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Python is awesome

Python is a programming language, it can be used to make small automation scripts, as well as to generate web pages, and even to make complex graphical software.

Here are a few reasons, from my experience, why Python is awesome.

Python is simple

It is simple to learn, and it is simple to use. It borrows principles from “old school” languages that a lot of programmers are already used to work with. Anyone that already knows 2 or 3 other languages already knows most of the concepts that Python uses. But the language is also a good one to learn programming, because the syntax is easy to remember.

The code itself is very straight to the point, it doesn’t need an endless stream of brackets and weird symbols. Which is in big part due to the fact that blocks are defined by their indentation, and I think this is one of the most interesting features of Python.

We can do a lot in a short time

Because it is a high-level language, many things already come built-in with the language, and those things are rather short and simple to use. Which means that when you need to write a script, you don’t need much time to figure out how to do it. And if there is a bug along the way, you won’t spend the rest of the day trying to find and fix it.

The right tool for the right job

With most other languages, I have always felt like I was fighting against the language to make it do what I needed to do. Like if I was trying to unscrew a screw with a pair of pliers, it is possible to do it, although it is quite intricate. But with Python I can say that I “use” it and not that I “fight against” it. Python is the screwdriver for my screw. I finally found the programming language that seems to want me to succeed in my project as much as I want it myself.

The programming language that doesn’t get in your way

The greatest “feature” of the Python language, the fact that it isn’t an obstacle to the programmer. I’ve used many languages over the years, I can’t say that I became an expert with any of them yet but I worked with some long enough to use them with relative ease. But I haven’t managed to find one (except Python) that didn’t slow me down. Programming already requires quite a lot of work by itself, so it becomes really annoying when it ends up being a game of tricking the language in doing what we want. I feel like Python has been made with the programmer in mind, to ease our work, in contrary to most other languages which just seem to have been made to solve problems without any thoughts about the poor person that has to use it.

So this is why Python is awesome.

Is bass easier than guitar?

This article is about bass, or the easier guitar, if you’re a guitarist.

So, is bass easier than guitar? The problem with this question is that it is like comparing apples to oranges. Even though both instruments look similar and are generally played in a similar fashion, this is all they have in common.

The reason I am saying this is because each instrument has its own specific role in music, so they aren’t competing with each other. The guitar’s function is to bring melody to the song, while the bass’ role is to bring lower frequencies to complement the guitar while also keeping the rythmn along with the drums (or whatever rythmic section you may use).

We could compare guitar and bass to a piano, where the left hand would be the bass player and the right hand would be the guitar player. While we could play piano with only one of either hand, we would certainly make more interesting music by using both.

In short, guitar is there to be heard, while bass is there as a rythmic support for the guitar and drums. In a way, a good bass groove should not draw attention unless the song calls for it.

It is as simple as that, most bass grooves are there to complement the drums and guitars, which is why they sound boring most of the time, because the more complex and flashy it gets, the further away it drifts from its main purpose. A good bassist is a bassist that you won’t notice.

As for the technical habilities needed for both instruments, they also are different. The bass is bigger and heavier, the frets are larger, and the strings are way bigger. So this limits us in what we can play and how fast we can play it. But again, bass was not intended as a solo instrument. In many cases, bass is definitely easier than guitar, because it amounts mostly to play the root note of what the guitar is playing, and nothing more. So while the guitar player will probably be doing chords or possibly complex melodies, the bass player will be playing a few notes on beat, one at a time.

But once we dig deeper into the bass universe we can see that it doesn’t stop there, there is a multitude a playing styles and techniques that can be used on the instrument. We could play with the thumb, by alternating the index and middle finger or with a pick, we could also use tapping, slapping or even a combination of some or all of these, and maybe some other techniques I don’t even know about… And just as anything else, these techniques all require a great amount of practice in order to be mastered, just like it is for techniques on guitar, piano, flute, bagpipes or any other instrument.

So while bass playing in a band will be easier than guitar most of the time, the actual instrument itself has a whole world of its own, it just isn’t suited to every style, and sadly, we don’t get the hear music styles that actually put more emphasis on the bass on the radio. While each genre, pop included, each have a few bassists that stand out, some genres, like jazz, funk and technical death metal, are known for having more complex and interesting bass lines.

So at last, my own personal theory as to why this question even exists is simply because some people are ignorant or are trying to hide their lack of skills and confidence by bashing on others. Because anyone who is willing to take time practicing an instrument, over watching Netflix and playing video games, deserves at least some respect for their discipline, no matter what instrument they choose.

I don’t have the time

“I don’t have the time”, is a sentence that we hear almost every day. I used to say it too, until I realized what it really meant.

