Tuesday 18 December 2007

Perls of Wisdom

It was twenty years ago today ... Larry Wall released the first version of the Perl programming language. I know, I know, it's not very interesting. I'll try harder.

52 comments:

I, Like The View said...

ha ha!!

FIRST!!!!!


well, you got me singing Sargent Pepper!!!!!!

and funnily enough, I was in apub earlier on that was playing Beatles on the juke box thingy, so I'm in the right mood for all this. . .

excellent

but I have one question for you - will you still need me when I'm sixty four?

;-)

(not that you need me now. . .)

I, Like The View said...

good morning!

(to quote a friend of mine. . .)

X

I, Like The View said...

(look, see, you really do need to change the time here - cos that looks a little silly, me saying morning at a few minutes to "midnight")

I, Like The View said...

happy crimbo to you, you mad genius

:-)

I, Like The View said...

*scratches head*

Anonymous said...

Someone bet me once that linux would get more google hits than Debbie harry. He was correct, but I maintain to this day that he has stupid hair.

I, Like The View said...

you must be busy, huh? hope it's going OK

I, Like The View said...

aw, c'mon - my cup of hotness is coolin' off

;-)

Kathryn said...

Gordie...... you have three beautiful women leaving comments for you and you can't even post something new for us - what's wrong with you?!

;-)

Mel said...

OH! I clicked and lookie where I landed!!

*waving*

Very nice, place--*ignoring the dust*

:-)

Anonymous said...

AAAACTHOOOO!!!

*sniffles*

I hope none of you are asthmatic...?

Anonymous said...

AHA! Now I've tagged you, you HAVE to post something new. Not just a pretty face, you see.

I, Like The View said...

for some reason I am singing "come on, come on; come on, come on; come on, come on; COME ON - COME ON!"

I do hope that's not Gary Glitter. . .

Anonymous said...

y'know, I think it might be. Shame.

Hark! Dost mine ears deceive me? The primary school rabble across the road from me are singing that most ancient of play-ground chants.
"WHHHHHHY ARE WE WAAAAAIT-IIIING?"

I, Like The View said...

HEY!! where are the sentences then? I played tag, even tho I wasn't invited. . .

maybe he has another, secret blog somewhere that he's not sharing. . .

men

*shakes head*

(anyone would think he had to work for a living - still, that's no excuse)

PAH

I, Like The View said...

(you're not feeling shy or nervous gordie are you?)(NAH didn't think so)

Anonymous said...

all work and no play makes gordie vanish from blogland :(

I, Like The View said...

he hasn't vanished, he just spends all his alotted "blogging time" commenting on other people's blogs - it's a fine balance

I'm thinking of writing a "guest post" in his comments - just for the fun of it. . .

:-)

Anonymous said...

maybe a chain story? I'll begin:

It was a dark and stormy night. Vivienne Cliché had just finished with the plumber when there was a heavy knock on the bedroom door...

I, Like The View said...

It was very dark, an inky blue-blackness dripped on those wandering about outside; it was stormy - somewhere, but we peacefully settled, for now, in its eye. It was night. If it hadn't been for the Quink, a trillion stars would have twinkled above us. Vivienne Cliché's ghost had just finished teasing herself out of the blocked pipe, with an unbent Kirby Grip, that had been giving the plumber problems for the past two and a half days in the ensuite to Madame Josephine's bedroom. When there was a heavy knock on the bedroom door Madame J didn't even stir, she'd had a troublesome day herself. Vivienne sighed, in the way only a ghost can sigh. She was exhausted from all the teasing, but she gathered herself together, as best a lost soul can and slipped thru the key-hole anyhow to see who was on the other side...

Kathryn said...

You two are hilarious! :)

I, Like The View said...

knock knock!

Manchester Religions and Theology Society said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Gah, accidentally posted as my religions and theology society. Ah well, anything to brighten up this ghost town.

sighs.

COUGH COUGH COUGH.

Kathryn said...

Maybe we should just use the comments column to play word association or something like that?

Or else we should just be slightly flirty and risque.... Gordie would be back here like a shot!

;-)

Anonymous said...

Gordie - If you're out there...

