Fractal composition

Myron got an unbelievably cool website up, that lets you compose midis based on fractal theory. You know those line drawings, with infinite complexity, where you start out with a fork, then each fork forks, then each for forks, into oblivion? Well you can apply this to music, in an interesting way, and create some really unusual compositions. He has the theory explained on his website, examples of his own compositions, and an engine that allows you to make your own.

Give it a shot, www.fractalcomposer.com

New links

- A few new blog links added to the side bar for your reading pleasure -

Carrie: In Christ Alone
[Hilary's cousin]

Neil: Sylvancreature
[Deep photos, deep thoughts]

Peter: A breath of fresh air
[Hilary's (huge) little brother]

Snook: The Snook side
[More great photos]

3/4

[photo taken by Elizabeth, Hilary's cousin]

Hilary is like a song written in 3/4

3/4 contrasts with other time-signatures like crimson on cerulean... It's this graceful, beautiful, spinning time signiture that, whenever I hear it, invokes images in my mind of people twirling and dancing. A song written in 3/4 commands my attention, moves my soul

Part 3

Weekend [part 2] - Highland Games

Once every year the Pullman Highland Games is held at the Boothman's Pullman house. Men, mostly from SOMA, don kilts and test their strength and skill launching the caber, hurling a boulder, chucking a barrel, and throwing an axe. They also have a kilted race, and a clan competition with a timed challenge. The ladies, also looking very scottish come to cheer on the men. The ceremonies finish with a great feast, music, and knighting of the year's new "William Wallace," the champion of the games.

Being occupied with the market that morning I opted to watch from the sidelines, but even watching was the most fun I've had in a long time and I got to take some interesting photos. Hopefully, next year I will be able to participate...


After we got there, a large crowd of people assembled at the base of a hill, and started moving towards the top.

Some of the kilts were pretty extreme.


Brother-in-law Jacob, veteran and William Wallace twice,

And Karl Olson, founding father of the highland games...

explained the rules in the little grove at the top.
After this meeting, everyone split up by clan, and started competing at the various events. I bumped into a lot of people I had met the night before, as well as people I already knew.

Neil

Snook

Will

Marian

Peter

Alice...

Headed down the hill, and the first thing that caught my eye was the barrel toss. The barrel toss is set up kind of like a pole vault competition. A bar is balanced on pegs between two poles, but instead of trying to vault over it, competitors are trying to chuck a large barrel over it. They have to stand on a railroad tie, and if they fall off, they scratch.

People used a variety of techniques to clear the bar.

Oops, I forgot - before that, I watched the Axe-throwing contest. In this contest, competitors have to throw an axe at a stump, and the goal is to make it stick in the knot in the center. It's hard, but some people are consistently good at it.


Next up was the stone throwing contest. More like a 30 pound boulder... in this event too, a wide variety of methods were used.


In the meantime, festivities of other sorts were being held. Heidi, Hilary's cousin, and her fiance Luke, had met at the highland games last year, and were dressed to celebrate their upcoming wedding (this weekend).

Heidi and Luke

Heidi and Peter (cousins)

People were also just having a good time milling around. Alice was running around getting in the way of the stone throwers and Caber tossers. Marian had subdue her every once in a while...

Various clansmen

Heroes of years past

Bijin san nin: Hilary, Ana, and Kate

Caber toss
The caber toss was a most interesting event. Prior to watching, I thought that the goal was to throw the log as far as possible, but the actual goal is to make it flip over the high end. It counts as a flip if the grasped end of the log reaches 2 o'clock or higher. The cabers ranged in size from:

1) Large and heavy
2) Large, heavy and longer
3) Veritable tree-trunk
4) The city called asking for its telephone pole back

Round 1:

This guy was intense


Ian Skavdahl

Round 2:

Will got a lot of elevation on this one...

Flying scottsman...

Round 3: [only the strong backs survive]
round 4: ... later in the evening

At this point I headed back up to the grove of trees on the hill, because the clan competitions were about to begin. This was probably the most interesting part of the competition to watch... Clans were timed and had to pass two cabers and all of the team members over an ~8 foot wall. Fastest team wins.

