Serials are still on hold, though Greg Taylor is starting a new Epsilon Project soon, with plot voting open. I didn't get a chance to do anymore painting this past week, either, so the elf and the marilith are still waiting to be finished. However, I do have a few stories in the works, so why not a sneak peek of what's in the pipes. Just an interesting scene or two, to entice. This will get long, so everything continues after the break.
1 May 2020
23 Apr 2020
Painting Minis - The Marilith and the Elf
Continued with the Marilith to get a bit further. First was to fix up the problems with the lower body by adding an extra coat as needed. I also started to fix a mistake, though another coat may be needed there Since this is about to get pic heavy, since it involves painting minis, the rest is after the break.
16 Apr 2020
Painting Minis - Finishing Sharkie
It's been a while since I've worked on Sharkie. I've finished the eyes, teeth, and waves. I just have the tone wash to go, which can wait for the paint to dry. Since this is going to be pic heavy, I'll just put a cut here.
10 Apr 2020
Self Isolation
No serials for a while. Today, though, I want to get a few things off my mind about the self-isolation, physical distancing we need to do to slow the pandemic.
I am naturally an introvert. Thanks to an incompetent government, I have had extended unemployment where I couldn't afford to go anywhere. Being alone was something I thought I could do.
Except...
Except that I had a social life of sorts, with gaming with friends. I got out to the library, getting some fresh air and spending time job hunting. I got out for groceries.
Now? I'm discovering that I can't completely shut myself in. I found a good contract, one where the position is considered essential, so I am managing to work. I was also one of the first to try working from home, and considering that I'm in a call centre of sorts, it's working out better than expected. The gaming groups are finding a workaround with Tabletop Simulator. I can order DVDs, books, games, and cushions and have them delivered to me.
I don't have to leave the apartment to work. I don't have to leave the apartment to game. I don't have to leave the apartment to shop.
Problem is, I do have to get out to get groceries and do laundry. I live alone, and if something needs to be done, I have to do it. And some of my shopping is through just browsing. I seldom go to a store for DVDs or books or games with a specific title in mind. I search the racks, looking for something interesting or something I can use for Lost in Translation. Most of the exercise I get is from walking - to the bus, from the bus, through the building at work during breaks, In the time I've been working from home, the weather has gotten warmer and the ice has melted off the sidewalk. Walking would've gotten easier. Instead, I'm cooped up in my apartment.
I need to get out. Not just for groceries but for exercise. To be able to keep walkign despite ailments taking advantage of the downtime. I prefer having a place to go to, but that's not possible now. Right now, thanks to an old back injury and arthritis, walking around the block leaves me in pain. That's not good. But there's no other way to get out.
Time will tell if we ever get back to working in buildings together. I'm hoping for not too much time. Turns out, I need some human contact, even if I'm on the periphery of it.
Today, over at Psycho Drive-In, Self-Isolation and Creativity
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Surprise! It's an Adaptation!
I am naturally an introvert. Thanks to an incompetent government, I have had extended unemployment where I couldn't afford to go anywhere. Being alone was something I thought I could do.
Except...
Except that I had a social life of sorts, with gaming with friends. I got out to the library, getting some fresh air and spending time job hunting. I got out for groceries.
Now? I'm discovering that I can't completely shut myself in. I found a good contract, one where the position is considered essential, so I am managing to work. I was also one of the first to try working from home, and considering that I'm in a call centre of sorts, it's working out better than expected. The gaming groups are finding a workaround with Tabletop Simulator. I can order DVDs, books, games, and cushions and have them delivered to me.
I don't have to leave the apartment to work. I don't have to leave the apartment to game. I don't have to leave the apartment to shop.
Problem is, I do have to get out to get groceries and do laundry. I live alone, and if something needs to be done, I have to do it. And some of my shopping is through just browsing. I seldom go to a store for DVDs or books or games with a specific title in mind. I search the racks, looking for something interesting or something I can use for Lost in Translation. Most of the exercise I get is from walking - to the bus, from the bus, through the building at work during breaks, In the time I've been working from home, the weather has gotten warmer and the ice has melted off the sidewalk. Walking would've gotten easier. Instead, I'm cooped up in my apartment.
