It Starts So Innocently

Posted on August 17, 2020 by SusanG

I’m not sure why we call them rabbit trails, but we do. It might have to do with the way rabbit trails seem to go all over and go on and on so that finding your way back is a monumental task. Or perhaps it has to do with falling down the rabbit hole in Alice and Wonderland. Everything is different and you have no idea where you are and how do you get back. In either case, that’s where I was this weekend for sure. It started simply and innocently with a need for a pencil holder. And it just grew from there.

The printing a pencil holder.

I have a 3D printer that I bought several years ago. I had quite high expectations of using it then and only ever printed out one or two of the demo prints that came with it. It has mostly gathered dust and taken up space until this year. As you might recall a couple of months ago I finally figured out how to set up and use a 3D print file that was not a demo file, and print something useful. I haven’t really used it since. But it was a start. Now I have a project, and it all started from a conversation about me printing a pencil holder.

I have a set of pens that came in a great holder that spins and has them all set out so you can easily see which one is which. It’s great. It takes up too much space. I wanted something different to put them in. The last time I made a pencil holder I used Lego Bricks. I don’t have that many anymore and certainly not the sizes that would make building another pencil holder possible. But I have a 3D printer. No I didn’t print Lego Bricks. Though…Sorry, a thought ran off with me. Back to the pencil holder. I went online to Thingiverse and found a couple of options for a pencil holder that I liked and could print. I downloaded the files, did some scaling, did the slicing, and holy cow it’s going to take over 13 hours to print. Good thing it’s Friday.

There are 24 pens in that 3D printed pencil holder.

This was all I really planned to do at that point. Print my pencil holder. And then a conversation with my manager for my day job. We were discussing the Aerogarden and I brought up how the spikes that you use to grow things in often have to be cut and disposed of when you decide to pot the plants that have gotten too big because the root systems are quite robust and I don’t want to damage the roots if I can avoid it. My manager, after hearing about my printing and this problem suggested that maybe someone had made a replacement for the spike that wasn’t like that. And off I went.

Yes, it turns out someone has designed a root-saver replacement and put the files on Thingiverse. Which meant that I had a new project after my pencil holder finished printing. I’ve printed out a test of the spike and it looks like it’s going to work like a charm. I’ve found a couple of other helpful bits like a plug that covers the empty holes when they are not being used. I showed one of the plugs to my Mom and she said it looked like a character from the movie “Batteries Not Included”. Then she wanted to know if I could paint eyes on them, the plugs. And off I went again.

Something useful. Root-saver spike.

So a couple of bits of particulars for those who are curious. I bought my printer through Monoprice several years ago. They still sell either it or a similar model. My print area is 200mm x 200mm x 180mm and the printer only has one print head. I am printing with PLA filament, it’s a plant based plastic that is non-toxic and has little if no fumes when printing. The converting, or slicing software I’m using is Cura. I had to custom setup my print settings in it probably because the version of the software I have is considerably newer than my printer. My printer is the equivalent of a RepRap if you know what that is or was.

The printing really did consume my weekend, which is probably good because the rest of my week wasn’t that interesting for writing about. I’m still studying. I’ve made some progress. The approach of rewriting the notes I took seems to be helping. It may have been a punishment in school to have to write lines over and over again, but in this case it is really helpful and I feel like I’m finally grasping some things. So I’ll be continuing to try variations of re-writing my notes to help with the studying. It may not be the most efficient way to most people but it is the repetition that I find works best. And that makes sense. It’s like playing scales over and over and over, or doing kicks over and over, or forms in Taekwondo. I have done those things so many times that it often takes little thought for me to go through any of those if asked.

A little fun with a failed print.

I had planned to get to the more creative and fun things this weekend and didn’t. Best of intentions and all of that. I’ve still got plans to work them in this week. I’m thinking maybe a guitar lesson or two for my lunch hour and donut work one evening after Taekwondo class. That should work. And maybe some work on a digital art piece I’ve started in Procreate on the iPad. It was inspired by my nephew.

That’s the exciting stuff for this week. As you can see, there’s no telling what I’ll be getting up to from week to week. Join me again next week to find out what adventure I fall into this week.

And something completely different to end with.

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Workin’ The Plan

Posted on August 10, 2020 by SusanG

Of course the question is, which plan? Well right now, roughly two. The studies plan and the technology consolidation plan. The studies plan is what I’m calling the part last week where I figured out that if I get certain things done, I’m be really done with them and can move on to different stuff. I haven’t mentioned the technology consolidation plan yet. I’m still assessing a couple of items with that. However, I did get started on it.

