I read somewhere that the first 100 commits are the hardest because you're still learning how to think about building something instead of just writing code. Your weather app sounds like real progress from struggling with for loops.

Doubt it's really "down the drain" unless you just tossed it in a lake or something. Worst case you just learned a pricey lesson about checking compatibility before buying.

Nope, local ads were mostly annoying junk and national spots are way more polished now.

Man I totally get what you're saying. That notebook trick is GOLD. I do something similar where I save weird voicemails from wrong numbers and use those as jumping off points. Last week some old lady called asking if her cat had been found and I turned that into a whole story about a grumpy detective who solves pet cases. It's crazy how just grabbing random real world junk makes everything flow so much easier than trying to squeeze creativity out of your own head.

Man, that's such a classic example of shops skipping the basics to save a few bucks (and then wasting way more time because of it). It reminds me of how people everywhere try to fix things with the wrong tools instead of just stopping and getting the right one. That same lazy shortcut thinking shows up in all kinds of work, not just diesel stuff, and it always ends up making the job harder than it had to be.