The next time you hear someone say that phrase, or that you say it yourself, just start thinking about what you or that person does that is not essential to life. Watching TV/Netflix, surfing the internet, taking a nap in the middle of the day, taking a car ride, drinking alcoholic beverages, playing video games, etc. And you’ll soon find out that the problem is not a lack of time, but rather from a lack of interest and motivation for the said activity.

Everyone’s day has the same length, we just don’t use this time in the same ways, and this isn’t the problem. The problem is that we convince ourselves and others that we don’t have the time, when in reality, we just don’t care enough to make place in our “schedule”.

It all comes back to something that I talked about in a previous article, that each individual (adult) is responsible for its own current situation, that our choices made us who we are. Having time is also a choice that we make. So you decide to spend all your weekends playing video games, then good for you, but don’t tell me that you don’t have the time to clean your apartment or go to the gym. You have the time to do it, you just don’t care enough to do it.

So, why am I telling you this? Because I used to be that way, I used to think that I didn’t have time to do many things, until I started analyzing how I managed my time and realized that I could make better use of it, and accomplish important things instead of wasting my time being convinced that I am busy. And it started by removing this sentence from my head and vocabulary.

Then, when we realize that we indeed have the time, we have to plan a little. The way I do it is pretty simple, it consists of finding what activities can be reduced/removed and which ones should be added. I make a list of the things I want to do, because having a clear list feels more real than vague ideas. When we know what we want to do and what we want to not do, all that is left to do is to make a small daily schedule and place the activities and tasks that we want to do, this way we know exactly what we have to do and waste less time.

Even though it seems too simple, it actually works, but it requires some ass kicking to doing it.

Good luck

A sentence we hear quite often, “good luck”, I know most people use it with good intentions, but it’s wrong in my opinion.

And why is it? Because wishing good luck to someone implies that the outcome of a situation depends only on luck.

Let’s take a simple example that most people have probably already experienced in their own life. A friend of yours is having an exam tomorrow, or a job interview, and you say to them something like “Well, good luck!”.

It’s not about luck at all, it’s about how much that person prepared herself for it and/or if she is qualified to do it. Of course you could say that there are some parts where you have no control on, like the difficulty level of the questions asked, which could be helped with luck. But if you think about it for a second, you’ll find out that someone took the time to prepare those questions too, and unless that person is incompetent, there is not much place left for chance. You either get it or you don’t.

I believe in taking responsibility for ourselves and understanding that we can make our life better by making the necessary changes by ourselves. By removing “luck” from my vocabulary, I do one step in the direction of controlling my own life and setting my mind to believe that almost anything is possible and that I just have to decide that I will make it happen. Of course it’s not as easy as saying “I want to become a billionaire” and do nothing about it. But by making changes one after another then I can come closer to it.

Making it clear in our mind that we have control over our destiny, is already a step towards achieving what we strive for because it will inevitably push us to see the actions we can do and which opportunities we can use to come closer to our goal. Compared to relying and waiting on luck (or lack of it) to decide for us, which as you have probably already noticed, won’t go out of its way to make us happy.

The power of lists

It can be tough to accomplish some tasks if nobody forces you to. But what kind of things would I want to accomplish that doesn’t have an impact on somebody else? Anything that makes YOU happy or that you consider important. Unlike with your job and your other responsabilities, no one is going to put pressure on you to reach your life goals but yourself.

I’m the first one to start watching TV, Youtube videos or scrolling on Twitter or Instagram when I have nothing to do. Yet I have tons of projects in mind that I could work on instead of wasting my time. I had to find ways of wasting less time and actually do something with my life. For me, the most effective way I found up to now was to make todo lists of what I have to accomplish. I use lists for my daily chores, for my projects and even for my goals for the next 10 years. No matter what you decide to use you lists for, it stays rather similar. It’s just a list after all.

For my daily chores list, I usually write it the night before, so when I wake up in the morning, I already know what I have to do. For other lists, it’s more of an incremental process, I add things in it when I think about them.

But what do I write on this list? I write everything that I want done, and personally, I prefer having a lot of small tasks rather than just a few big ones, it feels less like a mountain and it gives me more satisfaction. I feel better doing 10 smalls task than 3 big ones. Every activity that you want to do deserves its place on the list, even if it’s something more abstract or creative. For example, I have trouble taking time to create music, so when I write it as a task on my list, it helps me devote time to it, even if it’s hard to predict how it will really turn out (inspiration is hard to get on demand). So if you plan on doing the laundry, write it on the list, if you want to write a new article on your blog, write it on the list, if you want to do some meditation, write it on the list too.

