8/16/2004
The ActionScript Jabberwocky
It may not be apparent from many of the random postings I've made here, but one of the main reasons for the existence of Turdhead.com is to provide a space for creative Web-based art, writing, animation and of course, lens flare effects. A turdhead is, after all, not only a geek (of which the internet is full), but also a generally well-read, cultured and sociable sort — a geek that occasionally makes it out into the real world, not only by accident but occasionally even under their own free will.
With that in mind, I have decided to revel in my geekdom and admit that the following sort of thing actually DOES provide me with some sick sense of nerd amusement. It will probably appeal only to fellow Flash programmers, and even then perhaps, only to the true Actionscript aficionado, but regardless, we (i.e., I) hope you enjoy the following:
In the time-honored geek tradition of translating great works of literature into unintelligible crap, I present The ActionScript Jabberwocky:
By the way, if you too are a huge Actionscript geek and/or Turdhead and want to express your own literary dreams, drop us a line! Or better yet, get your very own copy of the ActionScript Jabberwocky on a poster, T-shirt, mouse pad or baby!
Limited time only! Get your poster now!
Addendum: You may also want to check out the follow-up article to this post, and see what other people with too much time on their hands came up with in the forums.
94 Responses to “The ActionScript Jabberwocky”
So what do you think?
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[...] Tuesday, August 17th 2004
The ActionScript Jabberwocky
The ActionScript Jabberwocky. Mmmmhmmm.
Late evening, in Seen Online, Asides [...]
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[...] etc) as well as mental. Even though I’m not an ActionScript programmer, I still like The ActionScript Jabberwocky. And I’m not a Perl programmer (yet) but I may have to learn. There is [...]
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[...] nbsp;05 September 2004
The ActionScript Jabberwocky – Turdhead.com [del.icio.us/tag/art]
5:36:19 PM comment(com [...]
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[...] real, honest-to-goodness, geek-fest in which the code itself becomes the poetry. (See the ActionScript Jabberwocky for an example of what we’re looking for.) As for prizes: What would a gee [...]
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My god, whats next.. befunge jabberwocky?
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Well, If I remember the poem correctly, its beware the jabberwock MY son…
I have no knowledge of actionscript, BUT, would it be expressed better as…
self.son.beware(jabb….)
or something similar?
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Beautiful!
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What the hell is this?
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Nice one! Flash is cool!
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Methinks you have been slashdotted
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Jabberwocky
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Uh oh, your getting slashdotted. Well no matter, good luck with your hosting bill. I do notice that AS is quite similar to PHP. Neat
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Hmm..comments broken or just pending for moderation? Prolly pending for moderation. Nice to see another wordpress user though!
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You need to get a life!
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This is appalling, even for geeks….
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Lovely stuff! Nicely done, found this on Slashdot btw, so might be an idea to batten down the hatches on your server
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/.tted!
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The ActionScript Jabberwocky
This made me smile: The Jabberwocky in ActionScript (Macromedia Flash’s scripting language). It’s another one of those that you’ll really need to be a proper geek to appreciate, but it’s really quite good.
Perhaps you need to be a Lewis Carrroll…
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You’ve just been slashdotted. Congrats!
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Fantastic!
Memorized that poem in 5th grade and remember it to this day.
Also did a bunch of Actionscript just last night for a webcam and used the poem for a password.
Uncanny timing!
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ha, kinda makes me want to fire New Adventure Shell
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You just demonstrated so elegantly why I prefer imperative/procedural languages (perl, PHP, K&R C, assembly) over object-oriented (java, javascript, Python). I want to tell the computer how to process my data, not tell the data how to get processed by the computer!
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LMAO… ok ive seen sht written a million different ways.. but seriously man you have too much time on your hands to rite shit like this lolz..
this would have to be the funniest most strange yet understandable code ive ever seen.. (and ive seen some strange ones… (computer stupidites).
God man find something productive to do! LMAO
Celticknight
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dear god….
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Cool! Oh, and FIRST!
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wow, and I thought I had too much free time…
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very cool / funny….and you’ve been /.’d you know
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Aceness!
