Programmng Blues

I have been away from real programming for a long time. So now that I'm working as a programmer, I have no confidence. I mean, yeah, I do know how to break things down into small, managable, logical tasks, allathatjazz, but I always feel like I'm faking it rather than the real deal, y'know? I guess I feel that way because I have to WORK at it; it doesn't flow naturally as do other things I do well. Yet, I know I'm considered a good programmer, which baffles me. Another part of it is because while I can easily conceptualize how a program should be constructed, that I do understand how to break things down, I'm a very "macro" type of person, I really enjoy the big picture. I can do the "micro" thing, but it requires focus, and we all know I've got the attention span of a two-year-old. It's difficult for me. So, for instance, this programming project I'm on. Conceptually, I know it's not difficult. And when I break things down into small pieces, I am perfectly capable of programming these small parts. I know that these small, working parts will build the bigger system. But finding the concentration to write these myriad of small pieces takes a great deal of self-discipline. It takes most of my self-discipline not to call in sick so I can play WoW all day long. ;)

So last night I was programming away, was on a real roll. Hit a few snags here and there. At one point my page display disappeared entirely! Felt like a real idiot when I finally realized that the big problem in my code was having capitalized the "I" in an "if" statement. Typoes, gotta love'm. Got a major feature working, tested it, could hardly believe I had actually done it, had to test it again, just to prove to myself that I had accomplished something useful, when all of the sudden it stopped working. I could refresh the page, but it wouldn't display at all! Talk about tearing your hair out! Talk about faceplanting! What had I done? Why would it suddenly stop working? Had I blown the database server side? How could I? I wasn't doing any writes, I was only doing reads.

After much panic, I calmed myself down and said to myself, "Okay, let's look at this logically. You've been accessing the database all day, making all kinds of stupid syntax errors, and you haven't killed anything yet. It is most likely NOT anything on your end. Maybe they are doing maintenance and took down the DB." This had happened once before, that they took the DB down on Sunday for maintenance and it was up 30 minutes later.

30 minutes later, I still got nothing, so I did what any self-respecting addict would do. I said, "The hell with it," and played World of Warcraft for the next 4 hours. I am now halfway to level 27, thanks to zrix kindly responding to my message as to the location of a certain NPC named Sven...

This morning, I felt enormous guilt at having abandoned my self-appointed task. I restored the code from Friday and found out that the DB was, in fact, down, and not only down, but GONE. The powers-that-be had decreed at some point that development and testing should be housed on separate servers, and they had chopped off development this weekend--not that anyone had bothered to tell US! So I'm dead in the water at the moment.

Yep, the demo is still this week.

::faceplants::

::sigh::

DB server still isn't up.
I'm tempted to just go home. I'd get as much done there, i.e., nothing.

--

Last night on the game I saw the other faction, the Horde, consisting of trolls, undeed, orcs, and the like, attempt to stage a raid on Lakeshire, the town I was at. It was something to see! The Local Defense chat channel came alive, "Lakeshire is under attack!" People were asking, "How many? What level? Where exactly are they at?" The raiding party was mustering at the base of a bridge leading into the town, and then they came, level 50-60 characters, mages, warlocks, shaman, warriors, rogues, and more! They rampaged through the town, killing the NPCs (non-player characters, i.e., computer-controlled ones), and those who dared fight against them.

On our server, Player versus Player (PvP) mode is optional. If you aren't flagged for PvP, you aren't in danger, but if you attack or help someone attacking, your flag gets turned on automatically. (I learned this the hard way the first time I saw a small scale attack. I thought, "Hey, I'm in the back of a large crowd. If I throw a fireball, who will know the difference?" The enemy in question immediately ran for me, a measly level 18 at the time, and took me out with one blow. Since then, I've learned my lesson, until I'm a level 40 or above, I shall remain a spectator at these events.)

On the Local Defense chat channel, several players piped up, "I'm on my way."

In the meantime, the raiding party had left carnage and had retreated for a time to heal up and re-muster.

Then the cavalry came. What a sight! High level Alliance characters on their mounts (you can't get a mount until level 40) came charging into town: Paladins on their holy steeds, night elves on their black panthers, other characters on horses with hooves of flames... Druids came running into town in their animal form, transforming into their humanoid forms upon arrival.

Then the battle was joined in earnest! Warlocks summoned their minions, mages rained down arcane magic, fire and ice, warriors swung their mighty weapons, hunters sicced their pets and used their shotguns. Rogues snuck in and backstabbed where they could. Us lowly characters watched in awe.

Our guys eventually sent their guys fleeing, with many a body left on the ground.

What an entertaining sight! Dave's character, a female mage, was online at the same time, and we watched gleefully. Towards the end of the battle, he couldn't resist and cast a beneficial spell on one of the Alliance characters. His PvP flag was instantly turned on.

He asked me, "Am I green?" (Your name turns green to indicate you're combat-eligible.)

"Yes, you look like sharkbait to me."

"Uh, oh! I'm going to hide!"

I can't wait until I can wade fearlessly into a battle like that and be a power to be reckoned with! :)