Here’s an example of what my list can look like:

Laundry
Write blog article
Read article about <insert subject here>
Go to the gym
Take dentist appointment
Deposit paycheck
Draw a comic
Water plants

The list format doesn’t matter much, as long as you can easily understand it and that you can also easily have access to it. I use text files, spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, etc), the memo application on my cellphone, post-its and notepads. I won’t recommend any tool in particular because everyone has their own tastes and experiences, so just take the one(s) you like/know best to suit your needs. There is probably also a few websites that can help you with this task, although I personally don’t use any.

At last, the list itself doesn’t force you to do anything, having a list rotting on your desk won’t change anything in your life unless you take a look at it and actually work to check what’s written on it. Everybody is different so it may work or not for you, but if you’re like me, having a clear list is a lot better than having hundreds of mixed ideas in my head. Try it out and see if it works for you!

Why do I draw

A while ago I wrote a post about the reasons why I write, I thought it would be nice to write about why I draw, more specifically why I draw webcomics. I’ve been a fan of webcomics for a few years now and at some point I thought “I could do that too”. So I started drawing comics and other “funny” drawings about 5 years ago, and even if I don’t have much followers, I still do it anyway and I don’t really care.

First thing, I like drawing, it should be obvious. But making comics is not just fun, depending on the idea I want to picture, some parts are boring and annoying to draw. I must admit that I don’t consider myself a great drawer, maybe I have a little more talent than average, just enough so I have the guts to publish drawings on the internet, but not really to be recognized for their quality. The sad thing is that I lost touch with this talent for many years, and now that I came back to it, I feel like I wasted a lot of time not practicing it. Anyway it’s too late now, I have to start from here and go forward as much as I can.

Just like I love writing because I can freely express what I have on my mind, I love drawing comics for the same reason. I can make a joke about anything I want and draw it the way I want to. I know that some jokes may not be understood by some people, but it’s part of the game, you can’t please everyone. Taking care of everything about the webcomic gives me freedom I wouldn’t have any other way. I can make the website the way I want it to be, I can upload comics whenever I want, and these comics can be about any subject I want. I do and manage everything the way I want to, I don’t have to listen to anyone else than myself. Something that I’d have a hard time doing in the traditional way (publishing comic books).

An other thing I like about it, that is an extension of the freedom I’ve talked about just above, is that it is on the internet. I don’t have to address my comics to anyone in particular, I just make them using my own vision of comedy and humour, upload them on my website / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram and let them live by themselves. Unlike in real life discussions, where most people are unable to understand and appreciate my humour, the internet gives me the chance to reach people that can. If someone happens to see my comics somewhere and likes them, then it’s good, and if not, it’s good anyway, at least I created something and shared it with the world.

I see comics the same way I see paintings. Some could say that painting is more noble or professional, but to me it comes down to the same basic thing, expressing emotions and ideas. Because in both ways, the artist illustrates something the way he sees it. Just like two painters asked to do the same piece of art will come with two different results, the same thing will happen with two comic artists asked to draw the same joke. So drawing comics is a way of expressing my individuality and describing a situation in my own unique way.

While I mostly write to share tips in order to try to make our life better / easier, I draw comics mostly to entertain. And even if an unwritten law seems to state that a webcomic should be funny, I don’t expect people to laugh a lot reading mines. A lot of my ideas are based on word-play, which seems to be a kind of humor that doesn’t get much love in the French and English population, so obviously not so much people will like what I do. I also do a great share of observation jokes, which are only understandable by people who have ever been in the situation I’m drawing about. And the rest is pretty much just plain absurdity which will also appeal to the small group of persons who likes that kind of humor. But does it stop me from doing it? No, and I think that it’s precisely what makes it so nice to do. Knowing that it will only be truly understood / appreciated by a few individuals makes it so much more interesting for me. Just generating some kind of positive emotion in someone, is enough to make me happy.

Although I’d like to make a living out of it, I don’t think it will ever earn me enough money to become a job, I’m not even sure if it will ever earn me any money at all. I could probably manage to get it to pay in some way by adding ads on my website and becoming some kind of whore that draws things that are funny to the general public, but that would make the whole thing worthless to me. For me, it’s do it the right way or don’t. So it will probably stay a hobby like most of the other things I do, but I don’t care. As long as I can create and express things the way I want, I’ll be happy to do it and it will be worth it.

How to stop eating bad food

Seriously, I can’t stop you from eating bad food, and there is no magic trick either, but I sure can help you with this one trick that really works.

