RandomMeme Blog

The Ritual

2010-03-14T12:03:21Z

A dream I had the other night...

A young boy stands before his parents in a dark wood. Others are hidden off in the woods, watching silently.ﾠ The boy turns, and begins walking along the path.ﾠ Along the way, he finds,ﾠ in the dust, words written in smooth white river stones.ﾠ Insults: baby, cry, weak, little girl, stupid, child... at each group of stones, he pauses, reads and considers, then picks up the stones and puts them into a pouch that he carries.ﾠ Parents follow, at a distance, mother weeping, father consoling.

He comes to a lake, and walks into the shallows, slowly walking towards a small island, farther down the beach.ﾠ As he walks, he takes out the stones, considers them, and throws them out across the lake.ﾠ When he gets to the island,ﾠ his older/younger brother/friend greets him with a handshake and a strong hug.ﾠ They cross the island together, to the opposite side,ﾠ where there is pile of rocks on the beach, beyond which is deep cold blue water.ﾠ The boy turns to his companion, hugs once more, hands off the now empty pouch.ﾠ He turns to the deep water, and without a pause runs and dives in, vanishing from sight.ﾠ After a pause, the young man's head breaks the surface, and he swims around the small island, to the beach, to be greeted by all his family and friends, who bring him to a big feast in his honor.

In the dream, my point of view kept changing, from the boy to the parent and back, until finally, I was the person that met the boy on the island, who watched him dive into the lake...

Dungeon Sample: That Frog...

2010-01-30T08:01:36Z

I've been playing with the various LDraw tools lately... hoping to have some fun and build some scenery.

Built this image with MLCad, captured it from LDView, and cropped and added the thought bubble with Paint Shop Pro.

ﾠ

Oh, and thanks to BrickQuest for the wall designs...

Simple LDraw viewer code in Processing

2010-01-11T07:01:27Z

Well, here's the code that I wrote almost year and a half (!) ago, to display LDraw files using the Processing language.

It's very basic, without too many features, and it certainly isn't optimized, so don't try to display anything too big or complex.ﾠ It was written for Processing 1.0.1, I think, but it's been a while since I have had the time to look at it.ﾠ I think I included all of the library files for procesing that you'd need to build it, but you have to place them in the normal place in the Processing install folders.ﾠ I also included the LDR models that I was using for testing.

You'll need to download Processing, install it and the libraries, and you'll need to have the LDraw parts library installed on your machine.ﾠ I have the location of the LDraw parts library hard coded in the file for now.

Here's the zip: ProcessingLcad-Oct2008.zip

If I remember correctly, I needed to consult several message boardsﾠon some of the math/matrix type stuff while I was working on it...ﾠ It was pretty intense.

I'd love to hear if anyone does anything with it, so please drop me a line on here if you do.ﾠ

Found SR 3D Builder Virtual Lego Tool

2010-01-10T11:01:33Z

Well, started to fool around with some virtual Lego again.ﾠ Not my dabbling with the tool I started in Processing, but I found a new tool online, called SR 3D Builder.ﾠ It's a work in progress, but it has some awesome abilties so far, like snapping to connection points, and rotating pieces around an axis.ﾠ Every piece that I tried to rotate around an axis worked extremely well, even locking into place for my favorite tricks, like a 3-4-5 triangle and a 5-12-13 triangle.

Was able to build these data files extremely quickly, coinsidering I was only using the tool for a couple of hours.ﾠ These were built using SR 3D Builder, then edited slightly in LDDesign Pad, to remove some extra characters inserted by SR 3D Builder that other LDraw tools aren't expecting.ﾠ Then they were displayed using LDView.

ﾠ

Now, it's not perfect yet, but it's one heck of a good start...ﾠ You should check it out.

