A Facebook executive, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, recently defended Facebook’s policies about political advertising, which critics say rewards politicians who spend a lot of money pushing lies to the slogan-chanting, meme-sharing masses (including the ones in red hats and the ones with the blue hats). Bosworth seems to suggest that for Facebook to tamper with its…
Similar:Spent a half hour taming this tangle of cables (left) with a little tiny six-inch-wide car…AestheticsSubtle Stylesheet Tweaks for Mobile SiteOn the mobile version of my WordPress we…AestheticsJust an elegant retro keyboard for a #steampunk #cgi project. Procedural materials mean I …AestheticsImaginary vs Real Office SpaceHere’s a fantasy workspace, that I built…AcademiaNo more braces!PersonalCaptain Gearheart…
Similar:Richard Scarry unfinished manuscript to be publishedSome of my happiest memories of fatherho…AestheticsUpdating a villain's lair in #Blender3D. Still a work in progress.AestheticsOn my fantasy #steampunk cruiser, every uniform is a parade dress uniform. #Blender3D #ble… The first few weeks of Jun…AestheticsWinners Chosen in Annual Shakespeare Monologue and Scene ContestMichael Henninger took this wonderful ph…BooksMy…
Similar:More #Blender3D practice. Making many objects to liven up a #steampunk environment.PersonalI love my students enough to teach them the difference between passive voice and past tens…If a goggles-for-brains Lego character c…EducationJust a #neovictorian avatar in spats and a tailcoat, checking out the back porch and bridg… AestheticsYesterday my wife took this last known picture…
My goal in trying to do an object each day is to familiarize myself with the workflow, so that I don’t have to keep looking at a list of instructions.
My last few #blender3D experiments with wood objects went so well I thought I’d try an object with two materials. The reflective nature of metal means I had to add a “gloss” map — I should probably have stuck with a single diffuse material. Lots of trial and error.
I realized I have turn off the “glossiness” in order to make the diffuse color maps. With four different styles of wood, with two different types of metal, the normal map, and the gloss map, I had a lot of do-overs, but I managed.
The blue image is a “normal map,” which graphics engines use to fake extra details on flat geometrical surfaces. I have different color maps for pine, spruce, mahogany and walnut.
“Engineers now predict the day will come when we get all our newspapers and magazines by home computer.” Similar:Google Trends: blog, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (2004-2012)I rather expected this — popularity of …Current_EventsPlato's Allegory of the CaveIn The Republic, Plato uses an extended …AcademiaAlways Bet on TextGraydon Hoare offers a rousing hymn to t…CybercultureCollege Instructors Don't…
I can’t seem to get into superhero movies. The non-stop CGI onslaught just leaves me cold. As an English professor who teaches classes like Shakespeare in Context and World Drama, I do a lot of reading and see a lot of local theatre. But I’m hardly a media snob. For relaxation, I often put on…
Similar:She was a musical ingenue Sunday, filmed a slasher movie past midnight Monday, and was pre…AcademiaMuch Ado About Nothing (Beatrice is my literary crush.)PersonalI am at that stage of life where I am excited about loading a new dishwasher for the first…PersonalI can't really articulate why i enjoy crafting #steampunk control panels, but it's been…
Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation after a 20-year break Starfleet offers Riker his own command and sends his estranged father to brief him on his new mission. Meanwhile, Wesley notices Worf is more anti-social than usual. A character-based episode that has some good moments for the ensemble, but overall didn’t do much for me.…
Similar:The boy tied for second place in Saturday's Monroeville Chess Club tournament.Peter was the lowest-ranked player to en…GamesMyths about "Learning Styles Persist in SocietyI first heard the formalized theories ab…AcademiaToasty Warm Bed (designed by drunk AI neural net)AestheticsChess tournament in Monroeville. Two losses, two wins.The boy’s personal best in terms of win-…CultureEnjoying a peaceful fall…
Critical thinking skills and basic textual analysis are increasingly important in a cultural landscape where the powerful are counting on the average person not caring about such things as the truth. Biden opened by talking about how English common law in the 1300s allowed for husbands to beat their wives, and then said that we…
Similar:1 small shirt for a man, 1 giant leap backward for women: ColumnIdea for a scientist pull-cord doll: “Fa…AestheticsFrozen (Greensburg Civic Theatre, Greasepaint Players)DramaVan Gogh Immersive Experience AestheticsSnow White: The Musical Opens Fridayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIRCoHoN…AestheticsNow I can relax a bit. (But just a bit.)PersonalBeautiful, meditative video shows how books are madePretty sure you can’t do this to…
Similar:World Trade Center Literary and Cultural Reflections (first posted September 11, 2001) Not knowing what else to do, in the nu…AestheticsStage Right's "The Secret Garden": Performing with My Talented Daughter This weekend has been magical. Frida…CultureCanadians Love Poop, Americans Love Pizza: How Emojis Fare Worldwide The company SwiftKey analyzed more tha…AestheticsFinished Reading The Chronicles of…
Similar:‘People are rooting for the whale’: the strange American tradition of Moby-Dick reading ma…When I went off to college to be an Engl…AcademiaTrying out a new lens to capture creepy-toy-come-to-life choreography. AestheticsI try to create one brand new element, modify one existing element, and reuse existing ele…AestheticsCompleted uniforms for the officers and crew from the…
My mother wants me to thank John at The Train Depot in Chantilly, Va., who cleaned and oiled the engine and made it ready to run after 35 years in storage. My very handy mother stripped the 18-gauge speaker wires to connect the lock-ons to the transformer and track. Similar:Don't Automatically Blame the Reporter for…
Similar:Three different sized buildings. Still working on variations for the biggest one. #blender…Three different sized buildings. Still w…AestheticsNo I didn’t exactly *plan* to spend my Sunday evening tweaking the pedestrian access to th…AestheticsThat time three-year-old me spotted a Mary Cassatt painting at the Art Institute of Chicag…My mother had a framed print of Mary Cas…AestheticsMy…
Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation after a 20-year break. The Enterprise encounters an abandoned Federation shuttlecraft and a time-travel mystery. A “bottle” episode that takes place entirely on the Enterprise, which frees up the production budget for some cool “energy vortex” special effects and gorgeous computer interface displays that really help create the illusion…
Insightful essay from a US Military vet who went to college at age 52. Let me address this “snowflake” thing. According to the “Urban Dictionary” a “snowflake” is a “term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie “Fight Club” from the quote “You…
Similar:Today's annoying adventures of adulting: fixing the bathroom ceiling fan.Not fun, but done. ModdingMy Kids Loved Narnia but Were Unimpressed by Turkish DelightAmerican kids today would have little id…AmusingIt’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount of disinformation being spread by elected official…It’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount …Current_EventsThings are not going well when the other king…