Just Jim

I'll answer this one... No, it's not dead. But @adsii1970 has said several times on here, he's a university professor, and they don't get a summer break. So he's writing in his spare time. Bottom line, don't worry, Kerny isn't dead, @adsii1970 is just a little busy with real life.

Thanks... It's nothing bad... Just something I promised to help with a while ago...

Hey everyone, something came up I can't really talk about, and I'm gonna be kinda busy the next few days... I'll get the animation suite tutorial video done as soon as I can... and the next chapter, obviously...

The files are fairly large, yes, but I'm getting fairly decent quality recordings. Here's a quick one I took from the "Mun Arch" challenge using the Xbox game DVR... It's not super hi-def by any means, but it's not that bad, either.

Quick follow-up. I'm having a hard time writing all this down, and having it make sense... plus it's Fathers Day... happy Father's Day everyone!!! Anyway, I'm doing the dinner thing this evening. But tomorrow I'm going to try and find my computer microphone. Might take a while, I have a ton of music equipment, and some really nice 3-prong mics... and in the mess is one 1/8th inch computer mic... yeah... not really sure where... Anyway, the X-box video feature I use to record videos is supposed to support a microphone. If I can get it working, it will be 1000% easier to just make a real short video of... idk... how to make a kerbal wave... something like that, then try and write it all out. That... my hometown... bwaahahahaha

I finally made it around Kerbin in a Platypus Amphibious rover! I started laying out flags, but then got too wrapped up in writing, and forgot about halfway through, so I just submit my last 10 Emiko chapters, starting with Chapter 87 - Plight of the Platypus, for a very detailed and illustrated log of the whole trip.

I could write a long, detailed explanation on how to land literally on top of your depot... But the truth is, I learned from the master, Scott Manley... and he explains it much better than I can. This is how I learned to land almost anywhere I want: Oh, quick note, it's technically a rescue mission, but the same rules apply for what you need.

OK, this morning I woke up and discovered a couple people apparently want me to add another nibling into Emiko Station... lol... I hadn't really thought about it one way or the other, but I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. The only thing is we should continue this discussion on the Emiko thread, so we don't de-rail this one. A while back I "inherited" a really nice Manon 7 x 50 binoculars from this guy I knew up north because they were (quote) "cross-eyed". And they were, for lack of a better term. He was going to throw them out, but I took them before he could. I called a camera shop that said they'd take a look, and sure enough, one of the lenses was jarred slightly out of place. Took them maybe 15 minutes at the most to fix, and they only charged me $20.00, or something like that. Now granted, it's a telescope, not binoculars, but I'm guessing it's what @CatastrophicFailure said, and like my binoculars, it might just need the lens(s) adjusted a little.

Hanging out with my best friend on a Saturday night... Binge watching battlebots???

So today our buddy Bruce showed up for a visit... Bruce is a Wood Stork: Bruce stands about a meter tall, and is just about the craziest bird ever! For the last several years he's been visiting, but only 1 or 2 days a year... and I kid you not, he will walk right up to the front door and knock!!! I will try and get a video of it next time... he knocks on the door with his dagger-beak, and expects someone (me) to come out and feed him a couple hot dogs... Yup... Wood Storks love hot dogs. I'll break off pieces maybe 1 or 2 inch and either toss them to him, which he catches in mid-air... pretty cool to watch... or hold them and he'll take them out of my hand. You just have to be careful, that beak is razor sharp, and could really hurt someone if he wanted... But he's super tame, obviously... You can see how close he was when I took that pic... The funny thing, again, is his memory is stunning, and he always finds his way back, expecting a hot-dog treat... and he's been doing it for years and years... I honestly don't remember when he first showed up. And it makes me wonder, if this behavior is normal, perhaps this is where the "Storks deliver babies?" myth originated from? They say all myths and folklore and all that has a basis in fact, and I can say, for an absolute fact, Storks really do show up at houses where they remember getting food... maybe there's the real origin? Anyway, it was fun getting a visit from him... he's a riot to feed and always welcome.

Chibi is from a town called Belladonna Cove... which is a weird sort of "Twilight Zone" town that most people can never, ever find, and is not marked on any map... But those that do find their way there never forget... and often never leave. I think I wrote some hints about it's location in the backstory chapters. I'll say this much... I love “Sweet Caroline”, but "The Cove" is much further north. Understood. What you saw in that last chapter is what I've done so far. but they're not so much animations as poses. They move, but very slowly, so I can also rotate the camera around and take screenshots from different angles while they moved. Then choose the absolute best screenshots for the story. I don't want to derail things here more than necessary, so let me get a couple shots tomorrow, with the KASu windows open, then I'll try and pm you sometime over the weekend, and explain best I can what I know so far, OK?

Yeah... well.... Thank you! I had planned on using Over the Rainbow for quite a while, which was the reason why I inserted it into some of the more recent chapters leading up to this. But I didn't realize how effective it was going to be with the animator until just a few days ago... and I was really blown away with the results, and how the screenshots weaved in with the song. I was really hoping everyone would like how it came out. Oh, speaking of... we all need to send a huge thank you to @MrHappyFace for the Kerbal Animation Suite... and to our good friend @linuxgurugamer for adopting and maintaining it... and updating it to 1.4.3. That mod really made the whole chapter into something special!!! Thank you!!!

One thing I've noticed recently, and I don't know if this is a factor or not, but maybe... is lighting. Something with a lot of lights, especially surface mounted color lights, really makes my frame-rate take a hit. I have a heavy amphibious rover in Emiko Station called a Platypus. It's fairly complicated, and has a decent part-count, but my frame-rate will stay in the green... during the day. But at night, when I turn on all the little lights, my frame-rate takes a massive hit. I don't know if this is a factor with your carrier, but it's something to bear in mind.

I'm not sure yet... other than it's safe to assume she'll have a much harder time, at least at first, than Chibi did. Chibi appears to have come to Kerbin voluntarily to be with Emiko... But Badie... well... we now know what happened to her... but not how it's effected her mentality... yet. That remains to be seen. Not sure if it's possible... not without ending up mentally "fractured" like Emiko. I also don't think Chibi would want to go back... for her this is the adventure of a lifetime... quite literally. Does Badie want to go back home? Again, we'll have to see what happens... Like everything else, I'm sort of making it up as I go along... hehehe.

Really? Awesome!!! And thank you! I'll be honest, I've been working out the little details for months, but it was one of those cases where I thought I had a really good idea, and it made sense in my head, but I was afraid it wouldn't work once I wrote it all down. I am so glad y'all liked it...