Month: December 2017

First up – Day 19 and what’s in the Advent calendar !

Looks like a Tie Striker to chase the rebels away.

The Special Project I mentioned yesterday involves making a new avatar or two. What goes into these ? Lots of patience and photoshopping … Here’s the starting image :

Spot the use of an envelope to act as a constant colour backdrop (it’s what I have to hand !) and a Nanoblock kit to raise the fella up a bit. In hindsight, a dotty object isn’t the best idea but with liberal use of the Magic Selector (a thing that selects a block of colour), the Free Select Tool and the delete key, you can turn that into :

And you’ll then want to trim the image down a fair bit and add an Alpha Channel to make the background transparent. This is the first layer of what I’m hoping to make.

Layers are very important. I’ll have the fella above as the main layer and I’ll add the rest as different layers. If you added everything on the same layer, then a mistake made would overwrite something you wanted to keep and then you’re at the random mercies of the Undo button.

I want to add something from :

Yep. Dwagon’s getting an Evil Cultist Snowmen jumper.

This isn’t so much of a cut and paste on top … I want to have it roughly matching the fella’s top. Let’s see …

There we go. This image is two layers, source dwagon plus source Evil Cultist snowmen. The source Evil Cultist Snowmen layer will be deleted later. I just need something to be a source for the lovely Clone Stamp tool.

Part way done. Note the imperfections on the left hand side of the jumper as we look at it. Those will disappear later. I’ve missed a trick actually as there are a few bits of source image for the jumper that I’d like to make this a high quality effort. Bits of jumper trim, things like that.

A little bit of cutting, pasting, clone tooling and rotating and the sleeves are coming together. I’m not planning to do much more than that coverage.

I think it’s almost there ? Don’t you ? As well as finishing the sleeves, I’ve done a little bit of clicking with the Erase tool on various layers. The erase will only take away from the current layer, so with every click you expose more of the source picture underneath. Less jumper, more dwagon.

He could do with a scarf I think but that’s probably beyond my photoshop skills. (Actually using the free tool GIMP).

I feel there should be a background. (It might appear overnight … I’ve actually written most of this post on Monday!)

Oh and if you’re thinking “That looks easy.” You can do it too ! Go for it. GIMP is a free tool so all it needs is the hard bit of having an idea and a little patience. The undo button is there to get rid of mistakes and the zoom thing is there to make it easier.

Go for it !

I think Day 18 is showing us who shot up the space station …

It’s a Y Wing bomber … lurking over the surface …

Mall run for me tonight. I have a Special Project coming soon hopefully, if my creative skills are up to it. I actually have 2 Special Projects in mind and the one inspired the other.

We shall see what the result will be !

No help at the Mall tonight though. Bit disappointing actually … The Bear workshop didn’t seem to have much in the way of Xmas gear for bears. They had a little but … not a great effort. I think they’re missing out there.

My own Xmas jumper has been getting lots of admirers lately. People like the Evil Cultist Snowmen for some reason. Or is there a pattern in the flashing lights which is … mesmerising them …

No decent cards either, which was disappointing. I will see what the supermarket has to offer tomorrow evening. And then there’s Bristol again as an ultimate fallback ! I know where there are good cards. Bit of a walk again maybe but that’s ok. I need to go back in to return those destroyed shoes anyway.

I did get my sausage-inna-bun though. It’s terrible for me but … I like ’em. And there are more in the centre of Bristol !

Yep. Yet more motivation to head in there on Wednesday or Thursday.

Right – not much more of the Orville left. It’s a fun start to what’s been described as the eighth season of Star Trek Next Generation and I’ve been enjoying it so far.

And then … what to have on in the background while I embark on the Special Projects …

Day 17 of Advent sees a hero arrive for an urgent mission :

Yesterday saw a shuttle arrive, today sees an officer of the Empire ready to be a keen pilot. What is his mission ? We shall see.

