printf("Hello World!\n");

In olden times, I dabbled in all things computer related. One of my passing pursuits was running a FreeBSD unix server out of my dorm. I learned enough of the c and perl programming languages to script everything and keep it running. Having recently acquired the habit of rational thought, I'm thinking programming is a pursuit worthy of the liberated intellect. So I'm relearning c (in a more formal fashion this time), working through the C Programming Lanugage, second edition to be exact, by Kerner and Ritchie, the language's progenitors. To help myself and to serve as a resource for others working through the book, I'm going to post my solutions to the book's exercises.

I'd like to talk more later about why I think programming is a worthy pursuit for the free mind.

Also, being my first post, a few words about this blog. To begin with, I hate the word. I don't know what the hell it means or where it comes from, the advent of this online revolution in personal publishing having originated shortly after my digital exile at TAC. In my day (we're talking the World War I era of the internet, where AOL and Compuserve lost to the internet), we called these things homepages. A less absurd, perhaps more indicitive label. But then again, these days it appears the internet is in the ambiguous and socially awkward days of Vietnam (I know it's not, Walter, and fuck you Donnie), so go blog, I'm no conscientious objector.

What do I want with a blog? It seems these days we spend less time talking with our friends in person about our lives, and more sharing it on the internet with total strangers. I'm cool with that. There're more important things to talk about in person. And people who don't really have anything to say I can duely and easily ignore. So I guess friends and innocent well-wishers can keep a tab on me here. Further, a public medium is neat for writing. It holds you accountable (to yourself mainly) for your writing. For those responsible enough to care. Instead of self-indulging in meaningles poetry scribbled on a post-it-note by your bedside at two in the morning after a bad date, or maintaining a running dialogue with your more inane self in a daily diary, you know that potential others might be reading your more personal thoughts. Now I guess many people fail to realize that your petty and worthless personal thoughts should only be shared with others along with a nice dose of embarrasment. Or.. they don't care. Probably both.

That's that.