Cornell University Dragon Day 2008

Dragon Day is an annual event that occurs on the last day of classes before Spring Break on the Cornell University Ithaca campus.

Cornell Architecture students create a huge dragon float and carry it down towards the Engineering Quad to taunt the Engineering students.

When the dragon procession reaches the engineering quad area, the engineering students block the path of the dragon with their own creation, a phoenix. A “battle” ensues and then the entire procession heads up along Ho Plaza towards the Arts Quad — where the floats are ceremoniously cremated in a bonfire.

Note the Phoenix did not make it to the bonfire this year.

Full Dragon Day 2008 photo stream is here: http://tinyurl.com/2bxa5j

Here I am in my new Utilikilt at the Snake Oil Salesmen 16 Feb 2008 gig. We played at The Nines in Ithaca, NY and it was an amazing concert — I’m processing all of the audio and video and hope to get some things posted to the Snake Oil Salesmen website within a few days.

The kilt was the birthday present mentioned in an earlier blog post. It is so comfortable to wear, I’ve already ordered a second one, and I’m planning to purchase a third. So far, I’ve done all my ordering from The Kilted Nation in Manassas, VA and they’ve been very responsive both in shipping as well as a few pre-sales support questions. I’ve got a conference (Internet Security Training Workshop) I will be attending in Virginia early next month and I plan to stop by their brick-and-mortar store when I get a chance.

My project, the “War Morgan Project“, is coming along. I’ve got bits and pieces coming together with either melodies or chord progressions defined for eight songs so far. I’ve got lyrics coming along for three songs so far.

No names other than Logic Pro filenames for the songs so far; it looks like its going to be a mix of rock, jazz, and electronic styles.

Everything here is subject to change, but this is what I’ve got so far:

WMP-1 – Catchy rhythm hook with variations on a lead

WMP-2 – Variations on a bass riff

WMP-3 – VIm IV V VIm ballad in D

WMP-4 – VIm I II IV VIm piece in Eb

WMP-5 – I IVm IIIb VIIb I in F

WMP-6 – I VIm IIm V I in A

WMP-7 – I IIm IIIm IV V I in Bb

WMP-8 – Ambient Electronic

WMP-9 -

WMP-10 -

One website I found very helpful was the Hot Frets Progressionator which is a Flash application that generates sample chord progressions. I find it a nice tool to help me get started.

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with the project, between work and the upcoming gig with my band Snake Oil Salesmen at The Nines in Ithaca on Saturday, the 16th at 10pm, I’m not going to have much time to work on the songs until after that gig is finished.

– Paul Schuh

I’m completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly. — Hal 9000

So, anyway, as I re-assemble the site, I will slowly but surely republish some of the old articles with tips and tricks that are still applicable (SSH port tunneling, for example) — and also, I’ll try to update them as well.

About this site — it used to have the title ‘Tao of Network Administration’ — since I plan to cover more than just network administration, I’ve settled on the less specific “Tao of Schuh.”

By day, I manage the network and many of the servers and linux/unix computing labs for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. Occasionally I will develop LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) applications and assist with computer and network security prevention as well as post-incident security analysis and forensics. I’ve maintained CISSP certification since 2001.

By night, I play bass guitar with the Snake Oil Salesmen; read books; compose/write music with Ableton Live, Reason, and Logic Pro; and I’m currently teaching myself (aka playing around with) the Apple Final Cut Studio suite of applications — mostly Final Cut Pro and Motion.

And finally, when its warm — I just might be out on Cayuga Lake sailing my 1974 Ranger 23 sailboat.

Here’s to the future!

Paul Schuh