Countdown to the New Year

Take a look at this: http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/newyear.html?p0=224

We only have so much time left before it's 2010 in the Pacific Time Zone.  Also, take note that according to a KCBS news broadcast, the proper pronunciation of "2010" is "twenty ten."  That will take some time to get used to.

<img src=" " alt="" style="display: none;" height="1" width="1" /><div>Created by OnePlusYou</div>

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Hard drive replacement and installation of Ubuntu

Here we have my new hard drive placed in the laptop, and Ubuntu as my choice of OS for the time being, since I don't have a Windows install disk.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Ubuntu 9.10

I don't really like the default theme for Ubuntu 9.10.  At least they didn't change the start up music.

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Flight Gear

I am extremely impressed with the rendering capability of Flight Gear with only the Intel GMA.  I'll make a quick flight video later, assuming the program is able to produce good frame rates with Fraps.

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Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop - Hard Drive failure

Here we are, the hard drive that is not functional anymore.

The story: this morning I managed woke up and saw that the laptop said "Windows cannot find boot disk" and I was thought to myself, "Uh."  Thinking a quick switch off with the power button would solve the problem, the computer booted normally, and then I got to the welcome screen.  I signed in, and thinking the computer was simply being slow and not responding, I just turned it off, since I was in a hurry to leave for San Francisco.  When I got to my aunt's house in San Francisco, I turned on the computer and heard clicking sounds. I knew I was doomed.  But getting very bored, I went ahead and booted windows normally.  Amazingly, I was able to sign in, and my wallpaper displayed, and then it stopped responding, with only the stupid click of death.

And what was the size of the computer's hard drive...250 GB.  It had two partitions - one for Windows 6 and the other for Windows 7.  But either way, I basically lost about 230 GB of data, since there was about 9 GB of free space on one partion and 2 GB of free space on the other partition. 

And here is a list of some programs I need to re-install when I get my replacement:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator X*^
• Microsoft Office^
• Firefox*^
  
• Sibelius 5^
• Google Earth
• Google Talk*
  
• iTunes and QuickTime*
  
• Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0
• CamStudio
• Fraps (Demo)
  
• Any Video Converter
• Avira Antivir

*these programs are used daily
^these programs are unnecessarily hard to install

As for a replacements:
http://www.frys.com/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&query_string=notebook+hard+drive&cat=48938&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

This is just one untimely incident, since this winter break was supposed to be my time to BACKUP and ORGANIZE my files - and I just got started not too long ago too............

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FSX Southwest Airlines San Francisco to Denver

Here is my much labored project for creating a flight video in FSX.  As far as I'm concerned, I think I really need a better graphics card, since that scenery in Denver is well...nothing.  All I see are mountains in the distance, and the runway.  Auto-generated scenery should do the trick, and if not, I can always try to search for add on scenery.

As for the music, I found Kevin MacLeod's Sunshine, which he released under a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0, meaning I don't have to use my own music (which doesn't really fit) or deal with the issues of using copyrighted music.

One little trick I managed to discover in making transitions is to slow down the fading.  Basically I never thought about the possibility of a transition that takes 3-4 seconds to fade in a new image, that has shifted a bit from it's starting position.  This is seen at 3:06-3:09 in this video.

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to Christian,

Yeah, here's a recap of things that you may remember for the years we've known each other, much like the one we did for the other person.

1. If I remember correctly, we first met in 1st grade in Ohlone.  Our moms introduced us to each other.
2. You later introduced me to Chelsea late in 3rd grade out of boredom.
3. Sometime between 2nd and 3rd grade we managed to go to your house to play, along with Chelsea, since both Chelsea's mom and my mom were busy after school.
4. We unofficially formed the "KND," with you being 3, since you were the "goofy" one.
5. I have no idea if you managed to work on that newsletter and/or newspaper that I unofficially published out of boredom for a while.
6. Fifth grade promotion ceremony...I don't remember I we have pictures together.  I just remember that my dad rushed me out of there before I got a chance to say bye to everyone.
7. We had no classes together in 6th grade, and I still clearly remember your voice as you told me your math teacher was Mr. Harbour, accounting for the separation between you and me in general.
8. Arg, we didn't see each other enough in 7th grade for me to remember anything.  I account this to my weird schedule with Algebra I.
9. "U R Hella SMRT... get DUMMER!  You make me feel hella stupid. J/K - CHRIS TIAN :)" - You wrote that in my yearbook in 8th grade.
10. We had Ms. Headington in 9th grade and I remember your little seminar on transgenders faintly.  I don't know, but you acted very professional for that presentation as far as I remember.
    
11. In 10th grade, we again didn't see each other enough.  But I do remember one moment as you were walking to the middle school side with me (and possibly Ellango), when Hudson canceled the AP Bio study session.  Or something like that.  All I remember is that you told me you like bio.
12. Here's where the fun begins, for junior year.  Day 1, all of us crazy juniors walked into Litvin for AP Lang, and Chelsea told me to sit by behind her and Mendoza, so I jumped on top of the seats and took a seat there.  Incidentally you also sat next to her.
13. You started complaining about AP Chem and how it's a difficult class in AP Lang, right after I was complaining about how AP Physics is such an American class.  I wonder why I found this moment amusing.
14. There is no point 14, since that's what I did last time.
15. I got you to go to my birthday party in September, along with a bunch of other people.  You guys all took turns being co-pilots and screwed up the plane and/or helicopter that you guys were playing with.  Then we watched a bunch of YouTube videos.  Too bad you couldn't go to the dinner.  And of course, thanks for the T-shirt you got me. My mom basically put it somewhere safe where I can't find anymore.
    
16. Sometime in APUSH, you managed to be very American, and called rude people by "butt hole," and complained that people told you to "shut up."  And after that, everyone started laughing and/or getting really annoyed with you, telling you to get yourself under control.
17. Today in AP Lang, everyone sang a "Happy Birthday" to you, and I called you old.

Yeah, a list of 17 moments and/or memories for you 17 years of age.  Since you are a Christian as well, you're "supposed to forgive" me for any insults that may have been enumerated here.  Regardless, enjoy the holidays ahead of us, and I can safely and wish you a "Merry Christmas."  Or the politically correct "happy holidays," your choice.

Sincerely,

Montgomery Zzyzx

*And I kinda forgot about Darlena's and Julian's birthdays, for two days earlier.  I'll make a post for you two next year...I promise. And also, all people who can, please comment on the post.

Blog Birthday and 100th Post

I remember one year ago, I started blogging on Blogger because I wanted to actually have a blog that would be public, unlike this informal one I kept on Windows Live Space.  Basically, I think I have come a long way from my first blog post on Blogger.  Since then, I've played around quite a bit, and I'm going to have a quick history of my online presence of "mzzyzx."

Here is my absolute first blog post ever, written in Windows Live Spaces:

Windows Live Spaces would have been a pretty good service, since it covers all the areas of social networking quiet well. However, I use Gmail much, much more, so I decided to play around in Blogger for a while.

Prior to playing around with Blogger, I managed to screw up stuff in my Google Sites wiki. Basically, this is the places where I categorize all of my school assignments into somewhat reasonable pages.  I haven't done that in a while, and I'll get working on that over winter break.

