Yule Be Rockin'

Hello one and everyone. By way of Christmastime greetings I have composed a simple video for all y'all. I'm probably only going to leave it up for a short while since it adds a fringe to the copyright of the music which accompanies it. It may be found here. I apologize if you read this and do not see your shining smiling face in the video. It was hastily thrown together. Perhaps a lame excuse, but there you have it. May the season find you all happy and without loss of limb or addition of taxes.

an unknowwwn holiday

Well, not a holiday as such.
But I would like to take this opportunity to announce:
4 January is national Trivia and Random Fact day.
Upon discovering this day, obviously designed in my honor, I elected that festivities of some kind should be held that day or evening. If you can come that day I will inform you of details. Either the Wagner festival or much more likely it is time for some people to see Uncorked... hmmm.

You know they say - how it was later said of Scrooge, he kept Christmas all the year... well... I keep random fact day all the year. so there.

Supply and Demand

If all the diamonds stored by major diamond companies were released, a perfect two-carat diamond would be worth about three dollars.

Edward Lear

CHAPTER IX
THE HISTORY OF THE SEVEN YOUNG GUINEA PIGS

The Seven young Guinea Pigs went into a garden full of Gooseberry-bushes and Tiggory-trees, under one of which they fell asleep. When they awoke, they saw a large Lettuce which had grown out of the ground while they had been sleeping, and which had an immense number of green leaves. At which they all exclaimed:

'Lettuce! O Lettuce!
'Let us, O let us,
'O Lettuce leaves,
'O let us leave this tree and eat
'Lettuce, O let us, Lettuce leaves!'

And instantly the Seven young Guinea Pigs rushed with such extreme force against the Lettuce-plant, and hit their heads so vividly against its stalk, that the concussion brought on directly an incipient transitional inflammation of their noses, which grew worse and worse and worse and worse till it incidentally killed them all Seven.

And that was the end of the Seven young Guinea Pigs.

Going like hotcakes

Get yours while they last. Think of it as a gift to your quite distant descendants.

And speaking of changes in the earth, whichever side of the global warming debate you find yourself on, I think we can all agree that scams don't really help anyone. Well, I suppose they help the scammers. My favorite parts of the article and comments: possibly 1/3 of Indian offset projects fail the additionality test, and the Norwegian organization that is flooded with $ from carbon-offset sales and is unable to execute projects that fill the orders. Bottom line for some people is that global warming provides a great business opportunity.

Ben, that is a wonderful piece of music. I had difficulty getting past the first few bars, though. I guess I need to practice more.

Hey, who all would be down for a holidays-time party? Time, place, activities?

I love living here

Early one Sunday morning in 2002, a phone rings in Yu Ling's Beijing duplex. She's cleaning upstairs; her son is asleep, while downstairs, her husband, Wang Xiaoning, is on the computer. Wang writes about politics, anonymously e-mailing his online e-journals to a group of Yahoo users. He's been having problems with his Yahoo service recently. He thinks it's a technical issue. This is the day he learns he's wrong.

Wang picks up the phone: "Yes?"

"Are you home?" asks the unfamiliar voice on the other end.

"Yes."

The line goes dead.

Moments later, government agents swarm through the front door -- 10 of them, some in uniform, some not. They take Wang away. They take his computers and disks. They shove an official notice into Yu's hands, tell her to keep quiet, and leave. This is how it's done in China. This is how the internet police grab you.

*twitch*

The Sixth IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
Tue, Nov. 13 - Fri, Nov. 16, 2007
Nara-Ken New Public Hall, Nara, Japan


ISMAR 2007 is over with great success!!

The conference general chair Haruo Takemura would like to thank everyone who helped to make the conference the success that it was with 241 participants. In particular, I would like to thank all of the sponsors, chairs and student volunteers for their financial support and dedication to the conference.
ISMAR 2008 will be held in Cambridge, UK, on a week of September 14th, 2008. More details will soon be available.

Riddle me this

A heterological word is one that does not describe itself. So... is 'heterological' a heterological word?


Don't injure yourself trying to figure it out. If you get tired, leave - go get something to eat, maybe take a little nap - and come back to it later. It will still be here.

If you don't like the implications and don't mind a bit of language theory, you can eyeball this article. It essentially points out that "'heterological'" and "heterological" are two different things.

When you have that down, consider the object in this image, which contains 3 copies of the phrase 'mobius strip', having the phrase only actually printed 1.5 times.



And finally, realize that it is possible to visualize more than 3 dimensions. (If you look at the number 4, you'll see that each axis can be seen as being at a 90 degree angle to each of the other three axes, although you can't really get your brain to see all 4 at once. Fun, huh?)

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
--Igor Stravinsky

Well, can you?

Get geekier, that is.

Talent Show

There are lots of videos out there on the Internet that show talent, but I think this one shines particularly brightly.

Wow.

Ricky that is by far the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while. I'm still trying to figure out how to make a shift. I'm on a laptop where the plus sign key is on the equals sign. I saw the little plus sign icon come up for a second, but can't get it to come back so I can play too.

We should totally make an official Band Geeks trail that leads to shifts on whatever web pages we alter. It could be like a contest. Or something.

Anywho, I just thought I'd mention that that was hilarious.

Update: Ok, I figured it out. I've added a couple to weber.edu

Update again: "A computer search up to 10²⁰ suggests that about 12% of numbers are happy, though no proof is known." - from the Wikipedia article on Happy Numbers

File Recovery

Hey Jon! You had fun recovering deleted files eh? Oh, I know the feeling. "Help me!! I deleted the spreadsheet I've been working on for weeks! Oh, and by the way, I think I deleted it four days ago." Wow! How technology solves our problems, eh. I think it's hilarious. Or, there's that Labor Day weekend I found myself in the office working on upgrading MAS, our accounting software. Oooh, that was fun. Not only were we upgrading the software, we were moving it off our Exchange server onto it's own server. Yeah, that was a riot.

But, there's something strangely enjoyable about IT work. That's why I keep going back day after day. It's always enjoyable to have people tell me that I'm their hero for fixing their seemingly critical problem.

Project for the now: upgrade our current 100Mbit switch to a new 1Gbit switch and install Gbit NICs in all the company computers. Oh, and that has to be done without interrupting anyone. :)

Chao!

Cage fighting

Jon, your triple version of Ross' sounds like Steve Reich or, as I mentioned above, three guitarists Cage fighting.

There is your terrible pun for the day.

I just tried Shift Space and it's AWESOME!!!

So Jon, that Shift Space thing is so much fun!!! I've already left random notes on various pages! And I enjoyed using the SourceShift to take over this blog, mwahaha!!!! You all really need to check it out.

later.

Own your very own Internet (tm)

This is one of the geekier things I've seen in a while. It's similar to an idea I had a while back.

ShiftSpace

And speaking of very own, I offer this useless tidbit. (It's been a while since we've had any of-the's around here.)

factoid of the day: the Band Geeks blog record for most posts in a month is September 2005 with 64 posts. The record for least posts in a month is February 2004 with only 3 posts.

fun of the day: trying to recover deleted files from a Mac in the faculty lab. This is not something I care to ever attempt again.

song of the day: Evacuating London from the Narnia soundtrack

important thing of the Right Now: me going to sleep

Bye all.

This is really cool!

This is a simple thing that can decrease your chances of identity theft, decrease junk mail, and decrease paper waste. By calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) you can "opt out" of getting credit card applications in the mail! It's great, and it really works. Just thought I'd share.

Hey Hey

Yes, it has been a while. It's good to hear from you, Andrew. There is something somehow fulfilling about getting to work in (or at least close to) your field of study after you graduate. Kind of makes it seem like it was worth the years and dollars you put into school.

Jarrett, thanks for the tickets. I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it, especially since I do like a good Pictures at an Exhibition performance. And although I wasn't there in person for the special-needs group concert, I do remember the Rootism on the the subject.

I love this weather.

Long time, no C...

Quite litterally, since I haven't played my instrument for some years now.

Anyhow, I just wanted to swing by the ol' band hall and say hello to all my old friends. I think about you guys often and remember our fun times fondly. I hope you are all well.

As for me, for those who don't already know, I gradumated back in May from the U with a degree in Film Studies. So, now I am a legitimate adult, even if I may not feel like one. I moved away from life on campus and currently rent an apartment in the Aves with three other guys. To make ends meet, I work at KUTV Channel 2 as a studio technician, but am moving into becoming a master control operator. That's pretty much all I have been up to.

I have been meaning to come up north for a while, and maybe one day I will soon so I can say hello in person.

Cheers!

Ross Collective

Good times times three. If you can't do something well, do it three times at once. Some people might not notice you're not doing that well, and at least you can aggravate your (ostensible) blog readers.

ACHTUNG!

And again I say,
ACHTUNG!

