Great day, boring pictures…
Sculpture by Nefarious, painting by Shannon… It's hard for me to paint this small because I have to try and time my hand motions between tremors but it's a lot of fun. If my hands were steadier I'd love to make little toys. Maybe I'll go get some Fimo or something.
Nefarious is leaving for California in a few days (come out and be sad). I have no idea if her memory will be as fragmented as mine because I don't really know if my memory is broken because of something like Korsakoff's Syndrome (ie. chronic alcoholism) or if it's something genetic that she could inherit. In any case, I don't want her to forget me so I'm actually quite looking forward to writing kids books and making toys and so on to send her. If you've got a kid that's about the same age as Nefarious let me know when I mention that I've done a book because I think I'll bind a few of them and fantasize that I could actually have a career writing and drawing kids stories.
It was suggested to me that I take all of her old PJs that are too small for her and sew them into a giant quilt/blanket and I thought that was just a wonderful idea — I don't know if that's just my own obsession with memory artifacts speaking or if it's something other people would appreciate?
Well, supper calls.
I was looking forward to doing framing on all my paintings this week, but it's probably not going to happen because I'm getting fucked around on my truck repair — the mechanic claims that he was told that the repair was supposed to be pushed back (which is definitely not desired!), so I don't know what's going on. It sucks because it puts me in a position where I know I'm being lied to, but I have no real way of confirming who's lying to me or even why.
Other than that, I'm crazy tired and maybe tonight I'll have a nap. Sleep is for the dead, right? However, I already got Kala and Louie mixed up on ModBlog, so who knows what other mistakes are scattered around the Internet, ha. I thought I'd shave but now I think it makes me look weird so I won't continue that.
I think I'm probably more irritated than I should be. I've been dealing with realestate agents that are complete morons — I show them land I like, generally 50 acre scrubby stuff with wetlands and rivers that few others could use, and tell them to send me similar vacant land parcels they have… And they send me $40k+ 0.3 acre building lots in town and crap like that. Foolish. I should just go back to scouring
Dignam…
Oh yeah and I'm having a mini-event/BBQ next Thursday if anyone feels like coming.
Anyway, off to get Nefarious from school, drink some sort of stimulant so I don't pass out, go hang out at the park for a while, and then figure out supper.
Oh and a question to network experts: Because I'm doing some development work over the next month that needs to be satellite accessed, I am looking for software (or settings) that induces latency into my internet connection so that I can simulate the effects of a satellite link. Ideally I'd like it to be able to choke my data rates as well to match. If anyone has any ideas about that, please let me know.
After doing “unpublished” projects for a while, in 1993 some friends and I did our first “commercial” zine in that it was actually in stores and for sale (not that I think we sold very many or anything). Looking at it now, the high point of the zine by far was this wonderful comic, “Precipitation” done by my old friend Niall (I don't think I've posted this before?). He's still actively drawing — for those of you in the Prince Edward County region, he runs the monthly PEC Comix Jam — I really need to head down there for one.
Anyway, I hope he's not mad at me for posting old art, but I wanted to make sure that the Internet remembers this little project. Click to zoom into scans of the pages.
I really miss my friends from highschool sometimes.
OK, this is very “version 0.5″ but it does appear to be done. Here's how I made it (not that you can't figure it out yourself because it's about as basic of an underwater enclosure as you could make):
From the side view you can see that the handle is just held on by those closing wire-clamps (I don't know what their official name is hose clamps). I did it that way so that it would be easy to play with different handle configurations, and so it could be used in different ways (ie. holding it off the edge of a boat, swimming underwater, whatever). You can also see the mounting screw which goes up through a rubber grommet. It should be waterproof, but I see this as the main weak point of the design.
This is the rear view, where you insert the camera itself, which sits snugly on a plate inside (made of the leftover lexan) to keep it stable. The back plate screws on and is sealed with a rubber gasket.
The front has an almost identical endpiece to the back, but the metal has been replaced with lexan (which has a couple of stress marks on it but I think is still fine) and permanently sealed in place. The camera mounting is such that the lense sits flush with the lexan.
It's really basic, and it should work. Later tonight or in the morning I'll do a test of whether it's actually waterproof (it should be). Just putting it together I've already got three five things that I'd do quite differently next time:
- The front (clear) plate would just be expoxied into place without any screws to hold it there (going with the theory that since the pressure is inward, it doesn't need to survive major internal pressure; just external pressure).
- The rear plate that has to be taken off to access the camera should be “quicker” to remove, especially since there are no control buttons (you turn the camera and put it on).
- I wouldn't do a mounting screw at all that penetrates the main body. Instead, I'd put the plate that the camera sits on on rails so you attach the camera to the plate, and then slide the plate into the camera. This would be significantly more effective.
- I'll put a “container” on the bottom of the camera that can be weighted, so I can make it completely buoyancy neutral.
- (c/o wlfdrgn) I'll add a “lip” around the front to give the front a little more protection for the acrylic.
Anyway, if it goes on Clive and Jon's fishing trip, hopefully they'll get some good footage, and if not, I'll take it for a swim and post a quick proof-of-concept video before I build another one (assuming I don't drown my sister's camera testing it, haha).
