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meowsynthh · 10 months ago

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Guys, look... Look at this post I found on the wayback machine:

Writing Real Life Person Slash about the Pope Day

It is January 15.

I do not write real life person slash about the Pope. Every year when January 15th comes around I think about it. I laugh, because it is such a silly thing. I think about it. But I do not do it.

I would be ashamed.

Fernando told me the story of "write real life person slash about the Pope day" once, on a summer weekend, when we were sitting outside and admiring the bouganvillea that grew in his white lattice.

"It is because the Pope is afraid that people will look at him sexually," Fernando said. "That is why he is so angry at gay men."

"Is that why?" I asked.

"Why else?" said Fernando, with a little shrug. "So there is January 15th. The day that is every year when people write real life person slash about the Pope. So that he understands that he does not control how people look at him, but only how he shows himself. Then he will be less angry at gay men and more angry at the Internet."

Fernando was a very chaste man. He did not like gutter jokes. He did not like to talk about sex. But every year on January 15th he would write real life person slash about Pope Benedict XVI.

One year, he wrote slash between the Pope and Captain Kirk. I asked him, "But where is Spock?"

He laughed.

"Spock does not interfere between a Captain and his Pope," Fernando said.

Another year it was the Pope and Harry Potter. Harry was the "seme", the strong one, and Pope Benedict XVI was the "uke."

In this story, the Pope told Mr. Potter that the Vatican did not think him Satanist. "It is only the fringe groups that say that," said the Pope.

"I understand," said Mr. Potter.

It was simple. It was clean.

Those were the kinds of stories that Fernando would write.

"You do not have to read them," he would say.

But I did.

This year, I have promised myself that I will write real life person slash about the Pope. I will not write much. It will be simple. The Pope becomes a catgirl. Or the Pope is visited by the ghost of Pope Formosus and they have sex.

But I find it very difficult.

Each time I sit down to write real life person slash about the Pope I discover that I have no words. They drain out of me like there are holes in my feet. I sit there empty.

I cry, sometimes.

I sleep, in short bursts.

It is the morning of January 16 before I give up. I go outside. I sit with a cup of hot tea and I look out at the lawn.

There are birds at the bird feeder.

There are rhododendrons near the wall.

The sun is rising.

"I am sorry, Fernando."

And I can feel the touch on my hair and my shoulder. It is the wind but it is like he is near me.

And there is one of those moments, because he is with me. One of those moments that I find now and again, but too rarely, when suddenly everything in the world is beautiful.

I can see that the birds are writing real life person slash about the Pope with the beating of their wings.

And the rhododendrons are writing real life person slash about the Pope as they sip gently of the morning light.

And the sun; and the world; and everything that is everywhere touched by the things that are numinous---

It is all writing real life person slash about the Pope.

And although it is too late, although it is the 16th and everyone will mock me and call me not a celebrant but a sick puppy who likes Pope sex, I go to my keyboard.

I type, "My friend Fernando was a good man. He was a loving man, a good man, a strong man. He was not disordered even though he was gay.

"Pope Benedict XVI could see this.

"Even across the crowded room full of pilgrims he could see this.

"And suddenly there was a strange warmth that spread through Pope Benedict XVI, a warmth that was like the touch of God."

It is the beginning of my real life person slash about the Pope.

Posted by rebecca at January 6, 2006 08:35 AM

#popeslashday #popeslash #whew

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templeofshame · 5 years ago

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Ok for real, you are writing slash about the pope?

“I do not write real life person slash about the Pope. Every year when January 15th comes around I think about it. I laugh, because it is such a silly thing. I think about it. But I do not do it.”

(I do however highly recommend reading the story, which is very beautiful, and gets to me every year on the day that starts in 15 minutes in my time zone)

#jenna moran #writing real life person slash about the pope day #it's slightly weird because writing real life person slash about the pope day is also my first dog's birthday #so i remember yoshi #on the same day the narrator remembers fernando #i don't think yoshi wrote slash about the pope though

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qwertsypage · 7 years ago

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How I Survived RisingStack’s Node.js Bootcamp

TLDR: We have a Node.js coding bootcamp here at RisingStack which will help you to sucker punch imposter syndrome and give you a kickstart learning Node.js!

In this article, I give you some insight on it and share my experience. I hope that if you are a rookie just like me, you will get some boost seeing my example, and you will jump right into it.

((Back then, I had no idea what I'm getting into!))

And the good news? Our Node Bootcamp is totally open source (aka free), so you can improve yourself too by going through it.

By the time you finish it, you’ll become a Node developer who can confidently work on enterprise projects (with the help of a mentor) - and it’s a great learning material in case you’re preparing for the Node Foundation’s Certification Exam!

