Day 52: Final MEAN Project Week Continued

I'm making this entry earlier than usual. Today VT and I were suppose to get started coding the project and putting them all together so we can focus on the Black Belt preparation tomorrow. VT spent a couple of hours this morning working on the sprite while I worked more of the Black Belt material. I would have done more except the sprite job was a one-man job. Him and RS hijacked one of the offices cause they couldn't stand the noise out there and they really wanted to just focus today. I decided to study in there today and see which I like better. I prefer the main study arena. It is a little stuffy in here and there is a sense of isolation. I'll be sure to avoid studying there tomorrow.

After lunch VT and RS became consumed with their project. They had underestimated its difficulty. This entire bootcamp focuses on software but they are being ambitious and trying to create their own hardware component to upload their program into. I like their idea but I didn't think they'd have enough time to complete it since project week means only one week. But VT insists that this is how life is as a real coder so what else could I do to talk him down?

Without the sprite I can't do any of the coding for the day so I focused on the Black Belt stuff. Okay I admit I am doing exactly what I did for the Red Belt, taking one of the tests and doing it on my own pace. This stack was so hard and I need to go back and review a lot of material if I am going to pass the exam and that is going to take longer than five hours. I'll use it as a guideline for the retake on Friday. And who knows, perhaps I'll be given that exact test on that day and I could avoid the time pressure. Normally I'd be bothered by this but like I said earlier this stack was very hard and I needed more time and assignments to get this done. I am learning something from the preparation and SP showed me a great way to use factories as Angular's version of sessions. I'm also going to review the textbook VT has given me after the bootcamp is over.

I'm finished with the Black Belt material for the day and I'll be going home early. I suppose there is an agenda to that. VT has finished making the sprites for the game and he need to now just splice them all together and he needs photoshop for that. Neither of us have that installed in our computers and the version we found online was too poorly setup to do the things we need it to do. I do have it at home and I could complete that part from there.

Day 51: Final MEAN Project Week Continued

VT and I made some more progress on the project today, mostly thanks to his ability to locate and import documents and soundtracks. Half of the project is coding and the other half is presentation. We want to win and we're going to need to put on a show.

Today was sports day and neither VT or I felt like exercising but we still wanted to get out of the dojo and get some fresh air so we decided to bring our computers to the park and code in the shade. It's fall and the temperature was perfect for that activity. Coding Dojo could have done a better job picking a better office environment than the once we are at right now. I mean there are no windows except near the door and artificial lighting and air conditioning dominate the surrounding. That is not healthy. Most modern day businesses should know that little things like natural lighting go a long way to maximize productivity.

We had a good afternoon and afterwards a bunch of us went to have lunch at an Indian buffet. When we got back I completed the video that would be uploaded to our site. The instructor likes our idea and suggests that we publish our project for public usage after we complete it. That would be super fantastic for both professional attention and to impress our friends. I know VT is all about impressing girls, a feeling I don't oppose.

When I wasn't working with him I was working on the Black Belt preparation. I made only one good step today in that direction, which was a disappointment. VT is the first to remind me that I can't be like this in the dojo. If we're feeling let down and act like we already lost then we're not going to succeed in here. He does have a good point and normally I'd have high spirits for being here and building an exciting future but it does become hard to maintain that course of action when stuck on a complicated problem, with majority of your classmates abandoning efforts, and warnings for a future with no guarantees. 

I talk about having plans for the future but I don't go into details. There's a reason for that. I periodically reflect on my past behavior and I notice that I tend to set myself up for extravagant futures which lead me to make unrealistic goals and promises that I can't keep. I become too enamored by where I want to go and not focused enough on where I am currently am. Perhaps if I had done that more often I might have avoided some nasty moments. So I keep my mouth shut more often these days. Even now, I won't go into details yet with anybody but I will express fear that I won't live up to them. Even with all the preparation and resources I'm investing in it I've learned that nothing in life is guaranteed save death and taxes. I've had my share of misfortunes to learn that I am not special and there is always someone out there who is better than me at something. So I might end up doing all this and not seeing any return. 

I expressed that same fear to my brother prior to the bootcamp and him being the bigger risk-taker of the two of us told me that it shouldn't stop me from at least trying. Worst thing that could happen is that nothing happens and if that is true then I can say that I tried and make peace with where I am. Those words were enough to remove any fears in me and sign up for the bootcamp. Why shouldn't it remove any fears from me now. 

On the bright side I made a significant step today with the Black Belt preparation. I figured out where I went wrong with logging a user in and that ought to set me up for a better morning. 

Day 50: MEAN Stack Project Week

In case anybody was wondering I didn't email that friend last night. I got a little emotional in my writing and that made me think about the moments where that has happened. I usually regret sending those types of emails out and so I promised myself that I'd sleep it off and send it off the next day if I still feel it is a good idea. My friend and I are in good standings and I don't think that person would be offended by what I have to say but I think I'd still be embarrassed. I'm holding off on that, at least until something big happens.

VT's team won last weekend and they got some really nifty gadgets as their prize. Among them was a tiny Star Wars droid, as will be seen in the upcoming Star Wars movie.

