At Tarot last night one of the members was paring down his collection. I have a new deck out of the bargain…tarot of the spirit. Can’t wait to trade out my study decks…it’s time again.
Other than having strep I’ve been working on web pages. I have a large update ready for the Pulp website…but they’re changing the document now…so it’s best if I just wait. I need to get that new porfolio up and working too.
WH is coming along. I’m finishing up the last chapter. I’ve started a new program where I get up early, do the 5 Tibetans, meditate, and then write until shower time. Then I walk the spawn to school. So far so good. Today was the first full day of doing all four…I’ve been working up to it.
I would like to have a set of miniatures to bring with me to conventions for Serenity and maybe other games I run. This involves me getting more pulp miniatures, and some sci fi ones. Painting continues. This brings me to the Cynwall Dragon.
The Cynwall Dragon is a “mini” from the Confrontation line. I don’t play mini games…though I wouldn’t mind this one…if I knew a group that played. This mini is huge. J. gave it to me for Christmas last year. I finally started cleaning up and putting it together. This is my second dragon. My first was an old Ralpartha. I had to glue the tail and the head and the wings on. It’s a very pretty amytheist…but this was before I knew about sculpting. So it has a lot of gaps. I could fix it I guess. But it’s fine for what it is.
I was at Valhalla’s last week and found a Reaper limited edition Dragon vignette on sale. The base is the dragon hord with cliff The dragon is one piece just needing wings and horns glued on. The dwarven thief is pre attached to the cliff and just needs to be glued on the base.
Back to the Cynwall. Confrontation minis come in pieces. Even their tiny 1 inch minis come in many pieces. Now imaging a huge dragon. The body comes in not one but three parts that form a hollow shell. The head is separate. Not only are each wing separate but the folded wing? Two pieces. That’s if you don’t count the five claws that need to be attached to feet and wings. Bestly (that’s my new word for today) the tail part that needs to be glued on is the middle part…since the tail curls and all.
So this posed a problem. I needed a hobby vice. No screaming…I hadn’t needed on yet…some kind of gap filler and more glue. I already have a hefty glue and putty stash: Elmers, Aileen (clear, wood and regular tacky), wood glue, spakle, Insta-Cure thin, GW Green Stuff and probably stuff I can’t remember. The Insta-Cure is the best for putting together metal minis. I took one look at this heavy beast and decided I needed better glue. I debated picking up more of the Insta-Cure stuff…but it’s expensive and tends to dry out in the bottle IME. The thin seems to last the longest.
I headed to hobby lobby and my local train hobby story. I got some gorilla glue and some gap filler (I forget the company…but it’s called, predictably, White Stuff. So First I gorilla glued the two halves of the main body together. That took a day to dry. Next I gap filled the body and stuck the neck on. It came off. (Stop with the pinning. There will be no pinning) But the filler had sunk as it dried. So I refilled and stuck the neck on again. This worked and I cleaned off the bleed.
For the head I used Insta-Cure. Success!
This morning I tried to connect the tail middle. Stupid thing was not at the right angle to fit between the tail end and the tail base. I used my new vice to squish the piece into the right angle. Again I’ve used Insta-Cure.
The damn folded wing was back to Gorilla Glue.
This figure is going to take a lot of green stuff to fill the gaps. I have to attach the wings and the claws. In the meantime…I wish pulp, sci fi and western minis were cheaper.
Look at the pretty until I feel like writing something:
I can’t afford to upgrade my copy of Vue 6 Infinite for the moment. I’m not really worried about it…eventually I’ll upgrade. But I couldn’t resist participating in the new Vue 7 Pioneer open beta. Pioneer is the new entry user level version of Vue as in below d’Esprit. So it’s pretty simple. It works fine on Mac and Windows. It doesn’t have Ecosystems, which I’ve come to rely on…but it comes with the basic level of stuff, just like all Vue versions do. The render options are not as wide as in Infinite…but I’m seariously thinking of getting this for my daughter. She likes Bryce, but her copy is my old copy, and I’m not interested in installing DAZ’s version which is pretty much just a plugin for their software line. The results, with little effort, are high above what Bryce can do. As for what it can to with effort…well have you seen the latest Indiana Jones or the last two Pirates of the Carribean.
Num.
Pioneer doesn’t have anything but the very basic Vue, so none of those plant apps, wind, or various shader apps that make it a lot of fun in the more advanced areas (I’m a shader whore, it’s Bryce’s fault, Poser and Infinite just feed my addiction….I hate math, why do function editors make sense to me when adding doesn’t?).
This is what I did yesterday. Pioneer renders the objects first and then the sky. Because it’s a beta, watermarks. It took about 10 minutes to put together, with some simple terrain edits and some tweaks to a pre-set sky.
