Yeah, so this blog’s pretty much abandoned, and I don’t have the need to keep it up right now. But, I’ve noticed that mostly people that find it are the ones from Minecraft looking for info on the server, and so I’m just going to put a really big link right here so all of you can get the information from the IngotCraft website. K?
There are several reasons I’m overwhelmed, but here’s a few of them:
The first TMBRA mountain bike race is this weekend, which means that it’s the first race that I’ll be covering in a few months. I hope I’m not rusty.
The professors at ACC are completely, absolutely determined to sink everyone into fact-reciting robots before spring break. I have a math test on Monday, a geology lab practical on Tuesday, and a geology lecture quiz on Thursday, with our second major geology test a week after that. I also have two other classes with midterms of an unannounced date, and I’m desperately hoping it’s after spring break, since I’d really rather not have anything else added before then.
Minecraft just went through a huge update, and while it doesn’t seem like this would be a huge problem, it means that tons of little things are broken, and I have to spend time each day fixing them. It’s also pulling my time because when I get back from a bike race with 2,000 photos to process, I can’t have a server running on my photo-processing computer, and the computer I have for the server isn’t very happy at the moment, so I’m trying to get it to work.
And for the first time in ages, I’m really inspired to do things that I want to do, like photography and graphic design stuff, as well as just organizing my space and making sense of things. This would be an amazing thing if not for the aforementioned school that intends to make sure I have no free time to pursue these things.
I am really starting to enjoy Digital Arts, though. The first few weeks were a lot of basic photoshop tutorials and simple projects, which bored me, but now I’m making up my own projects, and my professor is awesome enough to go along with them, so it’s really nice having three hours Tues/Thurs to just sit and not feel guilty about all the other things I should be doing. Right now, I’m working on a vector portrait of myself using Adobe Illustrator. This is fun since I’ve always liked vector portraits, and this is the first time I’ve ever done anything in Illustrator, so it’s a huge learning process.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the process, this is basically tracing from a photograph freehand, but the challenging part is that you don’t get to use any conventional shading, instead having to use individual layers of solid color, and drawing these in varying shades to make it look 3-demensional. It’s a lot like drawing a topographic map, sometimes. I’m really liking the way mine’s turning out, even though there’s imperfections.
I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted on the piece’s progress, and look for a weekend post about my bike-race process, from shoot to upload.
I’ve also decided that I’m only going to do one post on the weekends, since two is a pain, and I deserve a break sometime, right?
If I post this at 12:30 or so, does it still count as thursday? >.>
Oh well, here’s the rest of the stuff on my desk, with a few things added to it from last time:
- Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones- These are amazing, not that I have anything to compare them with. First set of headphones I’ve had above stock Apple earbuds, they’re wonderful. I made sure to get an over-the-ear model because I wear hearing aids, and it’s a pain to have to take them off if I want to listen to music, so these are just dandy.
And now to the boring, trivial stuff that makes my desk my desk!
- BuckyBalls- A birthday gift from a best friend, these are completely addicting, and, if you’re not careful, will lower your grades a good five points from the time-sink. They’re just fun, and you can make so much with them.
- Assorted magazines- There’s a stack of Make: under my secondary monitor, a Discover from last month, and an issue of Photoshop User from January, when I got it as a birthday present. All fun, interesting magazines.
- A bottle of white-out.
- Box of IngotImaging business cards- Ingotimaging is my photography business, and I needed some good cards. They’re from Uprint, but the quality isn’t amazing, so I’ll be looking elsewhere next time I need some.
- Photoshop and Dreamweaver missing manual books- My go-to reference books for the software, I’m going to need one for every Adobe software I attempt to learn. They’re just essential.
- A bag of Small Binder Clips- These are fun, and I use them.
- Knitted skullcap- Mom knitted it for me a while ago, it’s the one I’m wearing in the photo in the first blog post.
- Printed sheet of Minecraft item hex codes- For reference, when I need items in Minecraft.
- Health Shrooms candy tin- The red nintendo shroom candies. The candy sucks, but it’s the tin that’s really fun.
