J. Daniel Ashton

Blogger Dissatisfaction

2010-02-02T14:49:00.002-05:00

I just received a useful and well-written message from Blogger.com stating that they "will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010." Based on what I have read so far, the upshot is that I can no longer host my own words on my own web server when using Blogger as my interface.

I haven't had time to look into the long and short of it, but my initial reaction is that I will not be satisfied with hosting my weblog on Google's servers, and will either switch away from Blogger or just let this weblog continue to exist as a dead archive. I'm not sure how this will work out. But for the moment, I feel that Google as Blogger is failing to provide an acceptable alternative.

Thunderbird 3 Gripes

2009-12-11T09:52:00.002-05:00

This seems to be a nuisance on a scale worth warning others about: Thunderbird 3 taketh away, and you may have to jump through hoops to get back the lost functionality.

First, the headers in each message are now shown no matter what your preference. In order to get back the screen space you've just lost, you need to find and install an add-in. Seriously?! Yes. It's very lovely, I'm sure, that the junk mail, reply and delete buttons are now displayed in that space. Or not.

Second, the count of the total number of messages in each folder is now gone. In order to get it back, you have to find, and (the version number) and install an add-on. Seriously?! Yes.

Third, the words "Local folders" get appended to every folder name until you install the above-mentioned add-on. I really could use that screen space, thankyouverymuch.

And, last on the list for this moment, the All or Unread messages control seems to have vanished. I haven't found the way (setting or add-on) to bring it back yet.

Come on, team . . . Thunderbird 2 had a workable interface. I only upgraded to 3 in hopes that it would go faster! Please don't take away capabilities as the price of staying up-to-date with current releases and enjoying whatever new features you wish to offer us!

And don't get me started on the number of hours it took Tbird 3 to index my existing e-mail folders.

Overall . . . my recommendation is that you upgrade with your eyes open. Look at the above list, and if none of these things will be a thorn in your flesh, then go for it.

Encouragement

2009-10-09T12:39:00.001-04:00

This morning's Sabbath School lesson contained two quotes that resonated with me, for whatever reason, and I want to share them with you:

Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love, to say 'I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me.'—Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 72.

Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, 'Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee.' This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 70.

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The Most Unexpected Gift

2009-09-25T09:57:00.003-04:00

Yesterday after lunch I hurried to the cafeteria to get myself a treat: some decaffe. (I've been mostly decaffeinated for several weeks now.) As I stood at the coffee bar, one of the cafeteria workers, one I make a point to chat with whenever I'm there, came by to clean the area. I joked with her that it was OK for me to put an extra packet of sugar in my coffee, since it was my birthday.

"It's your birthday?" she asked, and gave this careful consideration. "Wait here," she directed. "I bring you gift from Burma." She scurried off toward the kitchen.

I finished pouring my beverage and added cream (hazelnut, my favorite :-) ). A moment later she reappeared, holding a neatly-packaged scroll of dark cloth. It reminded me immediately of a souvenir my parents had brought back from an orchestra tour to the far east about three decades ago.

Together we unrolled the banner to reveal an eye-catching map of Myanmar, divided into provinces marked with glitter and surrounded by figures displaying glitter-encrusted native costumes. She showed me which province held her home.

I knew that she had taken a trip to Myanmar a few weeks previously. Apparently she had brought back this souvenir and kept it at work, waiting for the right moment to bestow it on someone. I'm very gratified to have been the recipient!

Thank you, Rose. What a very lovely gift!

Here's the banner. Neither the camera nor the lighting were sufficient to the gift, but you can get an idea of it, at least.

Muddy Creek Falls - Top

2009-07-20T10:11:00.002-04:00

Muddy Creek Falls - Top, originally uploaded by Daniel Ashton.

Vicki and I visited Swallow Falls State Park this weekend, and I came away with a few pictures. Follow the link to see 9 of the 287 frames I shot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdashton/

J. Wilton Ashton

2009-07-13T10:10:00.002-04:00

On the occasion of my grandfather's 102nd birthday . . . warm and loving memories, and praise to God for the years that I was privileged to know this remarkable man.

