[DupyWed] Wedding Website Blog

As I've written about before on the DupyBlog, I've started playing around with wedding website design. The homepage for this side project can be found here, and I've started a new blog which can be found here. This blog will be used to record my progress in creating templates, writing a business plan, etc. I plan to have the blog integrated with the wedding website homepage in the near future. Of course, I'll post links to the blog and to its RSS feed on Dupyshon.com.

[Kylan's Blog] In St. Louis

Last night Kristen, her family, and I went down to St. Louis to her grandparents' house. We're here to celebrate the New Year with her dad's side of the family.

[The Ministry of Culture] The Complete History of Valiant Isle, Chapter 2, Part 1

Chapter 2: The Grand Yangi Dynasty and the Age of Peace

"No longer shall the wars of the Old Home bother us upon this sacred land. All of our enemies shall sink to the utter depths of the sea before they can reach us upon this emerald in the sapphire waters. And so it has been that De has given us, the Konai, the people of choice, an ever-blooming Age of Peace, that of all the Naiya at least we shall be called blessed and given hearts to feel, ears to listen, and eyes to see the glorious works that De performs for our good."

- Teytin I, Book Three of the Esendra Daevini

Yangi the First established many precedents in the history of the Konai and Valiant Isle itself. It was noted that he was the first to rule over a relatively stable and united kingdom over the whole Valiant Archipelago (omitting the insurrection of Begri and Galbrethi Rock). He was the first to standardize Konai language, a form with few changes up to this day. He was the first king to raise an army on Valiant Isle (not all monarchs did), and the first to order public works of art, science, and economy.

Yangi was perhaps one of the greatest rulers of Valiant Isle, and it is very fortunate that historians have nearly complete records of the main events of his reign. At the age of thirty Yangi began his rule; he fathered six children, four girls and two boys. All the children had one mother, whose name is not known.

The first Daevini of the island built Xenoz, the capital of Konai civilization, next to Memba-Mosa, or Moontower, a large hollow and dead volcano on the edge of the Eastern Shore. The Royal Palace is built directly into the side of the mountain, and a passageway into the hollow magma chamber runs from behind the throne room. This passageway was, and still is, reserved for those in high power. Only High Ministers, the Royal Family, or the Supreme Chancellor may enter those premises. It was considered the most sacred part of the entire land for the Konai.

Atop Memba-Mosa the Konai craftsmen, sons of Hathsas, created the largest Konai sphere in existence. With a radius measured at one hundred meters, this sphere served as the high temple to De in Deanda, the land of God. Small spherical openings and the positioning of curved mirrors inside the sphere make it serve as a work of art and an astronomical observatory, much akin to Stonehenge of England.

Yangi considered these things great works and always wanted to achieve more than was possible. He writes in the Esendra Daevini:

"Some of our people name me as God's Vision… I do not see what De sees however. I only wish I could see such a thing. Call me what they will; we are brothers. Do what you will to me; we are brothers. Build the grandest pinnacles of rock and tower and conquer all lands to the utter ends; we are brothers… For me, there is little that is not here. May eternal peace and content always follow our sons and daughters, for that is my desire as Daevini of this place…"

Such passages are scattered throughout the mostly droll entries from day to day in the king's hand. Yangi defined Konai culture even to minute points. It was once said that because the king had worn his red sleeping garment while looking over the land, the doting people had decided that wearing red sleeping garments was the fashion. That is why today, Konai descendants will only wear red night robes and not any other color.

Within the passage of sixty years, Yangi the Great grew to the age of ninety and then passed his crown to his son Thorasso I, a passage of power never before heard of in that type of monarchy culture. By this time, three more major cities had been established on the island: Idolun, Gajayin, and Lafas-Kanay, meaning, Tree, Soil, and Daylight City respectively. The population had tripled, due to high birth and survival rate and an influx of apparently defected Minoans and slaves.

With the appearance of this new population, crime and corruption increased, but not to alarming rates. But Thorasso I in his wisdom established a system of justice and law that would last for seven hundred years. This system of law was similar in some respects to the jury system that is present in most democracies today, however, the jury members only acted as counsels to the main juror, who in many respects was really more of a judge. This "Quasay", or judge, in Konai, gave the final verdict and sentencing in the cases, but only if four of the other court officers, essentially jury members concurred with both rulings and with the reasoning behind those rulings.

This justice system was Thorasso's only great accomplishment, and he ruled for a total of fifty-eight years. Upon his death, the crown passed to his son, Teytin the First.

Teytin I ruled Valiant from 1552 B.C. to 1501 B.C. During this total of fifty-one years Teytin created the largest religious establishment on the island until the introduction of Christianity in 900 A.D. This religion was known as De-vol-wain, or the Servant-hood of God. It was led by the Priesthood of the Spheres, springing from the Great Sphere at Memba-Mosa and the religious and astronomical observatory there on top of the mountain. The spheres became a regular fixture around the island and it is noted that over 150 important sphere temples are still in relatively good condition, and usable to observe the motion of stars as they were used nearly three and a half thousand years previous. Teytin I passed his crown to his son Yangi II in 1501 B.C. When Teytin I died in 1495 B.C., he had helped build two summer palaces, Xenoz-Ramba near the Central Range, and Xenoz-Hathas on the northern shores.

When Yangi II took the throne at Xenoz, there were probably about 60,000 people who lived within the Konai sphere of influence in the South Atlantic. During this time Konai scholars began to create intricate maps of their society. Cartography became an apparent new craze among the emerging classes of the Konai. About this time, the royal governors were established, which would later lead to the creation of the Royal Senate. Thus, the Konai became a civilization defined by a noble class, a middle class, and a lower class. Yangi II died from a respiratory disease in 1443 B.C. and passed his crown to his second oldest son, Yangi III. He ruled a total of 58 years.

In about 1430 B.C., Yangi III took the first official census of the people. Records indicate that there were the four major Brotherhood regions, not including the outcast Galbrethi society, and a total of 115,273 people under the influence of the Konai scepter. With only about 1500 men in the army and navy combined, Yangi, understanding the value of the Konai society, built up his military and naval forces to robust standards. The king writes of this mobilization:

"The Darklings of the Old Home will find us, the grandsons of the great grandsons of our beloved father Kon. Their love of revenge and greed for power will take us all at unawares lest we be prepared for them. Thus it may be that I decree a total shield of power around this hallowed Deanda, and proclaim that every willing and able man and woman shall defend this country and God, yea unto bitter death in the salty sea…"

The "Darklings" mentioned in that passage are spoken of by the same label up to the end of the Yangi Dynasty. It is theorized that these Darklings are the Minoan or Phoenician forces that attacked the island over the next few monarchical periods, but there is no conclusive literary or forensic evidence to support this. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that the Darklings were a Mediterranean society that created quite a deal of trouble for a people still in their relative infancy.

By the end of the militarized period, the Konai possessed a naval fleet rumored to be quite powerful. According to narrative tradition, the fleet when it was packed tight enough, could completely fill Royal Harbor, an area of nearly five miles square. It was also said that the sail fabrics, made of metallic colored materials that reflected sunlight (in reminiscence of the Varadonai myths) became a second sunrise upon the island's capital Xenoz. Therefore, it was said that the glory of God shone down upon them every time the fleet returned home in victory, a connection to the common phrase "May the sails light your way," the equivalent of "Good luck," or "May God be with you," in Columbian vernacular.

[Kylan's Blog] David Davis Mansion

Yesterday Kristen and I visited the David Davis mansion in Bloomington, Illinois. It was very interesting to learn about David Davis, a US Supreme Court Justice and a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. It was also fun to explore his home, which was built in 1872.





Since it is the holiday season, the house tour included little factoids about what Christmas was like during the Victorian time period. Apparently, it was much more like Halloween than the holiday we celebrate today. During that time, it was even believed that Santa had an evil twin brother named Krampusse, who looked and acted exactly like the devil.

[DupySite] Site Expansion

If you've been paying attention to Dupyshon.com over the past few days, you've probably seen that I'm expanding the site a bit. Now if you click on any of the section headings, you'll be taken to another page that explores the topic more in depth. The addition of pages is nearly finished, but I still need to finalize the
DupySearch, Contributors, and Most Popular pages before I upload them.

