Wii Theremin -- Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Thursday Theremin Posting -- O Christmas Tree

Thursday Theremin Posting -- Gordon Charlton

Dance Of The Flower Pot Men by Beat Frequency - Experimental Theremin Music

Thursday Theremin Posting -- How to play the Theremin

Basics of Playing the Theremin -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Thursday Theremin Posting -- Bonus!

As suggested by Gordon Charlton. This is a really talented player -- such control and dare I say intonation (I've had arguments with a friend if a theremin can have intonation...) The instruments blend together beautifully. Western ears are so used to hearing a well-tempered or just tempered instrument and our entire lexicon of western music depends on such. How delightful to hear the theremin in a lovely asian pentatonic composition. Absolutely beautiful.

Thursday Theremin Posting -- Cat Vs. Theremin

Thursday Theremin Video -- Thomas Grillo on a Burns B3 Deluxe

(Posted ONLY after washing 4 loads of clothing (so far today) and listing a couple dozen books. I'm now going to sort my mail that's been laying around. I wonder how long I'll be able to keep this up?)

Thursday Theremin Video -- Theremin build timelapse

theremin

Thursday Theremin Video -- Clara Rockmore Performs Tchaikovsky "Valse Sentimentale"

Thursday Theremin Posting -- Clara Rockmore , "The Swan"

Thursday Theremin Posting -- Claire de Lune

Awesome -- Theremin and Cello in a Reverb Chamber

Bullets

• Today is the 7th anniversary of 9/11. What can I say? What can any of us say?
• Still working on Charge Conference Paperwork. The Charge Conference is tonight at 7:00 and then it will all be over.
• Here are some beautiful pictures of a merging between "Dovetailed" log cabin design and a timber framed system. I want the support for the Log Cabin's roof (and the garage, for that matter) to be timber framing. I love the look of the timber framing, stone and dovetailed logs all together.
• From Dirt to Done has done a project (log cabin even!) with Spancrete for a garage floor.
• The concrete floors will be stained and sealed. There is zero wear and tear on a floor like this under normal circumstances. And they look like natural stone. Absolutely beautiful.
• In front of the gigantic window that will be the Garage door, I am going to install hospital curtain track and very large curtains. I will probably put the tracking in the ceiling as well, to make "cubicles." Most of these will be a quarter of the main space. The floor will be blocked off into four quarters and the floor will be stained a different color -- red, green, blue and gold. Each quadrant will have a different purpose: stained glass, sewing, drafting and lounging (with a nice big plasma TV). The cubicle curtains will be a dark gray that is complementary to the color I am staining the logs and the chinking color.
  
• I want to finish building my theremin this weekend. The world's best birthday present would be a Moog Etherwave, if anyone is interested.
• There are a record number of people in Georgia, if not unemployed that are "under-employed." I know of so many who have lost their job this last month. And so many more who have having difficulties making ends meet.
• Eight percent of Georgia homeowners are behind in their mortgage payment. Eight percent -- that is a lot. There has been a 16 percent drop in home sales. That means that anyone with the construction industry is hurting; the suppliers, the builders, the contractors, the plumbers, the electricians, the stone industry. It's a lot of people.
• I need to lose weight. I think I'm going to be pretty extreme in looking at exactly what I am eating and cut back. I have been doing the karate thing and I could tell last night that I have much more muscle than I've had in the recent past -- now I need to do more of the portion control. I still look like a meatball -- but I'm now a leaner, meaner meatball.
• I am so addicted to Pink Grapefruit Fruit Naturals. I don't think those are all bad. I am also so very addicted to Lindt Excellence. Each square is about 55 calories. And coffee. Just any kind of coffee. Maybe I'll go on the Grapefruit-Chocolate-Coffee diet.
  
• The school schedule has been hard this year -- having one to catch the bus at 6:30 and the other the bus at 8:30 is OK -- it's the getting up so early after my little night owls don't go to bed until midnight. We are all running on sleep deprivation.
• Sleep deprivation causes weight gain. Lovely. I think I'll eat some chocolate (one square = 55 calories, portion control!)
  

Theremin -- Pictures of the Coils

Here are the cores for my coils and the two coils themselves. I used an old harness from a television set for the copper wire and two cores from my Loving Husband's pile 'o cores. I think I did an OK job on winding the coils. But I think that I will need MUCH bigger inductance than I originally thought.

I've found a little box to put my next project in -- I'll snap a few pictures shortly . Maybe I can put the kit together tomorrow....

