5 Kinds of Awesome

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:06:00 +0000

I've currently been playing the DS game Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. It's a cute game where you get to use a team of pokemon to go on dungeon crawls to complete missions. This game is different to the standard pokemon games in that all the characters, including yours, are pokemon rather than humans. Your character is actually a human who was turned into a pokemon and lost their memory. At the start of the game you get to answer some questions and your pokemon type is selected (I got munchlax). After that you team up with another pokemon partner and join the explorers guild. The game has a neat but simplistic storyline, definately aimed at kids, but it is quite entertaining with some amusing dialog. The game play is fairly basic, during missions or exploring you have a team of up to 4 pokemon and you walk around randomly generated dungeon levels fighting other pokemon on the way. The combat is turn based so you can take your time to think about how to go ahead. It's fun to be able to use the pokemon just as they are without needing a trainer and being able to use multiple pokemon at once. In the dungeons you control the leader pokemon but the other pokemon decide their own actions. This can be a good thing since it speeds things up but sometimes they can run off in the wrong direction or use the wrong moves at times. You can set tactics for each pokemon or limit their available moves so they perform roughly how you want them to but the control isn't perfect and it can be tedious to go through all the team members to change the tactics. The combat pretty much uses the same moves from the traditional pokemon games so it's easy to get the hang of. I found the game fun and relaxing for the most part since it's not too challenging and the story line was entertaining. The game play however is quite repetative so sometimes it can become a bit of a grind, particularly if a dungeon has lots of levels. It is also frustrating at times that the dungeon is a random maze and you need to find the right room with the stair to get to the next level. Sometimes the stair will be right there in the first room you enter and other times you go all over the map twice to find it.
Once the main story line finishes you can keep playing and since you can get additional pokemon added to your team roster it can be tempting to keep playing to try get them all.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is light hearted game that's mostly fun but probably isn't good for playing a long time unless you're a die hard pokemon fan.

Star Trek Fashion

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:14:00 +0000

Lately I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. There's been a lot of different examples of uniforms and clothing on Star Trek tv shows and movies so I thought I'd put up a few examples of them here.

Uniforms from Star Trek original series

Skant women's uniform from original series
I really think this uniform is a bit too short to be practical but I like the slevees on it at least.

Skant men's uniform from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This uniform was only worn occasionally by male characters in the first couple seasons. The idea behind it was that since men and women were equal they should both be able to wear this uniform. I think what they failed to realise is that it doesn't really make sense for anyone to wear this as a uniform regardless of gender. See Star Trek Wiki - Memory Alpha for more info.

Uniforms from Star Trek II through Star Trek VI and Star Trek: Generations

I think I prefer these uniforms to the usual jump suits, they seem to have more character to them.

Councelor Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation

I can't work out if I love or hate Deanna Troi's blue dress uniform. Sometimes I think it look great but other times the lopsided neckline gets on my nerves.

Men's uniforms from Star Trek: The Next Generation

For the first season or two these uniforms were made from a spandex material which was too tight and ended up causing the cast back problems from straining against the material. They ended up changing to a two piece wool costume to make things more comfortable.

Uniforms from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Uniforms from Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek 2009 Movie uniforms
The new Star Trek uniforms seem to be a lot closer to the original star trek uniforms. They're not particularly inspiring but at least they look semi practical.

Barossa Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:26:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago I went on a short holiday to the Barossa Valley in South Australia. I took a few photos there and some turned out quite neat so I thought I'd post a few here.

View from hill lookout

Stone art visible from hill lookout

Area near Lyndoch

Railcar motel we stayed at in Tanunda

Rocking horse at wood cutters hut

Statue at Goat Square in Tanunda

Sign by Goat Square in Tanunda

Engineering News

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Submarine from 10th International Submarine Races - photo by Jack Gruber

Here's a list of links to interesting news articles relating to engineering.

Rhythm Engineering Traffic System Shortens Travel Time - Artificial intelligence traffic system on Kansas highway significantly reduces travel time, fuel consumption and emissions.

NASA Chief Nominee Says Agency Needs to Rekindle Engineering Spirit - Charles Bolden new NASA Chief wishes to revive the pioneering spirit that existed with the early space flights.

JFE Engineering to Start Study of Supplying Water in Australia - Japanese company JFE is developing water filtering systems for use in Queensland, Australia.

These Bridges to Nowhere May Help Avert Future Disasters - Universities at Buffalo and Calspan are collaborating to build bridges to aid research into bridge collapses during disasters.

Students Design, Build, Race Pedal-Powered Submarines - College and high school kids students from around the world compete in The 10th International Submarine Races.

Diversity Dilemma: Why African American Civil Engineering Candidates Are Hard To Find And How Civil Engineering Companies Can Help Fix It - Hinton Human Capitol Blog suggests that failure of the education system and the engineering profession's poor exposure lead to a lack in diversity.

Army Terminators Walk Like Men - Bipedal military robot designed to simulate humans to test chemical protection clothing.

10 Funny Music Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:58:00 +0000

Here's a list of 10 great funny music videos. They are mainly normal songs with amusing video clips but I've included one parody song in there by Weird Al Yankovic. I've put some videos on the page here but for the others just click on the title to see the video on other sites.