Playing in Procreate. It’s a whole new world.

About a month ago I ordered an iPad Pro, at the same time I ordered an Apple Pencil and a cover to go with it. A couple of days later I had the pencil and the cover and was waiting on the iPad. The iPad finally arrived last week. Finally. And now, I’m getting used to using it. There were a few things that finally convinced me to get an iPad again. For starters, the Pencil. This was really exciting to me when it was first introduced and now with some of the upcoming changes to how it works in iOS 14 I’m even more excited. Another thing was trying to draw or sketch with the tools on a Windows tablet styled Surface and finding it a difficult enough experience that it hasn’t inspired me to learn how to do it. Yes, I have a stylus for the Surface. There were other things that appealed to me as well. The fact that the OS on the iPad is designed for a tablet and not a desktop operating system trying pretend to be a tablet operating system. The difference in how privacy is handled is another plus. And it fits into the bigger technology consolidation plan, which, as it implies, will ultimately see me with fewer devices. Hopefully.

Since art is a factor for having the iPad getting the right app was important. For that, this time I decided to purchase Procreate. I have Auto Sketch I think that’s what it’s called. It’s the Autodesk Sketch program and I could have stuck with that but I decided to go with something that seems a bit more “Apple main stream”. I have tried it already. In fact I used it to play with an idea for what to do for the next donut scene after the one I’m working on. It was fun to use that idea to learn a bit of how to work with the app, it was also the first fairly simple thing I could think of. And you know what. It was so easy and smooth to use that I actually want to learn to use it to make 2D digital art. That’s a cool thing to me. In fact it’s probably the coolest thing so far.

The garden is growing.

I already have Garage Band for the iPad so I’ll be able to use it for some recording of my practice and noodling if I want to. And yes, you really can produce music in Garage Band. I haven’t done it yet. I’m looking forward to trying it. I am planning on getting an iRig to go with it so that when I do record it will, in theory, be better quality.

Speaking of music, I worked on my guitar course again this weekend. And again I learned something. It is a slight variation on the turn around for the 12 bar blues. It was easy enough with a couple of the boogie patterns he uses and more challenging with the other two. My brain and fingers kept getting a little tangled. I kept at it though. I played it until I could do it. I used the iPad to watch the lessons. I like the portability more than my other devices and I think that will be important as I get to some of the more involved lessons that I may want my guitar in hand for as he’s going through them.

It probably seems like all I have to talk about this week is the new iPad. That’s because, last week, up until it got here I was working the study plan. It was a full week at the day job and a long one as we had server patching at the weekend. As I mentioned in the last post, I figured out that if I got a few of the things I’d been working on done I’d have more time to better concentrate on the big study so I could get that out of the way. So that’s what I did. I was about half way through the week and found that I was really close to finishing the AWS course. So I pushed through and finished the course and the test for the course. I am done with that. For the immediate need. Now back to the SQL study with that as the focus. Which is what I’m working on now.

Donuts are modeled. Need sprinkles and color.

Though I did take some time to work on the guitar course and to practice, and I worked on the donut scene, once I was done with the patching and maintenance for the day job, SQL was my focus for the weekend. And I worked the iPad into that plan as well. I have these notes I’ve been taking for some flash cards online that even though I’ve been taking the notes, I haven’t gone back and read through them. So I decided to do that. Read the notes. As I was reading them I thought it would be better to re-write them so I could read them more easily. But I wanted to write them, not type them. So I found a good notebook app for the iPad. I chose one that I had to pay for. It is one I can have full access to and not have to subscribe to it after the free trial. I’m really loving it. I’ve got almost all of the notes copied. Just a few more sets to go. And I’ve retained some of the information too. Progress.

I’m expecting to make a little more progress on the donut scene this weekend, maybe even adding some color to it. And I will be making sure to get some guitar practice as well as the guitar course. Even planning for that, my big focus will be the SQL. I’ve made progress with my notes, and my book study and I have a few more tools to work with so that I can get myself ready to take that test and pass it. For now, I have few pictures I managed for this week so enjoy.

Yes, I felt the earthquake.

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Adjustments, Tweaking, and Maybe Motivation

Posted on August 3, 2020 by SusanG

I recently caught a small case of boredom where I wasn’t too excited about the things that I have listed out to do. I started thinking about it and realized that it might be because, half or more, are things that I am working on for the day job. Yes, they are things I want to learn as well. It’s just that they are more for the day job. And even though I finished the Blender Donuts tutorial, I hadn’t really replaced it with one of the other things I am wanting to learn. That’s because I’m still making 3D donuts. I guess it’s time have another look at things.

