steal my ideas

Sprint EVO 4G poor battery life – FIXED

Paul — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:59:18 +0000

There, I fixed it.

MintyBoost(2.0) kit + MightyMintyBoost kit + Cinnamon Altoids Tin + forethought and execution.

T-Shirt idea – The Earth made me

Paul — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:12:40 +0000

The EARTH made me
who I am today

It’s not easy being a white man in the U.S.

Paul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:54:10 +0000

Easier, but not easy.

The world’s most heart-breaking phrase

Paul — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:57:57 +0000

“I’ve been thinking about getting back into _______ .”

Usually followed by, “I just need ________ .”

Examples:
“I’ve been thinking about getting back into art. I just need some supplies.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting back into eating healthy. I just need to go to the farmer’s market.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting back into guitar. I just need to get my amp out of storage.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting back into writing. I just need to come up with a good idea.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting back into fitness. I just need to get some new running shoes.”

After Life: first movie of the twenty tens

Paul — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:06:08 +0000

3DS Max script: annotate your tapes, make friends

Paul — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:31:52 +0000

Made this for work and actually used it a few times.

Displays tape-length information in the viewport.

Effects all tapes currently visible. Displays the user defined tape length at the base of the tape and the distance to the target at the target. Updates in real-time.

in action

The script can be downloaded from scriptspot

An additional rating option in Netflix

Paul — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:23:21 +0000

** I just stumbled on this unfinished entry from many months ago. It’s unclear what it was all about, but it’s kind of funny just the way it is? **

Sometimes while viewing a DVD you may find yourself in a state of negative-enthusiasm. The appropriate response to this situation is to terminate the viewing experience.

** update 2: “UNWATCHABLE” should be the new rating option. Meaning you tried to watch it but couldn’t stick it out. Turning a movie off after 10 minutes and rating it as “HATED IT” is uninformative, because technically you only hated 10 minutes of it. You might have loved the end, and then would’ve given the entire film 3 stars, but you bailed, or I bailed, and now the overall rating average of that movie is skewed. **

Paul — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:55:16 +0000

Ball point pens are everywhere, but nowhere.

Urinal for females

Paul — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:15:56 +0000

Girinal

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Bread

Paul — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:36:36 +0000

Wax paper (not shown) sits between each jelly/bread layer to avoid soggy conditions.

(The whole loaf is PB&J’s. I just didn’t draw them all.)

Sideshow Characters

Paul — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:41:55 +0000

Some sideshow freaks that could have an adventure together. The bottom 4 were contributed by a person who is not me. Submit a comment if you’ve got a good idea for a sideshow freak. There are no rules.

Direct link to the Google spreadsheet since it’s all cramped here.

3DS Max / Mental Ray animated opacity tutorial

Paul — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:52:08 +0000

If that title is gibberish, move along.

The tutorial describes an effective way to get around Mental Ray’s lack of support for 3DS Max’s “visibility” object property. This is a huge problem (for me, anyway, because I need it like every day). Sadly, doing many things in 3DS Max is painful and it must be beat it into submission to do even the simplest tasks. The fact that this rather involved tutorial had to be written is heart breaking if you think about it.

Animating the transparency of groups of objects in 3DS Max (using the Mental Ray renderer)

Other concepts covered in the tutorial:
Assigning Material ID’s to objects
Compound Multi-sub-object/Blend (what?!) materials
Custom Attributes (like sliders)
Wiring attributes together
Adding Bezier Float controllers to properties/nodes that are not keyframeable by default (<-- that you have to do this is nuts, too!)

Suggestions/Comments are good, too.

This tutorial is also posted in CGSociety.