Capstone 3: FATALITY!

Howdy, friends!

We have completed another capstone! This one focused on creating a RESTful API, SQL, and user authentication. It was an application similar to Venmo in which users can send, receive, and request money. 

After the capstone, we focused on HTML and CSS for week 9. This was nice because I have a lot of past experience with these and it was more like review. Capstones leave everyone exhausted and it can be hard to focus on new material when you've been coding for 12+ hours for several consecutive days. It felt like a refreshing break, but I still learned new things! I had never made a CSS grid before. I had also been self-taught, so I didn't realize you could use HTML for the structure of the page and do all of the styling with CSS. My previous pages looked nice, but they were inconsistent in how I styled them, which makes the code harder to read and can create problems later on. 

I've decided I definitely prefer front end development to back end. While both are enjoyable, I have a lot of fun designing sites and making them aesthetically pleasing, which I know is ironic because my blog is very plain. We used to have a saying when we were young and mean in college: "Ugly girl, heart of gold, bless her soul." That is my blog. Unattractive, but the content is quality (I hope!). 

If you're wondering about the "bless her soul" bit, it's because my friend group had noticed that some people tack that on to whatever horrible thing they said about someone else, as if that magically makes it okay. Also, the ugly girl could be anything: an unappealing, yet amicable dog or a particularly grotesque cucumber at the supermarket. It never failed, upon viewing such a spectacle, someone would mutter "Ugly girl, heart of gold, bless her soul" and we'd all bust out laughing. 

We came up with that phrase one night at Tee Jaye's. Sometimes, I miss those late nights laughing around a table and filling up on gray food. I was especially fond of the Barnyard Buster, two eggs over-easy on a pile of home fries and split biscuits. The whole mass was then smothered in "sausage" gravy, which often tasted only of flour. It was basically Heaven. 

Perhaps I am feeling nostalgic because in the wake of COVID-19, the idea of sitting in a restaurant with friends seems unlikely to occur any time soon. On the bright side, I do feel grateful for technology like Zoom, which enables us to see and hear our loved ones in real time. That's part of why software development is so exciting to me; I like the idea of making things that enhance people's every day lives. If a program can take a bit of the burden off of an individual, that's a beautiful thing. 

Pathway and Module 1 Summary

You know what really sets Tech Elevator apart from their competition? Their Pathway program, which equips students with the necessary skills to find their first coding jobs. 

At first, I was skeptical because I didn't find the job hunting program in college to be very helpful. I went to a few career fairs, but half of the time the person I was speaking to at the booth had nothing to do with the hiring process. 

The Pathway Program is nothing like that. It is crazy the amount of work Ben and Vinny have put into it. Each week we have panels with TE alumni on a variety of topics. They give some fantastic advice and insight on everything from different career roles to dealing with imposter syndrome. 

We have worked on elevator pitches and resumes. Before this, I actually had a pretty good resume, but now I have a great one! This week we are optimizing our LinkedIn profiles. Prior to TE, I never used LinkedIn and thought it was kind of weird. Now, I'm able to see how useful it is and know the tips and tricks to get my profile to appear more in search results. 

Eventually, the cohort will go through an employer matchmaking process, which is essentially speed-dating, but with job interviews. 

Since I'm a bit behind on weekly summaries, I'm just going to list the things we covered this module. Hopefully, I'll get back into the swing of things after our first capstone, which is due Monday! 

Module 1 consisted of:

• Intro to Tools
• Variables and data types
• Expressions
• Loops and arrays
• Command Line Programs
• Objects and Strings
• Collections
• Classes
• Encapsulation
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism
• Abstract classes
• Unit testing
• Test Driven Development
• File I/O Reading in/Writing out

End of Week 1: I Am Just a Husk

 Scenario:

I am at my desk immersed in correcting my homework. What did I miss? Probably left out a bracket or semi-colon because life is a sick joke and if you miss just one of those symbols, it throws the whole program off. 

I hear the crescendo of footsteps drawing closer. The door creaks open and then the dreaded words:

"Whatcha up to?"

"NOTHING, MIKE. JEEZ!" I reply without looking up from the computer. Suddenly, I remember that is a human being that I am talking to and not the Charizard I "rubber duck" with. 

Snapped out of work mode, I am suddenly filled with shame. I turn to my wonderful husband of eight years and say, "Sorry, Mike. It's been hard. Just doing homework. Oh, and happy birthday!" 

Week 1 Summary: 

Tech Elevator was not lying when they said the program would be time intensive. I don't go to bed until around 1am most days. While the scenario above has been slightly embellished, it is fair to say that I don't have nearly as much time to spend with Mike and my friends. I know it's only temporary, which helps. Plus, you just can't beat the thrill of struggle busing through code until you finally find a solution that works. 

I feel very lucky. My instructor, Brian, is not monotone and comes up with great analogies that make concepts like loops and arrays easy to understand. On Friday he included a very helpful bit about peer programming etiquette and assigned us our first partners. 

I was extremely nervous about starting peer programming. My fear is that I don't know enough and will be deadweight. Thankfully, Ross, my partner, seemed to be in the same boat and was incredibly patient and up for trying anything. For the final exercise we were searching Stack Exchange and Googling different ideas and plugging them in until something worked. One of our classmates, Christina, also swooped in to help and gave us a fresh way to reconsider our code.

It's been hard, but tons of fun. 

Some practical takeaways:

• "Rubber ducking" is the practice of explaining code to something that doesn't talk back. It really is helpful for recognizing errors.
• I took a writing class in college where the class mantra was "kill your darlings". Basically, it means you shouldn't get too attached to what you write; there will always be something better or a way of improving it. You are not your writing. Don't take criticism personally or be afraid of throwing things away. The same principle applies to code. 
• Step away from the computer. Take a break every fifty minutes or so. If I'm feeling really frustrated, I will go to bed and tackle things again in the morning. It's like flipping a switch; I wake up and suddenly everything clicks.