Salad Greens

The first thing I did while I was thinking about that was to make myself some lunch. I had a steak sandwich wrap and used some of my lovely salad greens that have finally gotten to a size of needing to be harvested periodically. As I was eating my wrap, I thought about the things I’m working on for studies, I realized that I had one course that I have completed a bit over half of. It could be finished fairly soon. And it might be enough to get me what I need. I need to check that out. That is the AWS course. That leaves two other lines of study. SQL and Ruby. I actually have a lot of what I need for what I started out taking the Ruby course for so I can pace myself a little differently with that one. Which brings me to the SQL. I’m studying for a test. As soon as I pass the test, I’m done with that. Done. Hmmm… I think I have a plan.

I’ll be working on that plan and seeing how well I can get it going this week. I’m hopeful. I really think it will work. I will include some of the fun bits too. I mean I still have Taekwondo, I still play guitar, and I’m still making 3D donuts.

Meet Phil. Phil lives in the Music Room and loves that window.

Speaking of all those fun things. I did work on the guitar course again this weekend. I’d say I didn’t learn much with this set of lessons I watched except I learned just enough. The discussion of power chords and the why of them. Why they get used and why they work and a little of how to work with them was helpful. I’ve never been a big power chord player, except in a couple of cases for the blues. And I never had any real good explanation of their point. Now I understand. No. I won’t be switching to chunking away at power chords all the time. Seriously, that would be boring. It’s just now, I have a better understanding of them and their place.

Sketched it first.

Donuts. 3D donuts. Yes. I finished the tutorial in time for last week’s post. And I had an idea for the next scene. I think I told you, I intend to make a lot of 3D donut scenes. I’m treating it like practicing my scales and fingering exercises. I’m hoping to get faster, and to get some of the techniques well entrenched in my brain so that, like doing some of the Taekwondo forms I learned when I first started, I will have done them so much that I don’t have to think that hard to use them.

I did do something a little different this time. Actually, I may have done it one other time a few years ago. Anyway, I sketched out a rough idea of what I want the scene to look like. It’s not too fancy at this point. The point is to go through the exercise. And using a sketch, I think is good practice as well. Both for my sketching skills and for my workflow.

Starting a new donut scene

What else is happening? Well, I took some time during that bout of boredom and before making lunch, to work on the Lego set of the VW Samba bus. I’m not really far enough along with it for it to be worth a picture. And I’ve had my plants to take care of. The Basils, I think will make it. The Thai wasn’t getting enough water apparently. The Genovese was just getting enough water. They both have some new growth so it’s a matter of time I think. And the salad greens. They finally got big enough and full enough that I had to start harvesting. I had them as an addition to a salad one night and I’ve had them on wraps a couple of times now. I am hoping to get them transplanted before their roots get too overwhelming or tangled for the water resevoire.

Oh. My greeting cards arrived. I set them up and ordered them online using Moo.com. I got them today. They look great. They are a matte finish but not the matte finish that I was expecting. I was expecting something a little more rough which would have been fine for what I did but not so much for other things I’m thinking of. Now that I know what to expect I can make decisions about other card projects going forward.

That’s it for now. Enjoy the pictures.

My cards have arrived.
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Moving Along

Posted on July 27, 2020 by SusanG

I was going to call this post “Movin’ Right Along” however, every time I say or think that phrase my ear worms start singing the song by that name from the original ‘Muppet Movie’. It wouldn’t be so bad except they don’t remember all the words. So I’m stuck with Fozzy Bear singing half the words in my head for hours. It wasn’t worth that sort of torment.

As you might have guessed, things are looking up as far as getting cool things done and learning stuff. Once that nasty headache completely cleared I was able to really get going. And even solve a thing or two. Like when to start one of the guitar courses I purchased, and what to do about some blank greeting cards. So onward.

Salad Greens. Two weeks old.

I was working along this week trying to make progress on all the different things I’m learning for work, and getting somewhere. I took a really basic overview course on AWS. Now I’ve started a little more in depth course with plans for an even more in depth course after that. I worked on Ruby this week, mostly setting up my system for running Ruby on Rails locally. I have a personal laptop that I’m using for that and for the Blender lessons. I found the part of the Ruby course where they tell you how to set it up so I did that. They also show you how to set it up on Mac and on AWS Cloud9. I have an old (10 years) Mac Book Pro that I bought used to mess with and I decided to see if I could set it up with Ruby on Rails. It took a bit of effort and wasn’t as smooth as the Windows 10 laptop, but I chalk that up to it being 10 years old and not on the latest OS. Still, it works.

