Atomic Swerve

Priorities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:17:00 +0000

I find myself yet again procrastinating. Bloody work, has to be so...Work-ey. Simply can't stand it when it comes in such quantities that it does. Bally overwhelms a fellow, wot? I believe that crowding a mind will only serve to teach it to cope, and will not allow it to reach its full potential. Therefore, I am enacting a temporary embargo on productivity, and composing a short entry here and now with little to no idea of what the topic will become.

...What? It's worked before! That's how I write everything, even "structured" school essays. I'll sit on my exercise ball, brood on the assigned topic, fiddle with odds and ends on my desk, stand up and pace, make tapping noises against the keyboard to hide my true (in)activity from the ninja outside my window, and drink lots of water. Then, INSPIRATION! I'll quickly type out a page or two of complete gibberish as I futilely attempt to catch the flow of ideas pouring from my brain...Then have to use the bathroom reeeeeeally badly. When I get back, I deem the junk I produced previous to the pee to be exactly the paper I wanted to write from the very beginning, down to the punctuation. Completely satisfied, I'll print out a quick double-sided, and proceed to have my dreams shot, pummeled, and decapitated by my first proof-reader. Return to square one, wash, rinse, and repeat.

Eventually I'll get the paper into an acceptable state. Before the final draft is achieved, however, the page is littered with splotches of shimmering mental quicksilver, beautiful but isolated. The task of editing consists primarily of spreading these nuggets of content across the full work, to make a gleaming piece fit for public consumption. Gobble gobble gobble! Mm, consumption...That reminds me, I'm hungry. Anywho, that's my writing process for everything except my epic. That really takes planning and relation charts and time lines and all of that shite. Such a pain.

This blog is generally not edited one little bit, with the exception of link-placing and the quick read-over by my most loyal fans (all two of them). Sometimes I read it through once after "finishing," but I almost never catch anything that I should. I'm blind to my own errors...Blinded by the quicksilver! -EDIT: I just made one. After posting, of course.-

This distraction is over. Work now. Hope you enjoyed this special edition of "Piers has nothing better to do!" And have an incident-free Friday the 13th!

Common sense is not so common.
-Voltaire

The Real Matrices Are Much Scarier

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:36:00 +0000

I am willing to say without reservation that I was a fan of all three Matrix movies, despite the incredible amount of ill-will directed towards the last two. While I had to use my imagination to dredge out much of the overly-simplified philosophical/religious/psychological meaning from the machine-gunning machine guns, partially-obscured dismemberments, and strangely calming bullet-time fight scenes, it was there to be digested. In case the preceding ridiculous sentence structure over-stimulated the reader's inferior frontal gyrus to the point of OMGWTF, I will repeat in boring-simple-talk: I believe that Revolutions had intelligent content.

As the post title might imply, real matrices, a.k.a. the math ones, are my current research focus. In learning how to model (read on, perv) populations of biological beings utilizing matrices, I found that they are the key to all other modeling problems. While such problems can more intuitively be solved using less specialized methods (i.e. ones understandable through basic algebra), matrices allow more compact and centralized data as well as fairly straightforward manipulation of said data.

Unfortunately, they're dang hard to get an intuitive grasp of. I read about them, think I understand the formulae involved, go on to apply what I think I know, and inevitably find myself referencing the dreaded 'Pedia once again because I completely spaced on the order of the determinant's equation. -Pttb,- I sputter. -Pttb.- I say, use 'em and lose 'em, but don't let them get too far away, or they might find their way to Hollywood, and...Oh, right. That happened. Hmm. Right. Hmm.

Absolutely excellent web-comic, right here:
I read the full 5 years' worth of comics in a day, and then accidentally read the first 2 years again the next day before I even realized what I was doing. Well-written, well-drawn, daily plot development, and no annoying fourth-wall humour that plagues most webcomics expected to publish consistently and often. What's more, it's completely original, as in not based off of anything, unlike 8-Bit Theater, Order of the Stick, or the countless other DnD/FF-inspired spin-offs. It's also really refreshing to have a main character whose only talent is knowing things (at first, but I won't spoil things for anyone!).

