I'm as far along as Bon Jovi

Week 5 Recap

We're coming to a close on week 5 with the Iron Yard. This is half-way through the lecture portions of the course.
(I began typing this post on Friday, but forgot to finish and post it! whoops!

Coursework

I'm currently building a version of reddit. When I was told we'd be building this, I was astounded. ...but I've learned that reddit is a pretty simplistic website when you take a look at what is actually occurring 'under the hood', so-to-speak.

Reddit is a user-driven posting site where you can upvote or downvote the posts. ...and that's about it. Sure, there are sub-reddits and categories, but the basic premise remains the same.  For class, we're building a basic website structured the same way.

Currently, I've got a site pushed to the internet, accessible by anyone. I'll hold off on posting the link to it, as I want to get it further before I do so.

My version of Reddit is sure to get a rise out of a few people. ...I'm making "Breaddit". I'm hoping, when it's done, users will be able to register, login, post links to various things, upvote and downvote, etc. - all within a 'bread' theme. (I find more humor in this than I probably should.)

Available in pumpernickel, too!

At this point, I'm doing my best to make sure I fully understand the path the pages take from routing to model to controller to view to the scss file, and the paths that lead back or through this flow. It can get mixed up if I'm not paying attention, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Personal growth

As I've said before, the course with the Iron Yard is teaching me more than just code; it's teaching me how to be better about problem solving and how I learn as an individual. I've also said before - I plan on going on a full rant about this later, but it's important to note at this half-way that the most important thing I'm learning through this course is how to help myself best to move through errors and seeking best methods for getting things done. Chris is an amazing instructor, and is always available to assist, but I also want to make sure when I'm out of the course, I know how to go about getting the solutions with minimal assistance (if any - wouldn't that be great!)

Life outside the Iron Yard

I'm still in the process of moving out of 'moldy apartment land', but I'm happy to report my health has normalized itself and my eyes no longer make me look like I've been awake for 3 days fueled by cocaine. Yay!

"This code like a great big..."

In the midst of this, my car has had a few hiccups here and there, and I've held off from taking it in (mostly due to time or money constraints). I managed to get the car in this week, and was told my car is akin to a rolling time-bomb. I could continue to drive it as is, but I'd be running the risk of either blowing the engine, or blowing the tires. ...well, if it's raining, it's pouring, right?

So, today I spent a portion of my day going through the steps of buying a car. Which, by the way, for someone who's mother has been in the dealership/car world for years, I knew absolutely nothing about buying a car. SO grateful for her. (And she just happened to be in town for her birthday weekend. - Happy Birthday, mom!)

As for HopCat, I had to give up my shifts this week to deal with all the nonsense. I'm certainly not happy about it, as I'll likely have to make up for it over the coming weeks, but I also know it was pretty needed.

Knee-Deep

I'm mid-way through...just about everything.
One might say, I'm knee deep. In what?

This may not be mud...

I'm not sure yet.  ...but  I'm knee-deep in it.
Mid-week, Mid-program, and a hopeful mid-level of understanding in what I'm doing at the Iron Yard.

Mid-Lecture at the Iron Yard
We're half-way through the lectures portion for the Iron Yard. Out of the 12 weeks the program takes (or in our case, 14, due to Holidays), there are only 10 weeks that have a lecture. The last few weeks are designed as time to work on the final project we develop.

So How do I feel?

It's honestly one the weirdest feelings.
I feel incredibly empowered by the things I'm learning, how I'm learning, the level I'm applying myself, the fact that I've found something I'm this excited about...but I also feel completely bewildered by moments of fear that I have no idea what I'm really doing, or moments of being completely lost.
I'm told those moments will be less and less as time goes by and there will be definite moments of, "Oh, hey! I got this!" (Some of which I've already experienced!)

There's also the feeling that I wish I could be doing more. Between working, the whole 'mold' situation that occurred, the consequent moving, and various other issues, I just want more time to be able to get into this stuff! I want to bust out of this program beast-moding things as best I can, but I keep running into time-issues. ...then again, my time-line for things has been weird since the start.