[Columbian Ministry of Culture] The Complete History of Valiant Isle, Chapter 1, Part 2

The Ro-Wain is mainly concerned with the journey from what is called the Old Home to the supposed Land of God, Valiant Isle. It is suggested by many scholars of Konai history that they were descendants of the Minoan Civilization, which had suffered catastrophe in 1700 B.C. A thirty-year sojourn would have brought Kon and his sons to Valiant in time to fit with Yangi's coronation in 1670 B.C. Some mythologists even speculate that the Minoan tragedy was caused by a civil war that was even started by Kon and his family. Regardless of why they left, it is generally accepted that the Konai were offshoots of Minoan Civilization.

Various reappearances of the Varadonai follow in the next several stories, including the Myth of Ro-Baranai, or the marriages of the brothers. The Varadonai were distinguished by the clothing, either of grass or a shimmering material, the latter being more common among the female Varadonai. The following is an excerpt from the Ro-Baranai:

"Thus, once Kon lay within the Earth, the time came for the brothers to decide who held the authority to command this new land. Upon the eastern shore, closest to their home of yore, they chose the rocks of their liking and character and threw them upon the shore.

"Nearest, and least of honor, was the jet black stone of Begri. Further anon lay the amber stone of Jaksis, shaded as the wheat fields of his son's farms, and thence was the strong and jagged green rock of Memraar. Then was the beautiful blue of Hathsas, smooth and with golden heart, and finally and most commanding stood the upright pinnacle red-stone of Yangi, second-born to his father…"

The stones mentioned here refer to the Brother Stones of the Eastern beach in today's National Monument Index. The Ro Peninsula extends from the eastern shore of the island and encompasses about one-quarter of Royal Harbor into Xenoz (throne, or capital), the capital of Columbia today. The five stones appear as referenced by the story, with the respective colors and appearances. But, the description of "stones" and "throwing" may be partially deceptive: the Brothers Stones are effectively large boulders, weighing, by approximation, anywhere between forty and fifty tons each. Yangi's Stone stands nearly three stories tall, and the sizes then decrease to about waist high, the size of Begri's Stone. The difference in translation from stone to boulder is not recognized in the Konai language, and the verb for "to throw" is the same as "to erect", whence comes the ambiguity.

Historians and mythologists theorize that this boulder erection contest was reminiscent of the tower of Babel story from the Bible: whoever could erect the tallest and most beautiful structure, would win dominance, not only over the people, but also of the elements and Nature itself.

These Stones are now enclosed in the Konai Cultural Center on the eastern shore of Xenoz on Royal Harbor.

The rest of the Ro-Baranai is concerned with the lineage and descent of the Konai, or "people of Kon". According to the legend, Memraar was already married at the time of landfall onto Valiant Isle, Yangi was engaged to be married to a princess of their last home, and upon the day of his coronation as Daevini, or king, he was married. And thus it was the custom for many monarchs thereafter that the Daevini would choose his Laovini, or queen and be married upon the day of his coronation.

Begri, in defiant rebellion of the entire design of the brothers, fled to claim Galbrethi Rock, a small islet off the south-western coast, as his throne, and there he raised up a rival palace to the one at Xenoz, calling it the Gara-Pelagor, or the rock of power. But Galbrethi Rock would in time be called Gara-Zami, or Rock of Evil, for the evil that sprung from that place would exist for several hundred years before it would be defeated. Once there, Begri declared himself Daevini in opposition to the government of Xenoz. He took to himself eight mistresses whose descendants would become the infamous Witches of Galbrethi.

Jaksis had established his farming lands across the Southern Brace, an area of rolling prairie that was ideal for agriculture. He would later take a slave woman as his wife and adopt her son as his own. He would also have his own children by this slave woman.

Memraar had taken for himself the Senali Desert in the far north to the Sapphire River bisecting the island on the fringe of Jaksis' land, and as far east as the upper cliffs. This was considerable area and it would affect Hathsas' life incredibly.

Yangi had taken for himself the entire Eastern Shore and the outlying islands, rich in minerals and strategic value. This land extended westwards until it met the upper cliffs. All of the brothers' territories would change slightly over time.

Hathsas' story is the most compelling. It is said that he was unable to find land of his own after the other brothers had claimed (or in Begri's case, seized) land for themselves. After much petitioning with Yangi and Memraar, Hathsas was able to secure the central mountains from the Sapphire River northwards until Mount Pazeko and Angel Lake, also known as Hathi Volsoru. The rest of his territory ran westwards through the woodlands and into the sea.

After surveying most of his lands, Hathsas had rested at the edge of the lake, which now did not have a name. It was here that he saw what appeared to be a beautiful lady in a dress of shimmering grass. She fled into the woods upon seeing him and he pursued her two days and two nights because of her unrivaled beauty. In that time he had pursued her to the sea, upon which she jumped into the water and swam out far enough to keep him away, for he could not swim, quite the irony, for his name meant "water". Instead of fleeing away though, she had stopped, for as a young woman she was curious as of this stranger, just too shy to meet him so close. So great was his will that with his tools he felled a tree and made a boat to go to her in.

When he came to her she asked him, "Why do you do this?"

He replied, "For your beauty, because to me, you are beauty itself."

And thus it was that Hathsas named his future wife Analia, which in the Konai language means "beauty". She, as you may suspect was one of the Varadonai, the lost people of Atlantis. And the nobility of ages past still traces its line in part to this great meeting of hearts upon the western shore of Valiant Isle. It was several days later that Hathsas and Analia the Angel as she was known, were married upon the steps of the palace in Xenoz.

The Myth of the Ro-Baranai ends with that story, and many years pass between that tale and the next grand legend of Konai history, for now came the days of the Royal Konai and the Realm of Deanda and the Nine Silver Isles. The more historical information lies in the Esendra Daevai Deanda, or Records of the Lords of the Land of God.

[DupySite] Homepage is Validated

After a little bit of work this morning, the Dupyshon.com homepage is now valid HTML 4.01. Yay!

[Six Weeks in Rwanda] Free Rice

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has come out with a new website called Free Rice. By playing a vocabulary game, you can help purchase rice for hungry people in the Third World. For every question you get right, the WFP will buy 20 grains of rice. The best part is that you don't have to sign up or anything, just get online and play. It gives you the chance to build your vocabulary, and it feeds people in poor countries. The rice purchases are funded by advertisers, whose ads are tastefully placed at the bottom of the screen. Try it today, and play for a meal for someone who needs it.

[Kylan's Blog] The Christmas Tree Caper

This year my family decided to get our Christmas tree from our front yard. We had a tree near the road that was about the right size, so we got a saw, put on some funny Christmas hats, and cut it down. While we were carrying it down the driveway, though, a minivan pulled over and a guy on his cellphone got out. Apparently, he was calling the police because he thought we were stealing the tree. We were able to convince him that we lived at this house, so he told the 911 operator that everything was alright. From what I understand, he had described me (the one sawing down the tree) as "some guy wearing a crazy hat." Pretty funny.

[Phrasr] Plunched in the Jlaw

"I fleel like I got plunched in the jlaw."

-Jaron, after getting a cavity filled.

[Phrasr] Kylan, December 19th 2007

"Operation C: Kill all the big scorpions"

[DupySite] Code Cleanup

I just finished going through the code of the main page for Dupyshon.com. I removed some of the unnecessary HTML tags and changed the format to make it more readable. Not that anyone ever checks out the website source, but it will make it easier for me to edit in the future.

[DupySite] The DupyFeed is Back

A while ago, I tested out a Dupyshon.com feature called the DupyFeed. The idea was to roll all of the site blogs into one feed. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good (and free) website service that could do this for me. Now that the DupyBlog does this, I've decided to revive the DupyFeed with a few small changes.
It is called DupyFeeds, and it will be a list of all the feeds associated with each Dupyshon.com blog. You can find DupyFeeds near the bottom of the Dupyshon home page, and subscribe via RSS or Google Reader.

[Columbian Ministry of Culture] The Complete History of Valiant Isle, Chapter 1, Part 1

Valiant Isle is a resource rich landmass in the midst of a small archipelago in the mid-south Atlantic. Today known as the National Republic of Columbia, it also has a rich history.

Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Valiant Isle and the Konai Civilization

"And thus it was that De the mighty raised up the sacred rocks of Deanda and hallowed the ground meant for the Chosen Pilgrims. Here lay the last outpost of heaven on Earth, the last holy place. This was the refuge of good and the garden of all the spirits past, a haven for the weary of mind and body."

