Washroom-OpenGL-Celestia-Gnome-Shooting-Pixeloid
Having not blogged in a while, things on the list to write about have accumulated.

The washroom renovations are all done except for finding and installing a new lighting fixture. I like the one that is there now (generic 8-bulb washroom fixture) but everyone else wants something more extravagant. Anyway, the floor looks good, the new paint on everything does wonders, and having the toilet back where it belongs is great.

A few days this week have been devoted to actually learning some OpenGL first-hand. I decided to do the tutorials at nehe.gamedev.net. They're simple, overdocumented, and generally get the point across. Even though I'm only on Lesson #8, I can now appreciate what everyone's been telling me is the natural order of OpenGL functions. They are certainly intuitive, even if writing useful code is complex.

Celestia has sparked interest again, as in trying the latest Gnome LiveCD, a repackaged Ubuntu Live, it became clear that Ubuntu has done a great job of packaging Celestia and putting it in their package manager. I feel some need to develop it again. I'm starting by refactoring the >4000 line gtkmain.cpp into many little files. I've also started making artwork that could become the art for the Gnome LiveCD. It's not terribly inspired at the moment, so I will give it time to sink in. Either way, it's the best LiveCD I've encountered to date.

Shooting is fun! After a recent discussion at Tim Horton's about an acquaintance getting his BB gun from the States taken away at the border, it was time to look up if my own Crosman revolver is still legal under current laws. Yes, with a legal limit of 495ft/s, my 300ft/s gun most certainly is. So I went out to shoot it. Target: Tim Horton's can @ 15m. Fun times.

Finally, today marks the fifth anniversary of mine and Markus' partnership, Pixeloid.ca. We haven't had any cashflow in three years, but it's still nice to recognize simpler times...