Switching Gears (For real this time)

Commenting is done! DONE DONE DONE. Most people probably won't understand how exciting this is for me, but it's really exciting. I just zipped up all the files and sent them off to my wonderful, amazing sister who said she would look into the two problems I've been unable to solve. Now, with my presentation in less than two weeks from to day, it's time for me to switch my focus to preparation. First step will be to get all the documents done, since those are kind of due in, oh, six days... then I'm going to have to majorly focus on practicing my presentation so that I don't completely freeze up. It'll be fun.

Commenting Commenting Commenting

Argggg. That's about all I have to say. I'm so tired of commenting (even if I made the comment font purple so it's super pretty). I also don't really know the rules of commenting - I had to look up whether or not I should comment my html (I shouldn't. YAAAAY. One less thing). I'm almost done, though, just like 400 more lines of code to go through. Then I can send it off to some super smart person who can solve all my problems while I try and pull together a presentation that won't just be stuttering. Ha. Well, I can hope, at least.

Listening to Your Coaches

I have a hard time taking advice from people I don't know. It's not so bad when someone I'm close to offers a suggestion, but when it's someone I hardly know, I often feel like they're being almost condescending about the way I choose to go about things. I've mentioned this in a earlier post - it bothers me when people tell me all things I could have done better, especially when I put in so much work getting to where I am. I'm not a "natural" programmer - I'm not one of those kids who have been writing code since they could read. I only stumbled upon this whole field a couple years ago. That being said, it also means I do need a lot of help, because I am new at all this. I guess it's just important that I take everything with an open mind, like the article said. I'm not quite at the point where I can easily filter good advice from bad advice, but I need to get there.

Comments

Following on one of my previous entries, where I mentioned how I wish I had commented my code as I was going so that I knew what it actually did, I now have another reason to kick myself over my laziness. I have a couple of problems that I'm completely stumped on, and have been for a good week or two. As the end of the year comes closer and closer, that becomes more of an issue. My sister has been MIA - she got really sick, and as she recovers has to focus on catching up on her own work, so she's too busy to help me. My dad's been looking to see if one of his students would be able to help me out, since it's on such a deadline at this point. Unfortunately, bringing in a new person would be a hassle - especially given the state of my code. Only maybe a fifth, possibly a fourth of it is commented, and it's pretty convoluted. Even someone who knows loads about programming would have trouble understanding it. I really need the help though, so I guess this week isn't going to be about preparing for my presentation, but actually going on a commenting spree. I really wish I'd listened to my Computer Science teacher now when he said that we should always comment everything!

Presentations

If I had to pick a number one nemesis, it might have to be presenting. Speaking in front of people terrifies me. I talk too fast, my voice gets shaky and thin, and oftentimes I even start visibly shaking - needless to say, all this doesn't make my anxiety any better. That's why, as June 11 fast approaches, there's a growing feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. So, I think it's time to change gears. Even though I still have work to do on my project (honestly, there will always be work to do...), most of it I'm already stumped on and and waiting for help with. For now, I'm going to switch my focus to getting ready for my presentation. I think that if I really plan out what I'm going to say and do, I'll have at least a little more confidence going in, and I need that.

Finding Errors

I've spent the past couple days scanning my code, trying to find where things are going wrong. No luck. So, I've sent a desperate email to my sister asking for help, and in the mean time, I'm starting to comment everything. Hopefully, in writing the comments for all my code I'll be able to find out which parts don't work because I'll have to find out what each part does. It's super tedious, though, even worse  than layout. That's probably why I've put it off for so long - ideally I should comment as I go along, but I'm just too lazy, and I guess that's how I end up in these situations. Oops...

Trial Run

So, Friday I had my first trial run with my game, where I enlisted some friends to help me test in a real game. Quite frankly, it was a disaster. I guess that's to be expected, considering it's only the first test and it's probably even a good thing, because now I know all the issues that I need to work out. All the same, it's kind of discouraging. There were problems with the correct number of cards not showing up, which was an issue I thought I had fixed, but apparently not. Also, more importantly, there was a big problem where once you played a card, you wouldn't get a new one, just keep the same hand of 7 cards for round after round after round. Yeah, that got super boring after a few rounds. Luckily, the friends helping me test it were incredibly supportive and didn't give me a hard time about all the flaws. *phew* I think I'm giving myself a hard enough time as it is! Hopefully, I'll at least have the card problem worked out by this weekend so that the next run will be a little smoother. Fingers crossed!

Deadlines

Phyllis Korkki's article on deadlines is strangely informal for a New York Times article, but I think that's what makes it all the more relatable. I know very well how it is to put off work, especially for a big project that has a faraway deadline (*cough*WISE*cough*), and while I haven't recruited anyone to hound me to do my work, I have had to break my project down into smaller pieces that I can assign deadlines to. Because without a deadline, I don't have the motivation to get something done - it's not due, I don't have to do it. Let's face it, I'm a total slacker at heart. This week, I do have a public deadline. By Friday, I have to have the hand of cards up and working so that my second trial run of the game will not be such a disaster (more on that at a later date). It's not fun to play Apples to Apples when you have the same cards round after round. And, I've promised my friends that I'll have this fixed by this weekend, so it's a deadline I have to meet.

Happiness Revisited

1) It's hard to place when I feel most happy. I think it would probably when I've just accomplished something, like a good grade on a test or scoring a goal. Either that, or when I'm just spending time with the people I care about, friends, family, my hockey team, and just hanging out, not doing anything in particular.

2) The article, Happiness Revisited, was very thought provoking. I'd never really considered what happiness was before or how to achieve it, and I found they was the author presented the idea interesting. I was especially intrigued by the idea that you can only really be happy when you've worked hard to achieve something. While this certainly is one type of happiness, I'm not sure it's the only one. Certainly I feel happy when I wake up and realize I still have a few more hours of sleep, or when I'm just laughing with my friends, and in those cases I haven't done any work leading up to the happiness.

3) Currently, I'm at the anxiety spot in the flow chart. The challenges that I'm facing are harder than I feel comfortable tackling, and I'm at the point where I think I need to turn to help before I'm swamped.

4) In the past month, I've been bouncing back between anxiety and flow, sometimes in my zone and sometimes taking on too much. Overall, it's been a pretty good spot for me, even if stretching my limits has been stressful. It's certainly a better place than the first part of my project, where I was definitely grounded in the boredom section of the flow chart.

5) I think I can achieve flow when I know what I need to get done, and how to get there (mostly). For me, this means I often have to ask for help when I first start something, and then one I get that lead in, I can do it on my own and I'm in the flow channel.

Suggestions

Recently, I've been working on the layout of my website, and I hit a bit of a snag in trying to figure out how to make the text show up. The problem was that the text of the "unicorn cards" wouldn't show up very well against the background. I'd been trying to experiment with making the text shadow different colors and thicknesses in order to make it more readable, but nothing was really helping. So, working on it fourth period in the library, I was getting frustrated. Then, a friend who was working at the table suggested that I make a semi-transparent background for the text. Throughout the course of my project, I've had lots of people throwing suggestions at me. It gets a little irksome, because oftentimes I just keep getting told how I could have done something better, and I don't always think like a super efficient programmer type person. For me, I'm excited if I can make something work, even if it there's a way to make it work that would take less code. Because of this, I might not be as open to suggestions as I should be. However, I was pretty desperate at this point, so I looked into opacity of images, and played around with that a little bit until I got the text to a point where you could actually read it. I guess I need to learn to filter the ideas people give me, so that I can follow up the useful ones, and put aside the ones that I don't need, because evidently some of those ideas can be lifesavers (though that's a bit of an exaggeration).