– The Konai Myth of Plegasi

About 30 million years ago, a large volcano in the mid-south Atlantic Ocean began to erupt under the surface of the water. Spewing lava throughout the sea, it eventually established an island about the size of the state of Massachusetts about 1 million years ago.

By B.C. 2000, this patch of land in the middle of the sea had grown into a way station for animals in their migration paths, a home for several tree species, and a small outpost of the human civilization. Of these first peoples little is known. They had created small fishing villages on the western coast of the rich island, depending only on the sea for their livelihood. They stayed approximately 250 years, and then virtually disappeared. Some Konai myths depict these first people, suggesting they had some contact in the beginning of their kingdom. The Myth of Plegasi, or creation, depicts these first peoples as walking ghosts, Varadonai as they are named.

According to myth they were once human, but only ghosts of a lost age in humanity, a race far nobler and more powerful than any culture today, the Atlanai, or people of Atlantis. Because these Atlanai had chosen to bind their selves to the Earth instead of the heavenly Atlantis, they were banished to this world and were doomed to wander until they fulfilled their destinies. These creatures existed in greater numbers in the old myths, but gradually disappeared from all historical or legendary record. They faded into the realm of mythology.

The most important piece of information concerning the Varadonai is derived from the Myth of Ro-Wain, or the Brotherhood. In it, the Sons of Kon have just landed upon the shores of Valiant Isle bearing the cold body of their father, who wished to be buried in the Land of God, Deanda. Konai mythology and belief supposed that Valiant Isle was this location.

The five brothers, Memraar, Yangi, Begri, Jaksis, and Hathsas make landfall to meet an old strange man dressed completely in what appeared to be shimmering woven grass. His words have since become a motif of prophecy in the Konai culture and read as follows:

"Welcome my fathers, your task is met well. Respect, laud, and blessing for your labor is fruitful and not in vain. But such work in this world is only met with strife and anguish. Your children, as the sons of our progenitor, will indulge their natures. Such progress is then lost, but for a little time, it is secured.

"Memraar, to you is the mountains and the might of Men. Mighty bravery runs in your heart, and the sons of the sword shall come from every drop of your blood. In your hand are the hammer of justice and the spear of wisdom. In the shadow of the youngest shall the eldest be hidden, but protected. And the eldest shall one day protect the youngest.

"Yangi, second-born, to you is the government, and the peace. In your eye is held the gleam of the eastern sunrise, and in such dwelling places shall you reside, nearest your broken home of ages past. In your line shall the secret reside, long biding its time, to escape the arrow of deceit.

"From you Begri shall this deceit spring. Though you are intelligent, your craftiness holds power over your desire. Dark in the night, your existence shuns the day, cursing the ground where you are taken, and to whence you have been plucked. Though you shall strike to kill with your poisoned arrows, your own blade shall pierce your heart, and your hand of power crushed.

"Jaksis is the father of those who must choose. As there was with your grandfather's grandfather Japheth, there is division and decision. Farmers and the common man shall lay their ancestral tradition upon your work. Your family will be numerous among the brothers.

"Hathsas, great is your role in the divine story. From your sons shall rise up all those who with their minds may create beauty. Craftsmen and artisans shall cultivate this land and procure from it all their glorious works. And when the speech of water soothes the soul, then the men shall know that De has smiled upon the world and that men are saved from themselves. All will be restored."

This old prophet then collapsed in death, only to be dissolved in the wind and be carried to the next life, to his home thought to be the lost land of Atlanata, or Atlantis, of which Valiant Isle was thought to be the last outpost.

[DupySite] The DupyBlog Gets Updated

Starting today, the DupyBlog is getting a new look.

A while back, Jaron and I decided to implement a hierarchy that incorporates multiple blogs into the DupyBlog. We have a number of different interests to write about, and we wanted a way for our readers to read about one subject at a time or all of them at once.

From now on, Jaron and I will be posting a number of different blogs, depending on our subject matter. These blog entries will be gathered together and concurrently posted to the DupyBlog. When you read the DupyBlog, the name of the contributing blog will be listed in brackets in the post title. So far, we have created the following 'child blogs':

Authored by Kylan-
Kylan's Blog
DupySite
Six Weeks in Rwanda
The Old DupyBlog
Authored by Jaron-
Jaron's Blog
National Republic of Columbia
- Columbian Ministry of State
-Columbian Ministry of Culture
-Secretive Intelligence Agency

[Columbian Ministry of Culture] Celebrate Columbian History, Tradition, and Values!

This site is dedicated to bringing you accurate information on the culture of the National Republic of Columbia!  Coming soon will be periodic posts containing excerpts from the Complete History of Valiant Isle according to Prince Tychius Pendacor V.  Stay tuned!

[Columbian Ministry of Culture] Celebrate Columbian History, Tradition, and Values!

This site is dedicated to bringing you accurate information on the culture of the National Republic of Columbia!  Coming soon will be periodic posts containing excerpts from the Complete History of Valiant Isle according to Prince Tychius Pendacor V.  Stay tuned!

[Columbian Ministry of State] Welcome to the CMS!

Welcome to Columbia, the best sub-country in the world!  If you are interested in any information on Columbia, please feel free to contact the Chancellor through Dupyshon.com

[Secretive Intelligence Agency] Welcome to the SIA

This is the Secretive Intelligence Agency's public blog.  Included will be any information the agency deems appropriate for those in the general public.  End post.

[Kylan's Blog] Introducing Kylan's Blog

This is a new blog that I will use to post stuff that doesn't fit under any other Dupyshon.com blogs.

[Jaron's Blog] Introducing Jaron's Blog

Just to let you know, I have my own blog now.  Pretty much yeah...  Okay, later.

[Six Weeks in Rwanda] Introducing Six Weeks in Rwanda

During the summer of 2006, I did an internship in Rwanda and helped establish a rural telecenter in a small community. The got me interested in the Third World and development work, and this interest continues today. I will use this blog whenever I want to share my thoughts on developing countries and related subjects.

DupyBook

Yesterday I spent most of my time working on a new webapp I'm calling DupyBook.

Here's the motivation: Kristen has over 400 kids books that she hopes to use in her classroom someday. When people ask her what she wants for Christmas or her birthday or other gifting occasions, she usually asks for kids book. Now that she has so many, she's starting to have trouble knowing which books to ask for.

As a solution, I offered to make her a website to sort everything out. It has a list of all of the books she already owns, as well as a wish list that holds the books she wants. This way, people can consult the site before buying her a new book. They will know not to purchase a book she already has, and they will be able to search specifically for books she wants.

So far I have the basic functionality implemented. I'd still like to add some search/sort features to the lists, make the database entries editable, and implement a log-in page so only certain users can add/delete entries.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

CAPTCHA addition and iframe removal

Since I'm on Christmas Break from WSU now, I was able to work on KylanAndKristen.com (our wedding website) this afternoon.

The first task was to modify the guestbook to prevent it from being spammed. If you've visited the site lately, you probably know that it was being attacked by some spambots. After searching around online a bit, I finally ran into the CAPTCHA approach. A CAPTCHA is a test that makes sure that the guestbook user is a human and not a computer. It provides the user with a squiggly image of a word and asks them to type the word into a textbox. If the entered word matches the word in the image, the entry can be put in the guestbook. Since the squiggles make it difficult for a machine to read the image, the CAPTCHA should prevent any spambot messages from getting through. Hooray!

As I was working on implementing the CAPTCHAs, I decided to get rid of all of the iframes in the website. I had used iframes when I was first building the site in August because I wasn't sure how to mix PHP with HTML. It turns out to be really simple actually, so I was able to remove the iframes and make the site pages look a lot more neat.

Check out our wedding website, and enjoy the enhancements. The next thing to do (which will take A LOT of work) will be implementing an RSVP system for the wedding guests.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

New Schedule

Today I took some time to figure out my schedule for next semester.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

Appreciating Switchfoot

Since Kylan wrote the review about Jon Foreman's EP, I felt it was only fair stay away from the specific topic of the EP itself. I agree with his review; it is a very good album and it really demonstrates Jon's and Switchfoot's philosophy of being a band for thinking people. It asks hard questions, it isn't superficial, and it is spiritually intimate even. But, as I said, Kylan has already discussed this. What I did want to say is a thank you to Switchfoot and the members of that band. Thank you for making this music that moves the soul and is not just acoustic fluff.

