행복

[dr4b]

I PASSED A CATA!!!! IN FRONT OF LIKE FIVE PEOPLE, TOO!!!!

Okay, so in reverse order: I just got home from IMSO, which was in 4623. I showed up around 10:40, after bridge. 5th mix was in. I played a whole bunch. At the end, after eating pizza, Mike and Bayani were doing a "puke up your dinner set" of Paranoia Evolution, Afronova Primeval, and Matsuri Japan, all on Maniac. Well, actually, only Bayani played all three. Mike played PE Maniac with him, I played Afro Prime Trick, and Rebecca (who is now sorakirei) played Matsuri Japan Maniac. I was like "Hey, I want to try Matsuri Japan Maniac too, will someone keep me alive for it? Mike? I can do the gallops..." so Mike and I played it. AND I PASSED! I even got like, 260 perfects to Mike's 265. Holy shit. Wheeeeeeee! At IMSO I also got to meet ancilla and I guess bedlamboy who are both beginner DDR players but who I think will be very good very soon, they are catching on pretty quickly.

Before IMSO I played bridge with nickjong at Temple Sinai. We placed like, third from last. All of the mistakes were mine this week I think (except like one bad overall of his). I even didn't play the ace of hearts at one point which was my big mistake. Oh, the ace of hearts, my nemesis. Anyway.. I still had a decent time even though my brain was elsewhere for the three hours we were playing. I'm glad to be playing bridge since I'm sure I won't get to play anymore after this summer.

Before that... eh... I forget the rest of the day. Does anyone know what the fuck a "PCI Simple Communications Controller" device is and why it might fuck up using my USB scanner?

Oh, I went to K-mart. I bought some bras and socks and stuff like that, but I didn't manage to get a new pair of jeans because the store had ONE PAIR in the size I wanted, and I took it with me to the fitting room but didn't take it in since I was trying on other stuff, and it got stolen from my cart by the time I got back out. Fuckers. I also tried on some button-down shirts and stuff for interview clothes but they all looked like crap, so I'll have to come up with something else to wear. Boo business casual, I say. Boo. I wonder if my tan jeans still fit me.

Before that I just sat around here, looking for writing samples, playing with Photoshop to enhance the pictures from DDRFest (Rebecca will notice that the signs, for example, are not as washed out in my version of the scans, and I tried to edit the date thingies off the pictures), and trying to play with devices on my computer. Whee. I also finished reading the Jacoby Modern book. It's pretty funny shit. Tomorrow I should read C++ and Perl books to make sure I'm up on my C++ and Perl. Lately I am fascinated with scalars. For example, what would you expect the following to print out?

$foo = 1;
$foo[$foo] = $foo;
$foo{$foo} = $foo[$foo];
$foo[@foo] = $foo[$foo{$foo}];
print @foo;

Anyway... I guess all in all it was a good day. I got to see friends, play bridge, drive around a bit, and PASS A CATA, even though I did poorly at bridge and lost all of my WB data.

Comments

[bk1e.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Once you get used to passing Matsuri Japan on a regular basis you should try Saint Goes Marching because that one also has a lot of gallops. If you play Matsuri Japan once a day for a while, you will be able to do it without feeling like you want to die afterwards. :)

[tiedyedave]

I would expect that to print out:

"I am a respectable programming language and will not consent to being abused in this fashion!"

...if it were any language other than Perl. :-)

[proz.livejournal.com]

Cool, congrats, I guess when you come down to Austin, you'll be able to hold up with the big guys :D. Once you get the 16th's & 8th + jumps nailed, you should do No Limit as it's a rather easy 5th mix cata. Paranoia Eternal is another easy one if you use this tip: On rapid string of 8ths, just tap lightly with your heel instead of trying to use your entire foot.

