Dateline 7-28-2016

Yesterday I got back to work on my first real-world Android app and I'm now feeling much better about life. As I said yesterday, I was feeling burnt out and down about my abilities as a beginner so I took a couple days off. The idle time was nice but with nothing else to do I ended up following political posts on my Facebook feed far too much. This lead to outbursts of anxiety, rage and hopelessness that left me questioning why I even try.

I finally found a way to filter out all the strangers in my news feed that I was seeing due to mutual friend interactions. It's been enough to be bombarded with everyone I know's every opinion on this election cycle without having to hear strangers tell me I'm stupid for not being fully on board for their political demands. I also started hiding everything political as I go to Facebook for fun.

This first step was enough to feel a lot better about the world. 

Then I went to the YouTube where my faith in humanity was restored. Part of the reason I took a break from the app I was building was that I wasn't happy with a specific feature and due to my newness, I was struggling to find the right terms to search for the proper solution. A couple days ago I found a video that was close but still not quite what I needed. I asked the creator of the video if he had a video that was more fitting to my needs and he sent me back a link to the perfect playlist of tutorials to teach me everything I need to know.

Once again, I was amazed by how helpful the internet can be when used correctly and how willing people are to help without asking much in return. Ever since I started coding I've been amazed by how helpful the community is. I'm sure there are sites that treat you like an idiot if you don't fully understand every term, but so far I've seen far less arrogance that I did when dealing with the arts.

I get it though, when it comes to coding there far less emotion involved. Things literally either work or don't work when it comes to a code, where with art there is far more interpretation as to what the concept of "works" even means. Either way, the people that actually create this form of content deserve a round of applause for making this world a bit of a better place.

And on that positive note, it's time to get back to work on my project.

Talk to you tomorrow,

- The Wicker Breaker