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Rewarding Effort

Olaf — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:17:17 +0000

Today was one of the toughest yet at Bonnaroo in the Build-a-Drum tent. I didn’t get as early a start as yesterday so I was stirred awake by the massive heat building up in my tent at around 8:30. Not much time spent at camp and we were all off to the tent to start working. The day was hot with no wind to speak of. The music was tremendously loud, and I couldn’t believe the number of people pouring into our spot continuously. Indeed, we more or less started pushing people away around 3am.

Though today was difficult in terms of work load, it was also the most rewarding. I met some of the nicest people and talked a long while with them as we built their drums. Others that we had developed relationships with returned to continue working or just chat. One man that had given me a hard time the day before returned to apologize for his behavior. He had been way too messed up to manage the instructions before.

Some times life gives you lemons…build a drum!

Visiting the Andalusian Music Festival

Olaf — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:32:50 +0000

Festival is, perhaps, a bit of an overstatement. However, there was a collection of artists who participated in the event held recently at the Rialto in Atlanta. My wife and I joined some acquaintances there to explore the culturally rich music of the Arabo-Andalusian. Representing the classical music were musicians from three cities; the Tunisian singer Lotfi Bouchnak, Wasla from Egypt, and the Orchestra of Tangier.

I knew very little of the meaning of this music. Fortunately, translations were provided in the program.

Any deer in the presence of lions
Will leap in flirtation
It was in the garden of eternity
For my suffering it remains in the open
Any shape that it has is slender
When it bends it leans
It drank the wine and the titmouse’s
Drool was flowing
His face was the full moon as it rises
In the darkness of the long night
Since he moistened the tall girls
With water coming from the fissure
Giving leaves in the darkness of decaying age
And sudden death from the black misery

Now I just need a translation into English.

The first to perform, the Sama’a, was Marouane Hajji with a short singing piece (less than 10 minutes). He was a 20-something Arab and a wonderful singer – apparently regarded as one of the best. Following Hajji’s bit, the Orchestra of Tangier performed an excerpt from the Nawbaat Hijaz al-Kabir.

There used to be twenty-four Nawbaat, each of which corresponded to an hour of the day (there may have been twenty-six Nawbaat). Only eleven Nawbaat have survived to date. Each Nawbaat consists of five movements (Mizans). Each movement is based on a certain rhythm.

It is interesting to note that a Nawbaat, made up of its Mizans, actually takes an hour to perform. I imagine that the entire collection has been performed in total at least once in history, but I cannot imagine staying awake through them. I barely made it through one. It’s also worth noting that, while brilliant musicians, the Orchestra of Tangier does not appear to be a “performance” group. They sat in chairs and played their music with little interest. Some actually looked bored. Perhaps it’s the style, but it does little to rouse the audience. Unfortunately, we had to leave on the fifth Mizan – Mizan al-Quddam – which picked up the pace and had the (Arab) audience clapping along. Some appeared to know the piece, while I was just trying to read along. It’s unfortunate that we left because following the intermission, the Lotfi Bouchnak Ensemble performed and was apparently more lively. They had people singing along, clapping, and included a much heavier repertoire of percussion. It was 9:30 when we finally left, so we couldn’t have stayed longer. We had children to collect from the mother-in-law!

As a Multi-Millionaire…

Olaf — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:49:11 +0000

My wife and I like to think strategically about our future. Planning and foresight can save you a lot of grief and work in earnest.

In the event that we should become multi-millionaires in the future, we want to make sure we know what we’re going to do with the money. The following is an ongoing list of major things on our list:

Establish a Commune

And by commune, you have to understand my interpretation of the word. The usual ideas just don’t cut it – my idea of a modern commune is little more than a community of friends living in close proximity, each generally having some arcane talent. Other than that, everybody maintains their own job. The added benefit is that you have a community of actual friends in close proximity to help with things. Think about some of these nicer neighborhoods going up that include parks and community facilities like a club house or picnic area. That’s where the millions of dollars come in – someone has to pony up the money to put it together.

Establish an Olde World Arts and Crafts Guild

Look into America’s early years after the Declaration of Independence. As was popular in Europe, guilds popped up all over the place. Funny thing was, they never seemed to last. The guilds cranked out some epic-level work, but rarely made the profit needed to keep the their doors open. The Industrial Revolution was what put them out completely. Mechanized art, while not for the purists, was the way of the future and a clear winner in the end. Revival after revival, it was only when the the passion was washed out by insufficient funds that the guilds closed their doors. An arts and crafts guild would work today, but only if I could poor money into it endlessly.