I need to get out. Not just for groceries but for exercise. To be able to keep walkign despite ailments taking advantage of the downtime. I prefer having a place to go to, but that's not possible now. Right now, thanks to an old back injury and arthritis, walking around the block leaves me in pain. That's not good. But there's no other way to get out.
Time will tell if we ever get back to working in buildings together. I'm hoping for not too much time. Turns out, I need some human contact, even if I'm on the periphery of it.
Today, over at Psycho Drive-In, Self-Isolation and Creativity
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Surprise! It's an Adaptation!
3 Apr 2020
Ottawa's LRT - Still a Mess
Back in June 2019, I worked out how OCTranspo and the City of Ottawa could completely screw up the roll out of the new LRT. I tend to assume that if there's a way to screw up public transit, OC Transpo will do or has done it. If there are multiple ways to screw up, OCTranspo will start with the most disruptive way first. Murphy could learn from OCTranspo. Go read my original post then come back, or open it in a new tab so you can compare.
1) The 12 days of testing post-handover. OCTranspo did not have twelve consecutive days of testing. There was a three day break during the testing around day 8 or day 9, then testing continued instead of restarting from Day 1. That got the service running in a soft open, where buses ran regular routes alongside the train. The true opening came at the start of October, where buses no longer ran downtown.
2) Route changes and face planting. The soft open did well. Some people tried the LRT, others remained on the buses to see what happened. The LRT was busy but not crush levels. No major problems during the soft open. Once the LRT became the only way to get downtown during rush, problems began. Overcrowding on the LRT, on the platforms, and on the buses. Delays came up. The trains' doors often got stuck open, with passengers being blamed for them being held open. Definite face planting occurred. In November, there was an eleven day stretch where over 11 hours of delays happened. On a system where a five minute delay causes everything to break, having trains out of service threw the entire kit and kaboodle into useless disarray.
3) Winter. Early November is when winter looms. End of November, winter has started. The cold weather caused issues for the tracks. Switches froze. Ottawa did not get the weeks of -35 degree Celcius we had the previous two winters. What we did get is a mix of snow, freezing rain, and rain, with fluctuating temperatures. One train managed to not only take itself out but also take out the wires above because no one thought to clear the dirt and grime that built up on the train roofs. At one point, OCTranspo was down to six trains running out of a theoretical 15 (in practice, 13, with two trains on standby, and two other trains that should be there somewhere in the ether), requiring buses to be run downtown. Again, this is a train that travels mostly outside, and Ottawa gets extreme seasons.
Winter also revealed another problem - the outdoor platforms provide no protection from the elements. The platforms are great for a spring day, 15 degrees Celsius, partly cloudy with a light wind. They're not good for -20 degrees Celcius with wind gusts. Except where there's a bridge over the platform - see Tremblay and Cyrville Stations - people will get rained and snowed on. There's no shelter, leaving questions about whether the designer had even bothered to check weather conditions in Ottawa.
Bus service has gotten worse. No one at OCTranspo or the city worked out the math of having 600 passengers every four minutes arriving at stations. To clear space for the next trainload, and the LRT was running at crush capacity at the beginning, there has to be a way to clear out 600 passengers by bus. Problem is, OCTranspo cut back on drivers and buses before realizing that there's not enough of either to handle the loads. New drivers are being hired and trained, but there's not enough buses. Cancellations and no shows are up from before the LRT opened.
Because drivers are being pulled in to work rush hours, they're too tired to work on the weekends. Judy Trinh tracked the cancellations, both announced and not, and found that there is a sharp increase. One Saturday saw 70 announced cancellations and over 210 cancellations total. Reliability is non-existent.
Austerity costs. People have lost time and even jobs because OCTranspo cannot get people where they need to go. I believe I'm allowed a "I told you so!" here.