Time Log for the program so far:

Week 1: Iron Yard - 34 hours, HopCat - 30 hours. TOTAL - 64 hours
Week 2: Iron Yard - 38 hours, HopCat - 18.5 hours. TOTAL - 56.5 hours
Week 3: Iron Yard - 34 hours, HopCat - 24 hours. TOTAL - 58 hours (-1 day of class due to mold)
Week 4: Iron Yard - 48 hours, HopCat - 28 hours. TOTAL - 76 hours

Running total: Iron Yard - 154 hours
HopCat - 100.5 hours

 The time for Iron Yard is deceiving still, as there were a number of days that I had to leave class early to get to work on time, and I know there are a few days I worked on things at home and forgot to "clock in" to track my time. ...but this gives those of you wondering where I've gone some sort of idea as to why I seem so busy. Week 4 was an accurate depiction of how the weeks should have been, time-wise, without the extraneous things like a moldy apartment happening.

Coursework

Currently, we're getting into Active Record, Validations, and Associations, while setting them to link with the web pages we created (my Kittens and Bacon page). However, I'm struggling with getting the damn webpage to properly function in a dynamic setting, updating itself with the posts requested to be shown, and I'm currently being left with a feeling that I'm horribly behind, and I have no idea what's going on. (There's the theme in the way I've been feeling in my coursework this week!)

I'm frustrated that I know the components, I know the basics of ruby well, I feel, and I know the theory behind how things are supposed to fit together. When I stop, and ask myself "What am I trying to accomplish" or "What needs to be done here", I can answer it easily. ...but when I go to type in the code to get that done...I'm about as useful as a pedal-powered wheel chair.

Grandpa's going nowhere, fast...in style.

My work for the next few days will be to properly utilize these concepts and get this crap working. (dammit!)

What keeps me going

As I'm hitting a 'half-way' of sorts, its nice to remind myself of what keeps me going, what keeps me motivated, and a reminder of why I'm here.

Well, first, there's my own personal goals, which I took the time to write out and think about during our class chat with John Saddington.

Then there's, I think the experiences that I'm going through and the things I'm learning about myself, ore than anything is what keeps me going. I've had to take a hard look at myself in terms of how I learn, why I learn, what I want out of life, and begin to solidify my beliefs in these things. I suppose one could argue that this is what 'the college experience' is supposed to be for. ...I'd argue you're an idiot if that's the case. Here's why: you go to college at 18. For the average American student, you have no idea what the world is like at 18. (#sorrynotsorry)

The blog is also helping. A lot.
I've already fallen into something Saddington talked about - I wish I had started blogging sooner, and I wish I had kept up with my blogging in earlier attempts.

Keeping in mind the people who inspire me. Whether they be people I know, or people like Saddington, who I aspire to be like.

My brother, who always seems to get things done, has his life together, and has always been my best friend.
My mom, God bless her, who has put up with my shit for almost 26 years now.
And a friend of mine who also blogs, about her own things, in a far off land. She has played a role in my inspiration for years now (whether she's aware of it or not). Pushing to be the best version of yourself you can be is something she embodies and brings out in those she interacts with. Its what makes her such an infectious person, and one of the reasons I continue to push to be my best.

And, speeches like the one Denzel Washington gives on falling forward. 

(take a moment to watch/listen if you haven't)

But it doesn't matter what keeps me motivated. 

What matters is that I keep. 

moving. 

forward.
And I plan on doing that. 

For those of you familiar with Fables, by Bill Willingham:

In so many ways, I find I'm akin to the character Prince Charming.

(In character, not in looks - before you say anything.) 

(And if you haven't read any Fables. Do so. Now.) 

...when I get myself set on something, I'm consumed by it until it's mine.

I'm consumed by learning this.

TIY goes to Tinderbox

Tinderbox

This past Friday, The Iron Yard (TIY) cohort took a walk to the Indy circle to visit Tinderbox.

Specializing in streamlining business analytics and analysis through their applications, tinderbox is a small, but powerful company. I'll admit, I knew very little, if anything, about the company prior to going. (C'mon! I was finishing my 4th week in this realm!)

