I've put some faith in the notion of catharsis through art, but it is important to note that catharsis does not mean that the root of a problem is solved. By this I am clumsily hinting towards yesterday's lament, for although it cleared up some of the frustration mixed with excitement, it has most certainly not introduced any radical new solution to my problem. I sit here once again unsure of how to proceed with a design, the demons of paralysis having total control. If only things were easier!

I think that there is a class of patterns that are far more specific than the ones outlined in the GoF's book, and I very much suspect that one of my problems is that I haven't been able to spot them. For instance, cleanly designing a class' implementation from its storage on a file-system is something I messed up yet again. By now, it should be automatic to think to separate the class' intrinsic responsibilities from issues such as saving its state, but I seem to be quite a slow learner in this regard. I wish there were a catalogue of "practical" patterns; which would really be very idiosyncratic implementations of the abstract GoF patterns. I think most programmers and designers assimilate these practical patterns quite naturally, but I'll wager there are quite a few others like me who perhaps don't stop to give due consideration to certain small, easily overlooked aspects of a design. (Part of the problem with constructing a "good" design solo is that it's usually hard to think very much beyond one's intended use of a piece of software!)