If you return and give us more PERLS of wisdom I'll remove all my clothes and send you pictures.*

Lots of love from Fathorse.

*Pictures guaranteed to contain 100% naked horses.

Kathryn said...

Nice work, Fathorse!

;-)

I, Like The View said...

I have some photos of me in a bikini. . .

if anyone's interested

I, Like The View said...

and, for some unknown reason, I have some photos of me NOT in a bikini. . .

I, Like The View said...

. . .actually, this could be really really good fun. . .

I, Like The View said...

. . .depending on your definition of fun, of course

(word ver: guffaws)

I, Like The View said...

OK, word association:

magpie

I, Like The View said...

jackdaw

I, Like The View said...

strawberry jam

I, Like The View said...

jam jar

I, Like The View said...

door jam

I, Like The View said...

jack be nimble, jack be quick, jack jump over the candle stick

I, Like The View said...

the butchers, the bakers, the candlestickmakers

I, Like The View said...

tinker tailor soldier spy, richman poorman beggarman thief

I, Like The View said...

magpie

I, Like The View said...

blast, got stuck in a pocket with a rip in the space time continuum loop and ended up back where I started

I, Like The View said...

*sigh*

Kathryn said...

LOL glad to see you are having fun. Gordie was unaware that we had been leaving comments for him. I've told him that he should come and have a look but I haven't told him exactly what the comments are.

BTW why do you keep photos of yourself not in a bikini? Let's hope one of your boys doesn't find them - he could be scarred for life!

Anonymous said...

scarred for life

------> The Moomins.

Unknown said...

STEP ELEVEN

The Heresy of the Twelve Steps
by A. Orange


Step Eleven suggests prayer and meditation. We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. ...
When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. ...
On awakening, let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking...
...
Here we ask God for inspiration...
...
What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely on it.
We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be...
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, pages 86 to 87.


The whole Buchmanite family partipates in the Quiet Time.
They sit quietly with notebooks in hand, ready to write down the messages that they receive from God.

* So, if we practice the Twelve Steps enough, we will supposedly end up in a state of mind where we are in constant conscious contact with God, and God is just always talking to us and guiding us and telling us what to do, all day long.

* We may get into trouble by doing all kinds of absurd things and believing all kinds of absurd ideas because we think that God is telling us to do it. We may, in fact, become totally delusional and crazy. Nevertheless, Bill Wilson says that "We come to rely on it" anyway.

Obviously, the "God" to Whom Bill Wilson is referring here is not a bedpan, a motorcycle, or the "Group Of Drunks" in Whom Bill generously declared that we could believe, if we so chose, just a little earlier.
It cannot even be a nice, vague "Higher Power" or "God as we understand Him"; It has to be Bill Wilson's fascist, willful Old-Testament dictator Who orders His followers around all day long, because teddy bears, door knobs, motorcycles, bed pans, and vague, foggy entities like "Good Orderly Direction" do not psychically dictate work orders and give power. So much for the freedom of religion that Bill promised us.

Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world...
The Big Book, William G. Wilson, page 100.

I saw a T-shirt today that said,
"I do what the voices in my head tell me to do."
I laughed.

And then it occurred to me that if the T-shirt was being worn by a Buchmanite, or a true-believer Alcoholics Anonymous member, that it wasn't a joke.


The same criticisms of the doctrine of Guidance that theologians and clergy leveled at Frank Buchman's Oxford Groups apply to Alcoholics Anonymous:

* The person who is under Guidance discards his rational thinking mind and just follows impulses that he receives from he knows not where. He abandons intelligent planning of his life in favor of following sudden impulses that just come from somewhere -- hopefully, but not necessarily, from a good source. His life often becomes erratic and impulsive, following now this moment's Guidance, and now that, breaking appointments and commitments on a whim.

* And of course, there is the unavoidable question of "What is the real source of this 'Guidance'? -- God? The subconscious mind? Or one's favorite demon?"

* There is simply no Biblical support for this psychic practice.

