Gmail

I just got invited into the Gmail beta program. It's great! What will I ever do with 1 gig of email storage! No support for html or rich format email though. Hope they give me that. If you want my email address leave a comment and I will send you a letter and add you to my contacts list.

What have I been doing?

I downloaded python which includes a module called turtle. Many years ago I had an ADAM computer and one of the two programs that I had for it was Logo Turtle! Playing with this module really brought back some memories. I have a couple of scripts I wrote that I would like to share. Both are simple circle drawing. First head over to www.python.org and get your free copy of Python.

After you install it create this file.

#file pdtTurtle.py
from Tkinter import *
import turtle

def DrawCircles(radius, turn):
    repeat = 360 / turn
    for i in range(repeat):
            turtle.circle(radius)
            turtle.left(turn)		
    turtle.up()
    turtle.forward(radius * 4)
    turtle.down()

class TurtlePower(Frame):

	def reset(self):
		turtle.reset()
		turtle.up()
		turtle.goto(-400,0)
		turtle.down()

	def say_hi(self):
		turtle.tracer(1)
		for x in range(3):
        		DrawCircles(100, (x+1) * 10)

	def createWidgets(self):
		self.QUIT = Button(self)
		self.QUIT["text"] = "QUIT"
		self.QUIT["fg"]   = "red"
		self.QUIT["command"] =  self.quit
		self.QUIT.pack({"side": "left"})

		self.RESET = Button(self)
		self.RESET["text"] = "reset"
		self.RESET["fg"]   = "yellow"
		self.RESET["bg"] = "blue"
		self.RESET["command"] =  self.reset
		self.RESET.pack({"side": "left"})

		self.hi_there = Button(self)
		self.hi_there["text"] = "Start",
		self.hi_there["command"] = self.say_hi

		self.hi_there.pack({"side": "left"})

	def __init__(self, master=None):
		turtle.reset()
		Frame.__init__(self, master)
		self.pack()
		self.createWidgets()

app = TurtlePower()
app.mainloop()

Run your script with this command:

python pdtTurtle.py

and click on start. You may want to maximize the screen first. The reset button move the curser to a good starting point, start draws a few circles. Have fun. Next time stop by for the color script.

Daily bible study by Heinrich Scheffer

My friend Heinrich Scheffer has started his own web page. He works very hard on it everyday and has recently added this daily bible study.

Parent's Night Off

Becky and I enjoy the time we get to spend alone. One of the former teachers at our school told us that once we had children it would be almost impossible to just simply spend time together. I began thinking about a parent's night off. Becky and I talked about it and thought it would be fun to invite the kids over for an evening. By inviting them over we would have fun with their kids, practice our parenting skills and give the parents some time to themselves.

We decided on April 10^th then talked to the parents from our school and invited the kids over. When the date finally arrived the children started to arrive around 5:30pm. Carlston was the first and brought a few videos. Next Ivan, Heinrich and Henry arrived with pizza money, some games and lot's of DVDs. We were set for a great time and said good bye to the parents.

We played Yahoo games for a while, started a video and ordered pizza. After a while we started to play "Age of Empires II" which lasted for hours. The boys took turns playing each other. Before we knew it Carlston's father called to say he was coming to pick him up. Carlston left a while after 10:00pm.

After Carlston left we watched a couple of DVDs and began dropping hints for Henry (the youngest) that it was bed time. After the second movie Ivan took Henry to the bedroom and it was just me and Heinrich left.

Heinrich had challanged me to a head-to-head match of "Age of Empires II" so we play two or three games. After the first game I realized I could not beat him head to head so I collected the relics and buckled down my stronghold. Heinrich is very good player and I look forward to playing him again.

Finally Heinrich and I looked at a few of my web pages and he started his own web page. At around 5am we both were tired and went to bed. The boy's mom called us at around 10 am and told us we could not keep them so I woke them up and sent them home. The cutest thing was when I went into the three boys room, Henry was laying at the foot of the bed awake waiting for his brothers to get up. Henry is really a lot of fun and full of energy.

Well that was the first parents night off and we had tons of fun. We would like to thank the parents for lending us their children for the night. We hope to do it again as soon as possible. Be sure to check the pictures out at buzznet.com. There are a few pictures taken by Henry who is four years old.

Some Nice Music

I really admire AltaVista.com as a tool for searching for intresting music. Today I searched for "stinky" and found Chris Tilton's Webpage. I must have downloaded at least 2 CDs of really awesome music. The Muppets Party curise is my favorite. I am surprised he does not have a donation link since his music is obviously professional quality.

