IJBMer Updates

fourteenwings

I find that attempting to find gradual improvement can be a futile effort. However, I do believe one day you'll look down at what you drew and be surprised at how much you've improved. Problem is I can't prescribe any exact days, it just happens.

Maybe this is just the artist equivalent of writer's block?

fourteenwings

I was just casually looking up LEGO Friends sets like I said I'd stopped doing weeks ago when I came across this new Mia minifigure with her cute Navajo pattern palette turned into an outer jacket (!!!) and in all honesty I have no idea how much longer I can hold out.

Additionally, Stephanie's brother actually came back!... in a set that's even bigger and more impractical than last time. And last time he came in the biggest set available that year. Why does LEGO not want me to have him.

I also found out that there will be, wait for it, JUNGLE themed Play Cubes. Even though my heart lies with the Heart Boxes (Play Cubes are really just glorified plastic chunks), I have no idea if I can honestly resist the collectability of these for much longer.

glennmagusharvey

This is one of a series of 46 pictures, which compares two bridges. The first bridge, (pictures 1 – 45) is part of the Canadian freeway QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), crossing a river and “Oakwood Drive” in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The second bridge (picture 46) crosses a canal inside the City of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The structural steel and concrete of the Canadian bridge are in a state of corrosion. The bridge is rotting. The Dutch bridge is unharmed. The Canadian bridge has already had restoration work done on it. However, the restoration work has apparently not eliminated the causes of the corrosion. Because the causes of the corrosion have not been eliminated, the corrosion and disintegration of the steel and the concrete continue unhindered. The upper steel beams of the Canadian bridge are coated with a covalent paint to prevent rust formation. This does not resolve the rust formation issue because it appears that the steel beams are directly supporting concrete elements above, which then crush/destroy the coating, so it can no longer protect the steel against rust. The concrete is porous, thus letting rain water together with chlorides (road salt) in and out. The now vulnerable and unprotected steel then rusts due to the water, salt and air contact. Once rust has set in, it then goes underneath the coating on the rest of the steel, popping off more of the coating as it goes along, just like it does on a rusting car. Even if that steel were sandblasted and re-coated, the contact point between the top of the steel beams and the concrete above would remain unprotected. It does not appear as though there is any room or barrier between the steel and the concrete. Even if there were something there, it does not appear to have protected the rust paint enough to remain intact under the weight of the concrete. Because of this apparent dynamic, it cannot be expected that further restoration work of this type (sandblasting and recoating that does not reach the contact points that are the root cause) will be successful. The concrete is of poor quality for this application because it lets the water and diluted road salt in, which then attacks the reinforcing steel bars. A small coating of rust on the rebars normally is not cause for concern because it allows the alkaline concrete to adhere better. However, in this case it appears that a cheap concrete was chosen, with a cement that cannot withstand outdoor weather and salt influence. Because of this, the rebar is corroding vigorously. The added rust causes the volume of the rebar to expand, until the outer concrete pops off, which reduces the strength of the bridge and imperils the population. Because the root causes of the rot were not removed, it is apparent that concrete repair patches are but a temporary measure as the existing and new cracks carry on right into the repair patches, which dooms the patches to pop off along with the rest of the concrete right from the start. The Dutch bridge on the other hand transfers its load through purpose-made covalent rubber pads to the columns below in such a manner that no corrosion is created. The concrete has received a covalent paint such as to protect it against the influence of outdoor weather and road salt. It would be possible to protect the steel in the Canadian bridge by conducting a small electrical current through it. The physical and chemical error sources that have led to the rot in the Canadian bridge were known and were the subject of teaching engineers in technical universities internationally during the time of the construction of the Canadian bridge.

that feel when you're browsing Wikipedia and suddenly find what reads like an apocalyptic log

lrdgck

Makes me think of something between Dwarf Fortress's procedurally generated item descriptions on one hand, and one of those "compare these two images" tasks from my English exams on the other.

