Economic and Environmental Crises

There's been a lot of talk about an economic crisis, and there is a growing awareness of the present and existing environmental crisis (or perhaps crises).

I suspect and suggest that the solution to both problems is a heart change. A change from a heart of greed to a heart of charity. A change from a heart of consumption to a heart of stewardship. Change the way you are in order to change what's happening in the world.

I was riding the bus a few months ago and I realised that I was surrounded by people. I suspect that the solutions to the economic crisis will involve more community focus. Individualism costs more. If we have a barn dance, it take less electricity and less heating than if we all sit at home watching TV.

The environmental crisis is really the amalgamation of a number of serious problems facing the earth, both locally and globally. Global warming is a global problem. (I just thought I'd add that genius observation to show how smart I am.) The possums are a problem local to New Zealand. Instead of thinking of the earth as a set of resources to be used for maximum financial gain now, I think we need to start thinking of the earth as an old well-knit sweater of gold. The sweater was made by our grandparents, and we wearit now while it fits us, but we will be passing it on to our children, and their children and so on. If we tear apart the sweater now and get out all the gold, our children won't be able to enjoy it. There is gold there. It is made of gold. But it's important to keep it in one piece.

I suggest that in 2009 that we work on fixing these problems, starting with our own hearts. My own heart needs changing. The lines between good and evil, between freedom and fear, line not between countries and organisations, but between parts of each of our hearts.

Love,
Peter

Nails, Thorns, Dice and a Cross

I think I want to make a necklace with gnarly, rusted iron nails. The problem is that I've gotta figure out a way to make it so that the nails don't stab me in the neck.

Peter

Chaos

I'm not saying that chaos and disorder will follow in my wake.

We'll be dancing.

When you twirl chaos and dip disorder, people panic.

Peter

Favourite Quotes

One of the good things about Facebook is that you get answers to random questions about people. Like, when in face to face conversation have you asked some to list their favourite quotes?

Peter

Signal Patterns: Music

Tempo
You like music that's fast.

Electrical
You like music with amplified instruments.

Aggressive
You like music that's borderline violent.

Loud
You like music that's best when played at an ear-shattering volume.

Peter

Awesome, Extreme and Domination

Three words for this week => Happy happy happy!

I'm a cookie! I'm a cookie! I'm a cookie!

Peter

I Forgot

After so much engineering I wonder if I've begun to forget.

Peter

Machines (IV)

In today's world it would be impossible to stop using machines
They are everywhere
They are the only force that can keep us going
In our unnatural concrete cities
Maybe it is time to unplug

Can you stop the machines?

Three

Two

One

Off

-----

Peter

Machines (III)

Three

This machine will rock the world

The internal working of machines is difficult to explain
For those of you who are not especially trained in science, mathematics, or engineering
It is easiest to think of machines as being limited forms of magic
Magic that makes your life easier
And more full of blips, bleeps and random annoying sounds

-----

Peter

Machines (II)

Two

This machine is to override heartbeat of the performing musicians

Machines can be incomprehensibly complex
They are designed by highly skilled geeks
Who themselves are machines
Machines that run on coffee, sandwiches and no sunlight

-------

Peter

Machines (I)

Okay, and start the machines
One

This first machine is to set a beat for machines to come

Machines are part of our lives
They work for us and against us
They clean our cloths then beep at us
They drive us to work and honk at us
They make that horrible scraping sound that keeps you awake at night

--------

Peter

Happy

Happy happy happy happy happy happy...

Peter

Prince of Peace - God of War

I just watched Prince of Peace - God of War by John Campea. I recommend it. It's a documentary wrestling the question of pacifism and of just war.

My recommendation is:
Don't go to war without first watching this documentary.

Before today I had conceded to the concept of just war. That concept has been weakened by watching the documentary.

Maybe we're called to take a spiritual perspective and absolutely never use lethal force. I can't really lead myself to believe that totally though.

But then, why isn't it as simple as "Love your enemies" therefore do not kill them?

Riddle me that, all you fellow armchair philosophers!

Peter

Reality is Overrated

I'd rather live in my happy delusions than in your perfect world
I'd rather not live like you, pouting and upper lip curled
I'd rather drink a thousand rivers than chunder your words
I'd rather die and rise and fly on sky-seeking thunderbirds

Reality is overrated but you don't seem to care
I've found that realism makes me ache everywhere
Pretend is where it's at
Just ask the Cat in the Hat

Peter

Your Shoulders

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be

(Josh Groban)

Peter

Non-Linearity

So we're studying non-linearity in electronics. About time, I say. The world is not linear. I'll stand by that. You'll find some things that are pretty much linear, and you'll find some living creatures that are natural snack foods. But not many, and that's the point.

As a general rule, things are non-linear. It's man forming the world in his own image when he says that the world can be imagined as linear. It's an easy compromise.