Feels odd at the moment. I think I’m partly in holiday mode, kicked off by a good afternoon in town on Friday. Only two more days at work to go until freedom for a little while. Looking forward to it ! (Although there is some stuff going on in the private side which has my thoughts but isn’t going to be added here).

The current Elite storyline is progressing as well. We’ve seen the return of the Thargoids, an ancient alien menace. They were content for a while to just disable our ships and take a look before letting us go on our way again. More recently though, they’ve turned more aggressive and have started making a mess :

That’s one of three stations that have been attacked and there are missions up to go and rescue as many people from them as can fit in your passenger cabins.

The damage is quite spectacular. If I’m feeling up to it (haven’t yet and yesterday’s session didn’t last that long) then I’ll make a video …

It’s even messier inside :

The station is in emergency mode, with lots of debris floating around inside (curiously rotating with the station but we’ll not say too much about that). Also very hot in there so you have to be quick about getting in there and out again. It’s a good little variation on what you can do in the game if you go looking for it.

Today has been mostly Motorsport Manager though. I’ve got my new team through a whole season now, possibly looking to get promoted this year but that’ll need a bit of luck. It’s kind of a rush to go up the division, as that lets me hire better drivers and designers. It also means my team won’t fall too far behind the teams in that higher division.

I’ve been enjoying the two games over the weekend. Both Motorsport Manager as it takes a bit of thought and planning through the races to get your team winning (not just a good car) and in seeing new things in Elite.

Wonder if there is something interesting to discover in today’s unveiling in the Humble bundle …

Day 16 !

And it is the black Imperial shuttle of Director Krennic …

If you haven’t seen Rogue One yet, I’d thoroughly recommend it. That film definitely has its moments.

Gonna be a short one again because I’m still extremely tired and not really knowing what I’m doing yet (apart from chilling out and watching videos). Yesterday was fun though.

Not many more days left for work ! There is still stuff we have to do before the break but we’ve cleared off the Absolute Must Get Done stuff. Means we can make a head start on next year.

Yesterday was tiring though. Fun but tiring. Lots of walking on brand new shoes ! Definitely worth it though :-). We spent the afternoon wandering around a fair bit of Bristol city centre looking at shiny things. I think I’ll be heading back there to hunt down Xmas cards.

Not today though. The rest of this evening is likely to be :

Lots of music to listen to.
Elite until I get tired. I’m going to do a rapid run over to an area attacked by aliens and do some rescuing.
More gaming videos. The ones queued up are for Stardew Valley, Stellaris and Factorio.

I have many Factorio videos lined up …

Day 15 !

What is it ? What could it be !

Hmm. Sometimes the answers come if you wait around a while. What do we see a little later …

There we go. It’s our Stormie again. He’s finished fixing up the shooting range but his bosses aren’t going to be happy until it’s all shiny and clean again.

It’s a cleaner/polisher thing !

If I get some energy up, I should follow Stormie’s example and do some cleaning here. I am utterly exhausted though. I may sleep for the weekend ! Except there is cricket being recorded tonight and tomorrow night, so I’ll wake up long enough to start the time delayed coverage and then that’ll put me to sleep again.

Maybe some Elite Internet Spaceship piloting as well.

Later !

Day 14 !

Another stormtrooper emerges. This one looks well geared up.

Where could they be sending him ? What threat has the Empire discerned ?

I think we know what it is. He is being sent into the domain of the :

Evil Cultist Snowmen.

Just look at them. Turn your back on them for a second and they’ll steal the buttons off your shirt and the carrots off your plate.

Just look at the Happy one ! Far too happy. Definitely planning something.

Today was our work’s Christmas do, which was good. Good food, good company, lovely wine (happily had help this time so I didn’t have too much). I tend to disappear from these events fairly early these days though.

Watching Star Wars movies after seems to be becoming a tradition as well. It was unplanned last year with Rogue One, bit more planned this year with The Last Jedi.

