Dan Krill's BLOG on BinaryBedlam - Opinions, Rants, Comments, Notes, and Realizations

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Garden beer pong door grill-out fire tie-dye party
April 23, 2011 11:39 AM

Went to Cameron's camp fire party last night, the weather was so perfect, practically no wind, 75 all evening, and most importantly, no rain. So we hung out and talked most of the time, grilled burgers and hot-dogs, and played beer pong. Unfortunately Cameron and I were the only ones to wear tie-die. There was a massive 12 foot high fire (he had a lot of downed branches and shrubs) and later we even burned a door. Really late in the evening we launched some bottle rockets. Good times.

DATE: May 01, 2011 10:12:05 AM NAME: Dizizcamron
COMMENT: awesome pics Dan!

DATE: May 05, 2011 01:21:41 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: LOVE the sky and tree in the second pic!

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Road Closed...Flying Car?
April 21, 2011 11:04 PM

It took me a couple hours to get home today when it should have taken only 20min because of yet another incident right in front of my apartment complex. (no I didn't get on the news this time :-) I was only 2500ft from my house and the giant 5 lane wide Old Hickory Road was closed in both directions! Traffic was rerouted through all the housing developments where of course there are no traffic lights, it was an absolute mess.
After taking several route deviations, sitting in traffic for ever, and cursing up a storm I finally got home. I then grabbed my camera and proceeded to investigate.

At the site I saw downed power lines being restrung and a crazy path of destruction in the woods. If you look at the pics, you can see the trees and shrubs are all broken quite high up, so the victim here must have been doing like 120mph over the hill, lost control, and litterally flew off the road. God knows how high he must have gotten off the ground for the telephone poll to have snapped 20 feet up like that!

According to the news stations, the road was blocked from 2pm till 8pm! I can't imaging how bad the gridlock must have gotten. It also said the accident was caused by a dump truck, but I don't believe that, I still think it was a flying car!

DATE: April 22, 2011 10:11:14 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: You think it might be some top secret military experiment that went wrong?! I think it might be..

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Bio-Engineering
March 30, 2011 11:58 PM

I just watched the TED video on biological engineering linked to me by my friend, Andrew, and I had a few things to say about it. Well first off here is the clip:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovV7v2XYJAI

Now I've seen a lot of these images and articles before, but never this particular speech, very informative and well presented. He covered so many different areas of genetic modification that it's actually quite difficult to form one encompassing opinion. But I'd say overall I'm not completely against it, as a scientist I'd have to say that I encourage and applaud the continuing efforts to understand how life works down to each individual gene. But from an ethics point of view, I don't think we as a society have the moral judgment to use this knowledge responsibly. I just know that things will eventually become money driven, loose sight of the original intent, and spin out of control. I mean killer bees were created by man too, think about that!
So I think it's wrong to make these sorts of creatures and conduct this sort of research if its for making money or for our entertainment. Therefore I don't agree with custom designing human babies and especially not pets because it's not beneficial to the whole human race. It's disrespectful to other forms of life and a gross misuse of great intellect and resources. I do, however, agree with this research if it's used for something that contributes to human development, like the creation of disease fighting cures and mind-operated prostheses. And they can't be sold, they must be given away for free, otherwise something with good intent would fall victim to capitalism and eventually become another commodity produced by the lowest bidder in unfavorable conditions making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Life and genetics belong to us all, no one should hold copy rights to something developed from something that's been around for millions of years. Don't even get me started on Monsanto's seed copy rights, god that pisses me off. But like the guy who developed the cure for polio, he is one of my personal heroes. When he created it, he made sure to give the formula to the world right away, he had no intent to sell it to a pharmaceutical company.
It's probably already to late though. Our technological development in this field is growing faster than our sense of moral direction.

DATE: March 31, 2011 04:16:36 AM NAME:
COMMENT: Yup.. I truly agree with you..

DATE: March 31, 2011 02:56:26 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Given away free? Hmm..I might just be cynical but I don`t think it`ll ever happen again. And I feel like greed is what fuels the technological growth, much more than just curiosity. That`s why there`s so little funding for developmental research and gazillions for money-making fields like cancer or Alzheimer`s or Parkinson`s.

