tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53640752008-08-20T14:06:12.935-04:00Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-35028005847738819682008-08-20T14:03:00.001-04:002008-08-20T14:06:12.955-04:00

Whenever roadtrip!Joy and I travel back to central and Eastern Pennsylvania to visit family, there is point in the drive where we both kind of sigh because it just feels like home. Not that we aren't happy in suburban Pittsburgh. It's just that once we crest Cresson Mountain, the landscape seems to change and things feel different. Better. I've pondered this feeling, and, as usual, it has lead

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-6197912578373309332008-07-11T11:33:00.004-04:002008-07-16T12:18:05.606-04:00

The other day, I noticed something odd looking as I was cleaning up from some painting in the garage. It hadn't been there a moment ago, but now it was: a little gray fuzz ball on the ground. For a moment, I couldn't tell if the baby mouse was alive or dead, so I didn't acknowledge its presence. Lucy was near, and I knew she would freak if she saw a dead baby mouse. We have this thing about cute

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-35631080405768067642008-06-30T14:04:00.002-04:002008-06-30T14:22:11.044-04:00

I remember when back in my collegiate days we were given email accounts. This was a fairly big deal then (I only got one because I strayed for the lib. arts curriculum and took some Engineering classes), and all email (as well as most other things you could do on the computer) was sent and received through terminal access, with a wicked-awesome green on black text interface (yes, I'm that old).

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-62084768007500437242008-06-23T18:49:00.003-04:002008-06-24T06:16:36.972-04:00

Maddie got full braces on today, and of course it hurts. I've never had braces, but it doesn't mean I can't sympathize. straightTooth!Joy did have them, so she knows all about it. Hearing them commiserate with each other over the pain reminded me of a phenomenon that I've grow so used to these days that by the time it's done, I just forget about it. For those who don't know, almost twenty years

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-17957763121273423772008-06-23T15:10:00.003-04:002008-06-23T23:40:08.372-04:00

Having just returned from a week on vacation, here is the ugly tourist's impression of each state we drove through. South Carolina: Work Area Ahead? Uh oh. But wait! No lanes are blocked, the pylons are all to the side of the road, and the Work Area speed limit is 65 MPH. Rock on, South Carolina! North Carolina: 70 MPH + no state troopers in sight = awesome. Virginia: All the cops who weren't

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-56840224768425421312008-06-17T09:34:00.002-04:002008-06-17T09:41:26.543-04:00

A strange and wonderful thing has happened to me, and I'm not sure why or how. For a period of time from around 1990 through 1995, I enjoyed extremely cold weather. I mean really cold, with high winds, etc. I liked being out in it. Not sure why. Over the next decade, though, the effect faded until the present, where I find myself ambivalent about cold weather. I can take it or leave it, although

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-74169011868492598602008-05-30T11:15:00.002-04:002008-05-30T12:31:49.961-04:00

I was thinking the other day about what it takes to be friends with someone, and consequently, what it takes for a person to become your enemy. There are a host of socio-economic and cultural factors at play (if you don't speak the same language it's not going to work too well), as well as the question of equivalent intelligence (the super smart just can't be bosom buddies with the colossally

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-70039877805691926932008-05-23T20:56:00.003-04:002008-05-24T08:07:02.683-04:00

Not that I went anywhere. If you'll remember from last year, writing the first book effectively killed my blogging time. So, even though I managed the time way better on this book, The Hess Report was the first to suffer (I was also making a short animation and keeping up two other blogs). To show my good faith, I'm going to give you a threefur post: two brags, and one normal thing. First, the

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-15991813887504436242008-01-28T21:29:00.000-05:002008-01-28T21:39:25.412-05:00

SMITH magazine does a contest called "Six Word Memoirs," in which you sum up your life pithily in six words only. Well, maybe pithily. I guess you're also supposed to assume that your life is over, otherwise, how is it a complete memoir? Here's the link to this year's winners. I'm guessing they're a hipster mag. Not really sure, as I've never read anything in it. Judging entirely superficially,

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-76344984557070969332008-01-18T10:07:00.000-05:002008-01-18T10:13:02.825-05:00

The old saw of operant conditioning is: "Consistent Punishment/Random Reward". When dealing with people, the punishment part seems to be fairly simple. If someone does something you would like to discourage, you need to make them regret it. Really though, that's not exactly the case. It's too much like vengeance. What you actually need to do is to make sure that they do no benefit from the

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-28543826714788762072007-12-19T22:34:00.000-05:002007-12-19T22:35:29.885-05:00

We were goofing around the other night, and Lucy said "Dad, let's make a stop-motion animation with the Rudolph set!" I said "Uh... okay!" Here you go: Merry Christmas everyone!

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-19483142574297677852007-12-11T21:19:00.000-05:002007-12-11T21:27:26.394-05:00

Robots. Scary robots. Okay. Really. What the hell are they thinking? Watch the video. If you're going to build robots to supplement human labor, you build them as task-specific automatons. You do not do any of the following: 1. Make them into general purpose devices, capable of learning and exhibiting a large area of different behaviors. 2. Give them the ability to refuel themselves. 3.