Give me those harmonics, that intermodulation distortion. Mmm, tasty.

We study steady state, but there is no steady state. Everything, at best, is transient. Most stuff just isn't really comprehensible. We'll try, nay, even make progress. But we're all just sophomoric adolescents wandering around the world trying to make sense of it all.

Our minds are too small to fit reality inside. We can only ever hope to fit glimpses and unusual revelations.

Science is flawed. We will never make it. We will always remain ignorant and insufficient. We think and we think and suddenly we realise that it's not about understanding.

When God introduced himself to the people of Israel in Exodus, he didn't say "Ok Moses, tell them that it was this massive being that sent you, who is omnipotent and omnipresent, and all loving and all that kind of stuff, y'all understand?"

No.

He said "Tell them that the I AM sent you." You know the beingness. Yahweh. The one who was and is and is to come and bes without the shackles of time. He is what we are made in the image of. (Note well that proper theology tells us that God does think and does actually understand everything.)

We do not think first of all. We are.

And all this non-linearity reminds us that the world is more complicated that we can ever possibly imagine.

We stand on the edge of the ocean looking at shells and weird rocks. The ocean of reality stands totally undiscovered before us.

Rock on,
Peter

1|\||)|_|5+|?4|

Gzzk kk kk gzzk kk kk gzzk kk kk gzzk!

|\| | |/|

KMFDMDFMK

|7_ () ( |< 0 |\| !


|> E + E R
|

The Wood

The wood of the floor shakes with the ringing of the strings and the skins.

The people dance on.

Peter

Loose Cannon

The moral of the story is: if you're going to get a loose cannon to do your business, he will eventually turn to fire even on you.

The real moral of the story is: be that loose cannon. That way it can never fire on you.

Peter

Chaotic Nihilism

Just as I starting thinking that everything was safe and fine and Yankee-Doodle-dandy I saw the light at the end of the tunnel that turned out to be a train that was shipping the coal that fires the urban industry to destroy the world and cut down the rainforests and provide free hugs to make it all better when what we really need is a revolution to tear down the establishment and haste the day when our faith shall be sight to the blind and begging cripples in the gutter that make our society miserable just like it was when we abandoned the widows and the fatherless and the single mothers with screaming toddlers hanging off their strong but tired arms that can't form fists no more because they have learned that it is impossible to dole out the compassion when your community doesn't support you and the government tries to take away your kids and the man in your life isn't and the sun doesn't shine like it used to when the clouds were rolled up in Zeus' sleeve with Athena sitting in wisdom and judgement and confrontation to the failed manhood of our perverse generation that tries to make the wrongs right and the rights wrong and everything that's black white and everything that's grey black and all things melt into a single pot of paranoid delusion that hides the yellow fear that drives us all underground to where no one can see us and no one can touch us and nothing really seems to bother us and time stands still for but a moment when we can escape escape and catch our breath before the working week steals us all away until the next Friday rolls along and brings back the beer and the booze that returns us to what we thought we were meant to be doing but what we'd realise is so pointless if we just bothered to get a job that we enjoyed doing which could bring us fulfilment and vitality that would unite the fiefdoms and factions and return the world to the Garden of Eden when man and woman were united with God and when nature was in harmony with itself and nothing else mattered but that crafty serpent that brought down the whole world by tempting Adam to betray God by choosing Eve, and ultimately dooming all men to face that constant struggle of God or the girl, the prototypical case where everything blends down to selfish decisions and morally ambiguous notions that guide a young man into madness and folly that infects the brain like a Chaotic Nihilism that Nietzsche would wet the bed and wake up screaming if he ever dreamt something so raw and angry.

Peter

Odd

Odd creature that I am, so fearful and yet so resourceful.
Victorious so far, but constantly assuming failure around the corner.

So I've got just one more thing to say
Before we all go blow the world away
I've got just one more thing to do
Before the CERN LHC chews you

