Oct 21

I've slacked a lot on keeping this up. Various sources claim that it's important, psychologically, to journal what you do every day.

It's possible that where I am right now is a side-effect of the slacking. It's also possible that there's just a lot of frustrating shit going on right now. I want something that I can break. I'm frustrated with absolutely everything.

Google's shitty documentation for Android is annoying as fuck. The number of APIs that fail silently makes me want to strangle multiple people (I'm looking at you, Service interface, and you Intent, and you Alarms)

Lots of bugs and stupid problems. Progress is painfully slow.

I'm also fed up with the conceit that an Android application isn't really a program that starts or stops. Everything fucking stops. Assuming that your app is going to run forever and that you don't _need_ a way to tell when it stops it bullshit.

It turns out that there are (at least) two distinct types of Activities: the initial Activity that starts your application, and every other Activity. The difference is that the onDestory() is NEVER called on the initial Activity, but is reliably called on other Activitys. So ... hey guys, maybe this is a big indicator that you're trying to make the Activity class do a bunch of shit it shouldn't do. Honestly, if you have a method that is NEVER called, why is it there?

Seems like you should always have a shell Activity whose entire job is to start another Activity so that you then have a place to reliably handle onDestroy().

What a shitty day. I really despise days when everything seems like a gigantic chore.

Oct 6

There's a psychological thing, where you're pretty much done preparing, you don't know what else to do, but there isn't any feedback yet for you to know if your work is going to pay off.  It might be the most miserable state of mind to be in.

Lot of trouble the last few days, I think I seriously burnt myself out.  In general, I don't know what the hell I'm working toward any more.

Really angry at the code today, but making slow progress.  Some basic screens in place and some of the basic flow.

Oct 4

Holy *^*@^#!:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/141659

I guess I wouldn't be so damn frustrated with this if it actually gave me a useful error instead of just saying "failed, please try again"

To Google and anyone else developing software: if your error message says "please try again" when it's clear from the software's logic that it's NEVER going to work, you are a bad person and deserve whatever terrible fate befalls you.

Also, if you link to a page that's supposed to resolve an issue and it DOESN'T, that also makes you a bad person worthy of having bad things happen.  The above tells you that you can't buy your own apps, points to a page that's supposed to tell you how to work around that, but the target page doesn't explain that.

Oct 1

I swear, today I'm going to drive myself like a crazy boss and get some stuff done for really reals.

I've run out of whiteboards again.

I have a lot of trouble enjoying layout activities ... like making a website or figuring out a UI.  Very tedious to me.  Although ... I'm fairly happy with the resultant website.

Sept 29

At this stage with TIWIR (very close to release) I feel like I'm struggling mightily with whatever insane force inside me wants to make me fail.  I expect this week is going to be constantly fighting that internal demon.  I woke up this morning convinced that TIWIR is a waste of my time ... but there's no logical reason for not seeing it through to the end, even if it is.  Also, it's likely that whether or not it's a waste of time is largely dependent on how much I prepare this week.

Google's play store has some serious issues with the alpha program not being as helpful as one might want.  I mean, if it's in alpha, there could still be some major changes, like the paid status, or package name, or other things that you can't change.

*sigh*  I need to look over these videos, I guess, and see if any of them look worth editing and posting.

Sept 28

Up a bit late, alarm didn't go off this morning.  Running behind where I want to be, super sore (I guess from the long bike ride yesterday?)

Stupid argument on Facebook.  Illiterate fellow threatening people, I think I've avoided getting too drawn into it.  Kind of proud of myself for not backing down but not getting incensed and screaming either.  If I can keep that kind of response to things like this it should help a lot.  Maybe I should intentionally practice?

Bleah ... day is slipping away on me again ... in general, really fighting off some depression and nonproductivity right now.

Not really sure if I'm happy with today's progress or not ...

Sept 27

Intentionally turned my alarm clock off last night to let myself sleep until I was ready to wake up this morning.  Resulted in me getting up around 8:00.  Not sure if that was a beneficial thing or not.

Got a few minor things done on TIWIR this morning, then went to Steak & Shake for the worst burger I've ever had from them.  Then rode my bike.  16.25 miles @15.4mph.  Not bad.

I think I'll tear everything off the bed and wash it, then move the bed and vacuum underneath ... there's enough dander there to make an entirely new cat at this point ... actually, post, it wasn't that terrible.  I feel like the effort wasn't worth it, but that's because moving that mattress was a major pain.

Yay, Journey reminded me how much fun it is to play guitar ... egads I'm rusty, but it was fun to jam along with Youtube a bit.

This whole thing about Eugie Foster dying really shook me up.  Not 100% sure why, I mean, she's the same age as me, so that's a little disturbing; but overall I don't have a terribly tight connection to her, other than being involved with publishing a few of her stories.