Reading: Oldest Surviving Complete Musical Composition

The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest known complete musical composition. It was found on a tombstone in Turkey.

Here is the original Greek notation.

This is what it looks like when translated into modern musical notation.


Listen to the tune played in midi.

Science Fair: Generate Your Own Electricity From Rocking

This one would win the science fair if you could pull it off. The rocking chair generates its own electricity to power the lamp. The designer explains the concept this way, "a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity."

Must read up on advanced nano-dynamo technology (sounds like a great super power).

Birthday: Happy Birthday Hannah

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Try this Curious George Zoomazing game when your celebrating. You can practice your signs with the different animals.

Peace: Facebook - Peace Through Technology

Great timing after the post yesterday giving "Peace a Chance." Facebook has a new site promoting peace through technology called Peace on Facebook. The site illustrates the connections and friendships made through Facebook between seemingly opposed groups.

War: Give Peace A Chance

Seems to be a flood of stories today about conflict. Let's just meet around the bonfire with our guitars and tambourines and sing all night long.

They disabled the embed code on this, but check out John Lennon's plea.

Music: Roadtrip to Austin

We took a road trip to Austin this weekend to see a backyard concert. We saw the band Vallejo in this lady's backyard in Georgetown. It was incredible listening to an acoustic concert under the moon, with the crickets singing harmony in the background. We also stood around the bonfire, and were forced (no really twist my arm) to take a shot with the lead singer after.

Thank you Mike for the invitation, Gammy and Grandma for entertaining Leo (and breakfast), and Pete and Jenny for the fantastic company (and great stories).

Halloween: Better Method For Cutting A Pumpkin

Much improved design both for fetching the candle as well as de-seeding.

DIY: Marshmallo Blaster

This should make a nice accompnament to our potato cannon. Seems easy enough, and you can add a laser pointer for a guidance system.

Reading: Artificial Intelligence

A little more complex Thursday reading for Isaac. However, a classic computing, as well as science fiction discussion of artificial intelligence. Why the Turing test is not a good criteria for an anthropomorphic standard.

I love the science fiction argument that an intelligent alien would fail the test as well, but that wouldn't make them not intelligent, just non-human.

Music: Scary Halloween Movie Themes

I hear the Exorcist theme and it still creeps me out a bit. This site has seven of the scariest. Of course, John Williams is the man, and you can find Jaws in there as well.

Gardening: Dymaxion Hammock and Wolfram|Alpha

I can't think of much better than a giant dymaxion hammock in my back yard.



Want to figure out what dymaxion means? Today is also "Homework Day" at Wolfram|Alpha. The search engine is built on top of an extremely complex mathematical engine. Today they have discussions and lesson plans for using the search engine for learning.

Comics: My Way Is The Right Way

I guess we all have times when we think we're right, but ...

Music: Let Us Rejoice

Too funny to pass up. The Hava Negeilah Blues from Bob Dylon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvnD5psKYnQ&feature=player_embedded

Reading: New Horizons To Pluto

Thursday reading for Isaac. This article discusses NASA's New Horizons project to flyby the planet (well, dwarf planet) Pluto. The spacecraft is traveling at 51,000 miles per hour (New York to L.A. in 3.5 seconds).

Quote Of The Day: Understanding

This quote applies in technology (call it job security), but seems to be at work in government as well.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair

Weekend: Playing Catch

After a furiously busy beginning to our weekend, we finally got to settle down Sunday to a game of dominoes and some catch. For all the events and schedules we create, I find none of it really beats a spontaneous game of catch.

I'm reading this science fiction book, through RSS subscription, by Cory Doctorow. In this scene, the characters simply play catch.

when it smacked his glove, it felt so right, the sound and the vibration and the fine cloud of dust that rose up from the mitt’s pocket, Christ, it was like a sacrament.

The act of playing seems to illustrate how inappropriate words are sometimes.

