Oops. Sorry.

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 17
Trombone 11
Tuba 15
French Horn 8
Violin 3 <--
Viola 6
Harp 11

As Andrew pointed out, I forgot to decrement a point from someone else. So, here's the correction. Sorry for the slippage of the transmission. :)

Hooray for Jason!

Thanks for doing your part! One question though, who did you take a point away from?

Now, on with the game!!

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 17
Trombone 11
Tuba 15
French Horn 8
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

There. I certainly feel better now.

Blasted embedded Flash movies!!

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 16
Trombone 11
Tuba 15
French Horn 9
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

I voted for trumpets! I voted for trumpets!

If anyone is looking for a really good meal, you need to try TGI Friday's Jack Daniels Sampler. It hits the spot. Mmmmmm.

And embedded Flash movies (like the ones on MySpace and YouTube) are good for one thing: heating up my CPU! So, I have FlashBlock!

Chao!

Ok, I'll do my duty.

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 15
Trombone 11
Tuba 15
French Horn 9
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

Now see what you made ME do.

Do your duty!

Vote for trumpets!! Don't make me keep doing it (but I will anyway).

Flute 10
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 15
Trombone 11
Tuba 14
French Horn 9
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

There, now see what you've made me do?

Clarineh-eh-eh-eh-t + / Saxophone -

Just evening out the reed instruments a little bit.

Flute 10
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 14
Trombone 11
Tuba 14
French Horn 10
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

Good to see you Andrew. Yes, I know - I also feel bad about never coming down to visit. Curse my lack of self-discipline! I haven't seen a lot of my friends for a while now. :(

Graduation = job_opportunities^2 - social_life

For a few pictures from Resonance 2006, head on over to my photo blog.

Up with trumpets!!

Well, hello my band geeky friends. It's been quite a while since I checked into the virtual band hall. I thought I would take a break between procrastinating on my 14 page paper and procrastinating on my film to swing by and say hello.

What does it take to ever get anyone to show a little love and visit me here in Salt Lake? I sure to miss all of you, my dear band friends.

So, as the first order of busines, here is my response to Ben's game:

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 14
Trombone 11
Tuba 14
French Horn 10
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

If you know anything about me, you know my undying hatred for french horns, so I had to stick it to them by stealing their point and giving to the greatest instrument of all time, the trumpet.

Ah, I have a random joke to tell you:
A pirate walks into a bar and has a ships wheel shoved down the front of his pants. He sits down at the bar and orders a drink. The bartender says, "Hey, you know, you've got a ships wheel down your pants?" And the pirate says, "Yarrr. I know, and it's drivin' me nuts."

Let's see, what else? Oh! I went out to a couple movies recently which I feel you all need to see. First, Casino Royale. It's possibly the best 007 film I have seen in a long time, and maybe even ever. They just nailed it. The action is awesome, and Daniel Craig makes one mean Bond. Kudos to the James Bond team and a nice achievement. Second, The Fountain. What an incredible film. If you have been paying attention to the reviews, you know what I mean. Darren Aranofski is best known for Requiem for a Dream, which is the best anti-drug film ever made (it'll scare the crap out of you and make you never ever want to take drugs). Here, he continues to push film in new and interesting directions. Check it out.

Website of the day: http://www.boingboing.net

Okay! That's all I have. Go go trumpet!!

Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for trombones and not for violas

You know, Thanksgiving is great: long weekend with no school/work, family, a big feast, pie! So, in light of the pending holiday, I'd like to say that I'm thankful for the pilgrims and what they continue to do for me.

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 13
Trombone 11
Tuba 14
French Horn 11
Violin 4
Viola 6
Harp 11

UP WITH TUBAS, down with violins

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 13
Trombone 10
Tuba 14
French Horn 11
Violin 4
Viola 7
Harp 11

That is all.

Trumpets up, violins down

Flute 10
Clarinet 8
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 13
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 11
Violin 5
Viola 7
Harp 11

And thus we see that something will happen.

So, I have a question. What the heck do you do with 60GB or 80GB of storage for music? I have an mp3 collection that spans two DVDs, and now about 7 CDs. I don't think that's even approaching 30 GB yet. You'd have to have an enormous music collection to fill one of those bigger iPods. Now, I understand that many folks have movies on them, and I can easily see taking up 80 gigs with movies, but if I just wanted to have music on it, how many songs is that? Wow! I think with that much space, I could put enough music to listen to it for two or three weeks straight and never hear the same song twice. That blows me away.

I'm not criticizing it in any way. I'm just saying that it's incredible to have that much space devoted to music. And I'm sure there are geeks out there with iPods chock full of music, most of which they've never listened to.