This is the final week of the MEAN stack, thankfully, and I'm feeling more productive than I did for the LAMP stack final project. I enjoyed LAMP more than MEAN so imagine the irony in my statement.

VT and I laid out the plans for the week. He believes that we can complete the project in two days, giving me time to study and retake the Black Belt exam. He's also working on a different project with RS. He wants to fill his Github with as many projects as he can so he's working with two teams this week. We want to surprise our classmates and so we're remaining silent about the details until Friday.

We did some work and after lunch he shifted over to work with RS and I decided to work on the Black Belt preparation. That's been the brunt of today's activity. Tomorrow will be more exciting though.

Day 49: Black Belt Exam

Well today was a complete disaster, and I'm not just speaking about myself. The caffeine burnt me out and I slept past the alarm clock and light. I had to skip breakfast. We didn't have algorithms this morning and instead the instructor gave us free range to prepare and take the Black Belt exam when we were ready. A bunch of us left to get some breakfast from Starbucks. After that I spent about two hours trying to understand form validations with Angular before I resorted to a cheap and non-secure method. Then lunch came and I ate quickly in the kitchen, acting like I was a death row inmate eating his last meal. After lunch I sat down and began the test.

Some of the requirements were never discussed in the lectures that included: 1) saving a current user the same way you would with a session, 2) passing conditional data from the client-side controller to the view, 3) and tallying up scores. We had five hours to complete it but it took me two hours before I gave up. The instructor warned us that most of us would fail the first time but we should take it anyway for exposure sake. I was left feeling frustrated and anger fueled me. Most of my classmates felt the same way too and I felt like exercising or doing something to vent it out. A bunch of us went out to get dinner and drinks afterwards and it did calm me down, albeit leaving me a little unhealthier than I already am. We came back to the dojo to hang out some more. There are five of us left. Three of us are playing a game in the kitchen while VT is networking with students from the newer class, leaving me here to contemplate the week's events and my feelings towards it.

My relationship with MEAN can be described as a love-hate relationship. Several of my classmates are married and a couple of times I have heard the married men say that marriage is difficult and they've lost their heads more than once; but regardless, they don't regret getting married in the first place. MEAN is mean, but I'm willing to stick with it, I'm just burnt out mentally and physically.

The hackathon is tomorrow. I thought it was going to be in SF but VT made a mistake and it's actually in Sunnyvale at 9AM. I don't really feel like waking up early tomorrow and one of the instructors said that I should spent this weekend preparing for the project week. Still, I didn't want to go back on my word to VT. Then RS broke the silence and told him that he can't come on account of the importance of the weekend in preparation for the project week and that gave me the influence to tell him as well. He didn't like it but what could he do?

I see my friends from high school and college at least once a week but everything I see them it's like more time has gone by than it really has. I use to find them all annoying for one reason or another but spending everyday with the same people in the confined dojo space can take a bigger toll. Nobody is perfect and I spent too much time focusing on their imperfections and not enough on the real reason we got together in the first place. I guess it's about have the right perspectives, learning to balance expectations, and not relying on them entirely for personal growth. Much of that comes from within.

I'm thinking about emailing one of them and seeing what's up. They've got their own things going but at least I want to let the person know that I'm thinking about them and wish I could have tried harder to stay connected.

Day 48: Angular and Black Belt Preparation

It was a long and painful week but I think I'm finally understanding how Angular works. Last night I spent a couple of hours trying to understand the logic of the second Angular assignment and left defeated once more. I got in a little early this morning and the instructor was one of the first people I saw on the way in so I immediately asked him for help. It took him five minutes and he explained that I forgot to pluralize one of the variables, thereby messing the entire code. I couldn't help but laugh. This was one of those moments where something clicked in my head and things made a little more sense. Strength through struggle.

I survived another morning of algorithms and after that VT and RS asked me if I wanted to get coffee with them. We drove to a Safeway where Starbucks was served; I figured we could kill two birds with one stone here by picking up lunch and dinner to eat at the dojo. 

I never drank so much caffeine as I have in the bootcamp. I figured out years ago that caffeine makes me feel fantastic for about ten minutes before I crash and feel terrible for the remainder of the day. I told myself at the beggining of the bootcamp that I wouldn't resort to such tactics to stay awake and alert. However desperation kicked in and I found myself drinking coffee or coffee-related drinks a couple times each week. It turns out that caffeiene can be effective if I remain focused on a topic. Drinking then doing nothing can cause me to crash early but staying busy can cause a gradual decline. I got a grande cup but felt focused for the entire afternoon and neglected lunch until the second assignment was completed. 

After completing it VT, RS, and AD decided to do another coffee trip once more and asked me to come along. Individually they'd go to Starbucks but in a group they head out to a certain cafe with hot waitresses. I tag along most of the time in my attempt to remain socially active. When I'm there I sit and drink in silence while the guys try to hit on the waitresses. Occasionally I speak up but I don't know what to say. Today I walked in and one of them remembered who I was and called me out. I didn't think too much about that but the guys surrounded me and wondered what did I did to get their attention. This isn't the first time I've gotten some hot girl's attention without even trying and when my friends would ask me for details my usual response would be to say that I must have been drunk cause I don't remember what I did. The aftermath was hilarious though. 