This is my story:

Meet Me, the Wannabe Node Developer

My journey started back in May 2016. I’ve been looking for an opportunity for changing my career for quite a time back then. Originally I’m a civil engineer, but I was interested in web development. Doing some tutorials and online courses every now and then, but nothing serious, it was more like about learning new things, you know, just for fun.

Then one day I saw an ad of a coding course. 4 months of basic web development, with pretty good chances of finding a job. I did some research about the opportunities, and I spoke with a couple of friends in the industry. I guess you’ve found out already: I applied.

I got a junior front end developer job after finishing the course. It was all fun and games until I figured out that it’s not what I dream of. The team was superb, I learned a lot during working hours and even after. When I got involved in an API development and implementation project, I realized I’m very interested in backend technologies as well. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have the chance to work on similar projects, since the company almost exclusively develops front-end projects and this was a one-time-only, internal project.

Fast forward to June 2017: a message was waiting for me in my LinkedIn Inbox. It was different from the usual recruiter messages, it was kinda personal and really straightforward, asking whether I’m interested in working on cool stuff, contributing to the Javascript and Node.js community and if so, let’s talk.

Best. Timing. Ever.

Starting the Node Bootcamp at RisingStack

On my first day at RisingStack, I got a T-shirt with two words on it: Node Hero. I immediately burst into laughter.

“Node Hero? More like a sidekick. Or the guy who changes the lightbulb in the callsign reflector…” - I said.

“For now, maybe. But at the end of our Node.js bootcamp you’ll know everything you need to move forward” - they said.

It turns out they were right though. The professionalism and knowledge they provided were more than enough to get the fundamentals about Node.js and to confidently jump into the new chapter of my programming career.

So I started the bootcamp exercise right on my first day, without any deeper knowledge of relational databases or Node apps whatsoever.

I’ve found it to be pretty delightful that my exercise wasn’t a to-do app they usually ask you to make. Not that there is any problem with it, but as a total rookie, I did it many times before so it was nice to see something new.

You know, just for fun and for the sake of variety. :)

So what did I do instead, you ask?

The main task the business logic had to handle in the first assignment was:

Find GitHub repos, using the GitHub public API

Collect the repos into a database in a form specified in the readme

Collect the contributors of the repo into a database in a form specified in the readme

Calculate the added lines per contributors and save it into the database

Be able to query the contributions

This seems pretty easy, huh?

You’d be surprised how complex it can get in no time! Especially if you want to do it at RisingStack grade..

First I was so confident in what I did, that I just jumped right into the first task, starting to hack-n-slash around. It was a good way to get lost in all the new things.

So I Needed to Slow Down a Little Bit...

“Could we like go through the daily task every end of the day and check whether I got everything right or not?”

During this bootcamp, each and every task - or milestone, if you will - introduces something new, a new tool / library / syntax / feature / unicorn / double rainbow you have to use, like

ES6 syntax with async-await

Joi for validation

Knex.js, for SQL query building and migrating

Redis to handle messages ( yes, there will be workers ;) ) just to name a few.

You can find links to useful resources next to the task description, where you can find documentation, examples, and articles which will help you to grasp the concept, from the very beginning, setting up the project and getting all the required things right, to deploying and making the app production ready.

Pro tip from a rookie: For me, it was really helpful to set up a method:

First I spent a day reading the resources, finding related ones and doing super simple examples to see how they work in real life and to check whether I got it right.

The next day I created a plan, usually with pen and paper (Yeah, I know, it’s so 3000 B.C., but it is the best way to make notes and drafts fast!) to draft a workflow about what I have to do in the task.

This way you can stay on track and save a lot of time!

Tests. They got your back, bro..

I think almost all of us know the phase where we all started: you know the basics, and can put together something that just miraculously works. I found this the main selling point in developing, you can just create things out of thin air! Absolutely amazing.

But is it really working? In every condition? What about that refactoring you did yesterday? Is it still cool? I think you’ve heard this a lot, or else, you’re the Test Pope himself, and so you can back me up on this one:

Testing gives you the confidence, that you did not screw up something accidentally and your code does exactly what you wanted it to do.

We think that proper testing is a crucial part of every project. Milestones are only reached if you have the proper testing done. You'll most likely find some predefined tests, but most of them need to be written by you.

The bootcamp helps you to get familiar with the most commonly used testing techniques and tools, like

Mocha.js,

Chai.js,

Sinon

for stubbing, spying and mocking out calls, from unit test to end-to-end tests.

They really come in handy for refactoring, because one of the main point of this exercise is to write maintainable, readable, efficient code. Which you probably won’t be able to do at first try.