- Sliced geode bookends- Some giant solid geodes that’ve been cut in fourths for bookend use. They’re holding up my missing manuals.
- The necessary pencils, pens, highlighters, pencil sharpeners, and ink refills. These are boring but necessary.
- Anaglyph 3-D glasses- From a Lego magazine, surprisingly enough. I keep these around for the occasional anaglyphic thing I find on the internets.
- SD memory cards- Laying about, to be used in my camera. I have 8G and 16G Transcend cards, and they’ve worked fine for the year I’ve had them.
- Minecraft paper block tree- From my minecraft-themed birthday cake, I’ll post pictures of it sometime.
- Post-it notes. Many many post-it notes.
- Lens cleaning cloths, for cleaning lenses.
- Four decks of playing cards- They’re useful when friends come over, we like to play card games.
- Bundles of coin-wrappers- No idea why I have these, I don’t have enough coins to fill them, so they just sit there.
- Foreign Money- I have a hefty bit of this from different countries around the world, there’s a bunch of coins as well as bills.
- Rubber-band ball- This is always essential.
Okay, so there’s more stuff, but I’m tired right now, and don’t feel like writing it so it’s interesting, and I’d rather write another post right quick about more interesting things than continue this, since I don’t think this post is helping anyone.
Quick post to let you guys know that the every day posting thing is still intended, but school’s getting heavy. I’ll have two posts tomorrow.
Today was a bit of a long one, and I don’t have too much exciting stuff to write about, so I decided I’d sort’ve go over the stuff on my desk and give little mini-reviews, if it’s stuff that anyone might be interested in.
My desk isn’t often clean, since I usually get around to cleaning it right before the spring and fall semesters start, and it will usually pile up very quickly from there. I did actually clean it off a few weeks ago, so it’s not terrible at the moment, but it’s still too cluttered for me to stretch out on easily, so as I put stuff on this list I’ll also be cleaning it off. Can you say kill two birds with one stone? I can.
Omitted from that picture are my camera and its flash unit, but I’ll list them too, since they’re among my favorite possessions, and are also on my desk.
I’ll start with the biggest items, mainly my core computer system:
- 27″ 3GHz Core 2 Duo Apple iMac– I LOVE this computer. It was a gift from my uncle a year ago, was the first Mac I owned, and I’m a total convert to the brand. The screen is amazing on this model, and it’s definitely its best feature. Perfect for everything from photo editing and organizing to casual browsing, and it runs amazingly well.
- A Samsung SyncMaster 932BW monitor– I think it’s like a nineteen inch screen, and it works well enough. Connected to my iMac with an adapter, it functions well as a second screen, though I don’t tend to use it much. The colors on the screen are okay, but they really pale next to the iMac’s screen, so it’s relegated to non-photo related stuff.
- Epson Stylus Photo 870 printer– My catch-all printer. I really haven’t tried printing photos on it, but it’s supposed to be pretty good for that. Right now it’s out of color ink. It’s a solid printer, but nothing outstanding about it, in my opinion. It’s slow to print stuff, too.
- Compaq Presario stock computer– My mother’s old PC, since she got mine when I didn’t need it any more. I have peripherals connected to it, for the rare thing that I need done on a PC that I can’t do on my Mac. It also serves as the server computer for my Minecraft server, though I’m not using it for that at the moment. I need to optimize it a bit better first. It’s an older computer, and I try to use it as little as possible, since it’s usually pretty slow on me.
Now, my main peripherals:
- Apple Wireless Keyboard– Featured in a previous post, this is my main keyboard for my iMac. I really like it, the keys are spread nicely, and it’s compact enough that it really doesn’t take up the space that some keyboards do (It doesn’t have a numpad, however). The keys have a nice feel to them, but it’s definitely a chiclet keyboard, and you have to like them to like this one.
- Apple Magic Mouse– It’s magic! And even if it’s not, there’s some really nice features to it, what with the touch-sensitive top. I know some people complain about the ergonomics of it, but I’ve used it for extended periods of time and it’s never made my hand sore.
