Music Mapped

So I was shown a wonderful and beautiful thing today. Pandora.com is an amazing online radio that has a huge and complex system that analyzes every aspect of music and then finds other music like it so that you can listen to any genre and discover new bands and new... stuff. If you like music, you have to try it. It is free, no spam, Its beautiful, elegant, easy to use, easy to find things, essentially everything a good website should be, and then it plays the most amazing music. There are also links to discussions about music, talks about the intricacies of music, how to record music, what makes a song a song, and I'm excited and I'm going to go back and fool with it for hours before I go to bed. Its the most amazing thing that has happened to me in a long time. I don't just throw those type of comments around either. This is fantastic stuff. You have got to try it. I don't think I have ever advertised so vehemently for anything ever before in my life. You gotta try it.

The TCK Experience

Here you can see that I really do live in two worlds, and I can't have both halves at once. Sucks to be me. This picture was generated for me by the facebook application friend wheel. Cool, huh? If you click on the picture it will take you to a much larger picture where you can see everything a little more clearly. Really shows the value of family. They are the only ones that bridge the gap.

Some weird stuff

That last post was 12^2 posts. Exciting.

At the moment I've just gotten back from a confusing computer science lab where I had to figure out how to do address passing between the main and sub main functions. This is after I had already solved the problem.

I'm playing Evanescence on an R&B equalizer setting, which is interesting. Brings it out somehow. I guess there are good things about R&B: they have good EQ settings. Fun.

I have a thought for a deep post, but it involves finding my phone cable and uploading pictures and stuff and I'm supposed to be writing an English paper.

pickups and tuning forks

Did you know that if you bang a tuning fork and hold it up to the pickups of an electric guitar it will make an interesting noise? Just so you know...

Freaking Busy!

Some post huh? Its just huge. I'm reading papers by people who claimed to be second in their class and ranted for nine pages about how they were better than the other guy. Juvenile...?

I'm 19 now. My birthday sucked. I spent five hours writing computer programs that didn't work, and took a physics test that decided to not like me. Nuff said.

Blindside is random. The music goes up, the music goes down, and there is no telling which way it will go next. Its like the author took a pgp key generator, converted the whole thing to binary and then worked out an algorithm to convert ones to possitive note frequency shifts, zeros to negative shifts. Then did it again with timing. Then started screaming.

I have to get back to explaining why my revisions are as crazy as they are so that I won't be persecuted by this person for the rest of my life. I'm crazy? Maybe.

Well, I'm evil. I don't post in forever and then this is all I get out. The problem with blogging is that the more things you have to blog about, the less time you have to do it.

And the spell checker isn't working anymore.

For Those Who Stayed up with me....

my bird did come. At 2:45 sharp. We may actually be able to board by 3:15AM, and be off the ground by 4:00 AM. Remarkable. I have really enjoyed this Internet connection, definitely worth the 7 bucks I had to put into it to make it work. I got several hours of entertainment out of it as well as a good long conversation with various family members. I can't wait to see them, I'm only hours away now!

Santa Clause and Anti Clause

Well, I just finished reshuffling my suitcases for my flight back to Yemen. Royal Jordanian is a mess. Yes, they may be cheap, no, you don't really want to fly on them because they have had numerous flight schedule changes, and I have no idea how much it costs to be over weight. So I had to go under the weight limit, and Seeing as I am carrying gifts from two sets of grandparents, an aunt and a family member for Christmas, I felt a good deal like Santa. Unfortunately, due to all the stuff I was trying to get rid of my clothes and other "essentials" before I had to become Anti Clause and start leaving gifts behind. Fortunately I managed to get everything in and situated... Mostly... Minus three or four books, one pair of shoes, two sets of my clothes, my backpack, my guitar amplifier, and a ton of other useless stuff. I think I forgot one of my gifts in my closet in my dorm, and as I am now in Columbus, I can't just pull it out and stuff it in. All the gifts are in at any rate, and I think I managed to get some stuff that will make people happy. It is nice to be able to bring special stuff from overseas, and it does make shopping for gifts a bit easier.

At any rate, I should go spend time with grandparents. Pray for a smooth flight and no random security checks.

WOOT!

