to harmonize

I can't embed it here, but I started playing around with an audio recording program called Audacity.

You can hear the results on my music.metafilter page. Lots of stuff still to play with, including remembering how to sing on key :-)

fluff can kill a language

I may have the opportunity to use Ruby in the near future, so I thought I'd sit down and start learning. I picked up Dive Into Python and was amazed by how quickly and easily I could pick up and run with it.

I couldn't find a "Dive Into Ruby", but I did find a cleverly written book called Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby. The first chapter had me giggling. The second chapter had me interested in this new odd little language. The third chapter made me look up the work poignant in webster's. (Go ahead, click the word)

As it turns out, Why's (anything but poignant) Guide to Ruby started out being 3a, turned 2a, and was never 3b. (told you to click the word) I was so busy trying to skim past the pointless (but mildly amusing) prose that I started to have a hard time seeing the important parts that talked about the language.

The guide would be wonderful if I had never programmed in any language before. Honestly, with a little tweaking it would make a pretty solid source book for a CS 101 type class. At any rate, it would be better than teaching all the little tykes Java. (Sorry, pet peeve) The trouble is, I'm not a freshman CS student. I don't care that a symbol is a little softer on a computer. I want to know what exactly a symbol is and what it is used for instead of a normal variable.

Though it is shame I won't be able to use it to learn Ruby. The comics look like something out of Achewood and the sidebars read like a Douglas Adams commentary.

to love powder, mountains, and quality time with new friends

I just came back from four days on the slopes of Winter Park Colorado. I'm a little tired, a little sore, and absolutely blow away by how good of a time I had.

In the spirit of the blog I'll list the things I learned first.

1) Flow bindings rule
Check them out. If you snowboard you need to get a pair of these.

2) Powder loves you
I've never snowboarded in powder until this past week. I've now been in powder up to my knees and I love it. Word of caution though: keep your tips up and your momentum moving. I can't count the number of times I was watching clouds from my back after sticking the front end of my snowboard into a deep drift and getting it stuck.

3) ISU scuba club people rule
I laughed so hard my sides hurt. 'Course, that could have been the snowboarding for four days in a row... but I'm going with the laughing.

Its been a while since I've had that much fun. (I've got the stories and bruises to prove it). I posted some of my favorite shots of the week online and the slide show is below. Ask me about it and I'll link you to the full gallery once its up.

To look down when riding back country

I was teaching a friend how to snowboard today and took a quick break to explore a small run that went off into the woods next to the slope. I maneuvered through it perfectly until just before the end when I went down hard. After the wall of pain ebbed I looked around and I after thinking about it I think I finally know what happened.

The path was on the left side of a hill and was mostly straight. To keep my balance I had to keep my toes dug in and lean a little into the hill. I swerved around some trees and just as I leaned forward to stabilize myself my knee hit something and I went down hard. I looked back over the path I covered and there was a 18 inch stump about as think as my fist sticking up out of the snow. I missed the stump with my board, but I was leaning so far forward that my right knee hit it.

Lesson Learned : Turns out there are more things to consider than just the trail when you are off the beaten path.

that I like ethnic food

It turns out that all the ethnic foods that I thought I didn't like just wasn't done very well. I'm out in the San Francisco area this weekend and we've been hitting some incredible restaurants.

Friday night I had a catfish po-boy and sweet potato fries. Saturday I had sushi (awesome) and Ethiopian food (freaking awesome). Sunday we had tamales from the farmers market and Indian food from one of the best Indian places in the entire bay area (redicu-freaking-awesome).

We managed to skip the foot long burrito place and we missed the hippy breakfast place, but I think it was for the best. I haven't been this full since thanksgiving :-)

how to achieve my dreams

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Randy has cancer and only has about 3 months of good health left. He gave a farewell speech entitled how to achieve your dreams.

The post-gazette wrote this article about Randy and the Wall Street Journal posted a short video clip of the speech But if you have the 1 hour 44 minutes you really need to watch the whole speech

At the end of the speech he reiterates what he considers to be the biggest life lessons hes learned. My two favorite are:

[speaking about impasses in the pursuit of our dreams] "Brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don't really want to achieve their dreams."

Don't bail; the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap.

I can't imagine what it would be like to know Randy. I watched him for two hours and I'm thoroughly impressed. At the end of the speech it was obvious that I was watching someone teach by example. He knew his dreams, followed them to completion, and didn't take no for an answer.

how to roux a chili

Recipe is here : White Chicken Chili

The recipe is pretty solid but it needs some tweaks. I needed to use a much lower heat when I was simmering the soup and I needed to stir more. I ended up with some burnt portions on the bottom of the kettle. Also, an hour is a little lite on the amount of time it took to cook the beans.