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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<title><![CDATA[Hanj Does Coding]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/"/>
<updated>2013-11-28T12:48:43-05:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/</id>
<author>
<name><![CDATA[Hannah Jane]]></name>
</author>
<generator uri="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</generator>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Falling]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/27/falling/"/>
<updated>2013-11-27T08:30:00-05:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/27/falling</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>New York can be tough on a girl. There are a lot of stairs in this city. “Stairs?” you say? Well, for a life long clutz they can pose a challenge, especially when coupled with rain, and a distaste for handrails and other frequently touched objects.Today it finally happened. I fell down the stairs to the subway platform. Oh, and there was a person right behind me. We then had an awkawrd exchange, you know the kind. Where you try to make the person feel better about completing wiping out and you hand them their wallet. Anyway, perhaps a nice strong blog post can redeem the morning.</p>
<p>The New York Times Hackathon was a really great experience. It gave me more insight into this community, I got to work on a cool project, and oh did I mention that one of the Fullstack teams walked away with “People’s Choice Award”? We can hack and we have personality—ha. The New York Times were gracious hosts, and I enjoyed seeing all the creative projects that people came up with using the different APIs. There were a lot to choose from, and I found myself wanting to use them all. But part of the code process is refining, steering the course, and not getting side tracked. Which for me, meant building out a heat map for my news application. I used the number of returns on the Article API within a certain time range for the data. Nimit and I then normalized those numbers against each other using the maximum value and a log function (fancy fancy!) to determine the different levels. From there it was some simple JavaScript to assign the colors based on the level. It was the best feeling to see those colors show up (specifically, shades of blue).</p>
<p>This week Julian and I started working on the Fullstack Hiring application. Basically we are putting a Backbone application on top of what Nimit and David have built, and also practicing with some interactive web design so that it can be used on mobile during Demo Day. I had been dabbling in Backbone before this, but this project has definitely been helpful in bringing it all together. I’m also getting to play around with some mobile styling so that’s been really fun too. Fun and frustrating—as it goes with CSS. And there’s nothing like building something that you know is going to be used. I write better code and I’m more excited about the project.</p>
<p>Resumes, project finalization, and interview prep is underway. It’s stressful, but exciting too. Thanksgiving will be a nice middle of the week break, but I think most of us plan on coming in on Friday to keep cranking away with each other. Can’t keep us away from the code for too long.</p>
<p>“For we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Fellowship of the Ring</em> (this may be my favorite one yet!)</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Hack On]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/15/hack-on/"/>
<updated>2013-11-15T08:44:00-05:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/15/hack-on</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>“This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Hobbit</em></p>
<p>Capstones are underway. Sticky notes are moving. Ah, the sound of typing in the air. It’s been a really fun week, and I’ve enjoyed the change in pace. These two day sprints put a little bit of the pressure on, and it is once again confirmed that I thrive on structure with a dash of anxiety. It also plays into my strength as an “achiever.” But, of course, there’s always time for the occasional ping pong break.</p>
<p>Tomorrow is the New York Times hackathon. We’ve been brainstorming ideas and trying to come up with some good hacks. There are a lot of sponsors with some really cool APIs and the possibilities are endless. I’m excited to see what some of the other teams come up with. We might also incorporate some of the stuff that I’ve been working on this week with my map application. Who knows? I’m up for whatever and I’m sure we will come up with something fun and interesting. And possible. I think I’m more nervous about being in a new environment and presenting an idea in front of people who know A LOT about technology. But that’s the name of the game. Time to break out those public speaking skills again.</p>
<p>On Wednesday Imon and I attended a Women in Tech event through ISPossible. I think both of us forgot that there were non-engineering roles in companies; we’ve been in the code bubble for awhile now. A lot of the questions were general about being a woman in tech, and Imon and I found ourselves wanting to know more about the technology their companies were using. That was a good feeling. We definitely walked away with some good snippets, but the event started late and I found myself thinking “I could be coding right now.” That was the best feeling—to wish you had more time at your computer. All I want to do now is learn to write more code, delve deeper into my knowledge, and learn more languages. It’s exciting but there’s not enough time to do everything I want to!</p>
<p>This afternoon we will be demoing our capstone projects as they stand now. That’s a little frightening at the moment, especially since there are a couple of bugs I need to work out, and it is NOT pretty. But the basic functionality is there. Working on the map project has been really fun and gratifying, but it’s definitely developing as I go. It feels very fluid, and so far I like what it’s turning into. Next week I want to round it out and maybe add a timeline feature. But I definitely want to work on another project. I want to build something with more traditional users and a more robust back end. I think that would be great practice and also help me nail done some skills that haven’t been exercised as much since we started front-end development.</p>
<p>Stay tuned this weekend for an update on the Hackathon.</p>
<p>“For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Children of Húrin</em></p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[I've Got the Eye of the Tiger]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/12/ive-got-the-eye-of-the-tiger/"/>
<updated>2013-11-12T19:49:00-05:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/12/ive-got-the-eye-of-the-tiger</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The last third of Fullstack is underway. The beginning of this week saw our capstone projects launch, a new project management system(read: public shame if your sticky notes don’t move up the window and they all stay in back log. Nothing like some accoutanbility systems). But really, these two day sprints are sprints, and they keep me on track. I respond well to structure it seems. And peer pressure.</p>
