Capstone 2: Dead and Done!

 Hello, all! 

I haven't posted much because I was busy working on my second capstone for module 2. It was incredibly stressful, but my partner and I created something we are very proud of. 

Module 2 was fairly short and deceptively easy at first, but the last few concepts came in like a roaring lion and knocked me back a few pegs. Here is what we covered:

• Introduction to databases
• Aggregate functions and group by
• Joins
• Insert, update, and delete
• Database design
• Database connectivity
• Integration testing
• Database security

For our capstones, we had to create a command line venue reservation program. It was intense! My partner, Olivia, and I had both received similar feedback on our previous capstones. We both had put too much in our CLI in the past as opposed to breaking it up into smaller methods called from a different class. We caught ourselves making the same mistake this time, so we spent most of Saturday refactoring things! It was frustrating, but worth it. Our code was clean and easy to read. 

One lesson I learned during this capstone is to be proud of the work completed, even if the whole project isn't finished. We didn't have tests, but were able to recognize our product was the best we could do in the time we were given. 

Capstone reviews this round were done with another team in addition to Brian. This was helpful because we could see the different ways each team chose to approach the challenge. The other team had amazing formatting using printf, which I took notes on and hope to use in the future. 

In addition to the capstone, I had to prepare for my Lightning Talk. Lighting Talks are short presentations that can be about absolutely anything. Mine was about crafting prop weapons from EVA foam. 

P.S. If you're wondering about the aftermath of my last post, everything is okay. Brian scheduled an extra session with me to go over the part I didn't understand. It turns out I don't trust myself enough. If something doesn't work, I assume I took a completely wrong approach when in reality, a small adjustment needed to be made. This causes me to write a lot of code over again when I don't need to. In the future, I will focus on refactoring what I have before I try different methods. I will also try to reach out sooner when I'm stuck as opposed to struggling to the point of despair, haha.