Links and Notes of the day - 22nd June 2018

Catching up on UFC 223

Since UFC Fight Pass delivers their premiere events a little later than the actual fight night, I generally catch up on events from about 1 or 2 behind. With UFC 225 due to show up on Fight Pass soon, I thought it'd be good to start catching up on the past couple of events. UFC 223 is such a damn crowd pleaser. If you can get your hands on a copy of it (I do not advocate piracy, choose your own means), I fully suggest skipping the prelims and starting from the main card. Right out of the gates, Joe Lauzon vs Chris Gruetzemacher is a cracker! No spoilers. But even if you knew the result, nothing could do justice to actually watching the fight. The fight is dirty as hell.

I'll say this though. The second round is cruel. The fight should have been called off.

Extended thought: I should probably create a post for each UFC event I watch. Even if I don't know enough fighter history or actual fighting techniques. But I believe that writing more will lead to writing better (with enough reflection). If I do, I'll start from UFC 224, work my way through at least 3 events and decide if I want to continue.

Side note: The choice to write whatever I want on my blog and not care about who reads what, is the most liberating decision I made for myself as far as blogging goes.

Software is paper clips and string

All software is held together with patches, shortcuts and cruft.

At some point, you’ll need to take a deep breath and pay a bunch of money to start fresh. And then, the very next day, there will be paper clips and string accumulating again.

A lot of Seth's short posts are feel good at first, and worth ruminating on after. On this one though, I'd say he's not wrong. But he's not right either. There's a better way to do software. I think Robert Martin (the version of him that's interested only in software, not the strange politically edgy one) put it best in his book clean coder or one of his blog posts. It went something like this:

Good code, clean code, is not something that is made and remade when it gets old. It should be treated the way a sushi chef treats their workstation. Constant cleaning and recleaning as they go along so that the workstation never becomes messy to the point where all work needs to stop till it is cleaned up.

This is easier said than done which is why "all software is held together with patches, shortcuts, and cruft". But we shouldn't have to expect that this must be the way. We can be better and we should strive to do so.

A Jazzy Discovery - Ahmad Jamal

He's apparently Very nice tunes if you want to have something to play in the background. Although that's an oversimplification. I'm trying to find some good reading on the influence of Ahmad Jamal. This is what his wikipedia says -

Trained in both traditional jazz ("American classical music", as he prefers to call it) and European classical style, Ahmad Jamal has been praised as one of the greatest jazz innovators over his exceptionally long career. Following bebop greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Jamal entered the world of jazz at a time when speed and virtuosic improvisation were central to the success of jazz musicians as artists. Jamal, however, took steps in the direction of a new movement, later coined "cool jazz" – an effort to move jazz in the direction of popular music.

If you are waking up in the morning and looking for music to clean up or cook to, this cannot be recommended enough

I will admit, I feel like such a brute talking of this music like this. I'm sure it must have much deeper implications than just "sounds nice" to those familiar with Jazz and all its intricacies. Someday I hope I can sit down with a Jazz musician familiar with its rich history and learn more.

Posted on June 22 2018 by Adnan Issadeen