I've improved the translation services available in the Esoteric Delights Gematria Database.  When you go to the database, you'll notice that I switched the order of the tools in the sliding tabs so that the "TRANSLATE" service is now at the top.  I've been analyzing the usage of the site to make improvements, and a major shortcoming that I found and corrected was that the call to the Babylon Online Dictionary was only really expecting a single word to be translated, but a lot of people are entering phrases into the translation and database searches.  I've corrected this to return results for all words entered, as shown below:

Another thing that I added was that in order to cast a wider net and help you find the closest translation possible, I've incorporated Google's Translation service that is made available through their Google Ajax API for Translation, which is totally awesome.  As demonstrated in the screenshot above, if Google has a translation for you, it will be provided at the bottom below the dictionary results.  This is also nice, because there may be times when the attempt to get a definition from Babylon doesn't return a result for whatever reason, but the Google result will - you can see this in the above example (notice there's no definition retrieved for "brave" in the Babylon section but the Google translation has all 3 words in a suggested translation). More...

Two quick updates about the Esoteric Delights Gematria Database:

1. It's way faster now. 
2. I added new database search functionality. 

The major improvement is in the responsiveness of the database and queries made of it.  For some reason the query response times were insanely slow, taking anywhere from 20-40 seconds (sometimes longer!) to do a simple number lookup.  I thought for some reason this was just how it had to be, but as it turns out, that's not true.  I've taken some steps to make the hosted database more attentive to the web site's needs, so now it's down to executing and returning the query results in a second or two.  Please let me know if you notice extremely long delays in processing your requests.  I've wired some alerts into the app to notify me if it's taking too long to server query results, but if you notice anything wacky, drop me a line.

In addition to being able to get English translations of Hebrew words and transliterating English into Hebrew characters, you can now search the text of the English translations that are stored inside the database directly.  This is a nice thing to have in conjunction with the translation service.  The translations are pretty "straight" in that they are coming from a standard Hebrew-English dictionary.  However, since the database contains words from other sources, some of which are more esoteric in nature, this gives you a second way to find things in the database specifically that may not be turned up in a standard dictionary.  The new database search shows up as the first panel and is labeled as "SEARCH the Gematria Database for Hebrew Words/Phrases by English Translation..."  This search function works more like a search engine and less like a normal database search in that it uses word stemming ("running" would also look for "run" and "ran") and will also look for words in a phrase, not just the word or phrase literally.

I hope you find these features/improvements useful!

I've just added some new functionality to the site: the Sigil Generator.  This is the same functional component that I used to generate the sigils used for the album artwork for the Pegataur album Eternal Flight.  To check it out, just select "Sigil Generator" from the navigation under Esoteric Tools.

The Sigil Generator requires that you input a Hebrew word or phrase.  You can use the Gematria Database page to lookup Hebrew words or transliterate English into Hebrew to use for the Sigil Generator.  I didn't bother with any obvious "export image" functionality, although I might do that later.  For now, if you want your sigil, just right-click (PC) or control-click (MAC, I think?) on the sigil and save from your browser.  If you don't want the colored background/lines, just uncheck the "Use Planetary Color Scales" box.

Enjoy!

I had an interesting synchronicity experience earlier this Summer at the end of June that is worth mentioning.

We were invited to a wedding that was to be hosted in Big Sur.  However, due to the fires that were spreading across California, the wedding had to be relocated the week of!  Our friends sent an e-mail out to a bunch of us to update us of the new location, etc.  This e-mail was sent to my fiancee, and I just happened to look over her shoulder while she was reading the e-mail.  Now, this was going to be a kind of wedding where you go and you only really know the folks getting married, but I noticed that I recognized one e-mail address.  

The e-mail address belonged to an ex-girlfriend of mine.  Not just an ordinary "ex," but perhaps the most significant "ex" in the history of my development as an individual growing into the bewildering world of love and finding oneself's place within that realm.  She was my first true love, and the first girlfriend that I lived with.  She was also the first girl to truly break my heart. So, in many ways, a first, and a relationship of that nature is sure to be stamped heavily into your psychic makeup.  I hold no ill will towards this person and think she's awesome, by the way.  We haven't really stayed in touch that well but we are on good terms whenever we do communicate, see each other, etc., although that is very infrequent.

So, anyway!  I saw her e-mail address and was very excited to see that someone I knew was going to be there, but was also tripped out quite a bit - it is a "small world," as they say.  Perhaps more delightful to me was the prospect that I knew something that she did not and that I was going to surprise her at the wedding.  I was feeling quite mischevious about this.  Now, it should be noted that at the time I was getting all worked up about this was about 2 or 3 days prior to the actual wedding.

