How to Fit Clothing when Spikes Show Up After Posing

This was a recent find for me. The Millineum Catwoman. After some discussion with Redfern I found out that she was called Mia. So as normal for my entries in this thread I have listed the stuff I used. I do however have a tip. Mia's bodysuit was orginally made for Furrette. I decided that I wanted a better fit to Victoria's body so I converted the clothing using Crossdresser by EvilInnocense. I wasn't quite happy with the fit so I added a smoother but that put to much distortion in the suit. So I decided to try to convert it to a weight mapped figure. When I did that every pose I used with the suit gave me spikes. They were on the arms and legs. I have seen this happen before and I finally did some research and found out 1 of the reasons for this occuring. Bottom line DAZ and Poser use different ways in dealing with how mesh is positioned at the joints. So there is a lot of leaway for DAZ to confuse a poor mesh and make spikes happen. Here is what I did to fix this issue when it happens to be a weight map issue.

Instructions:
1. Convert garment to Tri-Axe weight mapping.
2. Bend the garment and note where the spikes are created. You should be able to tell which bend direction causes the problem for what bone. So for the bodysuit it was the Z bend in the right and left shoulder bones.
3. On the Tool Settings Tab, select the Node Weight Map Brush Tool
4. In the Scene tab select the(one of) bone(s) where the spike or spikes occurred. In my case I had multiple places that needed attention so this process become iterative from this point on.
5. In the viewport right click and select the Brush Mode->Paint Brush. You will see two circles a green inside a red appear in the Viewport when you move the mouse over the garment.
6. Select the Rotation map for the previously identified bend. In my example it is the Z Rotation map that was not performing like it should, i.e. spiky. Upon selection you should see on the garment the area which the map identifies as having influence. Represented by red, blue and/or yellow fields of color. It is now, that you should be able to see some areas where the garment colors show through.
7. With the left button held down move the mouse over these areas to turn them red.
8. Rotate the bone within the Parameter tab or the pose wheel in the upper left corner of the view port. If you still see deformation then pass the mouse over the area again.
9. You have fixed your problem. If you want to keep this version of the garment and not have to make these fixes each time you use it. I would highly recommend saving it out as a figure.

Title: Join the Space Force Now
Rendered in iRay. Postwork in Gimp to add the text and sig.
An imaginary recruitment post for the US Space Force. Featuring one of their own Lt. Mia Tabby. Lt. Mia as she is called, is a combination of Victoria 2 body and Millineum Cat. A creature created by Little_Dragon with the help of Redfern and others. The poster behind her is from the JPL site. Lt. Mia is based loosly on Redfern's Mzzkiti, both being service girls and all. I want to thank Redfern for all of his information about this character, where she came from, who was involved. I love history.

So here she is:

Freebies:
Character:Lt. Mia:Actor              * Millennium Catwoman v1.2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Tail                   Bushy Tail 2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture          * MilCatwoman Red Tabby Texture by Little_Dragon.
Clothing: Jewelry: Earrings       * Ankh Earrings for Poser by Chris Cox.
Clothing:Bodysuit and Vest         Furrette SPF Uniform by Little_Dragon.
Clothing:Jewery:Ring               * Shardz Elven Ring for V3 by Shardz.
Environment:Background           Visions of the Future - Venus by Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Hair                                             Little_Dragon's Ziggy Hair for Furrette 2.0 by Little_Dragon.
Pose:Lt. Mia                               Inspired by Louis Royo by Schlabber.
Prop:Lt. Mia:Weapon               * Angry Hornet Raygun by Archeopterix.
Shader: Lt. Mia:Claws             * Iray car related shader presets 'megapack' by Tom2099.
Shader: Suit: Jewelry: Gold    * jewelry_iray_shaders by AllenArt LaurieA.
Shaders:Clothing                    * Iray Leather Shaders by Tom2099.
Paid fors:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Head       * Millennium Cat by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Claws              # Cat Character (w/ poseable nails) by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture           # Classic Cats Combo by LaurieS Lisa's Botanicals.
Clothing:Conversion                   * CrossDresser V2 by EvilInnocense.
No Counts:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Body      # Victoria 2.0 by DAZ 3D.
Clothing:Bib                                # RDNA Roma by Traveler.
Environment:Lighting                 # FWSA Soft Light Probes by Fred Winkler Art Sabby.

