I was giggling when I saw this...

(1-(|x|-1)^2)^0.5=-2.5(1-(|x|/2)^0.5)^0.5

Mathematical form:






mathematical way of saying, I love you...

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%281-%28|x|-1%29^2%29^0.5%3D-2.5%281-%28|x|%2F2%29^0.5%29^0.5

Spain

My wife and I have been talking about getting to Europe for some time.. and one of the stops has got to be Spain...

You can't make this stuff up...

Zorbing.. fun and exciting things to do... inside a big ball.

Holy smokes... ever hear of Zorbing? Enter into a very large rubber/plastic ball and roll down a hill, inside.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N63P0TG22Os

Here's a wiki on the subject...

Zorbing

Dancing Matt

In 2005, someone sent me a Video file simply titled "Dancing". I enjoyed the attachment so much that every time I upgrade to new computer hardware, I always ensure this file is also transferred.

The movie is of a man, doing this silly dance/jig in places throughout the world, New York, Siberia (on a train), Kenya, Cambodia, etc:



It always amazed me at how many places this young man had traveled. I show this to my kids a few times a year. They love watching and then looking at our globe to see where he is at.

After watching this evening, with Tom and Lib, I was curious about this man's story, (thanks to the power of Google). It turns out, Matt has a website: Where the hell is matt?

Also read the about:
Where the Hell Is Matt.../ about

Since that video in 2005, Matt has done a number of other videos. What a life:




Here's a great explanation of "Where the Hell is Matt?"

Sand Castle Version of the Shoe

I wish I could say that I was responsible for this, but I can't. Six gentlemen from Lewis Center, Ohio built this sand version of the Shoe on the afternoon of 7/22/2009 on Hilton Head, SC.

Jennifer Lin, Improvs on the piano.

I had many years of piano as a kid and still love it today. This young woman is extraordinary. If you have the time, at work, or doing some thing else, just listen.. it's all improvisation... and that's quite amazing.
0
Around 13 minutes, she discusses how she composes; and around 16 minutes 50 seconds, Goldie Hawn shows up to help out with an on the fly improvisation.

Jennifer Lin

Out of The Blue

I recently took my kids on a two day trip to D.C. While at the Lincoln Memorial, a men's A Capella Group from Oxford University gave an impromptu concert. They were quite amazing.

Here's a little infomation about them:
Out of The Blue

This song is called "cold water" and is by a man called Damian Rice. However, they sound better then the original version:

From Spring Break 2009 Washington D.C. Trip">


From Spring Break 2009 Washington D.C. Trip">

The Lists...

I love the "Lists" that I have seen online and via email over the course of the last few years...

Building my own bucket list these days... here'a a few that are pretty good..

101 Things to do before you die

12 Must Learn to tie knots

Found this one tonight...

75 Skills a real man should master

... a poem...

>
A quick poem found here: http://boppin.com/neruda.html

"Love

Because of you, in gardens of blossoming flowers I ache from the
perfumes of spring.
I have forgotten your face, I no longer remember your hands;
how did your lips feel on mine?
Because of you, I love the white statues drowsing in the parks,
the white statues that have neither voice nor sight.
I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice; I have forgotten
your eyes.
Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to my vague memory of
you. I live with pain that is like a wound; if you touch me, you will
do me irreparable harm.
Your caresses enfold me, like climbing vines on melancholy walls.
I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to glimpse you in every
window.
Because of you, the heady perfumes of summer pain me; because
of you, I again seek out the signs that precipitate desires: shooting
stars, falling objects.

"

Give to your local...

Opera. Ya that's right. Give to your local opera. Some who have never taken the time to appreciate opera, might think its stuffy and boring. I love punk, death metal, classic rock, classical, and opera. The thing I like about opera, is that they are all pretty much the same. Some one is always trying to get laid, someone is getting laid, someone is being cheated on, some one is heartbroken, and someone dies. In every opera, you will experience many many extreme emotions.

Any way, I thought I would link a few of my favorites. Great pieces of work. Hopefully you will enjoy them..

Ai Giochi Addio From Romeo and Juliet:


Habanera from Bizet's "Carmen"


La donna e mobile from Verdi's "Rigoletto". I have blogged about this one before.


