Bones of Contention
Work today involved spending the morning on my piece of a collaborative testing endeavor of some sweeping changes we made to the system recently, and then spending the afternoon on an algorithm for my latest project. Sometimes on some of these really tight algorithms I feel like I need to use the Force to get them to work out right. When I have three different variables holding three different dates, which each mean something slightly different, and I need to do comparisons between them at various times, trying to keep track of which ones need to be compared when and why is not easy. Even good variable naming doesn't completely solve the problem; I just have to reason it out, test it thoroughly, and document it afterwards.
Well, that's why they pay me the medium-sized bucks.
Oh, and the other ramification to today's efforts is that the testing project suggested once again that it's better to clean up dead code than leave it lying around "just in case". Over the years, the amount of time lost trying to figure out if such-and-such a routine needs to be upgraded to meet new standards probably outweighs the effort of removing obsolete routines in the first place in terms of raw time, and it definitely outweighs it in raw frustration.
Tomorrow will pretty much be the same kind of day.
Frankly, it bites.
First of all, there's Sienkiewicz's annoying, unfocused painted artwork, which is nearly unreadable, and which shows even weaker storytelling skills than one sees in Dave McKean's work - which is a shame because before he changed his art style in the early 80s, Sienkiewicz was a pretty solid artist.
Second, there's Miller's script, which is told from a very dispassionate point of view, and in which Elektra suddenly seems to gain awesome psychic powers, which were not really in evidence in her other appearances - and Elektra: Assassin appears to chronologically occur before her Daredevil appearances (i.e., before she was killed and resurrected). The story also involves a ridiculous Presidential election (the only amusing bit here is that the incumbent President is a cranky mix of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon), unbridled incompetence in SHIELD (the usually-competent spy agency of the Marvel universe), and a whole lot of really unlikeable characters.
It's pretty amazing to me that this series is worth actual money, and I'm glad I didn't pay much for it (I actually paid less than cover price). It ain't worth it; I'd say it's probably the weakest thing I've yet read by Miller.
The strongest thing I've read by Miller? Daredevil: Born Again, hands down.
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