Pro tip from a rookie: Try to organize your code in a way that makes it easy to unit test all your functions! If you already wrote it and then you realize that it’s not really fit for unit testing, just try to restructure it instead skipping the test!

Don’t forget: today’s skipped test is tomorrow’s bug. Potentially.

Is this the lab experiment accident which made me a super Node.js guru-hero-ninja and let me write ridiculously long section titles?

There’s this ancient proverb:

“The thing is, while you are a rookie, you don’t have enough knowledge to decide which way is the best to step on, the amount of options are just overwhelming...”

Nope, not at all. Probably you already know that it is not possible to become a pro in a fortnight, as there are no magic potions making you lean and muscular while you can eat trainloads of chocolate, heck, not even a shoe that fits all feet.

Fortunately for me, the good folks of RisingStack created an exercise that can give adequate answers for some simple, yet periodically emerging questions hitting all of us at least once in a time, like:

“I’ve just finished a tutorial on javascript. What should I do next?”

“Do you have a good exercise that fits a beginner?“

“What is the minimal requirements to get a junior job as a Node.js / web developer?“

I’m almost sure, that if you are subscribed on r/javascript, you saw these questions more than once…

What I loved in this exercise is that I got familiar with a lot of new things, while I created something that is the archetype of every web app nowadays.

After I finished every task in the Node Bootcamp, it became my number one backup code I went back to when I needed to create something, or when I wanted to try out or learn something new.

Just the recent example of mine: I wanted to create a login system with token authentication, by only myself, without any step-to-step tutorial or whatsoever. I didn’t want to create a whole new app for this simple task. So I just integrated it into one of the bootcamp exercises! After this I created a handy boilerplate out of it, so whenever I want to experiment with some new fancy stuff I need a backend for, I just grab this boilerplate and spice it up as I want to in no time! Really good for quick prototyping.

Wanna go farther? Sure thing, chief! What about wiring some CI system into it? Deploying out on Heroku maybe? Creating a front end for it? It is all possible, I know because I did it. It is only up to you, which direction you wanna move from this point.

So yeah, as you can see, this bootcamp is not equivalent with the bite of a mutant spider or chemical X, but it is a very firm base that gave me a general overview of back-end technologies, and it allowed me to experiment with new things.

The other very important personal thing is that it gave me confidence as a junior in what I know. I could start to learn effectively, and now I can distinguish what resource is useful and which is not. It taught me to learn, and now I am not afraid at all to get in the water for swimmers only.

You can Start RisingStack’s Node Bootcamp Now

My description above was just a small taste, barely scratching the surface. I suggest you to check out the exercises for yourself on GitHub: http://ift.tt/2vKcOhU

We’re counting on your feedback!

Also, If you find the bootcamp too easy, I recommend you to check out our upcoming Node.js trainings to challenge yourself even more. I bet you have plenty of areas to cover - like microservices and security!

http://ift.tt/2w9GiK0

http://ift.tt/2wizcTa

How I Survived RisingStack’s Node.js Bootcamp published first on http://ift.tt/2w7iA1y

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iyarpage · 7 years ago

Text

How I Survived RisingStack’s Node.js Bootcamp

TLDR: We have a Node.js coding bootcamp here at RisingStack which will help you to sucker punch imposter syndrome and give you a kickstart learning Node.js!

In this article, I give you some insight on it and share my experience. I hope that if you are a rookie just like me, you will get some boost seeing my example, and you will jump right into it.

((Back then, I had no idea what I'm getting into!))

And the good news? Our Node Bootcamp is totally open source (aka free), so you can improve yourself too by going through it.

This is my story:

Meet Me, the Wannabe Node Developer

Best. Timing. Ever.

Starting the Node Bootcamp at RisingStack

On my first day at RisingStack, I got a T-shirt with two words on it: Node Hero. I immediately burst into laughter.

“Node Hero? More like a sidekick. Or the guy who changes the lightbulb in the callsign reflector…” - I said.

“For now, maybe. But at the end of our Node.js bootcamp you’ll know everything you need to move forward” - they said.

So I started the bootcamp exercise right on my first day, without any deeper knowledge of relational databases or Node apps whatsoever.

You know, just for fun and for the sake of variety. :)

So what did I do instead, you ask?

The main task the business logic had to handle in the first assignment was:

Find GitHub repos, using the GitHub public API

Collect the repos into a database in a form specified in the readme

Collect the contributors of the repo into a database in a form specified in the readme

Calculate the added lines per contributors and save it into the database

Be able to query the contributions

This seems pretty easy, huh?

