Wii Sensor Bar

In other news I modded my wii sensor bar. Not really a major project but just something to stop everyone tripping over the cord as it snaked from one side of my lounge room to the other. So it is nice and wireless now with a push button switch to turn it off and stop it chewing through all my batteries. When I find an appropriate wall adapter (Somewhere between 7.5-9Volts) that actually outputs its claimed voltage I will wire that up to work with the bar. I could take a photo of it but really there isnt much to look. - Except for maybe the warped ends of the bar where I supplied 12volts for about half a day and the LEDs got a 'little' hot.

Also bought a new bigger aquarium with a stand. Was a bargain but the stand has this dodgy white wash paint job so looks like there could be a bit of work there fixing that up.

5 Day skiings at Perisher coming up in less than a week!!!

Ls Budgeter

Unfortunately I haven't been doing much 3D work lately. However I haven't been completely idle. I have been making great progress on my Budget Application. This will be the one stop shop for all your budgetry needs. Rather than just have a simple excel style budget (which I did have) I thought why not a full blown application? So this guy is meant to be pretty straight forward to use and also quite complex and accurate in its results. I have lovingly dubbed it a monetary simulator as it tracks the flow of money as you earn it till the time it leaves your hands to be transformed into your latest purchase.

So to quell the rising anticipation of the masses(yes, Im in denial that no-one reads this) here is a screenshot of the current version showing the accounts pages. These are largely finished and allow you to manage accounts and transfer funds between various accounts. The balance of each account at the end of the simulation is shown on the right panel.

Update Time

Not too much has been happening lately, as you could probably guess by the lack of updates. I've been too busy with other stuff to really get any time to do some serious 3D stuff and other projects I've wanted to do. Buying a Wii didnt help very much either.

Biggest news is that I got retrenched from work which was good. Meant I got a nice payout and get to move onto a better job which seems alright so far. Rather than just Software Engineering it might mean I get to do some more hardware related stuff so that should be good.

Also bought an aquarium about a month ago. None of the fish have died yet so I must be doing something right. Also got a baby Molly that i've managed to stop from being eaten by the others which was quite an achievement.

Stuff...

Havent done a huge amount lately. Mainly house type stuff. Done a bit of gardening and general house cleaning etc to get my unit into some kind of respectable shape.

Also started a few new models and put other projects on hold. I think the pirates/merchants game has been canned as I havent heard anything from the other guys in my team I was working with. Hadnt committed too much to it so no great loss. The blackout - escape building will be a unwrapped-textured model that hopefully will form part of a short animation I am thinking of doing. Hopefully the animation will put to use some of the models I am working on including the Ion Cannon that I have finished. The cruchimech (i think that is what they called it in GW) will be a bit of a centre piece and will be a lot of fun to model. Will let me run wild a bit. :D

Looking at redoing the bathroom and kitchen eventually in my new place so am thinking I might model them and maybe even the whole unit. That way I can make changes to the 3D model and then see how it might look before forking out the cash and actually wrecking my home.

Housewarming party

House Warming

Had a housewarming for my new place so follow the above link to photos.

Ion Cannon- Finished!!

Here is finished, textured version of my sci-fi gun, with attached control unit. The materials are probably a little too dark to see some of the detail such as bolts etc... But couldnt be bothered spending anymore time on it. Its done and now I can move onto other better things. Did learn some good stuff about using placement tool tho.

Ion Cannon

This is the base of what shall be dubbed the Ion Cannon. Some kind of sci-fi gun. Materials are probably a bit dark at the moment so miss out on a fair amount of detail but not too bad for a quick render with no lighting. Just need to add the gun barrels on top and the control unit.

New year, new work place.

Been a bit lazy and havent update. - One thing that isn't new.
We all made it back safe from our holiday. Other news includes me buying a house. So that will definitely involve several projects. Im thinking a nice water feature might be a possibility but only after I have saved up some money. I have a feeling I am gonna be quite broke for a while.

Currently working on several projects at the moment. Probably too many as I dont seem to be making any progress with any of them really. Also probly should fix this up and include half the stuff that I have promised before.

So a teaser of some stuff to possibly come....
3D models include: Some kind of sci-fi gun, Eva unit01, and a whole swag of pirate/merchant type stuff including ships that are for a funnily enough a pirate/merchant type game.
And in relation to money I am also working on THE budget application to end all budget applications. AND considering it isnt going to be a simple beast it is dragging its feet. Oh why cant i keep things simple.
Im sure there are other things but hopefully Ill be able to get a few renders up at some stage.

Also took me an hour and a half to get out to edinborough (sp?) this morning. Im sure that could have been time well spent doing something else.

Happy New Year

We left Luang Prabang and headed down to Vang Vieng for Christmas. Stayed in some really nice bungalows (the owner said that Kylie Minogue stayed there). On christmas day we went tubing down the river while drinking beer, then the others had a christmas dinner while i stayed in bed with something like stomach cramps.