Che Gelida Manina from Puccini's La Boheme


Sull'aria from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".

You may remember this from "The Shawshank Redemption": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYFj9hZsnhs&feature=related

From Karl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana "O Fortuna"


Mozart's last work, Requiem Mass in D Minor

Petra

As a parent, and hopefully, a good teacher, one tries to find information relevant to your own childs learning experience.

Tom and I sit here at least a few minutes every night going over something new. I don't watch TV. It's been a long while since I watched a program regularly. The online world is, well... what you make of it.... to me... simply an amazing place that I wish I could share always... TV... not my favorite place and well.. I often think... "kill your tv" is a good moto. I could be wrong.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, the boy and his class were studying Ancient Egypt... and from that... I found this:

Amazing when you think about it how long it took to carve this. What would cause a man, a society of men, a country to put so much effort into this???



http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/

Shakespeare. Then the day be known....

Act 5 Scene I.

When I was in high school, I read a version of Julius Caesar. I cheated back then, reading cliff notes. I hated it.... The story line was kind of difficult to keep up with and besides, girls were more important then school. I remember reading the last few pages after we were to have finished and finding myself amazed by one scene....it stuck out and, well I memorized it.

When you think about each day that we have, it's really a gift or an opportunity to take advantage of. My kids and their imagination remind me of this every day.... to be someone new... to pretend.. to imagine. You never know when its all going to be over...

Anyway, here's the line that I memorized... as best as I can remember it some twenty years later...


"If man were to know the end of this days business, there it come,
would it suffice him to know that this day will end?
Then the day be known. For if we meet again,
then we will smile.
If we do not, then our parting was well made.".

Webecoist...

I discovered Webecoist via StumbleUpon. Truly amazing photos and information:






http://webecoist.com/2009/02/08/amazing-natural-formations-phenomena/

Nusrat - Qawwali

The following video is of a very famous man of Islam, known as Nusrat. He and the members of his band sing with such intensity. To be honest and not to be crass, but I have a good idea of what they are saying, but frankly, I really don't care what it's meaning is.

Someone convinced me long ago, too much of anything is not good. I believe it's true of booze (and other mind altering alternatives), love, religion, work, or play. I'd say that's true of their message; however, the sound and intensity is amazing.

Somewhere in this life, we all have loss, and most often, more then once. It sucks. When this guy sings, it sounds like the period of your life when you have been stung in the soul worse then anything you ever have known; a greater magnitude of pain, delirium, and loss than you ever thought possible.

I had a friend who lived in Kenya for 25 years. He once said to me of the desert: "it's no place for man, son. It's the worse place you could ever imagine, a place you don't want to be". These singers have spent too much time in it.
Part I takes some time to get moving, so watch the 2nd first:

Memento Mori , by McErlean

My kids, often amaze me at how wonderfully observant they are and how much they remember.
Tonight, my 11 year old son was reading aloud, his evenings reading requirement, Greek Mythology. I still can't believe they teach this in 6th grade. The boy was observant enough to notice the similarities between the Underworld in C.S. Lewis' book, the Silver Chair and Hell as described in his school text. He said, there was a river in the Underworld, just like the Styx and Hades was like the Witch of the Underworld.

I hope I remember these days of seeing their brilliance.

Anyway, the whole subject is a bit macabre... or carpe diem... or Memento Mori like.

It lead me to start searching for a book of poems called Momento Mori, by Richard McErlean.

From page 33,
A SONG FOR MY CHILDREN
by, Richard McErlean

How will you remember me?
What stories will you tell?
What images will stay with you?
What words of mine will make your own?
What walks we took and laughs we shared
will you keep in your heart?

Once I'm gone, or once you're gone,
someday we'll go away;
I wish I could hold you forever like this,
like I can today.
Life is what happens between goodbyes,
it's love that brings us back.
I'll worry about that tomorrow.
I still have you here today.

I don't feel like a daddy,
I just feel like me,
like I've always felt
but to you, I know
how important I must be.
So I try to be so many things:
storyteller, teacher, friend,
listener, learner, and
you are so pure and innocent.
I never want to see that go.
But all these things will fly away
and this is true, I know...

Once I'm gone, or once you're gone,
someday we'll go away;
I wish I could hold you forever like this,
like I can today.
Life is what happens between goodbyes,
it's love that brings us back.
I'll worry about that tomorrow,
I still have your love today.

