Quick Post about New Stuff

Hey everyone... Just a quick post to say that we made it to and from Texas just fine, and it was a great. It was really good to visit everyone and take some time off from work and everything else. We might even go next year, if everything works out.

Oh, one more thing - Tiffany found out today that she won a grant to work on a piece, and she's very excited. Her piece will be debuting May 18th, 2011. I'll post more details as they're available.

Texas

Today, we're getting ready to go down to Texas... Dallas, that is. There's an OFLAG 64 reunion happening, and it'll also be a family reunion, so that's the reason. We'll drive down in a day, then take a couple days to get back.

So, if you're in Texas, and want to say howdy, let me know - we'll see what we can do.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (from end of July)

So, this is a primarily picture post about the outdoor garden at the Walker Art Center, more specifically the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. What is it, exactly? Pretty much what it sounds like - an outdoor garden at the Walker dedicated to sculpture, and including a lot of good ones. It's quite an interesting place, and includes such works as the Spoonbridge and Cherry. Here's Willow at that sculpture:

There isn't a whole lot else to say - if you visit the area, the sculpture garden is a great place to check out. Some more pictures:

Flooding and whatnot

We were walking tonight down on the "frog path," and the path going the other way, and noticed that something was up - the river seemed quite a bit higher than normal. "A couple more feet, and the path would be flooded," I brightly pointed out. After going a couple hundred more feet, we found out that the path was, indeed, flooded out, and in a major way. Check it out:

So, we headed back the other way, and found that there was a barricade blocking the path. We would have seen it, had we gone the normal way and not taken a shortcut because it was starting to get dark. After passing the barricade, we came across another one on the other arm of the trail, the actual "frog path." Wanting to see what that part looked like, we went past that barricade, as well, and went to where the trail should be. No trail - just more river.

Just another one of the many differences between here and Spokane. It makes things more interesting. We don't have to worry about flooding where we are, so no problem there, but we've at least seen evidence to go along with all of the flood warnings the National Weather Service has been putting out over the last few days. It's a different place...

Lions, Tigers, and Unschooling, oh my…

So, this last week, we decided to change our approach to homeschooling and go in more of an unschooling direction. We figure that even if it doesn’t go to plan, and they end up a bit behind at the end of the year, they’ll still be at least where the publicly-schooled kids their age are, if not ahead. So far, they enjoy being able to decide what they’ll work on, they’re still learning quite a bit, and there’s less stress overall. Plus, school isn’t dragging on past dinner, trying to get everything on the schedule in. We’ll see how it all goes, but for now, it seems good.

In other news, I’m withdrawing from Facebook, for the most part. Why’s that, you didn’t ask? It’s not as much of a time sink as it used to be, now that I don’t really do any of the apps or games, but it more has to do with taking a step back and trying to reorganize myself and my thinking. Now that we’re in St Paul, we are more isolated, and social pressures are different. I find myself with more free time, and not so much to fill it with, and looking to Facebook to be that filler is just not a good strategy. At some point, I’m hoping that I feel creative again, and get back on the (ha ha) composition horse, but until then… Oh, along with this, Tensionitis (if any of you have heard of it) is officially done – I’ll be going in different directions, if I do anything.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to anyone who’s never been here before.

Happy Haps

So, it’s been a bit… We have lots of pictures to share, but today is not that day. Hopefully, though, that day will be soon.

Over just the last few days, we started school, like everyone else. Willow started ballet this last Saturday, and Tyler and I started the Twin Cities Harmonica Society tonight. Other than that, there was the Minnesota State Fair last Monday. We’ve been trying to get as much time outside before the weather turns (though they drained the pool today).

Oh, and then there are the toads that Tyler has been catching. He’s been very happy. Just one picture, just for fun, though this was a frog, not a toad:

Good times, indeed.

Quick Song Idea Renderer

Catchy name, right? As I’ve been “on the bench” at work, one of the things that I’ve been doing to further develop my development skills is to write an application that takes text files and turns them into music. For years, whenever I get a song idea at work, I’ll pop open a text editor and write down just what the chords are, or the melody, or whatever, and usually email it to myself, as well. Now, I can take those files, and run them through this application, and hear what I put down. In the last couple days, I also added MIDI file export, so in addition to hearing the song, I can also export it as something that can be imported into any music notation software or sequencing software, and go from there. Lots of good fun…

If you want to take a look at it, it’s out there at http://morchiba.elementfx.com. I wrote it in Silverlight, so anyone with an internet connection can use it. Here’s a screenshot:

Sometime soon, I’ll post another more characteristic post about other goings on. Until then, feel free to leave comments.