Here's my first portrait. I'm really bad with color and values, so I'm happy with how it turned out. I had some problems adding more realistic features due to the size, but with that said, I prefer stylized portraits over realistic ones.
I have a new project I mentioned in a quick update on the roll call thread, so here goes!
You know how historians and archaeologists, upon finding some object in households which they cannot identify, like to default to "it's a religious/spiritual artifact"? And how they may be just, overanalyzing the importance of recurring symbols and motifs in artwork and architecture, ignoring the potential explanation it was just a popular trend?
Well, I want to apply that logic to playing cards and make a new game based on overanalyzing the face/portrait cards without any actual knowledge of their history! Basically, "what would historians think if they found these cards with absolutely zero documentation to provide context, and also kept seeing the super-basic shapes of the suits in artwork/architecture?".
First step is, of course, overanalyzing and assigning attributes to the cards! Turns out the imagery is pretty consistent, at least based on Google. Some decisions I've made:
Over-analysis of Cards Inside
Clubs represents faith and religion. The three-leaf clover is associated with the Holy Trinity in Christianity thanks to St. Patrick. The king is also holding a globus cruciger, which is both a royal artifact AND religious.
Spades represents warriors and fighting. The Spades suit is a spear tip. All three face the opposite direction of nearly every other card. Even the queen has a super-stabby scepter.
And related to both points: The Jack of Clubs is a traitor/heretic working for the Spades. He is the only other card facing right, and the weapon he holds could be interpreted as a spear. So, he clearly aligns more with the Spades.
Diamonds are probably wealth and merchants? Diamond shape just seems glamorous to me. Some searching suggests it IS historically associated with luxury. And also harlequins.
Hearts represents either health or love/family...?
Whatever the case, the Jack of Hearts is the son of the King of Diamonds. They have the same full-side portrait pose, both have mustaches, AND they both have axes. Therefore, they are family.
The Queen of Hearts is the only queen to have the flower in her left hand. So she's a lefty?
and the King of Hearts has that sword behind his head. So... He's a Pacifist, maybe??
Some things are obviously still up in the air. And to that end, I want to ask for Tildes' input in overanalyzing these cards and their meaning/symbolism! Especially the Queens. Because the Queens all look very same-y to me overall other than Hearts having the flower in the opposite side, and Spades having the Stabby Scepter of Stabbing.
So, whether it's input on individual cards or the significance/associations of the suits, give me your thoughts!
also I am just amused I now have official headcanons about family drama in playing cards, these heacanons even work with the rules of euchre
That's you projecting your own cultural associations onto it. It's more basic than that: a diamond has four points and four sides, and there are four suits. The cards are rectangular; rectangles have four sides. Many art variants have four instances of the card number printed on each card.
Clearly four was an important number to these people. Much like seven is often considered a "lucky" number today, four (and, by association, the suit of diamonds) symbolized luck or fourtune.
(also the heart shape is obviously a butt, symbolizing waste)
Ooh, this is the kind of analysis I was hoping for! Not sure if Diamonds would represent luck, but the point about the number four is very interesting. I could have diamonds perhaps represent royalty or power/authority? Would fit with how the Jack of Hearts is more aligned with the Diamonds than Hearts, too.
At the very least, I think it would make sense for the Four cards to be "power cards". Maybe the rules could also have something with the Ace and Three's, too, to symbolize one suit against all three others... This is giving me actual gameplay/rule ideas, thanks!
I didn't do anything this week! (I earned it, with two migraines, double vaccination, me getting sick, and my cats being sick...) I would like to get to a place where I can sit back down in the newly created craft room and actually craft, but at this point that's looking like a "maybe this weekend" situation.
I did find where I put the Kumiko kit, so that’s a start…technically.
In my defense, I have had to work later most nights than I like, and my wife and I have been watching a lot of the MLB divisional series games. And I uh, thought the Witcher 3 Remastered on the switch 2 and am playing it for the first time so, there’s that too.
I have refined the story narrative and text after getting feedback from friends in my art class. They said the prints were great but I let them guide the story too much instead of making prints to match the narrative and text which I would agree with. So... I'd love to hear what you all think about the new text.
Context, I like darker kids stories like Roald Dahl or Jon Klassen so this fits into that vein, or at least should. I've got a pretty basic AABB rhyming scheme with one section that is like an escalating chant(based on part of the feedback that I should add something interactive for kids). This is really just for our kid and some neighbors but I'd still like to make it as good as I can! Anyway, to the text!
Anyway, to the text!
SPREAD 1
Hildi lived in a house on the docks by the sea,
where the mice had taken over and ran wild and free!
They lived in her couch and her hair and her tea,
they even bathed in her favorite potpourri!
SPREAD 2
Enough was enough, she could take it no more,
she screamed to the heavens and threw it all to the floor!
The teacups went flying, the table went crash!
She bellowed at the mice, "You're all headed for the trash!"
SPREAD 3
She wailed to her neighbor and pointed in shock,
at the terrible mice who had chewed up her frock!
Her neighbor just grinned and held out a fat cat.
"Take Klaus," said the neighbor. "And that will be that."
SPREAD 4
With no delay Klaus caught the first little mouse,
he packed up its bags and kicked it out of the house.
He plucked them from teacups, he snatched from the floor,
and briskly escorted them out the front door!
SPREAD 5
And that was that. Hildi loved her new cat.
He was warm, he was clever, he was wonderfully fat.
They were soon peas and carrots that no one could split,
Klaus balled up her yarn as old Hildi would knit.
She lavished his dinner with sausage and steak,
and Klaus kept her feet warm when they started to ache.
SPREAD 6
If one cat was grand, well, more must be better;
so Hildi snuck out and stuffed one up her sweater!
Cat, cat, just this one!
Come with me, let's have some fun!
SPREAD 7
Cats, cats, two, three, four!
I've got room for a couple more!
SPREAD 8
CATS, CATS, I'LL TAKE THEM ALL!
BIG ONES, SMALL ONES, SHORT ONES, TALL!
SPREAD 9
One became ten and ten became more,
till hundreds of cats came crashing through the door.
SPREAD 10
They spilled through the kitchen and covered the rugs,
they napped in her teapots and slept in her mugs!
There were cats in the pantry, in the flour and beans,
they bedded down in the closet, in her coats and her jeans!
SPREAD 11
His cushion, his corner, his bowl by the door,
every place Klaus loved best wasn't his anymore.
No mice left to catch and no lap left to share,
Klaus looked up at Hildi, but Hildi wasn't there.
SPREAD 12
He nudged at her ankle, he begged her to play,
but Hildi just smiled and looked out at the bay.
SPREAD 13
So Klaus packed up his things, all neat in his sack,
tip-toed through the kitchen and snuck out the back.
And deep in the dark of that purring, black sea
Old Hildi was trapped, right where she wanted to be.
Thanks you! Yeah, this is a bit of a cheat for timasomo as I've completed most of the art. With the rewrite I just need to make two new spreads. I designed one last night in miniature and am working on the other right now. Here is a little sample of what they look like. I'll share more next week when I have squared the text away so they are for sure finished.
Any thoughts on the text or anything that reads awkward or forced? I'm also on the fence about adding the little chant in there. I thought it was kind of gimmicky but the other folks in the class really pushed for it and I could see how it would be fun. I think I'm feeling good about the art piece and less confident with the writing :)
I just reread this as I would for a child and I think the text is great. The only parts I had trouble with the first time I read them, work better in context and reading in with the right voice. I originally had trouble with all the ands, from spread one and five.
That image is quite wonderful! I love cats, we have three, and that is such a fun image. I highly encourage you to publish this. I would love to buy it for my child.
The chant on spread eight works, I think it should stay.
Aw, that's really sweet! And totally, The whole first stanza is giving me greif. I'm still tripping up on the first two lines (I'm not sure why, but the house + docks + sea never flows right to me) and the and section. It used to read: "where the mice had taken over and scampered happily" but you had to emphasize the happily weirdly so I changed it. I'll noodle but if you have any suggestions I'm super open to them!
