Sunday, March 30, 2014

Tell me Django Django Django



No, it's not Go or Rust. I'll get to learning one of those one of these days, but for now I've opted to pick up Python again and go with Django.

I had played around with Python back when I was still in Computer Engineering and doing mainly desktop apps prior to moving over to web stuff when I shifted to IT, so all in all it's fresh enough to help with the PHP burn out (oh yeah, get burned out with programming and then go learn another language, well framework, this will end well). Currently reviewing Python and it feels great to be back on the saddle so to speak.

Never really thought I'd be doing web development when I was still in Engineering, then again didn't really think I'd flunk out of Engineering when I started. 3 years gone to waste, but then again the curriculum was utter shit. 3 years of barely any computer related courses, seriously felt like whoever came up with the curriculum did not understand Computer Engineering and so half assed it. Those years were probably my first brush with depression. Stayed home most days and only showed up for programming subjects or history subjects (I'm a history fag keep up man), and I got pretty good grades for those subjects I did show up to. Still wasted a scholarship and all that. One of my greatest regrets in life, and I guess I've associated Python with those days so I haven't touched it in nearly 8 years.

Ah well, life is life and (re)learning something new is pretty fun. Maybe I'll go pick up Rails again (which I also started back in Engineering) once I'm at a point where I'm satisfied with Django.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Quarter year resolution: Go back to being a Simon Quinlank, King of All Hobbies.

Had to head home from the office today because of a seriously bad headache and I literally spent almost 10 minutes trying to log into my home PC because I initially put in my work machine's password and then ended up stumped as I had momentarily forgotten my home PC password. Jebus, guess I need to cut down on office time.

So anyway, as I've pretty much dropped all my hobbies except the whole biking thing, I'll start here as reading all the drafts I've never published kinda makes me sad at all the hours I have wasted typing them up and just having them sit in limbo for well, 6-7 years at least. I suppose my rediscovering this blog is sort of a sign. A sign to pander to my mental illness and continue writing trite senseless crap if anything.

First off, I think I'll actually aim to finish this fantasy story set in a low fantasy world (high fantasy sucks, cheg on you amatwats! though spoiler alert it's a high fantasy world all along harhar I am such a genius no one has ever done that before spoiler alert it's been done to hell and back) I came up with around 2004/2005 with the first chapter being done sometime in 2007. It's essentially literary masturbation, but at least I'm not going to go get it published by some vanity publisher like P. Kirby did. That's a little inside joke from a forum that no one who is reading this has ever heard about, but I told it anyway because A) no one is reading this, and B) this whole endeavor is, as I've mentioned above, literary masturbation. Keep up man.

I am however tempted to just leave it as it is because it's an awkwardly painful read. So awkwardly painful in fact that it's actually sort of funny in its own little awkwardly painful way. I mean the first chapter starts out like this:

"Thunder roared across the streets of Kalveni, dampening out my footsteps as I rushed the sentry to slit his throat."
Such a pretentious way to start a story. At that point in time I thought it was super cool and bad ass but eh. The whole thing is pretty stupid as well. The main POV character is a guy named Arktus, but looking at my initial plan for the whole thing, I might as well rename him Mary Sue, because he is literally a Mary Sue. So goodbye Arktus, I know you've lingered in here for like 7 years in the vain hope that someday I would probably get drunk, decide "Oi this is great! My magnum opus!", and hit publish but it was all for naught. I'm going to do a complete 360 and turn you into a useless feckless wussy and the entire tale will be about you hiding in a corner and suckling your thumb while someone else does all the heavy lifting. There won't even be any descriptions of what they're doing because this is a first person point of view story so the most that will happen is something like so:

"As I suckled on my thumb I could hear the clashing of swords, the banging of shields, the slapping of asses, and other actioney stuff, but couldn't really see anything as I am a wussy and could not open my eyes. Some random guy tapped me on the shoulder and told me everything was OK when it was finished. Then we moved on the next room, and suddenly assassins came out from the crates because I dunno I guess they like crates or something and I instinctively put my thumb in my mouth and buggered off to the nearest corner."
 Oh man, this is great stuff.

Read the last sentence in a deadpan voice in your head. Or aloud if you're mentally ill and read blogs aloud in your room as that's the only way you can get off. Cut me some slack though, that was written by a 17-20 something year old me, and that guy was a cunt. If I was given one chance, ONCE CHANCE, to travel back to any point in time, I would not squander it on something like going back to 1907 Vienna to assassinate a young Hitler as that would be pretty pointless. WWII and the atrocities associated with it would still have happened even without Hitler because the Treaty of Versailles was pretty much begging Germany to plan for a future war what with how it was so fucking punitive. "But why not just warn Franz Ferdinand about the assassin? Surely that would have resulted in Hitler being a renowned artist or something", I hear you say. Well, sh-sh-shut up! Look, WWII had to happen because if it didn't, then we wouldn't have mangoes and animu. It's a stupid joke, and I've left out something that could be misconstrued as offensive, so don't get your panties in a bunch. I don't even like most mangoes and animu. Oh no now I've offended the weaboos. Is there no end to this vicious cycle of offending certain demographics unintentionally?!