If you want to stop eating something, or at least eat less of it, let’s say potato chips for example, just don’t buy any! So when you’ll get hungry at home, you won’t have any lying around and you’ll eat something else. It doesn’t make it any easier the rest of the time, but if you’re eating at home or eating food that comes from your home 80% of the time, we can say that 80% of the time you won’t be eating chips, which is probably already better than what you’re currently doing.

It doesn’t mean to eat less, but to eat better food, instead of buying chips, buy more vegetables/fruits/nuts or even meat if you want. Even if it doesn’t taste as good, when you’ll actually be craving for something, there’s a chance you’ll be too lazy to go to the convenience store and you’ll manage to eat what you already have instead of going out.

It really works, I do it, if I buy chips, I think about eating them as long as there are some left in the bag, but when I don’t have any, I eat anything else that I have and I manage to survive anyway. I still eat them sometimes, because life is not only about suffering, right? But I reduce access to it as much as possible so I can have more control over what I eat.

I used the potato chips as an example, but it should work with pretty much everything else, if you don’t have easy access to a particular type of food, you have a lot less chances of eating it.

The return of KromycKs

After another break, I am finally back at drawing comics. But this time, I have actually made a few changes that will hopefully allow me to have a consistent upload schedule.

As I already said many times in the blog posts of the old KromycKs website (I didn’t bother bringing those back on the new website because the content was only relevant to the moment they were posted), for quite a while now, I have been quite irritated by the whole process of drawing comics. The way I was doing it seemed rather inefficient and the results were never really up to my expectations. So it isn’t that I don’t have inspiration or desire to draw them anymore, it is just that it ends up being a pain in the a$$ to do.

So now that I finally got the motivation to start drawing comics again, I needed to make some changes to be able to enjoy it. Here is what the changes are:

Use the right tool for the job. Over the years, I’ve used a few methods and softwares for drawing my comics, I started with stick figures in black and white and quickly switched to more detailed drawings in color. I made some of them with vector graphics while some others were made in raster graphics (pixel-based drawing). What I recently found out, is that nothing prevents me from using multiple tools on the same drawing, by using the appropriate one for each type of job. What it means, is that instead of struggling to draw everything in a single software (characters, texts, bubbles, borders, etc), I could make each individual part with the one that is more suited to the job.

Do what you are good at. As I became more accustomed to the tools I was using, I always wanted to do a little more each time. In my case, a little more meant adding more details and drawing better shapes and characters. But I am not good at “details”, I’m more of the “big picture” type. So because the attention to detail is not natural for me, I ended up spending so much time getting everything perfect that I started hating the comic before finishing it. What is also particularly interesting about this is that I have always felt that my drawings were bland, even if I spent a great time “polishing” them. Then I remembered, when I used to play pool (billards), if I took too long to aim, I would generally miss the shot. My best shots were the ones where I didn’t took time to think, I just did it. This is the minset that I want to apply to my comics now, at least from the drawing perspective, do what feels right without overthinking it. This will make comics that contain many imperfections but will hopefully result in drawings that are more pure, more true to myself.

Have a good delivery. So as I said in the last paragraph, I want to think less about drawing and just do it. But I don’t want to apply that to the actual delivery of the “message” or “punchline” of my comics. The reason why is quite simple, finding ideas can be done at any moment of the day while doing anything else. And while I think about comics, I’m not thinking about the end of the world, so it’s a win-win situation. Also, thinking about the best way of presenting the comic is something that I enjoy doing, so I don’t consider it a nuisance. Ok, so the jokes won’t change much, but there will still be a change, and this change is closely related to the previous point. Because drawing is the most time consuming and annoying part for me, the choosing of the best delivery will depend on the complexity of what has to be drawn. So until I get really good at drawing, or more patient in general, I will find comic ideas that won’t require drawing complex scenes.

Recycle. This one goes hand in hand with the delivery. As you may have already noticed, most of the recent comics I made used the same image at least 3 times. This is something that I will try to prioritize in the upcoming comics, because it saves me time. So recycling panels and focusing a little more on dialogues. It doesn’t mean that I will completely stop making visual jokes though, because I still enjoy it, it only means that it won’t be the main focus.

As for the schedule, I want to keep the same as before which is to publish a new comic every week, around monday or tuesday evening. I still have many other projects, like writing articles, making music, working at my real-life job, so I can’t commit to more than that at the moment.

About the new website

LeKrocK has a new website, and it isn’t only about the looks.

