Category: Uncategorized

This is a new and improved video which has only one polygon at a time instead of the target of multples. This makes it take less time to produce the frames. The framerate has been lowered to 24 and so now the total frames are 24*60*60 == 86400. This means both less work for my program as well as smaller file size while still similar quality. Also, I fixed a bug in my code that previous made it skip certain star polygons. The error involved integer division.

The problem was that the step variable was set to be reset to 1 whenever it was greater than or equal to the number of points divided by 2. The problem is that in the case of a regular pentagram, the points are 5 and the step is 2. But since 5/2 equals 2 because of integer division(instead of 2.5), my program failed to account for this situation. The source code(I have many branches of source code which use different libraries or programming languages) can be found at my sourceforge project here.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/binary-bit-map/

This is a video I made with my programming. There were 108000 frames in total. The framerate is 30 per second and the total number of frames was designed to be 30*60*60 or 108000 to be exactly an hour long. The result was that it took the program a long time to generate the frames but then they were encoded to a video with this command.

ffmpeg -r 30 -f image2 -i o/%08d.bmp -vcodec libx264 -preset veryslow -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p o/v.mp4

This one does target polygons including stars. In the future I will do a similar one with only a single polygon XORed with the checkerboard.
What impressed me about this one is that the resulting video file was only 200MB. This is because monochrome images compress so well!

There are infinite ways to create a checkerboard and I do so both with my programming as well as in games like Minecraft.

Here is my gigantic 32x32x32 checkerboard in Minecraft made with heavy use of commands. It would be possible to build it in survival mode as well although it will take me much longer.

I also continue my Binary Bit Map project as I find time. Here a few samples I’ve posted previously on this blog of what I can do.

Tonight I found a genius way to do star polygons by drawing several smaller triangles to a temporary image, using the scan fill function, and then bitwise ORing them to the destination image. This gives me the filled in pentagrams and hexagrams exactly the same as they would look when I create them in inkscape but also allows for the gif animations I uploaded to my social media tonight. Here is what happens when I draw a single pentagram and then XOR it with a checkerboard background.

And I also have a video I uploaded to YouTube as well showing the same process for ordinary regular polygons.

The infinite beauty of black and white comes not just from how it looks but also how easy it is to make and the efficient compression of images and video when there are only two possible colors. My year’s worth of work on my Binary Bitmap project has enabled me to no longer rely on external C libraries written by other people but instead  draw anything I like as long as I take the time to code the exact coordinates of the polygons.

I don’t believe all this hype from the media about the Coronavirus from the media. I’m not saying there is no such thing as the virus or that people haven’t died from it.

But I do think that it’s an attempt by the pharmaceutical companies to sell another vaccine. This happens all the time. People are fed information designed to scare them until they are willing to do whatever the “experts” tell them to do.

I’ve written elsewhere about why I am against vaccination. Primarily because of animals used for ingredients and in testing of vaccines before they are used on humans. My position is that vaccines cannot be morally justified even if they do save human lives.

Of course my opinion on this does not prevent anyone else from receiving vaccines. However I am greatly concerned by those who want to make vaccinations mandatory as they already are in some circumstances.

I have chosen not to receive any vaccines myself. I just worry about the future where the government may force us to be vaccinated with the Coronavirus and other viruses.

Vaccines contain the very virus they are supposed to “immunize” you from. I know the claims that it causes your immune system to build up a defense to it.

However this only works if you have a strong enough immune system in the first place. If you have a healthy diet and lifestyle you will be able to fight off the disease whether it is injected into you with a vaccine or whether you were infected with it some other way.

In short getting a vaccine is really no better than just encountering the virus through other means and your immune system fighting it off.

I believe vaccines are just a way for the producers to make millions of dollars while providing no benefit that your body would not give you for free.

And on top of that the animals that will be killed in the production and testing of vaccines makes it impossible for an ethical vegan to receive vaccines without being a hypocrite.

That’s my statement on the matter for what it’s worth.

Because I have a full time job now, I am able to afford my rent and bills each month as well as some food. However I need to find a way to save as much money as possible.

It can be quite a challenge to save money when expenses are high. Although I make close to $2000 a month in net pay, my expenses are also pretty high.

My rent is $750 a month which includes the water and trash pickup as well as access to the resident laundromat. A nice deal but still a major chunk of income.

Additionally I have a basic membership with Dr. Diane Voss for $50 a month who is a very nice doctor who cares about her patients but stays out of the insurance business entirely. On the basic plan I can have 3 visits a year.

And then there is the child in Kenya I sponsor through compassion international for $38 a month.

So each month the constant expenses that remain the same are $838

But then there are other bills such as electric, gas, Internet, and renters insurance. The amount on bills can vary greatly and is hard to do the math on but I would have to say that those bills probably combined add up close to $200. Especially that gas bill in the winter makes it bad. That means half of what I make is spent on rent and bills.

So basically the rest of my income is all that is left to spend or save. Food can be quite expensive these days and I try to live extremely cheap to save as much money as I can. Often cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, nuts, and pasta. There are also times I probably spend too much like when I buy 30 bean burritos from Taco Bell, but that provides food for almost a week to take to work for lunch break.

My plan is to save a minimum of $100 a month. I started a new account at my bank which will be my savings.

Additionally, I have United Health Care and a Health Savings Account that can be spent on medical expenses.

And there are so many reasons why saving money is a good idea. Saving for emergencies, things I would like to buy someday(like a new pc that can actually play Minecraft at decent speed), and being able to help others in need.

But the top reason I’m working so hard to save money is because I still have not been able to get my testicles surgically removed. For so many months I have had to work all the time except weekends and holidays and those are the days all doctors offices are closed.

I have made several phone calls and online searches and played phone tag with people who always call me when I’m at work and can’t respond.

My life and mental health depends on my company being out of overtime which I don’t know if it will ever happen. If we get out of overtime, then I will only have to work 40 hours a week instead of 50. When that happens I’ll have the option to work 4 days of 10 hours and get one day during the week off. That will mean I can actually walk or bike to every medical place in Independence or even Lee’s Summit if I have to until I find someone who can help me.

I’m trying to be patient but I’ve been in physical pain so long and I’m going insane. Because of this I am often in my own world and have a hard time thinking of anything but getting out of pain.

But the pain is not only physical. There is also much emotional pain that goes along with it. Every time when I have to bend on my knees to shelve files or every time I lift heavy boxes, I experience the sharp pain in my testicles and it reminds me about all the men in the world with testicles and the testosterone they produce that make men sexual and abuse women. And because of all this sexual activity there is so much rape and pregnancy and abortion.

I know that my testicles don’t actually work because of the damage done to them from multiple injuries. I feel that this is a good thing because it has prevented me from becoming like other men. In fact I’ve said before that if I did have normal testosterone levels, I probably would be acting like the rest of the men and would probably be having sex like the rest of them and not know the difference.

So whatever happened to me to make me the way I am, I am glad for it. The only problem now is that I’m in severe physical pain and why I have been determined to get my testicles surgically removed. It’s a matter of time and money before I succeed.

And that is what is on my mind and that’s why I write about it. The day will come when I succeed in my permanent goal and will be free of my own pain long enough to think about helping others. But right now I must help myself and cut out anything that distracts me from being my very best at work and making good financial decisions and maximize my savings.