Sometime in January, I figured it would be worth my time taking a look at Posterous, since my AP World History teacher, and now Journalism II teacher, Ms. Wojo, suggested it to her students for their field trip project in her blog post and our class website: "Want really simple? Try Posterous. Just upload your photos or videos there. In a jiffy." That sounded encouraging, so I went ahead and gave it a try.

Now why did I give it a try?  It was because I was trying to find a place to hold mp3 files for a podcast, and to just embed mp3 files to play back.  In my post about Podbean.com, I managed to embed one of the mp3 files from SibeliusMusic.com, where I publish my music.  In general, I find that the flash player Posterous uses for playing files looks more elegant than the Podbean player.  Plus, Posterous' RSS feed also doubles as an iTunes podcast, so that's why I never got around to actually using Podbean.com.

Sometime after my summer at UCI, I had a good deal of pictures to send back to my friends via Flickr.  I was thinking that I got a yearly subscription as a pro user, so it would be worth my time sending that stuff to people under a more memorable URL.  Therefore I changed my default photostream URL to http://www.flickr.com/photos/mzzyzx, instead of that weird address with letters and numbers.

As a journalist for Hercules High School, I figured it would be worth my time playing around WordPress, so I made a blog there as well.  I tried making a layout for a possible journalism website, which is at this blog. There is only one post so far, and it was an auto-publish post from Google Docs, where I was working on a commentary on UCI.

Finally, the last thing left over is YouTube.  I have posted stuff on this blog under the YouTube username doctorknockers204.  Basically I decided I want to make one single identity online, so I created a new channel for mzzyzx, on Oct. 20.

So that is a partial history of my online presence.  It honestly isn't that important, since I really don't get many visitors to this blog, my wiki, or any of my other blogs.  However, one last thing worth looking at is this web search.

Recap of my Summer at UCI

As I am approaching my 100th blog post, I wanted to make a link to all of the posts I made over the summer at COSMOS.  I'll go ahead and begin with some posts I made a few days prior to the program, since that was part of my experience as well.

Sunday, June 28  

Introduction to the the watered down life of a college student

Monday, June 29

UC Irvine Pictures - Dorm Room and Bookstore

Landing at Princess Juliana Airport - Air Canada Boeing 777

Here we are, my third Microsoft Flight Simulator X video, and second landing video.  I did a much smoother landing with the Bombardier CRJ700, since I've been playing around with that plane for a lot longer than this Boeing 777 I got.

I was actually looking at Air Canada's website, and they actually use a Boeing 767 for a flight from Toronto to St. Marteen.  Either way, I really want to visit that airport when I am older.

Physics Problem

I was working on my physics homework and I saw this problem:

The answer is definitely number 9.

Chimes through the Mist

Here is the piece I am playing for my recital this Saturday.  I find the piece to be very calming, and it sounds like winter.  However, my friend pointed out that the title is interesting, since one hears chimes, and not sees them.  Therefore, he reasoned, "mist" is relatively unimportant in how the music sounds like, since no one cares about how the mists look like.

Either way, I made a recording of the piece for my enjoyment, and after producing the music, it just made me realize how much I miss Logic Express from COSMOS.  I probably forgot some of the skills I learned since I haven't played around with it in so long.

Boeing 787

Photo by Yasobara

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/us/16flight.html

Yay, the plane is finally here...

Fitness Training at CCC

View Larger Map

Today I am happy to say that I finished my 1 unit course of fitness training.  Now that I can't take PE at CCC anymore, I have to head over to DVC now, and take a year of PE at school.  I'll see how this turns out.

Pictures from Mr. Brown's Classroom

I was rummaging through a memory card I haven't touched since June, and I happened to find some pictures I took of Mr. Brown's (my Journalism teacher for 2008-2009) classroom.  I miss his cluttered and highly decorated room.

Looking at the Classroom from the Door

Classroom from Rear Right

His Blue Chair

The Man Next to His Board

His Sink

Pictures Near His Cabinet

(Mr. Brown, if you see this, congratulations for finding me on the Internet!)

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Hercules Christmas Tree Lighting

The Hercules Tree Lighting was held on Friday, Dec. 7, and I feel it is my duty as a journalist to share the stuff I managed to get for this year.  I linked to the photo I uploaded on Flickr and the YouTube video I have of the countdown to the lighting.  The picture was taken two days after the event in the day time, but it's basically the same as it looked on Friday.  As for the video, I apologize that the Flip Mino I used to record the countdown isn't of the best quality.

Christmas Tree at Day Time

Countdown to Lighting

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Is the Richmond rape vitim really a victim?

We all know that people often feel guilty when unfortunate events occur and they were not able to offer help. This rape incident at Richmond is no different, as people managed to witness the event and ignored it as they walked by. The problem with the aftermath is that no one managed to call the police until the entire incident was over.

This is a problem with media coverage in general. People make a big deal about the aftermath of an event rather than the actual problem. The real problem in this kind of a situation is the violence that exists on the schools.

In general, schools have violence due to lack of security despite decreasing numbers of school violence. Violence at schools is impossible to eliminate, and it should not be the most important topic in media coverage. But when it comes to local news, such as a school newspaper, it should be covered carefully.

School newspapers should cover all events objectively that directly affect the school. Because such an event is grim to look at in the first place, students will obviously tend to portray the situation more gravely than other general news. It is also possible that students may be completely oblivious to such incidents and have no intention of covering a vague story. Either way, the fact is that the girl is getting more media coverage than she deserves.

Although she is portrayed as the victim in this situation, it is also important to remember how she became the victim in the first place.

She decided to voluntarily step out of the dance.

She decided to go with her friends, and not her parents or adults.

She decided to walk to some remote location on campus.

She decided to go to a place with dim lighting or no security.

The fact of the matter is that she was setting herself up for trouble in the first place.

Although student news reporters should cover events in their school completely, it is important to remember how it happened in the first place.

Landing at Princess Juliana Airport

Here is a video of me landing at Princess Juliana Airport with a Bombardier CRJ700. This is the best I can do in landing this plane in FSX as of now. My computer doesn't have a good graphics card for gaming either, so there is little scenery.

Also, I again quickly sliced the parts together quickly in Windows Movie Maker. I'll see if I can make more interesting transitions later in Adobe Premiere.

Other than that, enjoy my first landing video.



Published 2009-12-12

Fraps and FS Recorder

I think I'm going to have a little too much fun with the screen capture software and the flight data recorder plug-in for FSX. I guess for my future posts I can include flight videos of the takeoff and landing. My problem is that Intel Graphics Media Accelerator really isn't that good for gaming, so I get 6 fps even when I turn down the scenery, detail of the aircraft, and the weather. Maybe when I look for a computer for use when I go to college, I can find one that has a discrete graphics card...and maybe I can switch to X-plane.

COSMOS Day -1 - Youtube Symphony Orchestra

I really miss COSMOS right now. After the first few days after the program finished in July, I got over most of the nostalgic moments and emotional farewells from the last day. Strangely, for no good reason, I more or less have associated this piece, the "Symphony No. 1 'Eroica'," with my summer. The most blunt reason I can think of was that I watched the video several times while I was on my drive down to Los Angeles on my brother's iPod. And that's the reasoning behind the title of this post - that I listened to the piece the day before the program started.

