IrishChoccy

Hiatus

2006-06-26T23:17:00.000+01:00

This blog is being put on hiatus for a while; it hasn't been updated in a while because I'm working on something else at the moment!

My Life as a Cartoon...

2006-05-18T21:00:00.000+01:00

... or at least my working one anyway (the non working bit would be far more strange). The cartoon was culled from the pages of the very funny (and totally surreal) "Bob the Angry Flower" website. If I was a nerd, I would point out that CSS, rather than HTML, is usually a greater source of browser-based woe. But thankfully I'm not a nerd. Nooo siree... ahem. Yes. Stop staring at me.
Clicking the image brings you to that strip residing on the angryflower.com website

Well that's embarrassing ...

2006-05-14T01:34:00.000+01:00

... I've totally forgotten what it was I was going to blog about just as I sit down to type it. Hmmm, I'm sure it was a rant about something, and "podcasts" I think had something to do with it. Well I'm sure it will come to me eventually. However, at least I'm satisfied that this post has wasted somebodys bandwidth (and more fool you for reading it). Besides, Rana gave off to me for not posting in 3 weeks.

This (click here) is nice though; a little script that instantly "Lomo"s your images in Photoshop. It's an incredibly popular way of presenting images at the moment, with a real danger of becoming cheap very quickly, but even so it's a nice little script. I did find though that, depending on the type of image you use it on, it requires some juggling to get right.

Asteroids don't concern me commander...

2006-04-12T21:28:00.000+01:00

Nerdy quotage aside, here's the latest doodle from the brain of Andrew. It was supposed to be a composite of a fake alien landscape, but somehow it blossomed into this cosmic scene. It begin purely as a blank canvas, and was created using only the custom brushes I have accumulated for Photoshop (aside from some adjustment layers). Of particular pleasure were the asteroids, which I think came out quite well for what was merely judicious use of the burn/dodge tools across some grey blobs (yes, I know one shouldn't use these if one is serious about digital painting, but whatever gets the desired result should be used). As ever, my only concern was the nebula itself, which was a little rough and scratchy, but hey.

Click on the image, or here, to see a larger version of the image

A 15,000 Layer Photoshop Image

2006-04-06T13:58:00.000+01:00

Not the sort of thing you want to accidently flatten & save. The link below is a page detailing a work of art created by an artist for an expo in March 2006. To quote the site itself:

It is a panorama of the Damen Station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority.
Adobe Illustrator was used for generating the majority of the basic shapes as well as all the buildings in the Chicago skyline.
The rest was created in Photoshop.
The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.
Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.

I would love to know the specifications of the computer he worked on that he could achieve the result he has. No doubt he would tell you it was only a PentiumII 450 or something equivalent.

You can see the site (and a small version of the total image + zoomed regions) by clicking the link here.

Touchy Feely

2006-03-31T23:57:00.000+01:00

Below is a link to a very interesting animated case study detailing the life-cycle of an image professionally retouched. The image itself should be recognisable; it being a Coca-Cola (spit) Christmas advertisement used in various static media.

Ignoring the schmaltz of the content, it's fascinating watching the process taking place as the artist takes many rudimentary elements & combines them into one single standalone image. It's certainly impressive to see how the image starts - as merely 3 slightly disjointed images of a river, and is built up from there into something spectacular (if not necessarily my bag).

The case study can be viewed by clicking here. That's on this text jackass.

Golden Del.icio.us

2006-03-28T23:52:00.000+01:00

del.icio.us: handiest thing. Ever.

Say Cheese

2006-02-21T22:19:00.000Z

One small result of the holiday certainly seems to point towards a necessity to bring a decent camera in future. I unwisely decided to pick up a cheap, disposable camera at the resort to take my snaps as the only cameras available to me weren't portable and certainly not suitable for any ski slope. When Boots returned my film in the form of nice glossy prints, I was dismayed to find that they were mostly out of focus/blurry & underexposed . The most embarrassing ones were a result of fumbling around with the camera in my oversized sports gloves - so what I got were pictures that were one half beautiful mountain & one half Andrews blurry thumb. It's disappointing as although the memories will be cherished, it's always nice to have a pictorial aid of my own making to mull over when having a stroll down memory lane.

It's not all doom and gloom however, as John brought his very desirable digital camera with him and was snap-happy throughout the trip. He put up his digital pictures for the world to see and can be found at by clicking ... here. So it's not all bad as he got nice shots of pretty much the same things I tried to capture.

Ski Sunday (And Monday, Tuesday etc)

2006-02-11T21:46:00.000Z

(The following post may contain truly atrocious spelling, grammar & punctuation. The writer would like to be understood that he couldn't give a fig & is too tired right now to care)

That was the week that was. Fresh from a 10 hour round trip back from the land of holidaying (from the 4th - 11th), I get my priorities straight by blogging about it. The last week was intense, fun & some of the best times I've had in an age. Myself, John & 4 other people went to the Bansko Skiing resort in Bulgaria where hurtling down mountain slopes at dizzying speeds was the order of the week (and wasn't I good at it too I might add).

The travelling to and from the airport was hellish; coming back to Ireland involved rising at 4am; catching a 6am bus from the hotel lobby; travelling 4 hours to the airport (for "airport" read "one landing strip with a snack bar"); waiting for 2 hours for our delayed flight; sitting on a 4 hour flight & finally a 2 hour drive back home. Hell's Teeth. The outbound trip to Bulgaria was a similar elongated / nocturnal experience.

We stayed in the 5-star Kempinski hotel, just perched beside the main gondola station that I rode each day up the mountain. Though flush with the trappings of wealth & comfort, the atmosphere was generally relaxed and friendly; certainly lacking in any stuffyness that other hotels might pursue. It was certainly the little things that separated this hotel from the rest - aspects like our bathroom with a heated wooden floor advertised the status pretty well. The food in the restaurants was delicious and beautifully prepared (though my Irish genes yearned for some potato dishes) & my only problem was a hiccup with the booking that resulted in sharing a double bed.

As for the skiing itself, it was never anything less than tough, but hugely enjoyable and utterly exhilirating. Particularly in the first couple of days when my body was still getting used to bending and moving in all sorts of strange and new positions but gushed with adrenalein as it tried to quell the fires happening in my knees, arms & shins. Starting on the training slope, our instructor (who went by the name of "Angel") was patience personified as he moulded the good habits & practises that one should adhere to on the actual slopes. We were already skiing on the real slopes by the 3rd day, and on our very last day we were skiing from the top of the mountain itself. At the end myself and John (the others in our 6-person group had skied before and were in other classes) could boast, via a nice certificate, that were were consumate parallel skiiers.

I must admit that the prospect of the actual skiing was something that didn't really appeal to me initially; the lure of a holiday and time off from the drudgery of working life was enough to have my bags packed and Bulgaria-bound without a seconds thought of snowy slopes. The week has certainly changed this. Despite some confidence-bruising tumbles down various slopes (not to mention near misses with snowboarders, my own skis & a tree) & the odd communication breakdown with the instructor, the sheer thrill of thundering down the piste, zipping left and right, kicking up snow as your throw your weight onto your skis, was priceless. I will ski again given the chance. My only grumble was that snowboarders were allowed on the same slopes - so slopes were frequently hazzardess (they would frequently cut across skiers) and barely ski-worthy after the reckless boarders had kicked up most of the surfaces.

Bulgaria itself, or rather, the corner I saw, was a queer beast. The resort was a good 4 hour bus trip from the airport (which was complete with handy missile pad ), and it took us across what can only be described as every Western stereotype of Eastern Europe there is. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but barren plains; whose grey, whithered, dead fields were only broken by slumped, delapidated houses, huddling together in the form of small villages & towns. A new mansion or flash car would be passed, not only showing of the country's increasing prosperity, but also it's obviously huge divide between those with money & those without. Sobering doesn't begin to describe the almost moribund atmosphere.