And I was thinking up titles and had come up with "Too many cats" (which has now been decided against) and I googled it to make sure it was available and Millions of Cats came up! Just when you think you've had a unique idea right?!
The whole first stanza is giving me greif. I'm still tripping up on the first two lines
Hildi lived in a house on the docks by the sea,
where the mice had taken over and ran wild and free!
I see two potential issues. First, I feel like there might be an introductory sentence before this like "there once was a woman who lived by the sea," but maybe the image and context already does this. Second, the first line is fine. I only slip up on the second line. I think there are three solutions. Either one just has to learn to read that line correct which cannot be done the first time or change it. I see two potential changes. 1) where the mice ran wild and free! or 2) where the mice had taken over running wild and free!
Thoughts?
where the mice had taken over and scampered happily
This also works I think.
and Millions of Cats came up! Just when you think you've had a unique idea right?!
You are only 100 years too late, haha!
For titles, I think you need to consider your message. For me your message is playful but also somewhat sad. Hildi was so happy to find Klaus, and Klaus so happy in return, but then Hildi became obsessed with collecting cats and in the end hurt the cat that first saved her. In that line my first thought is "One Cat Too Few," emphasizing though Hildi now has a sea of cats she does not have the cat that matters, Klaus.
And deep in the dark of that purring, black sea
Old Hildi was trapped, right where she wanted to be.
So most of my life I've played piano and the songs I've come up with songs traditionally have only been played on my keyboard as piano only, just recording directly into a free music recording like Audacity. I recently wanted to try and get into more complex music production, so this song is the first one I've ever tried really producing in a DAW with midi and more than just one instrument. Mostly just been dabbling around with some sounds/grooves that I've been coming up with that I think sound kinda nice together.
Going for a more upbeat LoFi feel with this, right now it's a very rough work in progress while I figure out which sounds I think go well together, what instruments to use, etc. I have a lot of work to do when it comes to transitions between bars/melodies, level balancing, and other final mastering things (which I am very novice at, but hey, that's what this is all about!)
Not sure how far along I plan to go with this one. I was thinking back to some of my old songs I had written on piano and realized some of them could also sound really cool modified into a similar LoFi style, so I may try porting one of those and see how it sounds, especially since it's an already complete song and not just me messing around on my keyboard with random sounds and throwing them together.
Ooh, I liked this! The atmosphere is pretty good. It made me think of playing some chill "cozy" games, particularly rainy bus stops for some reason...?
Well that's the vibe I'm going for so I'm glad it's hitting! I added a subtle "rain" backing to the song that fades in and out a bit during parts, so that's probably why it feels like you're at a rainy bus stop haha.
I'm using FL Studio as my daw, most of the sounds are from their FLEX plugin that has a lot of free built in sounds. I'm primarily using a LoFi sound pack available in FLEX and modifying the sounds as I see fit from the pack, but I did also overlay some Vital Synth and a wind instrument pack (which is also in the FLEX plugin). One part of the drum loop was an existing loop I found on their free sample library.
I have the bulk of the text written down in a document, and now I have to edit. I already know a couple of details I want to polish and one that I want to replace altogether. I also made progress on some light artwork. By light I mean it’s pretty simplistic, and I’m not putting much effort into it. The detail level is minimal. Broad strokes, and watercolour style of colouring. The main goal was the writing part, and the images are more of an added “just for fun” element. I drew them in my iPad in a light app (think Procreate, but much more basic). I want to draw one for each “chapter” (each prompt in the solo RPG that is fueling my writing). The solo RPG is called Creation Myths if anyone is curious. So, I need to edit, finish the drawings, add the drawings, export a nice looking PDF, and a txt version for the blog post. A challenge will be the images in the blog as I am using a very basic hosting site (write.as) so it will be a manual process to link to each image and pop it in the correct place. Easier in the Pages doc. Nothing too complicated, just a bit tedious. I believe I might have an over abundance of time next weekend and that’s likely when I’ll either finish or almost finish this.
I've actually been really productive on my LMN-3 synthesizer build.
What did/didn't you get done this week?
I got the case mostly put together. I cut it out of 1/8th inch birch plywood, painted it, and started glueing it together.
Anything go according to plan?
Even though I didn't have proper tools to cut all this out, the pieces mostly fit together great.
Anything go off the rails?
During my dry fit attempts, I hadn't really taken into account the cable management. I'm going to have to get creative to cream all the components in there.
Any successes or struggles to share?
I originally built the synth a few years ago, and I redid the software from scratch, and in doing so really struggled with getting it working on modern versions of raspberry pi OS. I had to go back and test this on older and older versions until I finally found one that would work with my displays and the DAW software.
Do you need feedback or help on anything?
I'm open to any constructive criticism on my choice of paint colors and design.
I mentioned earlier that I had access to some actual grapes this harvest. The first batch were from some abandoned vines behind a coworker’s rental. I think they are Zinfandel, but I am not positive. I only found out about them after they were already on the vine too long, so they were way more sweet than I would have liked. That means a higher potential alcohol.
I recently got into homemade ginger beer, which means I have a bunch of kegs and a co2 tank. I decided to try something that I am going to call “super carbonic macération”. Carbonic macération is a pretty common thing in the wine industry already. If you put whole grapes in a pure co2 atmosphere, that co2 diffuses into the grape tissue and triggers certain metabolic pathways in the grape cells. As far as I understand, these are biological processes of the grapes themselves, not from an external yeast or bacteria. Carbonic macération uses this to break down the tissues and achieve a very powerful fruity flavors. (If you have ever had Beaujolais Nouveau, that is very typical of carbonic macération. If you are curious to try this, it will be released worldwide on November 19 this year. Ask around that time at your local wine store. Also, don’t save a Beaujolais Nouveau bottle for aging. It is not designed to age. Save it for Christmas if you want, but not much after that.) Anyway, I put my grapes whole into some kegs and pressurized them to about 12psi co2. As far as I can tell, there is research about atmospheric carbonic macération, and pressurized yeast fermentation, but not pressurized carbonic macération. After this process, the grapes tasted like they were sparkling when I ate them. Very unique effect. I actually might try this in the future with table grapes. They also tasted aggressively fruity, which means the carbonic macération went off perfectly.
I then did a traditional skin fermentation with a hand punch down once per day. I think I may have lost a lot of the carbonic aromatics, but it was still an interesting experiment. This batch has been finished for about 2 weeks now. I got the lab at work to run a panel:
Standout info is it is very low in acid and very high alcohol. It’s about what I expected, but I will need to add acid before it’s particularly balanced.
I am also very impressed with the acetic acid number. Acetic acid is bad, and comes from poor sanitation and unclean fruit. I had very unclean fruit and that acetic acid is way lower than I was expecting.
Overall I am very happy with it. I am planning to blend it with my other batch (likely this weekend). I think I might burst carbonate it and make a sparkling red on tap.
Because I'm also working on a pretty major software launch (still debating if I'll show Tildes this, but it's connected to delphitools) I didn't have much time to work on The Second Amendment, my universal Serial-to-USB box. I did pick out the components I need though and dropped the whole "completely software-rewireable" aspect as that just made everything impossibly complicated in terms of wiring. But I know I want to use an ESP-32, which would add the ability to make it a Wifi-connected remote terminal too. Just plug it into the machine you want to link to, connect USB power and it'll show up as it's own Wifi network with a little browser based console. Much easier than getting out RealTerm or some random app...
Like the other guy, I have been sick twice the past week and now have some brutal ear infection that has inflamed half by neck and face… not fun.
I have not gotten the chance to go to a cafe like some recommended, but I have gotten some decent work done at home. As a part of this challenge I have written around 3,500 words towards my dissertation’s sixth chapter. I was rereading a section last night and was pleasantly surprised by how well I wrote it before.
My absolute minimum goal is to finish drafts of chapters three and six this month. If I want to use this opportunity to push myself I would like to finish chapters two, seven, and eight. Chapters four and five and kind of up in the air right now, so I am unsure what to do there.