1. OK Go - Here It Goes Again

2. Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly

3. Har Mar Superstar - DUI

4. Sophie Ellis Bextor - Murder on the Dance Floor

5. Weird Al Yankovic - Eat It

6. Peaches (featuring Iggy Pop) - Kick It

7. Eminem - Without Me

8. My Chemical Romance - I'm Not OK

9. Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right

10. Weezer - Pork and Beans

Action Packed Weekend of Games

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:38:00 +0000

For a change I'll write about what I did on the weekend since I need a game post and I actually participated in 3 different types of games this weekend.

On Saturday my husband Aaron and I got up at an ungodly hour to go paintballing with some people from my work. I have been paintballing only once before when I helped out (badly) some friends who were short a player for a paintball tournament. In the tournament I spent most of the time cowering behind barricades and wasn't very effective, apart from acting as another target to divert attention. This time I went paintballing I think I over compensated by trying to charge a fort by myself that was held by 4 or 5 people. I didn't get very far but it was amusing, apart from the hideous and painful bruises from being shot at close range of course.
For the paintballing we were split up into two teams then fought at each field twice with teams swapping starting positions after the first game. The different fields were a barrel field, a trench field, a fort field and a bushland camouflage field.
Our team won the first game but after that things fell apart with the other team kicking butt for the rest of the day. I realised that it's a lot easier to play with people you know well and can communicate easily with. There was a serious lack of cooperation in our group, particularly since we had no obvious leader. We ended up just bunkering down a lot of the time and weren't able to decide on a course of action. For example in the trench set up there were 3 of us left and we were either out of or low on ammo. We sat around talking for a few minutes about being low and ammo and planning to go around the side and charge but the other team go to us first and shot us from the side; very embarrasing.
Aaron was more ambitious for most games and tried to gain ground sometimes but without solid support it didn't work very well. I did still have fun for the most part. I think I prefer laser skirmish since there is less pain and it doesn't cost as much but I'll admit there's a neat adrenaline rush from paintball.

The next thing was on that night, a steampunk roleplaying costume party called "The Maiden Flight of the Olympia".
It was a pretty impressive set up for the party. It was in a hired hall and had a whole bunch of steampunk style props set up around the place and a stage was set up to look like the deck of a steampunk space ship. The story was that people were on a voyage to the moon on the ship Olympia. Throughout the game various events occurred such as an attack from a giant squid and going through an asteroid field. There were also various character conflicts and intrigues between players.
I didn't get into the roleplaying as much as Aaron did but I had some fun conspiring with the suffragettes who were planning on kidnapping the queen if they didn't get their way.
There were a lot of people from the SA chapter of the Australian Costumers Guild there so there were some pretty neat costumes. I had a pretty average costume thrown together at the last minute, a shiny blue Victorian looking top, a black skirt and boots.
Aaron managed to find a second hand jacket with tails and borrowed a top hat from a friend so he looked rather dashing.
It was a pretty interesting evening and there were some great performances from people really getting into their characters.

On Sunday I played in our fortnightly Dark Heresy roleplaying game. This is a roleplaying game set in the Warhammer 40K Universe where you get to be acolytes of an inquisitor. The Dark Heresy system is quite good with a lot of neat advancement options for characters.
My character in the game is an assassin of noble blood who uses a long las gun for sniping.
It's been a pretty fun game so far. In the session this weekend we fought a giant four legged nurgle creature from the warp. When the creature appeared our first tech priest failed his will power roll and fainted in terror for 3 rounds. Our psyker used his leadership aura and his perils of the warp effect knocked two of us to the ground with a wind blast. Our adept bolted and was then chased down by the demon but managed to dodge all attacks and then set it on fire with an exterminator cannister blast. Since my shots weren't having much effect I charged into close combat with the others and damaged the creature horribly with my sword after some nice dice rolls. I ended up getting grappled then eaten by the demon and being held by intestines inside it's stomach. The psyker lost an arm then the creature was finally killed and disappeared into the warp leaving me 20m in the air with nothing to hold onto. Thankfully the second tech priest was nice enough to break my fall so I didn't die horribly.
At the end of this the psyker was unconcious, the first tech priest had woken up and carried him while we made our way out of the area. Unfortunately none of us thought to bring back the nurgle engine that we were supposed to bring with us. Normally the psyker reminds us of these things but he was passed out so kept his mouth shut. When we got back to the inquisitor he was not happy. The first tech priest tried to lie by saying the engine had been crushed and eaten by the demon and exploded. Eventually the adept admitted we had just left it in the truck. The adept and the second tech priest blamed the first tech priest for this so our inquisitor started strangling him. He eventually stopped after the first tech priest agreed to get the engine back.
So our next session is to go and see if the nurgle engine is still where we left it and try get it back while the psyker gets a bionic arm fitted.
I'm really enjoying playing this game since the characters in our group are a lot of fun and our game master (GM) is going a great job of setting the scenes.

So that was my game packed weekend. You should know that having this much gaming back to back can be dangerous to your sanity and health so only attempt this at your own risk.

7 Great Fashion News Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:37:00 +0000

Finale of the DKNY spring/summer collection during Fashion Week (Photo by Louis Lanzano/AP)

Here's some links to various interesting news articles on what's happening in fashion today.

