eBay anxiety

4°C, Windy, heavy rain this morning but dry for now. Snow coming?

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I’ve won a camera bid on ebay. A camera that I have been after for a couple of years. Over the last few months, I have lost a lot of bids, some went for very high values, but at last it is in the bag. Problem is, the next hour is an anxious time because of another bid that I’d forgotten about is about to expire with me the winner (at the time of writing).
It’s a problem because I don’t want two of them.

Tatenhill and surrounds

8°C, light grey, dry and minimal wind.

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Cycling: [retrospective post] had a long steady ride on Sunday, Foremark resevoir, Staunton Harold and Bosworth Battlefield. Total 74 miles, I had about 10-15 miles left in my legs but decided against it because of overhang tiredness at work the next day.

FSX; the title comes from another project I am working on, making scenery for the Flight Sim- FSX. Local Staffordshire is looking much better, as is another two places undergoing a facelift. I can post when more screenies are ready.

FSX_KML

6°C, clear(mostly) but windy.

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I rode home in 32 minutes today!
FSX scenery design: Currently I am having some success learning the KML program that works with Google-Earth to generate scenery for the flight sim FSX. It’s going to take quite a while to finish these. This picture uses a generic nuclear power station, but the 3D file discussed in the previous post needs to be planted in its place. apparently the KML programme can place them, but wait until the model is ready. It only lacks some of the textures and some LOD models.

Sarcophagus

13°C, warm, windy & with showers.

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3DS Max: Texturing that Chernobyl model. See picture. I’ve taken this render from the same angle that most photographs seem to be shot from. The second chimney (near Reactor 1 & 2) should have red & white paint on as well, only just noticed that. this model is about as complete as it needs to be for FSX, but there is some room for poly reduction and replacing details with textures.

Warn & wet

13°C, rain but now clear. More forcast with floods.

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Ride in anyway today, I can’t sleep with this lack of exercise, just ride then. No punctures. Mornings are getting lighter…

 

A walk in the dark

6°C, clear, a respite from the rain.

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Four attempts at repairing a series of punctures failed this evening after dark. So I set of on the 10 miles walk home after ringing Hannah. She set off on the lookout for me wheeling the bike with flashing lights switched on. She drove past me. I decided to continue because she knows which way I was going. It took another 3 miles before she finally pulled up exasperated. Perhaps I just ought to throw out all of those spare inner-tubes and start with fresh ones, you really need to trust things like that.

3DS Max: Built a model of Chernobyl NPP last night. It was based on the Google-Earth model which I used as a template. The GoogleEarth model was imported into Sketchup and then to 3DS. There was a lot to fix, firstly the model has far too many triangles and second the main chimney was the wrong shape. After tidying up the girder structure that supports the chimney, the poly count was reduced to a tenth of its original. On the right is a photo of the real place, for comparison. I’d like to end up importing that 3D model into FSX flight simulator. To begin with, the model had 12,000 faces, . Now it has far fewer(6,000) and the model more detailed.

Saturated

9°C, drizzle & strong winds. C=36½ miles.

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Cycling: Strong winds and rain serving to remind me of the torrential downpour that washed out my ride home on friday. I cut the ride short.
However, took time out to take some shots of the National Memorial Aboretum – all under water. I pondered on why they built it on the flood-plain of a major river. This area is subject to quarrying, so the course f the river and ponds will change relatively rapidly, the safety of this site is therefore at risk.

Sunny Saturday

7°C, sunny.

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A week of heavy rains, winds and some sun.
Film: "The lives of others",  It seemed to bit slow to start with, I wasn’t sure of staying the course, but after a certain point, I was in, hooked. Finished with a feeling that it was powerful, subtle and full of complex plot twists, as complex as the characters.

Diversion activities…

8°C, windy, but getting clearer.

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or Things to do when you’re writing reports:

• Boil the kettle for some tea
• Record LPs for the car sterio
• Eat an apple
• Install updates on the computer
• Patch a punctured inner-tube
• Fit a new chain to the winter-bike
• Drink that cup of (now cold) tea
• Visit the parents
• Write a report…. go back to the top of the list.

One indeterminate day

9°C, still & light overcast.

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A some point in the holiday, on a day we don’t know the name of, the year changed.