I am just thinking that this is the place to announce, and it would be wrong not to:

The WSU Symphonic Band will be performing this Saturday in the Browning Center at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $3.50 students, $4.50 adults, $0 talk to Dr. Root before and get a ticket. Bring your friends, relatives, the local noisy special-needs group (well now - who remembers that?), children over 8, gremlins, and so on.
Repertoire to include
Pictures at an Exhibition, by Mussorgsky
To Take the Children Home, Thomas Root
American Salute, Morton Gould
Jubilee, Michael Hennagin
and everybody's favorite Zaninelli version of the Star-Spangled Banner.

So all you veteran Band Geeks should come behold the new generation of geeks.

Machine Gun for Rent?

I thought this was a particularly funny news story: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2084475

Try This At Home

Just for fun, pretend you were someone else. Someone who only knew your name and the city in which you live or work or go to school. Take that information and see how much personal information you can find about you online using google, pipl, whitepages.com, etc. If you can find it, so can Anyone.

I was surprised at what I found about me. And that's without paying $20 for a more in depth report from one site.

Whether you're amused or disturbed about how much and what kind of information can be found online about you, it is still good to know that the net is a very, very public place. And if you delete something, it could live on, cached, in the databases of Google or someone else for a very long time. This came to me after reading (another) article about how young kids should be warned about putting personal info online and blah blah blah, but it reminded me of some article I read a while back where the journalist doing the article interviewed some internet search guru who took 20 minutes and pulled up all kinds of info about the journalist, which surprised him/her. Don't remember what article it was though, it was a while back.

FYI

By the way, we're up to 1248 posts (including saved drafts) on this blog. Aren't you all proud of us?

Books

So, I don't know how many of you have a facebook profile, but if you do...you should check this out.
My friend and I are starting a book club on there.
So, if you're interested and have a profile, find me and add me as a friend (Heather Marie Carlson) and I'll invite you to the group. Our first book is Ulysses by James Joyce.
Yay for Fall Break!

That is awesome

Here are some other awesome things:

Privately-owned nuclear weapons are legal in 47 states, though they must be registered with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State Department.

A variation of the idiom "easy as pie" exists in almost every major language, ranging from "simple as cooking wontons" in Chinese to "easy as making snow-cake" in Swedish.

Montana is the only state that does not enforce a speed limit on elevators.

And finally:

Vehicles at the U.S. bases in Antarctica have the lowest auto insurance rates available in the U.S. due to the complete lack of vehicle-on-vehicle accidents.

White Hat, Gray Hat, Blue Hat, etc.

Hey y'all! It's just your friendly neighborhood Jason stopping by to let you know that our lovely Band Geek page is currently sitting at #11 in Google's ranking for the term "band geeks." Not bad. Could be better, but not bad. :)

If only I had the time/resources to do this... The complete schematics diagram to build your own theremin!

And completely unrelated, but phenomenally cool, M.C. Escher with Legos.

Be Prepared

Congress has drafted in advanced a dozen laws and three constitutional amendments in preparation for the invention of the first fully conscious artificially created robotic human.

Also this:

The UPC code 4815162342 had been assigned to the 8 oz. can of New Coke, introduced on 4/23/1985 and discontinued on 8/16/1992. It is unclear whether the connection to the TV show Lost is coincidental or intentional on the part of its producers.

Update:

The Zen of the cube.

Being able to solve Rubiks cube very fast is a near useless skill, that takes a lot of time to acquire, and does not typically impress the opposite sex. If you think you have better things to do, I can only agree. You probably have.

Still, I think that learning to do something really well is important for anybody, and it's not too important what it is. If you have mastered one thing, it is a bit easier to master others. And doing something you're really good at is uplifting, relaxing and fun.

So if you want to strive for perfection in some field, cubing is certainly cheaper than golf!

That's Chicago

Hi Jon,
I also am quite jealous of your visit to Chicago. I used to want to visit New Orleans, but not as much now that it got put under the ocean. But ever since I saw the reality series "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss," I've wanted to visit the windy city. So Kudos to you.

For all those instrumentalists: Consider this an invitation to come work with my students at Ben Lomond High School. I teach Band, Orchestra, Jazz Band, and Bagpipes, and would welcome any help on any of that instrumentation. To get a hold of me for scheduling info and purposes, contact me at jensenc which is located at the ogdensd period org email address.

Quote of the Day

"Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win, some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins."
- Dizzy Gillespie

So not fair

Jon, I am so jealous that you're in Chicago! I miss it so much!!! It's a really cool place and it sounds like you're having fun.

K, I just had to get that little jealous moment out of me, later.

Hello from Windy City

Just sitting here noodling around waiting for my first session (Hands On: Deploying Flex and HTML/JavaScript Applications to Adobe Integrated Runtime) at the Adobe MAX 2007 Conference.

The scoop:

I like Adobe. They make good software, and they are in tune with where the industry is headed. They appear to have good leadership in directing their efforts to meet the current and coming needs of developers of everything from audio to video to websites to applications to print media.

The flight to Chicago was both uneventful and enjoyable as flying has typically been in the past for me. I like the takeoff - I admit it. It's like a theme park ride.

Chicago has tall buildings. Salt Lake City is kind of small in comparison. But I like it that way. Still, it's quite the experience to see the big city.

The breakfast this morning wasn't too bad, and the opening General Session (the keynote) was quite a kick. They announced some fun new toys, most of which are available on labs.adobe.com right now. One of the ones that I'm very interested in is the new Adobe Media Player (AMP). And I'm sure my boss is going to absolutely love the Google Analytics AIR app.

Well, we're getting started here, so I'll check in again later.

Peace

P.S. I've got pics on my flickr photostream and more commentary on my blog.

As I am writing this post (from the band hall) there is a theater kid by the black box playing an accordion. Very poorly. This incidence reminded me if a few music jokes I'd like to share with you.

What do you call 5 accordions at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.

Dr. Palumbo quote from orchestra:
"Violists know three [hand] positions. First, third, and panic!"

Top Down, Windows Up

I can tell that cell phones have really taken hold on our society. People always have to be yammering on their phones, even while driving. Now that, in and of itself, is dangerous and stupid, but I'm not here to talk about that. No, I'm here to talk about one of the side effects of the cell phone addiction: looking stupid while being stupid.

I'm a car guy. I'm not a car-fixer guy, but for the aesthetic, stylistic and historic purposes of the automobile, I'm a car guy. The car is one of those canvases that's almost infinitely customizable. One of the greatest car designs, in my opinion, is the convertible. There's nothing quite like rolling around town or cruising down the highway in the evening in a sleek, sexy convertible. Drop-tops have been around longer than the car itself has. There's a stylistic component to driving a convertible. It's almost an attitude thing, too. People driving convertibles blatantly say to others, "I love to drive and I like attention." So, and here's my complaint, why is it that people this last couple of years have been totally ruining the whole idea of driving a convertible by driving with the top down and the windows up? Folks, if you're going to drive a convertible, roll the windows down. The idea of driving with the top down and the windows up almost totally defeats the purpose of having the convertible.

To bring my comments about cell phones into this, I think that's the reason people keep their windows up. They want to enjoy the open-air-ness of the convertible, yet still be able to chit chat on their cell phones while driving. Again, to a car guy, that doesn't make any freaking sense. I drive not only because I have to get somewhere, but because I enjoy it. I am coming up on 1 million miles under my belt, and honestly, in that time, I can't think of too many times I haven't wanted to be behind the wheel. I think that is lost in much of today's motorists. They simply have a car to get from A to B. Regardless of how nice their car is, it's merely a penalty box commuter. In my opinion, if you're just going to use your car as a commuter, why not just get some stupid little econo-box rather than a nice convertible. I think it's such a disgrace to such beautiful cars as the Saturn Sky and the Ford Mustang to leave the windows up while driving with the top down. Next time, people, just get a car with a sun roof on it. Then you can leave that closed as well as the windows.

'Nuff Said.

Jarrett Wheatley was here...

When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into
the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
-- Woody Allen

Percy Grainger

Amen.

Wild WildCats

You may not have known it, but part of the Homecoming week was a free showing of the movie "Wild Hogs." The cool part is that they school sponsored a Hog ride from the Stewart Stadium to the Davis campus where the movie was being shown. Kristin and I met up with three other riders on campus and rode out there. I felt bad that we had such a small turnout of riders going out, but it was a blast nonetheless. The coolest part is when we paraded through the crowd on our rides and everyone (read: all the people who came in cars) cheered. Of course, the movie was funny and there were lots of laughs from everyone. I think everyone involved had a great time. I just thought it was fun getting a chance to show off a bit. :)

Okay, I'm done now.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Another unforgettable thing is that the bike that Kristin was riding has a starter problem so I had to push start the darn thing several times. It's one thing to do that with a small dirt bike, but another thing entirely to do it with a 550 lb cruiser.

