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they-handed-me-the-moon · 5 years

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Okay I’m gonna do the thing and just get my complaints with the show out, if you’re not interested in reading criticisms (half of which are just being attached to the way things were in the book) please ignore this, I’m going to say all sorts of nice things in a minute. Also please don’t rb this one. If we’ve talked before feel free to comment or disagree, if we haven’t please don’t just this once—I’m usually happy to have people jump off things, but I just got back and I’m not in the mood to start any Discussions just now. Cool thanks!

1. I’m not saying that the show going in for more angst and making some of the central characters more insecure and making Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship more tenuous and uncertain was *objectively* the wrong choice. I mean I could argue that it was but ultimately it’s probably more just different than right or wrong. But it did make me realize how much I had appreciated having a fandom that was built around material that for all its angst potential (which I also enjoyed) was so fundamentally cozy.

2. Yes I am of course going to take issue with Anathema and Newt. For the record I found Newt notably more likable in the show than the book, even if watching Anathema have sex with a guy she had shown no interest in just because a book told her to was even more uncomfortable than reading it. And there was more of a sense of mutuality in the show—partly because of Adria Arjona playing Anathema as genuinely liking and being charmed by Newt at times, and partly because Newt actually does offer her emotional support and contributes to decision-making at several points instead of only with the “do you want to be a descendent for the rest of your life” line at the end. And that’s nice—mutuality in a relationship is important! The lack of it is one of my biggest issues with their relationship in the book! What really gets to me here is that they got to that mutuality not through strengthening Newt’s character but by weakening Anathema’s—by making her more uncertain and insecure so that Newt could sweep in to support her. And look—obviously there’s nothing wrong with female characters having insecurities and needing support, like everyone does. But we’ve got an awful shortage of weird-looking female characters who swagger around with breadknives and bucketloads of well-earned confidence and decide to try and stop the apocalypse without being told because it’s worth a shot, and the fact that they seem to have undercut her confidence and independence specifically so that she would have to lean on the sub-par dude she’s saddled with as a love-interest reeeally rubs me the wrong way. (Shoutout to my brother for pinpointing this before I was able figure out exactly what was bothering me).

3. Okay and while I’m on the topic of Anathema, the way they played up the whole ‘professional descendent’ thing? Hmmmm, not a fan. I think I kinda get why they did it, (it makes her fit more neatly into the ‘people breaking out of their prescribed roles’ theme), but they make it into a sort of ‘chosen one’ storyline where she was ‘fated’ to help stop the end of the world, which is fine, I guess? But to me one of the central appeals of the book is a motley crew motivated not by duty or predestination but instead by love of the earth and plain old selfish, stubborn attachment to the lives they had built there going ‘okay realistically there is no way we, of all people, can keep the world from ending, but I guess we’re just gonna try anyway!!!’ Making Anathema some sort of prophesied savior sort of removed her from that narrative, and reduced the strength of that narrative thread overall.

4. Oh and I think I’m in the minority here but I also did not enjoy the kids getting stabby with the horsepeople. There were some great elements to the scene for sure, but that just didn’t feel good to me. The children felt a little more ... protected from enacting that kind of violence in the book, and while there could be legitimate reason for changing it, on a thematic level it also took attention away from the whole ‘power of human belief’ thing, so it felt unnecessary and weaker as well as harsher.

5. I’m not ... actually particularly bothered by any of the changes to Aziraphale? I mean don’t get me wrong I do miss him being a much more overt bastard who is comfortable in his own skin, who collects blasphemous Bibles and is rude to customers and still walks around with his sanctimonious Holier Than Thou convictions because he is THE WORST. But tv Aziraphale is still a proper bastard, even if you’ve got to pay attention a bit more to see it, and I do rather like the way his softness is in itself framed as a rebellion against Heaven. So yeah, I think the changes they made worked and were compelling, and I don’t really have comprehensive complaints about his character. HOWEVER I did not like him indirectly killing the executioner. Having a scene where he indirectly but intentionally causes a death was a good idea in concept, but to my mind it was the wrong circumstances, wrong target, and wrong tone for the scene. Still, it doesn’t bother me that much because it just felt SO off that it feels kinda laughable and my mind just cheerily decided that the filmmakers were misinformed and that did not actually happen.

6. Crowley’s changes I’m having a bit of a harder time reconciling myself to, although I’m having a bit of a hard time pinpointing why? Some of the changes are of the ‘I don’t prefer the change but that’s more personal preference and attachment to my initial vision of the character than critique’ variety, like the ways in which his fear manifests less as anxiety and more as anger in the show. But if I had one central complaint (and this might sound weird at first) I think it would be the way that his world is reduced to Aziraphale. And okay, let me explain—I’m not complaining that their relationship was more emphasized in the show, which I actually loved, and also this is probably a bit hypocritical coming from me when 80% of my posts are about their relationship. The thing is, I find romances more interesting and compelling and moving when both parties have defined personalities and interests and attachments and character arcs outside of one another. And Aziraphale did have that—arguably he has a more defined and complete arc than in the book, in fact. And Crowley definitely has a defined personality. But besides the Bently, what does he love? What are his interests? How does he feel about humanity and the earth? Why does he prefer the earth to hell beyond ‘hell sucks’? How does he feel about his fellow demons? Why does he want to save the earth? Does he care about saving the earth, or is it really only about saving and being with Aziraphale? Idk, I’m exaggerating a bit here, and certain answers to these questions can definitely be inferred. But I miss the Crowley who loves humanity in all its mess, who finds in it an alternative to the restrictive roles demanded by heaven and hell alike, and who has his own arc of going from knowing that he is harming humanity but not doing anything about it, to facing Satan with a tire iron because Aziraphale convinces him to face up to the harm he has caused and do something about it, even if the odds are impossible.