* - Requires free registration
# - No longer legally available

As promised I have work a bit on Mia. I am going to add this entry in my art thread because I learned something about spikey stuff and I want to add that discussion there.

Title: Join the Space Force Now
Rendered in iRay. Postwork in Gimp to add the text and sig.
An imaginary recruitment post for the US Space Force. Featuring one of their own Lt. Mia Tabby. Lt. Mia as she is called, is a combination of Victoria 2 body and Millineum Cat. A creature created by Little_Dragon with the help of Redfern and others. The poster behind her is from the JPL site. Lt. Mia is based loosly on Redfern's Mzzkiti, both being service girls and all. I want to thank Redfern for all of his information about this character, where she came from, who was involved. I love history.

So here she is:

Freebies:
Character:Lt. Mia:Actor              * Millennium Catwoman v1.2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Tail                   Bushy Tail 2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture          * MilCatwoman Red Tabby Texture by Little_Dragon.
Clothing: Jewelry: Earrings       * Ankh Earrings for Poser by Chris Cox.
Clothing:Bodysuit and Vest         Furrette SPF Uniform by Little_Dragon.
Clothing:Jewery:Ring               * Shardz Elven Ring for V3 by Shardz.
Environment:Background           Visions of the Future - Venus by Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Hair                                             Little_Dragon's Ziggy Hair for Furrette 2.0 by Little_Dragon.
Pose:Lt. Mia                               Inspired by Louis Royo by Schlabber.
Prop:Lt. Mia:Weapon               * Angry Hornet Raygun by Archeopterix.
Shader: Lt. Mia:Claws             * Iray car related shader presets 'megapack' by Tom2099.
Shader: Suit: Jewelry: Gold    * jewelry_iray_shaders by AllenArt LaurieA.
Shaders:Clothing                    * Iray Leather Shaders by Tom2099.
Paid fors:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Head       * Millennium Cat by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Claws              # Cat Character (w/ poseable nails) by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture           # Classic Cats Combo by LaurieS Lisa's Botanicals.
Clothing:Conversion                   * CrossDresser V2 by EvilInnocense.
No Counts:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Body      # Victoria 2.0 by DAZ 3D.
Clothing:Bib                                # RDNA Roma by Traveler.
Environment:Lighting                 # FWSA Soft Light Probes by Fred Winkler Art Sabby.

* - Requires free registration
# - No longer legally available

NAE

Title: Join the Space Force Now
Rendered in iRay. Postwork in Gimp to add the text and sig.
An imaginary recruitment post for the US Space Force. Featuring one of their own Lt. Mia Tabby. Lt. Mia as she is called, is a combination of Victoria 2 body and Millineum Cat. A creature created by Little_Dragon with the help of Redfern and others. The poster behind her is from the JPL site. Lt. Mia is based loosly on Redfern's Mzzkiti, both being service girls and all. I want to thank Redfern for all of his information about this character, where she came from, who was involved. I love history.

So here she is:

Freebies:
Character:Lt. Mia:Actor              * Millennium Catwoman v1.2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Tail                   Bushy Tail 2 by Little_Dragon.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture          * MilCatwoman Red Tabby Texture by Little_Dragon.
Clothing: Jewelry: Earrings       * Ankh Earrings for Poser by Chris Cox.
Clothing:Bodysuit and Vest         Furrette SPF Uniform by Little_Dragon.
Clothing:Jewery:Ring               * Shardz Elven Ring for V3 by Shardz.
Environment:Background           Visions of the Future - Venus by Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Hair                                             Little_Dragon's Ziggy Hair for Furrette 2.0 by Little_Dragon.
Pose:Lt. Mia                               Inspired by Louis Royo by Schlabber.
Prop:Lt. Mia:Weapon               * Angry Hornet Raygun by Archeopterix.
Shader: Lt. Mia:Claws             * Iray car related shader presets 'megapack' by Tom2099.
Shader: Suit: Jewelry: Gold    * jewelry_iray_shaders by AllenArt LaurieA.
Shaders:Clothing                    * Iray Leather Shaders by Tom2099.
Paid fors:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Head       * Millennium Cat by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Claws              # Cat Character (w/ poseable nails) by DAZ 3D.
Character:Lt. Mia:Texture           # Classic Cats Combo by LaurieS Lisa's Botanicals.
Clothing:Conversion                   * CrossDresser V2 by EvilInnocense.
No Counts:
Character Base:Lt. Mia:Body      # Victoria 2.0 by DAZ 3D.
Clothing:Bib                                # RDNA Roma by Traveler.
Environment:Lighting                 # FWSA Soft Light Probes by Fred Winkler Art Sabby.