What makes a good band? Good music? Lyrics? Image? Maybe. Many bands deemed good have those things. But that doesn't mean that the band is good because of those things. What is music for in the first place? I can't say with a good conscience that it is purely for entertainment. After all, if you believe as I do that there is a God that has created the universe and orders it such that all things are for his glory, then you will agree that music must somehow glorify God. It is a vehicle for our praise and glorification of his name. And many people would despise the very thought of glorifying God, let alone make music to glorify Him. But Switchfoot and Jon Foreman haven't. If you can't respect them for anything else, at least acknowledge how brave and bold they are to do it as popular musicians.

There are many bands out there that do live out their faith, and Switchfoot is just one of them. But what I appreciate from Switchfoot furthermore is their sense of creativity and musical essence. Their style has changed over the years, but most of their songs carry some new musical idea, some sonic sculpture to wrap your mind around. You could say that they are the antithesis of the Beach Boys when it comes to musical diversity. Songs like Circles, in 5/4 time, are what really challenge the regular pop listener. And the range of musical instruments is stunning. Strings, harmonica, guitar, drums, horns, and the ever mutable keyboard synthesizer are just a part of the mix.

And when it comes to lyrics, Switchfoot is not shy to either serenade or rebuke the listener. And this is good, because it stimulates thought. The words don't leave the listener untouched. It is a movement of the soul, rippling through the individual. And you know that it wasn't just something written on the surface. This is deep material from the deepest core of the writer's heart. And to have the courage and strength to share that with anyone who will listen is staggering.

But most of all, I respect Switchfoot because they don't give themselves up. Not to the society, not to their own struggles, not to popularity. If there is one thing they surrender to it is to the truth. There is a Swahili proverb that says, "Speak silver, reply gold," and the conversation that Switchfoot holds with our world today is characterized by their ability to do this, to speak silver and reply gold.

So, once again, thank you. Thank you Switchfoot, for daring, for playing, for being musical, lyrical, and philosophical gems in a field of life where so much is worthless glitter. Thank you for being true.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

New WSU Football Coach

This afternoon I went to the official announcement of the new head coach for WSU Cougar Football. His name is Paul Wulff, and he is a former Cougar football player from the '80s.

Jim Sterk, the Athletic Director, said a few introductory words and then let Wulff take the stage. The new coach started off by promising big, exciting changes to the program that will take us to conference title contention within a few years. He said that the Cougars will start playing a different, faster brand of football, and that the team will actively pursue high school players from the state of Washington during recruiting season. Here's the most memorable quote from his words:

"Dawgs might barks and bite, but Cougars hunt and kill. That's a big difference... We don't like [the Huskies], and we'll never like them."

More pictures from the event are available in DupyPics.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

Blog Exposure

The DupyBlog got some publicity today from Switchfeed.com and Switchfoot.com. That's because I wrote a review of Jon Foreman's Fall EP and they linked to it in one of their posts. Cool! I just hope I don't have too many typos or errors in the review, because the review was written pretty hastily, if I remember correctly.

This and more at Dupyshon.com

Semester's End

The end of the semester is upon us, and boy is it busy! I have two projects (the memory module for VLSI and the Tomasulo simulator for Computer Architecture) left to complete as well as one exam (in Computer Architecture).

Apart from school, there have been plenty of things to occupy my time. Kristen got that job at Building Blocks Child Care Center (yay!), and moved back to Pullman this weekend. We found a great duplex up behind Dissmore's that just perfect. It's really big and quite nice inside, and will be a great place for me to move into after we are married.

This weekend Kristen and I went up to Spokane an packed up everything from her apartment there. We rented a 14' UHaul truck which I drove (scary!) and brought everything down to Pullman. With the help of Jaron, Nick, and John, we were able to clean out all of Kristen's furniture from her storage shed and move it into the duplex. Having those guys assist us really helped a lot. See DupyPics for pictures of the move.

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KylanAndKristen.com

I recently bought the domain name KylanAndKristen.com. It now points to our wedding website. This should make it easier for people to remember.

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Jott + GCal

Today Jott announced a new feature which allows users to post appointments to the Google Calendars using only their voice and a telephone call. Pretty neat.

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Plans for Break

As motivation for finishing up all of my remaining responsibilities for this semester, here's a short list of things I want to do over the break:

• Make some headway on my research
  
• Work on my wedding website
  
• Work on Dupyshon.com
  
• Go geocaching
  
• Go to the Cougar men's basketball game in Seattle
  
• Celebrate Christmas and New Year's
  
• Hang out with Mom and Dad
  
• Visit Kristen
  
• Visit Weston

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Apple Cup 2007

Wow, what a game! I'm so glad Kristen and I were able to go. Jaron was there with the band, and Dad even got a chance to be there since my uncle Charlie had an extra ticket. This was one of the best Cougar football games I've ever seen, right up there with the Holiday Bowl during the 2003 season. It was so exciting! I just posted an album with my pictures from the game and the Seattle Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, so check it out at Dupyshon.com.

Speaking of Cougar football, the world found out yesterday that Bill Doba will no longer be our head coach. Even though he's faced a lot of criticism over the years, I'm sad to see him go. He's such a nice and upstanding guy, and he instilled great values in his players. For instance, the Cougars never gave up on a single game this season, even during the Oregon State fiasco. Doba is truly a loyal Cougar, having spent 19 years on the coaching staff here in Pullman. Best of luck, Bill, we'll miss you.

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Review of Fall EP

This is song-by-song review of Jon Foreman's new Fall EP.

1. The Cure for Pain

This is probably my favorite melody from this album. The lyrics are a personal reflection on the trials of human life. Water and gravity play an important role in this song because of their relentless nature. It's hard to fight against these strong forces of nature, just as it's difficult to fight one's own human nature. This is a similar idea to the gravity references in Switchfoot's Oh! Gravity. This is the only song on the album to feature horns, and I like the warmth they provide.

2. Southbound Train

The intro to this tune uses the cello and harmonica to simulate the sound of a train. This is significant because the lyrics use the train as a metaphor for hopelessness. Jon feels driven toward something, but is unsure of what. He is in an intermediate state, between two cities of stability and peace.

3. Lord, Save Me From Myself

This is a prayer that laments the materialism of our culture and asks for an escape. Jon identifies the problem as an internal one, blaming no one else for the state of his life. I really like the organ, harmonica, and shaker in this song because they add some texture not found elsewhere in the album.

4. Equally Skilled

In this song, Jon paraphrases Micah Chapter 7. This is a great song because it contrasts God's love and provision (both of His hands) against the evil and sinfulness of mankind (both of our hands). It starts pessimistically, saying "all the godly people are gone," but concludes hopefully with "he'll take my case, bringing me to light and justice." The rhythmic signature of this song is the clapping/slapping on every fourth beat. It is a bit jarring, which is good because tone of the song is meant to make listeners feel slightly uneasy. If it weren't for this sound, the music would be too soft and flowing for the subject matter at hand.

5. The Moon is a Magnet

This the most beautiful song on the record. It begins with some delicate guitar picking and is joined by warm bass clarinet. Jon uses an unusual time signature here, which is becoming increasingly common in his songwriting. The lyrics speak of a longing for love, and the tune ends with a suggestion of hope.

6. My Love Goes Free

"A tune that only caged birds know." This bit of tender singing is a very sad song, written about the end of a relationship. It takes a lot of love to realize that you have to let that person go. I especially appreciate the background vocals toward the end of the track, and I wonder if Jon played the piano part himself.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this offering from Jon Foreman. The songs are soft and heartfelt, making them perfect for quiet moments. As I listened, however, I found them to be entirely too short. The songs all ended too quickly, leaving me wanting another verse. It will be interesting to see how his planned Winter, Spring, and Summer EPs compare.

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Transitions

This week I'm working on transitioning between tasks. I have a lot to do since the semester is nearing its end, and I've noticed that I waste a lot of time moving from one thing to another. I need to minimize time-wasters like checking my email or taking a TV break and just focus on what's next.

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The Most Awesome and Incredible Game of 2007: The Apple Cup

Needless to say, for any collegiate sports fans in the state of Washington, you know what I am talking about. This year in Husky Stadium there was an explosion of amazing sportsmanship and epic feats of skill. I was in the Cougar Marching Band, field level at the west end of the stadium, and in the front row with all the other trombones; how's that for great seating?

