1. Change permissions on private forums (Moderators, etc)
2. Check “The Team” link to check admins and update moderators.
3. Create new Maintenance category for moderators and  suggestions forums – put Web Link forum in this category – turn off all for guests and bots, only registered members can view.
4. Check access for forums on new users, registered, admins, etc.
5. Enable avatars – enable remote uploading, increase size limit to 50,000 kb, set images/avatar/upload folder to 0777 permission.
6. Personal profile – allow users to contact via email YES. Notification on PM YES. Check avatar and signature.
7. Upload logo to style imageset folder and select

It’s against my better judgement to open a forum on a personal website, but I can’t keep up with the number of email questions I’m getting now. Hopefully the forum will allow people to exchange resources. I receive many of the same questions via email – so this is also a way to answer people in detail and en masse.

I run many other online forum communities but have never had one on my own site before. This will also be a test area for me to try new forum functionality before bringing live to other communities.

Roses are #ff0000, Violets are #ooooff, All my base are belong to you.

My geekiest Valentine’s Day ever – upgrading software on 8 community websites. Woohoo! My geeky Valentine’s Day gift to them.

UPDATE: I received an email asking what the first line meant. #ff00oo and #ooooff are HTML color codes, and “all your base belong to me” is a mistranslation that originated from a Japanese video game. You can read more about that translation and phrase here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

I wanted to do something with my newfound free time; so decided to do something crazy that I had always wanted to do: To write a complete orchestral and choral work in one week like JS Bach used to do for his weekly church services. My last service for the church was Christmas Eve 2007 so I decided to write a Gloria for presentation at the evening Christmas Eve service.

I am not good at writing unless I have to – so I habitually put myself in positions where I can’t back out. I told the church staff and choir of my intention and they all thought it sounded like fun and they put ads in the local paper for people to join our choir for the service. The great part about his (and I don’t think they knew this) is that the ads went out but I hadn’t written a note of the music yet. But it put me in a great corner where I had to write the piece now.

Wanting to complete the piece in one week like JS Bach used to do, I started composing one week before the first choir rehearsal. I am usually unimpressed when people tell me how quickly they wrote a piece (“Look, I wrote this song in only one hour!”) because it’s usually just an excuse for how crappy the music is. But I cut myself slack in this instance, because part of the magic of the journey was the time constraint involved. I cannot be JS Bach (Boy, I wish I could!), but I could at least enjoy a little taste of his historical work style.

I write this because I received an email reminding me the one year anniversary of the “Christmas Gloria” was coming up and there were questions about how to access it.

Here is a live recording of the piece:
http://conradaskland.com/downloads/Christmas-Gloria/Christmas-Gloria.mp3

The score is located here:
http://conradaskland.com/downloads/Christmas-Gloria/Christmas-Gloria-Askland-conductor.pdf

FYI, I had set up several professional microphones for a great recording but did so at the last minute and my ADAT tapes wouldn’t format that evening correctly. So all I could do was put a little CD recorder on top of the organ that recorded this performance with it’s very crappy internal microphones. But at least we have something of that night.

Yes, you may download it and copy it for a performance if you like. This was a wonderful experience for me. Thank you to the many talented vocalists and musicians in Mount Vernon, and the congregation and staff of Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church for supporting this work.

If you want to follow the original progression of the work on the piece begun December 12, 2007 – you can go here:
http://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2007/12/the-gloria-challenge/

The words of the Gloria are from the original Latin text of the Gloria from the Catholic Mass. I think I rearranged the order of the sentences, can’t quite remember now. I DID add in the words “Soli Deo Gloria” at the beginning and end (for a proper Protestant musical bookmark), “Only for the Glory of God” – also a reference to “Sola Scriptura” from Martin Luther and the Reformation.

The middle section is a trio on Et In Terra Pax or “Let There Be Peace On Earth”. That is my favorite section – the gentle and intimate relief from the larger choral sections. It makes me cry because Et In Terra Pax (the words) are so beautiful, yet seems so impossible to realize. Like the girl in Les Miserable singing “Castle on a Cloud” – it’s more of a hopeful wish than something I know can be true. It is pathos – just my personal take. To others it might very well just be some song.

My other favorite part of the recording is not actually the music at all, it is the applause. It’s not applause necessarily for the piece, but the piece was my way of saying farewell to the congregation; and to me the applause was them wishing me well on my journey.

Merry Christmas!

