I’m feeling burned out on my usual routine of making and posting stuff. I’ve been doing the same things for a long time (417 posts) and I want to try something a little different. Here’s the experiment: spend this summer posting low effort, boring things. The idea is that it’s a low-key way to continue…
Author: Jacob
Accidental optical illusion
I was playing around in Blender and then I was like: “wait, is the gradient moving?”
Toki Pona, #3
I’m reading Pepper & Carrot in toki pona! This post is a bunch of my random thoughts. I’m at about 10% comprehension, but I understood this line perfectly: “mun li pana e nasin.” (source) It felt different to understand directly in toki pona without needing English. The words take on their own meaning and the…
Unscripted, #10
Why don’t I schedule days to rest? I’ve experience first hand how powerful it is, so like, why don’t I? I’ve been running on rest as needed, but preventative maintenance would be a lot better. I seem to be on a rough schedule of one month intense, one month mellow. Why not go along with…
A brief review of Wordle
Hey, I wasn’t sure what to write about today. Then I remembered I have a 30 day streak in Wordle, so I thought, why not review it? Wordle is a word game where you try to guess a five letter word in six turns. Each turn reveals correct letters: yellow letters are in the word,…
Dusk Clouds
This one was tricky because I wanted to use volumetric clouds (see this video), but in Blender 2.79, without volumetrics, on the world shader, and in Cycles. Almost everything was working, except I couldn’t find a good base shape for the clouds. I tried so many different combinations of gradients and textures. I eventually tried…
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 6
(spoiler free) I finished watching the movie. It’s such a breath of fresh air coming from Western film and animation. Violet Evergarden is the most real film/animation/series I’ve ever watched. Nothing about it feels fake or forced. It’s not trying too hard and that makes it perfect. I can’t do it justice in this review,…
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 5
So this is unusual, I’m writing about something I haven’t finished yet. I thought I’d have time to finish watching and write a post before midnight, but I ran out of time. Like who pauses a movie halfway through to write an update? Me. Anyway, I feel like it’s not going to have a bittersweet…
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 4
I finished watching the first movie and the special. The trees. The leaves. Just wow, 10/10. I probably should have watched the special after episode 4, but it was still good. Time to watch the final movie!
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 3
I finished the series and it’s a 10/10 masterpiece. It’s so comfortable to watch, even though I cried at times. How do I describe it? It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. I can still hear the main theme playing in my head. I hope to one day create something even half as beautiful. Okay, now…
Falling Petals
A single Blender shader + compositing color grade. No geometry, just a shader going brrrr. Here’s the blend file:
Procedural Stars in Blender, Part 2
Hey, it’s that time of year again! I can never get enough of stars, especially procedural stars. The main difference between these stars and the part 1 stars is limiting the Voronoi texture. I wanted a few medium stars, but it wasn’t working. It seems like Blender 2.79 can’t quite reach the same sparse Voronoi…
Mini Blender Renders, #8
Inspired by Composition 37 – Rorschach\Larshe. Reference photos by englishlampposts.co.uk.
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 2
I didn’t realize that there’s more episodes! Yesss! …
Watching “Violet Evergarden”, Part 1
Earlier today I was mindlessly scrolling Netflix. Unusual, I know. Then a title caught my eye. My friends had recommended Violet Evergarden to me before, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. I started watching. I kept watching. How do I describe how I felt? I felt comfortable and understood. I relate to Violet’s struggle.…
Ukulele Practice
It’s been a while since I last posted about ukulele. I’ve been playing at least some every day since the last update. Remember that tricky strumming pattern? Yeah, it’s almost easy now. I’m one step closer to being able to play “Over the Rainbow”.
Playing “picoCTF”
Today I spent some time playing picoCTF. It’s a computer security capture the flag environment and I had a great time doing practice challenges. One cool thing I learned is how to send cookies in wget requests. A while ago I struggled trying to figure out how, but it’s literally just “–header ‘Cookie: asdf’” Also,…
Playing “Angry Birds Classic”
Yesterday I started playing Angry Birds Classic! I’m so glad Angry Birds is back on the Appstore. I’ve played the original Angry Birds, Space, Star Wars 1 & 2, Seasons, Rio, GO, and Bad Piggies. I guess I’m something of an Angry Birds fan. Anyway, Angry Birds Classic feels just like the original. The physics…