1. Fashion World Turns to Bloggers to Get the Word Out - article from Los Angeles Times about how designers are increasingly going to bloggers to market their products.

2. Top Model Exposes Sordid Side of Fashion - article from the UK's The Observer on a documentary about the fashion industry made by model Sara Ziff.

3. What Not to wear, Baghdad-Style: Fashion Rules Begin to Change - article from the New York Times about how fashion is changing for women in Baghdad.

4. Forever 21 Continues to Grow Despite Recession, Court Woes - article about how Forever 21 aiming to take over several of bankrupt Gottschalks' stores and is being sued for allegedly copying designs by Trovata.

5. French Lacroix Fashion House is Put in Administration - article from Google News about Lacroix being placed under administration after filling for bankruptcy protection due to the financial crisis.

6. Out of Fashion? - article from National Post on how fashion designers are faring during the global financial crisis.

7. "Trashy" Fashion Showcase a Hit - article from LocalNews8.com about a fashion show held in Idaho Falls where people showed fashion creations made from trash in order to promote recyling.

Gina DeLorenzi Quilt Art

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:46:00 +0000

I recently came across Gina DeLorenzi's quilt art at her website Quilts 4 U. Gina makes some wonderful modern looking quilts that are dramatic pieces of art as well as practical items.

Peublo Traces

Gina told me in an email that her quilts lately have "taken a geological flavor" since she has been helping her brother build a website where he sells 19th century geological maps. Gina considers the maps works of art since in those times maps were hand coloured in ink and represented land formations and minerals in amazing ways. She has been using these as inpiration for her hand dyed fabrics.
Below are a few examples of her work. You definately see the geological influence in the piece evening blossom.

Evening Blossom

Trembling Diamonds

Lateral Fault

Gina also makes children's quilts and traditional quilts which look great but I really love the contemporary ones best.

New York Beauty (Traditional style quilt)

Children's Quilt

Her children's quilts are used to support charity since a portion of her profits from children's quilts sold in 2009 will be used to make and send quilts to a hospital/mission on the border of Arizona and Mexico.

Gina's Quilts 4 U website has an interesting article called Insights on Quilt Art that discusses modern quilting and quilting as an art form. The article includes a quote from "Quilts a Living Tradition" by Robert Shaw, that states

"Today’s studio art quilters also struggle against the hoary and homey notion of the quilt as domestic artifact rather than object of art. This struggle is often compounded by prejudices of those who do not recognize quilts as art or women as artists."

I have to admit that I hadn't really considered quilting as an art form before but looking at Gina's work I definately can see that quilts can be amazing art and should get more recognition.

You can look at and purchase quilts from Gina's website Quilts 4 U and read Gina's blog Contemporary Quilt Art. Gina is also a member of two ning social groups, Fiber Focus and Fiber Arts/Mixed Media.

Largest Engineering Projects Planned for Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 31 May 2009 08:24:00 +0000

Big projects means more work for engineers so it's good to know what is going on in this area.

Here's some details of some of the major projects that are either in progress or coming up in the next few years in Australia.

Air Warfare Destroyer

3 Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) ships are to be built in South Australia and ready for service in 2013. The project is currently in the initial design phases and is being run by the AWD Alliance. The AWD Alliance consists of ASC, Raytheon Australia and the Defence Materiel Organization (DMO). Raytheon Australia is to provide the combat system engineering and ASC the shipbuilding.

Submarines
12 new submarines to be assembled in South Australia. The 2009 Defence White Paper states that it will be a "major design and construction program spanning three decades and will be Australia's largest ever single defence project". You can see a summary of projects from Australia's 2009 Defence White Paper at Defence Industry Daily. The White Paper document is available to read at Defence.gov.

Regional Rail Link in Victoria
The 2009 Australian budget announced that $3.2 billion will go towards Victoria's regional rail link project. The project will involve constructing a new rail line in Melbourne's west to reduce bottle necks.

Clean Energy Initiative
$4.5 billion has be allocated in the 2009 budget to the Clean Energy Initiative. This initiative is to support carbon capture and storage demonstration projects. You can read more more in this article at Abc.net, Mining and Resources - Carbon capture aims to preserve coal industry.

National Broadband Network
The government is planning to establish a new company that will invest up to $43 billion over eight years to build and operate a National Broadband Network. This network is to connect 90 percent of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with Internet speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

This is a short list of what I consider the largest projects in the works for Australia currently. Please let me know if you have any other projects you think should be added to the list.

About Emma (@5kindsofawesome)

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:07:00 +0000

Thankyou for visiting my blog. This is my welcome page for those visiting via my Twitter account @5kindsofawesome.

My name is Emma and I write the blog 5 Kinds of Awesome. I'm a 25 year old graduate mechanical engineer living in Adelaide, Australia. I draw and paint in my spare time and play video games and roleplaying games. I'm also keen on strange, interesting fashion and love to read books, comics and webcomics.

5 Kinds of Awesome the blog
5 Kinds of Awesome is a blog for sharing and reviewing cool things and to provide useful information to graduate and student engineers. This blog is currently in hibernation until I feel like posting again but please feel free to look around at previous posts.