What did I think of the film ? I’m not going to spoil, don’t worry about that.

It keeps you wondering all the way through as to what direction it’s going to go. Good film. Definitely enjoyed it. Whereas The Force Awakens was more about fan service and reawakening the franchise, this definitely marched the story on.

Spectacular action sequences, Leia being the heart as always and a tough character too. There’s a new character brought in who is adorable, while other characters stir the emotions in different ways.

Great film. Will definitely see about finding an excuse to watch it again in the cinema.

Those snowmen though.

I think they have some form of mind control. It seems to be a very popular jumper. It was drawing all of the looks as I was walking through town today and a few comments too. The girls on the concession stand in the cinema loved it and wanted to know where I got it. I think the Evil Cultist Snowmen will be gathering an army of thralls to bear them.

In fact the voices are telling me I must wear this jumper tomorrow as well.

Day 13. Unlucky ? Maybe.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX !

The latest door in the calendar held a speeder. A lone speeder.

What could it be waiting for ? Is there more to this scene ? Perhaps. Let’s draw the camera back a bit.

It’s the unlucky Stormtrooper again !

Has he been distracted by Ewoks while a Rebel jumps in and nicks his ride ? And what is the enigmatic wanderer doing back there.

Will we ever find out the purposes hidden behind that mask. How long will it stay a mystery ?

The luck has been a little odd today. And yesterday.

While I was walking home, I was feeling my shoes get ever worse … Yep. The new ones that were acquired only a month ago. When I got home, had a look inside, discovered … they are ex-shoes. The heels on both sides have been thoroughly destroyed. I don’t think I give my shoes a particular pounding … Yet they only lasted a month where I’d expect a few years.

I’m due to be in town on Friday so after enjoying meeting up with someone lovely there, I’ll be hunting refunds and new shoes.

Today was the turn of electronic things … And a little work but I keep work away from here. The score, if you could call it that was 4-1. 4 major tasks complete, 1 major task frustrated. I like to have it at the 5-0 end. Failing at anything is something I find annoying, especially when it isn’t due to anything I’ve done. If I fail, I can own that failure and figure out how to not fail next time.

Electronics ? Beware the new Windows 10 update. Hey wait ! ALWAYS beware the new Windows update. This time it stopped BOINC from letting SETI and Milkyway run sums with my graphics card (it helps add heat to the room). And broke the sidebar gadgets … again.

All hopefully fixed now, although I haven’t opened any games since letting it update this evening.

Fingers crossed it’s all ok …

Day 12 and an old favourite !

I suspect it’s the Falcon today due to a connection with a certain number of parsecs.

Parsecs are a measure of distance and the saying in Star Wars has already attracted a certain amount of ridicule because it’s taken as a “The Falcon did this quickly !” thing. And a race is over a set distance isn’t it ?

I’m on the non-ridicule side of the argument. They’re talking about the Kessel Run, which is to a spice mining outpost that’s near a cluster of black holes. To get through safely, you’d need to plot a circuitous course through all of the black holes. You couldn’t go direct cos you’d get caught in the event horizons. But you could get close …. closer depending on how quick you were going and whether the engines gave the thrust to mass to let you escape.

So saying that a ship could do the run in less distance in this case is a valid boast.

Although saying that, I firmly believe that the writers of the boast know very little about why it might be a valid boast and were just thinking “Parsecs ! That sounds cool. We’ll use it.” A lot of Star Wars dialogue is insanely dumb like that.

But they do have cool ships and the Falcon is perhaps the coolest of the lot.

I now have 3x Falcons … The tiny one above;

A slightly bigger one that indulges in extreme manoeuvres occasionally (not any more, the advent calendar door holding it there gave up the fight and let it fall). This one is my oldest Falcon.

And ….

A somewhat larger Falcon that I thoroughly enjoyed building.

There is another Falcon that isn’t in my collection yet.

