Here's another poem I wrote on my mission:

Reflection on Eternal Progression

Have I today, lived to my Best--
Done what I can, to pass this Test?
Have I been Kind and Brave and Strong,
And given service, all day long?

Have I preserved-- pure Hands, pure Heart,
Done what it takes to stand Apart?
And with a laugh and then a smile,
Done what I Should, my extra mile?

Can I say now I'm Good in deed,
and then in word wish all Godspeed?
Have I stood firm in what means most--
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?

If I should fail these Three I know,
My life falls cold as drifted Snow,
No more to find that Golden Rest,
No hearth nor home to ease my test.

Yet if away I flee or fly,
There still is Hope before I die--
If home I turn on bended knee,
If Him I give Humility,

I'll find again that blissful Peace,
My doubts and fears and cares Release,
No more to spend my life in sin,
But Home to dwell, in Love, again.

Hey, I have a new blog, especially for tech stuff like projects programming and cool stuff I find about technology.

You can find it here.

Here's a poem I wrote on my mission:

Heart of Man

Take a man, and take his Sight--
Give him darkness for the light.
Take that man and take his Ears,
And music will not soothe his tears.
Take his Tongue, he will not shout,
Or take his Mind, no more he'll doubt.

But try to take th'Eternal Soul--
No bullet there can make a hole.
No sword can rend, no lion tear,
Nor chains can hold what we find there.

Though Tyrants rage and words decry
Man's own Heart, it shall not die.
Though body age, give up the Ghost--
Fly away-- to Heavn'ly Host.
His actions there shall be his Guide--
Fire and Flame-- or Jesus' side.

None else can damn th'Immortal Soul
He alone shall choose his Goal:
A Broken Law or Law be Kept,
Show if he'll have Laughed-- or Wept.

God's Great Gift of Agency--
As so we lived, again to Be.
Here we find this Liberty,
Through Jesus' Blood we can be Free.

Satan's chains no more might hold,
We no more may feel the Cold.
We're freed from these, Hell and Death.
Through Love, That change to our last Breath.
Do all we can, God does the rest,
If sweat be found upon our Breast,
We'll find--
Rest.

Error: unknown format: 85

So for the past little bit I've been trying to figure out how to work with wave files in python. It was going well until I ran into this little error:


>>> import wave
>>> f = wave.open("C:\\Users\\Clint\\Test\\elvis_return_x.wav", "rb")

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
f = wave.open("C:\\Users\\Clint\\Test\\elvis_return_x.wav", "rb")
File "C:\Python27\lib\wave.py", line 498, in open
return Wave_read(f)
File "C:\Python27\lib\wave.py", line 163, in __init__
self.initfp(f)
File "C:\Python27\lib\wave.py", line 143, in initfp
self._read_fmt_chunk(chunk)
File "C:\Python27\lib\wave.py", line 269, in _read_fmt_chunk
raise Error, 'unknown format: %r' % (wFormatTag,)
Error: unknown format: 85

As it turns out this little bug is cause by the fact that the builtin "wave.py" module in python does not support any type of compression aside from "None." (Compression format code "00" for anybody who's interested.)

At the python documentation I found a certain part that actually says this:

http://docs.python.org/2/library/wave.html

"Wave_read.getcomptype()
Returns compression type ('NONE' is the only supported type)."

So how do you change the compression format of a .wav file?

What I did was open the file in Audacity, and the export it as a .wav with a different name (and with the default "None" compression in Audacity), and voila, with the new file, wave.py works.

I did not find much info online about this particular error, so I have decided to post this so that it can be found, and help somebody.

Other useful sites I found about this topic are:

http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/wavefiles.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Interchange_File_Format

Theseus rogueLike game

I have been writing a game for the past week. I have put it online at sourceForge, and anyone who is interested can download it here. The premise of the game is that you are theseus, and you have to find your way through the labyrinth, kill the Minotaur, and return to the exit with his head. The game isn't finished yet, but you can play it, and have fun messing with the save files.

BYU

BYU rocks. I've been here almost a month and I love it. I enjoy cooking for myself, meeting new people(read: especially girls, though guys can be cool too), learning, participating in clubs, walking around campus, church, devotionals, football, FHE... Yeah. It's all good.

Here's a quick rundown of some details of the broad list above.

-Clubs I have been involved with so far: Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, Animation club, ARMA/True Edge Academy.

-Classes I'm in: Basic Organ Skills, BOM, Intro to Java and Programming, International Ballroom Dance, Career Exploration, and ASL.
-Most common food I cook: Stir Fry. And ham sandwiches for lunch.

Here's a picture of an as of yet incomplete (But I'm real close to finishing it) drawing of Superman I did today. Enjoy.

Change

Why must things change? Why can't things just stay the way they used to be? Why can't every little thing go according to my plan? Why can't I just be a self-absorbed fool and be content?

Change is indeed one of the only constants in this world. Change and God. God doesn't change. Change is integral and necessary for life. In order to grow up, there must change in our bodies. In order to learn we must change the way we think. In order to become better we must change ourselves. If we remain content with the world as it is, and fall in love with exactly the way things are, and cannot move on, then we aren't being healthy. People change. Relationships change. Plants and people grow, seasons never cease their flow, and what once gave you happiness may now only give you pain. But you may also find something new to love. You can find something else that can make you happy.

There are several quotes on the matter of change, living life and letting go of the past.

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all."

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, then it never was."

"I find I can live with the pain after all. The pain now, is part of the happiness then. That's the deal."

There seems to be a quote for everything, doesn't there?

I can live with change in my life. Sometimes it hurts, but I can only trust that it can be better. That God has a plan, and that part of that plan is my eventual happiness. I just have to keep from becoming cynical in the meantime.