In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...
I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.
In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...
After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.
In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...
I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.
Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.
In which I plan my holiday tasks…
So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.
*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.
Remote interviews are a fact of life for every podcaster, and in today’s era of social distancing, more so than ever. Since you rarely get the chance at an interview do-over, nailing down your remote recording workflow is essential. We’ll show you how to prepare for and record a remote interview, so you get it right the first time — with some additional tips along the way to make sure all your bases are covered.
So you may have noticed that my last post about my working life and PhD was back in 2014. My last proper post tagged as 'PhD' was about tables in LaTeX. I didn't even make a post about my graduation!
Suffice to say I did graduate and finally get to wear the fancy robes:
In which I mess about with exposure and white balance for some Christmas photographs...
So I'm going to cover some basics settings for photographing a Christmas tree and also show the difference between white balance settings and how it affects your pictures.
Auto mode doesn't really capture Christmas Trees at all well so stick to Manual mode. Below is a picture of my first attempt before I re-positioned to counteract the reflections from the windows. I also turned the lights off to make the shot easier. As you will be using long exposure times a tripod comes in very handy!
In which I detail my next Halloween project, kind of ...
So following the success of Project Thor you might be wondering what my next project will be. While I'm certain I'll have other opportunities for smaller scale fancy dress throughout the year (there has already been talk of Game of Thrones amongst my housemates*) I am already planning for next Halloween :)
*I can grow the beard for Ned Stark, so shotgun!
So this Project will be shrouded in mystery **dramatic music**. I will tell you that it involves an extended fitness program again (starting today!), the acquisition of a particular set of skills† and of course the purchase/creation of a costume.
Each of these things represents a goal. Whenever I reach one of these goals I will post a new blog post and increment the title of the post and this category.‡ There will also be hints as to what the costume is (see below).
†Not those ones though
‡Not necessarily numerically
So every time I post about 'Project 0' I will post a part of a picture freely available on the internet. If you track this down you will find the full size picture which will be a clue as to the costume. Once you've worked it out feel free to email me at: tom@tinkertailorsoldiersponge.com for prizes!§
§No actual prizes, but the first correct answer (with working as opposed to blind guessing) will get mentioned on the blog when I do the big reveal :)
Example
Here is a small blurry image (I'll find better quality ones for the actual game).
If you correctly searched for this image you would find it linked to Pimp That Snack.com.
Armed with this image you would see that they are crushing Hobnobs into bits. This would give you the clue that the costume was linked to The Hobbit.
This is a new idea of mine so I hope you all enjoy it!
Tom Out!
