Gamble WIP

Tried to make some more progress on the scene I was working on today. A little modeling, but mostly more scene elements and lighting.

Thanks to Design Devil for the card textures. The HDRI was from the sIBL archive, the suits symbols from the OpenClipart library and the table texture from CG Textures. Obviously, the scene still needs work.

Here's a close-up of the chips:

And here's a render from an old scene. Was digging through my old laptop and found it :)

And another render while I was writing this:

Ooohh! Shiny! Now to make some more cards and simulate the chips falling naturally, either in the Blender game engine or using a recent build with Bullet Physics integrated. And maybe a die or two.

Room WIP

Started playing around with 3D again, particularly Blender. Here's my latest WIP:

Thought-provoking

A friend posted this on Facebook this morning, and it's a rather instructive read. Enjoy.

When I was an undergraduate, I knew a fellow who was studying to be an engineer. I resented him bicos his Grade Point Average was so high; he never scored less than 95% in any of his courses; when we shared a table during physics practical his measurements were so precise, his readings were so accurate, and his writing was so beautiful that he scored a 99A on the course. While I struggled through school, this guy seemed to glide to a first class, and I hated him. I hated him bicos I would study for long hours, wrestling with my textbooks and trying to make sense of my notes, while he had time to join a drama troupe, play football for the school, and attend events in school…and still maintain a 4.99 cGPA! I remember I used to pray to God to give me his kind of talent so that I could score high too, but my grades just seemed to remain below average.
A few years later I found out that this guy whom I hated so much for being a genius, had to repeat 2 classes in primary school for being slow. I also found out that after the 1995 JAMB exams, while we were at home playing around and waiting for admission, he was in school studying his brother’s notes and textbooks, solving test questions and attending classes like he was a student. By the time we started our 100 levels, this guy had solved every math, physics and chemistry problem in all the textbooks, and past questions from previous exams…up to 20 years ago! So in essence, what was new work to us was merely revision for him.
Many times in life we look at successful people and wish we were like them. We tell ourselves that those doing better than us are “talented” and “gifted” and “blessed”. But while this may be true in some cases, I have found that most of what we call “talent” is just hard work, dedication and focus. The grace of God is there to help us do our work…not do our work for us. The blessings of God are there to empower us to get wealth…not make us lazy. 2 Timothy 2:15 reminds me that for me to be approved, then I must study. Success is never a fluke my friends, the person you are today is the person you were preparing to be 5 years ago. So this new year, let us set our goals with Proverbs 22:29 in mind, and be like my friend whom I once resented, but now respect and appreciate so much. Happy New Year

To all the ladies I had non-consensual sex with, I'm sorry

Two things before you throw that stone: first, you might want to back away if you're a lady. There are things I will mention you may not be comfortable reading. Second, I haven't ever raped anyone. So take a seat and allow me explain.
I was having a conversation with a friend (below) about the love of God, and how God's idea of love can be radically different than ours. And as I said that, I realized that I'd been guilty of non-consensual sex with people I've seen, at least, if what Jesus says has anything to do with reality.

I have had this conversation in my head with Jesus in a thousand and one different ways, with just as many different arguments. "But she's hot. Look at that body. You made that body. And look, I have a boner already. What am I supposed to do with it? I'm just looking, not touching. Heck, you made me. You know what turns me on, and I'm majorly turned on here. Besides, body no be firewood na."

You know what's really galling, though? No matter what I say, He still just looks at me with that "are you done hedging?" look. I have never been able to get Him to excuse the lust. Yes, that's just what it is: Lust. Degrading women to just tits, thighs, asses and a hole between their legs since whenever (that was my second choice of title for this post, by the way).

And you know what the worst part of it is? Lust cannot be satisfied. Never. It always wants more. Real women will, at some point, never be enough, no matter how many one ends up sleeping with. And every guy who indulges his mind in sexual fantasy will eventually have issues relating with real women.

