Originally, I thought that the most frustrating part of my day was going to be the traffic. It took me almost exactly 2 hours to get to the garage today. And I left a few minutes after I left yesterday. Lesson learned. Leave at 7:30, just in case.
I know that it's nice to be able to sleep in til 7 and to start class at 10, but honestly... driving in rush hour traffic sucks.
As for the more frustrating part today, well, the coding. At the start, my partner and I (new partner from yesterday), got the main program done. It was pretty simple, but we did have a few issues. Nothing too bad though. Also, we kind of embarrassed ourselves in front of the instructor but not taking out certain extra bits of 'helper' code we had in the game. However, we got the initial program right.
Learning git was not hard. It was very similar to SVN, so no real problems there.
BUT, after the afternoon lecture, we had to do the extra credit... or the extra parts to our earlier guess game program. Talk about frustrating! It was so hard to get it right. In fact, I think we only got 1 part of 4 correct.
Pair programming is great, but sometimes, it's really hard to communicate how you are thinking. And it gets even harder and more frustrating as you get more frustrated and tired. By the end of the day, you just want to not think about while loops or conditional statements. I feel bad because I was definitely not explaining my thinking to my partner and I am sure I confused her a lot today.
Some of the other students finished early and were helping us out. This was great! But, once they finished helping us in one area, it was kind of hard to accept more help in other areas. Not because they are students and not teachers, but because I really wanted to try to figure it out for myself and with my partner.
After a long drive home (one hour and 45 minutes or so), I spent the next 2-3 hours working on finishing up the exercises. It's not perfect, but it works.
Well, tomorrow is another day and hopefully, it will be better. It's covering lists and I'm weak with those in terms of remembering all the operations that can be done with them. Fingers crossed my memory engages.
Oh, there was a camera crew there too. My partner and I were filmed and interviewed. All I could think about was the huge zit on my chin and the fact I was probably slouching while being interviewed. I'm sure my mom would be appalled. Sigh...
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Hackbright Academy Day 1... Command Line!
Today was my first day of the software engineering fellowship at Hackbright Academy. Traffic on the way up to SF was not that fun. It was at a standstill in some areas, however I left at 7:45 and made it to the site ahead of the 10 am start. Phew! AND I found a parking garage just down the road that is $10 a day! That was my awesome find of the day and possibly the whole week.
The first day was full of those first day jitters, meeting new people, being in an unfamiliar place. But, it was fine. I re-met a number of women I had met at the dinner before. I met a bunch of new people too. For me, the surprising part is that I am not the only 'old' lady around. I'm not even the oldest. That was a relief and kind of fun.
The ice breaking game was played. I talked to a number of people. I think the one clue involving crackers, mustard, raisins and something else, served with vodka took the prize with me as the most bizarre food eaten. Logistics were covered, the touchy feely tampon talk was given. And then we got into content.
Today, we did 10 mini programming exercises on blockly. Maze #10 was a bitch. My partner and I took a number of tries trying to get the avatar (a block human, astronaut or panda) to the end in the most efficient way possible. But, we kept having issues. Just couldn't get the stupid panda to the end of the maze.
Lunch break. Command line lecture. Back to the maze before working on the command line exercises.
As we were working on the maze, Nick, one of our instructors, mentioned that we didn't have to be efficient, we just needed the avatar to get where it needed to go. Light bulb! We eventually got the code to work in 8 blocks. Yay for us!
Next up, the command line. Both of us had completed the command line exercises waaaay back in the summer, so a lot of it was pretty easy, but there were a few where we both thought, "I don't remember that... why is it doing that?" So, it was a good review.
We finished around 5 or so and had to ask what we should do next. One of the TAs said, "Oh, did you finish #10 on blockly?" We said we had. Then the TA asked, "Did you finish it in 5 blocks of code?"
Holy crap! Really?
Well, we recreated the original code we had, realized that it could be optimized and then started in on the 5 blocks of code. Another TA approached us and gave us a big hint which allowed us to get our 8 blocks down to 5. Yay for us again! (No, I'm not going to spoil the solution for anyone. You all need to figure it out yourselves!).
Following that, we went to project Euler. We zoomed through the first two problems and then got bogged down on the third one. Neither of us could remember how to easily and efficiently factor a huge number. (Both of us are math majors too!). But, since we had about 6 minutes left for our day, we decided to just not deal with it.
On my drive home, I thought about the factorization problem. I think we need to figure out if the factor is prime, first of all. And then if it is a factor of that huge number. There's a bunch of other things too... concatenating a list with the factor as long as it's not already on the list, incrementing to check the next factor and so forth. I'm going to think about it more later... I need to read tonight's homework.
The first day was full of those first day jitters, meeting new people, being in an unfamiliar place. But, it was fine. I re-met a number of women I had met at the dinner before. I met a bunch of new people too. For me, the surprising part is that I am not the only 'old' lady around. I'm not even the oldest. That was a relief and kind of fun.