Published 2009-12-08

Happy Birthday to You

Happy birthday dear Uhh,

Basically, this is a blog post to say the top 17 moments I remember about you for the years I have known you.

1. You and I were talking around a campfire when we were on this cub scouts camping trip.
2. We first talked to each other briefly in Ms. Dibble's class.
3. We first became "friends" at THE SPOT, along with Amanda and Deanna.
4. You, Deanna, and I were talking for two hours about random stuff, including skiing, boy scouts, school, THE SPOT, and your brother on a Friday at the Swim Center (if you remember, we used go up there for Fridays).
5. We first had Ms. Thibault, and basically this was a foreshadow of how we would continue on to the Science Bowl with her for these years.
6. You, and a bunch of other overachieving 8th graders stepped into Mr. Nguyen's room on the second day of 8th grade, at 07:00, really wanting to sleep longer.
7. We all participated in the 2007 regional science bowl with Katie, Amanda, and Kristen, with Ms. Thibault as support.
8. You played "Ms. Thibault" along with the other people in the Middle School Advanced Orchestra. (This doesn't really concern you, but I'm afraid I may not make it to 17 points.)
   
9. We went to that promotion ceremony for 8th graders advancing to 9th, and my dad got one picture of me, Julian, Mendoza, Deanna, Amanda, and you.
10. The day I transfered into Precalculus with you. Basically we got bored doubling Algebra 2/Precal that year.
    
11. Ms. Headington's field trip - Zeum and/or A Midsummer Night's Dream. I forgot if you went to either. If you didn't, that's too bad, since my memory may not be serving me correctly.
    
12. Disneyland - it was fun spending time in the park with you, Amanda, Elim, Steven, and others that year. Too bad Amanda can't be with us for the Mexico cruise this year.
    
13. The day at the Awards Ceremony thing for 9th grade was "exciting." I guess the administration got bored enough to put us separately on the program for the students picked the the assistant principal.
    
14. Hmm, point 14. I feel like Woodrow Wilson right now. I'm running out of points to make. So there is no point 14.
    
15. For my 15th year of my life, aka sophomore year, I guess it would be that you were the first person I talked to about "The 42 Suite, III. Florence." You were the first one to know about me getting that rating of 5 from those judges. That just goes to show you are one of those friends who cares.
    
16. For my 16th year of my life, aka junior year, I guess it would be that we were talking about how our schedule was very screwed up at the beginning of the year. Wait, I was still 15 when school started. Nevermind about the "16th year" thing.
    
17. Today in APUSH. "Today is Yueming's birthday, we must sing happy birthday to her! Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Yueming. Happy birthday to you. [applause]."
    "Why didn't you tell me it was her birthday today?" - Melissa
    "I already promised her first." - Chloe
    "Okay, quiet down!" - :E

There you are...a list of 17 things for your age. By the way, you know that 17 is an unlucky number in Italian culture, right? Basically, 17 is written as XVII, which is an anagram of VIXI. "Vixi" in the past tense in Latin means "I have lived," and therefore the present tense implying "my life is over." ("17 (number)") But your not Italian, so this should not concern you.

Anyhow, happy birthday you goat who "farts a lot" - Chloe ("Olympus" 40).

Sincerely,

Montgomery Zzyzx

PS: All other people who I send this post to please comment.



References:

• "17 (number)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Sep 2009, 04:36 UTC. 22 Sep 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=17_(number)&oldid=315440745>.
• "Happy Kazoo to You 2 Birthday !!" YouTube. 29 Jan 2007. Web. 22 Sep 2009.
• Olympus. VII. 2008. Print.
• "Victor Borge - Happy Birthday (1)." YouTube. 26 Dec 2007. Web. 22 Sep 2009.

FSX - Flight from San Francisco to Reno

This flight was performed with a Boeing 737-800 on 2009-09-15. I was too lazy to have real world weather loaded. I forgot about a picture of the runway, and the IFR directions.

Flight Planner



Departing from San Francisco (notice the Golden Gate Bridge)



Arriving at Reno (cockpit)



Arriving at Reno (Aircraft Tail)

FSX Flights

As a person who is obsessed with airplanes, I am now going to be blogging my flights in my copy of Microsoft Flight Simualtor X. I'll include the flight plan, the map, the departure airport, views that show anything important, and the arrival airport. Of course, none of this scenery is technically owned by me, so if anyone has a problem with it, I'll take it off my blog. As for now, I'll just consider it fair use since I'm starting this little theme within my blog.

Birthday Party Stuff

I completely forgot about my birthday party, and therefore I am going to say this post was written back on 2009-09-12 even though I am writing it on 2009-09-17, just so other things I'd like to blog about this week need to be in their respective day.

Basically, this is the largest birthday party with everyone I know personally attending. I remember back in 2000 or so, when I had a party with all kinds of relatives and people I didn't even know attend. Since my memory isn't that good, I'll just focus on this year. Everyone who went was in AP Lang with me at my school. I told them all it just goes to show what kind of friends I have.

[post will be continued ootd]

First Interview as a Journalism Student

Today during lunch, I conducted my absolute first interview as a student in Hercules Middle High School. Yeah, I may have had class interviews, or random interviews with classmates as an exercise in Brown's class, but never have I actually interviewed to gather information to write an article and submit it to the editors. For this, I will say that I am not the best reporter, but I will hopefully have decent skills in interviewing and reporting.

The person I interviewed was the editor for the Hercules Middle School journalism class. What I do regret about the interview is that I completely forgot to record the conversation despite having permission from her to record the conversation. Likewise, I forgot to bring my set of questions to ask. Lastly, I feel bad for disappointing Mrs. Dirk, the middle school journalism and English teacher, because the article I am writing most likely will not be published in the real newspaper.

However the article turns out, I will be glad that I got this opportunity. I unfortunately had to skip the KIWIN'S meeting to conduct the interview during lunch - with the dreaded excuse that the article is due tomorrow.

1/11

No, today is neither the first of November nor January 1, but .090909... it's fun playing around with math.

Since I don't normally write the date in the form of MM-DD-YY nor DD-MM-YY, I shouldn't be commenting to much on today's time. Just for the fun of it, I'm going to have this post published at 09:09 for be by Blogger, while I am in school and away from a computer. Likewise, I'll go ahead an bug my music teach about this once in a century event. For me to be living through all of these lucky years of 2008, 2009 and so on, I feel like I'm not appreciating these special dates too much.

For the extremely lazy, we also have this to represent the date:

Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 - Melchoir, AzaToth, Mets501, Sopoforic

First Week of School

This is my first post from the iPod Touch in a while. I promised myself that I would reflect on my first week some time during the weekend...but I kind of forgot about that. Regardless, I will simply say that it has ben like any other year, with the exception that my schedule was rather messed up when I first got it. However I was fortunate enough to get that taken care of on the first day. I'll go ahead and say something my friend say back in 2004 - "This will be a long year."