And yes, she has tusks. It's awesome. I'll catch ya later, after you've finished the archives.

"I think we should stop trying to rob someone who can see the future."
- Bumper, character from Dominic Deegan, hanging from a trap alongside his murderous associate, Stunt

June Bugs (Someone Somewhere, I'm Sure)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:16:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to Me! I'm 18 now, so I can do whatever I want! Score!

...

So I'm writing my blog again. Part of my excuse is that my main program last quarter went late into the evenings, on the days that I would normally write my entries. The other part is that I was not having much to write about, despite my busy schedule. Now, however, I've got plenty to discuss. I've been a busy boy...Man, rather, now. That's one of the topics, though I've already touched on it. Hmm.

I've graduated from college with a dual degree, a BA/BS. I'm actually confused as to whether it is a single, special degree, or two squished together on one diploma. I've heard it referred to by qualified individuals as the latter, but would one not then require fully double the credits to receive it/them? I completed my degree in four years, only (only) a year early for the BA/BS, so that's obviously not the case. I'm a little concerned about the process . But hey, who am I to complain?

I'm going to upload sections of papers I wrote last quarter as filler for the next few weeks as I feel like it, rather than committing myself to jumping back into the habit of journal so rapidly. So sorry if that disappoints anyone, but I can assure you the material is interesting and accessible. 'Till the morrow!

Witty Quote goes here!
- Note to Self, Don't Forget One This Time

Musings on Fate

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:45:00 +0000

"...we may have to make room for a pre-scientific explanatory concept in our view of human nature - not free will, as many people have suggested to me, but fate. It is not free will because among the traits that may differ between identical twins reared together are ones that are stubbornly involuntary. No one chooses to become schizophrenic, homosexual, musically gifted, or, for that matter, anxious or self-confident or open to experience."

- Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate, 2002

For better or for worse, despite what many would like to believe, each of us has an inherent physiological mental structure developed before we are even born that influences a significant part of our development into adults: such is Pinker's stance on human development.

The idea of fate has been the subject of innumerable philosophical musings, and has been the focal point of religions around the world. Yet here, Pinker posits its existence in a scientific setting. He may not use it in the sense of a complete predetermination of one's future, but it still carries with it an aura of mysticism. How much of out future do we control, if we have inescapable inclinations guiding our thoughts from birth? What responsibility do we carry for our decisions, if 50% of what distinguishes us comes from our environment and the rest derives from the ordering of our DNA? Scientifically, the facts and figures defend the possibility of an incomplete destiny. Morally and socially, a public acceptance of the notion could be devastating to our society's structure.

"Your honor, I am merely a product of the society I was raised in," or, "Am I to be condemned for my father's genetic predispositions?" may become sufficient defenses for those who, by their own volition, are not fit to have relations with the public. With scientific evidence supporting that argument, it would be too easy for the justice system to break down and become a court of recitation. An ugly relic of the Nazi doctrine, the belief that some races are inherently superior to others, comes to mind with this argument, albeit on a familial level. The angry defense of those unwilling to recognize fact may surface as they predict, and consume our culture's current understanding of diversity.

Alternatively, such a realization could incite real change where it is needed: young adults being aware of and taking charge of their environment; a more positive philosophy in which people accept who they are yet seek to improve the world around them; and a rehaul of the educational system, not necessarily the education. Rather than worrying about "messing up" their child's development and using pop methods to improve it, parents could simply love and take care of their children, accepting that they are not in control of and thus not responsible for their fates. Rather than leading to a new wave of racial persecution, a greater understanding of the way one's self works could promote more diverse communities as the fear of difference washes away.

- Piers

Eastergrams!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:05:00 +0000

Here comes my infamous sentence opening: "So, anyways..."

