Kinich said:

I don't have Streets of Asia 2 but do have the original, the set (SOA 1) consists of the main preloaded scene, a smaller scene just featuring the central courtyard area and 8 props (Blossom Patch, Blossom Strip, Column C, Column Small, Column Tall, Fence, Lantern & Pot Plant)

Screen shot below.

And above that is a little something I put together using SOA a while back.

-MJ

Cathy_Mod said:

Stonemason Day! I'm hoping someone with one or both of these sets can help me - I'm trying to decide between Streets of Asia I and II, and noticed in the description that Streets of Asia II seems to consist only of preloads for Daz Studio and Poser - does this mean that none of the separate parts such as the potted plants can be moved or added separately? And are both sets like that? I LOVE these sets, but I do sort of like to move things around to make it more unique... Thanks for any help or advice! -Cathy

I don't have Streets of Asia 2 but do have the original, the set (SOA 1) consists of the main preloaded scene, a smaller scene just featuring the central courtyard area and 8 props (Blossom Patch, Blossom Strip, Column C, Column Small, Column Tall, Fence, Lantern & Pot Plant)

Screen shot below.

And above that is a little something I put together using SOA a while back.

Thanks Rashad, yes the inconsistency you correctly observed is central to the topic of RGB response.

Here's another Bryce 20 scene lighting project - Using IBL with boost light and TA gels - by David Brinnen

Here this issue with noise, disproportionate RGB response, IBL incompatibility and boost light, is overcome - by quite a devious strategy.

.. I bet the entering the festivals is almost as much work as doing the animation

My major film-making activity for the last month but still only a small percentage of the animation time. Packaging, formatting, preparing the support documents like our "bios" and photos. . eg Includes visiting the neighbours to check that DVDs work in a variety of players. Made a little easier in that there are central admin websites ("Withoutabox", "Reelport", "Movibeta") where you can upload and fill in forms once then recycle the package into a number of festivals. Uploading of secure movie previews is starting to happen.

Update - just received the usual sorry-can't-play-your movie email from Emmentaler, Switzerland. They give stats of 1900 entries chasing 80 places.

TimG said:

I think 6 Space Traffic Control stations may be too many.

My story behind this station is that Star Fleet would use stock components when things were needed in a hurry, so the saucer section of the Constitution class is being used as the central hub of the space station because of it's arrangement of living quarters and amenities. It would be augmented with a docking array, repair facilities and reactor core.

I really dig this version. :)

Starwulf said:

TimG said:

I think 6 Space Traffic Control stations may be too many.

My story behind this station is that Star Fleet would use stock components when things were needed in a hurry, so the saucer section of the Constitution class is being used as the central hub of the space station because of it's arrangement of living quarters and amenities. It would be augmented with a docking array, repair facilities and reactor core.

Six stations is not out of line for a station control center, though they would not necessarily all be traffic control. I would lay them out as

2 Traffic Controllers (Inbound and Outbound), 1 Communications, 1 Station Physical Engineering (Station Maintenance), 1 Station Environmental Engineering (Atmosphere, Food, and Water), and 1 Station Logisitcs Control (Inbound/Outbaound cargo, storage and accounting of supplies, Personnel services, etc).

I was going to have "the pit" be the space traffic controllers, and then the outer bridge stations be the other services.

What I thinking now is have 4 stations in the pit, dividing the docking array into 4 quadrants - one station for each.

TimG said:

I think 6 Space Traffic Control stations may be too many.

My story behind this station is that Star Fleet would use stock components when things were needed in a hurry, so the saucer section of the Constitution class is being used as the central hub of the space station because of it's arrangement of living quarters and amenities. It would be augmented with a docking array, repair facilities and reactor core.

Six stations is not out of line for a station control center, though they would not necessarily all be traffic control. I would lay them out as

2 Traffic Controllers (Inbound and Outbound), 1 Communications, 1 Station Physical Engineering (Station Maintenance), 1 Station Environmental Engineering (Atmosphere, Food, and Water), and 1 Station Logisitcs Control (Inbound/Outbaound cargo, storage and accounting of supplies, Personnel services, etc).

I think 6 Space Traffic Control stations may be too many.