APUSH Project Status Update 6 - The Watergate Break-in Intro

Hmm, 6 video layers just to make this one...at least it didnt' take too long to produce this video.

APUSH Project Status Update 5 - The Case of Richard Nixon

Sigh...I miss writing my daily blog posts about my day at COSMOS. It just doesn't feel the same at home, even if I am updating myself on the stuff about how the history project is going. Likewise, I think I am wasting time uploading these videos to blogger. I should be uploading them to YouTube under a playlist for the entire documentary. But then again, I also want to upload stuff from Alaska and Disneyland first. This is why I wish YouTube could organize the videos I uploaded by date, much like the way Flickr handles video.

APUSH Project Status Update 4 - Baking Soda Commercial

Only four more videos left to be produced today, because I declared today to be an "APUSH work day." That means I am going to produce at least 5 segments of the entire project. And the soreness in my jaws from my wisdom teeth removal isn't helping.

This is the baking soda commercial, Version 9.0820.1 RC. Two ads down, one to go.

Also, on the refrigerator, there's a that magnet that says "COSMOS UCI" and "Vail Resorts"

Credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clevercupcakes/ / CC BY 2.0

- Thanks clevercupcakes for publishing this picture under a creative commons license with the requirement of attribution. That way I can feature your cupcakes in this video as one of the "sweet treats."
Sunny Select Baking Soda - I'm using their brand name. I consider this a fair use because it's not for commercial purposes and is for my school project only.

APUSH Project Status Update 3 - Intro

Here is my introduction for the documentary. This is the best I can do for now, since I am not perfect with video editing. I was considering to use the audio recorded from the external mic that is not shown in the video, but the quality was not that good. I decided to stick with the mono input from the Flip Mino HD instead.

For those of you who are aspiring videographers, you all know that this is not HD 720p. That's because I'm too lazy to wait that large of a file to upload as a draft. As always, comments are welcome.

Dr. Wisdom Removal, DS

In a few hours I will be taking an antibiotic, without eating breakfast. Afterward, I will be taken to my oral surgeon's office to be prepared for a rather self explanatory procedure. I will be much more stupid afterward, of course.

Today is the last day I get to eat with that "wisdom" teeth of mine. Frankly, they are just blocking the way and cramming against my bottom molars. After a very long treatment with Dr. Axelrode for straightening my teeth, it is highly recommended for me to have my wisdom teeth removed. Otherwise, they would jam into my straightened teeth, and cause them to shift out of what is supposed to be the "ideal" position.

In general, the procedure is supposed to be relatively fail-safe - in which I am going to be partially asleep while the procedure is carried out, so that if I do not get enough oxygen, I will still be able to respond with my body's natural reactions.

As for now, it should just be a laughing matter.





From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide, of course.

APUSH Project Status Update - Tele Tapper

As of now, I have created this first ad. Anyone is welcome to comment on the 4 hours I worked on this. I think I can't be as perfect with the rest of the documentary. Of course, I also spent some time writing the music to go along with this, and I needed to use GIMP for make a good video overlay. This is the best I can do for this commercial, and it will be Version 9.0817 RC.




I'll consider changing the street address to something fake later.

APUSH Project Status Update 1

Most people who know me should know that I had to make a documentary about Nixon and Watergate with my two of my friends over the summer. COSMOS basically prevented me from being able to do anything whatsoever. And likewise, it prevented me from reading too much in The Scarlet Letter. But we have finally accomplished enough to have some kind of status.

Here are a list of the things we have accomplished:

• The script has been finalized since yesterday. All three of us agree to using version 9.0815.3.
• The Introduction and Conclusion/Aftermath Analysis is recorded.
• The audio for "The Watergate Break-in" and "The Case of Richard Nixon" is recorded.
• Telephone-tapping commercial is recorded.
• Baking soda commercial is recorded.
• Tape Recorder commercial is recorded.

There are other things left to do, and plenty of editing and looking up stuff left. I just wonder how cumbersome this project is going to be.

Alaska Day 2

At a steady speed of about 20 knots, Sea Princess was pushing the water away to travel north toward Alaska. Our first port of call is Ketchikan, Alaska, so it took more than 48 hours of nonstop traveling through the Pacific Ocean to reach that city.
Being at sea for two days, one can walk to every part of the ship at least once without missing too many planned entertainment or meals.

There are various ways to pass time while sailing in the Pacific Ocean. One of which is the Internet Café keeping you connected to the rest of the world through satellite Internet, at the rate of $0.75 per minute. This café is definitely really useful, especially when one does not have the ability to send pictures or videos to their friends.

Alaska Cruise Day 1

At Pier 35 in San Francisco, a large floating object is near the dock. Inside that object is what is supposed to be a paradise on the high seas. This object is basically the Sea Princess cruise ship, which is going to be my home for the next ten days sailing the Atlantic Ocean and/or the Alaskan Inside Passage. Since it is already Monday, I am writing about the day before since I was too tired.

Shortly after going through security, I realized that this is the first time a metal detector ever detected something on my person. I realized it was one of the cameras in my pocket. I took that out, and walked through again, only to find that I still had my Flip Mino HD camcorder tucked inside my shirt. I lifted that up to the security guard and was about to turn back, but he waved the scanning baton thing over my chest and said, “No, you’re fine.” I was hoping that I would never have to be stopped at a metal detector in my life. Oh well. One simple complaint, shoes were not required to be taken off to be inspected. Shoe bombs that are not made out of metal could easily be smuggled on board, according to this physics professor at UC Berkeley. I agree with him that shoes should have been removed, and I would have felt more confident in the security system if shoes were required to be removed.

Our luggage was being handled by the porters, and therefore my family proceeded directly to the buffet line to eat our (late) lunch. At 15:15, our ship would be having a drill for evacuation procedures in case of an emergency, as required by International Maritime Law. The signal, as I know already, is seven short blasts and one long blast.

Around 16:00, the engines were put in reverse, along with the help of a few tug boats, to get the ship away from the port, and set sail to leave the San Francisco Bay, while waving good-bye to bikers and people walking across the Golden Gate Bridge.

COSMOS Day 28 - The last day and Disneyland

I am at Del Sol Inn in Anaheim starting this post. While some COSMOS students are still at UCI for their last day, I managed to go to Disneyland before I leave So Cal for good. And I am using that iPod Touch to write this because I was forbidden to bring the laptop.

I am

COSMOS Day 27 - Last Day at UCI

I am currently in Arcadia writing this blog post for my last day at this California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science - also known as COSMOS. I have no idea how the acronym came to be, since I never got around to asking one of the faculty members. I will be finding one way or another to keep in touch with all of the faculty members I have met (in order to ask them the question).

Likewise, I will be finding someway to contact the rest of the people I have met during my 26 days at UCI. Why 26 days? The answer is because the program lasts for 28 days, in which I am not present for the last day and I was gone for the first Saturday.

I don't believe that I should reflect on anything that happened in the past four weeks yet. The simple reason is because looking at all of my pictures, totaling about 1,900, would be far too emotional. It is also not acceptable to show emotions in front of people who have not been through COSMOS, which is why I will be making a commemoration video of my time at COSMOS in the future. I have no plans announced for the time being, because I have more or less refused to do any of my summer assignments for high school. I need to finish regular homework assignments before I can remissness on my time at UCI.

