The Other Me

"Success isn't always about 'greatness'. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work gains success.Greatness will come." ~ Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

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2015 In A Nutshell

At the beginning of 2015, I did not know anything about mobile development -- Objective-C or Swift, nor did I own a Twitter account. The main reason I used the computer was to check my email and occasionally update my Facebook and tumblr. Fast forward a year later and I have have accomplished more than I could've imagined. During the summer of 2015, I went out of my comfort zone and went to my very first women in tech meetup. It was an eye opener and allowed me to build confidence in my new skill; I went to an algorithm meetup for women who code and was surprised by how much I contributed. In October 2015, I participated in my first hackathon. There were 29 of us and my group of three won the Kate Spade Award for coming in first place for the best women in tech app. In November of 2015, I went on a tech crawl (a bar hop for tech companies), and won first place for the most tweets and active engagements for the day (I do believe I won a trip to Texas in August 2016 for a future 20 / 20 Shift event).

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Odd (wo)Man Out

At the beginning of this unit at my fellowship, we were introduced to a series of new topics related to the job interview phase in the tech world. While having a resume and a cover letter that stands out is usually the first thing that comes to mind when beginning the job search, the tech world requires a bit more preparation; algorithms and problem solving skills are probably the hardest part of the hiring process. About two weeks ago, we were introduced to algorithms and for a good portion of us, Swift. 

At the end of the first week, I was beyond confused. For the most part, I understood a good deal of the theory but was unable to actually transfer this new skill to code. Letting my pride get the best of me, I became uncomfortable and didn’t speak up because no one else had questions. Trying desperately to catch up on my own (not successful), I quickly became discouraged. For a few days I kept on thinking to myself, “what is wrong with me that I can’t learn this stuff as quick as everyone else?” I had a lot of self criticism because I was not used to feeling ‘dumb’, I was always a top student when I was in school and suddenly I felt ashamed of my incompetence. 

After my frustration began to show, I had a friend/mentor remind me that I was defeating myself before I even began. What I am learning in a few hours, people go to school for years to learn; also, if it were easy, everyone would do it. Though I was self conscious about appearing ‘dumb’ in front of 29 peers, I was even more afraid of failing an assessment I had coming up. Yesterday, when the instructor asked if we had any questions, as no one else had any questions, I took this opportunity to ask as many questions as needed to understand these newly introduced concepts. Surprisingly, there were a good number of my peers who were relieved by my questions and the instructor appeared to be relieved as well. Apparently, a great deal of us were confused and the instructor was frustrated by our lack of responses when asked to iterate the material or to confirm our understanding. 

Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Silence is more frustrating than a question you may think is ‘dumb’. No one likes to be left out and chances are, you are not the only one with the same question. Besides, does it really matter what others think about your question, if at the end of the day everyone is on the same page?

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Methods ? (Objective-C)

Different parts of a method

1. Instance (-) or Class (+) indicator

2. Return type –> the class within the parentheses ( )

3. Method Name –> descriptive and appropriate naming

4. (optional) Arguments –> type and name

5. Method Body

-Instance Method: give information about or perform an operation on an instance’s instance variable

          1. send a message to a class to create instance

          2. message causes class method to be executed

          3. that instance receives messages

                    instance methods executed

-Declaring a Method: (usually done in the .h file)

- (NSString *)deliverChipsForSelection: (NSUInteger)selection                                                          withPaymentInCents: (NSUInteger)paymentInCents;

–> (NSString *) - return type

–> deliverChipsForSelection - method name

–> : - states that there are arguments (parameters) which the method accepts.            Items after ‘:’ are the arguments

–> ; - ends the declaration of a method

-Making a Method Call:

i.e.

- (NSString *)deliverChipsForSelection: (NSUInteger)selection                                                          withPaymentIncents: (NSUInteger)paymentInCents {

          // The body of the method is inserted here

   return NSString

}

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Master of Many?

Jack Master of all trades!

Prior to beginning my iOS program, I began to learn Ruby after learning HTML & CSS. Unfortunately, I stopped my Ruby training to focus on C and Objective-C. After talking to a lot of my classmates, I noticed that the ones who were excelling at a faster pace than everyone else had a background in other languages, whether it was Ruby, JAVAScript, Python, etcetera; many were able to find similarities between the two languages. To add to my resume and give myself an advantage over others, I think that I want to continue to learn Ruby concurrently with Objective-C. Let’s see how this works out (fingers crossed).