All Programs - Communicate?

2009-07-07T16:00:00.002-04:00

My father was quoted recently as saying that there are two fundamentals that music students must learn:

All music is dance music.
All music is vocal music.

The notes you play on piano or violin don't find their musicality until you, the player, can touch their movement and feel their warm breath on your face. It's when your spirit moves and your heart sings that true music pours out.

As I read a developerWorks article by Doug Phillips, it strikes me that a similar rule could be expressed for the applications we use:

All computer programs are about communication.

About the furthest I can come from that rule are games like Solitaire. But even those more frequently have shared score boards, where you can communicate your prowess to other players.

Clearly, e-mail and instant messaging programs are all about communication. Office applications and record keeping are about communication, too, although we forget it too easily.

So, how would your favorite programs be better if their architects and designers had thought more about how they communicate, and how you use them to communicate?

National Security Must Not Cost Our Core Values

2009-03-23T10:54:00.003-04:00

"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney -- not surprisingly," Obama said. "I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history."

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this is merely political rhetoric. I hope he really means it.

-- from this CNN article

What Am I Missing?

2009-02-24T13:05:00.002-05:00

I recently received an invitation to solo with our local community orchestra. While this is by no means an opportunity to "make it big time," it's still exciting because it gives me a reason to study and practice, perhaps to learn a new piece of music or dust off an old familiar one, and to do something that's high on the list of things that I'm able to do skillfully.

In traditional Vulcan fashion, I'm trying to manage the excitement, fight it, repress it. ("Come and see the violence inherent in the system!") Excitement gets in the way. It distracts from the other things I need to do (and I don't need any more distraction, thank you very much), and it creates a huge opportunity for disappointment. Excitement is not pragmatic.

As I over-analyze my internal workings, I find myself wondering just what I'm missing by refusing to revel in excitement, to bask in it briefly. Surely God gave us this emotion for a purpose. And what physiological effect does excitement-management render on my body? Am I damaging something by suppressing this form of eustress?

Brass at Westminster

2008-12-19T22:55:00.002-05:00

Our brass group will be playing at the Westminster SDA church tomorrow morning, with prelude starting at 10:45. See you there?

320 Crest Lane
Westminster, MD 21157

Recycling Electrons

2008-12-15T13:03:00.003-05:00

I'm sure this has been done to death in high-school and college physics classrooms and labs around the world, and I'm showing my naivete by bringing it up again. But it strikes me that we're set up to use our electric potential very inefficiently.

To look at it one way, you could say that electrons flow from the ground into our houses, through our appliances and down the wire to whatever utility generates electrical potential for us. What bothers me is the perception that a stream of electrons will generally flow through only one appliance of mine on the way from ground to utility.

Many of my appliances have no need for the full potential available on the wire. Shouldn't there be some way to reuse the available current?

What I'm imagining is some kind of master router that would replace my circuit-breaker box. Rather than the hard-wired (literally) division of current between the various circuits in my house, this master router would manage the provision of potential among the various circuits, taking what comes back down the black wire and augmenting it to provided the needed current for the next circuit.

At its simplest, I think this would be like wiring lamps in series, instead of having all the circuits of my house wired essentially in parallel. And I'm not remembering if wiring in series would make the electric meter spin any more slowly.

If you could do this, would there be any reduction in my demands on the power company? Would it help if you could do something similar at each electric socket or switch?

Sleepy ThinkPad

2008-12-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

For the past several weeks I've been living with a ThinkPad annoyance: my T61 puts itself into stand-by mode whenever it gets too warm. Suggestions on keeping it cooler?

A Different Kind of Memory Problem

2008-12-04T10:01:00.002-05:00

As I look back on brass rehearsal last night, I notice something unfamiliar: with two different topics, I had something in my mind, but not in my mental schedule.

In conversation, I mentioned that I would need to leave quickly (because I had another rehearsal to attend). But that need didn't "click" with me until nearly half an hour after rehearsal should have ended, when I suddenly "remembered" that I needed to be rushing out the door.

