Motivation Squashed By Frustration

Today, whilst returning from dropping off my daughter at a friends house to get her hair braided, I passed Victoria Gardens and decided to spend about an hour to myself (Me Time) before heading on home to face my three sons and their friend who spent the night. I took my camera with me in case I saw an opportunity to experiment with it more. I saw the Borders Book Store there and remembered the one I visited in New York many years ago. It was a time when I was happily married and was completely oblivious to my now ex-wife's antics. But, I digress.
Perusing the shelves I found a C++ For Dummies book. After thumbing through it, I found that not only was it easy reading, it also didn't put me to sleep almost immediately after cracking it open.
Seeing as how I promised my children that I'd make a game staring them, this seemed like a great start. With a child like enthusiasm, I happily walked up to the register and charged almost forty dollars to my credit card. Forty dollars that I really couldn't afford. I justified it by convincing myself (quite easily, actually) that by sticking to the training, I could use the education to make BIG MONEY!
I drove home after my personal hour and read my new aide to future prosperity on the throne. I found that not only was it easy to read, but funny, too. As an added bonus, the author stated that the included CD-Rom had all the programs necessary to become a professional coder (not really in those words, that's my translation). Cool Beans! No additional money has to be spent. Awesome! Then, it hit me. While thinking kingly things on my throne, I decided to re-format and re-install Windows XP on my laptop and devote the laptop to the cause. Yes! Capital Idea!
With haste, I finished my business and proceeded to the next project. With each passing moment, I came closer and closer to the goal.
Finally, I'm finished. Now to load the program necessary to follow along with the practice exercise.
Oh, boy was the excitement great. I doubt I'd EVER been this excited about anything connected to learning. I opened the book and read on. I learned new terminology and created my first project. If it had been sex, I'd have been done by that point, but the mind never gets tired. Onward I pressed. Finally, the payoff was at hand. According to the book, all I had to do was click on Execute -> Compile and Run and a DOS box would appear telling me to press any key. The moment of truth. I followed the directions and waited. The program did it's thing, then nothing. No box. I did it again. Nothin'. I tried several times more after that with absolutely no luck. I check the compiler and it told me where the error was, but I couldn't understand it's jargon. That's when my motivation was squashed. I deleted everything and repeated the steps only to have the program tell me "if it didn't work the first five time, why would it work this time? Just give it up, man." That's when frustration set in.
No, I haven't given it up, but I write to you frustrated and defeated. My child like enthusiasm was scolded by my paternal reasoning. This is going to take some time, regardless of the easy read or the humorous statements.

Well, maybe I needed this bit of reality. So be it. I'll figure it out and press on. After all, I have a promise to keep.

'Til next time.

4-6-08; 1000hrs
Good news, everybody, the program finally decided to cooperate with me and allowed me to do as I wished. Though I'm afraid to turn off the laptop now. Any who, You all have yourselves a nice day.