So it’s 2012 now. And we all have our new year’s resolutions. Work out more, eat healthy, be on Facebook less. It’s all stuff we want to improve on… Or at least say we’re trying to do. But how about trying different endeavors… Like programming? Codecademy has a concept that surely will interest some people. And it’s worth trying, whether you’re a nerd or not.

A friend sent me a link to this new programming course called Code Year. Basically, it’s a one lesson a week course that started earlier this week. It teaches people how to program in JavaScript. And if you’re curious, it’s actually a useful programming language… You’ve probably used it while surfing the web. In any case, you get a lesson plan that teaches you some basics and you follow that up with a little “challenge” or application to what you’ve learned.

I decided to try it out myself since I’ve always wanted to learn JavaScript (but just been too lazy to actually buy a book and read up on it or ask my buddy Benji to borrow one of his books). One of the first things that stood out is that it starts users with a console instead of just an empty area to write a block of code. This allows you to see immediate results from what you’ve coded. It also makes finding errors a breeze. Try finding an error in a block of code as a beginner, to only find out you were simply missing a semicolon.

In any case, the early lesson plans are suited for the beginner. So for those with programming backgrounds, it’ll be somewhat boring and quick to complete. You go through the basics of what a programming language is capable of doing and then proceed to learn the syntax and other capabilities of the language. Afterwards, you get the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned through writing your own first application (and thus facing the arduous task of reading and writing a block of code). However, it’s worthwhile and pretty fun to complete.

Code Year definitely opens up an avenue for many people who haven’t even considered with free programming lessons for the masses. But it also opens up even more than just the ability to program. Farhad Manjoo of Slate.com wrote this in his article of Code Year:

But knowing how to code will improve your life even if you don’t ever program anything useful. I learned the Basic programming language when I was a kid, and then I sharpened my programming skills in high school and college. I am by no means an expert programmer, and I rarely take up coding in my job, but I learned enough to alter the way I approach problems. And that’s the most interesting thing about taking up programming: It teaches you to think algorithmically. When faced with a new challenge—whether at work or around the house—I find myself breaking down the problem into smaller, discrete tasks that can be accomplished by simple, repeatable processes.

I think he is accurate on this. I know when I took programming classes in high school, it made me think more “algorithmically”, that is, looking at a problem logically and attempting to solve it in a specific way. In essence, it helps improve our ability to approach problems that we might encounter, whether around the house to a specific task on the job. It makes us think differently about how we see those problems. I don’t just go about things in a guess-and-check methodology these days. It’s analyze the situation and work through it step by step. It also improves your efficiency as well, which is crucial in a day and age where you can’t be wasteful with your time.

Overall, Code Year definitely provides an opportunity to learn to code and does a good job of it for the person that has never touched programming in his or her life. Code Year won’t make you an expert programmer and get you a job at Google after finishing it by the end of the series (though that would be awesome). But it does allow you to think differently and enables people to learn how to program. For some people, they might find their calling and actually enjoy programming. From there, learn Python, Java, C#. Then you potentially get a job at a huge company like Microsoft or Google. Who knows? Anything’s possible right?

Taking a break from studying and figuring out applications needed for my group’s project for class, I started watching some of the highlights from the UCL championship game between FC Barcelona and Manchester United from Saturday afternoon. After watching the game on Saturday, I was kinda disappointed that Man United got beat handily by the team from Spain. Granted, I’m an Arsenal fan and definitely no Man United fan, I figured they would have prepared a bit better for the match when in fact they didn’t. The point of this article though isn’t to criticize Man United’s approach because they had to go about their own way to try to beat Barca.

The point of this article is understanding Barcelona’s approach to the game. What people don’t realize is that this team is, for the most part, the polar opposite of what most teams are these days. Most of their team is quite small. They’re also not the fastest team, nor the most physical team out there either. Yet, they manage to win games with such ease that it’s quite unbelievable. Sure, you can account skill for some of it, but when you watch their game, it doesn’t have the kind of explosive appeal that other teams might have, like say Real Madrid, Arsenal, or Manchester United. They don’t counterattack other teams nor do they regularly take powerful shots outside of the 18 (though Saturday’s game was definitely a change of pace with two goals scored from outside of the box from both Messi and Villa).