Because the time is now 23:44, I will conclude this post as what I have for the time being. I am afraid I have to break my rule of editing posts within 24 hours of creating it. COSMOS Day 25 and 26 have not been written at all, and COSMOS Day 24 is barely written (as of 2009-07-24). I will be modifying the post times to retain the order in which such events occurred.

For now, I will give a shout out to those who have discovered or know about my blog:

Thank you Laura for being my Day RA for Cluster 6, and buying us little snacks for break time.
Thank you Cluster 6 for being the best cluster at UCI (in my arrogant opinion).
Thank you suite mates from the Smash Bros. Suite for making Woodhall a more lively place to be.
Thank you Woodhall people for sharing the same building with me.
Thank you Whispering Wood people, especially friends in Cluster 2, 3, and 8.
Thank you people from the girls dorms, same clusters.
Thank you the rest of the friends for being who you are...you know who you are.
Thank you the Pippins staff for preparing meals that I could look forward to.
Thank you the custodians who kept Woodhall (and the rest of the dorms) clean.
Thank you the rest of the RAs and COSMOS staff, in which I have not been able to say good bye to properly.
Thank you Tatity and Marjorie for running this program.
And Thank you Adiel, for being my nigh RA, to which I now say good night.

COSMOS Day 26

COSMOS Day 25 -

COSMOS Day 24 - Son Clave Jam

Professor John Crooks decided to give our cluster a challenge, to learn this rhythm. It is a 2:3 rhythm, accompanied by other three other parts. We accomplished it successfully.

COSMOS Day 23 - Last Lecture Day

John told us at the beginning of class that today would be the last lecture day.  He went over a little information on pitch and rhythm one last time.  

He mentioned how the idea of equal temperament has been around for many years, yet has never become stabilized until about 1911.  On the topic of equal temperament, there is an abstract unit called a "cent" used to fine tune the frequency of a pitch.  Because cent stands for 100, there are 100 cents between each semitone.  Humans can usually hear a difference in a pitch when the accepted value has been altered by approximately 6 cents.  However, if the frequency of a pitch was measured in hertz, humans can hear the difference in frequency exponentially smaller.  The example he gave was that we could hear the difference between 100 Hz and 1100 Hz, but probably not the difference between 1800 Hz and 1900 Hz.  Therefore, to make a linear change possible, the unit of a cent was developed, and related directly to the equal temperament tuning system.

Another main topic was on the concept of improvisation.  My instructor explained we are always improvising, such as our posture and our facial expression.

Lastly, he talked about careers in music and how music is like in college.  He asked what we wanted to do in music as they progress in life.  I denied to speak, because I had no idea what to say and because the question caught me off guard.

In general, I will miss these engaging lectures by my professor.  College professors who are actually passionate about their topic can inspire young students to pursue their goals in the field he or she is teaching.

COSMOS Day 22 - Swimming the COSMOS the final time

I basically went to that group swim again, for the final time in COSMOS. I kinda tried "teaching" one of my friends to swim. She made a great improvement in one hour, for she was able to swim a distance of 10 meters before sinking in the water.

Still later, I played water volleyball with a few other people. I don't know their names, because I have not seen them in my time here at UCI. However, I can saw that two people from Cluster 6 played...that would be me and Cameron.

In the mean time, others were playing tennis in the nearby court. They brought swim trunks so they could do both activities.

As we headed back, a large amount of people were talking about Harry Potter, the Intel grant for an independent research project, the cluster project presentations and AP and SAT test results. I ignored most of the conversation except for the Intel grant, only because Intel processors are the only brand I have been using for the past four or so years.

Immediately upon arriving in Middle Earth housing, I went into Woodhall to deposit my items. I then took a shower before anyone else, so I don't have to wait in line at night. I then went to the laundry room to wash my bath towel. I failed miserably, and smells like dish detergent. Outside, I met my friend Robert, who just came back from having lunch with his parents.

Upon putting my towel away, I asked Robert to let me into Whispering Woods, so I could talk to Kyoshi, who is helping me write a song for my project with my partner. He told me his progress, of which I am extremely grateful for, and then we started chatting idly. I then had him install Google Earth so we could play on the flight simulator - this was after I told him to look up my house on Google Maps.

I then had dinner with a large group of people - of which I am not sure if I'm supposed to list their names... Jennifer, Electra, Tiare, Phuong, Josh and Robert. These are not really specific names, so I can assume only [COSMOS] people who read my blog would know who I am talking about. We sat there for a large amount of time just talking idly.

There goes a very ideal way to enjoy a Sunday.

COSMOS Day 21 - ICUCSD

The COSMOS program at UC San Diego invited the COSMOS program at UC Irivne to join them for the first annual Academic competition labeled "Quizmos." I more or less became hungry the first time I heard that.

In general, much like that Academic bowl we had a couple weeks ago, our winning team of five students competed against UCSD's winning team of five students.

COSMOS Day 20 - Viva los COSMOS

The COSMOS Casino Night was a nice environment for us underage people to pretend to be gamblers trying to win some money, facilitated by our kind RAs who agreed to dress up as casino dealers. Upon being greeted at the casino entrance, we cosmonauts/gamblers helped ourselves to some punch made from sherbet and soda. I'll assume that's the substitute for cocktails. We then received a cup with $40 worth of COSMOS UCI money. I have no clue how long it must have taken the RAs to photoshop a picture of an anteater and words saying "COSMOS legal tender" onto the various bills.

Inside the study room casino, there were four tables for blackjack, two tables for Texas Hold'em, one table for roulette (done with playing cards rather than a roulette wheel), bingo, war and this Vietnamese game of which I do not know its name. I watched a game of Blackjack, in which Anish was the dealer. Since I have never tried counting cards before, I attempted to while watching. In general, the cards are shuffled too often for card counting to work properly. After playing for six rounds, I managed to win $5, in which the minimum bet is $5.

I left, and went to watch the Texas Hold'em game. There were several people crowed at the table, and I watched for about 15 to 20 rounds before I got to join. For my third hand, I believe I had a three of a kind of 6s, and my opponent raised me $30. Since I had about $27 from winning a few blind bets and call bets, I decided to go all-in. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to win much money in this casino anyway, and I still had $25 in "cash." It turns out my opponent was bluffing, really badly. And I got all of his raise. I found that rediculously amusing, and that gave me a head start in the game. I had two other winning hands, I believe, and that was my two pair and pair of Aces. By the end of the game, I won approximately $80.

I later went to a quiet area to count up my money, and I had $126. I turned in $20 to the cashier to exchange the money for raffle tickets for a real prize. The rest of the money was in chips, so I had to go to a poker dealer to turn in that money. I was treated like a professional gambler, and received a $100 bill and a $5 bill. I then went to Jennifer to report my winnings, and she saw the money I had. She was nice enough to give me another $5 bill, so I could buy another raffle ticket.

In the end, I had 13 raffle tickets in a pool of xyz amount of tickets. I was drawn during the prize calling, and I received a UC Irvine folder.