1) The 12 days of testing post-handover. OCTranspo did not have twelve consecutive days of testing. There was a three day break during the testing around day 8 or day 9, then testing continued instead of restarting from Day 1. That got the service running in a soft open, where buses ran regular routes alongside the train. The true opening came at the start of October, where buses no longer ran downtown.
2) Route changes and face planting. The soft open did well. Some people tried the LRT, others remained on the buses to see what happened. The LRT was busy but not crush levels. No major problems during the soft open. Once the LRT became the only way to get downtown during rush, problems began. Overcrowding on the LRT, on the platforms, and on the buses. Delays came up. The trains' doors often got stuck open, with passengers being blamed for them being held open. Definite face planting occurred. In November, there was an eleven day stretch where over 11 hours of delays happened. On a system where a five minute delay causes everything to break, having trains out of service threw the entire kit and kaboodle into useless disarray.
3) Winter. Early November is when winter looms. End of November, winter has started. The cold weather caused issues for the tracks. Switches froze. Ottawa did not get the weeks of -35 degree Celcius we had the previous two winters. What we did get is a mix of snow, freezing rain, and rain, with fluctuating temperatures. One train managed to not only take itself out but also take out the wires above because no one thought to clear the dirt and grime that built up on the train roofs. At one point, OCTranspo was down to six trains running out of a theoretical 15 (in practice, 13, with two trains on standby, and two other trains that should be there somewhere in the ether), requiring buses to be run downtown. Again, this is a train that travels mostly outside, and Ottawa gets extreme seasons.
Winter also revealed another problem - the outdoor platforms provide no protection from the elements. The platforms are great for a spring day, 15 degrees Celsius, partly cloudy with a light wind. They're not good for -20 degrees Celcius with wind gusts. Except where there's a bridge over the platform - see Tremblay and Cyrville Stations - people will get rained and snowed on. There's no shelter, leaving questions about whether the designer had even bothered to check weather conditions in Ottawa.
Bus service has gotten worse. No one at OCTranspo or the city worked out the math of having 600 passengers every four minutes arriving at stations. To clear space for the next trainload, and the LRT was running at crush capacity at the beginning, there has to be a way to clear out 600 passengers by bus. Problem is, OCTranspo cut back on drivers and buses before realizing that there's not enough of either to handle the loads. New drivers are being hired and trained, but there's not enough buses. Cancellations and no shows are up from before the LRT opened.
Because drivers are being pulled in to work rush hours, they're too tired to work on the weekends. Judy Trinh tracked the cancellations, both announced and not, and found that there is a sharp increase. One Saturday saw 70 announced cancellations and over 210 cancellations total. Reliability is non-existent.
Austerity costs. People have lost time and even jobs because OCTranspo cannot get people where they need to go. I believe I'm allowed a "I told you so!" here.
 |
| Really, OCTranspo passengers have told them so. |
Stage 2 is starting. The problems from Stage 1 haven't been fixed yet. Stage 2 will continue to use the too small, too exposed platforms that were built for Stage 1. There's no attempt to fix things. The expansion may be needed, but it needs to be done right, not on the cheap, not using what we know is broken. But things already look bad, with the roaming SNC-Lavelin scandal striking again, with the company failing the technical portion of the bid but still winning because prices had a higher weight. Austerity costs, and going cheap means getting cheap and having to pay far more in the long run.
Over at Psycho Drive-In, hiatus week to get ahead on potential reviews.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, creativity in a pandemic.
27 Mar 2020
Digital Magic - Wrap Up
Last chapter ended suddenly. That's where I finished Digital Magic at the end of November 2007. I did not feel that great about the story for many, many reasons. However, it needs to be wrapped up for closure.
Jackie and Donna have been tossed into fighting each other and trying to keep the raw magic from ripping apart the local space-time continuum. Ripping the fabric of reality is a major occupational safety and health violation, especially if no one has the permits to do so. It's a battle of metaphors; can Jackie's computer programming metaphor build up the magic she needs to repair things before Donna's aria builds to a climax? Jackie has the advantage; she can set a spell off to continue without having to tweak it on the fly. The drawback is that if she gets something wrong, reality bluescreens.