Indeed, as I woke from my morning sleep (the flight arrived in Bulgaria during the early morning) to find myself looking out at yet another slump of housing, I was informed to my surprise that this was the village of Bansko. Sure enough, poverty gave way to Ski shops, hotels, bar, restaurants, appartments (snapped up by hungry Western property owners) & of course our own luxury hotel. I definitely felt a strange sense of guilt being here; it was obvious that all this tourist development was bringing wealth, but it was equally obvious this wealth was not going back into the townspeople. But despite this, the holiday was hugely enjoyable & John and myself were in agreement that another ski holiday would be on the cards.

The Good:
The Hotel - luxury, comfy but casual & friendly.
The Skiing - Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - eat my snow newbs.
Kamenitza Beer - light & tasty; perfect for evening relaxation.
Minibars - Damn you and your expensive treats.
Cartoon Network - Beer & Samurai Jack is a great way to unwind.
The Prices - No doubt this will change when Bulgaria enters the EU, but everything was significantly cheaper than in Ireland

The Bad:
Poverty - It was clear very little of the tourist money was going back into the local economy
Falling - Ow. Ow. Ow.

At the tone, the time will be ...

2006-01-19T20:14:00.000Z

I suppose I should update this sometime soon...

... naw.

Life Finds a Way

2005-12-11T17:09:00.000Z

It's certainly a classic logo, and I figured it would be a good basis for another movie poster; so here's a nice fictitious poster for a 4th Jurassic Park movie. It took about 8 hours all told, was made entirely in Photoshop CS and is probably breaking all sorts of copyright laws (Not least for quoting Dr. Ian Malcolm). But hey - all in the name of art. I enjoyed the book in it's day, and the movies too to a lesser extent. I'm not even sure there is a 4th film in the pipeline, though I can't imagine the powers-that-be resisting the urge to continue milking that cashcow.

Otherwise, life continues apace with various concerns, adventures and the odd shenanigan or two.

Click on the image to get a larger version
(there's an even bigger version, but I don't like you that much).

The Second Moon

2005-11-29T21:52:00.000Z

In a fit of boredom & some desire to doodle, I made the below image - a movie style poster based on the novel "Dune". If nothing else it served as a desire to once again use my Wacom graphics tablet which has sat forlorne in a corner for a few months too many. It's great to simulate the refinement natural hand movements brings, against the inherant clumsiness of a mouse. And of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't spot about a dozen things I would have changed/fixed/done differently as soon as I uploaded the image, but that's par for the course in fairness at this stage.

click on the image to see the full size image

Transitional Steps

2005-10-29T00:30:00.000+01:00

New item (re) added in the FHwork section of the gallery: the Renault R-35 Light Tank. The model itself isn't mine (well unless you count a couple of slightly chamfered edges), and was original created by another member of the Forgotten Hope team, Lude (who happens to be a wonderfully talented modeller, I admire his work, especially when he wins competitions like this one). It was removed because some over-enthusiastic fan-boys of the mod found my gallery and posted the shots to the official forums before the latest version of the mod (with said tank) was released. Grr.

What I find slightly amusing about this strain of work is that I can ascribe certain transitional points where I felt my texture work had taken a noticeable and demonstrative step up. The MarkVIb (not the one in the gallery I redeveloped a month or two back, this was an older version made when my UV maps had large black holes - a poor screenshot of this lo-res model is here) was a model & texture where I felt I had made a definite leap in terms of my production - the Renault represented another step up I believe - an increase in the comfort and confidence with which I can make a complicated texture map from a blank canvas. I simply love those old French camoflage schemes, they have such vibrancy and colour that usually contrast beautifully against the details of the hull (unlike, say, the overwhelming sandy colours that the desert demands from it's vehicles; what a pain).

The Cromwell (again, not my model, Omni of Forgotten Hope made it; another stellar talent, his Shermans are to die for) is my most recent step-up in my view; it was the first texure where the mind's eye and the resulting image map were in total sync. This was a nice feeling of completion to fully create something I was geniunely happy and not to mention a tad proud of - there's not an inch of that texture I didn't pour my soul into and got the result I wanted.

This was however about 2-3 months ago, so it has been some time since I last worked on any full texture project for the mod as my blog testifies. At the moment however I am working on a texture for the Battlefield2 version of the mod, and experimenting with the normal mapping the game engine allows. The one constant criticism I always aim towards modern realtime bump-mapping is the horrible "plastic shrinkwrap" look it gives to geometry. Whether or not though the resulting graphic will give me another sense of having past a crossroads is a different question entirely.

Back on the horse

2005-10-19T22:03:00.000+01:00

Well after a small period of malaise I'm working on my 3D Studio Max work again. I'm somewhat glad to be back at it, even if I was generally apathetic about any digital design attempted in my spare time. I was though keen to at least try and spur myself back into action & working on something constructive again. Huzzah for second winds!

Also cause for "huzzah"s? 3D Studio Max 8 is coming out, and have released a demo to let people take a nibble at the newest version. I must say the new features, especially the "pelt mapping" look, well, awesome. The new features are all listed here.

Gallery Update

2005-10-02T23:26:00.000+01:00

The gallery on my webspace has finally been updated, or rather, the modelwork section has been. I re-rendered all my "Forgotten Hope" work using the v-ray renderer to show the models & texures in a better light (literally!); you can access the gallery by clicking here. I have removed/scrapped some of the older stuff, and updated it to include the newer material I've contributed to this "total conversion" for the retail game "Battlefield 1942". All in the name of self-promotion.

Twinkle twinkle...

2005-09-26T22:21:00.000+01:00

(Click on the image to see the full size version; otherwise click here)

(Click on the image to see the full size version; otherwise click here)

Hey, making nebula-esque pictures was fun, so I thought I'd make another one during a brief sketching session. Again, it's been made in Photoshop. It didn't take a huge amount of time to create, but was fun while it lasted. I'm sure any budding astronomer would tell me it's unrealistic though!

Feast your eyes ...

2005-08-31T20:39:00.000+01:00

...on this!Click on the thumbnail image on the left, or here to get a larger version.

First of all it's big, so apologies to those without a "fat pipe" ( © John Mellerick), but I was fairly happy with how it turned out (despite the obvious flaws), for once I can claim a piece of digital art came out almost the same as I had imagined it in my head.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, it was made 100% with Photoshop from a blank canvas, no 3D apps were used.

Ok the lighting may not be too realistic, but it is an intentionally stylised picture of space; certainly the hollywood/space art approach. The nebula was easier to achieve than I first anticipated it would. Using a mixture of green/blue colours, I made good work with soft, textured custom brush, and simply applied it liberally with varying blending & opacity, giving a fairly vivid result.

Now the next desire is to have more staying power with these mini-projects; I generally have a good attention span, but my energy & the empathy I give to my work fluxes and wanes with my moods; so sometimes I run out of interest. This image only took about 2-3 hours, so although rough around the edges here and there, can be called "finished".

Something else I've recently been experimenting with is a process called "colourisation". It is, as the name suggests, the process of taking black and white images and manually applying appropriate colour to them. A cynical explanation would be just "colouring in" a picture, staying within the lines.
A small pang of arrogance underestimated how difficult this process is, especially with high-contrast/lo-res/dark images; The results can (for now) be seen here (ie, click the text dumbo). The results are varying; the dates of the images shows the increasing aptitude and comfort I felt working with these screen grabs. A criticism I usually laid at the door of other people's efforts was that they generally just used a single, flat, blended colour for skin, thus making things appear obviously colourised and flat. So for my attempts, I tried using varying shades of appropriate skin colours (dodging and burning where appropriate); again the results vary, but I think it's more convincing than just a flat overlay of a single shade of "pink".

Naturally, the nature of balance dictates that where some work flourishes, others decline. My work on Forgotten Hope has taken a major dip; I think a combination of apathy for the subject, oppressive workloads in work (resulting in fatigue in the evenings natch) & recent computer problems has meant that my work for the mod team shrivelled up to zero. I need to get "back on the horse" pronto, there's nothing worse than letting your work & skills go to waste and decline - so hopefully some results will come in the near future.

