I’m not really building much yet. It’s more like I’m learning what a hammer feels like, learning what a nail feels like. And then trying to use them. But oh wait, that’s not a nail – that’s a screw. Which looks kind of similar, but functions in a different way. So let’s not use that just yet.
I had a full, open day today and I spent most of it at my computer, just… reading over options. I was working on a new project idea, and got around zero lines of code written.
“We also need a murder robot that can drive and kill… all the cats and dogs that are pooping all over your nice, Scandinavian, white floors.”
I have a propensity to get worked up (and stressed out) over really stupid, trivial stuff. One morning in December, my wife reminded me through her singing that I should just ease up a little bit. And that’s ultimately what ifeelstressedout.com is all about. If you’re feeling stressed out, maybe this will help a little.
“The videos activate our voyeurism, the sound recordings tempt us with secrets, and the data promises a kind of omniscience, but all of it is a mirage — there is no one here to watch, there is no secret to find, and the data, which seems to be so important, is actually absurd. In this sense, the project mirrors the experience of browsing the web – full of tantalizing potential, but ultimately empty of life.”
The villanelle is a really great poetic form, and has a really interesting structure. In the first stanza, the first and third lines rhyme… and are repeated throughout the poem. They alternate, and server as the final lines for the subsequent stanzas. At the very end of the poem, they come back together and finish the poem as a couplet.
Sorry, this is a cheap move. But it’s been busy lately, and ended up choosing to focus on code tonight at the expense of the blog.
Lately, I’ve been spending as much free time as I can working on a side project. Which – yay! I went through a spell there of a few weeks where I didn’t have any kind of side project. Which felt… weird.
I’ve never really been a fan of laptops, as I’ve always loved the tactile feel of a Mac keyboard. My hands are used to the sensation, and the whole muscle memory of it all. Typing on a laptop feels weird and alien to me, and it just doesn’t feel right.
A good portion, nearly 50%, seemed to cover Node (npm, Express, Swig) – which is actually great for me. I’ve long wanted to delve more into Express and Node development in general, so this is actually quite exciting.
Of the many mistakes I made as an early programmer, this was a huge moment: one equal sign when I was supposed to use two (assignment versus equality). I lost a lot of time troubleshooting an issue that turned out to be something simple.
With my approach now, I’m taking a lot of that initial work (searching, parsing) and letting that take place on the server. Instead of bundling it with the app, I’m using a Node server on Heroku, and also storing some database content via MongoDB.
Even now, writing this, I struggle with defining myself as a developer. I work with code, but I still don’t feel like I’ve earned the title developer yet. I still feel far away from that designation.
“Hopper invents a compiler in 1951, and it allows people who don’t have PhDs in Mathematics to start talking with these machines… to start programming these machines.”
“[…] looking for good software to count on has been a losing battle. Written by people with either no time or no money, most software gets shipped the moment it works well enough to let someone go home and see their family. What we get is mostly terrible.”