COSMOS Day 20 (Extension) - Don't Stop Believing

Don't Stop Believing 2009 - 07 - 17 by Zzyzx  
Download now or listen on posterous

Don't Stop Believing 2009-07-17.mp3 (5734 KB)

Here is version of the piece we played on Friday.  I used the EQ to get rid of some background noise, boost the bass, and lower sharp singing voices.  I also used the compressor to boost the overall sound.  This is the best I can do with my poor sound mastering techniques.

Complaints - voices were slightly out of tune at times.  Also, the octave at the end was slightly off.  Also, get the introduction together properly.  When Kyle starts playing, everyone look at him.

Good luck everyone, you are all great musicians who actually have some cluster spirit. 

Posted via email from Montgomery's posterous

COSMOS Day 19 - Don't stop believing, Cluster 6

Don't Stop Believin' (2009 - 07 - 16) by Zzyzx  
Download now or listen on posterous

Don't Stop Believin' (2009-07-16).mp3 (5780 KB)

Dear all Cluster 6 people who care enough about the talent show:
(and all who care to read my blog at http://mzzyzx.blogspot.com and/or http://mzzyzx.posterous.com)

Basically, here is a preliminary recording of what we recorded today.  Yes, I will admit it's a sloppy recording, and if Jim hears this, he would send me back to basic audio editing training.  I completely forgot about checking that the mic recording the rehearsal was not going into the red when the performers were playing.  That's my mistake on my part, and I apologize as the conductor/recorder/producer.

Please compare the recorded version with the one Journey made, aka the one you all have listened to many times already.  I would have embedded the video, but it says embedding is disabled upon request.

For those of you who read sheet music, refer to the score Julia found: http://forpiano.com/file/journey__dont_stop_believin.pdf.  In general, my job is to make sure nothing sounds too terribly out of tune, unreasonably hard for you to sing or play, or let you goof off too much during these rehearsals.  Therefore, I am very humbled I am even allowed to be the conductor/recorder/producer.

My comments on our recording for today - the tempo was steady in general.  The drums win, and most of you were following the ultrabeat very well.  The singers, learn the lines as well as possible, but again, a fantastic job for our first rehearsal.  As a conductor, I need to learn these lines to, so I can properly give "cues," that you singers naturally articulate.  One thing for us to work on is when people cut off after sustaining a note.  It's not like it's a real music competition, but we are music students, so we can try harder if we have the will and dedication to beat Cluster 6 from last year.  Props to Naveen for playing that solo very well...fake it if it becomes too cumbersome to play so fast.  One last piece of criticism, and you will all hate me for this - from class, I think Ania has determined I have perfect pitch, meaning I can tell things when they are slightly higher or lower.  I think there was a section that was slightly higher.  I have no idea if it's the recording or the fact that it's the end of the song.  We must keep in our head the sound of E as our fundamental pitch. 

Aside from that criticism, all who participated in the recording, I would like to thank for showing some pride for Cluster 6, which is definately the "best" cluster at COSMOS UCI, no arguing allowed.

Um, this blog post/e-mail was finished at 2009-07-17 00:27.  I need to go before the RAs poke into this room and tell me to go to bed.

Sincerely,

MZ

Posted via email from Montgomery's posterous

COSMOS Day 18 - COSMOS-gram

One of the night RAs, Jennifer, was selling candygrams for $0.75 each in the quad. She started selling them on Monday, 2009-07-13, or COSMOS Day 16, stopped selling for one day and finished selling on Wednesday. These cards will be shipped with a regular sized candy bar. If my memory serves me correctly, the cards will be distributed next Wednesday, 2009-07-22, or COSMOS Day 26.

One of the people I bought a card for was my friend Nathan, who got hurt while playing capture the flag (as I mentioned in an earlier post). Here is what I wrote:

2009-07-13 20:48

Dear Nathan,

Hmm, it feels like I am writing a letter to my brother...you know his name. Uh, I saw Jennifer and John setting up a table with these colorful pieces of paper on the desk. Raymond was helping to move the table, and I stood around to watch. Therefore, I decided to go buy some of these candy grams with some of the money available on my name tag.

You must be one of the coolest guys here at COSMOS for being able to look so "ridiculous" while playing capture the flag and letting me take pictures and videos of you while you were probably in much pain.

On another not[e], you wanted some chocolate while lying on the grass. Maybe the RAs delivering this will give some chocolate.

Also, sorry for the sloppy handwriting. I was blurting out everything on my mind. I hope you bounce back up and get well soon. - MZ

And here's the one I wrote for my Night RA, Adiel:

Dear Adiel,

I saw that Jennifer and John were setting up this table to sell candygrams. Since you bought cake for our suite, I think I will start "paying" you back by sending you a candy gram.

Let me state the obvious, you are a great RA. Thanks for taking care of the 10 of us downstairs and making my stay at UCI so much better than regular school.

- [MZ]

I was thinking about buying one for Jennifer, until she said, "No, don't waste your money on me, it's too expensive. I'd rather see you buying them for your friends."

COSMOS Day 17 - Final Project Idea Formulated

My partner and I have both agreed on one of her plans for a research-based project for our final presentation for our cluster. This plan involves testing the effect of music on learning and retention. Frankly, the only "scientific" title I can think of, using the form "The effect of [dependent variable] on [independent variable]" is "The effect of music on learning ability."

She did most of the planning since it was her idea. After she made a rough sketch of her idea, I understood more in depth what her idea was concerning. I suggested that we should test at a controlled time, and repeat the process one day after the initial test.

The conclusion for this project idea and planning - I need to look over my notes on what we want to do...

COSMOS Day 16 (Extension) - Capture the Broken Pillow and Flag

As I am writing this post, my roommate suggested the I use "Capture the Flag" as my title. That's boring, and therefore, I decided to combine the elements of Day 17 into a title that "summarizes" what I thought to be important.

Let's break down the title:

• Capture - implies capture the flag
• Broken - implies my friend Nathan getting hurt
• Pillow - implies this pillow fight in which my roommate participated

Putting the titles back in the proper chronological sequence, the pillow fight was first, capture the flag game was second and Nathan getting hurt while playing was last.

Skipping words between the title, one can see "Capture the Pillow" is an acceptable omission of a word. My roommate "borrowed" one of my pillows to use in the pillow fight. Or at least that's what he told the other contestants. He asked me if he could steal it prior to leaving. Therefore, he captured my pillow.

Still another combination of words in the title yields "Capture the Flag," as hinted in the first sentence of this post. This was a planned activity people could participate in for Monday.

Continuing from the other post, Nathan can be included in the people who became "sick," as he had to go to the hospital shortly to take care of his shoulder and collar bone.

COSMOS Day 16 - Cluster Sick Project

There have been cases of [insert illness] reported in the COSMOS program at UC Irvine. Cluster 6 had two people out for this Monday, and that is not a good sign for the rest of the students in the cluster. This "pandemic" appeared to have started from some one in a different cluster, in which the virus was later carried to members of Cluster 6.

In general, no one is in any danger, and the obvious course of action is to get more rest, t0 get enough vitamin C and to wash after using the restroom. This was the reminder given to all students since the day of Knott's Berry Farm. The fact that we are all COSMOS students stuck in cramped quarters in nearby dorms contributes to ease of spreading any kind of illness.

