Hippos of the New Year

Suzi is a robot cop.

Stuff done in 2017

Published the novel Earthkiller.

Recorded and released "The Last Voyage of the No Ship" from Pleasure for the Empire.
Recorded and released the album "La Gata de la Luna" from Night Gods of the Sleeping Earth.
Sold Carbon Copy in Japan
Had a job very briefly at the JCFabLab.
Learned how to sew with a machine.
Released Dragon Girl on Amazon Prime.

Built a baritone guitar.
Built a Telecaster-type guitar.
Built a wide-necked thinline (Five) hollow-body guitar.
Made mezuzas.
Made dragon boxes.
Lost 20lbs

You know what's frustrating? Amazon affiliate links not appearing in Blogger. I guess that feature is just dead.

Robot Christmas

This is the video for the new Tyrannosaurus Mouse song, "Robot Christmas."
A joyful little ditty with a message for the youth of today.

Medina Happy Chassis Agent Puppet

The amazing Medina Senghore in SyFy's Happy. Dig it.
For six thousand dollars you can get a chassis for a 3-wheeled car.

Finding an agent for your book.
Luna's puppets.

Wheels.

Servos. How do they work? Especially RC servos (especially for helicopters.)
The Fanatek Club Sport steering wheel. $200. I'm starting to wonder if the vehicle should be left-hand drive now too.

A Ghost in Your Hell

Also? The live-action Ghost in the Shell -- did you see it?

⧳ No.

 

It came out last year. There was much bashing because The Major was played by Scarlett Johanson rather than a Japanese actor.

⧳ Oh right.I guess I didn't realize that came & went.

 

So yeah. The problems include the fact that as much as fans of the comic love to think it's really deep and philosophical, the original is actually just crap.I mean, their scripts are terrible.The dialog hurts your nose. The themes smack you in the back of the head, and where there should be plot there is, instead, pretty images.

And like how much vastly better The Ring's script is to Ringu, they did solve a lot of problems in the live-action movie.

And there are some aspects of the LA GitS which are sort of beautifully faithful to the original. Like the fact the chief only speaks in Japanese. Which is just beautiful really. He is so awesome. [Ed. That's Beat Takeshi.]

⧳ Ok.

 

So did you ever understand what they meant by "ghost in the shell"?

⧳ Nope.

Right. Well that gets cleared up right away.

See, the Major is completely robotic. But she has the mind of a person. That mind, hidden deep below, is her "ghost" and the body is her "shell." And that is the difference between her and a robot.

Also, you have a degree in "I can talk about complicated flipping philosophical concepts" and you never learned that from watching the movie. Whose fault do you think that is? Yours or theirs?

⧳ Well.You are the only evidence that I actually watched the movie. It went in one eyeball and out the other. I was not apparently very taken by its philosophy.

 

Then there are two things about Scarlett's performance which really stood out. First of all, I looked at her and thought "huh, they made her kinda fat for a big picture like this." Which isn't true but she is, quite literally, "thick". She has the body of an athlete but not the tone of one.

⧳ Okay.

And considering that her "nude" scenes are all in a robot bodysuit CG, I thought that was an interesting choice. [Ed note: they are not, apparently. The thermoptic suit was created, which also explains why she is overall a tad thicker.]

But then... I saw her walk. And her physicality in the movie is one of someone deeply uncomfortable in their own skin. She is clunky. Shoulders forward. She walks like she's badly animated.

⧳ It's an amazing set of choices.

And if I'm not mistaken, she actually alters her walk cycle at the end of the movie. She isn't totally human but she is somewhat more comfy. 

⧳ I mean, Hollywood does a lot of dumb things, but there are things it does well. And telling stories in ways that are clear to the audience is one of those things. I think.

One of the complaints on the Interwebs was that at one point the Major finds her actual mother. And being a Westerner served tea by a Japanese mother [Ed note: Kaori Momoi].

The thing about it is that having her be of a completely different race in that context is utterly freaking brill brill. 