This morning I picked you up
and held you in my arms.
I saw us in the mirror
heart to heart and eye to eye.
Like this, we dance,
but this time your feet,
they tapped against my knees.
It won't be long, I thought,
she'll soon be leaving me.

The force of life that sent you here
will be the force that pulls us apart.
There is no goodbye without heartbreak
but no heartbreak without a heart.

Once I'm gone, or once you're gone,
someday we'll go away;
I wish I could hold you forever like this,
like I can today.
Life is what happens between goodbyes,
it's love that brings us back.
I'll worry about that tomorrow,
I still have your love today.

How will I survive all of those goodbyes?
What will you remember, when you turn the page?
I'll worry about it tomorrow.
I still have you here today.

Re-engineering us.

There's a very interesting Gene Therapy Study that started yesterday on HIV. The article in Wired Science is written by Aaron Rowe.

Are we finally at point where we may begin genetically modify who are to lengthen and strengthen our very existence?

How soon will it be that patterns in our genetic makeup are identified that help prevent breast cancer, heart disease, and other deadly diseases?

Life always finds a way to live, so I am sure when we get to this point, life is going to do what it wants to and we must live with those consequences.

we are all bugs.... tiny little bugs...

Satellite image of Inauguration Day!

We are all bugs... tiny little bugs, waiting to get squashed or burned by some giant fat kid with a giant magnifying glass and a need for vengence...
PopularScience.com

The Fixed.

When I was 19, a girlfriend convinced me to read ( more or less made me read) "A Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek", by Annie Dillard. I remember not really wanting to, but found that I really couldn't put it down, once I started. Chapter 4, "The Fixed" is just crazy.

It can be found on Google Books here:
The Fixed


Dillard is so damn descriptive. On pages 59 and 60, she goes in to detail about the mating ritual of praying mantis'. It's just brutal. To paraphrase, the male has a chemical in the lower part of his body that says,"this lovely maiden is yours", but this chemical in his brain says, don't go near her, she'll eat you alive. We (all men) think with our members.... no matter what we are. He goes to mount her and she bites off his head... the damn thing is, he keeps going, like nothing is wrong.

Read it. This is one of a few that I am mesmerized by every time I re-read it.

Seizueres in children

Ever been faced with a situation that just made you freeze? Today, my son came running up to me, with a very distressed look on his face. He said a little boy was down on the ground and he needed help. He was on his way to get the nurse. I told him to go get her, and I ran to see what I could do. He had some type of seizure. The boy had just fallen right in front of my son with little or no indication that it was about to happen.

He convulsed a bit, eyes in the back of his head, minor muscle spasms were apparent through his body. His left hand and wrist curved tightly inward towards his body, and a liquid discharged from his mouth. I had the other kids who were around, give him some room and called 911. The nurse arrived in just a under a minute after I did. She brought with her a pillow. She laid it under his head and checked his pulse; she reassured some of the kids who were around and asked that they go to lunch. Then, she basically softly touched the him on his arm, knowing that he would come out of it okay. The boy was such a sweet little man and there was nothing I could do to make it stop. It was a real sense of helplessness. A few teachers and a parent were also there at about the same time. I think we all realized there wasn't much we could do. The emergency squad arrived about 8 minutes after I called. I ran to the front doors and brought the Paramedics to where the nurse and the boy was.

When we arrived, the convulsions had stopped, the boy was unconscious, and very pale. I had to get back to what I was doing (keeping an eye on the kids), but it really had an impact on me the rest of the day and night.

Later, there were some other children around and few of the girls were crying. They started asking questions about what happened and more importantly if he was going to be alright. I reassured them as best as I could, but realized how little I knew about the subject or even what one should do in a situation like this.

I spent some time tonight researching it and found some pretty decent information about what do to when it happens here: http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/emergencies/seizure.html

A child who's having a seizure should be placed on the ground or floor in a safe area. Remove any nearby objects. Loosen any clothing around the head or neck. Do not try to wedge the child's mouth open or place an object between the teeth, and do not attempt to restrain movements. Once the seizure seems to have ended, roll your child onto his or her side.

