**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT**

It's time for another Important Ann–

Joe's singing in an Advent Lessons and Carols concert, this Friday at 7:00pm. He will be music by Tye, Ferris, Cherubini, and Bieber.

Oh, wow. Thank you for the—wait, did you say "Bieber"?

Yes, Justin Bieber. It was on that flyer you showed me.

You mean this flyer?

Yes, right there. It says "featuring music by Tye, Ferris, Cherubini, and Bieber."

That's Biebl. Franz Biebl. Famous for the Ave Maria made popular by Chanticleer. Which is the piece we're singing.

Oh. That... makes more sense.

Yes. Yes it does.

And here I was looking forward to your rendition of "Boyfriend."

Maybe later.

But come to our concert! I promise there will be absolutely no Justin Bieber songs!

You Probably Won't Regret It!™ (Unless you're a fan of the Bieb.)

What We're Watching

Cop shows. All cop shows, for some reason.

Now that we're approaching the mid-season hiatus, I finally have enough time to stop watching things long enough to write about watching things. We were off on a bad foot to begin with this season. I had two international journeys as soon as the season started, so we were behind to start off with and are only now gradually catching up.

So here, in particular order, is a list of the TV shows we have given what could have been otherwise productive hours this year.

Hunger Memes

You know what that last post was lacking? Memes.

AMTOTHGJTIOP

That's "All My Thoughts On The Hunger Games Jumbled Together In One Post." Spoilers, or something.

It's 12:20 AM, and I've got fifty pages left in Mockingjay. A certain firebomb has just gone off in the Capitol (you who have read it know what that means). I have to get up at 6 AM. Do I push through, stay up an hour or two longer to finish, then just be a wreck the next day? Do I risk simply not being able to keep my eyes open and falling asleep with twenty pages left? I opt to save it for later, so I can plow through until the end in one big chunk.

The first thing I do when I get in to work the next morning, after answering the two or three emails waiting for me, is finish the book. This proves to be a mistake, as I can't concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day, and keep going over the ending in my head, trying to make sense of it.

I don't think I've ever read a book which changed tone so quickly. At 100 pages left, it's a war thriller; with 50, a shock; at 10, I have resigned myself to the fact that it's a deeply depressing book about the futility of struggle, mired in the inhuman morality which infects all the characters. Then, on the next to last page the tone of the book completely turns and it ends with one of the most hopeful, positive endings you could ask for.

(If you disagree on that last point, I'll explain myself at the end.)

Happy 10th Anniversary, Dear Blog

If you're reading this, it means that I forgot to come up with something funny or insightful between April, when I created this scheduled post, and today.

Actually, I did, but thought it would be funny to leave that message there.

But today is, in fact, the blog's 10th anniversary (or, at least, the anniversary of the old blog). So in honor, I'll try to dig up the 10 most memorable posts—one from each year—of this blog's existence, and give a little write up of what was going on that year.

Wrong Emails

Nov 6th, 2013:

RE: Big Top Math 

Isabella did not pass her Big Top Math test today. Please be sure she is practicing her math facts. Thanks 

Carolyn Ayers
1st Grade Teacher
Stone Lakes
<phone number>
<email address>

* * *

Nov 14th, 2013:

RE: student of the month 

Isabella was chosen for our October student of the month. There is an invitation for you to join us on Monday, November 18th for the celebration in her binder.

Carolyn Ayers
1st Grade Teacher
Stone Lakes
<phone number>
<email address>

I guess math doesn't factor too heavily in choosing the student of the month?

Memetastic

* * *

Happy Halloween!

The Official Rankings (2013)

1. Anthropomorphic Superheroes
2. Anthropomorphic Old Guy, Boyscout, and Dog
3. Anthropomorphic Monsters
4. Anthropomorphic Robots
5. Anthropomorphic Rats
6. Anthropomorphic Scotsmen
7. Anthropomorphic Cars
8. Anthropomorphic Fish
9. Anthropomorphic Toys (third time)
10. Anthropomorphic Monsters in College
11. Anthropomorphic Bugs
12. Anthropomorphic Toys (again)
13. Anthropomorphic Toys
14. Anthropomorphic Cars (again)

Fun fact: Monsters University is the first Pixar film since Monsters, Inc. that I did not get to see in theaters.

A Very Minecraft Birthday

It's not like I was late uploading these pictures. It's just that we were late having the birthday party.



Anyways, I don't much feel like giving a write-up, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. And given the picture to word conversion ratio of 1:1000, I've technically given you 48,000 words about the party.

Ripped from the Headlines

Seen in the (Canadian) National Post today:

Story #1 (front page in the print edition): "Birth of the 'Baby Factory'"

The film, House of Surrogates, tells the story of Dr. Nayna Patel, who is building a clinic to house hundreds of poverty-stricken Indian women making babies for childless Westerners. 

The one-stop surrogacy shop — complete with a gift shop and hotel rooms — is under construction as part of India’s multi-billion-dollar commercial surrogacy industry. 

Dr. Patel already runs the Akanksha clinic, which currently accommodates around 100 pregnant women in a single house.