My story behind this station is that Star Fleet would use stock components when things were needed in a hurry, so the saucer section of the Constitution class is being used as the central hub of the space station because of it's arrangement of living quarters and amenities. It would be augmented with a docking array, repair facilities and reactor core.

TonyCoe, I did an example from my stock tut scene so it is the same environment. First image shows my DOF adjustment. Second shows how it looks in render from camera view. Notice how only the central chars are in sharp focus and the farthest cathedral walls have lost definition.

It isn't really "blurring", but a progressive loss of sharpness away from the focal point as a mimic of what our peripheral vision does when we focus on something with our eyes.

Jaderail said:

My Entry for the Scavenger Hunt Contest. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/4092/
1 Alluring Gardens
2 Native Cheyenne Village
3 Fantasy Camp II
4 Zepplin Star
61 my birth year Castle Ruins
Wow… what a Hodge podge. Off to hunt a good idea. Where is my thinking cap?
Ten hours later. I’m back with my first and probably only Render. This is a 100% DS3A render.
Title: Far Camp #27
The Story…
Crackle,“Sky barge 7 to New Gov, Repeating, Sky barge 7 to New Gov come in. Over.”
Pop,“This is New Gov Central we read you load and clear Sky barge 7, go ahead. Over.”
“I have Far Camp 27 at Lowes Ruins Park in view Central, all looks well sense our last visit, the refugees look well and the garden project appears to be well under way. Over.”
“Roger that #7, I’m sure the supplies your carrying will lift their spirits, the short-band radio will at least give them an ear out. We have weather plotted coming your way #7, we suggest you and the crew moor down and wait for it to pass. Over.”
“Understood Central, will follow advice, I’ll meet with the camp leader and get what help we can. Anything else I should do Central? Over.”
Popity pop! “Inform the leader that Devonrun and Bills Down bridges are under repair and we should have land access to them within the next few months. Over”
Snap pop,“Rodger Central, Sky barge #7 out, preparing for landing. Will report again when moored in. Over”

Oh Boy!...............this is just crazy, but it works brilliantly well.
Perspective is spot on.....[why can't I do that] :long:

For those of you who have travelled to New Zealand and visited the Tongariro National Park. At 11.50 last night the "TeMari" craters on the northern side of Mt Tongariro erupted, last activity from these craters was 1897. At this time there have been no reports of injuries or damage other than an ash hazard. Some roads in the central North Island are closed.

Cheers
GG

Mustakettu85 said:

I'm a 99% self-taught musician, so don't worry about your explanations sounding "ridiculous". I've been through much of that myself, and I falter every now and then.
Self-taught here as well, and I falter a lot, to the extent I cannot even call myself a musician.

Mustakettu85 said:

Yes please, do post your examples. I'm feeling we would be down to a couple of specific chord sequences. You've been able to detect microtonal variations, so you have a good ear, and if by any chance there's perfect pitch involved, then you may well have a preference for certain keys because music in different keys would sound and feel different to you.
Who are your favourite classical composers, BTW?I'm an absolute prick when it comes to Classical Composers because while I respect those works immensely, I'm not really up on who did what. I know classical music when I hear it, and I almost always like music that is inspired by it, but I'm really behind on who's who. I genuinely do have interest in it, but it's something I've always put to the back of my mind, something I'd get into if ever I took music lessons.

Mustakettu85 said:

Could you please also post what you'd consider a "stunning vocal"?
Your wish is my command, here's one that starts off tame and really builds up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_znmFcLuuU

Mustakettu85 said:

Oh, I see, thanks for explaining. Now that's a totally different approach from that of mine - I'm into that side of music that you can put down in notation and perform. I only notice production if it takes away from hearing all the individual performances. And I've told you already that I'm not a fervent believer into the definitive superiority of one way over the other. The engineer's actual skill always supercedes any peculiarities of his equipment. Just as with a musician, a great performer can play a crappy guitar and make it sound fine, while a newbie would not sound good with an expensive instrument.