Blender Donut

I’m still plugging along on the SQL and as I looked at something one day from the book, it clicked what I’d been encountering with the online study stuff I’ve been using. Which means that is starting to take hold as well. That’s a relief. And kind of cool.

I tend to keep a list of things that I have to remember to do, like appointments, or classes, and chores. I also keep on the list, things that I’m working on or don’t want to forget to work on. And some are things that are big projects that could be coming up. As I was looking at this list this week, it clicked with me when I could work on one of the guitar courses I bought. I no longer do weekly grocery shopping and I don’t have Taekwondo on Saturday so that would be an excellent day to work on that. That’s not to say that is the only day I will pick up a guitar. It’s that it is the day that I will sit down and watch some lessons. Then I can spend the week working on the exercises. So yeah. I did that. I sat down Saturday afternoon, I was planning on morning but had a spurt of creativity for a different, out standing, project that I worked on. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Final Donut and Coffee.

Back to the guitar. I watched about an hour of the course to start. A lot of it was really very basic stuff and review for me. Though, I finally understand some of the notation on the TAB sheets I use. And I have even put them to a test. What a difference that makes. Oh boy. So I went through about an hour and got to the basic beginning lessons and printed out the PDF file so I could have it to remind me. Then a little later, I decided to spend some time playing around with the exercise, and a little of what will be coming next. And I solved a problem for myself.

Remember that I have had some trouble with my arm and that some of it seems to be aggravated by they way I try to play the rhythm for ‘Dust My Broom’? And I’ve tried the open tuning for it, which works, though it requires considerable adjusting and relearning of things to make full use of it. I’ll get there. Or back to working on it. For now, it turns out because of how this instructor shows a basic blues boogie, (I consider it a shuffle but I could be wrong), I learned how I can play that, all on the same fret and thus use a capo and not have to use that poor, little finger. And when I figured it out my brain wanted to explode. I’d been working so hard to figure that out and here it was, and it was simple. I’m totally excited, and mind blown. Almost as mind blown as when Kevin showed us the C-A-G-E-D stuff.

Awesome Coffee. Made in Blender.

That little project that took up my Saturday morning? So, I’ve been writing cards and letters to a few friends and family, for fun, as a good way to keep up, and to help support the post office. Now I prefer to send the letters in blank note cards with something interesting on them or if it’s really short, just a post card, again with something interesting on the one side. At first I resisted purchasing cards because I had a few and I wasn’t finding anything I really liked. I did finally find some, they were these awesome paintings of Llamas with a rainbow mohawk, or glasses, or very prim and proper, and even one with headphones on. My nephew has been a big fan of them. Before that, I was thinking I really should just make some. Problem was, I wan’t sure what sort of art to put on them. Then, it looked like the card stock was going to be matte, not glossy, and I wasn’t sure about what I had finally decided I could put on them, which was some of the pictures I took in Australia.

So this idea for these blank greeting cards has been sitting on my list for a few months now and I’ve been stuck. This week, I got an advertising email for this site called Design Cuts. I downloaded a free bundle of Photoshop and Illustrator brushes and fonts and back grounds and such from them five years ago. They regularly send advertisements for the weekly freebie, or bundles that are on sale. Something caught my eye in the one they sent this week so I pulled it up to see what was in it. There were a few items that I thought would be really useful and fun to see what I could do with and one of those was a set of masks. Not like face masks. Masks to use to hide parts of an image. That seemed like it could be fun to work with.

A taste of my Aussie Greeting cards I made.

Back to looking at that list. So I hadn’t purchased the bundle yet. I was thinking about it and pretty sure it would be a good choice, when Friday night, I happened to look at the item on my list that was for the Australian greeting cards and boom. I new exactly what I wanted to do for the cards and with that mask set. Which lead to Saturday, after breakfast and some awesome coffee, I purchased the bundle, and started experimenting. I ultimately came up with about 25 different pictures that I thought might work and I applied different masks and created these really cool pictures. I chose 5 to use for the greeting cards. I got them uploaded and ordered and they are on their way. I’ll post a little taste with this. I’m so excited.