It signifies that I am either distracted and deep in thought on a possibly related topic while I am speaking, or that I am uncomfortable with what immediately preceded and want to emphasize an abrupt transition to another topic. More often than not, the former is the case...However, tonight, it is the latter.

So, anyways...I had absolutely no inspiration to write an entry yesterday, and tonight I am still struggling. If it were not for my deep spiritual frustration and excitement for a reason not even existing in the same half of my brain (as the frustration, just to be clear), I probably would still not be writing at all. So, anyways...Onto the first! Chooray!

So, anyways...It seems as though for the first time I can recall, I have tried my darnedest at something completely realistic that I was committed to and failed utterly at it, losing class credit in the process. Every impression I received from Logic told me it would be a breeze, that it should be a natural skill that I could pick up like I did programming, music composition, and indeed winking. Yet, here I am, near the end of the quarter, and I have been informed by my professor that as far as his bookkeeping is concerned, I've lost all chance of receiving credit for the Logic class. My response: "Dang."

So, anyways...Let me explain a few things before you pass any more judgment than you probably already have...Thank you: My mind is fairly analytical in its function; I can look at a piece of Java code and tell you exactly what problems it will face (beyond it being written in Java), even if the error is in another file I haven't seen yet. The faults are often very logical, predictable failures of the programmer to communicate his or her intent to the machine, and often come from the programmer's inability to keep their entire project and its modules in memory at all times. No offense, people, it's tough to do if the required skills don't come naturally to you, which is why some people are more suited to programming than others. I am able to juggle variables and pointers in my head without a problem, which is why I am such a good programmer.

So, anyways...The "logic" in the Logic class was not entirely what I expected, nor what you might assume it to be based on the name. Very little of it, in my opinion, involved manipulating and analyzing variables to come to truths...And yet, that's exactly what it was composed of. Confused? One word: Proofs. The class revolved around reading, writing, and understanding proofs about operations and theorems relating to logical expressions, for which the logic used was often minimal. Once we proved the theorems, we could use them to prove more! Yey!

So, anyways..."For all x, x implies there exists a y such that x and y." Is that true? Prove it. Small example of what was involved, small example of what I could not accomplish. Speaking with my professor, he explained how similar writing proofs and writing programs are: You are using a strict specified language to explain a process to a non-present observer in both cases, but in the former case the reader is a mathematician and not a computer. The logic (hah) of that argument was extremely compelling, and I wanted to believe it...Unfortunately I found that it was not quite that simple of a translation. I was able to read proofs like code, analyzing the use of different theorems to achieve the end truth, but I failed hopelessly at nearly every attempt at writing one. Either I could not figure out how to proceed, or I proceeded too boldly and failed to show certain steps, or I assumed too much in my mind and so what not able to see what needed to even be proved!

So, anyways...I could not in good conscience turn in an assignment with only half of a problem unsolved, and so several of my homeworks were rendered missing and incomplete...Enough to lose me the potential to even make up the work with an unlikely pass on the final or turn in backlogged papers. I would not even be able to do that anyways, as I still do not know how to write some of the proofs from the first few assignments. Bleah. I give myself up...I'd be hopeless as a mathematician. That occupation now resides below professional golfer, and I hate golf. I'm sure I'd be good at it, but I'm also sure I'm not going to willingly try.

So, anyways...I'm going to have to make up the credits next quarter to graduate. No biggie, so long as I don't fail again. I feel terribly about it all, but one must move beyond the past to conquer the present, as I'm sure someone has said.

So, anyways...Eastergrams! Like Turkeygrams but even less related to the true nature of the holiday they represent! The IMG (Independent Media Group, if I haven't mentioned it before) is going to be orchestrating an attempt to make a name for itself in the world of student groups at Evergreen. We are going to offer interested customers the chance to film a personalized message to be burned on a DVD, with music, graphics, and professional editing to boot. I am developing some draft fliers to advertise, which feature prominently an Easter egg with zippy designs decorating it, as well as formulating a 3D bunny with a basket of eggs and arranging a version of "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" for the messages. It's so corny, but, hey, people have bought worse things. Much worse things. Much.

