Project “The Book”

As a child, I didn’t really like to read. I was pushing that ideology until 6th grade, I think. And now, three years later, I got inspiration to write… Anything. That’s one of the reasons I started this blog and that’s why I want to start writing my own book. So far, I’ve already written several stories and poems, but nothing bigger such as novels. And I really want to do that. So I decided to write a biography. Autobiography, to be more precise. Thing is, I’ve only got 15 years and haven’t lived much. That’s why I decided to name it My Story – The Beginning. Basically what I want to say through this book is how I’ve grown to be who I am right now and how I got interested in 3D modeling and programming. I am young, but ambitious and I think it would be an interesting story to read. I noticed I’m bad when I do things when I feel like doing them, so I always give myself time limit to finish a certain project. Sometimes I go further and bet with someone I can do it, so not that I only have limited time, I’m under pressure so that I feel even more motivated to do it. It’s a good technique. I’m giving myself three months to do this. That means it has to be finished by October 10th.

I’ll make sure to update you of progress on this project I’ll call “The Book”. Thanks for reading and wish me luck!

Progress on “Project Antonymy”

As you may or may not know, I’ve worked on a project that returns the antonym of a given word. You can learn more about it here.

I’ve given up from using LibXL, because after I’ve finished it, the plain console application didn’t look as appealing as I hoped. So I’ve decided to go with Visual Studio style. While switching from Console App to Windows Forms App, I also switched from C++ to C# and from Excel to Access. But don’t get me wrong, I still think LibXL is an awesome program, its just not what I needed in this situation. And after working with Access for a while, I realized it’s not as complicated as I thought. On the contrary, it was easy and fun. It was so interesting to communicate with that I decided to add several more features such as login form and ability to add antonyms to database yourself right from the program!

Everything I’ve learned for this combination was from an amazing channel on YouTube called ProgrammingKnowledge. It’s really an amazing channel and you can find whole bunch of programming related stuff and learn a lot too!

You can see how the program looks on the Projects page. Thanks for reading!

 

 

The importance of using the moment

Didn’t it happen to you that you are afraid to say or do something, and then two days later regret that you haven’t? But still, the next time you get in the same situation, you know you’ll regret it, yet still chose to do nothing? Or you just wait for the next situation promising yourself you will do differently that time?

There is a saying you’ve probably heard of. It says following.

Don’t wait for a perfect moment, take the moment and make it perfect.

The author behind the quote is unknown, but according to some sources it was by Abraham Hicks.

Putting that aside, the quote is pretty straight forward. You can’t really expect for someone to take the action if you give them little signs. You are the one that needs to act in order for something to happen. However you thought of it, you really don’t have anything to lose. Just step forward and start. Yes, it’s the hardest part, but it’s also the most important one. If not any other way, don’t give yourself choice, count to three and do what you’re best at!

Best way to combine Excel with C++

My friend told me about a week ago that he started a research on subject Antonymy.
That gave me an idea.
I decided to make a program that would search a word and return its antonym. I first thought to do it through arrays of string… And then I realized how stupid that was. I knew I needed to create a database and communicate to it from source code. First program I tried my luck with was Microsoft Office Access. Until I realized how complicated (at least to me) it was. The only reasonable option left was to use Excel.

“If I learned how to combine C++ with Excel,” I told myself, “I could make some really powerful programs.”

I searched online for ways to talk to .xlsx files through code, and I found a dozen that say something about some COM interface, MFC, ATL, WTL etc. I didn’t know what that is. I still don’t. So I continued my research for days. Until I’ve finally found the solution. Five letters of pure happiness: LibXL. Boy, was I happy then.

There is a lite version, which is free, and full version, which ranges from $199 to $2499. Yes, it’s not the cheapest program, but it’s worth it. I got the lite version cause of the simple reason – I’m underage, so I don’t own credit nor debit card. But I can guarantee that if I were old enough and had a job and my own income, I would definitely get it. Plus, lite version allows up to 150 rows, which was more than enough to me.

Documentation was amazing. There were some stuff that I didn’t understand, so I emailed them for help and they replied kindly and helped me understand.Their support was out of every league. I’ve never talked to a better support.

Currently, I’m working on this project and will show you the outcome as soon as I’m finished.

How I learned to 3D Model

First of all, I want to say that I’m not, by any means, a professional in 3D Modeling and my knowledge is minor. I just like to do it and I find it interesting.

I gained this level of knowledge through various videos mainly on YouTube. I also looked at  documentation on Blender‘s website if I needed help with a particular thing of function.

• I learned absolute basics through a playlist on YouTube called Blender Absolute Beginner Tutorial. Here I also learned how to make ceramic bowl and a glass and how to use Fluid function.
• I learned how to use Cloth function while watching Cloth Napkin Tutorial.

Here are the two photos I made from the objects I created.

I improvised a bit here and there and I created a table from the things I learned through above mentioned playlist. I used textures I’ve found on Textures, formerly known as CGTextures.

I hope you’ve found this post informative and somewhat helpful. Thank you for reading!