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written by owen, published 2018-Jun-25, comment

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The random photo journal » DIY lessons in oil paint

written by owen, published 2018-Jun-20, comment

Its messy, real messy. First step is make sure you mix the whole can thoroughly for roughly 5 minutes because oil paint tends to settle and in so doing separate like oil and water (literally). Make sure you have lots of paint thinner on hand and the floor covered with sheets because it is a pain to get rid of when it drips.

Get a new paint brush or be prepared to throw away the old one once you are done. The oil paint is thick so when you at thinner to it, it just creates more and more paint which is impossible to clean up once it start spreading and drying on everything. So you might as well trash the paint brush because there is no way that you are going to get it fully clean without adding 10 gallons of paint thinner.

And do not try to be smart and add water to the thinner because water simply makes the paint float on the surface creating a bigger mess.

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ChangeLog » June 2018 - stuff I am working on

written by owen, published 2018-Jun-18, comment

This summer feels like its going to be a scorcher.

I need to restart playing Persona4 for the ps2. I was about 20hours into the game which I stopped playing in order to do something else. The game is time sink but it has great mechanics and cool story. I dusted the ps2 off but I have not connected it as yet because I have been distracted by 80s monster movies and westerns like HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980) and Death Rides a Horse.

In April2018 I finished NewoFox a game I wrote in the C programming language on Wii hardware. Still tweaking it a little big but for the most part it is done at runs at 60fps. I wrote a postmortem on it as well.

I went to get my car aligned and apparently it needed a whole bunch of front end parts and shocks which had me doing alot of online search for parts since my car is a bit rare in these parts of the world. I am still going to need 4 tires because of the damage caused by the bad shocks.

In Jan2018 i finished the JMGov search project. The next phase of it will be to automate how it calculate that "JPS" == "Jamaica Public Service" with nothing but artificial Intelligence. This is going to be a challenge because my current database is 200mb and my computer is already at its limits.

I have a bunch of new tech articles in draft. I need to get them out before they burn up in the oven. I tend to go too deep in the metaphors, write too much or make nasty spelling errors so I am taking my time to fine tune all my articles before releasing them. Current drafts include "Technology, Tax Offices, Uber and Customer-Centricity", "Open Source, AI, Mind Control and Code Slaves" and "Ideas and bullshit circles". I am writing all these in parallel which kinda makes them take longer but it is a lot to cover and I have to actually use my brain to write them as opposed to simply clicking the retweet button. I have been slacking off on much of my writing but work/life has me a way.

I spent a weekend and did a mid year blog design refresh 2018v2 as seen in the attached photos. I am going back to a plain white background with big text almost like CNN. The text is 110% bigger than default and more roomy. Despite how simple it might seem the theme incorporates years of CSS knowledge and looks exactly the same in pretty much every browser in the history of the world.

I need to also start work on a new web analytics system for the blog to replace google analytics but I am not sure when I will jump on that grenade.

I also updated the algorithim for the news portal. Featured articles should be more varied and frequent now. You can also follow it on twitter @ twitter.com/softnewsmag because featured articles and categories are automatically pushed to the twitter feed using the dlvr.it service (free account, that is limited to 10 posts a day). It also has 500 followers on facebag but I am not sure that counts for anything. I need to get the twitter base up since its just at 60.

I think that is almost everything I have worked on in the past 6 months and will probably run me to the end of the year unless I side tracked by something more interesting.

blog about page screenshot

blog archive screenshot

jmgov screenshot

News aggregator screenshot

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Music » June 2018 - amazon update

written by owen, published 2018-Jun-15, comment

I have been behind on my music CD updates. Amazon has made it easy to buy CDs online since they are basically non-existant locally. Finding a music CD nowadays is like finding a 100 dollar bill on the road.
Buying new CDs online is certainly not cheap but at least I can get exactly the ones I want. Of course with a infinite selection and finite money I have to resist the urge to buy stuff I might not like.

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Logbook » Bird

written by owen, published 2018-Jun-09, comment

I am still waiting on car parts that I bought online while trying not to have one of my wheels fall off while I drive down the road at the speed limit. I have come to the conclusion that you might as well buy two of everything because everything is always nearing the point of slowly going bad. But the hesitation is what if you buy this extra stuff that you do not need and then you crash into a wall and get stuck with parts and no car to put them on.

No man is an island. Even if you are married or somehow enslaved into an obsession you always need to take care of your responsibilities. Responsibilities are inescapable. Sometimes calmer minds are the only ones that can see that the hill is very steep and your tires do not have enough traction to keep you from losing control. The current drama matters very little. It is the drama that is at the bottom of the hill that you really need to worry about. Most things pass with time.

I have been drinking lots of water. Playing the crystal clear pee game with myself while digging through my old inbox is like going through old clothes. Apparently I got e-vited to a wedding that I do not remember attending. I think I would have remembered something like that but back in those days I was less mobile did not has as much free time. Sorry Colleen. I have always been less adventurous than most people fearing that I may end up in some sort of catastrophe at the hands of someone who is giddy headed.

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