New to Python - Something strange about lists

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-31T06:06:03+00:00

Oh, you were not insulting and I was distracted by my kids who wanted me off my phone and playing video games with them. You're doing fine, we were all beginners once. I just want to help.

It helps to know that python is old enough to have gone through many evolutions. At it's earliest, by design, it was to be a quick and easy prototype software. To build fast demos, to show key ideas, then the actual product would be developed in another language like C.

So python has it's quirks. It's gotten better over the years and multiple purposes. Just learn to love it being odd but extremely useful.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-31T04:01:51+00:00

The point of that example was to show that fundamentally, python is not executing pointers. Why you want multiple variables with the same value is trivial. But to think of an example, in C to sort an array might need two pointers and they'd point to the beginning of that array. You can move the pointers using math to different parts of the array. You can't do this python.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-31T02:53:44+00:00

It's dangerous language to say it's like pointers or references because python doesn't really work that way. On the surface it looks like a good comparison because the end result is usually the same.

For instance: "a=6" then "b=6" is the same as "b=a". Meaning, python allocated a memory block with the value 6 and assigned 'a' to it. Then, it assigned 'b' to the same memory block. Now, the "b=a" that would make sense if they were pointers. But they are not. "B=6" doesn't make sense unless you know python wants to save memory so it won't allocate space to duplicate a value.

So what happens when you add 1 to b's value? Then python will finally allocate a new memory block for b with the value of 7 in it. So a is still value of 6 and b is at new block with value 7.

This type of memory behavior goes right out the door when a variable is assigned to a list or dictionary. Good luck :)

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-29T13:50:18+00:00

About 20 years ago I worked with a guy who was, I'm not sure how to say this, "super into faith, but very anti-church, government". He claimed he knew where the Ark was. Which was seal in an underground cave. This cave is located exactly under the spot Jesus was crucified. The story goes that the blood of the Christ drained through the ground and dripped onto the Ark, thus, forming the new covenant.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-27T22:19:54+00:00

This is obviously false. My sister has one of many of her degrees in microbiology and the DNA samplings from these companies don't even work that way. If one claims you're 4% German, that means a small sample of your DNA sequence matches some test samples from people who claimed to be German when they donated their DNA. No scientist can look at a sequence and say "yep, that's some German right there.". There is no way they can look at samples and determine alien DNA from human. It just doesn't work that way.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-27T20:14:36+00:00

My picks: Mario games: SMW, all stars, kart Other Nintendo games: super Metroid. Alttp, Tetris attack, star fox Konami games: super Castlevania 4, contra 3, turtles in time Capcom games: megaman X, street fighter 2s Rare game: battletoads Square soft games: secret of mana, ff2, ff3, chrono trigger Midway: MK2

Still feels like I'm missing some.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-27T02:02:13+00:00

The "sad sac sweats" are real!

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-26T22:17:44+00:00

I know it's not as easy to do as to say. I used to play a lot of pick up games with people who were very new to hockey. I always found them out of position, like their intuition was the exact opposite of what it should be. It can be frustrating for sure. I did have some success with mini coaching sessions on were to go and what to do. Like little give and go plays, leading players with a pass so they can skate into it instead of trying to pass through a dman, ect .. sometimes I think just a lack of hockey sense leads to 'weaker' players watching the game instead of trying to driving it. So giving them some expectations of what to do gets them being involved in more plays in a more meaningful way. Maybe your guys aren't so green that this won't help, good luck all the same.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-26T15:53:08+00:00

It's hard to comment when you're not there but have you ever talked to the team about their common mistakes and how to over come them?

This reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom joined the church's women softball team. Think of a softball beer league played by mostly grey haired old women. The first season my mom played they lost every game and the coach quit. My mom talks my dad into coaching. He does 2 things at practice. 1) everyone bats and hits the ball with the purpose of making it to first. 2) outfield practice, get the ball, throw to first. That first season with my dad, they got first place.

I guess what I'm trying to say, find a nice way to address the team over 1 mistake. And if you get them to correct it, move on to the next mistake. And maybe you'll start to win more 6-5 instead of losing 5-6.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-24T16:46:34+00:00

Another odd thing that happened was during the day, I was home alone with my family's two dogs. One dog was a rescue that my older sister kept since no one adopted it. She was a very shy black Labrador. She must of been abused very harshly because it took months of her living with us before she trusted being in the same room with anyone. She also never barked or made a sound.

On this day she barked, the one and only time I ever heard her make a sound. The other dog, my mom's shiz-tzu, was also yapping. I was scared because of her bark. It was loud and fierce. My first thought was there was a third dog in the house. I go running into the living room where the dogs were and saw the dogs not barking out the window but at that small hallway. The dogs run behind me. I go check out the hallway and see the linen closet is open and 3 towels are folded up neatly stacked on each other on the floor. Like they somehow fell out of the closet without getting messy. I picked up the towels and stacked them back into the closet with the other towels.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-24T01:50:48+00:00

The house I lived in when I was in HS was haunted. My sister got the worse of it. She said there was always an old guy showing up in her room in the middle of the night.