Thus, for Monday, Cluster 6 should have been temporarily renamed Cluster Sick out of pity for our "fallen" cluster members. Six, sick, whichever, they both sound roughly the same when pronounced quickly.

In another interpretation of the title of this post, "sick," in its slang term, can mean really good. Therefore, we have to finish thinking about what our sick project is going to be, within our partners. My partner is thinking of an experiment of how music affects learning. I am not sure of the details, and we will be working this out soon.

In the mean time, I need to concentrate on not getting sick.

COSMOS Day 15 - Swimming in the Sun

For the lack of a better title and more time, I am going to make this post simple. Basically, a group of approximately 40-50 students went to the pool in UC Irvine to play between the hours of 12:00 and 15:00. Some students played water polo, others were playing Marco Polo, a small group were playing "ad hoc" games and the rest of the students swam laps. I basically swam about 4 laps before I started messing around in the water, such as holding my breath as long as possible. Then, I found Erwin, a night RA, who was trying to help teach someone in my suite to swim more proficiently.

Forty minutes prior to leaving, I had a small cramp in my right calf, I got out of the pool for the rest of my time. I dried myself, and rinsed off the chlorine at a spray shower outside of the bathroom. I cheated and went inside the bathroom to get some soap to clean myself slightly.

Everyone was rounded up, and the COSMOS name tags, IDs, lanyards or whatever the staff chooses to call them, were distrubited back to the students. Everyone walked back to the Middle Earth housing area, and went back to their respective dorms.

Now why the word "sun" in the title. I got a small sunburn on my shoulder. I usually am very careful to put sunscreen on my face and neck, but I forgot that my shoulder is more or less the msot exposed part of my body when swimming, and I only remembered to put more sunscreen on my entire body only once. I guess I learned my lesson (again), and I will be asking for aloe vera for the rest of the week from Tatiyana.

COSMOS Day 14 - Piloting Knott's Berry Farm

The last time I went to a theme park was back in September 2008, when I went to Waterworld in Concord for my dad's company picnic. In general, I find it fun to go to amusement parks no more than once every three months, otherwise they can get dull. However, September 2008 and July 2009 is a 10 month difference, which made my experience there one worth remembering.

Out of the kindness of our director's hearts, we were sentenced to serve one day at Knott's Berry Farm to give COSMOS a good name. Therefore, there were three buses waiting to pickup a large quantity of COSMOS students at this drop of area or entrance to UC Irvine. Prior to the departure our bus pilot reminded us of basic rules to obey, such as keeping our hands and limbs inside the cabin at all times and not moving from one aisle to another aisle.

Exiting at Buena Park, the pilot reduced the speed to 26 knots to taxi to the final destination at the general automobile parking. The RA in charge of each bus passed out entrance tickets and meal/fuel vouchers to the line of passengers as they exitted out of the bus. As a group, we walked to the main entrance as depicted here in the image below.


It was approximately 11:45 when the students bearing blue COSMOS T-shirts walked through the gate and into the airport. I find it funny that the inspection of our carry on baggage happens after our flight is over.

Without clearance from the Air Traffic Control, I wandered around aimlessly until I found an RA station. I studied the map of the airways within the park, and decided I would go to the control tower, which is properly called Sky Cabin.


Inside, I saw various identified flying objects in the Knott's Berry Farm airspace. The highest identified flying object was the Xcellerator, and a few jets leaving from the nearby airports.

I got out of the control tower, and taxied to a roller coaster called Pony Express. After waiting 20 minutes in line, the pilot controlling that ride opened the gate to let me into the first car. I thus became the pilot of that car, and I had no co-pilot. After the operator secured the passengers, she announced, "cleared for takeoff," and opened full throttle. Just before landing, the ride halted from the air brakes and landing gear brakes. We all exited the aircraft for the next pilot and passengers in line can board the aircraft/roller coaster. I saw some fellow COSMOS pilots and passengers in line for the ride, and I stopped by the exit gate to take pictures.

Meanwhile, I attempted to practice my Spanish with a little Hispanic girl who was too little to go on the ride, and had to wait for her mom and sister to finish. The only thing I managed to communicate with her is "What's your name?" And she answered too quietly for me to hear. She'll get used to American English when she get to school.

When my friends finished the ride, we grouped up, and I declared I would joint their group. We taxied to Big Foot Rapids for our next ride/flight. After 42 minutes of waiting, the final boarding call was announced four our voyage/flight/ride.

As pilots/captains, we boarded the aircraft/ship/tube for the water ride. The plane/vessel accelerated to a maximum velocity of 20 knots, and splashed water into the deck. Our items were protected in a shielded luggage compartment. When the ride finished after three minutes, we disembarked the airplane/ship into the rotating terminal, and met at the ride exit.

Because a large quantity of the fuel in our body had been consumed for such rides, we received clearance from the control tower to taxi to a fueling station/eatery to redeem fuel/cheeseburgers (or for me, cheese pizza). The fueling station's menu included these items:


When we finished refueling/eating lunch, we taxied to the next attraction.

This next flight is called Ghostrider. The ghosts were probably from the people who died from standing too close to the jet engines powering the roller coaster. Twenty minutes passed before the flight began. My friend and I became the co-pilot and pilot of the flight, respectively, for the first car in the roller coaster. Shortly after takeoff, the airplane had to make an emergency landing due to an electrical failure. After the failure was repaired, the flight continued as normal. Accelerating to a speed of approximately 52 knots, the aircraft made several hard banks to change direction and raised and lowered the elevator to increase or decrease the altitude. On the final landing speed, the aircraft halted at the short runway, and taxied to the roller coaster runway.

After all my group members went on Ghostrider, we taxied to our final roller coaster for the day. Named "Silver Bullet," the ride attempts to emulate the feeling of a fighter pilot making basic aerobatic moves. As we boarded the fighter jets, the squadron of COSMOS cosmonauts/fighter pilots left the runway and climbed to approximately 100 feet. Then a rapid descent with hard banks, loops and twists. These were computer controlled moves, so we as fighter pilots only had to endure the G forces involved in the flight.

Upon the completion of this final flight, my group went back to the control tower to view the airspace a final time.

Our group ate a different eatery after visiting the control tower. Some of the food/fuel purchased included Dippin' Dots Ice Cream and a funnel cake.

Finally, all COSMOS students reported back at the main gate to discuss the day. Sightings of COSMOS students from UC San Diego were reported. Also, and extreme fighter pilot announced that he had blacked out momentarily during a flight on the Xcellerator. Others commented on the long lines to board the aiplanes.

When all students were accounted for, COSMOS announced the clear of the runway and headed back to the terminal where the (air)buses would fly us back to UC Irvine. The bus pilots arrived, and we boarded the same vehicles.

