The End of Mobile Makers (sad face)

Here I sit, midnight on a Wednesday.

I know I haven't posted lately, but that's because I have been working harder than an ant climbing a mountain (that was my attempt to sound southern since Mobile Makers is like half southern people).

Tomorrow is my last day at Mobile Makers and I am so freaking sad. The past two months have literally been the fastest two months of my life. Mobile Makers was top three best experiences of my life and I will sing it from the mountain tops.

I adore coding. Don't get me wrong, I still love knitting... but with coding there is something so beautiful that literally makes my heart all flittery.

I've always liked science and math. But my one true love has always been language and reading. Coding allows me to combine both! It's a miracle.

I am not as eloquent as usual, but I am fixing bugs as we speak because my very first app will be submitted to the app store tomorrow.

After that, my Mobile Makers experience will have ended (but will always live on in my heart).

I have so much more to write (and specifically, I have a half written post about delegation that needs completion... like in a block (HA HA CODING JOKE)) but it's late and I need to breakpoint my freaking project until it tells me why it doesn't want to work perfectly.

My life is so synched.

I have exciting news!

First things first. Tomorrow and Sunday are YarnCon if you are in Chicago. You should definitely come because it's the greatest place ever.

Second, my life and knitting are completely in sync at the moment. Let me explain. You may have gathered that I am attending Mobile Makers and knitting a lovely shawl. Well with both of these activities, there is a point where the knitting and the coding become tedious. BUT that part is over!

I'm currently at the end of week six and just finished my first week working on my very own app. I also am on the edging of the shawl. This means that I'm deeply in love with both parts of my life right now.

I would wax poetic about the beauty of finishing and how dreams come true and rainbows are the best, but I've got some collection views to finagle.

rainbows on a cloudy day

The sun is shining (figuratively... it's actually quite cloudy today) and all is well in coding land AND knitting land.

I feel like I'm pushing my luck by talking about how well it's going... but who cares, ya gotta share the good with the bad.

Now you may remember my faithful reader that my last entry was not very full of sunshine and rainbows. I am happy to announce that by some amazing ray of something, I understand core data now.

The key with learning new concepts, I've found, is to make these theoretical problems into something I actually understand.

For example, with core data, you had this thing called a Managed Object Context. Now, I had no idea what it was or how it worked or anything really. BUT. Then one of the awesome instructors said to think of it like a pool. This pool is where all the stuff you've saved goes and where all the stuff you want to save go.

and BOOM CRAASH BANG I got it.

Which is so satisfying. It's sort of funny, coding is like knitting on crack. What do I mean? Well with knitting, you will always hit a part of the project that makes you crazy. Maybe you're learning a new stitch or the yarn you bought sucks so hard or your brain just doesn't work. Then you somehow persevere and finish the project and IT FEELS SO GOOD.

Coding is that feeling on heroin. Because you have literally spent 6 hours trying to figure out why something is wrong. Then in hour 7 you realize the problem. You spend another hour trying to fix it, finally think you have it. then BOOM IT STILL DOESN'T WORK AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHY. So you get so angry at technology and computers and your brain.

I mean what's a delegate anyways?!

(sidenote time. I used to feel this way about physics. It's super interesting, but it just seemed so made-up to me. and I realize everything is made-up (language, culture, etc), but the fact that people said gravity is obviously 9.8 m/s pissed me off. I mean yea you can measure it, but then you think about subatomic particles and... this is so off topic. my physics rant will have to wait for another day because I am talking so hard about coding)

So you go to sleep. or get a sandwich. or work out because otherwise the anger inside will turn you green.

After the storm has passed. You go back to the demon on your computer and all of a sudden... you realize that you didn't do one simple thing. So you do that and IT WORKS AND HEROIN ISN'T AS GOOD FEELING.

I think I should mention that I've actually never tired heroin or crack so you'll have to take my comparison with a grain of salt (and hopefully not bath salts).

I have to admit that every-time I've figured a coding problem out, I have literally thrown my hands in the air. That is how much joy is contained in that single moment.

And it's a little addicting. Because it's like knitting... but better.

NEVER FEAR I STARTED THE BORDER ON MY SHAWL AND DIDN'T RUN OUT OF THE BLUE YARN.