Okay, now I'm done.

Thirsty?

Stressed?

I am not exactly sure how it works, but this is amazingly accurate.

Read the full description BEFORE looking at the picture.

The picture linked below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary's Hospital.



Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical; a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may want to take a vacation.

see picture

Thanks for the link to the Piratranslation site, Kristin. And for anyone who already misses Talk Like A Pirate Day, you can travel backwards in time by watching this movie. Watch it enough times, and eventually you'll wrap around to yesterday morning when it will look more like this.

AAARRRRrrrrrrrr!

So, I found th' coolest thin' as I be researchin' International Talk Like a Shipmate Tide. `Tis this website 'ere ye can translate anythin' into Pirate Speak. Thar`s e'en a field 'ere ye can enter a URL an' be seein' th' entire page in Gentleman-o'-Fortune. I thoroughly enjoyed re-readin' th' Band Blog that way. Give 't a shot, yo!

Shiver

It be National Talk Like A Pirate Day, it be.

"R"

Pool Party

No, not that kind. What I mean is that I've created a Band Geeks flickr group. Creating a flickr account is free, joining the group is open to anyone, and it'd be an easy way to do stuff like this. Anywho, feel free to participate (or not).

quote of the day:
"I call it...very close talking"
- Shawn from Psych

Rootisms!!!

There might be some confusion caused by the links to the left of this blog stating "The Root Cellar" and "The Temp Cellar." Let me just say, that as the steward, so to speak, of the famed Root Cellar, the "Temp Cellar" link is the real one. I started creating the page on the other link, but then lost access to that site, so it has not been updated in quite some time. It has fallen into the realm of the more cobwebby parts of the Web. :) However, the Temp Cellar is in good working order. The name needs to be changed and the old "Root Cellar" link dropped.

Now, as I say these things, I must stress that if you do happen to have more recent Rootisms, please submit them. :) Clicking on that previous link should open your email software and address an email to me where you can submit Rootisms. I have had a very fun go at collecting Rootisms for the last five years and would love any new ones that anyone happens to have. If you've looked at the "Temp Cellar" page, you will notice that I have some from a concert in 2006 in the Layton Commons Park. Even in the presence of a public audience, the famous remarks still keep coming.

If you don't have an email client software (such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird), you can use any web mail (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.) to send to jason[dot]schill [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thank you for continuing a great tradition. I only wish I could be there to see them in person. I was planning on coming to the Homecoming game on Saturday, but I think I will be involved in a massive upgrade of my company's accounting software that may take most of the day. Darn these adult responsibilities.

Chao!!

Things are funny

...when reading them after midnight. Taking naps in the late afternoon enevitably causes weird things. One being the fact that I'm writing this. Another being that...hmmm...not sure. And yet another would be me trying to finish an essay for a Spanish class and end up reading the Rootisms. Go figure. Anywho. I hope you all enjoy the photos below. I guess you could call it my 'tribute to the band hall'...if you feel so inclined. I'm so happy that they installed a way to load pictures from your hard drive so you don't have to put them on a different website (or maybe I'm just WAY behind on all this technilogical stuff....it wouldn't be the first time). Anywho. As I was reading the Rootisms...I noticed that it is way, Way WAY outdated. I know some of you (ahem...Jarrett and Jessica) have been keeping notes. Share the wealth! :)

Isn't cheese great?

Pictures to commemorate the first blog from the band hall

A landmark day in the band hall

Today a first for the band hall, and the band hall blog. I am the first person ever to write a band hall blog DIRECTLY from the band hall now that it has wireless internet access. They installed it to increase productivity for people who rent the theaters for shows. What they fail to realize is that we will use it to watch strong bad cartoons, and looking at macgyver.com.

Saturday in the lab, Jarrett and I came up with our million dollar idea. Gravy packets! Think ketchup packets, but with gravy instead.

Game Over

Draughts, that is.

You maybe can't win.

fact from macgyver.com

Here is the fact of the week, maybe even the fact of the
month. According to probably reliable sources, the Coca-Cola people
are experiencing severe marketing anxiety in China.
The words "Coca-Cola" translate into Chinese as either
(depending on the inflection) "wax-fattened mare" or "bite the wax
tadpole".
Bite the wax tadpole.
There is a sort of rough justice, is there not?
The trouble with this fact, as lovely as it is, is that it's
hard to get a whole column out of it. I'd like to teach the world to
bite a wax tadpole. Coke -- it's the real wax-fattened mare. Not bad,
but broad satiric vistas do not open up.
-- John Carrol, San Francisco Chronicle

Next time you're in Europe, be careful

After all, "there are eight countries in the United Nations that still execute people through the method of crushing to death by elephants."

Or if it's Canadia you're off to, note that "a renegade militia in Montana has guarded 2.3 miles of the US-Canada border since 1969."

Also this from Antarctica:

The commander of the U.S. base in Antarctica was recently reprimanded after he submitted a bid to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. However, the IOC took it in good humor, rejecting the application on the technicality of Antarctica not being one of the continents represented by the five Olympic rings.

It is certainly good to hear that "according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were only 22 children killed in piñata-related accidents in 2005, down from 56 a decade earlier."

And finally, I haven't a clue what this is all about, but according to the source of my trivia, it is the largest call-center in the US behind that of Wal-Mart.

So...

...Abraham Lincoln....

I thought this was very odd but interesting, too

I need to invent something like this and become rich.

I recently came back from a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon. While there I was flipping through a camping catalog and found this: A BATTERY POWERED BLENDER! Oh the technology.

Just Remember:

On average 253 external hard drives, each year, fail catastrophically enough to end in user injury.

The FBI estimates that six percent of government workers are foreign spies.

In a 2004 study by OSHA, it was discovered that people who will "usually" eat food that they've accidentally dropped on the floor report having 18 percent fewer sick days from work than those who "never" do that.

Users of earbud headphones, like the ones that come with an iPod, experience a 61 percent increase in ear wax production.

And perhaps most importantly:

A cat is twice as likely to be fatally injured if it falls between two and six stories, than if it falls seven to 32 stories.

Quote of the day:

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” ~Will Rogers

Artistic

Steam Punk - maker of new old stuff

Jam Session

Would that be Raspberry or Strawberry?

A jam session, eh? Do you mean something where we get together and play music for the heck of it? That'd be fun. I'll need to get my chops back in shape, but then again, I've been needing to do that to get ready for Homecoming. :)

Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up!

Awesome!

That is a freakin' awesome idea! I'm all for it!!! I'm so looking forward to the Jam session. T hat should be either Saturday or an evening so more people can come... :)

The Missing Link

Hi Jon - can you put a link to the Summer Games Calendar o' fun? I can't seem to find it. Thanks in advance.

Come One, Come All

"I have an excellent idea: LET'S CHANGE THE SUBJECT!"
- March Hare

So... the idea is this: I thought it would be cool to post social/fun events on the Summer Games calendar and kick it with friends throughout the summer, but I've been busy/lazy and haven't really organized or posted very many things. So to rectify the situation, Cory and I came up with An Idea. It is to have a fun-filled three day Super Party in August (Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday all day and evening), and let everyone and their canine companion know about it. It's being announced far enough in advance that hopefully everyone can plan on being there for at least part of one of the days, although it's strongly encouraged to be there for as much of it as possible.

The dates are posted on the Summer Games Calendar. Following are a suggested list of activities and people to invite. If you'd like to suggest a different or additional activity, or if there's someone that I somehow overlooked putting their name on the list - please post it/them or email me. (And if I did forget you, I apologize profusely in advance. It was unintentional.)

Events

• hike (Waterfall, since it's nice as well as short)
• BBQ
• movie (probably at the new Megaplex @ the Junction) and/or games (board/Wii/whatever)
  
• laser tag
  
• Lagoon
• jam session
• swimming
  

People (in absolutely no particular order)

• Aaron and Lena
• Tim and Amy
• Jason and Kristin
• Kristen Kotter & hubby
• Cory and Tristin
• Ben and Hava
• Andrew
• Ricky
  
• Corey and Jen
• Matt and Tiffany and Robyn
• Jessica
• Brittney Bailey
• Jeff Johnson
• Mike Jessop
• BJ and Brandy
• Mark and Connie
• Mellissa Ward
• Derek and Sara
• Kelly Root
• Jarrett
  
• Kathryn and Ky
• Beth
• Lauralee
• Genie
• Heather-Marie
  
• Heather Williams
• Billy and Jessica
• Jasmine
• Katie Midgely
  
• Melanie and Dave

Just in looking at these lists, I am sure that I've left about 1/3 of the people that ought to be invited off, and the activities are certainly open. Please RSVP and such. When we get the events and people finalized, I'll send out a mass email and flesh out the calendar with additional events.

Here's to festivities!

Oh, so THAT's how it works!