Do you do requests?
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Ha! That’s great.
PS – The guy who wrote comment #19 should slit his wrists. ROFLOLZZZZZ!!!!!1111
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n0x00b sez: Hey, I tried to compile this, but it ain’t workin’! Can’t find no actionscript compiler within my portage tree, maybe you could do a port to perl or provide an ebuild for it…
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Nice Work. WHat’s Next, The Bible Code or maybe I got it The Davinci Code LOL…..
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you need to update this…maybe bring it into the 21st century…
“T’was Brillo and the G.E. Stoves
Did Proctor Gamble in the Glade,
All Pilsbury were the Tastee loaves
And in a Minute Maid”
-Mad Magazine
anyway…you get the idea
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Massive cool. BTW, the Jabberwock came “whiffing” not “whiffling”, and the blade is a “vorpal blade.” Perhaps V2 could make those changes.
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Looks like I passed the nerd test because I did not understand any of that crap.
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Agreed… No clue what just transpired. I guess I was out on my BMX too much as a kid
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Nice piece of code. Very Funny LOL!
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you rule. i have to seriously consider getting one of them posters.
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Doesn’t really work … son.sword has type set to “vorpal” before use (“he took his vorpal sword in hand”) but not son.blade (“The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!”). Isn’t that going to cause problems? Can you alias son.blade to son.sword somewhere? Am I taking this too seriously?
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The ActionScript Jabberwocky
This is really geeky but merits a post: The Jabberwocky, as written in ActionScript. Anyone got any more of these?…
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I did a term paper on this poem in 9th grade and found out that the words in the poem do mean things. I believe “slithy toves” means shy badgers, and “borogroves” means turtles. I may be a bit rusty, however, it has been 16 years.
I remember that I spent most of my time writing the thing trying to come up with words that would all meet at the right hand margin so it would look nice, and I recall even changing my letter spacing to get it all lined up. Great job. Brought back some fun memories of obsessive compulsive behavior.
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*bows before you* I’ve always wanted somone to do this! You r0x0r!
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Damn, does the fact I found that great make me a geek?
And what about the fact that I followed it even though I’ve never looked at ActionScript before?
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Great work, as an actionscript junky i appreciate the effort, and the creativity to fit the poem into an AS framework.
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Hmm…a consideration, instead of son and blade couldn’t he invert it and access it with _parent.
LOL
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In what class is beware() and snicker_snack, etc defined in. i just compilation error after error.
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I
LOVE
THIS
!
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haha! very nice. must have the tshirt.
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Very interesting indeed. I read the poem many many many years ago and I forgot it.I’d like to see the original posted with it, for reference.
Good job
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brilliant, you should make it compile though
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Yes yes he’s been slashdotted, he gets it. I’d absolutely love it if that happened to my site, and this one’s holding up perfectly well.
I SO wish I’d read that book now, cause I’m an actionscript programmer and I’d probably be laughing my arse off even more than I already am. And, hey, I think *real* actionscript junkiness would be if someone (besides me) blotched a few sprites, compiled this and watched what happens.
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It is “whiffling”, not “whiffing”, canticle. I should know, I recited it for a talent show. This is completely awesome!
Congrats, you’ve just been slashdotted!
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‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.
For those who don’t know the original poem well, here’s the original text, copied from http://www.jabb...abberwocky.html
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
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I have no idea how to “run” this, but I am curious if a well placed syntax
error would produce the last 50 pages of Ulysses.
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sorry, obviously not the correct one to understand any of this but “Coodos” on the excellent responses. As for the guy who left comment #19- He must not have too much to do either if he is reading your script and has nothing better to do but down your achievement. Me thinks he may have ISSUES….. Luv ya lots! deettle
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to quote some other people
“I thought I had no life”,
but still, that is seriously cool
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/. I finally got it after the 52nd post.
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Please post this as plain text! It’s sick and lovely!
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viod Comment;
{
int count = 0;
char result;
while(laughing==TRUE && count < 100)
{
readagain(http://www.turdhead.com/index.php?p=21);
count++;
}
result = (type(comment));
return result;
}
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Very cool.
