After what basically turned out to be a private coding lesson for me and Aden on Monday, I feel a tiny bit more confident about what I’m doing. Well, not actually writing or coming up with code, but I think I’m understanding the concepts better. I think I’m much closer to understanding how arrays work, and I know the difference between a while loop and a for loop.

I haven’t been able to work on anything since then because of other responsibilities and obligations, but I have a few hours carved out before the coding session tomorrow. I think (hope, really), if I look at some of the earlier iterations of “Ball” and re-watch a couple of the Daniel Shiffman videos, that I might be able to do the remaining dailies on my own just by tweaking the existing code.

A lot of the difficulty I am having I think stems from the fact that there are so many ways to do or express the same thing. Just when I think I’m wrapping my head around how to do something one way, I learn that there are three other ways to accomplish the same thing that work differently in different situations.

Having said that, I should also say that, after reading Joe and David’s coding posts this week, I’m jealous. They’re expressing frustration with not being able to come up with something more creative for the fifth daily. David says, “It’s one thing to develop an application to spec when the details have been spelled out for you. It’s something altogether other to conceive of and develop something on your own,” and Joe comments, “I…have experienced a bit of blank-screen staring on the fifth daily. Part of it is trying to figure out how to actually do it, but added to that is what I want to create.” I am sad to report that I plan on doing the simplest, most basic shape. Probably triangles. It may not be shit floating on water à la Nathaniel, but it’s where I’m at right now.