The ice breaking game was played. I talked to a number of people. I think the one clue involving crackers, mustard, raisins and something else, served with vodka took the prize with me as the most bizarre food eaten. Logistics were covered, the touchy feely tampon talk was given. And then we got into content.
Today, we did 10 mini programming exercises on blockly. Maze #10 was a bitch. My partner and I took a number of tries trying to get the avatar (a block human, astronaut or panda) to the end in the most efficient way possible. But, we kept having issues. Just couldn't get the stupid panda to the end of the maze.
Lunch break. Command line lecture. Back to the maze before working on the command line exercises.
As we were working on the maze, Nick, one of our instructors, mentioned that we didn't have to be efficient, we just needed the avatar to get where it needed to go. Light bulb! We eventually got the code to work in 8 blocks. Yay for us!
Next up, the command line. Both of us had completed the command line exercises waaaay back in the summer, so a lot of it was pretty easy, but there were a few where we both thought, "I don't remember that... why is it doing that?" So, it was a good review.
We finished around 5 or so and had to ask what we should do next. One of the TAs said, "Oh, did you finish #10 on blockly?" We said we had. Then the TA asked, "Did you finish it in 5 blocks of code?"
Holy crap! Really?
Well, we recreated the original code we had, realized that it could be optimized and then started in on the 5 blocks of code. Another TA approached us and gave us a big hint which allowed us to get our 8 blocks down to 5. Yay for us again! (No, I'm not going to spoil the solution for anyone. You all need to figure it out yourselves!).
Following that, we went to project Euler. We zoomed through the first two problems and then got bogged down on the third one. Neither of us could remember how to easily and efficiently factor a huge number. (Both of us are math majors too!). But, since we had about 6 minutes left for our day, we decided to just not deal with it.
On my drive home, I thought about the factorization problem. I think we need to figure out if the factor is prime, first of all. And then if it is a factor of that huge number. There's a bunch of other things too... concatenating a list with the factor as long as it's not already on the list, incrementing to check the next factor and so forth. I'm going to think about it more later... I need to read tonight's homework.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
KISS, KISS or Keep It Simple, S...
So, I was studying about strings in Python using How to Think Like A Computer Scientist. They're fairly easy. And yes, there's a lot you can do with string. (I'm still not sure if I really need to understand L-systems when it comes to coding. I did run into issues in following the code and predicting results with that. However, I'm not sure if I am not understanding L-systems or not understanding the code. I think it's the former and will investigate more later.)
Anyhow, at the end of the chapter, there is something about character classifications and the hint to try this out:
So, I put that into the workspace and get:
Ok, so, I need to define the string, right? I define a string and get:
Ummmmm... ok. Maybe the string should be named something else. After all, "string" is kind of a keyword in Python (yes, I know it's actually "str")... Let's rename it to "astring" and make sure to update everything in the print statements otherwise it will tell me that "astring" is undefined...
Hmmm, same error... What the heck is going on here?
Now, in the back of my head, this little thought keeps popping up, "Hey hey. Does your little code bit there actually tell ActiveWindow that it wants to access all the functions or classifications related to strings?"
After a few more tries varying the code, I finally decide to listen to that little thought and...
Result! Yay! Although the successful outcome made me want to:
And yes, I took way too much time drawing and animated this gif...
Anyhow, at the end of the chapter, there is something about character classifications and the hint to try this out:
Ok, so, I need to define the string, right? I define a string and get:
Ummmmm... ok. Maybe the string should be named something else. After all, "string" is kind of a keyword in Python (yes, I know it's actually "str")... Let's rename it to "astring" and make sure to update everything in the print statements otherwise it will tell me that "astring" is undefined...
Hmmm, same error... What the heck is going on here?
Now, in the back of my head, this little thought keeps popping up, "Hey hey. Does your little code bit there actually tell ActiveWindow that it wants to access all the functions or classifications related to strings?"
After a few more tries varying the code, I finally decide to listen to that little thought and...
Result! Yay! Although the successful outcome made me want to:
And yes, I took way too much time drawing and animated this gif...
Taking care of myself
In five days, I will be starting my studies at Hackbright Academy. I am excited and stressed worried and confident. As ever, I am a mass of contradictions.
I'm confident that I will understand whatever code that they spread out before me. I am worried that I am still very weak in writing actual code. I am confident that I will learn this writing of code fairly well, but I am worried that I will be behind everyone else.
So, if I am worried and stressed about all this, why did I not study at all today? Why did I spend the time reading a book instead of poring over more Python?
The last two weeks haven't been exactly restful as I had hoped. Nor have they been as productive as I had hoped. And with both, I have been feeling extremely guilty. Which then leads towards stress and depression. Not the horrible, needs medication depression, but the type that requires a lot more sleep. Naps... naps are great. But, I've been taking more of them than usual.
