So busy.

I have so little time now. I really do mean to come back to my coding work, but in the near foreseeable future, I will be very occupied with my position in the MUD.

I also wanted an excuse to post this photograph so I can link to it on Tumblr, haha.

[Editing only to add another photo]

I did get a break from work this past week, but again... Between my position on the MUD, all the writing I've had to do, and the things I've been using to take a break from that (including Guild Wars 2 and hanging with people outside of the internet *GASP I KNOW RIGHT? BLASPHEMY*), I just can't focus long enough on my textbooks to get anything worthwhile out of them.

And writing a ton of pseudo-code doesn't count, though I've been doing that.

Ugggg. I'll be back. I promise!

I've not forgotten anyone...

I promise I've not abandoned this blog. If anything, I am more enthusiastic to learn how to code than I was before.

I've been promoted to an immortal position in the MUD I currently play. I've been building there instead of in The Builder's Academy for the past week or so, and I can't overstate how surreal it feels to have a position like this in this particular MUD. I've logged over 70 hours since last Saturday night... out of a total of 168 hours I could have spent on there this week, that is rather considerable, I think. My fiance got a position as well, and he only has 30 hours logged...

Anyway, I'm gushing and probably talking about it too much. The point is, at least until my zone is complete and ready for launch, I will be on coding homework hiatus. Hopefully I don't forget too much... But I will also be working extensively with something called m/o/rprogs, and my notes on those may come here, much like my notes on DG Scripts.

I'll be around!

Slacker...

Oh man. These past few days have been so so SO so busy... Ahhhh...

First, I didn't study coding at all this past weekend because I was lazy on Friday night and Saturday. Shame... I can't help it though, I get home from work for the weekend and all I want to do is lounge like a lethargic kitten who just drank too much milk...

Sunday was a very exciting day because Andrei and I announced our engagement to a big group of our friends and family! I know a bunch of people took photos, but I've only seen a few so far... Not everyone has emailed them to me yet. But, one of my favorites...

Andrei wasn't expecting to have to give a speech, but he moved us all with his words, regardless. That's me getting all teary-eyed over what he's saying. Ahh, I love this man.


Anyway. I may end up bogging down some of my posts with messy pseudo-code. I'm going to be using my knowledge with C to design a text game (I've mentioned that before). I need to get some of the main functions down for features I want to offer, and in the process, I'll be trying to figure out if they're going to be possible.
Things like save-files that are password protected for characters... Garages or stables where they can store animals/vehicles for mounts or minions... A leveling/storage system for minions that allows them to gain experience and skills alongside their masters (it is SO Pokemon-y, but I hope that the end product won't feel like that at all)... Crafting that actually makes it feel like you have complete control over how a piece of armor looks, instead of making the same shirt/pants/boots over and over... Not to mention, items that give invisible flags, like comm-links that allow a character to talk into an IC channel that is only available to other characters with that comm-link item...

Idk, I just have so many ideas. I didn't ever ever EVER think I would get into game-design... but if I can get good with this coding bit, or find someone who likes the ideas I have enough to help me... Oh man. Ohhhh man. I just get all excited thinking about it.

I've got note-taking on my list of things to do today, if I can tear myself away from Facebook and Tumblr. I've got to keep my goals in sight. I know I can do this as long as I keep myself motivated!!

Oh, Interesting Things I Find

So, late this morning, I was waking up slowly and checking over all of my social networking sites for updates, when I found a blog I follow shared something quite interesting back on May 29th. I missed it on that particular day, and only found it because I was investigating something else... But I found it relevant.

I have a particular appreciation for music, as it has always been in my life, just as I have a love of art and color. I used to love staring into the old iTunes visualizers for the amazing color combinations that I could see move together during my favorite music... But I was always slightly put off by how the visualizer really couldn't predict the music, and continued sporadic movements even when the music was no longer sporadic.

This is far from a visualizer of that sort, but I still find it fascinating to watch.

Just like visual/kinetic typography, the sounds you hear are visible. I find this so amazing.

This gentleman has dozens of compositions that he has designed with his overlapping talents in music and programming. I look at this, and I think to myself that anything can be possible.

Now, to find some more Saint-Saens to listen to...