Cougars will be celebrating and bragging for at least another year while purple and gold clothing will basically become a substitute for black sackcloth. The respective enjoying and mourning will be tremendous. Of course, in true tradition, those who lost will come up with excuses: we were doing bad anyway, the refs made bad calls, wait until next year, we're still a better school anyway. But in the end, there was not much to defend all those arguments. The Cougars won the game against the Huskies in their own packed stadium even when the Huskies scored on the first kickoff return. And they had Jake Locker!

I will refrain from my tirade for now; we have a whole year to do this, why waste it in one sitting? It really only goes to show that you can't call the Apple Cup. It is unpredictable, improbable, astronomical, in all its proportions. We Cougars admittedly do know a few things about being too sure that we will win. There have been games that were definitely "Couged" in the last 50 seconds of clock time. But in the Apple Cup the book is thrown out the window, probability is erased, sports predictors are baffled, everything is for grabs. It can be Couged or Huskied, won and lost all in the same moment, everyone has home field advantage. This is our legacy, the legacy of the state of Washington, the tournament of the Northwestern realm, steeped in tradition and competition, the pride and glory of collegiate sports in our minds: this is the Apple Cup.

Going to the Apple Cup

We're going to the Apple Cup!! Yesterday, Kristen and I were offered a couple of tickets by our friend Courtney. This is great news after a long unsuccessful process of trying to get seats via other channels. Apparently, we'll be sitting in the season ticket section, among all of the Husky faithful. Should make for an interesting game; I hope the Cougars put up a better showing than they did against Oregon State. A win would be really nice ending to an otherwise lackluster season. Thanks, Courtney!

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Searching for WiFi

This morning I'm in Spokane, waiting for Kristen to finish her half day of teaching so we can get on the road and head to Tacoma. My plan was to sit in a coffee shop down the road from her school and surf the Internet using their free WiFi. The problem is that their free wireless Internet is really slow and I kept getting kicked off the network. So I decided to hunt for some free wireless signals in the neighborhood. I've ended up at the local library, which has a pretty good connection. Wouldn't it be nice if cities or companies decided to provide free wireless coverage of their whole municipality? Google's done it in Mountainview, California. I know that this would be costly and difficult to implement, but it would definitely benefit the whole community and maybe even stimulate the economy.

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Fall EP

Jon Foreman's Fall EP will be available for download tomorrow. After a bit of investigation, I found jonforeman.com. It has some information about the whole Fall, Winter, Summer, Spring project, as well as images of Jon's handwritten lyrics.

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Boo Parking Services

The people at WSU Parking Services must be crazy. Even though Pullman is a ghost town because everyone is gone for Thanksgiving break, they're continuing to enforce their parking policies like Nazis. What would be the harm in letting me park outside of Sloan today? I think there's a total of two or three cars outside.

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Building Blocks Interview

Yesterday, Kristen had an interview at Building Blocks Child Care Center in Pullman. They have an opening for an afternoon kindergarten teacher. Her interview went great! Kristen said that her interviewers were very impressed with her portfolio and general teaching knowledge. They've invited her to come back and teach a lesson to one of the classes. If the administration likes what it sees, Kristen could be offered the job. Great job, Kristen!

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Flashback: Miami and RPS

In 2005, I won a trip to Miami to compete in the National Collegiate Rock Paper Scissors competition. Out of 83 contestants from all around the United States, I took home fourth place! This was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can view it here. Anyway, I ran across an old web page I made and updated while I was there. It's fun to look back at that trip.

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New Music from Switchfoot

This November is a big month for Switchfoot. They're currently on tour with Relient K and Ruth, and they just released a collaborative song with these groups last Friday. It's called "Rebuild," and you can download it (for free or for a donation) by going to Switchfoot.com. All proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity, so you can help the world while you fill your iPod.

Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot, is also releasing a solo EP this month. It's called "Fall," and will be released November 20th on Amazon.com. I'm bookmarking this page right now so I can buy the album next Tuesday.

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WSU Jazz Festival

Today I went to the WSU Jazz Festival Gala Concert to see Jaron play in Big Band I. They had two feature performers - trombonist Dave Glenn and bassist Gus Kambeitz. Just like last time, the band sounded really good. My favorite songs from the set were "National Pastime" (by Dave Glenn) and "Paprika" (by Bob Curnow). On the latter tune, drummer Tiffany Stephens was joined by percussion professor Dave Jarvis for some dueling drum solos. In two of the tunes, Derek Rubio was featured on some blazing fast congas. My favorite solo came from saxaphone professor Horace-Alexander Young on a tune called "A Cup-A-Joe." Attending these concerts are quite a treat; I would recommend them to anyone. I took a lot of pictures, and hope to post the album sometime this evening.

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Site Background Image

I'm playing around with new background images for the Dupyshon.com main page. Check it out.

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________ Hut??

Tonight Kristen, Jaron and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner. I've really been craving some deep dish pizza lately. Once we sat down, though, our server came over and said, "We're pretty much out of everything. All we have are pastas and sandwiches." At first we thought it was a joke, but then realized that she was completely serious. How does Pizza Hut manage to run out of pizza? We ended up going to Thai food instead.

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Image Cleanup

As I noted in DupyNews a few days ago, Stanford recently came out with a web application that can take blurry images and vectorize them. This allows users to resize any image without losing clarity. The service is called VectorMagic. Here's an example using the small Dupyshon.com mascot image and blowing it up:

Before -

After -

See the improvement?

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Guestbook Spam

I created a PHP guestbook for my wedding website, but it gets spammed a lot. That's annoying. If I get some time, I'll have to figure out a way to prevent this from happening more. Maybe I can implement one of those "secret code" verifiers which gives the user a set of letters in an image and asks them to type them into a text box before submitting their comment. If anyone knows an easy way to do this, let me know.

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PPA

Yesterday Kristen rocked the socks off of her Performance-based Pedagogy Assessment (PPA). The PPA is a big hurdle on the way to an elementary education degree, and it has more than 50 requirements that must be satisfied over two in-class observations. Kristen was able to satisfy all of the requirements in just one session! Her supervisor said that she is the first person to accomplish this feat in his 15 years of observing student teachers. Congratulations, Kristen!

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Gmail 2.0

I just got to use the new version of Gmail for the first time today. It took a while to get to me, since Google likes to roll out their new products in waves. Anyway, it seems pretty neat. To the naked eye, not much has changed. This is good, since I liked the old version so much. If they had changed the interface or features too much, I think a lot of people would have complained. One of the biggest differences I can see is the Contacts list. It now uses a two-panel approach, which should make organizing and navigating easier. The word on the street is that this list will be more compatible with other Google products soon. Another difference I noticed was that Gmail now prefetches messages for you. This significantly reduces load times when you're browsing your mail. It makes this web app seamless enough to make you forget you're using the Internet.

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Term Projects

In graduate school, I've found that it's common for a class to assign a term project. It took a while for them all to be assigned, but now the details are all finalized. Here's what's on my plate...

Porting e3 Over to MTX

This project is for my CPT S 560 Advanced Operating Systems class. The professors is giving us the opportunity to contribute to his very own Unix-based operating system. He's been working on it for years, and all that's needed to make it a standalone system is a text editor and a compiler. To accomplish this, two other students and I are trying to port an editor call e3 from the ELKS operating system to MTX. So far the progress is very slow. Our professor is working on it, too, so that helps. My job at the moment is to emulate the functionality needed for ioctl syscalls to the MTX kernel.

Designing a 32-bit 512-word DRAM

My partner Kevin and I are doing this as part of our EE 586 VLSI class. We will be using Cadence to lay out all of the transistors needed for this device, and will be analyzing the performance once we're done. This project is going to be slightly tedious because it involves a lot of repetitive CAD work.

Creating a Tomasulo Simulator

In my CPT S 561 Computer Architecture class, we've been studying an instruction-level parallelism approach called Tomasulo's algorithm. This involves issuing multiple instructions, executing them out of order, and committing them in order. My partner Jonathan and I will be using C++ to create a simulator with variable cycles-per-instruction for different instruction types.

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Craigslist

Pullman and Moscow just got their own section of Craigslist recently. Before, everyone in this area had to participate in the Spokane section, which made it hard for buyers and sellers to meet up. Since that isn't a problem anymore, I decided yesterday to put my old iBook and my old iPod up for sale. In less than 12 hours, I've already received four inquiries, and I'm meeting someone on campus today who's interested in buying both.