2 days later we kayaked part way to Vientaine. I managed to not flip this time as we navigated several rapids. The girls were not so lucky. 2 nights in Vientaine and then we flew out to Bangkok. Managed to find a guesthouse with a nice rooftop pool so today will be a day of tanning.
Went to MBK for shopping yesterday, it was close to that area where the bombs/grenades went off last night. But we spent the night close to the hotel where we had access to cheap buckets. :D

Home soon.

Laos - pics 2

After a halfday of trekking we arrived at a remote village for lunch. We were soon the main attraction. Most of them stood there fascinated by us. Their village seems reasonably simple. They do have a school though.
And upon looking from a distance it seems they do have the obligatory satellite dishes on a few of the houses. Our guide (Pet) said that that village had a population of around 100.

From there we walked to another village (pop. around 400-500). It was a Mong (sp?) village and currently they are having some kind of festival which involves throwing balls around. Females who drop a ball thrown to them by a male have to marry the man who threw it. When we entered the village the males of our tour group made sure not to throw any balls that came our way and we specifically told the girls to CATCH everything.

Laos - pics 1

Cam takes a moment to enjoy the change from the busy streets of Vietnam and Cambodia to the quiet(ish) streets of Luang Prabang.
Houses in Laos are reasonably sized and fashioned with a satellite dish (of course).
Our first nights accomodation in Luang Prabang. Ali is overjoyed at how nice Laos is.
The bus we took from Vientiane to Luang Prabang. We thought the curtains were a nice touch, pity about the toilet.

Ta Phrom - From Tomb Raider Movie

Bayon Temple

Angkor Wat

Laos

After our time in Siem Reap we caught a plane to Laos. We had heard a few dodgy things about some of the smaller airlines but the twin prop plane (probably 30 seater) that we caught to Vientaine was quite good and we even got served food. We stayed one night there and then the next day caught a bus (looked like it had been taken from Priscilla Queen of the Desert set) up to Luang Prabang. That was about an 8 hour trip and the King of Bus had one of the worst toilets we have had to date. Think of bad smells, half height room in a double decker bus and a lot of swaying from the hilly mountains.

Several words can be used to describe Luang Prabang. One of them being chilly. We have been surprised with how cold it is here but it is reasonably north and quite hilly. I think the bus through the mountains got to 2000m at one point. We spent one day in Luang Prabang shopping and checking out the nearby sights. It is quite a small town and you can easily walk from one end of the main street to the other in a short time. They also have very cool night markets that pop up at one end of the main street after sunset. We all agree that we like Laos better than Cambodia. The people are a lot more friendly, seems to be less crime and the sellers and tuk-tuk drivers will stop bugging you after one quick 'no'. Oh and the tuk-tuks are a bit more like 3 wheeled vans than Cambodia.

After our day of rest we decided we were due for a bit of exercise. We took a 3 day trip with Green Discovery (highly recommended) which involved 1 day mountain biking, 1 day trekking and 1 day kayaking. Each night we stayed at a local village (quite an experience, and rather cold). The second night we were involved in a welcoming ceremony which involved the local chief of the village saying some stuff in case our souls had been left behind in the trip to the mountain. Also involved some of the local moonshine, a large amount of Beer Lao and the locals tying string around our wrists. We have to keep the string on for 3 days too or otherwise we may lose our soul again.

Today is another day of rest and more massages plus booking accomodation in Thailand. Accomodation is proving difficult as it seems New Years on a beach in Thailand is quite popular.

Cambodia - Siem Reap

Lost track of the days/date but after about 4 days in Phnom Penh we headed up to Siem Reap so that we could check out all the awesome temples. Must say that they are pretty amazing, Ankar Wat in particular. Also saw Ta Phrom which is the one from Tomb raider. Girls are currently at an Orphanage and we are going to catch the place tomorrow to get to Vientiene in Laos. Will post pictures of the temples when I go through the 200 odd photos. And this morning we got up early to catch the sunrise at Ankar Wat but there was so much cloud cover it was a bit of a let down. Busloads of tourists trekking through all the temples too. Siem Reap seems nicer, less crime, friendlier people than Phonm Penh and the place we have spent the last 2 nights at (The Ancient Ankar) has a pool, tho it isnt finished yet. :(

