There is a graphic I'd like to create but have not been able to replicate
the way the LED's should glow. And so I can not yet create a realistic
rendering of my count down timer device.

Recently, I've been carrying out lighting tests.
Until now I had left the lighting pretty basic.

These glass cubes are lit with the the glow from a virtual Neon Lamp.

Sadly, my attempts to light a LED have failed.

Even my tube lamp didn't turn out right. I had let it run for 20 hours and
due to some mystery bug with Lux or the Lux Exporter I keep having items
shift or scale wrong in my exports.

I call it the mystery bug because no one else I talk to claims to have witnessed
it.

I can't be crazy. If you notice in Blender the glass tube is fully extended...
but on the left you can see Lux rendered it shifted down.
No one else has noticed this!
It's very annoying.

It leads me to waste a lot of time trying to get things placed
right.....

I began this study of ray tracers and Lux with the intent to
get my skills hammered out by the end of May. Though I knew it was
probably going to take longer I've moved to The Month System of
progress. It's looking like a practical knowledge of realistic rendering skills
only requires experience with materials and lighting design.
The text book on the pbrt software has been insightful but in a more
round about manner. And while useful for understanding the whole program...
it isn't much help with material and lighting set up knowledge.

So my choice is to spend the rest of the month either...
A) studying material and lighting methods and the relevant parts of the book concerning those.
or
B) Continue studying the whole deal and gain a general understanding of
ray tracers.

Due to the fact I have 5 days left and many more chapters...
I'm leaning towards materials and lights.. and fixing that dang positional
issue.. ARgh.

Oh and there was this cow I saw today...