Category: Coding Bootcamp

Day 15

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As it turns out, some weird scheduling worked in our favor, because we got a “free week” to expand on Web Fundamentals. Our first day of the Python stack starts tomorrow. Judging by what I’ve read in other blogs, this is where the real bootcamp begins.

I’ve enjoyed the progress I’ve had so far. Wednesday we had a group project where we managed to have a sort of functioning weather reporting website up in a matter of hours. As simple as it seems, this was really awesome to see working.

I’ve also used the extra time to flesh out what sort of project I want to work on. Each stack ends with a presentation of a personal project putting the concepts to work. I’ll go more into detail on this once I get closer to it.

That’s pretty much all for now. I’ll try and do a better job of posting meaningful content on here as I go along.

Thanks for reading!

Day Seven

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Last Friday I passed my “Yellow Belt” exam for the Web Fundamentals track. The test consisted of recreating an image of a website in only HTML/CSS and without using float. I finished the four and a half hour test with around 10 minutes to spare. I felt OK about it, but not particularly thrilled. Positioning blocks of content still gives me some trouble, but that’s just something I’ll have to work on.

I’ve started a bit of a personal project. It will just be a goofy site, but I’m hoping to have more to share on that soon.

We started this week off with JQuery. I’ve never seen JQuery prior to this, so it has been a fairly steep learning curve. I’ve kept up with my assignments fairly well so far, but I feel like I’m having more trouble with some of these concepts than I would like, but I really do feel like I go home every night having learned a lot.

We spend an hour or more a day working on algorithms. These have been fairly complicated, but I’ve enjoyed the breakthrough moments, when they happen.

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Today I learned that ‘Sigma’ is a word…

Things have been pretty packed lately, so I apologize for the post gaps. I do my best to collect my thoughts here often, but I come home fairly drained every night. I’ll do my best to keep things up to date.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day Three

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Most of yesterday was spent working on CSS.  By the end of the day I managed to finish the main assignment for the day and got a head start on today’s.

I got frustrated with the first project which had us re-creating a fake blog provided. After spending way too much time getting going nowhere with this, I finally just decided to start over. The second pass went much more smoothly and produced the results below. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to finally have that looking the way I intended.

File_001
This was the point where I decided to nuke my existing code and start over
File_003
Tadaa!

The following assignment expanded on these concepts and stumped me for several hours. After a lecture, however, things “clicked” and I was able to wrap things up fairly quickly. Somehow I managed to complete this assignment with 0 errors after validating it on my first pass. I am pretty happy about that.

File_002

Today we had a “Tech Talk” with someone from the industry speaking about his experience programming and giving us advice. I appreciated hearing from someone that has made a career doing this.

That pretty well catches everything up. Currently, I’m avoiding jumping back into the current project as I’ve hit another wall and needed a break.

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress!

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4/6/2016

Almost immediately after I made my last post another rep from Coding Dojo reached out to me about my admission. Apparently the original guy I spoke with has been sick and got behind on his emails. Things should be on track now.

As I mentioned before, I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of my workplace. It sounds like I’m all but assured a role as a Jr. Developer (typing that out just now made me smile like a doofus) soon after the bootcamp, assuming I don’t somehow grossly mess up this opportunity. Time to nut up.

I’ve made some progress on the Coursera class. I felt like I was spending a bit more time than I would like watching videos on that course, so I also started again with the Code Academy HTML course. Working on both together seems to be working out decently.

I’m also continuing with various typing games and lessons. My brain is really doing some weird shit after typing my old way my whole life. I’m past the point where I can type both ways efficiently without messing myself up. I’m certainly slower than before, but I’m progressing with touch typing so quickly that I’ve kind of surprised myself. Hopefully it sticks, because typing more effectively will be a huge advantage once the course starts in May. I’ve been able to more easily get into the “flow” of typing properly these last few days.

I may have come up with a project to work on for a bit, but I have to better understand what tools I’ll have at my disposal before I can say for certain. A personal project seems to be one of the best ways to pick up programming, so that’s exciting.

I stumbled a bit trying to remember some basic Python earlier today, so I’ll need to be sure and carve out some time for some lessons soon. I want to be as prepared as possible for the next few months so that I can be absolutely certain that I am prepared to pull my own weight on the Dev team I intend to join.

So that’s pretty much where I am today. Thanks for stopping by!

 

An amazing opportunity overshadowed by poor communication

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4/4/2016

Hello there! Having considered attending a coding bootcamp for some time now, I’ve decided to make the plunge. Last week I applied and was accepted to Coding Dojo here in Seattle. I’m looking to attend the May 16th cohort and I intend to blog my progress on here.

The day after I applied, I had a Skype interview to determine if the course was for me. This was challenging for me as the interview almost exclusively focused on JavaScript. I’ve been self teaching myself to code on and off for sometime, but before this, I had never seen JavaScript before. I spent the 8 hours I had before the interview looking at the example problems to attempt to “pass” this interview. I suppose it worked, because I was accepted the following day.

After making the necessary arrangements with my employer to attend Coding Dojo, I was very excited to get things started and begin my pre-coursework. I should note here that I was blown away by the support offered by the company I work for. The help they’ve offered goes above and beyond what I expected. I am a lucky guy.

A call was scheduled for that afternoon with a representative at the Dojo. This call never arrived. Indeed, after around 8 emails to three different people, numerous unanswered phone calls and a tweet, (hey, I’m desperate here) I have spoken to no one. This is bizarre to me. Hopefully this changes soon, as I am very excited about the next few months.

With roughly 6  weeks to prepare for May 16th, I started an HTML and CSS course on Coursera. A few lessons so far have been confusing, but I’m enjoying working towards something. I’m more than ready to use my brain again.

I’ve also decided that I want to do my best to start typing properly. This has mostly consisted of playing ‘Typing of the Dead’ which turns out to be a lot of fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to type more effectively for the bootcamp.

I’m attaching a video below of me playing video games and rambling. I’m not sure why.

Thanks for reading all of this. I really do appreciate it!