So, anyways...I'm looking forward to putting those into production soon. We'll have fliers up sometime next week

- Piers

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."
- Betrand Russell

The Chamber Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:47:00 +0000

A sudden flurry of snow on this last day of February inspired me to begin writing this entry, even though I'm still in class and will probably not be able to publish the final version until later today. The fall has somewhat calmed now, though the crystals are still drifting earthwards with a determined patience. They have also decided on one direction to travel, as they had before been streaming left and right on approaching the wind traps that are the Seminar II buildings, chaotically being shunted by the fancy of the most immediate of nature's forces. It looks like there may be more snow later, but for now the precipitation has all but ended. End poetic mode.

...Eh? What's that? There's something you want to know? About... Did I promise something last week? Something about a performance? My performance? Oh-ho, that performance! Yes, hm-hmm, well, that went... Well, well! Very well, in fact... Little better the second night, but overall I was very pleased with the piece I wrote, the people I performed with, and my and their performances, especially considering how much time we all had to prepare.

A small disappointment related to the performance: The full song that I had written was not used. A medley of three Chinese folksongs transformed into an arrangement of one (In That Faraway Place), which, while interesting, well-constructed, and Chinese-sounding (can't believe I managed that), was rather short in length and lacking of a cello. I was satisfied with my part, surprisingly, for which I played the Native American Flute... I thought that I would be the lame leg that caused the piece to limp awkwardly, and that I would have to take pride from the piece itself rather than my aural contribution. Contrary to my assumptions of my ability, I did very well (though my flute did not on the first night) and I hope to experience the thrills of performing again soon. Anyone knowing of any events, please comment and let me know!

My faculty is currently working on transforming the tape to electronic form, so following completion of that I will put a link to the video here. In addition, when I clean it up and incorporate the edits made during practice, I will show the sheet music for the entire piece and for the version that was performed. Yey.

The Next Day:

Yeah, I know... Another late day. Not entirely my fault! I couldn't connect to the server last night, for some reason... Got some bloody Apache error. Granted, had I put the effort into finishing the entry sooner, I probably wouldn't have run into that problem... Which brings me to why my tardiness is at least partially my fault. Spring is one of the greatest successes of Open-Source games I have ever seen... With astounding, efficient graphics, exciting RTS gameplay, and a fairly-well flawless online multiplayer (EA, take note), the robot combat world of Total Annihilation has never looked better. Check it out, see you in the lobby.

And, hey, I may have my first video linking... Ooooooooh. They really cast Bill as the victim in this one...

- Piers

P.S. - Happy March!

"I'm not going to nuke the dog!"
- Ted Sprague, Heroes

WWJBD?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Mondays are my favorite day of the week. It used to be the case that I relished the return to classes after a long, unproductive weekend, but then I found myself capable of independent (read: sans-parents) locomotion and entertainment, and the weekends became quite amiable. I did not stop enjoying class, but the human psyche seems to push towards relaxation and enjoyment over being talked at in a small chair before a chalkboard... So, Mondays became more painful to approach in that way.

Then, a fortuitous series of events began... Four of them, in fact, all on the same night, strangely Monday. They did not all start at once... Indeed, one had begun laying its tangled roots more than a year ago, and another had been running non-stop for six years with no sign of a rest (a veritable Forrest Gump). The two new series were delightful and familiar deviations from the norm, with the more popular of the two being a fantastic gamble and the other being so well-written that the Right-bashing humour occasionally flies over the heads of the most die-hard Democrats. I am of course talking about television series, namely Prison Break, 24, Heroes, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, respectively.

