Cpl. Richard Newman

I was looking through my referrers logs, and I saw the following:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=richard+newman+iraq&btnG=Google+Search.

I don't remember writing anything of import regarding Iraq; why would someone be searching for that?

The real result is this one. From CNN:

A roadside bomb west of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi Tuesday, a U.S. military spokesman said. One U.S. soldier and three Iraqis were wounded in the blast, the spokesman said.

The explosion was in Khaldiyah, which is between Fallujah and Ramadi, in the volatile Sunni Triangle.

The military is investigating the blast, which took place at 1:30 p.m.

The connection: mentioned in the same post was this. A Canadian solider, Cpl. Jamie Murphy, was killed in Afghanistan. One of the three soliders also injured was a soldier named Cpl. Richard Newman. This occurred in January.

A tenuous link, which led to someone ending up on my blog.

Somewhere out there is a Canadian soldier with my name. Richard, I hope you're feeling better now. It's very strange to think of such a link to a war, and the associated deaths. Sharing a name is a challenging juxtaposition.

Posted at 2004-07-03 14:04:32 by Richard • Link to Cpl. Richard Newma…

Naked As We Came

This is an absolutely beautiful song by Iron & Wine, available on the US iTMS, but not the UK one. However, you can get the CD (Our Endless Numbered Days) from Amazon.

I found a tab for it, but it's slightly inaccurate. Here's my version.

Tuning: DADGAD, capo on 2nd fret.

Intro (repeat 4x):

D ---------------------------
A --0---0--0--0--0--0--0--0-- 
G ----0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0- 
D -0-------------------------
A --------0-----------2--0---
D -----0-----0--2--4---------

I found that with each bass note there seemed to be a high counterpoint; if you like, you can pick the high D for the first 3, and the A for the last 3, or something along those lines (listen to the song).

Verse

(same picking as intro)

She says wake up / it's no use pretending
I'll keep stealing, / breathing her
Birds are leaving / over autumn's ending
One of us will / die inside these / arms

The “/” marks where the non-fingered picking turns into the fingered picking (half-way through the bar). On the last line, just before “arms”, the chorus picking starts.

Chorus

D --0--0--0--0--
A ---0--0--0--0-
G --------------
D -------0--2---
A -2--4---------
D --------------

Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes 'round the yard

Verse

She says if I leave before you darlin'
Don't you waste me in the ground
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms

Chorus

Ending

Intro x4, then one slow chord of x02000 (though it doesn't sound quite right…)

Give it a go!

Posted at 2004-07-03 13:31:07 by Richard • Link to Naked As We Came

Tofu, a column-based text viewer

Just one of those things that makes you think “I wish I'd thought of that”. Tofu arranges text in multiple columns. Columns are easier to read. Furthermore, scrolling on a screen makes you lose your place, so each column is only window-height; it uses multiple columns for long documents.

It's also got type-ahead find, and speech control.

Awesome, free, and with a cool website.

Posted at 2004-07-03 10:17:58 by Richard • Link to Tofu, a column-bas…

XUL

This is the first non-Mozilla use I've seen (or been tempted to try out) of XUL: Nextls XUL. This is a client/server XUL frontend to a music database. Stream your music using the same playlists wherever, share access, etc.

Fast and very cool.

An exciting concept…

Posted at 2004-07-03 02:17:41 by Richard • Link to XUL