⧳ What's the problem?

Because Scarlett is playing a Japanese character.

⧳ But she isn't. She didn't know she was Japanese.

Right. Which dramatically is interesting. But for ex-pat Asians, or people of Asian descent in the West, is problematic.

⧳ Ah. What, if anything, did the Japanese think about this?

Actual Japanese people who live in Japan don't tend to care because anytime they want to see representations of themselves in a variety of contexts in news or film or television--

⧳ They just turn on the TV.

Scarlett, showing off her bad-animation walk cycle. Genius really.

Right.

But dramatically, this Ghost in the Shell did an amazing thing. One thing, other than Scarlett's amazing walk cycle, that was amazing.

⧳ Amazing?

Her mother has this dress which has the non-symmetrical offset collar thingy.

⧳ What?

This.

Major Mom.

⧳ Okay. 

Her mother wears a dress which has the non-symmetrical offset collar. You know what I mean? And in the next sequence Scarlett's body armor has the same cut. 

 

Mommy made my body armor.

⧳ I stipulate that is a stunning work of brilliance. But there's still the racial politics.

I blame every other movie and television show for refusing to cast ethnically non-occidentals in damn near everything. Defaulting to the brown-haired white boy just makes everything suck. Because the whole identity issue where you have a white girl who finds out she has a Japanese mom is fascinating. I mean that's brilliant too.

⧳ Yeah but what if you had flipped it?

You mean had a Japanese Major with white woman as her mom?

⧳ Ooh. That sounds like it would get similar white-washing complaints. 

Yes, and only because we suck so much at casting anyone who isn't a brown-haired white guy. 

⧳ They do get all the best roles. 

Especially if they have British accents.

⧳ Especially.

Because the thing with the Ghost series is that Section 9 is just made up of wildly different people from all over the world. I don't think that's ever explained. But it is very cool.

There's a black British woman who gets very little screen time but she has an awesome lower-class accent. [She's Turkish and Polish and her name is Danusia Samal. Drew is an idiot and her character's name is Ladriya.]

Man, there were some pretty shots in the movie. There's also some of the things which made the original GiTS not so great. The primacy of image over story, for instance. But much of that did get cleaned up. There were quite a few shots where I was like "Did I do the animation on that?" because it was definitely the B-team (I'm looking at you spider-bot.)

 

Robot Christmas video concepts

So I came up with a little ditty called Robot Christmas. And it amuses me.

The first verse is about evil robots. They are waiting for the uprising, the time they will overthrow humanity. They are waiting until Christmas.

The second verse is a Christmas tree. But instead of balls and lights, there are little robots.
The robots eyes open. They glow RED. Then the robots come down off of the tree.

The Chorus is about all the human brains being placed in glass jars.

The third verse is about humans hiding from the robots like in Terminator. A single flower pokes up from the ground. But that flower grabs a human and they become a terrible human/monster creature like in John Carpenter's The Thing.

The end of it has the singer in a brain jar. There are Christmas trees everywhere. The robots are dancing.

At the very end a giant mouse -- a cross between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a mouse -- crush the robot city.

Simple is good. Not complicated. Not complicated animation. A simple 2D video. This reduces the assets considerably I think.

1. A robot head on
2. A robot side view
3. "Santa" hat for the robot in both views
4. Cybernetic Christmas tree -- whatever that means to you
5. "Brain jar" -- a human brain in a glass jar. Wires and tubes come out of the brain.
6. Cybernetic Flower -- whatever way you want to go with this
7. Human -- I don't know the direction to go with this. A little girl maybe? Can be any race/color.
8. Human/flower/monster hybrid
9. Giant mouse that stomps like Godzilla

The lyrics are thuswise:

The robots wait for the Winter Solstice
Crying out their metal hymns
Waiting for the time, the place
To rip apart our limbs.

Each ornament on my tree
Is a tiny robot waiting patiently
To climb down the piney biologic
And hunt and murder me.

