My first principle of music composition philosophy

I am the George W. Bush of music composition. I am embarking on it (as he did with painting) in earnest at the age of 55 mostly for my own enjoyment. But here's a first principle of my composition philosophy:

Don't confuse the listener.

NPS Global Engineers corporate structure

NPS Global Inc. is an Arizona nonprofit corporation with no special tax status. In other words, NPS is a normal business, but it has no owners or shareholders to receive profits or dividends. Surplus funds are split up among the hourly freelance contractors by vote.

Instead of shareholders, NPS has a Sole Member who elects the Directors. The Directors in turn appoint a CEO to run the business. The bylaws of every NPS company say that their Sole Member is the Sole Member of NPS Global Inc. The Sole Member is appointed by the previous Sole Member or in an emergency by the Directors.

NPS Global Inc. does no engineering. All it does is support the child NPSes, which are each organized similarly:

• NPS Maricopa Inc. established 2017
• NPS Pinal Inc. established 2019
• NPS Agua Fria Inc. established 2020

The Sole Member has been Plamen Dimov of Bulgaria since 2020.

Floodplains and Floodways, BFEs and RFEs - US FEMA's floodplain development strategy and Maricopa County AZ's policy

 In 1968 the US Congress established the National Flood Insurance Program that included standards for delineating floodplains and (optionally) floodways along significant sources of flooding. This post explains how it works as administered by Maricopa County, Arizona in 2020.

Whole Foods Plant Based Eating

Whole Foods Plant Based Eating

by Kato D. Haws Jr.

July 7, 2020

I began eliminating animal products because of high cholesterol. I removed first

whole milk and eggs. Later all dairy. We ended up learning about various vegan diets,

including the Hallelujah Diet and the McDougall diet. In the end the people most

influential for us are Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Michael Greger. We rely heavily on

the recipes of Cathy Fisher of True North Health, which use no salt, oil or sugar, and no

animal products. Her recipes also happen to be gluten free, which is important to me, given

my family history of problems with wheat.

If you want to try a whole foods plant-based (WFPB) diet but don't know where

to begin here are a few suggestions.

Fast AutoCAD project custom text linetypes on the fly

A simple instantaneous linetype reloading system is a huge relief when you want AutoCAD custom text complex linetypes that say things like 400mm W or 1 1/2" GAS (PE). Here is a system that disrupts you minimally so you can get back to your project design.

My discoveries about my immunity symptoms: mouth (canker) sores (ulcers), acne, gum disease, and ear infection

At the age of 53 I've had some success with certain immunity issues. My symptoms have included mouth sores, acne, gum disease (in the past), and middle ear infection (otitis media). In this post I will summarize each one.

How engineered grading and drainage works for homes in Arizona

Most houses in Arizona don't need an engineered grading and drainage plan. But some do. This post explains about that.

Stardew Valley Labor, Space, Keg, and Time Comparison of the High Profit Greenhouse crops: Starfruit, Ancient Fruit, and Hops

The high profile crops in Stardew Valley are Starfruit, Ancient Fruit, and Hops. This is because they have the highest profit per growing space per month. With Hops, this is because it produces daily and processes into Pale Ale in 1-2 days, which is great for a starting farmer with foresight to have Kegs (Oak Resin) ready. With Ancient Fruit and Starfruit, it is because their wines have unsurpassed sell prices. (The tree fruits Peach and Pomegranate are also notable because they produce every day and can be infilled once they are mature. But they take 7 days to process and 28 days to mature.) The following table is one way to look at them in terms of a) usage of the Greenhouse and b) labor, space, and kegs per 100kgp. It still amazes me what you can do in your second month with 2 Kegs and 60 gp of Hops (one starter).

The complex steps for renaming a Dropbox shared folder

If you have a folder shared with colleagues on Dropbox and you want to rename it for everybody, you can't. I explain why not at the bottom of this post. To change the name for everybody, you must create and share a new folder with the new name. Here are the full steps so you don't forget anything:

Custom geographic projections and HEC-RAS

This is my research report on using custom geographic projections with HEC-RAS 5.0.7. All my tests were based on the NAD83 AZ State Plane Central Zone 0202 International Feet (AZ83-CIF) projection.

Stardew Valley starting strategies

This is my notepad of Stardew Valley starting strategies. Comments are welcome.

Contents:

• Spring 2 Bridge: a Spring 1 to Spring 4 walk-through
• Fish Your Finger Off: leverage the agony of hopeless fishing into fun steady income
• 20 Free Strawberries: a two-week outline of an up and coming strategy
• Two-week walk-through: combines Spring 2 Bridge and 20 Free Strawberries. Also upgrades pick and axe in first two weeks.
• Floor 81 on Spring 27: give your attitude a boost and your deep-plunge drive a break with a trickle of gold bars (Quality Sprinklers!) before Summer starts
• Pale Ale Power: old Stardew wisdom is right; Hops are first king
• Easy Early Greenhouse: Take a chance on Fruit Bats
• Old School Calendaring: keep a calendar, people!
• You Had One Job: avoid running from place to place

Creating custom menu button icon image with transparency for AutoCAD Dark and Light themes

I am building this out into a detailed guide to creating a custom menu icon with transparency for AutoCAD Light and Dark themes. The guide begins assuming you have everything (the easiest case) and drills down step by step in case you don't have anything (the arduous case). I provide sample files, and I recommend you verify you can do each step before going to the next one. Please leave questions or comments (including section rewrites) as needed; I'd love to hear which software and method you used to create images and DLL files.

Farmer Boys' Names for Stardew Valley

This is my progress list of boys' names for the Stardew Valley farmer character. Suggestions are appreciated. Some of these are names of my ancestors. And some are not completely obsolete.

Favorite sing-along songs

This is a carefully curated list of songs that go over well when I am in sing-along jam sessions. (Many other cool songs turn out to be a bit hard for sing-alongs.) For instrument chords, search the web for the title plus the word "chords" (ultimate-guitar.com is a good site I will be working to improve).

Do-Re-Mi Complete Production Number Lyrics (Script) with instructions

Maria sings this song with the seven Von Trapp children. Choose a role before starting or ad lib through the number.