The Harker School is 2007 Nor Cal Division IV Champ!

See relevant articles here all ye interested people:

 http://www.harker.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=59

From Jessica

100 Posts! An ode to WordPress

I have really enjoyed blogging here. I like having a place to direct my comments and my friends for citations. I want to take a moment to show some of the cool things I have enjoyed about blogging in this particular space.

The Blog Stats Graph

I must spend more time looking at this than any other website than my email. I love the graphical representation of my impact on the world. I would include a screen shot but unfortunately I have used up all of my free download space.

The Search Terms

Here are the most popular search terms used to find my blog in the past 2 days:

Search Terms for 7 days ending 2007-11-30

Today

Search	Views
“gmail won’t let me send” spam	2
soup receipies for tea party	1
How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place word pa	1
‘restristions of free thought and free s	1
Board of Education of the City School Di	1
how to learn to read music faster	1
Reno v. ACLU	1

Yesterday

Search	Views
elephants in the zoo	2
phantom of the opera mask	1
halite rocks	1
10 banned books	1
learning music keys	1
jbpm scientific	1
judicial branch metaphors	1
how lovely is thy dwelling place faintet	1
doing homework fast	1
Perks of being a wallflower scholar anal	1
edi document tracking open source	1
why are goosebumps series books banned?	1
carter case board of education

What’s fun is trying to figure out which of my blog posts are linked to which of these search terms.

Anyhoo, yay for 100 posts!

Inspirational Quote:

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers

Things that are important (Thanksgiving without an oven 3 of 3)

Hey all,

You might have noticed that when I have something important to say it takes me a while to say it. I delayed writing about MAGIC (More Active Girls In Computing) and am still working on my post on Web Accessibility for people with disabilities. And I haven’t even written much about Madrigal choir. However of the many things I want to write about, here is one I will:

Last week, hanging out with my friends was one of my nicest weeks for a while. This is not a criticism of CMU–there’s no way a college I have been at for 3 months and friends I have known that long could compare to friends I’ve known since Kindergarten and Preschool. They’re just different. There was a simplicity of interaction between all of us and we didn’t need to say all of the silly filler talk which makes interaction with new friends workable. I found myself comparing it to the way Ruby on Rails marketed itself. With the UNS, %80 of the work was done and we were left to deal with situation specific issues. By the way, UNS stands for the United Non-Stereotypic Society, which is a group of friends from Middle, Elementary and in some cases, Preschool who still hang out during breaks and keep track of each other across continents and grades.

That’s mostly what I had to say. Please see Eric’s blog for a really nice blow by blow of the week. Yay!

Inspirational Quote:

“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the love of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.” Robert Southey

Politics of humor. Sort of (Mike Huckabee is endorsed by Chuck Norris)

Well here’s something that could have been funny and smart. But isn’t. I’m sure everyone has hear a Chuck Norris joke. For those at the Lair of the Bear last year (summer 2007) they became Mike White jokes. A few examples are today’s Inspirational Quote. But they are generally jokes which are best told by rackously laughing teenage boys who have probably never watched Walker Texas Ranger and have a hilariously satirical look of their faces. Definitely not Mike Huckabee. And even the theorhetically god-like Chuck Norris came off as flat. Watch the Mike Huckabee Chuck Norris Ad.

If looking for more humor on his YouTube clips, watch his FAQ for the Mortgage Industry. The part where he deadpans “I’m not unsympathetic” but is passionate about the evils of helping your neighbor are fantastic. Anyhoo, have a great day!

Inspirational Quote:

Chuck Norris Quotes (About not By Chuck Norris)

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

One Recipe from Thanksgiving (Pumpkin Pancakes)

Hey all,

This is very loosely based on the pancake recipe for Pancakes in the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook–except mine’s much much cooler.

• 4 cups of whole wheat flour (I used Indian Naan flour because it’s what I had and there’s a really nice Indian food shop near CMU).
• 5 tbs of Sugar (include some brown sugar–it’s nice with the pumpkin)
• 4 tbs baking powder
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 6 tbs (tablespoons *not* tubs) butter (can be oil, but butter always tastes better)
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of pumpkin
• 1 tbs pumpkin pie spice

Mix all liquids together and all drys together separately, then mix all. I used a fork but a whisk would work as well.

