Fingernails

Published on by Phillip Drawbridge Category: Off Topic

Fingernails are great.  Why did no one tell me this? I’ve bitten my nails since I’ve had them.  I can’t remember not biting them and I bite them bad, right down until they bleed and then some more and if I can’t bite the nail I bite the cuticle and if I can’t do that I bite the skin.   As soon as I can get the tiniest bit of nail between my teeth, I rip them off.   I’ve wanted to stop, but not enough to ever actually do something about it.

A few weeks ago I notice that one of my nails was “long” and by long I mean not a bleeding stump on the end of my finger.  I don’t know how this one slipped through my fingers (pun totally intended)   The cuticle was not bleeding and, although raged, I liked the look.   It was then I decided to my a concerted effort to not bite my nails.  After just a few days I could actually feel them growing.

It’s hard to explain, but I was very aware of nails growing out of the end of my fingers.  I could almost hear the creak of growth and had to fight to not nibble on them.   After a few more days I could see white growing on the end.   This was unheard of.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen white growing from my nails.  40+ years of abuse had made them weak and the ends were ragged and broken, but I fought the urge to bite them clean off.   My sister, in her failed attempt to get me to stop, had bought me a nail set.  I dug it out from the cupboard it had been hiding in and pulled out the file and actually filed a nail!

nails

It’s now at least two weeks and although I have caught myself with a nail between my teeth, I haven’t bitten one off.   I’m finding them very useful.   No longer do I have to scratch an itch with whatever is laying around and I actually picked up a coin from the floor.  And as for removing labels from old books, it’s now a hobby of mine rather than a source of frustration.    It’s an odd feeling.  My fingers actually feel longer.  I am aware of my nails scraping along things and reaching places before my fingers.  Not to mention the psychological aspects, I used to think I bit my nails because I was a nervous person, but now I feel calmer and confident and think that biting my nails was the cause of my nerves.

I wish I’d had the forethought to photograph my nails when they were bad.   To a non biter, these probably look nothing special, but to me, they are amazing.

To my fellow biters, I can’t give you any advice.  I really don’t know what has stopped me biting other than will power.  I would suggest you try one day with a real effort to not bite.  If you can go a day, go two then a week then two.  Beyond that I don’t know since I’m not there.

 

Faster Than Light

Published on by Phillip Drawbridge Category: Digital Art

Back in the early 80’s I got my first “computer”  a Sinclair ZX-81 (81 being the year).  it was black and white, had 1kb RAM, not hard drive, no floppy drive and stored everything, when it felt like it, to cassette.  It was truly a dreadful machine.  The best thing about it was the manual which had an amazing cover by John Harris.    He created a lot of sci-fi art and is known for HUGE scale with HUGE ships.    One of my favourites was called The Building of FTL1, about the construction of the first faster than light ship, you can see a copy HERE.     Today I wanted to recreate this image using my own models.

The models were made in Wings3d, the render was completed in one pass in Carrara 8 and then a little bit of tweaking in PSCS2.

Thanks for looking.

What is a Graduated Neutral Density Filter for?

Published on by Phillip Drawbridge Category: Photography

It’s a really poor day for filter comparisons, but this will give you the idea.

This photo was taken with no filter.  You can see that the camera has tried to correctly guess the exposure and shutter speed needed to get some definition in the clouds.  But in order to do that, the exposure is so short that the trees are too dark to make out.  If I set the camera to the correct exposure for the trees then the sky would be totally washed out.

A graduated ND filter is dark at the top and fades to be clear at the bottom.  So now, the camera can take the correct exposure for the trees without washing out the sky.

As you can see, the cloud definition is still there (as much as can be on such a grey day)but the trees are also lighter and you can make out the branches.