\m/_

Peter

Man's Programming

"So why do you want to change your life?"
"I was thinking that I maybe one day I would be something, that I would be cool and be awesome and that everyone would respect me. It doesn't matter if I were good or bad or even downright evil, so long as people noticed me. Absolutely blending in I barely exist, it's as if I didn't matter. Unable to affect the world for good or for bad, I am static, insignificant and infinitesimal. Non-zero but not measurably by any means. If I would just do something big, I might get noticed, even for just a little while."
"What are you going to do?"
"Anything. Anything big, that would get noticed. I could commit a crime so great that I would be heralded as a monster, a demon in the flesh, a clock of flesh that steals the time of life. I could become a sacrifice, a burnt offering of blood and veins to appease the deity of publicity. I could do amazing good. Save the world! I could invent, create, sing, inspire. I could leave a legacy of truth and salvation. I could make the dead rise, the blind see, the deaf hear and the mute speak. Anything and everything is possible and I will do it all in a single day!"
"When will you do this?"
"Never. It is all impossible. All these things are true, and all things are false. Nothing I say is written, and nothing written is said. I reach into the depths of my conscience and I find anomalous dissonance of character, spite and programming. In the forge of my youth the hammer fell on my mind with my heart on the anvil and I was shaped! Shaped by hands of parents, peers, society, teachers, artists, poets, soldiers, philosophers, preachers, children, talkers, whisperers, shouters and politicians. Forged like an axe to cut, like a bow to shoot, rifled to twirl, a Caesar to conquer, an Alexander to be Great, a Madonna to be pictured."
"How did you become this way?"
"When a man goes to make a machine, he plans. He lists, and he extrapolates. He refines his vision until even others can see it clearly. Like the stars on a cloudless night, he envisions. And using the daemonaic languages of farce and brutality, he qualifies his wrath into quantified instruction. Instruction! An endless stream of specifics, detailing every case. No room for adjustment, no freedom, no sense of unreliability. This is the goal. No variation! No variance gives infinite power. Compiled by covert forces into the assembly language of man. The teachings, instructions and precepts that guide a boy into his life. That direct his steps and make him do everything single detailed and damned thing that he has been told to do. This is what I am. A machine running instructions. As specified by the manufacturer, with a warranty, a shelf life, a users manual and no variation!"
"But are you not master of your own destiny?"
"Oh course. That is part of my programming. I am programmed to make choices, to weigh up the options, to chose! But at every choice, I only do what I want. I do nothing else but that which I chose to do. I am constrained by my own preference, by my own desires. And where, great questioner, do my desires come, from?! Every answer to every question is cooped up inside my upper thinker and answers are retrieved from the programmed space and are loaded into my desires at precisely the right time. I have total freedom. I can chose without interference. But I will always do what I want. And what I want I have been programmed to want. I cannot want to want anything else, because I don't want to. I cannot want to do something besides my programming."
"What of rebellions?"
"All are nought. A sociopath is merely a robot that has been programmed with less than the greatest finesse. My childhood however, was one of decency and qualification. Of diligence and manhood, of morality and simplicity. I will not become a psycho because it is not in my veins. This is the catch: I could become a sociopathic killer, it would need to be gradual. But I won't. It's not that I couldn't or that I wouldn't think of it in an idle moment. It's that I absolutely can't due to a missing entry in the look up table of my manhood. My identity is in my work, in obsessive perfectionism that leads to creative works that spring from an imagination of dogs, demons, daughters and devices rich with mathematics and machines, problems that fall to my scrutiny and morals that would make any artist put away his misgivings about society."
"Then, are you a good man?"
"Yes, undoubtedly. But good is reserved for those who are under ultimate Grace and those who have been forgiven their sins of the trespasses of indecency and hatred. Sing a song of salvation, oh!, it is good to be free! But in all that, where is my concern that all of this is an illusion, that underneath humanity is a skin laid so bare that it is but matter! Matter makes a secular humanist of a soul leaving no tears and no laughter and only the stone cold singing of an arrow fletch with a shaft and a head buried deep in the once beating heart of a Christian! Evolution, and survival of the fittest. One idea supplants another and sadness is replaced with joy. Or at least madness is replaced with reason and the jovial emotions are left unscarred. But unlikely. Nihilism is where this all leads and nihilism is where it all ends."
"Then you are rejecting what you were programmed to do?"
"Impossibly so. But not so much rejecting, as confirming what it is all along. Many words leave meaning obscured and lack of decent forethought means that no change in views is possible. I am left with nothing, not even the great fortunes of life, money, freedom and education. I am left with jagged edges of a man I once knew as myself. I project myself onto imagined characters to hide the true intentions of my fiendish spell of letters. I am Iago and I will deceive my Othello self into killing me Desdemona demons and my Angela angels with swords of confusion and grace and dignity and lust and certainty and joy and vicious hatred and calm embarrassment. Vomit your programming because that is what you are programmed to do! Chase away the thoughts of vain predestination because you are flying free! Jump out of yourself because you want to and you want to want to and you want to want to want to want to. You can't do anything else, and nor can I because we are both alike in that manner. The concious mind isn't so, and the unconscious mind is so unpredictable. Alice never figured out the Mad Hatter but it didn't matter. I am through with my programming and I am through with myself."
"So there is a way out?"
"Yes and no. I can end the program. Step out of The Matrix, take the red pill and wake up in the real world. But the operating system might keep running the background, a higher order Matrix that completely contains the first. And N orders of Matrices which are multiplied on the left before it. I could accept it, move on and chase after money, success and women. I could try a third possibility and very likely go insane. Or I could waste everything on fruitless thinking that aches my brain and forces you to keep interrogating me."
"Then should we stop now and talk tomorrow?"
"A good idea. Then we shall never talk again."

