Caught In The Whirlwind
Archive for February, 2010
Mr. Spatula, REVEALED!!
Feb 22nd 2010
Ok, this is the best picture I could manage of my new Betta, Mr. Spatula. His colors are REALLY hard to photograph properly, so I had to take the best shot I got and tweak the colors. This isn’t totally accurate, but it’s as good as I could get.
Lookin’ For Love (February FArt Entry)
Feb 20th 2010
Just a quick posting here. I’ve spent the last couple days working hard on finishing my entry in the February FArt competition. The theme this month was romance, and I decided to do a poster for a super hero dating service. This has some City of Heroes in-jokes in the text so it might not be as interesting to somebody who hasn’t played the game, but I figured I’d toss it up here anyway.
This one gave me all sorts of trouble. First poster I’ve ever done up and it’s kinda graphic intensive which brings into play my lack of drawing skills. I was about ready to just give up earlier this week but Thursday evening I had a bit of a breakthrough and managed to make it into something I think I actually like. Quite the turnaround.
Book 7: American Gods
Feb 18th 2010
Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 624
Summary
Shadow is released from prison after finding out his wife has died. Unsure of what to do with himself, he joins up with a mysterious man and launches into a journey of self discovery which eventually expands outwards into a journey examining the very fabric of spirituality (not religion, exactly) in the united states.
Notes (Some Spoilers)
This is a fantastic book, and the second book by Neil Gaiman that I’ve read. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors for his ability to entwine multiple plot-lines into one cohesive unit and add hooks and twists to early parts of the book that don’t immediately call attention to themselves (“Oh, so the cat likes to eat tofu. That was random…I bet that’ll be used later”)
But it has the feel of more than just a good work of fiction. Through his story, Mr. Gaiman also casts a critical eye over the spirituality of the entire nation, offering an outsiders perspective on the way our spirituality has changed from the time our ancestors arrived in various ways bringing with them their gods from the old world and how, as time went on people began to lose sight of where they came from, caught up in the next big thing.
The last…oh, half of this book just snared me and I basically couldn’t put the book down. I sometimes zone out when characters engage in dreams and wacky spiritual trips through their own subconscious but that wasn’t the case here. I was glued to the story and left wondering what would happen next. Everything is intertwined from the beginning of the book all the way through to the end in a way that you don’t see coming and yet is believable once all is revealed.
My one small complaint is that some of the interludes between chapters, explaining how various gods arrived in the new world were a bit rough to get through. They tended to happen right as the book was getting good and I was more interested in continuing the story than being diverted.
But overall, I highly, highly recommend this book.
Next Book
The newest Sword and Laser book has been announced, so I think that’s what I’ll be reading next. The book: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Headed back into Sci-fi land for this one. I know nothing about the author or the book, so I’m hoping this’ll be a fun ride.
Mr. Spatula
Feb 16th 2010
I got myself a new Betta over the weekend. I was going to post about it sooner but I wanted to try to get some pictures of him first. Unfortunately, he’s being VERY uncooperative, so I’ll have to snap some pictures later. His name is Mr. Spatula, after the iconic evil goldfish in the Sam & Max series of computer games.
I really didn’t intend on getting a new betta this weekend. I was going out to price how much a new aquarium decor setup would probably be running me when I spotted the perfect fish in Petsmart. Well, I had to rescue the poor guy so I got him right there, rushed home and re-set up my fish tank (which now has a greek ruins sort of theme to it.
Mr. Spatula is a mostly blue veil tail betta with a black head, and red streaks in his fins. He’s also as dumb as a box of rocks. He spent the first two hours in the tank freaking out over his reflection in the back wall. I figured he’d stop eventually, but I ended up having to remove the background until I can figure out a suitable replacement that won’t reflect nearly so much. I also have to feed him by practically dropping the food on top of him. Otherwise he won’t notice it.
It’s interesting how two different fish can have such different personalities. Fish was mellow (He rarely flared, and never freaked at his own reflection) and raced right out when the food came in. Mr. Spatula is a bit more aggressive.
I’ll try to get a good picture at some point soon, and when I do I’ll post em up. He just wouldn’t cooperate. Probably not used to me being around yet.
Man On A Horse
Feb 12th 2010
Urgh. Today is shaping up to be…awful. I got caught in the hall right as I was walking in and told something bad happened to our web app that needed fixing. But the e-mail saying what was wrong was total gibberish to me (except for the phrase “the customers are demanding answers!!!!”). So that’s getting sorted out and I’m taking the lull in the morning to post here…
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been working on a project for my lone class this semester, as I’ve mentioned previously. It’s coming along pretty well, I think. It’s a composite image of two chess pieces playing a game of chess with little people as the pieces on the board. On Monday I was able to finally grab a good park bench type shot to act as the scene, so that was the last big hurdle.