[sorjai.livejournal.com]

hehe congrats on passing a cata. Next step for you is to full combo it :)

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

$foo = 1;                      # $foo = 1
$foo[$foo] = $foo;             # @foo = (undef, 1)
$foo{$foo} = $foo[$foo];       # %foo = (1 => "1")
$foo[@foo] = $foo[$foo{$foo}]; # @foo = (undef, 1, 1)
print @foo;                    # "11"

Since the brackets in $foo[@foo] provide scalar context. Hmm, but what happens if you use an array slice, as in @foo[@foo] = ...? Does Perl ignore the undefined array index or convert it to 0?

[sorjai.livejournal.com]

looks like I'll have to brush up on my perl skills (or lack of hehe)

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend O'Reilly's Programming Perl. I learned everything I know about Perl last summer from that book. If you read a chapter a day you'll know Perl in a month.

[dr4b]

hey, no fair. i showed you that perl example (or something close to it) before...

Huh. perl -e '@foo[@foo] = 1; print @foo[@foo]' doesn't print anything. My guess is it ignores it in that case...

[happysteve.livejournal.com]

% perl -le '@foo=(5,6,7); $foo[undef]='hello'; print join(",",@foo)';
hello,6,7

So it looks like undef becomes 0.


Dee's test: perl -le '@foo[@foo]=1; print @foo[@foo]'

In the first statement, "@foo[@foo] = 1", the second @foo is an empty list.
so it's the same as: @foo[ () ] = 1;
An empty list is different from undef, so Perl basically assigns 1 to nothing in @foo.

Ah perl, the write-only language. :)

[ex-citybird57.livejournal.com]

What is a CATA? Sorry, I am not up with the times on dance dance terminology.

I take it, a play on 型 as used in 武士道 contexts (eg. 空手の型).

[sorjai.livejournal.com]

cata = catastrophic stage, term used in the 3rd mix and below for a 9 feet stage.

[ex-citybird57.livejournal.com]

Oh I see. Thanks.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the DDRness. Oh, and the Simple Communication Controller could be a modem or network card that isn't configured/drivered properly. (Or, for that matter, almost any PCI device that doesn't have the correct drivers involved.)

Probably the mis-/lack of drivers is causing a driver conflict with your USB bus, and therefore the scanner. Or the scanner driver.

Do you have any PCI cards that seem to be flaky?

[dr4b]

oh! yeah, my computer doesn't seem to believe it has a modem (but it does).
that would probably do it.

so how do i find a proper driver for it? i told it to search all over and windows update and all... do i pretty much have to take out the modem, see what kind it is, and download a proper driver? or, since i don't want to use the damn thing anyway, just uninstall it?

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Depends on your computer. Especially since uninstalling (unless you physically remove it) will only work until you restart and the add hardware wizard takes over.

You -can- just crack the case and examine it, then go to the manufacturer's page for drivers, etx. (Windows update isn't very reliable for OEM drivers, and I'm assuming this is an OEM machine, so I'd avoid that.)

Or, if your machine is a Gateway (and I think Dell was going to start doing this too) they've both got a new feature where you go to "support", enter the serial or model number of the machine, and it creates not only a list of the installed hardware when it left the factory, but all the drivers for said hardware.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Oh. The gateway thingy is something on their website, not on the actual computer. Sorry, shoulda defined that!

[beegle.livejournal.com]

Yank the card. You have DSL and don't need a modem. It'll save you grief and hardware conflicts. If you want one of the little metal doodads that covers the slot hole in the back of the case, let me know.

[ubiquity.livejournal.com]

Hadn't you passed Burnin' The Floor before?

(;,
Pace

[dr4b]

oh, i guess i should clarify... i have passed two other catas in my lifetime. My Summer Love (i managed to get through the deathmatch part of it by randomness) and Hypnotic Crisis (I have no idea, I just survived the whole song).

[ryani.livejournal.com]

YAY! congrats! I still haven't passed Matsuri Japan as 3rd stage, too many steps... it tires me out... so I'm really impressed.

Also, perl scares me.