Seems the house gets populated by more coporeal people as I get older.

Last time I recall being there when there were people there, there was some kind of masquerade ball going on.  This time there was just people going about their daily business, and one of the rooms I'd been too scared to enter previously just felt a bit creepy this time round, which has been happening with more and more of the rooms in the middle section.  The "open bathroom" (an alcove which has bathroom stuff in it but no outer walls) is still there and as far as I can tell still doesn't get used.  I had to take the kids "home" (thought towards the beginning I was living in the house as I do sometimes but not this time apparently), the kids and I were getting ready to leave out the front door, 8yo initially didn't want to leave but then remembered she hadn't had dinner.

The day before we flew out to Christmas Island, we went on an excursion to the Art Gallery of Western Australia.  They accommodate homeschool groups easily and the programs the kids did were great and seem to have been enjoyed by all.  To make running things easier for the staff, the kids had been divided into pre-primary to Year 3 (5-8yos) and year 4+ (9 and older).  The older group went for their activity first while the younger one went on the tour.  The younger group got split into two and 8yo, then 5yo and I ended up in a tiny little group consisting of ourselves and 8yo's then-6yo friend.  The tour guide got peppered with a billion questions as both girls are very interested in art and did a great job fielding them and the additional and often random questions from then-5yo.

"He's f***in' TEN!" JJ announced, stabbing an accusatory finger at our still sleeping birthday boy when he walked into my room on Christmas Island and noticed that I was awake.

I did not star the word because I'm prudish (I generally try to tone down a bit in the blog just to be polite), JJ did actually mute the middle part as he spoke.  He had expressed an unsurprising surprise, a thing that just happens but is somehow astonishing when it does.  Our oldest is 10, which means we've been parents for ten years, together for twelve, which means we're OLD :) (okay maybe not that old)

10yo at 2-3 months old

10yo aged 5

quadrapop: As you don't have a dish washer I'd be bleaching or boiling the kids at least once a week
fyn: why would i want to bleach and boil the kids? :)
quadrapop: Our kids go through dishwasher several times a week
quadrapop: Lids ffs automangle
fyn: XD

Stoker is going to spit chips.

That was the last fully formed logical thought in Helios' mind as he watched in fascination as the clothes quite literally vanished from the slender honey coloured young looking man standing before him.

"How did you...?" he paused uncertainly, wondering if the question was rude.

I was working on 3d-bek's feet when 5yo came in and observed what was on my screen.

He stared for a little bit, then leaned on my desk so he could pick up and scrutinise his own cute little foot carefully before pointing out that toes weren't square, but at least I got one right.  I told him that my base model was very square and I was fixing it up as I made my characters, and that's what I was doing right now.  He wished me luck fixing it up and trotted on his merry way.  Cutely.

And the foot is coming along nicely.  Be onto UV mapping, cloth dynamics and hair in about that order soonish.

Minimal text, many photos, some videos.  Mishmash of scenic, happysnaps and homeschooling stuff coz that's how we roll.  Grab a drink and a snack before commencing.

First couple of weeks...

The airport wait wasn't terribly exciting but at least there were planes to watch being loaded, taking off and landing.

Big asam tree across the road as seen from my bed.  It's always good to be home.

Sprat: I want your hand for my sandwich.
8yo: No.
Sprat: Why not?
8yo: I need my right hand for writing and drawing and I need my left hand to help my right hand carry stuff!
Sprat: Yes that's a good reason.

This is another one of those rare instances where I post to an external site before the blog.

I haven't had a chance to set up a video thingi yet and am not willing to do it from Christmas Island (internet is tooooooooo slooooooowwwwwwww) so I am attempting to finally try to start getting over the grudge I have against Google over their mind numbingly idiotic real names policy that resulted in the nymwars (to their credit they have seemed to realise how stupid the policy was and how stupid it made them look and are now letting people call themselves whatever, and are now no longer forcing Youtube channels to be attached to G+ pages if you decide you don't actually want to use your own name, I have decided I seriously can't be bothered trying to recreate my old ryivhnn channel.

Learning how to texture in Blender.  Here we have agonisingly basic skin, lip, eye and teeth shaders (the teeth were so basic that if I'd been using Lightwave I wouldn't have bothered with nodes but Blender seems to use nodes for anything more complicated than a colour it seems, which is cool).  Should hopefully be able to build on them on a per character basis.