I finished my first semester of University. I just have to hold out for another day. I think I have the books, video games and empty pieces of paper to keep my mind off of all this glorious free time. I haven't been this high since... uh... um... A while. (That's sad Graham. I know, but you can shut up. No, you. Go away, there is only supposed to be one personality going on here. What? Why? Just because the semester ended doesn't mean you can utterly loose it. Since when have I lost it? Just now! What? Yes! I'm me, what does that have to do with loosing it? Uh... Only everything? Oh...yeah...about that...forgot... heh, sorry me. So, now that we are done arguing with myself, we can continue our blog.) I now feel the delirium of nearly pure bliss. The only two things disturbing my inner peace (shaky as it is) is the fact that I have to wait a whole week to get on an airplane to go home, and the second is the simple fact that I have a good solid another 7 semesters to go, and they probably only get harder. Oh well, I have a month off now. Time to destroy something.

Life and then the lack there of

A lot has happened in these last few weeks. Classes have been winding down, Tomorrow I pack up my chemistry lab drawer for the year. In ways I feel more alive than ever before, This Christmas I go back to Yemen and party out with my family (odd, no?) as well as a good number of friends that I wasn't entirely sure I would see again. Friends that I might not ever really run into again include the Wrights, Stephen Whitson, the Powers...

Despite all this, there are many things that make weeks very fun. I have been eating breakfast a few days a week with an interesting fellow, very intelligent but bellow par social skills. I think that contributes to us getting along as well as we do. Running into new music has also been a true pleasure. Before the year started I hadn't really heard of Within Temptation, Demons & Wizards, Deathstars, Guano Apes, Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, and Lordi. Half of it is so over the top that its just crazy and funny to listen too, others are more serious and have some good talent like Within Temptation. Others just sort of mesh with my style. Like Demons & Wizards. Its like a nerd group that worked out, and I have the yelling from their rip off of Led Zeppelins Immigrant song echoing in my head. They use a lot more reverb on it and that really worked out for me. When it all comes down to the end of the day, I just gotta go for some good old Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation. Making music has been a blast. One evening after a Purdue CORPS rally I hung out with three guitars and two friends and just made some music. In my life, I find very little indeed that is more gratifying than making music with a few friends, and in general, the larger the instrument, the more fun. Pipe organs rock. I should learn the Tuba. Actually, my amp is about that size, I'll just stick with it. Lunch with Andrew has been a blast, wandering through new video games here and there, making a few comics to one side or the other, learning how to integrate (cosx/sinx)dx, exploring the nanoscopic worlds of crystalline structures, getting huge speech assignments out of the way, designing 10000 USD sound systems complete with dual FBX and FBQ (same thing really) three power amplifiers, and a few other good fun things.

The few things that I wish were different about the situation is I wish my family was a little more accessible. Skype has been a blessing, but there isn't anything like actually looking at a face not just a digitized on screen version of a face if even that. Another disappointment has been my bike. I wrecked it once, and I'm up to having it simply fall apart twice now. Both times it was the rear derailleur. The first time it just popped open and I lost the first gear but I managed to find it. So I took out some chain links and converted it to a single speed. It works. Then the derailleur continued to fall apart. Both times it fell apart, it was dark out, and the second time I was in the middle of an intersection. Needless to say I'm missing a few pieces and I'm not sure where I'm going to get them. I found one days latter in slightly flatter condition than it fell off my bike in. The rest are probably stuck in tires somewhere or in the gutter or down the road. More than ever now I want sky runners. For sheer coolness factor, those take it all the way. The great thing is that they are small, they can be thrown in a closet somewhere when the world is iced over like it is now, and they don't have as many movable parts as bikes. Less stuff to break. Other bad things include the fact that I'm sick now, I should be able to finish up classes and stuff, its just going to be more miserable now. Its also cold. I am really looking forwards to my trip to the beach here.

To Keep You Entertained

Just a little something. http://boredanarchist.blogspot.com Hope you like it. If that gets dull (and it probably will, its not very long) check out http://www.xkcd.com for more amusement.