Story #2 (page A4): "Protesters Expose Quebec Charter"

Julie-Anne Beaulac, a 19-year-old college student, wrote the slogan “Crucifix décâlisse” (Crucifix, get the hell out) across her chest and bared her breasts as Question Period began in the Quebec City chamber Tuesday. 

“We find it completely aberrant that bills such as the charter, which are supposed to be promoting secularism in Quebec, are voted on beneath a crucifix,” she said in a phone interview after being released by the constables. 

Morgane Mary-Pouliot, another Femen Québec member, said that far from being a cultural artifact to cherish, the crucifix is a reminder of a time when women in Quebec were told by the Catholic Church that their chief role was to produce children.

Um... are you sure you're protesting in the right place?

Aside: if the Church tells women that their chief role is to produce children, why are there so many virgins on the universal calendar?

Little Neros & A Pinch of Incense

From Polycarp.net:

Polycarp's greatest contribution to Christianity may be his martyred death. His martyrdom stands as one of the most well documented events of antiquity. The emperors of Rome had unleashed bitter attacks against the Christians during this period, and members of the early church recorded many of the persecutions and deaths. Polycarp was arrested on the charge of being a Christian -- a member of a politically dangerous cult whose rapid growth needed to be stopped. Amidst an angry mob, the Roman proconsul took pity on such a gentle old man and urged Polycarp to proclaim, "Caesar is Lord". If only Polycarp would make this declaration and offer a small pinch of incense to Caesar's statue he would escape torture and death. To this Polycarp responded, "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" Steadfast in his stand for Christ, Polycarp refused to compromise his beliefs, and thus, was burned alive at the stake.

A pinch of incense. That's it. That's the price. But he couldn't do it, and was put to death for his stubborn refusal to abandon his Christian beliefs. And he's not the only one. Throughout the ages, there have been many, many Christians who would prefer the most excrutiating death over the most trivial denial of Christ. One would almost think we have a martyrdom fetish.

Happy Name Day to Our Little Girl

Regina Celeste

Three-peat

Chesterton on Religious Wars

"Oh, you kings, you kings!" cried out Adam, in a burst of scorn. "How humane you are, how tender, how considerate! You will make war for a frontier, or the imports of a foreign harbour; you will shed blood for the precise duty on lace, or the salute to an admiral. But for the things that make life itself worthy or miserable—how humane you are! I say here, and I know well what I speak of, there were never any necessary wars but the religious wars. There were never any just wars but the religious wars. There were never any humane wars but the religious wars. For these men were fighting for something that claimed, at least, to be the happiness of a man, the virtue of a man. A Crusader thought, at least, that Islam hurt the soul of every man, king or tinker, that it could really capture."

~The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Saint Anthony Works in Mysterious Ways

So, to accommodate the ever-expanding fam, we have made the move to acquire a means of conveyance suitable for transporting three car seats safely and securely.

In other words, we traded in my beloved G6 (*sniff*) for a minivan. Particularly, we got a swagger wagon, that is, the 2013 Toyota Sienna SE. As is appropriate for this blog, it comes with all the bells and whistles. All of them. All. Of. Them. The car could basically be described as a driving bell and whistles.

Here, I made you a picture.

Some specs:
3.5L V6 DOHC 24-Valve with Dual VVT-i; 266 hp @ 6200 rpm, 245 lb.-ft. @ 4700 rpm.
6-speed electronically-controlled automatic transmission, with intelligence (ECT-i) with manual shift mode.
Sport-tuned electric power steering.
Power-assisted ventilated front and rear disc brakes.
19" 6-spoke alloy wheels.

Compared with the G6:
2005 G6 GT: 3425 lb. curb weight / 202 hp = 16.96 lbs./hp
2013 Sienna SE: 4480 lb. curb weight / 266 hp = 16.84 lbs./hp

So the new car is officially more powerful than the old. And it's definitely more powerful than some dorky Kias that shall remain nameless.

Alas and alack, it is not blue, but a much more neutral "Predawn Gray Mica" with a dark charcoal interior. Le sigh.

Quick Takes

The "I must post something or there'll be no entry for July in the Archives" edition.

Happy 33rd Birthday, Harry Potter!

In honor of his 33rd birthday, we present some titles from the forthcoming series Harry Potter and the Midlife Crisis:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Gallstone
• Harry Potter and the Bedchamber of his Secretary
• Harry Potter and the Tax Auditor of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Urination of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Cholesterol Panel
• Harry Potter and the Rancorous Credit Card Debt
• Harry Potter and the Reliving of the Glory Days
• Harry Potter and the Ex-wife's New Husband
• Harry Potter and the Rising Hogwarts Tuition
• Harry Potter and the Bright Red Sports Car
• Harry Potter and the Speeding Ticket

**Another Important Announcement**

It's time for another IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Oh boy! Oh boy!

Repeat Victory!

Go, Me!

XKBW: Belief

**Important Announcement**

Hey! Listen up! We have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

.

.

.

Are you ready?

All Minecraft, All the Time

So, let's see what Damien has been up to in Minecraft since we last checked in.

His love affair with underwater pumpkins continues.

He's also developing his house-building skills.

...and sometimes combining the two.

Underwater pumpkin house!

GeoGuessr

Remember my little adventure to discover where some Ford Mustang marketing photos were taken? Well, someone made a game out of that: GeoGuessr.