The torments of the second assignment paved way for an easier time on the third assignment. I got started immediately and felt the same energy I felt with CodeIgniter. At 6:30PM VT asked me to drive him to a salon to get his hair done. I got to admire his metrosexuality. I got back and finished the third assignment in no time.

Tomorrow is the Black Belt exam. The instructor has made it optional cause he felt that most of us aren't ready for it. I still need to cover one more chapter and the two chapters I had to skip before I could say that I am ready for it but I'm still going to take it anyway to know what to expect.

I've finished a couple of hours earlier than usual so as a reward I get to go home earlier and sleep an extra hour tonight. 

Day 47: Angular

The MEAN Stack is arguably not the most popular stack we're on now. Everyone is off doing their own thing and even the instructors have downgraded to a more hands-off role. Many of my classmates haven't shown up in about a week and the one from Rhode Island went back to his state and will be completing the rest of the bootcamp from there.

I spent most of the day attending the final portion of the career counselor's presentation before I finally sat down and got to work on the second Angular assignment. There was no way I was going to do this all on my own and still have time to go back and finish up the earlier assignments. So I decided to follow the instructor's video demonstration. Even by following it, Angular is far from understandable.

This sums up the MEAN stack design

Earlier today the instructor laid out the description of how Angular is suppose to help developers set up their front-end design. It claims to be an MVC setup like CodeIgniter in LAMP but now it appears that the front-end and back-end have their own controllers. So it's more like MVCC. What!

I'm ending the day with half of the second assignment completed.

VT really loves this stack and claims that the instructors aren't really teaching us the way, as he's now seeking resources from outside the dojo. Perhaps when this is all over I'll do the same thing. Right now, I just really want to be done with this stack.

Day 46: Career Counseling and Angular

The dojo's career counselor came over from Seattle yesterday to talk about job searching. I didn't participate yesterday but I figure that I should show up today cause I'm more than halfway through the bootcamp and job hunting will be coming around real soon. Back in college I attended a good number of career counseling sessions that laid out the same strategies that she laid down today. I already know that networking is important, as well as keeping an up-to-date LinkedIn account and a clean resume that can be modified to fit different job descriptions. I tried to fight the boredom and felt like I was letting myself down by spending most of the day in this lecture instead of doing some actual assignments. The real interesting stuff came up in the last part of her session when she advised us to sign up on job posting websites as soon as we can because recruiters often look through them to find and screen candidates for potential positions. It would be ideal to have a job set up immediately after I graduate and so I need to set aside a day to pick out a couple of sites and set things up there.

By late afternoon I was free to begin the Angular material. The material looks easy and I would have finished the final assignment real quick if it wasn't for some tiny error that I can't locate. Most of the people are gone for the evening and I am getting sleepy. VT was around and I tried to ask him for help. He was willing to help me out but he insisted that I was doing everything wrong and then changed several lines of code that were needed to perform another task. I tried to tell him that but he wasn't listening. His changes didn't fix anything either and I told him that it was fine and I would just ask somebody else in the morning but he kept going at it for a while longer before he capitulated. I normally don't mind his antics but his persistence in the face of a problem neither of us could solve was just absurd. I was getting tired and I didn't care about completing the assignment any longer for the night.

Day 45: Intro To Angular

The weekend was unproductive. VT, a friend from high school, and I were out for most of Friday night and I slept in on most of Saturday afternoon. By the time I woke up and I had to meet a college friend for a concert he had invited me to. We drove about an hour to Concord for it and waited in traffic to get close enough to the pavilion only to be told by an officer that parking was full and we had to turn around to drive to Cal State East Bay to take a shuttle to get in. The concert had already started and it would have taken us an extra hour to get in and in our frustration we decided that it wasn't worth it any longer, so we headed back. We got some burgers and watched a movie at another friend's house that night.

Sunday came around and I came into the dojo for some work. My goal was to complete the Mongoose chapter. I figured that I won't catch up to the Angular material for Monday but it would have been close enough at least. That turned out to be a complete failure. VT and I were the only ones there all day and we worked together to speed through it and maybe make it to the next chapter. However neither of us got passed the first Mongoose assignment, which was to set up a database for storing user names and their quotes. I would have settled for completing just that before going home but we seriously couldn't tell what went wrong with our code. He resorted to reading material from outside the coursework and I just sat there staring at my screen, fighting the stress and feeling of hopelessness. He was determined to stay all night if he had to to get this assignment done but by 11PM I told him that I was done for the day. He criticized my dedication but I didn't care. I was out of it and was not looking forward to the next day. I felt bad for leaving him there to look for the answers by himself but if I stayed I wouldn't have done anything either way.

I slipped into bed and dreamt a dreamless sleep, which is the recurring pattern these nights. Imagine, I am so tired that I don't even dream any more. I stare at screens all day, I don't eat healthy any more, and I stopped my usual exercise routine; a cocktail for strange physiological effects.