* - Requires free registration
# - No longer legally available

Some progress has happened.  I found a better nVIDIA driver and D|S now detects the correct GPU, both Iray and dForce, so I ran tests.

Default settings, a Victoria 8 face closeup rendered at HD...

• CPU - 35 minutes
• GPU - 14 minutes
• Both - 10.6 minutes

I was hoping for at least one order of magnitude speedup, but I'm glad for this improvement.  Pic attached.

dForce didn't fare so well.  I started again with a default Victoria 8, eased her into a tiptoe pose over 70 frames, and rotated her 2.25 times in Y over 90 frames, hoping for a twirling skirt on her dForce dress.  The simulation took about 38 minutes to run, and went unstable after frame 71, disappointing.  I did a similar test on a dynamic Jessi dress in the old Poser 6 cloth room for comparison.  The models are much lower resolution, I know, but even so.  Poser's sim ran on a single core of my old Athlon, finished in 2.75 minutes, and didn't break.  Pic attached.

That's two more things solved from the checklist.  Not the greatest, but they're not dead anymore.  I'm still looking for the other list items, especially more Iray information, how to enable some basic animation-friendly features, like multipass rendering, HDR output, and motion blur.  Anybody?  Thanks for reading.

Hallelujah!

Disciple

Edit: That was an animated GIF when I attached it.  Embedding it failed.  Can anyone see it move?  Well, I'll attach the frame where the dForce dress detonates.  Why are these forums better than the old ones again?

Yes it can.

Studio has a LoD system built into it, but only Victoria 4 and Michael 4 have LoD mesh, you would need to make your own for every other mesh you have.

3Delight can't use the texture formats you get with content, so it converts it all into temporary TDL files, these are a mip-mapped TIF format, and at different distances from the camera the further down the mips 3Delight uses.

With Iray however I very much doubt if any of that still works.

Yes, with a limited exception for the Anne Marie goddard Digital Clone for Victoria 3, you can sell 2D rendered images - both still images and animations - as long as they are not competing with the original product (e.g. you might slap one of Ron's Photoshop brushes one a plane, render that - selling or giving away the resultant PNG would not be allowed since that could be used instead of the original brush).

Here is a side-by-side comparison at 1220 x 4880 (lol, this site won't accept long strips - but will accept this with some padding top-bottom, which is 2440x4880).

The fourth image is of UNBM-G8F at 200% .  The third was G8F with Victoria Body at 100% with scale slider to 97% to shrink the height back to something similar as before, and then only Victoria Bend moprhs applied.

Made sure I zeroed my own shoulder blade morphs first.

It may be worth asking the vendor via DAZ-tickets if the subtle effect was intended?  In this pose, the shoulder blades are sure better with 100% UNBM than default G8F without.  Am on a 1440p monitor, so think it stands out pretty good as is.  But yeah it is a big diff compared to Victoria. If I had to guess as someone who makes tons of morphs and sees how they apply to other unintended characters with different proportions, I would guess maybe? that the G8F Version was meant to be more subtle so that it's less likely to look off for other G8F models with different mesh-rigging.  LOL, or maybe not.  Just one explanation.

Ya know...I think what I'm going to do going forward is just use V8 for everything. I did that for most of my G3 characters as well...just use Victoria as a base and dial-spin tweak her from there to create different looks...becuase *everything* seems to be more compatible with the Vicky bases than anything else, lol. 

Here is a side-by-side comparison at 1220 x 4880 (lol, this site won't accept long strips - but will accept this with some padding top-bottom, which is 2440x4880).

The fourth image is of UNBM-G8F at 200% .  The third was G8F with Victoria Body at 100% with scale slider to 97% to shrink the height back to something similar as before, and then only Victoria Bend moprhs applied.

Made sure I zeroed my own shoulder blade morphs first.