For me, to tell the truth, recording is only as good as close it sounds to live performance. Because - while I respect music programmers since I know from experience it takes a lot of patience - music was designed to be played live. Not even the best analogue studio can capture the real magic. Analogue stuff is great for vocals, it's true (I'm not speaking about synths because I'm not a big fan of synthesiser music these days), but I'm not at all sure that if someone gave me a dream room full of high end gear, I could make the recording of my own voice sound the way it does live, all by myself. A skilful engineer, on the other hand, would most likely succeed. So to me, analogue gear is moot without someone to run it - someone who has devoted his/her whole life to perfecting this art.
Unfortunately, that's nonsense because there are notable differences between the sound of Analogue and Digital, and that has always been the trigger for the debate. The debate is there because it's a notable one. Your take on it is understandable because you have no real interest in the production side of things - you're a musician, not an engineer.

Mustakettu85 said:

A human being is central to human art. Not a cool machine. This is my philosophy.Analogue is the human voice, digital is the synthetic android voice. Only one of then sounds natural because only one of them is natural - that would be analogue - and is the same reason that real analogue synths sound better than digitally modeled simulations of analogue synths.

Mustakettu85 said:

So I'm working with my limited laughable gear (and equally laughable skills), not with any high hopes of becoming the next Hiili Hiilesmaa, but a) simply as part of my personal little journey to unattainable perfection; b) as a challenge, to make the best of what I have. If I ever get good enough to transcend my gear and software, then I'll upgrade. But given that my life is full of wildly different stuff I love to do, I don't know if it's gonna happen any soon (tm).

Just my two cents.Laughable gear has nothing to do with it. If the gear you have allows you to do what you want, there's nothing laughable about it whether it be analogue or digital. Digital runs rings around analogue for convenience and affordability, but that's the problem you see, because when it comes to actual sound quality (the part that actually matters), digital cannot hold up to analogue. I don't have anything like the amount of analogue gear I would like, but I was careful to buy the best of the range at the time. It was a good move, because while my analogue multitrack/mixer cannot compete with one of those monster-sized analogue consoles, it can, as far as I'm concerned, wipe the floor with any high-end digital recording gear they have now. The reason it can compete is simple, it's because the gear is actual analogue, not digital.

Anyway, no matter, I wasn't debating this with you. I just pointed out why I mention analogue so that you get why I do it, I've been doing it for a long time, even before this thread started, it wasn't specifically directed at you. Just ignore my mentions of analogue, because I will continue to do it where warranted.

Mustakettu85 said:

I finally found some early music tracks (searching by song name is easier than by the name of the artist). I'm not sure you (or anyone else in this thread) is going to like it, but this is my true love. The Troubadours. This is where all Western music of today and the majority of Western poetry started. It's as simple as it gets, but that's the beauty of it.

And I really couldn't care less if there was any production involved apart from setting up a handful of mikes. ;P

The performers are the Ensemble Unicorn, Ensemble Oni Wytars and the late Maria Laffitte on the vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6RGLZos0fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCkmiQ0nDs
I thought these were more musical than the Norwegian one, but again, not what I'd listen to.

Mustakettu85 said:

Not that strange. Both types of folk music use microtones (an octave is twelve semitones, a semintone is the fundamental step in Western music, a microtone is a quartertone (half a semitone) or sometimes even less), but they use different scales. Man, it's a pity you haven't had formal music training, you'd shine.

Thanks for the compliment although I'm not sure what tracks gave you the impression I can do whatever it is you said I could do. I know what microtones and semitones are. but only in a mathematical sense (and I hate maths). I even forget them, I have a notebook when I work on plugins, something I refer to.

Let's see then what you think about Jani Lane's Warrant...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nINoinmQYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFV8rWUlp3Y

Again, nope, does not trigger there receptors in my ears :-P

Oh wow, thanks for the explanation! Looks like it's used much like "gay" =)

i never thought of it like that, but yup, I suppose it could be used like that :-D

Test your sensitivity to "Girly" with this simple test of two possible scenarios:

A - "Here sweetie, listen to the song on my iPod, I got it off iTunes (ED: PUKES)
B - "Hey you, twat over there, get yer arse over here and check-out this Vinyl I ripped to my Walkman".

The iPod sounds gay for mainly three reasons:

Reason 1: It means your'e a follower, not a rebel.
Reason 2: The Sony Walkman is the original personal audio device, not the iPod.
Reason 3: iPod is gay anyway.

O.o He's long dead. And he was a composer, not a musician.