The clans got 5 minuts to make a strategy:

Then they all lined up on the starting line:

And rushed over to the wall when the timer said "Go!"

Most of the teams put a man or two on top, then passed over the cabers:

In this particular team, the last one to clear the wall was the little dude in the photo here:

He may have been short, but he cleared the wall faster than anybody else in the whole competition. He jumped up, grabbed the top of the board, and in one smooth motion launched the rest of his body over. It was quite something. Fear the little guys. Word on the street is, he's a Maxwell.

Other teams chose different methods. Some put two people at the top and assisted everyone. Generally however, this strategy didn't seem to work quite as smoothly, and one guy even fell off the other side. He survived, though...

After these events, I headed back down for the barrel and caber tossing finals. At the barrel toss, the bar was set at maximum height. First up was a fierce looking fellow with a fro. He was a bit thinner than the others, but he cleared the bar.

Much rejoicing in his clan...

Neal's barrel cleared the bar with room to spare...

One guy got a huge amount of elevation:
I'd be happy if I could throw a barrel that high

When that was over, it was back to the caber toss. It was time for the final round, and the caber was enormous. In addition to being heavy it was just plain long, which, when the goal is to flip it over, probably doesn't make things easier.

Neal

This guy is pretty huge

This guy was considerably smaller than the other competitors who made it to the final round. Kudos to him. What he lacked in size, he more than made up for in intensity.

Here he is launching it

No one managed to flip it over completely, but Neal made it to the 2:30 mark, which was a real feat given the weight and length of the thing.

The caber toss finals were followed by a clan tug-of-war competition. To raise the odds, a muddy creek ran between the competing teams, and the lossers were drug through it.

The final event of the day was the foot race.

We walked the course before hand... it was quite a challenging course... not so much for the up hills, but for the extreme, body breaking drop-offs people had to run down, hairpin turns, and trees to duck under. A course of courses, I wish they did this sort of thing back in my SPU days.

Clansmen started in a large field:

Hurdled the creek:

And headed off into the fields

The competition took place right at sundown
They finished up the race thundering down a hill

Recrossing the creekAnd racing through the field to the finish line, where they started:


Someone handed Neil a Pipe as he neared the finish line... seemed to suit him

After the race, everyone piled into the house, and feasted a giant feast. Everyone was merry, the food was extremely good, and, of course, because this was at the Boothman house, there was singing. Good singing. I am kicking myself for not bringing my video recorder... I took off early, but later in the evening the new William Wallace was knighted (the fierce guy with the fro from the barrel launching finals).

Definitely an enjoyable competition, hopefully next year I won't just be a bystander...

Weekend [part 1]

** Disclaimer: low sleep = incoherent writing. But, here goes **

This last weekend was one of the most interesting, good, and strange weekends I have ever had. On Friday, I flew home. This was sort of spontaneous, I bought the plane ticket on Tuesday. When I got into Pullman, I was met by Hilary and my parents at the airport. After we drove home, Hilary and I went to the Boothmans' Pullman house to make bread for the Highland games the following day. The oddest things become interesting when you do them with someone you really enjoy. Even though I'm clumsy in the kitchen I got to help out, and was amazed by the incredible, artistic way that Hilary was able to make something so good tasting out of so little. I wish I had brought my camera, because everything she did from pouring the salt to handling the dough spoke skill. It was enjoyable watching and helping her do this. We took the dough back to the Marston house and ate dinner while we let it ooze out of the giant bowl like some growing blob of good bread smell. After dinner, finding myself completely useless, I watched on as the womenfolk in the house hacked and slashed up the dough into over one hundred perfectly shaped dinner rolls, arranged in ranks on a set of pans.

We took them back to the Boothman Pullman house, where we loaded them into an oven, and I got to meet a most interesting person, with a singular knack for taking photos. His name is Neil. It would be worth anyone's time to visit his blog. In addition to the photos, the stuff he writes is quite good. Adding to their already large number, Neil has apparently been adopted into the Boothman family, and everyone of them seems to treat him like an older brother. He helped us load up the bread and met up with us afterwards to watch Ian Skavdahl at Cafe Morrow.

