3rd party controls can definitely break the Designer. See my question concerning problems I had with Document Outline, that were caused by an errant 3rd party control.
The class Form expose a property called DesignMode which tells you if you are inside VS or you are running the app. Usually I do this in my forms to avoid VS crap.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.