Catching up - weeks 8 to 10

Oh, Hello!

Yes, I AM still alive.
Though I've been busy enough lately to have an explanation for the temporary lack of posts, and potential early-onset balding.
So where in the world has Ben Doane been? Mostly Playing catch-up on assignments and life.

 I gotta GO! Ugh!

Iron Yard Weeks 8, 9, and mid-10

As far as the course is set, this course is only supposed to be 12 weeks. However, with the Holidays, scheduling made for this to be a roughly 14 week course, this time.

These weeks went by in a blur. I had fallen behind in the coursework with trying to also work at HopCat to, you know, make money to pay bills and things...as if that's important. Psh. 
As a result, I was given an additional assignment to show that I could, indeed, show my competency with the elements covered until this point in the course. We were moving into the final phases of the course and we would be getting into a group project. We all know nobody wants 'that guy' as part of the group.

I managed to complete a clone of the popular website Giphy using modals through AJAX, build a website application for making, keeping, and tracking things on to-do lists (ToDoodles), learn how to request API information and utilize it in a web application, and work on building an API for a front-end developer who was setting the parameters for how data would be incoming. ...I might be missing a thing or two...

Now we're working together in a group of 4 to create a website for a client wanting to sell socks online, similar to Amazon. This application will have multiple levels of authorization for users, be able to accept credit payments and processing, send receipts, and handle customer feedback. We're working on a 4 day sprint cycle to get this completed by Friday.

Additionally...

Timeclock:

Week 8: Iron Yard - 57 hours, HopCat - 19 hours.
TOTAL - 76 hours

Week 9: Iron Yard - 65 hours, HopCat - 9 hours.
TOTAL - 74 hours

Approx. Running total: Iron Yard - 422 hours
HopCat - 198 hours

...hopefully this clears up the confusion for the friends of mine who have asked. Yes, I am busy. No, it's not that I suddenly decided to stop hanging out with you. I've just gotten a bit harder to find.

"I'm right here, guys!"

 Life outside The Iron Yard

So, after the whole "moldy apartment" and "car-gonna-'splode" events, life has seemingly settled in.

Working at Hopcat, I've come to realize, in addition to being a source of income sustaining me while in this course, is also somewhat therapeutic for me. I've always known I was an extrovert, that's no secret. ...but, as foolish as it sounds, I didn't realize literally everyone in the course is an introvert (including Instructor Chris and Campus Director Emily). As such, when I do work, I love how much ti doesn't feel like I'm working, but rather, I'm socializing to fulfill my need to be a "chatty-cathy" and I just happen to get paid for it.

Additionally, on three different occasions, I've had the pleasure of serving developers or people working for development companies. It's been kinda serendipitous, and a lot of fun. It's nice to see that devs and their affiliates outside the business world, and it's given insight to the people I may be working with or for.

This past week Mobi Wireless Management had their company party across the street from HopCat, and a number of their employees came over both before and after. My favorite table the whole evening ended up being some of the higher-ups for the company. It was neat to find out they worked for Mobi only after already deciding they were the "fun table I'd totally grab a drink with if I could". I think it would be kinda neat if working at HopCat, a job that's kinda just to help get me by, ended up being a part of how I land a developer job post-Iron Yard.

I plan on doing better about keeping up with this blog - and I do hope to continue to beyond just The Iron Yard. For now, though, back to that project!

Feel free to give your thoughts, feedback, and/or follow.
Thanks for reading.

PS - if you have any feedback on ToDoodles, I'm totally up for hearing it. Remember, I'm learning. I'm not going to turn down any advice or possible ways I can improve!