I have many reasons for loving Python, but I think my favorite aspect of it is the inherent readability of the language. I mean, you really have to work hard to make your Python code unreadable (though, people mis-using decorators can make otherwise readable Python code extraordinarily unreadable...)

The thing about Python is how hard it can make working with other languages once you've fully ingested the Python kool-aid. The many aspects that make Python such a wonderful language to work with really amplify related weaknesses in other languages. For example, I always had complaints about Java, but I couldn't completely articulate my biggest complaint (how hard it is to make readable Java code) until I worked with Python for a few years.

Well, for the last two years I've been working the majority of my time in C# (doing games for Funavision). I have to say, I really don't mind C# as much as I expected I would- while it is obviously C/C++ and Java inspired in many ways, it has a good deal of sanity to it that reduces my frustration when working with it. It also helps that Visual Studio has handy features that make working in the language even easier.

However, it still has the big problems associated with making readable code. Inconsistent syntactic sugar (see C# switch/case), ability to hide entire code segments in property get/sets (grrrr), "Interface" objects that are supposed to be method free but which can still contain method-like code (see get/set previously), etcetera are all examples of language hurdles to readable code.

Well, a while ago I came up with what is probably the least readable C# code I've ever done. I'm not proud of it... but I've decided to share it anyway...

I just read something that I couldn't quite believe. In an editorial "blog" posting, Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Thomas Mitchell wrote some of the most idiotic things I think I've ever attempted to read. What I can't quite believe about it is that he meant what he wrote to be serious....

In his post, Mr. Mitchell says it's time to repeal the 19th Amendment (you know, the one that gives women the right to vote) because he claims that women are "fickle and biased". To back up his claim, he points to some poll results in his newspaper and draws some very bizarre conclusions based upon these results.

In all honesty, I can't completely grok the nonsensical bullshit he's trying to say. Somehow, he is trying to claim that because women in one poll preferred one candidate higher than they did in another poll, and because women tend to be Democratic nationally, that means they are biased and fickle... Or something... His post makes about as much sense as the ramblings of a schizophrenic homeless person claiming that the NBA is trying to steal his brain....

Since his argument is so confusing and bizarre, I've attempted to summarize it more succinctly in this image:

I really should be writing about my game which I released second footage of today, but I'm not going to.

I'm not going to write about my game because I am mad as hell. I'm absolutely livid. I sit here, and all I see being tweeted, blogged, broadcast and shat out around me is a torrent of idiotic anti-tax bullshit. All of it incorrect and uninformed. It's not the torrent of anti-tax bullshit that's pissing me off, either, it's the fact that so many people blindly allow themselves to continue to be so rabidly ignorant about the facts.

So, in my own feeble way, I am going to write something on this. I am going to vainly try to insert some modicum of sanity and reason into this white-knuckled scream-fest of right-wing idiocy, libertarian fantasy, and plain-old-fashioned fact manipulation by the wealthy.

Read on for more...

I mentioned before that I was quitting FFXI, and I did, in fact, quit in February, however it took me until now to actually get the final screenshots and stories up detailing my character's end.

Vis Maior: 2004-2010

You can read about my last month in the game here as well as see my final entry here.

I really did enjoy this game for the last 6 years, and if FFXIV is half as much fun I see myself easily spending another 6 years in it :-)

Wow... information overload..... Where do I begin?

Approximately 4 or 5 years ago I made what I considered a pretty major phone purchase. I replaced my existing cheap whatever this was with a shiny, new T-Mobile MDA. The HTC built MDA was an absolute monster of a phone compared to what I had before. It was Windows Mobile based, which meant I could install applications, browse the web, use SSH on it, even edit code and use Blender. I know functionality like this wasn't new to many people at the time, but it sure as hell was new to me. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of Windows Mobile, compared to the alternatives at the time (Blackberry, Palm, and other custom "bleh") it was pretty damned rocking.

Well, 4-5 years have passed, I've gone through two jobs, started my own business, and my faithful little phone has quickly aged and lost much of its usefulness. I long ago lost the desire to use it for anything other than phone calls. Its camera sucks compared to other digital cameras we have. No one supports my ancient tech any more, so new applications are few and far between. And the Windows Mobile environment seems to have somehow degraded over time such that it's always sluggish and often glitchy. I've had other friends who have had similar complaints about Windows Mobile in the past, but I really didn't start getting bothered by my phone until late in 2009.

So we decided to get a new phone, but, as I tend to do with everything, I really didn't want to get some stopgap solution that would hold me for a few months and then lose its usefulness due to it being obsoleted before I even get it. Thus, the question became, what do I want next?

So someone on Reddit posted this picture of a completely bizarre backpack today. General laughs were had at the strange juxtaposition of three seemingly diverse and different things: Barack Obama, Harry Potter, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Somewhere, down in the comments, kasim42784 made the following comment:

i am trying to tie harry potter, obama and sonic together but my brain is starting to hurt.

This was followed by user peroke saying:

I pray your post doesn't fall in the hands of slashfic writers.

Well, that sounded like a challenge to me, so I wrote the following (totally NSFW) tale:

• Barry, Harry, and the Speedy Hog: A story of pashion and erotica

I guess some people found it funny, so I share it here...

Anyway... I just got my new Google Nexus One and am currently in the process of setting it up. I'll post pictures and commentary on it a bit later on (after it charges and I can actually start using it).

Okay, so I've never been a fan of Apple. I always have disliked the Mac computers, even when they crammed Unix inside. I've never liked the interface, and have always found their devices cumbersome to use. I realize there are many out there who love Apple's products with the sort of rabid zeal generally reserved for fanboys, and, although I tend to generalize and say that all Apple users are mouth-breathing simpletons, I will admit that there are probably one or two Apple junkies who aren't.

At any rate, in the time leading up to this announcement about some sort of Apple tablet computer, it was the last thing on my mine. I didn't care about this news; partly because of my general ambivalence and malaise with regard to all things Apple, and partly because I pretty busy working on my own things.

But the announcement came, and went, and apparently a lot of people who were actually anticipating this latest Apple iTurd were pretty disappointed with it. Apparently people didn't want a jumbo-sized iPhone without a camera, any external connectors, or an actual phone in it.

Personally, looking at the pictures of Jobs standing there with this new monstrosity I find the entire thing very comical. To me, it looks like he's holding one of those novelty giant remote controls:

I just can't quite take him seriously with that thing in his hands. It's just entirely too ridiculous.

Well, someone made a Hitler rant about it, and it's pretty damned funny. Enjoy...

I've uploaded a few videos giving some early looks at the second game we're making at Funavision. However, I'm only posting them here on my site and not on the Funavision website. The reason for this is because Youtube kind of butchers the video from our game... and I'm yet to really figure out a way to prevent that.

See, our second game does a lot of stuff with moiré patterns, which unfortunately seem to be the first things to get obscured when Youtube starts optimizing videos for playback. The end result is video that doesn't exactly look like the actual game.

For absolute best effect, play these videos in the maximum HD setting and at full screen. Read on for the videos....

Okay, a few posts ago I mentioned that I really am enjoying Dragon Age: Origins. I posted many loving words about it calling it a "frighteningly rich and deep RPG with a tremendous amount of replay value". I also suggested it may very well "[usurp] Oblivion as my #2 most played RPG". Well... I may be ready to retract some of that praise and enthusiasm after what happened to me tonight....