* Dr. Herbert Hensley Henson, the Bishop of Durham, said in his criticism of the Oxford Groups:

Groupism discloses in its conception of 'Guidance' precisely the same error as that which infects its conception of 'witness'. It 'seeks a sign'. It insists on something precise, concrete, calculable. Its temper of mind is rather Pharisaic than Christian. It seeks proofs of Divine action in what is abnormal, amazing, even miraculous. Its view of inspiration is mechanical, and its treatment of Scripture literalist. Thus it comes about that, even in the process of exalting the genuinely Christian conception of the 'guided life', it perverts and lowers it.
The Oxford Groups; The Charge Delivered At The Third Quadrennial Visitation Of His Diocese Together With An Introduction, Herbert Hensley Henson, D.D., 1933, page 70.

With all of his séances and spook sessions, Bill Wilson was constantly 'seeking a sign'.

* The people who advocate the practice of Guidance only use it to replace rational thought and intelligent thinking. I am reminded of a criticism of Frank Buchman's doctrine of Guidance:

"Guidance is only to be sought in those matters which are usually matters for reason and common sense or for principles and conscience. No suggestion is ever made that we should substitute 'guidance' for our eyesight and walk across a busy street under 'guidance' with our eyes blindfolded. In other words, that in man which he shares with other animals is honored and trusted to do its work. The reason, which most obviously distinguishes him from other animals, is dethroned."
-->
quoted in The Groups Movement, The Most Rev. John A. Richardson, pages 75-79.
Morehouse Publishing Co., Milwaukee, Wis., 1935.

If you really "have faith" and truly believe that God is guiding you in your every activity and inserting thoughts into your head all day long, then you should have no problem with making another "leap of faith" and walking across freeways blindfolded, trusting that the Lord will tell you when to go and where to place your feet... If the Lord is capable of giving you infallible Guidance in all important matters, then surely the Lord can be trusted to tell you how to safely cross busy highways and freeways.

In Buchmanism, the best of the human mind is thrown into the trash can, while the lower centers of the animal brain are retained. Rational thought and intelligent thinking -- the best of what separates us from the lower animals -- are distrusted and discarded, while the optical centers, which even toads and snakes have, are still trusted to do their jobs properly. If anything, Frank Buchman got it all backwards. Carried to its logical conclusion, Buchmanism would reduce us to being dumb, stupid, unthinking animals who just mindlessly obey orders, or into brainless robots that are under external control.

And so will Bill Wilson's version of the Buchmanism, where you spend your life"Seeking and Doing the Will of God".
*

I, MICKY, AM ONE OF GOD'S MARVELOUS DEEDS THAT MAKES IT KNOWN TO ALL THE NATIONS.

I, Like The View said...

boy oh boy, am I glad I suscribed to these comments - I wouldn't miss this for the world

I'll have you know that I'm setting high standards for my boys, by them even seeing me in a bikini - my mother covered up like the decent woman she was in a simming-suit

now my boys will know that's it's OK for a woman to have a flabby tummy, be flat-chested, have lost all her pubes in a battle with a tube of Immac that had a mind of it's own, and that not everyone who has had children has stretch marks to prove it. . .

maybe I'm like this because I used to LOVE the moomins (as I do all things Scandinavian)!!

oh, BTW dash - what do you mean he didn't know he had comments*?????

*goes off humming*

oh Mikey, you're so fine, you're so fine, HEY MICKEY!!

*clap clap*

XXX

(*can you get him to change the clock while you're at improving his techincal skills?)(ta)(ha ha ha - word ver: zen-senior)

I, Like The View said...

(was that supposed to be slimming-suit, or swimming-suit? I have no idea)

I, Like The View said...

(and the it's was supposed to be its; I do apologise; dash says I'm making lots of mistakes at the moment, and I apologise for those too)

I, Like The View said...

(spelling mistakes)(word ver: kidz-with-zits)

I, Like The View said...

Yay! Fiftieth!! ha ha ha!!! ( he doesn't need to write anymore, does he - this comment string has a life of its own, like an ever dividing bacterium)

Anonymous said...

Ever-dividing Bacterium

------> Micky.

(I secretly quite liked the Moomins BECAUSE they were mentally scarring. I was a perverse child. I still have nightmares with the Groke in it.)

I, Like The View said...

PAH!! he killed us off with a quick squirt of new writing. . .

but something escaped death and still continues to lurk in his past posts

*evil chortle*