For me, this new website is a turning point in my artist’s “career”, because I didn’t code it myself. It may not seem like a big deal but as a former programmer, when it comes to anything IT related, I like to do things by myself. So coding the website was a necessity for me. But the problem is that I am not doing it as a job anymore because I hated it, so I’m not that up-to-date with the latest tools and methods as I used to be, especially concerning security and design. I still have no trouble getting around writing Python scripts and coding some C++ but only to my own standards. This becomes a problem when building a website, because everything changes so quickly that you constantly have to adapt to those changes. Not that I have anything against learning and bettering ourselves and our techniques, but it’s just that this particular subject is not my cup of tea. I like coding desktop applications rather than coding for every existing web browser.

So what made me switch from a self-made PHP website to a WordPress one? Security is a big factor in this decision. For the same reason I decided to pay for a hosting service instead of hosting the website on my own home server. I don’t have enough knowledge on the matter to provide a safe environment for the users. I know the basics about password hashing, SQL-injection, GET/POST methods, HTTPS, firewalls, etc. But what about everything else that I don’t know about that are standard in the industry? Some people make a living out of learning and applying those concepts while I would have to spend a great amount of my free time learning about them only to clumsily apply them on my own website and server. Such time that I wouldn’t have to perfect my craft. So I decided to trust that these people will do a better job than I would, which I’m sure they do. I am well aware that WordPress is widely used on the internet, which makes it an easy target for malicious people, although I consider that it still is light-years ahead of what I could possibly make by myself alone.

An other factor in my decision, as I mentioned above, is that I can spend less time managing and more time creating. Coding and testing a website (or any kind of computer program) is a long task. Diving back into your code six months later to make an update can also be quite long and fastidious. Adding a new feature can also be long, depending on the complexity of the said feature, especially if it involves understanding the old code and changing it in addition to actually creating the new feature. And testing it all once done will also take some time. So now, all this coding and testing time can be invested in drawing more, writing more and making more music.

A factor that will make the most difference for the actual users, is that the website will provide the basic features of any modern website: the ability add comments, filtering options, a good looking design, efficient navigation, etc. Such things that I decided on not providing for the old website just to save time.

The last reason is that, to save time, I also didn’t add any admin features, which means that every time I wanted to upload something to the website, I had to interact directly with the server’s filesystem and the website’s database, which is not the most efficient workflow.

So here it is, the new website, that will hopefully make your experience and mine a lot better than it was.

Access Databases

I don’t know how it’s possible that someone at Microsoft decided that Access was still relevant in 2018. I can understand that at some point in the past, it could have been useful in some cases. But now that IT has evolved to what it is now, how can such aberration still exist?

Ok, I studied computer science a few years ago and worked in the field for a few years, so I consider that I have a respectable amount of knowledge and experience in IT, yet I still have a hard time doing the basic things with this software. I believe that Microsoft has great engineers that know a lot more about computers and programming than I’ll probably ever know, so how can something like Access even exist?

A little while ago, I had to get back into Access do to a few tasks that I would describe as “basic”, without getting into details about what I did exactly, let’s say that I had to build a database, and build forms and reports that made the data usable by the common mortal. And I almost failed at it! I would probably have done a better and faster job coding the whole thing in C# and SQL.

In the past, I also had to work with older versions, to as far as Access 97, and frankly, I don’t think anything changed in those 20 years, it just seems like the same software with a more modern user interface (mostly the top ribbon, the rest is just the same old gray color). The same old features and ways of doing things, without much improvement in overall usability.

I can understand that there is definitely a market for something in-between Excel and SQL Server, but why does it have to be this. If I can find my way into Excel and SQL Server, why would it be hard for me to understand how Access works? And I’ve never heard of any fellow coder having a favorable or even neutral opinion about that software, we all hate it.

There must be a reason, I guess it’s because it is a piece of s**t of a software. In general, as IT specialists, we can get around in pretty much any software, no matter if we have used it before or not. Because most applications follow similar guidelines when it comes to the features they provide. But Access seems to get away with doing its own thing and not caring about the rest. (not sure why I’m thinking of Internet Explorer at the moment…)

Maybe it still lives nowadays just to allow companies that are stuck with it to continue using their tools without investing in a real database server? But if it is so, why not scrap Access and do a user-friendly version of SQL Server and SQL Server Management Studio? Like some kind of standalone application that manages its own local server (if they haven’t already done it) that can live on a standard PC/workstation and be passed around, just like Access, but with the features and predictability of a real SQL server. Or just make a front-end for SQLite, which does a pretty good job at managing server-less databases.

I don’t expect any business owner or any non-IT worker to learn SQL, but if a software provided a user-friendly way of using databases like Access does while also having a real SQL engine under the hood, wouldn’t it be nice for all of us poor coders that will inevitably have to help those people at one time or another?