In order to understand Barca’s game, you have to understand Tiki-Taka. Tiki-Taka is the game in which you try to promote the short passing game, possession and patience. It’s not about getting goals quickly. It’s about controlling the pace of the game to your own pace. By controlling the possession, you not only enable the opportunities that you get to score goals, but also create few chances for your opponents to score, as well as tire them out from having to chase after you. The emphasis here is on the short passing. Rarely do you see a ball go across the field in the air in an attacking position such that they head the ball in. It’s just to create space and maintain control.

If you haven’t seen them play before, this is what I mean with Tiki-Taka:

Again, the emphasis here is short-passing movement, one or two-touch passing, opponents chasing after the ball and controlling possession. The music is rather fitting, as they play against other teams as though they are like the Harlem Globetrotters of football (or soccer).

When you hear discussions of Barcelona, you hear a lot about Messi. Yes, he’s arguably the best striker in the game right now, but is he the key element to their game? Not exactly. He scores goals, yes. But the most crucial element to Barca’s game is in the midfield, that is, Iniesta, Xavi, and Busquets. Here’s a quick video (taken from AllasFCB). Keep an eye on the movement between the midfielders:

As you watch, notice the movement of the ball. It’s not exactly complex by any means. Just simple short, one or two-touch passing. There’s nothing too fancy about it, but it obviously works.

Because of the lack of size, they can’t afford to just get it quickly down field to try to score a goal. Why not? It would seem to make sense when you have the best striker in the world on your team. Well, it doesn’t work that way. By moving the ball patiently and together as an entire team, you’re making it such that if you do not score, you can regain the ball back in the attacking zones rather than chase after them in your half of the pitch. And because of their diminutive size, you usually can’t just run at opposing defenses, especially the stronger, physical ones because they’ll just overpower you the moment you get the ball. Hence, the one-two touch passing. You keep moving and avoiding the physical confrontations of the opposing team, while looking for channels to make key passes.

If they do lose the ball, they simply get it back via pressing the player with the ball. Like in the video, it shows a great example of this. Take away the space for which the person with the ball has to either pass or dribble and you’ll force them to make a mistake in their own half and put more pressure on their defense.

One of the difficult things about this strategy is that you can’t just have anyone. You need to have disciplined players, especially in the midfield, moving the ball. That is why I don’t think Messi is the keystone to their game. If I would have to choose a player that exemplifies “tiki-taka”, it’s either Xavi or Iniesta. Their passing rate is virtually unmatched. There was a fact before the game that Xavi in Champions League games had on average of 122 completed passes, according to OPTA. An average player would usually get about 25 or so. Iniesta also has a strong work rate as well with his passing and ball movement, and according to FourFourTwo, has approximately 89% passing completion. These two guys have been so crucial to their recent success. They rarely make mistakes in terms of passing. If they do, it’s usually in the attacking third of the pitch.Not only are they the ones that control the possession, but they (along with Busquets) are usually the first ones that regain it if they were to ever to lose it. It’s also their vision that allows their teammates to score so many goals. It’s their ability to keep and control the game that makes this all click properly. Again, Messi scores a ton of goals, but it’s Xavi and Iniesta that create plays and opportunities behind the scenes.

But ultimately, it’s a tactic that frustrates and emotionally, mentally, and physically demoralizes the opponent. To constantly have to chase after the ball while they’re just moving it from one player to the next in the space of five to six yards is hard work. Here’s another example:

You can see all the chasing that opposing players have to do. They can either chase or just let Barca play this game and concede possession. But in the end, it’s not going to work because Barca will eventually find that one run that allows them to score first. Then you’re behind and forced to chase the moment they regain possession. If you’re curious to as how frustrating it can be, check out Cristiano Ronaldo as he attempts to chase after the ball.