Maybe Jesus did know what He was talking about after all. Wish I could write more, but my sleep-deprived brain is longing for a bed. Later.

Vacancies at the Empowerment Centre

I received an email from The Empowerment House about vacancies, and decided to share wholesale. I am not affiliated with The Empowerment House, and have never attended any of their programs. I wish any applicants the best; the application deadline expires in a week. The email content follows.

The Empowerment centre is a Christian Ministry which includes KA TV (DSTV channel 345) which aims to revitalise the Christian TV experience in Africa by showcasing wholesome inspirational, educative, informative and entertaining programmes for the whole family showing various genre of programming including Christian reality TV shows, Musical shows, Drama, Talk shows etc. It also includes Empowerment house a church ministry with a vision to empower lives and transform society in accordance with Acts 1:8 and Empowerment college, a life changing school of Leadership & Management, Ministry, Business and Marriage.

VACANCIES

• Chief Administrative Officer
• Front desk Executive
• Personal Assistant to CEO
• Media Executive
• Business Development Manager
• Head of College
• Office Assistant
• Studio Production Executive
• Driver
• 3D/2D Graphics Artist (Still, Motion & Website)
• Security Operative
• Audio Production Executive
• Editing Executive
• Transmission executive

The Empowerment Centre recognises that the quality of its staff and their contributions represent its most significant asset in fulfilling its mission. We wish to attract staff who are keen to join and who, once here, will feel proud to be contributing to our success. In return, our aim is to ensure that the career and personal potential of staff is rewarded, recognised and developed in a properly resourced and supportive environment.

The Empowerment Centre considers all our staff as Christian ministers using their skills to minister in the 21st century world, only spirit-filled Christians who are ministry inclined need apply. You should also note that The Empowerment Centre is affiliated to a church ministry. Successful applicants must be comfortable with the ethos of the ministry and are required to be part of the ministry, anyone who is not able to meet this requirement for any reason need not apply for any of the positions.

Interested candidates should request for detailed job description and application procedure for the interested post from careers@empowermenthouse.com, please state interested post in email as application procedure varies for different posts.

Only Applications sent in the required format will be considered. Completed applications should reach us by 5.30pm on Friday, November 30. No telephone job enquiries please, Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Location for all job vacancies is Lagos and Salaries are negotiable (Depending on experience).

Mommy's kiss

Two days ago, it seemed my little brother was not well. Today, he was rather cranky, and after my sister left for work this morning, I found him crying on the staircase for her and for his mother. I was already carrying his baby brother, but managed to carry him as well and get downstairs, where his mother was. Unfortunately, I misjudged our collective width and he hit his head on the door and wailed a little louder. Yet, when he saw his mother, he got quiet really quickly.

No doubt you've had such an experience growing up — maybe not with mommy, but with someone else — someone whose touch, whose voice, whose words — any, or all of these could calm your troubled heart and reduce even physical pain to bearable limits. Maybe even now, you still have such people around you, even though you're grown and have learned not to cry in the open (for the most part, anyway).

I never really realized it before now, but hurting people need more than just medicine. They need care. I was wondering what it would be like to have a major illness and have the best medical treatment delivered with surgical precision and in a cold, detached manner. I have no idea what it would be like, but I don't want to experience it.

The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit?
— Proverbs 18:14, New Living Translation

Keith Moore, in his message series A Fighting Spirit, talks about the importance of a fighting spirit to recovering from life-threatening illnesses. I do not seek to downplay the importance of a fighting spirit, but care can stir up or strengthen a person's fighting spirit (please see my previous post, Love's Roof, for an example). That's what happens when Mommy comes with a kiss and a Band-Aid for a scraped knee — that kiss and hug will do wonders beyond what just the Band-Aid would do.

Am I advocating for dumbed-down, watered-down truth? No. NEVER, EVER compromise on the truth of God's word. But where your doctrine and your preaching, your facts and figures and proofs from scripture fail, maybe a kind word or two, a hug and a listening ear will accomplish more for healing broken hearts and bodies than you could ever think possible. And the more the hurt, the greater the need for that care.

Love's Roof

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
— 1 Corinthians 13:7, The Amplified Bible

I don't remember when exactly, but I was lurking around the interwebs and found Ann Voskamp's post on how to make any relationship better, and in it, she talks about the Greek word stego used in this verse. I remembered it today, because I saw a tweet by Pastor Poju Oyemade of Covenant Christian Center, and I realized just how apt the word, roof describes what love does to us. Love's a roof, a covering. Not when you love, but when you believe you are loved, or to use very bad English, you've the lovee, and not the lover.

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to talk to someone, and they were going on and on about my happiness, about how I deserved it and how it mattered, and I really wasn't in the mood to listen to them. One thing led to another, and they said that in my last relationship, I was happy. I discarded the idea (and the conversation), but I recalled that a few months into that relationship, someone else said they saw me smiling a lot more, and that they were sure that my girlfriend was good for me.

Looking back, I realize that I felt someone special loved me, and it was sufficient to change my outlook on life. My circumstances weren't that great, but they felt bearable because I believed I was loved. I definitely went overboard in making that relationship my primary source of happiness, but that was my safe zone, my hiding place.

The KJV renders this verse: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.. Looking at the language, it seems that it's implied that storms will come: if something is going to bear (up under), then definitely, something's coming up top. This points to why I caved in when that relationship ended: the roof that was taking all the hits from the storms I was weathering was removed, and I didn't have a fallback roof.

This week, I read a tweet that reminded me of God's love for me (1 John 4:16). For some reason, in a world that went crazy and refused to make sense since, that has become a bastion of hope. When I'm tempted to look back at what I've lost, and despair things will ever get better, spending some time to think about God loving me has been my new crutch, and it's served me better than pornography or masturbation ever did.

I haven't arrived, but I've left. Perhaps sometime soon, I will really laugh without reserve, not because I'm trying to distract myself, but because I'm healed, because I know that God loves me.

I'm glad I've a new roof. Beats getting exposed to the elements.

Ignorance Required

For a couple of days now, I've been playing around with OpenLayers. Since it's been my first foray into anything related with online maps in general, I've had to pick up things at a much slower pace than I'd normally be comfortable with. One of the things I needed to do was to find out how to create a color-coded map, like this.

There was just one problem: I had no idea what that kind of map was named. And I can be really weird (just silently pass by) about being precise about things like names and spelling. So, I logged in on IRC and asked something like: hello. let's say i had a map and wanted to color regions based on some characteristic (average household income, for example). what's this called, and how may i go about doing this? in both the OpenLayers and Python channels on Freenode (#openlayers isn't very active in my opinion, but someone in #python might have done something similar).

After about 20 minutes with no answers, I realized that I was letting my desire to be on target (so know you know I can be perfectionist) manifest as a fear of looking like an ignoramus (yay! I know long words!), and for me, there are few things I'm probably scared of like being made to look like a fool, either by myself, or someone else. I decided to take the risk of looking like an idiot and google openlayers color coding. from one of the links displayed, I saw the word choropleth in the page text and so googled that. It turns out (like my machine learning lecturer is fond of saying) that was exactly what I wanted to do, and googling openlayers choropleth has, as is usual in today's world, overloaded me with information. As an added bonus, I found out about Natural Earth, which will probably be a very useful resource in future.

In the style of Box of Crayons' Great Work Provocations (a short, daily — working week only — newsletter on doing great work and which I highly recommend), how are you allowing a fear cripple your development? What can you embrace with courage today?

Have a great week ahead.

Stand Out from the Crowd

I was lurking around as a guest on one of the forums Google leads me to, and I saw this post and decided to reproduce it wholesale here (without permission). Let's discuss this (Twitter, G+, comments) after the jump.

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

'Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without...thinking...' Romans 12:2

A man walking into a bank held the door open for the lady behind him. Instead of thanking him, she said, 'You don't have to hold the door because I'm a woman.' Smiling, he replied, 'I'm not doing it because you're a woman, I'm doing it because I'm a gentleman.' As believers we do what we do because of who we are 'in Christ', not because of how society thinks we should act. John says, '...The Holy Spirit...lives within...so [we] don't need anyone to teach [us] what is true...' (1John 2:27 NLT). In his book 'Hope Again', Chuck Swindoll says: 'In the Marine Corps...our troopship carried us...onto Japanese soil...For many of us, it was our first visit to a foreign country. We were surging with excitement...Our company commander called us together...and...said..."Remember, for the first time in your lives, you're the foreigners. This isn't your country or your culture...you're the minority. These aren't your fellow citizens; they don't speak your language. They know nothing of your homeland except what they see in you...Act in a way that the Japanese people will gain a good impression of your country."...As Christians,...our citizenship is in heaven...We belong to the kingdom of God...We need to be on our best behaviour, otherwise people will get a distorted perception of what our homeland is like...Our earthly culture is pagan to the core...God left us here for a purpose...to demonstrate what it's like to be a member of another country, to have a citizenship in another land, that we might create a desire for others to emigrate.' Think about it!

Bob Gass

Edit: I checked out Bob Gass' site and realized it's today's devotional.

Microsoft sends localized SMS, but in the wrong language!

I was fooling around with my Hotmail account since I saw I could try out the Outlook.com preview (I didn't notice it even though it had been there for three months), and somehow got to a point where I was prompted for a code that would be sent via SMS:

I did get the SMS — it was a bit of a pleasant surprise to get it, as I was wondering if I would get it at all. The only problem was it was in Hausa, which I'm not particularly fluent in:

Maybe Microsoft should have identified that since I use the Hotmail service in English, I'd want to read texts in English too, but I think it's an excellent idea to attempt to localize such services.

Oh, and even though I'm a Johnny-come-lately, the Outlook.com interface is really nice:

But I guess it's no surprise, since I already like the MetroTwit interface, and I'm a fan of the Metro interface.

When You're In Love

Nicole Cottrell of Modern Reject speaks, based on Francis Chan's Crazy Love on when you're in love

Extra Credit: Nicole's sorry. Are you?

World domination temporarily suspended

In order to spend time with the boys. And watch Barney, thanks to the older one.

Stumped (temporarily)!

As part of my plan to take over the world get myself busy over the extended break, I decided to build a small web application using Flask on Google AppEngine.

In the beginning, it was all good. Since AppEngine comes with Jinja2 support (Python 2.5, Python 2.7), all I basically needed to do was unpack Flask and Werkzeug into my application folder. I created a basic app, set up my templates and static assets, and everything seemed great.

The problem began when I decided to use WTForms support via Flask-WTF. Apparently, some magic which I don't quite understand yet goes on in the loading of Flask extensions, or something, but I get errors trying to use Flask-WTF.

I'm not the only person to have this problem, but the fix suggested in this Stackoverflow thread didn't work for me so far. So I'm left with a couple of options:

• Scrap using Flask-WTF and use plain old WTForms directly. Since I'm using the AppEngine modelform extension for WTForms right now, maybe that might not be a bad idea.
• Stick with using the provided libraries for AppEngine, meaning I might end up using Django, or webapp2.
• Abandon project altogether.
• Use some other host, maybe Heroku.
• Kamal Gill has a very nice Flask template for AppEngine over here. It's got support for Flask-WTF, Blinker, Bootstrap and Modernizr. Some of the package versions are a little old, but it's actively developed (changes are as recent as less than a month ago).

Doesn't matter. Everything seems clearer after you've eaten. Which I haven't.

Still off social media, and how Google+ messed things up

I've been off social media (Facebook, Twitter) since the second of October. It hasn't been particularly easy laying off the social media, but so far, so good. If you follow me on Twitter and you see tweets, they're because of an app that automatically posts tweets when I write blog posts. No, I can't remember which app, and I'd rather not log in to Twitter to find out.

I logged in to Blogger this morning to post something, and then wanted to follow a blog I liked, and realized that the author had linked their blog to their Google+ account, so they could share posts on G+. After some hesitation, I linked my blog to my G+ account, and that when all hell broke loose (no, not literally).

Without meaning to, I started managing contacts on G+, based on interaction and whatnot, and I was about to share a blog post I liked on it, and then I realized: G+ is social media. Due to its tight integration with other Google products, I didn't really think about it that way, but it is. For instance, it's trivial to go from managing contacts in GMail to managing your G+ circles. It's the same login, for crying out loud.

Even though I can't do anything about the integration anymore (one-way street), I'll be very careful about using G+ until I move back to active usage of social media. Or maybe just delete this blog :).

Get in a corner

Sammy Adebiyi (please follow him on Twitter: @SammyAdebiyi or on Facebook) has an interesting post about friendships and people being there for you. I'm tempted to disagree because looking over my life, I've more been there for people than I have seen people be there for me. Or maybe my idea of people being there for me is unrealistic. Still, it's a very interesting read. I suggest you read it.

I also recommend his post on being a loser. Just for context.

Eye can haz local Google search!

No, it's not an <iframe>. I was simply testing if requests worked on AppEngine flawlessly. I'd heard it does now, but never tried it out before today.

This is the code that does the magic:

The best show I've watched in a long time…

… is Sword Art Online.

Now why are you still here reading this instead of getting to watch it?

Don't stop cooking!

Today, my folks went out. Everyone. And left me home alone. Wandering into the kitchen in search of nourishment, I realized there was almost nothing to eat. So I decided to do the scary thing: attempt to go shopping, then cook.

Why was that scary? Simple. The last time I'd done anything close to the level of what I wanted to do was over two years ago during youth service (don't laugh). One of the consequences of not living on your own is you can become dependent on others without even realizing it. The last time I'd done anything like it at home was over three years ago, back when my dad and I were living the bachelor life :D

But I digress. Getting to the open market I chose, I'd forgotten so much. I kept wondering if I'd chosen an appropriate mix of tomatoes and peppers for the pureé. And as usual, I forgot to add onions :D good thing I remembered before the tomatoes and pepper got pureed. While I remembered the puree for the vegetables shouldn't be ground fine, I completely forgot it wasn't supposed to get lots of water.

Anyhow, after completing the shopping without making too much of a mess of things, I headed home, got stuck in traffic for a while (I need to wonder why my family has been living in places where there's heavy traffic close by on Saturdays in the last few years), then finally got home. Shortly after I got home, my folks came home and pretty much ruined the surprise of me cooking puttering around in the kitchen making noise and attempting not to burn the house down :(

I still got to putter around in the kitchen and prepare the fish vegetable stew soup (as my neighbour during service year told me, since it was prepared with palm oil), thanks to a sister who trusts I won't poison the household (my brother said the cooking passed the taste test :D)

Why have I told this long, uninteresting story? I had fun, even though I had to get out of my comfort zone. And maybe even did some good on the way. Was I challenged? Definitely. Did things turn out good? Let's wait and see. I'll let you know if we experience multiple toilet visits in the very near future.

If you take anything away from this, remember that what you don't practice, you get worse at and eventually forget. And what you practice, you instill deep into you. For good or ill. Enjoy!


Oh, and the requisite pictures:

You just need faith

The track below was preached by my friend, Pastor Tayo Samuel of Christ Coming Ministries at the October 2012 Night of Victory. I hope it blesses you. Sorry that the recording started late.

Nostalgia

Anyone recognize this image?

And in somewhat unrelated news, some people are either very good marketers, or they're just proud ;)