- Part 5

Aug
12

Grand Pacific Cruise :: Part 3

TahneeVacationNo Comments

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Alooooha! I’m now back home safe and sound… maybe not so sound, as the washing machine’s been non-stop for the past day and a half with ALL THE LAUNDRY to go through! (We packed enough clothes so we’d never have to use the on-board laundromat). Speaking of the laundromats, there were rumors about people getting kicked off the ship in Rarotonga. Apparently someone had left their clothes to dry in a dryer in the laundromat and took off in the meantime to do something more productive than watch the spin cycle. However, when they were gone, along came another passenger, who whinged (”winj”– Aussie talk for “complain”) about that dryer being occupied, so what do they do? They take out all that other person’s drying laundry and throw in their own. Original laundry person comes back, sees clothes on floor, is not pleased, etc etc– a fight or two broke out over this matter (one among women, one amongst guys, and I didn’t know guys ever did laundry). Crazy shenanigans on board the Sun Princess!

Aug
1

Grand Pacific Cruise Part 2

TahneeVacationComments (4)

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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The cruise has been really fun so far! After visiting Dravuni Island, we hit Samoa, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. There are five sea days between Bora Bora and Hawaii, during which we’ll cross the equator– which involves a ceremony, going from pollywogs to shellbacks– and that ceremony involves passengers, so I’ve signed up. Apparently it’s pretty messy (meringue, Jell-O, spaghetti sauce…..) so we’ll see if my name gets drawn out of the hat for that Then we’ll be doing some scenic cruising by Christmas Island, during which we’ll sing Christmas carols and possibly decorate makeshift Christmas trees. It’s the end of July, and we’re on the equator– what better time to celebrate Christmas??
And before I get to the details of my latest adventures, I’ll start a list of interesting foods encountered on the ship.
- Lemon chicken soup :: Now they say there was chicken, or perhaps chicken broth in this, but upon further inspection those slivers floating around in the broth were actually shreds of lemon. Two words I found summed up this serving quite nicely: DISH SOAP. The lemon-smelling kind.
- Glop and rice and glop :: Seeing this glop (my greatest apologies for forgetting the actual name) at the buffet, it had the 50/50 appeal: 50% chance it could be excellent, 50% chance it could be disgusting. Though it didn’t necessarily taste bad, the essence of it was too weird to go back for seconds. Two words that sum up its taste: BABY POWDER.
And why they’re serving us dish soap and baby powder on this ship is beyond me. Maybe it’s because they’ve got some two thousand passengers to feed and are getting desperate to find food sources, that or else the chefs are being creative. They’re also out of green tea and haven’t restocked! Tsk tsk tsk; overall, though, the meals have been pretty good.
And at night, at sea, it’s really something to go to the unlit front of the ship and look at the gajillions of stars out there!
Let’s get onto some adventures!

Jul
20

Grand Pacific Cruise Part 1

TahneeVacationComments (2)

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Hey everyone! Been a while since I’ve blogged, so it’s time to give you the first set of cruise updates (and photos!) from my 28-day cruise from Sydney, Australia up to San Francisco, California! The ship’s been entertaining so far– most of the passengers are Aussies, and it’s really strange being the “foreign” guest!

Jul
11

Until We Meet Again!

TahneeSketchbook, VacationComment (1)

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Well, I guess this is “toodles” for about a month– I’ll be flying out to Australia over the course of approximately 22 hours as of tomorrow night, from which point I’ll hop on a cruise ship and sail my way up to San Francisco over the course of 28 days
Time zones are going to be interesting: the 21st happens twice on the trip
And yes, I’m bringing a sketchbook and plenty of art materials (and pencils, which hopefully the customs people won’t declare as ’sharp, pointy dangerous weapons’). We’ll be visiting Auckland (NZ), Fiji, Samoa, Rarotonga (Cook Islands), have a few stops in French Polynesia, and a few stops in Hawaii. YAY! Going to be a fuuuuun trip I’ll blog whenever I can of whatever adventures happen and whatever art happens to seep into my sketchbook Speaking of which… read on for a bunch of new drawings

Jul
7

Stylin’ Suitcases!

TahneeArt, VacationComments (5)

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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In less than a week, I’m leaving on a 28-day-long cruise that starts in Australia and ends up in San Francisco. With all that time away, one certainly must pack appropriately. And with all the air travel, you really don’t want to mess up and grab someone else’s luggage, where you may end up with someone’s life-long cherished coin collection when what you were really after was some shampoo.
In order to prevent such horrors (and also as an extra measure that the luggage NOT be lost), I painted up my suitcases like no one else’s. Meticulous detail and hours of laborious work follow….. AND PLEASE!!!! If you see me running around with one (or two, or three or all four, given I sprout a few extra arms) SAY HELLO! Never know who you’ll run into at the airport!
sc1
Suction-Footed Tweep

Jul
3

Web Tips: Making an Animated Favicon

TahneeTech Tips, WebdesignComments (2)

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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So we’ve all come to know those little icons by a website’s browser tab or bookmark link as Favicons. They’re 16×16-pixel identifiers for a site, and are sometimes initials, the main logo or a bright, eye-catching visual element by which we’ll remember the website.

Jun
30

Blendshapes!

Tahnee3D, Quick ArtComments (2)

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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So I’ve heard so much about Maya’s Blendshapes animation deformer, but never actually tried it out before. Tonight I made a model in Zbrush, saved 3 facial “states” (static, pleased and amazed) and exported them as .obj’s, which I opened in Maya and put together using blend shapes. Not only can you seamlessly morph a chunk of polygons from one state to another, but you can even combine states! Here’s the result.
blendshapesstatic