Spring Love and what object oriented programming means

I have a confession. I thought that Mobile Makers was full of shit.

You know that saying, if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is? I thought that applied. What are the reasons I was skeptical about Mobile Makers?

1. They say, anyone can learn it (even people who haven't programmed before)
2. They say, people will want to hire you after the class if you work hard (I've been working hard my entire life and no one has jumped at the chance to hire me.)
3. They say, Mobile Makers has a network of peers and mentors that want to help you.
4. They say, Mobile Makers teaches you things that you can't learn on your own.

I don't want to sound like an advertisement for them... but I know for a fact that 3/4 of those things are true (since I haven't completed the class, I don't know if people will want to hire me).

Here is my second confession: I'm in love with Mobile Makers.

Also, I'm in love with life at the moment because it's SPRING and SUNNY.

Yes that is what I'm currently knitting. If you're patient I'll show you what I'm knitting at the end of this. and YES I am doing this class in downtown Chicago. No more suburbs for this girl, I'm an official big city person. I'm probably also loving life because I started taking anti-depressants again. Huzzah mental health.

But back to my undying love for Mobile Makers. I've spent ten hours for the past six days (well... only eight yesterday) dedicating myself to learning objective c. AND IT'S WORKING!!!

I've always known that I pick things up fast, but I didn't realize how fast I can pick things up if I can ask why things happen. One thing I've learned from the past week is that once I know the reason you do something or the reason something works... then I understand it.

Case in point. Segues. What is a Segue in objective c? GOOD QUESTION LET ME ANSWER.

(I'll try to tone it down... sorry just got excited that I TOTALLY KNOW HOW TO CODE)
(I know I just used parenthesis above but I have a funny story about the word segue. Up until a couple years ago, I spelled it segueway because I didn't realize that segue is pronounced seg-way. Thanks sister and Bekky for making me not look like an idiot! Oh english.)

A segue is a way to go from one screen to another and pass along information when you do it. Two points I'd like to make about this. First, this is the entire point of object oriented programming. Programming is basically turning computer language into words so we can modify it. Object oriented programming's strength is that you can break a complicated idea into smaller parts, create a thing or an action (method/function), and use those smaller parts to make a giant thing.

Example (because that was super vague): I want to tell a computer/robot to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could write it this way:

1. open bread bag
2. take two pieces of bread out of bad
3. place slice of bread on the table
4. open jar of peanut butter
5. pick up knife
6. put knife in open jar of peanut butter
7. put peanut butter on knife
8. take knife out of jar
9. rub peanut butter on one side of the bread until evenly coated.
10. put down knife
11. open jar of raspberry jam (the best)
12. pick up knife
13. put knife in open jar of jam
14. put jam on knife
15. take knife out of jar
16. rub jam on one side of the bread until evenly coated
17. put down knife
18. put the two pieces of bread together with the peanut buttered side and jam side touching each other.

That was a lot longer than you thought it would be, but not unbearable. The trouble with this comes when you want to make the ULTIMATE peanut butter and jam sandwich with multiple layers. You would have to repeat 7 steps just to tell the person to do the same thing as before (lines 4-10 are essentially the same as 11-17). And what would happen if you forgot to say to open the jar? then you'd have to go through a huge list of steps to find out where you missed something.

With objective C, you can turn an action into something that's repeatable.

I can hear your attention waning so I'll make this quick.

Instead of having one list, you would have a couple. the first list would turn the 7 lines of code into one method that you would call on whatever property(peanut butter or jam) you want.

prepare bread for sandwich:(topping added)

1. open jar of (topping added)
2. pick up knife
3. put knife in jar of (topping added)
4. put (topping added) on knife
5. take knife out of jar of (topping added)
6. rub (topping added) on one side of the bread.
7. put down knife

Make Sandwich

1. open bread bag
2. take two pieces of bread out of bad
3. place slice of bread on the table
4. prepare bread for sandwich: peanut butter
5. prepare bread for sandwich: jam
6. put the two pieces of bread together with the peanut buttered side and jam side touching each other.