Create an Elderly Care Facility that Cares

Most elderly care facilities – the ones that the average senior citizen could afford – are clever facades on the same old song and dance. There are too many horror stories to count as you look across the gamut and research their “customer appreciation.” A big reason for this is funding. The hired help is majority volunteer, public service workers, or minimum wage. When you’re not paying well, it’s hard to attract good help, but that’s just what you need.

My wife is the one with real passion for this one. She would love to pour many into a retirement home that is treated more like a spa than assisted living. It would have to be a non-profit venture with backing. The key is to rally support within the area communities, government, and of course, mad money.

Build the Lake Lanier Boardwalk District

How cool would it be to have a boardwalk district on Lake Lanier? I envision long wooden decking, boat slips, a beach, and fantastic night life and retail shopping. There should be bars with karaoke, an outdoor stage, a gallery, and much more. Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t need so much money to keep it up, but I think I’d have to pay off the Corps. of Engineers a hefty sum to allow it!

Create a Seafood/Freshwater Fish Restaurant on the Lake

Along with that whole boardwalk idea, you have to have some big foundations. I purpose a fish restaurant out on the water. It would be awesome to have its center piece being a large circle of the lake with underwater lights and sub-level glass for viewing. Above that, have two to three stories encircling the “aquarium” for diners to look down upon. There is some real opportunity to make a case for the environmental concerns surrounding the lake in a venue like this.

Build an Irish Pub

Another permanent resident of the boardwalk should be a good old-fashioned Irish pub. If you know of McGuire’s in Pensacola, then your thinking along the same lines. Good food (or bad, but traditional!) and drinks. These relics of America’s past have always been places of fun and festivity.

Musings for the week of 2008-12-15

Olaf — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Tomorrow I attend a “Build-a-Drum” workshop. Very exciting! #
My son’s kindergarten teacher called me in to pickup a “sharp object.” It was a 3/4″ Forstner drill bit that he had forgotten in his pocket. #
First day of drum building was eventful! Tomorrow, I finish up and get to hear how it sounds. #
A mere 20 hours later and I have a drum from the drum-building workshop! #

Scientist Poop and the Epic Fail

Olaf — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:42:51 +0000

Our son recently contracted Streptococcus within his person. We’re all familiar with such things, but the signs of this particular infection alluded us. We knew he had a stomach ache, but little else. The stomach ache became chronic and Balthazar the harbinger used is poo oracle to let us know something was truly wrong. We found out later in the week that Balthazar had experienced several “Scientist Poops,” which turns out to be what the slow-minded adults refer to as “diarrhea.” I asked Balthazar why he called it this, and he simply said it was because it “looked like Scientist.” I still don’t really know what this means, though I imagine any hopes that he may one day become a brilliant scientist are now futile.

In a completely unrelated story…

Humans give off subtle signs of emotional and physical wellness through involuntary interactions of the psyche. Some of these things manifest themselves as physical aberrations, though primarily they go unnoticed by all but the most well-attuned.

My lovely wife, mother of our two children, gave me these subtle signs recently in a way that could not go unnoticed. At some ungodly hour of the wee, my wife woke me with slurring speech to notify me of my duty for the baby girl in the house. She had been working late that night, and had probably only just gotten to sleep an hour earlier when Sorscha woke her. I took on the charge with no questions. When I reached for Sorscha, I found that she was rather soaked, as well as the pad she lay upon. During these cold nights, her pajamas take the form of what’s known as a Sleep Sack. It’s a wonderful invention in which you simply bag your child in a zipped enclosure and allow them to steam gently in their own moisture. Some (ours) include the ever-helpful swaddling wrap that Velcros tightly around the child so as to prevent escape and recognition as anything but a human-faced grub. When I opened her sack, I found that she was completely naked and a loose diaper was balled-up in the corner of her little sauna. It was as if the changing included such activities as:

Open zipped-enclosure
Toss in diaper and seal tightly
Gently shake to activate absorption.

Needless to say, I performed the cleanup, fed her, and reintroduced her to a drier version of her bed.