And on top of all that I have finished the Blender Donuts course completely this time. I finished up the note taking on the final section which covered some key framing, animation, a bit of setup, and compositing. There’s still a good bit to learn that I really don’t have a feel for in Blender. At least I got to learn some new bits now. I wasn’t sure I would get it done this weekend. I thought it might take part of this week. I did get it done and now I can start on the endless donuts project. You’ve been warned. I’m excited to have that part completed and so I can move on to using that a little more creatively and to really add my own twist to the subject matter. I have an idea for the first one, already.

I has been a full week. And a satisfying one. I feel like I’ve really managed some breakthroughs with several things and that makes a big difference for my mood and my attitude. I am exhausted at the end of the day, and that’s ok. At least I feel like my day was well spent. Enjoy the pictures from this week.

My final animation for the Blender Donut Tutorial
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A Penny on the Track

Posted on July 20, 2020 by SusanG

You know that practice of putting a penny on the train track to get it squished? And how you’re not supposed to do that because supposedly it could cause the train to derail? Either part of that applies to me after this weekend. I’m either the squished penny or the derailed train.

A meeting doodle. My home office has more
colors to doodle with.

Ok, it’s not quite as bad as that. I was working along last week with a fairly good routine working on the various things I’m trying to learn and I was all set to have a weekend that I would be able to sit down and really get into one or two of those things and make a surge in progress. I even got my Friday errands done so I wasn’t going to be interrupted with going out to do something. I was set. And then Mr. Migraine shows up to squish my penny and derail my weekend plans.

Now the good news is that I got a few things done during the week that were significant, and I got a few small extras done on Saturday before the migraine took hold. And that’s the important stuff.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I bought an Aerogarden. I got it the last week in April and have been growing the herbs that come with it. Ok really, I was just growing the Basil. The Mint and Dill and Parsley came up. And they tried to get going but the Thai Basil and the Genovese Basil came up quick, got big quick, and took over the light so nothing else stood a chance. The stuff grows so fast that I could make a one to two person serving of fresh Pesto every three days. I finally decided that, since I couldn’t keep them trimmed back enough so they weren’t getting burned by the light, it was time to pot them in soil and see what would happen. I needed bigger pots. And if they survive, I’ll get them some.

Genovese Basil, Garden of salad greens, Thai Basil.
Yes, the Basil’s were in that garden, with the light taller.

There is a question if the Thai Basil will survive because of the abuse I put it through trying to get it out of the garden. It’s root system was so extensive that it took over the water well. Between that and the light, no wonder nothing else was having any luck. With a bit of squishing and fiddling I was able to get the roots out without cutting them. I think that was a good thing. Though, they took up nearly the entire pot that I had for it to go into. It’s still hanging on and it’s been six days so maybe. The Genovese Basil wasn’t as bad. It too could use a bigger pot.

The cool thing about that, and my work from home situation for the day job is, I did all that on my lunch hour. After work I re-potted the Mint and the Basil that are on the balcony to keep the wasps away. And then it was time to clean up the garden and start a new one. I started some salad greens. I have no idea what they are, they just say salad greens. Those little buggers sprouted in two days. I’ll have to keep and eye on the roots this time.

My guitar playing has been intermittent lately. I’d make excuses and reasons why it isn’t happening except, we all know that they really don’t count for anything. So I’ll leave it at that. I did get in and do a little work with my loop pedal one night. It was a quick thing but I’m starting to get the hang of it…sort of. A few months ago I finally decided I needed to try laying down a rhythm track on my loop pedal so I could work on soloing over an eight bar blues. I’ve got a good feel for a twelve bar but the eight is newer to me and I haven’t had a lot of practice with it. So I fiddled with it and stomped it on and off and whatever several times and finally got a clean loop of the eight bars down so I could play over it. It worked great.

You can just see the little green leaves starting to peak through.

At one time I was using a little mini loop pedal that was just a one stomp and one track pedal that worked well. And while I still have it, it’s not on my pedal board my Boss RC-3 is. It’s got more bells and whistles, knobs, and buttons than I know what to do with right now. So for me to figure out, how to get what I wanted was an accomplishment. And then, to remember that a few months later was just as big a deal for me. Next up, learn howto add a second track to the first one, cleanly. That will be something.

I’m still working on donuts. That was one of the things I had planned to do this weekend. I was going to finish up the tutorial, all the way this time, and get started making dozens of donuts in Blender. That didn’t happen. So it’s on the agenda for this week. I was also going to finish up the section I’m working on for the Ruby course. That didn’t happen either. So I’ll try again this week.

For now here are a small few pictures for your enjoyment.

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