My only issue with such well-rounded entertainment occupying one evening is that I always have to make a choice between Heroes and 24... I find myself asking What Would Jack Bauer Do?, and then I remember he's probably shouting terrorists into submission while having a tumultuous and passionate affair with death. I always pick Heroes because I never know what's coming next, thanks to the X-Men-esque tendency to invent new characters to stir up excitement and the fact that it's fantastik-er than sliced bread with super-strength. -Shudder-

I spent my weekend with friends in Eastern Washington, working and playing and generally having a fun time. One of the big events was a several-hour round of Risk between 5 people... Someone starting with 80% North America added a certain edge to the game, especially when he followed by dominating the North, the South, spreading into Africa, and parking a huge army on Greenland to prevent me from taking Europe (I had some absolutely terrible rolls... The kind that keep one from accomplishing anything other than loss) within the first five turns. 13 armies a day, that early on... Ouch. Fortunately, from the Middle East, there came a 20-army cash and a wave of death that took South America, broke North America, and lowered the Juggernaut to 4 armies a day. He was very sad when it only took him five seconds to count out and distribute his new forces, as opposed to fifty (seconds, in case anyone could not remember the counter).

Wow, that was unexpected... Not really, but... Yeah. Our other big "events" included Apples to Apples, which I won courtesy of Mr. Walt Disney (I owe so much of my livelihood to that man), and a big meeting that only happened after we had all definitively left for home. Thank Mick Jagger for speakerphone.

For news concerning the Chinese Culture Exhibition, I have sadness to convey... It appears that I will not be able to film the performances on the scale and quality that I had hoped for, due to other students' wishes. However, I do hope to get an actual recording session with my guitarist and whatever percussionists I can get ahold of after the Saturday performance, as well as a home-movie-quality-camera-taped-video of Friday's.

Ghost Rider's a pretty good movie... You should check it out. According to the sales statistics, there's a good chance you already have anyways, in which case... Who do you think would have made a better Blaze? If you say "What do you mean, better? I love Nic Cage!" then I will slay you with a fractured butterfly wing. He's a terrible actor, and he named his son Kal-El. That wows me even more than Vista was supposed to. Oh yeah, that's right, that came out. Wow.

- Piers

"Yeah, well, reality is kicking faith's ass."
- Dominic Purcell as Lincoln Burrows, Prison Break

Duct Tape

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:10:00 +0000

So I've decided to break away from the advanced template machine and start using Classics. Smart me. Pretty much all I've accomplished so far is a total gutting of features and content, with some of the stuff I had before stuck on with duct tape. Meh. Don't despair, as I am... I'm a fast learner and a good programmer, so I should be able to handle a little CSS and custom tags, right?

Right?

- Piers

"Duct tape is like the Force: It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."
- Carl Zwanzig

Oh Noze!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:27:00 +0000

It finally happened. I missed my deadline.

There exist words that describe the level of shame I feel for this failure... They are Japanese words, and they are uttered by only the truest warriors moments before they sully their brittle blades for the last time. On themselves.

Fortunately for you all, I do not know these words, and thus I cannot follow through on the honorable action that might redeem my soul in the omnipresent eyes of Mick Jagger. Come on, you know it to be true! Anywho, I'm alive and well and ready to write! So ready that I am, in fact. Hmm. Let's get this going.

First of all, I would like to assure you that there will never ever be another hurried and classless post like last week's (excepting my having a very bad day), and apologize for still leaving it there to be read. However, I wrote it, and I have issues with modifying what has already come to pass to save face or cheat causality. I could launch into a philosophical examination of what I mean by that, but... Perhaps another time. For now, I'm sticking by my promise that I will only edit to rectify, clarify, or emulsify. Yes, I know what word I'm using. Bonus points to whomever can realize how I'm using it.

