weell...
new blog time!
sketchbot9000.blogspot.com
So long to japan, and hello to more giant robots and improbable energy weapons!
( wait, I thought that was japan?)
Monday, April 14, 2008
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
This has been a week of discoveries by the way!
I learned that the new 12wx wacom cintiq touch screen tablet is shit! (thank god)
I thought that my camera was broken, but it turns out that fluorescent lighting has different color pulses undetectable to the human eye, and I figure that my camera gets more sensitive to them at high iso's and wide open f/stops, so the purple banding I was getting while shooting a dance competition (photos to come) was not in fact my camera freaking out, but rather shitty lighting at play. (again, thank god. I really thought my camera was busted fora bit.)
and finally (but certainly not least!) I figured out a LIFE CHANGING SOLUTION!!!
Normally while drawing I get distracted by the internet, comics, etc. etc. ETC. This is frustrating, because 90% of the time the things that distract me aren't all that important anyways. And it's not that I don'tt WANT to draw, it's just that drawing takes effort, and browsing the internet doesn't, and I can be sort of lazy.
BUT THEN AN EPIPHANY OCCURRED! I was talking to veronica, but sadly I had too much work to do it with video chat, so we were just talking through voice chat alone.
Because of this I couldn't go on the internet, or else I would be distracted from what she was saying, and the same was true about reading a comic, or wandering off to the kitchen or what not. So I diligently drew and talked, and after about an hour and a half of doing this I realized I had happily worked for a solid hour and a half.
This is not a huge amount of time, but the thing to remember here is that I felt no real urge to go and do anything else. It was solid work, without ANY TEMPTATION. (this is a big deal for me. I'm sure some of you too.)
HOWEVER. Obviously I can't just have someone in my pocket to talk to whenever I want to start drawing, so I searched inside of my monumental brain for a solution. And I *found one*.
...
it's really hard to build up drama when I can't really pause for dramatic effect you know?
anyways...
AUDIO BOOKS!
I theorized that if I was to listen to an audio book while working, all of the same benefits would occur as if I was talking to an actual person.
I downloaded the amber spyglass (honestly, this book was way WAY worse than the previous two. ugh.) and I got to work while listening to it.
I worked solidly for two days without any distractions.
FROM THIS DAY FORWARDS, THE WORLD IS MINE. As long as I don't run out of audio books that is.
anyways. feel free to use HARRY'S SOLUTION© at any time. results may vary.
(and here's the result of those two days work, and the previous weeks as well. fiiiinally done, but learned so so much about photoshop in the process.)
well, according to veronica I "never blog ever any more ever never ever.", (haha), and I figure she may be right (other obligations aside) so I figure I'll take a little break and throw up some pictures that I've snapped over the last week.
Also some more cliche japan pictures...
and finally, DANCING PEOPLE YAAY!
yeah you might notice the purple banding I was talking about earlier. sigh.
well. I have to go to sleep now.
My day was busy running around buying christmas presents and finishing drawings, and I just remembered I have to hang my clothing up to dry. (no dryer in this house sadly).
see you sooooon!
I learned that the new 12wx wacom cintiq touch screen tablet is shit! (thank god)
I thought that my camera was broken, but it turns out that fluorescent lighting has different color pulses undetectable to the human eye, and I figure that my camera gets more sensitive to them at high iso's and wide open f/stops, so the purple banding I was getting while shooting a dance competition (photos to come) was not in fact my camera freaking out, but rather shitty lighting at play. (again, thank god. I really thought my camera was busted fora bit.)
and finally (but certainly not least!) I figured out a LIFE CHANGING SOLUTION!!!
Normally while drawing I get distracted by the internet, comics, etc. etc. ETC. This is frustrating, because 90% of the time the things that distract me aren't all that important anyways. And it's not that I don'tt WANT to draw, it's just that drawing takes effort, and browsing the internet doesn't, and I can be sort of lazy.
BUT THEN AN EPIPHANY OCCURRED! I was talking to veronica, but sadly I had too much work to do it with video chat, so we were just talking through voice chat alone.
Because of this I couldn't go on the internet, or else I would be distracted from what she was saying, and the same was true about reading a comic, or wandering off to the kitchen or what not. So I diligently drew and talked, and after about an hour and a half of doing this I realized I had happily worked for a solid hour and a half.
This is not a huge amount of time, but the thing to remember here is that I felt no real urge to go and do anything else. It was solid work, without ANY TEMPTATION. (this is a big deal for me. I'm sure some of you too.)
HOWEVER. Obviously I can't just have someone in my pocket to talk to whenever I want to start drawing, so I searched inside of my monumental brain for a solution. And I *found one*.
...
it's really hard to build up drama when I can't really pause for dramatic effect you know?
anyways...
AUDIO BOOKS!
I theorized that if I was to listen to an audio book while working, all of the same benefits would occur as if I was talking to an actual person.
I downloaded the amber spyglass (honestly, this book was way WAY worse than the previous two. ugh.) and I got to work while listening to it.
I worked solidly for two days without any distractions.
