Day 59: Hack The Moon

I overslept and arrived to the dojo an hour late. I fixed the problem I was having the previous night and got past the long lecture sections before having my phone interview with the recruiter. She couldn't go much into detail about what is expected of me in the job and the interview was just a screening. She asked me some generic questions about my education background, work experience, and the coding bootcamp and she said that she'll pass my information onto the employer. If they are interested then they'll let me know.

I spent the rest of the day finishing up the Sinatra chapter. After completion I messed around for a couple of hours before VT showed up and we all left to the hackathon. Tonight was just an intro that lasted only a couple of hours. The event is called Hack The Moon and we're going to design a project that is related to space exploration. After the introduction we talked about what to do and we decided to focus on making a moon version of google map. VT suggested the idea and how to approach it. We parted and VT and I got some dinner at Denny's and now we're back at the dojo for the night. I'll have to get some sleep soon if I hope to be up and ready to go by 8:30AM.

Day 58: Database Migration

I'm still on Sinatra and today we took a turn to handling databases through migration. Migration allows users to manipulate data on the terminal and then transfer it to the schema that is represented in Ruby. Setting it up for Sinatra was a little tricky but once I got that set up it felt like Rails, which is the entire point.

Past that I didn't get that far in the chapter today. I wasn't really feeling too pumped up. I was productive in the morning and then after lunch I took a nap and kinda lost my focus after that. I got a couple of assignments done and now it looks like the next 50% of the chapter will be focused on lectures instead of assignments. I'm almost tempted to go home a little early today, nearly everyone else has.

VT said that there will be a hackathon this weekend called "Hack The Moon" and he asked me if I wanted to come. I quickly agreed and it will begin tomorrow, meaning that I already got my weekend planned. We're encouraged to do hackathons cause it gives us the opportunity to apply our training to a real-life scenario, network, and get free stuff. I know that every time VT does one he comes back on Monday with a new story to tell and a different approach to the material. So I'm looking forward to that. It will be intensive though and I should use tonight to get some rest.

Tomorrow VT, two other people here, and I will in full mood for the entire weekend. I should bring some clothes in tomorrow so I'll sleep in. That would be the best since the event is being hosted nearby.

In regards to the job hunt I got an email today from a recruiter asking for a phone interview tomorrow. The job she wants to talk about is for an IT role. It doesn't sound like much coding is involved or up my field but it couldn't hurt to talk about it. Worst thing that could happen is that I realize that it's not a good fit and turn it down.

Day 57: Sinatra

You know you got it made when you get a framework named after you. Introducing Sinatra, named after Frank Sinatra. That point was driven to us when we started the Sinatra chapter after Collections and Blocks and the first section we cover is a video of Frank Sinatra singing "These Foolish Things".

The whole point of the Rails stack is to learn Ruby on Rails but the instructors felt we needed a stepping stone to ease the transition, which is where Sinatra comes in. The instructors said that it will act as a pseudo-Rails framework but after going through the LAMP stack I thought it felt more like CodeIgniter. So needless to say that I didn't complain and went back to having fun like it was the start of the bootcamp and LAMP was my domain. What more could I say about that?

On a funnier note today I asked to join in on a ping-pong game between some hardcore players. Since this game is king in the dojo we are bound to have players who are experts after months of playing. During one of the rounds the AD hit the ball so fast that I couldn't react fast enough to it and it hit me on the left cheek. I didn't mind it but it certainly caused everyone to laugh. After the game I went back to code and he asked me to call up MA to play in my place. When I got back to my desk I told that guy to go to the ping pong table and he told me to tell AD that he should do something vulgar to himself, silencing our entire corner. Did he just say that? And with style and grace he took off for the day. The perfect execution made me respect his vulgarity. 

Around 7PM I slowed down and decided to concentrate on applying to more jobs. As of today I am searching for jobs through the following sources:

• Indeed.com
• LinkedIn

I will expand to more search sites in the following week. On Indeed I found two more open positions and submitted my resume and cover letter to the recruiter. The jobs I am applying for are contract positions. I choose contract because they sound like a great start in this field. They are short-term and gives me a chance to sample a company to see what I like and what I want to expect from working full-time. Perhaps even a contract could transform into a full-time position. 

It's getting late and VT fell asleep on the chair again. He's really no good to himself in this state and should use this time to sleep but he still persists on being here. Not sure if he's being persistent or stupid. Perhaps a little of both. 

Day 56: Collections And Blocks

VT has been telling me of a growing number of our classmates who are discontent with the way the material is being presented to us. I know that the system isn't perfect and there could be a bigger bang for the buck but the bang was better than none at all and I didn't want to take anything for granted. So I wasn't as adamant as he was. He told me that he was spending the last couple of days reading Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial rather than following the material. He was reading the second edition and highly recommended it to me and I surprised him when I showed him the third edition I had been reading for two months before the bootcamp. He switched over to the newest edition and he had to say that the way it was presented was more effective than the way the dojo did it. I had to disagree since I spent two months reading it and didn't understand much until I went through this whole experience.

The day was spent doing more Ruby. It was easy but just tedious, like some of the early PHP assignments. But today did feel a bit demoralizing; most of the class didn't show up today. There was me, VT, RS, and AN who were hear for a good chunk of the day. The rest either didn't show up or took off early.

