Logician is a single web page that you can save to your computer (or anywhere else for that matter) and it will still have your work on it. It branches things out in a tree similar to a directory structure. You can save the entire page to disk and it won't erase any changes. Enjoy!

The stairs from the street:

The main hallway:

The sitting / dining room:

The Kitchenette:

Proof that we shan't go hungry:

The title came from an event that occurred the other night (Saturday?) when the interns in the other room locked both of their sets of keys in their room. I climbed out a window and got around to theirs and broke in to let them in. More info and pictures to come... hopefully.

The proud father:

Mom (who is doing fine btw):

A happy Grandma:

And a very thoughtful looking seth:

Our usual fried potatoes:

The same thing done with sweet potatoes (for those of us on diets):

And the "Potatoes O'Ferrill":

Potatoes, anyone?

While we were in California, I not only got invited to run a dance immediately after we returned, but I also heard about an internship opportunity with the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. I've considered interning at Vision Forum for some time now, having had an older brother go through that experience. If you read the information on the internship page of the NCFIC website, you'll see that one of the main things the interns will be doing during our five month stay is building out the organization's website.

If you know me very well, you can already tell that this would be a perfect fit for my skillset and interests. Thanks to I'm sure over generous recommendations from some good friends I'm starting on the 29th of January and as I mentioned won't be back probably for five months. I would appreciate your prayers as I prepare for this exciting development God has placed in my path. My personal prayer is that God would use this to teach me new things both technically and theologically, and that I would be a credit to my family and my church as I serve there.

Yours truly getting ready.

The Ferrill delegation.

Swing dancing!

The whole group.

I'll post videos to my my vimeo page.

We went to California to visit my eldest brother while my Dad was working on a project there.

One of our favorite parks in Lancaster.

Playing Settlers of Cataan while I was working on a project for Dad.

Our dear friends the Macys.

After Dad's work was finished, we headed up to Park City Utah for our ski trip.

My eldest brother's new minivan (in the mirror).

My next-eldest brother flew out to Salt Lake City with his family to meet us. We then did one of our favorite things to do as a family: We went to Cracker Barrel!

While we were in California my younger brothers purchased a football. Inspired by Alabama's up-to-then undefeated record this season I'm sure.

Finally we got to Utah and hit the slopes.

The resort we stayed at.

Left to right: Joel, Samuel, Daniel.

Left to right: Dad, Lydia, Hannah (background), Sarah (foreground), Rebekah.

My eldest brother Timothy.

Yours truly braking hard at the bottom of the lift. (resort in the background)

My youngest sister Sarah really improved her skills this trip.

The grandkids watching out the window.

My two older brothers and their families.

We introduced both of my older brothers to Mario Kart while we were there.

They also had an epic battle of wii tennis.

We also went sledding while we were there (another tradition).

Even my sister in law Jodi got in on the action.

This looks dangerous.

Wanna race?

Obviously we took lots of group photos.

Roll Tide!

Obviously these are just the highlights. You can see more at:

• My Vimeo Page
• My Picasa Page
• My Facebook Pictures Page

One reason I haven't been posting recently is that I've been on a six week vacation with my family to the west coast and only got back this past Wednesday morning around 12:00 AM. We spent most of that time in California visiting my eldest brother and his family. We went to the park, played ultimate frisbee, visited with old acquaintances, and in general just caught up with everything we left behind. We also went to Utah for our annual ski trip where my next-eldest brother met us with his family. I'll post pictures and perhaps video later on.

The Rules:

Six Random Things About Me

1. I have a reputation for carrying multiple (ie. 4) knives about my person when I'm out and about.
2. I learned Scottish dance while living in southern California.
3. I have a bad habit of trying to rebuild the whole internet from scratch.
4. I'm terrible at heading a soccer ball even though I've been playing over a decade.
5. I barely follow any spectator sports. Even though my parents have a long history with the University of Alabama. Roll Tide!
6. I have a reputation for having a computer of some size within reach most of the time.

I tag:

1. Jodi
2. mommyofmany
3. Daniel
4. Rochirmil
5. Ana S.
6. Sarah Jane

Disclaimer

The author of this post in no way guarantees that any of the above linked to will respond to this post or follow the rules if they do.