I got the kit for the Hearthkyn Salvagers end of last week and have been assembling them. I found some stls of orc heads, but they lacked necks so I imported them.into blender and started fiddling around with the sculpt tool. I have no idea how to use them, but managed to extrude the back of the heads into neck-ish shapes. Printed them out and have glued some of the figures together. The heads aren't as detailed as the rest of the models, but they're good enough for me. This weekend I'm going to put on a base coat and start painting!
I thought that a good idea would be to model my design in OnShape or SketchUp or something and get a good idea of what kind of material I need and at what sizes. I can make a solid construction plan that way so I know exactly what I'm doing when I get into my actual workshop. This is a smart idea, I thought. I will definitely do this because it will make my life much easier and significantly reduce the chance of a visit from Mr FuckUp later on.
However this is what I actually did because this is what I always do. A stack of paper with some measurements and vague ideas on. Each of these pieces of paper is important for it details some aspect of the design not drawn elsewhere. Although there's also a lot of replication. And contradiction.
This is, however, enough for me to have generated a cutlist to take to the timber yard and in my head I have a sort of a plan for assembly. Plan is subject to revision during actual construction.
My dear brain has decided that this project Must Be Procrastinated At All Costs™.
I spent the entire week thinking "I should sit down and set up my music software" but whenever I opened my laptop I did literally anything else.
Wait, I did do something, I was considering purchasing Bitwig Studio's latest version because a new shiny version of my DAW will definitely make me a good songwriter, no? I stopped myself just in time - 4.4.10 is more than good enough for my needs and I already own it so I. should. use. it.
We'll see if week 2 is any kinder.
EDIT: I managed to get Bitwig set up today, yay! While testing stuff I grabbed a drum 'n' bass sample pack and made a quick 8-bar drum loop plus some pluck chords, everything seems to be in order. I'm still not sure what I actually want to write, so maybe this week is just exploring ideas and see what clicks?
I didn't get as much done as I hoped this week. I started forging a ring mandrel that I can put on my desk for wire work, but didn't get the legs finished so right now it can't stand on its own. I should finish that on Saturday, so I can start actual ringmaking this week as well.
My main progress came in the form of sketches and notes on ideas I want to incorporate. I won't share anything here yet as it's all very nebulous, but I at least have directions to go.
I have done some cutting, drilling and assembling and the bird feeder is in this state right now. This is what I'm gping for.
Plan for next days is to raise up the black front and back that will make the triangle on the faces of roof. This means just a bit of drilling and some screws. Then I have to cut it to the right angle. For all cutting here I use jalanese saw - the kind that saws when you oull, not push. It has really small teeth and makes very nice and smooth surfaces.
The biggest challenge will be the roof itself. I know how it will be assembled, but I sti don't know how I will attach it to the rest of the house. My absolutely top priority is "no screws visible" - that is from around and top view, there will be visible screws from under. Well, problem for later me. But just a few days later me!
So as a disclaimer, I have zero experience with woodworking. But could wood glue possibly help with attaching the roof? Or could you look at Japanese wood joinery for some ideas and inspiration since it doesn't use nails?
The thing I'm concerned about is that I have the wood already painted. I don't know if glue is gonna make it stick so well when there is a paint. Another concern is this will be outside - UV, rain, snow, freezeing temperatures. And I love using screws, as they are more permanent than nails or staples.
Right now I'm thinking about running perpendicular "beams" under the roof that will screw into the sides of the house from the inside.I would probably have to break my arm to reach there, but you do what you have to do... That means my daughter will screw those screws in place, probably.
As I said problem for later me :-) With projects like these, I like to have the plan laid out from the start to the finish. And I kinda have. But I still come to some questions along the way and this one keeps being unanswered for the time being. But it will get resolved once I get the roof together and have it "physical" - being able to have it in hand and try various thing for real. Sometimes you just have to improvise and I knew I will come to that point from the start.
Didn't get much time to work on it since I only had two days before deciding to actually do it and now, but I did manage to set up the SDK tools needed to work on it. I spent some time looking at and organizing other mods that are popular for the game to see what changes others typically do, since I haven't modded this for like two decades now.
I also started work on thinking of "buffs/abilities/talents" and "debuffs", as well as per-mission challenges, to actually implement.
I'm not sure to what extent this will work out, but I figure that it's at least worth a shot. The big challenge is thinking of buffs can be given in FPS games that aren't super generic like "extra damage" or "faster reload" or stuff like that.
I've decided that I should only work on my Minecraft mod (now officially called "Leadlight") over the weekends. This was a wise decision given how hectic my week was. I will be using terms without necessarily defining them in this (and future) update(s), so if there's anything you don't understand and you're interested in specifics, please ask. Just because I learned a lot of the concepts the hard (well, not truly hard, but not the easiest) way, doesn't mean you have to too.
The first thing I did for this project was some modelling. I took inspiration from how the game does the models for the base game, where it defines the north-facing side and the south-facing side and then uses blockstates to do the rotations. The simplest window frame shape I'll have is effectively just a bordered regular glass pane so I made a model for that in Blockbench (The UV mappings have changed slightly since making that). It's multiple boxes, and when I export I can turn on and off different segments. There are actually 5 models in there, the north, south, center, and the middle sections facing north and south for when the block is just a single segment. It's much easier to see why this is needed when displayed in-game. I also wrote some code to datagen all of the required blockstate and model files. I'm using the models from Blockbench as a template, with the datagenned model files using them as a parent and passing in the textures. This is so I can have multiple material types, but that's for weekend 3 or 4.
With the success of that, I decided I may as well do the models for three other window shapes: vertical, horizontal, and square. Technically, all of the models that I did for the large window shape could be re-used for the vertical windows, and with only a few additions I could do a lot of re-use for the horizontal and squares too. I went ahead and made the models for those and added them to the game. I also made a flat grey texture so I wasn't looking at colourful boxes all the time. I will need to come back to textures. Yes, I am putting it off.
A window frame is useless without glass to put in it, so I then went on a side tangent to create new items (which for now I'm calling "Cut Stained Glass Panes") that would be placed within each segment of the frame, and how I'd actually represent that in the blocks. There were a couple of iterations on the design, but I ended up on a data component that has a slot for top and bottom for north, south, east, west, and center. Having it as a data component means it's easy to attach to items, so ctrl+middle click in creative can pick up a window frame with knowledge of what each slot has. One of the last things I ended up doing over the weekend was actually adding interaction, so right clicking a cut pane into the frame would put it in the spot you clicked, and using an empty hand would remove it. Oh, and datagen for crafting recipes. The cut panes come from putting stained glass panes into a stonecutter, while the frames themselves have a recipe for the large frame, which is then used to craft the other types.
I was pretty happy with this progress for the first weekend, but since I still had some of the day left I decided to try drawing the glass. In terms of things I dislike in making mods, the thing I hate the most by far is anything to do with rendering (followed by making textures, then making models). Because I plan of having two more frame shapes with diagonal lines, I need to be able to draw a triangle. After much error (with some trial) I made every frame block (easier to start without thinking about the data each block has) draw a triangle. The problem was that as soon as you have multiple frame blocks it doesn't do what I wanted at all. Turns out, Minecraft really wants you to be drawing quads, not triangles, so I just added a 4th point that's the same as the 1st and everything is fine.
Of course, I don't just want a random triangle, I want shapes within the frame. This took some puzzling, such as getting some maths wrong and drawing in the wrong place, or doing the absolute beginner mistake of submitting your vertices in the wrong order so the faces are only visible from the wrong side, or, as you've probably seen from those screenshots, using the wrong path for the texture even though an hour ago you had it correct. But, eventually, I fixed it. I have a mod that works and has all of the basic features I want this mod to have.
I expect future weeks' updates to be more mundane than "I made what looks like most of this mod!". Like all software development, it takes 20% of the time to do 80% of the work, and 80% of the time to do 20% of the workthe other 80% of the work. As a reward for getting through this post, have a rendition of Piet Modrian's Composion II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.