Call emergency medical services immediately if your child:

* has difficulty breathing
* turns bluish in color
* has sustained a head injury
* seems ill
* has a known heart condition
* has never had a seizure before
* might have ingested any poisons, medications, etc.

If your child has previously had seizures, call emergency services if the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes, or if the seizure is different or unusual.

If your child is breathing normally and the seizure lasts just a few minutes, you can wait until it has subsided, then call your doctor.

Following the seizure, your child will probably fall into a deep sleep (this is called the postictal period). This is normal, and you should not try to wake your child. Do not attempt to give food or drink until your child is awake and alert.

Nikeplus

The Chronicles of Narnia and reading with your child...

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
-Albert Einstein.

My son Tom and I have read "The Chronicles of Narnia" series (by C.S. Lewis) at the same time and sometimes together. I found that this was the easiest way to be able to test him on the material that he read and help prepare him for the computerized tests that he was required to take in school, after reading each book.

Read the series. Even as an adult, I amazed at Lewis' ability to marry so many great concepts of imagination, parallels of Christianity, physics, good and evil, etc. across the 7 books.

We have spent hours and hours discussing things such as the time continuum, Einsteins theory, as it relates the book. The thing is, I really have not talked to him much about what the theory says. Instead, asking him many guided questions about how the children in the books, leave our world, spend many years in Narnia, helping Aslan, then going back to our world as if no time has passed at all.

The following article is a great kind of "Summation" of it.


I am so proud of the boy.

How to tie knots

Now this is a must for every parent (boy or daughter) who isn't in scouts or even just someone looking for another skill.... tying knots.

It seems like the few that learn the art of tying knot, learn them in scouts, in the military, or through working with rigging while sailing. Outside of that, we only really tie knots of our shoes, ties, and maybe special bows on presents.

http://www.iwillknot.com/

This should be in a book... 100 things to teach your kids... or something like that.

From Things-you-don't-see-everyday

Amy Winehouse.. soulsy bluesy

What a voice....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aygAu1x2uQo





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjx2fo4XhA

Amtrak Photo Contestant Arrested By Amtrak Police

I have made it a point to try to refrain from writing about current events. This just probably would not make it to the public eye, so. here it is:
(From my favorite website since 1997), slashdot.org 1

Photographer Duane Kerzic was standing on the public platform in New York's Penn Station, taking pictures of trains in hopes of winning the annual photo contest that Amtrak had been running since 2003. Amtrak police arrested him for refusing to delete the photos when asked, though they later charged him with trespassing. "Obviously, there is a lack of communication between Amtrak's marketing department, which promotes the annual contest, called Picture Our Trains, and its police department, which has a history of harassing photographers for photographing these same trains. Not much different than the JetBlue incident from earlier this year where JetBlue flight attendants had a woman arrested for refusing to delete a video she filmed in flight while the JetBlue marketing department hosted a contest encouraging passengers to take photos in flight." Kerzic's blog has an account of the arrest on Dec. 21 and the aftermath.

1. (by the way, in some programming languages that use regular expressions, the /. means to search for everything... that's pretty much what the site does.. not many people get the humor in that... suppose you gotta be a neo-max-zwin-dweebie like me).

New Zealand Pics

Man... this looks like Slovenia, Austria or even parts of Scotland. I had no idea New Zealand had mountainous regions and such beauty.

Here's some pretty cool pics

LegalSounds.com

Legal Sounds.com is a website that a friend introduced me to back in September 2008.

No kidding, songs are $0.09 each. Most albums are about $0.99. We have purchased nearly a thousand songs through these folks. Each song lists the bitrate in which the song was saved. Older songs are typical mp3 burn rates of somewhere between 128 - 192mb. However, most new songs are 320 mb. Great Quality!

By the way, in my opinion, save your songs in the following fashion:

c:\somedirectory(like my documents..my music)\mp3\band name\album name

After purchasing, right clicking and saving using the above format, then use Microsoft Media Player version 11 or great to:
1. Get all the remaining Album Information
2. Get the Album Artwork

Import in to iTunes after media player is finished (you may have to go to Media Player -> Library -> Apply Media Information Changes) if using a iPod. I think that Media Player does a better job of categorizing, naming, and storing music and artwork then iTunes.

Motivational Posters

Motivational Posters...