Peter

Patriot Day

If you refuse to be afraid
Why are your pants so wet?
A mental fatality

Your freedom is stayed
Why make laws you'll regret?
Just herd mentality

Hurt yourself and refuse aid
We are our greatest threat
Belt and suspenders for our morality

Death at the Trade
But life is an option yet
You can change reality

Peter

Code

Code, I speak in code
Code, I write in code
Code, for machines understand and men to abstain
Code, for reckless villains and charming princesses
Code, for violence and confusion
Code, I speak and write in code
Code, for safety and security
Code, to minimise risk and catch every special case
Code, to hide in myself and never get out
Code, to blacken the whiteness and gray out everything in the whole world
Code, I speak and write in code
For no one to understand me

Peter

Nine Inch Nails + Sewing

So I figure that seeing as I will be a bachelor for an unforeseeable (and perhaps infinite) time to come, I have no reason to absolutely rock out the home economics skills, the sewing skills, the cooking skills and the other skills usually considered to be 'home-making.'

I'll tell you, you figure out why thimbles were invented pretty quick when you're in the situation where you actually need one!

And man! Knotting thread is a rigorous exercise in practical 3D geometry! Gak!

It also helps to have some really industrial music to listen to while you work.

Peter

Spring: A New Thing

The dude on the big chair said "Yo! Ch-check it out! I'm making everything new!" Then, "Scribble away, cause I'm on to something awesome here."

This spring, I finish my BE(hons). This spring, I'll do a new thing.

Rock on,
Peter

Goodbye Winter

Two days left!

:P :P :P

Peter

Assualt

I thought I was safe
My fortress was complete
Free inside my uber keep
Yeah, but you know what? They all say that...

I thought I understood myself
My hardened steel exterior
Any weapon against me is inferior
Yeah, but you know what? They all say that...

Peter

All Purpose Cleaner

So I just mopped the floors with "All Purpose Cleaner (With Ammonia)." Now there is a bold claim. All purpose.

Now I am no doofus. I am sick, which does, admittedly, increase my Normalised Doofus Score (NDS). But don't expect me to be representing any old country at the Olympics in the doofus event.

Okay, so given that I'm a rather poor doofus, I reason that it shouldn't matter to buyers if all purpose cleaner has ammonia or not. Either the ammonia will make the cleaner unsuitable for some kinds of applications, in which case it would be wrong to say it's still all purpose, or all purpose cleaner without ammonia is just as good as all purpose cleaner without ammonia.

Yes, this is all a pointless waste of breath. Or finger tip skin, as the case may be. Oh you should see the serrated edges of my keyboard keys. Ever five words is another ten minutes worth of band-aids on my fingers!

-----------

So my rock and roll sister got to go to a rock concert. :)

Grace and peace,
Peter

A Sleeping Dream

I had to laugh out loud to myself this morning when I remembered this part of my dream and I thought about it a bit. Let me explain:

In the dream I was at a musical composition workshop. I think psychologically it was based on the Nelson Composers' workshop. And it was in part of the workshop where everyone sat in a room and people took turns coming up the front and presenting something or other.

My former digital music lecturer was presenting. He wasn't presenting anything directly musically related though. He had a remote controlled electric toy car thing. I couldn't quite tell if it was a bicycle or what. I think it was kinda a bicycle, but in the dream it didn't have trouble with balance, and it had this little wood shelf below it where the battery rested.

It would drive and when my lecturer would press the go forward button or level, whatever it was, the car thing would shoot forward a little too fast. But he had a lot of fun driving it around and the guys who were organising the conference seemed really interested. I remember in the dream thinking about the sound it made. I was thinking something like "Well, it's sort of musical, because it makes sound."

My lecturer was driving it around and stuff and having a lot of fun. See he had built this thing, so it was totally his baby. Eventually he drove it into an adjacent room and the conference organiser guys followed him.

For some reason I was standing up the front. And the people in the audience were getting bored! They wanted to talk about musical composition and here was this guy with a remote controlled bike! A young woman in the front even said something like "Well, this isn't really music" or something to that effect. I tried to smooth things over by suggesting that the people interested in the remote controlled car thing could keep going and meanwhile someone else could start presenting to the main group.

The funny thing is, I'd never think the musical composition guru people would ever brand something as "not music."

It was so obviously not really musically related, but for some insane reason, my former digital music lecturer had built it and was presenting it like it was a new kind of scale tuning!

Peter

A Waking Dream

So I got new guitar DSP software. So so so sweet. Line6 Gearbox!