And the message was well-received that my wife was rather beyond simply being “tired.” Sleep deprivation can do some interesting things to a person, but thankfully humans have an innate method by which these things can be communicated.

Smallest, and Newest Member of the Empire’s Finest

Olaf — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:21:19 +0000

Guess who has the coolest costume on the block? Balthazar does! His best (and only) Uncle-figure went all out and got together a suit of youth Storm Trooper gear for Balthazar this year. He’s been working on it for a while now and it’s finally finished. Sunday, he brought it over and we had an event of fitting it to him. It took all day of Jeff sitting on a partially constructed floor in our garage fitting, grinding, shaping, and gluing PVC armor components for a perfect fit. Balthazar was a real trooper and went back and forth for component fittings the whole time. He was so excited about it, I don’t think he even noticed the minor discomfort of ill-fitted plastic pieces. After hours of labor, the costume was finally ready for him and by dinner he was able to dance around the house in his new Storm Trooper costume. The whole thing is constructed exactly the same as the screen-accurate versions adults where. All the details are there, though he’ll need a smaller blaster to fit the scale issue a bit better. Jeff and I are going to try and throw together the remaining Star Wars costumes this Halloween to take him out on the town. I’ll be Chewbacca, Jeff might be C-3PO, and we’ll have the littlest Storm Trooper ever. It ought to be a hoot! We’ve got to hit every spot in town possible to get full use out this before he out grows it…in a week! Actually, there should be enough material for him to grow into it a year or two. After that, we’ll have to make a fancy display of it on a little mannequin.

Oh man, he’s going to have a real ball at Halloween this year!

Offspring, Part Deaux

Olaf — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:42:20 +0000

In nine days, we’ll be a family of four, having welcomed a new baby girl into the Gradin household on the 24th of this month…at 6:00am. That’s how we role. My wife likes to plan for the unplannable. However, she has made certain assurances for this life-event, and I have little doubt that this date and time are correct.

We’re all looking very much forward to meeting her. You might find yourself wondering what her name is going to be, but you will keep on doing so. So far, absolutely zero people in the known universe (besides Amy and I) are aware of her name. There’s a chance that an advanced race of telepaths may have already discovered our secret. It’s a game we played with Balthazar’s name as well. The reason is largely because we’re not interested in hearing anyone’s doubts, concerns, suggestions, or comments otherwise on our name choice(s). It’s hardest with family, which always has a certain lasting psychological and emotional consequence on the mind. While the name is very important, it is of little matter what that specific name is, really. Once a child’s name is set, it’s generally hard to imagine that child by any other name. That said, the name is nothing more than a parental choice – a right. It’s perhaps the first of many experiments that will imbue your legacy, because what are children if not the parents’ result from hypothesis and experiment.

No doubt many of you wait with bated breath. Still others dread the possibilities. Maybe in the end it will be no big surprise at all.

Where’s “My” Community?

Olaf — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:00:20 +0000

I am imagining a better WordPress. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the engine behind Gradin.com, as well as countless other blogs on the Interweb. I have been using WordPress for several years now and I really enjoy it. Its many features have grown, and grown on me. Now that I am expectant of the plugins and updates provided by WordPress and its community, I find myself wanting even more.

Upgrading to Web 2.5
The Web 2.0 movement brought, among many other ideals, the concept of a truly “communal” Internet. We saw the entrance of communities such as MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, and of course, the blog, emerge. I maintain a regular blog and dabble in these other Internet communities, but ultimately find that they are not my thing.

What MySpace, for instance, did for me was to create a social community of friends and people with related interests. It’s a great concept, if only simple. I encountered two main problems with these solutions – set aside your particular opinion about the communities. The first, and most immediate, problem I had was that the site distracted me and my potential audience from my own blog. The other problem, something that took a little longer to become apparent, was that I was stuck into a much larger community than I was really interested in becoming “buddies” with.

My solution to these problems involves the maturation of Web 2.0 – perhaps to Web 2.5. I have heard of Web 3.0, but I don’t think the industry can make such a leap without some smaller steps in between. Web 2.5 allows the blog proprietor like myself to become part of these communities without stepping out of their home base.