7. I cannot BELIEVE they took out Tim.

8. And I’m running out of steam here so I’m not fully going into it, but it did feel like the show lost a bit of its sense of the earth in all its disastrous glory. I mean, there are plenty of stories that compare Heaven and Hell, but part of what set Good Omens apart for me was the particular way it triangulates Heaven vs Hell vs earth. I haven’t read enough similar fiction to know if it does this in an especially complex or unique way, but what comes of it is this gloriously defiant optimism. The show goes further into Heaven vs Hell (which I enjoyed) but it felt to me as if the earth was a little (although certainly not entirely) lost in the mix.

9. Also definitely not a fan on how hard Crowley pushes for child murder as long as he’s not the one doing it, but so far as I’ve seen the fandom has chosen to collectively forget those lines in favor of ‘you can’t kill kids,’ ‘I’m not personally up for killing kids,’ and THE LULLABY, so I’m the end those lines aren’t anything like the disaster they could have been. Good going, folks.

10. There are of course big-picture things like racism and sexism and homophobia that are. there in varying degrees. Not necessarily more than average, though that’s an even more depressing sentence. But for some of those things I’m not the best person to dissect them, and for the rest I’m tired and I don’t wanna.

11. In conclusion I have a pithy line that encapsulates what I’m having a hard time adjusting to in the show, but I’m pretty sure the first clause would annoy one half of the fandom, and the second clause would annoy the other half, so I’m gonna to cut my losses and shut up now.

#don't rb #if people start reblogging this i will just delete it #also this is very long i don't actually expect people to read this #i'm just exorcising my annoyances all at once #because talking about them day-to-day makes me anxious

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throughthewwods · 3 years

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Yesterday was uneventful and good. Kiddo cooked us breakfast.

I can’t help but notice how she now towers over the stove, remembering a time when she needed the footstool to reach our countertops. Five years ago she had chubbier cheeks, chubbier hands, and wide, glittering eyes. She was so proud of herself every time she learned how to do some thing new, some thing more grown-up. Now all these grown-up things she is learning feel more like a burden to her as she realizes with Independence comes personal responsibility. It’s good whenever there’s an opportunity for her to be capable on her own terms doing some things she finds rewarding, fun, light, satisfying rather than because with each passing year more must be demanded of her.

I hang out with her in the kitchen tidying up and putting things away as she switches between all the steering and flipping, only stepping in occasionally to help keep the multitasking relaxing for her.

she’s made us a small feast: a tall stack of perfectly golden pancakes; a warm, blueberry topping; and extra fluffy, scrambled eggs.

Never has a walk to the grocery store felt so exceptional as this year though. Post –Covid any and everything that gets us out of the apartment becomes marvelous. I soak in the sunlight on my bare shoulders, savoring this precipice of summer. The shade is cool, but the sun is warming, welcoming.

We grab this and that, meandering the isles. I buy her new shoes in-store for the first time in maybe two years? It feels weird being able to compare options and try things on, to have less selection than the the infinity of Amazon, yet glad for more participation in our choices. She’s delighted.

It feels surreal to so abruptly find myself wandering the bigger kids’ clothing section.

I teach her a bit on price shopping: how much does that name brand cereal cost? How much do these offbrand Lucky charms cost? How much is in this bag compared to that box? Which one is a better deal? Is this sale-price really cheaper than this same thing not on sale?

RB wasn’t sure if he felt up to coming over. It had been a trying weekend for him. He was feeling better after we chatted on the phone some and decided to make the drive. Sometimes I wonder if I should be concerned we don’t fight, but then we have humorous, open conversations like the other night where I see It could’ve easily been a bickering, defensive topic, but that’s just not how we communicate our thoughts/feelings or receive each other. I’m really glad for that. I’m glad that we both greatly value empathy, respect, balance, and solace.

My dog is getting better about acting less psycho when he arrives. Now it is only a small parade, Darding from one end of the apartment to the other over and over in honor of the alpha’s Nobel return. 😅

Kiddo is doing a science assignment at the once dining room table. RB rests his head on my stomach as I massage the knots from his neck, Periodically moving over to stir. dinner. It’s just frozen, chicken Alfredo blend, nothing spectacular, but RB appreciates the gesture to bring everyone together and unwind before Monday strikes.

RB’s funny.. I like that he’s playful. we’re not quite in sync.. at first I’m too tired then he’s pretty tired, but maybe? Yes, no, ok, so another show? Yes, no? 😜 so yes? Are we going to sleep ? So we’re not going to sleep? I crack a joke about how I now sympathize with my dog’s excited confusion whenever someone goes near the front door, “So, we go for a walk, yes, no? Yes, walk? Oh, no, walk then? Yes? What is happening here?” I run my hands over his figure in the darkness, present, enveloped, in love, at peace, to be loved and held.

#journal #writing #my writing #motherhood #parenting #relationship #love #happylife #happiness #covid #covid vaccine #RBlovestory

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amarynceus · 7 years

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Political Blitherings, et c.

Preface 0.1. Politics, race issues, anger. Part venting, part thinking. Below the cut.

Questions? Responses? Acknowledge my right to exist and equal treatment, and I’ll debate almost anything. There’s an ask button, use it. Fail to acknowledge that basic point and we are done, full stop.

Preface: NDN = decendant of indigenous peoples of the continents located between Western and Eastern Eurasia, in case you didn’t know.