For my rennfaire outfit I have cut and begun sewing a muslin version! Progress is slow because of a work trip but I get home tomorrow and can start back up!
All righty, here's the GitHub repo for my project. It's coming along nicely, and I'm hoping to put some more time into the project today.
At the outset I felt really over-faced by this whole idea, and it felt like it might be beyond my abilities. But I've actually been having a really good time working on it, and it feels like just the right amount of challenging. Honestly, I think the hardest part of this right now is that Textual's docs are a little obtuse and poorly laid out (to my mind at least). I've taken to using Kagi with a site:https://textual.textualize.io/ directive instead of the site's own search function, which seems to get me where I need to be much faster.
My next steps are to get the logic for adding a new actor into initiative order, and to add in a way of progressing through the list. Along the way I want to fix up the CSS, because at least in my terminal this thing looks ugly as sin. Any feedback on my progress so far is greatly appreciated!
I made some progress on evening out the pieces I have stitched into my hexie fabric for my EPP. I also figured out how to share the images for updates, so I think that's a win.
The plan is to make a "shelf and mount" setup. To do that, I used my chalk line to mark the center of the board to drill out where I'm going to run dowels for the mount. A quick miter later, we have ten dowels, almost ready to go.
My next step is to drill out five equidistant 5/8" holes for the "mount" part of the board, done without too much trouble thanks to my drill press. The press wouldn't come down quite far enough, so I had to do some creative problem solving by lifting the platform while drilling. But it only took about 20 minutes, and I had all ten holes drilled out.
Following that, I switched back to the table saw to cut the mount from the shelf. The final steps for today were to sand down the dowels for the part that would extend into the shelves, just a hair, so they'd slide in and out more easily.
The pieces are sitting in the garage drying. I'll probably shoot some small 1" screws through the mount/dowels too, to really secure them more than just glue. But that's for a future date. Next up will be to sand, then stain, then seal the shelves. We're heading into my birthday weekend, so that may or may not happen this weekend, we'll see!
1983 Toyota Tercel SR5 Wagon Big Block Project - TiMaSoMo 2026 - Exhaust system - Week The First:
To preface and bring people up to speed, the short version is I removed a tired, old, several-hundred-thousand mile engine out of an old funky Toyota and replaced it with a newly built larger engine that was never meant to go in said Toyota and now it needs an exhaust system. If you want a longer version of history and what that entails, see my old post here. That engine now needs an exhaust system, the primary complication of this is that the original engine had the exhaust on the opposite side and therefore it was never meant to follow the path I will take (except for when it meets the axle). This TiMaSoMo will follow along how I intend to accomplish this and anything else I can squeeze in while I do so should I finish the exhaust early.
Only had a few hours to work this weekend, so progress wasn't great, but also not non-existent.
First, meander around the garage and gather about half of the items that you've collected over the years to get the job done because that's all that would fit on the table.
Starting from the left side of the table and working right, in this photo, working clockwise from the top, we have flex pipe (used at the initial connection between the engine and the rest of the exhaust) which is used to absorb/allow the movement of the engine to not cause issues with the rest of the exhaust (which does not move), some reducers to mate the 2.25" exhaust piping to the 2.5" inlet/outlet on the catalytic converter, the catalytic converter because while this car is well past the age of needing to pass emission regulations and the engine I've built will be orders of magnitude cleaner than the outgoing engine there's no reason to not have one and be a little bit cleaner with my projects, a T25 adapter flange to mate the exhaust manifold to the 2.25" piping, v-band clamps to attach sections of the exhaust together, various exhaust hanger parts to suspend the exhaust under the car, and an adjustable angled connector that I hope to not need, but have just in case I do as I don't trust myself enough to get all the angles right.
At the other end of the table is the turbo/exhaust manifold; why not a normal "header" manifold you ask? Because this engine was never meant to be exist let alone in this chassis, so aftermarket headers for it are not available and any that do exist are meant for the 4AGE which means they are made for FWD, AE86, or MR2 and puts their exit in a place that does not work for the 7A, this chassis, or some combination of the above and I didn't want to fabricate an entire longtube header from scratch at this time. The easiest off the shelf option is a shorty tubular turbo manifold which is what I have here and got lucky that it does not point directly at the oil filter or starter, which has been an issue with some others and isn't a top mount.
I'll be using the wastegate flange on the manifold as the wideband O2 sensor location most likely, if not it'll be the bung on the converter, but don't really want to pick up the signal that far downstream. Next in line is a BorgWarner S200SX-E S257 turbocharger good for 400-600hp and is included in this photo as a joke because I happened to have it on hand (along with an S300 and S400) and is really meant for a 2.8L V6 that is going in another future project. I had intended to take photos of it in the car as well to keep the joke going, but those plans were dashed by the fact that it won't fit as it hits both the alternator and motor mount. Nor is the engine built to handle 400+hp as it has a stock connecting rod and piston combo to the tune of 11:1 compression and the transmission which was built to handle the stock 60-70hp (depending on country) wouldn't like it either.
Last in the photo is the muffler that I forgot I had, ordered a new one, found, then cancelled the order, and a shiny downturn exhaust tip because I like the way they look on older cars, but may decide to make it kick out to the side instead of face downward.
Finally on to what needs doing. This is a photo of the exhaust side of the engine and the gap that the exhaust coming from the exhaust manifold to underneath the car needs to navigate and all the things it needs to dodge on the way. Red is the starter, it would prefer to not be right next to the exhaust, orange is the tie rod and it also doesn't want to be right next to the exhaust, yellow is the CV shaft sending power to the front wheels and can move in an arc up and down so needs plenty of clearance, white is the steering shaft that thankfully will stay in place, but will spin and shouldn't contact anything, leaving the green box the area we have to send the exhaust through.
Started with CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) to get some ideas of clearance with something similar to the exhaust pipe size, but it started to piss me off and switched to using twisted copper wire for routing by sandwiching one end between the manifold and adapter flange then bent it as necessary to find a working route that seemed to clear everything.
Find a portion of the pre-bent tubing that looks like it might work and get to cutting. I have a pipe bender that could do bends for me, but I haven't built it yet and don't have dies for 2.25" pipe and got this "universal dual exhaust kit" for next to nothing, so just oing to make do with most of this and adapt instead. Would be nice if I had my 3D printer to print tubing templates, but that won't happen until December.
This weekend will be continuing downstream, with the tube that'll go under the car and catalytic converter at least, possibly the tubing going further down the car as I think it should be mostly a straight shot. Everything just tacked together for now, final welding once I have it all in place. Cat tax. Dog tax.
Neither are of any use, whatsoever.
Pretty lame first week for me, as I started with my two models already primed. I managed to get a coat of orange onto both though! Next up is the blacks and the metals, then adding some orange highlights / shading.
[OP] kfwyre | 23 hours ago
Timasomo Notification: Week 1 is now behind us!
How is that possible? I have no idea. It feels like this literally just started! Like, yesterday.
Notification List
@1338
@ali
@Amarok
@Apple-catapult
@Aran
@archevel
@Areldyb
@arqalite
@Arthur
@AugustusFerdinand
@Banazir
@benpocalypse
@brogeroni
@CannibalisticApple
@chocobean
@crialpaca
@delphi
@dhcrazy333
@doors_cannot_stop_me
@Durinthal
@em-dash
@Evie
@first-must-burn
@goose
@guissmo
@Habituallytired
@HEBV5
@h3x
@IsildursBane
@kacey
@Kraetzin
@Kremor
@Liru
@mat
@mikey
@monarda
@ocean-hai
@Paul85
@Pavouk106
@RheingoldRiver
@rip_rike
@rosco
@scrambo
@secret_online
@smoontjes
@streblo
@Tygrak
@updawg
@Weldawadyathink
@Zorind
If you would like to be removed from the list, please let me know.
Kremor | 19 hours ago
Here's my first portrait. I'm really bad with color and values, so I'm happy with how it turned out. I had some problems adding more realistic features due to the size, but with that said, I prefer stylized portraits over realistic ones.
