Projects Update: May 2020

What happened to May?

Just at the end of April I finished the coaster project and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I didn’t get quite through everything I wanted in April, but I was pretty happy. Then it was halfway through May and I had no idea where I was or what was going on. I will say I’ve been enjoying spring for the most part, although there’s been some quarantine weirdness kicking around my brain as well.

I'm really happy with the new coasters.

I haven’t made a lot of progress on the game tracker and I’ve found it pretty hard to sit down and write, so I’m behind on both of those for now. I’ve also picked up an academic thing I need to finish fairly quickly, so I’m thinking about that too.

Since I haven’t made much progress I’m just going to slide my goal for the game tracker back to June 30. The goal is to have remote storage of data working by that point (along with having tutorial myself on various build systems and remote storage solutions.

I also want to push forward on my Chrono Trigger sprites so I’d like to get Lucca finished by June 15.

Project 5: SNES Coasters - Update - Larger and ... newer?

So this is an update from the last update in 2014, but it’s an update. That being said, having taken … 6 … years to finish this project a lot of my thinking is totally lost to me now. Still I’ve made newer bigger coasters and they seem pretty good.

The Coasters

The original coasters.

I set out to make coasters because I wanted to play with pixels and to make myself some geeky stuff. The first set of coasters have been pretty good, but they are a little small. They’re pretty good with tumblers or a can, but they’re a little small for mugs. They also worry me a bit whith wine glasses, so I tend not to have them out when we have guests over. They have always had a bit of a curve or a cup to them, which, so far I think is the nature of something made out of perler, which makes them a little bit prone to tipping.

They’ve held up quite well over the years. I took an inventory and a few have a bit of separation between the backing and the beads, but all 8 of the original set get use everyday.

One of the blue coasters where I use it daily.

The cupping always bothered me a bit and the size has also been a small problem. So a long time back I figured adding in an extra ring of beads (taking the width from 16 bead x 16 to 18 x 18) would fix the size problem. I’m also hoping that the bigger coasters will also help with cupping, but since that seems to develop over time I don’t have a great answer for that yet.

Pattern

For the pattern I added in an extra ring of the interior colour. That helps actually float the exclamation mark more in the middle so I think overall the bigger sprite makes sense.

I didn't generate a pattern, but here's the expanded layout. You can see the extra row above the exclamation point) which effectively wraps around the whole coaster.

To compare here's the original coasters with the completed larger ones:

All of the originals with the newer ones behind.

For each I used the perler colours: 

The Black and White are Black (80-19018) and White (80-19001).

The Red:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Red	Red (80-19005)
Inner Red	Magenta (80-19038)

Red Coaster - click to enlarge

The Blue:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Blue	Dark Blue (80-19008)
Inner Blue	Turquoise? (80-19062)

Blue Coaster - click to enlarge

The Green:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Green	Dark Green? (80-19010)
Inner Green	Green? (80-19080)

Green Coaster - click to enlarge

 The Yellow:

Sprite Colour	Bead Colour
Outer Yellow	Cheddar (80-19057)
Inner Yellow	Yellow (80-19003)

Yellow Coaster - click to enlarge

Any of the beads where I'm either not sure what bead I used, or what colour the bead is I've marked with a question mark. Those are best guesses.

I also had a bit of an adventure and made a rainbow exclamation mark block. I have a lot of beads kicking around that aren’t really getting used for anything so I thought it would be fun to make up my own. 

 

The Rainbow Wonder. The white ring matches the extra row of beads if you're curious as to size.

I didn’t take notes, so I have no idea what colours I actually put in here.

Fusing

I fused three of these at least a year ago and the other two in the last few days.

For the ones I did in the last few days, I also made some shapes out of the same beads so I had a feeling for how those beads melted. I’ve noticed a bit over time that the different colours have slightly different melting / fusing points.

I also noticed for future reference that depending on how I fuse the beads the depth of the coaster can be pretty different. It doesn’t show so much from the front, but it’s a factor I hadn’t really considered. For the future I’d like to find a way to be more systematic about fusing.

The different depths of the different coasters.