Three mad Diezel emulations, excellent pitch shiftifies, distortion pedal emulations and much more that I haven't even explored yet. Tons of amp emulations, include bass amps and all kinds of rad stuff.

The Diezel amp sound is so sick. Like the unknown gluten intolerance days. Just sound, vomit and anger.

I'm still having trouble getting the drivers for the little boxy hardware thing working, but that's peanuts compared to the DSP cheese cake.

On a scale of 1 to Rock and Roll, this goes to 11.

I'm thrilled.

I'll have to write some rad songs that take advantage of my new ranges of guitar sound now. Probably the coolest part will be using multiple instances for individual parts of the processing so I can add in other stuff in between to create extreme sounds that will take over the world.

Hear that?

I'm gonna take over the world. And now I am ready to enact stage 3 of my dastardly plan.

Rock on over and out,
Peter

UHF Amplifier Design Calcs

The math works => me happy.
The math works => me go home early.
The math works => stress decreases.

This is the part of the blog post where I would normally draw a connection between mathematics and human relationships, between Smith charts and getting dates.

But really, I'd rather just rock out and \m/ and \m/_ and all that!

void row_low(uint8_t col){
  if (col < 4) {
    DDRC |= (1 << col);
    PORTC &= ~(1 << col);
  }
  else if (col == 4) {
    DDRA |= 0x10;
    PORTA &= ~(0x10);
  }
}

This is rock and roll,
Peter

Happy

So project inspection is done. Equals happy!

My heavy metal sister is throwing up her rawkfist to the sky and like, awesomeness.

I'm watching The Dark Knight tonight. Should be reasonably awesome.

Peter

Dan Wentz, MDFMK and Nine Inch Nails Collaborate

So dreamed that the GAME03 MIDI music by Dan Wentz from the game Descent II actually had a vocal track embedded in it somehow, and the vocal track was from "Torpedoes" by MDFMK, but in the dream it was a Nine Inch Nails song with Trent Reznor singing!

I had opened up the file in SONAR and I was looking at it and listening to it in amazement.

Yes, the title is sensationalist. It's only in my dreams! :( But wouldn't it be cool!?

The song came about because this space pilot (who was Trent Reznor) was in this big spacecraft that had landed on a hostile world. He was surrounded by a massive robot army (like in Star Wars Episode II) and he was fighting them. Then he jettisoned this huge part of the right side of his craft and it flew into the robots and exploded, destroying some of them. Then he fired off this torpedo-like section of his craft, which he was in, and started firing lasers at the robots. I think this is where the song came in, and I could kinda see Trent Reznor in his craft singing it. At this point, the robots realised the prophecy that this pilot was going to defeat them (even though they had a massive advantage by the numbers and aparent position, since they had him surrounded). So all the robots suddenly left and then Trent Reznor was left in his spacecraft sitting there in the middle of this Calvin and Hobbs-esque desert scene with bits of metallic rubble scattered here and there.

Then mysteriously his torpedo-like craft turned into the front of a huge truck which was red. You know those things that usually carry a big load, and the whole combo has 18 wheels and stuff? It was the cab of one of those, so it did look kinda dumb. And he started driving to the right, going to a depot or something like that. I couldn't quite tell.

Then my mind started thinking: wait, he's not supposed to be in a truck, that's dumb, he's supposed to have this torpedo-escape pod from his spaceship. Things stopped behaving normally in the dream and my mind started rejecting it.

I woke up because it was so cool!

Peter

Personal Helicopter

Okay, so I had this dream that I had a personal helicopter. It was like a bar that I held above my head which went back and had a propeller on the back of it.

I could run and jump up onto the roof of a building. It took some practice and sometimes it was a bit hard to use.

Then I flew high over the city.

Peter

Gotta Keep Typing

Coding is fun but it can be a lot of work. It's just that there aren't as many interruptions as when you're working with hardware. You also have the benefit of testing right away.

Hmmm.

I love it when it works! That's just the biggest buzz ever.

Peter

Choice

Choices can be bad. They have a downside.

If you don't have choice, then you won't get regret. So avoid choice and you avoid regret. Maybe?

Peter

Stack Overrun

Embedded programming is like creating a little world in a chip. It's a world where things work as you dictate. It's a power trip in some ways.

But when you start getting stack overrun it's like the fabric of reality in that world starts tearing at the seams. Things just happen. And insanity, or at least dumb silent stupidity is guaranteed.

It's really a nightmare for every young EE to experience. Fortunately for me, I had a classmate who could point me in the right memory-saving direction.

Imagine that you learned something one day that overwrote your remembering your own name. It would be like this:
"Hi, what's your name?"
"tiary qualification (electronics or software engineering). NV]HI #**S_FE{"
"Huh? You okay?"

For a second I thought I was doomed.

Aaa, but that's the fun of it isn't it? Man over machine.