I post items under the topics:

- Engineering: Advice, news and information for engineers, particularly graduates
- Art: Review of others' art work or photos of my latest paintings
- Fashion: Photos of cool off beat fashion items
- Games: Reviews of games I have played
- Miscellaneous: Reviews or info on popular culture such as movies or tv shows

Posts are announced via my twitter account @5kindsofawesome.
You can also subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog to get regular updates by clicking the RSS Feed button on the side bar or by following this link.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 24 May 2009 08:14:00 +0000

I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie for the first time last night and I'm not sure why I hadn't seen it before. I think I just thought it was a weird old movie but it is actually quite entertaining and has some pretty fun musical numbers.

The movie was released in 1975 and is based on the British play The Rocky Horror Show from 1973. The story is about a newly engaged couple who get a flat tyre and go to a nearby castle for help. All they want to do is make a phone call but they get drawn into the wild life of the castle owner, Dr. Frank N. Furter, a bizarre transvestite played by Tim Curry. The movie is filled with strange characters who are often quite creepy and also looking for a good time.

The movie is a comedy and is heavily influenced by old sci fi and horror movies. It is a bit crazy and raunchy but it's done in a humourous way rather than a crude style so it's pretty cool.

I really admire Tim Curry's acting ability and courage to be able to pull off playing Frank'n'Furter. He does a great job of playing up the drama and doing the song and dance routines.

There are some great costumes in the movie but I think my favourite is Columbia's costume shown below with the gold coat and top hat.

It is totally awesome and if there were a dress up party for this I would probably go as her.

If you haven't seen the movie (or love it) you should check out these two musical numbers, The Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite. They my favourite songs from the film are a lot of fun.

Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:43:00 +0000

Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines (VTMB for short) is a computer game from 2004 that was based off the roleplaying game Vampire the Masquerade. VTMB is an action/roleplaying type game where you get to go around different city environments and talk to non player characters (NPCs) in between doing missions.
The storyline is fairly linear but you do get optional side quests and near the end you can choose whose side you want to take, which decides what final missions you have.
I love the different options in the game play in VTMB since you can choose to go in all guns blazing or claws out or just sneak around and avoid conflict. Also depending on your stat choices you can talk around people or seduce them rather than shredding your way through.

When you start the game you get to choose your character's gender, clan and ability stats.
In the game you start as a newly made vampire who was made without permission by a vampire in the Camarilla (a major vampire sect). The clans you can choose from are Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue. Each clan has different special vampiric powers known as diciplines which allow you to do cool things like move incredibly fast, take lots of damage or morph into a different creature.

There is a lot of variety in the missions; one mission you'll be trying to blend in at a party in a Giovanni mansion and in another you're being swamped by zombies in a ruined apartment building during a gun fight with a fast moving vampire. There are a lot of creepy missions such as going around a haunted house and fighting/sneaking your way through a mansion filled with a Malkavian's crazed human minions.

One of my favourite bonus quests/options in the game is near the start when you chat with a newly made thin blood vampire called Copper. He wants to be human again and with some persuasion you can convince him that he needs to kill the head vampire with a holy wooden stake and get a blood transfusion of unicorn blood. You can sell him a stake and some blood then tell him that the head vampire is the President of the United States. He then runs off exicitedly never to be heard from again (see Head Vampire Quest for details).

The environments in the game have a fairly cool atmosphere but the city areas you walk around feel a bit closed in and deserted. There are a few people walking around, mainly to provide a convenient blood supply, but there are also cops who will go on alert and attack you if you are too obvious in your feeding habits or begin frenzying in the street. It can be fun to have some space to run around in without being on guard all the time like you need to be in most missions. In the cities you can can go to night clubs and seduce people for blood or join people on the dance floor or whine about life to the bartender. There's also some stores around for buying weapons and hospitals where you can steal or buy blood.

Since there are different ways you can tackle the game it can be fun to play through again with a different style. I played the game through first as a Gangrel and second as a Brujah. Playing the Gangrel was fun since they are basically walking tanks that can soak up and deal out a lot of damage. I found it was easier playing a Brujah though since they have celerity (ability to move really fast) and I found it better to not get hit in the first place rather than take lots of damage and need to heal yourself.

Most of the game is fun but there are a few frustrating elements. A major one is that the guns do little to no damage most of the time. I can understand this in the case of fighting vampires but normal humans with no armour seemed to shrug off multiple bullets as if I was just throwing peas at them. It was often easier just to go in swinging punches or to use melee weapons than to use guns. I did tend to use guns later in the game though in some cases, particularly when I didn't want to get too close to some of the freaky monsters in the game. You come across a few Tzimisce made horrors that are rather scary looking so I was happy to keep my distance from them as much as possible.
Another thing is that the fighting could sometimes bit a bit clunky and the game could freeze or slow down a lot, particularly with a lot of discipline powers being used at once. If you have a decent computer this probably won't be too much of a problem.

There is also a bit of weirdness in the game in that for some reason female characters can seduce male or female but males can only seduce female NPCs. I find this a bit irritating since it plays to male fantasies by having all women open to seduction by anyone and shows homophobia by not allowing male characters to seduce men. I can understand that they are trying to please their main target audience but I think it is inconsiderate to other players.