DATE: March 31, 2011 07:17:04 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: You are not being cynical, you are being absolutely right. I just think it`s sad that society has become so greed oriented that we have lost site of all the things that really matter.

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Didgeridoo after 2.5 months of Practice
March 30, 2011 11:42 PM

Here I am on the didgeridoo after about two and a half months of practice. I am able to produce much more complicated rhythms now. Also something new has happened, like in a Bryan Adams song he says, 'played until my fingers bled', well I have played this thing so much that my lips have bled! Not much though, it didn't hurt either, it's nothing to worry about. It's just so much fun to play! It's also an intense work out, playing this thing for just 3 min leaves you exhausted!
One thing I do find annoying though, is when I make these recordings my sniffs of air are quite audible. In a lot of other videos on line, you don't really hear it, am I doing something wrong? Or maybe my inhales are just louder than others? Should I reposition the mic, because it seems to get it no matter where I place it. Advice welcomed from any didge players out there!

DATE: March 31, 2011 07:16:47 AM NAME: JonD
COMMENT: Nice work! I`ve tried playing the didge and have had no luck in learning. Sounds freakin awesome.

DATE: March 31, 2011 09:04:12 AM NAME: ChrisM
COMMENT: I tried playing my didge last time I was home and had no luck at all! You sound really good though!

DATE: March 31, 2011 02:51:18 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Gosh, you were playing so fast throughout this entire video! I forgot what you called it but it starts with an `f`. Sounds like there`re two songs playing at once. Fugue? Anyways, it sounds fantastic. So many more rhythms since the last time I heard you play.

DATE: March 31, 2011 04:25:26 PM NAME: ChrisS
COMMENT: I must admit, I was a little weirded out when I read the title and some of the article.... but the sound is kinda neat. Particularly since you crafted the instrument yourself!

DATE: March 31, 2011 07:13:16 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: thanks guys! I think this has become my new favorite instrument to play. And yeah, it`s a little weird, but there is apparently a huge following on the internet, it`s almost meditative to play because you really have to focus on rhythms and breathing, and let`s face it, when have I ever wanted to be normal?

DATE: May 02, 2011 05:12:08 PM NAME: Pyae
COMMENT: Oh, my goodness...you`re playing it so fast now!

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Learning the Didgeridoo
February 21, 2011 10:00 AM

Don't really remember what got me started, but I think I was just watching random youtube videos and I came across this Japanese busker, Shibaten, who plays a didge, drums, and some other percussion things all at once. He was so good that it inspired me to try, and lol, I just happened to have some pipe lying around, needless to say, I was hooked instantly.
Because the harmonic resonance of the bathtub almost perfectly matches the frequency of the didgeridoo's drone note, playing the didge in the bathroom sounds exquisite. Here I am after about 1.5 months of practice. Still using a 2in x 4ft PVC pipe with a custom molded mouth piece made from 100% chemical free bees wax. It's alright, maybe if I continue to improve I'll get a real one, or maybe make one!

DATE: February 21, 2011 06:13:20 PM NAME: andy
COMMENT: wow dude, i am thoroughly impressed. you picked up on that extremely fast, especially with the circular breathing! wow.

DATE: February 26, 2011 06:08:45 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: It really was amazing how fast you learned it, hon =) I especially like the high-pitched `tika-tika`.

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Snowed in then Interviewed
February 10, 2011 11:58 AM

We only got about 2 inches of snow yesterday but apparently that's enough to reek havoc around here. It started just before rush hour, and since it was below freezing the entire day, it stuck.
Over night it only got worse. I tried to go into work 2 hours late this morning, I figured that should be enough time for things to ease up, well , not really. I live in the woods, so very little sun hits the roadways, and well all the roads leading out of my apartment complex are giant sheets of ice!
I walked along the roads to see how bad it was, and there were cars all over the place. Apparently it was so bad at the main entrance that a news crew was there filming. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time so I even got interviewed. I'll be on the NBC 4 news at 5 tonight!

DATE: February 10, 2011 03:27:57 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Wish I could watch it..

DATE: February 10, 2011 08:12:41 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: Now you can!!