Second preface; I hope even if you don’t agree with me on very many things, so long as you agree on my basic premiss, that you will read this through if you care about current events. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that you already like one or two of the drawings I’ve made, if you’re still watching me at this point.

I’d just like to note that I might be occasionally strident and political from time to time for the next, well, foreseeable future, as long as we have an ACTUAL. FUCKING. TOOL. OF.THE. KREMLIN. IN. WASHINGTON. I would prefer just to paint sailing ships and stupid pones, but times are what they are and people like me are now under attack from my own fucking government in this climate. I love the Socialism. I hate Fascism, Soviet communism, and their various interbred ancestors and descendants, and hate the idea of them growing stronger here.

Creating art is an essentially political act, and don’t let any two-bit neo-nazi pieces of shit tell you otherwise. What difference it makes is debatable, but what isn’t is that silence is complicity. Do not be silent. Do not let others tell you that your fear, that your oppression, that your experience and your identity do not matter. Do not be gaslighted. There are four lights, and let no one tell you otherwise.

My first President, and the last I felt any respect for, was Carter. The first I could vote for was Clinton, and I couldn’t stand him. The first I could actually vote FOR, rather than against, was Obama, and only the first time around. I’m an NDN. I hate the fucking United States, the agent of physical and cultural genocide, that destroyed so much of my people and my culture and my very social fabric. I hate the flag, I hate the government, I hate every shred of this godsdamn pathetic farce of a Republic that has the balls to call itself a Democracy. I want to see the US burn, fall, fail harder than Rome ever did.

But. I still live here. This is my land. My ancestors’ land, ripped away by the white man’s (and woman’s - the white woman’s complicity in colonial oppression is deep and rarely conveyed) violence and greed. We have been here, and I mean my cultural group, the NDNs of the Columbian Plateau, TEN THOUSAND years at a BARE MINIMUM -- even white anthropologists and archæologists, some of the most racist academic disciplines, acknowledge this. When humans in the middle east were first starting to put one sun-fired brick on top of another, we were figuring out how to balance the recources we had and the needs we had. For thousands of years, my people lived a way that did not degrade the land, and did not require war, or conquest, to maintain that way of life. What kind of mis-steps led to such a thing, I do not know - I have long assumed that some kind of gross overharvesting/overexploitation of the available resources led to the realization that resources must be managed, and human populations controlled, if there was to be any balance between humans and the landscape that gives us life.

So. Where am I going? I don’t know. I’ve had a cider and just now a beer. So I’m just expressing at this point, because I’m starting to feel a tiny bit comfortable about my audience here, small (but growing! thank you!) as it is.

Basically, silence is no longer an option at this point. Those of you still in your early twenties or so (I don’t want to assume, but demographics say almost half of you are under 24), might not really get what an important place we stand in, right now. But let me say this directly right now. Even if you’re well aware of it.

All of our values, and all of the values our founding folks held (regardless of their hypocrisies or defects, etc., etc.) are under attack right now. The very essence of what is a ‘fact’ is under assault right now. Science is under assault now. People who are not white, straight, and devoted to the myth that this is a white, straight nation are under attack right now.

If you’re white, stop criticising the anger and rage of POC right now. If you’re male, stop criticising the anger and rage of women right now. If you’re a Nazi, kindly fuck off and live in the most excruciatingly painful manner possible. If you see a Nazi get punched in the face and you say ‘well, but...’ fucking ditto, I have no time for your temporizing. Say ‘well, but...’ one more time, and as a lifelong pacifist who has never yet dirtied their knuckles on anything more offensive than a sheetrock wall, I will happily break your nose and dislocate your testicles, free of charge.

We need to pull together. I’ll say for one time, and hopefully one time only, I have a hard time with white liberals. I’ve been betrayed so many times by them. But we do need you to come to your senses and stop attacking the rest of us who are now genuinely under threat. Unless you thrust the topic under my nose, I don’t intend to bring it up again (might RB stuff about it tho). But y’all have had the reins for centuries now, sit down, shut up, and listen. And that’s the end of that topic.

We all have our own concerns. I’m not exactly proud, but I have a difficult time in a lot of political debates concerning race, due to the fact that NDNs are consistently shut out. I try my best to rally myself behind other folks’ suffering, but when it’s usually <this group this group us us us us> or <that group that group me me me me> one gets left on the sidelines sometimes, it is true. Trumping another victim’s card with your own weighty suit is bullshit, though. The IDEA of the White Man has fucked us all.

Let me come back to that, because I think it’s important.

THE IDEA OF THE WHITE MAN HAS FUCKED US ALL.

The IDEA of unique importance. The IDEA of a special place in history and destiny. The very IDEA of anyone being inferiour. The IDEA of a mandate over others not of our own people. The IDEA of absolute rule. The IDEA of divine right. The IDEA that being stronger and more violent has anything to do with superiority.

Sadly, all of these are pretty much true of us all, regardless of time or place. Humans are pretty shitty. But a certain concatenation of events conspired to place white European males at the temporary top of the heap of worldwide power intrigue, and they went fucking crazy with it. Crazy in a way that the world has never before seen sort of crazy, setting aside all those cautionary tales of Mu or Atlantea or whatever. Crazy as in this-single-way-to-live-is-the-only-way-or-else-I’ll-kill-you sort of way (which is, sadly, almost universal). Whether it be the worship this dead man on a stick or die, or dig gold or die, or slave-in-the-fields-because-you-happen-to-be-darker-than-me-therefore-you-deserve-to-die-horribly-because-this-guy-who-has-the-building-with-the-gold-but-don’t-die-until-I’ve-extracted-every-last-bit-of-labour-I-can-without-expending-any-capital-or-indeed-meaningful-effort-of-my-own.

