The first step to java-happiness is to install the Java platform and development environment. In this instance, we are going with the Netbeans IDE from Sun. This may be a little interesting, as I will be using Fedora Core 2 Linux and Turtle will be using a windows environment.
Our goal is to have this step completed by the morning of Sept 12.
This blog is moving away from the stuningly concise and descriptive “my weblog” to what you see before you now. Until something better comes along. I would like to come up with something that combines the spirt of monkeys , robots, frogs, heck- Turtles, too! That burst of inspiration hasn’t hit me yet.
monkeyrobot and robotmonkey are currently being camped on for domain names, so I don’t want to taint by association.
Free the automated monkeys!
I am sure that for a ridiculous amount of money, either of these domains could be yours.
robotfrog is actually an intersting site on its own account, so I don’t want to jump in its wading pool. If you want to see neat rubber band powered toy vehicles, do take a look.
Any suggestions on a name for this blog? “my weblog” is kinda lame, but I didn’t want the lack of a decent name to delay the installation of the blog software.
The current layout of this site is also bone stock. Look for it to change (and probably break the site now and again) some time in the indeterminate future. All commments appreciated.
CSS knowledgable folks feel free to make suggestions.
My lovely wife and I have a habit of reading children’s books that are organized into a series. So many children’s books are full of layers and allusions that one misses as a child. Re-reading these books as an adult is sometimes better than reading a completely new book! I have found this to be true even with re-reading some books first read for grade school book reports, college term papers, etc.
The first series we read was the Narnia series. Very good to re-read. Much of the subtleness lost the first go round came shining through the second.
Coming to the point, the second series we are reading is the “Series of Unfortunate Events” books by Lemony Snicket. These are interesting, light reads- mostly good. Reading this as at an adult age, but apparently from a child’s viewpoint, I recently discovered that I was missing both subtle and obvious allusions by the proverbial country mile.
The heroes of this series are three intrepid ophans, their parents the possible victims of what was thought to be a tragic fire, but was surely an arson. The villian is the sinister Count Olaf, who is after the orphan’s family fortune. Featured in each book is a diffent inept guardian who fails to protect the children. Some guardians are tricked, some are murdered, some trade away the orphan’s safety in hopes of securing their own, etc.
On of these guardians later turns out to be in leauge with the evil Count Olaf- one Esme Squalor. Ring any bells? Tickle any half-asleep synapses? Turns out that there is a JD Salinger short story called “For Esmé – With Love and Squalor”.
How do I know this? Because the answer to last Sunday’s crossword puzzle for 14 down was Esme. The clue was something along the lines of “Salinger title character”. As the only Salinger character I could come up was Holden Caufield, who isn’t featured in the title, I Googled up the answer. Leading to Esme.
Which led to this post and the tiniest of enrichments to your life. Enjoy. Bask in the warm glow of newly gained trivia.
ps- Try out the Narnia link. The web page looks pretty slick- apparently a movie is coming out.
pps- A “Series of Unfortuante Events” movie is coming out as well, Jim Carey as the evil Count Olaf. Neat casting, as the Olaf in the book is something of an ersatz Master of Disguises.
pps- Here is a link to a site that collects some of the many allusions that make up a “Unfortunate” book.
ppps- lemonysnicket.com
My lovely wife brought me back an interesting book from the local Barnes & Nobels. “Wicked”, by Gregory Maguire, tells the story of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. I have consumed about 1/3 of the book. I have had to set the book down so that I can read the Frank Baum original story. My library has this massive illustrated, annotated version of “The Wizard of Oz” that I am going to read first.
The book is pretty good so far- obviously it was interesting enough that I wanted to go back and familiarize myself with the original Oz material. This book is one in a psuedo-series. Other offerings include “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” (of Cinderella fame) and another title that somehow ties into the Snow White story called “Mirror, Mirror”. I can’t comment on the other titles yet, but if they meet the quality of “Wicked”, they will be recommended reads.
I pushed this up to the level of a new article, but otherwise it is verbatim – admin
Greg ( greg@greg.com / )
Testing, testing. Note that I used a fake email address, although it is one I wish I actually had. I wasn’t sure if the email address I input would be posted visibly on the net, where it is available to spiders which go out and find email addresses on pages like this one so that they can send me ever more spam. If it shows up, I will probably elect to leave out my email address in future, since you fellas already know my email address and can guess easily enough who I am if I post in this way.
Oh, and to say something about programming, I want to know what you kids know about writing makefiles for C++ code on a LINUX box. I’m assuming I’ll find some free compiler on there, like GNU, but if you know of some other freeware one, or one that is built into the LINUX OS, let me know.
Just a general question about what your current level of expertise is, since it’s something I’m going to have to figure out in the next two weeks or so and I may want some guidance.
I believe I’ve talked with some of you about this before, but while reading “Krakatoa” by Simon Winchester I was interested in his point about art following the eruption of Krakatoa. Specifically, he noted that a lot of the paintings around that time feature brillant sunsets and that in fact these are a record of the effect the eruption had on the atmosphere. For several years after the eruption the sky was filled with small particles that wreaked havoc on sunlight and twisted it every which way, making sunsets the likes of which we’ve never seen almost routine.
It also blew my mind that the explosion was heard over 3,000 miles away, so that means it was so loud that if it happened to Jason out in the Bay Area I would have heard it here in Atlanta. That just blows my mind. But that’s another story.
Anyway, here’s a link to a story about what role this may have played in the recently stolen painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch.
Hola, friends!
Feel free to start a topic here! This software is new to me, so things might be a little slow getting started, so be patient.
