When studying Anthropology in higher education, you learn in your first class the necessity of “participant observation“. This is defined as getting involved with the group you wish to study. In other words, rather than sitting on the sidelines, just watching the group, if you really want to learn what the culture is about, what they do day-to-day, what their emotions are how they speak, etc, you need to roll up your sleeves, and get your hands dirty. You need to participate in the culture you’re studying if you want to get a true, grounded study of the culture. You clean when they clean. You dance when they dance. You cry when they cry. So, that is what I have done with Ramadan. I have attended mosque more than once. I have gone out of my way to associate with Muslims. I have read the Qur’an. I have familiarized myself with the language and customs during Ramadan. While it would be much more effective if I was in a nation predominantly Islam, I’m doing the best I can here.

Now, I ask: is participant observation “extreme”?

On two different occasions this week, I was told that what I was doing was considered “extreme”. One later apologized, recognizing that what I’m doing is just trying to increase the religious tolerance of the American public, and that this person could learn a thing or two from my example. However, the other person did not apologize, and continues to spread the view that engaging in a religious activity other than your own is “extreme”.

On both cases, a discussion ensued about the philosophies and politics of participating in activities in a religion other than your own. The first, who later apologized, ended quickly when I mentioned anthropology and “participatory observation”. The second discussion brought up a fundamental belief in my church, then questioned if I was breaking that belief.

You see, as Mormons, we have temples all over the world. However, only people who have led good, clean, repentant lives, being called “worthy”, can enter the temple. There is an interview with your local church authorities that determines your worthiness. In that interview, a question is asked if you affiliate with or belong to a group that teaches opposing views of the LDS Church. If you do, then you are not worthy to enter the temple. So, it was suggested that by participating in Ramadan, I’m affiliating with a religion that goes directly against the teachings of the LDS Church. Now, of course I don’t agree. After reading the Qur’an three times, and on my fourth time currently; after studying the people and their beliefs and actions, I am confident that I am participating with a religion that has many, many similar teachings as my religion.

Anyway, I won’t go into any more detail about the discussion than that. However, I do want to know that if participating in a religion other than your own is considered “extreme”. What do you think? I don’t see what’s extreme about fasting for a full month. I don’t see what is extreme about reading a holy book. I don’t see what is extreme about making friends. So, I pose the question to you. Discuss it in the comments if you wish.

Here’s how the week went for me:

• 15 Ramadan- School is proving to be somewhat of a challenge while fasting. Not due to lack of energy or starvation, but because I can see everyone around campus enjoying their soda pop, pizza, hamburger, fries, grilled chicken, etc. And with it being the first week of school, there are booths setup everywhere handing out free donuts, candy, drinks, etc. Not only the sights, but the smells. Oh, the smells. It’s really, really hard to resist temptation, and get a bite to eat. But, so far, I’ve remained strong.
• 16 Ramadan- I met someone on the public transit today who noticed me reading the Qur’an. He asked if I was Muslim, as he didn’t know any Caucasian Muslims. I told him I wasn’t, then proceeded to explain to him what I was doing and why. It was a good conversation, and he had a great deal of respect for me doing it. When it came time to break the fast at sunset, I had my standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chips and drink.
• 17 Ramadan- I was to meet up with a study group for math at school, but no one showed. I got to the school around 08:00, and stayed until about 18:00. I noticed that as the day got later, I was struggling keeping my focus of solving some math problems. I recognized that this might be a problem for getting good grades on my homework. Thankfully, I really will only have a problem with this on Saturdays, and there is only one Saturday left during Ramadan.
• 18 Ramadan- Went to a family function that my grandparents call “The 5th Sunday Ice Cream Social”. Aunts, uncles, cousins, kids, grandkids, etc all show up. My grandfather makes the ice cream, and everyone is encouraged to bring a treat of some kind. So, there are cookies, ice cream, brownies, and other treats. It was hard to not have any, and it sparked some conversations with my cousins and aunts and uncles. My grandmother made me pigs-in-a-blanket, with mixed vegetables and tomatoes with whole milk for breaking my fast at sunset. After which, I quickly had as much ice cream and cookies as I could handle, and even brought many home.
• 19 Ramadan- I was caught today chewing gum by a fellow Muslim student in one of my math classes. She informed my that chewing gum was breaking the fast. I quickly spit it out, now knowing about that. I told her that I was concerned about my bad smelling breath, but she reassured me that because I’m fasting and resisting temptation to break my fast, my breath smells sweet to God. I felt bad, as I’m a big gum chewer, and have been chewing gum probably every day.
• 20 Ramadan- About a week ago, a good wind came through and blew over part of my fence, and destroyed some of my retaining wall. So, I had a contractor come over and look at it and give me a bid. He asked if I wanted some sunflower seeds, and I declined. He teased me that they weren’t poisoned, so I explained to him why I declined, due to my fasting. Then a long conversation ensued about having religious tolerance. He too held a great deal of respect for me for what I was doing. Two positive experiences this week advocating religious tolerance for Islam.
• 21 Ramadan- Nothing fascinating today. Went to school, went to work. I was offered pretzels by a school-mate, but when I declined, he remembered why I declined (I had already discussed with him about Ramadan). He was impressed that I’ve made it this far. I am too. I never thought I would make it three weeks of straight fasting. Only one week left to go, and I’ll be planning of having a big Eid ul-Fitr with my family. We’re planning a pot-luck, inviting brothers, sisters, parents, step-parents and in-laws. It should be a lot of fun to celebrate ending the month. I also found out that the University of Utah will be holding Iftar on Friday at campus. I plan on attending.