---

I found it fun writing this post in terms of being a pilot. It probably took me a little too long, yet I of course think it was worth it. Here the only math I could make out of this trip:

Ride Wait Time Ride Time Ratio
Sky Cabin 04:25 04:25 100.000%
Pony Express 20:00 00:30 2.500%
Big Foot Rapids 42:00 03:00 7.142%
Ghostrider 20:00 02:00 10.000%
Silver Bullet 05:00 02:00 40.000%

This is a very inaccurate study on ride time to wait time. In general, this can be used as an excuse for visiting Knott's Berry Farm.

COSMOS Day 13 - The Professor of the Professor and Karaoke Night

One interesting aspect about universities is that professors will teach students, and some of those students will remain at the university, and continue teaching in the same area. Professor John Crooks is no exception, since he was taught by the great Professor Christopher Dobrian: http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/. In general, Professor Dobrian has worked with computer music since it was invented, which makes him a good candidate to lecture on some of his ideas to us. In addition, I believe he said something about having taught a COSMOS class before. That should explain his engaging lecture.

For today, my normal day RA, Laura, had to go somewhere. One of the night RAs in Woodhall, Emilio, took over for her, and Professor Crooks introduced him to the class as one of his former students. This occurrance just goes to show that the line of learning is very easy to trace at times.

One of the topics John wanted us to focus on was on LOUDNESS. One of important ideas to remember about the concept of loudness is that it is an arbirtary term that varies for different humans. The closest scientific term Mr. Dobrian could come up with was "intensity of the sound." With sound being defined as the slight changes in air pressure detected by the ear drum, the intensity (force over a given area) of the changes in air pressure detected by the ear drum would control how "loud" we hear sound. The famliar unit to measure "loudness" would be decibels, or on our little sound system equalizers, "dB." With such units in place, Professor Dobrian said that an exponential change in sound intensity is needed for our ears to hear a linear change in sound intensity. I am barely getting through all of the lecture, and I am starting to confuse myself. Therefore those who read this blog may not complain that I my blog post is too complicated.

On the topic of loudness, COSMOS had a karaoke night. I personally did not think the music was too loud. (The government standard for "loud" is about 80 dB, and that actually can damage one's hearing temporarialy, and the damage can become permanent if one is exposed to such an environment for many years.) Early today, Mr. Dobrian played a simple sine wave at 70 dB and most of the class started covering their ears. The singing was not expecially loud, and the music was not

COSMOS Day 12 - MZ passed at 15

Montomgery Zzyzx (MZ), a composer, student, skier, web designer and bad pilot, was killed last Thursday while participating in the game "Assassin" for COSMOS at the University of California at Irvine. He was 15.

MZ was a poor composer who wrote dull music and was ignored by most of his peers. He knew that no one would like his music, which is why this lesser quality does not diminish the way he lived.

While he was a failure as a musician, he managed to be a student of good standing at Hercules Middle High School. He was taking AP Calculus AB and AP World History, yet his ranking dropped down to number 15 by the end of the year.

"Girls can do that to [a student]," commented John Brown, MZ's journalism teacher at UCHMHS.

In general, MZ was deemed an acceptable person to participate in the COSMOS summer school program for mathematics and Science at UC Irvine. While at the program MZ attempted to rebuild his reputation as a musician.

COSMOS has several courses available to students called "clusters," and MZ was part of Cluster 6, Mathematics and Music. This course focused on music composition and the mathematical and scientific explanations behind the human perception of music, and is taught by Professor John C of UC Irvine and Professor Jim S of Long Beach Community College.

During the Fourth of July weekend prior to his death, MZ had just managed to reestablish his reputation as a composer. He was obligated to perform one of his more creative pieces titled “The 42 Suite, III. Florence” at the Composers Today Symposium, part of the Music Teachers’ Association of California annual convention hosted in Santa Clara.

Along with eight other young composers, MZ showed off his piece. The other musicians had written a piece for piano, and in general

“Lam [MZ] may or may not be missed after his death,” commented Dr. E. Vellame. “I wanted him to grow old and act like a grandpa who teaches biology.”

"From dust his music came from and to dust it will return," commented an anonymous critic on his music.

COSMOS Day 11 - iMovie Cut Amature

For those who know that iMovie and Final Cut Pro are the two video editing programs that are for Mac OS X, I am definitely unfamiliar with Final Cut Pro because I've never used it, and I marginally know how to use iMovie, since it is slightly better than Windows Movie Maker (for Windows 6).

In general, the first project I decided to do was make a soundtrack to the video I recorded when I was flying from San Francisco down to Orange county. That video was a recording of a Boeing 737 taking off, and that video would be this one right here:




However, I have managed to add music to the video and that version is available here:



I am somewhat proud of myself for being able to pull something like this off. However, I know that no piece of music is perfect. This is the best I can do in Logic Express for now, and I'll see how my progress goes as I create my final project.

COSMOS Day 10 - Boeing 737 takeoff background music

  
Download now or listen on posterous

Output 1-2.mp3 (4074 KB)

This is what I have accomplished after fiddling with drum loops and present stuff for a day...this is not the way I'm used to composing, but I don't care.  It's still music.

The thing that modern music is not exactly what I'm used to, but it's a start.  Tell me what you (my readers of this blog) think.

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COSMOS Day 9 - Syn - together

The root "syn" means together, and Professor Jim Simmons basically taught my cluster about sound synthesis, using a synthesizer.  I have my notes somewhere on a Google Doc, but I am too lazy to pull up my lecture notes to put in this blog post.  I am therefore going to write a synopsis of everything we learned in one long sentence.  A synthesizer works by changing the way a sound wave is shaped when it is generated, and it is put together with other sounds to produce an electronically reproduced sound wave.

Using this new information, we can produce our own instrument sound that we imagine in our head.  Mixing this sound with the Ultrabeat machine, to produce a drum loop, we can create our very own melody just by dragging and dropping preset samples.  

Tomorrow we have out pythagorean tuning exercise due tomorrow.  The pythagorean tuning system is not synonymous with the equal temperament system.  The system is based on the ration 3:2 between the interval of a perfect fifth.  This makes for a very bright perfect fifth sound when played on an organ, but there will be at least one key that is unplayable in the tuning system, because there is some unequal balance between the notes.   The equal temperament solves this problem by multiplying the root frequency by the 12th root of 2.  All of this tuning is all inspired by the fact that we humans hear an octave as a frequency that is doubled.  The pythagorean system was not completely new territory to me.  My piano teacher explained a much more concise version of how the 3:2 tuning ratio works on an organ, but I never got to calculate frequencies based on this system.  Here are my results-

1. A  - 110.000
2. B  - 123.750
3. C# - 139.218
4. D  - 146.666
5. E  - 165.000
6. F# - 185.625
7. G# - 208.825
8. A  - 220.000

Those are my results for the pythagorean tuning.  That was also my homework due for 2009-07-07.  In general, one multiplies the root frequency by 1.5 to achieve the note 5 notes up (a perfect fifth).  Then the new frequency is multiplied by 1.5 to achieve the next perfect fifth.  This next frequency is then divided by 2 until it fits between the range of the scale.  In this case, for an A major scale, the range is 110 Hz to 220 Hz.  

I shall try to do the equal temperament tuning later. This is the system that all fixed-pitch instruments use.  However, instruments without frets like a violin can easily be manually adjusted when playing, and thus all four strings can be tuned in perfect fifths.