I have squirrels and they're at a rave.
As I was looking through possible ideas for my personal website, I was drooling over this one last August. I creep on her site every so often because she’s awesome and I’m glad she kept the old version! I did notice something looking through there that I’ll definitely be taking a look at as I try to play around with React in the future: https://medium.com/learning-new-stuff/building-your-first-react-js-app-d53b0c98dc
In keeping with the events of the last few days, I went to start my car to drive home for Christmas today and I got an error that it was not connected to the network. Went out to the car to find that it didn’t even have enough power for interior lights. It has been about 4 and a half hours and so far I’ve gotten the lights to work in the attempts to get it started. I have both my jump starter battery pack and the neighbor’s battery charger involved at this point.
Continue reading “Merry Christmas?”
Alright, so I feel stupid today. Someone mentioned a startup weekend they’d done and a participant in their group using Inkscape for a mockup and I was curious what it was. Once I learned it was a free tool for visualizations like SVGs, I thought, “Oh! I need to add this to my web dev how to site!” Joke’s on me, it’s already linked there. How embarrassing for me. 😀 The two days in which I wrote that site are a complete blur that I clearly don’t remember at all. However, I did follow that with making marketing give us SVGs for every graphic we have to use in our dashboards now and the logos are all so crisp and clear now. It’s fantastic.
If you aren’t quite sure what SVGs are and how they work, I wrote up a nice little overview from a development perspective here: https://sarahmaas.github.io/how_to/tools.html
Inkscape is free and open source software under the GPL. 🙂 That said, there’s no reason not to go ahead and check it out for yourself: https://inkscape.org/en/
No one is ever really prepared to start a degree in CS, it would seem. This has been a recurring theme for me, watching the intro classes in my program, and it’s not always in the way you might think. Sure, for many it’s a wild new concept that’s very challenging but you also have students who have been at it awhile and are just seeking the piece of paper. Even among the latter, there’s often a wide variety of skill and humility/willingness to learn. Continue reading “So you think you want to be a computer scientist…”
I just got back from a four day weekend in Portland. Since I have a good friend in the program to stay with, I get to make the trip out there into a mini-vacation and I love it. Her people tend to be my kind of people and it’s so great and so relaxing. Someday we may even figure out if her roommate and I are related too. 🙂
I’m really only even casually looking at these because I do have a job that I like with a team that I love. I’m in it for the networking mostly. I am, however, genuinely interested in learning more about companies in attendance – what they are about, what sort of development they do, and what long term opportunities they offer. Naturally, I’m also working on my own interview skills throughout all of this. No one ever wants to stumble into the situation of needing a job and being terrible at interviewing! CS interviews are hard enough without the additional hurdles of the social part of the process.
A classmate and former group member noted that I was really “on point” with a specific company and I told him, “the trick is to not give a shit,” meaning don’t be afraid of failing. When/if you are looking to make a big career change like most of my classmates are, it’s hard to remember that it’s ok to fail. Not everyone is going to love you and that’s perfectly normal! It’s not that you don’t care because you don’t want a job offer from them, but an interview is as much for you to interview them as it is for them to interview you. You don’t want to end up somewhere that you are going to be miserable. So, with that being said, I have a few quick tips for any interview you find yourself in:
As an added bonus, once I was being interviewed by [a company] and they gave out some interview prep questions and I made myself a crib sheet based on their questions. I’ve never nailed phone interview questions quite like I felt I did that time, but I still lacked confidence and it showed. They interviewed me again several months later and offered me a job but I had to decline on account of the pay. However, this crib sheet knowledge has stuck with me since then. If you have the opportunity, make one!
As the quarter comes to a close and the start time for my algorithms exam loomed ahead, I realized last night just how exhausted I really am. I thought I was burned out after spring term but as it turns out, there’s a mental exhaustion that’s stronger. I must describe the last two weeks as a perfect storm between work and school.
I was very much not prepared for what I was in for, but such is life and I’m glad I didn’t take either of my classes alone. I knew going in what I needed for each grade, so I had a hard time motivating myself to study for my algorithms final. Motivation finally struck, but I studied more than I actually spent time putting things on my cheat sheet and then forgot things of course.
I’m so relieved that the quarter is over and am looking forward to a month of relaxation and time to learn some new things. 🙂
Next week is the showcase for school and we have the opportunity to make a poster showing off something we’ve done. After the quarter I’ve had, I was just at a complete loss for what to do with it. Turns out this is what it took to get past it – I present “the life of a developer, as told in memes”:
I got so mad when I was spending a lot of money on LLR and the leggings didn’t quite fit right and were super poorly constructed. That sick day when I noticed that last May was the start of a summer of sewing my own clothes. 🙂 I don’t have anything besides my Halloween costume that I’ve completed since, but I haven’t really had the time and you only really need so many clothes right?
Leggings are hard. Is it so much to ask for ones that are not see through, don’t ride up/down, fit well, and don’t cost a fortune? Turns out it’s not if you make them yourself but otherwise not a chance. I messaged one of my best friends from college that day and asked her about the leggings pattern she’d used because I knew it was very popular on Facebook. It’s Peg Legs by Patterns for Pirates and it’s free. They have even more step by step instructions for pegs than what’s in the pattern itself on their blog as well.
This is the pattern and all related add ons – all free – and I’ll only make them with the contoured waistband now. 🙂
I have to add that for some people, pegs just don’t fit. YMMV, so I’ll offer this alternative. I have never made them, but this is one that a lot of people love that’s also free but requires a code from their Facebook group.
https://5outof4.com/product/ninja-pants/
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday with my family. It has always been an event with them, not just a meal. So much so that I was Black Friday shopping with my mom 5 years ago – myself less than a week post-appendectomy and her having just had her chemo port inserted. We are very appreciative of the transition to online sales and don’t go out anymore. 🙂
I still enjoyed it this year, but it wasn’t without some painful reminders. I didn’t realize going into it just how much pursuing a postbacc degree in CS half time would consume my life. I spend a lot less time than some of my peers on actually doing the classwork and I still feel like I’m drowning on a regular basis. My friends have all been pretty great and understanding throughout the process but I’m realizing now that most of my family just doesn’t get it. Grandma even made the comment this morning during breakfast of, “So, what are you going to do when you get home?” I just laughed, and she said, “I suppose sit on your computer.” “Yeah. It’s not because I want to; it’s because I have to.” Work, do homework, eat, sleep, feed the cat. Rinse, repeat. I thought all my years of experience with school would have prepared me, but I was wrong. I’ve come to accept that it’s a sacrificial time of my life that I just have to get through. I swear I’m not intentionally ignoring anyone but I’m just forgetful because I have too much going on right now. :'(
All that said, I am extremely thankful for the friends I’ve made in the program that keep me sane and on track on a daily basis. I couldn’t do it without them.