Arms flailing in frustration, he gets lost in Barca’s passing game (though it could be said that Real Madrid’s strategy was to concede possession, thus not chase). But by tiring them out, you can enable those runs later on and eventually get that goal.

It’s really the perfect strategy. Beat your opponents to death by passing around them. It’s simple, elegant, yet effective. They utilize the gifts of their players to their greatest potential and completely negating their weakness of lacking strength and size that their opponents have over them by playing this way. This not only has worked with Barcelona, but with the Spanish National team as well, as the lack of size (and the skeptical and prone backline) forces them to avoid giving their opponents possession of the ball. This epitomizes the thought of “the best defense is a good offense.” Prevent your opponents from getting the ball and you won’t get scored on.

How do you beat it? Try to press and hope you have enough stamina to pull it off. However, I think we’ve all yet to see a team that can outright pull this off consistently. Until then, Barcelona might have the most unbeatable game out there and will continue to frustrate every team (and those fans that want their team to win trophies, like myself and Arsenal).

These were the lyrics of a song from Good Friday service last night. Powerful, to say the least.

Oh my soul, oh my Jesus
Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less
Oh my soul, oh my Savior
Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more

As the nails went in, I was standing right there
As you breathed your last, I shook my head and I cried

Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son

Oh my soul, oh my Jesus
Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less
Oh my soul, oh my Savior
Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more

And the blood ran down, I was standing right there
And the water poured, I shook my head and I cried

Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son

As the nails went in, I was standing right there
As you breathed your last, I shook my head and I cried

Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son

– Lyrics for “What Have We Done”, The Northern Conspiracy from Mars Hill Church

As I was working on my second step for my sociolinguistics paper about UK English, I thought I would take a break and write about something else that’s along the lines of the U.K.: Arsenal. If you’re an Arsenal fan, you probably know the ups and downs that comes with being one. This season was definitely one of the more unusual seasons though in that we actually were in it for all four competitions that we were eligible for: League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League, and UEFA Champions League. Yet in a matter of weeks, it’s pretty promising that we’ll go away without silverware yet again. So what went wrong this season? A few things come to mind:

(1) Defense. Our inability to hold leads or deal with more physical teams (like Man. United) is attested to our defense. Our defense is inconsistent. Whether it be random blunders from our goalkeeper or center-backs being unable to hold down opposing center forwards, it’s just clearly present that we’re struggling in this area. Especially in a league where there’s Wayne Rooney, Drogba, Van Der Vaart and the like, we need a pair of center backs that are just as strong and physical as those guys. Christopher Samba was basically asking to join Arsenal. Sure, he might not have as great of a passing game, but he is solid in the back. Also, our left-back in Clichy has been inconsistent as well. His mistakes in the backline have been costly at times. But things like stupid fouls and lack of discipline have been so bad in the defense that it seriously needs to be retooled. No more of this, “We’re not gonna spend money on star players.” You need it with defense because without it, you can’t protect wins.

Our goalkeeper situation is another issue that needs its own paragraph. We have three guys that are all pretty awkward. However, the best of the three right now has to be Szczesny. He is the future of the club. However, he will need some time to develop. But if he was under the guard of a stronger back four, I think he would improve greatly. He will make mistakes once in a while (see today’s game against Tottenham with the foul on Lennon), but with a better back four, he can focus on not having to come out and make such tackles in the manner that he did today.

(2) Durability. What do I mean by durability? Simply put it, it’s about not being injury prone. We’ve been struggling with this for numerous years now and it needs to be addressed. Robin Van Persie is a great player, but at the same time, is well-known for being Mr. Glass. Same with Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas. Maybe it’s the training and medical team that needs to reevaluate their methodology or something because it does hurt the team a lot when these players pick up these injuries.

(3) Being able to adjust tactics accordingly. Arsenal’s playing style is by far one of the most fun to watch. No question about that. Arsene has been able to equip these players with that mentality that has seen them break through even the most difficult of defenses in the game. However, sometimes, we need players that not only have this mentality, but also the physical strength or other qualities to get through physical teams. What do I mean? For example, Blackburn is known for being a very physical side. You know that every game you play against them will always be the same: Be physical, no holds barred. So choose players that can handle that kind of physicality, whether on offense and defense. Isn’t that why we picked up Chamakh? Sometimes, speed is good, but other times, matching brute force with brute force is just the answer you need to hold them off long enough to score goals and win games.

