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In Praise of Why

A few years ago I found an essay I loved (
http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html) I
guess mainly because it was so outrageous and I was a graduate student at
the time.

So I love attack mode and Why's opening lines in the Poignant opus that rai=
l
against Java (...huge wall of Java books ...) charmed me.  But the rest of
the thing struck me as weird (still does, but read on).

I'm an old fart now and have forgotten what it's like to be a kid and
discover humor, the only exception being an abiding and inordinate fondness
for the three stooges (especially Curly -- knyuck, knyuck, knyuck).

So I got dragged to a Scooby Doo movie recently and fell asleep, but not
before witnessing with a horror a couple of gross farting scenes.   I told
by boss about it the next day with the qualifier "they show this stuff to
kids???".  He said "yeah, kids love it".  I thought about it and began to
remember...then I think I actually got it.

So I now also grok Amanda ... and the world of Why was revealed to me.  I
trotted my 11 year old son over to the Poignant Guide and he laughed like
crazy at the Cartoon Foxes and did a little programming, but soon got
bored.  Wait a minute Alex, let's try one more thing, Dwe.. Array.  Wow, ho=
w
do I make my R kill big time (He knows all about cheats).  I showed him the
character's values and he promptly put in a hugh number for the Rabbit's
strength.  He was delighted to see the larger and larger negative life
values appear whenever he attacked.  Dad, is this how all my Gameboy
programs work?  Yes, son.  Hey, dad I want to do 6dof animation too, can yo=
u
teach me?  Yes son, here's a few books for you -- Computer Graphics, Foley
et al and Physics for Game Developers, Bourg.  Not sure he'll read them
right away, but the whole episode saved me another $49.95 Game Cube
cartridge.

Life is good and Why does indeed RULE...my son asked me on the way home fro=
m
school the other day can we stop and check the bookstore for Learn to
Program.  So Why, how olde are you, really, somewhere around 11?  Rhetorica=
l
question ... you are a genius and may have changed a young life.  I can see
it now "Alex, the game programming guru has just released another grisly bu=
t
eagerly awaited, best selling 6dof Rabbit game.  Alex, in his press release
credits his Dad, who lives in his son's mansion in Beverly Hills...no
mention of why.


On 5/4/06, Ohad Lutzky <lutzky / gmail.com> wrote:
>
> why the lucky stiff wrote:
> > Here's how you do it these days:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > I started doing RDoc for everything.  I keep forgetting to wrap it up.
> >
> > _why
>
> Much thanks. That IS simpler... how do I handle the importing though?
>
> (BTW you rule dude :) )
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>

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