Alternicity

Sheep in need, cafe full of friends.

2023-03-26T15:41:00.003-07:00

Pereiro.

Hoje acordei ao som do meu vizinho idoso a bater à minha porta. Tinha deslocado outras ovelhas vizinhas e uma tinha escapado e caído num velho poço.

“Vem ajudar o Stuart!”

Desço o poço e peço secateurs para cortar as silvas. Depois de as cortar, levantei as ovelhas e levei-as de volta ao seu rebanho, depois voltei para o meu quintal para lavar a sujidade e fazer as minhas calistenias.

De repente, estando sozinho já não me sinto bem, por isso recolho os meus livros de exercícios e lápis, e ponho o cão na trela e vou a pé até ao café.

Que boa sorte! Os lugares estão cheios com os meus amigos: Señora Seu, Theresa, Odette e a sua filha Carla. Deixo o Cookie com elas e peço um café.

Lá dentro, encontro alguns homens: Tony! Carlos e o seu amigo, alguns homens com quem já trabalhei.

Volto para o lugar lá fora e conto a minha história sobre as ovelhas no poço. Theresa compra-me o meu café, ela é sempre tão simpática comigo.As pessoas são simpáticas aqui, muito civilizadas, aqui ao sol. Quando chegam novos clientes, as pessoas cumprimentam-nos com:

“Boa tarde” ou “Afternoon”…e similares quando partem. Converso durante algum tempo e depois estudo arduamente, traduzindo frases dos livros de bolso Wilde e Sun Tzu para português, alemão e francês.

Katarina e a sua família deixam o restaurante. Ela está vestida para o fim-de-semana e pára e faz um alarido de Cookie.

Um grande grupo de pessoas inglesas pára aqui. É demasiado tarde para eles jantarem, por isso sentam-se e bebem vinho e café, e nós falamos. Em inglês um homem “bears left”, e não “turn left”, uma frase que me faz lembrar que sou inglês, é um enrugamento da língua que é muito distinto.

A irmã de meu amigo chegou, com a família alargada, e um homem que conheço que quer ouvir notícias do meu filho. Ele está com sorte pois o meu filho tem boas notícias – uma namorada, e fotos, claro, isto é 2023.

Eu devia provavelmente levantar-me e ir para casa, mas eu fico. Falo do mercado de trocas e das ovelhas, das oliveiras e das coisas que estamos a plantar. Adoro esta aldeia por vezes, faço parte dela agora. Sou o inglês louco que está a moer o seu lápis a um toco, aquele que vai falar (ou tentar falar) a sua língua, o homem com o cadela bonita que vai com ele.

Chega o Tino, chega o Paolo. Mais cinco minutos, mais uma copo. As cabras podem esperar, levantar água do poço pode esperar, as coisas estão bem aqui. Há sempre esta tarde.

Stuart

Updated Top 10 Physics Videos

2014-09-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the updated the Top 10 Physics Videos link.

Drawing Class

2014-09-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today we had our first home ed drawing lesson in a while. This time it was in the Falmouth Art Gallery, who, unlike the Bristol Museum, provide free cups of tea! Huzzah!
The teacher is Jonathan Koetsier, who is himself a former home educator, which is nice. CaesarX's drawing improved just in the space of one lesson as well. That top pic is Falmouth Moor, by CaesarX.

What else is nice, is that the bakery nearby is marking tasties down by ~50% right around the time the class finishes...

Me, by CaesarX (including 15% Titan DNA apparently)

Falmouth Moor, by ShogunX.

CaesarX, by ShogunX.

Classy Stool

2014-08-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

Imperial Character

2014-05-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

This is the latest team built character for our RPG game, currently named only Imperial. He may end up being the player model, or an enemy, or a companion character, we are not sure.

The T-Pose he is in is one of the best choices for rigging, which is the process of putting bones into him to control his limb animations.

Each of us contributed some work on this character and I am starting to wonder what his in game goals and dialogue will be like. His face will animate via shape keys, and he may end up being a template so we can have a whole faction based on variants of his mesh.

His armour is a Lorica Segmentata, with a modern/alt-universe texture, as he isn't supposed to be a Roman Imperial.

Circo Kernow Show

2014-05-08T14:42:00.001-07:00

Is this visible to you, here on the blog? Currently I am getting:

It still works if you go to youtube though.

Light Bulb

2014-01-12T07:54:00.001-08:00

This little thing lets us stay up at night,

So we can read, cook, and talk in plenty of light,

Also it’s shape means something made clear,

Above one’s head, you’ve had an idea.

(I was handed a lightbulb, this was the poem I came up with)

Haunted Museum

2014-01-11T09:34:00.003-08:00

I see them, they see me,

One covered in ink,

one with a leaf,

and one with a cup of moldy tea.

Oh the things I know, the things I see,

This museum is haunted I say.

I have interrupted their peace,

and now I must pay.

But I must have faith in the lord,

He will protect me from their horde.

They want my freedom, they want my gold,

And over time they do grow bold.

They do not want me to know about their king.

Oh I have seen him and he is a pale thing.

He is a ghost and he wants my body as a host.

I must escape from this hellhole,

And from him and his dolls.

Guy Smelt 1833

The Two Men

2014-01-11T09:26:00.003-08:00

A little man stood next

to a much bigger, and

more rounded man.

The latter threw some crumbs,

to the smaller..

Who devoured them.

