CS 455 Projects

I'm doing some computer graphics. While it's not very sophisticated, it has been kind of fun. One of the class requirements was to post two projects to Youtube.

The first clip was created in Vue, so it looks pretty snazzy but is necessarily short.

The second clip was just simple OpenGL code to demonstrate inverse kinematics (modeling motion).

For fun, see if you can think of good sound/music to go with the clips. Enjoy!

Teach Me, Dear Mother

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank my mother for all she has done and continues to do for me. My mom has been a wonderful influence for good on my life, and I am grateful for the gospel plan which enables us to be with our families for all eternity. While I can never repay my debt to my mother, I would like to honor her for all she does and simultaneously pay tribute to millions of other mothers, past and present, for all the good they do. Enjoy!

Teach Me, Dear Mother

1. Love in your smile, in all that you do:
Teach me, dear mother, to love and care too.
Peace in your voice, and words that you speak:
Teach me, dear mother, more virtue to seek.
Kindness you share, courage display;
My mother dear, teach me the way.
Teach me, dear mother, today.

2. Gentle your step, lest others should wake:
Teach me, dear mother, to take cares you take.
Worn are your hands, yet soft is their touch:
Teach me, dear mother, to not ask too much.
True is your heart, real is your grief;
I’ll take your part, and bring you relief!
Together we’ll turn a new leaf.

3. Firm is your faith, from it mine sprang:
Teach me, dear mother, all good to sustain.
Strong is your mind, lest Satan should bend:
Teach me, dear mother, my faith to defend.
Knowledge you share in word and deed;
My mother dear, help me to succeed.
Together the good life we’ll lead.

(Proverbs 22:6)

A New President; Same Old Congress

While the nation overwhelmingly chose Obama over the candidate from the incriminated party, they didn't seem to find anything wrong with rewarding a Democratic Congress which contributed heavily to the current financial crisis. Clearly, President Bush and by extension, the GOP, is responsible for anything unpleasant that happened in the last 8 years. Just like Clinton was responsible for balancing the budget and pushing through welfare reform in his 8 years, despite his efforts to squash the GOP bills that brought this off - it's only fair.

To Obama's declaration, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility," I can only say, Amen. If anything bad happens, the Democrats will have to take the blame. Or, (aha!) they can just attribute the mess to leftovers from the last time Republicans were in charge! Problem solved.

Twenty Minute Genealogist

Hey, everyone. Just letting you know about the next big thing in my small world. Our startup at BYU is going public; please help get the word out to anyone who you think might be interested.

See a mockup of the project and offer feedback at this link: http://twentygen.cs.byu.edu/

FYI: The 20 Minute Genealogist is an interface with the LDS church genealogical data base whose objective is to help you make REAL progress on your genealogy work in 20 minutes or less.

Specifically, 20MG focuses on:

• preserving context (remembers what you were doing)
• expert help (suggestions for what to do next based on input from expert genealogists)
• one stop (your data is automatically synched with the Church's huge database, so you don't need to try to maintain your data on multiple sites)

Silver Thread Takes Off!

I did get confirmation on my book; the first two copies were shipped September 23. Unfortunately, PublishAmerica thought it was a good idea to not let me post any clips from the book on the web, but a press announcement should be coming out soon and I'll probably post that here. In the meantime, all are welcome to check it out for themselves at http://publishamerica.org. I can probably get a lower price for interested buyers, if you ask me early. :)

I feel very blessed to have written the book and will be very happy to see it in print. Although I can't publish poetry from the book, I have other samples of my work - just let me know if you're interested in a comment to this post.

It's an Uncle!

Well, I thought I'd go ahead and share my good news in detail now: I'm an uncle. My nephew Edward Morgan Miller was born July 8, 2008, just a few days before the birthdays of his uncle, mother, and aunt. We Julians are getting more numerous!

At 7 pounds 9 oz. he also came within 4 1/2 oz. of his uncle. He has long strong fingers; another musician for sure! We're all fond of music (and babies) so here's wishing him a long, happy life. Welcome to the world, Ed!

My New Web Site

As a part of my new PublishAmerica title, Silver Thread and Other Poems (still in production), I now have a new website: http://www.publishedauthors.net/miller/index.html

Pretty empty, right now, but it looks nice. Tell me if there's anything you think I ought to add to the site (or the blog).