UPDATE: I sold both my iBook and my iPod today, less than 24 hours after I posted it. Cool!

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New iPod

I bought a new iPod yesterday. It's the green nano I was talking about earlier. So far I like it a lot. The new user interface is really nice. I appreciate Cover Flow and the way the screen displays a clock and the battery status while it's idle. The touch wheel is smaller than the one on my old iPod, so that will take some getting used to. The anodized aluminum front seems pretty scratch resistant, but the shiny back is a different story. To keep it looking nice, I bought a clear hard cover made by Griffin. This case even covers the screen, so that should keep it relatively safe.

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Dressed-Up Professors

This is a strange week because all of my professors are dressed up. People who usually wear t-shirts and jeans are donning suit coats and ties. This is because the School of EECS is being visited by the accreditation committee this week. Everyone is on their best behavior, since approval is critical.

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NSF Fellowship Application

I'm almost finished with my National Science Foundation Fellowship application. Good thing, too, because it's due tomorrow at 5PM. The forms are all complete, the test scores and transcripts are sent in, and I have all of the essays written. Right now I'm editing them and trying to squeeze in a few more morsels about the "broader impacts" of my planned research. In this case, the two page limit per essay is very restrictive. It's forcing me to make every word count.

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iPod Replacement

I've been looking at the possibilities for a new iPod lately, and have decided to go with a green 8GB third generation nano. The anodized aluminum is nice, it's very small, and I really like the fact that it has 24 hours of audio playback on a single charge. Also, there are a variety of cases available to keep it safe. The iPod Touch was very tempting, but I'm a little afraid that my day-to-day activities might be too rough for its screen.

When and where will I buy it? WalMart is having a special starting November 4th that will give me a free $25 iTunes card with the purchase of the nano. I'll miss out on the free engraving that the Apple online store offers, but that's okay.

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e3 Editor and MTX

In my CPT S 560 course, the students are currently working with KC to port the e3 text editor to MTX. Right now, I'm working on writing a version of ioctl that can be used with the MTX kernel. To view my progress, you can check out my e3 Editor Google Notebook.

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Broken iPod

Uh-oh. When I got back home from school today, I found out that my iPod's screen has gone kaput. Here's what it looks like:

What should I do? This thing has served me well for a long time now. It might be time for a new one, and I do like the new iPods quite a bit. But it's difficult to decide between the Nano, the Classic and the Touch.

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Cougs Beat UCLA!

Just as I was starting to think we might not win any Pac-10 games this year, the Cougars came out and beat UCLA at home 27-7! Along with the rest of Cougar Nation, I'm really happy about this. Some people were so elated, in fact, that they started rushing the field after the game. That's kind of weird if you ask me. Anyway, I've posted an album of pictures from the game. Enjoy.

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Concert Pics

I've posted an album containing the photos we took at the Taylor Swift and Brandi Carlile concerts. You can view it here or find the link on the Dupyshon.com homepage.

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Brandi Carlile

On Wednesday Kristen and I went to a Brandi Carlile concert in Spokane. This concert was even better than Taylor Swift's! The opening set by A Fine Frenzy was fantastic. I had previously heard of this band through a free iTunes download, and was pleasantly surprised that they sound even better live than on the single. Their music is eerie yet uplifting, and the lead singer's voice is unforgettable. Kristen really liked this band, and we bought their album from iTunes immediately after the show.

Brandi Carlile and her band were amazing. They sound exactly like their recordings, and their folky yodel-inspired sound thrives on live performance. Brandi interacted with the crowd really well, and she genuinely looked like she was having a good time. She performed some brand new songs she had just written, which is always exciting. There was also one song which the whole band performed acoustically. They didn't even use microphones, so the crowd had to be completely silent. The result was a really cool, unadulterated sound. At the end of the night, Brandi gave a really good encore performance. It included a Johnny Cash song and solo versions of some of her most famous songs. Overall, the concert was a huge treat.

Taylor Swift

On Tuesday, Kristen and I went to a Taylor Swift concert in the Beasley Coliseum. It was really fun! The opening act was the Jennifer Lynn band. Jennifer and her guitar player are both Cougar alums, so they had a few loyal fans. Overall, though, the crowd seemed a bit bored with the performance. Lynn's music has more of a classic country feel, which is much different from the popular style of today. Still, I was surprised at how uninterested the other concert goers were with this act. People were talking, text messaging on their cell phones, and even shouting to friends in other sections. Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed at some of these people. Did they not realize that they had payed for this part of the concert, too?

When Taylor came out for her set, the crowd became much more focused on what was going on up on the stage. The show started out with some of the more popular songs from Swift's album, and everything sounded pretty good. It's amazing that someone who's seventeen years old can have so much talent. Taylor would often explain the song she was about to sing, saying "I wrote this song when I was 13...," or "I wrote this one when I was 12..." Pretty funny. Swift is actually the youngest country artist to ever write or co-write 100% of the songs on a platinum album. When you consider this, it makes sense that she could be around for years to come. Can you imagine a thirty or forty year career as a country music superstar?

I was very pleased with this concert. It's always exciting to hear an artist perform their hits live. I'll post a DupyPics album with photos from the concert within a couple of days.

Happy Birthday, UN!

Today is UN Day. Hooray!

Project Vote Smart

While looking at the information on some of the Presidential candidates for the 2008 race, I ran across a great site that effectively summarizes and sizes up all the candidates and issues. It's called Project Vote Smart. On it, you can access information for each candidate including a voting record, which can be quite revealing. I think that anyone planning to vote next year, or ever in the United States, should definitely take a look at this site. This is the kind of tool that an informed voter can and should use.

Two Days, Two Concerts

This week is pretty busy for me, especially because I'm going to see two concerts in two days. Tonight, country star Taylor Swift is performing at the Beasley Coliseum. Tomorrow, Brandi Carlisle is playing at the Big Easy in Spokane. I'll bring my camera and take some pictures, and I'll post them along with blog entries when I have time.

I did it again...

Well, I failed again: left the Festiva's lights on. Of course, it is no longer the Festiva, but according to Emily Cox, her name is Tess. I can see that. She's a pretty temperamental vehicle though. Now that the battery is out for a little while, I won't be able to drive her for a bit. But I'll get Tess to pony up and run again sometime this week, if not today, then maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll have to call parking services, or figure out how to compression start her. How do you get that done again? Grrr! Live and learn I guess...

Environment Friendly

My research group and my advisor, Dr. Delgado, are looking into ways that reconfigurable hardware might be better for the environment than current technology. The problem is that the existing process of manufacturing integrated circuits uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste. This process also has a relatively low yield, meaning that many of the chips are faulty and must be discarded as waste, too. Reconfigurable hardware has the potential to increase the yield of the manufacturing process and extend the average lifetime of each chip. This means that fewer chips will have to be made each year.

Engagement Party

This weekend Kristen and I went over to the west side for an engagement party thrown by my grandparents on Whidbey Island. We took Jaron along and stayed at Vic and Karl's place. The party was fun... we had it at a Chinese restaurant and got to see all of my relatives on my mom's side. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera so there won't be any album for this event.

Nerdy and the Grεεk

The WSU LUG (Linux Users Group) has come up with a zany idea to auction off engineering students to sorority members. They're trying to set up an endowment and scholarship program that will encourage more women to pursue engineering and computer science here at WSU. The event is on October 26th. It's received a lot of media attention, from stories in the Daily Evergreen to articles on Slashdot and interviews with CNN. For more information, you can check out www.nerdyandthegreek.com.

Blast from the Past: KRAZ News

During the summer of my junior year in high school, my brother, some friends, and I made a fun video about a fake news show. Check it out:

PayPal and the Wedding Websites

With this wedding website business, I need a way to get paid for my services. Kristen and I have worked with a few companies so far during our wedding planning adventure, and it's a little inconvenient when the company can't accept payment by credit card. In response, I've set up a way I can send invoices and receive payments via PayPal. This will allow my customers to pay with their credit cards and avoid having to send checks through the mail.

Cadence Question

I'm using Cadence for my VLSI class (EE 586), and the learning curve is very steep. One thing I don't like about is the fact that the program created a lot of configuration and temporary files directly in my home directory, not under my special "cadence" directory. Does anyone know if there's a way I can move these files and not break the program?