Takes forever for the site to finish loading, and it's in Japanese, but... if you've ever wondered how your mouse pointer REALLY moves around your screen, this site will show you a close-up view behind the scenes of mouse pointer movement. After the site loads, mouse over the circle in the middle. Try clicking, also and you will see how that works as well.

Now you know.

Recital Attendance

I was recently checking out various universities' music therapy programs. Music majors at Pacific University in Oregon are required to attend 7 recitals per semester. SEVEN! Music minors are required to get 4. GAH! We have to hit one a week AT LEAST to make the required minimum, not including concert reports. My jaw hit the floor when I saw that.

On a lighter note, how many violinists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Just one. He simply holds onto it and the world revolves around him.

Suite Deal

Cory, that's awesome. And I wish you luck with the bagpipes and all. I'm sure it will be nice to be teaching students who have been on their instruments a bit longer as well since you can get into more interesting music.

Fun stuff that's upcoming:
Corps Encore
Harry Potter VII
Fall Semester

Here's my first stab at a (eventually hopefully complete) virtual tour of the WSU Campus a la Myst: upstairs at Lampros Hall.

PRAISE BE TO ALLAH

For we shall have somebody good at BL. No offense to Carrie Maxson, of course.
I wish you luck and I hope you don't have to teach too much in those temporary buildings.
If you have questions about the bagpipes, I might be able to help.

New Job

Hi everybody! Just thought that I would announce that I am now a "Scot." I'll be taking over for Carrie Maxson at BLHS as the instrumental music teacher next year. So wish me luck on learning the Bagpipes. As a side note - this means that my position at Highland Middle School just opened up in case you are interested. (2 periods of beginning band, 2 periods of advanced band, and 2 choir).

another quote!

"Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage."
-Benjamin Disraeli

Did I do that?

For any who were worried about global warming
you can relax and enjoy life, knowing that there's nothing you can do about it.

Bring It

http://bringsome.com/

Sunday - BOOM

So of course, all who can should attend this Sunday's yearly fireside/--works and pops concert at Lindquist Plaza (Which is to say, the Duck Pond) here at our own glorious Weber State University. I will appoint a place I am (or at least try -- would it be in bad taste to display a large South African flag? That is what I'll probably do)

FOR at this time a group of eclectic citizens will decide the future of Ogden and indeed the world (MWA HA HA) -- well, no. But it's always fun. And other summer events will there be discussed.

P.S. Y is for yeshiva (ha ha ha)

a

another quote - oddly enough, right now I have title trouble too.

Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
--Alan Alda

quote:

"Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them. "
--Richard Wagner

Funny thing...I can't put any text in the title box. How very odd. :)

Thanks Jon!

If you haven't read the link that he posted about his friend, Juli, you need to read it. I know at least 3 people who have been or are being affected by cancer (one who is at the point of hoping he'll get to spend time with his family at Christmas next year). I don't know if you know only one person or many, until you know what they go through, you will never understand. I may never understand completely (I hope I don't have that opportunity), but I think everyone needs to lend their support to those who are affected by it, even if it is a word of comfort or encouragement. Thanks for sharing that with everyone Jon. :)

Understanding Cancer

I recently had a chance to attend a benefit concert for a friend who is battling cancer. Before the concert started they asked all cancer survivors to stand. Many people did, but when they asked everyone to stand who had a friend or loved one who had cancer the rest of the room stood up.

My friend's name is Juli Housholder. If you have a minute, she has written periodically about what it's like to have cancer and to go through the treatments, and I think it's worth reading. It gave me an appreciation for what she and others who face this are going through. Here's the link:
http://www.ourstory.com/thread.html?t=221198

Even with what she's facing she still finds time and energy to try to help other people. She has organized two teams for the American Cancer Society's annual fundraising event, Relay for Life. If you're feeling generous, feel free to donate, even if it's only 5 bucks - every bit helps. If you don't, at least take a minute to read her story. If you never have cancer, chances are overwhelming that you either have or will know someone who will have cancer, and it's good to understand what they experience. Here's the link to our Relay team page (kintera.org hosts the online fundraising):
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=213972&lis=1&kntae213972=D2FCF0AAE923402D8ACAEED83A19C1FF&supId=0&team=1970332


Thanks so much.

Long time, no C

What did the pianist say when the tuner finally showed up?

Hello, all. I haven't posted here lately. I've been adding bits to my video blog (some of which is borrowed from Duswoo's blog) more than I've been posting here. The WSU drumline will be performing this Monday evening at the Ogden Amphitheater, and on the 4th at the Ogden Stadium... and at Corps Encore on July 30th.

What I've been working on lately:
Converting the old WSU study abroad site into a newer peppier version. If you have any pictures taken on any study abroad trips (D.C., Taiwan, Europe, L.A., etc.) please join the WSU Study Abroad flickr group and submit them to the group pool. If you do, they'll automatically be added to the photos that show up in the photo album on the new site. Also, it'd be nice if you could geotag the photos too, so people can see where they were taken at. Vielen danke.

We need to have a party soon. I feel bad for the late notice on the last few, and the summer's flying by. What day/time would work best for eveyone? I'm guessing that a Friday or Saturday evening would be best. It should definitely include food. Suggestions for other activities?

Google has done it again!

Well here is some info you probably all could use sometime. Google has created a free 411 information service. The number is 1800-Goog-411. It is completely voice automated. Say your city and state, then say whatever business you want to find; or maybe a business category. Then it gives you the top results. It will tell you what the address and phone number is, give you details about the business, and it will even connect your call for free! If you want, it will send you a text message with the address and phone number. All at no charge! What a great company eh?

Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

WHAT?!?!

You...went...to...Disneyland...without...me!? Fine! Be that way! Just go to the happiest place on earth and not even tell me there was a trip planned! It's okay. I'll be going down in October anyhow, so consider yourself well warned that there is a trip planned. ;)

Heather-Marie, what stuff did you do in Disneyland? Did you go to DCA? It's no big deal if you didn't, but while you're in Disneyland, I sincerely hope you check out some of the lesser-known gems available for your entertainment pleasure. One such specialty is Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Every day at 11:15am in the Golden Horseshoe (that's in Frontierland), there's this awesomely funny show called Billy Hill and the Hillbillies ("I call it 'pros-teeth-is'"). There's that and of course, if it's still going, there's always Fantasmic. Gotta see Fantasmic! Ooh, and I see by the website that it is still playing. I know that it took a hiatus for some time for some updating.

Of course, you have to try on the new Pirates of the Caribbean, which features Capt. Jack Sparrow and the infamous Davy Jones. "Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate's life for me!"

Dude, I'm like way excited to go to Disneyland! I haven't been all year, so I'm kind of stoked. :)

Anyway, take it easy, y'all. :)

My computer was bored

When I saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I thought that it was just a wry commentary on people that their most advanced computer was found watching TV when the main characters approach it. But it looks as if computers being couch potatoes is the future of technology.

Greetings...

from LA. After having written this entire blog and losing the info due to a wireless internet that is not so friendly...
So, yesterday we travelled beyond the city limits to the land where dreams come true. And boy did they! I rode many a ride that I was scared of when I was there last. It was thrilling and life-fulfilling. We tracked down Mickey Mouse (after walking through his 'house' in a line that lasted almost and hour) and had some photo-ops. We ate over-priced food and had a blast. Disneyland was great. I wish you all could be here. Tomorrow is our long-awaited concert at the Disney Concert Hall. Then we will head back to Vegas and eventually Ogden. Hopefully they have fixed the ac on the bus so we won't be riding in +113 degree temperatures.
May all your dreams come true!
:)

an haiku

gesundheit.

A riddle

hopefully

This
works

watch out - it could happen to you

Wow

This is an amazing image.

Jarrett, I liked your tritone poem. It blew my mind.

Oh, and for you fans of Harry Potter out there, it may interest you to know that:

"Due to book discounts and free shipping offers online booksellers like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble will make no money off of the pre sales of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", but must rely entirely on the sale of other books on the same customer order."

Why is this? This is why. The Interwebs certainly makes life interesting, no?

a Zen story

from the aptly-named 101zenstories.com

Everything is Best

When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.

"Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer.

"Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best."

At these words Banzan became enlightened.

Hello?

You know that the Empire is going downhill when...

la la la

Color me happy

I'm always happy when people put out cool toys on the web (or elsewhere).

This one's been out for quite a while, but I can't remember if I blogged it when it did come out. I haven't had much use for it, but I remembered it today as I was poking around the Adobe Labs site and thought I'd throw it up here for all y'all.

kuler

Deft vs Daft

Deft: quick and skillful; adroit.
Daft: mad; crazy; foolish; stupid.
Draft: a current of air in an enclosed area.
Raft: what marooned pirates use to escape their islands.