You’d be surprised how complex it can get in no time! Especially if you want to do it at RisingStack grade..

First I was so confident in what I did, that I just jumped right into the first task, starting to hack-n-slash around. It was a good way to get lost in all the new things.

So I Needed to Slow Down a Little Bit...

“Could we like go through the daily task every end of the day and check whether I got everything right or not?”

During this bootcamp, each and every task - or milestone, if you will - introduces something new, a new tool / library / syntax / feature / unicorn / double rainbow you have to use, like

ES6 syntax with async-await

Joi for validation

Knex.js, for SQL query building and migrating

Redis to handle messages ( yes, there will be workers ;) ) just to name a few.

Pro tip from a rookie: For me, it was really helpful to set up a method:

First I spent a day reading the resources, finding related ones and doing super simple examples to see how they work in real life and to check whether I got it right.

This way you can stay on track and save a lot of time!

Tests. They got your back, bro..

Testing gives you the confidence, that you did not screw up something accidentally and your code does exactly what you wanted it to do.

The bootcamp helps you to get familiar with the most commonly used testing techniques and tools, like

Mocha.js,

Chai.js,

Sinon

for stubbing, spying and mocking out calls, from unit test to end-to-end tests.

They really come in handy for refactoring, because one of the main point of this exercise is to write maintainable, readable, efficient code. Which you probably won’t be able to do at first try.

Don’t forget: today’s skipped test is tomorrow’s bug. Potentially.

Is this the lab experiment accident which made me a super Node.js guru-hero-ninja and let me write ridiculously long section titles?

There’s this ancient proverb:

“The thing is, while you are a rookie, you don’t have enough knowledge to decide which way is the best to step on, the amount of options are just overwhelming...”

“I’ve just finished a tutorial on javascript. What should I do next?”

“Do you have a good exercise that fits a beginner?“

“What is the minimal requirements to get a junior job as a Node.js / web developer?“

I’m almost sure, that if you are subscribed on r/javascript, you saw these questions more than once…

What I loved in this exercise is that I got familiar with a lot of new things, while I created something that is the archetype of every web app nowadays.

After I finished every task in the Node Bootcamp, it became my number one backup code I went back to when I needed to create something, or when I wanted to try out or learn something new.

You can Start RisingStack’s Node Bootcamp Now

My description above was just a small taste, barely scratching the surface. I suggest you to check out the exercises for yourself on GitHub: http://ift.tt/2vKcOhU

We’re counting on your feedback!

http://ift.tt/2w9GiK0

http://ift.tt/2wizcTa

How I Survived RisingStack’s Node.js Bootcamp published first on http://ift.tt/2fA8nUr

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darklordreasonable · 5 years ago

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and only 8 days from Writing Real Life Person Slash about the Pope Day...

I cannot stress this enough & cant believe it has to be said: DO NOT SHIP THE TWO POPES (Francis and Benedict) IN “the two popes”.

I mean it. Firstly, they’re both real people. Secondly, they’re popes. Thirdly, they’re real popes.

#it must be a sign

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xavidotron · 4 years ago

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Happy Writing Real Life Person Slash about the Pope Day!

#hitherby dragons #jenna moran

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newstfionline · 8 years ago

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Martin Luther: Father of Protest Songs?

By Andrea Valentino, BBC, 24 May 2017

Tomorrow, the Brandenburg Gate to his back, Barack Obama will give a landmark speech in honour of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The speech marks a high point in a frenetic year of celebration. Dozens of new books and exhibits are marking the 500th anniversary of his revolution. Playmobil, a toy company, has even released a dinky Luther figurine. All this is unsurprising: by turning against many of the major teachings of the Catholic Church and publishing a complete translation of the Bible into German, Martin Luther pushed Europe towards the modern world.

But if Europe is still shaped by Luther’s political and religious legacy, his musical contributions are less famous. In fact, music was crucial to his ideology, and encouraged radical singers long after his death. His popular musical style, meanwhile, is immediately comparable with some of the most well-known protest movements of the modern age.

Before 1517, the Catholic Church controlled most religious music in Europe. Lay participation was minimal. In church, most people only heard austere plainchant, sung in Latin by a choir. Passion plays--rowdy dramas describing biblical stories--introduced religious ideas to people in their own languages. But by the 16th Century, these plays had often slumped into an excuse for slapstick humour. And anyway, vernacular music rarely crossed the church threshold.

Luther shattered these strict divisions, and transformed Christian musical life. For him, religious music was not just for remote priests and choirs. Instead, it was “next to theology” and a “gift from God”. As such, it should be accessible to everyone. After all, he wrote, “by embellishing and ornamenting their tunes in wonderful ways, [singers could] lead others into a heavenly dance.” Anyone who disagreed “deserved to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs!”