Sorry went a bit off tangent there, I'm a history buff so anything having to do with the past gets me foaming in the mouth. So right, if I could travel back in time, to any point in history, I would travel back to anywhere in 2002-2007 and punch 2002-2007 me in his stupid, self righteous, pretentious, and bigoted face (I fucking hate that guy). Then maybe anally rape him or something. It's not really rape or anything if it's your past self, at most it'd just be some weird form of masturbation. No wait I would go back to the time when Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (no not that Gaius Julius Caesar, the other Gaius Julius Caesar) was born and see the rise of the Roman Empire (best empire ever) with my own two eyes. Yeah that's what I would do.

Anyway when this is all done I can then be all smug about it and go, yeah, this thing has been a work of art  (if literary masturbation is an art, it probably is) spanning almost a decade, and that's just the first chapter! Seeing as to how I have 22 sections planned, and if the first chapter is anything to go by, I should have this all wrapped up in 154 years if my math is correct (it is correct, instead of doing it in my head like I'm supposed to, I opened up the calculator). So keep your eyes open when this thing is finally done as I will most likely prove to be a hypocrite and get this published in a vanity press, and like P. Kirby, proceed to beg everyone I know to buy it even if it's not really all that good. See you in 2168.

Secondly, I think it's time to start learning a new language. Either Rust or Go. Then I could blog about my adventures I guess because I suppose that's what all proper programmers do right? Keep a blog about their programming escapades and stuff.

I've also tried starting up my older hobbies towards the end of 2013, first with Gunpla and then with 日本語 (look at me I'm all smug that I can read that, but that really just makes others think how much of a pretentious ass I am). Problem is I'm now like 40 or something so my neck starts to hurt fairly easily if I'm scrunched over in one spot for too long. Got the Sex Marquis' (I'll spell it how it's pronounced damn it) Tallgeese MG back in December 2013. Used to be able to finish this in half a day back when I was a young lad in college. Now, the damn shield isn't even done yet. It's what 4 months? Holy hell man.

As for Japanese, I was up to like 430 kanji memorized, then I dropped it for two years when I started working at my current company (I'm a workaholic, blow me. Oh please, please blow me. I wasn't being confrontational. I'd really like one right about now.) and now I can't remember the readings. I tried going at it again but I'm like, man I already did this before I don't want to do it again.

So for Gunpla and Moonspeak, still not too sure, but that's it for now. Man this was fun. I've missed this. I've been getting my kicks shit posting on message boards the past couple of years, but shit posting on a spot all to yourself is great. I'll miss the reactions though so I guess I'll find other blogs to shitpost on or something.

I'm kidding.

Disclaimer: I'm mostly joking, so if you're offended don't be etc. Also, proofreading? WOTZ DAT?!


Thursday, March 27, 2014

What's the point of making your profile private on social networking sites?

While clearing the 6k+(!!) spam in my main gmail account's inbox I ran across this old blog. I had sworn I'd do something funny and post one stupid update a year but failed even that. Ah well. Anyway this post below has been sitting in my drafts since 2008. I love going through all the shit I've written up but haven't bothered publishing just too see what feckless trite I used to write. Though admittedly, this isn't much more different than what I write these days. Or think since I barely write anymore.

I don't even know who C_monyet is, or what the original topic was about. GameFAQs LUE is pretty lame now. Everybody just grew up I suppose. It's been a good what? 12? 15? years. 


C_monyet over at GameFAQs has pointed the above out, and really I must agree. Making your profile private isn't helping the social networking community, in fact it's damaging it.

Allowing users to make their profiles available only to people that they know on a personal level is just plain stupid. Take Friendster, which Chiquito (not monyet's real name but I'm using it since I like it) stated in his topic.

All I can say about it is that for a service which caters to cyber stalkers, it's not very conducive for cyber stalking. I mean if I want to know where some girl lives, I should be able to find out with a quick look without having to go through various hoops like creating a fake online identity, posing as someone looking for online friends, and trying for years to get into her inner circle.


Ah, but I suppose the internet has spoiled me. Ever since it came to be, people have been taking it for granted. No more digging through a girl's garbage just to find out what kind of food she likes. You just go online and take a look.

No more breaking into her house and checking up on what books she likes.

No more rummaging through her underwear drawer to find out what kind of underwear she likes.

No more providing her BFF (who is probably not attractive) with various sexual favors in return for information against your would be rivals. God I miss licking her toes.