<p>It’s been fun having the freedom to work on our own projects, struggle a little bit through our own problems, and also help guide each other through issues that come up. Especially since we aren’t all struggling through the same bug. We get to ask questions, suggest features, and be eachother’s cheerleaders. I know it’s cheesey, but I like that stuff. I love watching my friends here put out amazing code and applitions. See <a href="http://foodoo.io">foodoo</a> to see what I mean. It’s only going to get better, and promise me, you want to be an early user. All in all, the capstones have been really fun so far. It really gives me a taste of what it’s going to be like building out in the real world. And it feels good!</p>
<p>Nimit and David gave us a Monay morning pep talk. It was inspiring. If Fullstack doesn’t work out, they may just have a spot on the motivational speaking circuit. The phrase that stuck with me is that these last four weeks are a “high impact time”. We may have faltered in the beginning, we may have started with a strong stride, but regardless these are the four weeks that can make or break us. We have the opportunity to really dig into some of the subject matter we’ve already learned, refine and hone our skills, and also explore some new technology to make us even more competitive. We aren’t struggling (as much) with the basics and that means that this is only going to get more fun—and complex. With the launch of the capstones I can already feel the creative and coder juices flowing. It’s motivating and energizing and makes me grind into the code for hours. What a feeling. And when you fix that bug, get that map to show up, or write a function that passes a test—-you can hear those angels singing Hallelujah. Or maybe you do a little fist pump.</p>
<p>OH. And I got a cronut. I felt like I needed to start this week off right. For all of you who are wondering, it was delicious, divine, and devoured. It was also the first snow of the season while I waited in line, so that alone shows you the dedication(who needs toes anyway?). It was worth every shiver and every breath of visible air. And all the smiles on everyone’s faces at Fullstack as they took a bite and gave me a thumbs up. I’ll probably go back once more for the December flavor.</p>
<p>“No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.” J.R.R. Tolkien</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Iron Sharpens Iron]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/08/its-the-final-countdown/"/>
<updated>2013-11-08T09:08:00-05:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/08/its-the-final-countdown</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I’m starting to lose track of the weeks. And sometimes the day. With daylight savings time, I’ve lost track of the hours on occassion too. I always think it’s gloomy and gray outside because it’s so dark, but then I go on the roof and look up, and it’s blue skies for days. We just get caught in the shadows of all the tall office buildings. Ah, New York.</p>
<p>This week has been a “bring it all together” kinda week. We have been sharpening our JavaScript chops, modifying the DOM with jQuery, oh and we introduced Backbone.js. It’s been a good week though. I’ve started to feel the pieces come together. I’m enjoying JavaScript (still confused about the colons though; working on it) and I enjoy writing code in it. And if you need someone to explain protypical inheritance, I got you. Definitely an improvement about how I was feeling about it from last week. It’s fun, and I’m figuring it out. I’m in a good place, friends. But man, am I tired. There is so much to learn and as I learn more there becomes even more opportunity to learn. It’s a big computer world out there.</p>
<p>BackBone is still coming together. I’m still not tracking with everything it does. The concept is interesting, but I think learning the syntax and how it all links up is going to take me more time. But I will. Of that, I am confident.</p>
<p>This Friday also marks our first round of mock interviews. There’s “no pressure” but I definitely don’t want to completely flop. I have learned, I have! Ha— but it’ll be good. Just another thing to focus on getting better at and continuing to grow and develop as a developer.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh. I haven’t even talked about our speakers. So Monday we had the founder of Beeminder, Daniel Reeves. I love his business model and idea. I think it’s genius. Go checkout Beeminder if you have a goal that you are having trouble achieving. Then on Tuesday we had Emily Stolfo from MongoDB. The fact that they store objects in JSON-like objects. And documents and collections… WOW. I was geeking out over a database. I have arrived. I want to try to use it for one of my projects before Fullstack. Thanks, Emily, for the inspiration!</p>
<p>And we will be finishing off with Stacksgiving tomorrow. Feeling very thankful that I’m doing something exciting and challenging at this point in my life. And I love some good pumpkin pie.</p>
<p>“You take after Bilbo,‘ said Gandalf. ‘There is more about you than meets the eye, as I said of him long ago.’ Frodo wondered if the remark meant more than it said”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[They Didn't Build Rome in a Day]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/01/geeking-out/"/>
<updated>2013-11-01T09:31:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/11/01/geeking-out</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>“I wish life was not so short,‘ he thought. ‘Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien</p>
<p>It’s a rainy morning in New York City. Today is the first day I didn’t walk to Fullstack. It was raining and hot. I’m used to that. But it’s the first day of November and it shouldn’t be this warm so I decided to treat myself to a subway ride.</p>
<p>This week has been a tough one at Fullstack, as noted in my earlier blog post this week. We worked on a trip planner project which involved putting all the pieces together (rails, JavaScript, JQuery, and finally, AJAX). Talk about a lot of moving pieces. This afternoon will be spent in review, doing a project to make sure all of these concepts are nailed down before I move onto Backbone. It’s hard because the frontend aspects of development don’t feel as natural, but it’s so important to being a Fullstack developer. User experience is so heavily dependent on all of this, and as we know, users are fickle. You have to grab and hold their attention. So I’m going to keep at it until I love it and I can write jQuery, JavaScript, and AJAX in my sleep. And then checkout some Backbone. And then some Ember or Angular.</p>
