The Pig Roast of Fall 2012

Every so often I get some notion in my head that I have to bring to fruitiion.  That was the case about a year and a half ago.  For some reason I got the idea that I should roast a pig.  My original plan was to find a butcher and get the pig and roast him in a hole and have a party.  I told a firend of mine and she was very pessimistic about the whole thing.  She said - "you can't roast a pig, you have to kill it and skin it and dig a hole...,:  Well I thought to myself I wasn't really planning on doing all of that but now that you mention it that could be fun too.  So I decided I would be involved with the whole operation from live pig to dinner.  It took awhiel because my job keeps me busy and I had to coordinate with my friend who was going to teach me the skinning and roasting but we finally did it.  Here are the pictures. 

 Here is the pig to be roasted.  I was told he was really mean and did not grow to expectations so he was going to get eaten. 

 Here is the pig post skinning and gutting. 

 Halving the pig. 

  This is the bacon.

 The back of the pig.

 The leg we will roast.

 Chickens on the ranch.  They will probably get eaten later. 

 Canning. 

 Starting to dig the hole. 

 The dirt was really rocky so we had to use a digging bar. 

 Digging the hole. 

 A chicken plucker. 

 A scooper to move the ash.

 preparing the fire

 Burlap sacks

 Here is the pig wrapped in his foil. 

 Here are the embers ready for the pig. 

 We used some colored.  

 We out an extra fire on top just to be sure. 

 Digging up the food. 

 Pulling the bags out of the whole. 

 Food coming out of the burlap. 

 The meat was so soft I could take it right off with a plastic fork.  It just fell apart. 

 Some of my students enjoying the cookout.

 Maybe this goat will get roasted next. 

 Now I am wondering if I should try to roast a pig on every continent.  Europe or Asia first?














I am wondering if now I should roast a pig on every contient. 

Create in Me A Pure Heart Oh God.: Dealing with lust and having fun at the same time.

Last week I was in San Diego listening to some people give a talk on purity and chastity.  I have been a Catholic my whole life and I have heard this stuff many, many times over and I have always been on-board with the message so it really was not anything new to me.  It was a good talk though.  There was one thing though that you always hear about at these things that has never satisfied me...Dealing with lustful thoughts.  They gave an example of how to deal with it, and once again I was far from satisfied.  I have actively spent the last 15 years of my life trying to find a reasonable way to deal with it and I have heard many things over the years.  Suggestions like "give the girl a name," or "say some kind of prayer,"  I guess those suggestions were ok, but I have only been marginally impressed by their effectiveness.  I am not sure exactly how it happened.  Like many things in my life their is a long and complicated story behind it, but the other night I think God whispered a new suggestion in my ear.

At the end of the day God is really not looking for slaves or servants or people just following his orders.  That would be lame and he would get bored.  What he really wants are friends and sons and daughters.  People who share his passion for community and togetherness etc, etc.  No one wants a friend who does things just because they are forced to do them.  You want a friend who wants, from the bottom of their heart ot be on the same page and come to similar goals.  God wants us to have a heart similar to his.  God wants to transform us to have a pure Heart.  This is one of the fundamental differences between Catholisim and Secular Humanism.  Secular humanism only cares out measurable results.  Catholicism seeks personal transformation of the heart for the purpose of friendship with God.  In the case of lustful thoughts this is an example of a disordered passion.  A lack of cleanliness of heart.  God really wants us to desire a pure heart.  It's in the beatitudes:

"Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God,"

It is easy to get into the thinking that lustful thoughts are some kind of "thought crime,"  I think this is missing the point.  The point is God wants us to be transformed to have a pure heart and intentions.  So what was the suggestion I was given?  It was simple.  When you are tempted you just pray the following prayer,

"Create in me, a clean heart oh God"

They say that when you sing you pray twice, so if you want to you can even sing it.  I used to be in church choirs and singing is fun so that is what I do.  In this case not only are you just getting away from the temptation of lust, you are also trying to improve your practice of the Beatitudes.  Every temptation to lust is now an opportunity to become a better person plus you get to sing which is also fun.  I feel like this is so much more peaceful and fulfilling than all the suggestions I have heard in the past and I just thought I would share it in case it might help anyone else out.  It seems so easy and obvious I feel a bit foolish after all these years.  I guess it will help may humility along as well.  I hope you enjoy.