This week was the week that school started for fall semester at my local university. I’m a bit nervous being able to keep my energy high all day long after going from class to class at school, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out the last few weeks. Also, I’ve been very diligent on keeping up my pace to get through the Qur’an by 27 Ramadan. Some days are light reading, other days are heavier reading, but I’m still ahead of schedule, so that’s good should I have a day or two that I forget or can’t get to it.

By the end of this week, I’m half way through. I’ve now fasted more days consecutively in two weeks than I do in an entire year with my religion. My motivation is strong, and I’m sure I can finish. Also, my cold that I had the previous week is subsiding, so I have more strength and less pain going throughout the day.

Lastly, I’ve been shocked by the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim comments that I’ve received from people close to me or who I have a great deal of respect for, even if our political or philosophical views don’t align very well. I’ve heard comments calling Islam a religion of hate and a religion of terror. I’ve heard comments that Muhammad was a false prophet, and will likely spend his afterlife in Hell. I’ve heard comments that being around Muslims makes them feel uncomfortable for their own safety, because they could be terrorist moles. I’ve heard that the Qur’an endorses murder and terrorism. I’ve heard that Islam is totalitarian, communist, and the perfect religion to build an army of Satan. I’ve heard all sorts of despicable things about these people, and it makes me sick.

Of course, many of these comments are directed to the fact that an Islamic community center will be built 2 blocks away form Ground Zero, in New York City, New York. So, I guess my timing to participate in Ramadan, and raise awareness for their religion, even though I’m Christian myself, couldn’t have been better timed. However, the prejudiced and racist comments that I’ve endured, and the videos I’ve seen, have brought to my attention the naive, ignorant, and belligerent hate that people can have, of which I have never before seen. I grieve for the American people and their “holier than thou” ideals.

Anyway, here’s how my week went physically.

• 8 Ramadan- The cold is progressing, but really, nothing to report here. I just have sinus congestion, headaches and a sore throat. Even though I shouldn’t be fasting while I’m sick, this cold isn’t bothering me enough to justify ending the fast. So, I’m sticking with it. At least until school starts back up again on 12 Ramadan.
• 9 Ramadan- I went to an amusement park with my family today. We got there around 11:30 in the morning, and stayed until 11:00 at night. Temperature was around one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. So, by around 2:00 pm, I was physically exhausted and completely dehydrated. My energy was gone, I was weak and started to get dizzy. I took my health more seriously than the fast, and broke the fast for a couple quarts of water. After rehydrating, I was able to keep my energy level up the remainder of the day until sunset, and eat. The toughest part, was around 6:00 pm, there was a dinner for families supporting adoption (our daughter is adopted). They had sandwhiches, chips, drinks, and cookies. Even though I had broken the fast and had water, I was only doing it for my health, and not for breaking the fast, so I still felt like I was fasting. So, I refrained from eating what looked like a great dinner. At sunset, I finally broke the fast for ending the day, and had a burger, fries and drink.
• 10 Ramadan- Went to another family reunion, and of course, there was a smorgos board of food- three picnic tables worth. Sloppy Joes, chips, Jello salad, pasta salad, brownies, cookies, juice, root beer, and on, and on, and on. And, of course, I can’t eat any of it. I told my wife that this is three very tempting and solid meals that I resisted eating during the month of Ramadan. I could have eaten very well the past couple of weeks, but I resisted.
• 11 Ramadan- Today felt like a standard “Fast Sunday” that we have once per month in our religion, so it didn’t really feel any different. Wasn’t a hard day, wasn’t really an easy day either. However, I am 1/2 way through reading the Qur’an. I’m trying to keep the pace to finish by 27 Ramadan. I think I’m on target.
• 12 Ramadan- First day of school at my local university, and I forgot to wear my topi. I really want to raise awareness for Islam, so I’m a bit upset that I didn’t put it on before leaving out the door. Also, I was a bit nervous at first that I would run out of energy quickly going from class to class, and I wouldn’t have the energy to carry me throughout the day, but I did just fine. I went to a local cafe for dinner.
• 13 Ramadan- I only had an apple, banana and a glass of milk for the meal at sunrise. Needless to say, I was starving very early in the day, and I didn’t have much energy to carry me throughout the day. I quickly learned that was not a wise choice. My wife made parmigiana chicken for dinner with onions and carrots. It was very good..
• 14 Ramadan- This time, I corrected my opening meal with some Grape Nuts (grains, oats, cracked wheat, high in fiber, etc) and yogurt, along with milk and orange juice. I had a much better time getting through the day. I had plenty of energy and didn’t really get hungry until about 8 hours later. Also, I went to the grocery store, and bought some wheat bread, peanut butter (crunchy, of course), strawberry jam and vitamin water for my late dinners at work before heading home. That worked well. Lastly, my cold is subsiding. Finally.