Oh, the confusion

I wonder if Jeff meant daft?
As for being married, I have been, to Jason, for almost three years now. :) I'm suspecting there may have been some confusion as to which Kristin/Kristen this is. This is Kristin, Jason's wife, not Kristen as in Vesper, who is actually soon to be married with soon being about two weeks at which time she will no longer be Kristen as in Vesper but Kristen as in Cottar ( I think).
Are we confused yet?

Deftness...

Jeff, I think you spelled deft correctly. I'm pretty sure it's not depht, or daeft, or even daephft.

As far as Kristin being married, well, I'll just let her tell that story. :)

Maybe I'm deft....

(don't know if I spelled deft right or not) but did you get married Kristen? I must have missed something if that's the case.

What is everyone's plans for the summer? I can't wait for Marching band to start this year at Roy. We are going to have a very diverse staff and the band is going to have fun learning our Monty Python show. How exciting!!

Later all!

I'm Here I'm here!

Hooray for my first blog on the band blog. It's nice not to have to log in as Jason to comment. :)
Jayce and I moved out of the apartments and into a house the beginning of March. We've been planning on doing a band party at our house from the beginning, but the time has not been ripe yet. Soon, though. :)
Sadly, we probably won't make it to the housewarming party due to a wedding the same day, but we are going to try. Hope to see y'all soon!

Oh yeah

By the way, anyone planning on coming to the party, feel free to bring a percussion instrument and/or other musical-type instrument. I'm thinking we need a drum circle/jam session somewhere in there.

Welcome Kristen!!!!

Hey Kristen, when did you move out of the apt's up here? I just realized that we got a new tenant again, and was just wondering.


Jarrett, Rael Brewer came to me the other day at work and said "Do you know Jarrett Whitley?"
I'm like "No, I know a Jarrett Wheatley." and we laughed. Jarrett, how are things in your neck of the woods, it's been a long time and I'd like to reconcile with you. Let me know. you can email me at ohsosaxy2712 {at} comcast {dot} competition

As for all, later!

It's a date... Ya eat em!

So, silly me has lost the linkys to the summer games calendar, and you know, some of us folks who live down south would like to participate too. Jon, is it possible to put the link permanately in the left column, or if not, just re-send me the link and I will bookmark it. s p i e l _ f a n [AT] yeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaw [dot] communism (or just yahoo). Anyhoo, thanks! And welcome to the insanity, Kristen.

Party Annonce

Please visit jinglesthepirate dot com for official housewarming party details.

Also, a demolition derby has been added to the Summer Games calendar for this Saturday.

Also, welcome, Kristin, as an official contributor to the blog.

I Give You...

Pi

COOL!

count me in for that.
Also news:
This sat. may 19 is the first hike of the BHSHAC triple crown, 7 am at the Browning Center. We should be able to do one of the Mt. Ogden routes by that time. There will also be a hike on Monday, the 21st, and Saturday morning, 2 June, details to follow. Ben Lomond is being considered, as is something involving timpanogos; but that's still debatable. After June 2, there will probably be a couple of others. But if I'm going to do stuff this summer, it's mostly got to be A: before 25 June or B: on Saturday nights becuase I'll be working in the Uintahs (sic) from the end of June to late August - just in time to move out before school starts! So that's the way of things.

P. S. IN case any were wondering, Harmonica Army only reached 1,000 people of the needed 1,800. They'll try again next year, I suppose. It's all good. I got a free harmonica.

A Week and A Day

That's how long it will be until The Party.

S'right, kids! The Kinneys, Robyn, the Wintertons, Tom, and Jon will be throwing down a combined housewarming party on the 22nd, right around 6pm. There will be much feasting (potluck), merriment (board games, Wii action, movies, ultimate frisbee), and general hubbub. Invite a friend, date, spouse, significant other, parole officer, complete stranger. Do I sound like a broken record? Whether I do or not, at least bring yourself. And a chair. And housewarming gifts, while not strictly prohibited, are in no way required - we'd just like to see your beaming faces and hang out with friends we haven't seen in a whiles.

So put it on your calendar. I've added it to the Summer Games cal. See you there.

A word about Macs.

As the resident Mac cultist around here, I feel the need to point out that Macs don't get trashed if you don't run windows on them. I think the problem lays in allowing that Gates-ware on the computer in the first place. If there's one thing that sucks, it's all the PC junk that is floating around out there. In using Macs almost exclusivly for the past three to four years, I have never ever experienced a problem. They're still great machines, they just need their native operating system. Anyhoo, I digress.

Happy Mother's Day!

Multi-something...

Everybody needs a multiplicity of stuff. :) Jeff, I run a Dell PowerEdge 2850 server every day. It is a quad Itanium box with 4G of RAM and running in a RAID 5 configuration. I was even sort of involved in replacing a couple of the SCSI disk in the RAID array. It was I who first discovered that they had gone bad! :) Yeah, it's a nice server, but really for a personal machine, it's not that impressive, and ungodly loud with the fans it takes to keep it cool. Now, for me, what would be cool would be a nice, high-capacity router and switching system to route traffic on the Internet. Oh yeah, sweetness! Can I just own a telecom company?

So yeah, Jeff, congrats on everything. I think it's great that you're getting sealed. Your life will be richly blessed! I can't tell you how much Kristin and I have seen the blessings of a temple sealing. It's incredible. Good job!

Okay, so for those of you who believe that Macs are impervious to the problems of Windows machines, I refer you to the [quite] new iMac at Kristin's grandma's house. I have seen only a handful of Windows boxes that run as bad as that thing does. Between her and everyone else who uses that machine, it has tons of junk on it, just like badly infected Windows boxes. I ran 'ps -e' and 'top' to try to determine why it was running so poorly, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. So, it is possible to hose a Mac.

Also, riding a motorcycle is so freakin' awesome! If you get the chance (or if you force the issue in my case) learn to ride. You'll not regret it. It's so awesome to be riding down the road with the rumble of the motor beneath you and the wind whipping around you and to realize that you can get a way more unobstructed view of everything than the poor saps stuck in their cars. :) Even a convertible can't match it. Now, don't get me wrong; I love cars. But motorcycling is like taking driving to a whole new level. Just a little thought. :)

Chao!

This betta be pretty freakin' impat'nt. Is the meadow on fire?

RAID 5.....

I went onto Alienware the other day to see how much I could spend, and boy, I tell you, if I was rich..........hehe!
I created basically a multi-OS server with about 3 seperate hard disks totaling 10TB of storage with 4GB of RAM each all in RAID-5 configuration. It was sweet!!!!
IF I only had $17,000!!! Anyone wanna donate to the Jeff needs a hobby fund?

I can't contain my excitement, tomorrow afternoon, I will be sealed to my family for time and all eternity!! This feeling is amazing!!!
Congrats Diego!!

Also, I must say how excited I am to have Diego working with Roy High this year and what Diego and Fig are bringing to the table there! Finally! A STABLE and COMPETENT set of Drumline advisors!!!

OH, Happy Day!

So, just about forty minutes ago, I picked up the keys to Tiffanie's and my new place. I am very excited to get out of the apartment that has been known to wet itself when it has been nervous. We now live in a duplex just down the street from Jon, Ben, ben, and Hava. The final move will take place on May 26th. Excitement is running through my veins right now.

thanks....

for the ideas. I don't know what was going on, but it hasn't acted up since that night. ??? Who knows. Technology seems to like giving me some attittude. :) Anywho...Jeff....I am so happy for you! That is one of the best things I have heard in a while. Congrats!!!!!

Yeah, Maybe Not...

...fdisk. That's pretty much the last thing you want to do to your computer. Even if it is being very unstable, there has to be a cause. If that cause can be rooted out, then more power to you. Besides, once you run fdisk, it's either lots of hours reinstalling everything on your computer or it's lots of hours using my partition rebuilding tool to get back the data. :) Either way, it's lots of hours. The best thing that can ever be done with computers is to BACK THEM UP! I can't say that enough. Sooner or later, you're going to have to restore your computer. It's just that simple. I don't care who you are or what kind of computer you run, they are all subject to various types of failures that could lead to data loss. So, unless you can re-create that class project from scratch, or that photo album you spent years on, I'd suggest that you back up your data. I spent two weeks restoring data from a corrupted hard drive in my wife's computer last summer because of a lack of backing up. :)

There are several way to backup your data. (By the way, unless you have a nice sophisticated computer system, only back up your data. It doesn't do you any good to try to back up your operating system and applications.) I like using the following to back up my data:

1. Network disk storage. I have a local Linux box that I back up to from time to time. This is commonly called NAS, or Network Attached Storage.
2. Writable CDs or DVDs. Simple, easy-to-use.
3. Removable (USB or Firewire) hard drive.
4. Removable (case-mounted) hard drive.

These are in no particular order. However, I do tend to use numbers 1 and 2 more often than 3 or 4. That network disk is a lifesaver!

