Life in 3D

Job Hunter!

That’s right, I’ve put on my African safari outfit with the cargo shorts, my hat with the  big zebra striped hat band, loaded up ‘Betsy’ and grabbed my copy of “Heart of Darkness” and I am off!  I’m attempting to bag the big one, a job that will not only cover all the bills, but not have me waking up in the morning going “Is it the weekend yet?”

Don’t get me wrong, I am very, very grateful to have a job, and to have one that has medical benefits, but my problem is that the more I work at my current job the more I realize that management doesn’t really give a crap about anything BUT the numbers.  Everything to them is just another number.  If you are absent it is 10 points off your record, show up the whole week – +2, the whole month +15; If you are at 0 – your fired, no exceptions.

When I asked why a system was being put in charge of who is hired and fired instead of the persons manager I was told “We tried that and the managers weren’t doing what they were supposed to do.”

“So,” asks me,” why didn’t you fire the managers and get people in who would actually manage?”

Blank stare followed by a change of subject.

See, I want to work for a company that actually has a real game plan, not just one that says “We are putting you in charge of you!” as a way of really saying “We don’t want to take responsibility to manage so instead we have set up the computer to manage for us..”

Everything I deal with right now ends up with the same answer “What does the system say” as if it is some sort of Oracle of Delphi or, more likely, the Wizard of Oz.  Many times in my day I am asked questions by customers that they system does not have a nice neat answer laid out for, or if you do search for an answer it comes back with 364 answers.  I don’t know about you, but when you are on a call with a customer you generally don’t have time to dig through 300+ answers HOPING that one of them is what you are needing.

Nope, I need to find something different so today I am off on the hunt.  Maybe in the near future as my grip making and checkering skills get better I can live off that, but right now I’m gonna have to work for someone else a little while longer.

Progress

Making progress.  I’ve been going through each section and seeing where I can clean it up and reduce my polycount.  So far, I’ve managed to take it from 84,472 triangles down to 45,449 which is a phenomenal savings on polygons. The lower the number, the faster your computer game can process it.  So, lower is better, but not so low that you have cheese graphics.

Most of it came from just rethinking some of the design aspects and separating items into multiple objects so that I didn’t have to build so much detail into one part of the object simply because the other side required it.

Now, I think I should have the main building structure done by the end of the week.  After that it will be security fences and stairways.

The Nerd Side

I’m back to modeling again.  I was away from it for too long due to moving, new job, new baby, and new computer that I had to build and then load software on, but now I am back in the groove and while not hitting the 3D stuff every day, I’m going consistent and strong at it.

Right now the focus is all on the thesis.  All my class work is done and I just need to get my thesis finished and submitted so I can have my piece of paper that says I can do the job.  So, I’ve broken out the thesis project and pulled it apart some to make improvements and correct a few things that I noticed were not the way I would like it.

First up was the ‘Birdcage”, the metal framework that supported the glass ceiling to Penn Station, I have just a few items left to build for it and it will be finished (construction wise that is).  Next up will be replacing the placeholder textures with the real one, so lots of Photoshop work in the future for me, as well as CrazyBump and maybe even some zBrush for it.

So here is how it looks now.

Now I just have to go over the concourse floor, ceiling, walls, railroad tracks, benches, luggage, trains and lights.

Yeah, it might take a few months.

On the ‘Do Want’ list

Separate from the Armory list is the ‘Do Want’ list.  Most of the things on this list are either survival/ camping items or general thing that I see and start grunting and drooling over.

So, as a hint to the wife for Christmas I now present a few of them.

Maxpedition Fat Boy GTG I like the left side carry version. Or, I guess I could get the right side version and just carry it on the left.  That would put the keys on the front rather than the back and the water bottle would be in easy reach.

Since I shoot either hand, if I have it in the bag it’s fine and If I have in on my right hip the bag isn’t in the way.

The other good thing is that it has room for the kids bottle, a diaper or two as well a snacks and extra ammo.  Yeah, I know ‘baby gun blogging’, be glad I haven’t stuck in any cute baby pictures yet.

Next up is more of a survival/ camping item, the Trailblazer Axe/knife combo.  I’m very much a dual use kind of person and this axe does that.  Hammer on one side, axe on the other and utility knife in the handle.

I like that feature because it means you have three tools in the space of one, and an extra knife is never a bad thing to me.

So, there they are, the beginnings of a “do want” list that isn’t about weapons.  Well, kind-of not about weapons… a little.