It may be worth asking the vendor via DAZ-tickets if the subtle effect was intended?  In this pose, the shoulder blades are sure better with 100% UNBM than default G8F without.  Am on a 1440p monitor, so think it stands out pretty good as is.  But yeah it is a big diff compared to Victoria. If I had to guess as someone who makes tons of morphs and sees how they apply to other unintended characters with different proportions, I would guess maybe? that the G8F Version was meant to be more subtle so that it's less likely to look off for other G8F models with different mesh-rigging.  LOL, or maybe not.  Just one explanation.

Do you have the Victoria 8 version? I think you'll see the difference. The Victoria 8 version is, I believe, the one that is working correctly.

Have both products.  (And make my own ERC morphs including for Shoulder Blades). 

How do you mean working correctly?  Can you post screenshots showing diff and what you are wanting?  The screenshots posted show morphs are being actuated for upper body for G8F version on GIA HD.

There will be a diff in the morphs themselves.

I think the biggest issue is that the Victoria 8 version seems *way* more noticeable. I reinstalled and tried with even just the base G8 and saw almost nothing on a pose with someone standing with an arm up shielding from the sun. 

Do you have the Victoria 8 version? I think you'll see the difference. The Victoria 8 version is, I believe, the one that is working correctly.

Have both products.  (And make my own ERC morphs including for Shoulder Blades). 

How do you mean working correctly?  Can you post screenshots showing diff and what you are wanting?  The screenshots posted show morphs are being actuated for upper body for G8F version on GIA HD.

There will be a diff in the morphs themselves.

Do you have the Victoria 8 version? I think you'll see the difference. The Victoria 8 version is, I believe, the one that is working correctly.

Old thread, but...

I've been testing this product vs. the Victoria 8 version, and it doesn't seem like the Collar Fwd / Back morph is doing anything.

The first is the Vicky 8 version, the second is the general G8.

Also, when I move the master controller, nothing happens in that area when I'm using the G8 slider, but does for the Vicky version.

 

 

 

 

I have the same issue, but also with the arms/shoulders. If I use Victoria 8, then the Victoria 8 Ultimate Bend morphs work perfectly. However, if I use say Gia 8, then the Genesis 8 Ultimate Bend morphs do nothing from the waist up. I only use pre-made poses and/or bones to pose. It has caused me to uninstall the product, sadly, as I have passed my refund window. 

Just tried 100% GIA HD.
It worked for me for upper body.
Key is a dramatic pose for shoulder blades to trigger morph.

Tho - don't remember ever see anything on the upper arms?
So shoulder blades is the biggy, and elbows and forearms (for the twist).
Can find the elbows too pointy so dial those to 40% or 0%.

3 images.
One at 0 UNBM.
Second at 100% UNBM.
Third with 100% UNBM, but neck bones were reset to 0 and then head, neck posed with the Pose>Neck so UNBM morphs kicks in for that.

EDIT: Looked through the list of morphs under Parameters for UNBM and saw a Partial JCM for farm..which would guess is fore arm.  In those images, it did move those.  Didn't see any morphs listed for upper arms. 

Oh, yeah..."Mia"!  Little Dragon let MaPPer and me beta test the figure.  Her biggest "problem" was that Victoria 3 was right around the cirner, awaiting her debut.  So started the cycle that has continued to this day.  When the new figures appear, the majority of content creators "drop" the previous mesh in favor of the latest.  Suddenly ie was V3 getting all the slick outfits, leaving Vickie 2 in the cold.  And as Mia had the body of V2, she got caught by that same undertow.

But, if you know how to tweak the mesh and dress it, Mia is still a viable character model.  Here I dressed her in the "Concord Pathfinder" uniform, creating "displacement maps" from the existing textures, giving Mia raised snaps and clasps upon her outfit.

Sincerely,

Bill

I really like this NPR style! Very cool!

I guess I'll address these one at a time. 

My laptop has a GPU, an nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. I bought it to accelerate renders.  I want the Iray engine to use it, so here's what I've done.

• Updated the drivers from the latest manufacturer recommended download,
• confirmed successful install,
• shutdown and cold restart,
• launched Studio,
• selected GPU only in the advanced render settings tab of the Iray engine, preview and final,
• set up a new scene with default Victoria 8 plus ponytail and basic wear,
• enabled Iray preview and launched a small render.

At this point, no Iray output appears.  A smooth-shade view appears in the preview pane.  The status bar shows "Preparing scene...".  The yellow progress bar climbs from zero to 100, over and over.  A render window pops up and runs for a few seconds, then finishes with an empty canvas.  A screenshot is attached.