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OK, so I know I promised to post a pic of my code for the ‘Hangman’ project I was working on a few weeks ago. Here it is in Command Line

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Coding and Crossfit

For approximately a year and a half, I have participated in Crossfit on and off. Towards the end of May 2015, after being accepted into the Coalition For Queens iOS developing program, I have decided to balance my time between coding and crossfit. They say that it takes 28 days to build a new habit; so far its been about a month and two weeks and I feel great. I’ve made progress with coding --so far I have learned C and began the process of Objective-C-- and have hit multiple PRs at crossfit.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to allot time to workout consistently and keep up with my studies because of the 40+ hours dedicated to coding, but with a goal of at MOST, attending crossfit 5 times a week, I am able to successfully pull off this goal (so far). Averaging between 3-4 days a week at crossfit and 4-6 days a week in Long Island City at the C4Q program, I am still able to find time to include other activities in between. Although, my ‘free-time’ is limited, it is a relief to know that I have ‘spare-time’. I feel as though that eases any anxieties I may have had in the beginning. 

In order to accomplish my crossfit attendance goal, I try to go early in the mornings Monday-Thursday (occasionally Fridays after work). In addition, if I find myself feeling lazy or thinking “I really don’t feel like getting up and doing this today”, the second I get that thought in my head, I jump out of bed and find my way to the next class; it’s this sort of thinking that has made me inconsistent in the past and I do not want to fall back into those poor habits. Also, it feels great to workout with a consistent group of people and have people actually notice and compliment your growth! I begin to feed off of that great energy and become more determined and set higher goals and standards for myself while in the box (term referring to the crossfit gym).

I try to code at least an hour - two additional hours a day on days I have class and regularly attend office hours early to get extra hours of coding in 3-4 times a week. I will purposely go to office hours early because I have no other choice but to code -(there really isn’t much else to do)- thus ridding myself of excess distractions I would have if I were home. Also, with additional help from books such as “Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide” and “Programming in Objective-C”, I have been able to better understand the concepts and make more meaningful progress.

“Healthy body, Healthy mind” - this is my current daily mantra which is short and simple. It gets right to the point and pertains directly to my main goals I am focusing on.

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Frustration at its Finest

Today was a long and frustrating day. I spent hours trying to figure out the error in my code with fail after fail. Frustrated with my constant 'failed' attempts in Xcode, I started on new projects in command line to solve the problem / approach the project differently with different code. **as a side note, this post is in reference to a Hangman/Hangperson assignment I am creating in command line C with Xcode. ** By the end of the night (I spent majority of my day trying to figure this out), after my class, I received help from a fellow classmate and was able to get my program to run after a few adjustments. The assignment is due Friday night, so after work I'll tweak it some and then possibly add ascii art, etc... time permitting. In addition to everything else going on with my code, tonight we learned about functions and abstraction in C. I'm not 100% sure if I was hung up on my code from earlier or if the concepts were really complicated, but I definitely will need to dedicate more time to the aforementioned concepts. Not that I am giving myself an excuse to be confused, but it was reassuring to know that I was not the only person confused / having difficulty with the material. I definitely need to schedule more time to studying.

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this is only the beginning of my planning.

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Unit-0

Ok, for the first two weeks, we have gone over the basics of C, while using XCode.  Learning char, strings, int / integers, amongst other things, was rather easy to grasp the concept.  At one point, I created an if/else code which allowed the usage of user input, giving an output of a comical story depending on the choices (i used BOOL) the user chose. After hours of trying to debug my code without success, I decided to attend office hours and ask the teacher for assistance. It was a bittersweet moment, because he informed me that there was nothing wrong with my code; there was a problem with XCode and I needed to create a new project and to restart XCode. Although I won’t get my time back, it did help me to start new habits --closing the program when I’m not using it, backing things up-- I learned an additional way to check if its me or the program. 

When learning the concept of ‘break’s and ‘continue’s, it was rather confusing. The best way to explain the difference between the two is to draw out an actual diagram --this indeed is beyond helpful for MANY things when coding. My biggest obstacle at the current moment is the correct usage of loops, ‘for loops’ and ‘while loops’. As practice and an intro to loops, we have practiced Bubble Sorting, I know, its the worst but its good practice when breaking things down for concept.

At the current moment, I am working on a hangman project in command line. I started off by outlining it in a notebook and started with the basics. For the most part, I have an idea of what I am doing, however, I am struggling (a small struggle) with the syntax and putting everything together; I keep getting infinite loops. Its a process of trial and error.

The trip to and from Long Island City is a bit much and at times inconvenient, but in the end I know it will all be worth it. When people say, trust your struggle, it really is what makes you or breaks you. I believe that my dedication and determination is what keeps me going everyday and trusting my struggle is how I prove to myself that I want it that much more! 

Oh, and I am also using a coding book, “The Big Nerd Ranch” and following along with the exercises. When using books like this, you have to follow along with the exercises for efficiency. 

