For the HJ particle system, I decided it'd be a useful option to be able to lock objects to their parents, so an emitter can rotate and cause all the particles it produced to rotate with it, making for neat spirals, turning rings, rolling spheres, and so on. It's all recursive and hierarchical, so an emitter can emit emitters that emit particles that then emit other emitters when they expire... maybe a spell rains down liquid fire from a whirling vortex, and the fire smokes when it hits something.

Anyway, in the process of trying to do it the hard way (because the easy way would make other physics as well as rendering a bit more tricky) I got to wrestle with a whole lot of matrix math, learn all about gimbal lock (which wasn't my problem, but was for the Apollo spacecraft) and transforming between coordinate spaces and whatnot. I wound up doing it the easy way, which of course broke my physics -- gravity became "away from the top of your parent object", and all the ridiculous math I did to figure out attractor/repellers had to be reworked.

It works now and it's cool, and I have new challenges to work on before calling it "HeroParticles 1.0" or whatever. Rain is one goal, but flowing water, energy bolts, and other cool things will come from a small set of additional features on top of what rain needs.

So tonight in aikido class (I decided I'll try more or less for a Mon-Thurs-Sat-Sun-Tues-Sat type of schedule) we did more tenkan, and I learned a few key things (and ki things) when partnered with Paul, one of the hakama wearers. (Which means he's l33t. Aikido is one of the few places where guys who wear skirts get more respect.) For one thing, I was turning wrong. ;) As soon as he pointed out what I was doing -- running in a small circle myself, rather than pivoting and letting the attacker do the running -- I thought of my day at work, making things rotate around other things.

The other is not looking where I'm going, but downwards, more at my feet. I've known for a long time that I do this, but I never really tried to stop because it doesn't seem like a bad thing. But you don't do that when driving, or riding a bike, or even at a computer (at least not once you learn to touch-type). Or sports -- everyone has heard "keep your eye on the ball", and though that may not always be the best advice, it's far better than keeping your eye on your feet or your hands.

Doing those two things my technique is about a hundred times better. Which doesn't make it good, smooth, confident or coordinated -- but it makes it easier, and far less likely to completely fail.

This is a lesson I've already learned on the standing-up-from-a-roll stuff. To go "up" means to lift 245 pounds or whatever it is now, using just my thigh muscles. Doing that 8 times in 30 seconds is not only difficult, it's painful. But to go further forward, when I've already got forward momentum -- that's not so bad. Merely looking forward as I do the exercise makes a huge difference.

And then there's that phrase "I'm looking forward to it," as opposed to "downcast" or "hanging one's head". Hmmm.

I'm looking forward to finishing the song for Ra I made such progress on last night. It's not at all what I first thought I would do, but it does give me a mental image of the sun emerging unhurried from the darkness and rising to a world that waits for it. Maybe more Khepera than strictly Ra, come to think of it. Anyway, I need to work a bit more on building it up to a climax, and I have a medium-length list of things to try and transitions I want to spruce up. But I can already listen to it casually and think it's pretty good, which is a good sign. :)

I hope to finish it this weekend, and then have two more songs to go. Two difficult ones: Aset and Seshat. Aset is tricky because I have this idea that I shouldn't sound blatantly electronic, which goes against much of the way I work. Seshat is tricky because there are a few concepts I would like to work with, but most of them are abstract enough so as not to suggest how to turn them into music. There's also sort of a pressure thing there; I want it to be my absolute best work. But with both of them, I know that with a little inspiration and a medium amount of experimenting I'll find a starting point -- and I'm getting better at catching inspiration and more efficient about experimenting.

Other things I look forward to: X-Men 2 movie Saturday. D&D session this Sunday, in Mike's "Thursday" campaign, the one in which I used to play Gengh and will now play Hort Headkicker. Matrix 2 coming up in a couple weeks. Bokken workshop coming up in a couple of weeks. Tawy House music workshop coming up in a couple of weeks... hmmm, I better check that those don't conflict!

The Sheaffer pens I ordered about 48 hours ago from Arcamax were on our doorstep this evening. First impression, without having inked them: the Triumph Imperial feels cheap and looks relatively cheap, and overall maybe wasn't even a good buy at $5. It reminds me of disposable felt-tip pens that I used to scribble all over stuff as a child. The Prelude, on the other hand, feels heavy and substantial and well-made, and could easily fool people into thinking it's a much more expensive pen than it really is. I'll see how they both write, though.

Posted 10:03 PM CST [Link] [Archives] [Index]

Oh man! The bokken workshop IS the same weekend as the music workshop. And it's also a D&D session weekend -- I can make it to that if I go to the bokken class, but if I go to Tawy House I miss both.

Argh!