When dreams die

"Please write a function that reverses a string using the split and join method" 

2 years ago that was a very important thing to me, and I got to watch as multiple other students realized that coding was not for them. 

I spent around 45 minutes after class helping one student try and wrap their brain around it, and they never did. I had an easier time teaching dogs to climb ladders and slide down slides. Yeah, I am odd. 

Now I am at the level of "Please write a function that checks if a string is a palindrome, and if it is say 'No work is needed', and if it is not then reverse the string.", and I bet that you are as well.

Hired full time, no longer a contractor

Spent the morning doing orientation. Spent the afternoon trying to figure out why I couldn't sign into all the internal pages. Eventually learned that there was something going around, and blocking about half the company from getting to internal pages. I head over to the Help Desk page. "Click here for instructions on how to fix it". :::Click::: And blocked... you have to be signed in to see the instructions on how to fix not being allowed to sign in. Figured out it was just clearing the cache. Did that, and then sent the info out to others.

Bang your head! Tech stuff will drive you mad!

If at first you do not secede, bang your head on the desk a couple of more times. Then step back and look at it all again.

Trying to install custom HTML snippits in VS Code. Looks super easy. Follow the tutorial perfectly. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets#_create-your-own-snippets

Go here.
Select HTML
Paste this in the json file that opens.
Save it.
Done.

Fails to work. OK, delete file and try again.
Fails again.
What the... oh wait. The html file I am trying it in is coming up as a django-html file. What if I pick django rather than html?
SUCCESS!

Motivational Speech

Driving Uber. 

Picked up a little boy and his dad. 

The kid was upset as he didn't want to go to school, and didn't want to wear these clothes. He wanted to stay home with Dad and wear his Spiderman onesie.

Dad: You can't wear your PJs when you go out.
Kid: But you are! (Dad was wearing a Jack Skellington onesie)
Dad: But I am not going out. I am not even going to get out of the car.
Kid: Why do I have to go to school!?
Dad: So you can get a good job that lets you stay home in your onesie all day.
Me: :::where was this motivational speech when I was a kid?:::

Coding is a rollercoaster

 Coding is a rollercoaster.

The long slow climb uphill as you try to make a thing work, the silly joy of "I got a different error message!", but then finally there is that moment when you hit the top, hands in the air, screaming like an idiot "It says 1! It says 1!" as you dance around the room.

 
Or is that just me? 

Never assume malice

 "Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice. Never assume stupidity when ignorance will suffice. Never assume ignorance when forgivable error will suffice. Never assume error when information you hadn't adequately accounted for will suffice." - rwallace expanding on Hanlons Razor

I asked someone if they had forgotten to push the second part to the repo, because it has been 14hrs. 1) Always check that you pushed all the parts. 2) If you have gone down that list and not checked off any of those as being the reason things are wrong, you have big problems. Praise them in public, criticize/coach them in private. And expect the same from others.

Helping others helps me

Today I went to Code & Coffee hoping some of my group would show up so we could discuss our group project. None of them showed, so instead I helped some folks with a couple of things that seemed very basic to me. 15 minutes later they brought over someone that needed a hand with something, and we quickly squared that away for them. 

It made me realize just how much I've learned, but also how much I enjoy helping others. 

Now I just need to keep this in mind next time I am wondering if I have a clue about what I am doing.