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Becoming an iOS developer

“When you walk up to opportunity’s door, don’t knock it. Kick that bitch in, smile and introduce yourself!.” - Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

As of May 25, 2015, I was officially accepted in to a program Cohort for Queens, in which I was given the opportunity to partake in a nine month course learning to develop iOS mobile applications. Of course I was and still am beyond excited, because its not too often that opportunities such as this are given. --As a quick side note, it started with over 600 applications and ended with a group of 32 people, and I was fortunate enough to get chosen.-- Anyways, to ensure my success in the program, I have cut back significantly with my jobs -well, will be starting Thursday -- and have began to read books affiliated with mobile development (will make a post soon including info on books) as well as coding. In addition, I feel as though the most beneficial resources may be the “FREE” resources on line such as Treehouse and CodeSchool (there are ways around things to retrieve free access).

So far, I am learning new things and its beyond exciting to actually complete a task and assignment. At the moment, I am trying to focus on improving my knowledge of Git / GitHub / and XCode. So far, I am feeling more comfortable with Terminal and moving through my macbook with that. 

One last guilty confession; I do not know how to touch type and have been practicing on random sites to increase my skills. Smh, I should have paid more attention to computer class in elementary school when they were teaching us the basics.

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Trying to be a perfectionist can really hinder progress. I have this habit of dwelling on things and trying to perfect things prior to moving forward. Unfortunately, this leads to procrastination on my part due to a bad habit. Well one step at a time. It takes consistency and discipline to break a bad habit, so here goes.

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New Year and back at it

Okay, so its been a while since I last posted about my progress with coding. I took a short break to focus on school but now I am back at it. I am currently reading a HTML and CSS book concurrently with the usage of codecademy to better understand the material. So far so good, the two complement each other. My goal is not to perfect the programs, but to strive to be the best.

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I'm Stuck

Okay, its been a while (roughly two weeks) since I last coded. I jumped back in to it today and briefly refreshed my memory by looking over my notes and glanced over my progress made online. I am aware that in order to italicize a word i need to use <em></em>. However, after much trial and error, and code resetting, and more trial and error, I have hit a brick wall. I am eager to move forward with completing the html work on codecademy, and have decided to reach out to my mentor. At first, I was hesitant to ask for help, because I wanted to be able to solve it myself. --This can go two ways-- I convinced myself that it was okay to ask for help, after all, that's why we have access to these resources. It is better to seek help and realize my problem and learn for the future, rather than continue to rack my brains and waste limited time that I have allotted to code. Thus, its okay to accept defeat sometimes and ask for help.

OMG!!!! So after receiving feedback, I didn't have a coding problem! I had a 'follow the directions' problem. Silly mistake. Sometimes it helps to "take a step back if you're stuck for too long" -wise words from my mentor. In my case, a second set of eyes.

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Avoiding One of Life's Biggest Traps

This is the first real lesson I have learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I haven't even finished the first chapter. Active reading is the most beneficial.

Learn to distinguish between wants and needs, or wants and desires will overpower your hard work to build success. By letting your wants outweigh your income/ budget, your ignorance shines brightly, and may be the cause of your downfall.

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My Journey From my Plateau

As mentioned in a previous post, I have began reading Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad, for the second time. It may seem as though it's a waste of time to reread the same book when there are other books that are in this series, but there's always something you may have missed the first time that you might find significant the second time around. Also, with growth and experience, you can understand the message he is revealing to the reader from a different perspective.

In addition to investing in myself, I have began learning how to code. "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."-Malcom X. If that's the case, why not code?! Anyways, with the help of a few sites, I am currently learning how to code HTML and CSS. I am not sure how I will progress in this field, but I am most certainly staying optimistic and willing myself to stick to it and hope to revert back to my perfectionist ways as I once had in HS. Though I am taking it slow, I do have a mentor who is experienced in this field and is extremely helpful to my many questions and concerns. At first, I was confused as to how to actually make a webpage; do I have to use another webpage online to create one, or are there programs which I can use to create them? Another concept that keeps racking my brain is the correct usage of spacing when coding. Are there definite rules, or is it at the coder's convenience? (I am waiting until this weekend to bring up this question) However, as I look over my notes, I noticed that I have a great deal of spacing, similar to that of coding, to better identify the beginning of a new topic / section. Maybe this has something to do with it.

Anyways, it never hurts to try new things. Explore your options, and find new skills/hobbies. And when you find what you're good at, its okay to become a little obsessed passionate about it. 

[datkydd]

“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”

Richard Branson (via datkydd)

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Never Lose Sight of Your Dreams