Luther scrabbled to develop these ideas as fiercely as he did his thoughts on the Pope or the evils of indulgences (where time in purgatory could be slashed in return for a handy payment to the local priest). Latin chanting was dumped in favour of communal singing in everyday German. This style soon became a key part of his followers’ identity. “Luther’s use of German hymns was an important sign of change,” explains Andreas Loewe, dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne and Luther expert. “It was just as obvious as having married clergy, or being able to receive a cup of wine at Holy Communion as a lay person.”

Not that Luther promoted music just for abstract reasons of faith. He well understood how powerful music was in spreading his message. Like the best modern protest songs, his hymns were catchy and punchy. He added religious lyrics to recognisable folk songs, just as We Shall Overcome hatched from an old southern Gospel song. This was especially useful in an ignorant age. Even illiterate people--about 85% of the German population in 1500--could learn songs and pass them on quickly.

Luther himself pushed these changes along. He encouraged children to learn music at school, and worked with other reformers to produce Protestant hymnbooks. Luther also wrote lyrics that “imitated the way people spoke,” says Loewe. Luther himself stated that both music and lyrics should “grow out of the true mother tongue.” Ein Feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) is typical of his rousing simplicity:

Our God is a mighty fortress, A trusty shield and weapon!

Songs like this stiffened the hearts of Luther and his friends. They likely sang Ein Feste Burg at the Diet of Worms, when Luther was interrogated by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. This has striking parallels with more modern protest movements. After all, anti-Vietnam War protesters rallied to Give Peace A Chance in the face of violent backlash, while anti-Apartheid campaigners sang Soweto Blues after a racist massacre in South Africa.

But if Luther’s music was soothing to supporters, his hymns also grabbed new converts. New music buzzed from town to town before the Catholic authorities could swat it down. As with other aspects of the Reformation, the printing press was key. “Luther’s hymns were sold ‘hot off the press’ as pamphlets, and taught to entire cities by travelling singers,” says Loewe. Sometimes, Luther’s hymns worked faster than he did. In Magdeburg, massed singing of his anthems converted the town months before Luther arrived.

Contemporaries valued the spread of this music. Writing 50 years after Luther died, theologian Cornelius Becker noted that “[Luther’s] songs were carried to people in far-away places in the souls and minds of pious Christians. It was not easy to block their progress.” Indeed, Lutheran hymns had soon skipped out of his stronghold in Saxony. They were sung in Catholic areas, and translated into English. All this shares much with modern protest music. Just as the socialist anthem The Internationale became famous from Madrid to Moscow--even among people who did not understand the niceties of Marxist dogma--Lutheran hymns bounced around Europe as a snappy mark of solidarity with unknown allies.

Luther’s music stayed popular after his death. Protestant troops sang Lutheran hymns as they went into battle during the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th Century. Later Protestant composers also covered his hymns. Johann Sebastian Bach expanded Ein Feste Burg to a glorious 30-minute cantata, while Felix Mendelssohn added it to his aptly named Reformation symphony. This trend has continued to modern times: Lutheran hymns still feature in Catholic and Protestant hymnbooks. For Romantic writer Heinrich Heine, Ein Feste Burg was nothing less than the “Marseillaise of the Reformation” that “has preserved to this day its inspiriting power.”

Like the real Marseillaise, meanwhile, Luther’s music has proved boundlessly supple. During the 1848 revolution, liberals sang a new version of Ein Feste Burg to promote “freedom” and “truth”. In the 1880s, German social democrats rewrote the same hymn to include references to human rights. A century later, opponents of a new nuclear waste plant used Ein Feste Burg to attack the “armed police”. Loewe notices the irony here. “Just as the reformer took stirring tunes and composed new words for them,” he explains, “so many protest movements used Luther’s tunes to promote ideas other than Luther’s own.”

This feels fitting. Through his hymns, Luther is grandfather of a musical revolution that shared and adapted, united in stomping change on the world through rousing melodies and simple words. But if Martin Luther helped spur on modern protest music, he can still flicker moments of private contemplation. “I never go through a day without listening to some Lutheran chorales or organ renditions of great Christian music,” explains Martin E Marty, a religious scholar. Andreas Loewe agrees. “I love to sing,” he says. “Whether as part of our worship at St Paul’s Cathedral, or with friends, or as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus with whom I get to perform a couple of times a year--I share Luther’s belief that music is a most ‘beautiful and priceless gift of God.’”

#Martin Luther #Luther and music #protest songs #Ein Feste Burg #A Mighty Fortress

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