weird processing
My brain's been in a very syntactic mode the past few days. That's the best word I can think of. I'm having trouble expressing myself or figuring out what I want, and I've been totally useless when I've tried to write or work on data. But I've been programming like a genuine programmer. I'm working on two projects, a javascript game for a study with Alice Isen, and a python application for generating survey websites so that horrible screw-up I made on S's study won't happen again. They're both masterpieces for my current level of skill. It's the best work a noob could do. The code is clean, legible, and functionally organized so that it's easy to read and will scale well.
I often enjoy programming as a relaxing, moderately unchallenging activity that I can do in front of the TV. But this stuff has been heavily focused, careful, and well-organized. It's interesting to feel how my brain is working when I'm doing this -- I can look at the entire program at once, see where it naturally breaks up into functions, how to put them together, and where to start writing.
My compulsive time-wasting activity has switched from sudoku to Freecell. Freecell involves holding several threads in your head at once, looking ahead to see how many you can complete with your current buffer, and carrying them all out from memory. It's been seven or eight years since I regularly played it last, but something's made me very good at it, suddenly.
Interesting.
I often enjoy programming as a relaxing, moderately unchallenging activity that I can do in front of the TV. But this stuff has been heavily focused, careful, and well-organized. It's interesting to feel how my brain is working when I'm doing this -- I can look at the entire program at once, see where it naturally breaks up into functions, how to put them together, and where to start writing.
My compulsive time-wasting activity has switched from sudoku to Freecell. Freecell involves holding several threads in your head at once, looking ahead to see how many you can complete with your current buffer, and carrying them all out from memory. It's been seven or eight years since I regularly played it last, but something's made me very good at it, suddenly.
Interesting.