Again, do I have structure here? No. I don’t care about structure. I’m fed up with being constrained on discourse. I’m done with letting conventional liberals, white or not, dictate the path and the method by which I expound ideas and express my emotions. I’ve had a Cider and a Beer, and these days that’s about enough to make it slightly difficult to type straight and copy-edit as I go. Make that two Beers as I’m half through with the second. I’m just done with excessive self-restraint in general - though that’s my limit with drinks.

I think that’s my limit on discourse here, though. I streamed all day, and chatted all day, which was fucking awesome (seriously, you know who you are, I appreciate your support and your interest). I’m worn out -- by now some of you know fairly well just why that is, and in time all of you who stick around will. Like so many who differ from the norm, I’m tired of defending the very basics of rational discourse. I’m tired of Nazis. I’m tired of Nazi sympathizers. I’m tired of racists. I’m tired of those who will ally themselves with racists to further their own worldviews. I’m tired of White Liberals who try to balance everything because it all comes out of a fucking Textbook and -- well, I’d disgrace myself totally and forfeit any right whatsoever to rational discourse if I posted the clauses I just deleted. D: Let’s just wrap that up and say I’m tired. Unless you’ve got a serious legacy of oppression and trauma in your own life as well as your family’s -- this is the time to shut up, sit down, support, and spread your ears wide fucking open.

You might be ‘white’ right now and you might have this shitty legacy of oppression, too. It’s important to realize that ‘race’ is such an arbitrary constrict -- a good modern starting point is ‘Whiteness of a Different Colour’ (ISBN-13: 978-0674951914) -- and that many of you that might be considered ‘white’ now weren’t ‘white’ a mere century or less ago. If you’re of Irish, or Scottish, or Italian, or any country with any modicum of Catholicism, or anywhere near Poland at all (for fuck’s sake I want the US to burn but I wish I could apologise for those Polish jokes), I hope you’re nodding right now. ‘Whiteness’ has always been a fluid definition, subject to the convenience of those who are in power. Sometimes you’re in, sometimes you’re out. A lot of people last year were convinced along these lines, alas. Especially white women -- it’s hard to say, but I am deeply disappointed in any gender whose space I drift into regularly --- where’s my fucking third option, thank you very much, please, reality, let LeGuin’s writing instantiate. The amount of white women who voted for a... thing that despised their very gender was, quite frankly, so astonishing, even disgusting, that it was hard to credit.

So at this point I think it’s important to distinguish between two groups: those that explicitly benefit form the current regime, and those who don’t. Establishing the basic premiss that I’m not particularly inclined to either nuance or compromise at this point, I think I can draw the lines thus:

With the Orange one are Nazis (or Neo-Nazis if you want to split hairs, I see zero fucking difference), other forms of White Nationalists, the KKK, Kremlin sympathizers, and a general cadre of the most ignorant and least qualified set of people ever set to take government positions, even factoring in the presidencies of Grant and Hoover. These people deny science, deny facts, deny the right of people like me to exist. I don’t believe in anything but the serious danger of absolute belief. But I do trust and have some shred, some modicum of faith, one might even go so far as to say, in scientific method, rational skepticism, tolerance, and love.

These people that are scrabbling for the levers of power have none of these things. They want unquestioning obedience, slavish devotion, denial of diversity. They want us to believe their lies, their ‘alternative facts’ or whatever the shit was that’s so ridiculous my fore-brain refuses to scrabble for the correct terminology.

But this isn’t the 1920s or the 1930s. Remember that the well-nigh universal lesson from that time regarding Fascism is that people didn’t strike back hard enough, fast enough, strong enough. Don’t succumb to the idea that it’s worth your while to debate people who don’t accept your simple existence and your equal rights as a basic, fundamental point. If they don’t, punch them if you can. Or find a bigger friend to punch them. Kick them in the balls -- most of these Nazis have balls, I know not how -- or hit them with a bat, or a bat with nails in.

Remember.

If.

They.

Do.

Not.

Unconditionally.

Acknowledge.

Your.

Right.

To.

Exist.

As.

Basic.

Premise.

There.

Is.

No.

Intellectual.

Debate.

Nazis and their ilk don’t want people like me, or many of you, to even exist. (I look at every follower’s profile, you delightful people and sometimes perverts [me too, no worries - even some aces get saucy every few dozen moons or so! I love you all, apart from those strange porn blogs, I don’t draw naked anything yet, please go away.]) Even after deflecting myself there, I re-emphasize that:

DEBATE CAN ONLY OCCUR WHEN BOTH PARTIES AGREE TO A CERTAIN SET OF FACTS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PREMISES. Foremost in 2017 being: an acceptance of the scientific method and of the complexities and conclusions of modern science, an acceptance to the basic freedoms of the press and of political discourse as established from our flawed founding fuckers to the current day, and an acceptance of the basic rights of all human beings irrespective of ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

Anyone who can’t agree to this basic, fundamental, and fundamentally inoffensive set of premises is not worth your time or energy. If they try and throw sand in your face, avert them. If they put up a mask of civility, state the basics and deflect them. If they assault or insult you, ignore them, or if appropriate, punch them -- at this point, they deserve it. As a life-long pacifist -- they so deserve it.

Keep your thumb outside of your fingers, please. I want you to be able to draw even after you punch Nazis.

Remember:

Anyone who does not acknowledge your right to exist has not established the most fundamental level of Rational Discourse.

I’ll try as best I can to keep this blog to mainly just art, but I refuse and reject all notions that I should keep politics out of my art. The act of intentionally creating a piece of art is an essentially political act, it always has been, and it always shall be.