The ball was themed from the time of the second war for independence (the - dare I say it - "Civil" War) so of course our entire family was in period costume (complete with sabres). The dancing went well, though I had to dispense with some of the dances I had planned since the vast majority of those present hadn't danced Scottish Country before. We did teach one or two new ones however and demonstrated an old favorite. I hope to start teaching Scottish Country on a regular basis again soon, but then I've said that before.

Practicing ahead with some friends

Dancing the Gay Gordons

My lovely sister and my not-so-lovely self. We never could have done the ball without her. She made a large share of our costumes by herself.

Dancing as a family

In our day and age many historically favored pastimes are rejected in favor of more "sophisticated" amusements. One example is the art of Celtic dance as preserved in the still practiced Scottish Country dance. Though there are thousands of practitioners worldwide, this art by and large has fallen off in favor of more modern "dances". It was enjoyed by people of all ages at various social functions. It provided simple dances for beginners and young ones, and yet still had compelling numbers for those whose greater skill called for more challenge. This has always led to personal development in both physical and mental realms (believe me, Scottish dance can be quite a mental en devour).

Another example of such a historical pastime is the age-old art of fighting with the longsword. The original weapon we here refer to was developed by the Germans and was used to great effect against Roman invaders in instances such as the little known battle of Touteberg forest. Germany having once included the modern nations of France and Spain (among others) as well as exerting a heavy influence on Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxon migrations may also take credit for later derivations of the weapon throughout Christendom. The most well known variant must be the standard European longsword popularized sometimes as "the crusader sword". It had a straight, broad blade, a cross-guard for protecting the hands, and a somewhat thinner blade than the length and breadth of the weapon would seem to demand, relying rather on precise geometric patterns to absorb the force of an opposing object (weapons, armor, etc).

Another well known strain of this line of weapons is found in Scotland. This weapon (known as the highland claymore) was rather shorter than other longswords in use throughout the middle ages, probably due to the marshy and mountainous nature of the territory it was generally used in. The claymore also had a distinction in the design of the cross-guard in that rather than branching out from the weapon at a right angle the two arms rather bent toward the blade at a varying degree, presumably to allow greater freedom to the wrists in combat. The shortness of the weapon inevitably led to its being lighter than the normal variant and therefore would render itself more easily balanced causing the claymore to be a faster and more agile (if not stronger) blade.

The great exception to this pattern is the famed Wallace sword. Named so after its owner William Wallace, this monster was more than a foot longer than its contemporary counterparts, probably due to the fact that the owner was himself of prodigious size and of legendary strength. This weapon when wielded by its master, would cleave through raised sword, shield, arm, helm, and skull.

In contrast modern fencing incorporates the techniques and weapons of a somewhat later period, namely the rapier and sabre. As firearms caught on, broadswords such as the claymore and other European longswords became cumbersome in a battlefield quickly being ruled by the speed of the warrior rather than the temper of his steel. The rapier was a straight, one-handed weapon used primarily for thrusting and sometimes useless for cutting except in cases of extremely tough steel. The sabre or saber as it's more commonly spelled today was designed as a cutting or slashing weapon. It was often fashioned as a backsword meaning it only had one sharpened edge and sometimes with a curve. This curve would shorten the length of the weapon making it more mobile without decreasing the actual blade length. These were a favorite amongst cavalry. The three categories of modern fencing are foil, epee (both taken from the rapier I believe), and the sabre. The actual weapons wielded by practitioners of this more modern art are merely stout wires with electronics wired in (for scoring).

The weapons I started learning longsword with (see my other sword post) were fashioned from two hockey sticks due to the toughness of the wood and that we just happened to have two lying around. They were measured for size based on a standard highland claymore. Even though these are much lighter than steel one half-hour's exercise will try one's arms sorely. Just this simple practice has given me a greater respect for my ancestors who wielded such a blade. We have recently acquired padding for the blades, allowing us to start full-force, full-speed training.

Fighting with longswords gives a greater appreciation for one's ancestors as well as strengthening the body and mind of the combatant. I hope to continue with my siblings and perhaps introduce other friends and relatives into this enjoyable exercise.

