More Lists

On the advice of my mentor, Ms. Seifert, I've started making some lists to keep from getting completely overwhelmed. And what better time than a slow morning at work on some receipt paper?

Image Brainstorm

In preparation for starting coding, I sat down with my younger sister (who is a much better artist than me) and started drawing some blueprints.

Back on Track

I thought I had posted this a few days ago from my phone, but apparently poor cell service is out to get me, so here it goes again:



All set - Phew!

Out of the Rut

Four ways my project plans have changed so far:

1) I originally planned to learn a few different programming languages, but instead I've pretty much focused on Python.
2) In my proposal, I set deadlines, but rather than following those I've been using more of a "reward" system. (Finish the book, the. I can start coding)
3) I imagined that I would be almost done with research by the time I started writing the code for the game, but I think the two will be really entwined.
4) I'm going to need a lot more community help/support than I realized.

Quick Lists

Frustrated

All these nice plans I had are starting to fall through. I really need to go talk to my sister over break, but I never have any days off in a row, so my only option would be to go down Sunday night, and then take the 6 AM bus home on Tuesday. Not only would this be really exhausting, it doesn't leave much time to work on my project. It would be nice to have a few days to do this, but I'd have to get as much done in just one day as I could. Unfortunately, even this plan might not work. The Sunday night bus is totally full, so I'm on the wait list. I can only hope someone else cancels. Plans not working is super frustrating.

On Asking For Help

Thinking ahead to what I'll have to do to create a game, I've started to feel overwhelmed. There's so much that I don't know how to do. I don't know how to make something multiplayer, or how to put written code onto a website, or anything like that. Luckily, I before I got too panicked, I sent my sister an email asking for help. This was probably the best idea I've had throughout my project. Even though I didn't understand half of what she was advising me to do, she told me that she would do some research, and invited me to come down to NYC to work with her on it over spring break. Even though I'm not sure I'll be able to do that, because I haven't gotten my work schedule yet, it's nice to know that there are people behind me who will support me throughout the project, and who I can always turn to for help.

Nine Days

The facts:

9 days, 3 hours, 58 minutes, and 10 seconds until Spring Break.
19 CodingBat exercises left.
268 pages left in Dawson's Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner.

The plan:
Finish all the CodingBat exercises and the book before the start of spring break.
Use the free time during break to start a solid foundation for the final card game. I have a feeling that the beginning will be the hardest because I'll have no clue where to go, so it'll be good to start when I actually have time, and can draw on community resources for help that I'm sure will be needed.

Gleaning From The Past - 2

Gems of the project:
1) there was lots of personality, from emotions to anecdotes.
2) journal entries had humor throughout them

Oops, could have been better:
1) entries didn't appear proofread - lots of errors
2) no pictures or lists, just texttexttext.

What I'm going to borrow:
1) more description about my interactions with other people
2) metaphors made reading more fun!

Gleaning From the Past

I'll admit, I was pretty reluctant to start going through the project documentation of a former WISE student, because it seemed like a huge task and I didn't think I would get much out of it. Obviously, I was totally wrong. Seeing a finished project and journal through the eyes of a reader is completely different than doing journals myself.


What I've learned:
1) Vary entries - walls of text get old really quickly. Adding pictures and lists is a big YES PLEASE.
2) No one wants to know the technical everythings about what you're doing. It's just confusing.
3) Pay attention to what you're writing. Error after error not only makes you look bad, but also makes your entries painful to read.
4) Don't feel bad about short entries - they're much more manageable to the reader than pages and pages.
5) Humor is good. Very good.

How to Become a Millionaire

I mentioned earlier Dawson's ability to lace his writing with humor and make it interesting. Here's an example.

Monty Python

Fun fact: The Python programming language was actually named after Monty Python, and the books teaching it feature frequent references to spam and 42.