I should also add, I was feeling festive and decided to dress up as Ron Burgundy for the day. I debated on if this would be appropriate for visiting a potential place to work, and came to the conclusion that, if needed, I could just play it off as 'dressing for success' ...or something like that.

We walk into a sweet old building right on the circle. The windows face the monument, and the stonework of the building makes my architecture-side geek out for a moment over the craftsmanship and the material use. (They just can't make buildings like these anymore - way too expensive for this kind of artistry.) Tinderbox takes up the entire 7th floor.

We are warmly welcomed into a space that is clearly set up and designed with the new generation "google-style", as I'll call it, workspace. There's an excellent flow to the building and several spaces where you can tell people often take mental breaks. (I spied a chess set in one corner. Nice.)

Samantha Haddad, the talent manager, greets us with a bright smile, and leads us into a meeting room to set our things down. After the building tour, we sit through a talk with the developer team on what the day to day is like for them. It was great to hear from developers directly working on how their lives are within the company. As someone new to this, I can hear things from Chris until I'm blue in the face, but I there's something to be said for having the reinforcement. (Not that I doubted you, Chris!) It was also nice to hear terminology used and ideas tossed around that we have covered already in our short time in the cohort. Specifically, Agile concepts and hearing that they use git and github.

There was a developer on their team who had been hired directly from his time with a bootcamp, but it made me proud to be a part of Iron Yard when he began talking about the things he had to quickly learn during his first few months on the job due to no experience - such as git and github. I know if we weren't using it for class, I'd be screwed on the use of it. I've already told you how frustrating it can be to work with at times. Iron Yard - specifically Chris Vannoy and Emily Tremble - are doing an awesome job of getting us every opportunity to be ready for moving into junior developer positions.

We also had a talk with Samantha about things she looks for in interviews and potential candidates for the company. She covered a lot of the usual, but it was also really eye-opening in terms of differences in workplaces from architecture to software. In LA, you need to have a well-designed portfolio, that matches your resume, make sure you present yourself in the proper way (which is usually more formal), etc. ...and although many of the basic concepts remain true, I was surprised to hear the biggest contributing factor in their process: do you fit our culture?

As I type this, I realize it may sound silly not to realize, but I guess I didn't grasp the gravity in which this factors into the equation. "Do you fit our culture?" ...so simple, but also can make or break you. Would they be willing to, say, grab a beer with you? If the answer is no, you're not really a fit. Software is something that, as a developer, to some degree, they know you're going to be able to do and you'll get the work done...but are you someone I want to chat with and hear about your passions, or are you a dick? Do our conversations feel like you actually give a shit, or is this a forced communication where I can tell you're looking for a way to get back to your work?

I found, again, that I love the level of blunt honesty in the feedback. Samantha didn't use the exact words I have above, but the idea was the same.

There was also a costume contest going on that day (which I apparently took some of the votes for, haha) and a chili cook-off. The workplace seemed really laid back, yet productive. I felt the guys and gals who were working there were both passionate about what they did and realistic enough to be able to have fun throughout the day. (I also feel I could kick some ass against those chilis. ...I'm a beast at making chili...)

Overall

 I loved the entire experience. I also realized I need to be actively looking into various companies and keeping my eyes peeled for where I'd like to work.  Samantha threw out an interesting point in terms of applying to jobs - ask yourself: if you're looking for a particular type of company or workplace culture, do all of the places you've applied fit into that category, or are you just blindly applying places? Employers can tell a lot about how informed you are or how hard you really are hoping to get the job by the other places you know of and have looked into. (That one was a nifty revelation)
I think Tinderbox would be an awesome place to work. I love what I'm doing in the Iron Yard course, and I got every indication that the guys and gals there absolutely love going to work every day.  

I also got to meet a guy who started the meet-up in Indy for the Python group. Python is one of the coding languages I'd love to look into. It's also object-oriented, and I know there are a number of video applications that use it. I'll have to try to go to one of their meet-ups.

They also named their meeting rooms after movie quotes. One of the developers said he loved the idea originally, but it now makes it hard to remember which room is which. ...I had to get a photo with one of the rooms...

Stay classy, Indianapolis

Thanks for reading.
-Ben Doane