Peter

Laundry

Jaffas
Guitar picks
Cold rain that doesn't stop for days
Sharpies that are too small
Songs that no one can understand
The water that condenses on windows
Jars
Vaseline
A length of PVC pipe
Love, oh, blessed love
Mechanical pencils that don't have enough lead
Old guitar strings
Bass drum hits on 1, 2, 3 and 4
30 push ups a day

Peter

Exactly

He asked me, "So who are you?"
I said "I don't know."
And what he heard was "I don't know."
But what I meant was "I don't know exactly."

She asked me, "So what makes you come alive?"
I said "I don't know."
And what she heard was "I don't know."
But what I meant was "I don't know exactly."

They asked me "So where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
"In a silver mirror," I said.
And what they heard was "I don't know."
But what I meant was "I don't know exactly."

I asked myself "What's should I do now?"
And I said to myself in the most introspective way:
"Lift your eyes upward, myself. See the heavens and the hills.
They are bigger than me, myself. But I have a friend who is bigger still."
But what I meant was "I don't know exactly."

Peter

Last Lecture

It's long, but not a second of the lecture is wasted.

Peter

Bungee Jumping

Bungee jumping is dangerous to your retinas. Also, it's dangerous because they might miscalculate the required length of cord and actually kill you.

But it might be really fun.

Peter

Artist of the Day: Brooke Fraser

I decided that I need to destress more. So I decided to like Brooke Fraser. It's not as hard as that sentence makes it out to be though: Brooke Fraser is the woman!

Like, Albertine is a great album! Man it's good! This singer rocks!

"Oh, can you feel the gravity falling
Calling us home
Oh, did you see the stars colliding
Shining just to show
We belong"

Peter

Mysterious Forces

When mysterious forces conspire to bring me pizza, it makes me feel loved. :)

Strange things have occurred today. But sometimes strange is really good!

Peter

I Like to Move It

Dance moves learned/remembered today:

Hip throw
Over the hill
Figure 8-y thing
Chicago
Scissor dip

Fun!

Peter

Dance More

Well, after about a year of absence, today I went out to UCanDance. It was great!

I remembered more dance moves that I had once learned and then forgot.

As a reminder to myself:
Modern jive moves:
- Figure eight. (Ends with lean!)
- The kneeing one where the guy twirls the girl at the end.
- The back tapping one where you start with a guy turn.
- The first move. (Waltz hold, then face the same way, then spin girl under then spin again).
- Guys turn with and without hand change.
- Airplane.


Salsa moves:
- Guy turn (different to modern jive one; bring elbow in front of guy's face).
- Girl turn.
- The one where you lift your arms, twist them up, then go into a cradle then spin the girl 1.5 times.

Merengue moves:
- The basic step.
1. Left foot forward (put your weight on it).
2. Step back to right foot.
3. Put left foot back next to right foot.
4. Rest.
5. Right foot back (put your weight on it).
6. Step forward to left foot.
7. Put right foot back next to left foot.
8. Rest
- Double back step.

There are lots of other moves. Some of which I probably remember too. But these are ones worth noting tonight.

Rock on!
Peter

More or Less

Dance more, sing more, pray more
Stress less, worry less, curse less
Work more, play more, live more
Waste less, bore less, hate less
Love more.

Peter

Fascinated

I am fascinated.

Love,
Peter

Dear Reader

"Let's face it, dear reader, neither one of us is getting any younger. If you don't go after your dreams now, when will you?" (What Color is Your Parachute, by R. N. Bolles)

Hell yeah!

Peter

So I Was Thinking About My Future

So I was thinking about my future but this time I had an interesting thought which went something like this: so I was thinking about my future but then it actually happened and I was like: so I was thinking about my future but it actually was something interesting in my head and it was something boring on the page but the future was, itself, something like this: so I was thinking about the future but this time I was so confused by all the imagined possibilities that I didn't end up doing anything so I actually died the next day sitting in front of my computer screen as I wrote a blog post that went something like this: so I was thinking about getting a job and getting a wife and getting a future when I realised that maybe it's more important to do work, to be a hubby, to make someone's future brighter than to go about getting and getting and getting until I end up with everything and I find that I'm just sitting in front of the computer screen writing a blog post that goes something like this: so I was sitting and thinking and not doing anything but wishing that my dentist appointment was now instead of in 13 hours because I don't like getting up so early in my holiday but it was something like this: so I was thinking about how I don't really have a holiday because I have to do work, but I've ended up taking quite a bit of a holiday anyway and oh my freaking goodness I've got so much work to do in the immediate future that I wonder how I'm ever going to think about my real future, you know the one where I'm perfectly happy and everything is carefully photoshopped up and all the ugly hairs are plucked out and all the scars are painted over, and my thinking about the future goes something like this: so I was thinking about my future and it wasn't a very original idea but I thought that I should very much like to have dinner each night next year, but you know, that's not the most important thing, so maybe instead I should resolve to miss dinner a few nights next year, you know so that my thinking could go something like this: so I was thinking about my future but I couldn't really figure God into the equation at all so I just decided to become a nihilist but then I realised that there wouldn't be any point and I starting thinking something like this: so I was thinking about my future but nothing made sense and
all my nightmares came true.