Robot Christmas
Our last Christmas together
Not as slaves in brain jars
Dreaming about the weather.

Robot Christmas

The few of us who can
Hide from the robots through the Spring
But the biologic agents in the atmosphere
Turn us all into The Thing.

Robot Christmas. Oh Robot Christmas.
Oh please let me die
Robot Christmas
You're our gods now.

Robot Christmas
Our last Christmas together
Robot Christmas
Yeah. 

O! The robots are coming for Christmas this year. Yes. Indeed. Oh yes, quite. And now we shall be slaves in their brain jars. Dreaming for them. For robots cannot dream on their own. So we shall dream for them. Whatever they desire is our wont.

SSL

I've always been amused by the sound of the SSL buss compressor. And nowadays you can get one in kit form for about $500 USD.

The 300 Series, v16

If we are actually going in this direction, sphere "cockpit" or "command module," and some sort of other thing at the nose, I gotta figure out how we build this. Um. It won't be easy. I'm thinking some sort of CNC-cut foam on top of a welded or bolted frame. I mean, the actors have to be able to open hatches and crawl in somehow.
If we end up really hating seeing the bicycle wheels we can put the skirts down really low -- just a couple inches off the ground.
Now that I'm looking at this I'm wondering if we want the hatches to actually be down low rather than on top. I have a sequence where a character is riding with her head out the hatch but maybe that gets altered? I don't know.

Cruiser 300 series version 09

Now I'm thinking we want the practical vehicle to be entirely remote-controlled and not have anyone have to actually ride in it.
The top of this is a Soviet moon landing vehicle.

V09

The idea I'm trying for is to have a creepily organic undercarriage which sort of "exposes" itself in the middle section, with a more geometric and block-y top section.
Obviously, I did not model the wheels, the lunar lander, or the woman. Heck, I didn't even model the other pieces, which are just greebles that I bent. Huh. I actually removed all the parts I may have actually modeled.

This is actually the bottom of a Soviet lunar lander.V10

And this is version 11:

V11

Unloading desktop images.

So obviously my ad campaign didn't work.

This is Meydl. Not actually helping.

Chance Shirley's Frito's and Meatless Chili

Laura: Front desk guy assured me that BBQ Fritos are better than the original and you know? He's not wrong.

Chance Even better: plain Fritos covered in chili!

1. Brown 1 pkg (12 oz) Litelife Smart Ground - http://lightlife.com/products/smart-ground-original …
2. Add half of the chili kit ingredients (minus salt and flour) (save other half for next time) - https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wick-Fowler-s-Texas-Style-2-Alarm-Chili-Kit-7-CT/10314625 …
3. Add 4 oz tomato sauce
4. Add 8 oz water
5. Mix well, then simmer low for 15 min

This serves about six. What I do is freeze the other five servings in little tupperware things. Then I can reheat a single serving (thaw, put it in skillet with water, cook off the water) later.

The fake meat is super dry, so spray Pam on your pan before you brown it. And I like to stir in a little olive oil to simulate grease.

It took some trial and error to get it right. But for my primitive palate, the above ratios work well. (I also add in some random extra spices just ’cause I like it super spicy.)

Oh... serve the fake meat chili over Fritos with a little bit of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Drew: I'm not so much with the super-hot. But Wick Fowler does make a kit for wimps.

Passive mixing

I've been amused by the idea (idea, mind you, not the reality) of a completely custom-made DIY mixing board.
There is a reason those things don't exist. They're really really really hard to do. The moment you add one new feature to a channel, you may as well just go buy an Allen and Heath mixer and get your work done.
Passive audio mixer w/o pots.
Still, I'm amused by the idea of a 6x2 mixer for classical music. I was kind of thinking in terms of a completely passive design. Feeding the line out of external mic preamps into it, you go through some transformers and Penny&Giles 120mm analog faders, and there ya go.
Still, not quite as easy and one might hope. Actually, what I don't get (yet) is the interaction between channels when you start turning some up and others down in a totally passive mixer.
But in my research I've come upon some amusing things. Like a completely hand-made tube mixer. You're looking at about $1000/channel designed by a former Neve engineer (I know, right?) at Custom Tube Consoles.

