Temporarily Discouraged, but working on solutions

I am having motivation problems in my class. I managed to finish the mini-project for last week, get through the week's videos, do one of the sets of practice exercises, do the evaluations for the mini-project, and one of the quizzes this weekend. I still need to finish the second set of practice exercises, take that quiz, and then finish this week's mini-project.

This is the week we switched from scripting-type programs to OOP. It is a bit of a change for me. I didn't find it as frustrating as animation, but it still took some work to remember how it is different. I am glad we are making the change, because I don't do much OOP when I am writing my scripts for work. I should just make myself do it, but I am usually more focused on getting what I need done rather than how I am getting it done.

I did suspect that I would have a motivation problem when mostly through the class. Why is it the closer I get to the finish line, the harder it is to keep on? I mean, you'd think that seeing how little remains would be so motivating, but instead, it feels like I have just done too much already. SO, knowing all that about myself, I have promised myself a new e-book for every mini-project I complete. I hate doing the evaluations, so I usually do those while savoring a hot cup of tea and eating a bit of chocolate. I have also promised myself that if I complete the course and gain a certificate, I'll give myself a nice pedicure. Not one of the cheaper ones, but one of the nicer, more expensive ones. I am so hoping this propels me to finish!!

For me, the other difficulty is that exercise plays a huge role in my ability to stay positive and work better, and that is one thing that has been slipping of late. Mostly because my preference is a tap dance class I take, and I just haven't been able to get to the classes and keep up with the full-time work and the programming class, and the little matter of a family and home. Oh well, it is what it is. I made a point to do my own little yoga session on Sat., and I will need to come up with something. Maybe I can walk a bit longer to the bus in the morning? Instead of a mile walk, turn it into a mile and a half?

About Halfway Through Intro Programming

We are hitting week 5 in the Coursera class I am taking. We just finished the pong game. I was a little disappointed that I did not seem to fix one of the scoring issues I had noted. I really thought I had it fixed, but no. Pong was quite a jump in complexity from the previous mini-projects that are due weekly. I had to scramble a bit more than usual to finish the work.

Python is a fine little language, but I still prefer Ruby for some reason. The Python's usage of the whitespace annoys me. But over all, they are pretty similar scripting languages. Kind of six of one... as far as I am concerned.

I think most of the value for me has been in the UI bits of the class, especially the animation. It isn't something that really comes up when one is trying to, say, find the number of politicians in a data set without an end date to their terms in office, or the number of entities that are typed as people and organizations :) Just generate a list and Bob's your uncle. While I like the expansion of my tool set, it isn't overly interesting enough to me to make me want to do UI or client-side programming. Good to know!