It turns out I'm really good. So far, my boast is that I was able to correctly identify, to within two meters, a location in the middle of the Kalahari desert in Botswana.

Speaking of Minecraft

As previously mentioned, St. John Notch has been rescued via the use of a level editor. The details were that I recreated the level with the same seed, then copied and pasted the cathedral and surrounding grounds into the new version, then rebuilt the missing portion. The Crafting Murloc also joined me to help complete it.

Here's the restored portion of the cathedral. Note gold tabernacle.

Since it's east-facing, like all churches worth their salt, the sunrise shows through the window.

Preschoolers + Minecraft = Chaos

So, while Damien wasn't looking, I made a copy of his Minecraft save game so I could see what he's been up to. Join me, won't you, for this voyage of discovery into the mind of a three-year-old.

Before we begin, I would like to point out that I have spent very little time teaching him how to play. I've shown him how to move and look around, and how to copy items out of the creative mode inventory. He's learned just about everything else himself from either watching me play, or figuring it out on his own.

So the first thing we see when we log on is...

Wikipedia Fact of the Day

You know the movie Singin' in the Rain? Awesome movie, right? Y'know how the plot revolves around Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) dubbing her voice for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), because Lamont's voice is so terrible?

Well, technically-not-ironically-because-it's-not-a-reversal-of-expectations-but-the-word-ironic-should-honestly-just-be-appropriated-for-these-kinds-of-funny-coincidences, Debbie Reynolds own voice was dubbed over in a couple numbers, "Would You?" and "You are My Lucky Star" by Betty Noyes.

Here's Debbie Reynolds singing "You are My Lucky Star", in a scene cut from the movie:

***BREAKING NEWS***

So, you remember my friend Patrick Leinen, and his brother Chip? Remember, they wrote the Confession app which got so much press for being the first smartphone app to carry an imprimatur and nihil obstat?

Patrick Leinen: 2001 file photo

Well, they're at it again:


First Mobile App to be Launched by Pope from Vatican

South Bend, IN — On Friday Pope Francis will break new ground by becoming the first Pope to launch a mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and Android. The Pontifical Mission Societies’ MISSIO app is a free app that features the latest news and video from around the world about the Catholic Church. This launch event marks a unique, historic moment for the Church and her use of digital technology to connect with the faithful.

Little i Apps, an app development company, was chosen by the Pontifical Mission Societies to develop both the mobile application and the proprietary software that will allow the app to be globally activated by Pope Francis from the Vatican. Little i Apps is no stranger to drawing connections between digital and sacred spaces. In 2011, they developed and launched, Confession: A Roman Catholic App, which triggered an international response to how individuals could properly make use of digital tools to aid their spiritual lives. “We are excited and honored to have been selected to develop the first app launched by a Pope. The importance of this launch and the opportunity to help spread the Good News globally is not lost on us,” said Patrick Leinen, co-founder of Little i Apps.  According to Fr. Andrew Small, OMI, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and visionary behind the app, the Pope has personally shared his eagerness for the release of MISSIO.

This event will fall on the heels of World Communications Day when the Catholic Church reflects on the former pontiff, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s invitation to Catholics to make better use of social media in sharing the Gospel. The Pope Emeritus, who opened the first papal Twitter account, challenged the Church to think about social networking sites as “new spaces for evangelization.” Pope Francis offers Catholics a new opportunity with the launch of MISSIO to reflect on ways their mobile devices can also be used as spaces for evangelization.

Catholics and non-Catholics alike are invited to participate in this event by downloading MISSIO today.  The app will remain locked until Pope Francis personally unlocks it with the tap of an iPad button from the Vatican. Users around the world will then receive a push notification that the app has been launched by the Pope and is ready for use.

MISSIO is available for free at the iTunes App Store and Google Play. For more information, please visit Little i Apps online at http://www.littleiapps.com or contact Patrick Leinen, developer and co-founder, at marketing@littleiapps.com or call 574-307-0853. To learn more about the Pontifical Mission Societies and their global work or to donate to their cause, visit their website at http://www.onefamilyinmission.org/.

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Another version of the press release added the line: "the Pope has personally shared his eagerness for the release of MISSIO and requested an Android version for his own smartphone."

That totally vindicates my choice of smartphone.

Quicker Takes

So, following on his ability to burp at will, Damien can now toot on command.

...which, we realized, means that he has total control over those muscles down there and he has no reason not to be potty trained.

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I discovered recently that I'd been unknowingly been buying vegan chili for the last month. Did not notice it was meatless, even after eating it numerous times.

It's good chili.

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More Damien adventures in Minecraft: I made his game public on our LAN, so Anne Marie could join. She tried to start building a farm, and building in a Minecraft game run by a three-year-old is about as effective as cleaning a house lived in by a three-year-old. Anyways, I pointed out Rie's character to Damien, and he ran to her said "Hi, mommy!" dropped TNT at her feet, and lit the fuse. He spent the next 30 minutes following her around doing this.

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I've been growing my moustache out. It's now long enough to twirl. It's great, because now I have something to do with my hands while I think up evil schemes.