Backing

I used the same backing as I did for the original coasters. Which I do mean literally, they’re the same set of sticky felt that I purchased back in 2013 (2012?). So they might not work as well as I’d like. But it’s what I had and given that going out to the craft store is not an option while I’m working, I figured I’d go with what I had.

As it works out the 18 x 18 bead squares are exactly 3 ½ inches wide. So I proceeded to cut a bunch of squares that were *almost* 3 ½ inches square. I have a new cutting mat that’s a little warped still and I guess I just need more practice (and maybe a bit more technique). 

The fit of the red coaster. The cutting matt is a little wonky underneath.

 

I also realized that 3 ½ inches is too wide, because it doesn’t allow for the edge where the beads hang over the backing. I tried to make that a ½ bead overhang and it seems like cutting the squares to be 3 ⅜ inches would have been a better approach. I also had to trim the corners to deal with the curve. I found it was a bit difficult to get a proper trim, so I think if I do more of these it would make sense to have a template or a jig.

The coaster backs.

So the backs are a little adhoc, despite my best efforts, but they seem to be on comfortably despite all of the potential problems. I’ll use them for a bit and then update to see if the backing actually works, but given how long the smaller coasters have lasted I’m feeling a little optimistic.

Coaster with the backing on.

Wrap-up

These were fun to do. The several times I’ve worked on them over the last (checks notes) half decade, I’ve enjoyed it. Filling in the fields is a very peaceful activity, especially when compared to my Chrono Trigger perler sprites. 

 

The four coasters ready for action.

Now I’m going to use them for a bit and see how they do. In the mean time I get to mark this project done.

And now time to relax.

Project Updates: April 2020

It’s pretty usual for me to get to April and realize that I’ve lost track of all the things I was excited about. I’m still working on balancing my teaching so that I can be creative and productive and a good responsible teacher as well. It’s less usual to have that April realization fall in the middle of a global pandemic where suddenly everything has gone weird and suddenly I’m stuck at home, as opposed to being a little out of work for the spring and stuck at home.

Anyway, once I finish marking I want to do … something, so I’m going to “circumwork¹” and see where my projects on this blog are at.

Projects I am "actually working on"

One of the problems with maintaining the blog is that I have a list of things I “should” be working on even if they’re not actually the things I want to be working on. I try to avoid that by keeping my timelies short and achievable (yes, I know I’m bad at that) and by keeping the number of projects I’m working on at once (yes, I’m not great at that either).

Currently I have on my list:

• The Blog (as Project)
• I’m not 100% sure where I’m at with the blog, I’m enjoying tracking games and books. I don’t know that it’s a really productive thing to be doing, but I’m enjoying it. I also find that I don’t really want to put that much out there in terms of thoughts, because I’d rather put my time towards making something.
• Covert Action in Space
• I got a little held up because it turns out that randomly generating meaningful floor plans is a little harder than I’d figured. I still love the idea, but this isn’t at the top of my list.
• Game Tracker
• I’ve been teaching first year Java again and I wanted to get things rolling here again. I also taught a senior programming course in the fall which involved using online services and mobile interfaces, both of which my project needs. I opened it up a few weeks ago and couldn’t quite figure out where I left off, but managed to get it mostly on the path again.
• Pong
• I wanted to be way further ahead on this and have my AtariST version done ahead of my students, I managed to work along side them, but then completely lost the thread when the “transition to on-line” teaching happened. Hopefully I’ll have cause to get back to it.
• Code Click
• I already spend quite a bit of time thinking about how to share that moment of joy I get out of coding, and while I haven’t got that much done, I still think about code click a bunch. Transitioning to on-line has also pushed me to think a lot more about how I want to teach and the resources I want available when I’m teaching.
• 
  

Projects I have “on hiatus”

There are a bunch of things I started out and then put aside, some of them are things I want to be working on so I think it's worth listing them all out too.