Music: Spanish Sponge Bob Singing a Cover Song

Can you figure out what song Sponge Bob is covering? Quiero que me quieras! Love it, I'm going to start saying this to Denise along with the other one she taught me, "Te amo mucho con todo me corazon."

Animation: Online Animation Engine

Create your own online animations. Looks pretty cool.

Reading: Table Top Black Hole

A new installment of Thursday reading material for Isaac. The "First black hole for light created on Earth."

Football: Pearland Football Eagles

Here are some pictures from the team's blog, go check it out. It usually has weekly updates on the games.

Since Isaac is the center he doesn't easily get in many pictures. Look, there's his hand on the ball.



Oh here he is in the team's huddle after the game. It sure is fancy having your name on the back of the jerseys.

Development: Virtual Storefront

I've been asked to keep an eye on these Virtual Storefront applications. This one is built on PayPal's API as a payment mechanism. Looks like it could be easily set-up on FaceBook to sell T-Shirts or supplies.

No reason to develop these shopping cart and storefront applications from scratch anymore.

Space: 50 Years Of Space Exploration

Excellent graphic application from National Geographic demonstrating the various space manned and un-manned missions into our neighboring planets. You can zoom in to read the names and follow the path of the various voyages.

Music: Queens Of The Stone Age Mashup

Cool and easy-going mashup, perfect after a busy three day weekend. Queens of the Stone Age mashed with Johnny Cash guitar.

Games: JS Wars

Interesting game for the kids. Written entirely in JavaScript. Good trick!

Quotes: Friday Quote of the Day

I find the definition of Good and Bad deeds can be skewed by perspective. I would rather say anything worth doing is worth doing with zeal.

Let a good man do good deeds with the same zeal that the evil man does bad ones. The Belzer Rabbi

I think I like this one better.

You say "looks like somebody has too much time on their hands" but all I hear is "I'm sad because I don't know what creativity feels like." Dan Wineman

Space: How Far Away Is The Moon

Denise had a great question this morning while we were watching the Lunar collision with Isaac, "How far away is the moon?" The question invites an interesting study in perspective.

• We know it takes about an hour to get to rugby practice (about 50 miles)
• We know its about 200 miles to Austin from Houston
• The moon, however, is 238,857 miles (depending on where and when you measure)
• Mars on the other hand is 34,646,418 miles

Space: LCROSS Crashing Into the Moon

This page gives several methods for watching the LCROSS collision into the moon on Friday morning. Hopefully, we can watch it with Isaac before heading to school and work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LOVER

Just a quick post to the man of my dreams! I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays today. You are such an amazing person. You are a fantastic father, my very best friend, and the most loving husband a wife could ask for. You are my sunshine and my anchor when life seems strange and confusing. Most importantly, you are the glue to holds our family together and keep us on the path of positive adventures. Today our family honors you and the love you so unconditionally and loyally share with us.

Today we celebrate you Amor! Feliz Cumpleanos. I love you forever.

Besos,
Denise

Music: Mechanical Reproduction Of Digitized Speech

Very cool project making a piano speak.

Reading: NASA Discovers New Ring Around Saturn

Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA has discovered a massive ring around Saturn.

Food: Making Kimchi

Here's a kimchi recipe from Granny Choe. On her website, she even gives instructions for kimchi pancakes. Interesting!

Quote: Monday Quote Of The Day

We've always looked suspiciously at children who do not have their share of bumps and bruises, fearing that they are not being as adventurous as they should. Thankfully, when the inevitable bruises come, our family is always there to kiss it and make it fell better.

Thank you to our family this weekend, for healing our worries and bringing a warm smile to our faces. You guys are worth more than all the treasures in the kingdom.

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars. Garrison Keillor

Comics: Calvin and Hobbes

Puzzle: Petals Around The Rose

A classic problem solving game. Five dice are thrown. The name of the game, "Petals Around The Rose," is important in the solution. The answer is always zero or a non-negative even number.