Actually, it's always assumed that supervillains grow evil facial hair because they're evil. But has anyone investigated whether the correlation goes the other way? Maybe facial hair just makes one evil. Maybe the hairs implant evil thoughts into one's head. Like, here comes one now: "I shall shave all the bunnies, kittens, and puppies in the world, depriving it of cuteness! Muahahaha!"

Hey, I never claimed they were good evil schemes.

But on the plus side, if we ever find my long-lost twin, we'll know which of us is the evil one.

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When did "totes" become a word, and can I hate everyone who uses it?

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What's the difference between a terrorist and a three-year-old? You can negotiate with a terrorist.

Redemptrix Walkthrough

OK, for reals now, here's the actual 1:1 scale Minecraft Redemptrix.

 

...and it occurs to me after posting this that I forgot to add landing gear. She's hovering a meter above the ground.

Let's Code – CPM2DoB Part 5: Slay

So Lent ended and suddenly I could play games that I didn't write, which sort of cut into my time (more than motivation) to finish CPM2DoB. Also, the fact that it is now actually playable makes me think less about plowing ahead to get something finished.

But the main reason I haven't been working on CPM2DoB is because I finally noticed that Slay came out for Android, and I've been playing that non-stop. I used to have Slay for my iPhone, but when I picked up my Android, it had not yet been released for the platform (the loss of that, Bejeweled Blitz, and my Cross Sums app, were the hardest part about switching to Android). A couple weeks ago, I thought back to Slay and found out it was finally released on Android.

Slay is a brilliant game. Simple rules which lead to complex strategies. Addictive turn-based gameplay. All wrapped in a cute little package. The game is played on a hex grid. At the start, you have territories scattered across an island, along with five other players. Each territory has a capital, and the capital accumulates the wealth of that territory. Each territory gets one resource per turn for each hex space in the territory (unless there's a tree on the space). Resources are required to buy your soldiers and also for their upkeep. The basic units are peasants, which cost 10 resources to buy. Putting two peasants together makes a spearman. A spearman plus a peasant makes a knight, and a knight and a peasant makes a barron. You can capture enemy spaces so long as they are not defended by a unit as strong as your attacking unit. So peasants can take spaces so long as they are not defended by other units. Spearmen can take spaces defended by peasants. Knights, by spearmen, etc. Units defend the space they occupy and all adjacent spaces. In addition to defending with soldiers, your capital acts as a defense unit (equivalent in power to a peasant) and you can also build defense towers (equivalent to spearmen).

Units also require resources for their upkeep. A peasant takes 2 resources, a spearman 6, knights 18, and barrons 54. If a territory runs out of resources, all units in that territory die. You can join your territories, obviously, by capturing the spaces in between them. And you can split enemy territories. So a major part of the strategy is to outflank the enemy, splitting his territories, and causing his troops to die of starvation, but without overextending yourself, and opening your own troops to being outflanked.

While playing this, I began wondering how some of these simple strategy game concepts—such as resource management, territory control, and unit purchase costs—could be applied to chess. I began to think it might be fun to add a new game mode to CPM2DoB that incorporates these concepts. The rules I have in mind might go something like this:

• At the start of the game, the spaces in the board are randomly assigned a resource level. They would probably be simple, like three resource levels: low, medium, and high. Low resources spaces would give one resource, medium would give two, and high would give three. The spaces would visually indicate what resource level they give.
• Each player starts with a king. All other pieces must be purchased with resources.
• At the start of the player's turn, he receives resources based on the spaces he controls. Something like full resources for every space he occupies or threatens uncontested (i.e., one of his pieces can move to it, but no other players' pieces can), and half resources if he threatens it, but it is contested (i.e., another player is also threatening it).
• Alternatively, it might be more Slay-like, where once you've captured a space, it's yours and you gain resources for it until another player takes it.
• On his turn, a player could either move a piece or purchase a new piece. New pieces are placed in relation to the king, based on the piece's moves. So a new knight could be placed a knight's move from the king, a new queen would be placed a queen's move from the king. I think in this game mode, pawns could move forwards, backwards, and to the sides, and capture on the diagonals.
• Pieces should require upkeep, probably related to the purchase price. If a player runs out of resources and can't pay the upkeep, I'm not sure what will happen to his pieces. They might start losing health; they might die off in some order (maybe based on piece rank) until the upkeep payment can be made with the player's current resources. Or, I might go full-Slay, and all the pieces die. This might be how you lose.

So, what do you think? I haven't started programming this game mode in yet. I have a number of other changes to make. Most importantly, I need to implement AI, so I have something to test this out against. I have an idea of how I'm going to implement AI, but that is in itself a great big can of worms.

Quick Takes: Nobody Cares Edition

Wherein I write about things that are only of interest to me.

I had plans for several posts on diverse topics, but seeing as how none of the thoughts were congealing into structured, rounded, complete articles, I have decided to write partially formed, abrupt, unfinished tidbits on things none of you care about.

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OK, that last picture of Redemptrix was mean. Here's one of the ship in broad daylight, as an apology.

Redemptrix, as seen by a space-bug about to get gooshed all over the bow.

The Glory of the Church

I built a cathedral in Minecraft.

I named it St. John Notch, because it was built on land donated from the Notcherani family.