My Day Job

Recently Popular Mechanics ran a story on some of the research I do.  I am pretty proud of it.  Check it out. If you are interested in Cyber-Physical security research please do not hesitate to contact me.  This an emerging and exciting field in my opinion.  There are not too many of us cyber-physical security researchers out there. 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/robots/self-defense-for-the-self-driving-car-12410682

Mayavi2 import problems in Ubuntu 10.04, python 2.6.5

Recently I was trying to import mayavi2 into python 2.6.5 on Ubuntu 10.04
Mayavi2 can be downloaded and installed using:

sudo apt-get install mayavi2

From there when I tried to import it into python using the line in the tutorials:

import mayavi

I would get the error msg:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in
ImportError: No module named mayavi

After a little searching through the installed files I tried

import enthought.mayavi

That did the trick.  You can test it using the exmple posted here:

http://docs.enthought.com/mayavi/mayavi/mlab.html


Here is the code with my slight modification. 

from numpy import pi, sin, cos, mgrid
dphi, dtheta = pi/250.0, pi/250.0
[phi,theta] = mgrid[0:pi+dphi*1.5:dphi,0:2*pi+dtheta*1.5:dtheta]
m0 = 4; m1 = 3; m2 = 2; m3 = 3; m4 = 6; m5 = 2; m6 = 6; m7 = 4;
r = sin(m0*phi)**m1 + cos(m2*phi)**m3 + sin(m4*theta)**m5 + cos(m6*theta)**m7
x = r*sin(phi)*cos(theta)
y = r*cos(phi)
z = r*sin(phi)*sin(theta)

# View it.
from enthought.mayavi import mlab
s = mlab.mesh(x, y, z)
mlab.show()

How to pick up chicks

My friend Amy came up with this.  I liked it and thought it was worth sharing since my personal experience seems to validate the theory.  I think it is pretty wise.

From Amy:
"Notice the gentle approach, meeting her at her comfort level, holding on with both hands confidently and most importantly - lifting her up."

One the most thought provoking Catholic Art works I have seen.

Last weekend I was in Las Vegas doing an experiment for work.  I decided to go to Mass at the parish on "The Strip."  Guardian Angel Cathedral.  When I walked in the first thing I saw was this gigantic mural.  At first I really did not care for it.  I thought it was way too new agey and strange.  The more I looked at it though the more it made me think.  It is probably the most thought provoking Catholic art I have ever seen.  I took these phtotos with my phone so please excuse the quality. 

First off notice the crucifix in the front hanging from the ceiling.  This is kind of the normal thing you would see in a church.  Behind it though is this big mural.  When you sit in the pews in the middle of the church you look through the cross onto the mural.  It is kind of like the crucifix is an invitation to another world.  I believe the mural is the artist's interpretation of heaven.  It is really kind of interesting.  Now let's look at the various characters starting with the tall guy in the middle. 

Now let's take a look at his friends.
First notice that most of the other people in the mural are coupled up.  I suspect these are married couples in heaven.  Now there is no marriage so to speak in heaven but I don't see why they can't still be friends.  Each of the coupled up pairs do seem to feature a masculine individual and a feminine individual.  Next, right below Jesus you see a larger single person.  I suspect this is a single person who chose to accept a vocation to the religious life.  This is why they are so close to Jesus and larger.  

Lastly, to the sides there are these kind of small paired up flying beings.  I am not sure if they are people or angels or what.  I am not to sure.  Maybe they are humans who did not recieve/accept as much of the heavenly life.  I am not too sure.  I think they are kind of interesting to ponder. 

At the end of the day I have never seen religious art that made me think so much.  This is a very interesting mural for me because it helps spur me to envision the life of heaven and hope.  I hope you enjoy this mural as much as I did.