In spite of those few issues, overall the game is a lot of fun to play. There is cool action with neat atmospheric settings, some good roleplaying choices and a lot of fun powers to play with.

Chainmail Fashion

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:10:00 +0000

I stumbled across this awesome site for chainmail jewellery the other day called Red Panda Chainmaille. Red Panda is owned and run by Jessica Johnson, a 22 year old from Tennessee in the USA. Jessica takes the method of linking rings together that was used to make armour for knights and uses it to make awesome modern jewellery.
Take a look at a few examples below.

Rainbow European Chainmail Bracelet

Spike Maille Earrings

Stretchy Super Fringe Chainmail Bracelet

Chainmaille Cowl

Most of the items are made using aluminium rings so they are not as heavy as traditional chainmail and can come in different colours. Jessica also uses rubber rings mixed with metal rings to make stretchy bracelets like the pink and black bracelet shown above. I love the style of the chainmail patterns and there are many different examples on the Red Panda Chainmaille website.

If you are interested in seeing how chainmail is made Jessica has a tutorial on her webite that shows how to make one of the basic chainmaile patterns called European 4 in 1 (see How to Make Chainmaille). It's a great tutorial but I don't think I would have the patience to make something using chainmail. Maybe if I have a lot of free time one day I'll try it out.

Jhonen Vasquez

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:12:00 +0000

Jhonen Vasquez is an artist/writer who mostly works on comics books but was also the writer and creater for the cartoon series Invader Zim.

Jhonen tends to make dark, twisted and humourous comics that have a very bizarre art style. His drawing style is quite unique with sharp angular lines and extremely distorted and exaggerated cartoon type figures. He also includes a lot of horror and fantasy elements in his stories, often relating to the insanity of the main characters.

Probably his most popular comic book series is Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (see JTHM preview at Google books). This is a twisted story about a psychopath who kills and tortures people in between giving long rants about the terrible nature of humanity. It is a somewhat disturbing comic but has a lot of humour in it and is strangely compelling.

My favourite comic of Jhonen's is "I Feel Sick", a short two part comic about an artist called Devi who is actually one of the few characters in JTHM who escapes alive. In the I Feel Sick comics Devi is trying to do a commercial painting job but is struck with artist's block and is being tormented by one of her painted creations. I like this comic since it is slightly more grounded in reality than JTHM. It is easier to identify with the main character who is a relatively normal person caught up in a world going crazy. It also has some neat artwork and cool characters.

The tv series that Jhonen created, Invader Zim, is also quite awesome. It's a show about an alien who comes to earth to study humans and attempts to prepare the world for an invasion by the alien fleet. The cartoon is quite hilarious and has a lot of bizarre action and stories. The art is done in the style of Jhonen's work which works surprisingly well in cartoon form.

Other projects that Jhonen has worked on include:
The Bad Art Collection
Squee!
Filler Bunny
Everything Can Be Beaten
Jellyfist

Jhonen also directed the video clip for Shut Me Up by Mindless Self Indulgence and did art work for the band's deluxe version of the album If.

Tolerances

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:08:00 +0000

In my job I generally need to check tolerances on part drawings to make sure that the parts will do their job, fit together and attach to mounting points correctly.

Tolerances are allowable variations from the ideal design, for example you might want a bar to be 100mm long but since process are not perfect the length will be slightly above or below 100mm. To give a guide on how accurate the length needs to be in your design you might specify that the length can be 100mm + or - 1mm, so the length must be between 99mm and 101mm.

One of the most basic examples of selecting tolerances is looking at bolt or pin holes. If you want to have a clearance fit then you need to make sure that the minimum size of the hole is larger than the maximum bolt or pin size. For example if you have a 10mm bolt you might want a hole that is 12mm + or - 1mm. The minimum hole size is then 11mm which is larger than the 10mm bolt size so there will always be a clearance fit.

With connection holes you also need to make sure the tolerance on the position is reasonable. If you have two holes that need to align for a pin to go through and the position tolerance is + or - 1mm on each hole then the hole centres can be up to 2mm apart. In this situation if a 10mm pin is going through minimum 11mm diameter holes there could be interference.
In some designs using slotted holes can reduce fitting problems. If you know there is going to be more variation in one direction then aligning a slot correctly can allow for more variation.

When selecting tolerences you need to trade off between making sure parts will fit together and not making the manufacturing too costly. The tighter the tolerance is the more expensive the processing is but if a tolerance is too loose you can get interference and poor fits.

Often companies will have a standard general tolerance included on their drawing sheets. While the general tolerance may be ok for most items it's good practice to make sure that the general tolerance is appropriate for your application.

It is important to know what tolerance is achievable since there is no point in specifying a tolerance of 0.01mm if the best the manufacturer can do is 1mm accuracy.
You also want to make sure when the parts come in that they are actually built to match the drawing. There may be quality inspectors who check this but if a problem comes up often it pays to make sure the part is made to drawing. It is not uncommon for suppliers to get dimensions wrong or out of tolerance, particularly if it is the first item made or a prototype.