I’m sure there’s other things that come to mind as one picks apart this season. But the fact of the matter to all this is that changes need to be made. Everyone looks back to the days of the Invincibles and what they did. However, if you look at their roster, it was pretty obvious what they had. They had a side that was physical, disciplined when it needed to be (well, kinda minus some stupid things here and there), yet still played the same amazing offense that they have today. Henry was able to hold off physical defenders. Pires had pace but a strong game. Vieira was in the middle of the pitch controlling the pace of the game. The back four of Toure, Lauren, Cole, and Campbell is a testament to a strong, physical back four with people like Keown and Parlour available as well. That’s the kind of equation you need to win soccer games nowadays.

It’s still not over as Arsenal can still possibly win the EPL this season. However, if they keep losing 3-1 leads to teams like Tottenham or fail to score against others, I’m not sure if this will be even possible.

So yeah… I do have a somewhat nerdy part of me. That being I play Magic: the Gathering. Here’s a report of a tournament I did, which was submitted to the Starkington Post (and maybe Star City Games, but probably won’t do it). It was a qualifier to play in U.S. Nationals. But a big part of it is, what would you do if you were in a situation where you’re against your friend in the final round to go to Nationals. Knowing who I was… Would you play it out or would you concede? That was my dilemma.

It’s the last round of the Swiss and I’m in 10th place. Sitting in front of me is my playtesting buddy and friend, Brad. For either of us, it’s win and we’re in the top 8. Draw and it’s the end of that. I’m sitting there thinking of what I need to do, as we’re just sitting there. Before we even cut each other’s decks, I closed my eyes for a moment, then extended my hand in concession.

In the weeks leading up to playing in this year’s national qualifiers in Seattle, I was reminded of last year’s event. I played Geopede Jund and finished 5-3 and in 24th place. I started out 4-0 before going 1-3 in the last four rounds. And awkwardly enough, three of my opponent’s finished in the top eight (beat Gavin Verhey’s Naya, lost to Martin Goldman-Kirst and Teddy Vitro’s UW control). What was bothersome was the 1-3 collapse at the end.

So coming into this year’s event, I wanted to do better. Originally, UW Caw-Blade caught my eye to the various forms card advantage it had. Hawks, Preordain, Mystics, Jace. It’s like a dream for a player that loves card advantage and having a full grip. However, I wanted to try out different decks to see if there a better one out there. RUG was probably the closest since it rewarded on tight, solid play. Yet at the same time, it punished you for poor play. Given the length of the tournament, I knew I would be bound to make a mistake here or there, so I didn’t want to get punished for that.

Coming closer to regionals, I figured I wanted to try a deck that could beat Caw-Blade since it was obviously the deck to beat. Unfortunately, finding the Holy Grail for Standard never happened even after all the discussions with Brad, Thomas, and other guys from a card shop I had been playtesting with. So I stuck with playing some version of Caw-Blade After some deliberation, I told myself I wouldn’t audible (with reminders from Warren), so I kept with UW, even though I had been toying with UWr for mirrors and RUG match-ups.

In terms of game plan, I knew what I had to do:
- Be aggressive with my hands. Avoid keeping hands without a two drop if at all possible, especially game one.
- Kill off the value my opponent’s counters by winning the mana advantage war.
- Win the attrition war in the mirror by sticking a Sun Titan.
- Get Gideon and Tumble Magnets on the board to negate my opponent’s Swords.
- Don’t get tunnel visioned into winning solely by Swords.
- Know when to be aggressive, when to play as control.

The night before the event, I had the deck I wanted. But I changed my mindset. Rather than focusing on doing well, I just told myself to accept whatever outcome happened, whether I 0-2 drop or actually qualify for nationals. To just enjoy the opportunity to play, have good sportsmanship, and have fun.

