Its been about 2.5 weeks since I last got to sit down and write. I’m pretty behind where I want to be, but here’s a quick update about my progress so far:
Since switching to part-time, I thought that things would be easier, but I haven’t let them be that way yet. At home, I’m still stuck in much of my old pattern, watching the baby during the day and coding in the evening and night. I still come upstairs about 5:00 or 5:30 AM every morning, wake the wife up to start her day and then catch 2-4 hours of sleep with the baby – unless she’s awake, in which case I don’t sleep that day. Wifey takes the other one to school, so at least I’m not doing that regularly again. I do pick her up though.
Lambda School
Being part-time at Lambda is still a very different experience, socially, than being in a full-time cohort. The group I was with has already changed a lot. Four of the people who were in it when I joined are no longer there – they flexed into later cohorts, and different people have joined. Three of them were in Lambda longer than I was and already completed the material we’re learning now, so they know it more thoroughly. Mirroring my experience, they said that its been easier the second time around.
I tried to be proactive and engage them in conversation more, and it looks like its helped a little with regard to socializing. One of them shared how he practices, both with Lambda material and with supplemental material, and another one was stuck on the same project that I was.
The one who shared recommends Codecademy more than freeCodeCamp because fCC has a lot of exercises but Codecademy also has what he described as “explanations in layman’s terms, which are easy to follow.” I’ve been meaning to go through both of these for a long time now, but haven’t made time yet.
I made it through Applied JavaScript (and need to do my write-ups) and had a better experience, as it was my 2nd time. I just finished Intro to React last night and had a harder time with it. Single-Page Applications starts on Monday, and then I think its Build Week.
React
React was hard for me. I really need to review the material. Working in components makes sense to me, and I understand it, theoretically, but when it comes to actually implementing React projects, I have a very hard time. With part-time, we have 2 weeks to work through a unit, instead of 1 week, like we did in full-time. I was stuck on the 2nd project for an entire week. I literally made zero progress, even though every day I watched videos, read articles and even ordered a set of 6 small whiteboards so I could hash out program flow at my desk.
I was about to give up and flex again when one of my friends from WEB23 who flexed into WEBTP10 and completed the project offered to help guide me through it. He did really well, because I completed some of it with him, and it was enough to help me understand how to do the rest. It was the Calculator project. We basically made a calculator using components in React. I think that, for me, a lot of the issue was that I’m new to React, so I don’t think in components as granularly as I could, and we were using files that had been provided to us – so it was basically someone else’s way of thinking when it came to setting up the project.
With help, I did eventually get it, but that’s another area I’m very poor in. I don’t ask for help most of the time. Lambda has a 20-minute rule. If, after 20 mins, you’re stuck on something, you’re supposed to reach out for help. I generally hack away at things alone until I figure them out. In this case, it took me a week and I still wasn’t able to understand things, so its a weakness, not a strength. 40 mins with a friend did wonders for me. I was able to finish the project and then go through the materials for the next one (a project that makes use of NASA’s API, which I mean to work on this weekend).
I had my Sprint Challenge yesterday, and did not complete it in the required 3-hour time. I was able to finally get it all working, but I think that if I had asked for help a week earlier, I’d be in a much better place now. I’d have had the projects completed, so I’d have had more experience with all of the material, and I could have probably implemented my design on the Sprint Challenge faster.
Outside of my actual group, I saw a bunch of people leave WEBPT10 during the past two weeks. I know that React is one of the harder weeks for a lot of people. Some have flexed into other cohorts, to go through the material again, and some have withdrawn or gone on hiatus. One of the friends I made there, who started an extreme metal channel on Slack with me, left as well. He was going through the material more successfully than me, but his wife lost her job, so he had to switch from part-time to full-time at work and leave Lambda for the time being. I hear that Redux is going to be even more intense…
Mental health
In other big news, this week Lambda announced that they’ve partnered with Modern Health to provide mental health care to all students and faculty for free. I’m on the #mentalhealth channel in Slack and I’ve read about what the people there go through. Its a struggle for everyone, and coupled with many people’s living situations and personal obstacles and conditions, I’m amazed at how far a lot of students have gotten. Austen Allred (who founded Lambda) has apparently been reading the #mentalhealth channel, as have others who work there, and they actually went ahead and DID SOMETHING to help people there. I don’t necessarily need the resources (although that’s up in the air) but I really appreciate seeing others get the care and attention that they need. Already, there are people who have been connected with therapists and counselors and other mental health professionals and are in a better place, mentally, that they were only a week ago.
I’m not aware of any other coding bootcamp that has done this for their students. Its really testament to how the school is willing to invest in students, and help them to succeed in their efforts. During the announcement, which was done through a 1-hour presentation, there were people in the #mentalhealth channel crying and just in utter amazement about what was being provided to them. Some hadn’t been able to see professional help in months – in some cases even longer than that, and were without meds or other support. Its a big stigma, here in the U.S. and I’m glad that there are institutions working to combat that.
Portfolio
I think that in a previous post, I mentioned that I had been working a little on my portfolio during the time I had off from Lambda. I rewrote it from scratch using HTML and LESS and recently added in JavaScript components as a challenge to myself. All of the projects on the site are generated through a component that uses JavaScript to manipulate the DOM, as is the menu button at the top of the screen. There are tooltips and some of the icons for technologies used in projects were created in Photoshop and then styled using LESS. Its still not a professional portfolio, and I need to add in a few projects (which are now added in from an array that’s used to generate HTML, instead of being handwritten with HTML – it cut down on the size of each page and the repeated code, tremendously) from React Week, but its getting there. I want to add some small animations and two specialized HTML sections, but that’s work for the future. There’s also a good chance that if React doesn’t take my sanity in the next two weeks, I’ll look to refactor the site using it.
Other
Outside of everything else, kiddo #2 turned two years old last week. Soon enough, she’ll know more Python than me.
REDO FROM START 