It's five minutes until 11 pm. I have been getting back into some Python programming for two reasons. First, I've always thought that I should keep my programming chops up even if I'm not doing heavy-duty programming. There are enough ideas that I want to play with that having the ability to whip up a Python script to represent the idea is terribly valuable.

The second, and more immediate, reason is that the little hobby project that I want to demonstrate has to do with Biblical verses. Since it is nearing my bedtime, I can't go into length about what I want to do. But suffice it to say that I've been intrigued by the possibilities opened up by the intersection of "second-generation web technologies" and the presentation/representation/dissemination of the Bible. See, for example, the discussion at blogos and The Journal. Observe that one can generate, for instance, a RSS 2.0 feed of that great Superbowl verse John 3:16.

More later....sleep is important.

Thanks, Lynn, for your very kind words about me:

I've been thinking about Raymond's drawer of dull knives. This proverb makes me sad, because it denigrates some of Raymond's true talents-- the ability to realize that there are connections between apparently unrelated things, and to pull together people who didn't know their work had anything to do with each other's. The ability to build tools to make these connections work.

Your response sparked all sorts of thoughts and feelings in me about interdisciplinarity, C. P. Snow, crossing community boundaries, wanting to be all things to all people, sadness about not fitting in the usual boxes, the desire to know that I'm doing ok....A more well-thought out response on my part to come.

Just to say that I'm keeping a close watch as Chris' stories unfold (with photos, no less). From a place to work, nothing fancy 080303 Galway [Christopher Ashley] (formerly "a place to write"):

The details and reasons aren't necessary. I only need say that the circumstances of my family have created in me a deep nostalgia for happy moments in my life. I often daydream very clear, specific, and powerful faraway memories.

Chris and I have both used BullFighter, the subject of a New York Times piece. Don't delay: Leverage your core competencies today in communications engineering, thus maximizing yourself in the value chain and the global competitive landscape.

If I had the energy of a supernova, there would be no need to sleep. I would work all day and all night -- through the seasons of the year. The sun would rise, the snow would fall, the moon wax and wane -- but I would unceasingly, unfailingly produce.

Wouldn't it be wonderful? I could stop eating, no longer waylaid by urgent demands of body or heart. Six days and rest -- no, not for me -- that's for wimps.

And in the end, I would arrive at everything I ever wanted. My masterpiece, my magnum opus. No one else would appreciate it (or me) -- then again, who would give a damn? Would I?

Yesterday, I
wrote about the different representations I want to have available in the BDL.
Perhaps a clearer statement of the BDL's scope is that everything of relevance
to Bach should be either be directly contained by the BDL or would referable
from the BDL. There is no way a BDL can subsume all the wonderful resources
that others are developing about Bach. However, it would be great if the BDL
could know about these other resouces and "interoperate" with them
so that it would be easy for someone to make the best use of all these materials
together.

Continue reading →

Sometimes I don't know where my personal projects end and where my professional
interests begin. (Is that a good or bad thing?) Take the case of one of the
dream projects that I have recently been raving about to both friends and colleagues.
I want to build the Bach Digital Library (BDL). When I proceed to describe what
I mean by the BDL, I usually add the qualification that I don't have be the
one to mastermind the BDL -- I wouldn't mind if it came into being because of
the efforts of others. Yet's it clear that I'd be disappointed if I didn't get
to have some input into a BDL since the fun for me is not only in the Bach-part
but the digital library part.

Continue reading →

When talking to my Dad, he would, on occasion, exhort me with a Chinese proverb. The one that rings in my ears these days is that of the man "who has a drawerful of knives, none of which is sharp". I am such a man in his estimation.
Continue reading →

I'm curious about GTU professor Kah-Jin (Jeffrey) Kuan, a specialist in Old Testament studies, because of his interest in "Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics". By the time I learned that he was teaching a summer course this year on the subject, it was already too late to attend. Hmmm....do I interpret the Bible differently from my non-Asian friends because of my ethnic background (yes, I know, as a Canadian, I'm not Asian-American).