Engineering and America

Why is it that a student in a top range mechanical engineering school isn't expected to be able to fix his own bike? To me this seems utterly stupid. Yes there are things that they might not know about, but the whole reason that they are in university is to develop a mind that can solve problems. Besides, in university, the marvel that is the Internet is accelerated into a beast that has all knowledge. You want to know how to weave spokes? Look it up. Same thing goes for adjusting breaks, raising the seat, changing the rims, anything. So. Bike was wrecked, bike is now unwrecked, and you have no idea how wonderful having a bike is. Especially one as nice as mine. It's got its problems, but all in all, she is a perfect bike for me. Tough enough to deal with curbs, but a little bit of road bike in her as well. Ideal for all the pavement: the narrow tires (one of which is 50% brand new. Thought I couldn't true a wheel, didja Christina?) don't produce nearly as much drag as the standard mountain bike. Anywayz, I'm back in business. With wheels. Rock on.

The Happy Friday Guy

As requested, here is a picture of the Happy Friday Guy. The picture is terrible. I will try to get a better one of him sometime, but for now, this will give you an idea of whats going on. Part of the reason it is so bad is because I took it at fairly long range and then used photoshop to sort of zoom in on him while maintaining some semblance of resolution, and the other reason was that I was in a hurry. Anyways, there is always more time to take pictures. I think this is a phenomenon that will last the semester at least. Winter could get interesting...

Something Learned in Uni...

All this money has not completely gone to waste. I have just figured out why its really bad to burn plastic: most plastics are sort of modified hydrocarbon chains. Hydrocarbon chains are what you put in your fuel tank of your car. They burn. Quite nicely. Good fun. Only problem is that plastics and nylons and Teflons and all this stuff are very similar chemically. Difference: when you burn hydrocarbons you release carbon and hydrogen and bond them with oxygen to release copious amounts of heat, water, and carbon dioxide. All good fun. Useful for exploding things. (and transport.) Plastics and such though. Different story: Carbon and something else entirely than hydrogen. Say Florine. Or chlorine. Or almost anything else. Or a combination of things. I think good old Styrofoam is chlorine... and when that burns... I'm not sure what comes off of that, carbon dioxide and something else, and its going to be one of three things: worst case scenario: chlorine gas. Used in world war II to wipe out soldiers in trenches. Not good. that or dichlorineoxide... actually, make that four things: dichloro-oxide or hexachloro-oxide, or any combination of the above. I have no idea what dichloro-oxide is, nor do I want to know what it does to a human body. Suffice that burning plastics and breathing the smoke is not a good idea. Nuff said.

Random things you see around campus

The happy Friday guy: skintight suit, underwear as outerwear, a mask, a cape, either a scooter or a bike, and a spirit of happiness and Fridayness. I have seen this dude several times. last week he nearly caused a riot in our chem lecture on Friday. I hope he doesn't stop, cause I get a kick out of it.

The gorilla on a bike: man dressed in gorilla suit, riding a bike. Go figure.

The breakfast club: Be ye spartan from 300 or be ye... rock star, drink ye and stagger to the game. I don't get this. Why wake up early just to get drunk? Why? There are greater pleasures in life. Such as making fun of them.

The frats throwing things at passers by. Including footballs, at people, including me, while riding a bike.

A guy on a unicycle. Welcome to the circus everyone!

guys tight rope walking between trees: This place takes a circus and makes it look quite tame, really.

The punks, the weirdos, the afro men, the hippies, and the rest of the psych department: Enough said.

Math

Is trying to kill me. Its not hard, I just don't get it, if that makes any sense to you at all. It makes sense to me though. I may need to see a head shrinker some time soon. I keep making realizations about related rates that should be totally obvious, but that I have somehow missed. Bizarre. and I have a test in 36 minutes. I think I'll take a nap. Or play Jetman. Fizzle.

Computers. Male or Female?

This is a little crude in places, but it is a cohesive whole. I found it at http://www.gdargaud.net/Humor/QuotesComputer.html if you want the rest of it. There are a lot of other interesting things on that site as well, such as the top ten reasons to date an engineer, which I am considering promoting, as well as the top ten reasons not to date an engineer, which are still funny, but don't make me look as good.

Men think that computers should be referred to as female, just like ships, because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
2. The language in which they communicate among themselves is incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. The message "Bad command or File Name" is about as informative as "if you don't know why I'm mad at you, I'm certainly not going to tell you !"
4. Your smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for later retrieval.
5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you spend half your paycheck on accessories for it.
6. Miss a period and they go wild.
7. You do the same thing for years, and suddenly it's wrong.