Speaking of books, Mike Dawson's Python Programming For the Absolute Beginner is pretty much a lifesaver. I was able to skim over the first 30 or so pages, because I'm not really an "absolute beginner", but it was nice to have the refresher. Now that I'm getting into the new stuff, I'm finding Dawson's book to be much more readable than Sweigart's. I think some of this is bias, because I'm much more comfortable with paper books than e-books, but some of it is legit. Dawson writes with a sort of subtle humor that makes learning more interesting. Also, at the end of each chapter there are challenge problems, pretty easy tasks, but still they not only cement what I've been reading about, but also keep me engaged, so yay! :D

Practicing

For me, it's the practicing that's the most fun. I know the research is necessary to reach the point where I can practice, but I'd much rather be trying out challenge problems or CodingBat exercises than learning how to traverse data structures or use nested loops. This is where the majority of my obstacles are - I'm itching to just get out there and DO something, but I need to build the foundation in order to do this.
However, I did get a new Python book in the mail today (Mike Dawson's Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner) and it looks pretty promising. I'm crossing my fingers that this will be my stepping stone out of the rut I'm in, because it combines research with practice problems, and that might be enough to satisfy my need to "produce" something.

On Resources

So, I'm coming now to the realization that my troubles with research aren't actually with research - they're with the resources I'm using to do the research. The book I've been learning from is aimed towards much younger kids (as was made quite apparent in the last chapter when it taught how to use Cartesian coordinates - AKA the x,y coordinate system). While I am beginning Python, I'm not beginning at that age level. And I think that's the stem of the problem. It's not the learning itself, just how I'm doing it. Unfortunately, I'm more than halfway through the book, and I just can't bring myself to give up now. Oh well. Downhill stretch now, right?

Finding a Balance

At the moment, so much of my project is just reading and learning, it's hard to write about what I've been doing. I could summarize the hour I spent today working on a Bagels game (this is actually a thing - I'd never heard about it until today), but that would be annoying for me to write, and boring for anyone else to read. It's really difficult to find that balance between documenting my progress and lulling people to sleep. Honestly, there's not that much to say about what I've been doing, so I'm constantly trying to think of what might stand out enough that I should talk about it.
For today, I guess that thing might be that I found the Firefox add-on that lets me download videos from YouTube, and it's really compatible with my internet situation. We have a 5 GB download limit per month on our internet at home, so being able to download a video that I can watch as many times as I need to for only 5-10 MB is pretty much a godsend.
Also, I ordered another book to read on Python - this one has really good reviews, and supposedly has practice problems at the end of each chapter where you actually write your own code - not just copy the code the author gives.

Barnsong

Seeing the documentation of a previous WISE project was really helpful for understanding what I need to work on for my own project. Even though the project(s) shown were totally different than what I'm aiming to do, there were themes that applied to me as well.
I better understand now how much work a WISE project entails - and that that work isn't always successful the first time. At one point during the video, the student mentioned, "Things take longer than expected." This rings so true - I think I sometimes set my expectations too high, and realize that what I've planned isn't realistic. It was also really helpful to see that - as the student in the video said - the success is really in the knowledge gained, not the completion of the project. It's relieving to know that even if I have set the bar too high, and don't manage to finish in the time limit, it's not like an automatic YOU FAIL, or even a rare occurrence type thing.
The video did raise a question for me - how do students deal with cost restrictions? This doesn't apply at all to my project, so I hadn't put much thought into it, but it was brought up in the video, and when I was glancing through the finished project I was assigned to respond to, I saw journal entries about parts that cost thousands of dollars. Most people don't have that sort of money just lying around, so I'm curious as to how this kind of barrier is overcome.
After seeing this video, I do feel more comfortable with my project goal, because I'm not as stressed about what will happen if I don't manage it. However, I also feel like I really need to get to work, because I saw how much effort the student in the video put into his project, and that makes me feel like I've been slacking. I really need to get down to it and put in the effort to pull this whole thing off.

To Do

Current To-do list:

1) Finish the book I've been working on since the start
2) Find a new book to use - preferably one that encourages writing your own code, not just following the author's.
3) Finish CodingBat exercises (won't take too long at this rate)
4) Figure out how to get the Firefox add-on that will allow me to download YouTube videos and thus combat my disagreeable internet at home.