<p>Yesterday David spent a good 40 minutes with Robert and I debugging our Trip Planner project. Thanks, David. Watching you at the keyboard for that long inspired me—I’m going to be practicing some shortcuts this weekend. Afterwards we somehow got on the topic of <em>Game of Thrones</em>. Which led to a conversation about the character development, plot theories floating around on the web, and George Martin’s refusal to allow anyone else to write the books should he not be able to finish them. Yes, I’ve surprisingly read all five. Or maybe I just want that to be surprising. Then we turned to other good reads out there, and needless to say my “Must Read” list expanded pretty quickly (<em>Cryptonomicon</em> and <em>Masters of Doom</em> were additions). I was completely “geeking out” talking about all these books. Mom, I blame you. Growing up reading was always a priority and books were one thing that we knew our Mom could never say no to. As a result, I’ve realized that I’ll need to incorporate a significant portion of my disposable income to a book allowance (perhaps I’ll get an Oyster account, although I love a good paperback). All this to say, I realized that I have a terrible system for curating my “to-read” list.</p>
<p>We always talk about how the best applications, or at least the ones that are the most fun to build, are the ones we build because they solve our own problems. Or you build something because you are passionate about it. Well, I realized that maybe keeping a list on my iphone wasn’t exactly the best idea. And I also recognized that I love to read. Why not build something around that passion? So I don’t know if this will evolve into a capstone project or if this is just something for fun, but I’m going to build an application to help me keep track of my list. Maybe I’ll suck in some fellow reading enthusiasts to test it out for me as well (I’m looking at you, Anna and Abbey). We are going to be talking about our ideas more in our one-on-ones so hopefully there will be some exciting news to follow next week.</p>
<p>“Mercy!“ cried Gandalf. “If the giving of knowledge is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more should you like to know?”</p>
<p>“The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-Earth and Over-heave and of the Sundering Seas,” laughed Pippin. “Of course! What less?”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Two Towers</em></p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[JavaScript, JQuery, Rails, OH MY]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/28/fsdfs/"/>
<updated>2013-10-28T19:40:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/28/fsdfs</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Sometimes Mondays are tough.</p>
<p>Okay friends, I said that I would start blogging more so that not <em>every single</em> post was a novel. As much as I know you secretly look forward to them on Fridays. The weekend can’t start without that e-mail now can it? I digress.</p>
<p>Today consisted of a heavy morning. We went over two projects from last week. It was good and helpful and necessary. But I had that familiar feeling of “What is happening to me?” Ha- just getting rocked by a new language. Oh the old, familiar feeling. JavaScript just feels so foreign and messy. I know it can do all these great things, but I have this “ugh” gut reaction to it. But then again, maybe I will be made into a lover of JS. Stranger things have happened. AND I did happen to win lunch by asking the “obvious question” about prototypes today. So maybe it’s a sign. JavaScript is bearing good fruit so far. So after going over Test First and our Game of Life projects we broke for lunch and resumed on the topic of…</p>
<p>JQUERY. jQuery y’all. Well, this wasn’t as terrible as I anticiapted because Nimit had sent out some prep work for the week, <em>which I did</em>. And it really did help a ton. It’s so much better when you have a reference for these things before diving in. We started a new project for today and tomorrow with a new partner (I managed to keep my seat that I’ve sat in almost all of Fullstack—Thanks Robert and Wenson, such gentlemen). This project brings it all together. When we all switched back to Ruby there was a collective “uhhh” moment. It’s a muscle. Ya gotta use it. So we were back in Ruby. And switching to HTML. And then back to JavaScript. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it we’re so fast. Not really, but it’s really cool to have a view of what the bigger picture looks like. Rails, Ruby, I missed you. Being back is like putting on that old familiar t-shirt. I’m excited to do more of this project; we will definitely run into speed bumps, but we have all the tools. Now it’s just going to be a matter of honing and getting more confident and being awesome. There, I said it. We are on the path to greatness.</p>
<p>On a side note, I tried again to make reservations for some cronuts. I, yet again, have failed. I forgot because we were in a review and then it was TOO LATE. Soon I think I’m going to have to give up on the dream of making a reservaton and put on my big girl jacket and wait in line. In the cold. For a pastry? Questioning my bold (and highly public) statements about this coveted delicacy. But you know what? I said I was going to do it and I told the whole wide world (web) about it. Which means you’ll see me standing in that line soon.</p>
<p>Happy Monday, Y’all.</p>
<p>“Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet though you do not see them”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Fellowship of the Ring</em></p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Woah, We're Halfway There]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/25/week-6/"/>
<updated>2013-10-25T09:09:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/25/week-6</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<h2>Woah, We’re Living on a Prayer.</h2>
<p>The halfway marker has come and gone. And I know every week I’m all “Where has the time gone?” Like I don’t expect the days to change or something, but still. It really does fly by each week! I knew it would be like this when I decided to do Fullstack, but I didn’t think I would feel this pressed for time. I need another day or two tacked onto each week to recover, review, and build something new. There truly are not enough hours in the day.</p>
<p>This week we started JavaScript. Not to be confused with Java… Amateurs. Just kidding. Now, I’m turning into a code elitist. Worst things could happen? Probably a little premature at this point in my career. So, I was a little nervous to start JS. Maybe more than a little. In the preterm work I was so relieved when I got through that section. Alas, my first intuition was right. JS is a kind of a love hate relationship. On one hand, it’s a pain. It does something and I’m all “WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?” But then you can build all these really cool things that people love to use and do fancy things and make you feel like a bad ass. I haven’t quite experienced that part of JS yet (here’s to trusting that will come in time). So the jury is still out on JavaScript. One thing I will say is that it has made me love Ruby all the more. Ruby, I pine for our days of def end and each loops… I’ll be returning to you soon.</p>
