The Morphic Sarpanch

A verse from the Atharvaveda

2009-05-31T22:22:00.004-05:00

अभयं मित्राद अभयं अमित्राद
अभयं ज्ञाताद अभयं पुरो यः
अभयं नक्तं अभयं दिवा नः
सर्व आशा मम मित्रं भवन्तु

abhayaṁ mitrād abhayaṁ amitrād
abhayaṁ gyātād abhayaṁ puro yaha
abhayaṁ naktaṁ abhayaṁ divā naha
sarva āśā mama mitraṁ bhavantu

may I be fearless of the friend, fearless of the foe
may I be fearless of the known, fearless of the unknown
may my nights be without fear, my days without fear
may all the directions be my friends

Wildlife in my backyard (photos by Sitara)

2009-02-14T20:43:00.002-05:00

A plug for PyCon 2009

2009-02-14T20:28:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure if I can make it to PyCon this year, but I definitely want to go. I figured the least I can do is help advertise it. :-)

If you're interested in learning more about the Python programming language, then you should definitely check out the tutorials. Even if you're already a pro, there are sure to be talks and "birds of a feather" sessions of interest to you.

Click on the image below (or the link above) for more info. about it:

Terry Pratchett's witches novels

2008-09-23T20:18:00.004-05:00

The bad news is that I've been sick for about four days now.

The good news is that I've finished rereading all of Terry Pratchett's witches novels in order.

I originally read them in a completely random order. I still got a lot out of them the first time around, but they're more entertaining in order.

New set: Red Haired Boy + The Sunny Banks

2008-08-18T21:17:00.002-05:00

The new set of Irish tunes I'm working on in my flute studies is:

reels: The Red Haired Boy + The Sunny Banks

The Red Haired Boy I'd been learning for a while.
The Sunny Banks is new to me as of today's lesson.

Panache Coffee in Framingham, MA

2008-08-18T21:01:00.003-05:00

Panache Coffee is a locally-owned-and-operated coffee/tea/pastries shop here in Framingham, MA. The owner and employees are really nice, the ambiance is great for hanging out with friends or for working on a project on your laptop computer -- they've apparently even got free wi-fi, and the food and drinks are good.

There's a much more detailed review here:
http://www.thisisframingham.com/panache-coffee

...and a post about their open mic night here:
http://www.thisisframingham.com/open-mic-night-at-panache-coffee

Krua Khun Yah Thai restaurant in Ashland, MA

2008-08-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to say for any of my friends in the Boston metrowest area who have not been to the Krua Khun Yah Thai restaurant in Ashland yet: it's great!

They're vegetarian-friendly and will make substitute tofu for meat/poulty/seafood in most (all?) dishes. Just one warning for strict vegetarians: the tom yum soup apparently has chicken stock.

Review of my new Howard low whistle fipple

2008-08-18T20:48:00.002-05:00

Well, the fipple for my Howard low whistle arrived and I'm reasonably happy with it.

I had to wrap some plumber's tape around the top of the whistle to get the new fipple to fit snugly.

Before my Irish flute lesson today, I was having a lot of trouble with high A and especially high B with the new fipple (whereas with the old fipple I had trouble with the entire 2nd octave).

During my lesson, my teacher showed me how to adjust my embouchure for it, so now I can play the high A and high B better, though they're a lot more work than the lower part of the 2nd octave.

I'm much happier with the low whistle overall now, and am enjoying playing it now, so overall I'd say the new fipple is a success.

New fipple for a Howard Low Whistle

2008-08-06T21:11:00.002-05:00

Just in case any of you, my gentle readers, also have a Howard low whistle from back in the dark ages (i.e. before they got the fipple right), you should know that you can order a new fipple for it here: Low Whistle Heads.

I just ordered one for mine. :-)

Credit is due to the Chiff and Fipple low whistles article from whence I learned about this.

Irish tunes

2008-08-06T17:11:00.004-05:00

Here are some tunes I'm learning in my Irish flute lessons:

reels: The Morning Dew + Sally Gardens

jigs: The Hag with the Money + Morrison's Jig

slip jigs: Another Jig Will Do + Give Us a Drink of Water

Note that the versions I'm learning are a little different from the versions linked above. One of the joys of an oral tradition is that everyone plays the music a little differently from everyone else. :-)

Music

2008-07-22T21:43:00.002-05:00

Since I haven't blogged in an age, I thought I'd mention some things I've been up to since my post-PyCon post:

taking Irish flute lessons (inspired by the jam sessions at PyCon)
taking power yoga classes (I was already doing "normal" yoga, but decided I needed the extra intensity of the "power" yoga classes)
doing flute + harp and guitar + harp duets with my daughter (who is taking harp lessons)
taking baroque guitar / renaissance lute lessons (which I've been doing for years, but there's always more to learn)

I also finally heard from the luthier on whose waiting-list I've been for a couple of years now -- it seems he's actually working on my new baroque guitar now! Hurray!

test MMS/email

2008-07-22T21:30:00.003-05:00

testing

[Note: this was my first-ever post to my blog from my cellphone (a Samsung BlackJack II). The photo is of some moss my daughter and I admired on one of our walks.]

PyCon Rocks!

2008-03-17T22:37:00.003-05:00

I just got back from PyCon 2008 in Chicago. It was awesome. In addition to great tutorials and talks, there were lots of cool and interesting people to talk to, and...