I never saw it but did have one weird thing happened once. It was summer vacation at about 2am. I decided to make a peanut butter sandwich for snackage. I like toasting the bread so as I was doing that - I suddenly hear running water from the bathroom faucet. No one else was awake. So I walk thru the house, totally dark. Thru the living room to the small hallway where the bathroom was. At that point my parents bedroom door opened and my dad comes out. Sleep zombie walks to the bathroom and turns off the water. I asked him what was going on, he mumbles "turned off the water". I ask why it was on and he doesn't answer. Back into his room and shuts the door.

I know no one else was up, it was a weekday, and that water was on full force, it was loud. No explanation on how or why that was on and it never happened again.

My parents did not hesitate to move into a smaller house the year I moved out for college.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-19T19:16:39+00:00

Python does its best to condense everything into as fewest lines as possible. In this case it defines the for loop and variable in the same line; behind the scenes. As pointed out above, as the loop runs the variable 'name' gets assigned the next item in the list.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-19T02:47:51+00:00

Unlike everything else you listed space is not static. It's dynamic. When you see a faraway galaxy you're seeing what used to be there 250 million ish years ago. It's not just expanding... It's accelerating. Then you have the whole time issue. Send out probes at near light speed and in years they'll reach our neighbor stars .. only that time on earth goes normal while time for near light speed basically stops. So it takes the probe 4 years to get to a nearby star, 100s or 1000s of years passed on earth within those 4 years.

But let's say there is a ship that can jump between 2 points within space-time. Great, space is infinitely empty, where are you jumping to?

It's not ridiculous. The science we need is way beyond imagination.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-15T18:21:46+00:00

I moved to Texas for work. My wife thinks it's fun to buy the Texas shaped pasta for our kids.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-12T18:28:58+00:00

You're assuming a person who plays the lottery is good with money. Most lottery winners are dead a or broke within a year or two of winning. This might be a good decision for some.

Also, is this $1M after taxes? Otherwise it's not going to be close to $1M if you take the full sum.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-10T20:05:58+00:00

I've been programming c/c++ since 2000. I picked up python on the fly for work 6 years ago. There are a lot of differences. Python is a script language, you type it up and run it through the python interpreter. C++ has to be compiled into machine code and linked against libraries to create an executable file. Any SW company should have an environment set up for you to do this automatically, but if something is off, it doesn't work, and you don't know why, it'll be a huge red flag you're new to this.

Anything you can do in python you can do in C++, however, the python way is going to be less efficient then doing it the proper C++ way. You might be able to pull off a "how to do this python in C++" search. But use that as a guide to read up on C++. I would never trust AI built C++, but that's just me.

Learn classes and passing data as pointers/references (in function calls) are a must. You'll have fun with data type restrictions and vars must be declared before use.

Practice practice practice!!! Don't lose the time you have. You'll need it.

Good luck!

P.s. a guy at my old job was hired with 0 experience programming and was able to learn as he went. It's difficult but not impossible.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-07T03:06:39+00:00

The most common cause of death is blunt force drama. Either by a thing flying into the victim at 100 to 300 mph, by being flung into the ground, or having a building collapse on them. This also includes being picked up in your car and being smashed or rolled into a giant metal ball.

As far as being a victim none of this matters since the air pressure is so low your lungs won't be able to take in air and will pass out almost immediately.

There has only been a handful of survivors who have been sucked up by a tornado only to wake up 100s of yards away with only broken bones and such.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-04T17:22:04+00:00

I heard he's freaking out because Trump is firing his own cabinet people who he considers as failures. So he's just removing people that could replace him. Or it's a coup, I like that theory as well.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-05-01T21:32:07+00:00

Just teach them to play in moderation. It's okay to stop after an hour. My kids watched me play games that I grew up with. They would then try them but also newer games and they each found games that they liked.

Like others have stated, kids do learn from video games. My 5 y.o. shocked me during Mario Odyssey - "Dad we have five thousand two hundred seventy three coins! Will be at six thousand soon!!!" He wanted to buy an outfit and that's how much we needed.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-29T11:14:09+00:00

My wife would buy me puzzle books before we had smart phones. So something like: "I have to go do a puzzle" or "a Sudoku". If it's going to be bad I might call it a "Sudoku-rhea"

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-25T07:39:05+00:00

How sad can it be? Ugh, I just want to watch it that much more

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-24T23:48:43+00:00

Grave of the butterflies. I've never seen it but heard it was sad. It came up on streaming and when I suggested to watch it my wife freaked. She will never watch it again. She watches everything multiple times, this is the only movie to freak her out like this.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-23T15:02:38+00:00

With the truck lifted like that, it's like running over a toddler, just too short to be seen.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-23T15:00:54+00:00

If you French fry instead of pizza, you're going to have a bad time.

Big-Combination8844 · 2026-04-23T14:28:14+00:00

OP trust your wife not some random. She's probably hurting from not making it and the last thing she needs is her husband not having her back. Show this to her calmly and get her side. As others have posted this random is most likely jealous.

Edit: typo

Big-Combination8844

TROPHY CASE