Works of fiction are sometimes criticized as being irrelevant for a Christian trying to spend their time doing for Christ. However I would point out that such works open doors for rather intriguing intellectual study.

Let's take fantasy for instance. By creating a new universe with its own laws of nature (and super-nature) the author now has greater freedom to take his readers into usually unattainable regions of thought. This is why the fantasy genre is often so attractive, especially to young people. It gives another plane of existence to understand.

Modern fiction as most of you know is rapidly deteriorating. This has added to the unflattering perception of this style. In spite of that, this author still maintains that fiction should not be condemned merely for being fiction. Christ spoke in parables which were fictitious stories. Might not a lesser person use the same medium? We are created in the image of God let us not forget.

If you've ever been to my house you've probably seen my coffee rig before. Here's a picture for those who haven't yet. If you can't see the coffee in the mug it's because it's not doctored (or "spoiled" as some might say).

I attempted in my second post to explain the usage of the words "wizard" and "magic" in LOTR. There are two essential categories of people in LOTR and middle earth specifically: "the wise" (the bulk of the eldar or "elven" race, most dwarves, and most men of numenorean descent. The other group has no name but is in essence the unlearned masses. You never hear any of the wise speaking of istari or eldar having "magical" powers. They only use words like "sorcery", "witch", and "magic" with reference to the enemy. The only exception being when speaking to one from the masses who only understands supernatural events as being magical. Therefore, Olórin "Gandalf" does not have magical powers, but he does have supernatural powers (like an angel???).

It has been speculated Tom Bombadil could possibly be an incarnation of Eru Ilúvatar himself (or some part of his essence, a reference to the Trinity?). Tolkien chose to leave certain elements of his universe unexplained like the origins and demise of Ungoliant (Shelob's ancestor from The Silmarillion you'll recall). This gave him more space to keep his tales unpredictable and therefore more enjoyable. God does similar things in the real universe. He leaves things unexplained so that 1: we are dependent on him, and 2: so that we will seek out the things he has left for us to find. Based on both of these possibilities and the sheer fact that it's not explained, I don't feel Bombadil (or his creator) should be condemned.

You assert that the God of Tolkien's universe is not also the triune God of our own. On what do you base this? Must one say "triune God" for it to be so? Scripture never directly uses the word "trinity" (don't get me wrong, I am trinitarian in my theology... such as it is) but generally references our Lord in the singular. Does this make him any less the triune God? No. I am an officiating soccer referee, but if someone doesn't use that title does it make me any less an official? No. Based on this I am personally of the conviction that Tolkien's "Eru" may well be the great and triune God of scripture or even one of his instruments. To sum up my personal convictions on LOTR I feel that though Tolkien's work has a potential to distract and waste the time of readers, it should not be condemned for heresy or portraying evil in a good light (such as Harry Potter).

_{This is a continuum of the debate begun in my last post.}

Dear Mr. Powers,

Let me say up front that I agree with you that 1: magic is evil, and 2: The Lord of the Rings is not an allegory, at least in a strict sense.

That being said I'm not sure I understand your choice of words with reference to "magic" and "allegory". You stated (as did I) that all forms of magic are completely and totally evil. I explained in my post that magic is merely a subset of the supernatural and falls under the "evil" category. I then explained the parallel between the two sources of said supernatural power found both in scripture and in Tolkien's universe.

I apologize for not stating my understanding of how the word "allegory" should be applied to Tolkien's universe. To summarize the definition found in the American Heritage Dictionary in relation to this context, an allegory is a representation of ideas or principles in a narrative form. Tolkien stated that he disliked the direct allegory writing style, like that you'll find in the works of his friend C. S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia. However it is utterly impossible for any writer to not be influenced by his/her studies and research. For example, Tolkien came up with the idea for "Middle Earth" from Norse Mythology. The Norse "Vikings" believed in several worlds that crossed paths over the human-inhabited world "Midgard" which literally means "middle enclosure". Therefore, though Tolkien certainly did not write a literal allegory, he did use many parallels from other works both fictional and historical.