...music jam sessions every night!:

The Stairway to Heaven photo got reprinted here with the caption, "I for one welcome our not-half-bad acoustic Stairway overlords."

Need a walking stick after playing lute...

2007-11-27T22:33:00.001-05:00

So I've been playing baroque guitar a lot lately and not so much renaissance lute, but now that Thanksgiving is past, I've dug up a couple of books of Christmas music arranged for lute and have been playing lute a lot more. I'd actually forgotten what it feels like to lose all feeling in one leg... and then get it all back, all at once, all pins and needles.

In case you're wondering: for guitar my legs are parallel and tend to get plenty of circulation, for lute I cross one leg over the other to cradle the lute and then tend to lose circulation in one leg.

On a completely unrelated note, today my wife accused me of being sesquipedalian, which strikes me as a textbook example of a pot-calling-the-kettle-black situation. :-)

Sorrows on both sides of the family

2007-10-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

My aunt Addie passed away last week. She'd been suffering for a long time, and she's free from suffering now, but all of us will miss her.

Vandana's cousin Shyamal Sinha and four of his colleagues have been lost on Nanda Devi (a mountain in the Himalayas) for 18 days now (after a blizzard). Apparently the record for surviving under similar conditions is 28 days and Shyamal is an accomplished mountaineer, so we still have hope for him and his colleagues.

Truncation...

2007-09-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

Foosball champions!

2007-08-29T20:27:00.000-05:00

Ed P. and I are now foosball champions at the office! Hurray! :-)

Another sad day

2007-08-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

I found out earlier today that my paternal grandmother just passed away.

Eagle pose

2007-07-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

My wife, daughter, and I recently started participating in a yoga class together.

Today's yoga term: गरुडासन garuḍāsana

garuḍa = eagle and/or eagle-like divine beings
āsana = pose

I mention this because:
(a) I think garuḍa are cool (they're right up there with nāga in my opinion).
(b) garuḍāsana seems to help with a persistent pain I've had between my shoulder blades.

What we hope ever to do with ease...

2007-06-09T18:25:00.001-05:00

There are any number of things that don't come easily to me, and blogging is certainly one of them. I'm writing this entry while trying to keep in mind the wise words of Samuel Johnson:

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

As of June 15th, I will be moving to a different group at work, in which I will be working closely with people from whom I hope to learn a lot. I also hope that this move will put me in a better position to contribute to the company as a whole.

Good news

2007-05-26T20:49:00.000-05:00

On the bright side: A week ago today, my brother got married. Hurray! :-)

What you would do tomorrow, do today

2007-05-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

काल करे सो आज कर आज करे सो अब ।
पल में परलय होयगी बहुरि करोगे कब ॥
— कबीर

What you would do tomorrow, do today, what you would do today, do now.
Disaster may come in a moment, when will you do all that you intend?
— Kabir (the weaver)

[Credit is due to Vandana Singh for the translation.]

When sorrows come, they come not single spies.

2007-05-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

As Shakespeare so aptly put it:

When sorrows come, they come not single spies.
But in battalions!

Saturday, on the way from the airport to my maternal grandmother's house (the day before the ceremony in memory of her), I found out that my paternal great uncle had just passed away. Sunday night (after the memorial ceremony was over) there was a bit of a scare with my maternal great aunt, but luckily she recovered quickly.

Alexandra Passios Ripperton

2007-05-08T08:47:00.000-05:00

Alexandra Passios Ripperton passed away on May 5th at N.C. Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. She was 86 years old.

Alex was born in Fitchburg, Mass., the daughter of Greek immigrants Constantine and Constantina Passios. The second of six children, she became a registered nurse, and was later commissioned in the Army Air Corps where she met her future husband, Lyman A. Ripperton II. She moved to Chapel Hill in 1957 when her husband joined the faculty of the Department of Environmental Engineering in the School of Public Health. She worked as a nurse in the Employee and Student Health Departments at N.C. Memorial Hospital until her retirement.

Alex was a gentle, quiet person, full of love for her family, and all that was beautiful in the world. She was a juried member of the Triangle Weavers Guild, and consistently earned awards and accolades for her weavings. The shawls, and scarves, and baby blankets she crafted from silk and linen became favorite gifts for her friends and family. Her other hobbies included gardening and knitting, as well as raising dachshunds and corgis.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Dr. Lyman A. Ripperton II, her eldest son, Lyman A. Ripperton III, and two of her siblings, Thomas and Olga Passios.

She is survived by her adoring family: sisters Athena Grant, Dorothea Markarian, Anne Ashare, and their families; and family members Melanie & Russell Chapman, Christopher & Soni Chapman, Joya Chapman, Timothy Chapman, David Ripperton & Candy Holtzman, Keith & Stephanie Ripperton, Dana Ripperton, Sean & Martha Ripperton, Matt & Sarah Ripperton, Ryan & Danielle Ripperton, Gloria Ripperton, Cheryl Rettie, Lisa A. Ripperton, Lisa M. Ripperton, Nathan Ripperton, Daniel Ripperton, Rebecca Ripperton, and her constant companion, Bandit.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her name to the charity of your choice. A private ceremony will be held for family and friends on May 13th.

Not a good day...

2007-05-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

This morning Ι heard from my mother that my γιαγιά just passed away. Later this morning I heard from my brother-in-law that my wife's छोटी दादी just passed away. Just now a friend called and said he has to go back to Iran in a few days.

Things seem surreal in a really bad way right now.