So, the first week of Ramadan has been a good one for me. There have been times when I have struggled with fasting, and there have been times when it wasn’t such a big deal. Ramadan started August 12th for North America. The following Saturday, I decided to attend the Khadeeja Islamic Center in West Valley and listen to Tarawih. It was an awesome event to participate in, even if I don’t understand Arabic, and didn’t understand some of the motions that they were doing at the time. It started at 22:30 and went until roughly 00:15. Here’s more of a detailed rundown of what I have experienced during my first week:

• 1 Ramadan- I prepared well by eating a good breakfast at sunrise. It was full of fruit and dairy high in proteins and fats. Had a little carbohydrates as well. Didn’t really start getting hungry until about 8 hours later, which I thought was pretty good. Because I’m used to fasting for 24 hours on the first Sunday of every month, this wasn’t a big deal. I was a bit nervous about getting the shakes, as I usually get them when I fast. At sunset, I had a balanced meal with grains, vegetables and more fruit.
• 2 Ramadan- I prepared just as well this morning, by eating a balanced breakfast, full of proteins and fats to help carry me through the day. However, I got hungry a bit earlier than the day before. But, the hunger pains subsided early, and I was fine, although without energy, for the rest of the day. Thanks to my wife, I again had a good mean at sunset that balanced what I didn’t eat that morning.
• 3 Ramadan- This has been the hardest day for me. First, I didn’t get a full night’s rest. I only slept about 4 hours, as I didn’t retire early the night before. Then, I didn’t eat a very balanced breakfast, and as a result, got hungry much earlier than the previous two days. As a result, I was very tempted to break my fast, and eat early. I held on, although I was completely drained of energy by the end of the day. Part of the problem was going to a family reunion for my wife’s side of the family, where several tables of food was laid out. I resisted and held true to fast. By sunset, I was more eager to have a good meal than previous days. I never did get the shakes
• 4 Ramadan- I must have been close to someone with a cold, because I woke up with a sore throat, a runny nose, and a pounding headache. I debated taking cold medicine. Would that break the fast? I held on as long as I could, but I gave in and took two DayQuil pills to relieve the pressure, pains and general crap that you deal with when having the common cold. I also visited my mother, but forgot to take a meal with me for sunset. So I ate chocolate cake and cookies to tide me over until I could get home and have roast, potatoes and carrots.
• 5 Ramadan- I debating quitting this day. I thought to myself that I’ve gone further than many people would in their entire lives. The temptation from Satan to break the fast and eat was very strong. Further, I can tell that by me fasting, I’m putting my family at a bit of odds, as they eat without me, and I without them. Fortunately, my wife told me she supports me in my decision to keep going, and helped me to be strong. I remade my committment to hold true to the fast for the entire month, and set temptation aside.
• 6 Ramadan- This day was probably the easiest during the week. I never really got hungry, at least not where I really noticed it. Nothing eventful happened today. Although, I did have to mow the lawn and trim the weeds before sunset. I did notice that I didn’t have a lot of energy, so it was a bit difficult to keep the physical labor going, knowing that it had to be done.
• 7 Ramadan- Another hard day physically for me fasting. I definitely have a cold, so I make sure to take medicine in the morning before starting the fast. Then when breaking the fast I night, I take more cold medicine. Hopefully, I can kick it. However, despite not being in top shape, I met a lady from Egypt who was Muslim. She’s attending the University of Utah this fall to study comparative literature. She just arrived last Saturday, and was getting her final paperwork ready for the fall semester. It was good to talk with her. I’ve read more than 1/3 of the Qur’an- well ahead of schedule to finish by 27 Ramadan. So far this week, I haven’t gotten the shakes.

Well, the story is a long one, loaded with details I won’t bother covering here. To keep it short, I served a mission for my church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I spent two years of my life there preaching the Good Word and spreading the Gospel to all that would hear it. It was there I met my wife actually. But, during this time, I developed a great love for those I was serving. You see, Toronto is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world. I think at the time I was there, it was said to be the home of 80 different cultures, with hundreds of different spoken dialects. It wasn’t uncommon to talk to a Buddhist at one door, a nihilist at another, a Christian at the third and a Muslim at the fourth. As you spent your day among the people, you really were dipped deeply in many cultures.

Many LDS missionaries say that their mission was the best mission in the world, because they grew to love the people they were with so much, and had experiences that they wouldn’t trade for anything. Well, in Toronto, the world was in my mission, so I got to see everything.

Well, during these two years, one group of people that I developed a great deal of respect for were those belonging to Islam. I developed this respect, because of all the people that I met; of all the cultures that I got involved with, it was the culture of Islam that was the most friendly. Sure, there was your bad seed every once in a while, but overall, I was constantly shown respect and love to. I was invited more often into the homes of Muslims. I was invited to dinner or lunch more with Muslims. I was able to talk more openly with Muslims. All-in-all, it was the people of Islam that were very friendly. As a result, I learned so much about their culture and what made them tick. And the more I learned, the better I was able to build a foundation of trust with them. It was mutually beneficial for both of us.

So, you can imagine my heartbreak when I came back to Utah. Sure, there is culture here, but it’s nothing like Toronto. Further, I was amazed at how many people here were prejudiced against Muslims. It blew me away. Especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York City, New York. All of the sudden, it was as if every Muslim in the country was to be feared. Members of the Sikh religion were being falsely categorized as Muslims, because of their turbans. It was rather infuriating. I felt like I needed to be a missionary for the Muslim people. I needed to let these prejudiced, racist pigs that Islam is a God-fearing culture. They pray five times per day. The attend holy services at a mosque. They even read their holy book, the Qur’an, which has much of the same stories as the Holy Bible. For the first time in my life, I was on the defense for another culture and religion other than my own.