Secondly, I would like to make an announcement, and you can't do anything about it. In previous posts I had indicated my interest in musiking, and that I eventually wanted to share my productions with all of you. That can soon be a reality! I discovered a wonderful web service called TubeYou or something like that that hosts admittedly painfully-compressed videos... For free! I'm excited to try this out with my music, but first I must have a video to upload and a decent internet connection with which to do so. While I could simply put my songs to kaleidoscopic visual effects or slideshows of inspired images I would much rather have something a bit more interesting, which brings me to

Sanban (another announcement), I am going to be performing my music for the first time next week! To make a short story long(-er), my music faculty's Chinese culture class (correct me if I'm wrong on any of these points, A, so that I may better know what I'm doing) is hosting an event at Evergreen to which I have been invited by said faculty. While there will be some other musical performances by both professionals and students, there will also be examples of Chinese opera, short plays, and other artistic endeavors with an East-Asian-feel.

For my part, I am taking three traditional Chinese songs, adding my own flavor to them, and then joining them into a medley of (logically) three parts. I have so far written two of those parts and am working on the third. Featured instruments: Native American Flute, Guitar, Cello, and a variety of small percussion such as jingle bells and woodblocks. I will be performing the Flute and the Cello (not at the same time, mind you... I've got mad skills but I'm not that mad), and am contracting other students for the other instrumental positions.

I'm hoping that a student media group I recently got involved with (we're totally not getting married, though, to put your minds at ease) or my friends in Evergreen's Mediaworks program will be able to film, record, or otherwise document the performances and produce acceptable results to publish for public benefit. You better hope it all works out... Cross your fingers. And the other ones. Wrap your arms together. Now your legs and toes. Twist your tongue over. Cross your eyes. Hop. Hop! Oh, that's right... You crossed your eyes first. Sorry.

Well, this tremendous post is disintegrating... Next week I will fo' sho' post on Wednesday, hopefully with the sheet music for what I will be performing over the weekend -glee-. For now, enjoy my excitement as I go off to write t3H_muz1k that will lead to my fame/demise on the fortuitous nights to come... Bum bum buuuuum...

- Piers

"...disillusion with the present and a certain nostalgia for the past could combine with a passionate hope for the future to bring the old order crashing down, opening the way for an uncertain passage to the new.”
- Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China

15 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:45:00 +0000

I have 15 minutes to write this post, starting... NOW.

If you're wondering why I only have 15 minutes, long story short, food. I like food. I'm still teenager enough to crave it every second of the day, to graze mindlessly through bags and buckets of edible material, to... You get the idea. Eating is a bad habit at times, like chewing your nails or watching reality television.

... I think I just found something better to talk about, but it is not RTV... Those shows don't deserve my ranting. I have a beef with ABC. 9 minutes.

ABC's significant lineup, the heavy hitters: Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Men in Trees, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, and Lost. What do all of these shows have in common, besides being based around the experiences of single (or at least single at the start of the show) women? Sex. They are all hinged around relationships, crushes, attractive people staring at each other from across a(n) operating room, fashion runway, pool table, pool, dinner table, or dinosaur-infested jungle (hey, I still believe that). At least 10% of each episode is checking out people checking out other people. 4 minutes. Less.

Men in Trees is probably the worst offender... I suppose people couldn't associate with the main characters or the setting (Elmo, Alaska), and the show nearly flopped at the offset. I know I wasn't impressed with it. Within a few episodes, everyone was getting steamy in the snow and fighting over each other and... I still don't see much improvement. The episode previews consist of people launching themselves at one another, split frames showing all of the kissing going on up north, and allusions as to what is happening down south. Ooh. 1 minute.

So, I was hoping to make a longer, more media-ful post today... Flubbed that when I decided to get stuck doing some impossible work. I promise I'll make this up to all three (four?) of my loyal readers with a new one tomorrow. Until then, I'll see what kind of quote I can find in 20 seconds...

- Piers

EDITED: Fixed some glaring typos, fixed the fact that I posted it twice (?), and added tags and links to things. I realize that there were a few places where I could have put some links and I didn't, but... Some of those involved lines I didn't want to cross at just this point.