One Thing I Wonder

From my apartment window I can see hundreds of other apartments. In the space between the buildings I can see a mountain but that never changes. The city lights hide any stars from sight and stars are not that impressive anyway. The apartments are much more intresting.

While I work quietly into the night on my computer, I see from the corner of my eye the lights in a distant apartment go off. I am sitting in the dark now, maybe the owner of that dark apartment is working silently in the dark, just as I am. Most of the apartments are dark.

At this very moment, how many others are working silently in thier own apartment. Maybe they are asleep or the apartments are just vacant. My Apartment does not have curtains. Are they watching me? Perhaps I am more comfortable working in the dark because my apartment does not have curtains hanging in the window. Maybe darkness is my curtain hiding me from the those who saw my lights go out and began to wonder what I must be doing.

Itaewon

Today Becky and I went to Itaewon. Itaewon is a special tourist zone in seoul visited by many foreigners. There are western resturants like Slotsky's Deli, Subway and Outback steakhouse. McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Burger king also have resturants at Itaewon but these are not as uncommon in Korea as the others. Other attractions include recognizable american/western name brand shoe stores, rapping musician want-to-be style american clothing and dozens of tailors who can custom make a suit for you in just a few days.

We found the elusive 'red door' a legendary food market specializing in american imported food products. We were not disappointed with the selection. She had refigerator full of cheese, german meats, lunchmeat, creamer and more. Her shelves had nearly ever imaginable comfort of home type food you can imagine. She even had peeps, the sugar coated marshmallow easter candy.

A few doors down we found another imported foods market with many of the products as the 'red door' as well as a few we had not seen before. Both stores are very expensive, but both have a few products you can't get around just any corner.

Next we walked down the main street in Itaewon. As you can see from the photos at Buzznet.com there are lots of artwork and cultural product dealers lining the streets. I really was drawn to the masks and today we spoted a man who makes fountains. They are amazing fountains and we hope to buy one whenever we can afford it. They are considerable inexpensive.

Itaewon is easy to find right in the middle of line six on seoul's subway system. It is definately a great place to visit.

Adventure in Barbering

When I was young my mother cut my hair. She used a comb that really hurt when she pulled my hair with it. Once she nicked my ear with the scissors and I bled all over the place. After that my father took me to the City Barbershop. Now I realize how much my parents must have been saving by cutting my hair at home.

When I first moved to Winston-Salem I could get my hair cut for two dollars at the barber college and eight years later it was four bucks. This was not much compared to the twelve dollars that the barber shops wanted buy I still felt it was a lot to spend. Now in Korea it's about seven dollars.

I have asked my wife to cut my hair several times and she has not wanted to do it. After prodding her all day and pointing out we would save enough to buy a meal at her favorite restruant she surprised me when she reluctantly agreed. She asked what I wanted and I said, "Just don't cut my ear off."

Well she tried to quit a few times, cut herself once and cut off a whole lot of hair. My hair looks pretty good and I still have both ears so I got more than I even asked for. Of course she says she is absolutely never going to try again.

Pictures are posted at buzznet. Leave comments and let her know what you think.

An Apocalypse Dream

David looked into the sky. Only a single cloud could be seen on the otherwise clear day. From the hill he was laying on he could not see the sun, but it was still early in the morning. He watched the cloud drift slowly across the perfectly blue sky. There was something strange about the cloud.

As the cloud moved quietly across calm morning sky it did not change shape as clouds are constantly doing. Just as David realized this the cloud did change shape, but in a curious almost deliberate way. A small wisp of the cloud broke away from the main part and seemed to vaguely resemble a human face.

As David picked out features of the face it became more elaborate. Soon it was as clear as if it had been carved in stone. The color of the grey cloud also reminded David of the Greek stonework he had seen in literature. David was struck with fear, reverence and respect all at once.

He knew at once this was God and the rapture of the church was upon him. At that moment dazzling flashes of light fell from the cloud and extraordinary music began to play from no where. David listened carefully for the sound of a horn but did not hear one. The music was very joyful and sounded like the kind of music that would precede the entrance of a king.

A bridge began to extend from the cloud to the earth. The bridge was the same color as the cloud but looked like intricately carved wood and radiated light from it's self. David still did not hear a horn but began to move toward the bridge and get ready for departure from this world.

Joy and peace overcame David and suddenly a great light came from everywhere at once. He heard a voice thundering that was not loud to him, but he knew that every man, woman and child could hear it. The voice proclaimed the end of the world and the beginning of the new heaven and earth.

The light washed over David filling him with warmth. He woke up at this point and did not remember anything of his dream until several days later when something triggered his memory of the dream.