Update and Blabbering

I'm finding it pretty amusing that, after picking up K&R, I haven't been using King nearly as much. K&R is so concise that it teaches you a LOT in a small amount of time. King is much more expository in style. I think K&R is the best choice if you can keep up with them, but if you don't know what an operand is (or some other term that is used in K&R, I only used that as an example), you will probably cause yourself less grief if you go with a more detailed approach.

Now that I'm reading through, I'm finding that I can skip over huge sections of King. I think I may use King as an extra workbook, at this rate, but it is still good reading that doesn't assume that you already know what you're doing (example: declarations really do need to go before the statements every time. K&R assumes the reader knows this; King spells it out, just in case.).

I haven't posted here in a couple of days because I got into a creative rut, and because I got busy at work. The busy-ness at work comes and goes -- I'm thankful for the time I can spend on personal projects, but I do still have to pay attention to some things (and, occasionally, those things get overlooked because I'd rather be working on anything else coding... Heh...).

The creative rut is exciting, so I let it wrap me up for longer when I get stuck in it. These past couple of days have been filled with gaming, but also with writing. My fiance and I are putting ideas down on paper (at last!), and I'm excited to be weaving his thoughts and my thoughts together. We've been talking about this project for the better part of a month now, and it feels good to be making some solid progress on it. This is the same project that spurred my interest and dedication to learning to code in C.

Anyway, this is somewhat of a rambling post. I'm resisting the urge to monetize this blog, despite how popular it seems to be so far. I know how ads can kill something enjoyable... Of course, that's assuming my rambling is actually enjoyable to any of the people who stop by here haha.

Possibly going to do some exercises today! I'm going to make an effort, anyway! But a good friend is coming to visit, tonight, and there will be chinese buffet and Star Trek movie goodness. That may not leave much room for coding practice. XD

GW2

Finding myself entranced again by the beauty of this game. Just wanted to share.

Of course, it's not nearly as pretty as it could be. My computer is rather dated. But it gets the point across. Meet Yvinne, my evil sylvari mesmer. She serves as the equal opposite of my favorite character, and causes trouble for the sake of storytelling. So nice to have an evil little plot device.

Yvinne's probably neutral evil, but borders on chaotic evil. Silvaria is true neutral, but can sometimes be neutral good, and other times, she's chaotic neutral.

I have some feels for the two of them. Silvaria, in all her incarnations, tends to be drawn to the darkness, and Yvinne is there to show her what the darkness is capable of. It's interesting... to me, anyway.
I might come back and post a pic of GW2!Silvaria, or I might come back and take more notes. Not sure presently...

More Filing and Getting Ready to Take Some Notes

I'm procrastinating again... I really don't want to do this filing.

So I'll make a blog post instead.

Yesterday was odd. I don't know why I was hit with such icky feelings all of a sudden like that. I just know that I felt somewhat like I did back in College Algebra... "This should really make sense, and I feel like this should really work... but it doesn't." From what I understand, there's a lot of that in coding as a whole haha.

It makes me nervous, though, because if I don't have the mind to wrap around these things, my project with my fiance is up in smoke before we can even start on it. He has already determined that he's not a coder. If I can't learn this and get good at it, we'll be a couple of really creative people without the means to produce what we want. Puts on the pressure. :(

I'm also nervous because I'm afraid that these ideas we have aren't going to be interesting to other people. I'm scared that our scope is too big, and we're trying to do too much... Is all of this work going to pay off with a product that is thoroughly enjoyable by everyone, or will Andrei and I be the only ones enjoying it?

Anyway, I'm going to reward myself today. Once I'm done with this filing, I'm going to start taking notes from my textbook in between answering the phone and checking emails. I'm still working on the DG Scripts and triggers for my zone in TBA, I just have to step back from them and tackle something different for now.

Frustrated, Nervous...

Got hit with a double-whammy while I was working on something. Just kind of filled with this anxiety that has my chest all tight and my mind not willing to work.

That makes it exceedingly difficult to absorb and apply information.

I've decided that I'm probably going to take a step back on the scripting. The logic is still not making sense, and that means I rushed in too fast. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to really tackle coding right now, and not wait until I have the scripting down. I thought knowing the scripting would make it easier to learn the coding.

Or maybe I just need to not make any decisions right now and wait until I'm not feeling anxious. :( Wanna go home, but it's not even 3.

Bleh!!

Bleh, I say!!!