Must try this one with the kids. However, once you solve the puzzle, you must be sworn into the club, and promise to never give away the solution.



Answers:
1. 6
2. 6
3. 8
4. 8
5. 2
6. 2
7. 4
8. 12
9. 6
10. 4
11. 6
12. 0

Quote: We Do The Best

Love this image from the Pioneer Woman. It reminds me that we frequently do the very best, I often tell Isaac, "don't be a star today, be a super-star!" However, not matter what, we always "do the best we can."

DIY: A Nation Of Engineers

This morning, Isaac asked Denise, "why do the teachers make us memorize all this stuff, if robots will do it all in the future." She gave the perfect response, "Who's going to build the robots?" (she's good that way).

First a quote from Pablo Picasso, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." I believe every child is also a maker and an engineer.

This article from Make Magazine discusses the concept of a "Nation of Engineers". In case you think all the good stuff has already been developed, here's a list from the National Academy Of Engineers. Let's go make something.

1. Make solar energy economical
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure
7. Advance health informatics
8. Engineer better medicines
9. Reverse-engineer the brain
10. Prevent nuclear terror
11. Secure cyberspace
12. Enhance virtual reality
13. Advance personalized learning
14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Trees: California Redwood Photograph

Amazing photograph of a California redwood tree in National Geographic. The little red dots are people.

Science Discussion: Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Wanted to have a discussion with Isaac regarding the recent events in Samoa (tsunami) and Indonesia (earthquake). This website from the US Geological Survey should help describe, in great detail, the relationship between the two.



Update: Here's a Wolfram|Alpha Search showing earthquake frequency and magnitude during the past 24 hours.

Anatomy: Japanese Monsters

Comparative anatomy of Japanese monsters. After a quick look, I don't see a mechanism for the fire production in Godzilla. The fire organ should be somewhere next to the lungs.

Reading: Thursday Reading

Several articles for Isaac to consider reading Thursday night for his reading assignment.
African Dynamo - story of a boy in Africa who makes his own wind farm
Four Things Everyone Needs To Know About Sharks

Also here's 15 podcasts which will make you smarter.

Music: In Your Eyes - Jeffrey Gaines

Trying to learn to play this version of the Peter Gabriel song. Here are the chords.

Cooking: Simple Sesame Noodles

Denise found this cool website called Pioneer Woman. This is one of her recipes that sound good, and easy. Maybe we'll find time this weekend to give it a try.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Movies

It looks like they are posting the Clone Wars movies on the Star Wars website. There's also been much discussion about the season's new character Cad Bane.

Quote: Friday Quote From Jack

I think we've posted this one from Jack Kerouac before, but here's a picture from Lance Armstrong's twitter feed. Great quote!

Space: Get To Mars Faster

A gravity trick to make the trip to Mars faster.

Birthday: Look Who Else's Birthday is September 22nd

In the Lord of the Rings, in the first chapter, "A Long-Expected Party", both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins celebrate their birthday on September 22nd, 3001.

Here is a summary and commentary of that chapter on tor.com.

So as tor recommends

So my dear Bagginses, Boffins, Tooks, Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Burrowses, Hornblowers, Bogers, Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses, Proudfoots (Proudfeet!), and even Sackville-Bagginses—I encourage you all to celebrate in the finest hobbit tradition: drinking ... (root beer), eating good food, and sharing in the company of your friends.

Development: Media Converter

I was assigned a task at work to convert a video file to an AVI format using only a freeware application. It took a bit of time to finally find one that worked, but I thought I would record the application for use in the future.

MediaCoder seems to convert a myriad of formats and even provide an API.

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Birthday Brian!!

We wish you the best birthday ever, and hope you have a day full of fun today. Did I say today? I'm sorry we don't celebrate birthDAYS around here, we celebrate birth-parades.

This looks like a fun website to help you celebrate until Halloween. This must be one of the best pumpkins I've ever seen.