Of course, Jackie wins this battle of wills and magic, finishing with smacking Donna around with magic for a victory lap. With the threat over, Lance reappears having rescued himeself from Donna's dungeon. Self-rescuing damsels are more interesting, though, so Lance's escape remains offscreen. Donna is dealt with, placed into exile. Jackie and Lance get their happily ever after, or at least their happily ever after for now, and officially become a couple. Weather returns to normal in Ottawa, whatever normal is. Trish gets off Jackie's back about getting a boyfriend.
I cannot write a romance, not as an A-plot. I got too interested in how magic works to the point where Jackie's relationships never developed. Lance was more mentor than love interest and Steve was too slick bordering on sleazy for her to consider him for anything more than a one night stand. Trish was the better romantic lead. Lesson here - romance isn't my forte.
However, I do have romances building in other stories. Nasty finally admitted to herself and to Eric how she feels about him in Crossover. Laura and Mackenzie are a couple in Unruly, though the development of their relationship needs work. Brenna and Officer Matt came out of nowhere in The Soul Blade and almost derailed the ending. But the focus of those series is something else beyond the romances. The romances are subplots, not the main plot, and I'm more comfortable with that approach.
I doubt I will get back to Digital Magic. What I may do is mine the story for the good parts, like the eyes following on the walls and in mirrors to freak out a main character. It's a good horror bit, adding spookiness. I may pull Jacinda out of her video game for a new story and just handwave away how Jackie learned magic. Odd weather as fallout from major magic is always something to have on hand.
Thank you for putting up with Digital Magic. The blog will go into a low posting mode for a few weeks while I try to figure out the next serial. There should be some more gaming posts to make up for the lack of story, and I have some fanfics I can pull out and dusty off if need be.
Jackie and Donna have been tossed into fighting each other and trying to keep the raw magic from ripping apart the local space-time continuum. Ripping the fabric of reality is a major occupational safety and health violation, especially if no one has the permits to do so. It's a battle of metaphors; can Jackie's computer programming metaphor build up the magic she needs to repair things before Donna's aria builds to a climax? Jackie has the advantage; she can set a spell off to continue without having to tweak it on the fly. The drawback is that if she gets something wrong, reality bluescreens.
Of course, Jackie wins this battle of wills and magic, finishing with smacking Donna around with magic for a victory lap. With the threat over, Lance reappears having rescued himeself from Donna's dungeon. Self-rescuing damsels are more interesting, though, so Lance's escape remains offscreen. Donna is dealt with, placed into exile. Jackie and Lance get their happily ever after, or at least their happily ever after for now, and officially become a couple. Weather returns to normal in Ottawa, whatever normal is. Trish gets off Jackie's back about getting a boyfriend.
I cannot write a romance, not as an A-plot. I got too interested in how magic works to the point where Jackie's relationships never developed. Lance was more mentor than love interest and Steve was too slick bordering on sleazy for her to consider him for anything more than a one night stand. Trish was the better romantic lead. Lesson here - romance isn't my forte.
However, I do have romances building in other stories. Nasty finally admitted to herself and to Eric how she feels about him in Crossover. Laura and Mackenzie are a couple in Unruly, though the development of their relationship needs work. Brenna and Officer Matt came out of nowhere in The Soul Blade and almost derailed the ending. But the focus of those series is something else beyond the romances. The romances are subplots, not the main plot, and I'm more comfortable with that approach.
I doubt I will get back to Digital Magic. What I may do is mine the story for the good parts, like the eyes following on the walls and in mirrors to freak out a main character. It's a good horror bit, adding spookiness. I may pull Jacinda out of her video game for a new story and just handwave away how Jackie learned magic. Odd weather as fallout from major magic is always something to have on hand.