Cheese it!

2005-08-07T17:31:00.000+01:00

(Click the image to get a larger view btw)
I think the world has officialy gone mad; or at least has somehow ceased making any sense that I can make out. The case for the prosecution presents exhibit A: "Xtreme Cheddar" ("For adults only" reads the sub title). I saw it walking through Tescos the other day, and can only wonder how I missed the moment when cheese had not only become "sexy" but enough to warrent it's own brand. My curiousity wonders what the reaction to eating this cheese IS, and whether one should do it in the comfort of your own home, and only after the watershed.

Normal Services Nearly Resumed

2005-07-31T18:12:00.000+01:00

Click here to see a strange eyeball

Not one of my best, but I thought it was as good as anything for getting back on the horse as it were. And those with stronger perceptions of pixels than me; you should notice that the eye (a random net picture of an eyeball - my kingdom for a decent, and free, stock photography resource) is horribly blocky and dithered in places. No matter, this was a quick "sketch" of an idea that was in my head.I'm more happy with the effort than the execution to be honest.

It's also the first addtion to the gallery in a long time, so that's a bonus.

Pieces of July

2005-07-26T21:42:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, well there's not been any updates or new material created lately; between overheating CPUs and problems with the Memory on the computer - coupled with various "other" problems - I've not managed to improve that candle test, or for that matter, anything else (Forgotten Hope related or otherwise). Though I did get a little bit of sketching done, so I may yet get an idea myself and John had off the ground yet.

Flicker flicker - another test

2005-06-22T23:07:00.000+01:00

Mucking about with Gradiant Ramps, Mixs, Keyframes, and through a simple(!) tutorial, I created another test - in the form of a flickering candle. It's not using any special lighting other than some basic omni lights & the scanline rendere, but I think it's ok - I can hardly take too much praise for it, but it's nice to tinker and experiment

Watch the video by clicking here (it requires the Xvid video codec)

V-ray test

2005-06-10T00:18:00.000+01:00

Some old V-ray testing I made about a few weeks ago - juggling with the Global Illumination & Depth of Field. The Depth of Field does make both models look like small scale models, with your "eye" blurring the object as it gets further away (try squinting at something small to see the effect)

I made the skin and some ammendments to the model, which was the work of a fellow member of the "Forgotten Hope" mod who goes by the nick of "Malsa". The skin is actually made up of 4 separate images:

a 1024 x 1024 skin of the hull of the vehicle.
a 512 x 512 texture for the turret & gun
a 256 x 256 image for the wheels, and
a 256 x 256 one of the treads

All the images were saved in the .dds format, with alpha channels on the wheels & treads (to get the "teeth" and various effects besides). On the hull & turret there is some bump mapping using some of the layers in the original photoshop files of the textures to get a chipped paint look and raise the surface of the vehicle a little.

Edit: The shadows are the next thing to learn how to get right; I realise that yes, they're not the best, especially the ones falling on the "ground"

Click on the links to see the images.

Initial Test with Default Lighting. (click here)

Second Test with more "realistic" daylight. (click here)

2005-05-29T23:42:00.000+01:00

Whoops, oh dear, There has been a lull a "lull" in our current programming. I can't think of anything worth blogging in the last few weeks.
So instead, until I think of something interesting and unique to post, here's a picture of Carry Grant on Acid.

Andrew's New Toy

2005-05-09T00:35:00.000+01:00

Is in fact, a new piece of software; called "V-ray". It's actually a plugin for 3D Studio Max, coming in a basic, free (I like that word) flavour, as well as an expensive, feature-laden variety. It's a raytracer (the engine for creating 3D images/pictures), and is, even in it's free version, streets ahead of 3D Studio's default scanline renderer. I always maintain that the difference between a good 3d Image and a truly amazing-looking one was (aside from good texturing) good lighting : our world looks so different depending what kind of light is shone on it. It's all small details really; although we don't perceive it directly, our eye & brain picks it up, which is why we generally spot computer generated images as fake - there's usually something "wrong". V-ray adds all those littles tricks of the light, including John's favorite; radiosity & global illumination.

I'm having lots of tinkering about with it and simple balls, cubes & teapots never looked so realistic. Their official website is here. I'm not one to get excited over technology (my lack of giddyness over new gadgets is well-known) but this just might have me bouncing with creative ideas; In fact I had already thought of one as I was typing this.

2005-05-03T22:46:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, this made me laugh out loud; bless John Mellerick for this little bonne mot: I think we were talking about "The Fifth Element" (a shared guilty pleasure movie), and specifically Bruce Willis, that mumbly action fella:

Bear says:
Yeah; I think he (Bruce Willis) can only show two emotions... squinty, and explosions

Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice...

2005-04-29T20:04:00.000+01:00

Due to a combination of sunspots & stupidity possibly on my part, the last blog entry went the way of the water-skiing dodo. Blogger.com decided to bellyflop it's server as I posted the entry, so here it goes again.

Things I've been listening to:
Remarkably for a man who generally approaches music like engineers approach basic hygiene, infrequently and half heartedly, of late I've been spending my hard earned (please, no laughing I do work from time to time) cash on new music.
Annie - Anniemal; Addictively fun norwegian electro pop. Music to bounce by.
The Bravery; Slightly retro rock band, fairly varying quality. Mostly forgettable
Garbage - Bleed Like Me; return to form for Scottish rock band. Some great stuff here.
Moby - Hotel; Bland Arse. That is to say, like an arse, only bland and inoffensive.
The Arcade Fire - Funeral; Excellent Canadian rock ballads

Words I've been wrongly using:
'irregardless'; it doesn't exist. It's 'regardless' people; It's a guttural Americanism, and I've been using it all this time. Well colour me corrected.

Things I've been eating:
Cadbury's snaps. They're like pringles, only make of chocolate and not Monosodium glutamate.

Things I've been reading:
The second book in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". For a series that attracts equal amounts of feverish devotion and defence, it's one of the most badly written books I've ever read (and this coming from someone with an already dubious history in the world of spelling and grammar). It's witty and in places very funny, but Douglas Adams is incapable of being succinct. Paragraphs endlessly waffle as Adams tries to hammer home his vignettes.

Things I've also been reading:
My sister's novel. A sister who found this blog. Dammit. Note to self; take care of sister.

Things I've been cursing:
The combustion engine. It's smelly. It kills people. It's makes the most boring dinnertime conversation. It inflates male egos far beyond tolerable levels. It spawned spoilers and "go faster stripes". Walking home in the middle of rush hour traffic leaves me gasping for breath and feeling dirtier than a pig who decided to let itself go.

Things I've been laughing to:
Billy Bailey. Funny, funny man. With a piano.

Things I've still yet to do:
Ahem, the site/gallery redesign. Uhhh ... yes, that old chestnut. Nothing to see here, carry on.

Gallery's Fixed

2005-04-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

And by fixed, I do mean replaced with a simpler, but more adequately functioning gallery script. As ever, it's here. It's the same stuff as before, so there's nothing new/good

The Word Today is "Nepotism"

2005-03-24T23:29:00.001Z

Well, not really; but I do wish to promote the first novel written by my sister, Jennifer. I've not had the pleasure of reading it, and should be coming out in April, but I think it's fairly cool to call yourself a published author, and I believe there's another one in the pipeline too. The link to the book, called "Company of Three", can be found here.

"Company of Three" by Jennifer MacCann

"Dublin is in full, trendy swing, with parties and atmosphere galore, but it seems to be passing Anna by. There's her editorial job at fusty publishers O'Sullivan and Hackett, continually under the thumb of her boss, the overindulged Linda. Then there's her home life, with a demented mother and her hippy boyfriend and a brother who does nothing much apart from take illegal substances. All that, and she's struggling to write a novel that isn't a copy of Jane Eyre.Then the gorgeous Angela comes into her life. Owner of a new-Age bookshop frequented by Dublin's lost and lonely, Angela is beautiful, witty and popular. And her flatmate Marcus is even more beautiful, witty and popular. Things are definitely looking up, or they would be, if only Anna would admit that Marcus is the man for her. Clearly, drastic action is needed..."