Notes for cooking in the hotel: I should have brought measuring cups and spoons–thus results with the above recipe will vary as I used coffee cups for cups, dining teaspoons and tablespoons for those measurements rather than more accurate measuring utensils.

Note from those who ate: more spices (maybe ginger or hand grated cinnamon) would be nice.

Bake like pancakes!

I am having tons of fun and will post more later!

Inspirational Quote:

“It would not be too much to say that what we have here is a stacked oral history sandwich on wry bread with hot mustard” After Appomattox: How the South Won the War

I’m in love (with Ruby on Rails)

forever and ever. So simple. So clean. So intuitive. I opened the book (Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional (Paperback)) at about 7:15pm and I just deployed my first webapp. Wow. So Happy. And now addicted. More later!

Inspirational Quote:

“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.” - William Gibson

How to Find Information Fast (2 of 3 How Tos)

I often find myself researching something I know nothing about. And I usually don’t have much time to find out what I need to know. I have a fairly simple process through which I find out information which I thought was a pretty weird way to do it, until I asked a friend with similiar research needs and found out he did it the same way. Go figure. Anyhoo, here is my process.

Define what you need to know

This can be done with the simple question: what do I need to do to get where I want to go.

Get a good webpage on it

I and about 50/50 on wikipedia. I usually need a great deal more depths and more instructions than wikipedia will give me.

Look up *every single term* which you don’t know

Many will be hyperlinked out, just click on the hyper link. Don’t feel a need to read the content at the end of the link unless that terms comes up multiple times.

Keep records

It could be an NeoOffice Spreadsheet, a bookmark list, heck, an index card. But find a dynamic way to keeping track of where you’ve been. I like the spread sheet because I can put a link, a description of the webpage that links takes me to and a brief reason why I care about that web page.

Keep learning

If you realize 3/4s of the way through a project you have no idea how you got there, go back to your first good web page and your resource list and refresh yourself. Odds are you’ll find you understand a great deal more about the subject than when you started.

Here’s an example using the process outlined above.

Define what you need to know

I need to get mail functionality on my jbpm workflow.

Get a good webpage on it

The official jbpm user guide gives basics and code.

Look up *every single term* which you don’t know

However it does not give me nearly enough information. Having narrowed what I want to an email sent off by an AAction as part of a State Node, I put the following code into my Process Definition (the actual nodes names have been changed for their own protection. My nodes are too young to have a web presence :-D):

Then I tried running my code to see if anything different happened. Ok, I knew it wouldn’t work, but I wanted to see if it would.

<end-state name=”Sucess”>
<event type=”node-enter”>
<action name=”Bake Muffins”>
<name-mail to=’MyEmailAddress’ subject=’urgent’ text=’Put in the Muffins’ />
</action>
</event>
</end-state>

It didn’t do anything.

Going back and reading the User doc more carefully I found the following statement:

“16.7. Mail server

If you need a mailserver that is easy to install, checkout JBossMail Server or Apache James“

Ok, so I need a mailserver. Apache has some of the nicest intro docs I have seen in a long time. I fell a little bit in love.

But before I went and set up a mail server, I wanted to make sure I could make my workflow communicate in some way. Therefore I put in the code (again, the anonymity of my nodes are protected by false identities):

<state name=”Baking Muffins”>
<action name=”OpenOvenDoor” class=”com.OpenOvenDoor”>
<message>Don’t Touch Hot Oven!</message>
</action>
<transition to=”Run Ingest”></transition>
</state>

com.OpenOvenDoor reads:

package com;

import org.jbpm.graph.def.ActionHandler;
import org.jbpm.graph.exe.ExecutionContext;

public class OpenOvenDoor implements ActionHandler {

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

String message;

public void execute(ExecutionContext context) throws Exception {
context.getContextInstance().setVariable(”Don’t Touch Hot Oven!”, message);
}
}

Now this code worked. It is definitely not the most elegant way I could have done this (Don’t Touch Hot Oven shows up in two places–I will need to figure out which one actually is forcing the display of that message) but I did figure out that I could make my jbpm run java.

