projects

Currently cludging together a single screen platformer using Godot. Mainly something to poke at after work while I watch wrestling streams with whatever remaining brain power I have.

I have given up on making a working Vespa Ciao and am focusing on maybe getting a working Vespa Bravo. Last summer I bought one off a friend who was in Ohio for a big bike swap meet. I wanted the Bravo because it has actual suspension and front forks, despite a generally ugly frame. I am going to make the Bravo much uglier, but I think the gas tank on it doesn't leak, which opens the possibility of it actually running. 

Since neither of my Ciao frames are good and it will be some time before I can mend one or feel like it, I have consolidated all the go-fast parts onto one engine. The engine on the right here has a Polini 65cc cylinder, high compression head, a Kinetic TFR engine case and CDI ignition, and a special crankshaft which has better intake duration. 

The way vespa engines work is that the crankshaft has a cam on it that sort of blocks the intake and sort of acts like an intake valve, and with a different crankshaft you get more intake and more gas into the ignition chamber and theoretically a faster bike. This plus a pipe means the bike might go 35mph, which is an improvement over the 25mph stock speed. 

I can kind of sort of make comics in Krita paint, using vector layers to make speech bubbles and panels like I did with Clip Studio Paint. The brushes aren't as good, or maybe I haven't found the right ones. The major problem I have is I have tried many drawing tablets and the only ones that work for me are ones where the digitizer is on a screen I can directly draw onto. This is a lot more expensive. i hesitate to get an ipad and apple pencil because even though the hardware is exactly what I need apple's software ecosystem is fucking dogwater. Clip Studio Paint can only be accessed with an annual subscription. The ipad will only last as long as apple cares to update the OS and it will get slower with each update to force the user to upgrade. A real rental situation. I regret not getting a convertable laptop when I was upgrading my computer - I mainly wasn't sure about the digitizer but that's moot at this point I suppose. 

all these projects are sort of plauged by things not actually going how I want and that makes forward progress halting. I desire some kind of forward momentum on something so I can muddle along or, something?