April 2020

Introduction

As a work sample for a job application, I spent some time writing a Python library which lets a game designer create basic text adventures. Though the library is a mere prototype, I was able to use it to implement a sample game called "Bread Master."

My library and its documentation are available on my public GitLab account. The rest of this page reproduces some introductory sections from the library's README, as of 2020-05-09.

Available for free online. My favorite part was Chapter 13.

Word list:

• gaberdine
• pelerine
• caftan

I'm going to Homebrew Website Club tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

1. Dangerous animals became even more sinister and uncanny in the dark. A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string. pg 9

2. The way into the shrine was a round hole at the side of a hill, just a little bigger than the round opening into a henhouse. Worshippers and those who came to seek knowledge from the god crawled on their belly through the hole and found themselves in a dark, endless space in the presence of Agbala. pg 16

Excerpts:

To get salt to go in your bread in slavery, well, they would dig up the dirt where the fresh meat hung over and had been dripping salt, and would boil this to get the salt. They would get and parch sweet potato peelings to make coffee. You-all are blessed children; you are living on flowery beds of ease. I would to God sometimes that I was able to express myself.

Mr. Reed, in "A Negro Has Got No Name" - pg 25

• echolalia (frequent repetition of a sound, word, or phrase)
• trouble using or understanding pronouns
• trouble using or understanding sentence (phrase) structures
• irregular tone (e.g. atonality; use of rising tone ("uptalk") at end of sentences which aren't questions)
• irregular articulation
• hard to keep themselves to a certain volume (e.g. hard to use "inside voice")

Excerpts:

Did Frost know what he was going to do when he began [Stopping By Woods]? Considering the poem simply as a piece of juggling one cannot fail to respond to the magnificent turn at the end where, with one flip, seven of the simplest words in the language suddenly dazzle [...]

pg 674

Or suppose that there existed somewhere a religious order that imposed a vow not only of eternal silence, but against all verbalization even of one's thoughts. Initiaties, suppose further, must pray a certain number of hours each day, but they must dance their prayers. [...] Can there be any doubt that the kinds of postures and the sequences of actions such dancers could fall into could constitute not only a language but a language susceptible of great refinement?

pg 707

Having corresponded with my friend Plurt Masberry, I've sorted the entries to the Sith Lord Challenge into a taxonomy of Sith characteristics. The five categories are "wizardly," "brutish", "inconceivable," "deceptive," and "artificial." Click through to read the full update.

In tonight's video call, Aaron Strick brought up the Sith Lord Challenge, and produced live laughter. Hours later, Aaron created the sinister Darth Skivin.

Praise Aaron!

Aaron showed the page to gRegor, who produced live laughter. Hours later, gRegor created the symbolic Darth ASCII.

Praise gRegor!

The thrill of new entries prompted me to challenge Nitzan, who readily agreed. Hours later, Nitzan produced the minatory Seth, the Ancient Sith!

Praise Nitzan!

I hear that, even now, Chris and Jacky toil to create their own Challengers...

Draw your dark side! Take the Sith Lord Challenge!

Recipient of the Digital-Native Sith Ribbon.

I skimmed through about a dozen of the interviews that make up this book.

1. In the tiny country of Malawi the winter is severe [...] May, June, and July, the cold months, are also the harvest months. This is the season when the village silos -- huge baskets on legs -- are filled to the brim with corn, the staple food of the Malawian. The oranges and tangerines are ripe; the second bean crop, the tobacco and tea are all being harvested and auctioned.

   Winter in Africa [July 2, 1965] - pg 12