So this was the list I came up with five minutes before the players’ meeting:

Maindeck:
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Gideon Jura
4 Preordain
3 Mana Leak
3 Spell Pierce
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Mortarpod
2 Condemn
2 Tumble Magnet
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sun Titan
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Seachrome Coast
5 Island
4 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Arid Mesa

Sideboard:
1 Sun Titan
1 Volition Reins
2 Divine Offering
1 Into the Roil
1 Jace Beleren
3 Flashfreeze
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Oust
1 Condemn
1 Day of Judgment

It’s a pretty straightforward list… Except for the fact that I’m running 26 lands in a 61 card list. A few minutes before the meeting was about to start, I wanted to replace the fifth Island for a miser’s Inkmoth Nexus. Thankfully, my friend Jesus I. managed to let me borrow one. I changed my decklist really quick and we were eventually on our way.

There were 250+ people, so we played nine rounds. However, I managed to draw in the second round, playing the mirror. Because of it, I played against UW Caw-Blade or the like for the next six rounds, so I’d rather not bore you. Rather than going round by round, I’ll just list any key points or moments:

Round 1 – Victor Blaiotta (Valakut)
I had Sun Titan double equipped with Sword of Feast and Famine against a board of green creatures both games.
2-0 (1-0)

Round 2 – Shawn Martin (UW Caw-Blade)
Game one was me having Mystic first. Game two was him having Mystic first and having all the answers to my answers.
1-1 (1-0-1)

Round 3 – Michael Cowen (UW Venser)
- Game three was the interesting one. We had ten minutes left in the round. I really didn’t want to draw again. I draw the miser’s Nexus after I kept my opening hand. So what do I do? Start beating him down with it from turn two (or three, I can’t remember exactly). He played a Tumble Magnet, I Divine Offering it. I keep beating him down with it each turn He attempts to play Gideon, I Pierce it. I keep up the beats with Nexus and a few Hawks. I hit him for seven consecutive turns with Nexus. Eventually I managed to drop a Mystic for a Sword and got it into play. I attempt to attack with Nexus equipping a sword and killed him just as time was called.
2-1 (2-0-1)

Round 4 – Matthew Forner (UW Caw-Blade)
Mystic for me game one, Mystic for him game two, Hawks kill him game three. I surprised him by keeping counter-magic in to protect my board.
2-1 (3-0-1)

Round 5 – Jared Illum (UW Caw-Blade)
Jared was a buddy I playtested with. When I found he drew his last round, I jokingly said we’d play each other. Turns out we did. I was pretty upset that I had to play him (I blame DCI Reporter for pairing us). I managed to keep a Mystic onboard and win. Sun Titan followed by another Sun Titan got there game two.
2-0 (4-0-1)

Round 6 – Jordan Brott (UW Caw-Blade)
I mulled to five game one on the play. He got the threats out before I could, so I couldn’t do much about it.
0-2 (4-1-1)

Round 7 – Casey Pordes (UW Caw-Blade)
He gets stuck on one blue source, so I Tech Edge it and start dropping threats to kill him. Game two, Sun Titans got there for me, eventually despite him beating me down with Celestial Colonnade.
2-0 (5-1-1)

Round 8 – Charlie Nguyen (UW Caw-Blade)
Another guy I been talking to and working with in terms of what to play for Regionals. Again, wasn’t too happy to have to play against another friend. Game one, I get Mystic out turn two and win. Game two, he gets Mystic out before I could. Game three, I get Jace out and start finding my answers to win the game. Sun Titan eventually turns the tide.
2-1 (6-1-1)

So after the eighth round, I’m in 10th place. I can’t draw in because there were six of 21 and 22 pointers, with myself, Brad, Gavin Verhey, and one other guy in at 19 points, as well as all the 18 pointers below us. Martin calls me over and tells myself, Brad and Gavin that we win and we’re in. The issue here is that Gavin already drew with Brad last round so they can’t play each other, which means I’m playing either Brad or Gavin most likely. Then pairings are put up. Guess who I get paired up against.