This morning I woke up to a quite and dead home. There was an ant infestation in the kitchen and cooking breakfast had lost its appeal. I decided to pick up some breakfast at Safeway on my way to the Dojo and eat it there. On the plus side I was leaving home half-an-hour earlier than usual and I figure that I would beat traffic and make it to the Dojo with enough time to eat my breakfast in no hurry. Turns out that traffic is much heavier that earlier in the day and all that extra time I gave myself was spent standing still a little longer. By the time I picked up my breakfast at Safeway and got to the dojo the lecture had already began. Whenever I complain about traffic the usual response I get is to leave the house earlier. I'm sure I'm not the only person who complains about that and were told the same advice. Ironically this means that the earlier hours are just as clogged as the later hours. I bet if I open my mouth about this problem to anybody again they'll just tell me to leave the house earlier. I wonder if there will ever be a better solution to this problem.

So my morning got off to another rough start. After lectures we were sent off to begin the Angular chapter. Several of my classmates have already completed the Mongoose chapter so I asked two classmates for help on the assignment from the previous day and in five minutes they did what I struggled for five hours to do. A pile of weights were removed from my shoulders. Everything made a little more sense. I felt better. I got my motor running again.

The first assignment within an hour and I even had time to set up form validations for each name and quote entry. I could see a little CodeIgniter in this setup. Nice.

I thought about doing the rest of the Mongoose chapter that day but the instructor said that we needed to complete the Angular material within the next two days and if we're not done with the previous materials then we should just move forward regardless. I didn't want to initially but I needed to play catch up so I swallowed my pride and began my introduction to Angular. A good chunk of us had to do that as well.

Angular is a front-end framework for the MEAN stack. Nodes controls the runtime while Express operates the server but the data and all the products arrive on the front page in Angular format. It didn't make complete sense to me when I first heard about it, and it still doesn't now, but from the lecture assignments I followed it automates many common tasks like listing and searching without refreshing the page or hitting the "enter" key.

I spent the day reading the materials and doing sample problems. In the afternoon VT mentioned a hackathon in SF for that weekend and he suggested that I participate in since it will mean more exposure to the materials we're covering. I refused initially cause I usually spend the weekends catching up but after chewing it over I decided to participate. I need more exposure, which will pay off with future assignments, and I am always down for a trip to SF, especially if it means spending the night there.

Evening came and the first assignment came with it. I wanted to start it but I was feeling pretty edgy by then as a result of the stress. I needed to exercise. So I left early to go home and run a few laps around the area. It wasn't what I'm normally accustomed to but I needed it anyway. I'm ending the day a little better than I felt in the morning, with a renewed excitement for the following day. Bring it on.

Day 44: MongoDB And Mongoose

I'm feeling caught up here, almost. I ended last night with an incomplete Mongo assignment and went to sleep reminding myself to seek help for that the first thing in the morning. I arrived on time and we had algorithms again. I started off this bootcamp doing very well with algorithms each morning but right now I really don't care. I have exposure into what companies might be asking but I'm going to need more time to understand and prepare for writing them out when the time comes. The guys recommended a book, which I got, and I'll be spending my free time after this is all over reading that.

Don't have much time so I'll make this quick:

• Senior class graduated today
• Will spend this weekend working on databases in preparation for Angular that will begin next week
• VT wants to help me with my MEAN stack final project
• Friends called to hang out and going out with VT to meet them.

Bye!

Day 43: Socket.io and Mongo

I spent most of the day finishing up the sockets lecture. The first assignment of the day was a simple count app which is reminiscent of the count app we did with CodeIgniter. I finished it in about an hour. This app though was way cooler than its predecessor because of the inclusion of sockets, which allows us to see the numbers change on multiple screens. I felt like I was working with sessions again and my confidence grew for MEAN.

AD had a birthday today and RS brought in a cake to celebrate. I got to love the camaraderie that comes in this place.

We also planned on heading out for drinks in the evening.

After cake I got started on the next and final assignment of the socket chapter, which was to design a chat room. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be and I spent the entire afternoon setting it up with no success. The instructor had told us that by now we should be finished with sockets and mongo and should be on our way to completing Mongoose so we can be ready to deal with the Angular introduction that is set for tomorrow. VT frequently reminded me to pick up the pace and if I can't solve a problem just drop it and move on. I hate leaving things unattended but with the pressures of moving forward looming behind me I had to make the hard choice of forgoing the rest of the chatroom to move onto the next chapter, which I finally began in the late afternoon. I didn't get that far on account that we headed out to celebrate.

Coding Dojo is located in the industrial area of San Jose, forcing us to drive to the nearest bars and restaurants. However one of our classmates told us of a sports bar just walking distance from where we are. It is kinda hard to notice but there it is wedged between two office buildings. We hung out there for a couple of hours eating, drinking, and playing games. I struck up a conversation with a real estate owner who encouraged me to purchase up land as soon as I can, although I had a hard time understanding his reasonings.

We got back late and most of us took of for the evening. I stayed behind to work on the installation of the Mongo. By the time I got it up and running my brain hit a road block and I called it a night. I was still feeling a little tipsy from drinking so I passed the time by watching an episode of "Twin Peaks" on Hulu. Such a great show. Now it's time to get home and catch some sleep for tomorrow.

Day 42: Express and Socket.io (continued)

I think the stress is finally getting to me. Up until now it's been just tiredness, which we all feel when we do something for a long time. Exercise can tire us out but not stress us out. Now the stress is hitting me and it's manifesting in physical form: I'm twitching, blinking excessively, extra sensitive to loud noises, can't enjoy food, and can't sit still any longer. It didn't help that I drank a lot of caffeine this week.