<p>It’s crazy to think about the change that has happened in the last 6 weeks. The first day of class I was afraid of the terminal. What if I mess something up and break my computer forever? What if I delete all my files? What if what if what if? Now we all joke about doing that because we all want an excuse to buy new Macbook (did you hear about the battery life— oh I went green with envy!). Now I’m installing gems and deleting things and playing with reckless abandon. Maybe too much. Now the attitude is “Eh, whatever. Throw it into the command line. If we break it we’ll figure it out.” Talk about a pendulum swing. On a different note, I’ve finally made the transition to using two monitors. I resisted for so long. But as I’ve delved more into this world, man, those two monitors are pretty sweet. And then there are the keyboard shortcuts, alfred, flux, trello, sublime… Oh the list goes on. We might just make a techie out of me yet…</p>
<p>As this is the halfway mark, it only makes sense to spend some time looking forward. There’s a lot that I’m excited about. I’m starting to enjoy development more, savoring the ‘Aha’ moments and relishing in a web page that doesn’t yield any errors (pun intended). I have more intuition with the next step, and sometimes it’s a matter of talking through the logic so that I can formulate a plan. The more I code the more I realize that it’s really helpful to start out with the big picture. What do you want the application to do? What are the smaller actions/operations you want it to perform in order to make the complete package? What is the first thing you need to build to be able to execute the “main functions?” And then just working through the logic of that individual function or method. And then occasionally zoom back out to make sure you are moving in the right direction. I don’t know if this is right, or if this is what you are supposed to do. But for me it works, and it makes it a matter of plugging in the right pieces.</p>
<p>I’m really excited to start working on some of my own stuff. Every week I say that I’m going to try and build something new over the weekend, and I never get around to it. My body crashes, I’m trying to review from the previous week, and prepare for the new material. But now we have covered everything to make a “fullstack” website, so I can do it all. It’s almost time (is time?) to go for it. And I like it. The hunger is there. What I really am working towards is being able to say “I want to learn that” and be able to do some reading, some tinkering, and figure it out. I’m definitely not there yet, but guides and documentation are actually helpful. So that’s a jump!</p>
<p>As part of the CTO program we talked about Lean Startups this week. This philosphy was championed by Eric Ries. It was interesting and we had a lot of really great discussion about getting products out there. More than anything it made me excited to work in a dynamic environemnt and try to build something. This is one of the advantages of being a developer. The opportunity to build something from the ground up is there, you can work for an established company, or if you think you have a great idea you can pursue that too. We talked a lot about how the technology challenges are a small part of being a successful business. It’s more about meeting a market need at the right time with the right balance of price, product, and innovation. All this talk about working and companies and code made me so excited to get out there and do it.Just gotta get this Javascript under control.</p>
<p>As a side project I’ve been reading <em>Getting More, How to Negotiate to Achieve your Goals in the Real World</em> by Stuart Diamond. Nimit recommended it—he had taken Diamond’s class during his time at Wharton. So far it’s pretty good, it’s about different techniques you can use to negotiate and achieve your goals, even in the day to day interactions. Good recommendation on Nimit’s part.</p>
<p>Goals for Saturday/Sunday: Read <em>Eloquent Javascript</em>, Spruce up this blog—it needs some personality, no? Do some more reading on d3.js in preparation for the mini map project. And maybe spend a couple of hours outside in this beautiful weather tomorrow.</p>
<p>Keeping in line with tradition…</p>
<p>“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Hobbit</em> (on switching languages…)</p>
<p>“For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.” J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Fellowship of the Ring</em> (on <em>learning</em> new languages…)</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[These are the Days]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/20/these-are-the-days/"/>
<updated>2013-10-20T16:35:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/20/these-are-the-days</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Another weekend has (almost) come and gone, and in line with my goal to blog more, I decided a little afternoon post was in order.</p>
<p>Friday at Fullstack (post Friday blogging) was a change of pace for all of us. That may be an understatement actually. It was more like we have all been running a marathon and all the sudden we are in row boat in the middle of a lake. In preparation for us starting HTML and CSS we had an afternoon art lesson. Oh yes, you were are not mistaken. Art. Did I mentionwe are a bunch of budding techies? We stepped away from our computers for like 5 waking hours. Records, people. Records.</p>
<p>Nimit’s wife was our lovely instructor. She walked us through some of the basics first. Basics such as lighting and shading, and even a little topography. Needless to say, most of us needed some extra help and guidance. Then we moved onto the big dawg—painting. At Fullstack we don’t wait to dive in and go for it. Nope, go big or go home. Always. We first made a grid and sketched our picture in. Then we just went for it with the paint. It was relaxing and we put on some music and I think for the most part we all enjoyed it. Except Julian, who I was sitting alongside. He said that this art was “putting him a bad place.” He makes up for his lack of artistic talent in other ways. Anyway, I enjoyed the change of venue and schedule. I’m also so tired on Friday afternoons, and this was a great way to stretch the mind and try something new without any pressure. Then several of us capped off the night with dinner in Chinatown—a first for me. Two words, y’all: soup dumplings.</p>
<p>When I came into Fullstack yesterday and looked at all of our “works of art” on the table, I blurted out “These are really bad.” Alas, we don’t have to paint by hand, and soon we will be making beautiful works of art with code. After spending some time at Fullstack yesterday reviewing Rails—all that prework makes a WHOLE lot more sense with some context—and watching the Dawgs lose (to Vandy of all schools—I can’t even…), I headed over to the mobile payments hackathon. Some fellow Fullstackers had been there all day and were going to present their project at 6. They did a wonderful job, and I would say they presented one of the more articulate and organized presentations. They didn’t place, but hey— we’ve only been doing this for five weeks. So I say rock on. They were great. Then the night ended with some much needed college football. How about that FSU/Clemson game?</p>
