Baby's Day Out

As of right now, I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a way that I can get GitHub set up on my work computer that’s still running Windows XP and I’m getting over a cold and code is still at some level terrifying to me even though things have been going ok???

I’d say that I’m having an experience, certainly, but this technical and personal troubleshooting isn’t enough to dissuade me from the fact that I think I actually like coding! It’s emulating what I remember being my favorite things about math: proofs, specifically, and other deductive stuff.

I am finding, at least for the time being, that having some bare-bones experience in Twine is helping me out A LOT, in terms of my understanding of phrases and variables and all this other computer stuff that has been otherwise kind of alien to me. I am ALSO finding that p5.js is serving as sort of a “gateway drug” to the real shit. The relative simplicity of the dailies has been inspiring me to get “fancy” with my little sketches (i.e. incorporating hex code colors, quadrangles – real basic stuff, but considering my knowledge level at the start I’m feeling pretty good about my progress). In turn, this desire for fanciness has led to a rekindling in faith that I, someday, could make a video game. And that’s very exciting, considering how much passion I have for games as a thing, as well as how much desire I have to see games accomplish new things. I think p5.js, despite its definite limitations, is pretty great at serving as training wheels for coding as an enterprise; letting one get accustomed to the idea of objects, functions, etc., before they careen off towards newer, less-guarded avenues. Nevertheless, this trailblazing, much like my experience in learning how to ride a bike, will probably lead to quite a few skinned knees before it finally clicks. At least, that’s what I’m expecting.

I’m still vaguely hesitant at the idea of coding, but I’m pretty sure that’s to be expected at this point; in my experience in the vanilla humanities, the idea of doing math/science still scares a lot of people shitless (myself, of course, included). But I think that p5.js, being the artsiest coding enterprise that I’ve encountered thus far in my exposure to the field (I took a class on Dreamweaver in high school but never exactly learned enough to make anything that remotely looked good), has been pretty great so far as a learning tool for people like me who think of coding as being outside of their wheelhouse. I’d definitely recommend p5.js to other beginners given the chance, and I think that it’d be incredibly useful in various K-12 educational settings.

So overall: I like coding, even though it’s taking a little bit of effort to work out some of the kinks (if you’re reading this post right now then that’s a good sign as to my progress). In much the same way that David talks about learning “that programming can be fun - again” through p5.js, I’m finding that programming can be fun for the first time, which, to be frank, is pretty fucking exciting.