Today my intent was to finish the socket.io material so I can begin the next acronym of the MEAN stack: MongoDB. It's like MySQL except it doesn't use a workbench like MySQL Workbench. I wish I could go into further detail but unfortunately I didn't make it there today.

On the plus hand I am finally picking up sockets. I was dreading it all week but it only took me a day to figure it out. I managed to complete one assignment and a quiz related to that before taking off to get much needed sleep. I got home last night at 1AM, I'm sleeping today at 11PM. That should help a little to balance out.

I should remind myself that I'm loving this. It's hard, one of the hardest courses I have ever taken and yet I love it more than anything I took in college and gaining so much confidence in my ability to pick up the latest tech requirements to get a job and do something amazing with my life. I spend the last few months of college partying, dreading the day I graduate and then figuring out what to do next with my life. Over at this bootcamp I'm only six weeks away from finishing this and even though I don't have anything planned for the near future I have never been more confidence that everything will turn out fine.

So now it's time for some sleep.

Day 41: Express and Socket.io

The stack got better. After spending an hour trying to read through the code I realized that it is set up the same way as CodeIgniter and their MVC framework. I swear, after that realization I brushed through a quarter of the material by the time the evening came. Now I'm caught up to today's lesson: socket.io.

Ever wonder how sites feed users real-time information or how AIM works? Until now most of the information in our sites updated when we hit the refresh button or when the HTTP briefly left the client-side page for the server-side page and then returned to the client page with the information the user was looking for. Imagine refreshing your AIM page every time you want to check if a friend sent you a message? It would get really annoying really fast. This is where sockets come in to the rescue.

I just started reading the lectures and so I don't entirely know how they work; that'll be the task for tomorrow.

Today was sports day and I was looking forward to getting out and throwing the frisbee around for an hour but someone misplaced them and the only ones who could do sports day were the ones who wanted to play basketball. I'm in here all day and I don't work out any longer, making sports day very valuable. The instructors said that they'll make it up for us tomorrow but I'm thinking about holding off until next week cause regardless of my desire to exercise I need to do some work around here. I know another classmate and I were disappointed about not going to the park.

After last week's brutal heat wave the weather is beginning to transition to colder conditions. I've grown accustomed to wearing shorts and having the air conditioner on for the last couple of months and today I had to adjust to the fact that it won't be necessary to be like that. I excused myself for an hour in the afternoon to change into pants. I've also began drinking more coffee and expressos, not just Red Bulls. I shouldn't be doing this but I am really desperate to stay awake. I've done a lot of things since the bootcamp began that I wouldn't normally do under different conditions. I'm going to be a developer after all of this is done, but at what cost?

In the evening VT, RS, AD, and I went out for a couple of hours to study at a coffee bar cause we couldn't be cooped up here any longer. I didn't get much work done on account of the loud music but I was entertained, which was what I needed to get past my caffeine withdrawals. These withdrawals and being confined to the same space with the same people for the last two months really making me irritable. I'm not even this close with my closest friends. At some point we need a few days apart.

After the bar RS dropped AD at his place and we returned to the Dojo. I covered most of the sockets lecture so I'll be spending tomorrow on the exercises. I like the reading but not the instructions it seems. I prefer to get my hands dirty and not waste any time by reading the instructions. It would be easier to just wing things, but I need to remain cautious about my approaches to new subjects here. I don't want to bite off more than I could chew.

VT is on the brink of taking a big bite (whatever that's suppose to mean). In his boredom he browsed ahead of the MEAN stack and discovered that what we are learning and struggling through right now won't mean anything once full OOP gets implemented. It is just like how we spent a week doing procedural PHP in the LAMP stack but once we started CodeIgniter the procedural stuff was quickly made irrelevant. I try to understand and justify Coding Dojo's reasons for teaching us stuff that won't mean much next week but VT can't help but question the way the Dojo's system is set up.

Day 40: Express

Man that weekend went by really fast. I woke up this morning thinking it was Tuesday. It's going to be Tuesday is a matter of minutes so I should make this quick.

This morning we started Express, a server-side program style written in Nodes. I suspected late last weekend that this Stack was more confusing than LAMP and today confirmed it. During lunch VT and RO mentioned Javascript as a language more suited for someone who is more on the creative side and PHP is for someone who is on the logical side. That makes total sense cause I am deeply missing the LAMP stack and I worry if this will be the same way with Rails.

It should go without saying that I didn't get make much progress today with the assignments. I didn't even get started with the assignment.

Night came and as much as I needed to study I got distracted with another long conversation with VT about America and our futures. We grabbed dinner afterwards where he attempted to civilize me by showing me the correct way to eat my meals. This video pretty much sums it up:

Americans are so uncivilized. I rebuffed that the British put too much emphasis on an old lady with a big family and no real political power.

I broke my rule again about not having caffeine and I'm tired but jittery as well. I should force myself to get some sleep but I really need to get some work done.

I apologize for the grammar errors you might see.

