# Week Notes - July 12th


## Hamilton

Last weekend, like millions of other people stuck at home, I watched the
[film version of Hamilton](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_(2020_film)>)
on Disney Plus. I went in cold: I'd heard bits and pieces of it, but I don't
think I'd heard any of the songs all the way through.

My first reaction after watching it was "Huh, that's what everyone was so worked
up about?". I imagine it's quite a tough job translating a musical to film, and
that even though (by all accounts) the film version was faithful to the
original, it's still a different experience than viewing the production in
person. But... a week later and
["You'll Be Back"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFN-aqPJH8),
["Washington on Your Side"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9014vq1lqXM), and
["What'd I Miss"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEXV60TZ144) have stayed
_firmly_ stuck in my head. It's been years since I've had something stuck in my
head this badly. 😛



I'm not a huge fan of musical theater, but "Hamilton" feels like one of those
uniquely good pieces of art that transcends folks' normal genre preferences. I
don't really have any interesting opinions on it other than I enjoyed it
thoroughly (after I let it sink in for a bit), and I'd suggest that if you watch
it, you also listen to the soundtrack a few times.

## Nerd Sniping

A few of my coworkers use the phrase "nerd sniping", and I never really knew
what it meant until I looked up the [XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/356/) it
originated from. I'd assumed that "nerd sniping" was a variant of _"well,
actually"_-ism, or a flavor of pedantic _"technically correct"_-ism.

As it turns out, I was wrong. Nerd sniping is actually something that I
experience frequently, but didn't have a phrase for: You know when someone asks
a technical question, or poses an interesting problem or thought experiment in
such a way that you fall down a rabbit hole, unable to concentrate on anything
else until you've solved that problem? That person has just "nerd sniped" you.

![](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2020/07/13/Week-Notes-July-12th/nerd_sniping.png)

Personally, I still prefer
[yak shaving](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving) or "falling down a
rabbit hole", but I'll add "nerd sniping" to my vocabulary. 😄

 (My favorite yak shaving example)


## Assorted Links

-   This week, I learned that the origins of the phrase "Two Buck Chuck" is
    [Charles Shaw wine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine). I
    thought it was a generic term for crappy generic wine, but I was surprised
    to learn that not only can you still buy a bottle of \$2 Charles Shaw wine
    in 2020, but they actually _market their own wine as "Two Buck Chuck"_. Know
    thy customer, I guess...
-   [Coding Adventure: Procedural Moons and Planets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lctXaT9pxA0).
    Sebastian Lague's "Coding Adventure" series is consistently good, but this
    week's video was excellent. In 22 minutes, he covers shaders, terrain
    generation, and usage of random noise to make some truly cool procedurally
    generated planets.