During class Tuesday the professor mentioned how it would be cool if I could have a guy on a horse (to act as one of the knights) but he didn’t know if it would be possible to get the shot or not. Well, I happen to know a guy with a horse (my uncle) and they were able to provide some nice pictures to use which should really add to the quality of the piece. I’m kinda regretting not taking more pictures at the Renaissance Festival the last couple years I’ve went because they’d be extremely useful right about now.
I’m also going over to my grandmothers house this weekend hopefully to look through some of her black and white pictures for something that could have color added to it (as is our next assignment for the class).
I’m also starting to go all out on my 2010 City of Heroes FArt competition entry for this month. The theme is romance and I’ll be doing an advertising poster for a super hero oriented dating service. I’m trying to work out the copy on the poster right now (jotting down ideas as I think of them while I work). Oh, I just realized I never posted my entry for last month here! What If? The Rogue Isles Olympics. (Make sure you click the image to see the full sized view) You’re probably not going to get a the in-jokes unless you play City of Heroes, but I’m really happy with how that particular design turned out (still).
Fish, the Betta: A Memorial
Feb 9th 2010
Last night I discovered that Fish, my betta had died sometime during the day.
He’d been pretty lethargic for a while now. After doing some research, I decided it was just old age. Their natural lifespan is about 3 years. I got him in March 2008 and they’re usually 6 months to a year old once they hit the fish stores, so it seems that he lived out his natural lifespan.
And he got to do it in a palace of a tank (just over 5 gallons, all to himself) as opposed to being stuck in a little tiny bowl for his entire life. He was one lucky little fish. Especially since I almost didn’t see the cache of bettas where he was stored. I remember agonizing over a selection, picking one and then rounding a corner and finding another cache of bettas sitting there to go through.
My current plans now are to clean out and redecorate the tank (I want to do more of a theme, as opposed to natural plants and such this time out) and get a new betta. I’ll probably start poking around this week to see what my options are and figure out how much the redecoration is going to run me.
New Toys, New Hobbies
Feb 6th 2010
I have a new toy! Like I had been talking about for a week…this morning I went out and actually bought myself a DSLR. Specifically A Nikon D3000:
Nikon D3000
Had to take that picture with my point and shoot. But there it is! 70% of my tax refund! Before I get into the camera, I need to plug the place I bought it from because they’re totally awesome.
The place: Danella Photographic in New Hartford. They’re a specialty camera store, locally run. I went in there and talked to the guy at the counter, explaining what I was trying to do and what I needed the camera for. I mentioned that I was looking at the D3000 and he brought one out for me to play with. He spent the next 45 minutes to an hour showing me how to use the camera and gave me a basic lesson in the more advanced Photography, including some very helpful tips and tricks for how to get some good results. He said once I take some shots and get comfortable with the camera that I can bring some in and he’d take a look at them and give me some advice, as well as go over some of the more advanced functions. He remembered Wassy from when she was in there a couple weeks ago too.
The camera cost me $100 more than it would have if I went over to Best Buy and picked one up. But nobody at Best Buy is going to be spending an hour walking me through it.
When I got home, it turned out that I was REALLY lucky with the lighting outdoors. I went out to see what I could do and get some practice in around the apartment complex. We have this nice little section of woods behind our building with a creek running through and everything. Wassy went down there last weekend in the morning and picked up some amazing shots, so I headed down there this afternoon to see what I could find. I managed to snap a couple of decent shots, I think (out of the 75 or so pictures I took down there). It was hard to see what I was taking on the LCD screen since it was so sunny out, but I was trying to experiment with the various settings.
As it turns out, the second picture down here is almost exactly the same as one of the ones Wassy took. I managed to find the exact same bit of plant and snap a picture in the exact same way. The only difference was in the lighting the fact that hers was frost covered. Freaky. Here’s some of what I got:
Really excited to have a new hobby to pursue. Especially one that’s in more of the creative space. And I’m REALLY happy with the camera. I was hoping they would have something used, but Wassy nabbed the one used one they had in the price range I was looking for, so I went with the D3000 (the slightly upgraded version of the D60).
Looking forward to seeing where this all takes me, and I’m very thankful to Wassy for getting me to consider these sorts of activities as something I might actually be able to do (after I convinced myself that I couldn’t) last June. I’m happy that I’m learning and doing something productive with my free time. Like I said earlier in the week, it just feels satisfying.
I need to take some shots for my Digital Imaging project tomorrow, so I’ll get another chance to play around and try out various things.