Stormtroper

I once went to a conference that included some stuff about concrete and that the kind used/produced here is not suitable for local conditions (because it's the same used not far from here where it's suitable), and that's one reason why the bridge here has maintenance issues. I learned an important lesson: concrete is complicated.
Though I what I find more interesting is how I ended up there; an old lady at our faculty was asking for directions to get to the auditorium, I guide her there and she invites me to attend so I do, turns out the conference was to commemorate said lady, who's an expert in concrete, and although the conference was about her and not concrete itself, all she wanted to talk about during her turn was concrete.

lrdgck

the conference was to commemorate said lady, who's an expert in concrete, and although the conference was about her and not concrete itself, all she wanted to talk about during her turn was concrete

I don't know how others would feel about this story, but for me it's kinda uplifting.

glennmagusharvey

the concrete benefits of helping strangers

Stormtroper

I don't know how others would feel about this story, but for me it's kinda uplifting.

It kinda is, something about following your passions, though I remember wondering if she simply got the purpose of the conference wrong.

fourteenwings

Nerds will always nerd and that's a beautiful thing.

But like also always take advantage of a captive audience.

Does MtG frequently do joke releases?

Also: I can't tell if this was timely or an accident.

Yes, a third edit: The Pokémon card game is one that I've learned should be played with a deck that is either half Trainer cards or more Trainer cards than Pokémon cards, yet Booster packs include two trainer cards out of ten cards.

Stormtroper

Does MtG frequently do joke releases?

If I haven't missed any, that'd be the fourth in its history.
Speaking of which, three days ago I started playing again Forge, the MtG engine I've sometimes mentioned, then time's flied without me making good use of it, just like what we talked about in the video games thread. I thought it'd feel good to use it to brush up on Japanese but not really.
I'm not going to stop but I gotta ask myself more often if I'm actually enjoying it and do something about it if I don't.

lrdgck

So, I have a weird story to share.

I went to Metal Archives to look for that band from Mozambique, and found this: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Scratch/62774

They released a single demo in mid-Eighties and split up. I checked the names of band members. One guy went through a string of similarly short-lived bands, the other finally ended up in a functional band and despite dying in a car crash some ten years later, seems to be still remembered as part of the band. I'm thinking mostly of the first guy.

What's his life like? Does he reminisce his rockman days with fondness, jamming on a guitar once in a while, or is it follies of youth to him now? Is he still dabbling in music for a living, whether as a musician or a record company employee, or did he leave the business for good? Does he think of himself as a failed rockman, or is he rather comfortable with his life now, having put that part of his life behind? And what does he think of the other fellow: does he think the break-up cost him a potential career, or that he got out before also ending up dead, or were they on friendly terms despite the split?

(edit: he might also have ended up in a band playing some other genre. Metal Archives is rather specific about music genres. Also, he might have become, like, an actor or otherwise an entertainer - not a rock star, but definitely closer to it than custom kitchen delivery. I seem to have defaulted to assuming he's living Al Bundy's life, while it can be anything really.)

It's funny, how these few lines of text make me think so much of it.

glennmagusharvey

This commentary made me think of (what I know of) the plot of Black Heaven, an anime series about a former rocker who now works as a salaryman.

> rockman days

lol i'm now imagining him reminiscing about his youth cosplaying as Mega Man on Halloween

Stormtroper

It's late, but I'm not sleeping.
I kinda want to bring up my, umm... resentment towards socialism again, but not really.
I had a bigger post but I deleted it.
I'm not sure why I'm posting this.
Edit: Wording.

Stormtroper

I'm feeling better now. Sleepy but better.
With all the free time I've kinda wanted to, I dunno, discover a new thing, like a new hobby or a series I hadn't heard about. Or try something new with the stuff I'm already into, or something.
Vaguely related, it bugs me that the internet is short on large programming tutorials, like weeks long spent working on a single thing, and this is important because there's loads of stuff in software engineering that only comes up in large projects, like working in a way that doesn't screw you over down the line.

fourteenwings

The internet is all about short-term satisfaction, and also to some extent satisfying clicks so people come back. If you provide a long-term project and you aren't behind a paywall, then people will come to you once ever.

I've been seriously considering starting a blog about toys, specifically mini dolls (anything under 6-8" I guess) and maybe some action figures. I've probably mentioned this before.