To put it into perspective, I can stuff about 150 songs onto a CD in mp3 format. That's 150 songs per 800MB or ~.8GB. Now, that's about 1% of an 80GB iPod capacity. By that logic, I think you might be able to fit 15,000 songs onto an 80GB iPod, assuming AAC requires approximately the same storage as mp3 and WMA. Wow. That's a crapload of music.

IPOd Stuff

My wife and I recently aquired a 60 gig video ipod (2 weeks before the 80 came out). We love it. If we can put a song on itunes, we can put it on our ipod.
Also, I do see the point of itunes not remembering the songs you buy, but as with other important things, I like to always have a hard copy as a back up. A hard copy, in this case, being a cd.
Now, I don't want to force my beliefs or knowledge on anybody, but Apple is the best company ever!!!
That's all.
Cheers

1,000

Cory, I appreciate the insights into your iPod. They must've changed something along the way since the early iPods, because everything I've read recently about them is that they're very proprietary to iTunes and won't play straight mp3s, wavs, etc. So, if you have an older iPod and it does play those other formats and uses other software, more power to you! I'm also pretty sure there are hacks available for newer iPods that allow them to play all kinds of stuff.

Oh, and this is post #1,000. It sure has been an interesting journey and I hope that the journey will continue for several more thousand.

Lost Fingertips

For anyone who enjoys that one show that reminds me a lot of Gilligan's Island and/or who likes that one band that sings about that one star and how it works, I suggest you check out this creative mix of the two.

trumpet++; violin--;

Flute 10
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 12
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 10
Violin 6
Viola 7
Harp 11
(this is going to go on for a really long time)

Jon, I do admit that Apple does produce some world-class products. I wish they were more affordable. I might actually buy a Mac if I felt like I could afford it. I don't want a Mac mini; I want a freaking powerhouse box. And I don't want to spend $8,000 on it. Of course, to get a real powerhouse box on the PC side, I'd spend about that much too. :) So, I guess I'm stuck, eh. Geez! $8,000 is about as much as I have tied up in my two cars! That's right. I have less-expensive vehicles. At least MacOS X isn't the hack job that Windows Veesta is. I feel bad for all those who will be upgrading anytime soon. Having been using the next Windows for quite some time now, let me tell you that it's nothing but pain. I think the minimum system requirements for it should list IBM DeepBlue as the base hardware.

My issue with the iPod is just like you said: Apple doesn't remember if you have purchased a song or not. Also, I don't like being forced to use iTunes when it is almost unusably slow. I will give it this: it pegs my CPU at nearly 100%, so it is getting good mileage out of my CPU. The same can be said with QuickTime.

So, Jon, what is Vista 4? Is that the new WebCT system?

...and when you're a Professional Pirate, you don't have to wear a suit.

Viola ++; Flute--;

Hooray for the underdog!

Flute 10
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 7
Harp 11

Jason, I also do not own an Eye-Pawd. But I will give apple this: they wait and do things right, even if it means they're slow on getting things to market. That said, it is indeed annoying that you have to purchase songs again if you lose the file. For now, I guess I'll stick with my nearly-ancient RCA Lyra. It has downsides which are numerous. But I'll probably still keep it around for until it breaks for one reason - I can dump my digicam's memory card onto it w/o using a computer. Still, it would be nice if there were a feasable way to get it to do voice recording. iPod has an add-on (maybe third-party?) to allow that. I'm sure the Zune will as well. As with computers I'll wait until something decent appears before making my next purchase. For the computer, I will buy a McBook for myself when I actually buy one (the one I'm using now is WSU property).

Anywho - Vista 4 is going to be used starting next semester. The kick-off luncheon was today.

I have a sick. It is a cough and general tiredness. Go away, sick! :(

Ok, bye.

Now this is something I can get excited about

I hate to say it, but I think Microsoft actually has me impressed. They do that from time to time. Windows doesn't even raise my heart rate any more. But, this looks like it might be kind of cool. It's called Zune. It's supposed to be Microsoft's iPod killer. I doubt that it will seriously dent Apple's iPod sales, but it looks to be a really cool digital music player.

I, personally, have never been able to get excited about the iPod. I think Apple puts too many restrictions on it. For one, it won't play mp3 files; you have to convert everything using iTunes to AAC format and then dump it to your iPod. Also, if your computer ever has problems and you lose your music library (that you paid $1 per song), you lose everything. Period. Apple doesn't remember that you purchased those tracks and so you have to purchase them again. For someone with a couple thousand songs, the reality of that is painful. Also, I don't know how iTunes is on a Mac, but on a Windows machine, it's downright slow. For me, at least, it's very overblown and too slow to actually use. Granted, I don't have the latest, greatest quad-processor Intel Core 2 Duo (that's a really stupid name, by the way) machine. But, I do have a 1GHz Pentium III with 512MB of RAM. What is it about iTunes that doesn't work right on that platform? Anyhow, I digress... Please correct me if any of the above information is not correct. I don't actually own an iPod.

