Regaining Momentum

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So the past few days I finally feeling like I am starting to pick up momentum again. I have decided on a game idea and it is one that I will be able to produce the required artwork for but is not so simple that I will bore of it. Well hopefully anyway.

I have also decided to brush up on my Android programming skills. I learned to create apps on android quiet a while ago - android version 1.6 was new at the time. It would be fair to say I have not kept my skills up to date. There are whole areas of android development that I have barely touched that are now need to create a well rounded app. Originally learning android was also a minimal cut approach to learning. I would learn just enough to be productive in that an area without really taking on the mind set/ideas of the area. I gradually built up a working model of what was going on, but my mental model contained bugs that would slow down my development speed until I updated it.

This can be a good way to learn and I really enjoy it but I like to try different things.

Udacity has a course teaching Android development and I figure it is time to try one of these online learning courses. If you are not after a certificate (I am not) then it is free and you get to work at your own pace. I am slightly put off when I can't work at my own pace as the amount of free time I have varies from week to week, this makes me reluctant to try Coursera and they have set start and finish time. Perhaps it helps people stay motivated and everyone doing it is at a similar stage of the course making it easier to discuss things.

I figured that a properly thought out course on Android development would give me a broader understanding of Android development and even if some (much?) of it is familiar then it would be good revision. 

One other thing worth mentioning while I am on this subject, I don't plan to rush through the course. I feel there is some benefit in taking your time and living with the subject for a while. The benefit being is having to keep recalling information over a longer period of time making it more likely to stick in my head.

Oh and yes I do have a few android application ideas I would like to try out in the new year.

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