Monday Bullets

• Today is a catch up sort of day.
• I've made phone calls all morning; arranged for the girls to go to horsey camp; cleaned house; done laundry; sorted stuff and that ilk.
• I'm working currently on "my" 8th grade Social Studies project. Chaos has two projects due tomorrow; she's currently on a all day field trip with her science class (7:00 am to 6:00 pm), Girl Scouts at 6:30. The kid will be home at 8:00 pm. So I'm helping -- I've spray painted all day (every 20 minutes or so) her cardboard cutout of a 1948 Cadillac Convertible for her skit in Social Studies tomorrow. I will detail it this afternoon with some markers. I sure hope I get an "A" on my project.
• I've put cardboard to recycle in the back of the car as well as 4 big bags of outgrown kid clothing. I'm continuing the purging process.
• I've D and E in the correct spot in the Book Alphabetizing project. F to G is sorted and ready to be moved onto the correct shelf; H is on the correct shelf, as is I. J is floating around in a box, as is K- M. I'm making progress....
• I purchased with my trade-in points three books this morning. I took in 60 books and took home 3. Definitely the right direction.
• I wanted to build this weekend on my Theremin project; never had time. I did find the other lens I needed; I think the lens on the camera now is toast. Somehow the Nikon got dropped on the lens and my cheapo wide-angle lens is busted. I'll take pictures as soon as I get the new lens on the camera.
• Entropy cut her hair off and is now donating it to Locks of Love (second time for her.) She also had her eyebrows waxed for the first time. The kid looks like a different person. Who is this child? What did you do with my daughter??
• I'm geeking about karate. I'm watching karate videos on YouTube...
• I've built a "Theremin" in Second Life; no scripting yet. Still wondering about how to do that. I've got to learn how to created animations first. More to do.
• I couldn't get online for my Monday morning Bible Study in Second Life. Dern this Linksys Router!
• I'm currently playing with statistics in between coats of spray paint. Time for another coat!
  

Thursday Bullets

• Here's a picture of a few of us watching GC2008 outside the Methodist Meetinghouse in Second Life. Yes, I know that the video feed is upside down and backwards. It seems that a quarter of the viewers don't see the video at all or hear any audio, a quarter hear the audio, but see no video, a quarter of us see the live feed upside down and backwards and a quarter of the viewers see it just fine and wonder what's wrong with the rest of us. I think there is something deeply theological about that. The recorded videos play back just fine -- it's the live streaming video that gets messed up. I almost didn't want to stream until the feed was perfect, but that's sort of like not having anyone over until the house is perfect -- I don't think that it will ever happen.
• This is myself, Carol from Smallest Angel, Gavin and John Meunier from Come to the Waters. I'd link, but I'm lazy today. I added the bubble chairs yesterday when I realized that some of the problem with streaming was probably due to the fact that the parcel was "full." The folding chairs took up too many resources.
• Last night was a biggie -- they voted to keep the Discipline the same per homosexuals not being ordained clergy. They also discussed other changes -- and most of the time have voted to keep the Discipline as is. The issues are so very complex at times: the leg bone is connected to the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone -- literally a connectional system. If legislation A is enacted, the people B are going to feel displaced. If people B are displaced then people C will not support legislation D. I'm not going to get into what exactly A-D are but just say that it has been interesting to be a fly on the wall. For a beautiful and heartfelt summary of the issue, go to the Rankin File. Here's an excerpt:

  I know that this is how politics works and I guess, most of the time, I'm quite OK with it working this way. But when I see the emotion permeating this particular vote; when I watch people weep after the vote because, once again, they feel that the church has spurned them or someone they love, I think to myself, "There has to be a better way to deal with this issue."

• On other fronts, I'm shopping for gaming headsets for use in SL. The problems I have with what I can find: too heavy, mic boom too short, uncomfortable. I'll still just shop for a while.
• And I have to shop for a dance dress for Chaos. My little girlies are growing up.
• I got my Rotten Banana Belt (yellow with black stripe) last week. Loving Husband was correct and I was wrong (there, I said it, ok?)
• The gas thing is freaking me out. I figured it is costing me $.33 a mile. I used $10 of gas yesterday. I'm planning on combining trips as often as possible. I'm reading on the interwebs how to save on gas mileage. And it's gallons, not galleons as Jim so aptly pointed out. I'm going to save galleons on my gallons, though.
• I'm reading a couple of books to help me write a proposal for the SL church thingy. "The World is Flat" from a couple of years ago and "Exodus to the Virtual World." Interesting reading.
• I'm still sorting books.
• I'm still thinking about Theremin -- I may take pictures this afternoon.
• But first today, I think I will sit outside in the sunshine and listen to the birdsong.
  
• More Later.

The Inevitable Has Come

Yes, I am exploring options of building a Virtual Theremin in Second Life. It was indeed inevitable.

Tuesday Bullets

• I missed my SL Lectionary Group yesterday, because I went to a meeting instead. I think I'll sit with the scriptures this morning. I really did miss that time!
• Sunday was my last Sunday at New Hope. I will be attending Grayson and helping out there until I get an appointment of some sort.
• I'm still sorting books (probably will be for a while). I'm on Fiction D-E-F. There are days where I fling books merrily into the "sell, trade or donate" box. There are days where I stop, "hmmm. I don't remember this book." and then start to read. I need more the the former and less of the latter.
  