Gallery Problems

2005-03-20T00:28:00.000Z

ah crap - well it seems, somehow, that 2 of my gallery's albums have become corrupted, broken, or both - the "Forgotten Hope" & "Digital Art" material; I have no idea how it would have happened, Redbrick (the server it's running off) didn't report any problems lately, nor have I noticed any problems over the last few days. Well I think the images themselves are still there, it will just take awhile to get the albums back up. For now, there's just the "Natural Media" ...

edit: Godammit - they're all broken now (thankfully backed-up in time though) No idea what redbrick's problem is, but perhaps this issue will give me enough reason to perhaps a: get rid of gallery and get something more reliable, and b: re-render the 3D models...

Ooh, I've Come Over All Technical

2005-03-17T00:20:00.000Z

It's nice when you get results from something that seems such an obvious thing to do but I never did, at least not up until now. Until the other week, I had been doing all my skin & texture work at the size the final image had to be - in this case, the final image had to be 1024x1024 pixels, so at 1024 I did my textures. Course it never occured to this dullard that a good idea might be to do all the work as a 2048x2048, then when finalising it simply resizing it down to 1024 (the idea that I get more detail into the texture, with most of it perserved after resizing, rather than "pixel pushing" from the get-go).
You live and learn, and even then it wasn't totally my idea; a friendly pointer from someone with far more talent than myself - a member of the team who goes by the nick "Armin Ace"

The results I can't post, simply because there are ravenous dogs (read, fans of the Forgotten Hope mod) that would go nuts over the subject (and I've leaked enough "W.I.P." material in the past), but suffice to say the results made even me take note. The only side effect is that my machine has a small heart attack trying to shuffle a 2048* texture across memory between Photoshop & 3Ds Max; oh the humanity, my poor machine can't take that kind of punishment.

I still haven't got my ass around to re-doing the portfolio, it's something I really do keep meaning to do, the way those models are sitting at the moment annoys me, like an itch.

Wow, this post almost borders on the technical. I'll be reading Slashdot next. Actually, no - that's crazy talk; I will leave the nerding to Mark ;)

Familiar Story?

2005-03-14T23:33:00.000Z

Taken from bash.org...

RandomIRC_user: A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying: "You have a great resumé, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resumé as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired."

So hands up all those for whom this story seems eerily familiar ? ;)

Gallery Update

2005-03-07T00:55:00.000Z

Just a quick update regarding the portfolio/gallery. I removed the ability to vote on all the images, it seeemed a pointless, ego-stroking device, so out it went! Also added two new vehicles into the "Forgotten Hope" section. I've gone right off the environment and lighting setup in those test-bed renders, and I do believe it's still missing some vehicles in there, so at some point or another I shall re-do all those renders to look a little better than they do now.

Actually, note to self - get better at all this; I don't believe Im anywhere near as good at all this as I should be - and the other material outside of the 3D modelling as suffered as a result of concentrating my work in that area.

Operation Germania

2005-03-05T18:14:00.000Z

Catchy title I think you will find. Well the holiday was had, and am back since Monday afternoon (I must say that coming back in the morning/afternoon feels much better than skulking back into Ireland at the dead of night).

It was good to see Barry again, and of course, most of the weekend was spent drinking or gaming, or both at the same time, with some time put aside for the Ireland/England rugby game, which we won, much to the delight of the Irish in the Irish pub we choose to watch the game in. That the English (about 1/3 of the people there) choose to roar and shout and generally behave in a typically English way just made things more sweet.

The one sour note was being slightly misinformed about how the ticketing system in the Dusseldorf tram system worked, and getting fined €40 during one of our trips, one stop before we had to get off. We (myself, Niall, John and Mark) were more than a little annoyed with Barry for failing to tell us how the system works, but hey. Nothing can be done now.

Another Holiday...

2005-02-05T01:03:00.000Z

Is being planned. Isn’t life free and easy? Well not really, but myself, Mark, John and Niall are Germany bound at the end of February; not everything has been arranged, but most of it. The aim is to visit Barry, our mutual friend living there for the past year and a half, so it promises to be interesting; not least in seeing how many seconds it will take before myself and Barry start arguing; we seem to do it rather well.

Otherwise, life continues apace. A geriatric pace that is. I feel physically wrecked. Utterly devoid of energy & various parts of me twanging and generally going "ah jaysus" (I am in Monaghan after all, my bones talk culchie). I certainly see the onset of glasses if this continues. This is not a "good thing"(tm). I guess it's a regular thing for any professional computer operator (in whatever capacity) to have their body feeling like it's suddenly aged 80years; it's definitely at these kinds of moments I wonder what exactly I'm in this sector for. The money? Career advancements? Personal satisfaction? Frankly, the jury is out on all those aspects, I'm still not sure myself - the idea of sitting behind a computer, for a living, for the rest of my working life seems abhorrent and contrary to inner desires within me.
Starting college again, something I wanted to do anyway, irregardless of the above feelings of malaise, so it's that which keeps poking it's head above the parapet of my thoughts; of course, the movement from IT to psychology is an odd manoeuvre to say the least, and I'm not sure where I would start scoping out a new path like that. First obviously is funds, this is attainable, the second is the right entry qualifications for any possible course I may find. From there I am clueless. I did do reading of a few university sites regarding their evening courses etc, and there does seem to be some (limited) offers of entering into this field. But of course the real question is whether I have the right mental frame of mind to enter these courses. Am I too "naked" in this field to jump into a new course. As I said, I am clueless.

The Zutons

2005-01-28T13:04:00.000Z

A quick sneaky post from work, just in case those cruel overlords catch me and wag their fingers at me.

I would just like to say that the Zutons, a relatively new band on the music scene, are rather good; quite enjoyable in fact. Their tunes are instantly catchy, and although have a strong 4-man guitar element, sound diverse and fresh, reminding me of Beatles-esque beats and rhythms along the "Eleanor Rigby" phase. I like these guys. Kudos.

Andrew out.

Fun!

2005-01-25T23:25:00.000Z

Ok, new post, and possibly another rant at the expense of my fellow man (and some fellow women too). It's the small question of self-descriptors, or to put it simply:
Who hates fun?
I talk of those "describe yourself" sections you see in forms, blogs, community sites, forums, blah blah - basically 90% of the internet. And yet of this 90%, more than half (do the maths) seem to be part of that bland demographic that thinks the best way to describe themselves is to declare (perhaps even proudly declare) that they "like having fun". Maybe I'm now permanently critical of people, but I find that descriptor to be as meaningless and obvious as announcing to the world that you breath air. Or blinking. Perhaps there are some strange people who consider having fun, whatever that entails exactly, abhorant and refuse to indulge in any form of enjoyable activities.
Oh wait, there are - we call them Presbyterians.
Is it so hard though to describe yourself? Or are these people's lives so empty, vaccuous and bland, that they have to state the obvious, cos god forbid people think they're boring - shame it means they show themselves to be braindead instead.

"I like having fun!"
Well... ... duh.

Man Im such a moaner ;)

Intergalactic

2005-01-07T23:37:00.000Z

Well Now don't you tell me to smile
You stick around I'll make it worth your while
Got numbers beyond what you can dial
Maybe it's because I'm so versatile

Style profile I said
It always brings me back when I hear Ooh Child
From the Hudson River out to the Nile
I run the marathon til the very last mile

If you battle me I will revile
People always say my style is wild
You've got gall you've got guile
To step to me I'm a rapophile

If you want to battle your in denial
Coming from Uranus to check my style
Go ahead put my rhymes on trial
Cast you off into exile

The Other Side of the Horizon

2005-01-03T01:28:00.000Z

I survived. I took a deep breath and swam through the morass of festivities and came out the other side intact, though sans sanity (not that I entered the festive season with it). Naturally, reports of gossip and scandal are thin on the ground; suffice to say cake was eaten, and Terry's chocolate oranges were devoured with gay abandon. That was my Christmas, and a merry one it is too when it is at least chocolate coated. It is definitely a holiday that is extended past it's sell-by-date; the way in which the country simply shuts down for two weeks can just send a nail of boredom through this dusty head of mine when you're desperately looking for something to do.