On that point, I’ll allow one exchange to give you a chance before I block your arse on whatever platform. I DGAF about followers, sales, or bottom lines, tiny though they may be. All I want are people who I can have a rational discourse with.

I wish I could say I’m sorry to be so angry.

I am absolutely not

. I refuse to let my anger dominate my day to day living, but I also refuse to put it aside, and I think you should too. Don’t let go of that anger, but don’t let it eat your heart (it will eviscerate you in a breath if you let it.) Forge it into a sword, into a shield, into a bow and arrows to give cover to your loved ones. This is not a time for complacency, for conciliation for those who would not have us live at all. Recognize that there is a point at which rational debate has come to an end, that there are those who want us dead and are not at all joking with all those oven threats. NAZIS FUCKING EXIST RIGHT NOW. Just as their vile counterparts have existed at so many times throughout history.I could name to you ancestors that were killed, or sent to prison, or locked in mad-houses, or worse, simply because they were NDN and said that we should have rights, that we should be treated like human beings, that we DESERVED to EXIST. I have zero patience for the establishment or the White Man in Washington. I have some patience for the White Woman, even though they have often been a worse oppressor than the Man (seriously -- look at the treatment of ‘Natives’ in ‘America’ and Indians in India in the periods when it was just the by far majority male explorers, trappers, traders, etc, compared to when the women come in -- rapid swings between Tolerance and Accomodation, to Prejudice and Exclusion, all overcome with the Sickening Sweet Smell of Straight-Laced Biblical Morality and okay I can’t go on, if you are still reading I haven’t completely offended you and I would honestly not prefer to do so excessively.) but it’s really hard to trust in straight white women at this point. So many sold us out to a self-confessed ‘p*ssy grabber’ in November. ANYWAY. Anger blah blah arg razzle frazzle argiuhalsdkfgjalkdfgjh lasidfuyao psidgyoiasdygoi asydfgo iasdygpoiasdo et cetera, et cetera, et. cetera. yeah. welcome to 2017. Let’s all go punch Nazis. Or, if we can’t punch Nazis, let’s all support those who do. Because what’s more American than punching a Nazi in his (or her) Godsdamned face.

#blah blah #not art #punch nazis #punch nazis in the face #always and forever

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faizrashis1995 · 4 years

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15 Technical Core Java Interview Questions Answers for Experienced Developers

When the experience of a Java Programmer grows in the years e.g. when it goes from beginner years ( 2 to 4) to more experience or sort of senior level ( 5 to 7 years), Core Java Interview Questions also change a bit. Of course, basics like data structure, algorithms, and object-oriented programming remains the same, but types of questions will become more advanced and their answers will definitely need to be more detailed and accurate. I often receive queries about core Java questions asked to a senior developer of 5 to 6-year experience, or, sometimes, I am going for an interview of senior Java developer, what kind of questions I should expect. This sometimes puzzles me, that once you become senior, you automatically start taking part in the interview, and you should have an idea of what to expect on Interviews, but at the same time, I can understand that having an idea of questions before going on Interview, helps preparation. Of course, you are not going to get a question like the one you have faced on 2 to 3 years level Java Interviews, but It also depends on different rounds of Interviews.

I have not seen many changes in the questions asked on the telephonic round, which almost remains the same. You will find some fact-based, some coding questions and a few tricky questions. On the other hand face-to-face, interviews have become more detailed and more tricky, especially with nasty follow-ups.

In this article, I am going to share some 15 technical core Java Interview Questions, which I have seen asked senior and experienced developers of 4 to 6 years of experience in different interviews, mostly on telephonic rounds. I am not posting answers as of now, but you can find answers to most of the questions on here or the Javarevisited blog.

If you are in a hurry and actively looking for a Java Developer Job, you can also take help from some good books written to prepare you for Java J2EE interviews. Books like, Java Programming Interview Exposed covers all important topics for both core Java and Java EE interviews, which include basic Java questions, data structure and algorithms, JVM internals and GC tuning, Hibernate and Spring interview questions, JUnit ant unit testing questions, and some Java 8 stuff.

It also covers knowledge of other JVM languages like Scala, Groovy and other platforms like Android. A perfect companion to do well in Java interviews.

If you want to prepare more on the coding side then you can also check out Cracking the Coding Interview, which contains almost 150 programming questions and solutions from technical interviews of big tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft.

15 Core Java Questions For 5 to 6 Years Experienced

All these questions have been collected from quite senior developers, which has at least 5 years of experience. They have seen these questions on different rounds of their core Java interviews, including telephonic and face-to-face rounds on different companies, mostly on Investment banks like Barclays, Morgan, RBS, and others.

1. What is Busy Spinning? Why Should You Use It in Java?

One of the interesting multithreading question to senior Java programmers, busy spinning is a waiting strategy, in which a thread just wait in a loop, without releasing the CPU for going to sleep. This is a very advanced and specialized waiting strategy used in the high-frequency trading application when the wait time between two messages is very minimal.

By not releasing the CPU or suspending the thread, your thread retains all the cached data and instruction, which may be lost if the thread was suspended and resumed back in a different core of CPU.

This question is quite popular in high-frequency low latency programming domain, where programmers are trying for extremely low latency in the range of micro to milliseconds. See here more 50+ advanced thread interview questions for experienced programmers.

core java interview questions for senior developers

2. What is Read-Write Lock? Does ConcurrentHashMap in Java Use The ReadWrite Lock?

ReadWrite Lock is an implementation of a lock stripping technique, where two separate locks are used for reading and write operation. Since read operation doesn't modify the state of the object, it's safe to allow multiple thread access to a shared object for reading without locking, and by splitting one lock into the read and write lock, you can easily do that.