- Wacom Bamboo Fun pen tablet– Not the fancy new model, I’ve had this one for about two years, but it’s really wonderful for anything Photoshop/Illustrator, and I’d be lost in those programs without it. Works great, built like a rock, nice and portable. (I cart it to and from my digital arts class twice a week, and it fits nicely in my bag, and stands up well.
- Radio Shack speakers– No idea what model, they’re pretty old, but the bass is better than the iMac’s built-in speakers, and I listen to a lot of bass-heavy music, so I use them. They’ve been my speakers through about four computers, and at least six years, so they’re pretty solid too.
- Behringer Ultragain Pro microphone pre-amp– I don’t use this much, but if I ever need to record something, the line-in always goes through this baby. I really don’t know what half the knobs do. xD I wouldn’t have it, but my mom did a radio stint for a while, and she needed it to record her audio. Now she doesn’t do that anymore, and it lives on my desk. Works fine, I really don’t know how to use it to better give an opinion.
- Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000– I use this mouse when I need one for another computer, namely the Compaq one. I have this one because it was $12 at Office Depot, and I’m fairly surprised at how well it works, considering what I paid for it. Gets laggy when the computer is overloaded with processing, but that’s probably less a mouse thing than a computer one.
- Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard Somethingorother– I don’t know what model this is, and it’s under the desk by the Compaq tower. I bought this years ago, and I really liked it when I had it, but now it feels totally unwieldy, since it’s not a chiclet keyboard. Well-built, great if that’s what you’re looking for.
Camera equipment! (There’s always a healthy contingent of this on my desk):
- Pentax K20D DSLR camera– My first and only DSLR, this camera has been an amazing one. I’ve logged over forty thousand shots on it in the past year, and it still works wonderfully. It doesn’t do video, and is an older model, but I got it for cheap, and it’s a ton of camera for the money ($750). Can’t recommend it enough to anyone who’s looking for a prosumer DSLR, but it’s probably tough to find now that it’s out of production. I love my Pentax, but will switch to Canon when I need a new camera, since Pentax just can’t offer the same sort of third-party integration and video capabillities that Canon can.
- Pentax AF540FGZ off-camera flash unit– The best flash unit Pentax makes, it works great with the camera and as an optical slave flash. It’s expensive, but works great with the camera, and uses P-TTL when it can, which works well if you need it.
- Pentax DA 55-300mm telephoto lens– It’s a nice telephoto, and a great buy for the money, but the aperture is limiting, and it’s not all that sharp at longer lengths. Lightweight, sturdy (I may have dropped it a few times), and a wonderful zoom range. If you plan on using something like this a lot, though, I’d reccommend going for a comparable DA* lens, since USM autofocusing and weather-proofing are missed.
- Pentax DA 18-55mm kit lens– The lens that came on my camera, it’s a surprisingly good one. I use this one a ton, and haven’t really felt the need to upgrade it to a better/faster/sharper lens. It’s not exceptional as lenses go, but it’s cheap and effective, and I’d reccomend it if you’re buying a Pentax DSLR and don’t have extra money to splurge.
- Pentax-M 50mm lens– My nifty fifty. It’s a manual lens off my mom’s old pentax film camera, but the mount is the same, and it works wonders. My favorite lens, for the f2 aperture and the creamy depth-of-field it gives you. Manual focus isn’t a big deal to me, since I’ve spent a lot of time using old film cameras, but if you’re not someone who is used to it, it might be better to get a 50mm with an autofocus on it. Built like a lens from the seventies should be, it’s a tank. Wonderful in all aspects.
- Kamero Auto 35mm lens– This is an old screwmount lens from a much older Pentax kit, I use it with an adapter to stick it on my DSLR, and it’s nice enough, but I don’t use it much since the adapter’s a pain.
- Soligor Auto 2x teleconverter– For screwmount lenses, it doubles the effective focal length at the cost of aperture.
- Vivitar 2500 flash unit– Old flash unit. Unused unless necessary, there’s not a manual control, so it’s a dumbflash.