Keep records

I have a spreadsheet I keep updated with every website I have found which was relevant to my jbpm searchings. I go back through it sometimes when I’m stuck to see if there’s a resource I’m neglecting. It is a very nice way to keep organized.

Keep learning

Now I just have to figure out how to set up a mailserver. It should be fun! When I get it to work I’ll post. This would be me learning.

Inspirational Quote:

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” Albert Einstein

PS: why I’m slow to post right now

Hey all,

So this week has added a lot to my workload. I have a paper/presentation and a presentation/paper (the first of each pair is graded and the second is recommended), and as you saw from my previous post I am learning *a lot* of new music. I’m also working on both Taekwondo Club and a new volunteer thing which I will write about later. I will pick up the posting soon, and may even post some of the stuff I am working on!

Have a fabulous day!

Inspirational Quote:

“There was, I remember, no elephant on the boat that passed us across that evening, nor, I think, any hippopotamus. These would have been out of place. We had, however, a woman. Whether the baby was somewhere on board I did not learn. She was a fine creature, this woman; somebody’s wife. Her mission, as she understood it, was to inspire the failing heart with courage; and when she selected mine I felt less flattered by her preference than astonished by her penetration. How did she learn? She stood on the upper deck with the red blaze of battle bathing her beautiful face, the twinkle of a thousand rifles mirrored in her eyes; and displaying a small ivory-handled pistol, she told me in a sentence punctuated by the thunder of great guns that if it came to the worst she would do her duty like a man! I am proud to remember that I took off my hat to this little fool.” Ambrose Bierce

How to Learn Music Fast (1 of 3 How Tos)

I was recently asked to learn a lot of music very fast. To be precise, over a dozen pieces in two rehearsals (the performance is in two weeks). Now, there are mitigating factors into this music’s difficulty. 1) It is all pretty homophonic (meaning all of the parts move at the same time) chamber music. 2) I can carry my music when I perform.

Some less helpful factors in learning the music: I am in 2 other performance groups with concerts within a week of each other and have an audition for my minor to prep for. I also have Thanksgiving to cook for and 2 major papers/presentations to finish preparing.

So here’s what I did:

The night I got asked to be in the group another member lent me his music binder. This was very helpful because I need music to learn. It was slightly less helpful because all of his notes and corrections were in the Tenor line.

NOTE: for most effective fast learning (coming late to a group) get markings from someone singing your part.

As I was waiting for an audition I sang through the music. Thankfully I had sung some of it before either with my family or my Women’s Choir Cantilena for A Christmas Carol sophomore year.

When learning music fast it is very important to have a feel for how lines move–that is why you sing through them.Also, I found another Alto in the performance group and I asked her to sing a few lines I was having trouble with. The key when asking this kind of question is to have a specific question which will not take more than about 30 seconds to answer and say thank you sincerely. I always find being polite, cheerful and enthusiastic gets me a lot farther than acting like a diva. Ok, correction, polite, cheerful, enthusiastic and firm. No fluffiness!

NOTE: assumed here is that you can sight read. This is not a huge assumption for one reason: before I came to CMU I would not have said I sight read well. But having been given half a dozen pieces at the beginning of the year to learn, I learned to sight read fast. Before Thursday night (when I was given the chamber music) I would not have said I could sight read without a piano. Turns out I could. It’s one of those things you do over and over again and you learn because you have to. It takes intense focus to sight-read–plan to focus on getting every interval and every rhythm right.

Knowing I could sight read well set the course for the rest of my study time. After my audition and doing homework, I spent 45 minutes reading through all of my music again right before I went to sleep. Practicing right before sleep is an effective way to memorize music fast–and the more you have memorized the better you can sight read. Knowing I would get less focused the later it got, I started with the hardest pieces–ie, the pieces which were not purely homophonic, were in another language or which the other Alto had commented were difficult.