Thought I never saw ActionScript before …
I must say it really has some coherent syntax.
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Dude…Rock on.
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cout< < “This sucks\n”;
do { } while(1);
cout<< “Just kidding\n”;
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Dude, I’m sure I agreed with the rest of these people who have posted…if only I could figure out what that means. Obviously, this is too advance for me. I’m gonna spend a little more time on it this weekend and try to figure it out. I really hope it’s as cool as all that! I can’t wait.
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I always thought I was a nerd and spent years dealing with that fact. I don’t get it and now I’m worried I’m far more normal than I thought. Now I have to deal with that! Oh crap!
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You have taken Actionscript to a new level. Thanks for sharing.
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var brillig;
This variable is unused.
I’m not familiar with ActionScript – I believe it’s something from Macromedia (spit). To encode “‘Twas brillig” in Java, I think I’d have used notation something like “new Brillig().twas();”. And you’d need to import some non-existent library to obscure the fact that nobody really knows what most of the words mean. I agree with the commentators who say that the code should compile. That apart, it reads very nicely!
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Great! Good sense, excellent nonsense. Surely brillig!
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That is some good work, I too want to create literary works of code. So I am working very slowly on a geek novel which will use xml and shell scripting to describe the scenes/chapters etc. So far I have only got as far as a basic storyline idea.
As to geekdom. It is my opinion that a geek is what you describe as a turdhead and nreds are those who are unsociable and don’t get out.
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damn! this is good
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Added to Wikipedia (http://en.wikip...#External_links).
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ActionScript Jabberwocky
http://www.turd.../index.php?p=21
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the son.blade of ["vorpal" blade went snicker snack] does not reference back to son.sword so “vorpal” is not present as an attribute in the class of blade and blade is not known as a sword per an association.
My assumption is that only a vorpal blade goes snicker snack whereas any old generic blade probably just goes wicker whack
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Oh hay, looks like this page is on slashdot.
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Very nice poetry. I felt a tear touch my cheek.
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Brilliant!
Yes, do get out some more.
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It made my day! Thank you! And now I notice it’s in binary as well -it’s just great!
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ActionScript Jabberwocky and the sequel
So, the appealingly-named TurdHead blogger (time for self-esteem class, Turdy) wrote an ActionScript version of The Jabberwocky poem. It’s an amusing bit of geekery. Then it got Slashdotted, drawing a bunch of fire form people who consider ActionScrip…
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Jabberwocky Redux
Jabberwocky Redux: Last week’s ActionScript Jabberwocky got Slashdotted and such… good thing it was just a 150K JPG file instead of something with audio, or else bandwidth costs might have been high. Anyway, VeryVito is apparently very sorry to have…
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Very funny indeed! Though I must say that your usage of global variables is not what I would call “best pratice”. Also most of the objects and methods are still undefined. For a start I’ve quickly thrown together a Kid class:
NB: Rest of comment moved to Turdhead forums (http://www.turd...wtopic.php?t=18)
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Re: Post 49 by Glenn. Please forward name of your attorney. I laughed so hard at your
post I fell out of my chair and hurt my back. You have a dangerous sense of humor and
I sure hope you have a lot of insurance. I would like to thank you for your comments but
I won’t since my attorney has advised me it will jeapordize my law suit. But I’m really looking
forward to seeing you in court. Please don’t crack the judge up ’till I’ve been awarded
damages, plus a few million $ for pain, and suffering! John
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Now when will these people learn, name ur varibles with apropiate names so u can upon them later on, honestly
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This is ace, but I could really use a XUL Jabberwocky.
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You people are freakin scary….
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(chant with me) War and Peace…War and Peace…War and Peace!
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i’m writing an english essay on the poem, this is the only thing i’ve found that has helped at all! seriousily good
stuff, wish i could do it!!!!!!
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Now I remember why I left IT
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Everyone who says that nerds should get out more are mad. If you had any more of a life you might not have created this masterpiece. I love it but like some people have said I’d like to see a complete version with methods defined and such. Nice though.