I'm constantly thinking about how it would be a waste of time and how it would change my perceptions of things. Then again, I've spent a lot of time building stuff in LEGO and MCX, so I could at least shift gears. Spending time writing descriptions could also improve the rest of my writing.

Maybe I really do just need to go ahead and do it.

tl;dr - mullmullmullmull...

Stormtroper

Perhaps you could work on it offline for a bit? Create a couple mock blog entries, just to see if it's worth your time before committing to creating/maintaining one (which I guess takes a non-negligible amount of effort)? Although I figure the posts on your toy threads here count as entries, unless you're thinking about something else.

fourteenwings

That's actually a great idea! I'd never considered doing something like that.

Well, it would be something like what I do here, but with more history, background, and detail.

glennmagusharvey

For the first time I've seen the misspelling "exaduration".

Stormtroper

Yet another post about air conditioning.
The room has been feeling unusually hot lately, I need to put it several degrees lower to make it feel as it was earlier, nonetheless the air conditioner is otherwise working seemingly fine, if I didn't spend my days here I wouldn't notice anything. It's been unusually hot lately but this was kind of sudden and it's been like this continuously for days. I suspect it's because of the fan's motor, it had a problem again like last time and looking at it the fan's speed is not constant, at times it seems to slow down very suddenly, though of course I'm not sure if that's not normal, just putting my hand there it doesn't feel different. That would also explain a slight snapping sound I was hearing not long before that, though, as if it were freezing then thawing.
Edit: I realized the air conditioner was frozen, after letting it thaw the fan started behaving more like what one'd expect. Nonetheless the air conditioner is freezing easily, I think a cleaning is due. I cleaned it up recently but that was with a blower and without taking the main cover off, so that probably wasn't enough.

Stormtroper

I've been playing more Forge. I'm forcing myself to say the names of the cards (in Japanese) as they're being played, so it kind of plays out as a Yu-Gi-Oh! episode. At first I was intending to do so with the cards I played but it went so smoothly that I began doing so with the opponent's too.
I went a step further and added my cards as flashcards so as to remember their meaning and pronunciation, and what I was doing felt a lot like collecting vocabulary* (it's a collectible card game after all) so I put two and two together and began collecting my opponent's too, then those I could recognize, then all of them. It's something I had thought about before and man, I should've started doing this ages ago. For some reason I have good memory when it comes to MtG cards and apparently it works out in Japanese too.
I'm doing this on a per-block basis. For flavor reasons I had started with Kamigawa and I'm nearly done with it, next will be Theros (the Ancient Greece one) which I already started, I wanted to do Lorwyn next (the British isles one) but for (size?) reasons Forge's Lorwyn world includes lots of non-Lorwyn cards. There's also Innistrad (the gothic horror one) and Tarkir (the several Asian cultures one) but there's no world for them (in my version, at least) and Ravnica (the Eastern Europe one) but that's three blocks. Oh and the newer ones I don't know about.
This has to be one of the geekiest things I've done.
* Granted, a lot of it are several ways of saying "see", "foresee", "destroy", " fury", "soldier" and plant stuff I don't know what they mean in any language.

fourteenwings

I realized the air conditioner was frozen

What a twist.

I opened another Capsule Chix, this time from the Ctrl+Alt+Magic collection. Probably my least favourite collection out of the entire line. I've had (very mild) walking nightmares about accidentally getting the limited edition from this line, who is a mermaid. That means no legs, which limits the customization options.

I did get the dreaded "rare" fabric piece. I've had smaller dolls before, like Lil' Bratz, that were definitely built for fabric clothes. Capsule Chix fabric pants appear to all have one universally terrible cut, and the "tops" are a joke. So, luckily (?), I got a pair of pants.

I had to remove her lower legs to even get them on, and even that was a challenge. So, here's Little Ms. Ctrl+Alt+Magic (name pending). I think she looks kind of like a traveler. You can see I've already changed her shoes. She came with gladiator sandals, and those weren't going on with these pants on. I also gave her Wild Child's bag.

The top I got came with these terrible wings, and in the guide I thought they were permanently attached. Thankfully they came off.

