(Source: Unsplash Photographer: Ewa Gillen)
"What is that awful sound?" asked Ryi, her eyes glued to the white panel on her monitor. ”It’s ruining my chi and I’ll never get this 3D masterpiece of my UpNothing done. Not with the sound of a drunk cat wailing like it lost all its lives in the background.”
“Oh, that’s Jack, he’s recording his Still Call Australia Home Karaoke entry for the Fundraiser Challenge,” replied Ratty, looking up from his tablet where he was composing a post about his roadtrip .
Frowning at Ryi, he asked, “Up...Nothing? What’s that?”
“Like my fabulous UpGoat and UpBokki cute critter footer, only this is an UpNothing. It's for people on Steemit who don’t upvote anything. You would not believe how hard it is to render nothing and know when you’ve done it just right.”
Ratty glanced over at Ryi’s blank screen. “I see…” he said, looking confused.
The wailing in the next room grew louder. It was accompanied by clattering and then a crashing bang.
A disgruntled Ryi pulled her eyes reluctantly from her blank screen. She'd solved her problem of rendering nothing with Blender. How could she have missed it? The solution had been right before her eyes!
Back to more immediate problems...
“Are you sure Jack’s just singing?”
“He mentioned he wanted to appeal to a broader audience. Something about going for a cross between Celine Dion, Metallica and he was even going to throw in some boy band dance moves…”
“Ambitious,” replied Ryi, secretly thinking Jack had lost his mind. It must be a military thing...
“Yeah, I thought so too, but gotta be supportive. It’s a fundraising campaign for @teamaustralia to give back to our communities. There’s a steemit post about it, and on 25 April, randomly picked participants shall be given these prizes. Time's running out for the Steemit singers!”
The door to the next room opened and a giant kangaroo appeared.
‘Arrghhh!!!” screamed Ryi, but then realized it was Jack in costume. “I thought you’re going to do Celine Dion x Metallica x Boy Band.”
“Nah, mate. It was too hard, decided to go basic true blue aussie-roo…” Jack hopped over to Ratty. “I need you to help me upload it to DTube. I tried 300 times and it wasn’t happening. I got mad and threw my laptop at the wall.”
“Sure mate.”
“So that was what the bang was about...” said Ryi. “I was checking out the other entries, that quochuy vid entry was impressive.”
“I hope there are lots of entries, it's for a good cause. Is there one from Linny? I told her she had to pitch in and help. That’s what she gets for complaining she was bored and needed something to do.”
“No. She told me maybe in another lifetime she’d sing and post it online. But she’s happy to write a silly story to promo your charity challenge. Any payout from it (this post) will be donated to @teamaustralia because we’re a super supportive and sociable group.”
“Fair enough,” said Jack. “So you guys wanna hear me sing the song?”
“No,” Ryi and Ratty replied in unison.
“I can checkout a youtube vid and practice with the lyrics…” said Ratty.
“How about you Ryi?” asked Jack.
“I need to get back to work on my UpNothing.”
Quick Notes from Linny:
[1] This is just a silly promo for a legitimate Team Australia Fundraiser (Click here for details). Any payout I receive from this post will be donated to @teamaustralia .
[2] Time is really running out as the fundraiser ends April 25! So if you are vocally enthusiastic and have a charitable heart, please do participate. Non-Aussies are welcomed to participate, it doesn't need to be perfect. :)
[3] The terrible humour in this post is not representative of Team Australia. But you can blame @jackmiller for suggesting I find something to do. @ratticus & @ryivhnn - I swear, I did not base the characters of you guys...lol
[4] All jokes aside, @teamaustralia is an active and supportive community for all Aussie Steemians. If you have not already, please get in contact with @choogirl on PAL discord Server.
[5] Using your Witness Voting Power: If you have a spare moment and witness votes, please consider voting for @ausbitbank , @aggroed , @jackmiller , @cryptwo & @quochuy for their work in keeping the blockchain secure. (https://steemit.com/~witnesses)
If you got this far, thank you for your patience. ;)
You guys over in the Western Isles of NZ really are a weird bunch, but I guess we are still fond of ya's. You're OUR weird bunch. :D
Great post, linny! I can just imagine a whole series ...
Thanks for dropping by ravenruis. :)
This was a once-off because @jackmiller put me on the spot when I dared complain about boredom and not being inspired to post anything! I’ve never actively fundraised anything online. I’m just glad I’ll be able contribute more than $1 SBD — that was my initial expectation...
I did try to sing the darn song, then I tried to recite it. My husband covered his ears and gave me the thumbs down...I had to resort to what I knew.
Very funny Linny. :)
You gave me a nice giggle while I procrastinate in my gym instead of wandering off to clean my house.
Hi Mazzle, well I’m pleased I got some giggles. I certainly laughed while I wrote it. But I felt like I was scraping the bottom of the barrel at 4am last night. lol
I hope you overcame procrastination to get a great work out AND clean the house! :)
I lifted many a heavy thing and then put the heavy things back down again.
I managed to get as far as vacuuming... now I'm waiting for pizza.
Muahahaha hilarious
Deleted my prev comment, you get an UpGoat and not an UpNothing! I missed the alert! I forgot to mention, but I was actually intimidated how well done your vid was. hehe
🤗
Thanks to a couple of iPhone apps for the editing. It’s just like you have a studio in your pocket.
