Part of the pleasure of programming comes from overcoming layers of abstractions to create something concrete. We have to work through the complications of application frameworks, language syntax and compiler directives that convert your desires into binary. If you put a gun to my head, I’d be forced to confess that part of the allure of being a programmer is that the process is really complicated. Very few people can do what we do, and we like it that way.

In many ways, Christmas is a gigantic pain in the ass. Scrambling to social events, buying presents you can’t afford, hurrying to finish projects before the holidays begin… it’s too much. It seems to vary, but we at least have social permission to consider these last two weeks of December prime vacation time. Even those forced to work (and here I’m talking about office/knowledge work, not the poor souls who work retail) operate under reduced conditions.

Update (December 21, 2013): Angry Mac Bastards appears to have gone offline, as a direct result of this incident. Their parting post offers a back-handed apology, and suggests the show will no longer air. The episode linked below is also now offline. The transcript below is now the only public record of this segment. Months ago, I put up a page to help solicit either a new job, or a new partnership.

Things aren’t going too well for my beloved Toronto Blue Jays. Despite starry-eyed promises of a playoff berth owing to some off-season big-name trades, the team has floundered this season. After 99 games, the team is 45-54, and is looking like a lock to get swept by the red-hot Dodgers (first pitch is happening as I write this). My mysterious loyalty to this baseball franchise has continued unabated; I’m disappointed, but I feel a strange kinship to these talented but hapless young men.