Women think computers are male because:
1. They have lots of data, but are still clueless.
2. They are supposed to solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.
3. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had only waited a bit longer, you could have had a better model.
4. To get their attention, you have to "turn them on".
5. A big "power-surge" will knock them out for the rest of the night !
6. It is always necessary to have a backup.
7. They'll do whatever you say if you push the right buttons.
8. Size does matter.

Pipe Organs...

And guitars. Who would have thought?

At any rate, I have discovered some things about pipe organs that surprised me. This is anything out of whatever I expected.

They are loud. Yes I previously knew they were loud, but they are louder than I thought.
They have lots of pipes per key. The ones you see on the outside are just one set. There are lots more inside.
They can sound really funky. Who ever heard of a pipe organ that sounds like a bell?
They are electrical. It makes sense to control it with electronics, but it wasn't what I was expecting.
The cool factor is through the roof.
And finally, whoever thought of the whole pipe organ concept and was crazy enough to actually go out and build one is some sort of twisted genius. Emphasis on twisted. Twisted, but cool. Very cool. Very twisted, very cool.

In two hours from now I'm going to be blowing Lafayette down again. I hope I can survive the cool factor again. I think I'm prepared for it this time, but all the same, the deal was out of this world. Way out.

My Room + Futon = ...

This is a fast view of my room with tiny pics taken on my cell phone, which I now cannot live without. It was a super fast transition between never used one and can't live without one.

This is a picture of my bed. Its not really clear, but you can sort of see that I have a little head room once you get past the initial board. Its really comfortable.

a view of my desk. Yes, it really is this messy. I need to do something about it. I'm now blogging on the computer in the picture... This blog is really what my room looks like.

my room mates' desks and one of our unused tvs. My desk is the one closest to the camera on the far left.

this is the view just to the right of the previous picture. One of the desks is in the far left corner as you face away from the door, and we have a huge window across from the door. Those fans are both 2o inches tall. The top of the windows is another 30 cm up. On the right side of the picture is the tv that we are using

this picture is taken slightly to the right of the previous picture There is the other tv we don't use, except as a bed side table thing. It smells like smoke though. We might need to do something about it. These are our beds. My bed is the one in the middle. There is actually a good deal more room in there that you can't see. This is another picture of our beds, but you can also see our fridge in the back a little bit, as well as our food shelf and a futon. The futon is interesting, because you have to climb over it to get into the other half of the room.

ye olde futone. Which we have to climb over to get into the other half of the room. Behind it is Daniel's chest and under that is my chest of drawers. On top of the chest are Kleenexes and such. To give you an idea of how huge the futon is, I can lay down on it and have a little bit of space at both my head and my foot.

And that's about it. Very comfortable, less space than there was, but over all, the futon was a good improvement to our room.

The Weather

I never thought I would find myself discussing the weather quite yet. As it stands though, Lafayette is the first place where talking about the weather makes sense. Anywhere else in the world you can make an educated guess as to what is going to happen. Here your craziest bet is as likely as anything else. As likely if not more likely. There is something up with the weather here.

Talking about the weather here is like talking about a crazy person. They may or they may not. Psychology can only explain some of the end results, but it can never predict anything with any degree of accuracy. It does provide an interesting discussion point.

My latest reaction was that it was demon possessed. Give me a break. This was early in the morning. Anyone who knows me well will know that I don't say anything really coherent between the time I wake up and when most of the people around me are starting to eat lunch. This is regardless of the amount of caffeine I ingest. I was on my way out of my 7:30 class, and the weather was black and frowning. And it was crazy cold. And the wind was blowing. I nearly made the sign of the crucifix at it, and then I tried to cross myself, only to realize that I didn't actually have "Hail, Mary" memorized. I fumbled to a stop, blinked, and decided that demon possessed or not, I was going to have to get over it and go outside.

Life is intense

I just figured out how to do artificial harmonics, I'm doused in sweat from Karate, where they assume you are marginally intelligent and have some degree of coordination, I had two classes canceled, and I worked on class work today. I have been busy! But it feels great! And artificial harmonics are wicked. Make that guitar scream baby!