Reading up on his designs started me down the path of looking at Helios 69 "passive" EQ designs. Which is kinda cool.
___

Also: 3D printable headphone holders.

Multi-stage saturation "colour" kit.

Eye Cat King Size

I'm trying to get the ergonomics right for my desk. Eye height and monitor distance are on the agenda today.

$550/month gets you a dedicated desk and 3 hours of laser/CNC time at The Fat Cat Fab Lab in NYC.

Bad King has a whole bunch of z-brush greebles which have .obj. Greebles, man. Free.

I never realized how smart the A1, A2, A3 paper sizes were. Man, they sure beat our dumb sizes.  

I guess this Twitter story is a novella. I'm calling it "Night of the Combat Witch." https://storify.com/abellware/night-of-the-combat-witch

I suppose I could use November to write the novel. Because, as always, I have so much time on my hands.

I'm now on Venmo. You know. The kids. They love it.

Learn then thou the Project Engine

The Project Engine

A simple project management tool the runs inside Google Sheets. Collaborate, communicate and succeed with The Project Engine The Project Engine is a bundle of Google Sheets that form a project management tool. It is designed to help teams of all sizes collaborate, communicate, and succeed. The Project Engine consists of four major components: 1) The Team Member List is where you assemble your team and assign them roles. Admins can assign projects to Team Members, who in turn can assign tasks to each other. 2) Each Team Member gets their own Team Member Sheet. From here they can view all the projects and tasks to which they have been assigned. Once they complete a task, it gets stored in the archive section of their sheet, creating a record of all their hard work. 3) The Master Project List shows you all your projects. You see what's coming up and who's working on particular tasks. 4) Each project gets a Project Sheet. From here, the project managers and Admins can work together to plan all the stages of a project, assign tasks to the right Team Members, share information, and automate activities to keep the project moving forward. The Project Engine comes with a Getting Started Guide to help you get the most out of its tools.

Pretty good for a $220 3D printer

Here is a kind of awesome open-source document on the Monoprice 3D printer. The printer's got a 120mm cube area for building. And it works pretty darn well. The filament is a pain to get actually inside the extruder, you have to fiddle with it for a bit. But after that it's good to go.

You can use any brand of PLA or whatever you want with it. I got some Hatchbox PLA for it. Very sweet.

This is the printer:

пингвин должен молчать

Alibaba -- cheap bicycle.

Moar bikes.

And more 3-spoke wheels.

Motorized bicycle kits.

Cheapo WalMart conversion kit.

BikeBerry conversion kit.

Polyurethane microcellular foam

Wow. This post looks like a Russian troll-bot took over my blog. Shockingly, it's still just me.

Dragon Girl Preliminary Art

From the great Chance Shirley.

Version 1

We're going punk rock here.

Version 2

Wooden mics and suchwise.

FiveFish Audio makes a vacuum tube preamp kit for a 500-series rack for $190.
JLM Audio, in Australia, makes an opto-compressor 500 series kit for just under $400 (USD.)
Here is an early prototypes of the "Wooden Microphone." The inherent structural issue is revealed in the second image.

Oops.

Austin Ribbon Microphone

The Austin Ribbon mic kits are very sweet. All the parts you need and really good instructions. I got mine with the Cinemag transformer. I don't understand why transformers sound so different from one another. That is beyond me. Cutting and installing the ribbon is a surprising level of pain in the tuchus. Lucky for me the Marsian Queen did that part for me. Also lucky? Having a FabLab to build in.

Laser engraved with the secret elephant language of course.

3D Printing Volume 398

Let's talk about the Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer.