BTW, here's the initial sketch .
ocean-hai | 18 hours ago
That is very darn good, frankly.
CannibalisticApple | 21 hours ago
I have a new project I mentioned in a quick update on the roll call thread, so here goes!
You know how historians and archaeologists, upon finding some object in households which they cannot identify, like to default to "it's a religious/spiritual artifact"? And how they may be just, overanalyzing the importance of recurring symbols and motifs in artwork and architecture, ignoring the potential explanation it was just a popular trend?
Well, I want to apply that logic to playing cards and make a new game based on overanalyzing the face/portrait cards without any actual knowledge of their history! Basically, "what would historians think if they found these cards with absolutely zero documentation to provide context, and also kept seeing the super-basic shapes of the suits in artwork/architecture?".
First step is, of course, overanalyzing and assigning attributes to the cards! Turns out the imagery is pretty consistent, at least based on Google. Some decisions I've made:
Over-analysis of Cards Inside
Some things are obviously still up in the air. And to that end, I want to ask for Tildes' input in overanalyzing these cards and their meaning/symbolism! Especially the Queens. Because the Queens all look very same-y to me overall other than Hearts having the flower in the opposite side, and Spades having the Stabby Scepter of Stabbing.
So, whether it's input on individual cards or the significance/associations of the suits, give me your thoughts!
also I am just amused I now have official headcanons about family drama in playing cards, these heacanons even work with the rules of euchre
em-dash | 7 hours ago
This is amazing, I love it.
That's you projecting your own cultural associations onto it. It's more basic than that: a diamond has four points and four sides, and there are four suits. The cards are rectangular; rectangles have four sides. Many art variants have four instances of the card number printed on each card.
Clearly four was an important number to these people. Much like seven is often considered a "lucky" number today, four (and, by association, the suit of diamonds) symbolized luck or fourtune.
(also the heart shape is obviously a butt, symbolizing waste)
CannibalisticApple | 3 hours ago
Ooh, this is the kind of analysis I was hoping for! Not sure if Diamonds would represent luck, but the point about the number four is very interesting. I could have diamonds perhaps represent royalty or power/authority? Would fit with how the Jack of Hearts is more aligned with the Diamonds than Hearts, too.
At the very least, I think it would make sense for the Four cards to be "power cards". Maybe the rules could also have something with the Ace and Three's, too, to symbolize one suit against all three others... This is giving me actual gameplay/rule ideas, thanks!
crialpaca | 20 hours ago
I didn't do anything this week! (I earned it, with two migraines, double vaccination, me getting sick, and my cats being sick...) I would like to get to a place where I can sit back down in the newly created craft room and actually craft, but at this point that's looking like a "maybe this weekend" situation.
Zorind | 23 hours ago
I have done…nothing yet.
I did find where I put the Kumiko kit, so that’s a start…technically.
In my defense, I have had to work later most nights than I like, and my wife and I have been watching a lot of the MLB divisional series games. And I uh, thought the Witcher 3 Remastered on the switch 2 and am playing it for the first time so, there’s that too.
rosco | 20 hours ago
I have refined the story narrative and text after getting feedback from friends in my art class. They said the prints were great but I let them guide the story too much instead of making prints to match the narrative and text which I would agree with. So... I'd love to hear what you all think about the new text.
Context, I like darker kids stories like Roald Dahl or Jon Klassen so this fits into that vein, or at least should. I've got a pretty basic AABB rhyming scheme with one section that is like an escalating chant(based on part of the feedback that I should add something interactive for kids). This is really just for our kid and some neighbors but I'd still like to make it as good as I can! Anyway, to the text!
Anyway, to the text!
SPREAD 1
Hildi lived in a house on the docks by the sea,
where the mice had taken over and ran wild and free!
They lived in her couch and her hair and her tea,
they even bathed in her favorite potpourri!
SPREAD 2
Enough was enough, she could take it no more,
she screamed to the heavens and threw it all to the floor!
The teacups went flying, the table went crash!
She bellowed at the mice, "You're all headed for the trash!"
SPREAD 3
She wailed to her neighbor and pointed in shock,
at the terrible mice who had chewed up her frock!
Her neighbor just grinned and held out a fat cat.
"Take Klaus," said the neighbor. "And that will be that."
SPREAD 4
With no delay Klaus caught the first little mouse,
he packed up its bags and kicked it out of the house.
He plucked them from teacups, he snatched from the floor,
and briskly escorted them out the front door!
SPREAD 5
And that was that. Hildi loved her new cat.
He was warm, he was clever, he was wonderfully fat.
They were soon peas and carrots that no one could split,
Klaus balled up her yarn as old Hildi would knit.
She lavished his dinner with sausage and steak,
and Klaus kept her feet warm when they started to ache.
SPREAD 6
If one cat was grand, well, more must be better;
so Hildi snuck out and stuffed one up her sweater!
Cat, cat, just this one!
Come with me, let's have some fun!
SPREAD 7
Cats, cats, two, three, four!
I've got room for a couple more!
SPREAD 8
CATS, CATS, I'LL TAKE THEM ALL!
BIG ONES, SMALL ONES, SHORT ONES, TALL!
SPREAD 9
One became ten and ten became more,
till hundreds of cats came crashing through the door.
SPREAD 10
They spilled through the kitchen and covered the rugs,
they napped in her teapots and slept in her mugs!
There were cats in the pantry, in the flour and beans,
they bedded down in the closet, in her coats and her jeans!
SPREAD 11
His cushion, his corner, his bowl by the door,
every place Klaus loved best wasn't his anymore.
No mice left to catch and no lap left to share,
Klaus looked up at Hildi, but Hildi wasn't there.
SPREAD 12
He nudged at her ankle, he begged her to play,
but Hildi just smiled and looked out at the bay.
SPREAD 13
So Klaus packed up his things, all neat in his sack,
tip-toed through the kitchen and snuck out the back.
And deep in the dark of that purring, black sea
Old Hildi was trapped, right where she wanted to be.
ocean-hai | 19 hours ago
This is wonderful. I can totally see myself reading this to my child. Do you plan on doing the art yourself?
rosco | 18 hours ago
Thanks you! Yeah, this is a bit of a cheat for timasomo as I've completed most of the art. With the rewrite I just need to make two new spreads. I designed one last night in miniature and am working on the other right now. Here is a little sample of what they look like. I'll share more next week when I have squared the text away so they are for sure finished.
Any thoughts on the text or anything that reads awkward or forced? I'm also on the fence about adding the little chant in there. I thought it was kind of gimmicky but the other folks in the class really pushed for it and I could see how it would be fun. I think I'm feeling good about the art piece and less confident with the writing :)
ocean-hai | 16 hours ago
I just reread this as I would for a child and I think the text is great. The only parts I had trouble with the first time I read them, work better in context and reading in with the right voice. I originally had trouble with all the ands, from spread one and five.
That image is quite wonderful! I love cats, we have three, and that is such a fun image. I highly encourage you to publish this. I would love to buy it for my child.
The chant on spread eight works, I think it should stay.
Your work reminds me of Millions of Cats
rosco | 15 hours ago
Aw, that's really sweet! And totally, The whole first stanza is giving me greif. I'm still tripping up on the first two lines (I'm not sure why, but the house + docks + sea never flows right to me) and the and section. It used to read: "where the mice had taken over and scampered happily" but you had to emphasize the happily weirdly so I changed it. I'll noodle but if you have any suggestions I'm super open to them!
And I was thinking up titles and had come up with "Too many cats" (which has now been decided against) and I googled it to make sure it was available and Millions of Cats came up! Just when you think you've had a unique idea right?!
ocean-hai | 8 hours ago
I see two potential issues. First, I feel like there might be an introductory sentence before this like "there once was a woman who lived by the sea," but maybe the image and context already does this. Second, the first line is fine. I only slip up on the second line. I think there are three solutions. Either one just has to learn to read that line correct which cannot be done the first time or change it. I see two potential changes. 1) where the mice ran wild and free! or 2) where the mice had taken over running wild and free!