• SNES Coasters
  • I’d like more and bigger coasters and maybe to spend a bit more time working on perler stuff.
• Space Station Game
  • I keep thinking about this one. I’m still not ready to really set down and work on it, partly because I’d like to build up my skill working on some other projects first. I've been playing quite a bit of EU4 which has definitely provided some feeling for how the game should work when I actually get to it.
• Action RPG
  • This is another one I’m not ready to work on yet, but I have a lot of ideas and I’ve been developing my drawing skills.
• Sci-Fi Novel
  • The problem with having sat with a story in your head for 20 / 25 years is that when you think about writing it, it feels pretty trite. There’s a lot of things kicking around in my head from as far back as when I was a teenager. I don’t really know where to go with it, but it still might be fun to tackle at some point.
• The Roofs (Fantasy Novel)
  • This is the story that sits further in the front of my mind. I’m not sure it makes sense, and it might be missing a reasonable antagonist, but I guess I won’t know until I write it.
• Chrono Trigger Sprites
  • I have the first two sitting in the window over my desk and I love them. It’s time I got the rest finished.
• Bubble Puzzler
  • I think with Pong out of the way this is the place I want to focus building games. It’s a good learning opportunity and I think it’s a great place to get started.

Projects I actually want to work on now

So I’m not sure where I want to put myself for all of the time between now and September. Obviously working on code click is a good idea for professional growth, but the Game Tracker and the Bubble Puzzler also make sense.

I also want to work on more artistic things. A lot of that I don’t think I want to make projects for, but I think that both the SNES Coasters and the Chrono Trigger Sprites. I also really want to get the Roofs written.

In an effort to keep my goals small and my projects limited, these are my near, term projects:

• SNES Coasters
  • I want to finish a set of 4 large coasters, get them fused and backed and then I’ll see what’s next. I think I can get that all done by April 30.
• Game Tracker
  • I’d like to get this working with outside data, either my original plan of google sheets, or with something else (possibly firebase). Either way I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about it, so I’m going to try to have some version of that working by April 30 too.
• The Roofs
  • I don’t know how long it is, or how I’ll feel actually trying to write, but I’m going to give it a shot and try to have a first draft finished by August 31. (And yes, I think I did just put write a novel on a list of “short achievable near term goals” no, I’m not great at planning things)

(and we’ll leave the blog rolling along as it is, since that’s fun).

¹ Circumwork: To do things that feel like work without actually being related to any task that needs to be done.

January 2016 Project Update

Somehow, it's been six months since my last project update. I've been pretty busy for the last six months, but mostly on things for the PhD and teaching. Around here I haven't managed to get much done.

As far as the "actual job" goes. I'm hoping to finish the PhD this year, although it'll be December if I do get it all done this year. I'm getting closer though and I've reach the point where I really just want to get it done and and get on to anything else.

The teaching has also been interesting, since my last update I've been working primarily on new ways to teach new computer scientist the basic tools that we expect them to be able to use (like text editors and the Unix command line). That has been a lot of work but I think may also lead to some things that I'd like to do in the future. You may even see me talk about it more here in the next little while.

As far as getting projects done, I haven't. I've managed to do a little work but really haven't managed to put anything to bed. Finishing things is definitely not my strength.

Granted finishing things is never easy:

The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.^[1]

— Tom Cargill, Bell Labs

(Stolen ... borrowed ... excerpted ... from Wikipedia)

I think I also sometimes distract myself by giving myself too many options about what to work on *looks at the two page todo list*.

I'm going to try for the next little bit to focus when I'm working on my project stuff. I'm also going to try to make sure that I put the bulk of my time into getting the PhD done.

To manage that I'm going to try to have one active project at a time (well two, but hold onto that thought). For now, I'm going to focus on finishing the sketch fiction first. I'll get to the perler projects (coasters and sprites) when I have a little time, but for now we can call them "on hiatus".

Also I have absolutely no idea what those other two and a half projects were going to be. I should really consider writing things down. On that note, if I come up with more brain crack*, then you might see a project post for a project that I'm not really going to start on.