Java provides an implementation of a read-write lock in the form of the ReentrantReadWritLock class in the java.util.concurrent.lock package. This is worth looking before you decide to write your own read-write locking implementation.

Also, the current implementation of java.util.ConcurrentHashMap doesn't use the ReadWriteLock, instead, it divides the Map into several segments and locks them separately using different locks. This means any given time, only a portion of the ConcurrentHashMap is locked, instead of the whole Map. See how ConcurrentHashMap internally works in Java for more detail.

This core Java question is also very popular on senior and more experienced level Java interviews e.g. 4 to 6 years, where you expect Interviewer to go into more detail, like by asking you to provide an implementation of the read-write lock with different policies. If you are an experienced Java programmer, consider reading Java Concurrency in Practice to gain more confidence about multithreading and concurrency in Java.

3. How to Make an Object Immutable in Java? Why Should You Make an Object Immutable?

Well, Immutability offers several advantages including thread-safety, ability to cache and result in a more readable multithreading code. See here to learn how to make objects Immutable. Once again, this question can also go into more detail and depending on your answer, can bring several other questions e.g. when you mention Spring is Immutable, be ready with some reasons on Why String is Immutable in Java.

4. Which Design Patterns have You Used in Your Java Project?

Always expect some design patterns related question for Core Java Interview of senior developer position. It's a better strategy to mention any GOF design pattern rather than Singleton or MVC, which almost every other Java developer use it.

Your best bet can be a Decorator pattern or maybe Dependency Injection Pattern, which is quite popular in the Spring Framework. It's also good to mention only the design patterns which you have actually used in your project and knows it's tradeoffs.

It's common that once you mention a particular design pattern say Factory or Abstract Factory, Interviewer's next question would be, have you used this pattern in your project? So be ready with proper examples and why you choose a particular pattern. You can also see this article for more advanced design pattern questions from Java interviews.

5. Do you know about Open Closed Design Principle or Liskov Substitution Principle?

Design patterns are based on object-oriented design principles, which I strongly felt every object-oriented developer and the programmer should know, or, at least, have a basic idea of what are these principles and how they help you to write better object-oriented code. I

f you don't know the answer to this question, you can politely say No, as it's not expected from you to know the answer to every question, but by answering this question, you can make your claim stronger as many experienced developers fail to answer basic questions like this. See Clean Code learn more about object-oriented and SOLID design principles.

6. Which Design Pattern Will You Use to Shield Your Code From a Third Party library Which Will Likely to be Replaced by Another in Couple of Months?

This is just one example of the scenario-based design pattern interview question. In order to test the practical experience of Java developers with more than 5 years of experience, companies ask this kind of question. You can expect more real-world design problems in different formats, some with more detail explanation with context, or some with only intent around.

One way to shield your code from a third-party library is to code against an interface rather than implementation and then use dependency injection to provide a particular implementation. This kind of question is also asked quite frequently to experienced and senior Java developers with 5 to 7 years of experience.

Question 7) How do you prevent SQL Injection in Java Code?

This question is more asked J2EE and Java EE developers than core Java developers, but, it is still a good question to check the JDBC and Security skill of experienced Java programmers.

You can use PreparedStatement to avoid SQL injection in Java code. Use of the PreparedStatement for executing SQL queries not only provides better performance but also shield your Java and J2EE application from SQL Injection attack.

On a similar note, If you are working more on Java EE or J2EE side, then you should also be familiar with other security issues including Session Fixation attack or Cross-Site Scripting attack and how to resolve them. These are some fields and questions where a good answer can make a lot of difference in your selection.

Question 8) Tell me about different Reference types available in Java, e.g. WeakReference, SoftReference or PhantomReference? and Why should you use them?

Well, they are different reference types coming from java.lang.ref package and provided to assist Java Garbage Collector in a case of low memory issues. If you wrap an object with WeakReference than it will be eligible for garbage collected if there are o strong references. They can later be reclaimed by the Garbage collector if JVM is running low on memory.

The java.util.WeakHashMap is a special Map implementation, whose keys are the object of WeakReference, so if only Map contains the reference of any object and no other, those object can be garbage collected if GC needs memory. See Java Performance The Definitive Guide learn more about how to deal with performance issues in Java.

core java technical interview questions and answers for experienced

Question 9) How does get method of HashMap works in Java?

Yes, this is still one of the most popular core Java questions for senior developer interviews. You can also expect this question on telephonic round, followed by lot's of follow-up questions as discussed in my post how does HashMap work in Java.

The short answer to this question is that HashMap is based upon hash table data structure and uses hashCode() method to calculate hash code to find the bucket location on the underlying array and equals() method to search the object in the same bucket in case of a collision. See here to learn more about how does get() method of HashMap works in Java.

Question 10) Which Two Methods HashMap key Object Should Implement?

This is one of the follow-up questions I was saying about in previous questions. Since working of HashMap is based upon hash table data structure, any object which you want to use as a key for HashMap or any other hash-based collection e.g. Hashtable, or ConcurrentHashMap must implement equals() and hashCode() method.

The hashCode() is used to find the bucket location i.e. index of the underlying array and equals() method is used to find the right object in a linked list stored in the bucket in case of a collision. By the way, from Java 8, HashMap also started using a tree data structure to store the object in case of a collision to reduce the worst-case performance of HashMap from O(n) to O(logN). See the article for learning more about how does HashMap handless collisions in Java.

Question 11) Why Should an Object Used As the Key should be Immutable?

