Litany against null

I must not return null.
Null is the abstraction-killer.
Null is the little convenience that brings total obliteration.
I will catch my nulls.
I will trap it and not allow it through my methods.
And when the null is trapped the debugger shall not see it's path
Where the null has gone there will be an encapsulation.
Only the code will remain.

Seventy-five

years of marriage. That's how long my grandparents on my father's side will have been married today. I went to their celebratory party at the Eudora nursing home on Sunday. It's a truly amazing feat. Janet remarked that they had been married almost four times longer than they had been single - wow.

It's hard for me to imagine living to seventy-five right now, and I can't imagine what it's been like for them to have been married and kept it together through the years. Congratulations to my grandfather and grandmother. Not only have they kept on breathing for 90+ years, they've kept on loving.

The Great Big FOAD

With no apologies to Evan Dando.

Some of you may have known that I applied for a job a Yahoo. Some of you probably didn't and that's ok too. It's been an interesting process so let me give you a timeline.

Feb 9, 2007: I applied for a position at Yahoo via their internal jobs site(Yes, I met the qualifications). I didn't expect anything to happen since yahoo only has several thousand people do this every day. I'm just a small fish in a big pond.

Feb 28, 2007: I shockingly recieved an email from Yahoo recruiting. To my surprise they wanted to talk to me so we did on

Mar 2, 2007: Brief intro conversation as to why I was applying at Yahoo, if I could speak in complete sentences and if I had lied on the application. After that I was told that I would receive a call from the hiring manager within a few days, few being less than two.

After this, I wait. Two days rolls by and nothing; three; four, then

Mar 7, 2007: I email the recruiter and ask if everything is ok. I'm assured everything is and then I wait some more.

.....waiting....waiting....waiting...

Mar 14, 2007: I finally get an email from the hiring manager and we set a time to talk. Yay! /me is stoked!!!!!!

Mar 16, 2007: I get the call from the hiring manager and we have a lovely 30 minute screening chat. At the end of this call, having learned my lesson from previous busy-wait states, I ask when the hiring manager would have any further information into the process. I'm told to call back in the first week of April, so I set my handy dandy Treo 650 to remind me to send an email on April 2.

Interim: I'm so happy I just got to talk to yahoo, regardless of whether I'm on the interview list or not.

April 2, 2007: I email and ask as to the status of the candidate search

More waiting.

April 15, 2007: I call the recruiter and ask if anything else is known. I'm assured that there will be an answer forthcoming.

April 17, 2007: I get the foad email. Thank you for you interest, but no...

So after one and one half months we learn what was probably well known at the beginning. I'm not quite experience/smart/close enough to work for yahoo. :-(

All's well that ends well though. On April 9, 2007 I started working at Garmin. I'll just stick around there until our gross revenues exceed yahoo's :-)

Referencing Huitzilopotchli again.

Stumbling, stumbling through the internet I found this gem.

Here's the problem with moral conservatives. They want to pre-make decisions for you in situations that they themselves have never or will never find themselves.

Now I'm handed a clipboard. On it is consent to basically give my wife an abortion and kill our future child. And it is all on me, my decision, mine alone. Something I never thought I'd ever face, ever have to deal with. Made worse by being a decision of either kill the baby or potentially watch both my wife and the baby die. The doctors did not say at this point that it was absolutely necessary.

I never hope to make that type of choice - never never never never. Again, how much blood is enough for their god?

Yeah, what she said

From MaryScott on MyLeftwing - You f*ck you die.

I would like to issue my apologies to my wife and daughter that this tragedy has come to pass.

I would dearly love to question the death cultists in our midst. You may know them as right-to-lifers.

When I reference Huitzilopotchli, I know I'm talking about a death cult. The U.S. version of this however is far more disgusting. How much blood is enough for them? How many more children and women must be thrown upon their altar before the bloodlust of their god is slaked? Let me count the bloody toll:

• Abortion - punishing women by death for not bearing children correctly followed by
• No health insurance for 42,000,000+ children in the U.S. resulting in more deaths, those that survive can be convinced to be in
• The Iraq war in which 3000+ soldiers have died but so many many more have been maimed permanently in the line of fire.

How much? How much blood is enough? How many more women, children, and young me have to die? Will your god never be satisfied? At lest Huitzilopotchli had the courage to show the obsidian knife. These cowards cloak themselves in lies.

Dominionism is abomination

Dominionism is an abberant theology that is given from a misreading of the Bible. I know I know, readers of this blog are shocked, shocked that the Bible could be mis-used. D. James Kennedy, Jerry Fallwell, and probably James Dobson are under the influence of this mis-use of scripture.

The problem is that these learned men of the clergy should know better. The problems with Dominionism are manifest, but we'll start with a few.

1. Mankind is given dominion over the earth, but the Hebrews, Yahweh's chosen people, are only given Canaan. How can this indicate a global theocracy when Yahweh's own folks are only given a small strip of land along the Mediterranean? Why didn't God give them Egypt or Babylon if God truly wanted his people to rule the earth? There was no better time than three thousand years ago!
2. Anything that men do on this earth is worthless to Yahweh. Let's say we do institute a Christian government on this earth and we do get rid of all of the homosexuals, freethinkers, and poor women. What would God think? He thinks this(note the degradation of women as well): Isa 64:6 We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight.¹² We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind. So the bestest most perfectest Christian government ever is like garbage to Yahweh.
3. Finally let's consider the founder of Christianity's words about government - Luke 20:21-25 "...Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."

So dominionism isn't supported even by the most casual reading of the Bible, it only shows Yahweh's distaste for menstrual blood, and the very savior that the dominionists claim to worship rejects their offering of a Christian government out of hand.

Dominionism is abomination to the Christian faith. Anytime you hear someone speaking this language on the radio or from a pulpit you should be incensed that they are dragging Yahweh and his Son through the menstrual blood of a human government.

And yet another messiah we should all pay homage to,

especially in the Intelligent Design movement and typical software development shops.

It's John Frum Day.

Now everyone go build an airstrip and wait for the cargo which should be arriving shortly.