The "other" project is going to be "blog as blog project". For the last year I really tried to get two posts out a week. Over all I haven't done too badly, but I feel a bit like I use the blog as an excuse to not work on other things (like my PhD and other projects). I'm going to scale back to only one "YouTube Favourites" a week (on Friday). This was always technically the plan with the assumption that I'd be filling Tuesday and the other days with other posts, but that hasn't been the case and that's okay.

I'm going to set the deadline for the sketch fiction for February 9th, 2016 and in the mean time you'll have a fresh batch of favourite videos on Friday.

* he says if as though he didn't have another page in the todo list of "long term" projects in the book with the todo list.

August 2015 Project Update Post

Once again I've been slow getting things done, although I did at least manage to take a vacation and am now involved in "serious business" redeveloping a course for my department. That's taken up quite a bit of time from everything in the last little while. So taking that into account it's time to reset the project goals and see where things stand. Mostly right now, I'm trying to keep my energy up and get excited and make things.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters
• I still haven't put the backing on on the new, larger, test coaster. Once I get that done then it's just a matter of testing it out and seeing how it compares to the older ones. Getting the backing on will be a little effort but once that's done it's just a matter of using the thing for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to post a full update on October 2, 2015.
• Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've done most of the planning for my next sprite. I need to check I have enough beads, and then it's just a matter of putting those beads together. Hopefully will be done the next phase on September 18, 2015.
• Project 14 - Sketch Fiction
• I haven't written much in the past couple of months. I'm going to try to push myself to write a little each day which should make it easy to push through 5 more quick sketches. Hopefully I'll have all five up by, October 30, 2015.

Project Update Post

As always I seem to get behind on projects, but in the last few months I've managed to start picking things up again. So I'm going to reorganize my deadlines again today and reorganize a few of the projects.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters
• I have actually gotten as far as beading and fusing my new larger format test coaster. Now it needs a backing and then I'll give it a test for a little while to see if it develops the same cupping that the smaller ones. 
• I'm going to try to get the backing on in the next week and then I'll test it for a month or so.  I'm going to set the deadline to see if I make more / bigger ones on July 17, 2015.

• Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've finally made some progress. Last night in fact I actually spent about 2 hours beading the beginning of a 1x1 Chrono sprite. This is giving me a chance to see what works and how the colours look (little problem there, but I'll give a longer update once I get everything done).

Coming together.

• Progress is happening so I hope to have the 1x1 sprite and update done by June 23, 2015.

• Project 13 - Bubble Puzzle
• I'll get back to it and I'm putting it on hold for the time being.

• Project 14 - Sketch Fiction
• I originally was calling this flash fiction, but based on the lack of ... plot in the stuff I've been writing I wasn't sure if flash fiction counted. I ran across an article on "sketch fiction" which I'm repurposing as a term for what I'm turning out.
• As you might have guess from the above, I have actually written a bit. I have one sketch done and ready to go an others "in the pipeline". I'm going to try to do six sketches in the next little while, rather than one a month like I'd originally posted. I'd like to try to have all six posted by August 1, 2015.

• New Projects
• I have two (and a half) new projects I've either started or would like to start. I'll put up proper posts for them soon. 

Project Update Post

I've managed to get behind on projects again, mostly due to having research and teach commitments that need to get done with a higher priority. Still I've managed to get a bit done and in this post I'm going to update my deadlines to give myself something to shoot for again.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters and Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've had to hold off a little on working on these due to house sitting and wanting to make sure that I'm using the same iron while testing.
• The SNES Coasters have been holding mostly steady, but I've decided that I want to build and test one of the bigger size before making others since that way I don't waste quite as much if I don't like the size. 
• I'd like to finish and start testing the test SNES coaster by November 15, 2014.
• I spent a long time going through the Perler bead colours and discovered that I actually DIDN'T buy all the colours and I'm missing a few that might be helpful for the sprites. However I think I have enough on hand to make it through the small scale test.
• I've also done all the colour matching and think I have a plan for which colour of beads I'll use for each of the colours in the Chrono sprite.
• I'd like to finish a test block (just the colours) by November 15, 2014 and the small scale Chrono by November 30, 2014.
• Project 13 - Bubble Puzzle
• I haven't had time to start on this one at all yet, so I don't have much to report other than that I've decided to do a test with Unity that works well enough to shoot bubbles at other bubbles.
• I'd like to finish this Unity test by December 31, 2014
• Project 14 - Flash Fiction
• I also haven't made much progress on this one either so I think given that I'm still fairly early in November, I'm simply going to slide this back a month and hopefully put up my first piece by November 30, 2014.

