Lessons Learned in Live Looping Cello

I started learning cello around 5 years ago, and one of my dreams was to do live looped cello. My inspiration comes from Zoë Keating, Cremaine Booker "That Cello Guy", Rachel Lander, and Kevin Olusula, like this video, and loads more on youtube.

I've recently completed my first live looping project/experiment: Daughter of the Sea

An experiment in live looped cello: Daughter of the Sea

When I began learning cello, one of my dreams was to do live looped cello. (All the parts you hear are performed live on camera.) When I heard Daughter of the Sea, I felt like it may work well. A few months of arranging, software experiments, and cello practice later, I have this recording to share.

I'll be writing up more details about what I've tried and learned, and where I plan to head next. In the meantime, here's the recording:

Dependency Injection in Drupal 8

If you're like me, you were shown the concept of Dependency Injection and it pretty much made sense. Then you encountered the term in Drupal related to services and containers, and it didn't make so much sense any more. I've been studying it in Drupal core recently, and it makes more sense to me now. In this post, I'll try to clarify what it is, and how it's used in Drupal 8.

Using Composer on Pantheon

I worked through https://pantheon.io/blog/using-composer-relocated-document-root-pantheon and chased a few rabbits, and ultimately landed on what I think a pretty simple workflow.
The main thing I was interested in was how to use composer to effectively manage a drupal project on pantheon.

Getting Started with Composer and Drupal 8

Drupal 8, like most modern PHP frameworks, depends heavily on code from external sources. In the past, site builders obtained these by downloading them manually, or by using drush make. Composer is the standard tool used in PHP projects for managing all of a site's dependencies, pulling code into a central place (the vendor directory) and avoiding conflicting versions. Composer is becoming the "downloader in charge" of Drupal 8 builds, downloading core, contributed themes and modules, and external libraries.

Practicing Cello

I've been learning how to play cello over the past couple of years. Having a good method for practicing is very important. Most of your time on cello is in individual practice. Of course there are also one-on-one lessons with a teacher, as well as listening to and watching other performances. But how you practice is pivotal to whether you are spinning your wheels or making real progress.

Getting Started with GarageBand

Music creation has been enticing me back. My undergrad degree is in music composition, and I haven't done much composition since graduating 20 years ago. Although I naturally want the big bad boys of music software, like Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and the like, I also like to start at a more basic level and work with what what I have, then get more fancy as I hit the limits of what I'm working with.

Behat Article on ThinkShout.com

Last week I finished up an article on how to get started with behat, an automated website testing framework. I've been dabbling in behat for several months, and recently got all of my notes into one place and posted this introductory article on the ThinkShout blog.

Two haiku inspired by "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"

Janet described to me the first portion of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." Inspired by that, I wrote a couple of haiku. It's my first honest attempt at that poetry style in many years.

--

Secret Monsters There
Fairies, Goblins, Shadow, Lair
Fancies Children Care

--

Talents Instinct Pride
Terror Threat Runaway Hide
Granddad, Trusted, Lied

How to install FontForge on Mac OS X Lion, using Homebrew

In my research into font creation software, there was one free & open source piece that came to the top: FontForge. Some say it's even more capable than FontLab Studio, which costs around $650 and seems to be what is most often recommended. FontForge makes me think of Gimp, which is a free, open source graphics manipulation program that is equivalent to Photoshop. Clunkier, and possibly more powerful in some areas.

Typeface design: initial research

I'm just getting started thinking about designing a typeface. I know I have a ton of details to learn.

One thing is, I'll end up needing some software, in order to create a usable typeface. What I'm seeing so far:

Panhandle Independent Living Center, Thank you!

Panhandle Independent Living Center, an organization that helps people with disabilities, is probably the most deserving organization I have worked with. For most of the past 10 years, I was the one to update the newsletter on their site every other month. My favorite part of that was reading about the the range of services in action, including after school and summer programs for youth, teaching them about finance and learning everyday skills such as grocery shopping. Things I so easily take for granted. These people are tireless in offering the long-term support that disabled people need. Just imagine what kind of world this would be if we all cultivated the same patient and humble servant sprits that PILC demonstrates.

September 11, 2011 -- Mom, Dad

‎10 years ago today I was attending a memorial service for my mother. She had passed away a week and a half earlier after a long battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. It was my Dad's birthday (passed in '84), and my parents' anniversary. This date still brings those memories more than anything else. Today I'm living a life in the mountains, a life that they only dreamed of. Today I am remembering those who are dear and gone, and charting new courses. Living life.

Drupal 6 Web Services (book review)

Drupal 6 Web Services https://www.packtpub.com/drupal-web-services/book

Who it's for:

This book is ideal for someone who has used other platforms to integrate with web services and is now interested in Drupal, or someone who is roughly familiar with Drupal, and is interested in connecting it to web services.

My main thoughts:

Drupal 6 Themes, by Ric Shreves (book review)

I have recently read Drupal 6 Themes and thought I would post a few wrapup thoughts about it. It is written by Ric Shreves and published by Packt Publishing.

https://www.packtpub.com/drupal-6-themes/book

The title describes the book well. It is a valuable overview of the architecture of themes and how to get started building your own themes. This book would be good for people who are familiar with HTML & CSS, and new to Drupal and PHP. I didn't notice any typos or coding errors, which is always a good thing.

Taxonomy Notes, Drupal Camp Dallas, August 2009

On August 1, 2009, I was privileged to give a talk on Taxonomy at Drupal Camp Dallas. Here are some minimalistic notes of what I presented, as well as a list of important taxonomy related modules.

Ready Sites, the beginning

For years, I have watched small churches, struggling non-profits, and small businesses make do with home-made looking web sites that have only minimal features. A couple of years ago I discovered the powerful and flexible content management system called Drupal. It has so many things that most of these organizations need, but have not been able to afford, or have not known where to look.

So I decided to put together a package that includes the most commonly needed features (image gallery, online store, blog, etc.) and make this available at a fraction of the price of custom developing each site. Now, your organization can get a powerful web site that you can control, with a nice professional look, for a very affordable price.

I'm calling them "Ready Sites." The details are over here, so have a look, and let me know what you think about it. I'll be adding more detail in the coming weeks. I'm always happy to talk about the available features and your needs.

Douglas Adams, on the Internet and Inventions

Love this quote from Douglas Adams:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

Source: http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html

Notes from "Our Rewired Brains"

I recently read an article in Energy Times. Here are the highlights that I thought were especially noteworthy.

"If you repeat a stimulus, the neurocircuits that control that will strengthen; other areas will weaken."

"... in a state of continuous partical attention. ... a state in which our minds constantly search for any type of contact, to which we never fully pay attention. ... feeds egos and enhances our sense of self-worth. ...

Notes & Links posted from March Drupal Meetup

Over at groups.drupal.org I've posted some links from the most recent Drupal meetup, including bits about Drupalcon, Analytics, and Education.

Back from DrupalCon DC

Wow. I had a great time this past week at DrupalCon DC.

I have a lot of emails, voicemails and planning to catch up on, so today I will be primarily getting work plans back in order. But first, a little update...

Heading to DrupalCon

Very very early Monday morning (March 2) I will be heading to Washington DC to witness the amassing of 1300 other Drupal enthusiasts and professionals. The event is the annual North American DrupalCon. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to meet so many quality people, and learn more about my favorite CMS. I will be checking email and voicemail occasionally, but not as frequently as normal. I will resume normal business next week, beginning March 9.

drpl.us - a drupal specific url shortening service

Today I registered drpl.us, with the intention of creating a url shortening service for the drupal community. I would like to gather suggestions and feedback here. So please take a moment to review my initial thoughts, and leave a comment with your thoughts, wishes, and warnings. Thank you!

main goals

  • automatic urls
    • for every theme and module (and module contained in a module download)
      • drpl.us/-views
      • drpl.us/-cck
      • drpl.us/-content (part of cck)
      • drpl.us/-zen
    • for every node on d.o, g.d.o
      • drpl.us/12345
      • drpl.us/g12345

Web Development Portfolio

drupal sites

Drupal Meetup Notes

Just posted some notes at groups.drupal.org from our latest Amarillo Drupal meetup.

http://groups.drupal.org/node/17387#comment-59712

Cron and launchctl on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

I was searching for a way to set up a cron job on my Mac, and couldn't find anything that spelled it out exactly how I needed it. http://arunxjacob.wordpress.com/ got me really really close though. I did finally get it working, so I thought I'd explain the crucial parts of my setup.

My goal is to port this cron command to my Mac:
*/5 * * * *   wget -O - -q -t 1 http://drupaldev1/cron.php

Drupal Wins Two Open Source CMS awards

In the category of "why I choose Drupal"...

Drupal wins 2 out of 4 awards from Packt Publishing. Best Open Source PHP CMS, AND Best Overall Open Source CMS.
http://www.packtpub.com/article/2008-open-source-cms-award-winner-announced

Drupal is becoming increasingly recognized as a top opensource CMS.

How to get started with Drupal

  • A brief intro video by Ping Vision
  • Community
  • The System
  • Core Concepts and Words
  • Directories
  • Theming
  • Contributed Modules
  • More References
  • read all about it...

basic upgrade from drupal 5 to drupal 6

Outlining the basic process I'm taking to upgrade this site to Drupal 6.

(8:45 pm)

Installed Modules

  • node_clone
  • codefilter
  • these are available for Drupal 6.
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