Denis Matsuev, for instance, is a musician - a crazy brilliant piano player: his official playlist

Now if I could play like that I'd be a very happy man indeed, very nice.

But I was wondering more about Russian pop artists. Some claim international success, but I have yet to verify it for any artist that is not T.a.T.u.

Nope, none other than TATU, but then again, Russia ought to be proud of such a powerhouse of hits. TATU put out fantastic albums with virtually no "fillers" whatsoever!

I thought the opening was awesome, there was only one thing I wasn't too impressed with - the part with the mass dancing. I just can't stand mass dancing. Actually mass anything.

Still catching up with BBC iPlayer (I'm not gay and it has nothing to do with iPods), so I've only seen a short amount of mass dancing so far. But nope, I don't like mass dancing either. I'm in absolute shock that they even got "volunteers" from the NHS to work on that project. They treat the doctors and nurses like shit. Over worked, underpaid, and even force them to pay parking fees at the hospitals they actually work at (no kidding).

Now I see. It's just that in my own little world, outside of fantasy movies diamonds just don't exist in any shape or form that would be different from that of technology diamonds =) So I'm not that bothered.

Me neither, but I reckon the face on Her Majesty would be classic if the huge diamonds in her humble collection of jewelry, suddenly became worthless due to some football-sized gem the Russians had pressed in packs of six.

Thanks! I hope to have enough time to watch this episode ASAP.

Actually, it's quite "lighthearted", so I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

DAZ_bfurner said:

LordHardDriven:

Thank you for the questions. I hope that I can do justice in answering these. We are making several changes moving forward to help with product information and updates. The changes to our store have made it necessary to handle some of this differently. We will be storing the read-me files online in the document center, we are working on having the ability to see and access the read me files on each product page. People will be able to download a PDF of the read-me on each product as needed from the doc center. As we are an online business we feel it's necessary to handle these files in this way. These files will be updated and kept in one central location. This should make it easier to find and keep up-to-date information on each product.

We are also in the process of finishing and testing an Installation Manager that will help to keep your products up to date. The way the tool is working will be a great way to update each product that needs it. It's a fast and very easy tool use. It also helps with custom content locations. More information will be available when we get closer to bringing it out.

DAZ_bfurner said:

LordHardDriven said:

I'm wondering if it would be possible if Daz could give us some idea of how we customers are supposed to handle product updates. Emails announcing updates stopped a good while ago and now with the new forum the sub forum dedicated to updates is no longer available. Just before the site change I saw in the update forum that a bunch of files had been updated but I didn't have time then to compare it to my itemized purchases. Then when I finally had the time the product update forums were no longer there.

I've been a customer for 10 years now and over that time I've accumulated well over 3000 items that I've purchased. I know daz has been bringing alot of older stuff up to speed for today's newer technologies. Without product update info though the only choice I have is to keep using older versions that may work poorly or reset every item I've ever bought and put myself at a huge inconvenience having to download so many files (many that probably haven't been updated) so I can compare them to what I have already. Of course that would also mean me being an unnecessary drain on the server for several days as I attempt to download well over 3000 items. Heck, I can't even compare them to the product page since you stopped giving out the information of how many files an item contained and what the total size of those files were.

I've asked this before in other threads about the new site but got no answers. I've tried to be understanding and wait so Daz could focus on getting problems worked out. Now I'm really needing an answer because I'm trying to rebuild my runtime and don't want to waste time and energy installing a bunch of files that need to be updated but I just can't tell. Surely this has also got to be a major problem for other customers as well?

LordHardDriven:

Thank you for the questions. I hope that I can do justice in answering these. We are making several changes moving forward to help with product information and updates. The changes to our store have made it necessary to handle some of this differently. We will be storing the read-me files online in the document center, we are working on having the ability to see and access the read me files on each product page. People will be able to download a PDF of the read-me on each product as needed from the doc center. As we are an online business we feel it's necessary to handle these files in this way. These files will be updated and kept in one central location. This should make it easier to find and keep up-to-date information on each product.

We are also in the process of finishing and testing an Installation Manager that will help to keep your products up to date. The way the tool is working will be a great way to update each product that needs it. It's a fast and very easy tool use. It also helps with custom content locations. More information will be available when we get closer to bringing it out.