FROM THIS DAY FORWARDS, THE WORLD IS MINE. As long as I don't run out of audio books that is.
anyways. feel free to use HARRY'S SOLUTION© at any time. results may vary.
(and here's the result of those two days work, and the previous weeks as well. fiiiinally done, but learned so so much about photoshop in the process.)
well, according to veronica I "never blog ever any more ever never ever.", (haha), and I figure she may be right (other obligations aside) so I figure I'll take a little break and throw up some pictures that I've snapped over the last week.
Also some more cliche japan pictures...
and finally, DANCING PEOPLE YAAY!
yeah you might notice the purple banding I was talking about earlier. sigh.
well. I have to go to sleep now.
My day was busy running around buying christmas presents and finishing drawings, and I just remembered I have to hang my clothing up to dry. (no dryer in this house sadly).
see you sooooon!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
well, it's essentially final time over here.
a little different though.
Because I currently only have TWO classes to do work for.
NOW. Before you get all huffy about how I get to take a walk down easy street, let me just say that it really isn't what it would seem.
Between these two classes I am BOOKED in terms of work.
but... it's ok, because both of the classes have me doing stuff that I enjoy. The puzzle is coming along well for the block class, and I'll probably get the wood cut out tomorrow to shape into the blocks.
And for my illustration class I'm doing three 13" by 19" illustrations. Done with two (almost, still have a day or two of touchups to do on them) and still have one left to go.
Aaanyways, life is busy for me... but I'm almost done with japan! And I don't mean that in a "yaaay" sort of way, I mean that in a "holy CRAP! Time goes fast!" kind of way.
wow.
so crazy.
anyways, I'm going to post some pictures now.
Yeah, so this is what I'm currently working on.
Had to redesign the cube thing a bit, but it should work pretty well now. Also these two pictures aren't totally done yet, still need touchups and details added. Still the bulk of work on them is fairly finished.
This is the older design GIVEN FLESH.
Happily and sadly it showed that it was not yet perfect, but as previously stated I believe I fixed those problems. I hope. maybe. please.
anyways...
So I'm currently deliberating something.
I bought an L lens that covers the 80-200 range very well, and I bought it very cheaply too. I could sell it for *quite* a bit of money and buy myself a newer lens that covers the same range, and would have image stabilizer and be quite a bit lighter too (the L lens is like, 16 years old and made of what seems to be reinforced steel. Heaavy.)
And, the thing is, the L lens isn't SUPER sharp or anything, which seems to be the measurement of how good most lenses are these days.
But... when I take pictures with it, and after a bit of tweaking afterwards, they usually turn out really good. I don't know.
It's a hard decision to make, because if I give this lens up I know I'll never get it back again. siigh.
oh well, here's some pictures taken with said lens from around where I live.
I like it so much... but it's so damn heavy and has no image stabilization. le sigh.
Well.
my time here is coming to a close.
It's interesting, musabi certainly was different than pratt.
I believe that this environment allowed me to self teach myself alot more than pratt did, but did this at the expense of structured lessons.
In many ways I feel like I might have matured a bit? Well, in any case I go grocery shopping over here. haha.
The students here also have a wonderful sense of patience and I've YET to see anyone complain about having too much work or gripe about school problems. (although I'm sure they do gripe about work and school, in any sense it's much less than back home. I mean, hell, I gripe about work and school at the time even here...)
A really wonderful thing, and completely unforeseen, is that my time over here has done some pretty fantastic things towards my relationship with veronica.
I had worried that by going abroad for so long things would get fractured and seeds of discontent would have started growing between us, or that one of us would do something we might regret, or any other number of relationship harming might have happened.
But absence and heart growing fonder and such, instead, by getting to talk whenever we could, and sending e-mails when we couldn't talk, I've found that this time apart has actually strengthened the relationship to a point that I've never experienced before, or even knew I could achieve.
I feel like I could go on at length, but I'm going to resist the urge. I'll just say that anyone who's willing to wait lovingly for their daydreaming boyfriend to go galavanting off halfway around the world probably deserves more than anything that boyfriend can give to them to make up for it when he returns. Although he's certainly going to try.
a little different though.
Because I currently only have TWO classes to do work for.
NOW. Before you get all huffy about how I get to take a walk down easy street, let me just say that it really isn't what it would seem.
Between these two classes I am BOOKED in terms of work.
but... it's ok, because both of the classes have me doing stuff that I enjoy. The puzzle is coming along well for the block class, and I'll probably get the wood cut out tomorrow to shape into the blocks.
And for my illustration class I'm doing three 13" by 19" illustrations. Done with two (almost, still have a day or two of touchups to do on them) and still have one left to go.
Aaanyways, life is busy for me... but I'm almost done with japan! And I don't mean that in a "yaaay" sort of way, I mean that in a "holy CRAP! Time goes fast!" kind of way.
wow.
so crazy.
anyways, I'm going to post some pictures now.
Yeah, so this is what I'm currently working on.