I am also rather confused by paragraph seven of your response. You said:

I know you probably think me ignorant in this allegory but even Tolkien chose to call the Istari Wizards (who cast multiple spells), if he had chosen to make them wise men sent from Eru then I would not have a such a big problem with this, but still as I have said before, Angels can only do the bidding of the LORD, ones who have disobeyed have been cast out.

You start of by using the word allegory in reference to Tolkien's work. I can only assume that since you firmly spoke against LOTR being an allegory that you are speaking of a parallel. You then say "even Tolkien chose to call the Istari Wizards (who cast multiple spells),...", even though I explained in my post that due to the many different languages Tolkien used, the word "wizard" (among others) was only used by unlearned characters such as most men and hobbits, or by more learned ones speaking to them. God speaks in various languages to us and uses terms we can better comprehend in order for us to learn more easily (eg. speaking in parables). Tolkien applied a similar principle with words like "wizard" and "magic". In The Silmarillion since he is writing as an Eldar (or "elvish") chronicler you hear almost no mention of wizards, necromancers, sorcerers, or magic unless it be in reference to "the enemy". Whereas in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings he uses them more frequently in reference to the Istari or the eldar.

In the same sentence you said "...if he had chosen to make them wise men sent from Eru...". First of all, it has been stated already (and you'll remember this from The Silmarillion) that the five Istari are in fact Maiar, in the form of old men. You also said that angels can only do the bidding of the Lord. Where did I dispute this? And also, from a Calvinistic standpoint, both good and evil angels ("demons") are bound to the will of God even as everything else in the universe is. Those angels who have been "cast out" are known as "demons" yet remain angels (scripture refers to the devil and his angels), so it's entirely plausible for (in a parallel sense) Saruman, and even Sauron (who was also a Maia at one time) to be turned to evil.

I greatly appreciate your willingness to discuss and seek out this matter and look forward to further communications with you.

Sincerely,

Micah D. Ferrill

I started this post as a comment in response to a statement on this site about "all wizards being dark" with specific reference to The Lord of the Rings. It grew to be very, very long in a hurry (for a comment) so I decided to make a post and link to it.

Scripture speaks clearly to the fact that all sorcery and similar acts of witchcraft are evil. However there are innumerable places in the Bible that tell of supernatural events taking place that are declared good. Therefore we can say that there are two categories of supernatural happenings. First there is the bad kind which is caused by the devil and his demonic forces.

Witches and wizards derive their abilities from this category of the supernatural. Secondly there is the good kind which is caused by God himself directly or through a lesser power be it angels, prophets, or even a donkey (Balaam's ass).

Now let's travel to the land of make-believe. we'll stroll past tales of dragons and damsels and light on a set of books bearing the similarity that they were all penned by J. R. R. Tolkien and edited and published by his son Christopher (for whom the stories were first written). Tolkien (senior) was a language master. He invented more than a dozen complete languages as a hobby. And they aren't English just with different letters. They are complete languages, with their own pronunciation, scripts, dialects, and histories (fictional of course). Since he wrote LOTR as a history for these languages the names and tales are often not in English and so he had a tough time translating these into English for us poor illiterate people to read.

When looking at the many books Tolkien wrote about his fictional universe one can see certain tendencies between each of the races. Men and Hobbits are usually the medium through which he speaks to his readers since their language is closest to English. Men in Tolkien's universe are the most easily led astray of the free peoples and are sometimes very simple in their thinking. Where they would say wizard, an elf would say Istari.

The Istari are members of a group known collectively as the Maiar, a lesser class of angelic beings. The five Istari or "wizards" as the unlearned in Tolkien's universe would call them were sent by the Valar (higher angels) to aid the free peoples in the coming struggle against "the enemy" aka. Sauron. Sauron himself was once a Maia but had fallen astray and was corrupted by his lord: Morgoth (yes, Sauron has a boss).

• Writing a blog post (duh!)
• Making phone calls to arrange a dance on Saturday
• Organizing a soccer team
• Researching political campaigns
• Cleaning the kitchen
• Browning 12.5 lb. of hamburger meat
• Listening to a critique of dating methods for rocks

Obviously not all at the same time, but pretty close. Comment with your busiest multi-tasking moments.