My GPU memory self-reports as 8Gb, but I tried reducing my scene just in case.  Even an empty scene never finishes the "Preparing..." phase when Iray preview is selected.

If I enable the CPU, the Intel cores do deliver Iray rendering in preview and final, as in my previous post.  I looked through nvidia.com, but that's all about screencasting and gaming with newer products, no help to me.  So now I'm out of ideas.  What did I miss?  Thanks for reading.

Hallelujah!

Disciple

Edit: Solved.  Please continue.

Old thread, but...

I've been testing this product vs. the Victoria 8 version, and it doesn't seem like the Collar Fwd / Back morph is doing anything.

The first is the Vicky 8 version, the second is the general G8.

Also, when I move the master controller, nothing happens in that area when I'm using the G8 slider, but does for the Vicky version.

 

 

 

 

I have the same issue, but also with the arms/shoulders. If I use Victoria 8, then the Victoria 8 Ultimate Bend morphs work perfectly. However, if I use say Gia 8, then the Genesis 8 Ultimate Bend morphs do nothing from the waist up. I only use pre-made poses and/or bones to pose. It has caused me to uninstall the product, sadly, as I have passed my refund window. 

Until recently, I had no issues with DSON importing for Poser 11 running on Windows 10. After installing the most recent Poser Pro 11 update, my DSON content went haywire. I only have two DSON characters, a pair of running shoes and the VIctoria 5 Elite Ponytail. Both would load and I'd see the mesh, but the figure would be invisible upon rednering. I uninstalled both, and bot would now load...but there would be no figure in the scene. It showed in the menu, but there wasn't anything actually there.
To try to solve this, I did the following:

• Uninstalled both figures with the Daz Install Manager and swept the runtime folder for remnants
• Uninstalled Poser completely, deleted all preference and installation folders, and cleaned the registry using CCleaner
• Uninstalled DAZ Install Manager and DSON Importer
• Downloaded latest versions of the above software
• Reinstalled everything
• Lied to DIM and told it I was using Poser Pro 2014

After doing this, the running shoes will load. The V5 Ponytail, however, still does the "phantom figure" thing. Furthermore, once this phantom ponytail figure loads, deleting it triggers a Poser crash. Trying to close down Poser after loading this figure also triggers a Poser crash.
I've looked everywhere trying to find a solution, but nothing seems to be the same as what I'm experiencing. Any advice is appreciated, since I used that hair exclusively on my main character in the setup scenes for the comic book I published and am having difficulty with them now due to this issue.
I'm also noting that Poser never actually seemed to do a true clean install, because it never asked me for the registration key again, it always just...had it. No matter how thoroughly I tried to clean it out.

...speaking of recovery, still dealing with fixing the phone.   I originally got it from T•Mobile (which is why when I restored it I got a lot of T•Mobile rubbish on the screen), but about a year ago I switched to Consumer Cellular (which saves me 30$ a month) so I don't think I can go to the T•Mobile outlet to get things working properly again . Consumer Cellular has no Brick & Mortar outlets. 

Finally got my two grocery market apps set up and running again. Sadly the weather service I used to have changed their app and it now requires Android 6.0 or better.. However, found a new one that give me everything I need on one screen and even sets the current conditions to wherever I am located at the moment.  Still need to find a good ringtone that isn't a song, cheesy electronic noise, or something everyone else uses, as well as set up and sync a couple other apps I used to have and get the secure login working again.  Crikey, this is almost more exasperating than setting up a new computer as it often involves having to type things in on that tiny "virtual keyboard".

Have you worked out the economics of how you use the phone vs what you could get with a pay-as-you-go TracFone?  How much do you actually use the phone for talking?  I could see that if you're on the phone all day long, or use a lot of data, or are addicted to the current state-of-the-art gadgetry, then TracFone wouldn't work for you.   But they have nice catalog of one or two generation old phones for under $100 and many under $50.  I'm able to use their $21 for 3 months service plan that provides 60 minutes of talk time.  Granted I don't talk any more than a sleeping snail but it's a nice Motorola (Moto G Optimo) Android-9 with speech recognition, front & back cameras, Bluetooth and plenty of storage once I added a 2nd memory chip.  Yes, I had to buy a couple GigaBytes of data access but I've hardly dented that because I usually only connect to the Internet when I'm at home and using my personal WiFi router for access.