Yeah I saw those options for the readme files and I guess that offers a counter solution for the now obsolete content manager program I paid good money for to be able to keep info on my files. That still does not adress my questions though as the readme files at least so far do not contain the information of how many files to install a particular item and what the total size of those files were. Since that info is now no longer on the product page just above the templates like it used to be.

Personally what I would like to see is two columns of information be visible in the itemized order history. One column representing the date a file was last updated and another showing when it was last downloaded. A nice optional bonus would be if the update date is ever more current then the last download it generates a private message to the customer's inbox notifying him/her of the need to reset an item for download. As long as that info is visible a customer can at least browse his/her history and know which files he/she needs to reset and which he/she doesn't.

LordHardDriven said:

I'm wondering if it would be possible if Daz could give us some idea of how we customers are supposed to handle product updates. Emails announcing updates stopped a good while ago and now with the new forum the sub forum dedicated to updates is no longer available. Just before the site change I saw in the update forum that a bunch of files had been updated but I didn't have time then to compare it to my itemized purchases. Then when I finally had the time the product update forums were no longer there.

I've been a customer for 10 years now and over that time I've accumulated well over 3000 items that I've purchased. I know daz has been bringing alot of older stuff up to speed for today's newer technologies. Without product update info though the only choice I have is to keep using older versions that may work poorly or reset every item I've ever bought and put myself at a huge inconvenience having to download so many files (many that probably haven't been updated) so I can compare them to what I have already. Of course that would also mean me being an unnecessary drain on the server for several days as I attempt to download well over 3000 items. Heck, I can't even compare them to the product page since you stopped giving out the information of how many files an item contained and what the total size of those files were.

I've asked this before in other threads about the new site but got no answers. I've tried to be understanding and wait so Daz could focus on getting problems worked out. Now I'm really needing an answer because I'm trying to rebuild my runtime and don't want to waste time and energy installing a bunch of files that need to be updated but I just can't tell. Surely this has also got to be a major problem for other customers as well?

LordHardDriven:

Thank you for the questions. I hope that I can do justice in answering these. We are making several changes moving forward to help with product information and updates. The changes to our store have made it necessary to handle some of this differently. We will be storing the read-me files online in the document center, we are working on having the ability to see and access the read me files on each product page. People will be able to download a PDF of the read-me on each product as needed from the doc center. As we are an online business we feel it's necessary to handle these files in this way. These files will be updated and kept in one central location. This should make it easier to find and keep up-to-date information on each product.

We are also in the process of finishing and testing an Installation Manager that will help to keep your products up to date. The way the tool is working will be a great way to update each product that needs it. It's a fast and very easy tool use. It also helps with custom content locations. More information will be available when we get closer to bringing it out.

Hey everyone!! If there's anyone who's into the oldschool heavier stuff, Testament released their brand new video today!! I absolutely love this band, they're always evolving yet keep their unmistakable style... Enjoy!!

Testament - Native Blood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Ibm8mjSek

pumeco said:

The problem is me; I don't understand music theory and never learned to read music. It's a problem because it means I can't explain things to you; such as I like certain types of chord progressions and harmonic structure. Me trying to explain stuff like that would sound really laughable to a musician so I tend not to do it (or at least I try not to do it). It would take me a whole page just to explain something a real musician could explain in a single sentence.

I'm a 99% self-taught musician, so don't worry about your explanations sounding "ridiculous". I've been through much of that myself, and I falter every now and then.

pumeco said:

I'm thinking of a bunch of tracks to post that'll hopefully allow you to tell me what it is I like. If you understand music theory etc then you'll be able to tell me what it is the tracks I like have in common. I'm having a pretty good think about what to post because I'm curious to know what it is about certain tracks that I find catchy. If there's an easy musical term to describe what I like, I would genuinely love to know what it is.

Yes please, do post your examples. I'm feeling we would be down to a couple of specific chord sequences. You've been able to detect microtonal variations, so you have a good ear, and if by any chance there's perfect pitch involved, then you may well have a preference for certain keys because music in different keys would sound and feel different to you.
Who are your favourite classical composers, BTW?

pumeco said:

I don't expect a track to have a stunning chord sequence, stunning melody, and stunning vocal, but I always expect at least one of those elements to be there.