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[code]
import com.wonderland.time.*;
import com.wonderland.location.*;
import com.wonderland.fauna.*;
import com.wonderland.flora.*;
import com.wonderland.item.*;
public class Then extends Brillig implements ParentListener{
private Tove[] oTov = new Tove("slithy")[Tove.MAXCOUNT];
private Borogove[] oBor = new Borogove("mimsy")[Borogove.MAXCOUNT];
private Rath[] oRth = new Rath("mome")[Rath.MAXCOUNT];
private Jabberwock oJbrwk = new Jabberwock();
private Sword oSwrd = new Sword(true);
private Head oHd;
private boolean bResponse = false;
public Then(Person pSon){
int i;
int i2;
boolean bRsp = false;
this.setScene()
oJbrwk.append(new JabberwockJaws());
oJbrwk.append(new JabberwockClaws());
pSon.beware(oJbrwk);
pSon.beware(new Jubjub());
pSon.shun(new Bansdersnatch("frumious"));
pSon.hand.append(Sword);
iLoc = pSon.startSearch(oJbrwk, Foe.MANXOME);
while(!oJbrwk.isIn(iLoc) && (pSon.getSearchTime() < Person.MAX_SEARCH_TIME) && !pSon.tired){
iLoc = pSon.nextSearch();
}
if(iLoc.getNearestTreeType == Tree.TYPE_TUMTUM){
oJbwrk.append(new Eyes("flame"));
oJbrwk.whiffleTo(Woods.LOC_TULGEY);
oJbrwk.startBurble();
pSon.stand();
pSon.startThought('uffish');
while(pSon.getThoughtSubject != oJbrwk){}
pSon.stopThought();
for(i = 1; i <= 2; i++){
for(i2 = 1, i <= 2; i++){
oSwrd.goThrough(oJbrwck);
oSwrd.goThrough(oJbrwck);
oHd = oJbrwk.detach("head");
}
}
pSon.galumphTo(pSon.parent.Loc);
while(!bResponse){}
this.setScene();
}
}
public void parentJoy(){
if(oJbrwk = null){
pSon.setSpeechMode(Person.SPEECH_CHORTLE);
pSon.goTo(pSon.parent.getArms().getLoc());
pSon.parent.speak(new Day("frabjous").toString());
pSon.parent.speak("Callooh!");
pSon.parent.speak("Callay!");
}
bResponse = true;
}
public void setScene(){
this.theWabe();
for(i = 0; i < oRth.length; i++){
oRth[i].outgrabe();
}
}
public void theWabe(){
int i;
for(i = 0; i < oTov.length; i++){
oTov[i].gyre();
oTov[i].gimble();
}
}
protected class JabberwockJaws extends Jaws{
public void doBite(Object o){
o.setBitten(true);
}
}
protected class JabberwockClaws extends Claws{
public void doCatch(Object o){
o.setCaught(true);
}
}
protected class Sword extends Blade{
private int iShrp;
public Sword(boolean bVorpal){
if(bVorpal){
iShrp = Blade.DEFAULT_SHARPNESS;
} else{
iShrp = Blade.MAX_SHARPNESS;
}
}
public int getSharpness(){
return iShrp;
}
}
}
[/code]
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This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for, but when is someone going to design an English to Actionscript dictionary/phrasebook?
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[...] Keep in mind, this is not a call for Flash interpretations of literary works (See Vidlit.com for that sort of thing), but a real, honest-to-goodness, geek-fest in which the code itself becomes the poetry. (See the ActionScript Jabberwocky for an example of what we’re looking for.) [...]
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good god.
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Who was the original writer of this amasing poem
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Caitlin, the original “Jabberwocky” was penned by Lewis Carroll in “Through the Looking Glass.”
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I love the jabbowocky Poem!!!
At sch we have to make r own version and my hero is a secret spy agent!LOL!
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[...] I’m thinking about ActionScript, this is as good a time as any to revisit the venerable ActionScript Jabberwocky. Enjoy. The ActionScript Jabberwocky, from [...]
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