Did I say yet ? Hmm. I did say yet. Ominous ….

Anyone wanna get me this ? See something marvellous at the link. Yep. That would be particularly awesome.

I shall now go away and dream of the largest lego set.

What was that old saying ?

A horse ! A horse ! My kingdom for a horse !

I think he’s in the wrong universe, unless he has an empire to give away.

I watched the Force Awakens again tonight. The two newest Star Wars films are amazing, in different ways. It’s maybe the 5th time I’ve watched this one ? It’s still an excellent film.

It starts out slowly, gently, steadily drawing the viewer back into the universe. You have the pilot, you have the stormtrooper, you have the scavenger. Gotta say I love the character of Rey. The basis of the character had its criticisms (mainly in the minds of backwards people who balk at a girl being able to do all that) but for me she makes sense.

The character is a scavenger, growing up amongst strange machines, unusual equipment and harsh conditions. So she’s learned how to make starships work and how to look out for herself.

It’s a great character.

Looking forwards to seeing more of the new Star Wars, possibly on Thursday if things work out in town.

One thing about the cinema, it is definitely far more plug n play than home entertainment can be. I may have to look more at upgrading the telly … I have :

Samsung telly. Bit crude but still does the job with showing the pictures. Bit small though at I think 32″, I’d like something bigger.
Panasonic bluray player. A very competent device.
Onkyo AV amplifier connecting them together and doing the sound.

I think the amplifier has had issues since I got it, or it could be the telly confusing the link between the three items. They all hook up via HDMI, which has trust issues … All those copying pirates led to copy protection going into systems where it doesn’t belong and I think the telly confuses that copy protection trust link. Anyway. It had trouble with those trust issues tonight but I fixed it with the simple thing of taking the lead out and putting it back in again.

The amp is happily playing music now that the film is finished. It makes excellent music. Can’t remember when I bought it …. years ago ! It has definitely given its money’s worth.

May all our devices do that !

Day 10 sees a wanderer arrive.

Or is he travelling. Where is he headed ? Is it even a male wanderer under that garb and mask ? Does their species even have male and female ?

So many assumptions, so many questions.

It’s snowing here at the moment. Actually coming down reasonably snowy but the ground is far too wet for it to stick. Could be an icy walk to the bus stop tomorrow and I’ll have to make a sleepy assessment as to whether I walk over there in my boots or normal shoes. It’s turning to something closer to icy rain at the moment. Not too good to be out in, it’s weather to guarantee misery and wet.

My work shoes are fairly decent for grip on the soles, now that I’ve mostly worn them flat. That was odd … when I got them, the grips were uneven, it felt like half the sole was a few millimeters different from the rest, which was leading to odd balancing being needed. Apart from that, I like these shoes. My ankles normally get shredded by new shoes, these have been ok and my ankles have been allowed to continue healing. There’s still damage to repair though.

Today will be another day of chilling out and occasionally looking out the window to see if things have gone white yet. Other parts of the country have had serious snowfall. I’ve seen a pic of a place near where my sister lives and it’s a traffic pile up on one of the major roads. It never usually gets that bad here.

But there is a group of intrepid sailors who are sailing into even worse conditions :

This is from the inshore leg as the fleet was leaving Cape Town this morning. Fairly close racing but I suspect they didn’t want to get too crazy considering that they’ll be heading for the Southern Ocean where there is no land mass to act as a break on the seas down there. Reports are of 12m waves, which will dwarf these racing yachts. And …

That’s where they’re headed and that angry red circle of a weather depression will lead to very challenging conditions.

I’ll be following the racing again and two boats in particular. Turn The Tide On Plastic (TTOP) is skippered by Dee Caffari who I was listening to for the start of the last Vendee Globe and she had a gift there of explaining everything that was going on in a style that made it easy for this novice to understand. And the other boat I’m following is Scallywag (SHKS) skippered by another Brit.

May the Brits rule the waves again !