I'm reading William "The Last Hero" by Terry Pratchett, which has a lot of colourful illustrations. I was momentarily boggled when I turned the page and there was a page of gods, including a topless blue Egyptian woman. William, on the other hand, didn't comment (no giggling and "BOOBIES!"), and as far as I can tell he didn't even notice. That's the attitude I want him to have to "boobies" and "willies". I'm so proud of him.
The book, by the way, is good. A delightful turn on the old saga story. Cohen the Barbarian is taking his Silver Horde up the mountain of the gods to return the stolen fire--with interest (the Discworld equivalent of dynamite). Some old favorites are back--Rincewind, the wizards, the Patrician--but it's the old heroes who really shine. Pratchett does such a great job of capturing the "left behind by time" vibe, part nostalgia and part curmudgeon. It reminds me of watching "Dad's Army" and "Last of the Summer Wine" when I was a kid--the gentle humour of a gentler time. (WWII in that case!)
For myself, I'm just about to launch into Michael Crichton's latest, which is about nanotech. I enjoy his other stuff--he's very good at taking cutting edge science and mutating it in such a way that it becomes fun. And when he's not doing science, he seems to have similar interests to me (e.g., history). So I don't expect Dostoevsky, but it will be fun.
Current computing interest is writing a Perl program to simulate a game of Blackjack. I want to have pluggable player logic (so I can try perfect strategy, perfect strategy with card counting, etc.) and variable game rules (double then split, single deck versus seven-deck shoe). I've got a very nice system for representing a player, but I need to abstract more of the hardcoded game logic. I can feel that there's an elegant solution waiting for me, and I can also feel that when I stumble across it I'll realize it 's some design pattern variation. Sucks to be me :-)
Happy T-Day.
--Nat
One of the many things that I love about Pratchett is his subtlety. He uses a lot of "adult" humor, but never in a crass way (as I am wont to do, I'm afraid). I have all of his Discworld series and am currently reading "Good Omens", which he cowrote. It's a hilarious book. Armageddon has been scheduled, but the demon Crowley has unfortunately misplaced the anti-Christ. Good fun for all -- particularly those who may be a bit cynical about religion.
