Shawn's Sketch Blog

I often hear this question, and it’s not just with programming, it’s with everything.  People are so concerned with what everyone else thinks that I believe they’re scared to think for themselves.  I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to do research before you jump into something.  I just don’t see why people are so afraid to get their feet wet.

By asking the question what language should I learn, you are wasting time that you could be jumping in head first.  Let me get this out there, the programming language you should learn should be called “Problem Solving.”  It’s not about the language, it’s about the understanding of solving problems.  It’s like real language.  The purpose is to communicate.  French isn’t inherently better than Spanish.  The means is just a way to accomplish your goal.  In language it’s transferring your thoughts to another person successfully.  Different languages have their pros and cons, but at the end of the day, they all try to accomplish the same thing.  The same goes for programming.  The main idea is to solve a problem.  It doesn’t matter if you do it in c++, basic, php, python…whatever.  If you understand problem solving concepts you can easily learn new languages.  There all basically the same.  (I understand many people will argue with this, for the sake of beginners I don’t think it really matters at this point.)  My point is just start programming.  Start making shit.

The last 3 images are part of a series I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now.  Basically the idea is to saturate pieces of paper, and print them on top of images.  These are my first attempts which I don’t think are complete failures, but not exactly what I had in mind.  I want the image to be readable, at the time time the text is readable.  It’s going to take some experimenting with.  I might go do some research.  Currently I just soaked the piece of paper (javascript, lol)  in water, but I’m wondering what type of effects I would get from different types of liquid.  Alcohol is something I’m going to try next.  I basically want the non-text as transparent as possible, although in that one picture, parts to the paper had started drying and gave me an nice unexpected look.  I think that I’m going overlaying the photo with a entire piece of paper and see if I can’t get it to come out like I want it.  I may do a few Photoshop mock ups to get my idea across…The final idea is to take some of my sketchbooks and print the text over pictures.  I like the idea that I’m destroying something of great personal value to “gamble” the chance that something else comes of it, hopefully better.  How much use do my notebooks get anyways…hardly any. 

I’ve been working on customizing my tumblr the past week some, and I want to say, it’s cool, I can do some cool things, but there is a lack of resources to my disposal when it comes to learning how to customize my tumblr.  There is no book that goes step by step on the basics, I haven’t seen any blogs or videos that do this. Their docs to “customize” tumblr look more like an api.  Where are the basics?  Where is a broken down object model?  These are the things that I need, maybe I just need to look harder.

also, a link for the future…custom scroll bars

 edit: this is the best link I could find…ok, looks like there is a book as well…also looks like the same guy did a netuts premium tutorial

I’ve been thinking a lot about programmer styles lately, and trying to figure out what type of programmer I am.  I read the top articles on google that come up with the “types of programmers,” and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to be a single “type.”  I would like to take the goods of all the types and be that, but I know that can never be.  If I “had” to classify myself as one, I would say it would have to be #8 on this page, it really stuck with me as I was reading.

 I’ve never really delved into something for a long amount of time.  It feels like as soon as I learn something I’m onto the next thing.  I’m not saying this is totally bad, as I’ve gotten better at learning things quickly, but I don’t feel like a power user.  I learn MEL this week, Javascripting in photoshop the next, etc…  Hell, if I had to say what I know the most about, it would probably be python.  For 3 months I worked on python everyday.  Most of the time after 2 weeks or a month I’m onto something new.  Sometimes this means unfinished projects, and that is no good to me.  I have a few projects that I haven’t worked on in a while due to getting the new job, but as soon as I’m done with my tumblr page, there next.  And I’m going to learn them, master them, and finish them.  I suggest you do the same.