Tolerance stack up is a major issue in design. If several parts are combined then the added up tolerance variations can lead to interference or poor fit. For example if you have 3 bars joined end to end, each with + or - 1mm on the length, then the total length of the bars could vary by + or - 3mm.

Usually it is best to look at the worst case situations in tolerances but in reality it is unlikley that the tolerance variations would all be at one extreme. With the bar example it would be unlikely that all the bars would be at +1mm length (unless this is due to a manufacturing process that always cuts long).
More likely is the situation of different length variations e.g. -0.3mm, +0.2mm, +0.5mm that added together add 0.4mm to the length rather than 3mm.
In some cases it might be cost effective and/or more realistic to consider a statistical tolerance that looks at the probability how the tolerances would add together.

To learn more on tolerencing here is a great article on Process Tolerancing that explains different tolerancing methods and a way to get results somewhere between statistical tolerancing and worst cast tolerancing.

NASA also has this article on lessons learned relating to tolerancing, Vehicle Integration/Tolerance Buildup Practices.

For a real life example there's this neat story about engineering deign and tolerance stack up on the blog easier than writing by hand, has an amusing ending.

The Goon Show

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:18:00 +0000

The Goon Show was a radio comedy show that was produced by the BBC in England between 1951 and 1960. The show involved bizarre humour, funny voices, sound effects and strange plots. The Goons inspired the Monty Python crew so that helps to give some idea of what they were about.

The main writers and voices in the show were Spike Milligan, Harry Seacombe and Peter Sellers. Michael Bentine was in the show between 1951 to 1953 but dropped out to follow a solo career.
The Goon Show became incredibly popular in it's day with an average of 2 million listeners. The show came about not long after World War II when Britain was still under rationing and rebuilding areas that were bombed. The show crazy humour came as a relief at the time since people needed something to laugh about after so much suffering. There's a good article with more info on this at The Goon Show.

I got into the Goon Show through my dad who was a fan and had a few tapes of shows. My favourite show was The International Christmas Pudding where the characters go on an expedition to Africa to find pieces of the International Christmas Pudding.
You can see the script for this at The Goon Show Site.

The shows can sometimes be difficult to follow due to having British and/or dated references but a lot of the jokes are classic. Some catch phrases are still popular today, such as refering to a cold or slight illness as lurgi.

Episodes are still occasionally broadcast on radio but you can also find them on CDs or online. The BBC regularly puts up Goon Shows to listen to online here.

Telephone Pictionary

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:53:00 +0000

Telephone pictionary is a fun game that can be played with pencils and paper and a few friends. Generally I play this game with about 7 people since this works best but it can be played with more or less.
In the game everyone sits around a table and gets a sheet of paper and a pencil. Each person writes a sentence at the top of the page such as a song lyric or a quote or an observation, usually the stranger the better. The pages then get passed onto the person on the left.
Next everyone draws a picture below the sentence they have to represent what it says. The sentence is then folded over, so the next person can only see the picture, and the page is again passed to the left.
Everyone then writes a sentence that explains the picture. The picture is then folded over and the page goes onto the left and a new picture is drawn to illustrate the sentence. This process continues until the pages have all gone around once.
The idea with this game is to see what weird changes you can get from going between words and pictures. It is often very entertaining and can end up with some hilarous pictures and final lines.
It's best to play with an odd number of people so you go from an initial sentence to a final sentence. If the game is played several times it's a good idea to alternate between passing to the left or right or to switch where people are sitting.
Another thing that we tend to do when playing is at the end of a round each person reads out the sentences and describes the images on their page. It can be quite funny when people try to explain what was going on in the pictures, particularly the confusing ones.
In my group of friends we tend to get an interesting mix of highly detailed drawings and basic stick figure diagrams. I find that it doesn't matter if people are not great at drawing as long as they put some imagination and enthusiasm into what they draw. The games are supposed to go fairly quickly so people aren't allowed to take too long on pictures, only a few minutes tops.
There are quite a few pages from games that have been kept because they are still quite funny to look at after the games. See below for a scanned example.

Sorry if it's a bit unclear, you can click on the picture to take a closer look. Thanks to Wilmo scanning a bunch of pages in. You can see more examples at my Flikr Telephone Pictionary page.

For a briefer and possibly more coherent explaination of the game see http://www.mbinde.com/games/telephone-pictionary/

Change in Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:36:00 +0000

Hello loyal readers,

This post is to let you know that I'm making a change to my posting schedule on 5 Kinds of Awesome. While I have been enjoying writing this blog I'm finding that trying to do 5 posts a week is getting a bit much.
I'm now planning on doing 2 posts per week on which ever days work out best rather than on set days. I still plan to cycle through the different topics of engineering, art, fashion, games and random/misc. I think that having more time between posts will help me to write better and also have less need to do quick filler posts.
I'll have the next post on games up sometime early next week.

In the mean time please check out this awesome post on Daddy Likey: "Inadvertently Ask Daddy Likey" (it includes a video of a hilarious Monty Python sketch).

Regards
Emma

Cool Hats from Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Here's some pictures of cool and impressive hats from movies

My Fair Lady

Changeling
Out of Africa
Blues Brothers
Top Hat
Watchmen

Basic Drawing Tutorial Links

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Here's a list of sites that provide some interesting and useful drawing tutorials.