Round 9 – Brad Rutherford (RUG)
So we’re matched up again for the third time in as many weeks. I asked him as we were walking over to the table, “You for sure gonna go?” He said, “Yeah, you?” I told him, “75% sure.” As we sit down at the table, I told him, “Lemme make a quick call to my dad about something.” So I left the table and start walking away. I come back, sit down, and as we’re about to cut each others’ decks, closed my eyes for a bit before I extended my hand and said, “I’ll concede. Congrats man.”

So why the concession? Why the heck would you give up the possibility of a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in Nationals?

I tried calling my dad but to no avail because of reception issues. As I’m walking away from the table, I tried to convince myself to play it out. But to be honest, I couldn’t. As much as a competitor that I am, there were two things going through my mind. One, Brad would benefit more from going than I would. There were a lot of things pointing that I knew that were pointing that direction than there were for me. And for me to go was simply for the sake of boosting my own pride and ego. The night before, I told myself to just have fun playing at regionals. Don’t focus on trying to qualify. Two, to possibly see a friend not make it at my own expense wouldn’t have been fun for me. It’s not part of my character. That was my reason for conceding despite being a match win away from making it to U.S. Nationals.

So why write about this?

Good question. I guess when it comes down to it, we all have this desire to show off our skills and try to win titles, prizes, and fame. But ultimately, it’s just a game. I mean, if Magic were gone tomorrow, no one’s gonna focus on those things I listed. But people will remember the relationships and friendships that were developed through playing the game. I think that’s what’s the most important. Again, I would have a lot of regrets if I had played it out and won.

There were a lot of things that I took out of Saturday. I had my best finish at 6-2-1 and in 19th place (despite the intentional loss). My objective of having fun was accomplished. I helped a friend make his first U.S. Nationals. I played, for the most, part well despite a few play mistakes here and there. I executed my game plan that I came into the tournament with, especially in the mirror (4-1-1 in the mirror). Got to have some good conversations with great opponents and friends and just enjoy the experience. And for me, that’s what counted the most. I grabbed my packs and headed off to happy hour to celebrate one of my good friends’ birthday.

All in all, it was a good day. If I were to go back to that same moment, I would do the same thing again. The only difference would be I wouldn’t have hesitated to do so.

Other random notes:
- Jed Dolbeer may have had the deck of the tournament. It was pretty fun to watch it work. It ate all the Caw-Blade decks alive.

- I saw one of the most awkward rulings of the day. There’s this player that recently started playing M:TG and is pretty good. The difference between him and everyone else in the room is that he’s blind. So a lot of the times, he’s able to remember the board state despite not being able to see it. It’s quite impressive to say the least. It’s game two and he’s sitting at the table next to me. He Preordains, puts two cards at the bottom, draws a card, and there’s a Stoneforge Mystic on top of his deck, revealed. But Jamie is unaware that there’s a revealed card on top of his deck. Opponent has to call a judge over to explain the situation and because of this issue, the blind player gets a warning… For looking at an extra card. It probably was the most awkward situation for all three people. No one wanted that call to be made, but they had to follow the procedures on that. Thank God it was only a warning.

- Brad and I played it out just to see what would have happened. Brad would have won 2-1 if we actually played it out.

- Jared and my game may or may not have had the most play mistakes and take backs of all time. It was fun.

Props:
- Brad Rutherford – For what will be his first Nationals appearance. You deserved it bro.
- Jesus Ibarra-Leal – For getting me that Nexus. It got me there in that third round!
- Warren Eng – For reminding me not to audible.
- Thomas – For all the work in trying to trying to devise a foil to the current metagame, as well as the deck designing and discussions for what we currently had.
- The crew from Renton – For all the playtesting and random hangouts leading up to Saturday’s Regionals event
- All my opponents – For the great conversations, the laughs, being good sportsmen, and classy guys.
- God – For constantly keeping my priorities in check.

Slops:
- Deck checks – For getting deck checked in three consecutive events.
- DCI reporter – For pitting friends against each other.