Dat files are here:
6.8 Sphere
3-4-5 Triangle
5-12-13 Triangle

Feynman: Fun to Imagine 8 - Seeing Things

2009-08-27T10:08:57Z

Richard Feynman, talking about how we see things, and how all of the electromagnetic energy is always there around us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQQXTMih1A

ﾠ

Ode to MeepMeep

2008-09-01T08:09:56Z

I have always loved Jim Henson's Muppets, and although I did not intend to post just anything to my blog, I can't resist putting this little gem out to be seen by whoever is reading.

Beaker singing Ode to Joy

This has Beaker from the Muppets singing Ode to Joy...ﾠ There's so much going on at the same time that I needed to watch it several times to get it all.ﾠ I especially love when the Beaker in the middle on the top breaks the glass with his voice, and the water spills on the lower middle Beaker, causing the metronome to speed up...ﾠAnd then things really get going. My gosh, this is everything that is great about the Muppets.

LDraw viewer in Processing

2008-08-29T09:08:39Z

One of the great things about the online Adult Lego community is that you can find such a large number of really talented individuals that like to "Play Well" and share their creations. One such sub-community is the people that work on LDraw .org.ﾠThese hard working individuals have built a huge library of 3D Lego part definitions and the software needed to build virtual Lego models in 3D.

The specifications for their part definitions are all online, and they have some great documentation explaining how to use them.

I have always been interested in working with 3D programming, but have never had the time to learn it properly. As it so happens, Processing has some nice simple syntax to allow OpenGL drawing, so I have taken it upon myself to see what I can do. As you can see below, have managed what I would consider a decent start.

In the basic LDraw part definitions, they have Lines, Triangles, Quads, Optional Lines, and SubParts.ﾠI have implemented all except Optional Lines at this point. Optional Lines are used to give correct colored borders to curved pieces only where they are needed.ﾠ As for Colors, I have implemented the basic LDraw colors, but not the complementary colors that are usually used for edging each colored piece, at this time, I'm still using just plain black. Still, I'm pleased that I have made such progress in such a short period of time (just a few days of actual coding).

Processing has also made it easy to put in the various transparent colors, as seen in this example:

Naturally, I didn't actually build the model files with my little program... I used MLCad, which is one of the best tools available for Lego CAD work, even though it hasn't been updated in a few years. I believe that the author started having a family of his own right around the same time that I did.

Where am I going with this tool?ﾠ I really don't know. I'd like to continue to play with it for a while, and see how far I can take it.ﾠ When it gets a little bit more complete,ﾠI would like to release the source code and allow other people to use it for their own projects...

In the meantime, my short to do list is:

get edge colors working
get optional lines working
count each primitive (line, tri, quad, optline) as a basis before optimizing
examine possibility of using Back Face Culling as defined in the LDraw specs for doing less work in each draw cycle
use one of the Processing camera libraries for moving the view around

We'll see how it progresses...

Lego enters the picture again

2008-08-29T09:08:19Z

I've always loved Lego bricks, from when I was a child. A few years back, before my children were born, I came out of my "dark age", as it's called in the Adult Lego community, and began collecting again. I found LUGNET, the Lego Users Group Network, and joined and was active on there for a few years, until my eldest son became old enough to be mobile and exploring the environment. Away went the Lego bricks, for a time, as fatherhood was, of course more important. Now my eldest is almost 7 and my youngest is 2 1/2, and the physical danger is now gone, so Lego is gradually creeping back into my life. My oldest son shows me something that he has built nearly every day, and it is really quite a thrilling time.

A Princess of Mars (Barsoom volume 1)

2008-08-28T08:08:23Z

I just finished reading a rather old science-fiction/fantasy novel. It was "A Princess of Mars", by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was first published as a serial written way back in 1912! Edgar Rice Burroughs probably sounds familiar, and he should, as he is much more famous for writing about Tarzan of the Apes.

I was able to read this book through my email, through a great website called DailyLit. They break books down into small, easily finished bits that they then either send you through email, or allow you to subscribe through a feed reader. They have a large number of books that are free, but they also have an increasing number of books that you can pay a small fee to receive in this way.

