Difficult problem, I do know what you mean about fitting messy life into patterns, that said some can still be invaluable at times. Something like a singleton

Difficult problem, I do know what you mean about fitting messy life into patterns, that said some can still be invaluable at times. Something like a singleton would be handy to stop multiple creation of an object, for web design mvc just makes life a lot easier by decoupling different parts and in theory for your project something like an observer pattern could be created to notify other systems to a state change. http://www.java2s.com/Tutorials/Java/Java_Design_Patterns/0170__Java_Observer_Pattern.htm http://www.java2s.com/Tutorials/Java/Java_Design_Patterns/01... In the end there's many ways and approaches, maybe even brushing up some class design stuff in another language might help. Good luck on your journey, sounds like you'll be fine.