Week 5, Day 4

When I locked my bike up, I noticed a bike farm and another bike without a tire. I often see things like this and then often worry someone will still my bike. I do lock my wheel and frame to the bike stand. My wheel is one of those quick releases but for the life of me, I can't release it so maybe a thief couldn't either. (Dave can't release it either. We can both release his easily and both should be the same thing.)

So today we could solo or pair. I started off pairing. We did the first problem fairly quickly. We went to the second one but then after lunch swapped to a harder problem.  So by 5 pm, I had started 3 assignments but only finished 1.  I took a little break because I couldn't handle staring at a computer screen anymore.  I did start and finish a portfolio assignment. I broke it up into pieces.  It was very short but I still broke it up and ran different segments and printed things to the console to make sure it was working.  So now I have 4 of 10 portfolio assignments submitted. I have started 2-3 more. It's hard to keep track.  All 10 are due by Tuesday at midnight. We have 15 days  total to work on them and and 5 days left. (That's if I did the math correctly.)  So I should be further along.  As I write this on the train, I plan to get home and work on portfolio assignments versus the assignments from the day that I didn't finish.  If we don't finish assignments from each particular day nothing happens except we miss out on learning.  But if we don't finish portfolio challenges that could affect our assessment and whether we move on to phase 3.

Repeating phases is pretty common and it doesn't really have a negative connotation to it. For most people if they have the time and are even not understanding everything 100%, then they are encouraged to repeat.  But with my long commute, I don't think I can handle 3 more weeks of it. So I better make sure I understand everything. I feel like after 8 days of phase 2, things started clicking, but I'm hoping they click enough for what I need to know.  I want to know the material and don't want to repeat. If it weren't for the traveling, I'd be all for repeating because I feel like additional learning is always better, plus it's fun.

Today I actually wrote code that used ajax without the help of a pair. I was proud of myself. Perhaps a little too proud since the code was maybe only 8 lines long.

Today was pitch day. Phase 3 students pitched different ideas and then we all voted. We voted as they went using our computers.  4 ideas were picked.  One guy, Michael, pitched 3 different ideas. I really liked all of his but didn't think the rest of the group would go for it. None of his were picked. I still want to let him know how much I liked his ideas.  One of his ideas dealt with fashion and outfits. Another dealt with fitbit and matching people up in an area that do the same thing. I actually asked him a question on that one if he looked into BodyMedia fit or BodyBugg but he hadn't and only said that fitbit had a nice API. Oh man now I forget his 3rd idea but it was also something that went right along with my hobbies.

Pitch day makes me really excited about my learning.  Another day that makes me excites is when they present their fully functioning web apps after only a week of working on them.

I'm excited for the group project but also scared out of my mind. Almost everyone in phase 4 that you talk to, mentions how at the end of phase 3 when they did group projects they slept about 4 hours a night. That just won't work for me plus I have a super long commute. I'm just so scared that my group will think I'm slacking. Maybe I can camp out on someone's couch to save 3ish hours a day.

at the train station

So since I started working solo near 5 PM I was going to catch the 6:56 train. But then I lost track of time and left late. I was trying to cut 8 minutes off of my 30 minute walk. Man that was rough. Actually by the time I left the building I think I had to cut 10 min off my walk.  I checked my phone twice to see how long it'd take to walk and when I had 13 minutes to walk, google maps said it'd take 19 minutes.  Then later I had 7 minutes to walk 10 minutes.  Then I missed the train by 1 minute!  I ran a little bit but it's super hard to run with a big messenger bag and skinny jeans fused to your lower legs. I would have probably made it if the last 5 intersections didn't have me waiting for a walk sign for what felt like forever.  You can tell I did a bit of running because I got some vigorous exercise for the day.  Too bad strava is always wrong in the city so I can't really tell what distance I ran.

Sorry this post jumps around but I typed things as I thought of them. I should be working on the train but it's so noisy with people laughing that I don't think that I can actually think to start a new assignment.

BTW it's been 1.5 hours since I got to the train station and my jeans are still fused to my calves from the sweat. My face was all red too when I got to the train station.

So at DBC, there are some wood blocks that are like jenga. People tend to try to stack them up and make towers. This morning before class officially started a few people were making a tower. I took some pictures. But then I took a picture when Clay was standing on the table. He had to stand on the table since it was so tall. My phone was a little delayed taking the picture so I got the tower actually falling. It's so funny to see all the facial reactions of everyone in the background of the picture.

While coding today I had a sudden realization and turned to the people beside me. They both noticed whatever gesture I was making and asked what was up. I informed them that the doctor appointment I made a month ago impacts group project presentations and I'd not only miss presenting but hearing what everyone else did. I'm so bummed about this.