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?

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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.

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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.