I know that the $21 for 60 minutes for 3 months would strangle a lot of people who do a lot of talking, but that's only the absolute lowest service plan.  There are several other plans with varying amounts of minutes & data.  And if you ever see a need for more minutes or data, you can use the phone to add more, bing bang botta boom, done, right from the phone.  Break the plans down to cost-per-month to see what pops out.  For me the $7/month cost is perfect, I've currently accumulated over 3000 minutes of talk time for if I ever get gabby.  Because of my limited usage I have never regretted moving to TracFone.  Why pay for service you don't use?  And besides, in my not-so-humble opinion,  $800 phones on a $150/month plan are ludicrous foppery.

And don't let the "I don't want to bother buying a new service card every 3 months" excuse trouble you.  They really want you to subscribe instead of buying new service cards each quarter, and they'll give you a few percent off the price to automatically renew you when the time comes.  After 10 years of buying a new plan every 3-months, I finally decided to join their subscription service and saved a couple dollars per quarter.  And, I can still use the phone or my computer to add a little time or data to the plan when necessary.

...I still actually have an old flip phone from such a service but it is extremely limited ans you have to manuslly "reload" it every 30 days often having to enter a long cryptic code to do so (not good for a dyslexic with old eyes).  Also on such phones, net access (data) is extremely expensive, more so than with most smartphone plans.  I need data for a couple of functions I use ( I am currently paying 25$ a month for 250 minutes (which I rarey iif ewver use unless I have to contact some government agency which puts me on hold for 45 min to an hour), unlimited texting, and 3 GB/month of data usage),  Most of those "pay as you go phones actually end up more expensive in the long run as you pay a flat 10¢ a minute, so a 10 minute call is 2.50$.

As our transit system has done away with paper passes and tickets, without a smart (and yes, I question the term) phone, I would either have to carry a wad of change in my pocket (and currently they are not accepting cash fares because of COVID), or deal with a ridiculous, and easy to lose, fare card (which just adds to the other cards one has to deal with) that you have to go to some store or other "certified" outlet to put money on it. 

With the phone app I can add money to it online (even through the phone) and the app also lets me instantly see the balance in my account so I don't end up in an unpleasant and embarrassing situation when boarding when account has insufficient funds.   You can check your balance with the card option, but is a rather cumbersome process and can only be done on a home computer after entering a bunbch of different codes. If it's lost or stolen, well, tough luck.

The one other service I like having a smartphone for is being able to get directions to a location as well as the food market apps which come in very handy and are not available on a flip phone.

"I'm hungry!" is the single best reason for keeping Siri around.

the white is too bright.  it hurts

Your eyes now have a clear window to the world.  No yellowed ancient lens in the way.  I used a pair of sunglasses (clip-ons when necessary), for a while when looking at a white monitor, and going outside on a bright day hurts.  

ALSO, your eyes now have less protection from UV light from the sun.  Sunglasses should be kept handy.

Young people snicker at us oldies when we complain about the screens being too bright.  To which I say, just wait, just wait.  You'll see what we mean when your eyes are three-quarters of a century old and have had the watery, UV blocking lens replaced with a plastic one.

It's not only that, it's a plastic one that's rolled up like a doobie.  They slide it in through the side and it unrolls like a fat burrito with too much stuff in it.  And BAM, you're good!

I got an email today indicating that my brother had listed me as a reference for a job working for the police. There are a few issues with this:

1) I can only imagine that a nearly-40-year-old using his brother as a reference is a bad look

2) He didn't tell me he was using me as a reference, which is bad form

3) Indeed, we haven't spoken at all in several months, and he hasn't responded to the last couple messages I've sent him, because we're not on great terms right now, which relates to...

4) Judgment and impulse control are not his strong points, to put it charitably, so it would be irresponsible of me to recommend him to the police.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea who that person is."

"Yeah, that dude owes me money from his last drug buy!"

...or...

"Yes, you should hire him, he heals the sick, raises the dead, and feeds the masses with two fish and a sheepskin-squeeze of wine.  And he walks on water when he's bored!"

The answer you give, maybe could be dependent on what kind of outcome you desire.

For example...

"Don't ever call me again"

"You screwed yourself, dude!"

