Problem Acquired
What did you do this past week?
This past week was the 2nd half of my liquids fast. Though it was challenging since most of the week was drinking sweet citrus acids, consuming Wendy’s frosties (since frosties aren’t solids), and watching my friends down hot fries and cookies, it was good spiritually. Every time I was hit by hunger, I was provoked to either crave food, or remind myself to hunger for God. Unfortunately, I played my first IM basketball game during this time. That game was a toughie since most of our team was running on a fast of some sort. Despite not winning, we balled hard and did well for our own physical condition (30+ points is pretty good). Fortunately, I will be heading into congregational church retreat this weekend, which will be taxing for my schoolwork, but great for me spiritually!
CS-wise, for SWE I was able to finish a majority of Collatz by the start of the weekend. Although it was frustrating having to encounter many changes in project specs and having to almost delete the meta cache code, I learned to appreciate any changes Prof. Downing and the instructors made because it simulated industry work while under pressure, and challenged me to be on top of things even when I was finished with the project. Though the only thing that is on the line is our grades for drastic changes for this class, which can seem like the whole world for us, many people are faced with layoffs every day for the simplest of mistakes in industry. Even though it might not work out in this class (hopefully it did), I felt like it was a great opportunity to learn from my mistakes early on so that I could become more flexible to change and opposition in the future.
What’s in your way?
Algo homework. I don’t understand the concepts well in class, and especially since Algo is at the end of a long day with, I can’t help turning on snooze mode and, admittedly, falling asleep in class.
Additionally, I’ve found that being a proctor is very time consuming. I love the job a lot, being able to help my kids out on project specs, furthering explaining the reasoning behind why we use industry tools, and seeing them struggle and come to understand C++. But I didn’t realize how many hours I would spend answering Piazza posts and helping students on questions. My emails have become an incessant horn of Github notifs, blaring on my screen day in and day out.
Most of all, I struggled with Fiction writing class. We’re required to write 2 short stories, and writing a short story is never easy unless you’re a natural at it. Although the professor is very good at teaching the many prose and styles behind it, I am hesitant over my own ability to even formulate sentences that capture the mood and perspective that most short stories evict.
SWE Class Impressions?
I have found the class to be very good. Being able to have a talk by Bloomberg was a reminder of the industry tools that they used, and especially after taking OOP, I was better able to understand the process that the company takes in integration, workflow, etc… The remote quiz was surprising though, at the end of the day. Though I was able to take it, I knew a good number of people wouldn’t be taking note of Piazza, so I believe many people weren’t able to take the quiz even within the 6 hour window.
What will you do next week?
Start working on the 2nd project for SWE, which if I’m not mistaken should be the same as OOP last semester. If not, there will be a lot of research involved in that class. Additionally, I will be trying to work on my time management and finishing up a short story for Fiction writing. I talked to one of my friends, and he helped me on a strategy to finish up a story, which is basically stream-of-conscious until the story is finished, and then edit it till the story is finished.
Tip of the Week
Here are some articles that I’ve read this week that I think are good, whether informational, or to put into practice.