And on the way out the door, I mentioned to someone that we had brought three new, still-in-the-box music stands with us, but didn't remember until this morning that we needed to unbox and assemble them.

With two different topics, my "autopilot" was working with respect to having critical knowledge available for conversation, but it was broken as far as getting me to understand that I needed to act on that knowledge. I've never noticed this kind of discrepancy before.

Why Today is So Exciting!

2008-11-26T11:57:00.002-05:00

OK, I give up. I really can't explain it! Just know that it has to do with four french horns, a piano and this incredible piece of music. And my parents. All happening at six o'clock this evening.

Sweet Dreams!

2008-11-24T17:05:00.001-05:00

This sounds too fun to be legal: http://www.umbrianserenades.com/about/index.html

Gmail 2 for Treo 700p - Don't Do It!

2008-11-05T16:37:00.002-05:00

I downloaded the new version 2 Gmail midlet to my Treo 700p today, and found that it refused to do anything, and pretty much locked up the phone in the process of doing it. I tried a few different work-arounds, and reinstalled once or twice, but to no avail.

To my great relief, I found that Evan Brewer has a copy of the previous 1.5.0 version on his server, as mentioned in his article here. Thank you Evan!

What Will They Say About You?

2008-08-14T14:20:00.000-04:00

It has been suggested by some that a useful way to find out what's important to you, in the process of trying to set life goals and make plans, is to imagine your funeral. What do you hope will be listed as your most significant accomplishments and lasting achievements? What will your family, friends and acquaintances be saying over dinner as they remember you?

Certainly, this type of analysis was critical in the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge. It seems reasonable that it could prove useful for less fictional characters as well.

It occurs to me that a similar exercise is to imagine yourself leaving your place of employment. This is something that each of us may have the chance to actually do more than once in a career.

We had a farewell luncheon today for a team member who is leaving both the project and the company, and I just found myself wondering what kind of speeches would have been made if I had been the dearly departing.

Free Speech Unique to America

2008-06-12T09:41:00.002-04:00

A thought provoking and (for the moment) encouraging article about First Amendment rights in my country.

In other news: Beth had significant oral surgery earlier this week, and could use prayers, flowers, cards, et cetera.

Also, I'm involved in quite a lot of music (this isn't Easter or Christmas, is it?) and I'd love to tell you about it when I have a moment to write another post. The big ear-worm at the moment is Puccini's Messa di Gloria: beautiful stuff.

PBA Begins

2008-04-19T14:35:00.025-04:00

We're sitting in the church, and listening as Elder Dodge organizes this mammoth event. The numbers this year are staggering: it looks like 45 teams made it to the finals this year! This doesn't reach the proportions I had hoped for: see the opening paragraph at PBAWiki.org. But it is very easily the largest group in the four years that the Triadalphia Sparks have been here.

About half of the pews in the church have been allocated to the 45 teams. Each team comprises six (typically) Pathfinders, and is assigned an adult local judge and scorekeeper. Each team also has a runner, usually an Adventurer or similarly-aged youngster, and the runners were assigned this year by calling all eligible kids to the front, and then directing them to each go find one of the local judges, who were standing until they connected with a runner.

This is the first year that the local judges have been asked to check the uniforms for completeness. According to the rules any participants who are lacking parts of the official uniform are to be disqualified, but this is the first year that the inspection has occurred during the orientation.

A little more rigor this year with respect to who may walk around and take pictures during the event. Official photos are to be posted on the PathfinderBibleAchievement.org website within three weeks.

As always, the scoring is based on the highest-achieving team. Any team that reaches 90% of that score is considered to have a first-place finish, 80% second place, and the remainder third place. My personal prayer as we go into this event is for 45 first-place finishes. God is able to grant this if it brings glory to His name.

Because of the way these events are conducted, we will not have an accurate picture of how the kids are doing until the end, when the scores are announced. At the half-way point, we'll get a few minutes to chat with the players, and we can get a feel then for how they think they are doing.