With Zune, Microsoft remembers what songs you have purchased, so in the event of an incident, all you need is a bit of extra bandwidth to download the songs again. Also, Zune plays lots of different formats, including mp3 and AAC. It also has a built-in radio tuner and 802.11b/g wi-fi capability to "beam" content to other Zune users. Granted, I'm sure Apple will build in some of these features to their venerable music player (and it will be a hit, of course.) I guess the real bone of contention for me is the universality of Zune as opposed to the highly closed architecture of iPod. I'm sure Zune users will be required to use the Zune software to update their players, but at least they can use existing music formats and not have to worry about losing their libraries in the event of a boo-boo.

Anyhow, be that as it may, Zune appears to be a great product. I don't think it will unseat iPod as the reigning heavyweight champion of digital music players, but I do think that users will have a much better offering in the non-iPod corner. Maybe, just maybe, I'll actually look into buying a digital music player, though I really do still like my CD player.

Norton Internet Security Design Document

The following is an actual* design document from Symantec documenting how their Norton Internet Security Suite should work.

int main()
{ // This gives the impression of something important
long wasteTime = 100000000000;

for(int i = 0; i <>
{
// Insert code to make the hard drive chatter a lot but not do any work.
// This should take about two minutes.
// block all other processes from running.
i++;
}
// Pop up the icon in the system tray
}

As you can see from this highly detailed design document, Norton Internet Security doesn't really do anything. When you turn your computer on, it only *appears* to be doing any work, when in reality it is just causing the hard drive to chatter a lot and block other processes from their opportunity to start. So, boycott Norton! Get a real anti-virus software like AVG and then put a decent firewall on your network.

Oh, and that last posting by RMT CTL was not mine. It was Kristin's. Jon, will you create her a login so that she can do her own posts? From the look of things, we can all see who we don't like. (ahem, VIOLINS/VIOLAS!) :)

*actual as in Jason made this up because he hates Norton Internet Security.

Viola -1, Harp +1

I must apologize for the lack of percussive instruments here. Sheesh, I'm a moron. It was in my initial intention to not forget drums, but when I wrote up my blog, I forgot in the heat of the moment. Maybe next game we do all percussive insturments? or we could add purcussion on here with the original 10 because we aren't THAT far into the game. Please way in...
Oh, and Jason, it doesn't matter if Kristen posted, just as long as there is someone else that has posted in between when you (Jason) posts, its fine.


Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 6
Harp 11

Saxophones +1 Viola -1

Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 12
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 7
Harp 10

stuff

Based on what Ben said I was thinking it was ok to duplicate what someone did, just not ok to undo it in the very next post. Either way, you're certainly welcome, Ricky.

I like my new job, for the most part. It's more work than I had before, but I'm fine with that. The part I don't like as much is that it's much more loosely structured. I'm in charge of managing my time between many different projects whose respective urgencies are rather fuzzy. That I don't like as much. I'm getting more used to it, though.

I'm looking forward to the Resonance concert tonight. Which reminds me - I need to charge up my camera batteries for the event. If anyone has a tripod they'd care to loan me, I'd be obliged, as I was unable to locate the one I had borrowed from my dad.

Ramblin' ramblin' ramblin'...

Hooray for sNOw. (emphasis on NO) :(

Correction!!!

So I'm not sure Jon, if ya didn't notice my post or if because we posted within 20 mins. of each other, that my post just didn't show up before you posted. Either way, thanks for the point!!!

Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 13
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 8
Harp 10

Tuba+ Viola -

Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 12
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 9
Harp 10

I guess if I give a point to tuba for Tim's last concert I certainly better give one for Ricky's Phantom run. And for some reason I'm on an anti-strings kick today.

Just group percussion in with whichever instrument wins, umkay?

Tuba +, Violin -

Takin' down the violin while breakin' the four-way tie!!

Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 12
French Horn 10
Violin 7
Viola 9
Harp 10

trumpet++; violin--;

I know that RMT CTL already posted on here once, but that was Kristin. This is Jason posting and I do have to put in my $.02. (Is that taxable?)

Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 11
Trombone 10
Tuba 11
French Horn 10
Violin 8
Viola 9
Harp 10

After reviewing this list, I have to ask: How come there's no Blaster Beam on here? Doesn't Jerry Goldsmith get any respect? Any instrument made with rotating magnets and artillery shells has got to be cool.

Flute +, Clarinet -

Ya, what is the deal with no percussion? who invented this game anyway?
My wife is the best!


Flute 11
Clarinet 9
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 10
Trombone 10
Tuba 11
French Horn 10
Violin 9
Viola 9
Harp 10

Tuba++; Violin--;

Just because I saw a t-shirt once that I thought was funny. It said simply "STOP THE VIOLINS". (Another for sale in the same catalog said "VISUALIZE WHIRLED PEAS") And in honor of Tim's final concert at this fine institution of higher education.

