Tag: SoloLearn

Work Day 10: No matter what job you have…

There’s no escaping bureaucracy.

In the continuing saga of getting up to speed, I found out that, yes, I was completely correct about the git config command I need to enter to accomodate large file names. However…I can’t do any config commands because I don’t have admin rights to my laptop. I went onto our tech support site to put in a ticket for this, and found out that my laptop is STILL under the name of the tech who built it. The guy who deployed it has no idea why it would still be in the build guy’s name. He suggested I wait until Monday and try again, when perhaps the system will have caught up and actually show that I am the user of MY OWN LAPTOP. Also, my manager is out until Monday, and I really didn’t want to explain to his Friday stand-in why I’m requesting admin rights to a laptop that, apparently, is not under my name.

Oh, and I’m also waiting for the docking station. The deployment guy ordered it and is waiting for it to come in. This means I’m still using the laptop without the dual work monitors, which can be tricky when one is doing things where two screens are much easier.

I’ve managed to make it through the w3schools site and SoloLearn for Java. I’m still wading through the Pluralsight videos. I’m liking the Udemy class, but I’m having a bit of a challenge trying to find time in my (now) busy personal life to fit this in. I’m pondering letting some things go that really don’t apply anymore. I really want to be successful as a developer, and I’m not going to be able to do that if I have to deal with other things in my life that keep me from learning what I need to or from doing my coding practice. Unfortunately, people just see that I’m out of formal training now and that I should be available for anything.

I am, of course, ALWAYS available for knitting and crocheting!

Work Day 8: Almost…

Okay, I may have spoken too soon…There’s been a slight snag in the procurement of my new laptop. The tech support guy planned to copy over the data from my old hunk of junk to my new laptop. I have most things on my personal drive on the network, but I do have some things on my laptop for immediate use (in the event that something goes awry with network access). This was supposed to take no time at all, but the transfer failed. Come to find out, I was supposed to be signed out of Outlook. Sure…a corporate worker not on email for ANY length of time… HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

After I finished laughing hysterically, we arranged for him to give this another shot tomorrow morning. I’m going down to the tech area, so that if he needs to physically access my laptop to do this, he can.

In the meantime, staring at videos isn’t cutting it for me, nor is typing along to said videos. I’ve already gone through the w3schools exercises, and I’m almost through SoloLearn–the object/class thing isn’t really sinking in yet. SO…I found a course out on Udemy.com for programming with Java and Eclipse. As a first time Udemy subscriber, I got this at a steal. I’m going to go through this on my home laptop–It took a good hour, but I finally got Java installed. I had a slight issue in that I needed to add the path to the Environment Variables, but once I did that, the application worked fine. This course has a series of exercises, which I think will be more beneficial for me. I figure between this and https://codingbat.com/java I should have this down eventually.

I truly hope to do SOMETHING to justify my paycheck soon. Otherwise, my coworkers are going to start mistaking me for a houseplant and try to water me…

Work Day 7: 100%, Baby!!!

I just got word today that the new laptop is DONE! They just have to make an appointment with me to deploy it. I know what you’re thinking…it’s a laptop. What is there to “deploy”? I think they have to put in my new docking station and whatnot. I don’t care…I don’t care if a ceremony involving Voodoo chants is involved—I’m getting RID of the old hunk of junk that sounds like a jumbo jet when it fires up.

I could be pushy and call, but while I’m waiting for them to call to deploy, I’m making sure stuff is backed up to my network drive. I’ve also been chugging away with Pluralsight and SoloLearn. I’ve been doing more reverse engineering on completed user stories and checking ones still in the backlog.

Of course, I’m somewhat nervous because you know what this means:

I’m going to have to start doing REAL work. 😱😅

One week out

…I have seven days to get my **** together.

This evening, I’ve been watching TV while furtively going over JavaScript, and other pre-work I’m going to need to review before class begins next week. HTML and CSS were fairly easy for me to grasp, although I do confess that I bookmarked RGB Colorcode, as honestly if you held a loaded gun to my head I couldn’t tell you which codes constitute which colors.

The thing that’s so confusing to me about JavaScript is the fact that the equations are different from what one would expect. I ask you:

x == y, rather than x = y

Heh???

I do understand the explanation about why this is so (one is populating a variable), but after a whole lifetime of understanding x = y, it’s this sort of thing that’s making my head explode–and this is only one arithmetic equation that’s just plan WEIRD. If you don’t code and I tell you about the rest of the oddball arithmetic, you’ll run screaming into the night, so I’ll spare you…

Thank heavens for W3 Schools! If you don’t know about this site, it’s THE go-to site for learning all things coding. They have an awesome reference section, and a few ways to test your knowledge. The pre-work our instructors assigned consisted of several Pluralsight courses cobbled together. I’ve been using W3 Schools to supplement my learning. When I mentioned this in my interview for the program, they were impressed that I’d sought out additional resources. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was dumb luck and Bing, coupled with desperation, that led me to W3 Schools. I also found a cool app called SoloLearn which has also helped out greatly. One of best ways I learn is to quiz myself over and over again, and these two tools allow me to do that.

Now, if I can only figure out a way to fit in more review time before next week. There are, shall we say, DISTRACTIONS…