On a side-note, every wedding anniversary, my wife and I would celebrate a new culture. We started with Italian, then did Celtic, then Chinese, Jewish, Mexican, Japanese and others. This past Saturday was our eleventh wedding anniversary, and when we were planning it ahead of time, I mentioned that I wanted to do an Islamic celebration. So, when the anniversary came, we read from the Qur’an, ate dates, visited a mosque, ate Lebanese food (the best we could do in Utah) and purchased a topi and a couple hijabs, and henna tattoos. It was a wonderful evening.

So, come August 11th, or 12th, depending on when the first crescent moon is sighted, the holy month of Ramadan starts. The month is a month of fasting and sacrifice. Participants abstain from food and drink, as well as personal pleasures such as gambling or sexual intercourse from sunrise to sunset every day for the entire month. Because the month is starting in only a couple of days, the fasting will be about 14 hours in duration each day. Also during this time, Muslims are encouraged to read the entire Qur’an before the month’s end, and attend recitations at the mosque every evening. The Khadeeja Islamic Center here in Salt Lake City will be doing the nightly recitations after the fifth prayer.

My participation for that month will be as follows:

• I’ll be attending at least one of the recitations, if not two.
• I’ll be wearing my topi every day, all day long.
• I’ll be reading the Qur’an, both in private and in public, in its entirety before the month ends.
• I’ll be fasting as they would fast from sunrise to sunset every day of the month

In addition to what’s listed above, I’ll also be incorporating some aspects of my religion into the daily routine. In the LDS Church, the first Sunday of each month is usually reserved for a fast. It is meant to start the night before, and end 24 hours later. For our monthly fast, we’re encourage to open our hearts to God, and ask for His blessings or thank Him for what He has given us. In other words, our fast should accompany prayer. So each day, I’ll start my fast with a prayer and end my fast with a prayer. Second, I’ll be reading my scriptures as much as I can as well. The LDS Holy Scriptures include the Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants. I won’t be able to get through all four books, so I’ll just be focusing on one. Not sure which at this moment.

Why am I doing this, if I’m a Christian? The biggest reason is to raise awareness of the culture that is Islam. There are a lot of misconceptions about Muslims and Islam in general, and I’m hoping to help people understand that Islam is not a religion of hate, but a religion of peace, love and integrity. These people are good people. The fear God, they follow the Prophets, they pray daily and frequently. They do good to others by helping in their community and they’re respectful of others. My wearing my topi in public, and reading the Qur’an in public, hopefully, people will ask me questions, and I can educate them. I certainly won’t be out preaching or knocking doors. I’ll be on the passive side of things, hoping people notice, and have the courage to ask me questions.

The other reason for doing this, is I have bad habits and sins that I would like to remove from my life. I’m hoping that by making such a large sacrifice for a month, I will grow closer to God, and He will grant me the ability to make my weaknesses strengths and forgive me of my sins. So, I have deep, personal reasons for doing it.

It will be difficult, especially seeing as though school is starting up in two weeks, and I’ll still have two more weeks after that to go. I plan on blogging updates about my experiences during Ramadan. Don’t worry, I won’t blog every day. Most likely, it will be a weekly summary of activities, conversations, studies, how I feel, and so on. So, likely there will only be four posts during the month.

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CQ CQ CQ. This is KB7MRL. Over. CQ CQ CQ. This is KB7MRL. Over.

Contact was made, a short conversation ensued, and they went on to the next band. I knew immediately they were hams, and I wanted to check out their rig, where they were from, and how long they had been doing amateur radio. They were handing out Golden Spike QSL cards to anyone they could make contact with. So, I headed over to their pavilion, chatted with them for a bit, then went back to my family for lunch.

During my meeting, they gave me a couple ARRL magazines, their personal QSL cards, and a Morse Code CD (bundled with Windows software). I’ve always been interested in learning Morse (commonly called “CW” for “continuous wave”), ever since I was a scout. So, recently, I decided to set to the task of learning it. Why, you ask? What’s the point, when we have the Internet, cell phones, satellites, and other forms of communication? My answer: I like a good challenge, and I just want to see if I can learn it. I can still get involved with satellite radio, and packet radio.

So, I fired up the software, and set to task. I’m learning CW using the Koch method, which means learning the number of characters I want, at the target speed I feel comfortable with. So, I set with 10 WPM, and I’m up to 7 characters: ABHJMTW, with about 90% accuracy. I’m hoping by the end of the month, I’ll have the entire alphabet down at 10WPM, where June I can focus on doubling the speed, as well as reaching the assigned 40 characters of CW. Maybe that’s a bit optimistic. We’ll see.

Eventually, I’ll set the goal for getting my Amateur Extra license here in the States. I understand that CW is no longer a requirement for obtaining that license, and as already mentioned, that isn’t the reason for me learning CW. However, when I do get my license, and eventually a rig setup, I would like to chat on the CW-only bands from the outset. So, becoming proficient with CW before then is important to me.