This is another follow-up of previous core Java interview questions. It's good to test the depth of technical knowledge of candidates by asking more and more questions on the same topic. If you know about Immutability, you can answer this question by yourself. The short answer to this question is key should be immutable so that hashCode() method always return the same value.

Since the hash code returned by hashCode() method depends on the content of the object i.e. values of member variables. If an object is mutable than those values can change and so is the hash code. If the same object returns different hash code once you inserted the value in HashMap, you will end up searching in different bucket locations and will not able to retrieve the object. That's why a key object should be immutable. It's not a rule enforced by the compiler but you should take care of it as an experienced programmer. See the article for more advanced Java Collection interview questions.

Question 12) How does ConcurrentHashMap achieve its Scalability?

Sometimes this multithreading + collection interview question is also asked as, the difference between ConcurrentHashMap and Hashtable in Java. The problem with synchronized HashMap or Hashtable was that the whole Map is locked when a thread performs any operation with Map.

The java.util.ConcurrentHashMap class solves this problem by using a lock stripping technique, where the whole map is locked at different segments and only a particular segment is locked during the write operation, not the whole map. The ConcurrentHashMap also achieves its scalability by allowing lock-free reads as read is a thread-safe operation. See here for more advanced multi-threading and concurrency questions in Java.

Question 13) How do you share an object between threads? or How to pass an object from one thread to another?

There are multiple ways to do that e.g. Queues, Exchanger, etc, but BlockingQueue using Producer-Consumer pattern is the easiest way to pass an object from thread to another.

Question 14) How do find if your program has a deadlock?

By taking thread dump using kill -3, using JConsole or VisualVM), I suggest preparing this core java interview question in more detail, as the Interviewer definitely likes to go with more detail e.g. they will press with questions like, have you really done that in your project or not?

Question 15) How do you avoid deadlock while coding?

By ensuring locks are acquire and released in an ordered manner, see here for a detailed answer to this question.

That's all on this list of Core Java Interview Questions for senior developers and experienced programmers. I haven't included a lot of questions from other important topics like Exception handling, Garbage Collection tuning and JVM Internals, which is also very popular among Java programmers with 5 to 6 years of experience, maybe I will include them in the next part.[Source]-https://www.java67.com/2013/07/15-advanced-core-java-interview-questions-answers-senior-experienced-5-6-years-programmers-developers.html

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nataliehegert · 5 years

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In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river… This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. — T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Man

Ah well, what matter, that’s what I always say, it will have been a happy day, after all, another happy day. — Samuel Beckett, Happy Days

In Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel, On the Beach, his characters—among the last people alive in the world after a hemispheric atomic war—live out their final days waiting for an inevitable cloud of radiation borne by global air currents to finally make its way to the southern tip of Australia. The book is boring and hopeless, as are these last humans puttering in their gardens to plant flowers that no one will ever see, taking on last minute efforts at self-improvement, worrying about sex and fidelity.

“Couldn’t anyone have stopped it?” the wife asks helplessly in their final hour.

“I don’t know…” her husband replies patronizingly. “Some kinds of silliness you just can’t stop,” he says, referring to the nuclear war that annihilated the planet.

The much-acclaimed opera-installation Sun & Sea (Marina), in the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, likewise portrays passive, helpless bystanders to the end of the world, but it is a much more ambiguous apocalypse. A group of disconnected vacationers lounge on the sand of a nameless beach—at first nothing seems amiss, but as they sing, the details of their world come into focus. “The colors of the sea and sky have changed,” they sing. The sea is “as green as a forest”—owing to the process of eutrophication1—the Great Barrier Reef is a “bleached, pallid whiteness.” They complain of sunburns and strange weather, airport delays and trash on the beach. Their concerns are immediate and minor, while the world is clearly falling apart around them.

While other depictions of a post-climate-disaster world succumb to visions of the apocalyptic sublime—such as Waterworld (1995), or Mad Max (1979)—Sun & Sea is decidedly restrained, non-epic, banal. Instead of a deliciously outlandish doomsday scenario, it is just a rather disappointing day at the beach. In both setting and attitude, the installation more closely recalls the absurdist play Happy Days by Beckett,2 which finds its protagonist buried in a mound of sand, furtively trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy in her life. Likewise, the characters of Sun & Sea, though they find it strange, have clearly adapted to the new normal. And while it is clear that “Everything is out of joint” in the climate, it seems there is nothing to be done (“There is so little one can do,” laments the protagonist of Happy Days). So, you might as well try to enjoy yourself: “After vacation, / Your hair shines, / Your eyes glitter, / Everything is fine,” they sing.

Staff Writer Natalie Hegert speaks with theater director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, playwright Vaiva Grainytė, and composer Lina Lapelytė about their Golden Lion-winning production and the message behind it.

Natalie Hegert: Not only has Sun & Sea received abundant and unanimous praise among the critics and the most prestigious prize at the Biennale, it is also proving to make a most lasting impression on spectators and continues to be talked about. Did you have any idea your contribution to the Biennale would be received like this?

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė: This was beyond our expectations of course. Vaiva Grainyte˙: If you ask me, I felt our opera-performance might look distinguishing in the context of Biennale, but we did not have much time to think about success—the logistics and preparation were quite challenging and intense.

Lina Lapelytė: It was not an easy project and it was risky on many levels—so the jury team in Lithuania already was brave enough to select it. What happened during the first week of biennale feels like something that almost does not belong to us. Someone said, It is a Cinderella story.

