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Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 06, 2016, 01:36:27 AM »

Sometimes you get inspired and it takes a couple of days, sometimes it takes weeks. This sort of stuff eats time like you would not believe. A good part of it depends on your abilities, knowledge, and skill, as to how deep into this sort of stuff you can go. That in turn determines how long it takes. For every image you have been shown in this thread are probably 4 or 5 I didn't save. I don't usually save those I am not happy with the outcome of.

Some of my early ones you can see a distinct lack of that knowledge displayed in the appearance of the image. You never learn it all. You can get better than you were but you will never reach the end of knowing it all. (or at least I won't) The complexity of each program is enormous. I may swap an image between two to five different graphics programs to get the desired effects. Sometimes they come out right, sometimes they don't. Sometimes just the lighting setup is enough to make or break an image. Do you use an environmental light like the sun as your main lighting, or do you use the 3 point standard photograph illumination? How wide is the light to be if you use a pin point light? Where should  it start illumination and where should it end? Should it cast shadows? Should it be another color other than white? Should it be a pin point light, a light box, a spot light, or a battery of them? How strong should the light source be? Should you use gel filters or not? Where should you place them? All of this only deals with the light source to illuminate the scene. There's cameras, pose, the scene set up, just to name a few, and every one of them just as complicated as the lights, if not more.

Here is one I didn't do well. It's over lit, the posing is poor, the whole thing doesn't fool the eye at all. In my eyes it is a total failure beyond the learning experience.

347

Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 06, 2016, 01:20:36 AM »

One of our responsibilities around is to choose English/American names for the kids, who learn English.

I would imagine this is exactly what you are looking for.

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Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 06, 2016, 01:14:40 AM »

What are the rules for pets there?

Depends on where you live. You live in a city then there are laws about vaccinations for rabies for dogs. If you live out of the city, no such law because you are beyond their jurisdiction. There are laws over animal cruelty, that are I believe national.

Here we have two dogs and a cat. The dogs were let out on the road as someone just dumped them. There were three at the time. A rattlesnake got one and he died. The remaining two brothers are doing fine.

There are various animal organizations here who attempt to find new homes for those abandoned, lost, or their owners  for some reason can no longer take care of them. We got a cat through this method, only we didn't have to go to the organization to do so. Through Reddit, we found someone who was moving and their new landlord would not allow pets. So we took the cat so it didn't have to go to the shelter. There's always the chance no one wants your pet. After a certain amount of time if no one takes them, they are put to sleep.

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Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 05, 2016, 09:40:14 AM »

I'll ramble through this post. The Suwanee originally had a bridge over it for the Model A car. This car is marked by being very narrow between the axles. So the bridges were narrow too. Not suitable for a car of today's make.

New Orleans also has a bridge made in the same era. I've been over it many times and it gave me the willies every time. There is not enough room for a delivery truck and a car to pass each other on the 4 lane bridge (two in each direction). There are a pair of newer modern bridges that serve for most of the traffic but the Huey P. Long bridge was still very narrow at the time I lived there. Both bridges were of the steel beam truss type.

Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans

The bridge over the Suwanee was torn down and a newer twin span put in it's place.

On the Hawaii part, I've never been there. However I had a couple friends a long time ago, one stationed there, one lived there and have another on-line friend from there today. The first thing I can tell you is that the islands are very expensive. This due to everything in the line of supplies must be either flown in or shipped in. The other is that there has been a lot of foriegn money come in to 'invest' and that has resulted in two things. It's driven the prices up for property not to mention the tax increases and made it far more difficult for the native population to afford to live there.

Those who are not hurting so bad for finding a place to live are those who inherited their places through their families. For all the others, the east side of the island is too expensive to live. The east side receives all the rain fall. So it is lush with greenery and the high priced touristy side. For those who can not afford the high cost of living there is the west side. The west side is marked by hot and much drier climate. The rent is high enough that those living on the economy can't afford a place by themselves. So several go together as room mates to meet the bills. This presents other problems. That of transportation. There is a bus route through but it is not always convenient to your work schedules. You might have to go several hours ahead of work time and when you get off, the bus has already run. There is the problem of vehicles too. Getting one is a problem. You can't afford new but you can buy old and used. Only old and used often has problems meeting the safety requirements. So getting a ride over to the west side is not always easy.

350

Social network | SEO - Social network / Re: Is voat.co going to be a new Internet leading website

« on: March 05, 2016, 09:02:05 AM »

I will be very honest with you on this one. I left with no intention of returning. There's nothing there I left behind. I've not really much interest in that site or I'd still be there. The flooding of the site with the undesirables from Reddit completely sank the site from what was once a promising future.

The future it now promises is just not my sort of place, so I don't worry about what it does. I'm good with that. It will be what it will be. The future that is its future is not the promise of other sites. I don't want to be there when they harvest what they have sown as those to me seem the real sour grapes.

351

Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:00:53 AM »

This is my attempt to create the look of an old ancient piece of pipe. It was made totally in a photoeditor for the image and then textured on to a primitive cylinder in a 3D program. The cylinder gives it the pipe effect and before it was done that way was just a flat image.

The image is a series of layers, each doctored to create this particular effect.

352

Internet / Re: Strange pictures

« on: March 05, 2016, 06:52:43 AM »

353

Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 05, 2016, 06:35:26 AM »

About the lurkers...

My pardon. From a staff view point it was often how do you get the 'guests' to become involved. There's an old internet rule of thumb, the 90/9/1 rule.