Thoughts?
This also works I think.
You are only 100 years too late, haha!
For titles, I think you need to consider your message. For me your message is playful but also somewhat sad. Hildi was so happy to find Klaus, and Klaus so happy in return, but then Hildi became obsessed with collecting cats and in the end hurt the cat that first saved her. In that line my first thought is "One Cat Too Few," emphasizing though Hildi now has a sea of cats she does not have the cat that matters, Klaus.
The ending is somewhat scary to be honest.
Habituallytired | 7 hours ago
Scary is how most parables and moral stories, children's songs too, end. It's only more recently that children's stories have happy endings.
dhcrazy333 | 19 hours ago
So most of my life I've played piano and the songs I've come up with songs traditionally have only been played on my keyboard as piano only, just recording directly into a free music recording like Audacity. I recently wanted to try and get into more complex music production, so this song is the first one I've ever tried really producing in a DAW with midi and more than just one instrument. Mostly just been dabbling around with some sounds/grooves that I've been coming up with that I think sound kinda nice together.
Going for a more upbeat LoFi feel with this, right now it's a very rough work in progress while I figure out which sounds I think go well together, what instruments to use, etc. I have a lot of work to do when it comes to transitions between bars/melodies, level balancing, and other final mastering things (which I am very novice at, but hey, that's what this is all about!)
With that said, I present to you... Untitled Project 1
Not sure how far along I plan to go with this one. I was thinking back to some of my old songs I had written on piano and realized some of them could also sound really cool modified into a similar LoFi style, so I may try porting one of those and see how it sounds, especially since it's an already complete song and not just me messing around on my keyboard with random sounds and throwing them together.
CannibalisticApple | 19 hours ago
Ooh, I liked this! The atmosphere is pretty good. It made me think of playing some chill "cozy" games, particularly rainy bus stops for some reason...?
dhcrazy333 | 19 hours ago
Well that's the vibe I'm going for so I'm glad it's hitting! I added a subtle "rain" backing to the song that fades in and out a bit during parts, so that's probably why it feels like you're at a rainy bus stop haha.
h3x | 13 hours ago
I really like this, it's got a great relaxing vibe to it. I'd love to know what VSTs and such that you've used for it!
dhcrazy333 | 7 hours ago
Thank you!
I'm using FL Studio as my daw, most of the sounds are from their FLEX plugin that has a lot of free built in sounds. I'm primarily using a LoFi sound pack available in FLEX and modifying the sounds as I see fit from the pack, but I did also overlay some Vital Synth and a wind instrument pack (which is also in the FLEX plugin). One part of the drum loop was an existing loop I found on their free sample library.
Paul85 | 21 hours ago
I have the bulk of the text written down in a document, and now I have to edit. I already know a couple of details I want to polish and one that I want to replace altogether. I also made progress on some light artwork. By light I mean it’s pretty simplistic, and I’m not putting much effort into it. The detail level is minimal. Broad strokes, and watercolour style of colouring. The main goal was the writing part, and the images are more of an added “just for fun” element. I drew them in my iPad in a light app (think Procreate, but much more basic). I want to draw one for each “chapter” (each prompt in the solo RPG that is fueling my writing). The solo RPG is called Creation Myths if anyone is curious. So, I need to edit, finish the drawings, add the drawings, export a nice looking PDF, and a txt version for the blog post. A challenge will be the images in the blog as I am using a very basic hosting site (write.as) so it will be a manual process to link to each image and pop it in the correct place. Easier in the Pages doc. Nothing too complicated, just a bit tedious. I believe I might have an over abundance of time next weekend and that’s likely when I’ll either finish or almost finish this.
benpocalypse | 8 hours ago
I've actually been really productive on my LMN-3 synthesizer build.
What did/didn't you get done this week?
Anything go according to plan?
Anything go off the rails?
Any successes or struggles to share?
Do you need feedback or help on anything?
...and here are some WIP pictures of my progress.
Weldawadyathink | 6 hours ago
I mentioned earlier that I had access to some actual grapes this harvest. The first batch were from some abandoned vines behind a coworker’s rental. I think they are Zinfandel, but I am not positive. I only found out about them after they were already on the vine too long, so they were way more sweet than I would have liked. That means a higher potential alcohol.
I recently got into homemade ginger beer, which means I have a bunch of kegs and a co2 tank. I decided to try something that I am going to call “super carbonic macération”. Carbonic macération is a pretty common thing in the wine industry already. If you put whole grapes in a pure co2 atmosphere, that co2 diffuses into the grape tissue and triggers certain metabolic pathways in the grape cells. As far as I understand, these are biological processes of the grapes themselves, not from an external yeast or bacteria. Carbonic macération uses this to break down the tissues and achieve a very powerful fruity flavors. (If you have ever had Beaujolais Nouveau, that is very typical of carbonic macération. If you are curious to try this, it will be released worldwide on November 19 this year. Ask around that time at your local wine store. Also, don’t save a Beaujolais Nouveau bottle for aging. It is not designed to age. Save it for Christmas if you want, but not much after that.) Anyway, I put my grapes whole into some kegs and pressurized them to about 12psi co2. As far as I can tell, there is research about atmospheric carbonic macération, and pressurized yeast fermentation, but not pressurized carbonic macération. After this process, the grapes tasted like they were sparkling when I ate them. Very unique effect. I actually might try this in the future with table grapes. They also tasted aggressively fruity, which means the carbonic macération went off perfectly.
I then did a traditional skin fermentation with a hand punch down once per day. I think I may have lost a lot of the carbonic aromatics, but it was still an interesting experiment. This batch has been finished for about 2 weeks now. I got the lab at work to run a panel:
TA: 7.0
pH: 3.58
Acetic acid: 0.13
Malic acid: 2.15
Residual sugar: 1.3
Alcohol: 15.68
Standout info is it is very low in acid and very high alcohol. It’s about what I expected, but I will need to add acid before it’s particularly balanced.
I am also very impressed with the acetic acid number. Acetic acid is bad, and comes from poor sanitation and unclean fruit. I had very unclean fruit and that acetic acid is way lower than I was expecting.
Overall I am very happy with it. I am planning to blend it with my other batch (likely this weekend). I think I might burst carbonate it and make a sparkling red on tap.
delphi | 18 hours ago
Because I'm also working on a pretty major software launch (still debating if I'll show Tildes this, but it's connected to delphitools) I didn't have much time to work on The Second Amendment, my universal Serial-to-USB box. I did pick out the components I need though and dropped the whole "completely software-rewireable" aspect as that just made everything impossibly complicated in terms of wiring. But I know I want to use an ESP-32, which would add the ability to make it a Wifi-connected remote terminal too. Just plug it into the machine you want to link to, connect USB power and it'll show up as it's own Wifi network with a little browser based console. Much easier than getting out RealTerm or some random app...
ocean-hai | 18 hours ago
Like the other guy, I have been sick twice the past week and now have some brutal ear infection that has inflamed half by neck and face… not fun.
I have not gotten the chance to go to a cafe like some recommended, but I have gotten some decent work done at home. As a part of this challenge I have written around 3,500 words towards my dissertation’s sixth chapter. I was rereading a section last night and was pleasantly surprised by how well I wrote it before.
My absolute minimum goal is to finish drafts of chapters three and six this month. If I want to use this opportunity to push myself I would like to finish chapters two, seven, and eight. Chapters four and five and kind of up in the air right now, so I am unsure what to do there.
archevel | 18 hours ago
I got the kit for the Hearthkyn Salvagers end of last week and have been assembling them. I found some stls of orc heads, but they lacked necks so I imported them.into blender and started fiddling around with the sculpt tool. I have no idea how to use them, but managed to extrude the back of the heads into neck-ish shapes. Printed them out and have glued some of the figures together. The heads aren't as detailed as the rest of the models, but they're good enough for me. This weekend I'm going to put on a base coat and start painting!