Also, keep in mind that the best way to run your computer is to either a) install more than one hard drive and only install your operating system (Windows, MacOS) on one disk and use the other for your data, or b) partition your single hard disk into more than one partition and do as is said in (a). If you don't feel comfortable doing such things as this yourself, I or any other geek friend would be glad to do it for you. :)

Anyhow, I'm rambling. If you enjoyed this little trip through the techno jungle, my name is Jason and this has been the World Famous Jungle Cruise. If you didn't like it, then my name is Patrick and this has been the Submarine Voyage.

Tootles!

Quote of the day

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
- William Hazlitt

On that note, I'd like to get feedback on something I've been working on recently. For my job I have been given the charge of meeting a request made by many WSU students for more multimedia in their online classes. As a part of this, I've begun working on some games that can be used to review concepts taught in the course. The first two are "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" and "Jeopardy!". I've also created an authoring tool so that faculty can go in and create game files.

So. What I need are a few people to email me, I'll set you up a login, and then you go play with the system, test it out, try to break it, and give me feedback on any problems you run into, suggestions, comments, dollars, etc.

If you'd like to test out the games themselves, but not the authoring tool, you can try just the games here and here.

Thanks, all.

F-Disk it.....

Heather,
When in doubt, F-Disk the thing. That seems to be the IT philosophy at Ogden Convergys.
Who wants to know any root cause when you can just reimage and start anew?!
(I'm just kidding of course)
You could always pay Geek Squad $300 to say "I can reimage it for you!"
HAHA! Sorry, had to say it!
So, onto more promising notes, my wife and I took out our endowments last Saturday,
and this Saturday we'll be heading down to Jordan River to have our family sealed.
If any of you on this blog have not been through the temple, I HIGHLY recommend it,
it's an amazing experience!!
On another sidenote, I switched projects at Convergys and now work for DirecTV! What an amazing client. After 90 days of being employed, I will qualify to receive a FREE DVR with Premier service(185+ channels) plus 31 movie channels (normally $100/mo) for FREE!!! I am SOOOO excited to be on a project where my goal is to actually assist customers, as opposed to selling them crap they don't need!
So there's my novel of the day!

Later~

Triple Crown

opens not this Saturday but next - May 19
This summer's "Triple Crown" is the quest to climb three mountains in our local area: first, Mt. Ogden; then, Ben Lomond Peak; third (though perhaps it will end up being second as that's open to debate) Mt. Timpanogos. Everybody, and that means absolutely everybody, is invited to participate. Friends. Relatives. Neighbors. People you've never even seen before. Terrorists also welcome but we can't give them the discounted fare.

So "we" - that is, the Band Hall Inter-Ensemble Summer Activities commitee (orchestra as well as band, choir, and so on) - have elected to head up for Mt. Ogden in the early morn of Saturday, May 19, 1007. We will be meeting at our beloved VBC at a time to be announced and then carpuddling up to the trailhead. For those who, like Jon, will be busy, an alternate hike will also be carried out as Mt. Ogden is a good one. Further details will be posted; but my usual program (which I have found pretty effective) is to bring a sack lunch to eat at the peak (which easily seats twenty people) and then, once we reach the bottom, to reward ourselves with Ice Cream - Farr's has a double cone they call the "mount ogden", but that's open for discussion.
So in quick review the facts are:

We are going up mt. ogden sat. may 19 please come bring lots of people watch for more info.

Address

Indeed, Heather. The location of Lindquist field is Lincoln Ave (just East of Wall Ave) and 23rd or 24th street (it takes up the entire block between, but the entrance last year was closer to 23rd street). Not sure on the computer crashing. You could take it to the IT service desk in Lampros Hall and ask them to take a look at it for you.

Also, happy birthday to John Brown and J.M. Barrie.

Merci beaucoup...

Thanks Jon....but there seems to be a problem with my computer right now. I guess it wants a break from the semester as much as I do. It keeps crashing when I click on the link. I'll keep trying, and maybe I'll be brave and venture to find the directions for myself...:) (is there an actual address??? like 36th and Harrison (for example) or something???). I will be using the bus system, so if there is a known bus stop nearby, that would help immensely. Besides the fact that I have to work until 4, it'll be a miracle if I make it. But, I will try. Oh, and by the by... any ideas on how to fix a computer that keeps getting slower and slower by the minute and likes to crash after about 10 minutes of use??? It was fine until last night. I don't think I opened anything that could've been a virus, but who knows. Anyways. Thanks again Jon. I hope I can make it!!!
~Tchao!

How to get to Sesame Street

Here's how to get to Lindquist Field for the Harmonica Army on Saturday.

If one is interested...

how would one go about getting to the Lindquist field if they have no idea where it is (like myself)? I've always wanted to play the harmonica! Thanks for the info Jarrett! I now have someting to look forward to for this week, other than moving across the field and starting my new job. Just hope that I don't have to work during that wonderful day! :)
Can I just say....
IT'S SUMMER!!!!!!
Yippy!

Well, I have more info

if nobody else does

I called the "pizza runner" today and got more information on the Harmonica Army: They say that, yes, it is a Lindquist field; they will be going for the record at about 5 p.m. but the will be registering people and distrubuting harmonicas from about 3 pm. If you bring your own harmonica, make sure it's in the key of A. Tell everyone you know - this is a crazy, once-in-a-blue-moon kind of an activity! So I will see you all at Lindquist field around 3 on Saturday. You will know me by my pointy hat.

Way to Go, Andrew!!!

That's totally awesome. It is nice to finally be done after years of effort, eh? I haven't finished watching all of the films on your youtube-powered blog, but I like what I have seen so far. I especially liked the cement one - very well done.

And congrats to Tim & Amy also.

And there's going to be a party at my house this very evening (6-ish) to celebrate the end of the semester. Bring food. Bring friends. At least bring yourself.

And I'm moving. I'll post the house-warming party events here on the blog when I know exactly when it will be. (It will be by June, at the latest, although a lot of my stuff is already in my new appartment.)

Mission accomplished!

No, this is not some dog on the president post as you might be lead to believe by the title. Rather, I have reached a momentus point in my life by completing the requirements to obtain a Bachelor or Arts degree from the University of Utah! I will be graduating this Friday at 11:30. Today, I turned in my last assignment ever and am feeling pretty proud to have finished college! It's an amazing feeling which I highly reccomend to everyone here. Anyway, I just wanted to share the news with all my friends here in the virtual band hall!

Fun Things

Just to let everyperson know, in a week or so you have the opportunity to brandish your musical talent in a way that could get you into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Last year they attempted to break the record for the most number of people playing the same song on the harmonica at once. They were only a couple hundred people short. This is the second attempt: Harmonica Army II. Show up, get a free harmonica, get into the Book of Records, retire a famous person. I've put the event in the Summer Games calendar and I'll add the time to it when I find out what time that may be. Last summer it was held at Lindquist Stadium here in Ogden. I'm assuming it'll be the same this year.

Also, I've posted a few cool links over on bag-o-cool.

by the way

Hey, speaking of new arrivals - Aim and Timmy also were delivered this week of a lovely six pound-ish 20inch baby boy (apparently - I haven't seen, so it might be a big hoax to get Tim out of work) - Great news for them!

Goals for the summer

ECHO Echo echo

Wow, it must be like finals or something cuz no one's posting anything new.

If you're coming....

to the DCI Classic Countdown this Thursday from 7:30 to about 9:30, let me know and all us WSU band geeks will sit together and throw stuff at the screen when any other corps other than Phantom Regiment is performing...... Ok, maybe not. Still though, we'll all sit together and have a jolly good time.

This Classic Countdown is going to be sweet cause it isn't like the past 2. It is the best of the best!!! In the past there had to be 2 shows from each decade (70's, 80's, 90's and 00's) and no corps could be repeated, meaning that if the 1975 Blue Devils was the first corps to be shown, no more BD shows could be shown again that night. Now, there can be 3 SCV show's and 5 Cavies! Oh yeah, I can't say it enough, it'll be sweeeeeeEEEEEET!!! Tickets are $12.50 and as far as I know, it isn't sold out.

Hope to see ya'll there!

I thought this was the way to Grandma's house?

a response

to Jon's comment on Bag-o-cool:

I know the feeling. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said:
"In every work of genius we see our own abandoned ideas."


it's difficult in composing to think of anything really new...

Ding

A couple new vids over on Bag-O-Cool. Worth checking out (or I wouldn't've put'em up thar.)

um... does this work?

here

I thought it was funny - don't know about you

Happy Taxday Everybody

A very much congratulations to the Jensens on the new arrival.

For those of you who (like me) haven't yet exactly mailed their taxes, I offer the following suggestion: do.