I’m not sure how my wife will enjoy me picking up a new hobby, especially seeing as though I have so very little time in my life for anything, let alone a hobby. She probably won’t be excited about me setting up my ham shack when we move. But, on the flip side, she’s always complaining that I spend too much time on IRC/IM, so maybe this can take that place. After all, hams step up for public service when they can, win awards, and just enjoy good company. It’s a bit more involved than IRC, with actual purposes, so we’ll see. Maybe she’ll get her license as well. I know I would like to see my daughter licensed. That would be cool.

So, anyway, there you go. Learning CW for fun. I’ll keep progress on this blog as I go along. No promises, or threats, on the frequency of the posts.

At first, I thought it was just a local university thing, with a few of the local college kids. However, I learned that this is only one night of a few that involved some major published poets, and had been held elsewhere across the city. This poetry event has been running for something like 20 years, and I was told that this is one of the biggest poetry reading events in the United States! Last night, was just a small part of the much larger event.

Anyway, I got up to the mic, and read my poem. I’ve never done this before, so I was actually quite nervous. To me, everyone in front of me was poetry and prose professionals, English majors, writers and the like. I’m sure my poem was child’s play to the profound poetry they had. But, I wanted to share my little poem, even if I was an amateur.

Just a little background on the poem: My wife and I were preparing for church one Sunday morning. When I got out of the shower, while drying myself off, one of my wife’s hair got caught around my leg, and a bit later, my arm. Further, she was worried about losing her hair, and at every brush stroke, felt she was becoming bald by the day. Well, while sitting in church, listening to the sermon, I was quite bored, so I pulled out my notebook, and started penning a poem about her hair.

I had been reading Dr. Seuss a bit before that day, so his quirky meter and rhyming style was on my mind. As a result, the poem doesn’t really have a specific meter or rhythm. It’s pretty carefree. It was meant entirely to be light and playful, and a bit overboard. My wife enjoys it, and it gathered quite the roar of laughter during and after I had read it last night. I initially wrote it in 2005.

Anyway, here it is, in full.

My Wife’s Hair
by Aaron Toponce
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Some rights reserved.

I just got married and inherited a wife.
Oh my, what a life!
It’s just not right
that I have to fight.
No not with her, but what’s on her head
and that she happens to shed.
It isn’t fair that she loses her hair.
The problem? It’s everywhere!

It’s on the pillow and on the sheets.
The stuffed armadillo, even my pant pleats.
I get out of the shower and grab a towel.
I dry myself off- wait. What’s that? (scowl)
It’s more hair! Where’s the Nair?
My arms, legs, hands and feet
are all caught ensnare.
And there I sit in despair on the chair bare.
I swear all I wear is her long hair.
I need to get dressed, but it’s such a mess
to grab my pants, my shirt and underdress
and find her long folicle.
It’s just diabolical.

Now I’m ready to go out for the day
and play.
I go to the kitchen for a glass of milk.
What am I met with? But the silk
of that thin dark hair on a freshly sliced pear.
Maybe I’ll have some cereal,
but there it is just as real
in my Froot Loops! Oops!

I better be careful wherever I go.
For every minute passed allows her hair to grow.
On the couch? Of course.
Guess the source.
The car? It’s on the seat.
Even the shoes for my feet.
The TV? Look at the screen. Is it clean?
What about the sink?
Or the local skating rink?
The computer desk or the curtains pink?
Yes, Yes, Yes! I must confess.
The tub, the floor
the poor dog and the door knob.
It’s a mob of hair.

At work, I shirk at the very thought
that my whole day was wrought
with fighting my wife’s hair.
“There. Right there,”
my coworker announced.
“It’s on your shirt.” And there he pounced
towards me to get the present that my wife renounced.
“That’s awfully long for a fellow like you.
Have you some confessing to do?”
He asked with a sarcastic grin.
“The joys of marriage,” I responded.
“With your wife’s hair, you’ll never win.”

Back at home, the count had increased
to millions. Maybe even billions! Please, oh please!
It’s an army out to get you, so fight!
Yeah, right.
It won’t to any good.
Just get a jacket and pull up the hood.
“Protect yourself!” my dad used to say.
“Protect yourself in every way!”
Never had hair crossed my mind
that would come across as the aggressive kind.

So here I stay in a marriage exposed
to a contract that was never proposed.
Every night, when I kneel at my bed,
I pray about my wife’s evil head:

“Please Lord have mercy on my soul.
Hair isn’t meant for my soup bowl.
It doesn’t belong in closet
or the bathroom faucet.
And I think that I should sleep
without a peep deep.
Is this your idea of Armageddon
to begin war with her hair?
After my weddin’?
Look at my house Lord.
Look at the place.
I can hardly kneel at my bed
without getting hair in my face.
Give me this day a long needed break
from the hair that her evil head will make.
Please, for goodness sake.
But, thy will be done, Lord. I must confess
Even if I must endure this hairy mess.
If I must endure, then one blessing that is high
on my ‘To-Do List’, (sigh)
is to give me the strength that I must bear
to shave my wife’s head of all of her hair.”

First, the reason I do NOT endorse.