Except the pubs of course; oh yes, they will stay open, Christmas or no Christmas; smoking-ban or no smoking-ban. They are in many ways a great deal of what's wrong in this country; the crass cynicism that pushes their enterprise, the cartel that runs them, and those who habitually fill their stools by the bar. Saddening. I refuse to believe that they occupy the social epicentre as spectacularly in other, more civilised countries, as they do here in Ireland. That impression certainly didn't seem so in France, though England of course didn't prove that theory. It's also the pandering to national stereotypes that annoys me too: the world thinks we're violent drunks, so what will we do ? Drink to we fall over or start a fight. And laugh about it as if it's a bloody virtue.

But it is nothing compared with the feeling of anger when you say "the wrong thing"(tm); I think we all know it - you don't mean to say the wrong thing, but somehow, fate conspires for you to say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time. If it is not anger I feel for being so utterly crass and tactless, then it is anger for hurting someone else with just your own words. I've hurt people with my words before, intentionally - hell there have been times when I felt no guilt; but it's the accidental casualty, the innocent bystander as it were, that really hurts. I once claimed that I live my life through my friends, so if that's true, then I can't think of a worse thing I could do than damage and cause pain to a vital organ beneficial to my existence.
To cut a long story short: bugger, me and my big mouth.

Let's have a new post...

2004-12-21T23:30:00.000Z

Nothing special; treats may be in store soon (ideas that are milling around my head like mayflies), but in the meantime, I can just proudly announce to all you working people that I am on Christmas holidays. Hoorah; gooseberry jam for all. I intend stuffing my face full of chocs, keeping in the warm and being as snug as several bugs wrapped in a multitude of rugs (with extra tea and biscuits) . Nice.

Things that make me laugh this week are Eddie Izzard, Bill Baily and IRA apologists (don't ask, but they just wound me up in a humourous sort of way). Things that make me tap my feet are "The Killers" and "The Divine Comedy". Things that annoy me are friends who lose touch, be it through the divergence of destinies or the lack of effort, and things that make me smile are the words of people who share with me a common bond of humanity.

Tea Towels

2004-12-08T22:42:00.000Z

Oh dear, this made me laugh, despite the festive setting ... click the text to go to the news story...

Nativity Plays Boost Tea Towels Sales

'Tis the Season

2004-12-02T01:18:00.000Z

Hmmm a small post here. I must say one knows when you think perhaps the season of Christmas is just getting the wrong side of "weird", when, walking through your local supermarket (already in a slight daze), you pass a large animatronic Santa Claus with the Coca Cola Christmas music coming out of some orifice while the robot thrusted his pelvis (jerkily) in my direction. I was disturbed, more at my own filthy imagination than the quite frankly ribald St. Nicholas.
So I quietly found what I was looking for (biscuits!) and left the store slightly ... uhhh.. Disturbed. The phrase "giggity giggity" (quagmire from springs to mind now when I see the Coca Cola Santa.

Dammit Janet

2004-11-30T23:48:00.000Z

It's happening again; just as I got my list of "models to do" down to a nice small bite-size portion where I might get one or two of them done and not feel rushed in doing so, I've suddenly got more on my plate; and more than I think I can handle without going mad again. Anyone who knows the word "Lancaster" will know exactly what that is a code word for. I am a perfectionist; and so nothing I will ever finish will satisfy me totally, so when you got a half-dozen (or more) items that you know you will never complete to a level of complete satisfaction ires me,

I now currently have 7 - that's right, 7, separate models waiting to be completed, along with 3 others (though tweaks turn it into 5 others really), so that's roughly 12 models in total I need to do, and I just know that in the next month or two more will come my way. Dammit. I mean the worst is that I want to get them done, the question now is to prioritise; which I have done, so I am on top of the work so far, least this time the blueprints are good.

Nexus

2004-11-30T01:13:00.000Z

Im now officially 3 months in work. Why that has any special significance is because the special "trainee" (as it were) contract is only good for 6 months; although the question of any extension has never come up, I guess I'm working (mentally) along the assumption that it is just a temporary 6 month contract. Whether that's good or bad I can't say; I would like to spread my wings a little come the end, but we shall see how thing pan out when the time comes...

Otherwise a cold chill runs through me, and not just because of the general bite in the air that wafts in with the winter winds. I feel inadequate and unfufilled lately - for a given value of "lately" when it comes to me mind you (as friends will attest). I guess with this landmark point in my contract, I start to focus on the period after it runs out; where will I be, what I will do with myself; regards the design course that I had applied for last tear (it is in Ballyfermot), I am still undecided; I did apply (late) of course back in May, and was offered a place only days before the year actually started; hardly time to prepare, so I had to turn it down. Now the deadline for next year's applicants draws near, in fact it will arrive at the same time as my contract runs out in webworks, so decisions pretty much have to be made now. What I'm supposing is that I could apply anyway, and if my feelings for the course have well and truely waned by the time the new academic year sails around, I can easily turn down the course.

And then of course there's the nutty issue of psychology. Oh that teasing line of study has yet again charmed me with it's indescribable lure; it was, funnily enough (A little known fact), my second choice on my CAO form all those years back. I have always had a genuine interest in this area of human science; I can honestly say right now I'd love to immerse myself in it - time, money and resolve remain the biggest hurdles to that flight of fancy. To those I tell of this ... dream(?), they find it hard to believe that I have had a small passion for this subject, as it has remained submerged within my other secret fancies (not that there are many, I do tend to blab). Time will tell - John Mellerick loves that line. I suspect this paragraph alone shall start a couple of conversations tomorrow if and when people read it, simply for the novelty value if nothing else!

Otherwise life drifts on, meandering through it's mundane course, stopping only to wonder if there's any biscuits in the tin; which reminds me, I'm hungry - I must eat before I head to bed. It also occurs to me on occassion to actually spell check this blog, and make sure that my sentences have something resembling structure; my sister, rabid when it comes to the notions of bad punctuation and grammar, would despair and certainly castigate any errors on my part. And to think I also have dreams of being an author, or at least to be a writer of some note. Hmmm there are many dreams of mine it seems, I wonder how many, if any at all, will ever bare fruit; certainly it is humanity's greater weakness that we can frequently have larger eyes than our stomachs ...

The Gallery BTW

2004-11-24T22:37:00.000Z

Hmmm, just realised I never did post what the location of the gallery is; silly me. Anyway, if you want see a collection of slightly crappy pictures and ww2 renders, then click the link below.
Andrew's Gallery

Wah

2004-11-17T23:59:00.000Z

There's nothing more frustrating when you sit down to start a new model - full of energy and enthusiasm to have learnt something new when you reach the end of development and hand it to the rest of the team - and then find that despite being given lots of valuable reference photos from the team researcher, one small yet vital and (when finished) fully visible area is left out - nor is there any available material I can get. Ergh, it means that I will have to use my imagination, but also means that when I am finished there will be the itchy feeling at the back of my head that the model will be that bit less than perfect because of it, even if it's not my fault (nor is it the fault of the researcher). Bugger. That has annoyed me all day since I noticed ...

Zzzz...

2004-11-10T23:55:00.000Z

Ok, I remember what it was I going to post about John Kerry and heroin addiction (mine, not his, but 'twas all in jest) but Im just too tired to bother posting it all again. So instead, let me enthrall you with tales of mystery! Adventure! And a few custard creams!

It seems Rana's fabled house party mood has once again become prominent in her mind as she's throwing another one on the 19th of this month... Hooray! I love her parties, or rather; I love her house - cozy living, nicely furnished, quiet area, lovely; must make a note of stealing her house onetime. Mark, in a spate of clinging on to college (like the aging grey-haired rocker clinging to his 'Stones vinyls - sorry Mark, you know it's true ;) ) attended the college Societies ball, which, as I mentioned in a previous tirade, was an excuse for people to dress up and then pour beer over their nice tuxedos and dresses. He tells me it was fun and a ball (hohoho). I don't know why I felt the need to bring that up - I guess this is just one of those "random thought" posts. How dull.