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-69405416653990996002007-12-11T09:22:00.000-05:002007-12-11T20:59:45.056-05:00

Second only to the chock-full schedules, there is something that drives me crazy enough to almost make me wish that Christmas was a somber, four hour church-only holiday: setting up the Christmas tree. It's almost always an exercise in frustration, gouges on the hand and saying very un-Christmaslike things to get the tree stand on securely and the tree standing anywhere close to vertical. This

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-59317632218988562092007-12-05T10:47:00.000-05:002007-12-05T10:48:00.557-05:00

There's a trailer out for the second installment of the movie series of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I know that they're intent on filming all seven books, but I have to wonder what they'll do with the final one, The Last Battle. Of course, there were the critics dismissals of the "Jesus analogy" for Aslan when The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe came out. But in The Last Battle,

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-57057385342069651712007-12-05T09:44:00.000-05:002007-12-05T10:53:33.134-05:00

Morning Jolt of Caffeine Might Mask Serious Sleep Problems Silly article. What an anti-coffee bias! If it does nothing else, it lets us know that the writers at Science Daily don't know their coffee mug from a hole in the ground. Let's see... some people have trouble sleeping, but through the miracle of delicious coffee, they can function normally. That's bad? Isn't that a little like saying

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-85585754764504173792007-11-19T18:58:00.000-05:002007-11-19T19:26:39.960-05:00

It's been a while since it was released, but reviews are finally starting to come in for The Essential Blender. While there were some valid criticisms of image size and resolution at the printing stage, overall the reaction is very good. One of the things I really enjoyed reading in the reviews was how my initial goals for the book really seem to have been fulfilled: accessible to artists/

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-60073975263734328402007-10-23T09:30:00.000-04:002007-10-23T09:31:16.057-04:00

Every family has their traditions: stories, customs and skills passed from generation to generation. One of our family traditions is the institution of creative reactions to particularly lethal farts. To whit: - "BEEEEEES! There are bees in my nose!" - Falling to your knees, clenching your fists and shouting "The horror! The horror!" - "I think a skunk died, came back to life as a zombie, got

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-38882503357034032882007-10-04T11:48:00.000-04:002007-10-04T14:56:45.500-04:00

I have a lot of sympathy for the chronically ill, mostly because I'm so miserable myself when I get sick. It wears me down very quickly and as I've stated before, those people who can deal with chronic pain conditions or other debilitating, frustrating illnesses for long periods of time with good humor and (mostly) a smile are truly better people than me. I started feeling a little cold coming

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-9731802080759445582007-09-27T09:23:00.000-04:002007-09-27T09:24:01.576-04:00

We've hit a kind of developmental milestone at our house. Anyone with little kids knows the feeling you get when you're working on something fairly important and you get an offer of "help." You know that the project (cleaning the garage, doing laundry, painting the fence) will take twice as long because: A) You'll have to prevent the little kids from irreparable harm during the process (

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-47518739111026968132007-08-27T12:47:00.000-04:002007-09-12T20:44:06.434-04:00

I've been working with Blender for almost seven years now, with 3D in general for almost fifteen, and with coding, imaging and animation for almost twenty-five. I've been active in developing for Blender and working with the Foundation since it became Open Source five years ago. Despite that, until this year I had never talked face to face with even one of the tens of thousands (if not hundreds

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-5149631936018454332007-07-05T08:25:00.000-04:002007-07-05T08:36:55.185-04:00

Since the time that I slipped while unearthing a shrub and had one of its branches come so close to puncturing my eye that I found my contact lens stuck to the end of it when I got off the ground, I've taken to wearing eye protection while working. Usually, it's just sunglasses, but sometimes I'll wear my shooting glasses for something extra heavy-duty. I know that not everyone wears eye

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-7107739552193034812007-06-25T08:15:00.000-04:002007-06-25T08:26:03.021-04:00

Ring - Ring. Me: This is Roland. Salesperson: I can't get into my computer. It's all $*%#ed up. Me: What's it doing? Salesperson: It keeps asking for a password. I don't have a password! What's my password? Me: I don't know. I don't set your individual password. Salesperson: Why's it asking for a password? I don't have one. Me: Well, did you try clicking "OK" without a password? Leave the

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-78597928746084014082007-06-07T11:31:00.000-04:002007-06-07T11:33:14.235-04:00

Hello, Bathroom Talkers. And no, I'm not referring to the people who use bathroom talk. Words like "poopy" and such. I'm referring to people who try to engage you in conversation in public bathrooms. Now, it doesn't happen too often in a truly public bathroom like, say, the one at Target. If it did, then the dude's probably hitting on you. The only exception to that is if there is something

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-54228739926994488002007-06-02T18:30:00.001-04:002007-06-02T18:34:02.192-04:00

I said a couple of posts ago that I would put up my first effort with ArtRage, the natural media painting program. Click on the low resolution image to get a larger version: Of course, this is Piper, our dog. The ArtRage tools are very cool, and working with them feels very much like working with real media (this was mostly the oil painting tools). It takes it a little further, though, as the

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364075.post-24918386822006387172007-05-31T10:10:00.000-04:002007-05-31T11:12:09.193-04:00

function calc_tv_size(input) {var diagonal_size=input.value;diagonal_size = Math.sqrt(0.6681971 * input.value * input.value);diagonal_size = Math.floor(diagonal_size*100)/100;document.forms.tv_calc.size_4_3.value = diagonal_size;}Just a heads up for people who are looking to buy a widescreen TV, sometimes called a 16:9. One of the complaints I've heard from people who own them are that most

Rolandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416202433772605233noreply@blogger.com