The cathedral measures 64 L x 48 W x 32 H (not including steps or crosses). I had to level a hill in order to build it.

(Some pun involving the word "Holmes")

This was originally going to be a quick take, but I realized it's not actually that quick.

There has been a recent spat of Sherlock Holmes, and of this, The Murloc is quite pleased. Seeing as how she is the proud owner of the complete Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes collection (digitally remastered, of course), and any Holmes is good Holmes for her.

The Detecting Murloc at 221B Baker Street, London, England, in this 2004 file photo.

A quick roundup of the recent Holmeses:

Black as Space

So I figured out why Jack Flint painted his ship black.

Full-size Redemptrix in Minecraft (because someone else built the Enterprise). Either that or a black bear attacking campers in a black tent at midnight.

It makes it really hard to see.

Especially in the rain.

This Redemptrix is made of wool. I hope this doesn't make it shrink.

At least, I think I built the Redemptrix. It could be some random and haphazard arrangement of blocks, for all I can make out at night.

The Prime Minister, the President, and the Pope

Fr. Sullivan once remarked in a homily that God gives to the world the people it needs with the talents they need when the world needs them most. As an example, he noted the founding fathers of this country. Never before or since that illustrious group of men has there been gathered in one time and in one place so many minds of such political genius.

A statistician may expect talent to be randomly distributed. Perhaps, due to social and economic factors, talents may be developed in groups, but generally speaking a more homogeneous distribution might be expected. If one looks at history, then clearly this is not the case. Talent is not random and great men don't occur by happenstance. They are placed in a time and place, and rise to the occasions demanded of them.

When the world was facing perhaps the greatest threat mankind had ever produced, the most evil regime, save perhaps Carthage or the Aztecs, three people appeared, as if by divine providence, to bring it to a close. In a time when the world could not foresee a peaceful resolution to the global crisis of communism, when the very real threat of global thermonuclear war seemed frighteningly close, three heroes emerged on the scene and, without firing a single shot, brought the Soviet Union crashing down.

They were from diverse backgrounds; the theory that their concentration of talent arises from a common education or socioeconomic background does not hold. One was the daugher of a grocer, who studied chemistry. One was an actor and broadcaster, who began his career in politics at about the same age most men retire. The third was an unknown Polish priest, who suffered through two occupations.

Together, these three did more than perhaps any other person or group of people to end the communist threat. And for that, the world owes them the highest gratitude.

Nearly two years ago, I commented on the passing of one era of history. Certainly today, another has passed, with the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She was not a random occurrence, and her position in history was not by happenstance.

"Catwoman is in my kitchen washing dishes. This is weird."

That was my status update when The Murloc returned from Wondercon last Saturday.

So, while holy people were doing holy things during holy week like taking unholy toddlers to the triduum and such, the Murloc was running around getting her costume ready for Wondercon, in Anaheim, CA, March 29-31.

For this, she created a brand-new classic Catwoman outfit:

Let's Code - CPM2DoB Part 4: WHAM!

That, my friends, is the sound of running head-first into the solid brick wall of poor code structure.

I just wanted to let you know that yes, this project is still alive. As Easter loomed, I had a major project due at work that kept me from working on it much, and The Murloc also had a thing happening that required I look after the boys at home. All in all, not much time was to be had for coding.

But I did get it working and playable! (Barely.)

So back to the aforementioned skull-shattering, neck-breaking, spine-telescoping, head-on collision. I was probably about an hour away from a playable build of the game, just putting the finishing touches on the methods that handled pieces movement, damage, captures, transformation, and victory checks, when I discovered a fatal flaw in my code organization. It was caused mainly due to laziness and not thinking ahead, but resulted in a flaming crash.

(The specifics were that I was writing the piece transformation method, y'know to allow a pawn to turn into a queen. Unfortunately, the master list of the different piece types (or "masterPieces" as it's known in the code), was not visible in scope to the transformation algorithm. I could have patched it by awkwardly passing the list as a parameter through the several layers of function calls necessary to get it where it was needed, but that would have been an awkward kludge on what was already a very kludgy mess. The alternative was to move the master piece list to the class where it was needed. But that required one change, which required a restructuring over here, which meant these other methods wouldn't work and would need to be redesigned, which meant this part was now over-complicated and should be streamlined, etc., etc. All in all, what was looking to be an hour or so of coding turned into a week. On the plus side, the code was much better organized once I finished.)

So after struggling fuming, and fussing, I finally got a working build! You can move pieces! And capture! And it will even check for victory conditions! (Yay!)

Rememeber: victory is capture-based, not checkmate-based, since checkmate is impossible to determine for random damage and kings that can fight back after taking a few hits.

NYI: Auras.

The Joy of Suffering

The steeple of the town church was just barely visible over the horizon, about five miles away. That was as far as Giuseppe was allowed to venture on his own. He stopped in the middle of the dirt road, staring out towards the hills beyond, and waited.

The first sun had set a little over three hours ago, and now the second one, further and dimmer, was dipping ever closer to the horizon. A cold wind was blowing from the south, stirring the fields of dry grass and making them look for all the worlds like a beige ocean, waves crashing and white caps shimmering in the waning light. The air was pregnant with the smell of straw.