<p>Sundays are for rest. Or at least that’s what I’ve tried to make them. I feel like it’s important to gear up for the week and start Mondays off strong. Today I worked out (briefly), read this morning and enjoyed a cup of joe, and took a nap. I then headed to Washington Square Park to enjoy this AMAZING fall weather. There’s a man who rolls his piano there and plays for free everyday. Apparently he’s some old concert pianoist who quit and decided he’d rather play in the park. I don’t mind—only in New York. I brought a book and a warm jacket and enjoyed alternately reading and people watching. Now I’m back at home blogging. Resting and enjoying a quiet afternoon before church and one more social gathering before we all dive back into the business.</p>
<p>It’s funny because not only am I learning to code, but I’m learning New York. It’s a hard balance—because I want to get as much of each while I can. Because I’m not guaranteed time here I want to enjoy the city, but I also want to learn as much as I can and put in as much time as I can coding so that I’m prepared when this is all over. But New York has been kind to me so far aside from some choice incidents and the always present stench. Luckily this fall weather is to die for and helps with the questionable aromas arising from trashbags and other miscelaneous sidewalk items. I wonder when puffer jacket weather will start. Home is where the heart is right? (I’m thinking of you Chickfila and Lucy Bear—my dog). It’s exciting to be here. I never anticipated this is where I would be, but I’m loving it. And I feel like even better things are in store.</p>
<p>Sunday Funday means that you get two J.R.R. Tolkien quotes…</p>
<p>“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Hobbit</em></p>
<p>“Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you’ve done since you left home.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, <em>The Fellowship of the Ring</em></p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Picking up Steam]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/17/picking-up-steam/"/>
<updated>2013-10-17T17:45:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/17/picking-up-steam</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<h2>Rails on Rails</h2>
<p>This week we started to build our first big Rails project. To be honest, I was completely nervous and freaked out about starting a group project on Rails. I felt like we had barely been exposed to the framework by working in it on StackWorld. But as is usually the case, I think David and Nimit were right to throw us into a big group project this soon. I think I have a natural tendency to want to sort it all out before I actually do anything, and sometimes the most effective way to learn is to just do it—break some things (a lot of things), and then learn how to fix them.</p>
<p>My group was one of the groups with four members. In some ways, I think this gave us an advantage. Four minds working on a problem, three other people to ask questions when something goes wrong. But it also meant we had to be a little more organized and had to make sure that we were keeping track of everyone’s work. Our group was really into the SCRUM model and using Trello. Actually, we loved <a href="https://trello.com/">Trello</a>. We loved scrumming. We held scrum meetings two or three times a day (depending on the issues that arise and the work flow). I honestly don’t know how other groups kept track of their project without it. Y’all are crazy. Trello really allowed us to see our progress and also helped us define our goals around our project more clearly. There wasn’t wasted effort because we knew the tasks that had to be completed. I think I’ll continue to use Trello for future group projects and even for projects that I’m working on independently. I love the over view that it gives you, and the ability to see the longer term goals as well as the details. Kudos and thanks to the people of Trello.</p>
<p>Back to Rails. What’s neat about Rails is basically everything. There are a ton of built in conventions and helper methods defined for you. It anticipates what you will want and need and it practically hands you a good bit of this on a platter. But things aren’t all ruby and roses in Rails. Rails conventions are great. Until you break them. Accidentally. Or you name something with or without the desired ’s’. Note to all: grammar IS important. Typos will cause death by error messages. Don’t be fooled, that comma matters. You may spend an hour deciphering an error message and trying all different types of syntax for a route and come to find out that you were missing a comma. Not that that’s ever happened to me… But really, as you dig in more to the set up it all starts to make more sense. I’m definitely not all there yet, but it’s getting more natural. I trust my intuition more, and I’m not as scared to break something. If I do, that’s okay. I just won’t push it up. Or I’ll do a stash. Or I’ll git reset —hard. I may have over utilized that tool in the beginning of our project haha. Git is a whole other story. But it is magic as well and I love it.</p>
<p>On a more personal level, this week has definitely been a tipping point. I think learning any new skill is a challenge and can bring about frustrations and doubts. And I think I let that get in my head for awhile. And the crazy thing was that I knew it was happening. I knew that I was letting self doubt and a lack of confidence affect my work and learning curve. I think this week I may have overcome that, or at least started that process. Coding became WAY more fun as I started to trust my instincts more, and started to solve some problems on my own. It became more like a puzzle and I was the one with the pieces, and I just had to figure out how to put them together. Previously, it was more like I had the puzzle and I couldn’t figure out a way to open to box. Haha Or something along those lines. About halfway through our project Dave was over helping “The Dream Team” with a problem. Shout out to the other half of the dream team, <a href="www.wensontsai.github.io">Wenson</a>. If you want to be inspired and laugh and gain some wisdom click that link. Anyway, Dave noted that “I always have the right intuition but I hesitate.” I may have paraphrased that slightly, but the message is the same. So this weekend I’m going to try to build a mini app, let myself make some mistakes, and trust myself to figure them out. Or give it the good old college try. I’m really excited about continuing along this journey and becoming an even better developer.</p>
<p>Goals
1. Build a mini app on Rails this weekend
2. Blog at least once a week besides Fridays
3. Go on a walk or run during lunch or after class at least twice a week now that we have lockers at Fullstack (upgrades, y’all. upgrades)</p>
<p>In the spirit of our J.R.R. Tolkien Quote Fridays…</p>