Could you please also post what you'd consider a "stunning vocal"?

pumeco said:

You asked me why I often mention "production" but not individual contributors. The reason is I'm into the production side of music. I develop VST and VSTi as a hobby but intend to make my designs marketable. Amazingly though, you picked-up on the "Production" thing even though it's the "Analogue" thing I try to emphasise the most in my posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFNs_-LGgQs
.

Oh, I see, thanks for explaining. Now that's a totally different approach from that of mine - I'm into that side of music that you can put down in notation and perform. I only notice production if it takes away from hearing all the individual performances. And I've told you already that I'm not a fervent believer into the definitive superiority of one way over the other. The engineer's actual skill always supercedes any peculiarities of his equipment. Just as with a musician, a great performer can play a crappy guitar and make it sound fine, while a newbie would not sound good with an expensive instrument.

For me, to tell the truth, recording is only as good as close it sounds to live performance. Because - while I respect music programmers since I know from experience it takes a lot of patience - music was designed to be played live. Not even the best analogue studio can capture the real magic. Analogue stuff is great for vocals, it's true (I'm not speaking about synths because I'm not a big fan of synthesiser music these days), but I'm not at all sure that if someone gave me a dream room full of high end gear, I could make the recording of my own voice sound the way it does live, all by myself. A skilful engineer, on the other hand, would most likely succeed. So to me, analogue gear is moot without someone to run it - someone who has devoted his/her whole life to perfecting this art.

A human being is central to human art. Not a cool machine. This is my philosophy.

So I'm working with my limited laughable gear (and equally laughable skills), not with any high hopes of becoming the next Hiili Hiilesmaa, but a) simply as part of my personal little journey to unattainable perfection; b) as a challenge, to make the best of what I have. If I ever get good enough to transcend my gear and software, then I'll upgrade. But given that my life is full of wildly different stuff I love to do, I don't know if it's gonna happen any soon (tm).

Just my two cents.

I finally found some early music tracks (searching by song name is easier than by the name of the artist). I'm not sure you (or anyone else in this thread) is going to like it, but this is my true love. The Troubadours. This is where all Western music of today and the majority of Western poetry started. It's as simple as it gets, but that's the beauty of it.

And I really couldn't care less if there was any production involved apart from setting up a handful of mikes. ;P

The performers are the Ensemble Unicorn, Ensemble Oni Wytars and the late Maria Laffitte on the vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6RGLZos0fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfCkmiQ0nDs

pumeco said:

Regards the Värttinä track, I had to switch it off around 0:20 as soon as that singing came into it. I just cannot bear that style of singing - it drives me nuts. It always sounds as if they're trying to keep a note but keep faltering. I realise it's a style practiced in various cultures but seriously, it drives me nuts. They do a similar thing in Indian music, but oddly enough I quite like the way Indian singers do it - how strange is that?

Not that strange. Both types of folk music use microtones (an octave is twelve semitones, a semintone is the fundamental step in Western music, a microtone is a quartertone (half a semitone) or sometimes even less), but they use different scales. Man, it's a pity you haven't had formal music training, you'd shine.

pumeco said:

The Lizzy Borden track, again, the best one of the post. It's not what I listen to, but withing seconds of his music starting, I sort of know the rest is going to be acceptable at the very least.

Let's see then what you think about Jani Lane's Warrant...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nINoinmQYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFV8rWUlp3Y

The Girly and Lighthearted thing, OK, you win, although I should point out that in England, "Girly" is used in an extremely loose fashion, to the extent it can even mean exact opposites.
...
So even names and logos can be girly.

Oh wow, thanks for the explanation! Looks like it's used much like "gay" =)

No famous Russian musicians:
Tchaikovsky?

O.o He's long dead. And he was a composer, not a musician.

Denis Matsuev, for instance, is a musician - a crazy brilliant piano player: his official playlist

But I was wondering more about Russian pop artists. Some claim international success, but I have yet to verify it for any artist that is not T.a.T.u.

You'll notice in the Olympic Games that the opening was a celebration of what Britian was all about: innovation, industry, inventors.

After all that impressiveness, it's a pity they didn't put up a picture of all the dicks in government that have since destroyed all that industry - something for the Olympic Archery teams to target practice on.