Day 39: Node.js

Fundamentals and OOP are done and now we're moving onto Node.js, or Nodejs as real developers call it (you'll get laughed at if you mention the 'dot' part). Node.js is a runtime environment for server-side application, a definition that I don't get but I've been using for the last half of the year. Before Nodes we had to run our javascript programs on our HTML browser but with this we can skip that part and run it on the terminal. My cousin had set up Nodes on my computer early on but I had forgotten what he told me about it until now. It makes it easier to run my javascript work.

This entire week VT has been pushing me to get started on my final MEAN stack project that won't be due until next month. I've been debating what it should be. Originally I had thought about an educational App but I felt like that wouldn't be good enough as I saw the more creative stuff others the previous class had done. During the Nodes lecture I started thinking back to my previous job at the startup and that one weekend where I participated in a game-themed hackathon. My group used a javascript framework called Cocos2d to create a simple game. They did most of the work cause I wasn't able to figure out how the framework operates but the thought of it lingered and I told myself that I'd make time in the future to properly teach myself Cocos2d. Javascript is the main language of this stack so why not use this opportunity to correctly learn the framework. So I asked the instructor if that would be a workable idea and he said yes. 

Lunch came and we went out as a group to Smoking Pig along with Michael Choi, one of the founders of Coding Dojo. All throughout lunch I kept thinking about Cocos2d and as soon as we got back I got to researching it. It was a little easier to understand it this time after many more hours of programming. I neglected my Nodes assignment and now I'm behind again. Fortunately I'll be here this weekend. 

Right now I need to run an errand. It appears I owe RS' friend a new blanket. 

Day 38: More OOP

The work is the same as yesterday. It's all in preparation for tomorrow's introduction to Nodes. I have an idea what Nodes is but not enough to give a valid explanation.

Some of us tried a different approach to studying and went to a coffee shop after lunch for a couple of hours. I try to avoid studying in loud environments where distractions would everywhere however I'm always telling myself that life is about collecting new experiences and I've never studied in a coffee shop before so I tagged along. It was actually a productive period and I got a couple of assignments done in less than two hours. The noise was not that big of a deal. It was also a great bonding experience.

After we returned to the Dojo most of us went home and it broke down to just me and VT. By evening we were beaten down and didn't feel like coding any more for the night. We spent an hour talking about life, fashion, and travels. I came to the Coding Dojo for professional and personal growth and moments like this certain enlightened me to a bigger world out there.

Day 37: Object-Oriented Programming

I've been at this bootcamp for five weeks and I noticed that I've been getting out of shape. A combination of eating poorly, along with spending most of the day sitting in a confined office space and not having enough time to exercise is taking a toll on me. So for the first time since the first week I decided to tag along for the game day at the nearby park. It felt amazing to get out there for an hour and throw the Frisbee around with one of the new students. We grabbed some lunch on the way back and my noon I felt better and was ready to tackle the day's workload.

The main bulk of the week is OOP. I thought it be similar to the OOP work we did in PHP but not that much. OOP in Javascript felt more like Ruby. Once I realized that the work wasn't that hard. By now I'm on track with the schedule. So it gave me some time to goof off with my classmates.

I finished early and now I'll be getting home earlier and getting an extra hour of sleep tonight. I checked the assignments for tomorrow and it looks like it'll be getting more interactive. Sweet.

Day 36: Fundamental Javascript And Object-Oriented Programming

Wow did I need that three day weekend. I think we all did. After five weeks of nonstop coding it felt fantastic to get out of here, sleep in, and do some other stuff besides stare at countless lines of codes. I stayed home most of Saturday and on Sunday I picked up VT and we went to RS' house for a party. That was one crazy party and we ended up sleeping over. Monday I came into the Dojo briefly to do some fundamental Javascript in preparation for today but I was still in vacation mode and left after completing the first assignment. I woke up the next day in a grumpy mood, not wanting the three day weekend to end. When I checked my phone I saw an email from my German friend, telling me about what he's been up to the last few months, that he misses me, and that he is still holding onto the promise we made to each other to travel the world together. It means a lot to get a message from him and that was enough to wipe away the grumpiness, conclude my break, and face the new challenge of the MEAN stack.

MEAN stands for Mongo, Express, Angular, and Nodes. Each new stack gets incrementally harder but when we master it we'd be doing less work for better results. That was the main point we were told by the new instructor during today's introduction.

We would be spending the next two days completing fundamental Javascript materials since they will lay a crucial role in this stack, the same way PHP was important in the previous stack. HTML and CSS will still be used as before and will be in the following stack but that's universal while Javascript is emphasized especially here. The best part of using Javascript compared to PHP is that it is even-driven rather than procedurally driven, meaning our projects will have a more natural flow to them. The instructor used the analogy of having two roommates, one PHP and the other Javascript. On the day you're out of town and expecting a package to come in you ask PHP to sign for it when it arrives. PHP agrees to do this favor for you and he proceeds to wait at the door until the package arrives. The next time this situation arises you ask Javascript to pick it up for you and rather than waiting around for the package he does other tasks around the house and will only go to the door when the package arrives. That's how Javascript is much better off, allegedly. I'd just have to find out for myself.

We spent most of the pre-bootcamp working on Javascript so when we were assigned Javascript fundamentals that meant covering object-orientation. I spent most of the day covering classes and object instances. It was the same way with PHP, now I just need to realign myself to the Javascript way of doing it.