<p>“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” <em>The Lord of the Rings</em></p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Git it, Girl]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/12/git-it/"/>
<updated>2013-10-12T11:51:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/12/git-it</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been thinking a lot about “women in tech”. I can account for this for several reasons. The first being the obvious imbalance in the numbers. Imon and I hold down the female fort in our cohort, now with back up from Charlotte. We are constantly outnumebred and are also two of the younger members of the class. All that’s fine, but it’s definitely makes for a different culture (think GTA and WofWC over J.Crew and The Kardashians). And then there are those outside of the classroom. Whenever I tell someone what I’m doing in New York, they never seem to believe me on the first go round. I get some variation of “Coding? Like for computers?” Yes, “coding for computers.” I always wonder what “other coding” activity they are thinking of when I get this question. This is typically followed up by a “what was your major” and further shock when they learn that is unrelated to anything STEM. However, my male counterparts have yet to mention any similar encounters. Maybe they are just being mum on the matter. Or maybe no one is surprised that they want to learn how to code.</p>
<p>In a way, I don’t mind being a novelty, and I don’t mind shattering people’s expectations. I’m certainly not the first female that has decided to be a developer, and I sure won’t be the last. To me, what’s important is the work I produce. I don’t want to be a “girl in tech”; I want to be a great developer who happens to lack a Y chromosome. What’s interesting is seeing this paradigm change as I make this life change. I’m excited to see more awesome leaders and developers in the field who happen to be women.</p>
<p>And yet, while there is change in the air, the glaring imbalance is still there. Recently Twitter filed for IPO with an all male board, all male investors, and all male executive officers (except for one, who has been on the job for 5 weeks and is general counsel, so she hardly counts as a technical woman executive). To read more about it, check out this article by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/technology/as-tech-start-ups-surge-ahead-women-seem-to-be-left-behind.html?_r=0">New York Times</a>. Did I mention that half of Twitter’s users are women? Sometimes it’s moments like these when you grasp the reality of the imbalance. In a way, it puts more pressure on you to perform—to not fit the stereotype and to build things that kick ass. Everyone wants that, but I think there’s an extra pressure (pressure from themselves) there for women to be exceed expectations.</p>
<p>Which brings me to Sheryl Sandberg. I’m sure you’ve probably heard of her, the Facebook exec who has been making BIG waves with her book <em>Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead</em>. I never paid much attention to her, and I didn’t really buy into the hype around her message. And then I saw her Ted Talk from 2010. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Ted Talks? I do. So I watched her Ted Talk, and she drew me in. She’s articulate, funny, and easy to follow. Needless to say, <em>Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead</em> has now made it onto my Christmas time reading list (ah, the luxury that awaits). She talked about several things, but the main one that stuck with me was this:</p>
<p><strong>Sit at the table.</strong> She told a story about how two women accompanied an executive to a meeting, and they declined to sit at the table and instead sat in two chairs against the wall. These were not lowly assistants—they were managers and major players in their company. And they declined to sit at the table. Sometimes I can feel that tendency in myself—the desire to withdrawal, to sit back, to not make a waves. I don’t know if this is partly my Southern upbringing (wouldn’t want to offend anyone, now would we?), my natural introvertness and go with the flow personality, or perhaps, a tinge of intimidation and fear of being judged for not saying the perfect thing. So whether it’s code, an outing with my fellow developer friends, or just being honest about how I feel— I’m going to sit at the table.</p>
<p>I had someone tell me recently that I “could be a lady or be an equal in New York.” Well you know what? I don’t buy that. I think I can be a lady, an equal, and an excellent developer.</p>
<p>And to sum it all up…</p>
<p>“How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?” Anais Nin.</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Rolling Rolling Rolling]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/11/rolling-rolling-rolling/"/>
<updated>2013-10-11T10:30:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/11/rolling-rolling-rolling</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The fourth week is at a close, and with it we have completed a third of our time here at Fullstack. It is almost the middle of October and even though we still have plenty of time left (which I certainly need), I find myself sad that so much time here has already passed.</p>
<p>This week marked the beginning of the much anticipated start of Rails. For those who are unfamiliar with what I mean when I refer to “Rails”, it is a framework designed that makes web development much faster (once you get the hang of it). It sets up a framework for you to build a web application in, and frees you from much of the set up time and hassle. It is beloved by Ruby developers everywhere. And hopefully, with more time I will develop the same love and appreciation for the gift to all developers that is Rails. For a Rails newbie it can seem like magic sometimes— certain capabilities and structures are just “magically” there for you to use and you don’t have to wwrite the code yourself. It’s a dream. But then there’s the task that comes alongside that of having to actually understand what’s happening. I am struggling to grasp some of the intricacies of Rails, but I can see how it changed the game for developers. At this point, it’s really a matter of connecting the dots, spending more and more time in the framework, and developing an intuitive sense of what Rails is doing under the hood.</p>
<p>On Tuesday this week we went to a Developers’ Meet Up in the Financial District. It was our coming out debut as New York developers (haha, jokes). But it was a really interesting meeting and gave us another glimpse into the culture and community of New York Start Ups. We headed over to the StackOverflow office which was a conveneint five minute walk away from Fullstack. Their office was everything you think of when you think of a place you’d want to work— great views, stocked kitchen and bar, lounge area, and an open modern floor plan. Some of us may have drooled a little. Anyway, about five start ups presented on the way they were using Ruby in their apps and in their businesses. The uses varied widely as did the products. There were topics that were definitely over our heads, but I think we all gained a lot from the experience. It exposed me to the variety of uses for Ruby and also the ways that businesses are integrating other languages and making use of the robust options and tools available through Ruby Gems. As a side note, Imon and I noticed there were about ten women developers there out of maybe a hundred. The numbers are rough, but you get the picture. This experience coupled with Twitter’s recent IPO news (there was a great New York Times article on that), along with my viewing Sheryl Sandberg’s Ted Talk from 2010 have spurred a lot of thought on women in tech and business in general. Stay tuned for a post on that.</p>