Project 5: SNES Coasters: Bigger, Better, Slightly Less Tippy, and Going on the Road

In my last update I finished making a set of 8 coasters using the exclamation blocks from Super Mario World.

I've now taken them out and used them in the real world and come to the conclusion that they're too small, as I suspected this in the last post. They've also suffered from a certain amount of cupping, all of which makes them a touch unstable. There has only been one major incident with spillage due to the coasters, but it still bugs me.

I've decided I want to try a couple of things, that will result in basically 3 mini-projects. 

• The first is that I want to make larger coasters, the current ones are 16 beads wide/tall and if I add an extra ring of beads they will end up being 18 beads wide/tall and that should improve the stability and make them a little more useable.
• The second is that I want to test mailing these. I'm tempted to start an Etsy shop and sell a few sets of these, although I'm not convinced that's something I really want to do. Either way a better understanding of how to mail these things around would be nice, so I'll make a second set of the larger coasters (assuming that the first batch come out right) and send them to a friend who thought they were cool.
• The third is to try a different pattern. There are some gifts I'd like give and I feel like taking a pattern from Illusion of Gaia, might be a good fit for the decor of the people to whom I'd like to give the gifts. Hopefully, I can end up with video game decor that doesn't look to video gamey.

So I'd like to finish the first batch of bigger coasters by August 31, 2014. I'll update about the other parts when I've done that.

Project 5: SNES Coasters: Update (and Wrap Up?)

I may have missed the deadline by a few (many) months, but I have finally finished making my first batch of SNES Coasters.

The Pattern

After taking a look at a sprite sheet from Super Mario World. I opted for the exclamation point blocks. I did this for a few reasons. One, they were probably my favorite block in the game (if you can have favorite blocks), secondly they come in 4 colours (green, yellow, blue and red) so they have a little diversity in their appearance.

The Beading

They were also quiet easy to build, since they only require you to build the exclamation point and then fill in a field of colour before putting on a coloured border and a black outer border. After a little bit of work I figured out that the easiest way to create the exclamation mark is to put in the black beads for the upper left hand side of the border, then fill in the top rows of white beads. After that I add the bottom square of four white beads with the surrounding black boarder and finish the right hand side of black beads. Then I fill in the right hand side of field beads and rom top to bottom, then rotate the board and fill in the other side of the field. Finally I add the border of darker beads and the outer border of black beads.

I found it easiest to scoop a large number of beads into my one hand and then simply put them into the board one at a time with the other. You can use tweezers (including the ones that perler sells, which have a great scoop attached to them) or toothpicks to set the beads into the board, but I found that to be relatively unhelpful.

I also found from time to time that it was necessary to remove the cat from the pegboard before continuing...

The Ironing (is delicious)

Once the beads were in place and ready (and maybe had sat on my shelf for a few months?), it was time for fusing the beads. I set up an old chopping board on the ironing board as a surface to work on.

My setup

My iron is slightly difficult to calibrate since it measures in fabric quality, but I eventually found that the "wool" setting worked best for me. This gave me slightly more time than I had on the "cotton" setting. I  find that the beads can go from unmelted to melted quite quickly. Some people aim to totally melt the beads to get a more pixelly effect, but I actually like having the holes visible a little still, so it's a bit of an art to get the balance correct and will be a thing I need to learn with more practice.

I find I still tend to get more melting done on the right hand side of the sprite than on the left. I need to remember to rotate the sprites more frequently as I iron them. Some kind of lazy Susan would be useful. For me the beads melted in about 3 minutes, once I had pretty good fusion, I flipped them off of the board and switched the paper to the other side and continued ironing them for about 2 more minutes.