At 10Am I had a phone conversation with a career counselor from Coding Dojo's Seattle branch where she gave me tips on how to improve my resume so as to stand out more distinctly. Also in the morning I got an email from a college friend asking me if I could meet him for lunch some time in the near future; we agreed on Tuesday next week. Not sure if that part means anything at all, but I just felt like adding that little part of the day.

It's less than an hour until midnight and it's only VT and I from our class who are left. I'm about ready to call it a night but he insists on staying longer to code and prepare for tomorrow. As much as I sympathize with him I don't have the strength to follow him right now. I'm going to get some sleep. Later.

Day 55: Ruby And TDD

I had a good break from coding this weekend. On Saturday I went to Davenport Beach to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was fun and he got a little carried away with the celebration and everybody had to look after him and make sure he got home without making a mess. I slept in on Sunday and didn't really begin my day until afternoon. After some rest, tv, and healthy food I finally buckled down and prepare for job applications. I updated my resume, opened up an account with Indeed and submitted resumes to a bunch of positions. Finding a job is difficult and it will be important that I start right now with three weeks left on the clock. VT recommended submitting 10-20 resumes a day but I think I'll submit 10 per day for now. Job hunting always filled me with a sense of dread because of the uncertainty but this time it's being countered with a sense of empowerment. Prior to the bootcamp I'd apply to a limited number of jobs each week cause many of the positions asked for skills that I never even heard of, until now. I looked through 10 positions and I felt confident submitting stronger resumes to those positions.

I woke up this morning earlier than usual and got some good news in my email inbox: I passed my Black Belt Exam!!! I felt like a conquerer as I was preparing for my day and there were some congratulations said when I walked into the dojo.

A new class began today and my class has moved once again to the back of the dojo. There are less than ten of us showing up on average each day, the dedicated ones. The others have either dropped out or doing this from home. I don't like seeing this cause it affects morale. I mean we all paid to be here. 

Today we begin Ruby on Rails. I had struggled with learning that for almost two months before starting the bootcamp. It got to the point where I looked for every excuse for not heading to the library. So when the bootcamp started I thought that the instructors had some special way of presenting it to us that will make it easier for us to understand. Turns out that there was no big secret. I just needed to begin coding simpler material and logging in hundreds of hours until I understood what I was doing and was ready to move onto bigger subjects.

There were two chapters covered today: the first on installation and the second on the Ruby language and TDD, test-driven development. I've been doing Ruby since last year and Rails for two months so installation was quick and so was the first half of the second chapter. TDD was a topic I was familiar with, it was the process of automating test cases, saving developers hundred of hours of doing it themselves. I didn't like doing it during my independent study but after three months of coding the buildup made it easier to understand. I've heard since last year that Ruby is pure OOP but that never made much sense to me until now. By being pure OOP it becomes easier to build up code and pass attributes to subclasses and superclasses. 

It's the end of the day and I'm only two short assignments away from finishing the chapter. I'm getting off to a great reunion with Rails.

I'd go on but I still need to submit more resumes tonight. 

Day 54: MEAN Project Presentation And Black Belt Retake

Man did today begin with a thrust. I barely walked into the dojo when the instructor posted a message that we'll be presenting in one hour and VT was late and telling me to piece everything together on my own. It was tricky but I finally got it down.

So what is this big project that we've been keeping a secret? We made a game based on the new Star Wars movie. Using PhaserJS we created a cheap game. Overall it was a terrible game with the only redeemable quality was the sprite we created specifically for the game. We expect that early on and on Monday we thought that we can compensate further with theatrics. Presentation counts and I suggested that we wear matching Star Wars shirts. He was cool with the idea but last night everyone found out and the jokes began that it deterred him. Wish he could have told me that sooner before I purchased the shirts.

The presentation went by quickly and I hid one of the errors with an allegory. The background shifted as the character climbed up the cave and I used it was an allegory for his ascension from the darkness of the cave to the surface and the light. I hope I wasn't being too dark. We finished quickly and watched the others present much better projects. 

We discussed this afterwards and VT took some blame for this. He tried being ambitious by working on two projects and one project turned our terrible and he didn't even present the other project because it was remained incomplete. Jack of all trade, master of none. 

After the presentations the instructor offered to give retakes for the Black Belts. Most of us didn't pass it last week but after the presentation we just wanted to relax. Many of us took off for a late lunch while others stayed and played games. I still wanted to take it but delayed it was much as possible. I did want to relax like the rest of them but I knew that I'd be bothered by leaving this task incomplete so at 3PM I buckled down and took the test. 

Five hours later I am finished. It was intimidating initially but once the feeling passed I completed 90% of it before submission. That should be enough. Even if I fail at least at this moment I feel accomplished.

I'm ending this day and this stack on a good note. It was the hardest stack so far and I struggled everyday to keep up but I persisted and made enough of a breakthrough to finish decently. After the bootcamp this stack will be the focus of my professional growth. 

For now I celebrate the weekend with a good start. The beach awaits!!!

Day 53: Phaser JS And The Final Project

We're not going to finish the final MEAN project. VT and I spent the entire evening trying to code up the project. It looked easy in theory but application is another thing. We just need more time. We'll have something tomorrow to present but we'll have to be honest with everyone and say that we couldn't complete it. I think I'll work on it during the residency. It does have the potential to be something worth deploying and showing off to future employers.

Two heads are better than one is the saying and I wouldn't have gotten this far without VT on my team. Now we'll face the music tomorrow. Hopefully we can at least put a show on for the others. We have something small in mind for that.