Edit: Link to image of one of the minis
mat | 12 hours ago
I thought that a good idea would be to model my design in OnShape or SketchUp or something and get a good idea of what kind of material I need and at what sizes. I can make a solid construction plan that way so I know exactly what I'm doing when I get into my actual workshop. This is a smart idea, I thought. I will definitely do this because it will make my life much easier and significantly reduce the chance of a visit from Mr FuckUp later on.
However this is what I actually did because this is what I always do. A stack of paper with some measurements and vague ideas on. Each of these pieces of paper is important for it details some aspect of the design not drawn elsewhere. Although there's also a lot of replication. And contradiction.
This is, however, enough for me to have generated a cutlist to take to the timber yard and in my head I have a sort of a plan for assembly. Plan is subject to revision during actual construction.
arqalite | 12 hours ago
My dear brain has decided that this project Must Be Procrastinated At All Costs™.
I spent the entire week thinking "I should sit down and set up my music software" but whenever I opened my laptop I did literally anything else.
Wait, I did do something, I was considering purchasing Bitwig Studio's latest version because a new shiny version of my DAW will definitely make me a good songwriter, no? I stopped myself just in time - 4.4.10 is more than good enough for my needs and I already own it so I. should. use. it.
We'll see if week 2 is any kinder.
EDIT: I managed to get Bitwig set up today, yay! While testing stuff I grabbed a drum 'n' bass sample pack and made a quick 8-bar drum loop plus some pluck chords, everything seems to be in order. I'm still not sure what I actually want to write, so maybe this week is just exploring ideas and see what clicks?
Banazir | 18 hours ago
I didn't get as much done as I hoped this week. I started forging a ring mandrel that I can put on my desk for wire work, but didn't get the legs finished so right now it can't stand on its own. I should finish that on Saturday, so I can start actual ringmaking this week as well.
My main progress came in the form of sketches and notes on ideas I want to incorporate. I won't share anything here yet as it's all very nebulous, but I at least have directions to go.
Pavouk106 | 17 hours ago
I have done some cutting, drilling and assembling and the bird feeder is in this state right now. This is what I'm gping for.
Plan for next days is to raise up the black front and back that will make the triangle on the faces of roof. This means just a bit of drilling and some screws. Then I have to cut it to the right angle. For all cutting here I use jalanese saw - the kind that saws when you oull, not push. It has really small teeth and makes very nice and smooth surfaces.
The biggest challenge will be the roof itself. I know how it will be assembled, but I sti don't know how I will attach it to the rest of the house. My absolutely top priority is "no screws visible" - that is from around and top view, there will be visible screws from under. Well, problem for later me. But just a few days later me!
CannibalisticApple | 17 hours ago
So as a disclaimer, I have zero experience with woodworking. But could wood glue possibly help with attaching the roof? Or could you look at Japanese wood joinery for some ideas and inspiration since it doesn't use nails?
Pavouk106 | 17 hours ago
The thing I'm concerned about is that I have the wood already painted. I don't know if glue is gonna make it stick so well when there is a paint. Another concern is this will be outside - UV, rain, snow, freezeing temperatures. And I love using screws, as they are more permanent than nails or staples.
Right now I'm thinking about running perpendicular "beams" under the roof that will screw into the sides of the house from the inside.I would probably have to break my arm to reach there, but you do what you have to do... That means my daughter will screw those screws in place, probably.
As I said problem for later me :-) With projects like these, I like to have the plan laid out from the start to the finish. And I kinda have. But I still come to some questions along the way and this one keeps being unanswered for the time being. But it will get resolved once I get the roof together and have it "physical" - being able to have it in hand and try various thing for real. Sometimes you just have to improvise and I knew I will come to that point from the start.
Liru | 17 hours ago
Roguelike Game Mod
Didn't get much time to work on it since I only had two days before deciding to actually do it and now, but I did manage to set up the SDK tools needed to work on it. I spent some time looking at and organizing other mods that are popular for the game to see what changes others typically do, since I haven't modded this for like two decades now.
I also started work on thinking of "buffs/abilities/talents" and "debuffs", as well as per-mission challenges, to actually implement.
I'm not sure to what extent this will work out, but I figure that it's at least worth a shot. The big challenge is thinking of buffs can be given in FPS games that aren't super generic like "extra damage" or "faster reload" or stuff like that.
secret_online | 16 hours ago
I've decided that I should only work on my Minecraft mod (now officially called "Leadlight") over the weekends. This was a wise decision given how hectic my week was. I will be using terms without necessarily defining them in this (and future) update(s), so if there's anything you don't understand and you're interested in specifics, please ask. Just because I learned a lot of the concepts the hard (well, not truly hard, but not the easiest) way, doesn't mean you have to too.
The first thing I did for this project was some modelling. I took inspiration from how the game does the models for the base game, where it defines the north-facing side and the south-facing side and then uses blockstates to do the rotations. The simplest window frame shape I'll have is effectively just a bordered regular glass pane so I made a model for that in Blockbench (The UV mappings have changed slightly since making that). It's multiple boxes, and when I export I can turn on and off different segments. There are actually 5 models in there, the north, south, center, and the middle sections facing north and south for when the block is just a single segment. It's much easier to see why this is needed when displayed in-game. I also wrote some code to datagen all of the required blockstate and model files. I'm using the models from Blockbench as a template, with the datagenned model files using them as a parent and passing in the textures. This is so I can have multiple material types, but that's for weekend 3 or 4.
With the success of that, I decided I may as well do the models for three other window shapes: vertical, horizontal, and square. Technically, all of the models that I did for the large window shape could be re-used for the vertical windows, and with only a few additions I could do a lot of re-use for the horizontal and squares too. I went ahead and made the models for those and added them to the game. I also made a flat grey texture so I wasn't looking at colourful boxes all the time. I will need to come back to textures. Yes, I am putting it off.
A window frame is useless without glass to put in it, so I then went on a side tangent to create new items (which for now I'm calling "Cut Stained Glass Panes") that would be placed within each segment of the frame, and how I'd actually represent that in the blocks. There were a couple of iterations on the design, but I ended up on a data component that has a slot for top and bottom for north, south, east, west, and center. Having it as a data component means it's easy to attach to items, so ctrl+middle click in creative can pick up a window frame with knowledge of what each slot has. One of the last things I ended up doing over the weekend was actually adding interaction, so right clicking a cut pane into the frame would put it in the spot you clicked, and using an empty hand would remove it. Oh, and datagen for crafting recipes. The cut panes come from putting stained glass panes into a stonecutter, while the frames themselves have a recipe for the large frame, which is then used to craft the other types.
I was pretty happy with this progress for the first weekend, but since I still had some of the day left I decided to try drawing the glass. In terms of things I dislike in making mods, the thing I hate the most by far is anything to do with rendering (followed by making textures, then making models). Because I plan of having two more frame shapes with diagonal lines, I need to be able to draw a triangle. After much error (with some trial) I made every frame block (easier to start without thinking about the data each block has) draw a triangle. The problem was that as soon as you have multiple frame blocks it doesn't do what I wanted at all. Turns out, Minecraft really wants you to be drawing quads, not triangles, so I just added a 4th point that's the same as the 1st and everything is fine.
Of course, I don't just want a random triangle, I want shapes within the frame. This took some puzzling, such as getting some maths wrong and drawing in the wrong place, or doing the absolute beginner mistake of submitting your vertices in the wrong order so the faces are only visible from the wrong side, or, as you've probably seen from those screenshots, using the wrong path for the texture even though an hour ago you had it correct. But, eventually, I fixed it. I have a mod that works and has all of the basic features I want this mod to have.
I expect future weeks' updates to be more mundane than "I made what looks like most of this mod!". Like all software development, it takes 20% of the time to do 80% of the work, and 80% of the time to do
20% of the workthe other 80% of the work. As a reward for getting through this post, have a rendition of Piet Modrian's Composion II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.mikey | 16 hours ago
For my rennfaire outfit I have cut and begun sewing a muslin version! Progress is slow because of a work trip but I get home tomorrow and can start back up!
h3x | 14 hours ago
All righty, here's the GitHub repo for my project. It's coming along nicely, and I'm hoping to put some more time into the project today.