Opening prayer . . . and they're off. :-)

If you've been following along, it will be 45 questions (I expect) before I have much more to report. Take the time to shoot me an e-mail, please, so I can tell the kids at half-time about all the people who are praying for them.

Note to the organizers for next year: take steps to ensure that the cameras and cranes are removed from the sanctuary before the event next year, so that all the teams have a good view of the screens.

This year our team wound up on the opposite side of the sanctuary from where we chose to sit. We could have tried to move closer, but it didn't seem worthwhile at the time. But I'm finding it even more difficult than usual to get a sense of how our team is doing or feeling.

The yellow sign in the center is for our team.

45 questions, time for the half-way point stretch.

Well, the news is not the unburnished enthusiasm we have been praying for. Because the team is short by one player, there are five chapters that have had less polish than the others, and one eight-point question came from those chapters.

One of the astonishing features of this year's event is that the judges (we assume) have selected questions to remove preemptively. So far five of the questions, now six questions, now seven, now eight, have been removed from the event. This significantly reduced the potential score and the opportunity for teams from behind to make up their scores. Now nine. We are told this is for the sake of time.

We're waiting for the teams to finish writing the 90th (last) question, which was the list of generations between the captivity and Jesus.

According to our record keeping, there should be a total of either 191 points or 198 points.

Uncle Dan from Your Story Hour is here to say a few words.

I gave an announcement about PBAWiki.org.

There's announcement that Battle Creek will be hosting a Pathfinder museum.

I haven't forgotten about you. The score tallying is taking a very long team, and our emcee is continuing to discourse on many topics as we wait for the score to be returned.

The scores have been returned. We should be hearing something momentarily.

We have the scores now. This is not official, but my count as they were handed out was that 40 of the 45 teams scored a first-place finish, and the remaining five were all second place. This is a very close finish, and an amazing number of very high scores. The Triadelphia Sparks suffered from the missing member, and wound up with one of those 2nd-place finishes.

Closing song and benediction, and we hurry for supper and the train.

Pathfinder Bible Achievement '08

2008-04-18T17:39:00.002-04:00

It's been a month and 4 days since my last post: sorry to be so incommunicative, but that's really representative of my emotional state, I suppose. But in some areas I'm feeling like life is getting back to normal, and some schedules just refuse to wait for me, so I have to catch up and handle them as they come.

One of those is Pathfinder Bible Achievement, sometimes known by the older term Bible Bowl. This is the fourth year that my kids have made it to the national event, and we're here in Michigan now, resting up in our hotel and studying the gospel according to Matthew.

In years past I have tried to post to my weblog during the event itself, so that you can stay up to date as events happen. I'm not sure if I'll do that again this year, but if not, I plan to at least update my Twitter status. So keep an eye on that if you're not seeing new data here.

Thank you for all your prayers and warm wishes. The kids are excited, and even though their team is short one player, I believe they have a good chance of scoring in the top 10%, i.e. a first place finish.

As you may know, this years material is the gospel according to Matthew, and you can visit Matthewpedia.com and download the study questions there to get an idea of what these kids are facing. I've also registered the domain name PBAWiki.org to point to the same site, as a more all-encompassing term for future years.

I Am a Walking Death Sentence

2008-03-14T16:07:00.002-04:00

At least I understand now why I feel like someone punched me in the stomach and lower back, both, but only on my left side.

That little scamp, the zoster virus, decided to wake up and give me the shingles. You can check the Wikipedia article for all the whys and wherefores.

The good news is that this seems to be a mild case (not much headache or fever, and only mild malaise), and that we're catching it pretty early. (The blisters came on only last night, I think.) I'm facing some pain and itching, but I'll probably make a good recovery. And I'm statistically unlikely to face this a second time.

The bad news is that there is no certainty that I will be non-contagious before Easter.