Time Tracking

Now that I have my scheduling scheme all worked out, I think I need a way to track how much time I spend on different tasks. For instance, I'm a quarter time research assistant so I need to be spending about 10 hours a week on my research. Also, it would be nice to know how long a certain programming project took to complete so I can budget a similar amount of time for comparable projects in the future. How can I keep track of my time? My first thought is to carry a little notebook around with me and record the times that I "clock in" and "clock out" for certain tasks. There's also a variety of software solutions out there, but that requires me to be near a computer all the time. Maybe I'll use a notebook during the day and record the times into a spreadsheet at the end of each day or week. This plugin for iGoogle and Netvibes looks promising, as well.

Riding the Bus

Even though this is my fifth year living in Pullman, I've only ridden the bus a handful of times. Since I lived on campus during all of my time as an undergraduate, almost everything of interest to me was within walking distance. For trips into town or over the Moscow, I was always able to get a ride or drive myself. I live off campus now, but the bus doesn't stop anywhere near my apartment, so I still have to walk to my classes. Once I'm on campus, though, I can use the bus to get around. For instance, I didn't want to walk all the way to the Rec from Sloan today, so I took Express 2 there and Express 1 on the way back to save time and avoid the effort of walking.

561 Exam

We had an exam yesterday in CPT S 561, Computer Architecture. It went pretty well for the most part. I finished with enough time to check all of my answers and there were no surprise questions to catch me off guard. This might mean that I did well. In the homework assignments so far, I've made a bunch of simple mistakes in my calculations that result in incorrect answers. Hopefully I fixed those problems with my studying. We'll see.

The Spokane Marathon

Last weekend was pretty exciting. I went with Joel Sheppard, Kyle Ryan, Emily Cox, Peter Klosterman, Amanda (I don't know her last name), and Naomi (don't remember her last name) up to Spokane to run in the the Spokane Marathon runs. No, I didn't do the whole marathon. Everyone except for Emily did the five mile run. Emily did do the whole marathon at 3 hours and 26 minutes. She got a medal for it.

Kyle got first place in his age division, Peter got second I believe, and I received third in the same division as Kyle for the five-mile. I came in at 35 minutes 26 seconds. It was a fun but very long weekend.

Wedding Websites

After Kristen and I got engaged, I created a website that our family and friends could visit to learn about the details of the upcoming wedding. You can check it out here. So far, it's received a lot of positive comments, and a couple of our friends have asked me to make websites for them. I've made one already for Kristen's friend Sam and his fiance Sarah, and another is on the way for Vic and Karl. It's really fun for me to do, and it helps them out a lot. So I got to thinking that I might be able to make a little business out of it. If you would like me to create a wedding website for you or someone you know, you can check out my new Wedding Website page on this site.

Fall Festival

This weekend Kristen and I went to a fall festival outside Spokane. There were pumpkins, caramel apples, hay rides, live music, and BBQ food. It was pretty fun, although the lines were really long. Kristen took some pictures; maybe I'll post them as an album under DupyPics.

Update: The album has been posted.

NSF Fellowship

Lately, I've been working on applying for a National Science Foundation Fellowship. This is a pretty prestigious program which gives research grants to winning applicants. At first I was very pessimistic about my chances, but I'm feeling a bit better now. I am getting written recommendations from some really good sources, and I'm working out all of the details for the three essays I have to write. The first one is a personal statement, and I'm working on tying my research purpose into my past experiences with Rwanda and the Sudan hospital. Once I'm finished with that, I'll move on to the other two, which describe my previous research experiences and my plans for my current project.

Radiohead

Right now I'm listening to my brand new Radiohead album, entitled In Rainbows. To be honest, I've never listened to this band before, but they caught my attention with a pretty revolutionary marketing ploy. You get to name your own price and download the DRM-free tracks from their website. I decided to pay $10, but you could theoretically get it for free if you wanted. Although $10 is not much for a whole album, I think it's fair because I am taking a risk on this band. The truth is that I would never have bought it at all if it weren't for the promotion.

How did I find out about this? My daily dose of NPR clued me in. I was convinced to purchase the album once the reporter remarked at the deep musical layers and complex textures of each song.

So far I like the music quite a bit. I can't do a full review because I'm only on the fifth track. Still, "Videotape" and "Reckoner" were nice sounding. Very laid back.

Basketball Poster

Last night Neil gave me a copy of the new, not-yet-released-to-the-public Cougar men's basketball poster for the upcoming season. It's really cool! It features Robby, Derek, and Kyle and the new slogan - "Friel the Excitement." I've already put it up on the wall.

Most Popular

I've just added a new category to Dupyshon.com called "Most Popular." Since only the newest posts are displayed on the Dupyshon homepage, it's easy for quality posts to be forgotten over time. The more popular posts should get a more permanent representation on the site, and that's the intent of this new section. Since I use Feedburner in conjunction with this site, I can easily see which DupyBlog and DupyPics posts are read the most. Using this information, I'll be updating the "Most Popular" section from time to time.

Homepage Revisited

I revisited the code for the Dupyshon.com homepage. As promised, I was able to tweak it a little bit to work better with Internet Explorer. I also slimmed it down a little bit to work with smaller displays. Enjoy!

Starting to Get Sick

I think I'm starting to get sick. Today I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I hope it doesn't get any worse.

Saturday's Game

Okay, I finally feel like I can comment on the frustrating game WSU played against Arizona State last Saturday. First of all, I was pleased that our team was able to stick with the Sun Devils for the whole game. We had some problems with penalties and Alex Brink was completely cold for most of the first half, but over all I think this was one of the best-played games this year by the Cougars. Second, I would like to take another look at that incomplete touchdown pass from the first half. From what I could see in the stands an on the instant replay, it looked like a good catch to me. Third, I really wish we would have tried for a field goal instead of going for it on 4th and 7. I just don't think our offense had the momentum necessary to try something like that. Finally, I don't think people should get mad at Abdollmohammadi for missing that last field goal. Some students sitting near us were calling him "the next Langley." In my estimation, though, Romeen will have to miss many more kicks before his numbers look nearly as bad as Loren's.

As an aside, I thought the marching band had an excellent show on Saturday. The moves looked good and the music sounded great, even when they were facing away from us.

Pancakes Galore

This weekend a bunch of Kristen's fellow student teachers were in town for Homecoming. She and I decided it would be fun to have a little reunion so everyone could see each other and compare their classroom experiences. We planned to make them all breakfast at my apartment, so we bought a whole lot of ingredients to make pancakes. As the weekend progressed, though, more and more of Kristen's friends began backing out of our invitation. It was a bit sad because we didn't end up seeing some of them at all. Anyway, this left us with way too much pancake batter for way too few people. We invited some of our other friends over to help us eat it all. They helped quite a bit, but we stil have many leftovers. That's fine, though, because I get to have pancakes for breakfast all this week.

Homecoming: the Games, the Festivals, Hurrah!

On Wednesday, Honors Hall participated in the annual Homecoming games, including chariot races, skin the snake, and tug of war. Honors participated with some classy tie-dyed t-shirts (a lot of hyphens) made last Sunday. I myself drew some black spots on mine with a sharpie, and ended up looking like a cow. So the cow and the hippies made their way down to the field for skin the snake, which is a very odd game.

Skin the Snake involves standing in a single file line with your right hand reaching back between your legs and holding the left hand of the person behind you. When the round starts, the line begins to move backwards and the last person in line lies down on the ground, still holding the right hand of the person in front of them. The second to last person, still walking backwards, straddles over the last person, now laying down. After they have passed the last person, the second to last person lays down like the last person, and so on and so forth. After all have lain down, the first person of the line lays down and gets up and the whole process is reversed. Honors did fairly well, and our chain did not break, which was a major mistake for most teams.

Honors won the first round of tug of war because the other side did not show, and the hippies and cow went back to the stands. In the second round, Honors was easily defeated by the C.O.P.S. team (which eventually won third place).

The true test was the chariot races. Props to Scott in Honors for his design and construction of our new chariot this year. She flew magnificently and Honors was second or third in its heat.

Congratulations to all Honors participants this year and go Cougs!

What a Name!

Tonight at the WSU Volleyball game there was an Arizona player named Randy Goodenough. Wow, I'd really like to hear her parents explain that one.

Organizing My Time

I've been a bit obsessed with making lists lately. It helps me sort out what's on my mind. Apparently, there's a lot. I'm up to about three or four lists per day now, and they're each pretty long.

