The Crafter

In keeping with this rather introspective summer, I took the Keirsey Bates personality test (one of the longer and more "respected" *koff* personality tests in existence). My result was this:

ISTP- The Crafter

You scored 36% I to E, 58% N to S, 62% F to T, and 63% J to P!

You do not approach strangers readily, but you have no problem leading. You are so sure of yourself, others are hesitant not to listen. Your type is known as the crafter, which belongs to the larger group of experiencers. You are likely a master of tools, including vehicles, musical instruments, and weapons. Most pilots are of this personality type. You are always on the go, you live for the here and now to follow your whims, and you share your type with 10% of the population. You don't feel very parental, but you feel your fraternal bonds very deeply.

As a romantic partner, you are calm and handy to have around when something goes wrong. You are very responsive to immediate and obvious needs in your partner, but are less comfortable with emotional ones. You are fun, playful, and adventurous. However, at your heart, you are something of a loner and will resist exposing your private thoughts. You want to be appreciated for your ability to size up a problem and solve it quickly. You feel most appreciated when you are left to do your own thing spontaneously.

This seems surprisingly accurate, and even though you can say that about a lot of these generality tests (or zodiacs, etc), this one actually seems adequetly detailed as well.

If you're interested in trying it, you can find a re-creation of the test here.

I feel stupid

...for repeatedly making the same mistakes I've made since I was 17. -_-

You'd figure after so much education, I'd have learned, but I guess there's some things they don't teach you in school.

That is all.

Love is not a weakness

This is just a repost from before... >_<

It's kind of a funny thing. If you know me, you know I'm someone who takes things easy. I'm very laid back and tend to go with the flow. I acknowledge a certain chaos in life, in fact I cherish it, because it makes life interesting and unpredictable. In fact, I think I tend to stir up a little chaos now and then (okay, probably a little more than "now and then") just for shits and giggles.

Except now I realize this might not be the case.

The more I think about it, the more I think I have a pathalogical need for control and parity. Control, not so much in the sense of controlling other people, mind you. I'm very much a believer in people making decisions for themsleves, though I'm perfectly willing to help them make those decisions if they ask for it. And I don't feel a particular need to control a situation either. It's more like, I have to have some sense, no, I have to know that I'm in control of myself, because I assume everyone else is in complete control of themselves. To not be in control is to be something "less" than them.

Take, for example, my incessent ragging on other people. I've never actually been able to explain why I do that. Seriously, it's like an automated response, I have to actually try very hard not to do it. And it has nothing to do with disrespecting people. In fact I find the people I make fun of the most are the people I hold in the highest light. So why? I think it's very simple. It's to keep them distanced. It's to keep me on level ground with them. If someone confronts me about it, I shrug it off and laugh again. They're trying to break down a wall, but I have a very good construction company. And right there, I believe, is my problem with love.

Love is a powerful force. A mere encounter with someone you love can consume your mind for days. Every little thing they say to you is meticulously picked apart by your brain even hours after they've forgotten they said it. You spend hours and hours doing something inane to put a smile on their face for 10 seconds... and it's worth it! In short, love is a force that takes away your control. It is chaos. Beautiful, sweet, heart-aching chaos. And only recently have I realized, I am afraid of it.

If there's one thing people have told me, it's that I wait way too long to tell them what I'm feeling. I was always convinced it was because I have a complete inability to date someone I don't know personally (which, as I'm told, is too late). Now I realize this is only half true. Loving someone means putting yourself into their hands. They have won you over. Their actions dictate your responses (involuntary though they may be). You are in their pocket, and incredibly, 95% of your body tells you that's exactly where you want to be. But there's no parity here. She might (and in my experience, probably) feels nothing for you. It's a leap out into a black canyon, aiming for a 5x5 foot ledge you can't see. I don't know if you've seen a real canyon before; it's a scary fucking thing. I've plummetted to my death a few times already (that is an impossible sentence - oh look another joke). So what do I do? Rather than exposing my "weakness," and saying anything at all, I use that time to convince myself the feeling isn't real. That it's a phase. It'll go away. So I bury it, deep underground. And life returns to normal. But at least I have my control. At least I have my parity.

At least...

Maybe love isn't so bad. Even in the times it has no chance.

More fiddling...

The wonders of the FBX file format got me the textures that I was missing before...

However the results were... a little less than perfect, as you may notice from Chun's miscolored legs and ghostly arms...

There's also something mighty weird going on in the background of the China stage...

It's always in the last place you look...

Waiting to submit my next rejected offer sheet.

Searching for my next unrequited love.

Sitting in front of my monitor, staring at a book I'm no longer sure is any good.

I seem to have lost my joy for life,

if anyone sees it, would you mind returning it to me?

Oh the things I do at work

So this morning I discovered a neat little application called 3DRipperDX. It allows you to take "3D screenshots" of executable files but, even better than that, lets you extract the 3D models into 3DS Max! Of course, 3DS Max is readily available to me in the office... so it was just a matter of getting some sort of application to rip geometry from...

...gee, let me think about that.


I ended up "borrowing" the models from the Street Fighter IV benchmark tool. It was super easy and as you can see, the models it extracted are picture perfect from the game... or so I thought...

When I first extracted the files, they actually looked like this...


Which looked totally fine... until I rotated the scene...


Whoa! Ryu and Sakura are looking pretty anorexic there! It seems the SF4 models are a little lacking in the z-axis, which is perfectly sensible since you rarely ever see them from anything but the side. So I had to chunk them up a little.

After figuring out how to expand the FOV a little in the conversion, I started getting some really workable (and frankly fantastic looking) extractions.

Oh noes Viper! Here comez Ultra!

You can also get some interesting angles on familiar events.

I swear to god if I have to see another jab shoryu FADC to Ultra again...

Here's what it looks like in Maya.


And of course, I have to end on some obligatory girl-on-girl action.

This is the way I would choose to go out.

= D

It's ALIVE!

It's a beautiful baby... uh... well joystick. But hey, it works! It took a few trips back and forth from the workshop to get the solder points just right though...

First I had to grab some extra HAPP buttons for my Start/Select/Guide (pictured here in that order). With the case built it was time to wire up this bad boy. I went with a cheapo brand Madcatz wired controller for this build, which I read is one of the ideal ways to go in this scenario. Basically what I had to do was rip away the circuit board and solder wires to all the correct contacts (using a diagram from the web) and connect them to my stick/buttons).

Well, it's been about 8 years since I last did anything remotely close to soldering so you can imagine how... intimidated... I was. Sure enough, I applied way too much solder on my first run through so that I accidentally connected a terminal and a ground. I knew I messed up with every single button activated UP.


I also messed up the guide button on my first run through. There must've been a short or something because the xbox dashboard kept coming up randomly. Some spirited scratching of the contact with a knife fixed that little snafu.

This project took a little longer than I originally thought, but the results look fantastic. I'm someone who has no REAL wood working OR electronics experience, and I was able to make a perfectly working product that I'm incredibly happy with. Honestly, I think anyone can do this with a little time and effort and it's so rewarding.

Now to go pwn some n00bz!