I guess I should mention her giant unicorn horn. Not my favourite trend, but I don't absolutely hate it or anything.

I finally got a normal pair of hands! They're... very splayed, but I can't complain now can I? I gave them to Papa's Favourite*. Now she's very, very expressive. I also gave her Ctrl+Alt+Magic's shoes and bag.

Wild Child hasn't changed much (aside from gaining her a name, specifically after this song). I guess I've mainly decided she can go without a bag.

I considered giving them normal names like human people have, but I've never been one to give my dolls "names". It seems trite. I mean, I named my teddy bear as a child, but he wasn't a toy, he was real.

*Yes, that's her name, I know it sounds slightly creepy, but it stuck in my mind. I also realized that the song I linked to has a line that goes "Papa don't preach" but I swear I don't have some sort of Papa complex.

I should also mention that I've opened a Mega Construx account on the official site, and that's like instagram but for builds. I have the burning desire to maintain it, but I think it's time to seriously consider uncoupling from MCX like I did LEGO Friends. I've been in overdrive the last few days, building lots and lots of different things.

I admit that it's fun and engrossing. It even made me seriously wonder if I should have studied something in school that was about working with my hands (like mechanical engineering I guess). But it's kind of taking over a bit as my main hobby, in a way that nothing else has. I've barely watched any anime in the last few days.

Stormtroper

something in school that was about working with my hands (like mechanical engineering I guess).

Nah. Unless using CAD programs or draftmanship counts as working with your hands, everything you learn in class is about the wonderful fantasy world of diagrams: free body diagrams, thermodynamic diagrams, system diagrams, etc. Also tables.
Well, there's also the clubs, I'm guessing in other places there's a better selection than the FSAE. Oh, and the oddly relevant LEGO mechanical engineering competitions and stuff.

glennmagusharvey

My university's chemical engineering department had a short-lived club to participate in the AIChE Chem-E-Car competition. Due in part due to a lack of interest and the heavy workload of classes, it just sorta fell apart.

I do distinctly remember doing a mousetrap car thing back in a high school class (or technically a summer program at a local university) that was an introduction to engineering in general. But that was high school level stuff.

Stormtroper

AIChE

For a second I thought this was an alchemy thing and double checked that you weren't talking about Belfegor University.
Anyhow, I expected the MIT to have super cool engineering clubs, but I guess the effect of heavy workloads is universal. Or maybe you're talking about somewhere else?
Besides that, come to think of it they did teach us how to use a lathe, a gear cutter and a little bit on how to solder, so that's something.
You'd often see electrical engineering students with breadboards with stuff attached to them, so they're my guess for the field of engineering were you most tinker around with stuff.

fourteenwings

Unless using CAD programs or draftmanship counts as working with your hands, everything you learn in class is about the wonderful fantasy world of diagrams

Feel much better about the beancounting now.

But that was high school level stuff.

But was it Ultimate High School Level stuff?

a lathe, a gear cutter and a little bit on how to solder

I really didn't consider this whole thing properly because the first two of those made think "what a surefire way to lose a finger/some limbs".

Stormtroper

I really didn't consider this whole thing properly because the first two of those made think "what a surefire way to lose a finger/some limbs".

The lathe isn't too bad, unless you're working with large stuff (which we didn't) there's too much space for your body parts to get caught up in a harmful way. With the gear cutter it does look like you're one distraction away from losing a finger.
Thought it wasn't a personal safety thing, I had a lathe accident once, the cutting tool (which the professor had set up) came loose and began cutting where it shouldn't, sparks flew and in the panic IIRC I tried to change gears to stop it (changing it while it's running is a no-no) before pressing the emergency button, and I was super worried that I had damaged equipment that was worth more than me, but thankfully it was fine. The part I was working on got destroyed though, so I couldn't afford to lose another one or I'd likely not have enough time to finish the final project (two fitting gears) to pass the class, but those worked out fine.