It all started last spring, when I made a big Excel spreadsheet to track the due dates of all the assignment in my classes. This was a nice list because it challenged me to look ahead far into the future and encouraged me to finish tasks early. Surprisingly, it helped me fight the insatiable urge to procrastinate (if you're a student, you definitely know what I mean). However the list did have some drawbacks. The format I was using didn't allow me to make a daily schedule of the things I wanted to accomplish, and it left out other tasks not related to school.

I began making a daily pen-and-paper list to supplement my spreadsheet. This list was a bit crazy because I would write down every task I could think of that I wanted to do, including things like taking a shower, eating meals, clipping my fingernails, etc. Some people poked fun at me for using this level of detail, but I liked it because it gave me a sense of accomplishment to be able to check off so many things each day.

Once school finished for the summer, I no longer had a spreadsheet for my school-related to-dos. But I did start listing during my internship at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. I was (and still am) working on a large project for them, and it was helpful to list out all of my duties each day in a hierarchical fashion. At work I have a Post-It pad that is tall and skinny, perfect for a long list of functions to write and errors to debug. My Post-It lists were partnered with two others: a spreadsheet that showed my total progress on the project and a global pen-and-paper list of actions to perform on each and every file.

That sounds like a pretty ornate/complicated system, but it's nothing compared to what I have going on now. Grad school is keeping me pretty busy, and I'm being pulled in a lot of different directions. In order to cope, I've been planning my schedule with 8 Google Calendars. They include:

Three for my classes (one per class)
One for my research
One for personal events
One for events that happen every week
One that I share with the world (The DupyCal)
One for my to-do list

My weekly events get their own calendar because I want to be able to ignore them at will. The purpose of the calendars is to alert me about things that are different from the norm. If I want to look at my calendars while ignoring weekly events, I can just uncheck the weekly events calendar and view the rest.

The DupyCal is cool because it is available to the general public. You can subscribe to it if you want to by clicking on the button above. Jaron and I are the ones with permission to change this calendar because we are the official Dupyshon.com contributors. We usually try to include events that others might be interested in and/or can participate in.

The calendar for my to-do list is the newest addition to my organization scheme. Calendars are great, but what if you have something to do that has no particular time or deadline to it? For instance, what if I want to call my mom sometime today, but don't know when or for how long. How do I enter that into a calendar? Thankfully, I just discovered a web application called Remember the Milk that integrates a to-do list into Google Calendars quite nicely. Not I can list my to-dos easily and see them on my calendars. Remember the Milk has the added bonus of being Google Gears enabled, which means I can still access my list when I'm offline.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm working with. I'm pretty happy with this system, although I'm always looking for a way to improve it.

Birthday List!

Here is my birthday list for those of you who are planning to get me anything. If not, that's cool too.

- i-Pod stereo system and/or radio-cd stereo system
- cooking equipment (bread knife, pots, pans)
- Amazon.com gift card
- metronome and/or tuner
- trombone mutes
- TV DVD series (Star Trek, Dr. Who, Stargate Season 1)
- Star Wars Episode IV DVD
- Guitar music books
- a tie
- cookbook
- raquetball equipment
- nerf guns and/or nerf ammunition
- anything that may help me with law school or political science

OLPC

This video shows why the One Laptop Per Child project is so cool:



I'd really like one of those XO laptops myself. They have bunch of neat technology crammed into them, including an ultra-high screen resolution, great power management that extends battery life, and mesh networking. In November, they'll even be for sale in a Give 1 Get 1 deal. I wonder if they'll be a popular Christmas present, and what their resale value will be in Ebay.

Beards for Bowl Games

Beards for Bowl Games began on October 1st and will continue until the Cougars reach a bowl game or until the end of the season. Originally practiced only among Cougar Marching Band members, this year the invitation is extended to all WSU students (and alumni as well) to grow beards in support of the football team. Think of it as a Sampson sort of thing: the more hair we grow, the stronger we get. This represents a fan's commitment to cheering on the Cougs. If your commitment to your girlfriend is bigger, that is understandable. But still! Those who don't have girlfriends have little excuse. So grow your beards men! Show the football team that you support them!

WSU VoJazz and Big Band

Tonight I went to the WSU Vocal Jazz and Big Band concert in Kimbrough to watch Jaron play his trombone. It was a really good concert. The vocalists sounded solid, and the band was amazing. Jaron did a really good job, even among all of those music majors who are aspiring to become professionals. Apparently, the band was recently featured in Downbeat magazine and WSU was ranked among the top jazz schools in the country.

Sella's with Jaron

Tonight I went to Sella's with Jaron after he finished band practice. It was fun to see him again after a whole week. We had a good time playing Pictionary and watching a bit of Monday Night Football. Jaron told me about a YouTube show called Look Around You, and we watched a short episode when we got back from the restaurant. It's pretty funny, so check out DupyLinks if you're interested. It's nice to go to college with your brother.

Software for My Finances

I really want to become better at budgeting my money and tracking expenditures, and I'm looking for some software that will help me do that. It needs to support multiple accounts, give me reports about my spending, and be simple use. There are lots of products out there that fit this description, but here's a catch - I also want it to be a cross-platform application since I am always switching among my Mac, Windows, and Linux OS's. Also, (and this is just the computer guy in me talking) I want it to be free and open source. Does anyone know of a piece of software that fits this description? After some searching, I think I might need to develop my own program that fits this description. It could be a big project, though. One idea is to create a server application that I could access remotely via a secure web connection. That way, I could balance my checkbook from anywhere in the world.

Working Out Working Out

It took me a while this semester to work out my Rec Center schedule. Usually, I push exercising to the back burner while school is going, but I wanted it to be different this year. So I decided to actually schedule out the times I would go exercise just like I would for any of my classes and labs. This means I have dedicated Rec Center time that takes precedence over everything else. Since I used Google Spreadsheets to create my schedule this year, I simply email it to people when I'm trying to make plans with them. They can see that I've blocked out time for working out, so they'll have to pick some other time that works. It's been working pretty well so far.

The Kingdom

There's a new movie called The Kingdom which opens Friday, but I saw it at the Village Center Cinemas tonight at a special free pre-release screening. It was a very good, very exciting movie. The plot involves a small team of FBI investigators traveling to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist attack against some American expatriates working for Saudi oil companies. During their visit, they get caught up in the fight against the terrorists and participate in an intense hunt for the attack's mastermind.

Problems with IE

It's come to my attention that Dupyshon.com doesnt' play well with IE6 or IE7. I'm working to rectify this problem, but it's going slowly since school is taking precedence right now. Who uses IE anyway? Firefox is way better.

Device Library

I'm starting to understand what the topic of my research will be. My research group is studying medium-grain reconfigurable hardware. Up to this point they've had to do all of the place-and-route operations by hand to set up experiments. This can be time consuming and error prone, so my first task will be to compile a library of often used structures - like adders, multipliers, shifters, etc. The library will be incorporated into the existing CAD tools and speed up the place-and-route process quite nicely.

Paris Hilton in Rwanda

You can see in DupyNews that Paris Hilton is planning a goodwill tour to Rwanda. If she truly wants to help the people of that poor country, more power to her. If she's doing it just to clean up her image or become another Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt figure, she's in it for the wrong reasons. It might be more effective for her to stay home and donate some of her millions to professional organizations that are already working in the area. My hope is that she is shocked and disturbed by what she sees in Rwanda, because that might cause her to change in a way that really will help the world.

Well's Drive-In

Yesterday I went to Colfax. Kristen had forgotten her CDs in her rental car when she exchanged it for the fixed-up Equinox, so I had to go fetch them for her. After getting the CDs from the auto body shop, I went to lunch at Well's Drive-In. Well's is an old Colfax fixture that I'd never visited before. It used to be a drive in, but now they serve sit-down customers only. When I first got there I was a little disappointed to see that the menu was kind of expensive. I decided to go for their less expensive burger but to splurge a little bit on a blueberry milkshake. Upon the arrival of the food, I immediately understood why it leans toward the spendy side. They give you a lot! My burger had two quarter pound patties, ham, bacon, and all the fixings. I could barely get my mouth around it. A big basket of fries accompanied the burger. They were hot and good, especially with the horseradish-infused fry sauce. The milkshake was a little thin for my liking, but it came in gigantic proportions as well. The server handed me the milkshake glass as well as the nearly full mixing cup. The mixing cup had enough milkshake in it for two full refills. Everything tasted really good. I always enjoy the chance to support small-town businesses.