CSS, Ruby, and breaks, oh my!
Posted on December 16, 2008, under Startups.
Today’s the 16th. I haven’t worked on YoDino since the 12th. Egad! What happened?! The usual “startup stress” happened.
I’ve been working pretty hard on getting the last important bits of YoDino implemented before Christmas. On the 11th, I started styling the app. On the 12th, my penchant for well-thought-out, structured, and predictable languages (<cough>Ruby</cough>) caused me to throw my hands in the air in frustration with CSS.
CSS…What an AWFUL language!
There, I said it. I don’t care if you can do awesome things with it, like CSS Zen Garden. Technically, you can do awesome things with Delphi and BASIC and ASP.NET, too. But I don’t do things with Delphi, BASIC or ASP.NET..and for very good reasons! [1] The same should apply to CSS, but there’s no alternative. Ugh.
Okay, tangent’s over. The frustration I felt from CSS was really blown out of proportion, but I think that’s because I’m doing this startup alone. It’s pretty much a fact that startups with multiple co-founders fare much better than startups with a single founder. Co-founders are able to discuss problems and ideas with each other, share frustrations, motivate each other, etc. They’re essentially a small, tight family.
I reckon my frustrations with CSS ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back. I needed a break. So, you know what? I bloody well took one! [2]
Now, a couple of days later, I feel refreshed and ready to tackle it all again. And this time, I’m going to succeed. And CSS is going to be my bitch, not the other way around.
[1] If you have to ask why I don’t do things with Delphi, BASIC, or even ASP.NET, you’ve never experienced the clarity and melancholy of working in Ruby. Go try it. If, after a couple of days, you can honestly come back to me and say that you didn’t soil yourself from pure pleasure, I’ll buy you a beer.
[2] Yes, I know that once I launch YoDino, taking a break won’t be possible. But that’s okay! I’ll have made it through at least the first dip by then, and things will be different.
Encouragement
Most of you know what parkour is. If you don’t, in one sentence, it’s about using your body and environment around you to move from one location to another as quickly as possible. Here’s some more info:
I started training on and off in Australia around the middle of 2007. When I moved back to Toronto in March 2008, I began training with PKTO (Parkour Toronto).
Unfortunately, it seems that I’m a bit prone to injuries. From parkour alone, I’ve punctured the same shin twice, sprained an ankle a couple of times, bashed my knees many times, and received the usual cuts and scrapes that come with the territory. Two weeks ago, I also crashed while riding my bicycle. That was NOT pretty, and it did a number on knee. And the second shin puncture occured two weeks before the crash. Ack.
So for the past month, I’ve been healing rather than training. Healing sucks. I mean, it’s great beacuse it’s getting you closer to being able to train again, but the fact that you can’t train…at least, not train “fully”…sucks.
Yesterday evening I got back into training. However, while I was healing, there were times when I was pretty unmotivated and down. I felt like I was making no progress: I’m always injured, what’s the point?, etc. But I slowly realised that there are things you can do to keep yourself motivated while healing.
First of all, train other parts of your body. My knee was giving me grief, so I started working towards 100 push-ups. If you hurt, say, your shoulder, work your abs and legs. Also, stay involved in the community. Go out to meet-ups even if you can’t train. It’ll keep you motivated and looking forward to when you can train again.
Another thing you can do is stretch and do research. Videos abound explaining technique, conditioning routines, etc. Do some homework and develop a routine for the time that you’re recovering, and tweak your usual training regimen.
It’s all about making the best of the situation that you’re in. Yeah, it sucks to be injured. But accept it when it happens, and modify your training to fit in with your predicament. If you do that, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you get back to your regular training.