Ho Hum

Quiet because of Mother's Day. Not too much happened in the coding area, though I did have a good time with my family today. Fiance and I went to Mom and Dad's for amazing italian take-out, but before the evening was over, Grandma lost her balance and fell. She's been complaining about vertigo, and I think that's what did it. She hit her head, but seemed okay after drinking some cold water.

Fiance and I came home and we've honestly been playing ToR all night. My 'Sin is almost 55, and we're enjoying being beastly together on our mains (he has a Sorc). I totally love playing our toons together, because we can sit and banter back and forth about RP things. I have this tendency of being knocked off of the edges of platforms by knockbacks, and so we were laughing earlier about how his character would be constantly scolding mine for falling all the time.

"Silvaria, we're going to be fighting on a Gravity Hook. DO NOT stand near the edges."
"Okay, okay! I got it!"
"Are you sure? You've almost plummeted to your death how many times? Ten, now?"
"...Eleven, after the last one in the mining shaft....."

We have a lot of fun with our characters, heehee.

Here's Silv with a kind of incomplete set... She's 54 right now and I'm not sure what her gear will look like when she hits 55, but I know I want to change it. We affectionately call this set "swamp beast" lol.

Anyway, not much is going to happen tonight. Just going to enjoy the evening with Fiance and be happy. :)

Some Off-Topic Things While I Wake Up

Today is going to be a good day.

Yesterday was good, too, but full of filing and rushing. It left me exhausted and unwilling to do anything but curl up with fiance after movie and sleep.

Speaking of movie! Iron Man 3 was pretty damn good! I won't spoil anything, but we both enjoyed it thoroughly more than #2. Anymore, I judge stories by how well they suspend my disbelief, and after seeing the mindfuck that was Dark City and being seriously messed up for a good two days after that, very few movies are capable of instilling that feeling anymore...

But the action was good, and the story was interesting, even if some parts were not explained very clearly in words. Sometimes it is good to leave things to the viewer's interpretations, but important plot points shouldn't be on that list of things, lol.

Anyway, today is going to be good because it is Saturday and we are being lazy kitties and only doing what we want to do. For me, that is scanning over my C textbook, testing and writing triggers in TBA, and possibly playing some ToR later on. Fiance seems to be pretty happy playing his Sith Sorcerer at the moment, but he told me earlier that we'd be able to write some today, too! Whether that means we RP or world-build, I'm not sure... But either would make me a happy camper!

Anyway, going to go finish my coffee and be lazy. If I take notes today, I will make another post. :D

It's filing day today at work. I can't pay any attention to the web. Sadface.

It's also bring your fiance to work day. The first of many, now that he doesn't have anything to do during the summer. Mwahahahaaa...

We're planning to see Iron Man 3 tonight, but there will be about 3 hours between work and movie that I might be able to work on some things. Still have not figured out the mfollow problem from the last trigger I posted, but finding out he was re-enlisting last night put a halt on any progress I might have been able to make. After talking about that for a few hours, and getting the zombie mac set up, we opted to kick asses on our Bounty Hunters in ToR.

Very unrelated to coding. My apologies. I really don't want to file this paperwork. Aggh.

Distracted from scripting AND work today. Thinking about the scope of what will need to be done for the project that inspired this blog, and it is daunting, indeed.

I will probably mutter about snippets here, and they may not seem totally relevant to coding as a whole, but they will be relevant to my adventure into coding. Every program must have a purpose, yeah?

Haha, I Matrix'd without even realizing it. My fiance would be proud.

(I saw The Matrix for the first time only a few weeks ago. Bad nerd, I know.)

Anyway, every program must have a purpose, and each program I'll be writing must be carefully placed within this project so everything works together seamlessly. I have ideas for the aesthetics (which are incidental, sadly), but those will take a bit of work as well.

There is so much I'd love to do, but I can't start yet. I especially need to graduate from DG Scripts -- which are a great introduction into the logic processes I need to know -- and actually tackle some C, soon. I have a book that is highly recommended, by K. N. King. As I read through, this will most likely be where I take notes.

((I'm also very distracted by one Mads Mikkelsen. In his role as Dr. Hannibal Lector in NBC's Hannibal, he has the perfect face, demeanor, and accent for the new incarnation of my fiance's character. I could spazz about this character here, but I'll contain myself for the benefit of this blog... for now, anyway.))

Obligatory 1st Post

Gonna retire the other blog and use this as a place to document all of my discoveries while I teach myself how to design and write code.

I'll come up with a nice look for it eventually. Maybe. :D