Kalimat al-Mutafalsif

A year ago today the Virginia Tech shootings occurred. As I mentioned a year ago, it somewhat surprises me at the sadness today has evoked in me, considering I was hundreds of miles away that day, and still am. It didn't seem like it was a year already, but I was reminded this morning when I turned on the TV to see an image that's been stuck in my mind ever since. I poked around on the Virginia Tech Memorial site, but couldn't find it for some odd reason, which is a shame because I think that image captures the moment perfectly.

The morning news had that Bugler image up this morning, and immediately the first two lines of the following poem popped into my head:

Blow, Bugler, Blow

Blow, Bugler, blow, let all hear you play,
The hope of our nation's enshrined in your lay.
The notes flow like tears poured out from your horn,
Splashing our souls and hearts, broken and torn.
Floating past candles held high in the sky,
Twinkling like stars who whisper "Good-bye."
Tonight there'll be pain, and tomorrow the same,
But during it all, we stand and proclaim:
"We are Hokies, America, as strong as they come,
From the siblings who visit to the oldest alum,
We know our potential, what we can become,
We'll always fight on, we'll never succumb!"
So blow, bugler, blow, let all hear you play,
The hope of our nation's enshrined in your lay.

ADMIN EDIT: Missed a line in there, had to add it.

Friends, Coders, Net Junkies, lend me your ears,
I come to praise Windows, not bury it!
The good of code like this is oft talked up;
The cost is buried in the legal crap.
So let it be with Windows. The noble Gates
Hath told you Windows quite cheap and good.
If it were so, it is a coding feat,
And Windows rightly spread across the Earth.
Here, under leave of Bill gates and the rest --
For Bill Gates is an honorable man,
So is Microsoft, honorable all --
Come I to speak 'bout Window's legal state.
I don't use it, it costs just too darn much.
But Bill Gates says it is quite cheap and good,
And Bill gates is an honorable man.
It crashed each day and disappointed me,
Then crashed my bank, 'cause good code don't come free.
Did this in Windows seem affordable?
I saw BSOD, but Windows didn't care.
Good code, I think, should always try() and catch().
Yet Bill Gates says it is good code, and cheap,
And Bill Gates is an Honorable man.
You saw they were accused, "Monopoly!"
Convicted guilty and then forced to change,
But they did not. Is this good business form?
Yet Bill Gates says it is quite cheap and good,
And sure, he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Bill Gates says,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all have used it 'cause "its all that's out".
Why then do you not cry "Monopoly!"
O Judgement, thou are fled to stupid beasts,
And men have lost all reason!
Bear with me.
My heart is buried with my lost choices,
And I pause til I afford Vista.
--Snarky's Life, Act 21, Scene 8
--(See the original here)

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Its really pretty out today as we already had a bunch (a bunch for here, not a real state) of snow on the ground and its snowing again today. Not the harsh/nasty wintery mix we had a few days ago, but really nice fat sowflakes, lazily falling around the evergreens outside my window. Well between that and the coding binge I've been on (forgot how much fun Friday nights can be with just me, a coupla computers and a goal for X lines of code) has put me into a nice melancholy mood, which is making me wax poetic (publically) for the first time in a long time.

Some Haiku
Softly swirling bits
Bytes gusting between servers
Winter on the wire

And a (poorly written) Sonnet
Awake, sweet muse, and guide my finger's stroke,
That I may write the code I hear inside.
Instantiating offerings of Coke,
Mayhaps some Bawls, and Fritos warm and dried.

Ifs, fors, while loops, maybe gotos I'll type,
Controlling structure planned with care afore,
The loop invariant we'll have to load,
And make sure defaults always get a store.

"Aha", I cry, "I've found that drasted bug!"
That haunted Beta testers for so long,
Commit the changes, hope that I get Dugg,
A lifelong goal I'd rather not prolong.

Release the code under the GPL
And cry: "It gives the power to rebel!"
*Raises fist*

(I put that last line in in favor of a rip on Dell or Intel, man that was hard).

Well, in case you can't guess from the title, it's been exactly a year since I started this blog. To be more specific, it was November 20th of last year that I registered the domain. This post also (totally not planned, I swear) happens to be my 100th. Again, to be more specific it's my 100th page... pages include things such as my warhammer picture pages and the others you find under "Pages" on the right. So, this'll be a fun past, five days in the making, about all kinds of things dealing with the past year. ((Published a second time, I apologize))

Some History
The domain was registered while taking one of my patented Long Thanksgiving Breaks. That was ThanksGaming 2005, and I grabbed the domain one night while talking to that coder I always mention, Malaprop of Cambrian House. Malaprop kindly put the domain on his site, installed WordPress, and away I went. My first actual post (I believe) was on the 20th of 2005, but it was accidentally deleted, so the first surviving post is from the 21st.
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Well, little histroy lesson today. In high school I was an avid poet, I wrote a ton, though most of it has not seen the light of day, nor will it ever. However, in the past few days I've, for some odd reason, fallen back into thinking in Iambic Pentameter (ok, I lie, I prefer/think in quadrameter, but its all good). To that end, I've decided to capture the heart of the geek plight, aka lack of, lets say, interest, with what I'm calling "Emo Geek Shakespeare". Lets begin

/*Singleton*/

Like Char arrays without slash naught,
Binary Buddies malloc'd seperate,
Slash star comments, without star slash,
And svn without checkin,

My code mirrors the thoughts inside,
Which way deep down true feelings hide,
Like crypto tunnels through dark nets,
Data unknown 'less key is blown.

Poor Javac'd code, the warnings off,
Compiles? Yes, maintainers scoff,
Defined your vars global static,
Allowing only one to run.

For all in this, set state: alone.

Now, just because I like most types of peotry, not just Iambic meters, I also write Haiku:

/*Game Time*/
Autumn, Winter, Spring,
Seasons change over minutes,
Game time is faster.

/*BlackRock*/
Meeting on Blackrock,
Sunsets drenching Horde bodies,
Iron Forge defended.

/*FWOR*/
Practiced for keyboards,
Falling Water Over Rocks,
Owns all other Forms.

/*ID10T*/
The lurking admin,
Infuriated again,
I D ten T err'.

Some may remember my Valentine's Day post... I've taken a few from it as well.

/*The Day of Love*/

The Day of Love is fin'ly here,
The Day to keep your loved one near,
The Day of which meaning is clear.

Mayhaps to one who talks to girls,
And understands their want for pearls,
Not to us who give naught but perls.

Or sit at home and drink a Bawls.
Troll all the forums, posting our lols,
Then visit game stores in near malls.

For we speak a language not known,
Which makes us gods, power unknown,
And which no girl could ever pwn.

If Dollar var equals slash 0,
Then echo to std io,
Happy Valentine's Day to you.