1-2-3 Bishoujo! Cute website with tutorials on drawing manga
Art Graphica has a selection of online tutorials from various artists
About.com:Drawing/Sketching has some very detailed step by step drawing guides
Figure Drawing Basics has some neat info and cool pictures on figure drawing

If you have any suggestions of other links to add please let me know in the comments.

How to Reduce Costs in Engineering Design

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:39:00 +0000

In engineering it is very important to consider how much it will cost to design and produce a product or part. The following is a list of key questions to ask yourself when designing in order to produce more cost effective parts.

1. Is the part necessary?
First question is whether you actually need the part at all. Just because something can be done or might be helpful doesn't mean it is required. It takes a lot of time and money to design a part so if it can be integrated with another part or left out all together this is often a good idea. It is important though to balance providing a good product for the customer with keeping within budget and on schedule

2. Is there an existing part that can do the same job?
Check to see if there are any existing parts either designed by your company or off the shelf items that can meet the requirements. Keep in mind that sometimes an off the shelf item may perform the basic function but can be difficult to buy or may not meet standards for strength or flammability.

3. Can an existing part be modified to perform the same job?
There may be an existing part that is close to what you need and only needs a few changes to make it work. An item might need attachment holes added or some material added or removed to do the job. Another option is to use an existing part as a basic guideline making for a new design.

4. Is the number of parts minimized?
Try to reduce the number of parts in an assembly as much as possible. This has to be within reason though since having a single part that is overly complex to manufacture is generally worse than having two simple connected parts.

5. Is the amount of material minimized?
Try to use only as much material as required. Keep in mind the manufacturing process; a part that has a small amount of material but needs to be cut from a large sheet with lots of scrap is not a good design. Also make sure this doesn't conflict with question 4 since it may be better to have one large part rather than two smaller parts to reduce design time.

6. Is the material choice appropriate?
Selecting the materials used will be a combination of functionality, cost, availability and what materials are commonly used in your area. It is also helpful to keep as many materials in an assembly the same to simplify and reduce cost when buying materials. Use catalogues or talk to colleagues, particularly in procurement, to see what materials are available and have the best price.

7. Can it be made and assembled easily?
Sometimes designs can look good in a model and work well in theory but when you consider the manufacturing you find they are difficult or impossible to actually make. It helps to look at a model or drawing of a part and consider how you would actually put it together. This also depends on the tooling being used by the manufacturer so it is best to consult with them to check their capabilities. It is good to do this early in the design since checking at the end often leads to redesigns.

8. Are the tolerances approriate?
There are a couple issues with tolerances; first is that the tighter a tolerance is the more expensive an item is to produce, second is that tolerance stack up can lead to interferences or loose connections in assemblies. The tolerances need to be set so that there are no stack up problems but the tolerance is achievable and not too restrictive for the manufacturer. It is good to check with manufacturers about what tolerances work best for them.

9. Are the off the shelf components standard parts?
If you are using off the shelf components, such as fasteners, in an assembly it is important to use commonly used parts where possible. Using components that are commonly used in industry makes them cheaper to buy and easier to use, maintain and replace. It also saves having to document new parts.

Hopefully the above questions have given you some insight into improving cost in engineering designs. In future posts I'll write in more detail about issues such as tolerancing and designing for manufacture and assembly.

See my previous post on Engineering Mock Ups for another good way to reduce costs in design.

Yuri's Night

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Tonight I went to a Yuri's Night event, dinner and drinks at the German Club in Adelaide. This was organized by the AIAA (American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) student club based at Adelaide Uni and the event had a pretty good turn out.
For those who are unfamiliar with this event, Yuri's Night is an international celebration of space that is named after the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, the first person to travel into space. The date Yuri's Night is celebrated around is April 12th, the anniversary of Yuri's first space flight and orbit around the earth in 1961. Yuri's Night was first held on April 12th 2001 with parties around the world including a massive dance party in LA. This year parties were held between 4th and 12th of April, but since 12th of April was Good Friday here in Australia Yuri's Night was held tonight on the 17th.
The picture shown below is the Yuri's Night logo, a picture of Yuri Gagarin. The parties usually have a bunch of stickers and temporary tattoos that get handed around with this picture on.

I actually put one of these stickers on my wheelie bin since it makes it easier to identify and I like to confuse people occasionally. It is a cool logo but I think most people will have no idea what it is about. It could probably be improved with some text.
For more info on Yuri's Night and to see pictures of too many lightsabers go to the Yuri's Night website.

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Hijack success! Hello, I am Aaron, Emmas husband, though the majority of you reading the blog will know this well enough. I'm going to do a quick post on Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition tonight, so for all of you with minimal tolerance for geekiness (this does beg the question what precisely you're doing here then) should back away now.

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons (henceforth known as DnD) for well over a decade and 3 and a half editions of the game. The trend in the system has been away from innumerable tables and the detailing of minutiae towards a simpler approach. I don't mind admitting that for some time I considered this to be a blunder. That reducing the complexity of the game would reduce how good it was. However the primary purpose of a game is to entertain, and a rulebook as thick as my aunts meatloaf is hardly conducive to quick learning of rules and getting stuck right into the fun part.

