Ravings of an Undead Cheese Minion

When ray tracing, it is important to compute the proper XYZ coordinates. This bit me hard over these past few weeks.  This is what I figured out:  A few things to note:  This only works for square images. The math gets weird when you have rectangular ones.  In order to use a standard Cartesian Coordinate system, I had to make the Y start at -1.  I had to swap my X and Y because of how PPM files are structured, versus how I was looping through my arrays in Java (this is the easiest way to account for it IMO). I was so confused for the longest time as to why my image was rendering vertically instead of horizontally.  As you can see, I did some trig to compute Z. It is the same number for every single pixel, and it relates to the field of view, which is 28 in this example (though the formula should be the same regardless). It has to be negative because that's simply the standard for the graphics industry (not sure why).  I also found that my formula to co...

 Anyone want to go? :O

  And as I stood at the edge of that dark, forlorn forest, its trees standing like sentinels amidst the mountains black as soot, I looked up at the night sky.  In the pre-dawn light, amidst the dying stars, I saw it floating above me — the demon of Haurvale. Its cruel eyes narrowed at me. “Leave this place,” it seemed to whisper, closing its glowing eyes as though to rest until the morning calm choked out the shadows. “For those who enter here are doomed to wander in darkness forever.” Of course I felt the yearning to leave, to retreat back to the warmth and safety of my spacepod parked a hundred feet or so away. But I had a mission here, one that had to be completed alone. So I breathed, a sigh alongside the chirping crickets and the roar of a distant waterfall. Thirty year’s worth of dreams and longings and sadness trailed behind me as I stepped into the forest, and as I peered skyward, I saw the shining eye of the great demon open again as it laughed at me. “Those who enter...

1. The system  that you use, and  2. Your execution  of said system.  The former includes full capture, time blocking, timeboxing, mosquito blocking, autopilot schedules, and productivity software (i.e. Trello).  The latter includes focus, deep work, and methods such as Pomodoro.  At this current time, I have some flaws in both. This is why I'm struggling to catch up in my class and the film. I hope to be caught up in the class by the end of the week, but we will see. I am forcing myself to slowly work out all the algorithms on paper before touching code, so I can fully understand the mathematics. I think I'm understanding things a lot better, but who knows if I'll get owned when I try to implement it in code tomorrow. I also get flashes of anxiety when I remember just how far behind I am.  After that, I need to hop back on the ball with the film, my writing, my art learning schedule, and my review of mathematics.  All the while avoiding cognitive...

It's been an interesting semester so far, to say the least. It really took me off-guard. ADHD has been slamming me for some reason. Maybe I should get on accommodations, but I keep forgetting... CS 601 (HCI): Doing well so far, but need to seriously up my participation. I keep falling asleep as well because my brain is already fried from 655 right before. I have an A so far though.  CS 655 (Graphics): I'm behind, but I'm catching up. The raytracer rewrite really took me off-guard, and my first lab grade will probably be less than optimal. I may write about ray tracing here, but not until after I've caught up. I'm running low on time for the next assignment which is due in a week, so I'd better push. This class is at 8 AM, which means that I am consistently 20 minutes late for it. I really need to fix that, somehow. I hate that I'm always late. If -- and this is a huge IF -- I can catch up this week, and STAY caught up, I will be fine grade-wise. Considering ...

I'm still behind on my theme park blog, but I don't care if there's crossover. I'm just gonna do a quick dump of my impressions here.   - Typhoon (as seen above) is pretty awesome. Be a lot cooler if it inverted though.  - Make sure you check what time the carnival  opens, not just the fair itself. For example, today the fair opened at 10:00 AM but the carnival did not open until 1:00 PM for some stupid reason.  - Speed and Black Out are always extra, wristband or not -- $10 each. So is the giant yellow slide, which is $3. I didn't bother with the yellow slide, though it did look cool, but I do ride Speed and Black Out every year.  - They let you ride alone on Vertigo, the mini star flyer. City of Fun does not, which is annoying. It feels kind of freaky though because you tilt quite a bit to the side.  - I didn't try riding the Zipper alone, because the sign said no single riders and there was no one looking for a riding partner, so I still  haven...

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