Those are the main things on my desk, the bigger ones that I pay the most attention to. Come back tomorrow for a list of the random, trivial items that accumulate on my desk over time.
If anyone’s interest in Minecraft was perked by my earlier post on the subject, I ‘d like to bring up that I run my own Minecraft server now, and it’s been running for three months or so.
It’s a fairly small server, with about ten regular players and the normal amount of people who come through and head back out the other way. The server is technically survival, but it’s hardly fair to call it that when you have teleporting powers and the like. Features a tiered ranking system, giving those who build better things more powers.
I don’t feel like giving the full outline and marketing pitch here, but you’ll get a sense of the server really quickly when you log on and read the signs near the spawn.
Server IP to log on is: 98.194.236.182
I’m a Dvorak typer, and, while having the keys in a QWERTY layout on my keyboard isn’t usually a big deal, it does get really annoying when trying to use keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop or Illustrator. While I can type the letters fine, It’s all muscle memory, and I have trouble picking out Cmd+J and the like (The bracket keys too!). Finally, I decided to pop all the keys off my iMac’s wireless keyboard and rearrange them to my preferred Dvorak layout.
This also works if you break a key or want to replace it with a half set of black keys, to achieve a patterned effect. You can buy extra keys here.
Luckily, this is easy with the Apple range of keyboards, and I was able to do it in about fifteen minutes, not counting time to take photos of the process. NOTE: While I’ve only done this on the Apple Wireless Keyboard, a bit of research shows that it’s like this on most Apple chiclet keyboards, including MacBooks. Basically, each key is a simple plastic face attached to a sort of plastic spring, which is two distinct pieces that pivot around each other to hold the key up. One side of this key is just held on by little plastic grabbers, which pop out really easily, without breaking. Let’s jump in!
Your first step is to start popping all the keys off, but first you have to determine which way your keys are mounted, as it varies from model to model. On my keyboard, the grabbers that we need to pop off are on the top side of the key, but your keyboard may vary. The easiest way to find out is to slip your prying instrument (Whatever you can get in-between the key and its recession will work, but I’m using an iTunes gift-card because it’s plastic, and won’t scratch my keyboard up.) underneath the key, and lift it up just enough to see how the little plastic accordion-like spring is held in there. The side with the two narrower supports will be the side with the grabbers, and you’ll want to pop that side off first.
To pop the keys off, just slide your instrument underneath the key, and quickly lever it up, so it pops off the aforementioned half of the key off its holder. The other half of the key (With the wider attachment on the bottom) is just a little channel that, when the top half is of, you can slide the key out easily by just wiggling it a little.
Take note here, you want to pop the first half of the key off quickly and with force, but not enough to break anything. If you slowly pry it up, you’ll stretch the plastic bit that holds the key up, and it’ll stick farther up than the rest of the keys. Once you pop a few of them off, it’s easy to get a feel for it, so don’t fret too much.
If you misjudge how your keys are attached and accidentally pop the entire plastic spring off with the key, it’s easy to put back, so long as none of the little pins broke off. Each bracket has three metal holders in the body of the keyboard, like so:
You can see that there’s a metal tab sticking up to the right of the actual button, and there are loops in each of the left corners. (It’s worth noting here that, on my keyboard, the “\” key was mounted sideways from all the others. I don’t know if this is the same for others, but you might check that one before prying it off.) So, take the plastic spring and align it so that the metal tab fits into the wide slot in the spring:
Once you slide it into place, it should be obvious how the other corners pop in their loops. Just press in on the corners, and pop those pegs into the loops one at a time:
Once you have the spring back into place, it should lie flat like the others. Finish popping off the rest of the keys, and you’re done with the harder half!