In my own world, one bonus of walking the distance from work to home is that you do get healthier; I've not felt this healthy and energetic in a long time; probably since leaving secondary school. It's nice to know that my body hasn't completely given up the ghost yet, and has the capacity to take this foreign concept known as "exercise" (I'm still fuzzy on the definition). I am finding it harder of late to keep in contact with people, and yet I don't think it's from the lack of outlets for communication - I have, quite ironically given the previous paragraph, become quite lazy in maintaining contact with people, particularly Mary of late. I think I have let my self-regulation in other matters, beyond energising the leg muscles, slide a lot: and need to re-establish a desire to "bother my arse". So to speak. I believe the internet though in particular has become a comfort blanket for myself and a lot of other people I know, who expect me (or I expect they) to be on the internet when I(they) want to chat. It's quite sad to let yourself deteriorate like that, but on more than one occasion I've had that notion suggested (rather than precisely expressed) by people before; I don't doubt that consciously or otherwise, I just expect people "on tap" when I choose to use the internet for recreation.

From this can it be suggested that excessive use of the internet creates an unhealthy level of "neediness"? I don't know, but what I do know is that there quite possibly a tin in the kitchen with some custard creams; I'm off to look for them, assuming I'm not hallucinating again.

2004-11-09T10:22:00.000Z

Oh damn, I was typing up my latest meandering post and firefox (the web browser) crashed like an aeroflot flight. Oh well; what was I saying? Hmmm something about Jonn Kerry and then a quip about heroin; I will get around to a brand new rambling post later.

A Rarity

2004-11-01T23:32:00.000Z

I will say this once and once only, and it will probably be the only time (until the results come out) that you will see anything vaguely politcal on this blog but...
I hope John Kerry wins.
There, I said it. According to various internet surveys (and we know how accurate they are! I may be sarcastic) I am a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, so I guess it makes sense I favour the less insane/capilitist/religious-basket-case candidate, despite not even being an American, it's odd how strongly the rest of the world feels about this election.
Oh and for the sake of fairness to Americans, that they don't thing the whole world is ganging up on them, I think Bertie Ahern's an a-hole.
Andrew out.

Colds Suck

2004-11-01T01:21:00.000Z

Oh yes they do. Believe it. It's not so much the cold itself, but rather the way it alters your ability to do even the most banal of things, like getting up in the morning, or even watching TV; it manages to remind you every now and again that yes indeed, your head feels like it's stuff with glue.

But at least the portfolio is being steadily filled with junk; or art, depending your viewpoint. I was slightly apprehensive about including the Forgotten Hope material in it, but it looks better with some half decent rendering than I thought it would - even the earlier material that I made when I was still learning the ropes of the 3D packages. Though scratch that idea; all art involves a process of continual self-learning and discovery, that's half the point of it in the first place. So I should expect to always find something new to better myself and my work.

Yay

2004-10-29T09:50:00.000+01:00

That gallery is finally up and running and working again. Hopefully. I am furiously crossing fingers here. I will start filling it now with rubbish (read: my work)

Just Chill People

2004-10-28T01:43:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, I seem to have a habit of becoming the "middle man"; people do like to come to me and shed themselves of their worries, problems and current pet peeves. I have, on more than one occasion, been called a "good listener" which has always baffled me in that I always immediately wonder "Are you saying the rest of the world is deaf?"; I generally can't understand how people don't have the automatic capacity to listen and sympathize with their friend's woes. Maybe I just let people rant and don't break their flow, allowing them to get everything off their chest (knowing when to shut up - the cornerstone of diplomacy). Speaking of which...

That leads me on to general friction within basecamp, otherwise known as "the gang" - the cadreé of friends that for now elude me (being stuck 50 miles from the middle of nowhere). Maybe it's the time of year, pressures of work, pressures outside of work, or even the dreaded "drift" - who knows (though I have my suspicions); but things are definitely more ... "spikey" of late between strands of people (see how I neatly avoid exact names, but by god they'll know if they read this). It's upsetting to hear nasty little stories about people, and general negativity between others, and all just makes one despair for the human condition. But then I'm a pent up ball of bitterness in some cases anyway, so who am I to judge?
Relax people.

Johnny Ryall ...

2004-10-26T23:12:00.000+01:00

Paul's Boutique is an excellent album, and am only recently trying out the many sounds of the Beastie Boys; it's a blinkered and frankly ignorant person who writes off the Beastie Boys as "just rap"; they're sound goes so far beyond rap (though obviously it's still there in much of their work) and merges lovingly with some of their mixing and melodies. I now find their albums relaxing to listen to, which in some ways runs contrary to the generalities that would define rap as staccato, aggressive or overly "punchy" music - but those 3 words are ones I would not use to describe their work. They still have come a long way from "Fight for your Right to Party" *shudder* It's not usually like me to wax lyrical so much (!) about a musical group, but I feel I've been missing out on a band that I myself partitioned off into "generic rap" on more than one occassion. For shame.

In other thoughts, maybe it is time I loosened up anyway; Denise quipped that she doesn't see the real Andrew in these writings (yes, people do look for these sorts of things in blogs ;) ), so from now on I promise to be a bubbling pile of truths and honesty. Well, try to anyway. And no; a truthful guy is not an oxymoron people; we are known for being straight-talking. In between jar-opening and football-watching. Grr.

Oh and that web gallery to house the portfolio is broken for some reason. I need some techie friends to fix it, so I must make the right polite noises to them :)

Whoah, That's Like ... ... Deep man ...

2004-10-23T20:33:00.000+01:00

Well not quite, but it was observed by resident nerd and generally fretful friend, Mark, that blogs are inherently useless; given that they are meaningless and non-eventful if the writer doesn't have anything useful or interesting in their life to write about (oops, I'm guilty of that one), especially if you don't know the person whose life you are reading about: and the second point was that given that they are private, there's no real way a person can truly write about what they feel about any given person, subject or circumstance.
By Jove, that man was right. It is a definite feeling of restraint that pervades through my typing into this online diary of sorts. I do understand that there are some subjects that I can never truly express how I feel; though having said that, I don't think I'd want to make some of them known to any meandering fool who traipses into this website. And on the other hand, I can't exactly type about certain people or things that people did, in case that comes back to haunt me. But then maybe I'm being too diplomatic; I shall see how I feel and if I start posting ... "the truth"

Brrrrr...

2004-10-21T13:51:00.000+01:00

It's cold around here; I think the Irish winter has officially started or something, and decided to catch up on all the warm days we've had over the last few months. This reporter found himself clambering out of the little bastion of warmth that is my bed into a world that was generally freezing, in the "freeze my ass off" fashion.

anyhow, it hasn't dampened spirits too much (I'll let full time employment do that job), and that plane model I spoke of the other day is now in an advanced state of completion. I think my head actually has spun from the speed with which I've got it done. And to house any prospective pictures of this glorious endeavor, I have a nice online portfolio ready for it and many other pieces... Hooray!

It's in the little things...

2004-10-20T09:46:00.000+01:00

"God is in the details", or is it "Beauty"? I can never remember, but it is always a good philosophy to live your life by; take joy and surprise from the little things that delight and make you smile. Ok, this is hardly one of them, but I never expected the word "crucifixes" (nice ecclesiastical tone I'm setting) to appear on my mobile phone's dictionary; it just seemed unlikely for a word so specific to appear; hardly a moment of clarity from the details in life to spark a belief in the divine; but at 9.35am you take what moments to make you smile where you find them. "Play where it lays" seems another appropriate phrase.