Coming here it felt like a brand new year of school with a new class entering, new instructors and TA's, and my class moving up to more advanced topics and responsibilities. My class got moved to a different section of the office and we rearranged our stuff like we were moving into the dorms. I mentioned earlier the student in the hybrid program who'd be joining us on this stack. Turns out that she was really behind all of us that she is starting up with the new class instead. So that's that.

Weeks ago AN showed me Semantics UI, a front-end framework similar to Twitter Bootstrap but apparently offering more features. For this stack we thought it would be fun to switch to Semantics. So in the following days I'll be describing my experience with it. I already love Bootstrap so I want to know if Semantics could top that off.

It's after 10PM and I finished off my activities with object instances, trailing behind the more interactive features. I'm going to take off soon but I'm leaving in a good mood. Coding bootcamp is a roller coaster but it's a roller coaster ride I love and wouldn't trade for anything else right now.

Day 35: One More Thing

One More Thing: I passed my Red Belt exam!!!

This weekend is getting of to a really great start.

Day 35: LAMP Stack Completion and Celebration

As of today we are finished with the LAMP stack.

The class spent this morning completing the final touches for their projects. As usual I just did the AJAX and API assignments and I was slowly getting the hang of it. For lunch most of us went out for pizza and VT and I spent most of that time arguing over the ethics of AI. My belief was that the creation of AI is inevitable and should be embraced as part of our evolution while VT believes AI is dangerous and should not be embraced because it would mean the inevitable extinction of the human race. Nerd talk as usual. 

After lunch the teams presented their work. None of them finished their projects but came very close. One group swept up everyone with fully implemented API's and live-updates of information for the user to access. No doubt that they won. 

After the presentations the instructor congratulated us for finishing the LAMP stack and said that we could take the rest of the day off if we wanted. Monday is labor day which means no class so we'll begin the MEAN stack on Tuesday. So with this three day weekend he advised us to start brushing up on the AJAX and API chapter since they will play a bigger role in the new stack. 

Some students have already taken off to begin their three day weekend. AN went to Berkeley in the morning to see his girlfriend while RO went back to Rhode Island to be with his family and others left to relax with friends and relatives as well. I decided to spend the rest of the day finishing the AJAX and API chapter before heading home resting up for tomorrow's venture into SF. However the ones who didn't already take off decided to go out and have a celebration. So I gave up and went to Mountain View to have some good food and drinks and not think about coding for a while. After we finished most of us still wanted to celebrate and I suggested that we go to the Museum of Computer History. I remembered that VT had wanted to go there and I figured that there was no better time than right now. It was a neat experience of seeing computers evolve from ancient measuring systems, to large mechanical units, to smaller electrical units, and finally to the portable smart phones and tablets we use today. We even go to see Apple-1. 

Apple-1: The first Apple computer signed by Steve Wozniak 

Throughout our entire afternoon of celebration VT was fascinated from everything we saw. Since he arrived five weeks ago he's been spending most of his time in San Jose where everything is industrialized and there didn't seem to be anything to do around. Then we took him to downtown Mountain View and he was amazed at how conveniently close everything is. It is just like in London where everything is compacted and walking between locations is convenient. After Mountain View we went to the Museum and he went crazy at the sign of the Tesla charging stations. Working at Tesla is his dream job and he would love to move here if he could get a job at the company. Watching him get fascinated at the sight of things that locals like myself take for granted was like taking a child to DisneyLand.

After the museum we drove back to the Dojo and called it a night. VT and I agreed to meet there tomorrow to head out to SF together. Like London, SF is compacted and it isn't necessary to have a car to get around town and the best places are often short walks away. We both love that about SF and we're looking forward to the day's events and the three day weekend. On top of that RS invited us to a BBQ at his house on Sunday. And even though there is no class on Monday we agreed to meet at the Dojo on Monday to wrap up the AJAX and API assignments so we'll focus completely on the MEAN stack on Tuesday. That's two day of no coding and much needed rest. It's not healthy that most of us think of code even in our dreams and hanging out, seeing friends and loved ones will alleviate all that stress and make us better prepared for the new stack. 

Day 34: Dojo Bug

The outbreak, now known as the Dojo Bug, is still active and a lot of people didn't show up today just like yesterday.

I forced myself to get out of bed earlier this morning so I could make it to the Dojo early as I told myself I would when this all started. It wasn't easy but I managed to get into the car half-an-hour earlier than I have been doing these last couple of weeks. Traffic is heavy each morning and I always find myself stuck in traffic. I thought that if I could get up earlier I'd be able to avoid that and get to the Dojo in a shorter time. However traffic would not let up. No matter how early I get on the road there are still traffic jams to deal with. In those moments where I am sitting still on the highway I start wishing that the city had a better public transportation system. Years ago one of my friends was studying abroad in Munich and I went to visit him for two weeks. One of the things that amazed me about that city was their train system that took passengers almost anywhere in town and at a cheap price. Owning a car was not necessary to be productive over there. I came home with a better appreciation for public transportion and had hoped to make it a habit of taking the bus more often as a way of avoid traffic and do my part in keeping the environment clean by removing my car from the road and alleviate traffic congestions. Unfortunately Americans have a love affair with their cars and the road that public transportation isn't as funded or advanced as Germany's. So pragmatism kicked in and I was back on the highway, waiting to move a couple of feet every minute.