<p>As a closing thought, and perhaps the beginning of a new weekly tradition, and in light of the baby steps we take each day and week I’d like to close with a quote from J.R. Tolkein ‘Little by little, one travels far.’</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Week 3]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/04/week-3/"/>
<updated>2013-10-04T09:10:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/10/04/week-3</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<h3>ActiveRecord, Sinatra, RegEx, and Cronuts</h3>
<p>As I look at the things we reviewed this week, it seems like we’ve covered a lot in a little bit of time. Each week we hit the ground running, and by the time we make it to Friday I am always left with some disorientation as I realize another week is over. Our Friday morning blogging ritual allows me the time to review, process, and remember the week past, something I think is critical to the learning process. As a side note, our blogging process made me think of a quote from C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite writers and theologians, “Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is a great cure of all human ills.” I may not be taking ink to paper right now (although I do that as well), but this is close enough—and way more techie.</p>
<p>All of that being said, I really enjoyed our workshops on ActiveRecord and database structuring. Not only did we learn a lot about how this will affect us in our own ventures in applications, it also increasingly shed light on the structure of websites and user interfaces that I already use. I enjoy looking at websites and thinking through their potential database structure.</p>
<p>We then moved onto our SimStackworld Project—our first web application. This project started to bring together a lot of the concepts that we had been learning over the past several weeks. It involved Ruby, databases, and understanding how the internet works. As a side note I’d like to thank my brothers for exposing me to the world of gaming—there are many conversations here that I can follow because of the minimal amount of of knowledge I gained through living with you through the World of War Craft and Call of Duty years. Cheers to y’all. I enjoyed this project, but we definitely still had a lot of help from David and Nimit. At one point David commented that I was in “git hell.” Yes, that feels about accurate. The building blocks are starting to come together, and I think after doing this project I have a better idea of how I could deploy a simple web application on my own. Hopefully this weekend will allow some more time to review the intricacies of the project that I may have stepped over while executing it. I hope to play around with that a little more this weekend, and I’m sure as we start on the web crawler project this will bring forth even more questions and capabilities.</p>
<p>This week I’ve been trying to brainstorm more about the kind of projects that I want to work on. Not only for my large end of the semester project, but even just little weekend and night projects to help me practice what I’m learning. In this learning environment, and in code especially, I think my best chance at developing (no pun intended) sharp coding skills is to build as many things as I can. I’m not saying I want to be a machine that cranks out unsophisticated applications, but I think the act of attempting to write some code on my own will increase my confidence in my own ability to learn and execute, and also give me a better idea of the kind of programming job that I want to pursue after graduation.</p>
<p>As a side note, New York is growing on me in some ways, and in some ways I think I may grow crazy here. I love the accessibility— you can get anything you want here (cronuts, ramen burger—that’s on the food agenda for this weekend). But sometimes I miss the green mountains, and I want to feel grass between my toes without having to go 50 blocks up to central park. And then there are the strange and confused looks when I tell someone my name. Oh, and I miss my dogs. Also, what’s it with everyone here and “juicing”? Everywhere I turn everyone is talking about how they want to do a “juice fast.” Mmmm, not me, I’ll take my bagels and my cronuts and my tacos. On a more positive note, I love how much you walk here— even though I sit for the majority of the day I have yet to experience back issues, and I feel healthy overall. It’ll be interesting to see if I end up here post Fullstack; in many ways I’d be sad to start my coding career apart from my fellow Fullstackers. I can already see where New York would be a great community to launch a career in tech, and that draw may be enough to make me want to plant my feet here a little bit more permanently.</p>
<p>The cronut hunt is still on. I discovered that the bakery is about a block off my walk on my way to school, so I’ve started taking a detour everyday to checkout the line. Hopefully when the weather cools off a little bit people’s cronut cravings will ebb (not mine though). I’m also planning on making a reservation for some cronuts. It will happen people, bear with me.</p>
<p>I’ve decided to start setting some goals. I’ve always enjoyed this process and I think it keeps me focused. Normally, I was in situations where goal setting was a natural part of the start of the semester, but with all the craziness of moving up here I’ve neglected this ritual. So I’m going to start small. Goals for this weekend: recover and rest—I think I may be coming down with something; attempt the Sinatra Linker project on Saturday (hence, come into Fullstack this Saturday); brush up on my hash syntax and regular expressions work, a little review never hurt anyone; find a ramen burger (I don’t know why I’ve latched onto this idea, but I’m going for it. I may have some foodie tendencies); and lastly, but certainly not the least important, cheer on my DAWGS as they show Tennessee how to play some real football (this may be happening at Fullstack as the game is at 3:30—but hey, what are our double monitors for if not some live football streaming?). Oh, and I want to fix my octomailer configuration so that it sends out a link to my blog, and not just the content. Have a good one, friends.</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Two Weeks and Counting]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/27/two-weeks-and-counting/"/>