So in most places I've been they were always referred to as 'lurkers' and through time it has become my standard term for the 'guests'. I'd not much given it a thought because of the long familiarity with the term.

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Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 05, 2016, 06:20:02 AM »

What is your short list of some important contemporary slangs and idioms of the American English?

There are so many that it would easily fill a book. I'm from the south, so southernese is spoken...errr...fluently. The redneck dictionary well understood.

One of my aunts, now dead, had the saying of 'I'll Suwanee'. It meant 'I'll be danged' but it was very a very local, out of time past slang. You see the Suwanee river was not very far away, making it more acceptable regionally but not in use outside that area.

This is a picture of the Suwanee River I've taken.

Another favorite is the word 'hosepipe'. This comes from the Mississippi state area. Mainly meaning a garden hose but what it is called by the locals.

Sometimes for the variety of it, I'll throw in a ya'll in the text or something of similar nature. I know it to be bad English but to flavor the text some is the reason. Ya'll is just slang for 'you all' crammed together into a conjunction. It's not proper English.

I have tons of these and if you are observant you will see them pass by from time to time.

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

How do you like New Orleans? Is it really something like a "Little France"; is it a popular tourist destination?

Funny you should ask about that. I lived in Naw Orleans as the natives pronounce it. You have a lot of small towns that have all grown into one city. The tourist place you speak of is the French Quarter. I will have to hunt around as I have some images from those times. It is much like old Europe in flavor. Vehicle traffic is not allowed in the area with the exception of delivery trucks during the day, cop cars, and emergency vehicles. The streets are narrow, most of the older buildings have balconies to look down on street level. There are parks around, the Mississippi River is close by and can be walked to in a few blocks, there is an old building that used to be a beer brewery there (the Ajax building), lots of tourist places from tee shirt shops to hot sauce shops, no glass allowed in the area due to the cobblestones making a hazard for foot traffic.

Free concerts are often given, especially during the 4^th of July and New Years Eve. Street side musicians are often found in unexpected places. During the 4^th of July one of the attractions is the fireworks. The tradition there is to shoot them from barges on the river. It's called the Dueling Barges. All ship traffic is halted during this time, the music is provided by a local broadcast and comes in to the Riverwalk by speakers permanently in place.

It gets sort of wild during Marti Gras. People on the balconies courage young ladies to show their tits for bead neckless thrown to them after the happening. The crowds are shoulder to shoulder often, people drinking in the streets from plastic cups. Mostly the  crowd is nothing but a happy go lucky type atmosphere. It's often a mark of status to have a huge cluster of necklesses on your neck within the crowd so you can guess the prettier ladies do fairly good at that. It's probably the only place I know of in the US with that sort of public street party.

355

Other topics / Re: Those who have questions about the USA...

« on: March 05, 2016, 04:41:02 AM »

We have other problems that would probably make you prefer the mold.

Rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, scorpions, among them. Scorpions are particularly hard to deal with. They follow their food supply which are ants. Ants are everywhere. The ants come looking for food, for water, for coolness out of the sun. Scorpions follow. Scorpions can flatten themselves to come in through the smallest of cracks, such as through a light switch cover, a gap in the door seal, a small piece of ill fitting carpentry is enough. Once in, they are subject to be anywhere. I've found two here. One on the ceiling, one on curtains.They are beige in color and hide well. One trick to find them is a black light as they fluoresce under it.

If you get bit by a scorpion, you in nearly all cases won't die, you'll just be really, really, sick for some few days. You pick up nothing in the yard without expecting to see them.

356

Food / Re: Almond Jelly

« on: March 05, 2016, 02:10:19 AM »

....don't you think it's a good idea, to reanimate it.

Ah so now you gonna get me to fess up. *chuckles* It's probably not a good idea at all. You see it was one of those sites that was not exactly legal, being a file sharing site. In this case it would be smarter to let sleeping dogs lay.

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Food / Re: Almond Jelly

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:50:47 AM »

Thank you Alexa. I was creating the post and got a break in the middle that another post had went up during the time I was typing. It threw me off as it was the first time I had seen that. Learning all the time about the differences in this software.  Much appreciated.

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Food / Re: Almond Jelly

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:37:25 AM »

Don't worry about the karma numbers here, we're beyond this

As you mention, some folk set great store by their karma or whatever measurement you use as a kudo. I've seen them get in knock down drag outs over these meaningless numbers. When the site goes off line you find out just how much they mean.

Still when someone puts up a deserving post it is my habit to reward them for participation. Like you, I've been in the Admin slot before. If for no other reason than to keep people happy or to get them to think their posts are worthy of being read by others, I'll give them out often.

It's as much habit as it is participation. Makes whoever did their post think someone else read and appreciated the post. Me, I don't really worry about it. If a topic or post is worth reading, it will be read. If not, it will be ignored by the body at large.

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Food / Tiger Butter (Microwave)

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:27:52 AM »

Tiger Butter (Microwave)

Ingredients

16 ounces white chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Butter a 15 x 10-inch pan; set aside.

Place white chocolate in a medium-size microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH until melted, stirring frequently. Stir in peanut butter. Spread into prepared pan. Drizzle with melted milk chocolate chips, stirring through mixture to create a marbled effect. Let stand until set. Break into bite-size pieces.

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Philosophy / Re: Nonsense words

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:02:12 AM »

But why the nick too?

Habit I've developed. Back in my early on-line presence I used the same nick all the time. Then Google came along and a pattern could be developed by searching for your nick. Do this long enough and a profile can be developed of you.

So to disconnect that, to make it harder for these DOXXers, that no longer connects with different places.