Exercises for Programmers: 57 Challenges to Develop Your Coding Skills - Chapter 2, Quotes

https://jsfiddle.net/NodToNothing/kac3o5hj/

Again, I made up my own A/C a bit.  The example called for separating the quote from the attribution, and I see how to do that, but I'm not going to.  I had more fun inserting a randomizer for Princess Bride quotes.  The top quote is random, but the bottom unordered list shows all the quotes in the Vue list so I could try a control loop.

HTML: <div id="app"> <!--one random item--> {{selectedItem}} <!--all possible items --> <ul id="example-2"> <li v-for="(item, index) in items"> {{ item.message }} </li> </ul> </div> Javascript + Vue 2.2.1 var app = new Vue({ el: '#app', components: { }, data: { items: [ { message: "\"Anybody want a peanut?\" - Fezzik"}, { message: "\"If there are, we all be dead.\" - Fezzik"}, { message: "\"He's really very short on charm.\" - Fezzik" }, { message: "\"Fuss, fuss… I think he like to scream at us.\" - Fezzik"}, {message: "\"Probably he means no harm.\" - Montoya"}, {message: "\"You have a great gift for rhyme.\" - Montoya "} ], selectedItem: '', }, created () { const idx = Math.floor(Math.random() * this.items.length); this.selectedItem = this.items[idx].message } })

Overheard at Theater Class

"Decisions have consequences. We talked about that in religion yesterday. And now look. Look! You're standing in the corner in public with your hands in the air. Is that what you really want? Is it?"

- A mother making her son stand in the corner with his hands in the air because he hadn't done his homework while his sister was dancing.  I'm glad she's finding a practical way to demonstrate the day-to-day reality of the religious lesson.

The Singular of Data is Anecdote

Thoughtworks pointed me at this enjoyable article by Amy Perfors  refuting a common saying, "The singular of data is not anecdote."  In places, it reads like I imagine Temperance Brennan would read if she weren't a fake forensic scientist based on a real person.

"A better truism would therefore be more like "the plural of anecdote is probably not data", which of course isn't nearly as catchy."

Reference Counting

"To understand reference counting, imagine a puppy. When the puppy is born, it has an owner. That owner later gets married, and the new spouse also becomes an owner of that dog. The dog is alive because they feed it. Later on, the couple gives the dog away. the new owner of the dog decides he doesn't like the dog and lets it know by kicking it out of the house. Having no owner, the dog runs away and, after a series of unfortunate events, ends up in doggy heaven.

What is the moral of this story? As long as the dog had an owner to care for it, it was fine. When it no longer had an owner, it ran away and ceased to exist. This is how reference counting works."

iPhone Programming, the Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Joe Conway and Aaron Hillegass

Best Exchange at Work Today

At the front doors at work:

Guy: "Hi, I'm Brock."
Woman: "I'm sorry."

I'm pretty sure her name was Sari, or something similar. Makes me want to change my name to Sod Off.

Quote

Professor: "Oh no, it's the albino humping worm!"
Fry: "Why do they call it that?"
Worm: Thump thump thump...
Professor: "It lacks pigment!"

Lose Lose

Heard a woman on the elevator at work talking to her friend: "He had that pony tail and he looked so stupid. So he finally cut it off. Now he looks old."

According to the Third Grade Mixed Media Art Project

at Glacier Hills, "A friend is, as it were, a second self." Congratulations Mean Mr. Mustard, Ming, Brad, Kyle, Mike, Klund, She Says and all the rest of you (Sahm, Alex, Ruis, Steve, The Ghost, Chris)...I'm sure you wanted to be exactly like me. I'm going to start my own Clone War.

Overheard at Work

I was crossing the skyway, and two young women were walking the other way.

Woman one: "I just want to remain young and hip."

Woman two: "More like young and chubby."

Ouch!

Favorite Quote of the Day

I get it, elegance. That's why people come to Yakov's Nubian Bling Explosion.

- 30 Rock, Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001

Something Good to Hear Right After Turning 41

On the way to coffee this morning, I heard two women at work discussing a coworker. One of them suddenly opined, "He's much better looking now that he's older."