Ian has, in my absence, developed an affinity for song writing. He was actually good, and I highly enjoyed his coffee house music, which is unusual anymore. When walking into a cafe Morrow he was messing around with a looping pedal, harmonizing with himself and the catchy progressions he had written.

In the crowd at Cafe Morrow, Hilary introduced me to a number of her friends. One of them, Snook (sp?), is a photographer but also good at the drums, and hopped up on stage to bust out some rythms with Ian. He is a very amiable fellow, and I'm going to try to track down his blog/photo page/something where I can see some of his highland game photos. Something interesting about the friends Hilary has... they seem to have a similar spiritual aroma. I've been home enough to know that the people she's around have a similar genuine love for God, regard for the word, and desire to apply the teachings. I really like being around these people. Because I was functioning on very low sleep we took off early, and I crashed in my old bed.

The next morning we headed over to Moscow to set up for the market (unfortunately I did not bring my camera (again)). This time we were only selling produce and fruit. Since it was raining most of the time we set up a canopy and several umbrellas. The market is something I would do every weekend if I could... you have to wake up really early, but it is worth it. Peter, Jane, Kate, and Ana came to help work the market as well. We ended up selling almost all of the fruit, had a good time doing it, and just got to hang out with eachother which was the best part. Hilary gave me a Honey Crisp apple to eat, which might possibly be the best tasting apple variety on the face of the planet. Good enough that even though a person is sopping wet and cold, they still a freezing cold apple worth eating. They go for $2.00 a pound, but sold out before any of the other fruit. I worked at the cash register for the first time... it was rough, tasks I'm not very good at like adding/subtracting two digit numbers, organizing fruits and vegetables, and sorting out change were involved, but I leveled up my status.

But the thing that made me most happy about it all was that Hilary put my jacket and hat on when she was cold.

To be continued...

Rain drops

Rain drops on my porch.


I've been a little edgy today. Someone who directly observed this advised me to "take a deep breath and think of the things I am thankful for." Guess I'd better get started.

