Dev Bootcamp Day 17 (Phase 2, Day 2)

Our day started with an Engineering Empathy Session on Sexism. I've heard good things about this session so I was glad my group had it.  It was quite interesting.

At one point we had to pair up with someone in the room we knew the least. I picked Seth because we hadn't paired yet and I think I spoke to him on 2 occasions. We were supposed to look at the person and then guess their favorite music, what they are afraid of, and their hobby. We've spent 3 weeks together in class so it wasn't like a total stranger. There were a few people in the class we met a day or so earlier and that would have been more interesting.

With 3 weeks in class, we both used our predictions of what we observed in the 1 hour lecture or so a day and we were both pretty much right on. We were both way off for music. He got my hobby but my avatar gives that away. I sort of guess a hobby based on one conversation.  Other people had to size up the other person based on their clothes and they were way off.  When someone asks me what I'm afraid of, the first thing I think of his heights but what Seth said was very good. I forget his exact wording and he said 2 things and both ended up right on. One was about being afraid of not being appreciated. I never really think about this but once he mentioned it, I had a harder time concentrating just thinking how true that was. I think the other had to do with being listened to when I talk. I forget his exact wording but his exact wording triggered thoughts directly in my head that were 100% accurate. Too bad we learned so much all day that I forget the details from earlier in the day.  I won't disclose Seth's fears here but I'm shocked how right I was.   One thing about that exercise made me kind of afraid that my guesses would offend. I wasn't so much afraid of what the other person would guess for me.   I almost wish I could do something similar with every person in the class to see how they perceive me.

At one point we all had to stand in a circle. A statement was read and if it was true of us we took a step toward the center of the circle. Then you got to see who was in the circle with you or who stepped in when you didn't. There were 15 statements. Some statements were like "I was born in this country." or "I had books readily available when I was a child." or "I was told I was smart and could do anything I wanted when I was younger."   Even when the statement was positive and I stepped forward it still made me sad to think how the positive statement wasn't true for some people.  Man these pregnancy hormones are crazy because I really wanted to cry a few times during that "game" and even afterward when we were asked our reactions of the exercise.  I wanted to speak up and mention some things I thought about but then thought I might actually cry so I didn't.

During our EE session sometimes the slides just had a few words on them and they triggered a lot of thought.  One slide had

Act like a lady
Take it like a man

We had women go first at one point and just shout out different things were were told or that were drilled in our heads throughout our lives on how we had to act or behave like women. Next the guys went next.  It was just so odd to hear.  The women part was a little odd since there were only 5 females in the room so each of us had to do more talking to fill the time.

We talked about the different types of oppression (insittional, interpersonal, and internalized)

A few other slides I wrote down where.

Allyship
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
How to be an Ally
Notice
Empathize
Interrupt
Interrupting Sexism
What you said was sexist vs. You are sexist.

This session only lasted 1.5 hours. The time really flew. I feel that we covered a lot.

Once EE was over,  we did soloing versus pair programming. We could work with a pari if we wanted. Close to 12, Mark and I decided to pair up versus working solo. When I'm stuck and talk it through out loud it helps me solve it better and I was getting nowhere solo so I was glad he suggested pairing up.

When lunch started, I interrupted the Phase 2 teacher just to let her know I'm pregnant. I figured I should let her know since everyone else knows. The past 2 days I've had on this sweater that you can tie but I have hanging down and it's huge so I think it disguises the belly more. She hadn't realized I was pregnant. She also doesn't really know anyone in the class so she's trying to learn all that.  We only talked for a couple minutes but I'm glad I told her. I mean sometimes I get lightheaded or I get up way more often to go to the bathroom and I drink way more water than I used to so end up refilling my water bottle so now she might realize why all that is happening.

At 2 we had a lecture on Active Record. I was surprised how fast that hour went. We were took to make sure we read if we haven't read the Active Record info on migrations, validations, associations, and query interfaces. She suggested that we all create a list of different methods we discover and like. There are a few listed in the Rails Guides but not all. She mentioned find_or_create_by and pluck. I haven't used either. Both seem fun.  When creating your migration tables, I learned today that you can type "t.references :<other table name>" instead of having to say "t.belongs to :<other table name>" and Active Record does the thought for you.  This may also be in place of something like "t.integer :<other table>_id."  I learned a little bit about psql.  I will probably forget most of it but it's cool. You type "psql <folder name>_development" then "\d" and then you can do cool stuff like sql queries to see your tables and data. The bad part is that it does not auto complete the folder name, but now I just know to make my names even easier and shorter.   I've often been curious how a join table should list the tables together like if you want to join students and classes which would go first. Well I learned today that Rails like them alphabetical so it would be "classes_students" and note both are plural. Some conventions have the first word singular which is what we actually learned last week.  In addition to has many you can also have has many through. You would use a has_many through if you have additional information in your join table. Then the join table is not just for ids but for some other piece of information.  I don't think we even go through all the information she wanted to cover.

At 3, I had my first one on one session with the teacher. I was stressing because usually I'm further into a portfolio problem before a session so I can have specific questions and here I was pretty confused.  We just worked through it together. She helped me with some stuff and I mentioned where something might go (like file name and in what folder) and I was usually right but each time I said it, I said it like I was unsure (because I was unsure).  We had about 20 minutes in our session since lecture ran late but I feel like we got a lot accomplished and I learned a lot. I wish I wrote down a few things because now I forget what she said exactly. One thing was about sublime shortcuts for erb files. You can download something that has some shortcuts or you can make your own. I don't know how to make my own and I don't remember the name of what it is that I should download.

It was mentor night so we got free pizza. It was nice to have a dinner at a normal hour.

Each day I write these posts, I feel like I leave out so much that happens and so much that I do and then I look up and realize I have a really long post. I often want to actually write coding examples but then think how I already have no time so I don't get to it.