This was definitely not written in our scenario. Before the opening, we were preparing our performers to be ready for an almost empty pavilion and find a joy in performing if there was only one member of the audience. Now during the performance days, we receive an average of 1,300 people. Every role on the beach has to have at least three people able to perform it.

NH: Why did you create this as an opera, as opposed to another kind of performance art, theatrical spectacle, or visual art? How did you approach its staging within the context of the Biennale—to place it among what is primarily a showcase of visual arts? Was it much different from its first staging, in Lithuania (besides the language)?

Vaiva Grainytė: Our trio started with debut piece Have a Good Day! (2014)—a contemporary opera for ten singing cashiers, supermarket sounds, and piano. I find opera to be the perfect genre for us to unite our artistic practices (text, music, and visuality). Nonetheless, the durational version of Sun & Sea crosses the boundaries of other arts. ‘Opera,’ I would say, indicates the marriage of different arts, but this piece itself can be called something else: installation, architectural poetry, concert…

LL: Opera is a very particular place for the three of us—we kind of invented a method of working in this genre. Opera is as visual art as any other kind of installation, sculpture, or painting. The genre itself often belongs to the music world but personally, in my own practice, prefer to look at music—opposed to the idea that it is only for listening. Opera is literature; it is music; it is fine arts. It is a gesamtkunstwerk, and none of the features are more important than the other.

RB: Sun & Sea grew from the visual, and still is a very visual work. Other elements—mainly text and music—bring different layers, form-wise, so the work becomes more complex. However, in this complexity we seek for simplicity.

NH: One of the things that is so striking is the opera’s placidness. There seem to be no great highs or lows, no climax or crescendo, no great emotion expressed. The singers are, for the most part, singing while lying down. There is very little movement, most of it being incidental, and the musical accompaniment is minimal. Even the scenery is quite pared down—there is simply sand, with no unusual lighting or representation of the kind of toxic sea that is suggested by the libretto. It is anti-apocalyptic, but also almost anti-theatrical. Can you tell me why you decided to present it in this way?

RB: You have put it in very right words. We have static bodies, but very often their minds are active, transforming from reminiscences to reflections, dreams, etc. Waves of these inner monologues grow into choirs, then flood back into solos again. Performers are static while they are singing, but other times they are free to move alongside kids, dogs, and other volunteers who are building castles, playing beach games, eating, etc. This brings uncontrolled reality into the fictional construct.

LL: In our case, the representation is based on a very clear conceptual grounding—all the further details of the work follow that concept. We try to restrain ourselves from using self-oriented tricks and effects; therefore, most of the details are there because of the true necessity.

VG: The light picture of lazy holidays is just a surface: we are sunbathing while the world is crashing.

NH: What kind of research into climate change and its effects did you undertake to imagine the world of Sun & Sea?

LL: The research spanned from mainstream media, scientific investigations, personal views, experiences and dreams, and conversations and reflections.

VG: Before writing the libretto, the research was done. It was necessary to understand what CO2, emissions and food miles are, and why our planet is in its current state. After dealing with that scientific information, we came up with the realization that catastrophe is caused by our—homo sapiens—uncontrollable consumption. Consumption, which is so pleasant and stands as the core of our lives. The idea was to reveal the tragedy by personal approach, employing micro-stories, as ecology is such a huge topic. That is to say, disastrous pictures of dying and choked-in-plastic animals seem to be too anonymous, too difficult for our brains to process what is happening.

RB: Climate change is such a popular topic, but we did not want to manifest scientific facts, or to be moralistic. It was important to deepen the knowledge in this field. We were reading specific literature, but Sun & Sea is not about facts at all. It is about mundane narratives of holidaymakers, surrounded by apocalypse. But on a daily basis [it reflects something] other than that.

NH: What kind of message did you set out to impart? Do you feel that the installation gives any sense of hope for our future? Or is this scene something of a foregone conclusion for our world?

VG: It is up to each spectator to read the message on their own. The mosaic of characters and their songs suggest a kaleidoscopic approach, so there is no conclusion or “one truth” as such.

RB: To expand the beach topic in a global perspective: sunbathing may soon become available where polar bears used to live. I think we are neither giving a sense of hope for the future, nor taking it away. We do not know the right answer, and this is probably our luck.

LL: The work is a question, but also a reflection, on where we are and who we are, but the hope is in every one of us. In the tiny things, the love that we all share. Though that love must also be super critical and questioning many things that are taken for granted. It is hard!

NH: You three have worked together before, on the opera Have a Good Day!, and Sun & Sea is your second collaboration. In light of your spectacular success, do you have plans to work together again?

VG: Success might breed rush and greediness, but our trio is rather slow in terms of developing a new piece. Each piece needs time and mental energy so it could grow in a healthy way. After this prolonged Venetian adventure (the performance is running twice a week until the end of October) we need some time to reflect on what has happened, plus a tour with Sun & Sea will require special attention. We have some ideas for a new work, so probably one day it will be embodied.

RB: Each of us have individual practices, which are extremely important for our common work; everything we learn separately we bring in as an experience. I think we all need some separate creative space and time before considering going into the next trio work.

LL: We do not force the situation and it may take some time for us to come up with a new idea for a collaborative work. The fact that we all have individual practices makes things slower, but also creates a real need for coming back together.

The Pavilion of Lithuania, Sun & Sea (Marina), at the Venice Biennale runs through October 31, 2019.

1. An effect of particular concern to the Baltic Sea, on whose coast Lithuania is situated.

2. Whose title, perhaps coincidentally, finds echoes in the Lithuanian artists’ first opera, Have a Good Day! (2014).

Interview Posted on 9/19/2019, Printed in THE SEEN Issue 09, September 2019

#Highlights #interview #in print

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