I'm thankful that/that I got to/for

Forgiveness of sins.
Unconditional love.
The hope filled promises of God.
The promise of God.
A ransomed and redeemed spirit.
That he made Hilary.
That she's exactly the way she is.
My parents.
Their council and patience.
The patience people seem to extend towards me.
That my sisters got married to great guys.
Airplanes. That I can basically get anywhere I want in the world in a matter of hours.
No debt. Not a cent.
I'm healthy.
Every appendage of mine works, and works well.
Food.
Clothes.
A good bed.
A place to live.
Rice.
Microwaves.
Laundry Machines, so I don't have to think about things like washing clothes.
My chacos.
That God made the atmosphere, weather, refraction in the sky, really interesting.
Weather.
Music. Good music. The type that makes you want to snap from shear awesomeness.
A place to run that is halfway interesting.
Shoes to run in.
A nation where I have freedom to do the right thing, by and large.
A nation with relatively low crime.
Huge trees.
Huge moss covered trees.
A certain gorgeous girl, with the most amazing facial features.
The written Chinese language.
Those times when I get to smash things with a sledgehammer cause I'm actually supposed to.
Playing 007 knockoffs with my cousin & anyone else who wants to get slaughtered.
Granola, with raisins.. This isn't my favorite food, obviously but I'm thankful for it.
Barbecue sauce.
Gosh... that I got to make Mexican food with Noel and Elton.
Chorizo.
Spicy food.
Mom's food. Mom's chocolate cake. Pumpkin pie. Biscuits. Chili. Cornbread. Pizza. Corn chowder. Fresh bread.
My adviser.
That he lets me do things.
My brain works well for its intended purpose.
My slow wit. (If I had a quick tongue, I'd probably be dead now.)
The wonderful pastor, and his wife, at YoungKwang church.
The people there.
The way they sing.
The Bibimbab they make every sunday.
Seaweed soup.
Matt, the research associate in my lab.
All his help on my projects.
My room mate.
Tree frogs.
Green tree frogs with huge eyes and unusual expressions.
Humming birds.
Aodaisho. Mean aodaisho.
Bugs.
That huge kuwagata.
Japan.
The blessed people I met there.
The view from Bandai.
I didn't die on the cliffs of Kinkasan.
The bus ride there.
Japanese names. For everything.
The view from the top.
The boatride back.
Anthropomorphized mushrooms.
Hokkaido.
Strange plants with enormous leaves.
Eriya, Takuma, and Jinju.
Ramen.
Dragon flies.
Grace chapel.
Kawakami and Masako sensei.
Pouring oil.
Crappy, joyful music sung from the heart.
Awful tasting golden curry made with concern for a hungry guy.
Skipping rocks.
Dr. Biwa.
Dr. Biwa's generosity.
Megmilk.
Making no splash.
The view from Bandai.
Hilary's spirit.
The misty forest of Izumi Gattaka.
Kamoshika.
Eating scary things.
Eating scary, recently alive, uncooked things.
The sound of the Dizi.
Chinese poetry.
Yama ni sundeiru minzoku.
The mountain people.
The Naxi family guest house.
Mama Naxi.
Showers for tired people in crappy places.
Feeling so small in unbelievably huge landscapes.
Pure spice. Pure internal hemorrhaging.
Gosh... the amazing, refined chin on this certain girls face.
Plane rides, at the right time of day.
The view from the window.
That Jacob is so rad.
Second chances.
The coat I'm wearing.
The cheap, dirty, authentic Chinese joint 10 minutes from here.
Photos.
Photos of the girl I love.
My awesome camera.
Film.
Wide aperature lenses.
Bikes.
My old faithful bike.
That my car hasn't broken down yet (how is this possible??)
My car.
Grocery stores full of food.
Donuts.
Small dried fish.
The really great place I'm writing this from.
Evangelical free church of Pullman.
Pastor Busby.
The people there.
Cesar's amazing accent.
The way he reads the bible.
Accents.
My guitar.
The smell of my guitar.
Instruments.
Paints.
Alizarin Crimson gouche.
Experiences in Germany and Europe.
Discipline.
Always getting caught when I do something wrong.
Provision.
That time when I had just enough money to get home.
That time when I had just enough money to get some food.
The space heater in my barracks in Sendai.
Shelter.
Paula's place in Providence.
Paula's photos.
Paula's everything she does with her hands.
Marian.
Marian on the phone...
How the heck did I end up with the family I did, God??
Seatbelts.
The Seatbelts.
The Pillows.
Discovery park.
meeting Zach.
Skipping rocks.
The lighthouse.
Shells.
Grandpa's house.
The snakes at grandpa's house.
The various types of berries at Grandpa's house.
The beach, the dock, the crazy things we always pull out the water (alive or otherwise)
The view from the house.
My Grandpa.
My Grandpa's stories.
Uncle Ted.
My amazing energizer bunny aunt Laurie
Casey, Nate, Wesely, Ruth.
Their photos.
Their reflection of God.
Seattle pacific university.
An education.
Opportunity to do pretty much whatever I want to.
That I can make kick @$$ cool things with a lathe, milling machine, and a soldering iron.
Sound waves.
Friends who've seen you suffer and stick by you.
Friends you can fight with.
Matt Petersen.
The game of Risk.
The game of rook.
Root beer.
Headphones.
Ipods.
God's patience with us even when we are so stubborn.
God's un-ending source of love, even when it seems like he's dumping it into an un-replying vacuum.
Jesus.
Jesus is so rad. Can you imagine?
The universe that he put together that follows such mind bending, weird rules.
Naked mole rats.
That Jesus was a poor man who experienced suffering.
That Jesus was blue-collar.
That he made stuff out of wood.
That he probably once made something crappy out of wood, that fell apart.
[I wonder if Jesus ever had a crush on a girl... ]
That Jesus actually understood our problems.
That he didn't stay dead.
The book of Psalms.
The sound of the psalms in Japanese
The sound of Hilary speaking German.
The McDonald's dollar menu.

Gosh, if I didn't have to go home, I could make this list waaaaay longer. I didn't even realize. I'm thankful for the interesting life God has given me. I've met so many interesting people, seen so many interesting things, been so many interesting places that honestly, if I got hit by a car on the way back home and had 30 seconds to live, I think I could honestly say "Thanks God, it was really great."