Heavily edited whinge + other stuff
I starting writing a post about losing motivation for the courses I’m doing, but I could see that it was going to rapidly develop into a ‘poor me’ whinge, so I got rid of it. In a nutshell, here is what I was going to say:
1. I’m enjoying my holidays too much and I can’t be bothered going back.
2. Of course, I will go back because I’ve paid for the courses, and I want to stick it out to prove to myself that I can actually become really good at something rather than just average.
<rest of the points deleted due to first sentence above>
I did start to write the rest of the points but really, it’s not important and I should just get over it.
Aaaaaahhhhh! That’s better! Over it.
So… work is going well. Fortunately for my skill set, a change of project meant a change of language, and it’s a good thing because I can’t reasonably expect to be able to use C++ forever and not learn anything else. I’ve been learning Java for the last month or so, and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made in the short time I’ve been using it. For some reason I was convinced that I couldn’t learn Java, because my last two attempts didn’t result in any knowledge being gained. It was as if my brain rebelled and so I thought I was too old to learn new things and I should just stick to that with which I am familiar. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my brain isn’t yet too full of trivia for some useful knowledge to make its way inside.
So, even though the brief demo I gave today was met with some uncalled for comments, followed by “but that looks great” (you’re meant to say the good stuff FIRST, and then the constructive criticism!), I think I’ve done ok for a novice.
I will close with a question and an observation…
Question: Why is it that when cats yawn, they invariably lick their lips once or twice afterwards? Or is it just my cats? Sometimes it’s one lick, sometimes a couple but there’s always something.
Observation: I only realised relatively recently that the animated laughing faces in Haloscan actually stop laughing and become a normal smiley face, and then start laughing again. Have they always been like that?
July 14th, 2006 at 2:08 am | [ Quote ]
I never noticed the smiley thing before, but oh yeah, I noticed that cat thing! I’m not sure why they do that either! maybe when they yawn, they drool? lol!
July 14th, 2006 at 8:42 pm | [ Quote ]
No answer for the cat observation, but will look into it. Having four cats that own our home, I am sure to take more notice of this now.
I too am going down the track of learning JavaScript and creating ARRAYS. Here is a book I purchased about six months ago. Until last weekend I hadn’t even blinked at it. Now I cannot put it down (other than to type!):
“Advanced DHTML and CSS” by Jason Cranford Teague (Visual QuickPro Guide) ISBN 0-321-26691-9. I think you’ll like Chapter 3!
PS. Everytime I visit your site, I get that little bit closer to converting to Wordpress.
July 14th, 2006 at 10:29 pm | [ Quote ]
Dawn: Maybe so… or they’re worried that they might
Stephen: Thanks for the recommendation! The only Javascript I’ve done is to modify my comments inline plugin to show the flags next to people’s names instead of just on the comments page, and that’s it! If I get into it a bit more, I’ll certainly take a look at the book.
What is it that’s swaying you towards WordPress?
July 15th, 2006 at 12:20 am | [ Quote ]
Wow, didn’t realize you were such a serious computer programmer–that’s so cool (and you’re a girl)! I myself never got beyond BASIC in high school, and now I just use really pedestrian HTML for websites and ActionScripts for Flash, but that’s about it. Anyhoo, I guess I have noticed the cat yawning thing, but it’s never struck me as something strange. Maybe their lips gets stretched out and they gotta re-moisten it
And the paused laughing is a new thing, I think…
July 16th, 2006 at 12:26 am | [ Quote ]
Steph: Yep, that’s how I earn my bikkies. I didn’t do any programming at all in high school. The teacher talked about DOS boot disks and I thought, ‘ooh, that sounds complicated!’
I’m glad to hear it’s a new thing, I don’t feel so unobservant about it any more.
July 16th, 2006 at 2:11 am | [ Quote ]
Come to think of it, our cats do the licking thing too. Actually that reminds me about something else. Why, when a kitty come’s to you for affection, do they drool? Our one cat slobbers all over your shoulder when she’s having a cuddle ewwwww lol
As for Haloscan, I’ve never noticed :=)
Mandy
July 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm | [ Quote ]
Mandy: Oh yes! I think my parents’ cat used to drool on us as well. It would have been cute if it hadn’t also been a bit gross