Whaaaaaaa? You did all that with iPhone apps... Wow, I always get put off trying to do anything too complicated with my phone. I’m even more impressed now. :)
I’m doing most Steem stuff from the phone, including writing posts. Most of the time, when I have the time, I don’t have access to a laptop or desktop computer but the iPhone is always with me. On the train to work (I commute 1h45 each way), on the sofa after diner while my wife watches Korean drama on the laptop 😂, in bed if I can’t sleep. For important posts, I write the draft on the phone using Simplenote app which can preview Markdown, it then syncs the draft with the Simplenote app on the Mac and I can then transfer to Steemit and do last tweaks before posting.
For the karaoke fundraiser video, I took the videos on the phone. The singing part was recorded with Sing! app by Smule. The video footages were then combined using iMovie app
Same for my three recent photography posts of Australian landscapes. I sometimes edit the photo right on location so it’s all done and I can do something else when home. Then I can use another free time to write the actual post.
I can understand why you would be put off, it takes me more time than if I used a computer but I’m taking advantage of free time where I would have done nothing otherwise. It’s all about workflow and time management. But I have to admit that I regularly go overboard cuz it’s addictive lol.
hehe, thanks for walking me through your process. I feel a little less low-tech now. I am actually thinking of getting the latest Microsoft Surface book 2, the one that has a detachable tablet but is still a full blown laptop I can use for work and for my creative fun. I'm quite mobile work-wise. I'm just a bit of a cheapskate in deciding, but my MacAir is really close to death. I feel in limbo where I can't use any app. Everytime I see ryivhnn's stuff and also all the cool art on steemit, I really want to play with more powerful graphics apps and even try some of these video editing stuff. I just don't feel I'll have enough control on my iPhone or iPad.
Since you're a Mac person, you might want to look at the iPad too? I've never looked back since getting one. It's my #1 device and what I use for steemit. Although, if you do photography, from memory the iPad camera is not as good as the iPhone. But thanks for detailing your process. I might see if I can use some of the stuff you mentioned with my daughter. She's 7 y.o but very interested in making her own videos. I have to tell her to stop filming her toys acting... lol :)
I just remembered Jack said you're a worm farmer... I'll go check out your page.
Great post, did have a quick giggle to myself while reading this. The whole time I was just thinking about why I haven't seen any posts from @kodieamos and @melissakellie yet? get on it guys got 4 days left ;)
I’ll take the giggle, I was struggling to find anything to write. 😊
Soooo as you’re hailing on others, can I assume you have an Karaoke entry?! I’d love to listen. I actually recorded myself, and let’s just say my husband reacted strongly ...in the negative. Lol
Very amusing. Though my day was actually double that distance as that was the halfway marker! And it was probably a bit more than that since there were some detours...
and now I want some kind of UpNothing where the UpGoat is being sucked into a black hole...
My poor little UpGoat D:
Your UpGoat is fine. Hardy little creatures. :)
They are singularly fine and intact. They may have gained some weight, or lost a few cms around the waist though, depending on how you look on things beyond the horizon
I confess I skimmed read your post because it was late and I was tired trying to write this thing on an empty tank of inspiration. That’s why I haven’t dared to comment on your road trip, I figured I might get quizzed or told I might I have gotten the distance wrong...
So I’m hoping to outsource the real reading to others via this post if they could be so kind as to click on any links to more useful posts. It’s the ‘Caring and Sharing’ philosophy. ;)
But I totally love your ‘UpNothing where the UpGoat is being sucked into a black hole...’ idea!
I see where you’re going with this...
The creative process:
Step 1: Sketch nothing for the UpNothing.
Step 2: Sketch nothing for an invisible black hole
Step 3: Insert existing UpGoat.
I think @ryivhnn should be able to deliver this order with minimal to no effort...
No problems at all linny (and I see you've read it more fully now also). I just make a habit of pointing out simple mistakes that are easily fixed. Comes from doing first pass proof reading.
Okay, I am in front of my laptop and can fix that dreadful mistake now, it's done!
I'll respond to your question back over in your roadtrip post. :)
RoFL! Okay that was great XD And I could tell the character wasn't based on me because I never have anything nice to say about myself ;D
Also, the hardest thing about rendering nothing is the lighting. If you don't get the lighting colour, direction and intensity just so it doesn't look good XD Drawing it is a bit easier.
I’ve noted your advice on how important lighting is on effectively rendering nothing. We want the best blank canvas result after all...
There’s blank and then there’s blank with just the right lighting, direction and intensity... Got it!
lol
I was reading and reading and waiting to see/hear you sing
It gave me smiles that the lady wielding the microscope appeared again. :)
I'm sorry to say that even though I'm willing to push myself on this platform, singing is way out of scope and beyond my physical capabilities. I just can't imagine people traumatised by my singing would be so willing to press the upvote button, even if it's for a fundraiser.
You just reminded I haven't dropped by your place yet. I usually have to take a very deep breath before I do. It's all the slides, they bring back memories. I should tell you that before I decided to transfer to a Computer Science degree, I spent a couple of years doing a Human Biology degree. I struggled with Histology...
😆😂 You just made me feel like some quirky superhero.
'Return the old lady's handbag or else I will look at your blood under my microscope' 😵
Oh, Human Biology would have been interesting to learn. I hope my slides bring back good memories and not bad ones.
Great use of slang, in my opinion it's not used enough. Lol
Thank you. :)