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Recovering Beeswax from Water
February 09, 2011 11:46 PM

I couldn't find anything on the whole internet on this topic. There are lots of articles about separating bees wax from honey, but none from water, so I'm making my own article.
I needed to know this because I just got my bars of beeswax in the mail and I was ready to make my didgeridoo mouthpiece. Well I put the bars in some water and heated them up to soften them up for shaping, I walked away, and when I came back, much to my horror, they were already completely melted and evenly mixed with the water!
I thought I had ruined them and would have to buy more and wait all over again. Well it turns out, that's not the case. Beeswax melts at 147 degF, so a boil wasn't even needed in the first place, also, apparently wax is a fatty acid, so it wont dissolve in water, over time it separates.
After my panicking was done, I let the pot just sit there and cool. After about an hour, I got my beeswax back! The yellow water was crystal clear again and the melted wax particulates formed a floating disk. Moral of the story, always watch a boiling pot!

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Breakfast Smoothie
February 09, 2011 9:14 AM

People keep asking me for my breakfast smoothie recipe, so I thought I'd make this post. It's a real simple concoction I whip up on the days I run for a great boost of energy. It makes you feel so much better for longer than things like doughnuts and coffee. Plus it has enough calories to hold you over till lunch, and it's very healthy since almost everything is raw and natural.

Any ways, here's what I use:
1 apple
1 bananna OR 6 frozen peach slices
1 large handfull of frozen mixed berries OR 5 frozen strawberries
2 to 3 handfulls of pre-washed frozen spinach
1 celery stalk
1 carrot OR 1 red beat
3/4 cup flax seeds
3 tablespoons honey
2 cups 2% milk

Throw it all in the blender, set to liquify for no less than 1 minute and serve! And it seems like no matter how much spinach I put in there, I can't taste it, so put as much as you can fit in there.

DATE: February 09, 2011 01:46:18 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Remove the banana and carrot and celery = yum!

DATE: February 10, 2011 12:23:30 PM NAME: Adrien Seguy
COMMENT: Add Kale to it and maybe wheat grass if it doesn`t taste to bad to you. You can then remove the celery and carrots. Look up the benefits of Kale it`s one of the best most nutrient rich things you can eat and it`s only good in smoothie form.

DATE: February 12, 2011 08:17:33 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: where can I get kale? is it in the produce section of the grocery store? I don`t think I`ve ever seen it, but then again I`ve never looked for it.

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Deer Crossing
February 07, 2011 11:27 PM

Not Quite as random as Khine's rooster in the front yard, but this morning when I was ready to leave my apartment complex I had to stop for 7 or 8 deer standing around the exit! By the time I got the camera out they started to scatter, you can still see 5 in this pic. You wouldn't think there would be so many deer around these parts because everything is so built up and the patches of woods are so small, but then again, I guess it's actually because of the populated areas that we have so many deer because hunting isn't permitted, you're always too close to someones house. No population control.

DATE: February 09, 2011 01:47:27 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: That IS strange. You never ever see a deer and then you see 7 all at once! Could be a migrating family..

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Serious Chili
February 05, 2011 11:09 PM

I don't even mess around any more. When I make chili, I really make chili! It's just so good that when I want some I always make a huge bowl, and after just a few of those bowls, it's all gone! And the fruits of my labor has disappeared just like that. It's even worse when I hand out some tupperware containers, then it seems like I can only make it last 3 or 4 days. Well no more, I now make 3 times the recommended quantity. I get my fill for a day or 3 then freeze the rest. Now I can have some when ever I want!

DATE: February 09, 2011 01:48:06 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: I`m drooling already =/

DATE: May 17, 2011 01:36:37 PM NAME: Tam
COMMENT: That is what Jason does... he says is he has to go through the trouble of making it, he may as well make a bunch...i love the ability of going out to the freezer and having a bag to pour over hotdogs!! YUM

DATE: May 18, 2011 09:06:34 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: Yup, I mean it takes so much effort and around 2 hours from start to finish, so it`s the only way to go. Never actually tried it on hot dogs, will have to give that a try.