While developing DnD 4th edition, the writers have certainly kept that primary purpose at the forefront of their minds. If it was dull, it is ignored or skipped over. If it could be made simpler, it was. An example would be travelling. Once upon an edition (or 3) there was whole chapters dedicated to 'overland travel'. How fast one could get from point a to point b gets very complex when you have mounts, vehicles, spells, forced marches, terrain multipliers and square wheels. I made that last one up. In 4th edition however the DM (Dungeon Master; poor schlub who prepares and runs each game in the occasionally vain hope pizza and coke will be bought for him) is encouraged to skip right over it, unless something interesting happens. So if the adventurers need to get to the Pit of Despair from the Port of Suffering and the DM had planned nothing entertaining for the trip...then it happens. It...just...happens. You don't have to cross reference charts, you don't have to ask players for rolls, nada.

This sort of thing is repeated throughout the game, if it doesn't involve fun, the the game abbreviates or skips it all together. The other major change was in the strength of the characters. In previous editions a starting level character would be hard pressed to defeat a rat in close combat...a giant one mind you, but a rat nevertheless. Also, the amount of special attacks and abilities was very limited. Wizards had a handful of spells...and they had the most. Melee classes had attack, attack and some more attack. 4th edition starts the characters with at least 4 funky powers, at least 2 of which can be used at any time, all the time. Hit points (health) was raised considerably and every character can heal outside of combat without sleeping for days on end. So straight from first level the fights can include tough and interesting monsters and the adventure can continue for some time before the characters need to rest up. This all adds to the fun.

However, while the changes they made admirably achieve the goal they seemed to set for themselves, there lies a danger in simplifying things for everyone. It's really much easier to ignore a rule or set of rules that one doesn't find fun. To use the example above, it's really easy to simply ignore the 'overland travel' section of rules and declare the journey successful or not. If however one wants to add comlexity to a simple system, one begins to stare hours and hours of effort in the face. So there's certainly an argument for using moderately complex systems and trimming (I do specify moderate, if your find yourself ignoring 3/4 of a rulebooks chapters, one starts to feel stupid for shelling out for it).

The other problem is that dozens of cool attacks/powers can lead players into the 'I hit him' trap. In all rpgs there's the problem of players simply declaring intent eg; I hit the orc, I bluff the mayor, I steal his pants. In 4th editions case it's a matter of; I use super-cool whip crackery on the orc. Rpgs are supposed to immerse a player in his character and ideally that player should describe their actions within the context of the character and the environment.
"As Perres falls beneath the orcs weapon, I leap over him and attack the orc with super-cool whip crackery."
4th edition DnD doesn't preclude this, as demonstrated above, it does make it a little harder for the DM to notice the problem though.

All in all, 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons ticks all the right boxes, it's fun, easy to pick up, full of cool stuff an gimcrackery and it's fun. Yes, it's worth mentioning that twice. It's an ideal way to start roleplaying for the first time and indeed it's ideal for the burgeoning DM as well. However, complexity has it's place and every gaming group will have their preferred levels of it and each DM (or GM; game master, the more generic term for someone who plans and runs a rpg) must keep this in mind. Because if everyone isn't having fun, there's little point in playing the game. Have fun!

Lanvin Necklaces

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:26:00 +0000

I was checking for interesting things in the fashion shows again and found these amazing necklaces by Lanvin in their Fall 2009 show. These are very huge killer necklaces and some look almost science fiction like.

Somewhat impractical but very impressive looking.

Below are some of the beautiful jewelled necklaces from the Lanvin Spring 2009 show.

Seems like the spring ones have a vaguely tech look to them as well with the metal plates but the details around the jewels look more victorian style.

The above pictures are just a few examples from Lanvin so if you want to see more you can check out Style.com.

9 Ways to Become a Better Artist

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:31:00 +0000

Here is a list of 9 ways to improve your ability as an artist. It is targeted more towards people who draw or paint but most suggestions are helpful for any artist.

1. Practice
Practice everyday and produce art work continuously. Try not to get bogged down in details for too long since the more work you produce the better you will get.

2. Use a Sketch Book
Put sketches, photos and cut outs from magazines into a notebook. Write down notes on ideas for future projects.

3. Take Classes
Classes can help to develop your skills and working with others can help with motivation and seeing other’s art can inspire creativity.

4. Learn the Basics
Learn basic elements of design such as colour, tone, texture etc and try simple drawing exercises to improve techniques.

5. Inspire Yourself
Inspire yourself by visiting art galleries, looking at books, magazines or web pages that feature interesting art and design.

6. Do Inspiring Projects

Do projects that inspire you, are fun or explore a different technique or method.

7. Use Observation
Draw from life to improve your skills; pay attention to the details and evaluate your work honestly.

8. Use Criticism
Ask for comments and suggestions on your work and invite honest criticism rather than just encouragement or praise. Be open to criticism as a way to improve and don’t let it discourage you.

9. Be Persistent

It can take a long time to get some art work right. Try not to be discouraged and remember that mistakes can usually be fixed.

Hopefully these suggestions will motivate you to improve your art work. I know I need to try follow these more myself since I need to practice more and learn to accept criticism better.
Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions to add to this list.