Posted on January 11, 2003

• Added “Satori” to the gallery today. This will be my first image created using the new World Builder 3.5. Long time members will recall my love/hate relationship with World Builder. I wish I could tell you that all of the problems were fixed with this new version, unfortunately working with World Builder is still an exercise in pain. Still, when it works there’s no program like it. I hope you like the new wallpaper.

Posted on January 8, 2003

• I’ve posted a dual-monitor version of “Cradle 2003” in the 2X gallery. Unlike most of the other dual-screen wallpapers, in this one the field of view is expanded horizontally rather than cropped vertically. In other words, it is truly double the 4:3 version. Now I think I will be moving on to something new.
• I went with Jessie today to our first OB visit. Apparently the baby is doing just fine. The due date was set at (around) August 8th. Definitely the highlight for me was the Ultrasound, where I got to see the little bean for the first time. It was amazing watching the tiny heart beating on the screen. Simply amazing.

Posted on January 7, 2003

• A lot of people wrote in asking if I could change the colors in “Cradle 03” and make them blue. I’ve done a number of blue images lately (it is my favorite color after all) so I wanted to mix things up a little with this new version of “Cradle”. I actually prefer the reds and oranges. So, while I’d rather not change the version in the gallery, I’m all to happy to add a blue version to the Pickle Jar. I hope you like it.

Posted on January 5, 2003

• Added my first wallpaper of the new year this morning. “Cradle 2003” is up on the new images page. The original was created using Bryce and a program called “Universe“. Just was with the original “Blue Christmas”, I first rendered the background and then added the stars later. The results looked nice, but they weren’t true “3D” (to me anyway).

  The new version comes to you straight out of Lightwave. I still want to try a few more things, but I thought it looked nice enough to share in its current form. I hope you agree. If you have any thoughts please be sure to send them my way.

  UPDATE: I’ve posted a very minor revision to “Cradle 03” which fixes a rendering error I had missed last night.

• Thanks to everyone who wrote in last week with suggestions for 2003 images. I really enjoyed reading your letters and I’ll be glad to have them handy when I’m staring at my blank screen wondering what to do next.

Posted on January 1, 2003

• Jessie and I want to wish you all a wonderful new year! 2002 was a pretty memorable year for the two of us, but something tells me 2003 will be even more interesting (see post from 12/12). If you have any requests for images you would like to see this year, please feel free to send them my way. Happy 2003!
• My apologies to those of you who recife an update notification email this morning. The list apparently misfired for some reason. I’ve contacted Rus (the list admin) about it and hopefully we’ll get it straightened out so that emails are only sent when new images await your perusal.
• I guess I shouldn’t say that nothing is new around here. I’ve added a few extra versions of “Confluence” to the Pickle Jar which illustrate its development.