I’m not very much into politics. Partly because I have heard too many political rantings from people in my life. Armchair quarterbacks spouting off all the absolute truths of how things are, so convinced of how brilliant they are. I used to ask what they were doing about it, and get no fulfilling answer. They would vote in a presidential election, and that’s it. No time spent lobbying, no donations to special interest groups, no real world time devoted to their rantings. It bores me. Save it for the local Irish pub.

I also realize there are so many considerations to take into account, there are not easy solutions. The armchair quarterbacks don’t see the whole picture, don’t know the inside story. I’ve always wondered what it must be like for the president to make those tought decisions, having all the inside intel that we can’t see. Tough stuff.

But this post is about the reaction to Obama’s US presidential election. I write this because I’m living in China right now, and reaction over here is VERY strong. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and like I said I’m not really “into” politics. Ignorance is bliss for me in that area.

I remember the first time I heard of Obama – he was on Oprah. I was like “Where did this guy come from?”. I remember he was there talking with his wife. I thought it was odd, a presidential candidate talking with his wife. Why would he do that? Shouldn’t he be focusing on his campaign issues? I figured, oh well, it’s Oprah. And I thought that’s the last I would hear of him, just one of those minor candidates that would be weeded out. But I remember I was impressed by him, but of course knew there was no way he’d make to to the elections. We would never elect someone we hadn’t heard of like that. Maybe a Colin Powell sure, but not a newcomer. I’m so glad I don’t know anything about politics, and that I was wrong.

I started getting emails from friends back home before the election: “Make sure you vote!” – You’re voting aren’t you? Who are you voting for? You’re voting for Obama aren’t you? PLEASE say you’re voting for Obama! In fact I even had a pro-Obama youtube video posted on my website – a friend of mine didn’t watch the video, misinterpreted it and thought it was anti-Obama. They sent me a short email: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can be your friend anymore.” Followed by an apology after they actually watched the full video and realized their mistake.

When the election results came in I started getting emails from friends in the states, very excited that Obama had won. Then I got several texts from co-workers and friends here in China, things like “Obama Baby!”. I go to have lunch and the waitress stands by me for several minutes and then says “Are you happy?”, and I say “No”, because I was a little down that day. She can’t believe it, she says “You are not happy that Obama won?”. And I was like “Oh, THAT! Yes, I’m happy”.

At work a fellow American was actually dancing down the halls yelling “We did it! We did it!”, referring to Obama. I know quite a few Indonesians here in China, they are mainly Muslim. They are very excited too. I ask them if they know that Obama spent part of his childhood living in Indonesia, and they say “Of course!” – and they are very excited too.

I remember many years ago saying that I would see a black president in my lifetime, but I thought it was going to be when I was much, much older. I had no idea America was ready for this already. I am so proud right now, as many of you are too. I’m proud that my America back home chose this. Like many of you, I think back to when I was a kid learning about the founding fathers. I think about being a kid and seeing “Roots”. I think about our Civil War. I think of all the marches, all the pain. All the people saying “one day” – but it was more of just a distant dream. But here it is – it’s real. And America wants it.

Since 9/11 I am very tired of the molds that America has to be. That is has to be only a “Christian nation” or only for “Joe the plumber”. It’s all things, it’s a fabric. Remember when one of Obama’s opponents tried to make a big deal that Obama’s father was Muslim, and showed pictures of Obama in African traditional clothing calling him a “traitor”? We don’t fall for that anymore. We’ve grown up a little bit.

And I guess I didn’t really realize how moving Obama was until I saw his victory speech on YouTube. This is a real president – a JFK, a Lincoln. At least it looks that way now.

And to the few supremacists still living in America – just wait a term and see what happens. I know you can’t fathom that, but the rest of America wants to see it. And you should at least respect our popular voice.

In fact I know of at least one Bush effigy burning party that was planned, but cancelled because the police here said it was illegal.

I was able to start voting in Presidential elections in 1984. And all that time til now I’ve always wondered, where are the JFK’s? The candidates never seemed like presidents to me, they just seemed like guys. Just some guy who did politics. Not a “president” – know what I mean? I used to think, with all the people in the United States, why don’t we have better people surface? Never even really good choices, in my opinion. Until now – here’s a “real president”.

And the best part of all – we never voted for him because he was black. We voted for him because was the best. And he rarely talked about being black, he didn’t go there. Ok, I’ll wrap this up so you can go read another blog where someone actually has something important to say. I’m just so happy, that’s it.

So just for the record: Yes, people over here in China are very happy. And I am excited to watch what happens from “beyond America’s shores”.

And when I watch Obama’s victory speech; I start to cry. Which is rare for me. But I can’t help it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrXkBuWNx88

Here is an email that was forward to me, by “Cornelia”: