Dateline 11-21-2016

Wow, yesterday I managed to accidentally get a lot done...

I started out the day completely ready to waste away a lazy Sunday afternoon in my efforts to make Sunday the one day I guarantee myself some time off. That not to say that I don't sneak in slacker time throughout the week, I'm just making a conscious effort to give myself one guilt-free day for me on a weekly basis. 

Since I ended up taking Saturday off after completing my course earlier than I was expecting, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to allow myself back to back days of slack so after posting my daily letter to no one, I started to tinker on my latest app assignment. All I intended to do was the easy stuff; tracking down images, creating simple files to start building the structure of the app I have in mind, importing snippets of code from past projects to start getting some of the simple functions working, etc.

I don't think I've ever been so casual in my efforts as I had no intentions of actual putting in the real work required until today when I planned to go whole hog on the assignment. Without even really noticing, I was able to complete a major bulk of the coding required to complete the assignment. In fact, all I technically have to do is add a search field and a button to implement said search request and I'm done with what the assignment is asking for. If only I were ever able to actually Keep It Simple, but then again the whole K.I.S.S. acronym is directly aimed at Stupid people. I personally only K.I.S.S. when I don't care other than that, I'm all for reinventing the wheel, which may lead to extra work that just ends up nowhere but it may also lead to innovations that remove the requirement of the wheel altogether. 

That's not to say that I'm doing anything all that innovative with this assignment but I do find that I'm on the verge of going overboard with all of my assignments, which could be seen as a waste of time, since the longer it takes me to complete this program the more it costs. That said, putting in this extra effort has been giving me a better understanding of the concepts being taught making it easier and easier to learn the new material as it comes along.

Today, I plan to continue working on the functionality of the app and as soon as I'm done with that I get to move on to my favorite part of app development with is styling. Though it is amazing to be able to get a program to do amazing things there is just something more rewarding in the visual representation of my efforts. It's a nice change to be able to get an instant reaction that's just not there when your creative outlet is long form writing.

Oh well, that's all I've got for today. I'll keep you posted on my progress when I check in tomorrow.

Talk to you then,

The Wicker Breaker