• I made a very brief presentation about the Second Life Methodist build at my District Committee of Ordained Ministry. There were some very excited people. After General Conference, I am going to go to Conference office and see if I can make the build more "official."
• I've also been in contact this week with a prof at George Fox University as well as Len Sweet: both are interested in the SL Council of Churches and Len is interested in an official Methodist presence as well. Scot and I will be announcing a "summit" to brainstorm with some of the church leaders in SL. So this is actually two projects: Aldersgate Island and the SL Council of Churches.
• I am going to spend some time today pulling together some statistics for our conference statistician for Annual Conference. Oh how I love to do statistics!
  
• I have found something for the Birdie to sit on for my "Singing Budgie" Theremin -- an old candlestick. The LH built the Colpitts oscillator; I may have to put way loads more inductance on the antenna. It's not going to be very sensitive the way it is.
• Johnny Cat was bad this morning and voided his bladder in inappropriate places. So he doesn't get any cuteness on the blog for a while.
• This Friday, I'm up for a belt test. I think it's the orange belt; the LH thinks it's the yellow with white stripe. I think I'm right (of course!) but none-the-less, It's Friday night. We have another of those very busy weekends coming up; belt test, Girl Scout activities on Saturday with more Estate stuff; Sunday is church and then both girls are part of the GS Bridging ceremony. I don't think we have a lot scheduled for May -- Thank goodness!

Theremin Thought of the Day

Proximity fuzes for bombs in WWII were done with thyratron tube switches (or at least were done this way by the end of the war).

There is an oscillator in the circuit emitting RF and using the ground as it rushes up as a "plate" in a capacitor, it can trip the switch to explode. I wonder if thyratron tube switches could be use for Theremin design? (Or at least you could make the bomb "sing!")

Likewise, Thyratron tubes were replaced in Thyristors in the 1950's. It's a transistor that's a PNPN thingy. Sort of like putting two transistors end to end. I wonder if anyone has ever used a Thyristor in a Theremin?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Tuesday Bullets

• Blogging will be light this week; lots to do and little time to do it in.
• I'm sorting books again. One day, this job will be finished. Right now, it seems endless. As I cull and sort, I'm putting the books on the correct shelf. I've got "Fiction A" done and working on "B" and "C" right now. About half of the books are going into the bin to be 1) sold on Amazon 2) sold at the Bookstore 3) labeled for give away in hospital waiting rooms. The books I take to the hospital seem to just evaporate into thin air.
• I'm sorting and ironing around 75 old vintage aprons that the LH and I found at his grandfather's house. I don't know exactly what to do with them after I launder, iron and fold. It's either the estate sale or eBay. Maybe both...
• I've noted this before and it's still true. You always make a bigger mess when you try to clean up a mess. I had the downstairs suitable for company not too long ago -- now it looks as if a tornado ripped through. It just goes in cycles, I suppose. Still working on stuff reduction.
• Kids are in testing this week -- the CRCTs. They are antsy about it. Both worry about "passing." The mommy is not worried. They will be fine.
• Girl Scouts are coming to an end for the Summer, but there are meetings now twice a week until Entropy's bridging ceremony two weeks from now. Lots of the Mommy-mobile driving kids around.
• I'm up for an Orange Belt in Karate at the end of the month. I suppose I need to go to Karate more often (as the LH does) but the schedule is just too tight right now.
• To help the schedule, we've postponed Cello lessons for a while. Just a break and then we will go back during the summer when school can't compete. Chaos also want viola lessons this summer. So each will get an hour of instruction once a week... Entropy with Violin and Piano, Chaos with Cello and Viola. I'm going to start practicing more often as well.
• I want a Theremin. I went to Galaxy Music and 1) the clerk couldn't be bothered to wait on me and 2) they didn't have any. I didn't fit the profile of "musician" I suppose. Just a few minutes later I went into the GameStop and the clerk was very polite -- and I purchased a game and put two other on preorder. Customer service makes all the difference.
• So, I'm looking for the Theremin cheap somewhere...
• Theremin building is on hold for the moment, as is Theremin design. I've got to get other stuff out of the way this week...
• And I am preaching this week on the 1 Peter 2 text. I need to spend time pondering it, as I've not used it before.
• The SL church is coming along. I was kicked off a Christian organization this week because I don't fit their concept of "Christian." They have a hard time processing the fact that I will "hang" with a group they consider sinners and that I'm a woman who dares to lead a church. Wow. So What Would Jesus Do? Kick them out!! (of course) -- this is sarcasm, dear readers.
• Johnny Cat was the best Christmas present anyone could ever get. I love my Johnny Cat.