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Vu Invitational: StarCraft
January 15, 2011 7:42 PM

While not technically a LAN party, it was still the geekiest thing I've done since college. One of my co-workers held a bracketed StarCraft tournament complete with a five/ten dollar buy in to make it more interesting. There were a little more than 10 people participating but we only played one game at a time so the rest of us could watch in spectator mode downstairs on his projector. It was better than the superbowl! For each game the winner had to win 2 out of 3 games, so each bracket could take quite some time. The whole event lasted probably around 6 hours, but Tien supplied plenty of chicken wings and fried rice. Alan was the champion. I only won one game :-( But oh well, great fun was had by all!

DATE: January 17, 2011 07:11:58 AM NAME: ChrisS
COMMENT: Ah man, reminds me of the olden days of SC LAN Parties. Hopefully your setup process was much easier than ours used to be. "Did you bring the hub? Who has the hub?" "Wait, we need 2 more ethernet cables." "Can everyone see my computer on the network? Who can`t see who`s computer on the network?" "Okay, first you have to go into settings... then select UDP/IP....."

DATE: January 17, 2011 09:22:22 AM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: haha, yes I do remember those days, man we were the true pioneers of LAN parties! none of us could afford laptops, so we all had our huge honking PCs, no one had LCDs (except Shane) so we all brought our giant CRTs, and yup, it was the infancy of TCP/IP so tonnns of network problems! Now with SC2 the only computer you need to see is battle.net.

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Meter Shower

January 14, 2011 7:33 PM

Apartment Fire...Almost
January 06, 2011 9:56 AM

My room mate just got home from the xmas break the other day, and shortly after we say our greetings he asks me if I can fix his laptop power cord because his laptop is dead. So I take a look at it, and the plug is barely hanging on by a thread! It was completely chewed out, burnt and exposed.
Apparently at his previous house a dog chewed the cable all over, but it was still usable. Well over the break it somehow self shorted, popped, and even burned the desk beside it! No one was here. No breaker tripped. We are very lucky that we even had an apartment to come home to.
Moral of the story, never use bare, worn, chewed, or exposed electrical wires.

DATE: January 06, 2011 09:16:47 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Man, we were so lucky that didn`t happen..

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New Years 2010
January 05, 2011 9:49 PM

This year for new years eve Khine and I went to one of my co-workers who was throwing a party, and it wasn't just a new years party, it was an 80s party. I definitely haven't gone to one of those since college. Our costume was pretty simple, Khine wore my zelda shirt and I wore my back to the future shirt, lol, some people really went all out though.

DATE: January 06, 2011 09:16:04 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: I absolutely loved some of the outfits!

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Christmas 2010
January 03, 2011 4:00 PM

     Like every year, Christmas break was filled with lots of excitment and packed schedules. It started off with Khine and I celebrating our own little xmas before the flight. We exchanged our gifts and went right to the airport. We landed in Baltimore late at night, picked up the rental car, and went to see Andrew first thing because he lives on the way to York. For the whole first portion of the trip while in York, Khine and I set up camp at Don's guest house which was a huge help because it's close to my family (which doesn't have any guest rooms) and it gives us some quiet time.
     The next morning we woke up at about 5am, after only 4 hours of sleep, and drove down to northern Virginia to visit Khine's aunt. We had a delicious brunch and plenty of chatting. It took only about 2 hours to get there, but the drive back took around 5! The beltway and 95 were bumper to bumper the whole way. Such as waist of time. Next we went for family portraits, then a mini hs reunion at Isaac, which we were very late for. Hannah had to go back to Philly and since we saw her so little Khine and I decided to go with Emmy to take her back to the Lancaster Train Station. On the way there we stopped briefly at Emmy's new place to take a look, then dropped off Hannah, then half way back to York, we find that her train was canceled due to a downed tree! So back to Lancaster we go, then all of us go to Cobblestones for drinks and dancing. The Kurziks were there for a little too.
     Xmas eve was spent mostly looking at various places for our wedding / reception venue. After visiting lots of places around York and Lancaster we think we found the place we want to do it, and it turns out it's really close to home and I never even knew about it, the Moon Dancer vineyard. It's quite a nice place near East Prospect overlooking the Susquehanna River. Afterward we went right to the St John's xmas eve service with Mom. Then we went to Brandon's to see him and dad and Katie. There we watched the CGI version of a Christmas Carol.
     Xmas Morn we exchanged gifts, later I went with dad to the storage to see all his Star Trek stuff. Then I worked on Brandon's fax machine, couldn't make his line receive any, then we went to moms to exchange gifts. About an hour later all of Katie's family came over and we had a huge dinner. Barney played Santa and we exchanged a few more gifts. It was Khine's first time sitting on Santa's Lap! After cleaning up we ate some shrimp, played with Barney's new green laser pen, and went to bed.
     The day after xmas we visited Great Aunt Florence at the Nursing Home, she's doing ok, but starts to retell the same stories after about a half hour. Then we saw grandma cause she lives near by. Mom and Brandon were there. After that we went to Greg and Marsha's to see Jason and Amy Lamontagne. It was nice to see the whole pizza gang again. We went out to lunch at a near by restaurant, Crimson. Immediately after that, we drove all the way out to Shippensburg to visit Grandpa. I tried to break in to the apt building because we wanted to surprise him, but once in, we found a second set of locked doors. While there it snowed 2 inches in York! So on our way back we had to drive extra careful. Since we were now trapped because of the blizzard, Khine and I played xBox Kinect with Don.