At the outset I felt really over-faced by this whole idea, and it felt like it might be beyond my abilities. But I've actually been having a really good time working on it, and it feels like just the right amount of challenging. Honestly, I think the hardest part of this right now is that Textual's docs are a little obtuse and poorly laid out (to my mind at least). I've taken to using Kagi with a site:https://textual.textualize.io/ directive instead of the site's own search function, which seems to get me where I need to be much faster.
My next steps are to get the logic for adding a new actor into initiative order, and to add in a way of progressing through the list. Along the way I want to fix up the CSS, because at least in my terminal this thing looks ugly as sin. Any feedback on my progress so far is greatly appreciated!
Habituallytired | 7 hours ago
I made some progress on evening out the pieces I have stitched into my hexie fabric for my EPP. I also figured out how to share the images for updates, so I think that's a win.
Video
Picture progress
That's all I worked on this week. I need to get hauling on that embroidery piece. Someone bully me into finishing it.
goose | an hour ago
I started work today! The plan is to put a shelf here, for my kids legos. We're going for a floating shelf, and cheap-but-not-cheap-looking.
To start, I have a a couple pieces of 2x6 lumber. I don't want the edge against the wall to have a kerf, so I ripped the edge with my table saw. Next up, we need them to be 36" wide, so I mitered it down.
The plan is to make a "shelf and mount" setup. To do that, I used my chalk line to mark the center of the board to drill out where I'm going to run dowels for the mount. A quick miter later, we have ten dowels, almost ready to go.
My next step is to drill out five equidistant 5/8" holes for the "mount" part of the board, done without too much trouble thanks to my drill press. The press wouldn't come down quite far enough, so I had to do some creative problem solving by lifting the platform while drilling. But it only took about 20 minutes, and I had all ten holes drilled out.
Following that, I switched back to the table saw to cut the mount from the shelf. The final steps for today were to sand down the dowels for the part that would extend into the shelves, just a hair, so they'd slide in and out more easily.
While a lathe would be a perfect tool to help with that, I don't have a lathe. So I built this bastardized jig for my impact driver, which I was able to use to easily sand down the dowels just a hair, so that they'd easily slide in and out of the 5/8" hole. I then glued in all the dowels.
The pieces are sitting in the garage drying. I'll probably shoot some small 1" screws through the mount/dowels too, to really secure them more than just glue. But that's for a future date. Next up will be to sand, then stain, then seal the shelves. We're heading into my birthday weekend, so that may or may not happen this weekend, we'll see!
AugustusFerdinand | 2 hours ago
1983 Toyota Tercel SR5 Wagon Big Block Project - TiMaSoMo 2026 - Exhaust system - Week The First:
To preface and bring people up to speed, the short version is I removed a tired, old, several-hundred-thousand mile engine out of an old funky Toyota and replaced it with a newly built larger engine that was never meant to go in said Toyota and now it needs an exhaust system. If you want a longer version of history and what that entails, see my old post here. That engine now needs an exhaust system, the primary complication of this is that the original engine had the exhaust on the opposite side and therefore it was never meant to follow the path I will take (except for when it meets the axle). This TiMaSoMo will follow along how I intend to accomplish this and anything else I can squeeze in while I do so should I finish the exhaust early.
Only had a few hours to work this weekend, so progress wasn't great, but also not non-existent.
First, meander around the garage and gather about half of the items that you've collected over the years to get the job done because that's all that would fit on the table.
Starting from the left side of the table and working right, in this photo, working clockwise from the top, we have flex pipe (used at the initial connection between the engine and the rest of the exhaust) which is used to absorb/allow the movement of the engine to not cause issues with the rest of the exhaust (which does not move), some reducers to mate the 2.25" exhaust piping to the 2.5" inlet/outlet on the catalytic converter, the catalytic converter because while this car is well past the age of needing to pass emission regulations and the engine I've built will be orders of magnitude cleaner than the outgoing engine there's no reason to not have one and be a little bit cleaner with my projects, a T25 adapter flange to mate the exhaust manifold to the 2.25" piping, v-band clamps to attach sections of the exhaust together, various exhaust hanger parts to suspend the exhaust under the car, and an adjustable angled connector that I hope to not need, but have just in case I do as I don't trust myself enough to get all the angles right.
At the other end of the table is the turbo/exhaust manifold; why not a normal "header" manifold you ask? Because this engine was never meant to be exist let alone in this chassis, so aftermarket headers for it are not available and any that do exist are meant for the 4AGE which means they are made for FWD, AE86, or MR2 and puts their exit in a place that does not work for the 7A, this chassis, or some combination of the above and I didn't want to fabricate an entire longtube header from scratch at this time. The easiest off the shelf option is a shorty tubular turbo manifold which is what I have here and got lucky that it does not point directly at the oil filter or starter, which has been an issue with some others and isn't a top mount.
I'll be using the wastegate flange on the manifold as the wideband O2 sensor location most likely, if not it'll be the bung on the converter, but don't really want to pick up the signal that far downstream. Next in line is a BorgWarner S200SX-E S257 turbocharger good for 400-600hp and is included in this photo as a joke because I happened to have it on hand (along with an S300 and S400) and is really meant for a 2.8L V6 that is going in another future project. I had intended to take photos of it in the car as well to keep the joke going, but those plans were dashed by the fact that it won't fit as it hits both the alternator and motor mount. Nor is the engine built to handle 400+hp as it has a stock connecting rod and piston combo to the tune of 11:1 compression and the transmission which was built to handle the stock 60-70hp (depending on country) wouldn't like it either.
Last in the photo is the muffler that I forgot I had, ordered a new one, found, then cancelled the order, and a shiny downturn exhaust tip because I like the way they look on older cars, but may decide to make it kick out to the side instead of face downward.
Finally on to what needs doing. This is a photo of the exhaust side of the engine and the gap that the exhaust coming from the exhaust manifold to underneath the car needs to navigate and all the things it needs to dodge on the way. Red is the starter, it would prefer to not be right next to the exhaust, orange is the tie rod and it also doesn't want to be right next to the exhaust, yellow is the CV shaft sending power to the front wheels and can move in an arc up and down so needs plenty of clearance, white is the steering shaft that thankfully will stay in place, but will spin and shouldn't contact anything, leaving the green box the area we have to send the exhaust through.
Started with CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) to get some ideas of clearance with something similar to the exhaust pipe size, but it started to piss me off and switched to using twisted copper wire for routing by sandwiching one end between the manifold and adapter flange then bent it as necessary to find a working route that seemed to clear everything.
Find a portion of the pre-bent tubing that looks like it might work and get to cutting. I have a pipe bender that could do bends for me, but I haven't built it yet and don't have dies for 2.25" pipe and got this "universal dual exhaust kit" for next to nothing, so just oing to make do with most of this and adapt instead. Would be nice if I had my 3D printer to print tubing templates, but that won't happen until December.
First cut is never perfect, so I leave extra space at each end to adjust as necessary. Mark the orientation of the pipe, then be sure to not clean your metal at all so the tack welds to check fitment look as crap as possible. Couple of bits of trial and error later and you've got a pipe that'll clear, could use a tiny bit of adjustment when I go to fully weld it, and end the day on that point. Not bad for only a few hours of solo work.
This weekend will be continuing downstream, with the tube that'll go under the car and catalytic converter at least, possibly the tubing going further down the car as I think it should be mostly a straight shot. Everything just tacked together for now, final welding once I have it all in place.
Cat tax.
Dog tax.
Neither are of any use, whatsoever.
streblo | 36 minutes ago
Pretty lame first week for me, as I started with my two models already primed. I managed to get a coat of orange onto both though! Next up is the blacks and the metals, then adding some orange highlights / shading.
https://imgur.com/a/Y5ktXRm