Without this impediment, this is what my schedule would have looked like:

Tomorrow: church, followed by the conference-level Pathfinder Bible Achievement event
Sunday: church (2 services x 2 anthems), and the Montgomery Philharmonic concert in the evening
Monday: potential orchestra open board meeting
Tuesday: ACMP string quartet reading session
Wednesday: Big, final dress rehearsal with both Rockville and Bowie choirs and five string players
Thursday: Maundy Thursday service (1 anthem)
Friday: Good Friday service (Bach's Cantata #4 with strings, and other beautiful music)
Next Sabbath: church, and Easter Vigil service in Bowie repeating music from Friday
Next Sunday: church (2 services x 2 anthems with brass)

This contagion is serious for anyone with a compromised immune system. That would include anyone with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy, for example. It's also a significant risk for people over the age of 60, at which point postherpetic neuralgia is more of a problem.

The doctor was very emphatic that I am not to participate in the above activities until I reach the stages of non-contagiousness. And that will probably be sometime in the next 3 to 14 days. He said that I could be conducting at the Kennedy Center (I liked that bit) and an immunocompromised person in the balconey would be at risk of catching this from me, and dying. Then he shooed me out the back door of his office.

So, I solicit your prayers. God knows about everything that has been on my plate. He knows how quickly He plans to heal me, which events I will be healthy enough to help with, and who He has prepared to step up and take over while I'm absent. Please pray that He will work this all out exactly as suits His purposes.

Quartet Reading Session #3

2008-02-13T19:03:00.002-05:00

Last night was the third get-together of our ACMP-connected string quartet, just reading for fun, and in spite of the icy roads, all five of us eventually showed up. Yes, five, because our coordinator and founder had suggested reading quintets this time, and had invited another violin/viola player.

When I arrived, the other three players from last month were already working on a Mozart trio. I enjoyed the sounds of music wafting from the house as I slipped my way up the icy driveway. We jumped into the first three movements of Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet (D minor) while waiting for our fifth player. We had read this at the end of January's session, but only the first and third movement, I think, and I had been playing viola. This time I was reading first violin.

Towards the end of the third movement our new friend arrived, and I switched to second cello for Schubert's great C Major quintet. This was a big thrill for me, as I know the piece well, but had never played a cello part before. For the final movement, the other cellist offered to trade instruments with me. I was embarrassed to have him play my beginner-model cello (he's an incredible cellist), and worried that I would do damage to his. But I also wasn't going to let this opportunity flit by. It's difficult to express how rewarding that was!

We finished the evening with Mozart's K 516 G minor quintet for two violas, and I switched back to first violin. I think that none of us noticed until the end that we had run 45 minutes longer than planned.

Playing chamber music is usually a positive experience for me, but this evening was unusually rewarding. I can hardly wait for next month's session.

How to Fight Evil

2008-02-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it. -Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (b. 1948)

Pathfinder Bible Achievement 2008

2008-02-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

Today is the first official Bible Bowl event for 2008. For our area (and a neighbouring area), the event is being held at New Hope church in Fulton, MD. We're up to question 32 (out of 90). I'll update this blog post later, when we know the results.

** Halfway point now . . . time for a break

** All the questions have been asked now. It's chaos and pandemonium as we wait for the official scores to be announced. Already word-of-mouth is that our team set the bar a bit below 90%.

** It's official now: Triadelphia and one other team are going on from this area.

Well, that was nice. :-) I got a nice mention and round of applause for having kicked-off the Matthewpedia.com website. I was already planning to continue the website with a new domain registration for next year, and I would love to see it grow into a rich study resource with material renewed for each year.

Montgomery Philharmonic

2008-01-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

Just a quick dump of something that's on my mind today: Early in January I began playing violin with the Montgomery Philharmonic, a community symphony based in nearby Gaithersburg. I was initially hoping for a group that would push my abilities, perhaps even something approaching the minor-league professional orchestras, such as the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, where I played for ten years.

While this fledgling ensemble has not yet attained to those standards, I realized that this orchestra could well meet my family's needs. They need players in the string bass section, and part of the mission of the group is to introduce students to orchestra playing.

So we will be attending the next rehearsal as a family, and 75% of the family will be experiencing their first orchestra rehearsal beyond CMW.