And for all of us, I offer this quote from wikipedia by the purportedly venerable legal scholar, Judge Learned Hand:

"In my own case the words of such an act as the Income Tax… merely dance before my eyes in a meaningless procession: cross-reference to cross-reference, exception upon exception — couched in abstract terms that offer [me] no handle to seize hold of [and that] leave in my mind only a confused sense of some vitally important, but successfully concealed, purport, which it is my duty to extract, but which is within my power, if at all, only after the most inordinate expenditure of time. I know that these monsters are the result of fabulous industry and ingenuity, plugging up this hole and casting out that net, against all possible evasion; yet at times I cannot help recalling a saying of William James about certain passages of Hegel: that they were no doubt written with a passion of rationality; but that one cannot help wondering whether to the reader they have any significance save that the words are strung together with syntactical correctness."

Best of luck filling out that ol' 1040EZ, folks. We're all in this together.

Prospective band member in the making

Hi Everybody - Cory is now a dad! We had our little girl "Ellie" on Tuesday this week. She came about a month early but her and mom are doing just fine. She was 5 pounds, 9 ounces. Quite a unique feeling being a dad.

Are you feeling low?

Cheer up. Things could be worse. You could need to print something and not feel violated.

Update: Engaged recently covered an impressive use of ferrofluid: making art based on music. It's kind of a step up from your average media player software's on-screen visualization. I have, of course, blogged the vid. Hmm...

Come one, come all!!!

well

I don't fully comprehend the map of WSU, but that is the likely whereabout of Jingles at any given time... better than "[chances are you're not] a pirate" at least!
also, Jon, please invite starwobble v.d. hotmail v.d. com to participate in the blog - Ben Yuill has applied for citizenship. This would be our first emigrant from the string world!

this looks fairly familiar....

HI! Guess what! I'm back...(of sorts). Thanks to Jon, I now have another email to deal with....but at least it's through one of the best websites out there. It's good being back!

two terrible jokes

spontaneously organized "ex nihilis" by jarrett - no less

1.
What do you call the winner of a Rubik's cube competition?
Fidel Castro. (He's a cubin' dictator.)

2.
What do you call a battle between Indian chefs?
The Korean (Curryin') war.

The videos should work now! Let me know if you are still having any problems.

I would if I could...

...but I can't. Andrew, I think you need to open up some permissions on your videos. When I try to play them, they don't load and when I go to YouTube, it says that they are on a private account and cannot be viewed except by the owner. If you could make those public, that would be awesome. :)

Jeff, I can totally understand your hesitation on Vista. It's a compatibility nightmare. They decided to make it not work with anybody. And if you really want the "Linux Experience" you need to install Debian or even FreeBSD. They're the ultra-geeky flavors. :)

So, my wife is awesome! Not only is she just awesome by nature, but she bought me two out-of-print CDs. First to arrive was Dallas Brass II, which has the coolest arrangement of the National Emblem march I've ever heard. Second to arrive was Dallas Brass: Debut. Of course, if you've heard that album before, there's no need to explain why it's so awesome. Of course it does help to mention the William Tell Overture arranged for brass quintet. It's one big tonguing exercise and they pull it off flawlessly. Anyhow, I just thought I'd tell you that. :)

Take it easy, y'all.

Hoi hoi everyone!

I refer to Alexandar Graham Bell's perfered method of answering his famous invention. He opposed the simple "Hello".

Anyhoo, I have a brand new blog that houses all the little projects I have created while in school here for the past three years. I'll be trying to track down a few other projects over the next few weeks, so keep checking back from time to time if ye be interested.

http://fleacircusltd.blogspot.com

That is all.

Thanks.......

for the info Jason. I'll stay away for now, which is what I intended anyway, but I have people asking me for support, and I can't do anything if I don't know it. I'll wait and see if I can get my free Professional copy from base.

As for XP, LOVE IT! I need to trash my old box and get it ready to run Linux as that's my next task to play around with. I think I'm going to go with Fedora or Ubuntu, but am not sure yet.

As for the pirate flag, I don't think my '93 Ford POScrap is worthy.

Thanks.......

for the info Jason. I'll stay away for now, which is what I intended anyway, but I have people asking me for support, and I can't do anything if I don't know it. I'll wait and see if I can get my free Professional copy from base.

As for XP, LOVE IT! I need to trash my old box and get it ready to run Linux as that's my next task to play around with. I think I'm going to go with Fedora or Ubuntu, but am not sure yet.

As for the pirate flag, I don't think my '93 Ford POScrap is worthy.

Jingles the Website

That's a pretty frackin' cool logo, eh. I'd certainly put it on my pirate ship. Hey, wait just one frackin' minute! What a great idea I just had. How's about we make little flags of the Jingles "Jolly Roger" and fly them from our pirate ship masts (meaning car antennas)? Yea/Nay.

So, speaking of sites going live, my own website has now gone live. Schillclan.net is now it's own domain name. :) I registered the domain name with GoDaddy and I'm hosting the site myself. It's on a Red Hat 9 Linux box running on a 1.3GHz AMD Duron with 512 MB of RAM. I love that machine. It's rock solid and never crashes. However, it has four internal fans and therefore is quite loud. It's a good thing that the poor machine is out of my bedroom. :) It was driving Kristin crazy. Hmmm. By the looks of things, I have already announced my website on this forum. Oh well, it never hurts to advertise a little.

So Jeff, you're wondering about Piece of Crap, er, I mean, Vista, eh. Oooh boy, do I have stories to tell! When they said "The Wow starts now" they weren't kidding. It's like "Wow, I can't believe I have to have 2 gigs of video RAM just to use this operating system." And "Wow, that new 160 gig hard drive I just bought doesn't seem so big anymore with Vista." I think it's all Microsoft's big April Fools joke. The only problem is that it keeps on going. Frankly, for $5B and 5 years of R&D, they really should have "Wow"ed us, but they didn't. You can stick with Windows XP and install WindowBlinds with all the fun GUI enhancements that Vista brings you. And you can do it all without that stupid "Allow/Deny" User Account Control security watchdog thingamajig popping up every two seconds. That gets old very fast.

Jeff, if you really want to try out Vista, I have a copy of Vista RC1 (I know, it's not the retail version, but I don't have $400 to spend on Microsoft). I'll give you this copy of Vista. It even has a license code. Keep in mind that it does expire in July, but you ought to get a good feel for it by then. Personal opinion: Windows Vista is a culmination of all the lessons that Microsoft didn't learn from Windows Me. For all the fireworks and ballyhooing, it really sucks. I just think we should all switch over to Linux and run a truly powerful operating system that doesn't crash and doesn't require a hyper gaming rig to run.

So that's my rant for the evening. I do hope to have my house at least presentable in the next few weeks to host a cool band geeks party complete with movies. :) Stay tuned. We've got it all on UHF.

Hasta la pasta!

Food recommendation of the while: Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa Burrito enchilada style. Complete with mild green sauce and salsa on the side. Mmmm. Good.

what's with that?....

What's with the Jingles the pirate.com, it just sits there. I have been out of the band hall far too long. I don't know anything that's going on anymore. I do miss the random thoughts and actions, and wish that I had made better acquaintances with you all so as to have kept some comradery with y'all before deciding to end my school career.
Oh well, shouldn't cry over spilt milk I suppose.
Tell me, what's the latest with y'all? how are things there in the infamous band hall?
Also, who has worked with Vista? I'm trying to figure out why I can't get IBM Lotus Notes to run on it, and am stumped. I need to get my own copy and start fooling.

Apothrope, Centigraph, Saint Hannes Cross

Ricky, Diego is pointman on the laser tag, so I'm going to have to appeal to him for a start time. I'll definitely find out and add the time to the gCalendar.

For those who are interested (and if you are, you have my pity), jinglesthepirate.com is now up and running.

Hosting is provided by A Small Orange Dot Com.

For any of you who are AS 3.0/Flex/Apollo afficionados, you may be interested in the latest post on my Flex Dev blog.

For any of you who are interested in microblogging, check out twitter. For any of you who may actually care (agan, sympathy) what I am doing RIGHT NOW, you can check out my twitter page. For any of you who are opposed to following links while using the interwebs (yet again, condolences) and don't want to click the twitter link to find out what it is, I will tell you that it is a site that revolves around only one thing: answering the question "What are you doing?" (as in 'at the moment').

I'm sore today from using muscles yesterday that I hadn't used in a long time.

Things you may be interested to know:

• In the last 10 years, the IRS has audited 12 people earning less than $80,000


• The average American sees over 1,000 pieces of paid advertising every day


• Records from Japan's feudal period suggest that the average samurai lived to be 19, while the average ninja lived to be 37


• Ounce for ounce, printer ink is more expensive than gold


• On the whole, Americans spend more money on entertainment than food


• Every year the U.S. throws away as much food as it consumes


• The American Psychiatry Association estimates that 75 percent of people have at least one untreated mental illness


• Over the past 20 years, the world's fastest supercomputers have held that title for an average of 6 weeks

An Interesting Find

You may call me an uber-geek for this, but I was checking my website statistics tonight and I came across a most unusual thing. You see, at the bottom of the statistics page for any month, it tells you the countries of origin of the most hits. Normally, for me, I get hits from my network, US commercial, Italy, Mexico, and occasionally, France. However, this month, I had one I had never even heard of before. I need to go back to 9th grade geography. Can anyone tell me where Seychelles is?