// Ed Pham
// me at edpham dot net

So on my blogroll, Jason Kottke posted this link: http://txt2re.com/. What is it? For those of you that don’t know, it’s a text to regular expression generator. What the heck is a regular expression? It’s basically a way to match a certain string (or sub-string) or text. It could be anything from looking for punctuations, certain patterns, words, and so forth. I have to admit, regular expressions (or regex) can be fairly tricky sometimes, but it’s definitely a great tool, especially in the computational field. So what is this generator suppose to do? You type in a string of text, then you proceed to select the text you want to search for with your expression by clicking on the links below those letters or words. At the very end, the generator spits out a piece of code that you can use to help find that string.

What’s good about it? Well, first off, it’s good in that it can generate code for any language. C#, Java, Python, PHP, and so forth. There’s a lot of possibilities there. Another good thing about it is that if you don’t know regex, it makes things a lot easier. Again, regex is pretty tricky and does takes some practice to master it. If you don’t plan on coding much, this will probably be useful since it doesn’t require you to learn the syntax for it or develop the string needed to extract what you want. The simplicity of using the generator is pretty good too. Just click the link of what you want the expression to go after. Character, variable, word or even an entire string. It does it pretty easily. If you make a mistake, like you wanted a character and not the entire word, you just reclick that link for the word and it’ll give you all the options again.

However, there’s definitely a few things that are problematic (or at least a programmer can be nit-picky about). First, if you’re going to be programming stuff, the likelihood of needing to know regex is probably high. So resorting to a generator every time probably isn’t good practice. Secondly is more of a nit-picky issue. In the example that they have when you first go to the page is the following string: 13:Apr:2011 “This is an Example!”. Now if you try to setup for the expression such that it’s simply This is an Example, the code is rather unusual. Here it is in Python:

import re

txt='13:Apr:2011 "This is an Example!"'

re1='.*?'	# Non-greedy match on filler
re2='(This)'	# Word 1
re3='( )'	# White Space 1
re4='(is)'	# Word 2
re5='( )'	# White Space 2
re6='(an)'	# Word 3
re7='( )'	# White Space 3
re8='(Example)'	# Word 4

rg = re.compile(re1+re2+re3+re4+re5+re6+re7+re8,re.IGNORECASE|re.DOTALL)
m = rg.search(txt)
if m:
    word1=m.group(1)
    ws1=m.group(2)
    word2=m.group(3)
    ws2=m.group(4)
    word3=m.group(5)
    ws3=m.group(6)
    word4=m.group(7)
    print "("+word1+")"+"("+ws1+")"+"("+word2+")"+"("+ws2+")"+"("+word3+")"+"("+ws3+")"+"("+word4+")"+"n"

Notice anything unusual? re3, re5, re7 are all the same white space characters. Yet, they are all assigned a specific variable. This is fairly bad since if they’re the same, you probably could just assign them all one variable and use that variable multiple times. I won’t bash on this (too much anyway) mainly because this is a generator. It was released fairly recently, thus it’s still in the early stages of development. Also, since you’re creating a generator, it might not necessarily differentiate one whitespace character from another (or another variable from another, or another word from another). But that can be fixed pretty easily by identifying whether or not that word or character had been used previously in the string.

Overall, I think this is a cool idea. It’s simple, universal, and does it pretty quickly. You don’t have to worry about unusual load times for the code when you go from one language to another. Those kinks are still there, but they can be fixed. It’s definitely a great tool to use if you don’t use regex often or at all… However, if you do use it on a regular basis, actually learn how to use it and not resort to using a generator.

It’s been a few years, but Incubus finally released a new single that’s part of their upcoming album called “If Not Now, When?” It’s called Adolescents. You can listen to it here.

This week seemed to be one of those weeks where I managed to see random racial comments get thrown out, either on the internet or in person. Not exactly sure why, but I felt this calling to talk about it briefly. You probably heard Alexandra Wallace’s comments with regards to Asians at UCLA. Not sure what really prompted it (though I’ve heard random rumors here and there), but it seems rather idiotic to do so in such a public forum like YouTube and while at a university where nearly 40% of the student population is Asian. Though, I’m not going to completely deny that everything she said was false, but regardless, I’m pretty sure wasn’t smart. I can understand if she’s was trying to be humorous or be comedic (though awkward to do it), but it doesn’t seem like it was the intent of her rant. I will admit though that death threats by others weren’t really warranted either. To inform and educate would have been far better than to try to run her out and let her maintain that stereotype.