Weekend: Countdown to a Great Weekend

Two momentous events in a terrific weekend.

1. Pearland Eagles Freshmen Red's first football win - Isaac played center and defensive tackle. He made many tackles (including a sack), and one pancake on offense. Denise quickly shot this with her camera, it was a very brief visit to the bench.



2. We finally got the rockets working. We shot 4 rockets on Sunday, the first made it to 527 feet. During the descent of the third launch, we lost the nose (and altimeter). We shot one final rocket without the nose, and found that it added much needed in-flight stability.



3. We also played a rousing domino game at the coffee shop (which Denise handily won). Unfortunately, it was cut short by a human smoke machine. The smoker decided to fog us out, even after we helped her move the umbrella into place.

Ukulele: Vintage Ukulele Songbooks

Large collection of vintage songbooks in PDF.

Music: Pearl Jam's New Album On MySpace

Somewhat interesting little clip about making Pearl Jam's new album, "Backspacer". Check out Mr. Vedder's guitar at 3 minutes, also a cool dog. After watching this, I think with a bass guitar, we could put together a song using the new online audio mixer mentioned previously.

Pearl Jam - Backspacer Short

Music: Online Audio Mixer

We've been searching for a way to create our own mash-ups, this site looks great. It worked better for me in IE than Firefox.

Pictures: Isaac's First Practice In Pads

This set shows Isaac's first practice in pads. Not long after, he learned how to use them. Also some shots of a cool board Dad got for Father's Day. As Isaac shows in the skateboard picture, "Peace!"


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Pictures: Our Trip To Kyle Field

Thanks to some great last minute research from our internet purchaser, we got seats for the A&M football game sitting on the field in the endzone bleachers. We couldn't have asked for a more incredible experience.

We saw the Cadets march in, got to sit on the cannon, played on the field after the game, marched with the band, and attended a midnight yell practice. It was fantastic!

Here's my favorite picture of Isaac testing out his Kyle Field stance (totally intense).




Here's the rest of the set.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Tomatoes: Look Who's Snacking

Look who I found snacking on our tomatoes this afternoon.

Music: Key's In The Conch Shell

This song is sure to take away your stress. Great tune by Kenny Chesney. Mike says he knows a steel drum player, can't wait to give it a ride (Here are the chords).

Music: Boston vs. Black Eyed Peas Mashup

Great mashup of Boston and Black Eyed Peas.

Biology: The Tree Of Life

Narrated by Sir David Attenborough

Education: President's Speech to School Children

Posting the President's prepared remarks for Tuesday's speech for Isaac's reading assignment this evening.

Music: Beethoven's 5th Symphony Visualized

Here are the instrument colors (using the new PDF tool).

Rockets: Labor Day Launch

We attempted to celebrate Labor Day with a model rocket launch. While our launch was not successful due to a firing mechanism failure, we learned a valuable lesson about testing and problem resolution.

We will post more when we complete a successful launch.

Programming: Inline PDF Embedding With Google Docs

Very useful embed object available from Google Docs lets you create an inline PDF or PowerPoint object in your HTML code.

Here's the code from Google Operating System blog.

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf&embedded=true" style="width:600px; height:500px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Here's what it looks like in the frame.

Quotes: Quote Of The Day

Some quotes which seem to apply to current situations. You certainly can't let the turkeys let you down.

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change. Andre Gide

I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. Dr. Seuss

DIY: 5 Minute Ice Cream

Maybe these count as sorbets? But they still look very good and fast.

Myth: Diagram of Mythical Creatures

Excellent diagram of mythical creatures.

Science Fair: Pencil Lead Potentiometer

Good experiment with simple tools (pencil and paper). Demonstrates electrical resistance using the pencil lead's graphite as a conductor.

Robots: Kissing Robots

Cute or Scary? These robots were designed in Taiwan and performed a robotic version of the Phantom of the Opera.