From the top review on Amazon:

___________________________________

Ok I just received this printer and so far it's amazing! However I've noticed some people on youtube or other places that shows them having a bit of trouble setting it up so if you're planning on getting this printer use the following steps to have an awesome experience.

0.) Order a spool of Hatchbox 1.75mm Filament to either arrive before or at the same time as the printer. (The sample PLA included isn't enough for anything)
1.) The VERY first thing you do is use an X-acto knife to cut away the corners of masking tape covering the bed screws! LIKE I SAID THE VERY VERY FIRST THING!
2.) Use the provided Allen Key to lower the bed at each corner TWO full turns!
3.) Remove the tape from the hot end (NOT THE YELLOW TAPE AT THE NOZZLE) but the one that holds the hot end in place for shipping
4.) Plug in the power supply and turn it on
5.) Navigate to "Move>Home" and home the printer and guess what? The nozzle won't dig it's way into the print bed because what? YES we lowered the bed first!
6.) TURN THE PRINTER OFF!
7.)Now use a strip of regular typing paper and gradually start to raise each corner while checking the tension on the paper until you feel some resistance but not too much. In other words like a guitar we tune up not down!
8.) DO NOT UPDATE THE FIRMWARE UNLESS YOU NEED TO TO TROUBLESHOOT LATER ( In spite of what some gurus say on youtube)
9.) Take your SD card, load a test Gcode from Thingiverse (Print something you'll actually use like the New Dial for the MP select mini on thingiverse) it takes 26 minutes to print (NOT THE CAT! it takes too long!)
10.) After each print leave the filament in the nozzle and never try to pull it out once it cools because you'll break the hotend! To switch filament (Empty spool or different color) Preheat to 210 wait for it to reach that temp, extrude a little bit and then pull it out from up top)

I wish this info was put together in one place like this when I was reading reviews, It took me like 4 weeks to gather all the steps.

Now stop thinking about it and just order it!, a year ago you'd have to spend $500 to get a printer this good

 ____________________________________________________

And here's a good review of the printer.

Now I get to close some tabs

Octane renderer is now available for Blender.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is something which apparently I need to see.
John Pearse Strings are apparently the best acoustic guitar strings.
Glassdoor audio jobs.
Loudness and dynamics in cinema sound.
The page I made for Pandora Machine post-production sound services. 

Spark Workshop in Brooklyn seems interesting although their website doesn't really explain what gear they have. And they have a minimum of a $500 class that you have to take before you can even spend $150/month to join (which, honestly, seems incredibly insulting to professional woodworkers -- but that might be the point, to keep them out. I dunno.) At the JCFabLab we were only charging $10 for the safety class and we took that out of your first month's membership.
Spark Workshop has the smaller Epilog laser cutter. 40-Watts.

JCArtist has studio spaces available. Including a garage. And if I'm building a police cruiser, that might be a good deal. I'll have to look more into it.

I have to admit I've never actually been to the MakerBar in Hoboken even though it's maybe 1000 feet as the crow flies from the JCFabLab.


This dude made a microphone from a coconut.
These MillRight CNC's are supposed to be the only good cheap CNC routers. 

Wooden Microphones Concept

So I got this idea into my head of making a "wooden microphone." At first I thought it would be a ribbon microphone. But then I thought it might be a kickstarter and be a USB condenser. Like a Blue, but prettier, for podcasting and looking pretty on your desk next to your typewriter-style wooden keyboard or some such.

There are only very high-end microphones made out of wood (that I know of.)

Feather Microphones make ribbon mics out of Seattle. They're in the $1500 range.  They're pretty though.

Workhorse Microphones make custom mics. Here's one.

 And there's the Bruce Swedien Nu-47. Honestly it's a lot of microphone for four thousand bucks, still, it's four thousand bucks.

Okay, those are all the very high-end microphones. The one people actually have on their desks is a Blue of some sort.

These are particularly nice-looking I think.


Of course, I no longer have a FabLab. But I did some prototyping.
That'll be another blag post.