This is a Test
But Lets cut the bullshit for one page and have an earnest talk, eh?
You've had enough nonsense for now.
An important part of learning is learning how to learn.
A sad part of learning how to learn is learning where to learn.
To some people it's intuitive, and even to those that it isn't, it feels so obvious when said out loud, right? Feels almost like it goes without saying, which is why it always bears mention.
Less intuitive, ironically enough given so many people will act like its pretty obvious when they add so many caveats to the concept they all but admit they actually believe the complete opposite, not everyone processes information equally, and therefore not everyone can learn the same way. Someone with learning disabilities might struggle with a teacher droning on and on in front of a whiteboard, somebody easily distracted might not be able to concentrate in a poorly mixed tutorial series, somebody who needs to be very hands on with picking up skills is just going to drop the 400 page outdated book on whatever.
And sometimes the wikipedia page you're reading sourced something from a joke told on somebody else's 2000s personal webbed site which is now long buried under the sands of a shut down server, who knows anymore?!
Goes opposite too, I would say. Sometimes, the SEO article that promises miracles and drops the Top 5 Most Well Known Windows Fix-All Methods helps a complete beginner fix their problem seamless. All's well that ends well, yeah?
My problem though? Programming. Fits my head like a thread through a needle, only with looooots of effort and experience.
See, I've been meaning to pick up HTML for years. Knew it was going to be necessary one day! Did I? Every time the idea came across my head, and either didn't get erased in the great howling storm of The Issues, a nagging, croaking scratch of a voice whispered from the depths of my mind:
"What? Forgotten Java's dreadfulness already?!"
Which in all fairness I mostly did, pretty much the second that semester was over so was my knowledge of Java, but the horror stuck for some reason. Oh, the struggle! Class after class I could barely pay attention to, trying to cobble simple things together like trying to build houses from grass and glue, picking already made code to change small details and findings it as easy as changing a sentence in hittite from past to present tense when you've never even heard of the Old World before.
Years roll by, things change, then things change a lot, then things change an absurd amount, and now the time has come! It's do or die, and I can smell fresh oak with clean velvet in the air. I wanted an open-air burial, motherfuckers!
That is to say, wouldn't make the deadline I was aiming for with a gun to my head, so I can do it the way I learn best: Sloooooowly, picking at it a little every day, when I have time from my more pressing tasks. And look at all this! Probably not the cleanest, most beautiful site you will ever see by a mile and a couple meters, but I feel so weirdly proud about it?
Look at all the fun I could be having!
Why did it take me so long?
An important part of learning is learning how to learn.
A sad part of learning how to learn is learning where to learn.
Logically, I knew there were places that taught html. The internet is vast! Youtube alone could teach you to steal a car and convert into a bike before the cops caught on (probably).
But where could I go? Once I knew where I could go, where should I go? Where do I learn HTML won't be the same drudgery as Java? Where do I learn if Java is actually a drudgery or if I just learned in the worst place and at the worst time possible?
The answers are, in order: Everywhere, who knows, nowhere, nowhere.
Didn't find myself here because I had always planned to, you know? This was my last option, and meant giving up on some pretty significant plans. Not that I'm unhappy, of course: If I didn't like neocities, my brain would physically prevent me from coming back for more nearly every damn weekday.
I did find myself here, and learned where I should have gone all that time. Almost by chance.
I'm just musing, in the end. No concluding thoughts, no morals or big statements. Just having my "huh, isn't it funny that I got where I got?" moment way too early. As they say:
The time will pass anyway.