When we got to the hotel to check-in, I saw her at the check-in counter as we were coming in - she's even staying at our hotel, OK.  I was silent and being invisible and stood right behind her, certain that she'd turn around and see me and we'd all have a good "WTF" moment and laugh it up.  But!  She left the counter without turning around and walked right past us to the side of us, and didn't notice us at all!  OK, so I'll have to wait.

I didn't wait long.  There was a shuttle from the hotel to the wedding, and I had the pleasure of my surprise.  It was then that she told me that she had had a dream about me a few nights before.  In the dream, I was disguised inside a costume whose shape had shifted between a few different animals: coyote, squirrel, and fox.  She approached this mysterious and frightful figure that was a man inside a costume with a slight amount of trepidation, but when she was near enough to me, I removed my coyote head and revealed myself, and we embraced in a very warm hug and there was great merriment.

I find this really amazing among several dimensions.  As I mentioned, we rarely speak, she never dreams of me, and yet my impish knowledge of her attendance corresponded temporaly with her dream of me as a shapeshifting animal.  The animals in question - fox and coyote (not sure about the squirrel) - are well known animal symbols for the trickster in folklore and mythology.  I think that, psychically, she had my number!  By the way, the picture at the top of this post is of a coyote that I took that weekend after the wedding while we were hiking around Santa Cruz (it's a stuffed coyote at a visitor's center in the park).

I think that it was also very symbolic that this was taking place at the end of June, and in the beginning of June I became engaged myself, and that we were meeting at a wedding - my first girlfriend and my "last" girlfriend (she's ceased that role as she transitions to "wife") together at a wedding - all around the summer solstice (the solstice is traditionally celebrated on June 24th; this year it was technically the 20th; the dream/email stuff happened around the 26th).  Transitions, life, love, and the links that bind us together - so interesting!

I've decided to do all of my SharePoint-related blogging on the SharePoint Users Group site (www.thesug.org) instead of Esoteric Delights.

I'm doing this for a couple of reasons - 1) the SUG has way better search engine optimization than my blog, so my posts about SharePoint have a better chance of being found and helping other folks in the MOSS developer community on that site and 2) I'd rather keep my worklife and personal life separate ;)  Perhaps a false distinction, but it makes me feel better, and also may not alienate my friends and esoteric readers as much.

So...if you are looking for SharePoint stuff, check out my other blog dedicated only to that subject, A Rolling Stone that Gathers MOSS. 

This blog post has been moved to my other blog at the SharePoint Users Group:

http://www.thesug.org/blogs/ermurray/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=6

This blog post has been moved to my other blog at the SharePoint Users Group:

http://www.thesug.org/blogs/ermurray/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5

888, y'all!  PGTR will be bringing some hot musick to your loving and eager ears.  We're playing this Friday with our friends The Chop at the Hotel Utah in SF.  

According to my gematria database, the number 888 is associated with the following:

• revelry, debauchery, riotousness, rant, jinks, skylarking; boisterousness;
• to diaper, swaddle; wrap up
• egg, ovum
• be scorched, singed, burnt
• to terrify, scare, alarm, frighten

I interpret this oracle to predict the following about the show, mark my words: The rock that we are bringing this Friday night will get you totally worked up and incite you to offer your drink unto Bacchus.  Some of you will become pregnant, and some may need to change their diapers because we will put a fresh poop in them.  Since we are going on first, we will leave the stage a smoldering heap, and inspire fear in those at the club who are afraid of the blitzkrieg spearheaded by two men with the three amps.  We may never be asked back to the Hotel Utah, so be the first and probably last group of people to witness the spectacle.

We're going on first, and are pretty different from the rest of the bands, so you can either look at it as "Diversity is a good thing, I like all kinds of music" or "Who would win in a streetfight between King Diamond and Elvis Costello?  I'm leaving once the still-beating heart is removed from the ribcage." 

We're going on first, here are the standard details:

Friday August 8th, 2008 Hotel Utah 500 4th Street, SF CA

9PM, 21+

The Chop + Goodbye Nautilus + Pegataur

Hope to see you there!

So, it's been almost a couple weeks since the show at the Hemlock, but for those of you who missed it, it was a great first show!  I'm trying to be objective, here, which is hard.  My own subjective experience of it would be to say that I feel we were a little out of control initially but rapidly seized the reigns and locked in after a few songs - I don't think anyone else would've noticed (except my friend Tim who suggested we were perhaps "stiffer" at the beginning).  Otherwise, I am totally proud of the set, energy, and execution, plus there was a great turnout (70 people, according to the club) and the other two bands, Black Budget and Floating Goat, were awesome, loud, tight, and heavy.  And, as evidenced from this photo, the ruling spirits of the tunes were effectively evoked and released from our musick and floated above my head for most of the set.  Thanks, guys.  More...