The Case Study
My imagined solution looks simple at first glance. I maintain a blog. My friends maintain blogs and/or social networking profiles. I have other blogs/services out there to which I would like to drive attention. Now think of each of these things as containers to which I can subscribe, sometimes in a granular fashion. I build a collection of “friends,” “family,” and “interesting people” that I would like to have a reference to on my site. Today, you have blog rolls or even RSS feeds doing this. But what if you could access a container having someone’s profile and avatar, their blog articles, twitter feeds, and MySpace posts. From that container I can choose what I want to see, and how often I want to see it. Perhaps I just want digests. What’s more, the originator of that container can actually validate my request to subscribe to this data. They can also choose what they’ll allow me to see using templates (e.g. friends, family, co-workers), or define a custom rule just for me. The data continues to remain available through conventional means – say the RSS feed, a MySpace account, etc, but the personal container has controls.

I can extend it beyond the profile containers. Say you want to interact with your email or IM system through your blog. Think about having a single entry point to your personal web experience. The personal blog transforms into a personal dashboard with both public and private views. On the public side, you present your audience with your blog, some profile data, contact information, and perhaps a friend’s blog. Privately, you see your email, all your friends’ blogs, address book, and a calendar with your upcoming events.

There are ways to achieve most of this through conventional means, but there is no “solution” to it all. It takes a fundamental shift.

Back to WordPress
At the beginning of this post, I referred to my need for more in WordPress. WordPress utilizes a model of communal sharing already that leads me to believe that it is one of the strongest contenders to make my dream a reality. I’m jaded, of course, because I use WordPress a lot. However, I’ve also read about the WordPress.com Multi-User (MU) extension making its way to the public domain, BuddyPress. BuddyPress will make WordPress.com (and any other WP MU implementation) a community blog with integrated social networking a la MySpace. This is exactly what I’m talking about, if only on a very small scale. WordPress may have the framework to get where I want, but I still have to reach further for the over-arching API that allows WordPress to talk to social communities outside of itself. I believe WordPress has made the first move in my imagined Web 2.5.

The Solution
In brief, I imagine the final solution as being a web service that handles a centralized API for the OpenSocial, or something similar should the industry choose a better standard. Blog systems such as WordPress would have to utilize plugins to communicate with the API, but MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, and others would fit into the picture by being a part of OpenSocial. The custom web service would handle the “mash-up” of these different systems into a personal container. And of course, the user would manage their own container; permissions and contents.

In the end, I’d have my blog, my friends, and my choice. Web 2.0 moves forward and brings together the biggest social community ever on the Internet. Our personal sites become personal dashboards and launch points to our other interests. I think the way to Web 2.5 is clear, and someone out there is surely already working on it. You heard it here, first!

Twitter Updates for 2008-08-09

Olaf — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Holy moley! You can’t go wrong with 2008 Tai Chi masters in a sychronized routine!!! #
Is it just funny to me that they have “tremendous national pride” having just gotten some astronauts in space a couple of years ago? #
I’ll bet the Bejing Olympics fireworks blow Disney World away! #
…they sure do! #
The Central African Republic is in central Africa. It’s a Republic. #
Lovin’ the show, but I’m getting pretty tired. Time for bed! #
Speaking of Olympic events, I’ve now clocked 210 miles on my bike since I began the work commute. #

The Sins of Man

Olaf — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:47:01 +0000

We’ve returned home from Philadelphia, though home is not exactly as we left it. There is a gray storm cloud hovering above us; perhaps still building in power and ferocity, or lingering remnants of a thunderhead. I’m not talking about the weather, though the hurricane located near Corpus Christi does invoke a palpable invocation of the mood.

Two very dear friends were struck apart suddenly and violently by the squandering of trust and respect by one from the other. The consequences for such a thing are no mystery, though the act mystifies many of us. How is it that when a relationship is ended so suddenly that it is as if someone died? Did the offender die, or the offended? Does this change their lives forever, or can the shattered pieces coallesce back into solidarity. Perhaps the answer to that question is really the stuff that defines someone. Do you care enough to persist? The hardest thing in the world may well be the acknowledgment of fault; the recovery of abasement despite humiliation.

To the offender: I am not immune to my friends’ pain. I cannot abide such disrespect to any of my friends, especially not from another. However, I am also one of the best friends to have; even though my respect has been scarred by this event, I am willing to lend my support and help where it is appreciated. I’m not the best friend because I can forgive…I’m the best because I won’t settle for anything but an attitude for reparations. After that, you two can determine your own futures.