August 2024 Summary

HIGHLIGHTS

Earlier this Summer, I had high expectations for what I would be able to do in August, but I was pretty disappointed with how it actually went.

Practically the whole month was spent on solving urgent household repair crises, finishing barely in time to resolve problems associated with starting the new school year.

And then after all this, I found out about Patreon changing their terms at the end of the year, which puts some more pressure on me to finish production work on time, and at that point, I basically had had enough.

I started September with the worst burnout I’ve felt in a couple of years. I had to record four drafts of my video log to get one that wasn’t a rambling depressive mess or an angry rant.

I just hope September will be better! At least it’s starting to cool off.

Nevertheless, I was able to squeeze in just a bit of production progress.

PRODUCTION

Finished the prop and character (hand) animation for the control panel shot in the Suiting Up sequence for Lunatics S1E01. I have not yet set up the camera direction file for it, though — after reviewing the animation in the edit, I’ve decided to combine it with the establishing shot, and simply have the camera track and turn in to see the panel. I think this will fit the mood better.

Hand in front of control panel. — Rendered frame from the animation camera, showing the technician’s hand and the control panel.

Refactored the Soyuz Video Texture to make the sources much smaller. The video texture itself is a PNG stream in the Renders, but it is now generated from much smaller video and PNG slides. I’ve taken it from about 9 GB to 64 MB. Propagated the changes into the shot files. I also fixed some of the missing slides I had wanted (such as a “blank” state for the touch panels).

Soyuz video textures in place on the console.

Stills for the video display screens, used to bridge between video segments.

SVG sources for the touchpanel displays.

Synfig SIFZ 2D animation files for the main Soyuz displays.

Animation cels used for the Synfig animation (SVG).

Miscellaneous image textures used for the Soyuz Orbiter interior.

Unique frames for one of the Soyuz display touch panels.

DEVELOPMENT

I wrote a draft for a script to check dependencies in Blender files by injecting Python to run in the built-in Python interpreter, but I have not yet started testing it and it’s still unfinished.

WORKFLOW

Made some changes to my to-do list system: I decided to go back to the list of “next task” for my goals. I got quite frustrated with not having reached any of my goals — yet again! Something has to change.

I have decided that I’m switching to using the video logs as monthly summary documentation, rather than doing the “topical summary” timelapses. These are quicker to record and edit, and while the topical summary is useful, I’m not sure it warrants the time it takes to produce them. Because of all the non-project work this month, I only recorded two video logs, but I think they are sufficient.

MAINTENANCE/HOUSEKEEPING

Cleaned up the office, desk, and bench so I have better workspace.

A new set of “helping hands” for soldering work.

The tips for the heatgun had to be assembled.

In addition to the personal maintenance problems, we also lost internet service for a couple of days.

PERSONAL

One car suddenly died towards the end of July. The dealership was remarkably and frustratingly unhelpful about this — they didn’t even check what we (correctly, we now know) suggested was the problem. They instead charged us for routine maintenance and then installed a “fix” which actually put the car in more danger (they put in a larger fuse to fix the immediate symptom of the fuse blowing — but fuses are rated to protect other equipment). We later called a private shop that made it very simple to make the necessary repair.

Car being towed — Our car had to be towed to the shop for repair.

Green Prius with hood up and headlight removed. — Called in a mechanic to work on the Green Prius, which finally got the problem solved.

The new inverter cooling pump, prior to replacing the headlight.

That took a couple of weeks to resolve. We also had to get new tires on that car, as the existing ones were nearly bald.

Then, no more than a week later, there was an “offspring involved incident” with the other car, resulting in it hitting a soil embankment and the mysterious symptom of being unable to shift into “Park”. This took a lot of troubleshooting to figure out, but ultimately the problem was revealed: part of the frame was bent and crushed into the transaxle, blocking the shift actuator. Once I (finally!) found this, I was able to clear it with some work with a crowbar, but the frame is still a problem. Getting it “really” fixed is either a very expensive trip to the body shop, or a lot of work with trees, chains, and a winch.

Car on the grassy embankment (after we had pushed it a bit).

Shifter, with console partially disassembled to see into the mechanism (I originally thought the problem might be in here).

A-ha! The beginnings of the problem: the shift linkage is disconnected from the shifter.

Popped the shift linkage back together, but now we’ve returned to the situation where I can’t put it in “P”. The problem is the shifter cable won’t go into the “P” position — problem on the other end?

Another a-ha! Here’s the collision damage from hitting the embankment — worse than I had imagined. That bracket is very bent! It’s also nearly touching the transaxle.

To get to the collision damage, it was necessary to pull off the bumper and other parts on the front of the car.

With enough stuff removed, I can now reach the collision damage to work on it.

Took me awhile to trace the cable to shift actuator, which turns out to be on the front of the transaxle — potentially involved in the collision damage.

Moving the bracket a little bit with a crowbar managed to unblock the shift actuator, though it took some practice to get it unstuck properly.

I eventually used a special boroscope camera to get close-up shots of the shift actuator while it was being operated.

I also did need to check in on the other car, with another offspring, in Austin, but that didn’t have any serious problems.

We also had a problem with the drinking water filtration system we installed in 2020. I initially thought that we must have some sort of clog due to filters failing. They were all past their expected service life, so I needed to replace them anyway. I ordered and installed a new set of filters, but this didn’t solve the problem. A little YouTube research and some diagnostics later, I determined that the real problem was that the storage tank was out of pressure. It simply needed to have some pressure added — which is very similar to filling a tire, except the target pressure is only about 8 psi.

Under sink water filtration system, pulled forward for maintenance.

The filtered-water storage tank has an internal membrane, pressurized with air, to force the water out when the faucet is opened. If the air leaks out, it needs to be refilled.

When you pump air into the full tank with the water valve open, it begins spraying the water out.

I worked on the mower in stages all through the month. I replaced the fuel filter, cleaned out the carburetor (twice), replaced the air filter, drained and cleaned out the fuel tank and fuel line. I also had to replace the battery.

Progress from July: I can sort of get the mower to run.

Still had fuel flow problems, so I dismantled the fuel line and fuel tank, emptying out the fuel.

I removed the carburetor again to do a more thorough cleaning.

Disassembled carburetor and cleaned out jets more carefully.

Reassembled the engine and got it to work. Did a little test mowing.

But alas, the carburetor is no good — it’s leaking fuel. Probably the gaskets are shot. But a new carburetor was less than $20. So I ordered that. Meanwhile, I needed to drain the gas back into the can again.

Ultimately, I found the carburetor, though working, was leaking fuel severely enough to be a hazard — so I ordered a new carburetor, which will arrive early in September.

With us down to one car for parts of the month, I also had to do some crazy driving to get everybody to their school or work appointments.

There have also been complications for the beginning of the school year: one offspring is restarting college with a different major, and had financial aid and other problems to sort out.

August 2024 Video Logs

With all the stuff going on, and relatively little progress to report, I only made two video logs in August.

2024-08-21

Chaos, Refactoring, and Polishing

2024-08-31

Resetting and Reframing

As you can see, I shaved off my mustache and beard. First time I’ve seen my upper lip since I was 17!

I am neutral on whether this is a red flag for my mental health, but at least I didn’t shave my eyebrows. That’s a good sign, right?

Don’t think I like it, though — I’ve started growing the beard back again.