The larger laughed and spilt

tea on the smaller, who -

...squealed with mad laughter.

(poem written in Municipal Council Chambers)

That Man

2014-01-11T09:23:00.001-08:00

A chubby man,

Foul of face,

And not the brightest,

But good of heart,

And a hard worker,

He makes it far in life.

The Mad Painter

2014-01-11T09:20:00.004-08:00

A mad painter,

Rocking his head to and fro,

He keeps sitting down and standing,

Slapping his paint brush,

Against a filthy canvas,

As rats sniff his feet,

Gods above him gloating.

(Poem by CaesarX - inspired by visit to Art Gallery)

Crown Poem

2013-10-28T18:48:00.001-07:00

Long ago there was a slab of gold,
for a high price it was sold.

It was the most expensive thing in town,
for it was smithed into a grand crown.

Using some very fine tools,
added in were some jewels.

It was sent to a proud king,
centuries later, of this crown bards would sing.

AchillesX (11)

Absolute Value

2013-09-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Son2 is a bit stuck on this:

(4-10)^2 + 3^2 -|5[-4(1+2)]^2|

(^ means to the power of and | is the absolute value symbol)

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Quadroople

2012-11-13T21:05:00.002-08:00

Quadroople, a creature we've been working on tonight.

Island Image

2012-08-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is an Island image my eldest boy has been working on. Tutorial from Blender Cookie, so many thanks to them and David Ward.

A (Mostly) Abstract Animation

2012-06-07T10:39:00.001-07:00

Project by CaesarX aged 11. Software used included Pencil (animation), Scratch (for the music), and Blender (video editing). All done on his netbook.

Ball Navigation Al

2012-06-04T07:37:00.001-07:00

This project has sound that autoruns, so you will need to view the actual page it is in to see it. If you are on the blog's frontpage, click cont below:

Learn more about this project

Some Scratch Sprites

2012-06-04T07:26:00.001-07:00

This scratch project by CaesarX is animation oriented. Feel free to use the sprites in your own projects.

Learn more about this project

Reading Habits

2012-05-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

(For Uva Be Dolezal)

I read a good amount of paper books, bought cheaply in charity shops mostly, and a fair bit of online material, often linked from aggregators. Much less fiction these days, much more 'factual' material.

When things are noisy, I use a pencil as a pointer.

Stuart

Some Animations

2012-04-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Some animations from the past couple of years.

Watch EyeStalk vs Steps pass 2 in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Axolotl from ShogunX G on Vimeo.

They Submit Their Children!

2012-02-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

While the kids are in gym class, we get to wander around a really interesting road, usually stopping in a cafe. It's an awesome road, it has longest stretch of independent traders in the UK.

Anyway today we were in the back garden of some cafe there, and there was a large family gathering on another table talking away. The mother of the little girl was airing a list of complaints about the kid's school, and an older lady there was offering gentle rebuttals in defence of the school or schools in general.

The complaints were many. Kids are being bullied in the corridors first thing in the morning, and parents are being told they are not allowed to accompany them in, even to protect their kids. Which is outrageous, she continued, just like the hassle you have to go through to get permission to go on holiday in term time.

Her daughter missed a day, and consequently a week later the teacher didn't have a folder made up for her so she got nothing in that lesson, and a week later again was fobbed off with a sheet of rudimentary arithmetic. Three weeks wasted, said the mum.

The father (I assume) at one point said something like: “Yes, they're not well designed schools, no not well designed.” It was all he said.

WTF!? His daughter is getting bullied, and they can't take her out on holiday when they want, and that is all he can say in support of his (I assume...) wife? There was clearly some kind of case being made here to the older woman, and she was having none of it. The mother wanted something else for her kid, or at least something better school wise.

I considered going over and saying:

“Hey look: you can pull your %&!?ing kid out of that crap, just write a letter and do it...Ignore your sap husband and schoolmarm-stepgranny, and just home educate your daughter for a while. Or just take her out of school and just hang out for a while. The state school system is set up for the benefit of Authority and Industry, not the Kids and their Parents...yadda yadda...”

Well I didn't, and so now I'll never know how it all works out for them. It was interesting though. That mother was reacting against problems the state school was causing, and at least one member of her family was applying social pressure to stick it out and basically have faith. She wanted support of some kind and was getting the opposite.

The state school system really has it's believers. Lots of people, some of them really smart, think that folks who can't afford private schooling should just keep faith in the system and keep sending their kids in. The government might be arses, but teachers are entirely benevolent... keep the faith, keep sending the kids and obeying the BS.

For the most part, the social pressure seems to be enough. Parents and grandparents are convinced that the state knows best for poor kids, even now it's not the golden old days anymore, and willingly or grudgingly submit to a system they kinda know is wrong. Submit their children.

It's possible though, that the mum in the cafe garden had never heard of the practice of Home Education, and that many parents do it. If she had heard of it, and knew that there was a beaten path, perhaps she would be more likely to put her child first.

Werewolf Game Part One

2012-02-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

Won't work in IOS
Learn more about this project

Thanks to dragoArt

2d gun-game

2012-02-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

A side-scroller gun game.
Won't work on iOS
Learn more about this project

By AchillesX

Tennis Game

2012-01-25T16:21:00.000-08:00

A tennis game AchillesX has been working on.

Learn more about this project

Supernatural Boxing Game

2012-01-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is the boxing game AchillesX has been working on.
Won't work on iOS

Learn more about this project