Dancing in the dark

So ten days to go until this project is supposed to be up and running. Now, this is a software project, just something I have been doing mostly for my own amusement, but it has a deadline and I am starting to hear that whooshing sound that deadlines make as the come by.

I am 70 days in, so what do I have?

I have a simple CRUD api built in django. It comes with data migrations and code generators that mean adding new models should require very little coding. I have the api documented using django rest swagger. And I can manipulate tables using the standard django admin interface.

I have also taken a look at django quiz and it looks like it will do a good job for me.

However, so far no proper front end. As far as the front end is concerned I am Dancing in the Dark

We had two hurricanes here in Bermuda back in October. It is winter now. Actually, a beautiful day today, 21C, sunny, few clouds and beautiful blue oceans. I just rode out of town on the bus. Must be one of the best bus rides in the world.

But, come evening, the sun disappears and a chill descends as the dampness comes out of the walls.

There is a lot of wood around the island, branches broken by the storms, whole trees knocked over. In many cases, all the branches have been cut off trees and the stumps set back up, green shoots of recovery are starting to sprout from these stumps.

Meanwhile, I have been gathering wood for fires most nights. It reminds me of happy days on scout camps way back when. Summer camps with the scouts were the best. We would cook all week on an open fire. Between us, and guided by Skip, we would figure out how to light fires, how to get a good fire going and then let it die down a little for cooking.

One thing you learn right from the start is, you can't start a fire without a spark.

And that is where kindling comes in. As I trim the bigger branches to get logs for the fires the smaller twigs drop to the floor. Once I have logs you can gather up a bundle of smaller twigs. This is the kindling. This is what lights the fire. The tiny pieces.

So, today I am setting out on a little kindling project. I want to add a little box to the Around the world in 80 days site with today's date and a couple of other labels showing 80 days from now and 80 days before today.

Now I could do this very quickly with django templates given the code I already have. But, I want to try angular.js. That way I will have a new tool I can play with. If it isn't working for me, then maybe it will end up like the bow-saw that I find less fun to use than the small hand axe, still useful, but not the tool I like to use most of the time. Or maybe, it will turn out to be a new and better hand axe.

So, time to light the blue touch paper and stand well back.