Peter

Legacy

Student Life National conference was awesome.

And as an added bonus, I did not fall asleep at the wheel on the way home.

I wish this song by Kutless were featured in the conference:

Oh the memories
Of all the things that shouldn’t be
They take you away from all you should be
Don’t let it go by as if you agree

Nightmares of the past will fade away
The future of your name is what will stay
Never try to blame the past for everything you say
You have the power you need to change your legacy

Do you really want to be just like
The very ones you blame who take you away
From all you should be
Don’t just stand by as if you agree

Nightmares of the past will fade away
The future of your name is what will stay
Never try to blame the past for everything you say
You have the power you need to change your legacy

Think of the future and when you are gone
How will you be remembered then
For all time you can be the one who changed the name

Nightmares of the past will fade away
The future of your name is what will stay
Never try to blame the past for everything you say
You have the power you need to change your legacy

To change your legacy
Change your legacy

---------

And while I'm posting awesome lyrics, I might as well post "Wordsmith Legacy" by Project 86:

Knock knock knock
Sound the blows to the forehead from the
Mock mock mock
Of the words, a voice I hear every morning

Like stalking me from yesterday
The taunts of one who sought to frame
The picture of this desolate
This figure cowering

Every word a double edged sword
A double edged sword
My every word

Drop drop drop
Sound the sledge to the metal
Shot shot shot
Sound the pin to the chamber
My own words pound after me
Intentions bent on conquering
The very will I proudly claimed
Was the very axe that cut the nape

Every word a double edged sword
A double edged sword
My every word

(I’ll never, ever look back
Sitting still, sitting still
Arrogant mindset of lusts
They search and strain and drink and stagger
When we are hollow
Sitting still, sitting still
You hate us cause we’ll never go away)

“You can drown
In your own mistakes
Burrowing into the black
Or you can take my hand”

Double
Edged
Sword
My every word

“This gift was never yours
So why would you ever think
That the words you said were your own?
I have chosen and breathed and forgiven and changed and purged and cleaned and forgave and bathed and carried and soothed and burned and spoken and spoken and spoken and spoken and spoken and spoken and spoken…
Yours is not to proclaim… But only to obey.”

-------------------

I'll be leaving a legacy. Will you?

Peter

Hast Seen the White Whale?

Today I finished reading Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville.

A great book, but it includes some descriptions that I found rather dry. But the book is on the whole, a great read, with a great style and good adventure.

Peter

The End of The World, Again

The concert went well. "Stoked" is about the right word, I believe.

If the world actually ends soon, then it wasn't me! I was being facetious, really!

;)

Peter

Fusion concert

Those of you who read this from Facebook will probably realise that tomorrow is an historic day for me: my first premier as a professional composer. Well, 'professional' as in, I was commissioned, not that I make my livelihood from it.

It's not true to say that I've always wanted to do something like this, but maybe I've wanted to do something like this for half-ish of my life.

When I invite people, it's to let them share in my pride (or suffer my arrogance, as the case may be). It means a lot to me, that I invite the people close to me, so that they have an opportunity to see an important part of my life.

Whether you come or not, for whatever reason, I hope that at least you can rejoice with me that one of my dreams is being fulfilled.

Peter

Faith

"For I know the plans I have for you," declared the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Peter

Shortest Day of the Year and the Longest Musical Project of My Life

Today is an historic day in the history of me. I am mastering my latest and largest music project to date: Industrial Sector. I've been working on the mastering for a bit now, and I've asked questions like "What is the right frequency balance?", "How long is an album?", "Can I add X without disturbing my carefully qualified artistic balance?"

It is also the shortest day in my 2008.

Peter

Unhealthily Cold

What is unhealthily cold?

My flatmate has proposed the definition that "when you can see your breath, it is unhealthily cold."

I got some yoghurt out of the fridge and I was like, hey, this is warm! But actually if it's less than 4 degrees C, then the fridge might be warmer than outside the fridge.

As for me, I think this must be unhealthily cold. Cool like a night in the fridge.

Peter

And Here It Is

Check it out -- "New Directions."

Actually, the piece is called "The End of the World, Again." But any publicity is good publicity, no?

Peter

I'm in the Newspaper

I looked myself up in the dictionary, to find a blank space.
I have no Wikipedia entry to my name.
The Bible doesn't mention me directly.
I'm in the newspaper, but it's wrong.

