What did you do this past week?

The previous week, I had just got back from a 2-week trip to Taiwan, so I expected my sleep schedule to be messed up beyond compare, but surprisingly it’s been really nice. I’ve been sleeping at 11 to 12 at night and waking up at around 5 to 6 in the morning, which gives me a lot of time to do a lot of stuff, such as plan out the day, do devotionals, and get in a morning run.

Besides the sleep schedule, I’ve been doing a lot of preparation, mentally and emotionally, for a lot of classes since it’s syllabus week. For CS classes, I’m taking Algorithms and Programming Languages this semester, while my non-CS classes consists of Issues/Policies in Texas Gov, Intermediate Running, and Fiction Writing. I feel like these classes are really diverse and will be really fun to take (as long as I don’t let myself get too bogged down).

CS-wise, I’m looking forward to the new Algo professor, Prof. Moshkivitz, not only because she’s won a teaching award, but also because her teaching style is foreignly new and engaging. She spins out webs of information, posing questions that challenge our thinking, and even though on Wednesday I had a formidable day of classes, I found the class to be fairly entertaining, and I was able to flush out 1+ hour of energy for it. (Sadly, I was out of it for my Programming Language right after Algo).

Non-CS-wise, I’m looking forward to Intermediate Running and Fiction Writing. Intermediate Running will help me get back into shape after a semester of computer-ridden Operating Systems. Fiction Writing goes in hand with my New Year’s Resolution of drawing more. I follow a decent number of manga artists, and it really amazes me the thought and meticulous focus artists put into character development and plot, so I’m hoping to plan out a short manga using skills from the class. Also, if you didn’t know, I write a blog for the UTCS department, so even though I don’t write fiction in my blogs, I’m hoping that some of concepts of storytelling from the class will slide into my blog posts, bringing more entertainment and fun to others.

Also, I am proctoring for Object Oriented Programming (OOP) this semester, which is the class that inspired this blog, and one of my favorite classes that got me more focused on software tools and code clarity/acuteness. A lot of my peers are in that class, so it will be interesting interacting with them as a proctor rather than a fellow programmer struggling in class.

EDIT: I am no longer taking Programming Languages because I have been added to Software Engineering.

What’s in your way?

Though it’s not too much in the way, next week for my church ministry, we are starting our One-Desire fast. This means that for 1 week I will be living off of no meat and 1 week I will be living off of just liquids. This might become a huge impediment for my running class, so I need to plan out accordingly my eating and workout habits so I don’t accidently pass out during the day.

Also, it’s been a while since I’ve looked over OOP material, so though the lectures will provide good review, I will need to look over past Piazza posts and projects in order to get to a more formidable level of mental prowess in order to instruct/help my fellow peers in the class.

What will you do next week?

Hopefully, I will get into a good daily routing for college so that I won’t fail in the first week. I will start looking into C++ material to revive my OOP skills, as well as try to work on setting up software tools such as Docker and Travis CI so I can help students with any issues they may have in setting up the same software.

I’ve also started a devotional plan book by Timothy Keller (a gift by my friend/life group leader, Anse), that will go through Psalms, so hopefully those readings will invigorate me daily as I take on my fast and grow in my hunger for God.

SWE Class Impressions?

Since I’ve recently been added to Software Engineering, I have been unable to physically attend the class, and am unable to make any class impression as of right now.

Tip of the Week

There is a #100DaysofAlgorithm Challenge that just started today posted by Ishan Subedi. I am hoping to work on it this semester since I’m taking Algo. If you are interested in joining me and 300+ other programmers in developing Algo skills, you can check out the instructions in order to get started right here. Happy Programming!