Then came Saturday afternoon. I went to a M:TG tournament down in Renton to help out a friend. I was just sitting around talking and playing cards with some guys, then I hear this slam of cards on a table and cards flying into a wall. It scared the heck out of me. I turn behind me and I see this fairly old guy frustrated and pissed off that this guy had beat him in the last round of the tournament (though, he had no chance of making the top eight due to tiebreakers). People that had surrounded the match eventually dispersed and the guy started picking up his cards. Then while I was just flipping through my own cards, I hear the guy say under his breath, “(Something something)… Damn Asians… (Something something something).” I call over the tournament judge and told him what I had heard because it was pretty inappropriate. The judge goes over to talk to him. Eventually, he goes around to a group of other guys and proceeds to make further comments. It was along the lines of “Asians aren’t honorable, they all play like Saito (only M:TG players would understand that reference), they’re cheaters.” A bunch of us talked to the judge after he left and the judge just sighed in disappointment after hearing this.

I guess it’s interesting what prompted each of these events. They were both triggered by frustration of some sort. Was it really necessary to make those comments? Obviously not. Anger does make us to saying stupid things. We all screw up. It happens. But especially the latter, the fact that the guy eventually cooled down before continuing to make these racial comments was upsetting. In the end, it made the individual be looked upon poorly since he’s stereotyping Asians as a whole because of one individual’s actions. It’s like saying all Germans are ruthless and heartless and are like Hitler. Well, maybe that’s too extreme but I think you get the idea. It’s especially disappointing because I’ve heard from a couple of friends that he is supposedly a nice individual. He’s also a judge himself, so he’s been a part of the M:TG community too. However, given some of his past history, it’s really hard to not put judgment on him for the things he’s done and this episode as well.

There was a video with regards to Wallace’s comments. While we all want justice, there’s also the importance of forgiveness as well. You need both. You can’t just say, “Whatever, it’s fine.” You have to inform the individual of their wrongdoing. But at the same time, you need to show forgiveness because that is how they will stop their stereotypes of different racial groups and any healing for the pain or struggles that they may have had with those groups.

In any case, all we can do is pray and hope for change, healing and transformation for these two.

I take the bus over to UW from Bellevue whenever I need to go to campus. It saves me money, gas, and car maintenance in the long run.

Whenever I’m on a bus, there’s feels like this unwritten and unspoken code for where to sit. If at all possible, unless they’re a friend of yours, create as much space between you and everyone on the bus. For example, you’re sitting alone on the bus and someone else comes on. That person can sit anywhere they want… Except for the spots adjacent to you. If a spot opens up on a crowded bus that creates space between you and the person next to you, take it immediately. Basically create space between you and the rest of the riders on the bus.

However, every so often, you get that one person that chooses to sit next to you, even though there’s a ton of other seats that would give the both of you a lot if space. As a result, you’re squeezed up against to the window, subtly holding your nose to not breathe in the the weird smell coming from their jacket. A spot opens up to create some space between you and them, yet they still choose to sit right next to you. You wait… And wait… And wait… Still not moving. Still taking in that smell from them. They finally get off on some stop and you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Today was one of those days… Not awkward at all.

Westboro Baptist Church goes around, protesting, putting up signs like “God hates homosexuals”, “God hates this”, “God hates that”. It’s pretty dumb. Well, this time, they go protesting three churches because of the churches’ belief that God loves everyone, which He does. So how does one church respond? You can read it here. (Thanks again to Josiah)

(Note: While, I might be a Christian, I’m not in support of the message Westboro brings to the world. I could go on a rant about their hateful message, but judging them is pretty much as hypocritical as them judging people for their sexual orientation, beliefs, etc.)