As for the book, I really enjoyed it quite a bit. It's obviously more than a bit dated, as at the time that it was written, science still believed that there were canals on Mars. You can tell that it was written as a serial, as there's quite a bit of action, and the hero, JohnﾠCarter,ﾠis rather larger than life. I've signed myself up for the next book in the series from DailyLit, and I can't wait to get the first email tomorrow. :-)

I'm an Evolutionary Dead-End

2008-07-17T10:07:00Z

I've begun to suspect that I'm an evolutionary dead-end. Believe me, it's discouraging, but I'm not really sure what to do about it.

Maybe not totally a dead end, I mean, I've managed to pass on my genes... But somehow, that doesn't seem to be enough. Evolution means survival of the fittest, and lately, I just don't feel like one of the fittest.

I've been trained from birth to be a rule follower, and a law abiding citizen. And trust me, the training took. Which leads me to believe that I've been set up to be mediocre. I'm not sure how an individual can make a positive contribution to their species by following the pack. But at the same time, I understand that there needs to be a certain level of pack behavior in order for the pack to prosper as a whole. Those people that go too far against the pack are not allowed to contribute to the future. However, the ones that seem to go along with the pack, but are actually serving their own interests, go much further than the fodder that meekly go along.

Of course, reading this back to myself, I realize that evolution has nothing to do with the individual. Individuals aren't important, the species is key. Still, I find little comfort there.

I look at my children, and sometimes I wonder if I am doing them a disservice by teaching them rules and having them follow the order that I have been trained to follow. Maybe I should be teaching them how to manipulate the system, while smiling and acting like the good models that society expects them to be. On the other hand, I doubt that living with cunning little manipulators would be all that appealing.

Perhaps I'm growing too cynical...

The Tree

2008-07-10T09:07:59Z

I had a dream last night...I dreamt that I was high above the earth, in a vast, living tree. I stood at a branching of the limb, and realized that I had to choose which path to take. I looked ahead, but the branches did not, could not continue of course, until I decided which one I would take. I looked behind me and I saw thousands of branches, thousands of decisions that I had made in the past, any one of which would have brought me to a different part of the tree entirely.

I thought of the path that I had followed, and I thought of the seasons that I had seen. Of the Spring times, with the wild growth, and happiness running rampant, of carefree life with many rewards. I thought of the Summer times, with warmth and growing maturity, growth tempered by wisdom, and rewards that came from hard work. Of the Autumn seasons, progress stunted by obstacles, occasional clouds and chill, and setbacks and failures. Finally I thought of the Winters, of the cold days, of loneliness, feelings of hopelessness and despair, and loss so strong that I felt the tree sway beneath my feet and the sun seemed dim. My heart was heavy as I thought of some of the seasons that I had seen as I walked my path of branches.

I looked to my left, at a branch that ran parallel to the one I was on. I wondered what choices I could have made to be there, instead of here. I wondered what choices would lay at my feet if I were on that branch, but the distance between here and there was too great, there was no way to tell, and anyway, there was no way to get from here to there.

I looked up and saw the sun far above me, giving me life, and calling me upward. I looked again at the tree of my life, and saw that during my journey I had not always taken the upward path, there were times when I descended back toward the abyss from which I began. The decisions were hard, and the path long and difficult. I could not change the decisions that I had made in the past, but I could remember where they had taken me as I went forward. I could feel my family and friends all around me, but only I could make the decision that lay before me. I looked upward to the sun, and reveled in its warmth. I stepped onto the upward path, and the branches grew at my feet. Soon there would be a new branch, and I would continue onward...

Processing Programming Language

2008-02-24T04:02:54Z

Found this great project a few months ago:

http://www.processing.org/

It's a programming language based on top of Java, but it has a simple interface to graphics, both 2D and 3D.