TwitterFault

I just sent this to Dan in retribution for the TwitterFault. (Dan did an entire issue of Segfault, our CSH funny paper, using twitter feeds.) For those of you missing the joke, see http://xkcd.com/491/.

On Segfault seen
A sore regression
Twitter feeds
Find ill expression
Burma Shave

Music and My Life

It's amazing how descriptive of my life music can be:

Who I was: Demon Hunter - Ribcage

Who I'm becoming: Demon Hunter - I Am You

What I miss most in life right now: Anberlin - Paperthin Hymn

What I love most in life right now: Andy Hunter - The Wonders Of You

What I live for:: Demon Hunter - Storm The Gates Of Hell

Why I'm so picky about music: Anberlin - A Whisper And A Clamor

My life prayer: Red - Breathe Into Me

My faith: Red - Lost

My hope: Demon Hunter - Undying

My politics: Disciple - Game On

My enjoyment of life: Family Force 5 - Get Your Back Off The Wall

A Wonderful Book

I'm currently reading Michael W. Perry's collection of G.K. Chesterton: "Chesterton on War and Peace." I'll review it and philosophize a little when I finish it. It's wonderful philosophy and humor. Huge thanks to Grammy and Grandpa for the book.

2 Line PHP Function To Convert CIDR Postfix to Netmask

This is a problem with lots of really ugly solutions. Here's one that works, producing the correct output when called as a parameter to long2ip:

function cidr2longnetmask($cidr) {
  if($cidr > 32 || $cidr < 0) {
    return false;
  }
  $netmask = pow(2,$cidr) - 1;
  $netmask = $netmask << (32 - $cidr);
  return $netmask;
}

That's it. Tested with all integers from 0-32 (others return false.)

Music, A Gift

I love music. Ever since I was young I have learned to appreciate it as an art, as a tool, and as a practice for the mind. It's something that always make situations glaringly clear in my life, and expresses things that I never could.

Music Is Power

Many people I talk to listen to music purely for enjoyment. (This seems to me to be a motivation for a lot of things for some people, and it seems to me a hollow one, but that is another post.) I listen to music for meaning. God crafted our souls in such a way that we respond to music, and that it carries meanings far different than words can express. Music communicates the dancing, deceptive, often abstract, irrational feelings in our soul. Combining this communication and resonance with the power of skillful language and you have a powerful communication tool. More importantly, people are often incredibly impervious to mere language. As hard as it is for me to accept, not everyone applies rationality to thought. Music bypasses this, and convinces by some innate persuasion, difficult if not impossible to understand, and all the more effective for it.

Music Is Emotion

I'm not a very emotional person. I tend not to have emotional displays, except of frustration, and even then it takes a long time to build. Music is a way for me to let out my emotions. Listening to music that reflects my mood allows me to grasp what I'm feeling and deal with it, if need be. I also use music to communicate how I'm feeling with others. Some people pick up on this, others don't, but the music I'm listening to is generally a very good indicator of how I'm feeling.

Music Is Belief

Music, especially good music with well-written lyrics, communicates a belief. It communicates the writer's entire outlook on life. In my case, it often reflects the listener's viewpoint. I find that I can often see a point of view much more readily when it is musically expressed. At the same time, music has the power not only to present a point of view, but persuade in favor of it, or to strengthen it.

Music Is Frankness

Music is my outlet of choice for things that I want to talk about, but don't want to say anything about. The music I listen to is more blunt than I am (suprisingly), and it often puts my thoughts exactly into words and sound on a particular feeling.

God created music for all of these purposes. It is beyond me how anyone could think that a material and random world would bring in something so functional, elegant, but yet so materially pointless as music. Music trancends the ability of the material.

The Trigger

There were a few songs that spurred me to write this. Here's one:
As I Lay Dying - I Never Wanted

I never wanted
and I never cared before
Now take it back
This is a new day

How I long to regress
To the days before I took upon myself
The obsession of this world
A day of innocence equating beauty
For tomorrow may fall
And today is already gone

Now take it back
This is a new day

I've grown tired of chasing
Convinced I was in need
And now the years I've spent
Only a slave to this
Tomorrow may fall
And today is already gone
I will no longer adore
These things that will never satisfy me

I've seen my world change
And then go back to where it came
In this vicious circle
We are all brought back to life
Only to die again
But without these barren obsessions
I am simply free