At long, long last I have finally come first in every single race in the mirror mode grand prix of Mario Kart Double Dash on the Gamecube.
Back in March I got 158, coming first in every race bar the foolish rainbow road right at the end. Since then, at least twice a week, I would try and beat it, but as soon as I lost just one race I would turn off in disgust. Now it is finally over. Hoo-hah.
Today, Anita gave me some LEGO that she found in amongst her Playmobil during the easter holidays.
Tonight, after seeing the mighty Hot Fuzz again, we turned said LEGO into something magical:
Not only that, I have made up some LDraw instructions, viewable in Bricksmith on a Mac and some other software on a PC. Here is a preview:
The file to download is but 4KB. You know you want it.
We was Kim, Anita, Tim and myself, hence the cunning acronym of KATS.
So… damn… cunning… I may just burst.
Also, for photos from Germany (though mostly France) from a few weeks ago:
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/89153937@N00/sets/72157600158472923
- http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t212/WendyR_photos/Strassbourg/
- http://timsymons.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=3202
One project down, one Java beast to go.
Hoo-hah.
Back before Christmas I was wasting time on eBay when I found a PowerBook G3 for only £30.
Did I need such a machine? I did not. Did I randomly bid on and win it anyway? I did!
I won the PowerBook itself for £31.01, the postage was £12.50 and then I spent a further £8.93 on the USB PCMCIA card. So it’s really a £52.44 PowerBook, I guess…
Not only did it come with a snazzy faux-leather case, it also came with a battery (holds a whole 10 minute charge…), a power supply (though I had to chase the eBayer a little for that as it wasn’t included in the original parcel…) and a LaCie Zip-100 drive, that even works if you can find any Zip disks to put inside of it.
Bricksmith is the most gonad-happying piece of software I have ever used.
It is everything LEGO’s own Digital Designer promises to be, before it crushes your hopes and dreams in its hideously-sluggish, limited-inventory, unintuitive-interface maw. In the few years I’ve had Digital Designer on my computer I have designed exactly zero models with it.
With Bricksmith, in just one evening I have completed the instructions for a model I’ve been thinking about for the last few months, and I now have a full list of the 295 pieces required to make it a reality. I shall post more details soon, once I have bought the parts.
The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if you could click a button and it would automatically source said parts off BrickLink, total it up and let you pay for them right then and there. As it is, I shall do some hunting tomorrow.
Love you, Bricksmith, love you!
Mike brought his LEGO up to Aberystwyth from Cardiff about a week ago and so we built a castle:
Sam made a pretty spaceship a few weeks ago:
It’s quite a nice design, different from something I’d build myself and making good use of the swoopy bits I bought recently as part of a rather wank anime-style robot.
Another couple of stop-motion tests, made yesterday with Kimberley:
( LEGO Stop-Motion Sea (752KB QuickTime Movie) )
( LEGO Stop-Motion Boyband (1.1MB QuickTime Movie) )
So the ideas were a little thin on the ground. A storyboard seems to be the way to go, that there’s a plan for what the LEGO men might do. If I get some cowboy LEGO, I could even do some Deadwood parodies…
PS – The spaceship is courtesy of Sam, built last week.
Aw yeah… I’ve been meaning to do this for years but only just today downloaded the software that makes it easy:
( LEGO Stop-Motion Dance-Test (441KB QuickTime Movie) )
I last made stop-motion LEGO movies when I was 13 years old… Now I shall make more!
On account of the eyes, I’ve never actually seen the stars in anything other than photographs.
The idea for this model was that it be a self-sustaining craft for two people to get from one place to another. The replicator provides food and water etc., extracting the base material it needs from any matter the ship passes through or near and also the output of the crew’s stillsuits. Due to space limitations, for the pilot and passenger to swap positions, the stillsuits double as spacesuits and a brief walk outside is necessary.
Most important of all is that the passenger section is covered almost entirely in glass. This is so that the person in the back can fall asleep surrounded by stars.
Inspired by the aircraft on page one of Ministry of Space No. 1, this is from just before I started university the first time around:
