If you are not familiar with chess ratings, an average child would be around 150-200. Grandmasters over 2500.

I did it! Finally got to 1000 rating. Took me so long, but I’m finally not horrible at this game.

Chess: peanuts87 vs aswaaby peanuts87 (946) vs aswaaby (941). aswaaby won by checkmate in 36 moves. Click to review the game, move by move.

I’m slowly getting better at chess (on the road to 1000 ELO). Recent game I just played. Some misses, but a nice tactic to win a queen, and a good mating tactic at the end. Check out this #chess game: peanuts87 vs aswaaby - www.chess.com/game/live/16...

Still waiting for some time off to deal with the "garage situation." A lot of things in there waiting for e-recycling, extra parts from construction projects being saved "just in case," and a myriad of other stashed away things that need a better home.

I'm starting off the year by tackling a few small problems that have annoyed me about my home for years. These are all easy-to-solve problems that I've been procrastinating on for years but have gradually made me upset every time I see them. Crazy to go so long with these small annoyances.

Give it a shot! Houdini is free to learn with the Apprentice version.

Typically, we are storing volumes in VDB format and using tools from the openVDB library in Houdini to process them.

Yeah, if you feed it points, Houdini can easily handle many millions, even a few billion points, depending on your memory resources. Lots of tools in Houdini to convert points to volumes, and then to smooth and refine the volumes.

Just doing a quick lookup of that… I don’t think Houdini can read that data format. (Sounds like a custom format), so you’d have to write an importer for it.

Sorry, I don’t know any of what you are asking about.

Another CG nebula, made in Houdini. Using custom volume solver to create internal gravity and pull the volume together into these nice structured threads.

This movie should have gotten a much better reception and box office numbers than it got. It’s not a bad movie at all. Amazing visuals, great soundtrack. Solid performances. Sad, but I don’t think we will get any more Tron movies after this.

Lots of work getting this all put together.

Done for GMunk Studio, under Bradley’s amazing direction. Big team of artists doing all the UI bits. My main job was putting together the Houdini systems behind all the image clusters and taking the concept art into final design approved by the film’s director.

a tron ares poster with a man in a suit ALT: a tron ares poster with a man in a suit

Tron Ares is on Disney+ now. I did a bunch of work on the film. This sequence of the film was my main job (FX lead). (GIF pulled from Tenor) Initial concept art by Michael Rigley. Shot finishing by Serjan Burlak, Daniella Levy, and ILM Sydney.

I’m spending my Thanksgiving break doing home repairs because my kid has Hulk-hands and has destroyed the house.

Reviews page from an 1897 Sears Roebuck catalogue.

And, of course, reviews! (Just like Amazon)

“Gents: The carriage I purchased of you came well packed and in good order. It is a surprise to me and others how a carriage can be sold at such a price. I have paid double for a less desirable one. It seems to be strong, of good material and stylish”

A wagon for sale, 1897

Many pages of wagons.

Tools from 1897.

Miscellaneous tools

Guns from 1897

Pocket knives from 1897.

Guns and knives. (Many such pages)

Stove from 1897

A beautifully rendered stove from 1897.

Women’s fashion from 1897

One of the pages of women’s fashion.

1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue

Going through some old books and found this one that I picked up at a used book store around 25 years ago. I love these kinds of books because you can learn so much about how people lived back then. This is almost 800 pages and has EVERYTHING. The Amazon of the late 1800s.

Some high-level gems in here.

Quick algorithmic doodle

Sorted

-Some people love to ask for a draw when I am clearly winning (lol)

Anyway, if you see me out there, know that I’ll probably hang my queen, but I’m still determined to get toward 1000 and eventually learn some better board vision.

I found a couple funny observations in my journey of the low-rated chess community.
-The uglier the board you play with, the more likely I am to lose to you
-People with Magnus or Hikaru in their handles are usually terrible
-Some people just have no chill. I’ve had to block dozens of users so far.

all the dumb stuff, lol. I have come a long way though. Started at 700, immediately dropped into the mid 100s 🫣 then climbed my way back up. It’s fun, but frustrating to be stuck.

Over the past year, I’ve been trying to get better at Chess, with the modest goal of getting to 1000 rapid rating. (Currently stuck in mid 700s). It’s funny, because I watch some of the Gotham Chess game reviews, and it just seems so obvious, but I choke during games (tunnel vision, hanging pieces),