Quote of the Day: Seeds of Happiness

Good quote of the day regarding happiness. My wife constantly reminds me of this same lesson. Sometimes I slip back into an old habit of sarcasm, but luckily she and Isaac are there to save me.

Everything is material for the seed of happiness, if you look into it with inquisitiveness and curiosity. The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment. There always is the potential to create an environment of blame or one that is conducive to loving-kindness. Pema Chodron

Star Wars: Jedi Song

Take a look at the Jedi song, and other videos of the Clone Wars series. Nice light saber guitar.

Pictures: Ancient and Modern Armor

Isaac poses with his modern armor on picture day in football pads, and earlier with an ancient set of Asian armor celebrating Denise's birthday at the Hibachi restaurant.

Games: Keyboard Piano

Checkout this keyboard piano game. Typing and music, it would be great if you could turn the piano on during typing class. That way the student would associate a sound along with the muscle memory of the keys.

Whittling: Use a Safety Glove

Good article on whittling, plus links to instructions on carving chains. Good advice to use a Kevlar glove.

Running: Usain Bolt 200m Run

Check out this video of Usain Bolt's world record run at the World Championships. This article in the Atlantic Wire notes that he has defied conventional wisdom that a tall sprinter could go so fast. He also has people reconsidering how fast a human can run. Amazing stuff!

DIY: Paper Airplane Guy

Check out the Paper Airplane Guy. Many great planes, and more detailed explanations to their functioning. Here's his YouTube channel.

Music: How Pink Floyd's Money Was Produced

This is a remarkable video showing the members and producer of Pink Floyd describing how the song "Money" was put together. It is incredible to see the various layerings and effects which are created within the song.

I understand that most of these effects can now be duplicated with Garage Band, or similar application, on a laptop computer.

For children, cover the kids ears at about 3:13 to miss the singer's descriptive comment on Capitalism.

Science Fair: Inducing Giantism

Fantastic experiment from the incredible Evil Genius. He demonstrates how to conduct a study using readily available plant hormones, specifically Gibberellic Acid, to alter the plant growth mechanism of been sprouts.

The results are relatively fast, 5 days, and plainly noticeable to the naked eye.

Soulmates

I ran across this beautiful photo and it's representation of "soul mates" has me moved to such joy. It kindly tugs at my heart strings and reminds me of the embrace I share with my lover. I am so thankful for the love that is given to me daily. I cherish it, I nurture it, I admire it, I protect it, and I glorify and celebrate our similarities AND our differences. I continue to plan for it's growth....similar to a beautiful, growing tree. Our Love remains strong and rooted. I will cling to it's Earthly beauty and learn from it's ability to withstand.

Thank you "mi Amor" for kissing me every beautiful morning and sharing your love so effortlessly with me and Isaac. You are my soul mate.

Happy Thursday All!

Love- Denise

Quote Of The Day: Time Flies

Quote from the science fiction book I'm currently reading online, Cory Doctorow's Makers. They describe it as a joke or riddle, playing with the listeners expectations.

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

Science Fair: Water Rocket With 3 Boosters

Amazing water propelled rocket complete with three NASA inspired booster engines and even an on-board camera. Not sure how possible this would be to replicate, but it certainly is cool.

Water Rocket with 3 boosters from AirCommand on Vimeo.

DIY: Compost Bin and Palletts

I understand some readers where looking for something to do with extra wood pallets, while at the same time, looking to build a compost bin. This seems like the perfect project.

May need to do a little modification to dress it up if others can see into your back yard.

Happy Birthday To My Lover

What a great day of celebration we have in store for my Lover's birthday. We getting ready this morning to go on our annual "Denise's Birthday Trot".

I am the luckiest man alive! Happy Birthday Amor!

Pictures: Summer Phone Pictures

A quick break in the action this morning to post some pictures from the Summer. These are all taken on cell phones. Love this one the best of Isaac rocking the electric uke on Tio Fuego's awesome amp.
Take a look at the picture set.