Now, figure out how you want your keys arranged, be it Dvorak, AZERTY, Colemak, or some other weird arrangement you’ve thought up. Pull up a photo of the layout, just to avoid unnecessary errors, and start popping your keys back on. This is a pretty easy process, since all you really have to do is align the keys correctly and then press on them. As you’ve no doubt seen if you’re following along, the backs of the keys look like this:
The top half (On my keyboard, yours may vary) has two little grabber arms, and the bottom half has two little channels that slide over the wider-spaced pegs on your plastic spring. To re-attach your key, slide the bottom two pegs in their channels so that it catches:
And then just press the key back down! It takes a bit of force, but be sure you have your key on the right way, and in the correct slots, and then just press until it clicks both of the top pegs back in.
There, just repeat that another several times, and you’re finished! If you find that you’ve put keys in the wrong position, you should be able to pop them off and try again.
DISCLAIMER: Replacing and/or switching the keys around on your keyboard can break it, and you must understand that you do this at YOUR OWN RISK. I am not responsible for any broken keys, keyboards, or fingers that result from attempting this tutorial. This is simply a documentation of what worked for me, and it may not work for you.
Okay, that was a pretty spectacular fail there. Whoops. See, that’s my problem with blogs, I’ll start them, and with many promises of updates and stuff, I’ll never post anything again. When this happens, I usually get bored with the website layout and stuff too, so I’ll spend time finding the “best” blogging platform and start a new one. Thus, I have several blogs scattered about the internets, deserted and never to be found again. Sorry blogging sites of the world, for clogging your servers. xD
Well, I’ve done all the research I care to do, and I’m perfectly happy with WordPress, so I guess I’m back to try and make a blog worth reading again. What’s more, I’ll try to do it with this blog. I was sort’ve annoyed with the whole blog theme I put up last time, so this time there’s not going to be a theme, post-wise. I’m just gonna post shit.
The catch here is that I’m going to post something every. single. day. It’s suicidal, I know, but I also know that if I don’t, I’ll completely forget about it and not come back. Some days won’t have posts worth reading, but I’ll put a bit of effort in it, no matter. There will be many weekends coming up where I’ll be out of town and out of reach of internet, but I’ll still write some, and post them when I can.
I’m doing this not only because blogs are fun, but also because I know it’ll push me to get back into photography. I love photography dearly, but with the onset of a crazy semester of college, I’ve sort’ve dropped it like a hot potato and not really come back to it. This is bad, and I don’t want it to happen like that, so this is my way of forcing myself to get back on that as well. I know that if I write blog posts, I’ll push myself to illustrate/photograph them too.
I also want to make a point about being completely honest on this blog, too. This is most definitely sparked because of the Interpersonal Communications class I’m in this semester, but it’s true. I am who I am, and I know already that people will judge me for it. But, I’m also fine with that, because if you’re going to judge me and leave, then that’s okay. I don’t want to be your friend either. I’ll probably do a post about the concept of “Open Self” since I find it so interesting, but it’s essentially the area of you that is composed of things that both you and other people know, and it’s the area of your personality that’s supposed to be the largest so far as content goes.
That said, I’m not going to be all intentionally instigative on this blog, nor particularly controversial, unless it’s related to my topic. I’m just going to post things.
For instance, there’s a post on how to re-arrange the keys on your keyboard tomorrow. I needed to do that, so I took pictures too.
Jp out.
Minecraft.
If you’ve heard of it, then good, if you haven’t yet, then I’m here to tell you what it’s about. Right now, the game is in Alpha state, so it’s not even the full version of the game yet, and even so, this game has pulled at least twenty-four hours of my time in the past four days or so. That’s a lot.
As of right now, there is no point to the game. Yeah, I just spent an inane amount of time on a game with no story, point, or motive. You can’t even win.
Minecraft is an open sandbox game, where it begins by dropping you in the middle of a strangely beautiful landscape, rendered entirely in 8-bit graphics.
You don’t start with anything, and there’s no real in-game motive to amass stuff. The only thing stopping you from just waltzing around on the apparently endless (or, I haven’t found the edge of it yet) landscape are the things that go bump in the night.
You see, every time the sun goes down in-game, it gets dark. Like, really dark.