For registered users:

You can still see my designs by logging in and clicking on the "Designs" button in the Quick Nav.

While we were there we came across a young entrepreneur who manufactured makeshift swords of various lengths out of PVC pipes, some foam padding, and half a ton of duct tape. We were so inspired that on returning my brother Joel pulled out a couple of hockey sticks he inherited from my older brothers when they got married and fashioned them into scale longswords measured against a standard claymore (not to be confused with the land mine of the same name). We now have besides those a shorter weapon roughly the size of the roman gladius which is my second choice when I must handicap myself against younger opponents. We fight at a slightly reduced pace seeing as how we currently don't have armor, but we do have a few scrapes and bruises nonetheless. For techniques I searched online and found an excellent article on the art of German longsword from which we base our style. Since Germany once encompassed most of Europe and influenced the rest greatly the longsword certainly may trace its history there.

Images of Unchoreographed Longsword Combat

Sparring Lefthanded With My Youngest Brother

Initial stances. (low roof guard and crossed fools guard)

I demonstrate a twisting thrust to get around his blade.

Mom wanted more action for the pictures so I switched to both hands (notice the blurred blade).

I think I was executing an overcut while changing guards.

A More Lively Combat

I almost took his arm off (not literally) with this thrust, but he voided (dodged) superbly and saved his torso (a killing stroke by our rules).

You can't see very well, but I'm twirling the sword one-handed around both sides of my body.

At this point he's lost (by our rules) his left leg via a fake followed by a direct thrust earlier on. Here you see a low right-side roof guard with the lower hand inverted for an undercut (foreground) and a left-side fool's guard (background).

"The Lads"

Here's me (top-left) with my three primary antagonists (the far-right one is our sword-smith). Here you can observe the extent of our sparring weapons: two knives (far-right), the longswords (second from right, top-left), and the gladius (bottom-left).

Looking tough. You can see a right ox-guard (top-left), something between a plow and roof guard (bottom-left), a low roof guard (second from right), and probably what would be referred to as an ox guard with the two knives (far-right).

A while back I'd toyed with a potential redesign with a nifty slide effect for screenshots.

You can check it out on the live site now.

The other design I implemented yesterday was of course for this site. I was... very satisfied at getting the shadow effects down the first time. I'd seen it used hundreds of times (yes, literally) but hadn't ever tried to implement it. It turned out to be pretty simple once I looked into it. I also found another beautiful image for the header (I like misty looks). I also created a page listing some of the software tools I frequently use and a set of site designs (most of which are old or simple).

Something important to developers is something known as version control. Up until just recently I was using CVS for my needs. I'd heard about subversion before, but I'd never seriously used it. It turns out that it's almost the same as far as using it goes, but it has a ton of more useful features. I've now switched all of my personal projects over to it and I'm thinking about connecting my personal repository to this website.

Not being a particularly wealthy geek I don't own a personal datacenter and therefore have had to run any server software off of my desktop alongside my desktop applications. A while ago I downloaded VMware server. This allowed me to create a virtual machine and set it up with windows server 2003, apache, a CVS (see above) server, and other useful applications. However the performance impact on my desktop was pretty bad and required me to start, stop, and restart the virtual server multiple times. The other day however, I got permission from my Dad to install VMware server on his windows home server. I am now running at 100% with my desktop as my virtual server is now totally independent and free to run 24/7.

Media Center Edition

We've been trying to get a windows media center running for a while now and though we have a machine dedicated for it, we've been having multiple problems with it. It plays audio and prerecorded videos beautifully, we're setting up a network link for media (especially our thousands of digital pictures), but our biggest problem is that though it's admittedly not our slowest computer, it certainly isn't our fastest either. I'm currently working on reinstalling the operating system to clean up some corrupted files.

As the people weaken their grasp in one part, the government in its natural thirst for more control reaches in and "fills" that need. As society accepts more and more government control in their lives, the fall increases its velocity. Each time a great movement in priorities takes place, a crack is found in the system which is then filled by the government until the citizens lose control entirely. At this point the government becomes a law unto itself. Now there is a state where each citizen is now the property of the state and no longer a person in and of themselves.