Today's task was the same as yesterday's. CB had already done most of the work with the database setup and API listings that I told the group that it would be better that I just work on the AJAX and API assignments so I might actually understand what they are doing. They agreed and I spent the day working on that stuff. Most of that time was spent reading and rereading the chapter so I could understand how those things worked. For lunch VT, RS, AN, and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant. On our way back VT pointed out all the SUVs and other large cars on the road. It kind of hit a tone with me after being stuff in traffic this morning. I chuckled and said that only in America do you see stuff like this.

After lunch I finished reading and finally got down to coding. Practice makes perfect and I feel like I am slowly getting the hang of this. I was dreading this stuff all week but once I get moving it doesn't look as bad.

I took a break in the early evening to play ping pong with some of the guys and it was a certain stress reliever. I've been so uptight about this week that I am forgetting the things I do to make me forget the real world, even for a brief period. I can't even remember the last time I played a video game.

The day ended with me trying to take the iTunes API and render an artist's demo music video on my screen. VT tried to help me a little but even he was out.

As I am sitting home and typing the day out I can't help but have a feeling of uncertainty flow through me. I am doing this bootcamp because I don't want to hold off any longer on becoming a programmer and finally doing the things I want to do with my post-college young life. I love what I am doing and I want to make a career out of this. I also want to travel, meet new people, go on heart-pounding adventures and push myself to limits where I will see the man I truly am underneath the look and talk. Looking at my past I noticed that I tend to make excuses for not going out and doing the things I said I would. The excuses would either be logistical or superficial but either way I kept holding off, promising myself that I'd do them later until enough time passes by that they get pushed aside as a young and reckless fantasy. Among my excuses were that I was still in school, or that I needed to raise more money, or that I made a promise to a friend I still needed to fulfill, or my resume isn't impressive enough, or that I haven't acquired the skills I need to attempt something big. I promised myself that once I get these problems taken care of I'd go out and do all those things I want to do. But will I? Won't I just make another excuse for why I shouldn't do it yet? Maybe the money I raised isn't enough, maybe I need to make emergency payments, maybe my resume is still pretty small, or maybe what I learned at the Coding Dojo wasn't enough for the jobs I'm applying for. History is cyclical, it repeats itself; every generation promises itself that it won't make the same mistakes as their predecessors and yet it happens. How many times have people said "never again" just moments before it happens again?

Perhaps I need a break. All I've been thinking about this last six weeks is coding. This weekend I'll celebrate the completion of this stack by not doing any coding. One of my friends invited me to hang out with him in SF on Saturday. SF always relaxes me. I've also asked VT to tag along. Hopefully he can make it.

Day 33: Outbreak

The week the Dojo has been facing a cold outbreak that is causing everybody to take time off. Many students didn't show up today and the ones who did were coughing and sneezing all day and left earlier than usual. Needless to say that even with our entire team present none of us were in good health status. Even the instructor didn't show up. Our group did what we could with correcting our Github problems and coding the AJAX and API materials but with our weakened state everybody took off earlier than usual. I didn't even like coding most of the day. At some point I got way to grossed out by all the coughing and sneezing that I relocated to the meeting room. The room was large, well ventilated, and had a colder climate than the main office area and the only other guy in there was still healthy so I felt safe for now. For lunch we went to a Vietnamese restaurant where VT and I accidentally switched our orders and I ended up eating imitation crab, which I could potentially be allergic to. The last time I ate it I suffered a hive outbreak. The real stuff I can eat with no problem.

Nobody got much work done all day and we were all just wishing for this stack to be finished so we could get moving to MEAN. I came back home and didn't see any indications of a hive or other allergic reaction. I'm feeling light headed and tired but that could be stress. I need to get to sleep early.

God I hope I don't get sick too. I cannot get sick. I had three months prior to the bootcamp where I did nothing and could have gotten sick without any plans being disrupted. That would have been acceptable but not right now. Please not now.

Day 32: LAMP Project Delayed

Today had to be a complete failure. I overslept and got in there late, which doesn't matter this week because this is project week and the instructors have stopped lecturing so we'd have complete freedom to get our LAMP stack projects going. CB was the point man for our project and with him sick we were in complete disarray over how to approach everything. We spent the entire morning trying to figure out a problem on Github and after the two other guys took off for sports and lunch. I was left alone and with no idea of what to do next I decided to work on the Red Belt exam. I took a brief brake for some cheap lunch and then resumed. By the time they got back they caught me working on the exam instead of doing any work, which I was a little embarrassed of but then again I really had no idea what I should be doing. After we got sorted out they told me to work on the controllers for the pages I'm working on. I sat down to get to it but again I was caught up on trying to make Github work. For some reason our project doesn't recognize me as a contributor. The two guys decided to leave early today and after they left I gave up and went back to the Red Belt exam. I am glad to finish it. The first time I took the exam I had option C, the second time I had option A, I hope that on Friday I would get option B. Otherwise this had all been just practice.

After that I left early too.