There are obviously many ways to sort things in Java, yet having said that, I don't really see how sorting applies to practical real-life scenarios. I do see a value in learning the basic code to improve our understanding of how logic/code works in the language, so don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with what we're doing by starting with the basics and working up from there. However, whenever I try to imagine using sorting in a real-life application, it would seem that game-creators or animators would use pre-written codes to write their programs and not bother with re-writing sort methods at all. After all, what's the point of writing a snippet of code that sorts integers when what you're ultimately trying to create a complex gaming system? I'm not bashing the idea of learning these methods because I'm sure there are more complicated ways of writing them, but I'm wondering how much they actually help in a normal job/career.
Now, when I think about the value of sorting things in more tangible way, sorting makes a little bit more sense. Sorting a card deck, for instance, could be a very useful invention, but it would definitely be difficult to create a device that could perform that task. If one were to sort an augmenting card deck (instead of shuffling cards, they would be doing the complete opposite), there would be both faster and slower methods of sorting the cards, similar to sorting in Java. I can certainly understand how sorting might apply to material objects.
Having said that, I'm probably too naive to understand the magnitude of how important sorting is, but it's something to think about. The problem I have with connecting coding with the real world is that it's too abstract, strict, and logical for me. For example, when I first saw the Bubble Sort method, I had to stare at it and break down every single for loop and > or < sign, and it actually took me a couple of minutes to actually understand it. Sometimes I wonder how other people can understand a huge chunk of code in 5 seconds. Anyway, I like to learn about different things when I am aware of the benefits/potential that they can bring to the real world. Just my two cents!
During Spring break, I caught up on reading, which is something I haven't done in a while. Usually, the only things I'm allowed to read during the school year are worksheets and assigned readings from English. I'll admit that I broke into The Woman Warrior (which is required for English), but I read it just to see how it was. I wanted to read Life of Pi before seeing the movie, but I didn't have any time. Speaking of movies, I saw Wreck-It-Ralph, which turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It's one of the movies that is actually better than the trailer.
Luckily, I didn't have to worry about college notifications during Spring break (unlike Winter break). It definitely feels weird getting into my top choice (Vandy) while everyone else is waiting to hear back. Interestingly enough, I was accepted to SMU and Case Western over the break, so that was fun. My brother was waitlisted at 7 schools before he was accepted to Carnegie Mellon (which is #1 in CS, coincidentally!), so I can imagine how he felt about that. Regardless, I'm happy that my second semester senior year played out like this and am grateful for my teachers, friends, and family's support.
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