BLOGISFACTORY

I don't have a lot of time for writing, work and school loads are quite big. I have a very interesting relationship with Blues. I like it, but only in the upbeat happy versions. This is a song I first heard in the soundtrack of Blues Brothers 2000. Supplemented with strippers dancing made it even better. The song was originally done by Clarence Carter in 1967. I could not find the clip from the Blues Brothers movie, but i have found a clip from "Another Day in Paradise" with James Woods/melanie Griffith, where it was actually performed by Clarence Carter. Lookin' for a Fox. Enjoy.

I started listeing to swing about the time it became popular again, in the 90's. I have a large collection of neo-swing bands in my BigPod. I still listen to a lot of swing music ten years after its revival. One song that I still like to listen to, with windows rolled down, is an oldie sang by a band with a interesting name, Cherry Poppin' Daddies. The clip has some excellent Lindy Hop dancing. Enjoy.

I have done something on the weekend that I don't think I did ever. I went to see a late night showing of a movie. Yes, I went to see Startrek alone. A lot of folks have written a lot of words about the movie, so all that i am going to say is that I enjoyed it. There were several pieces that did not make sense to me, or I thought the movie could do without, but that's to be expected. The Little One participated in a Russian school recital of sorts. She did great, even though she was a bit scared in the beginning. I am very very proud of her. And that's it.

This is the end of experimentation. I did it using Default Max scanline render, which allowed me a bit of a greater flexibility with Depth of Field, rendering it as a camera effect. And with less artifacts.

I haven't done much 3D in the last couple of months. I created this picture because I wanted to have an original wallpaper for myself. The composition is very simple. The point of the exercise was to experiment with raytracing materials and depth of field for a more-or-less realistic look. The pixelation of blurred regions is due to a smaller sample size on the render. The render itself took about 20 minutes. If I have increased the sampling size it would be exponentially longer. Little patience I have. The image is big 1680x1050 px --------------------------------- An Update. Watching couple of tutorials I have achieved a better grasp as to how to do the depth of field. I have also switched to a different material type, using only raytrace. Here is the end result. The white artifacts due to insufficiency of processing power of my laptop.

There are several bands where mine and my wife's tastes in rock music differ. This Finnish band is the perfect example - Nightwish. The band was fronted by Tarja Turnunnen who possessed the pipes of an opera singer. The band's music revolved around her beautiful voice. But here's a piece that always gives me chills. Her rendition of Phantom of The Opera. Enjoy. Or don't. Nightwish is an aquired taste.

Quiz brought to you by Tripbase - Vacation Ideas Thank you Jason