Paz Fuera!

Don't worry, be happy!

If I remember right Ricky, you were at last years DCI show, which was at Jordan Landing. If you were ok with the quality of picture and sound then don't worry about it - it will be the same. It's not terrible - it's just not the best (Larry H. Miller's theaters have the newest technology). And don't go down to American Fork, because it's also a Cinemark theater there. The theaters do have a satellite dish on top of each building and they will download it to their server sometime before they actually show it - these servers are what control the digital projectors for each theater. I'm sure it will be a good show, I was just hoping that the Gateway or Jordan Commons was showing it too. Oh well!

This might be a dumb question?

Because I don't/have never worked at a movie theater and have not a clue what goes on, I'll ask what might be a dumb question. Does it matter that it is being broadcast via satellite?

The only other place in Utah that it's being shown at is in American Fork and I really don't want to drive all the way down there if I don't have too.

Also, Jon, is laser tag still on for Friday? There isn't a time on the calendar so I was just curious.

(edit: if you read my post between yesterday(the 2nd) and today(the 3rd), I accidentally put paintball instead of laser tag)

Another place for DCI?

So that's really cool about DCI being in Ogden at the Cinemark Tinseltown, but I feel like I should warn you: Although I love Cinemark, having worked for them for about 7 years, the digital projector systems they have in place were designed just for the preshow advertisements. Because of that, the resolution and brightness levels are low compared to a digital movie that you might see at say the Gateway or Jordan Commons. Their sound systems of these digital projectors are also only set up for stereo processing (no DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital, or THX). So if there is an option to see it somewhere else - I would recommend it. But keep going to Cinemark for regular movies because they do have a good thing going in that department.

Granted

Both events are on the calendar. I've resent the links to the calendar (which gmail apparently messed up when I used their link tool). If you didn't get the email, email me. When you view the calendar, try the Agenda tab for a summary rundown of upcoming events. Yay - it's fun.

Cheers.

DCI Classic Countdown

Since we're talkin' drum corps, I thought I'd mention that the DCI Classic Countdown is coming up pretty soon, April 26th at 7:30 to be exact. Last year it was shown down in West Jordan at Jordan Commons and the 2 years before that, it wasn't even shown in Utah!!! (it's only been around for 3 years) But this year is, oh man.....

It's in Ogden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, Ogden. They are going to be showing it at the Newgate Tinsletown and tickets are $12.50 per person. Here's the link for more info: http://dci.org/cinema/classic/ Tickets aren't on sale yet but I'll be sure to let everybody know when they are and when it is closer to this wickedly awesome event.

So yeah, Jon, why don't you go ahead and post THAT on your little calendar!!! Please. Thanks!

Corps Encore 2007

Corps Encore will be held July 30, 2007 at the beloved Stewart Stadium. For more information, go to Corps Encore.

Speaking of nice weather

Announcing....

The Summer Games Calendar

Remember a while ago when I suggested a summer full of stuff like

Hiking
Movies
BBQ's
Road Trips
Ultimate Frisbee
Stargazing
Boating
Rock Climbing/Ice Climbing
Concerts
Dancing
Breakfast
Volleyball
Ice Skating
Firesides
Game Nights

?

Well, I've created a Google calendar to post the events to. I've emailed everyone that's a member of the blog (whose email addresses are public in blogger) a link to an HTML version of the calendar as well as an XML feed link for those who use feed readers. If you want to post events to the calendar you can email them to me or email me and request editing access to the calendar itself and I'll more than likely grant it to you (if you give me a dollar). If you didn't get the email it's because your profile doesn't contain it - just email me and I'll send you the same info.

:)

Anywho, the first two events are already posted. When I get info on Corps Encore, Saturday evening ultimate frisbee (I'm assuming that will be happening again this year), and other stuff I'll add it in a timely manner. You don't have to show up to any of the events, but if you do, it'll be awesome. I suggest that there be a volunteer-basis in-charge person for each activity so that people will know who to RSVP to for events that need that kind of thing. But whatever.

Ok, enjoy, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Though I may not aggree with him politically...

...John Dvorak has some of the greatest insight into the tech industry. I really do like watching his Internet show, Cranky Geeks, where he and some other tech-savvy folks discuss current and forthcoming technologies. I also like reading his columns in PC Mag, where he often rants and raves about the latest techno gizmos to grace the market.

Mr. Dvorak's latest rant is about the mobile phone industry and upon reading his little analysis, I discovered that many things really struck a chord with me. Now, I do not believe that the mobile phone industry should wither and die as he says, but I do understand the reason behind some of his glaring remarks. For instance, I do believe that mobile phones have not really increased our productivity, but rather only increased our rudeness to each other. Yes, there are perfectly legitimate times when a cell phone is very useful. I have experienced that blessing on a number of occasions. But, in a movie theater or in church, that really starts to suck! So folks, the next time you are in an airport, don't forget that it's illegal to yell "bomb." ;)

Anyhow, take it easy, y'all!

How much can you handle?

Please feel free to post times of how long you were able to endure.

Also, on an unrelated note, some people go a bit overboard.

something I found

Happy Day

Congrats, Jeff. That's awesome.

Happy Birthday to Modest and Johann (that is, to Mussorgsky and Bach).

On an unrelated note...

Tune of the day: Oh What A World by Rufus Wainwright
My co-worker had me listen to it. I blog it here purely for his use of Bolero.

And to all a good day.

Greetings to all....

Hello to all my friends!!!!
How I miss the days of naps in the band hall, and the randomness of it all.......
Just an update, Shamra and I have decided to be sealed in the Temple.
We will be sealed in the Jordan River Temple on May 12.
We are very excited for this next step in our lives, and wanted to share.
To all, a great schooling may you have!

Things That Must Go

Recently, I have have been busy buying a house. Along with buying a house are certain joys like getting to know the neighbors (important if you trust your home security to them), finding out where we go to church, and purchasing supplies to do modest home improvements. In my travels as of late, I have come across some startling things that I think must really be put out to pasture and never mentioned again. And now, I present a list of these annoyances for your viewing pleasure:

1. Dub+ sized rims on trucks and SUVs. What is up with a Chevy Tahoe and 26" rims with rubber bands for tires? That completely renders the SUV very un-SUV-ish.
2. People who drive with their high beam headlights on to compensate for a burned out low beam light. Come on, folks, they're not there as spare headlights. Get the freaking thing fixed!
3. Hardware stores the size of an airport. I mean, I know it's cool to be able to find just about anything under the sun there, but I hate having to use a GPS to get my bearings.
4. Unsecured wireless networks. I met my neighbors' wireless networks before I met them.
5. Construction on every single level crossing from Ogden to Nephi. Do you know how difficult it is to get to and from work?!
6. People who get into an accident during rush-hour traffic on HWY 89. Because of some jerk in a Mustang, it took me an hour and eight minutes to get from work in Kaysville to my home in Ogden the other day.
7. Rocky Anderson. He's like Tejano music: every time he opens his mouth, brain cells die and I feel stupider.
8. Comcast's willingness to connect a computer directly to a cable modem. Hello! Have you never heard of security?! That's the most dangerous way to connect a computer to the Internet because that computer has a publicly accessible IP address. Just don't do it.
9. People not watching out for motorcycles. Hey, we can use the road the same as the cars and trucks. So please, look out for motorcycles. ;)
10. Jerks who get into a turn lane behind you and then speed up and pass you. When traffic is moving along smoothly, that's just rude. I had some dude do that to me in his High and Mighty (SUV) and it made it scary for me to get into the turn lane as well.

Anyhow, I kind of had to stretch for some of those, but they are all things that irritate me. There are, however, some things that are really cool lately. For one, have you seen the late models of Yamaha Star Motorcycles? Oh, baby! Those things are awesome! And the new Harley Davidsons are beautiful, as always. :) Cadillac has some nice offerings, as does Saturn. Computers are getting cool again with multi-core machines. I'm excited about that. However, how well do most modern applications take advantage of multi-core? That remains to be discovered. I did get my domain name registered and I'm now hosting a real website. :) That's exciting news. GoDaddy is offering domain names for about $9 per year so I jumped on it. I have the server, they have the domain name.

So, with that, I will leave you and put myself in bed. It's friggen late. :)

Random thing to remember: When mounting a CD-ROM in a Linux box, it is often required to do it manually as follows

mount /mnt/cdrom

Of course, when you're done using the CD-ROM, you must unmount it:

umount /mnt/cdrom

Just in case y'all are wondering.