Hitler and Nazism
The letter “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet in many languages, including German. So, substituting the number 8 directly to a letter of the alphabet results in H. 88 substituted results in “HH”. Apparently, “HH” is short for “Heil Hitler!” in German. So, people who use the number 88 are associating themselves with the Nazi regime and the cause of Hitler, showing their support. I am NOT one of these people! I do not support Hitler, Nazism, antisemitism or anything related to WWII, the Third Reich, etc. I am not a skinhead, I don’t own a Broken Cross, I don’t persecute anyone for their religious beliefs, I don’t hang out in gangs, and I don’t believe the Caucasian “race” is superior to any other. I have nothing to do with this movement, old or new, and people who know me personally, know this is the case. I value life, religious tolerance and racial and social equality. As far as I’m concerned, Adolf Hitler was one of the most, if not the most, immoral and unethical people in the 20th century.

So, if you take one thing out of this, take this: I don’t support Hitler, his regime, his values, nor his sadistic, screwed up way of viewing politics.

Now, the main reason why I chose this nickname.

The Piano
For the uninitiated, there are eightyeight keys on a standard piano, and guess what? I play the piano. I formally started at 6 years old, and had formal and informal training on and off from that point to today. During my early teen years, I found a passion for competing in local, regional and statewide competitions, and participated in them frequently. Not only this, but I played the piano for choir as an accompanist, I played the piano for school musicals, I played the piano in band and orchestra when appropriate, and I play the organ now for my church. I have taught lessons, and still play quite frequently, despite my very busy schedule. When I reached about 16 years old, kids in school started calling me “88″ or “88 keys”. I think this was the result of the Warren Beatty film Dick Tracy that debuted about the same time, and kids who had seen it thought it was an appropriate nickname for me.

Now, not all pianos or keyboards for that matter have eightyeight keys. The Bosendorfer Imperial Grand, a piano that I have yet to play on, has a full 13 octaves, from low C to the high C- an astonishing 97 keys. Organs, while not pianos, have many manuals that can total far more or far less that eightyeight keys. However, it’s generally understood that a standard piano has eightyeight keys, starting from the low A and reaching the high C.

There are other reasons why I like this number.

Amateur Radio (UPDATE)
I’ve been spending a great deal of time studying Morse Code, aka “CW” and received my ham radio license. While talking with Dianora in #hamradio in irc.freenode.net, it was brought to my attention that I missed another cultural significance of the number 88. This update adds it here. In ham radio, a few number codes are used CW. “73″ means “best wishes” when signing off with a QSO (contact), however, “88″ is usually given to QSO of the opposite sex, and means “loves and kisses”. “88″ is used not only with CW, but spoken verbally and digitally (RTTY, packet radio, etc.). It’s said that these number codes, 73 and 88 both, are at least a century old in amateur radio.

Asian culture
The word eight implies wealth in Mandarin Chinese, and as a result, symbolizes good luck and fortune. This is quite the drastic difference from neo-nazi culture. In fact, the Asian culture have deep roots in the luck and wealth that the number 8 brings. Many prices in markets, stores and other places will be littered with eights. A price of fruit, for example, might be $1.88 or 88 cents. Further, the Beijing Olympics started on August 8, 2008 (8/8/08) at 8:00pm. Coincidence? I can say as well that 8 has been a lucky number for me, although not necessarily 88.

Aside from playing the piano, I’m also a Mathematician and Computer Scientist. There are some interesting qualities of the number 88 in mathematics. Some of which are listed below:

Palindromic
I have always enjoyed palindromes. I don’t know why, but when I first learned about them in elementary school, I would sit at my desk, and think up as many palindromes as I could. “NOON”, “MOM”, “DAD”, and “TENET” were some of the words I came up with at that age. Then, of course, I would do the same with palindromic numbers as well. 88 was especially cool, because I could write in in the fancy “S” where you drew two rows of three lines, and connected them with diagonals. Remember that? Of course you do. You thought it was cool then too.

Primitive Semiperfect
A semiperfect number in mathematics is where all or some of the factors of the number sum up to the number itself. For example, the factors of the number 6 are 1, 2, 3 and 6. Adding those factors results in 6. Another semiperfect number is 20, where its factors are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10 and 20. 10+5+4+1=20. 88 is semiperfect. Its factors are 1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 22, 44 and 88. 44+22+11+8+2+1=88.

So, what is a primitive semiperfect number? This is a number where it is not divisible by any other smaller semiperfect number. Knowing the factors of 88, you can see this is the case, as the smaller semiperfect numbers in sequential order are: 6, 12, 18, 20, 24, 28, 30, 36, 40, 42, 48, 54, 56, 60, 66, 72, 78, 80 and 84, none of which are a factor of 88. As a result, 88 is primitive semiperfect.

Refactorable
A refactorable number is an integer where the count of its factors is divisible by that integer. For example, 9 is refactorable. It’s factors are 1,3 and 9. There are three factors, and three itself is a factor of 9. Another refactorable number is 40. Its factors are 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20 and 40. There are 8 factors of 40, including 40 itself, and 8 is a factor of 40. There are also 8 factors of 88, and guess what? 8 is a factor of 88. 88 is refactorable.

Untouchable
An untouchable number is a positive number that cannot be written as the sum of all the divisors of any other number excluding its greatest factor. For example, the number 4 is not untouchable, because the factors of 9 are 1 and 3 (excluding 9 itself), which sum to 4. 5 however is untouchable, as there is no number where all of the factors add strictly to 5. 88 falls in this category.