     Early the next morning we left York for New York. On the way there I found out that mom wrecked her car. She drove under a tractor trailer at a shopping center. Everyone was ok. New York was not, however. They had just gotten 2 feet of snow! It was a nightmare getting anywhere. It was impossible to drive on most streets as many were snowed shut. Just trying to get to Khine's Mom's place we got stuck twice! Each time to get unstuck took no less than 1.5 hours. We were lucky that we had so much help. People would come out of their houses to help cars stuck in the streets. Once unstuck I gave up and parked the car in a safe place over night. Then the one Indian man who helped push us out took us all out for coffee and cake! Afterward we went back to Khine's mom's then we all walked to a near by Chinese restaurant. After dinner we spent the night at her mom's.
     The next morning we got some soda at the market, loaded up the car, ate breakfast at a corner bagel shop, checked into our hotel, filled up the car with $4/gal gas, returned the car, and argued that we didn't cause the headlight damage to the rental. I got through 2 blizzards, beltway traffic, and NYC driving with out a scratch, and they say I caused body damage. It must have been when all those people were pushing on the car to free us from the snow. Anyway, then we took a shuttle to LGA to catch a bus to Manhattan. After waiting in the freezing cold for about 45min, we find that the bus only takes MTA cards. So we had to go back in to the airport to buy cards, and warm our toes. We went back out again then finally got the bus. Once in MHT, we transferred to a sub and met up with Khine's friends Frank and Sabai. We got some dinner, walked around Bryant Park, shopped at lots of Bead shops, went to China Town for another dinner, then took the subway all the way back to our hotel. We walked the 5 blocks from the station to the hotel in Flushing, there were still a good bit of people, otherwise I wanted a cab cause it get's shady on the side where our hotel entrance is.
     After breakfast we met up with Khine's mom again so that we could take the subway to Rosevelt Island to see her Dad. After visiting I walked around the island a bit for pictures, then we all took the sky tram off the island and went back to Chinatown. We got lunch at a Malaysian restaurant then sent Khine's mom back to her place on a shuttle that goes straight to Queens. Khine and I did a little more shopping while down there, then retired early. We got pizza delivery and hit the hay.
     We got up extra early to try to find a Chinese cab that would take us to Khine's mom's then the airport, but when we got into the cab, he said he would only go to the airport, so we couldn't say our goodbyes. It took us about an hour to get to the airport, then another hour to get through security and the flight was delayed only 30min, so time was a little tight. But the rushing was over once in the terminal. The layover was in Chicago and that went pretty quick despite it too had a delay. When we landed in Nashville, it was about 60deg! It's all over. What a trip. Back to work!

              See all the Pictures HERE!

DATE: January 03, 2011 08:52:04 PM NAME: KM
COMMENT: Man, what a trip it was..

DATE: January 05, 2011 08:03:02 PM NAME: dankrill
COMMENT: I only wish we had pictures from your aunts, of Andrews visit, and of the Indians complete with turbans helping to push our car out of the snow.

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