The key is not to try and learn every piece of music by heart. I can’t in a short time and you probably shouldn’t be reading this if you can. Think about how a good high school musical director teaches music. She points out hard parts where sight-reading might mess you up and then lets you sight read the remainder. If you know what you can sight read, go over those parts once but focus on the harder phrases–come rehearsal, those will be the ones you will want to be solid in.
The rehearsal went a lot better than I expected. The way I had studied saved me from a lot of mistakes I could have made (ie, I knew where the hard page turns were, and which in pieces I really needed to listen to other people). There were only two other Altos but they were strong and helped me with pitches. Afterwards, I asked the same Alto I asked for note help the day before if I could copy all of the notations I missed from coming to the group late.
In terms of learning music, I made a point to listen to the tunes and figure out how the best way would be the learn the songs (for chamber music, playing the notes of the singers around me but not my note and singing my part). Since we are also singing a capella I paid attention to the starting note which we would be given so I could practice finding my own note only from that. Also, depending on the kind of music you are working with you may share notes and rhythms with other sections. Those are places you should identify. For example, if you sing the same notes as the Soprano for the introduction, make sure you’re actually doing that. Likewise, if you have a weird rhythm section, see if you can listen to other parts to keep on track.
The next morning I had to get up early to catch a bus, so I took my music with me. I hummed and tapped through the first three pieces, using what I now knew from my first rehearsal.

NOTE: when learning rhythm I have fallen in love with both Metronome Online and tapping out the beat on my sternum. Using a metronome forces greater accuracy–even on pieces where the conductor will take rhythmic liberties knowing exactly what rhythm you should be singing will allow you to orient yourself and catch up faster after a Tenudo. My conductor always taps out rhythms on his chest. I found that that keeps me exceptionally more focused than clapping or tapping on my knee–it helps me to feel the rhythm in my body.
Throughout the morning whenever I had some time to sit down. Then I took a break and spent the afternoon doing homework. That night, while working out on the exercycle, I sang through a few more pieces of music.

Today I have a logistical rehearsal–so much fun!
All in all, learning music fast is just like studying effectively: You Need To Know What You Know, and Know What You Don’t Know. Then focus on what you don’t know.

Anyhoo, if anyone has something to add I love comments!

Inspirational Quote:

Traitor spare that tree

Touch not a single bough

In youth it sheltered me

And I’ll protect it now.

“Tree of Liberty” Augustine Vieira

Courses I’m taking next semester!

Today was course registration day. I got into all of the courses I wanted to–horray!

World History

Statistics for Lab Sciences

HSP Seminar

Calculus II

Repertory Chorus

Voice Lesson

For the last two I have to wait to be officially in but I’m dedicated to getting into them.

Inspirational Quote:

“It is the existence of published “open” standards which allows independant teams to develop interoperable software.
James attempts to support a number of these standards most of which are IETF RFC’s and in the areas covered by these standards the published standard is our requirements document.
This sometimes leads to confusion where behaviour is not the subject of a relevant standard, or conflict where common (de-facto) behaviour is actually at odds with a supported standard.

We believe that it is our responsibility to adhere to the published standard. If we allow our implementation to deviate it means that we are tacitly encouraging the situation whereby interoperability is no longer guarenteed by standards compliance alone, but also requires access to undocumented and possibly even commercially licenced technology. There is no easy route for a newcomer to aquire these secrets, and interoperabilty becomes something only available to the elite.

The James policy for issues of non-compliance tries to tread the fine line between a pragmatic acceptance of other people’s misinterpretation of the RFC’s and an evangelical defence of open standards as the key to freedom of interoperation.

In practice this policy is that certain well argued of cases of non-compliance which can be *safely* worked around, will be tolerated by James.

In cases (like jira issue JAMES-344 ) where variance from a published standard is required it is desirable that this functionality is disabled in James by default, it must be prominently and clearly documented that this causes James to violate the relevant standard, and should be enabled by explicit configuration, making its use a conscious decision of the user rather than an decision taken by the James team.

In cases where the required behaviour is not within the scope of any standard which James claims to support (such as behaviour which is a de-facto standard or an internet draft RFC but not yet subject of a standards track RFC) it is acceptable to implement the behaviour so long as it is adequately documented (for instance by refrence to an internet draft or other public document) and users can be clear about what to expect from James.” James Server Design Objectives