I started using the parchment paper that came packed in with the multi-pack of beads I purchased, but it was folded into about 4cm squares which left creases in the sprites. They recommend ironing the paper before beginning to remove that crease, but I wasn't able to. In the end I just picked a larger piece of paper to protect the beads and the iron.

The sprites tend to cup when they're finished, so I pressed them under a stack of books to help them stay straight. We can thank Alton Brown for keeping my coasters flat as well as all the things he's taught us about food. I kept the coasters in the bookpress for several days (but some of that also included time after they'd had the backing put on). I also put the coasters between sheets of parchment, just to make sure nothing transfered to the books, but I assume this was largely unnecessary.

The Backing

In order to both help the coasters stay together and to help keep them from scratching I added a felt backing. I opted for a thin stiffened felt with an adhesive back. I cut the backing into squares just smaller than the coasters and then trimmed the corners to ensure that the backing didn't stick out and ruin the look. I cut the squares using a hemming ruler for measurement and then trimmed the corners with the guide of a template.

It's important not to cut the backs too small or they'll cause the coasters to be tippy, and also provide less support to the beads.

The Finished Product

The final coasters.

So far they seem to have worked quite well. After they were pressed for several days they seemed to stay flat (the backing may have also helped with this). They are be a bit smaller than I'd like, they're great for bear bottles, but a little small for some mugs. It's possible on a later run that I'd add an extra ring of the darker coloured beads, but I haven't really seen what that's like yet. I've used them for one D & D session so far and they lived up to expectations.

I'm quite pleased with these and am now looking forward to tackling a few more projects. I'm feeling tempted to see if I can make sets of coasters on Etsy, but I haven't really started to look at whether that would really be a good idea or not. Beyond that I'm going to keep working on the coasters, both using Mario blocks and some other SNES Sprites that will make good coasters too.

And the coasters in use.

Projects 4 & 5 Deadline Update

So I've dropped well past the deadlines I gave myself for both the Snake project and the SNES coaster project. This has been due to a combined effect of actually getting things done at work, having some catastrophic computer issues and not getting excited enough and getting things done.

It's a coaster (or it will be)

On the SNES coaster project, I have managed to get excited enough to at least start making prototypes (as you can see in the picture). I still have a bit of work to do figuring out how I'd like them to work (in particular they need a backing for added table protection, plus reinforcement of the beads) and then I need to actually make a few and test them out as coasters. Ideally this should all happen in the next week so I'm giving this project a new deadline of November 24, 2012.

I've made less progress with the Snake project but am planning to jump back on it soon. I haven't actually tackled any of the items I discussed last time and given schedules for all the things that need to be done, I think I won't have too much time to focus on it. I'm giving this project a new deadline of January 1, 2013.

Project 5 : SNES Geek Coasters

One of the problems I face on a semi-regular basis (at least whenever I host a D & D session) is that I don't have enough coasters and that the coasters I do have are just not cool enough. Fortunately the Internet has reminded me that this doesn't need to be an on-going problem and that I can do something cool to fix it.

As such, my next big project is going to be SNES Geek Coasters made from pearler beads.

I was inspired to this idea from two sources, one is a mario coin I bought at the Calgary Comic Expo this year and the other is a set of fridge magnets I saw on Pinterest (which were mis-labeled as coasters).

The coin over my desk. From my photo-project with a friend Seven-Fifty-Two-by-Two.

Fridge Magnets with retro style - found on Pinterest sourced from gadgetsin.com

Pearler beads work well with retro-video game concept because it's easy to put beads in for each pixel. This means that all I have to do to find plans is to hunt down the sprite sheets for any game I'm looking for. Then all I have to do is match the beads to the pixels, load them onto a hedgehog tray and iron. Or not, this may prove to be harder than I've imagined, but I do have my childhood memories saying this is pretty easy and it may be harder to get the sprites that I want.

My first thought was to go with the question mark blocks from Super Mario World, but the more I've been thinking the more I'm interested in trying for some RPGs of the era (Secret of Mana especially) since they're likely to get hauled out during RPG session most often.

My goal is to have at least a prototype version of these up and running by November 1, 2012.