And, in this darkness, there are bad things, things that want to chomp off your head and have 8-bit stew with what’s left over. As such, survival (at least in the Alpha version, the latest one) is the whole point of the game at first. This will be your all-consuming need, the first, say, two nights. Those days and nights will be spent burrowing into the hillside, making a caveman-esque cave to huddle in at night, and probably a place to go and mine the ever-elusive minerals that always seem to have uses.
After those nights, the drive to create things will overpower the omnipresent need for survival, and a cave will no longer be good enough to call home. From this point, you will begin to see how it’s like virtual legos, only you’ll never have to go pay for more blocks if you need, say, some shiny gold blocks or a window for your house. From then on, the true point of the game becomes apparent, where you can build anything you want, so long as you’re willing to work for it.
Here’s a few of the things I’ve built in the past few days:
My Sky Castle:
A glass waterfall detail on the stairs down:
And, my glass observation deck:
Multiplayer isn’t up and running all the way yet, but it’s been announced as releasing on the twentieth, which is also when beta will start.
Right now, for Alpha, the game is only around $13 bucks, and it’s well worth it. Another pretty huge thing is that, with the release of beta (The twentieth! Three days!), the future versions of the game will not be included in the one-time cost, whereas while it’s still in alpha, they are. IT’S WORTH IT.
While I was writing this, a zombie treed me in my observation deck. Silly Zombie.
Hello, denizens of the internet, welcome to my blog. I’m Jp.
For the past week or so, I’ve felt the need to have a blog, and make it a good one, rather than another sparsely updated teenager blog full of angst and rants. I like to think I’m relatively angst-free, so this shouldn’t be too hard.
First off, I guess I want to introduce myself. This is me, tonight, in the clothes I’m wearing right now.
I am an art geek. I’m several other types of geek too, but I think the art one is the most predominant. My goal with this blog is to both muse on my art and the art of others, as well as pass along stories about things that interest me, most of which will be art-related.
My favorite art, and the one I know the most about, is photography. My goal in life is to move somewhere other than Hickville, TX, and start a studio photography business there. (Hopefully my ‘somewhere other’ will be Seattle, but we’ll see.) I currently shoot and sell photography of the mountain biking races (pedal bicycles, not motorcycles) at IngotImaging, and I have a bit of fun with that, though it’s a lot less fun when it gets really hot outside.
As you’ll probably note if you click on that link, I sell those photos under the name of John Dowling, whereas I’m blogging here as Jp. This blog, right here, marks my full acceptance of my ‘Jp’ moniker, which I have thought unprofessional and young-sounding before. Since, I’ve realized that it’s silly to think of it like that, and I think I’m ready to accept Jp on all levels, not just the social ones. I think I’ll start correcting my professors when they call me out as John, and also the IngotImaging brand will be changed sooner or later. I’m happy with my Jp, now. There are far too many Johns out there, and I think it’d be nice to be a little different.
I’m Jp. Right now, my biggest mental issue and the feature in myself that I don’t like is that I procrastinate so much. I procrastinate like crazy. Since my last final, on Dec 8th, I have accomplished all of one thing that I can think of. That said, I’m not usually so bad when it’s schoolwork that needs doing, but during the break, I rarely accomplish anything, and it annoys me. So, right now, I’m fighting that by writing this post. I’m also ignoring sensible advice that tells me to wait until I have a few good posts already written before I launch this blog, but if I put it off in lieu of more posts written, then it’ll never happen, and I want this to happen pretty badly, so I’m going to start now, and then commit myself to updating this blog three times a week, to start. There might be other posts or quick ones to share some interesting art stuff I find, but I’m going to commit to three good long posts a week, and hold myself to it for as long as possible (indefinitely, I mean).
I’m thinking that these so-called ‘good’ posts will be mostly explorations of different types of artistic stuff that I like; i.e., a brief description of what it is, why I like it, and some prime examples of the art. (Yeah, I’m writing this down as much for my sake as for yours. Aheh.) There’ll also probably be posts on other things I like, and maybe some impromptu ‘reviews’ on things I happen to use often enough to justify writing one.
Well, I think that’s it, so I guess I’ll end this post here and then start worrying about the next post. Welcome to the blog, internetlings.
jp[div] 