Jimmy

I’ve been having fun in my 3D Animation II class so far this semester and I’ve just (or almost) completed the modeling phase of the first project: a model of a wind-up toy. Here’s a still image of part of the model (the final animation will be lit with an ambient light in addition to the spotlights, so it will be possible to see the entire model. For now this is all you get. *grin*)

I’m really proud of the textures I was able to pull off in this model. I have fairly low confidence in my drawing abilities but was pleasantly surprised by how well the flower petals came out, and the image only took something like 10 minutes to make in Photoshop (although getting the petals to that shape–arguably a large part of how well they look–took several hours of modeling in Maya). The leaf texture, however, took me almost 2 hours to make today. Lots of time notwithstanding, I’m really happy with how this model is turning out so far. I think I have a good handle on how I’m going to do the animating, too, so I’m really pleased with this project!

Cheers!

-j

CNN.com today has a story about what stayed, what got cut and what actually got increased funding in the final stimulus bill (which still needs to be passed by the house and the senate, but the conference committee seems to have agreed on it which is good news), and the biggest winner in terms of percentage increase of funding from the original house or senate bills is High-Speed Rail funding which went from $0.3 Billion in the House version and $2.25 Billion in the Senate bill to $8 Billion in the final bill!

Given that that’s not even what California alone wants from the federal government to complete it’s $40+ billion HSR system this is not a terribly large amount of money, but it’s a huge start and wonderful that we’re finally addressing this issue on the federal level.

I am worried that the money won’t be spent wisely, however, since I think HSR has the huge potential to tank and take billions of public dollars with it if it’s not done exactly right. HSR needs to be part of a larger public transit system as it is in Europe and Asia (where it’s doing very well) but if we just kinda install some tracks randomly and generally do HSR like we’ve done Amtrak it’s not going to work. Many people have expressed concern about HSR proposals in the US because we’re far less densely populated than Europe and Aisa and I think those are valid fears. I don’t think HSR is impossible to make work in the US, but I do think it needs very careful planning, the type of planning I’ve never seen any transit planner in the USA display.

Eh. I could go on, but I have class in 10 minutes and haven’t completed the weekly homework. (I don’t think that’s gonna happen.)

Cheers.

-j

Do you ever have it where you’re in such a rotten mood that your mood actually improves because it’s such a wonderfully deliciously terrible mood that you’re in? Maybe it’s just my rather dark and sarcastic personality, but I get such a thrill out of not feeling much remorse about making the entire world aware of it when I’m in a particularly wonderfully horrible mood. It’s not like I go out and kick kittens or anything (I’m not that awful a person), but I do enjoy scaring people in the hallways of the university by giving them my death stare.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a really bad person at heart. I kind of doubt it though.

Anyway….

Cheers!

-jimmy

So, I wonder how my Operating Systems professor is going to react to my slightly irreverent style of doing the homework in his class this semester (example: in answer to a chapter review question that asks “what are data structures” [a topic I spent an entire 4-hour-a-week class on last semester], instead of doing the incredibly boring answer I might have given in the past, I instead chose to answer thusly: “data structures are awesome. But more specifically, data structures are ways of organizing or storing data.” [In case it's not obvious: up to this point in my college career I've never seen it possible to use words such as "awesome" in an assignment. This is a small example of the larger style that I've begun to adapt.] Perhaps not the fullest answer [and certainly not the least cheeky answer] one could give to such a question, but who cares?), in fact I’m trying to kinda push things in a lot of my classes this semester, partly to see how my professors will react (although I know and/or have had a bunch of them in class before so I know how they think…um, yeah, if any of you read this blog I mean that in the best possible way) and partly just because I don’t have the time and/or energy to not be somewhat funner in my style of writing (except perhaps in Academic Writing class where I believe my grade rides directly on how willing I am to show that I am a good formal writer, which I’m pretty sure does not include the type of run-on and parentheses studded sentences that I’m so fond of using), anyone who has read this blog knows how I like to write, but it might not be a surprise to learn that in the oh so serious environment of University I’ve been one to [at least try to] make my writing a bit more formal and serious and academic and “good.”

But I’m getting tired of that. I am really very good at writing, be it blogging, e-mailing or school papers, and I’ve always been annoyed at having to be so much more “serious” (read: BORING) when I’m doing school work, so I’ve decided this semester that since it takes me longer to figure out how to BS my way through “good” writing that in the places where I reasonably assess that it’s OK to not be as formal (read: less myself) I’m just not going to [be as formal].

Now that I’ve said all that I’ll probably get burned on my style of doing the OS homework, but we’ll cross that bridge when (and if) we come to it.

Come to think of it, I’m trying to loosen up in a lot of ways (not just in being so concerned about “formal” vs. “less formal” writing in assignments) in relation to school this semester (this might help explain my sudden propensity to turn in assignments way late, a practice that I’ve always done now and again but that I’ve taken to an entirely new level this semester), realizing that I don’t need to be solely focused on grades and assignments and that there are other things in life just as important to my assignments and grades (and in some cases more important, sorry professors) like friends, family life/relations and following God’s will for my life.

This is the semester when I’ve been least tied to my guilt and feeling controlled by my assignments, and being less serious about deadlines and [to some degree] assignment content has really helped me be less of an uptight person, which has helped me gain more friends because I think I’m being a more open and friendly person (less “I will kill you if you disturb me” and more “hey who cares if I turn this in on time or a tiny bit late or a little underdone? Talking with friends is good”). And given the choice between a GPA that’s .1 or .2 points higher or being more friendly with my classmates, I’ll choose my classmates hands down.

With all that said, it is now 11pm on a Sunday evening and I have two overdue assignments and at least one assignment due tomorrow to work on, so I should probably go tackle some of those things.

Cheers.

-j

So far today I have consumed: 2/3 of a piece of toast with cheese on it, a mug of black tea, a 20 oz. cup of Dr. Pepper and half of a ham and cheese sub.

How do YOU spell hyper?

-j

Last Wednesday on CNN:

The American Society of Civil Engineers issued an infrastructure report card Wednesday giving a bleak cumulative ranking of D.

So, we need to act on that issue, then?

This Wednesday on CNN:

The first attempt to make a change to the economic stimulus package failed Tuesday night, a sign that Republicans do have some power to change how the bill is structured.

The vote was on adding $24 billion in infrastructure spending on things like highways, mass transit and improvements to water and sewer systems. Had the amendment passed, the Senate’s version of the economic stimulus package would have topped $900 billion.

Oh well, it was a good idea, but I guess it wasn’t that big of an emergency, right? I mean, it could be worse, right? A “D” on the infrastructure is still better than an “F,” right?

Best to wait until we hit that magic “F”. Which stands for…Failure to Act Now Will Mean The Death Of Us All. I guess “D” for Doom isn’t bad enough?

-j