Had to redesign the cube thing a bit, but it should work pretty well now. Also these two pictures aren't totally done yet, still need touchups and details added. Still the bulk of work on them is fairly finished.
This is the older design GIVEN FLESH.
Happily and sadly it showed that it was not yet perfect, but as previously stated I believe I fixed those problems. I hope. maybe. please.
anyways...
So I'm currently deliberating something.
I bought an L lens that covers the 80-200 range very well, and I bought it very cheaply too. I could sell it for *quite* a bit of money and buy myself a newer lens that covers the same range, and would have image stabilizer and be quite a bit lighter too (the L lens is like, 16 years old and made of what seems to be reinforced steel. Heaavy.)
And, the thing is, the L lens isn't SUPER sharp or anything, which seems to be the measurement of how good most lenses are these days.
But... when I take pictures with it, and after a bit of tweaking afterwards, they usually turn out really good. I don't know.
It's a hard decision to make, because if I give this lens up I know I'll never get it back again. siigh.
oh well, here's some pictures taken with said lens from around where I live.
I like it so much... but it's so damn heavy and has no image stabilization. le sigh.
Well.
my time here is coming to a close.
It's interesting, musabi certainly was different than pratt.
I believe that this environment allowed me to self teach myself alot more than pratt did, but did this at the expense of structured lessons.
In many ways I feel like I might have matured a bit? Well, in any case I go grocery shopping over here. haha.
The students here also have a wonderful sense of patience and I've YET to see anyone complain about having too much work or gripe about school problems. (although I'm sure they do gripe about work and school, in any sense it's much less than back home. I mean, hell, I gripe about work and school at the time even here...)
A really wonderful thing, and completely unforeseen, is that my time over here has done some pretty fantastic things towards my relationship with veronica.
I had worried that by going abroad for so long things would get fractured and seeds of discontent would have started growing between us, or that one of us would do something we might regret, or any other number of relationship harming might have happened.
But absence and heart growing fonder and such, instead, by getting to talk whenever we could, and sending e-mails when we couldn't talk, I've found that this time apart has actually strengthened the relationship to a point that I've never experienced before, or even knew I could achieve.
I feel like I could go on at length, but I'm going to resist the urge. I'll just say that anyone who's willing to wait lovingly for their daydreaming boyfriend to go galavanting off halfway around the world probably deserves more than anything that boyfriend can give to them to make up for it when he returns. Although he's certainly going to try.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Well it's been awhile.
Before I go into *why* it's been awhile, let's try and move through some of my robot photo shoots eh?
I'll also throw up a classmates work or two, just cause.
I'm sure you can tell which are mine. (hint: they look like robots)
I also did a few different combinations. These things can combine together in more than just a few ways, so the only real limit would be your *IMAAAGINATIOOON*.
... the next ones I'm working are are going to be even crazier in terms of combination abilities. CRAZY! (hopefully actually achievable though)
eh, just some pretty pictures on campus I shot with one of the lenses I bought and fixed up. I'm going to sell this lens off, but I'm impressed that even after being battered around for years, being almost as old as me, and still having fungal residue inside of it, the thing still manages to take great pictures. Go canon woo!
anyways.
So my mom came and visited me!
It was only for two days because the actual purpose of flying out here was to use japan as a layover for her continued trip on to australia (to visit pa (my australian grandfather)), but all the same it was very enjoyable!
We went shopping for food stuffs and gifts and clothing, and wandered around the shinjuku area quite a bit.
Sadly mom couldn't come out to visit campus because of jetlag exhaustion, but we got to eat a fantastic thanksgiving dinner at a classy little traditional japanese place.
They brought multiple tiny perfectly prepared dishes, each one set to compliment the others in terms of taste and texture.
The tastes were so subtle and perfect... and of course the whole staff was virtually tripping over themselves to make the experience as perfect as possible. Very enjoyable.
In any case, I actually didn't take many pictures while we were walking around (as much of it was inside a very large nearby japanese department store) so I compensated by taking pictures out of the hotel rooms window. And, wow, what a view.
now I hope this gives you some sense of scale of what tokyo is like. And it isn't only like this in one direction either. It's like this 360 degrees around from where the hotel was.
Literally a sea of a city. I doubt any one person has even explored the whole thing. It's just simply insane.
Pictures of me and mum!
I don't really like putting pictures of me up, but, well if I'm going to put my mom on I might as well extend myself as well.
Thankfully my twisted smile doesn't look so menacing as it does bemused in this picture, and my mom has the whole thoughtful city gaze going on, so the combination isn't terrible or anything.
We did spend quite a bit of time just talking and looking out at the city, so I guess it is a pretty fitting picture in the end.
...
homwork is crunching down over here, and my time at musabi will soon draw to an end.
Can you believe that another semester has already almost passed by? Good god.
Soon I'm going to have to actually apply the skills I've learned or starve.
Thankfully I've learned the joys of amazingly cheap fast eating over here, so I'll probably die of hypothermia or something before I give into starvation.
MAN. I really need to start making posts more frequently. I *swear* I had more to say, but it seems to have trickled out of my head at some point.
blah.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