Inveitability
Feb 5th 2010
So yeah, I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to pull the trigger on the DSLR purchase. The most likely suspect is a Nikon D3000 (See right), but I’m going to run over to the local specialist store this weekend to ask around, see what they might recommend. That’s where Wassy got hers and they really know what they’re doing over there it sounds like.
I’m still a bit… apprehensive, I guess would be the correct term about dropping that much money on something. But I wasn’t planning on having the money available to me anyway, and I’m tired of coming up with excuses for why I can’t pursue something that I might enjoy.
Ever since I got my little point and shoot I’ve taken an interest in photography. Even managed to get some pretty decent shots (like the one to the right). But after seeing how much of a different a DSLR makes even if you’re just a beginner…well, I’m interested and I think I could become pretty decent at it if I keep going.
It’d be a great complement to my newfound interest in graphic design and a big help in my current classes.
So I think I’m gonna go for it now that I have the resources available to me to drop the cash. I’ve just been feeling really…satisfied with how I’ve been spending my free time. More than I have been in a while, and I want to keep exploring down this road. See where it leads. I think it’s a very worthwhile investment.
I’ll post an update on how things went later.
Book 6: Mass Effect: Revelation
Feb 4th 2010
Title: Mass Effect: Revelation
Author: Drew Karpyshyn
Genre: Science Fiction/Video Game Book
Pages: 336
Summary
The prequel to the video game Mass Effect, this book deals with the events directly leading into the story of the game. David Anderson is tasked with finding our what happened to one of Humanity’s research stations. On the way he meets up with the Turian Specter Saren.
Notes
Here’s the second video game novel that I’ve read recently, the first being the Dragon Age: Origin novel. I’ve got some mixed feelings about this one. From the perspective of a novel designed to give out background information on the story of a video game, this novel excels. The story is interesting (for somebody who knows the events that happened in the game) and learning how Saren got to the point where he was in the game is cool.
As a stand alone novel, however, it falls a bit short. The story is presented well, but the characters never seem to develop their own voices. Especially the various aliens. In the game, each alien species has it’s own mannerisms and phrasing which help make them feel more diversified. This book, could have just as well been a bunch of humans wandering around talking to each other. Every character feels the exact same, and there’s very little actual character development over the course of the story.
It relays the events well, but doesn’t make me care about the characters.
Next Book
I’ve decided that I’m going to finally get around to reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman next. After I borrowed Neverwhere from Wassy a while back, I wanted to check out his other writings.
Photoshopping 101
Feb 4th 2010
As mentioned previously, I’m taking another class this semester, Digital Imaging which is basically a Photoshop course focusing on the manipulation of photographs.
I was dreading the first few weeks of this course since I’ve gotten fairly familiar with the basics of Photoshop in the past 6 months of me fiddling around with it. So taking a course explaining what all the selection tools and stuff do…ugh. Not exactly an interesting time in the classroom. The actual instruction has been about what I was dreading when I went in, but I have picked up a few little things that I didn’t know about previously. The teacher is good, thankfully. He’s very knowledgeable and actually excited about photography and image manipulation. And he knows how to teach. He’s a bit of a sticker for rules (no music while working during lab time?? What’s up with that??) but I can live with it.
Our first project is to do a composite image. Basically, we take one photo (the host image) and take elements from other photographs and add them into the first one to create an entirely new image. I was really stuck on an idea for something cool to do (I really didn’t want to just do a boring “take a random image and toss stuff into it” sort of project). Wassy, who was originally taking the course with me but has since dropped due to the demands of the rest of her schedule, mentioned an idea involving a chess board with pictures of monuments that I had from Washington DC. But all of the pictures that I had were from below looking up which wouldn’t work on a chess board at all, so I had to scratch that idea.
I was kinda floundering around again until, the day of class I woke up at roughly 5:30am before my alarm went off but with a cool idea: Two pawns playing chess with a board full of little people. I had to scramble around to get the pictures I needed (and I need to retake my host image because I threw it together fast and didn’t have quite what I was looking for), but I got enough to get the project improved by the instructor.
This course is another reason why I’m considering picking up my own DSLR. It seems like it’s going to require a lot of original photography (especially for the final two projects) and even though I can borrow Wassy’s camera, it’d be really nice to have my own. Especially since some of my shots might require me to travel around a bit and I don’t feel comfortable doing that with her camera (I’m deathly afraid I might break it or something). I’m going to need to take basic photography next semester too…
Whoops, there I go, rationalizing again. Anyway, I’ll post up the finished piece (if it’s not crap anyway) once it gets done.
Recent Comments