Lunar New Year in Farmville 2

There are a lot of animations in FV2 that go largely unmentioned. The new Lunar New Year lantern stand is an example.

Here's a couple of screen shots of the kick off for the Lunar New Year lantern tasks.

Free lit lanterns bobbing on the river in the night.

The lanterns rise up into the sky and fly away.

Also, every time you make a lantern in the lantern stand and a neighbor "buys" it, they take the lantern to the river where it floats and then flies away.

But wait! There's more! There are other many little animations that no one seems to mention. For example, you can hover over mushroom lamps (if you have them) and they light up. There are a couple of wood fires that light up when you hover over them. As a remnant of an owl task, there is an owl tree with a tiny owl house where the owls peer out when you hover over the tree.

And there are constant special animations to kick off new tasks. A recent reward animation was a sleigh ride with four friends. The entire screen was animated with my farm in the background.

As an old school computer user I am amazed by the work put into this free game to make it fun and attractive. They should win an award.

Sky 261 - cliff sunset water shine

So gorgeous I just had to post this sky by Kathleen Bleach, shot in September 2007.

Sky 200 - with balls

200 seems like a landmark of some kind. I'm impressed, anyway.

Sky 176 & Sky 177 - sun drama

Pretty dramatic later that evening, as well, with an impromptu storm that launched fires, lightning strikes, strong winds and power outages. As I left the parking lot where I took these photos, I overhead a woman say, "It's a great sky to make into an oil painting." Can you say Baroque? 

365: Sky 82 - cloud brushes

Made with JavierZhx Cloud Brushes. It really is all about the clouds. A plain blue sky is boring.

0321 - Retrospective: Sky

Spring Moon (3/21/09)

This might be a better post for "The Unplanned Eye" but it's really part of my daily retrospective. Although the project seems dead, it's still having an effect on my creativity.

In addition to the immediate benefits of my failed "365 Make Something" project, I've been experiencing a strange revival in my art marketing. I suddenly found myself renting a wall at Art Works and hanging my art (Wall "N", beside the exit/entrance to the cafe). Another spur-of-the-moment thing was submitting work to the monthly juried All Media Show. I happened to have a spare frame and a couple of works that just needed printing. And I'm making a Facebook artist page.

Today I'm working in Bryce, realizing that posting a sky a day would be possible. Especially if I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Generating a random sky would be acceptable because it would be all about choice – choosing the best sky of the day. I suppose I could also post a photo. Especially in the spring there are some great sunrise skies. In the winter it's sunset skies. So, something to think about.

Making a Man Look Old

Not as easy as one might think. Definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. I have Daz 3D and a bunch of plug ins and models and stuff. I got one plug in just to make old guys. The plug in was intended to make scary guys but, hey, old guys are scary, aren't they? So, I gave this guy lines and some bags and he does look aged but not old. Okay. So maybe he's about 40 or so. Is that old?

Between Here and There

I started a photo-moblog (try looking that up in the last century’s dictionary!) while I was still working at SunTrust to capture what I found during my daily walk to the office. Since I parked in a free section, it was a 10-12 minute walk each day. So, altogether about a 20 minute commute. I still have a 20 minute commute, only now it’s all highway driving without the leisure of stopping for photographs. The best moments of the drive for the past two weeks have been

1. The hazy hill of blue on my left created by an invasion of bachelor buttons (or chicory, although I’m not fussy about what you call them).


2. The hazy sunlit strip of blue and white on my right as I exit from one highway to another. There the bachelor buttons are friendly with Queen Anne’s lace.

The universe just knows I need cheering up.