Acyrologia

My peaceful tree

I hope we can code this scene in my high school class next week. This version is SVG. We can convert it to HTML5, then finally create a Swift app.

Reno Erat Rudolphus: Christmas CD 2013

This one has classical, pop, techno, piano, children, and even bluegrass.

Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia	1	The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy
Andy Williams	2	Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells
Golden Guitar Project	3	White Christmas
DJ Santa Claus	4	Silent Night
Nicolas Spencer	5	My Favorite Things/Carol of the Bells
Straight No Chaser	6	12 Days of Christmas
Jack Jezzro	7	Deck the Halls
Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia	8	Carol of the Bells
Stephen Miller	9	O Come O Come Emmanuel
Nicolas Spencer	10	The First Noel
The Clarke Family	11	Angels We Have Heard On High
The Cedarmont Kids	12	The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy
Nicolas Spencer	13	Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne
Simhah Chamber Collegium	14	Angels We Have Heard On High
Ray Conniff	15	The Little Drummer Boy
James Beuregard and Keri Taylor	16	I Cannot Tell
Jason Gray	17	Easier (Song of the Wisemen)
James Beuregard and Keri Taylor	18	Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Nicolas Spencer	19	Brahms Lullaby

A Red-Nosed Christmas: Playlist 2002

This playlist has some 60's artists like Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, and Andy Williams interspersed with techno tracks, comedy, and (I hope) food for thought.

Percy Faith	1	Joy to the World
Percy Faith	2	Do You Hear What I Hear
Guitar	3	It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Ray Conniff	4	Little Drummer Boy
Andres Segovia	5	Greensleeves
Trans-Siberian Orchestra	6	Christmas Canon
Anne Murray	7	Christmas in Killarney
Trans-Siberian Orchestra	8	Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Techno Mix	9	Jingle Bells
Dean Martin	10	Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Jimmy Buffett	11	Run Rudolph Run
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy	12	Rockabilly Christmas
Elvis Presley	13	Santa Bring My Baby Back
Roy Zimmerman	14	I Tawt I Taw Ol' Tanty Claus
The Chipmunks	15	The Chipmunk Song
Cheech and Chong	16	Santa Claus and His Old Lady
Nat King Cole	17	Chestnuts Roasting
The Foremen	18	Buy War Toys For Christmas
Andy Williams	19	Some Children See Him
Randy Stonehill	20	Christmas Song for All Year 'Round

Quirky Christmas: Christmas Playlist 2001

Only my family and closest friends know that many years, I like to create a Christmas CD to share. This playlist is the first Christmas CD I put together (and arguably the best). I believe it is from 2001, because it seems to reflect the events of 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoqipQPAfFOoNm0QNCGVpDA29emp9ukKS

Larry Norman	1	Christmastime
Tom Lehrer	2	A Christmas Carol
Frederick Fennell	3	Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)
LA Guitar Quartet	4	Nutcracker - Overture (Tchaikovsky)
LA Guitar Quartet	5	Nutcracker - March (Tchaikovsky)
LA Guitar Quartet	6	Nutcracker - Russian Dance (Tchaikovsky)
The Roches	7	Hallalujah Chorus (Handel)
Handel	8	Concerto a Due Cori
John McCutcheon	9	For Unto Us A Child Is Born (Handel)
Mannheim Steamroller	10	Do You Hear What I Hear
Mannheim Steamroller	11	Away In A Manger
Pierce Pettis	12	Miriam
Bruce Cockburn	13	Cry of a Tiny Babe
Kathy Mattea	14	Straw Against the Chill (Bob Franke)
Dennis Lee	15	Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
David Massengill	16	Jesus the Fugitive Prince
John McCutcheon	17	Christmas in the Trenches
John Lennon	18	Happy Xmas Was Is Over
Bing Crosby & David Bowie	19	Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy

Animated Adobe Icons

We are doing these icons in the high school class. We have not finished the last icon yet. We are drawing them in SVG. We are animating them using JavaScript.

Reformation Day

A long time ago, my company sent me on business trips to western Minnesota to install electrical equipment. On one of those trips, I met a nice gal of good Minnesota Norwegian stock and asked her out to a music concert at the college in Fargo, North Dakota.

Being a good Minnesota Lutheran, she told me about her church in Moorhead. (There are so many Lutheran churches in Fargo and Moorhead, I'd never be able to remember now which one it was.) I had the privilege of visiting there the following Sunday, the last Sunday of October.

Reformation Sunday is not only a day to remember the events of 1517 Wittenberg, but also a time to celebrate with a grand midwestern potluck. Had I known ahead of time, well, I'd still not have been able to cook up anything in the motel room. But the little old ladies of the church welcomed me warmly and introduced me to their favorite potluck dish: lutefisk. "You'll either love it or hate it," they said. "It's like fish flavored jello," they said. How could I possibly turn this down? Fortunately, they didn't give me a lot!

After the potluck, I visited this nice gal and her family at her home, and we took turns playing the piano. It was a wonderful afternoon.

On another occasion, one of the electrical workers invited me to his home for lunch, and they served me corn freshly cut from their very own property.

After visiting Minnesota several times, I decided that the good Lutherans of Minnesota are far and away the friendliest people I've ever met. If they have any of the Lake Wobegon quirks, I never noticed.

Random Artwork

Refresh the page to see a different design (or click the button below).

This one uses HTML5 Canvas, so it works on iPad. In class, we used SVG, which doesn't render properly on iOS devices using Safari.

Ten Commandments of Human Relations

1. Speak to people. 
There is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting.

2. Smile at people.
It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.

3. Call people by name.
The sweetest music to anyone's ears is the sound of his own name.

4. Be friendly and helpful.
If you want friends, you must be one.

5. Be cordial.
Speak and act as if everything you do is a joy to you.

6. Be genuinely interested in people.
You can like almost everybody if you try.

7. Be generous with praise...
and cautious with criticisms.

8. Be considerate with the feelings of others.
There are usually three sides to a controversy: Yours, the other person's, and the right side.

9. Be eager to lend a helping hand.
Often it is appreciated more than you know.

10. Add to this:
a good sense of humor, a huge dose of patience and a dash of humility. This combination will open many doors and the rewards will be enormous.

Connect the Dots

One of my high school students did paper-and-pencil artwork that looks like this. I wrote this program that we may code together in class. When you connect the dots, the result is a parabola curve along the bottom edge. 

The SVG version does not work with iPad because Safari iOS does not like inline SVG elements. So the following code uses HTML5 canvas. The JavaScript calculations are the same, but the drawing routines are different.

How many lines?
What color?