LOL @ the target practice

I thought the opening was awesome, there was only one thing I wasn't too impressed with - the part with the mass dancing. I just can't stand mass dancing. Actually mass anything.

Regards the diamonds, I'm not talking about casual diamond look-a-likes, I mean they were trying to pass-off home-grown diamonds as real ones, or at least that's how I remember it. Had they done so then you can imagine the effect it would have on real diamonds, and the paranoia it would cause when buying them - is it real or is it real - that sort of thing.

Now I see. It's just that in my own little world, outside of fantasy movies diamonds just don't exist in any shape or form that would be different from that of technology diamonds =) So I'm not that bothered.

The First photo is of Simone, obviously, and the rest are screenshots from the series. Anyone who likes Star Trek, Farscape, Thunderbirds, will probably love Space Precinct. It was one of Gerry Anderson’s works (think Thunderbirds), and you can see that in the sets and spaceships/spacecrafts (I especially used to love the outdoor sets)..

Thanks! I hope to have enough time to watch this episode ASAP.

...used to live in Stevens Point, Wisconsin where -25° to -35° during the winter was not unusual. Summers would get into the 90s with mosquitoes as big as fighter-bombers.

While it's not been as rainy as the past couple years, summer here has been somewhat elusive with temperatures once again below normal. It is the end of July (which is normally the hottest time of the summer here) and we still have yet to see a 90° day. Currently it is early afternoon and only 68° with a thick layer of marine clouds. This has been the pattern for a good part of the summer. The warmest it's been so far was 88° and that was back in mid May. Apparently the wind patterns have prevented the usual "Heat Lows" from developing and moving up out of Central California. Instead we have been dealing with Pacific lows which bring a strong onshore flow that produces the marine cloud cover, occasional drizzle, and even thundershowers.

Yeah, we still have August to go, but it looks very much like the last two years save for the drenching rains.

Meanwhile in the Midwest it has been brutal with temps in over 100° in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and even Wisconsin. There is also a serious drought which has ruined a lot of crops. In Milwaukee WI, they have already experienced over two weeks of 90+° temperatures (exceeding 100° on three occasions). Madison's had about a month of 90+ weather already (with four days of 100° or better,) and even Stevens Point to the north, had ten days were it reached or exceeded 90°(with more in this week's forecast).

At least one of the benefits of a cool summer (besides keeping the bugs down) is that the light rail tram here doesn't have to operate at restricted speeds. When the temperature exceeds 90° the trains are held to a maximum of 30mph (rather than the normal 55mph on the I-84/Hwy 26 corridors) due to "sag" in the overhead catenary.

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One of the nice things about living in the city rather than the outskirts here in Portland is that Walmarts and Costcos are all out in the 'burbs. Maybe not 20 miles away but, still far enough (particularly considering weekend bus service) to easily be ignored. Where I live, it is predominantly local stores and markets save for the Fred Meyer (a regional chain in Washington State and Oregon) in the Hawthorne district. Even they tend to tailor their stores to the local neighbourhood. The one where I shop has a large fresh (not prepackaged) meat and fish counter, large produce section with organic veggies, Sushi bar, and a full service deli that offers a lot more than the usual deep fried fare that most other supers do.

The Hawthorne Neighbourhood Association is deeply committed to keeping the area's identity and character intact. They have successfully thwarted the plans of large national chains like MickyD's, Burger King,and Toxic H**l, to move into the area. There is a Starbucks, but they have a fairly low key presence and a lot of competition from several independently run coffee houses and cafes up and down the Ave.

@deloquencia: Thanks! I'm very impressed with "Synchrony in Motion." I do think it would greatly benefit from a floor, ideally with shadows or reflections, even if you have to do it in postwork. The only other possible flaw I see is that the central male figure's right foot looks awkwardly bent to me. Now, it may not be possible to pose it in a way that matches the reference image but doesn't look awkward...that wouldn't surprise me. But if that's the case, you may want to consider moving the foot into a more natural-looking pose, even if it results in a pose that's not as close to the reference image. I hope I'm not giving you bad advice; I know the point of the contest is to get as close as you can to the reference pose. I will say I did the same thing (intentionally deviate from the ref pose) in my image, on the God figure's left hand.

