It has been awhile

Second day in on the second week in, I can tell this course is not slowing down and I love it.  I have learned so much in only a handful of days.  I know this program has provided incredible avenues and routes to success.  We are learning SQL server management studios.  It has been a difficult transition from ASP.NET but yesterday and today we see how powerful a tool SQL Server can be in our future projects.  WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. Knowing that the entire database holds the information for your entire application is scary thought because you can wipe away the entire thing in a few simple keystrokes.  As a helpful reminder to everybody, Programmer or not,  SAVE YOUR WORK.  Simple but ignored a great amount of the time.

I know I have been talking about my projects and what I learned but I haven't really shown anyone.  So I am attaching a couple screenshots of work that we have been doing over the last 8 days.  

^ I am now a proud student of Contoso University

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT AND I FEEL FINE.

The last two days were interesting to say the least.  When Coder Camps told me they were throwing me into the deep end, they weren't kidding.  We learned a plethora of keywords and syntax, so much felt like it was going over my head.  At one point I contemplated slinking underneath my desk and get into the fetal position. Definitely felt this time to time.

                                                                                           (How I felt writing C#) 

In the end, perseverance and determination won out (... and a ton of help from my peers.) For the first time, I wrote C# code and it wasn't absolutely devastating. Quite the opposite, some of it actually worked and I made my first application.  I frankly couldn't believe how good it looked and how functional it was. There were definitely times I wondered if I could handle this course but after  I saw the fruits of my labor with my code partner, I knew I could do this and I can be successful.  My troop (by the way, we are changed our name from 42 to D33P THOT... cause we  L33T and 42 is the meaning of life.) have apparently gone above and beyond the expectations that they had for us.  Even though the pressure is on and the chips are down, got to keep it going make this into a reality.  It is not enough to be a dream, cause everybody can have a dream. It is when you wake up and make it real, it becomes a memory and only those that did can say that. 

First Day at Camp!

Well it is Sept 30th and Camp finally started.  I almost cannot believe the day came, seemed like a dream up until today.  I am very lucky and blessed to be at this camp.  I met a lot of awesome people who seem like great assets to help me along this journey.  I only hope that I can eventually be that to them as well.  I thoroughly enjoyed brainstorming with all of my fellow campers in my troop about business parameters for future projects.  As we brainstormed, I feel I found my calling by coming up with creative and functional ideas for cutting edge applications.  Being able to delve into that as our first day, gave me great insight into the mind of a programmer's daily grind.  It is not just about the code, it is about getting the client exactly what they want or anticipating exactly what they need.  I will admit I had a hard time to stay within our scope parameters because I was brimming with ideas for the project. Regardless, I feel our instructors really listen to our suggestions and ideas even in our infantile coding wisdom.

At the end of the day, we had to create functions to calculate certain equations or solve a problem. I struggled mightily on that.  I was really confused on how to even write the first code and I was floundering but I was lucky that my fellow troop mates were more acquainted with the language.  I can already tell C# will be the bane of my existence and  I know I am going to struggle and wish I was not here for the next couple of weeks. All I have to say is: Bring it.  I will struggle.  I will sacrifice sleep, social time, food, or whatever because I am here for a reason.   I'll break it down Bob-O style: Nothing in this world worth having, comes easy.  Programming won't come easy but it is worth having.

The Single Step

Well, I found I got into Coder Camps yesterday.  It was a mix of joy and nervousness.  I rarely get nervous for things but this feels like a complete 180 in my life.  I am estatic and I can't wait to go down this road but this will be the most challenging endeavor up until this point.  I have been watching videos for XHTML CSS Java Script and C# to get a better understanding of the material.  So far, so good but I can only imagine it will get harder from here. I run a small motivation groupme where I usually give out a quote or ancedote to help my friends with the week... I guess it is time for me to use that motivation groupme to good use. It will hopefully remind me why I am doing this later on in the course or the very least inspire one of you to never give up. As Eric Thomas would say, Pain is temporary but regret is forever. I will endure it, so wish me luck and follow my Journey. 

P.S. Just in case you were wondering the reason I chose to name my blog "A Journey of A Thousand  Miles Begins With a Single Step"