A shiver caught Giuseppe off-guard. Now that he had stopped, he was beginning to cool off. The antarctic breeze made the small rivulets of sweat feel as if they would freeze to his skin.

The wind carried with it the deep bong of the church bell, sounding the evening Angelus. Giuseppe turned around to look.

You could go back, a whispering voice as cold and subtle as the wind said to him. Papa would understand.

Read the rest here.

Quick Takes - Denver Edition

Snow!

Quick Takes Addendum

Forgot some quick takes yesterday

What do you get when you have a cumulative 9.75% off at Target and a tax return? Everything, apparently. We are proud new owners of everything Target sells.

In our defense, I had been making a list for about two months of the things we needed, in hopes that one day  the gods of crass commercialism would look upon us with favor and bestow the means and opportunity to spend our fleeting wealth. Among the items purchased were:

New dress clothes for Damien. He had no dress pants that fit him. Well, I suppose technically they did fit, but they would have been better-classified as dress shorts at this point. Conveniently, Anthony automagically has a whole wardrobe that suddenly, mysteriously fits him.

A new belt for me. I should take pictures of my old one. It had run the gamut from hilarious, to sad, to hilariously sad.

New undershirts for me. I still occasionally wear undershirts that me dear mother bought for me in high school. You know, the ones I used to wear to dance?

New pillows. I can't remember if the ones we have now were bought new when we got married, 9 years ago, or moved into this condo, 7 ½ years ago.

Whiskey and rum, to end the torment and misery felt when looking up at the liquor shelf, sighing loudly, and muttering forlornly, "why is the rum gone?"

The Murloc also purchased sundries and miscellany. I have learned not to look too closely at the things she purchases. They might bite.

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And Anthony is sick again. Fever of 102°-103° running for the last couple days. He just finished a dose of antibiotics for his last illness/ear infection on Monday. This marks the fourth consecutive Sunday that he's missed Sunday Mass due to illness.

The Murloc went into full panic/remorse mode, wondering why her baby gets sick so often, and questioning, among other things, if he's sick because of her cooking or because she doesn't clean the house enough. Discussing this with a family friend, it was remarked that nobody can beat oneself up quite like a mother. It was also mentioned by said friend that "if not cleaning caused illness, then we'd [her family] all be dead."

Quick Takes

A-yup

It would have just been embarrassing if Microsoft couldn't provide better results for help searches on their own programming language.

 I for one blah blah Google Overlords blah blah....

This bit at the bottom was extra funny, though.

Bing: so bad they have to pay you to use it!

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Brothers

Because, apparently, it isn't Lent unless I've written a short story.

You know in the holos, when the good guy finally catches up with the bad guy and winds up to deliver a solid blow right to the bad guy’s kisser? You know what they never show in those movies? How much belting the bad guy hurts.

That was the first thing I noticed after I sent my brother reeling backwards. Dadgum, my fist stung like it had been slammed in the door of dad’s hovercar.

“What the heck was that for, John?” my brother screamed, blood trickling from his mouth, trying to act all innocent-like.

“You know perfectly well, James!” I screamed back, trying to ignore the pain in my hand.

“Like spit, I do! I’m not some Tellurian mind-reader.”

I scowled at him, as if the look could bore a hole through his head. “Mary,” I said.

He rolled his eyes. “You’re not hung up about that, are ya? What’s the big deal?”

I lunged for him, but didn’t catch him off guard, like the first time. He blocked my jab, but I caught him with my left hook. He stumbled to the ground, and now both my fists hurt like the dickens.

Read the rest here.

A St. Joseph's Day Meditation

I started writing this for last St. Joseph's Day, so heaven help me if I let another one go by without publishing it.

Heaven, it occurs to me, would, for all but the most saintly of us, be a wholly unpleasant place.

I had this revelation one night while rocking Damien to sleep. While holding him, I remembered something a commentor had said on John C. Wright's journal. The commentor (I don't remember who it was) mentioned that one of the first things he did after holding his newborn for the first time was to call his mother to ask if that's how much she had loved him.

While I never called my parents, it is a thought that had occurred to me several times. "Is this how much my dad loves me?" It is at once a heartening and discouraging thought.

There are two proper responses for any sane and normal human being, upon realizing the love that has been showered upon him. The first is, of course, gratitude. All but the most sociopathic person can't help but feel a profound sense of thankfulness at having been blessed in so generous a way. The second is—perhaps a bit counter-intuitively—shame and guilt.

What I thought of, that night I held and rocked Damien to sleep, feeling a profound connection with my own parents who had done the same thing and felt the same way towards me so many years earlier, was all of the times I had not returned that love. All of the times that I talked back, disregarded, disrespected, or failed in one way or another to show that proper gratitude for that love.

And that brings us to heaven. The unique thing about the Christian God is not that God is simply loving, or merely the source of love, but rather that God is Love. Like, the very concept of it. Which means that heaven is simply the state of being face to face with Love. Not some fallen or imperfect being that shows love, but with infinite, perfect Love Himself. Who could bear that? Who could possibly stand to face God, overpowered by such radiance, and not cower in shame and guilt? Only the most perfect being, polished to a mirror like shine, who can reflect Love back with intensity commensurate to that received. The tiniest imperfection would burn in agony.