...or, and this may be the one you want to avoid:

"Guess what, honey?  My brother is coming to stay with us.  It's only for a "few days" while he "gets back on his feet". "

We've all heard that one, right?  And we all know that it will be something between "a few days" and "the end of my marriage".

If you live far enough apart, maybe your risk is low for that bad one happening.  Or have a house rule like mine:  No more roomates!  In any event, you are in charge here.

Seriously, I'd call him and leave a message asking him not to use me for a reference, particularly if you are still working and have a professional image to maintain.  If not, then you can pretty much do whatever you want.

@DanaTA  Yeah, I understand that in some people internal pressures need an outlet.  But I barely speak at all and most of that is to myself.  So, using a phone to do that would be overkill. 

I sometimes get a call from me.  But usually I don't want to talk to that person, so I don't answer!      Really, this phone scam crap has to stop!

Dana

I think I got a call from you once. 

And Kyoto called me.  Not Kyoto Kid, no.  It was actually Kyoto, the whole city.  I had to learn how to say "wrong number" in Japanese and then repeat it 1.5 million times!  The good news is that it took only about 7 years to get off that call.  Such polite people!

And those Kardashians just won't leave me alone!  At one point, I just started saying random stuff to get them to think they were calling a crazy person.

Well, THAT backfired big-time.  Now their kids are all named "North", "Stormy", "Psalm" (I actually pronounced it "Palm", like palm tree), "Chicago", "Saint", and isn't there a "Blue Indigo", which means "blue blue", right? 

Hey, it worked with Michael Jackson!  Paris, Blanket, right?

I missed a real opportunity on that blue-blue one.  I could have said "Blue, Cerulean, Indigo, Navy, Aqua, and Azure".   Okay, that would have been cruel to some poor kid.  Or AWESOME.  She'd have a ready-made DJ name!  "Blue-7"  Or with 133t ("Leet"), it could be Blu35 (leet for a great blues artist!).  The awesome would never end in my lifetime!

Names that they haven't used yet include, "Holy Spirit", "Jesus, Joseph, and Mary" (for one single kid), "Wang Chung", "Cerberus", "Bingo", "Victoria 8", "Dodgers", "49'ers", "Sabotage", "Dingo Dawg", "Canishowyoumytattoo", and "Mucky Ducky".  They're always gettin' busy, so it's likely there will be new naming opportunities down the line.  Time will tell!

Hmmm, wouldn't it be interesting if the Kardashian kids all decided to rename themselves "Richard", "John", "Misty", and "Chohole" once they reached age of majority?  That would be sweet!

thqy brought me food
they went thru my fridge and got rid of the spoiled food.  so atleast i won't food poison myself.  they gave me applesauce snack cups. quick qnd eqsy  

the eye inj seem to help a lil bit, the blood fog is a lil less thick.  my monitor is set at lowest res.   
siri keeping me company.  dolphins have belly buttons and sleep 8 hours.  she knows why rudolph's nose is red.  i ask her where santa is, he moves around.  she cant help me find jesus. would be more help right now than santa.  but i like her tone when she talks about santa.is warm and fuzzy, my siri talks australian so she sounds cuter
i have to set the type to H1 to be able to type here, then change it to normal before submit button.  
what makes a kitchen a euro kitchen?
my phone battery was at 1 percent, siri said 1 is the loneliest number.
i need to set up a perimeter of hamster warriors so the squirrel king cant infiltrate my dreams and nightmarres.  squirrels sleep 15 hours.  exhaust themselves running around trees.  cant see them but i assume they still out there.
i tried working on chapters  but i type a lot of gibberish when my hands shift on the keyboard.  i used to have the big ez see yellow keyboard.  cant find it now.  when i put something down cant find it again.
somewhere in my room is a headset with mic boom.  its been a month since the first cataract surgery.  thought i'd be reading bruce dickinson's memoirs by now. 
i scared no one to take me to  next surgery my chest feels tight all the time.

 

 

Do an Uber.  Pre-program the number or have somebody help you.

the white is too bright.  it hurts

I think Firefox has some sort of add on to customize the appearance of websites, so you can have a "dark style" look... 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?category=appearance&sort=recommended%2Cusers&type=extension

There are a couple (actually quite few) but since I haven't used them, it's best you decide which one seems best for you... the reviews vary... 

thanks

 

 

the white is too bright.  it hurts

Your eyes now have a clear window to the world.  No yellowed ancient lens in the way.  I used a pair of sunglasses (clip-ons when necessary), for a while when looking at a white monitor, and going outside on a bright day hurts.  