So anyway; I'm sitting typing this in an empty office; it looks like I may just be the only one in the place today; there's only 5 of us as it is - 1 is out sick (with the flu, ick), another 2, the manager types, are off to a trade expo to pimp the company, and the 4th person is the wife of one of the managers, and usually comes in with him, so I'm not sure if she'll be coming in, if at all, today. So I think I shall proceed with the thumb twiddling for a few hours at least, assuming the 4th person doesn't make an appearance...

Rana was asking me about the DCU Societies Ball the other night; wondering if I might go myself, despite (like her), being a full year graduated from the place come November. Getting the time off work might be awkward, and God knows it can be a costly event to attend as it is; part of me is tempted to get a ticket (although it's already close to being a sell-out), the rest of me is unsure. The glamour of the whole event is wonderful, but it's always a brief spell: as 90% of the men shed their jackets and ties the moment they reach their seating at the ball and commence binge drinking, and the girl's own (usually) wonderful attempts at glamour become sullied by the same copious drinking of booze. It's quite depressing, the attitude that is; dress up, spend money, look spectacular - then wash it all away with mixed drinks and ruddy cheeks. Lovely. I'm such an old fart.
*worries*

0-60 in 3.4 seconds

2004-10-18T14:53:00.000+01:00

That's at least what it felt like over the weekend, when I do believe I went from a blank 3D Studio Max canvas to a fully finished model in what can only be record time. What was more was that it was a plane, which are usually "Hell on Toast" when it comes to my prowess with modelling; the subtle curviture of a plane usually throws me right off, and much constant tweaking ensues.

However on this occassion, I actually got it to a satisfactory state of completion in record time; and record number of saves - whereas my folders are usually bulging with saved files up toward the hundreds of, I only hit the 50 mark after some final "tweaking". How odd. Maybe I'm suddenly getting good or something. Ha! Right. Next is to texture the fella, which may yet reveal more advances in Andrew's continued quest to be "good" at 3D modelling/design.

Though on the subject of digital design, I do notice a distinct lack of specifically Irish hubs of interest on this mighty swell of human verbiage that is the internet. It's a shame that there isn't; there's plenty of academic outlets of design, I find it hard to imagine that Irish designers don't have somewhere to meet and trade ideas, tips and whatnot.

So that was much of the weekend in three paragraphs; I was meant to go clothes shopping, but lazyness and weather combined to keep me away from the shops (mostly the lazyness). I did give a quck call to Mary in London too; who would have thought international calls would cost so much! 10 minutes on the phone ran away with €11 of my credit'; but it was worth it just to have a chin-wag with her (despite being towards inebriation on wine at the time of calling). My fellow insanity-case, John Mellerick, starts a new job today; texting me as I type to announce that the famous Sarv Singh works there too (if you don't know who he is, then tough; you can ask me over a white wine). I hope it goes well for him; the hours aren't great and the commute is worse, but it's always good to get cash in the wallet.

Speaking of which, I should probably get back to earning my share of fiscal earnings (can you say that ?), so cherrybye sports fans.

Rats

2004-10-13T01:13:00.000+01:00

Uhhh, this "new post" window took so long to load I've forgotten what it was I was going to write about! It mustn't have been that interesting in that case; probably just moaning about bad backs, some random new music (oooh more super furry animals; I do like these guys) and possibly some random news about some new skinning work.
but I'll type about it when I remember the extent of my exciting news...

Whoah, It's Late!

2004-10-10T02:30:00.000+01:00

Uhmmm, yes it is. Why am I posting this late? Shouldn't I be sleeping right about now? Yes I should!

...

*leaves*

stretch

2004-10-06T13:40:00.000+01:00

Ooooh I'm kinda tired, been a long week so far. Not too much to do in work, so it has dragged on a little. This Mac keyboard is steadily destroying my fingers; I can barely type for a few seconds without the cramped keyboard sending weird "shooty" sensations through my fingers. Lovely.

However, a placebo presents itself in a couple of new CDs, "Super Furry Animal"'s older albums, "Radiator" and "Guerilla", along with my tasty 1gig PenDrive, which has a cute "new toy" element to it, but it's damned useful none the less. Hooray.

Back ...

2004-09-29T19:43:00.000+01:00

...from London, and I am still tired, two days later. From the National Gallery to Covent Garden, I took in most of the centre city during my 4 days in the English capital, and generally it was fun. I made a point of not looking like a tourist, clothing myself appropriately and avoiding wielding a camera/guide book. Now part of me wants to just get back to normality after a long weekend in a frankly poor hostel; I decided after leaving that come the next holiday, whenever that may be, I will certainly book a hotel rather suffer another crusty hostel. It's nice to know, with a hotel, that if you're too tired there's a comfy hotel bed and it's facilities waiting for you.
Thankfully I'm not as poor as I thought I would be; when I counted the cost of the time away, I found, to my pleasant surprise, that I had spent slightly less than I thought I had. Hooray. Now to settle down back into the drudgery of everyday life again, but of course I am already thinking of future visits to far off lands, Warsaw chief among them.
For now, I have to catch up on all the correspondance, contacts and gossip I've missed during my time from civilisation. Now that's something I definitely missed. That and the prices and smoking ban.

Dreams

2004-09-21T09:43:00.000+01:00

The funny thing I find about dreams is that unless they're quite clearly nightmares, one tends not to remember them at all; there's always the intuition that you've woken up from a good or indifferent dream, but I can never remember the details of it, only fleeting ones, coupled with any chemical difference they gave me; be they feelings of euphoria or satisfaction or even excitement. My dreams have always contained an "epic" quality - they never feel mundane or feature perversions of my mundane life. I'd go so far to describe them as having "life or death" qualities, but that sounds slightly egotistical.

I do feel sometimes I should write down dreams, try to eek out their details, even if, bar a psychologist, there's no one really able to interpret them - particularly as last night had one huge and very obvious symbolic element amidst what can only be described as a potentially excellent potential plot, that had be confused when I woke up, and yet exhilarated that my dreams can be mysterious without creeping me out. I could put my own spin on it's suggestions of genetic homogenisation (a world of designer/cloned people on the genetic level), or of sexual repulsion and castigation by a "cultish" demographic (a government mandated cult of white suited people, determined to quash the evils of the carnal), or even on it's notions of a soulmate that always seemed to be one step away from me (I guess that element is the most easily interpreted; in the dream, we were always separated by circumstance, and realised the dangers of our very liaisons).

See? How messed up is that? No weird dreams of giving speeches naked, or any boring "flying" dreams people rave on about - no; I have dreams that sound like a spin on the movie "Gattaca" coupled with "a love that can never be". I'm telling you, if I don't get at least one novel out of my system, I think I'll have wasted my life, because God only knows the inspiration is there.

Tea...

2004-09-16T10:02:00.000+01:00

Irk, my bones are all squiffy and tired, I need a cuppa; I think walking into work has caught up with me, Im wrecked - nor am I spending my time drinking my money away (a lecture I got from the FÁS agent when I started this internship), so I think my batteries are run down.

"Musack"

2004-09-11T01:41:00.000+01:00

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stategems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
- The Merchant of Venice (V, i, 83-85)

I need new music. Quick. Or I die. Well, maybe not, but I just realised I've dropped into a musical vaccuum, where no new sounds can penetrate. The last two albums I purchased were the two most recent Beastie Boys albums, "Hello Nasty", and "To the 5 Boroughs"; and before that, it was a long time ago, the CDs beingSuper Furry Animal's "Phantom Power" and Rob Dougan's "Furious Angels", among others. That's a long time folks - we're talking 5+ months here. In a word: "Jaysus Maire"
Now, I will listen to anything, so it's not like my tastes have hurtled down a musical cul-de-sac, but I've just found myself drifting out of earshot of anyone, or anywhere (if magazines/web-sites can be "within earshot") that can provide morsels of new music to nibble on. I need some new sounds, new melodies to pick me up, make me smile, make me think and remember that occassionally I justify this "evolution" thing I hear all about.
I must harrass some friends the next time I see them into providing some roadmaps towards aural bliss; that or chocolate, but maybe both. I do remember a time when I used to tease Ivan about his left-field taste in electronic music, but then that genre managed to creep within my tastes pretty quickly, although I never meant any of that teasing. And beyond that, music is something that my friends and I rarely engage in conversation about; such is the manner of our relationships that we've moved beyond such mundanities - into day-to-day nutlessness. To the musicmobile!