Hell, I get. Hell makes sense. If God is Love, and we have free will, surely we can turn from Love. Hell is merely the state of willfully depriving oneself of that perfect Love. We can see hell in this life. Hell, I can see it in my life. Hell is simply choosing not-Love.

Heaven, I don't get. I mean, I get it in concept, but not in practice. How could one be comfortable in heaven? How could one be at peace in the face of the divine Love, knowing all one's imperfections and flaws? Knowing what is required, it still seems unobtainable, in spite of divine forgiveness. Yes, God never tires of forgiving, but we often tire of trying to get it.

So my view on heaven has changed. I don't think of attaining salvation by just "not doing bad things". There's so much more to it than that. One could go through his whole life without outwardly committing a sin, and still be miserable in heaven. What is necessary, then is the will and desire to Love. That, simply. Nothing less and nothing more. Note, not the ability to love, for one could very easily be capable of doing something and simply not choose it. Instead, the final, ultimate question is, "do I Love?"

Pope Takes

Pope Francis Covers Women with Blankets!

(I wonder if that's a substitute for binders full of women in Argentina?)

According to a new item posted by Fr. Z about the Latin Mass in Argentina, "Regresó la misa en latín, con mujeres cubiertas por mantillas," which plugged into Google Translate means "he returned the Latin Mass, with women covered by blankets." This is obviously oppression, suppression, impression, and linear regression of women! This just goes to show that the eeeeeevil Church patriarchy isn't happy unless all of the fairer sex is smothered under layers of covers!

All kidding aside, remember my wish list for the new pope? Someone encouraging of the Latin Mass? Well, Fr. Z posted this article. Apparently, within 48 hours of B16 (bingo!) signing Summorum Pontificum, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio arranged for a regular Latin Mass in Buenos Aires.

From other reports, it doesn't sound like he, personally, will be pushing hard for the EF Mass. However, I don't think that's really even his duty, at this point. So long as he allows it to continue and grow, it's really the job of the people to promote and further it. In SP, B16 (bingo!) said that priests everywhere had permission to celebrate the Latin Mass wherever the people demanded it. The onus is on the people to demand it.

Brick by brick, as Fr. Z says.

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Habemus Papam!

I've gotta say; this is wreaking havoc on my Lenten resolutions.

Compare and Contrast

Remember last year when we tried to get Damien to say "please"?



Well, here's Anthony, a full year younger:



Anthony was drinking from a straw a full two weeks before Damien. Both boys are on antibiotics for ear infections. Damien screams and fights the medicine—unless he sees Anthony taking his first.

There is a very strong reason to suspect that Anthony may be potty-trained first.

Quick Takes (whatever day I finally post this)

...and I'm sick once again. I should just schedule blogger to auto-post an "I'm sick" post about once a month. It would probably be right most of the time.

The entire family is dying of the Lung Crud. This time, Anthony was patient zero, and I followed shortly after. Odd, though, that Anthony got sick on Friday, when he hadn't been out of the house since the previous Sunday. How are these germs getting in?

#

Stations of the cross have been particularly penitential this Lent. I have somehow managed to always end up in front of a family who follows along at their own pace, disregarding the tempo set by Father when intoning the Stabat Mater, and who somehow always end up out of sync with the entire rest of the congregation when reading the other parts. It is a special kind of hell, when you are trying to sing or read and someone else is speaking right in your ear at a completely different speed. It's akin to the torture room described by C.S Lewis in That Hideous Strength, which had patterns of dots on the ceiling and floor, which didn't quite line up. It seems designed to break down your will.

I wonder of the CIA has ever tried that as an "enhanced interrogation technique". That or smearing potential terrorists' backs with bacon grease, waiting a couple days, then popping any back pimples that form. Cause gorram that would make me talk in a hurry.

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Let's Code - CPM2DoB Part 3: Purpose

There are 2,771 results for "Chess" in the Google Play store. Googling "Chess app for Windows" returns about 10 million results. There's even several open source chess engines. So why am I writing a chess program again?

Well, aside from "for practice", I wanted to do something different. What if the pieces had different moves? What if queens could move like knights, or knights weren't limited to one hop and could continue to move along their path, like bishops and rooks? What if the pieces started in different arrangements? What if they were in a wedge formation, rather than abreast? What if all the pawns were replaced with queens? What if the victory conditions were different? What if you had to capture both king and queen to win? What if the board had special properties, like wrap-around edges, or was 10x10 instead of 8x8? What if it was a hexagonal grid? What if pieces had health and damage? What if it took several attacks to kill some pieces? What if others could heal their teammates? What if pieces had auras that would enhance the abilities of pieces near them?

By now we're hardly talking about chess, but some strange turn-based RPG strategy game hybrid that just happens to have chess pieces. Oh, that's a good idea, too. What if you could change the look of the pieces?

That was the idea behind a Chess Pirate Mercenaries 2D of Battle. I wanted to write a chess program with user-definable pieces and moves, that could handle all sorts of different board configurations and rules. So now, I can show you the rest of the Options dialog that I fuzzed out in the last update:

Quick Takes (3/1/2013)

Greetings from the couch!