Hexadecagonal
Many numbers can be thought of shapes using dots or pebbles arranged in the shape of a polygon. For example, the number 6 is triangular, as six pebbles can be arranged to form an equilateral triangle. 10 is the next triangular number. 9 on the other hand is rectangular, arranging the pebbles in a square. What is hexadecagon? It’s a 16-sided polygon with 16 vertices. So, this means 88 pebbles can be arranged into an equilateral hexadecagon.

Conclusion
I hope you can see that there are many interesting facts about the number 88, including Nazism. 88 has cultural significance in many cultures, of which I only mention two. It has many interesting mathematical properties, and even has astronomical significance. For example, it takes eightyeight days for Mercury to complete its orbit around the Sun. So, now that you’ve read this post, I hope you walk away a bit more informed, a bit more knowledgeable, and less judgmental. 88 is a great number, and I can recognize it for its unique and interesting qualities. Can you?

First, I wanted to change my personal “business” card (referred to as a “personal card” from here on out). My initial personal card was an Ubuntu one I had printed after becoming an Ubuntu Member. I ordered 2,500 of them a couple years ago, and I’ve handed just about every one of them out. Rather than reorder a new batch, I wanted something more generic than just targeting Ubuntu. Further, I wanted to take advantage of technology.

When Google changed their front page logo to a bar code on October 7, 2009 to celebrate the approval of the bar code patent, I spent a great deal of time on Wikipedia learning about bar codes. I knew there was a quite a few out there, but I wasn’t aware of all the types, how the encoding was handled, and so forth. In the process, I discovered QR Code.

QR Code appealed to me for a few reasons. First, although a patented technology, it’s royalty-free and the patent owner has promised to not exert patent rights on it. This is the same case as with Ogg Vorbis. So, although not truly an “open format” in the pure sense of the word, good enough for me. Further, there is a an application called “qrencode” that is Free Software and available an most GNU/Linux operating systems. So, this makes it easy to create your own QR codes. Second, the technology behind the QR code is rather slick. It contains error correction, should up to 30% of the code be damaged or unreadable. It can be scanned any direction in 360 degrees for bar code scanners. The density is high enough to store up to 7,000 characters. More features can be found on the owner’s page.

Immediately, I saw this as an opportunity to encode my contact information. This would be a great way to put your name, web site, email, address, telephone number, and other useful information in a compact space. I could see putting this up on web sites to avoid email harvesters (although it’s only a matter of time before they are smart enough to decode QR codes). Then I thought, why not put it on my personal card? The only thing that was preventing me from doing so was an efficient way for a contact who receives my card to get the data out of it.

At the time, the only decoder I was aware of was the ZXING site. You gave it a URL path to a QR code image, or uploaded your own, and it would decode the information. I didn’t want people scanning my personal card to an image, then uploading that image to the site. There has to be a better way. So, I started browsing the ZXING site a bit, and I learned that it’s an Open Source project for creating a bar code reader. The project is hosted on Google Code, and I found that there is a Blackberry, iPhone and Android app. SWEET!

So, now people can install the free app on their phone, scan the image, and parse out the contact information. The only problem that I saw at the time, is even though they can scan the QR code, and decode the data, the app just presents the user with the raw data, with no ability to add that information to their address book. So, my quest continued. Surely, there must be a way to get the contact information out of the QR code, and into an address book. So, back to web to found out how.

Needless to say, it didn’t take long at all before I learned about MECARD. You can think of MECARD as a light version of vCard. Essentially, a single line of text contains all the meta data and appropriate information for populating an address book. Info such as name, address, telephone, email, URL and more. Further, the ZXING app supports parsing MECARD data, and adding that data to your address book!

At this point, I was satisfied. I’m ready to build my own QR code, and put it on my personal card. Well, almost ready. I wanted one extra step before I was ready to commit my personal card to the printer. For the URL in my MECARD, I wanted it to point to additional contact information that could also be parsed using computing for adding to an address book, whether it be on a mobile phone or an email address book, such as in Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook, or even online, like with Google Contacts. So, I spent more time searching the web, finding a way to get all this integrated.

It wasn’t long before I found hCard. hCard is an HTML version of vCard. It’s a microformat for embedding HTML into a web site, so applications, just as JavaScript or Firefox extension, can parse the data, and populate an address book with the appropriate entries. The whole point is to keep the contact from entering in the contact information by hand. Otherwise, I just would have printed the raw ASCII on the personal card. No, I want to fully automate my contact information from head to toe taking advantage of mobile phones and other technology. So, hCard fit the bill.

I began populating my own hCard to put on my main site, then the URL in my MECARD would point the user that direction. However, I found that my Google Profile already supports hCard, FOAF, XFN and other standards. So, for me, it made sense to point people that direction rather than build my own. However, after having my QR Code created with everything I wanted, and pointing them to the right URL, and getting the cards printed, I found that Google isn’t exporting email address, URL, telephone, or other information that hCard supports in the HTML. I’m a bit disappointed by this, and I wish I would have paid closer attention, but I guess it will have to work for the time being. I’m hoping that Google adds this data to the hCard export, so I don’t have to change my personal cards in the near future.