ALSO, your eyes now have less protection from UV light from the sun.  Sunglasses should be kept handy.

Young people snicker at us oldies when we complain about the screens being too bright.  To which I say, just wait, just wait.  You'll see what we mean when your eyes are three-quarters of a century old and have had the watery, UV blocking lens replaced with a plastic one.

 

eyes with serial umbers now

Your eyes have serial numbers?  Wow, that's awesome!  You're like the Bionic Woman now!

I got an email today indicating that my brother had listed me as a reference for a job working for the police. There are a few issues with this:

1) I can only imagine that a nearly-40-year-old using his brother as a reference is a bad look

2) He didn't tell me he was using me as a reference, which is bad form

3) Indeed, we haven't spoken at all in several months, and he hasn't responded to the last couple messages I've sent him, because we're not on great terms right now, which relates to...

4) Judgment and impulse control are not his strong points, to put it charitably, so it would be irresponsible of me to recommend him to the police.

Are you sure it's genuine?

Fair enough. I haven't looked too closely at the email, but from the preview on my phone, it seemed legit enough. If it is a scam, I'm having a hard time imagining what the scam might be. 

"Oh that guy?  He was really nice; he shared all his drugs with everybody.  Unfortunately, I lost track of him after he went into prison."

Woooza... Veeeeeeeerrrrry windy... right now it's worse than Sandy wind wise... my street looks like a war zone.

Danm... while I was writing that the big tree in the front lost a huge section... about 1/3... it's now blocking the main driveway... Damn... I really liked that tree.

I cut down 11 trees in my front yard back in 2012.  Whew, building crushing avoided!

Ooh, hurricanes.  Time to bring out the devil kites.

 

Non-complaint:  Wheee... I've got my mail installed again.  I have 6 active email accounts that I use for various things and reasons.  I had been using Microsoft mail programs but they ended up changing their free mail app every couple of years.  Then they dropped my last one "Windows Live Mail".  Arghhh.  So, I tried a 3rd party app "Thunderbird Mail".  HATED IT!!!  It caused me to lose lots of important information when it just decides to clean house.  Grrrr...  I have a small hope of recovering it though (that's part of what I've been doing scrounging through my backups and archives), but they don't make it easy with the way they scramble everything into the hidden "appdata" mish-mash.

To resolve this problem once and for all (hopefully) I bit the bullet and bought a copy of Microsoft "Outlook 2019".  I probably could have gotten it through various sketchy sources but I went directly to Microsoft and paid their pound of flesh.  Good thing too, because I had greatly troubles getting it downloaded and installed.  Why, oh why do they make it so simple that a child can do it but ancient computer experts tear their hair out trying to overcome 3 decades of preconceived notions of how software should be installed.    I took advantage of chat with MS experts at their service desk and was eventually led by the nose to the one page on their website that had enough clues that I finally succeeded.  And I now have all six of my email accounts configured and they've downloaded the last three days of unread mail.  Yay?

Yeah, yeah, I know I could have gotten Outlook for free but it's a crippled version and works through web browsers and has advertisements.  Nope, not going there.  I wanted the locally resident application that downloads everything and keeps it all in one spot on my own computer.  

Edited to add:  And somewhere in the process of getting my "Outlook 2019" downloaded and licensed I ended up with two license keys.  One of them at least appears to be active, but don't ask me which one?  (*sigh*) more confusion than I can handle today.  Time for a shot of vodka in my iced tea and some TV.

Didn't Outlook go cloud?

I hope things start to clear up for you, Misty!  Being a writer, I'd have thought you were a touch typist.  You don't need to see the keys when you are a touch typist.  Just feel the little bumps on the F and J keys and you know where you are.   sdfg are worn off, so if I didn't know where they were, I'd be lost.  My sister Laurie complains whenever she asks to use my computer.  Which isn't often, thankfully.

Dana

Touch-typing FTW!

Wow. Is that Victoria 3? This is some very early Poser work from me. Very early, but I've done much worse art that this since then too! LOL

I am probably terribly boring. When I like something, it stays liked. https://www.daz3d.com/glamorous-vicki-set-for-victoria-3-0

Regards,

Richard.