Apparently, telling your wife that you don't believe in this whole "period" thing, and that she's just making it up, doesn't get you any brownie points.

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The Murloc wants to move to Mission Viejo. I want to move to Lake Elsinore. The Murloc has pointed out that Lake Elsinore is far from everything and everyone important (sorry, Blue Fox). This got me thinking:

Median sales price for Mission Viejo (Nov-12 to Jan-13):
$480,000

Median sales price for Lake Elsinore (Nov-12 to Jan-13):
$214,775

Price of a Cessna Skycatcher ≈ $145,000

The choice, it seems, is clear.

#

Damien has reached the phase where he is now pretending to be things that he is not. He has previously pretended to exist in other states (such as pretending to be asleep, particularly when we're yelling at him, as if he can't get in trouble if we think he's asleep), but now he is pretending to be other creatures. After showing him the Simon's Cat videos on YouTube, he pretended for the rest of the evening to be a cat, and crawled around and meowed. He plays the act very well, since he will refuse to talk when he's a cat, and only nod or shake his head in answer to questions. After we put him to bed that evening, we would occasionally hear little mews from the bedroom. Just the other night, we gave him a piece of cheese, and while eating it he declared that he was a mouse, and began squeaking.

I'm sure child psychologists would talk about this being an important development milestone and indicates some form of cognitive step towards abstraction and the ability to reason. However, like a physicist explaining the colors of a sunset in terms of the light refraction caused by the interaction of different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum with atmospheric dust, they would simultaneously be entirely correct and entirely missing the point.

You simply can't explain joy through science.

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Speaking of Simon's Cat, you can watch all the films here. They're short and cute:

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Colloquialism of the day/week/month: "As satisfying as bacon on a Saturday morning during Lent."

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Right now:
The Murloc is sewing a dress for a new friend's little girl's birthday. She likes to listen to her Aerosmith station on Pandora whenever she is sewing. It makes me feel like I'm back in college, rooming with Whale Biologist Tom Adams. Perhaps I should ask her to buy me a coke, for old times' sake.

Let's hope AJN and ECN don't get word of this cute little pink dress with pearls and lace, or The Murloc might have to start a home business!

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A spoiler/preview of CPM2DoB:

Sede Vacante

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord, you are our eternal shepherd and guide.
In your mercy grant your Church
a shepherd who will walk in your ways
and whose watchful care will bring us your blessing.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Update:

The Knights of Columbus have put together a site for the occasion: PrayerForTheChurch.com:

O Lord Jesus Christ, Supreme Pastor of Your Church, we thank you for the ministry of Pope Benedict XVI and the selfless care with which he has led us as Successor of Peter, and Your Vicar on earth. 

Good Shepherd, who founded Your Church on the rock of Peter’s faith and have never left Your flock untended, look with love upon us now, and sustain Your Church in faith, hope, and charity. 

Grant, Lord Jesus, in Your boundless love for us, a new Pope for Your Church who will please You by his holiness and lead us faithfully to You, who are the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

 Amen.

Let's Code - CPM2DoB Part 2: Cosmetics

Part I.

Well, I was planning on talking about design philosophy this week, and was going to explain what's different about Chess Pirate Mercenaries 2D of Battle, but I got sidetracked. There's a simple truth when it comes to form design (and cosmetic programming in general):

The amount of time needed to perfect a form increases exponentially as the form nears perfection.

Basically, there's this weird vortex where, as you put more time into perfecting the design, it takes even more time to perfect than it did before. So if the form is sorta OK, then it'll take a little bit longer to make it perfect. But if the form is great, then it'll take even more time to perfect it. Weird, huh?

I have made progress on the game mechanic design, but ended up devoting more time to making it pretty. So now we have this:

Oo! Aah! Textures!

An Odd Providence

Consider Fr. Barron's latest (perhaps one of his best):


Then Marc Barnes' latest: 5 Reasons to Kill Christian Music.

Writing a Jesus-song is a well-intentioned denial that Jesus is the transcendental source of every song. We cannot actively attempt the creation of something beautiful without reference to Beauty itself, who is God. We cannot sing something true — even if it is the most misunderstood truth that “all you need is Love” — without reference to Truth itself, who is God. We cannot attempt to lift the spirit and transcend the world — which is the innate goal of all music — without acknowledging a transcendent reality towards which we have the incredible capacity to lift our spirits.

All of which serve to further reinforce the maxim I create by:
The artist serves the muse, never the agenda.

If you want to write a novel that will lead people to God, don't call it How to Get to God. Call it This Is a Beautiful Novel.

Gregorian Chant Friday

A few recordings from recent months, performed by St. John the Baptist Latin Schola. Apologies for the poor recording quality. These were made with a cell phone. Pretend they are vintage records or something.

Flos de Radice Jesse ("Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen", traditional German carol)

Alma Redemptoris Mater by Ciro Grassi, arranged for TTB choir
Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again. To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.
Jesu! Rex Admirabilis by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Words by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Jesu, Prince ever-glorious! Thou Lord of Hosts victorious!
Of radiance more than marvelous' Master, be ruler over us!

Dwell, Lord, with us, and grant we may Behold They light upon our way,
Scatter night's gloom, and so array Earth, as heaven, in noon bright day.