Thank you for putting up with Digital Magic. The blog will go into a low posting mode for a few weeks while I try to figure out the next serial. There should be some more gaming posts to make up for the lack of story, and I have some fanfics I can pull out and dusty off if need be.
26 Mar 2020
Digital Magic - Commentary n+1
Jackie rescues herself, in Digital Magic chapter n+1.
Brute force versus artistry is a battle of the ages. Does brute force win due to its simplicity? Or does artistry and complexity gain the upper hand in knowing how to redirect brute force away? Jackie and Donna are coming up to the battle between youth and old age, raw power versus experience, and desperation versus focus.
Jackie is doing what she can to escape. Natural thing to do, really. First, try to get through to Steve's better side, something he drowned in a bathtub as a teenager. Donna traded hers for power. Jackie is a battery pack to her, something to drain dry and toss away, one of a number of young adults that Donna has destroyed.
The Virgin Ploy goes back to the idea of various cultures' ideas of what is best to sacrifice. Virginity is seen by some as akin to purity. Erzsébet Báthory went to extremes, bathing in virgin blood, but it's a theme that repeats in myth and legend. So why not try to use it? Jackie has already been established to have had sex before, and there may or may not be a sex scene with Lance and/or Steve in the missing part between Chapter 17 and Chapter n. Donna doesn't care, though. She wants power, pure, impure, whatever.
Donna's metaphor is music. She could be a singer, though she prefers opera and classical over anything popular. If she realized that, today, money is power, she'd find a way to have multiple singing careers. Jackie is trying to apply brute force, knowing she can't match Donna for skill. Music can be disrupted. A long, loud, low note can be effective, thus the tuba. If this was written after the FIFA World Cup of 2010, Jackie might have gone with the vuvuzela instead. Angry bees are always disruptive.
Jackie's metaphor allows her to set off one spell and let it run autonomously. Donna still has to conduct. The difference lets Jackie ignore the evil sorceress long enough after hitting her. With the flow of magic disrupted, it becomes a race between the two women to get their metaphors to come out ahead of the others'.
Tomorrow, summarizing Digital Magic.
Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, RWBY, the manga anthology.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus week to get ahead on potential reviews.
Brute force versus artistry is a battle of the ages. Does brute force win due to its simplicity? Or does artistry and complexity gain the upper hand in knowing how to redirect brute force away? Jackie and Donna are coming up to the battle between youth and old age, raw power versus experience, and desperation versus focus.
Jackie is doing what she can to escape. Natural thing to do, really. First, try to get through to Steve's better side, something he drowned in a bathtub as a teenager. Donna traded hers for power. Jackie is a battery pack to her, something to drain dry and toss away, one of a number of young adults that Donna has destroyed.
The Virgin Ploy goes back to the idea of various cultures' ideas of what is best to sacrifice. Virginity is seen by some as akin to purity. Erzsébet Báthory went to extremes, bathing in virgin blood, but it's a theme that repeats in myth and legend. So why not try to use it? Jackie has already been established to have had sex before, and there may or may not be a sex scene with Lance and/or Steve in the missing part between Chapter 17 and Chapter n. Donna doesn't care, though. She wants power, pure, impure, whatever.
Donna's metaphor is music. She could be a singer, though she prefers opera and classical over anything popular. If she realized that, today, money is power, she'd find a way to have multiple singing careers. Jackie is trying to apply brute force, knowing she can't match Donna for skill. Music can be disrupted. A long, loud, low note can be effective, thus the tuba. If this was written after the FIFA World Cup of 2010, Jackie might have gone with the vuvuzela instead. Angry bees are always disruptive.
Jackie's metaphor allows her to set off one spell and let it run autonomously. Donna still has to conduct. The difference lets Jackie ignore the evil sorceress long enough after hitting her. With the flow of magic disrupted, it becomes a race between the two women to get their metaphors to come out ahead of the others'.
Tomorrow, summarizing Digital Magic.
Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, RWBY, the manga anthology.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus week to get ahead on potential reviews.
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