Translation

irritating knee injury + trapped mental energy = rambling.

I injured my right knee recently playing indoor soccer. It's just a surface wound (took a lot of skin off) but because its on my knee it can't form a proper scab. Every time I move my leg the scab cracks and more liquid seeps through to rebuild it. Trouble is, it overdoes the seeping part and leaves bumps on my knee that hang loosely when they crack. So I physically break off the excess to keep it under control. Interesting opening for parallel applications? You tell me.

The Confederate Shoppe

Probably my biggest project this past year has been a Confederate ecommerce website for a store called The Confederate Shoppe. A gentleman in our church told me about a friend of his (the store owner) who needed her online store redone (the original was done in '95 or so). We exchanged emails in May, and I started work on it immediately. The new site went live in September and has handled orders successfully. Many of my client's customers are a little wary of shopping online but she really wants to leverage the potential of the site since it means she doesn't have to answer the phone or wait at her house for someone to buy things from her.

Plethora

One of the reasons I offered my services on the shoppe was that I had just completed a revision of my web framework. To abbreviate into English for all of my non-geeky readers, a web framework is essentially tools for building a website that get reused over and over for multiple projects like displaying a web page, authorization, storing data, and so forth. These frameworks are usually common pieces from websites grouped into one coherent package and sometimes published for others to use, like Django, Ruby on Rails, Turbogears, and Pylons. I've tried a few times to write my own framework, but usually fell into lower quality from time constraints on websites. Right before I did The Confederate Shoppe, I made another attempt to build something useful, and called it "Plethora" (more on the name later). Since then It's grown both in actual size (nearly 5,000 lines of code), functionality, and quality. I got the name "plethora" from the fact that it shares first letters with the language it's written in (python) and a principle I'm attempting to reflect in my work known as loose coupling which allows for interchanging parts within the original product, hence the framework is "one, yet many" or a Plethora ("a" denoting singular, "plethora" denoting many).

Mine was one out of 54 completed entries taken out of 102 original entrants. Judging will continue through the 21st of April when the winner will be announced. Judging is done by peers as there really aren’t any prizes besides recognition. Entries are judged on Fun, Innovation (how well the theme was implemented), and Production (sound effects, graphics, etc). The three are combined into an overall score that goes into the team or individual depending on the entry.

One of the other pyweek entrants (also the winner of the second comp) got the brilliant idea of a practice week, and since I’d already started a project for that purpose I entered that. The practice week is basically a slower pyweek with no rules, just to let everyone get their game development mode running.

My practice project is a realtime strategy (RTS) where you basically command a group of rangers as they run around throughout the forest ambushing the enemy.

Then today I woke up to learn that my littlest sister was throwing up during the night and church is getting moved yet again. It sounds like we’re not going as people are still sore and in no mood for another drive. So as I’m typing this we’re getting a big sabbath brunch going with eggs, grits, sausage, and biscuits. Please pray that Sarah gets well soon and that everyone recovers from their injuries and soreness quickly. I for one am still limping up and down the stairs.

PyWeek is getting closer, and I think I’m ready for it. I packaged much of the functionality from our first two games into a single code library that will be eligible for use in the upcoming competition. I was planning on doing it solo this time but have since then heard from an old team member who might partner with me. I’m still waiting on a response from him.

I’ve also put in some more work on this site and Email Chaperone™ which is very much still a work in progress. I’ve added lots of AJAX functionality already and plan to make it a very dynamic website. This website now has comment features, archives, and a public meebo me window.

I hope and pray that y’all have a blessed sabbath.

I’ve been working on several websites and unfortunately two of them went down sometime yesterday for unknown reasons. I also did a redo on one of my other websites (BlazeOfGlory.org). But I’ll explain that later.

Pyweek 4 has been announced for the first week in April! We (Michal and I) are currently planning on extracting our generic code from our first two games and making it an open source library so that it’ll be eligible for this competition. I redid the website (link above) and put in links to the CVS repository, screenshots, and download links (for Clad in Iron anyway).

I've added some cool new features (and started some new ones). Logged in users can now chat with me directly through the website now. I'm working on dynamic stylesheet modification so that people can switch to the black style I did on the tech website.