Flute 10
Clarinet 10
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 10
Trombone 10
Tuba 11
French Horn 10
Violin 9
Viola 9
Harp 10

Saxophones +1 Harp -1

Flute 10
Clarinet 10
Saxophone 11
Trumpet 10
Trombone 11
Tuba 10
French Horn 10
Violin 10
Viola 9
Harp 9

- Kristin

Viola -1, Trombone +1

Flute 10
Clarinet 10
Saxophone 10
Trumpet 10
Trombone 11
Tuba 10
French Horn 10
Violin 10
Viola 9
Harp 10

Game Time!

OK, a game I wanna try out on this here blog of band geeky-ness. I'm gonna list 10 instruments and each one gets 10 points. What each of you do: Repost the list, but take one point away from an instrument and add one point to another instrument. Make the repost reflect your change and put what you did in the post title. Rules: 1) You can't undo something that someone just did, 2) you can't post twice in a row. When one instrument reaches zero, they'll be dropped from the list.

Flute 10
Clarinet 10
Saxophone 10
Trumpet 10
Trombone 10
Tuba 10
French Horn 10
Violin 10
Viola 10
Harp 10

I'll repost first to give an example to all y'alls.

To All Band Geeks

I found this today and thought that this would be a very appropriate forum to share it. I do believe that most people who read this blog are or have been in marching band so I think it'll be pretty good. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Official Band Dictionary.

Enjoy!

Geek to the power of Geek

For anyone who has ever written any considerable amount of code, go here and watch the demo videos for TextMate. You'll probably wonder how this guy developed such an advanced case of terminal geekiness.

Welcome aboard...

...TWA Flight 978 with service to Long Beach, California. My name is Jason and I'll be your captain. In just a few minutes, we'll begin our pushback, but first the ground crew needs to apply de-icer to the exterior of the aircraft. The maple syrup smell is normal for the de-icing procedure.

Okay, that was super geeky, but I just had to do something to introduce post number 978. Actually, the jab about the de-icing procedure and the maple syrup smell would not be normally mentioned by the captain on a commercial flight, but rather by one of the flight attendants. Speaking of flight attendants, how the heck do they maintain the kind of composure that they do? I mean seriously, they look like they've just come out of some sort of a press or something. I don't know about y'all, but I hate being jammed in an airplane. I love flying, but man, do I hate being jammed in one of those small seats. And what's up with the people who fly? I mean, it seems to me that even though flying is pretty much something we take for granted, the folks who do fly are a cut above everyone else. I have met some really interesting ones on planes. I mean, I never meet just some person flying for the crap of it or because it's a trip. No, people who fly have some very serious, intense reason to be there.

Of course, it's always interesting to see what happens when the captain gives the go-ahead for electronic devices. It's like device city all of a sudden! Everyone pulls out the cell phones (despite the fact that I think it's probably less effective to make a cell call from 32,000 ft), and the PDAs, and the microwave ovens, and you name it. It's crazy. You don't see that on a bus, now, do you. Of course, now they're starting to feature Wi-Fi on buses so you can be hacked and still get to work on time.

On airplanes, it is often customary to be served a bag of peanuts and a soda. Okay, that's interesting because the only other time I would really consider having peanuts and soda is when I am watching the Super Bowl, and even then, it usually involves other enhancements like chips and salsa, and Li'l Smokies. So, the airline industry is what's keeping the peanut industry going. I guarantee that if we stop flying, peanuts will cease to be sold. However, if we stop buying peanuts of our own free will and choice, that means that there will be a peanut surplus and we might just get bigger bags of peanuts on the airplane!!! Go for it!

Finally, if you've ever flown more than a couple of times in your life, being a passenger in that big pressurized metal tube becomes a bit less exhilarating. The tops of clouds look exactly the same. The only time it's actually fun to look out the window is when a) there are no clouds and you're flying over a city and b) when you're taking off and landing in clear weather where you can see the city features. Either way, it's looking at the city that's fun. Okay, I'll admit that flying over Japan in the middle of the night was pretty cool, but only because the sky wasn't filled with clouds. That was just a collection of lights; I couldn't really make out any discernible features. So really, the windows in airplanes are non functional for most of a flight. And why the crap can't they ever line up the rows of seats with the windows? I mean, seriously, nothing ticks me off worse than having to look through the window that really should belong to the row in front of me. It's like I'm stealing their window space. The "screen peeking" is, of course, impossible if the seat or half of the airplane next to that window is occupied by anyone under the age of 10. Their little face will be planted firmly in that window for the duration of the flight. This will enhance any desire for you to catch some shuteye during the flight, but will make the job of cleaning and disinfecting that window quite the chore for the ground crew.

Amen.