Spinny at the Mohonk Mountain House
Howdy! So you want to know more about me, eh?
I currently live in beautiful Upstate New York, in the Mohawk Valley and the foothills of the Adirondacks. The winters can be harsh, and the golfing season short, but after having lived all over the USA and the world this is where I want to be.
I’m a retired USAF officer, having served over 23 years before I settled down to civilian life. My “day job” is working as a software engineer for a large defense contractor, doing research projects funded by the Air Force. What I really love, however, is creating 3D computer graphics. I’ve created add-on aircraft models for the Microsoft Flight Simulator line, and have done a lot of technical illustrations for various DoD projects using a variety of 3D modeling tools, and I’m exploring the idea of branching out on my own doing this sort of work. With the economy in its current condition no traditional job is safe, and mine has its share of uncertainties.
I’m particularly interested by how much time and effort is spent using “2D” tools like Photoshop to create “fake” 3D effects when you can create the “real thing” with little additional effort. I’ve crafted 3D logos and web buttons for friends at no charge (some examples of how 3D enhances navigation buttons can be found on my web site), and believe there is a niche out there for someone who can produce quality 3D web graphics without bringing the cost overhead of a large graphics shop.
To be sure, I can do much more elaborate 3D modeling/animating work (I have lots of examples in my online gallery), but I believe that level of investment will probably impel potential customers to seek an established graphics house. I’m cool with that.
My graphics skills are all self-taught. I have both a BS and a MS in computer science, and studied computer graphics formally in graduate school (I not only can manipulate a Bezier curve to create a desired shape, I understand something about the math behind it), but everything beyond that has come from long hours spent studying and practicing my art self-guided. I really do love the work.
Golf. There’s a four-letter word if ever one existed. During our (woefully short) playing season golf is the one thing that can pull me away from the computer on a regular basis. These days I make a point of getting out at least twice during the work week, and as often as domestic tranquility will permit on weekends.
I came into the game in a haphazard fashion. When I was first stationed at Rome, NY I ran into someone at the lab who played in a league of fellow lab rats once a week, and then afterward they all went to a local tavern to carouse. I liked that, and with a garage sale bag of pretty awful clubs (including woods made of real wood) I hacked my way around nine holes a week with my new-found comrades. My scores were abysmal, and I was the prime reason they changed the by-laws to put an upper limit on handicaps. I didn’t care; I was there for the camaraderie (and the beer).
A couple of years ago something odd happened: I started to care about how I played. I got a set of new clubs, took some lessons at a Golf Galaxy about an hour away (up here you take what you can find), and started practicing. Not surprisingly, my game showed instant improvement, and after a few weeks I was actually lowering my handicap from the upper limit. Alas, a health issue and ensuing emergency surgery axed the balance of the playing season, and progress came to a halt.
I’m healthy again this year, and have resumed my handicap’s slow but steady progression from sick joke to merely laugh-worthy. Besides the usual weekly league I joined a “beer league” that plays a different course every week, so I’m getting out twice as often. Sometimes I suck so badly I’m ready to put my clubs up for sale, but then along comes a really good (for me) round like the one I played yesterday and I remember again why I love this game—even if it wants to break me.
Family stuff. I’m a blissful user of Marriage 2.0, having found enough bugs in the first version to render it unusable. We’re happy empty nesters, all three progeny having somehow survived to become twenty-somethings and someone else’s problem. We also serve as staff to three cats, all of whom have been gifted with way too much personality.
And that’s the scoop.
Cheers!
Spinny
Posts