"A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat."
- Katharine Whitehorn

Funky Groove

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:48:00 +0000

I have just come out of my worst "funk" in extant memory, taking with me the guilt of unfinished homework assignments, several wins in The Battle for Middle-Earth II online, and a variety of flavored popcorn (I like mango best). It was the case for me, on Monday morning, that I woke up and wished I hadn't. I used to like Monday mornings, but that was before I joined a role-playing group that typically rolls dice until the time when you just stop caring about the subtle distinction between A.M. and P.M. and start caring about having a soft pillow. I know it's my choice, that I shouldn't whine about it, but observe whilst I enlighten your view on the situation:

While researching a project for work or class, you come across a Wikipedia article that is both extensive and informative (-snort-) but only slightly relevant to what you are studying. You click on a few reference links to see if you can find something more specific, and within 15 minutes you are pondering the mystery of whether her real name is Aeris or Aerith.

I also have examples relating to reality tee-vee, roller coasters, and junk food, but in the interest of time... My point is this: There are a lot of things in life that upon detailed inspection may seem pointless, dangerous, nasty, irrelevant, and/or despicable, but while you're watching/riding/eating/playing it it is the best thing on this once-green-er Earth. It is that way with D&D.

Where was I... Well, I'm obviously over my funk, feeling creative and productive again, still feeling tired beyond what a normally -functioning person should feel. I'll give you a moment to ponder the sarcasm contained in that hyphen there. Anyone who purposefully leads their life as a hard-core Republican in order to make fun of Republicans has to have some imbalance, albeit one with hai-larious results (see the quote (but of course you will)).

- Piers

"I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound — with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."
- Stephen Colbert, at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

Flautist?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:28:00 +0000

I've been playing the alto flute for about 2 weeks now, and I think I'm getting pretty good. I've figured out that blowing straight into the hole on the end isn't how you're supposed to make sound, though it was working for me for a while. I had a very nice wind sound, and I could make it louder or softer depending on how hard I blow. Upon learning that the tiny hole (called the em-bow-sher) in the side of the other end was the receptacle for my mouth-wind, I became very embarrassed and decided to get a book to act as reference for the more arcane practices involved with flauting. Since then, I have managed to place my fingers properly on the keys, make a puckered face in the mirror, and pretend to play first chair in the LPO to the Lord of the Rings soundtracks.

Seriously, though, I have been improving, and can hit nearly any note in its range with little hesitation. The flute is a fairly complex instrument, in both its construction and performance, and is all the more rewarding for it. I enjoy woodwinds primarily because they allow me singular control of each note from multiple sources (breath, fingers, etc.) that you don't get from the piano or guitar. (Bowed) Strings are similar, as the pressure you apply with the bow coupled with the speed with which you bring it across the instrument can dramatically alter the sound. The cello is a particularly rich example, as its range stretches across some particularly vibrant notes. Brass is much less subtle for the most part, with the exception of the horn. Man, that thing is sweet.

Ok, you caught me... I write music. Lots of it. Orchestral, jazz, techno, more orchestral than anything, but still. I just spent about 30 minutes trying to find a way to upload one of my clips to no avail, so you'll have to hold out on proof of my composership until I figure out how to get space on the internet. For free. Ain't gonna happen, I know...

OCRemix.org is an excellent site for both lovers of excellent music and video games, and even lovers of both excellent music and video games (See the way I utilized psuedo-ambiguity for humour? I'm a regular Tycho). I frequent it frequently, my shopping list of titles and authors in hand, and download like a preteen with a credit card on iTunes, excepting the fact that these fan-made remixes are free and thus require no credit card. Sorry, djpretzel, I wish I weren't so cheap, but... Yeah. Moving on!

I'm starting a Links section adjacent to the entries, where I will include links (obviously) to sites and articles relevant to the most recent post. What I'll do with them after they've lost recentity, I don't know. I don't care. They don't matter.