Cambodia - Phnom Penh

Our first night at Phnom Penh was the saturday and we stayed at the Kings guesthouse (wasnt that flash really). We decided the next day that we would stay at somewhere a bit better so we headed over to what wasw probably the dirty area of the town but also the backpacker district. We then found the Happy Lakeside Guesthouse. Seems every place is either happy or lucky or a bit of both and there is always a "very special price for you"!! The Guesthouse featured a nice outdoor wooden bar area over the lake and an overzealous owner. Most of the pubs/restaurants in that area seemed to cater specifically for westerners and of special mention is an indian place with $2 all you can eat, featuring unlimited cold water. We decided we had been moving around a fair bit and after meeting up with Dan on that sunday we decided we would stay a few nights at the Happy Lakeside. Happy B (the owner) was more than happy to take us to a few of the tourist attractions. So the monday we went to the killing fields followed by the shooting range for Cam and I to fire off some rounds from an AK47. I know, it wasnt a very good idea to follow up a morbid visit with shooting but they were close to each other and we decided against shooting livestock.Spent the next several days lounging around and catching up on sleep. Also purchased a watch from the russian markets which stopped working soon after we got back from the visit. However when we returned a few days later she did replace the face with one that was working (and then proceeded to wrap up the broken one to sell to the next sucker). Oh and part of the watch broke yesterday, tho I should still be happy cos I can tell the time.

Cambodia seems a lot more dusty than vietnam. I think this is due to the huge amount of concrete in Nam enabling all the rubbish to just wash away. Also seems to be a lot more cars in Cambodia than Vietnam. Oh, and the bling. Exhaust with flashing LEDs around them. Chrysler badges stuck on above a toyota badge of a toyota car. Seems very crazy but as our Mekong tour guide said "You got the money you get the honey". Also explains why most guys seem to be spending all their time lounging around on their bike and trying their best to display it to any girls walking by. Note to any future visitors: Be sure to visit the Seeing Hands massage place. Blind people who will give you the best massage ever and for only $4.50. The proceeds also go to help blind people and the massages are 'clean'.

Killing fields

Happy Lakeside Guesthouse

Mekong Delta Cruise

The Delta cruise consisted of a large amount of water and a large amount of boats. Boat sections of the journey were better than the bus sections as we could at least stretch our legs while travelling. It all felt weird for us tho, travelling with westerners again after we had spent our time out in the hamlet where we were the only white people. The tour made several stops. We were shown how they made coconut candy and other sweets (including cock rice - hey it definitely sounded like that was what they were saying).Also went for a short bike ride and saw a giant python.The floating markets were pretty cool and we got the best pineapple EVER there. Each boat ties what they have available to sell onto a bamboo pool - hopefully you can see it in the pic. Ohh, thought I might point out that banana trees grow like weeds around here and it only cost us about 10c for a bunch of lady fingers. Beers are also under a dollar.

The boarder crossing was pretty crazy when we pulled up at the edge of vietnam loads of monkeys (very fast agile kids) jumped onto our boat and started picking up our bags. We have noticed that around these parts it seems people try very hard to push their service onto you in order to make a buck. After obtaining our bags back we walked across the border, got a stamp and then boarded a boat which we all hoped was heading to Phnom Penh.

Damn dodgy posts

Aaargh, dont have time to fix up the problem below but you get the general idea.

Vietnam - country side

So the tuesday morning we all piled into a minivan and headed out to 'The Coconut Grove' a small hamlet a few hours west of Saigon. On the way we stopped off at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We also picked up some snake wine at the tunnels after having consumed it the previous night.- They place snakes and other animals into vats with alcohol, disgusting but the result is not too bad. Much nicer than tequila.

Cu Chi Tunnels.

Dinner on the street.

Snake wine.


















We stayed that night at Nhung's grandmas place (a small cafe in the hamlet) and the next morning we were treated to a variety of activities. Including hunter - gathering for the boys (Cam and I should now be able to survive on an island with only coconut palms), bicycle riding for the girls and an offerring for everyone. We bumped into the town drunk on the way to Uncle Coconuts place and he joined us for some drinking and merriment. We later dubbed him Mr Moonshine and noted his attention for Claire (he repeatedly said "Number 1"). We later discovered that number 1 is a brand of condom over here so that has confused us even further. Anyway, the offering, including a chicken turned inside out was in the hope of a prosperous harvest for a new piece of land that Uncle Coconut had recently purchased. Of course the offerring also included shots of some of grandma's moonshine which soon made short work of Anje.

Mr Moonshine.












With a sad farewell (of sorts) we left the hamlet and headed back to Saigon with a short stop at some mountain (cant remember the name). It is strange cos it pops up out of nowhere. We caught the chairlift part way to the top and joined others in praying for lost souls at a pagoda. The cart/bobsled ride on the way down was closed that day. I was extremely dissapointed. So it was chairlift for the way back down. :(

Mountain Chairlift.












We proceeded to do some quick shopping in Ho Chi Minh and then started our series of early morning starts on our Mekong Delta cruise on the thursday. Considering this is meant to be a holiday we have had way too many early starts. Today took the cake with a 4:30 wake up to see the non-existant sunrise at Ankar Wat, but more on that later.