Now, the personal cards themselves. I wanted to go hard core, relying 100% on technology to parse the data rather than a human. So, I put just the QR Code on the “front” of the card, with no alphanumeric data anywhere to be found. On the back of the card, I put the glider image, a fanboy icon for the hacker culture and ethic. That’s it. An image on one side and an image on the other. The personal card itself has no rotation and should you have a smart phone with a bar code reader, it should be trivial for you to get out the contact information, and populate your address book.

This is a trial run. I don’t know what will happen or what will come about as I start handing out this card to people. Time will tell. It should be interesting though, and I’m sure it will be quite the conversation starter. Here’s to risks.

The concept is simple. Whiskerino is an Internet beard growing contest that happens biannually on the odd years. As a participant, you take a photo of yourself, and upload it to your account on the site. Other users of the contest will vote on the uploaded pics for the day. The pic with the most votes, becomes King Beard. However, not all is care free. There are some certain rules that you must abide by:

1. The contest runs from November 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010. You will be required to post a photo of yourself to your account at least once every 7 days.
2. You must start on Day One completely clean shaven. Sideburns can not extend beyond the earlobe.
3. You are required to grow a full beard. This means whiskers on the upper lip, cheeks, chin and neck.
4. You are not allowed to shave the beard until the end of the contest. Trimming, shaping or styling are highly discouraged.
5. The photo must be of the participant. It is not allowed to be altered in any way. Take the snapshot, and upload it.
6. Photos must be 4×3 aspect ratio, no smaller than 500px in width. No nudity, profane gestures hateful, imagery, or otherwise offensive content. No more than one image per day can be submitted.
7. Breaking any of the above rules results in the participant being placed into the Hall of Shame, from which he cannot return. You will be ejected from the contest.
8. The winner will be chosen by participation in the contest, not just beard growth necessarily. This includes ratings on photos, overall spirit of the contest, attendance and beard style.

So, I’m all in. My wife fully supports my decision (at least until my brother’s wedding in December, of which she might want some trimming or shaping done to the beard). I’ve managed to talk a few of my friends into it as well. So, it will be fun to participate with them, and also make new friends in the contest. I’ve never grown a full beard before. I’ve always been a fan of the circle beard. So, this will be a new experience for me.

Further, every Unix/Linux system administrator should be sporting full beard. It’s part of our culture. It’s who we are. Think of the Greats: Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Richard Stallman, Alan Cox, Brian Kernighan, and even Steve Jobs (back in the day) all sport beards (c’mon Linus, where’s your Unix beard?). I hope to be able to place my name among them. At least my coworker is fully bearded. Maybe I’ll be able to grasp some of the vast amounts of Unix knowledge from him.

I’ll later post the URL to my Whiskerino profile page. Because the photos are generally meant to be of the creative style for the contest, I’ll be taking that photo, but I’ll also be taking a photo that will suit well for a time lapse “camera”. This will probably go to my Picasa account, which I’ll also provide a link to later. Lastly, for those reading my blog via RSS, you won’t be able to get the benefit of watching the beard growth, unless Whiskerino provides an RSS feed to each profile page. I might post a photo here or there on the blog though. We’ll see. However, there will be a side bar on my blog showing the daily snapshot of my ugly mug.

In the immortal words of William Shakespeare in the play Much Ado About Nothing:

He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.
~ Beatrice speaking to Leonato

So, can you explain that to me? Why is his fresh number getting spammed, while mine remains completely spam-free? Is selling personal information part of your business plan too? Just curious. Oh, and by the way, I’m not a customer. I left your “Spirit of Service”, because it wasn’t any good.

At the Utah Open Source Conference, I gave a BOF on Unix shells. The turnout was good, and we had a great discussion. I presented on my default prompt for ZSH, showing all the hidden features of the prompt. However, I had forgotten that I had removed battery status from my prompt, because I was depending on APM, which is no longer compiled in the kernel. A couple people have asked me since then why I’m depending on APM and not ACPI. I don’t have an answer, other than that was just what I coded. So, last night, I put up an ACPI implementation, and it works great. As with the APM implementation, if the battery percentage is less than 15%, the percentage display is red. If it’s less than 50% but greater than 14%, it’s yellow, and if it’s less than 100% but greater than 49%, it’s blue. If it’s 100%, or the tool “acpi” is not installed, then it doesn’t show up. Here’s a screenshot below:

While hanging out in our local LUG channel for the Ogden Area Linux Users Group, I got talking with Seth about prompts. He decided to change his, including adding the dog from Nethack randomly “moving” in the prompt. He also mentioned changing the color of the path if the present working directory was not writable. I really liked this idea, and decided to implement it in my prompt. Here’s a screenshot of that in action:

I change the path color to yellow if the present working directory is not writable, as it’s noticeable enough to catch your attention, but subtle enough to not get in the way, and be distracting.

As usual, if you want the source, here it is. Yes, it’s public domain, as mentioned in the code, so have at it.

Honestly, I don’t know why blog engines have databases for posts, when static HTML files can be produced rather effortlessly. I understand WP Cache does something similar, but I’ve had mixed results with that plugin.

Anyway, the blog migration will probably happen sometime this weekend, ready for a new life Monday. Also, I’m hoping that I can preserve date timestamps in the RSS feed, so as to not spam the planets that I currently push to. I’ll be testing in a development environment first, to make sure everything goes smooth, not like you care.

See you on the other side.