Stormtroper

Air conditioner update: it seemed to work fine this morning, but by the afternoon it was acting up again. I braved up and increased the fan speed, at which point it stopped freezing but didn't feel cold enough, I was close to giving up and figure that it really is that hot outside. Anyhows a voltage drop later and the air conditioner is not cooling at all, if it was because of the voltage drop it was probably a damaged capacitor, but that causes the unit outside to not turn on and it's on. I look up a bit and frost is a sign of being low (but not too low) on refrigerant, which I guess makes sense. Since before all this I thought whatever was causing the snapping sound could damage the evaporator coils, but I thought it wouldn't cool at all if that was the problem. With that new info, maybe there really is a leak and it finally ran out of refrigerant?
I turned it on again and it's back to its usual freezing antics. My anticlimactic guess: it really is that hot outside.
I wonder if this is happening now because of the tree that got cut off.
Edit: Another voltage drop later and it was back to temporary non-functioning. I noticed that I didn't hear until after a while the sound of what I believe is refrigerant beginning to flow, at which point it was a matter of seconds before it started visibly freezing. It definitely has an (electrical?) issue besides the freezing.

Stormtroper

Fan speed experiments: changing it from low (where it usually is) to medium does not produce a noticeable difference, changing it to high does result in less frost, but still a lot of it. Regardless of it, the room still feels hot and with the thermostat set at 20 °C it runs continuously (without freezing up completely, unlike at other times).
At one point I wanted to let it thaw and see if not letting frost build up at all produced a noticeable difference, I set it to 22 °C and nothing happened (it totally should've), I set it to 24 °C and after a while (longer than it takes to turn off the outside unit) the fan turns off, so I turn the whole thing off. As it's happened twice already, it wouldn't turn on again until after a while.
I wonder if it's something like if it's at a setting higher than low, the fan will only work if the compressor is running. Nonetheless I decided I better stop tampering with forces I do not understand and set the fan speed to low.
I did notice that by the time the sun began to set the compressor would sometimes shut off at 22 °C, something that wouldn't happen during the afternoon, so sunlight is definitely having an effect. It still felt hot though.
I should get a room thermometer.
Post-above update: The fan temporarily stopped working again, without me having done anything to its settings or noticeable power issues.
Later into the night the room started feeling closer to what I'm accustomed to. Sunlight aside, there's no big difference here in temperatures between day and night, but apparently it's enough that it was making the air conditioner unable to reach whatever reasonable set point temperature I set it to. Nonetheless I still think there's something wrong with it if it frosts so quickly and works indefinitely without significantly cooling the room or freezing completely. I don't think it was like that before but it's not like I've been paying attention. Anyhows, it's been long enough, perhaps I can... I dunno, hope the problem fixes itself?
I wish I could see what the evaporator coils are like beyond what's readily visible. FWIW only a few parts in only one side of the evaporator frost, which I think suggests being low on refrigerant or that there's a leak thefe, and the refrigerant line outside isn't frosting or even very cold, which suggests otherwise.
And just now the fan stopped again. Gosh what the hell happened to this thing.
Edit: 23 °C is the lowest temperature setting at which the unit actually shuts off, one degree above what I'm usually comfortable with, and it's still way too hot. It's frustrating, it's not like I can't feel it's doing something and it's far from insignificant, but it's not enough and it's not clear what's not enough or if it's related to the hundreds of problems it clearly has.

fourteenwings

but apparently it's enough that it was making the air conditioner unable to reach whatever reasonable set point temperature I set it to.

I do know that if I'm in the car, about 70% of the year the sun will be so blazing hot that the heat reaching/emanating off the dashboard from the sunlight will cause the air conditioner to rev up really really hard to try and reach a decent temperature.

This only happens when I'm facing the sun, but still.

fourteenwings

I apparently followed developments in the Pokémon card game for about a year, right up until Team Up. I... basically hated the Tag Team aspect and it played heavily on that, as well as the original 150 Pokemon, which aren't my favorite. My favorite Pokémon are probably from Hoenn and Sinnoh.

I want to build my own Pokémon deck someday. A good one. It'd be Water and Fairy typed, and probably be called "Lady of the Lake", because what else do you call such a deck?

Or maybe a Colorless type troll deck...

It'd also be nice to get in right as a new set starts, which is basically now with Sword & Shield.

Starting with (Sword & Shield), the Fairy type was retired

Darn it.