Kyoto Kid said:

Jaderail said:

Just a passing thought KK feel free to tell me to take a long walk on a short pier. In my area we have loads of foreclosed homes that have been picked up by Rental companies and people that buy just because of the low cost now days. Have you looked into some of the not your first pick areas under Houses for rent in the newspaper and those Rental properties booklets I find in Pharmacy's and Grocery stores? Many of those type listings are much cheaper, and if listed as offered by a Name and not a Company are willing to work with people just to get some income instead of it setting empty. I know your very savvy, and know what your doing so this is just a what if kind of thing. My nephew got into a Needs work two bedroom last year with just a Deposit and first month down when we went outside his comfort zone just a tad. He is now Buying the house with his RENT actually not changing on him. He also likes the area, he just had a bad picture of it before he moved.

...I am at the stage of life where home ownership is pretty moot. The focus on personal credit history and rating has gotten out of hand. I was arrears years ago in repaying student loans. I have been making payments through a payroll deduction. Several years ago I also ended up on owing back taxes due to both having been self employed and an error on my deduction status by my company's CFO. The taxes were paid off and I'm still paying off the college loans.

Anyway, in my book, home ownership is overrated. Besides upkeep and utilities, there is one other disadvantage to owning rather than renting: property taxes (which are fairly high here).

Unfortunately in central Portland, it is a landlord's market. Even a small studio (I'm talking about around 250 - 300 sq feet) without utilities is going for over 600$ a month. Part of this has to do with the metro area's imposed Urban Growth Boundary. In order to avoid unchecked sprawl, hard boundaries to growth were established. This means most of the development has been "vertical". As I do not drive I cannot live in the outlying suburban areas. I need to be in the city. However the speculators and developers have been pushing the average Joe/Jane out of the central area by all the gentrification and upscale dvelopment. For example, just down the street from me there is an older rather "unremarkable" home for sale with a price tag of over a half million (and we are still in a depressed economy out here).

Most of the apartment houses I've looked at here are corporate owned. They can afford to be "choosy" as to who they rent to. I basically need to fall into another deal like I've had for the last fifteen years. With the way things are here, that's like trying to win the lotto twice.

...well it's getting late and I have to get up for work tomorrow so I need to sign off.

Thank you very much for the concern.

do you have a relative you could temporarily move in with to save up some money?

i don't know what i'd do if i had to move. wouldn't be able to cope.

Jaderail said:

Just a passing thought KK feel free to tell me to take a long walk on a short pier. In my area we have loads of foreclosed homes that have been picked up by Rental companies and people that buy just because of the low cost now days. Have you looked into some of the not your first pick areas under Houses for rent in the newspaper and those Rental properties booklets I find in Pharmacy's and Grocery stores? Many of those type listings are much cheaper, and if listed as offered by a Name and not a Company are willing to work with people just to get some income instead of it setting empty. I know your very savvy, and know what your doing so this is just a what if kind of thing. My nephew got into a Needs work two bedroom last year with just a Deposit and first month down when we went outside his comfort zone just a tad. He is now Buying the house with his RENT actually not changing on him. He also likes the area, he just had a bad picture of it before he moved.

Anyway, in my book, home ownership is overrated. Besides upkeep and utilities, there is one other disadvantage to owning rather than renting: property taxes (which are fairly high here).

Unfortunately in central Portland, it is a landlord's market. Even a small studio (I'm talking about around 250 - 300 sq feet) without utilities is going for over 600$ a month. Part of this has to do with the metro area's imposed Urban Growth Boundary. In order to avoid unchecked sprawl, hard boundaries to growth were established. This means most of the development has been "vertical". As I do not drive I cannot live in the outlying suburban areas. I need to be in the city. However the speculators and developers have been pushing the average Joe/Jane out of the central area by all the gentrification and upscale dvelopment. For example, just down the street from me there is an older rather "unremarkable" home for sale with a price tag of over a half million (and we are still in a depressed economy out here).

Most of the apartment houses I've looked at here are corporate owned. They can afford to be "choosy" as to who they rent to. I basically need to fall into another deal like I've had for the last fifteen years. With the way things are here, that's like trying to win the lotto twice.

...well it's getting late and I have to get up for work tomorrow so I need to sign off.

Thank you very much for the concern.