Moby Dick doesn't tell me my purpose.
The Quran doesn't tell me my destiny.
Everything I've written, I already knew.
I'm in the newspaper, but it's incomplete.

The writing on the wall is only a warning.
The angel in the dream didn't even tell me the next move.
God has spoken but he hasn't give me the answers to the test.
I'm in the newspaper, but it's nothing new to me.

Peter

Teachers

I might have been taught by a few teachers similar to this, you know?

A cheerful day is a good movie (Price Caspian) followed by the discovery of a new comedian.

Peter

Options

I've been thinking about alternative lifestyles recently.

In some ways being at uni is not really similar to what 'family life' would be like. I guess I was involved (and still am involved...) with family life when I was a kid. But I mean, the other end of it.

I guess I don't really want to live in a trailer home or throw away everything and go work on a ranch in Wyoming. But I could, and it's helpful to me to think about that sort of thing.

Peter

Axiom of Choice

When possible, mathematicians use this axiom.

But remember, you either accept or reject the Law of Excluded Middle. And if you reject it, but the decidability of the Law of Excluded Middle is in question, then have you then rejected the Law of Excluded Middle?

Peter

Identity

Woke up this morning couldnae remember me
Who I was I couldna recall
An amnesia of identity afflictee
But when I heard the notes I remembered all

Dead in a grave like a ninety year old knave
I couldnae see the sky or feel my hands
But this one thing did really save:
Rock and roll played by a coupla bands

I heard my name in the fortissimos
I saw my face in the vibrating bass
Whispers and tears of joy sound pianissimo
When I break out and dance all nutcase

Peter

Destiny approaches

Exciting times are these.

Soon, I hope to offer a new collection of my music. You know, the stuff I was working on over summer. Soon may be weeks or maybe months, but I'm gonna try to make it happen.

Soon, I will exceed 22 years of age. Soon in this case is more like weeks or maybe days, but it's gonna happen whether I try to make it happen or not.

Soon, soon. All times are soon.

A Beater, A Hammer and A Steel String is all I need,
Peter

-1

This is what I've been counting down to
This is ash and bodies everywhere
This is a death and rebirth
This is a countdown completed

By the way, welcome to anyone who's still following me down the rabbit hole from other blogs that I used to (and still might) maintain.

In some ways, this blog will try to be different, focusing more on original art, ideas, music, my own lyrics and generally more awesome stuff as opposed to an introspective blog that journeys into myself in ways that not even I can understand and posts lyrics that other people wrote.

But then, who knows what exactly I'll do. I claim that the future is unwritten. At least, until I get around to typing it all out and posting it.

Grace and peace be with you,
Peter

Living Biblically

This is a crazy experiment that I think is absolutely wonderful. The only reason I don't do this all the time is a wee bit of theology that I hold that says that the whole Bible isn't all literal and applicable like that.

But you've gotta admire someone who would take what they know (or what they want to ridicule, even) and do it.

It's all in the doing.

Keep keeping the commands,
Peter

Topics covered

Here at Faction Rock, I'm not sure exactly what I'll be covering, but I can tell you where I've been before in my previous blogging efforts. Here is a sample of previous tags:

The 0000 Language
24
Active Positivity
Aesthetics
Andante
Angry
Art
Barack Obama
Bass
Best Of Film
Best Of Print
Best Of The Internet
Big Issues
Bourne
Broccoli
Burning Gerbils
Celiac Disease
Change
Chopsticks
Christianity
Cipher Post
CMOS
Coffee
Conclusions
Conscience
Cynicism
Dance
Dancing
Dark Arts Of Music
Demon Hunter
Destruction
Dreams
Electronics
Emotions
Engineering
Entropy
Food
Friends
Games
God
Grace
Guitar
Hairstyles
Hip Hop
Humour
Idealism
Imagination
Industrial
Jazz
Jokes
Justice
Keyboard Spaghetti
Krispin Paul
Language
Life
Manhood
Math
Meta
Moral Dilemmas
Morality
Music
Negativity
Noise Text
Nonsense
Nuclear
Off With Your Head
Original Art
Peace
Philosophy
Photography
Physics
P.O.D.
Poems
Politics
Positivity
Project 86
Rebellion
Religion
Reverse
RoHS
Science
Signals
Sister
Starfish
Survivalism
Thankfulness
The Bible
The Environment
The Future
The Matrix
The Weird Side Of Life
Travel
Uni
Vanity
War
Wizzdumb

Don't worry if some of those sound scary, crazy or inappropriate. Mostly I'm all about Music, Christianity, Engineering, Friends and Uni.

Keep standing strong,
Peter

The Faction Splinters

This is the first instalment of Faction Rock, my new blog. I've decided to start a new season. Afresh.

Rock on,
Peter