Back to the book. In the past two weeks, I've been re-reading some of the Dune novels by Frank Herbert. Part of it is because I'm creating a piece of clay art based on the books for a show in December (have to be done by November!). The other part is that I've really missed reading. In re-reading both Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, I have realized that there was a lot I missed when I first read both books. It's refreshing to get new details in a familiar story. I also feel like I've been recharging myself, revisiting old pleasures.
And I think that is why I allowed myself to be distracted into reading a book all day today. I don't think I realized how much my previous job had drained me mentally, emotionally and physically. I spent so much time distracting myself from the stress of that job with other work, that I never really just sat and enjoyed some time to do what I wanted to do. I always had this project to complete or that piece of art to finish. This past week, I was rearranging my place, getting ready for a sale, selling at a sale and then trying to recover from a full weekend on my feet for very little profit. I tried to spend Monday and Tuesday in some semblance of work/study but didn't do so well at that. Today, I got up and got ready to do some studying, but managed to play some games, read my book and realize at noon or so that I was really exhausted and needed more sleep.
Post-nap, I decided to read, to clean my sink and then make some dinner. Somewhere in there, I gave myself permission to just read the book. To relax.
I think I forget to take care of myself like this.
Tomorrow, I will study my butt off.
I'm confident that I will understand whatever code that they spread out before me. I am worried that I am still very weak in writing actual code. I am confident that I will learn this writing of code fairly well, but I am worried that I will be behind everyone else.
So, if I am worried and stressed about all this, why did I not study at all today? Why did I spend the time reading a book instead of poring over more Python?
The last two weeks haven't been exactly restful as I had hoped. Nor have they been as productive as I had hoped. And with both, I have been feeling extremely guilty. Which then leads towards stress and depression. Not the horrible, needs medication depression, but the type that requires a lot more sleep. Naps... naps are great. But, I've been taking more of them than usual.
Back to the book. In the past two weeks, I've been re-reading some of the Dune novels by Frank Herbert. Part of it is because I'm creating a piece of clay art based on the books for a show in December (have to be done by November!). The other part is that I've really missed reading. In re-reading both Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, I have realized that there was a lot I missed when I first read both books. It's refreshing to get new details in a familiar story. I also feel like I've been recharging myself, revisiting old pleasures.
And I think that is why I allowed myself to be distracted into reading a book all day today. I don't think I realized how much my previous job had drained me mentally, emotionally and physically. I spent so much time distracting myself from the stress of that job with other work, that I never really just sat and enjoyed some time to do what I wanted to do. I always had this project to complete or that piece of art to finish. This past week, I was rearranging my place, getting ready for a sale, selling at a sale and then trying to recover from a full weekend on my feet for very little profit. I tried to spend Monday and Tuesday in some semblance of work/study but didn't do so well at that. Today, I got up and got ready to do some studying, but managed to play some games, read my book and realize at noon or so that I was really exhausted and needed more sleep.
Post-nap, I decided to read, to clean my sink and then make some dinner. Somewhere in there, I gave myself permission to just read the book. To relax.
I think I forget to take care of myself like this.
Tomorrow, I will study my butt off.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Study study study... no, not really
I still haven't started studying or continued to study. Hackbright starts in less than two weeks. I'm distracted by a pottery sale which means I'm trying to get a bunch of last minute pieces done. The fact that my condo is a mess and I'm at the point where I just have to get it clean means I'm going nuts there. I have paintings to finish, cat beds to sew, blogs to update.
When am I supposed to rest?
I feel guilty that I'm not working. I am not sleeping well (up til 2am, waking up at 6 am). I'm not feeling 100% healthy and I'm well and truly exhausted. I'm worried that I will catch a cold as that always seems to happen once I stop moving or being supremely busy.
Well, one thing I have accomplished is to rearrange my front room. It's got a lot more stuff in it now and it's much more cozy? Or is that crowded. I can't decide.
Oh, and I haven't gone to the gym and I ate at McDonald's for dinner tonight...
I did learn how to change an outlet today, so that's one positive thing. And I've decided to change one of my switches to a normal switch instead of this whole master control for the light and for the fan.
Slowly, but surely, I shall get all the things I want to do done. I just need to organize my thoughts.
Very discombobulated and disjointed in my writing.
It's all good. I shall be able to get it all together soon.
When am I supposed to rest?
I feel guilty that I'm not working. I am not sleeping well (up til 2am, waking up at 6 am). I'm not feeling 100% healthy and I'm well and truly exhausted. I'm worried that I will catch a cold as that always seems to happen once I stop moving or being supremely busy.
Well, one thing I have accomplished is to rearrange my front room. It's got a lot more stuff in it now and it's much more cozy? Or is that crowded. I can't decide.
Oh, and I haven't gone to the gym and I ate at McDonald's for dinner tonight...
I did learn how to change an outlet today, so that's one positive thing. And I've decided to change one of my switches to a normal switch instead of this whole master control for the light and for the fan.
Slowly, but surely, I shall get all the things I want to do done. I just need to organize my thoughts.
Very discombobulated and disjointed in my writing.
It's all good. I shall be able to get it all together soon.
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