Spider in the bath ...

2004-09-10T23:12:00.000+01:00

... and in my room, under my bed, and all over the house lately. We've become ever so slightly invaded by the buggers, and not small house spiders either - large, generally anti-social (ie, they hang around corners smoking) spiders, so I need to use my "manly" elements to the full in these situations, ie, getting some tissue paper, grabbing them and then bunging them into the toilet (other "manly" aspects include jar opening and being good with instruction manuals). Next week, Andrew's bathroom is annexed by some garden squirrels.

Energy

2004-09-06T20:45:00.000+01:00

I've found myself acquiring some of energy in the last week since starting off in work with such a heavy sense of drudgery. Thankfully, it has passed a little, though the sense of treading down a road I don't neccessarily want to go down persists in the job (the sense that I'm programming, but I want to be [graphics] designing - certainly polar elements). What helps is the healthy walking I partake in every day; it's mostly walking home from work, refusing lifts from co-workers, because frankly, I enjoy the 1.5-2 mile walk; it's certainly a good excuse to finally get some constant excersise, so it really is true that you can always find some positives if you look hard enough. Shame the rest of me is still pretty unhealthy though. Though I do draw the line at power-walking - call it what you will, it's still marching and looking like a pratt.

It's nearly here...

2004-09-02T23:43:00.000+01:00

The weekend. Woot. First week nearly at an end, many more to come. It went ok I suppose; slightly quiet. It's a hard thing to judge what to do with your evenings in a town that you no longer know anyone beyond your own family; beyond the parental units, everyone I ever knew in Monaghan upped sticks and left for undisclosed parts of the country (or the world; who knows!), so evenings can be a little bland and unfulfilled. Monaghan is really one of those towns, which, despite rampant redevelopment, still has pubs as it's main outlet of social activity - Park Street, one of it's main streets, is about 50% pubs, and there used to be more. It says a lot about a town when there is a whole street of pubs, and yet not one dedicated book shop (bar the library and the "bestsellers" section of a small branch of Easons).

I must get around to finishing the book Rana gave me for my birthday - "The History of War", I go through phases of being "bookey", and then not "bookey"; it's not so much that I hate reading, or don't like reading, it's that being a slave to his moods, there comes swathes of time when I I don't feel like reading, so sometimes it takes a while to get through books as I just switch off. Though on the other hand, some books are plain rubbish, like the much-recommended, but in fact, dull book by the name of "The Difference Engine"; it's thick and tome-like and written so turgidly it would make Tolkien look like a reporter for The Sun. Ick.

Anyway, off to bed I go; the "early" nights aren't as bad as my last place of work: Lexmark - then I was getting up at 7.15 for more than an hour's worth of travel; now it's just 20 minutes so my mornings are more relaxed. Score.

Molasses

2004-08-30T21:38:00.000+01:00

Which is what using the work machine feels like; a slow Mac and a slow Wacom Tablet and a warm office made the first day ... stressful. I'm coming down a little from the ... "low" (can you come down from a low? Probably not), but still, I've known better first days. First reaction leaving work was to sleep and feel depressed, so I've done the latter, only now I'm starting to wake up after being utterly knackered. I'll see how the rest of the week pans out, but I always feel bad when I have to tell friends and family to drop the subject, even if they're "only asking". I've always wondered if asking politely, or in many cases, not so-politely to stop asking me about work was being too ... "ogre-ish", but I really can't bare talking about work, particularly when it's a bad day, and especially when it's the same conversation 3/4 times in a row with different people you meet - it just reminds me of the movie "Office Space", and chirpy quips of "Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays" just because you're not overjoyed to be discussing your work again.
Oh and eating out of cheap café is a bad idea. If I do that again, I'll just ask them to bring the grease in a separate glass. Blergh.

Quoth the Andrew... "brains"

2004-08-29T15:15:00.000+01:00

Slightly zombied is the state in which I think I find myself today, got up way too late (even by my standards); 1.30pm being the time of rising from my slumber, so now I feel like my brain's made of jelly, and my various limbs are in random states of "floppyness", "ickyness" and "blerghness" - all descriptive and quite possibly made-up adjectives to describe me right now.
But! In other, slightly more interesting news, the accomodation for the trip to London has been booked, so it's all systems go for a small break in that delightlful small town that is Loon-doon. Though Barry announcing that he wasn't in fact coming, and finding this out via Rana, puts a slight damper on it all, and slightly annoyed he didn't think of telling the other people he was potentially holidaying with. Also seems the mysterious Mary will also be London-bound too, but after I leave, which is a shame, but hey, who said lightning doesn't strike twice; she'll be there for 6+ months.
Tomorrow Im starting my new job, in which I already know what my first task will be; creating a modest web-site for a small customer, so much of today should, in theory, be spent just brushing up on my various talents and skills in the fine art of HTML. But it took a scant five minutes for it all to come back to me, so I should be ok come tomorrow and beyond. We shall see. As I never did get any full work experience (a term of 6 months), I need experience more than other people need... uhmmm ... socks(!) so it's all good.

In The Beginning Was the Word...

2004-08-29T01:18:00.000+01:00

And the word was ... "Bing". Well yes, upon advice from elJohn Boy, also known as Element, I decided to make me a new place for my blog. I got tired of the one on redbrick, partly because of the look, partly because of the blog engine itself, and partly because like the big girl's blouse that I am, I wanted to tart myself up a little, figuratively speaking that is. So a new blog for a new generation or something equally snappily-titled.
So to celebrate, let's start with a new job. Yes, come Monday, I'll be starting to work in a place called WebWorks, who for 6 months at least shall be employing me to help creating lovely works of art (or not) on the web for discerning clients. So let's see how that compares to enraged Englishmen lambasting me across a telephone line on the subject of dodgy printers. Hum. Otherwise, it's nothing to interesting in the world of MacCann, though interesting people are met on a daily basis, some familiar (hello John, Rana, Mark, William, Tina, etc etc), and some people not so familiar (hello Mary there for one); who in this case christened me "Zippy" for reasons I'm too dim-witted to remember, but it's a cute name, and that's what counts sports fans.
Anyway, the zipster (LOL) is outta here, and really likes this spiffing new interface for typing in my literary ramblings, so should frequent this venue a little more often methinks.

IrishChoccy

Hiatus

My Life as a Cartoon...

Well that's embarrassing ...

Asteroids don't concern me commander...

A 15,000 Layer Photoshop Image

Touchy Feely

Golden Del.icio.us

Say Cheese

Ski Sunday (And Monday, Tuesday etc)

At the tone, the time will be ...

Life Finds a Way

The Second Moon

Transitional Steps

Back on the horse

Gallery Update

Twinkle twinkle...

Feast your eyes ...

Cheese it!

Normal Services Nearly Resumed

Pieces of July

Flicker flicker - another test

V-ray test

Andrew's New Toy

Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice...

Gallery's Fixed

The Word Today is "Nepotism"

Gallery Problems

Ooh, I've Come Over All Technical

Familiar Story?

Gallery Update

Operation Germania

Another Holiday...

The Zutons

Fun!

Intergalactic

The Other Side of the Horizon

Let's have a new post...

Tea Towels

'Tis the Season

Dammit Janet

Nexus

The Gallery BTW

Wah

Zzzz...

A Rarity

Colds Suck

Yay

Just Chill People

Johnny Ryall ...

Whoah, That's Like ... ... Deep man ...

Brrrrr...

It's in the little things...

0-60 in 3.4 seconds

Rats

Whoah, It's Late!

*stretch*

Back ...

Dreams

Tea...

"Musack"

Spider in the bath ...

Energy

It's nearly here...

Molasses

Quoth the Andrew... "brains"

In The Beginning Was the Word...

stretch