Sorry Mean Mr. Mustard, but neither of them had a Russian accent.

Probably a Lot Wrong with this Halloween Conversation...

Me: "See. We're getting teenagers now."

Pooteewheet: "We were getting teenagers before."

Me: "These were chesty teenagers. They're older."

Pooteewheet: "We were getting chesty teenagers before. They were Asian. But they were chesty for Asian teenagers."

A Quote for My Sister from Community

The Advanced Criminal Law episode:

Annie: You listen up, Pierce! I'm gonna tell you what my mother told me when I wanted to quit cheerleading. 'You're not very pretty, you have no boobs, and you can't do a basket toss to save your life.' But you made a commitment. So pick up your pompoms, Pierce, stuff your bra, and get ready for the team bus to forget you at a Taco Bell, because life is tough. But we soldier on, and that's just the way it goes.

Quotables

At Bunker Hills Park in Coon Rapids:
Eryn, as I'm pushing her on the swing: "Please stop."
Me: "Why?"
Eryn: "It's making me scared."
Me: "It's making you scared? Why?"
Eryn: "I think its the place where grandpa pushed me and I broke my arm."

During the Land of the Lost marathon on comedy central before we went bicycling this morning, Eryn on Chaka, who's trying to explain that someone was taken by a Sleestak: "I think he might speak a little bit of Spanish."

Cinco de Ocho

I was sitting in the cafe' at work today and overhead one woman state to another:

"She's been dating him for a while. I think she said they met at at some celebration, like Cinco de Ocho."

My first conclusion was that the woman speaking was dumb and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near coworkers of Mexican heritage. But then something about Cinco de Ocho tickled my brain, so I went searching and found the reference:

Marge: Poor Ned. This is his first Jellyfish Festival alone.
Homer: I know. And it doesn't get any easier from here. There's the Tongue Kiss Festival, Cinco de Ocho, the Hobo Oscars. Days just made for lovers. Not widowers--lovers!

So now I'm faced with a number of possibilities:

1. She's dumb.
2. Her friend is dumb,
   
3. She's cleverly making fun of her friend.
4. Her friend is cleverly making fun of her.

Conundrum!

My Wife Cuts Through the Obfuscation

We were watching MSNBC this morning when a bit came on about Terrafugia's Transition Roadable. The MSNBC anchor announced with some enthusiasm that we might all be like the Jetsons soon and that someone had "invented a flying vehicle!"

My wife said, "They call it a plane."

Mars and Venus

Probably the best conversation I'll overhear all weekend. In the bubbling spa between two people who were obviously there together:

Guy: Did you bring any condoms?

Woman: Yea. Two. Did you bring any?

Guy: Yep. Eight.

Overheard at Work

Overheard over the wall in the cafe at work:

Woman: "He's that chef who travels all over the world..."

Man: "Borgnine?"

Girlfriend

I was on the elevator at work today and there were two men and two women (about half my age, or twice my age if you add them together) having a discussion which culminated in one of the women stating, "No. His current girlfriend died with him."

That's an interesting (un)living arrangement (ha!). I managed not to laugh until I got off the elevator, by which time I realized they were talking about Grizzly Man, although I think she could have phrased it more clearly.

Because I Care

On the way home from the ER on Friday, I got to thinking about how kidney stones are really painful, and that it might be a valuable path for one's life if one were to come up with either a cure, or a way to ease the suffering, perhaps by some medical drink or by shortening the duration, of individuals with kidney stones. These sorts of issues weigh heavily on me when I think about how I'd like to make sure anyone else I meet is best prepared to combat their stones. With all manner of altruism foremost in my mind, the embodiment of a modern day Albert Schweitzer, I asked Pooteewheet, "Do you think sucking would help?"

You can blame my lack of experimental knowledge, inability to make a lasting impact on the medical community, and inability to brighten the lives of millions of victims of their own evil kidneys on her unwillingness to try until there was some measure of success. All she could do was look at me and remark, "Didn't you just leave the ER?"

In response to which I can only quote Mignon McLaughlin, who said in The Second Neurotic's Notebook (1966), "Grasp your opportunities, no matter how poor your health; nothing is worse for your health than boredom."