In the evening I fixed a nasty bug in the Perl version of tumblelog
introduced the 28th of March, 2025. I had replaced a todo
counter with taking an array slice, wrongly assuming that if in Perl
one makes the slice larger than the actual number of elements the
whole array was used. Instead new elements, set to undef, are added.
This resulted in the Perl version failing with a lot of warnings on a
blog with just a few entries. This didn't occur while running the Perl
version for Plurrrr because this blog has quite some entries.
The fix was an easy one: calculated the minimum of the size of the
array and the desired size and use it, minus one, as an upper bound in
the slice.
After a test with the tumblelog included example Markdown file passed
successfully, I pushed the new version to GitHub.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun
dealer is shot down in the street, all signs point to Tomas Gomez, a
quiet man with a mysterious past—and deep connections to a notorious
gang—who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Other murders soon
follow, and it appears Gomez is only getting started. Meanwhile, Bob
Oz, a down-and-out suspended police officer with a dubious past of
his own, becomes fascinated by the case: he is obsessed with the
notion of hunting down a serial killer who only he can understand, a
killer with a story as tragic as his own.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2022. An enigmatic Norwegian man with
ties to Minneapolis—a self-described crime writer—has traveled to
the United States to research the Gomez case, in the hopes of
writing a book about it. But as his investigation progresses, the
writer’s seemingly neutral position reveals itself to be more
complicated than the reader is initially led to believe.
In the evening I started in Wolf
Hour
by Jo Nesbø.
In the early afternoon I finished Faithbreaker,
the final book in the Fallen Gods trilogy by Hannah Kaner. Of the
three books in the series I liked this one the most; a lot of action.
Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds
himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the
criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a
treacherous underworld he never imagined.
In the evening Esme and I watched Caught
Stealing. I liked the movie a
lot and rate it an 8 out of 10.
Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction,
Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil
lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot
told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his
ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.
Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly
unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training
guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack
McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order
to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through
the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s
digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has
been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because
billions are at stake.
It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in
1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with
a gambit called “the knight’s sacrifice.” Haller will take a similar
gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined
up against him and his clients.
In the evening I started in The Proving
Ground,
a Lincoln Lawyer novel by Michael Connelly.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist,
brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately
leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
In the evening Esme and I watched
Frankenstein. I liked the
movie and rate it a 7 out of 10.
A woman joins a dating show for an art opportunity, thinking that
it's in Paris, France, but it's actually in Paris, Texas. She tries
to get eliminated until falling for the bachelor complicates her
plans.
In the evening Esme and I watched The Wrong
Paris. The movie was OK and I
give it a 6 out of 10.
Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to
relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road
trip to Tallahassee. Things quickly go awry when they cross paths
with a group of inept criminals.
In the evening Esme and I watched Drive-Away
Dolls. I didn't like the
movie much and rate it a 5 out of 10.
In the late afternoon Jaiden and I took a bus to Zoetermeer to see The
Perfect Tool, a Tool tribute band. Jaiden likes Tool a lot and she
plays the bass guitar and practices a lot of Tool songs. We arrived
early at Poppodium de Boederij (The Farm) and after a long wait were
one of the first to enter the building.
Jaiden her friend came as well, also accompanied by her father. Since
Jaiden preferred to stand as close to the bass guitar player as
possible we moved to the front. After some more waiting the show
started. We stood in front of a huge speaker and were happy to have
party ear plugs. I was surprised by the quality of the sound: like
a headset but not too loud.
The Perfect Tool in action.
I was quite anxious to go, originally, because I don't like huge
crowds. But the venue was really nice, there were a few hundred people
and we had a excellent spot.
The band played several songs I like a lot: Pneuma, Ænema, Stinkfist,
and Sober. Near the end of the latter, the penultimate song they would
perform as it turned out, the pedalboard of the bass player blew
out. Luckily a workaround was found and The Perfect Tool could play an
encore.
Songs I would've liked to hear: The Grudge, Ticks and Leeches,
Parabol(a), Schism, and 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2).
Today we went to Utrecht for the Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de
(los) Muertos) activities held in this city. We first went to
Instituto Cervantes which is near the Dom Tower of Utrecht, a favorite
of Jaiden. But because we were late we missed the workshops. I ate a
taco with conchinita pibil which was really nice. Jaiden went outside
to take photos of the Dom Tower and surroundings as she is very much
into Gothic architecture.
Then we went to Neude library but there we also were a bit late, so we
walked to Hoog Catharijne shopping center and we were in time to see
three dances by Grupo de Danza Xochiquetzal.
Folklore dance from Nayarit, Mexico.
Folklore dance from Chiapas, Mexico.
Folklore dance from the North of Mexico.
In the evening we went to Taste of India, an Indian restaurant we like
to frequent. When we entered the building we saw an orange cat. Later
the cat paid us a visit and jumped in Alice's lap. And a little later
it was Jaiden's turn.
When the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to
discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a
post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a
secret...
In the evening Esme and I watched Don't Say a
Word. I liked the movie and
rate it a 7 out of 10.
A tinderbox of competition and resentments underneath the façade of
a picture-perfect couple is ignited when the husband's professional
dreams come crashing down.
In the evening Esme and I watched The
Roses. I liked the house Theo
Rose designed a lot. But the movie? Not much. I rate it a 6 out of 10.
