Some things can't be changed

Some things are what they are.

Geez, I reread that sentence and at first I wasn't sure it had anything useful to say at all. Nonetheless, it doesn't change it's correctness. Apparently it is what it is. Darn it, I did it again. Some things you can just count on, like the sun coming up in the morning, Brittney making the front page, and a cheesy line in my post. Here it is: You can change your friends and you can change your pants, but you can't change your friends' pants. (Ummm... yep, that's definitely how it goes.)

The reason this topic is on my mind, as philosophical as it is, is that I think recognizing this fact can be useful. The number one, for instance, can't be the number two. It isn't green or blue or happy or sad or anything else besides the number one. You can add five to the number one, but you'll end up with the number six - and one, surprisingly enough, will still always, eternally, infinitely be the number one.

Because it is unchangeable, the number one is said to be immutable. I don't think this makes the number one bad, in fact it's quite a useful number (after you embrace it's permanence). So I guess we can all accept this fact or decide to be very unhappy about it, but either way Brittney will still be on the front page, and the number one will still be itself. What it seems we can change then, based on the previous recognition, is what we decide to do about it being unchangeable. We can change ourselves, our attitude, and what we choose to do with the information we're presented with.... something to think about.

To tie this back to a little bit of programming - I've read several blogs lately that talk about immutable objects. Regardless of whether you're looking for the good or the bad in things, you will usually find it. That's true with immutable objects too. Immutable objects have several properties that make them useful to work with, but if you view them with a negative attitude and choose to ignore them, you've dismissed them before you understood them. If you're interested, read some of the sites out there to discover what kind of cool things can be done with unchangeable objects and what kinds of benefits they bring. I've even seen it labeled a few times as the "future of programming."

It can't be dead, it's still twitching

Nope not gone yet. Just took a really long break.

Hopefully I'll come back with a fresh perspective.