nice post re: women united @ railsconf

that's neat, but it's sad that there was only like 10....come on...booo (I wasn't there)

just stumbled upon your drawing on flickr and then clicked over here......

c00l pic -- so that's 'Ruby' ? ha.....

Yes, she's based on Ruby-chan, a mascot for Ruby I heard about a while back. I don't know if anything came of it, but I really like the idea ^^

Great drawing! It looks like it may have been drawn in Flash... :-)

There didn't seem to be many women there, but only 10 out of 550ish? That's too bad. I was a little surprised how un-diverse the group actually was. But, then again, it does seem to reflect the industry as a whole -- at least in my experience.

A little random text dump for you! As an apologies for my silence, true, but it was coming anyway.
===
"And after that incident, I've lived my life with Gusto. Now, Gusto's a very temperate young man..."
---
"The cellist started to take a bow, but not before a creaking old man ruthlessly rapped on the back of his hand with an dirty PVC pipe and remarked that they were ten cents each and things were bad enough with the famine and all; puffy little musicians running around in the streets just grabbing merchandise willy-nilly didn't help things."
---
My brother Ian is the single most effective agent of both Entropy and Atrophy our home has ever known.
---
"Electrical impulses?" he whispered incredulously. "Yuh," the other man replied. "The stuff dreams are made of."
===
Anyway. Re: God's Peace, thanks for showing me [i.e. guiding me step-by-step via cellphone to] the Dupage River-shrine ramps. There's a certain thrill in knowing that you know something that other people probably no-know. And I like 4momsunrise.jpg; the rocks especially blow my mind, with all their heavy-laden glory, casting their feeling of an incredibly human... beckoning.

I'd be afraid to sit on those. This is exactly the opposite of how I feel about the humps in greatwall.jpg, which I'd pay to sprawl out on. Oh, I'd pay alright. Pay... especially if the humps turned out to be anything like the hill in the June 20, 2003 BattleSong entry.

I can't believe I wrote that. What was I thinking? A hill that eats people. *looks at greatwall.jpg*

Actually, I guess it kinda makes sense, if you think about it. As for happymoon.jpg... it's... hairy. The moon.

So, back to the present. Better yet, let's go further into the past, back to the crimson subway.

When we last left The Violist, she was unfolding a piece of paper once owned by someone who'd fallen under the effects of combat viola. Her eyes are wide. A violin plays in the corner...
---
The Violist held the messily-written scrap of paper closer to her face. It reminded her of one of those notes her brother writes when he gets inspiration during class. She smoothed it out a bit, and began to read to herself out loud. To aid comprehension.

"The truth to the ancient Chinese theory that deep-fried comestibles are directly linked to the... propagation of... Propionibacterium acnes." She blinked quickly, her countenance spelling fear (f-e-a-r). "Zits," she murmured, perturbed. She read on. "True or false? Well, it depends. Extensive research has revealed that for some people, there is a definite correlation to the consumption of fried food and such outbreaks, for others, there's none to be seen.

"It was the discovery of a bright young--no, make that 'bright old,' it sounds funnier that way--lad by the name of... something, that uncovered the mystery behind this discrepancy. Simply put, frequency of napkin use. Obsessively sanitary folks, such as the Chinese, who use their napkins with extravagance, are particularly suspect!

Apparently, renegade oils are transferred from the food to the face via the napkin. From one mouth-wipe to another, there is an alarmingly high rate of trans-fat-trans-port to the face. This explains why the nose, cheek, and foreheadle zones are most commonly prey to pimply.

Further investigation, of course, has been called for, in order to validate these findings; however, until then, consumers may be able to continue enjoying fried food without a reduction in sanitation simply by eating more carefully, and rinsing viable territories after each meal."

The Violist's voice died down. There was a something, a something in her eyes. It twinkled and danced.

She was enlightened. "F-E-A-R," she cried out, finally. "Not F-E-R-E!" The echo of her chuckles could be heard as she happily settled into her seat.

Hi Victoria!

A really nice website. Great to see some female approach on design after tons of Rails-related sites that all look like OS X windows in some way.

First: I'm also interested in Ruby-chan (so I registered rubychan.de). There was a discussion on
Redhanded about her as a mascot. To me, she has to be the official logo. But few people seem to agree. The Gem seems to win. Somebody even said that female programmers wouldn't want a language with a girl as its logo! Maybe they prefer animals, I don't know...

Great artwork may change their mind, like this one :) Your picture is the first new Ruby-chan artwork I've seen in years! The best thing about it is the idea of her embracing a rail ^^ A human mascot provides much more possibilities for such metaphors.

Older drawings, like these Japanese ones from yoshidam, see Ruby clearly as an anime student redhead. The reason for me to buy my first Ruby book was this picture on the back.

Second: Is there any chance to get a special artwork from you for my rubychan.de website? Pleeeeease :)

um...I feel ridiculously out of touch with you. =[
I am forced to draw an opposing observation to Weien's comment. The Chinese DO NOT use their napkins in extravagance. They hardly use them at all. In fact, they probably don't even have it in their vocabulary. People in China and Taiwan are extremely stingy with their paper.

Anyhow, with that off my chest (haha ;P)...I thought I was going to Steve's wedding, but it looks like I can't go. ...:( I wanted to go, and get to see you, but I think it would be impractical now. *sigh* :(

Murphy: Heyy!! Good to see that I'm not the only one who thinks Ruby-chan should be the official logo ^___^. I'm glad you like my version. I'd be happy to draw for your site - I'll email you about that.

Shiowei: Aw I'm sorry to hear the news... it would have been really nice to see you again. Btw, don't worry about this post, it's just some computer programming-related stuff :). In a way, even I am out of touch with myself.

Well... I never said that the findings had been successfully published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, because I cannot but rebut...
---
The haggard old scientist threw up his hands. "You know what, just... pah! Glean what you will of this article or leave it all be. If you personally consider yourself deft in the ways of the napping kin, this may or may not be your partikler call to arms, ma'am, hmm, and whether it is or not, that's really your discretionary obscurity, hmmmmmm? Mind."

She considered slapping him upside the head.
---

Glad you had a nice time at the Rails Conference, Vic. I like your Ruby girl mascot thingy. Cuteness! :)

And, I'm warning you: if you keep letting Weien write short stories/story lines in the comments, people are going to start coming to your blog not only to see how you're doing, but also to see the next "text dump" :D (jk)

Indeed. Weien's stories are the only thing of real worth on this sorry little site, actually :)

You also have that neat little rather F5-lucrative killer-app! Saved us the trouble of putting together "Weien's Corner Hut," anyway.

Never fear...I, for one will still come by to read your posts, Victoria. Remember, I said something about people coming by to see how you were doing, right?

XD "F5-lucrative killer-app" Hahaha...I assume you're talking about the WQ's? If so, then yah...my brother especially likes WQ #1683: "There are very few things of which I am wildly fond of...and all of those are edible." Hahaha...

I am from China. But your design is really great!
I enjoy'em , especially your paints!
^_^