<updated>2013-09-27T09:18:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/27/two-weeks-and-counting</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<h3>Blackjack, Ruby, Databases, and Cronuts</h3>
<p>This week has flown by. Each day is so full and before I know it, it’s the end of the week. It makes me realize how fast these 12 weeks are going to go and how I need to be taking advantage of every minute of them.</p>
<p>This week started off with the blackjack project. This project involved two main tasks—writing the code that would generate a blackjack game between a dealer and a player, and writing the tests that would ensure that the code was going to work the way you anticipated. Using test driven development in real life is as hard as it sounds. Not only do you have to try and write code that executes what you want, but you have to write a test that passes based on whether you write that code correctly. In reality, it takes a ton of time on the front end, but when you are done you know you have code that is functioning how it should (assuming you wrote good tests… but you know what happens when you assume). This exercise was really difficult at first, but as time went on it became more natural and your brain learns to switch between the two different objectives. I think I’ll probably try and work through this project again this weekend, or at least review it again. It was really helpful in conceptualizing what was going on in your code and how to write effective tests.</p>
<p>We then switched gears to databases. I think some people found this topic lackluster and a necessary evil, but I found it really interesting! I love the idea of being able to extract very exact information. It gives you access to so many different things, and is so applicable in the real world. When learning SQL it was more a matter of getting syntax and little tricks down. I’m by no means an expert, but I think it’s something I’ll play around with more, especially as we start building web apps and potentially gathering data on users. I think as a student of International Affairs and Public Administration I’ve always been shown the power of data, and I’m excited to have a better understanding of how to access and use it. Numbers talk.</p>
<p>From SQL we transitioned over to a project of building our own Active Record(a Rails feature), called Simple Record. Once I grasped what we were doing in this project I thought it was really cool! We basically built a way to access a databse (in our case SQL) using the Ruby language. There was a lot going on in this project, and once we were into it we had hundreds of lines of code. And of course, David showed us how we could condense that all down, deeming much of our code unnecessary. But hey! I struggled through it and I think it was worth it for the cognitive gains. I definitely gained a better understanding of what is going on in Active Record, and this weekend I plan on taking another look at what we built for the Simple Record project and making sure I’m understanding what’s going on at each step.</p>
<p>I think this week has been a transitional week. Now that I am getting my bearings, I’m starting to see the dots connect, gaining more understanding, and getting excited about what’s to come. But I’m probably still struggling to gain confidence in myself as a programmer. I second guess my self alot, defer to my partner’s opinion, and occasionally make some self deprecating jokes (a very unbecoming habit that I’m trying to stop). I think this weekend I need to just get my head straight. As David mentinoed in our one-on-one last week “The computer won’t judge you.” I don’t know if it’s so much of a lack of confidence as much as it is self consicousness. I can feel it starting to drop away as more concepts click. All in all, I feel like I’m on the upswing. The basic concept coding hill doesn’t seem quite as steep as it use to, and I’m starting to enjoy our projects more. This weekend and the beginning of next week will really be about grounding everything I’ve learned so far, and gearing up to take on even more difficult coding challenges. I can’t wait to see what the next week holds!</p>
<p>P.S. I tried for cronuts today. No luck, the line was around the block. Next week I’m going to try again.</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[End of First Week]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/20/end-of-first-week/"/>
<updated>2013-09-20T09:36:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/20/end-of-first-week</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<h1>The First Week Comes to a Close</h1>
<p>The first week at Fullstack has definitely been a challenging one. As I’ve told a couple of friends lately, “I’ve never been so intellecutally humbled and challenged.” One of the biggest take aways has just been learning how to switch the way I approcah problems and understanding. While I completed nearly all of the preterm coursework, there is nothing like getting your hands dirty and actually trying to build something. This week has really taught me how to take each problem and break it down into logical steps, and in that I’ve realized that sometimes the hardest part is just figuring out where to start.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed buidling the profile page on the first day. It was an unintimdating way to get started, and start learning how to play around with things. The hardest thing for me this week was probably the octomailer project. I think I really struggled with just figuring out what the next step was, and it just wasn’t clicking. I understand how we were using symbols and hashes and arrays on the more theoretical level, but when it came to actually writing the code and moving through it step by step I really struggled.I reviewed the project with my finished code afterwards and that helped solidfy the thought process a little bit. Since I hadn’t gotten to haiku yet, I started on that, and I’ve really enjoyed working on building that so far! I really like how I can see the logical next steps— that project is clicking more for me than the octomailer.</p>
<p>I think moving forward my biggest challenge is just overcoming the doubt that creeps in when something doesn’t click immediately. I’m excited to see what next week brings.</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[First Week]]></title>
<link href="http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/17/first-week/"/>
<updated>2013-09-17T12:45:00-04:00</updated>
<id>http://hjbuchanan.github.io/blog/2013/09/17/first-week</id>
<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>First Days at Fullstack
The first days have already been full of learning and sometimes, new frustrations. I don’t know if I ever realized how many things can go wrong with your computer—this morning we spent the better half of the day trying to reinstall ruby in order for me to write this blog post. Luckily, David and Nimit are master coders, and I think we worked it all. I’m going to download some updated software and hopefully that will help avoid some problems in the future. This afternoon we start on Ruby, so get ready for an update on that!</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
</feed>