MUCH SIMPLER IN THE LONG RUN. Which is the point of coding. Yes you can do something the long way, but if you want to create something automated that does the same action over and over... why not be lazy about it?

Ok. I was going to talk about segues but that'll have to wait for tomorrow. Because it's time to figure out how to make a tic tac toe game.

PS. I'm making a shawl.

I swear I have a larger brain than a dinosaur

One of the perks of me looking for work is that you get to read my lovely blog every day.

I have an issue right now. I've been working on a test knit for a pamphlet (almost the big leagues) and just ran out of yarn with 1.5 rows to go. That is not the issue however. I quickly solved this problem using my sharp needle point wit and frogged one of my gauge swatches to produce a small ball of yarn.

Problem solved right? Wrong.

After literally 30 seconds of handling the ball, it disappeared. From the time I had it, I was in two places. The places are 10 feet apart. I have scoured the couches and the 10 feet between the two places and found zip.

Want to know the other highlight of my day? I found the grocery store!

Now this may sound like no big deal, but I just came from a town of 15,312 to a town of 77,693. Yes I've been in cities before, but that was in Colorado. Colorado has these majestic things called mountains and they are only in one direction. That means you always know which way is west. From what I can tell, Chicago doesn't have mountains (go figure eh).

It is pretty here though. And I get to ride motorcycles.

Worth it.

The 8th layer of hell

Applying for jobs is a special layer of hell. You know how the 'worst' layer in Dante's Inferno is ice? He had it wrong. It looks like this instead:

You wake up early full of excitement and vigor. You CAN do what you want to do! (reach for the stars! follow your dreams! if life gives you lemons, rob a bank!) Today is the day you start your dream job. The internet practically sings as you type the illustrious letters into the top bar. G. O. O. G. L. E. The half a second to load is too long so you spend it fantasizing about making billions from your __________ (insert favorite thing ever in the blank).

You type. knitting jobs in chicago.

No luck.

You type. writing jobs in Chicago.

They require 10 years of experience and four arms.

You type. any job in Chicago?

This is where the internet laughs at you and you fall to the floor in convulsions.

Happy days of Ye Olde Times

This is where I take a deep breath and look at old pictures of knitting and how happy I was in the bright Colorado sun. I'm not entirely sure if I've posted this picture before, but that lovely green thing is a test knit. Want a link to the pattern? Yasmine.

Now back to writing vague descriptions of how awesome I am at everything.

Hooker shoes, spiders, and packing... oh my

 This is what my life looks like. That is a picture of all of my possessions before I loaded them into my car. I am pleased to announce that approximately 1/3 of my stuff is related to knitting.

The other 2/3 is clothes and books and such.

I think this is pretty awesome. Not only because yarn is super easy to pack, but also because if I ever wanted to pack up and leave, all I have to do is throw stuff in my car. I don't want to be defined by my possessions. Unless, of course, I am defined by my yarn possessions. I'm ok with that.

Speaking of how awesome I am. I recently finished a pair of knee high socks that are beyond fabulous. I test knit the pattern for Atalante.

I have never worn these shoes out and probably never will. But they make awesome sock model shoes.

I added this picture because you can see my retarded dog.  He's adorable, but retarded.

That's right folks, there are spiders on the back of these.

see, spiders aren't scary

Little known fact: When I was a child I wanted to be an etymologist** (bug scientist).

** and by etymologist, I mean entomologist. (thanks to Lizz for catching typos!)

Domesticity and Mistakes are the Devil

The worst thing about being a knitter is making a mistake. (Although I'm pretty sure hearing comments about how I'm so domestic are a close second)

I just started knitting one of my test knits where I had to cast on an ungodly number of stitches. Lo and behold, I messed up. So I am now in the process of doing it again. AHHHHHHH.

(this is the part where I yell a lot. so yell yell yell yell yell)

I also have big news. I'm moving to Chicago. That's right folks, I am going to join the rat race in the big city. So until I get moved and unpacked, you get no pictures and instead you get witty banter.