- Piers

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
- Voltaire

Not Alone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:50:00 +0000

You may think I forgot about what Thursday is for (see the last post if you are completely in the dark). I didn't. Thursday is for nothing. Nothing.

So I was just browsing blogs, and I came across this gem. It's a fantastic compilation of day-to-day experiences and stories from the life of a former teacher with three crazy kids like me. Check it out.

- Piers

"Good Heavens, Larry! Why are you slapping a monkey?"
- Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt, Night at the Museum

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:00:00 +0000

I've never been able to keep up with a journal before. My first excuse for this (of many) is that I don't like writing. I enjoy the creative effort involved and the finished product is rewarding, but the regimental application of pen to paper demands a discipline I reserve for only the most critical activities (such as Waking Up, Homework, and Flossing). Even typing comes with difficulty, as there are so many more interesting things to do on a computer than simple Word Processing. As an example:

Theobald Boehm (April 9, 1794- November 25, 1881) was a Bavarian inventor musician, who perfected the modern flute and its improved fingering system. In addition, he was a virtuoso flautist and was a Bavarian Court Musician as well as a celebrated composer for the flute.

Born in Munich in Bavaria, Boehm learned his father's trade of goldsmithing. After making his own flute, he quickly became proficent enough to play in an orchestra at the age of eighteen and at twenty-one he was first flute in the Royal Bavarian Orchestra. Meanwhile, he experimented with constructing flutes out of many different materials such as tropical hardwoods (usually Grenadilla wood), silver, gold, nickel and copper as well as experimenting with changing the positions of the flute's tone holes. After a study of acoustics at the University of Munich, he began experimenting on improving the flute in 1832, first patented his new fingering system in 1847 and his new flute was first displayed in 1851 at the London Exhibition. In 1871 Boehm published "Die Flöte und das Flötenspiel" (The Flute and Flute-Playing), a treatise on the acoustical, technical and artistic aspects of the Boehm system flute.

Thank you, Wikipedia, for ruining the productivity of students and office workers world-wide.

My mom (Hi Mom!) has been trying for Ever to help me break down my mental barriers by buying me stylish themed notebooks every few years, with the hope that Philosophical Quotes or Dilbert Cartoons will inspire me to write my personal thoughts on top of them. Typically, I just read the comics and/or sayings and then set the book down. Down, on one of the many stacks of "organized" material that litter my room, to sift earth-wards over the course of tens of days and be lost for eternity... Until the next excavation party (read: me) stumbles upon it incidentally sometime in the distant future, it is lost to memory and functionally non-existent.

Now, to administration. Hi, I'm Piers. This is my journal. You may be wondering why I am inclined to begin journalling now, after my extensive excuse showed why this decision is unlikely to carry any weight. The simplest answer is this: My life is going to take some wicked curves in the coming months, and I want to document them. Posting them publicly will not only put pressure on myself to keep writing, but will also offer you, the public, the chance to comment and pass on advice from your own experience. While I'm not offering much of a prompt in this first entry (unless you'd like to rave about/harp on my discipline and organizational skills), in future weeks there will be a wide variety of issues and ideas to reflect on.

Speaking of the future, I plan to post a new article every week on Wednesdays, which are good days because they lie fairly cleanly in the middle of each week. That gives me time to goof off on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, rush furiously on Monday to complete Tuesday's homework, rush furiously on Tuesday to complete Wednesday's homework, rush furiously on Wednesday to complete Thursday's... Wait... Oh. Dang. Anywho, I may also post short addendums to supplement the main entry before the next Wednesday, to indicate breaking developments that may not flow with the week's continuity. I will edit comments for the more hideous and glaring misspellings and net-speaks, and may edit my own posts if someone points out a grammatical or spelling error(s) (Mick Jagger forbid).

To conclude posts, I will typically (as with this week) provide you with an insightful or amusing quote, though I may also provide links to images, websites, or videos that I discover and find interesting. Until next week!

- Piers

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
- Proverb