It’s been a week since I started my second term at WGU; and a lot has happened. I’m temporarily working in a different state (North Carolina) at the boba shop and I’ve been getting back into the groove of working. I haven’t worked at this specific location, so it’s been quite the effort getting back into the groove and learning the layout of the work environment.
I think all of this sudden burst of needing to use my head and body more helps me be more efficient. At the moment, I’m writing this post at the coffee shop that’s near where the boba shop is. For about an hour, I was working on my Konvert novel since I haven’t made the time for it in the past few days.
Recent Excursions
This week has been very busy. I’m only working part time, but in the rest of the time, I try to study. I’ve been keeping track of how much time I’ve been spending on studying on Toggl:
I got my project for D197 (Version Control, which I will write my thoughts on down below) evaluation back on the 11th, although I finished it on the 8th. I started DSA1 on July 8. I spent that time more for planning out and skimming the resources for the course.
Ice cream
But, you know, all that work and study would lead to burnout, so I’ve been going around the city with some of the coworkers here and it’s interesting, probably since, again, the novelty of it all. Yesterday, I went to the local Waffle House and in the evening, I visited a fun Asian-fusion restaurant (called “Hawkers”) and went to an ice cream shop nearby (called “Jeni’s Ice Cream”); the ice cream shop I thought was delicious. I got two scoops: one was “wildberry lavender” and the other was “honey vanilla”.
Wildberry lavender had a flavor that was a cross of blueberry and blackberry. The lavender portion was very subtle, which is what I liked: too much lavender makes it taste like soap, but just the slightest bit adds some sort of “roundness” to the taste that mellowed out the acidity of the berry flavor. I picked the honey vanilla flavor since I thought the vanilla-berry-lavender pairing would go good with each other. The honey flavor I couldn’t detect (the wildberry lavender one had a stronger taste), but overall, I think the two paired well. I wanted something light after the dinner.
They had some limited edition summer flavors that I’ll want to go back and try.
Now, to go back to the topic of WGU…
D197 – Version Control
I’ve said it multiple times: app/Academy Open has taught me quite a bit even though I’m not that far into the curriculum, and one of the things that it taught me was Git. D197 was my first class for this term and I finished it in two days.
I had to decode what the project was asking me to do, however. In retrospect, the requirements were actually simple, but the wording is what threw me off.
The material that the course wants you to go over goes out of scope for the project. Mostly checked out the material that I wasn’t familiar with (such as the history of version control) and then began working on the project. It took a few hours since I forgot to take a screenshot for one of the steps on the first time around, but it was an easy course. I probably got more hands on with app/Academy Open, but that’s my personal opinion. D197 allowed me to resolve a merge conflict through command line and tag a commit, which I didn’t do in a/AO.
Starting C949 – Data Structures and Algorithms 1
For this class, I have to admit: after you’ve solved a number of easy programming problems (I’ve done it mostly through a/AO’s projects), the topics covered here are actually things I’ve coded in the a/AO projects. I just didn’t know that I was doing it.
Maybe the fact that I didn’t get to learn all the theory up front made me more comfortable solving those problems on a/AO. It’s paid itself back now that I’m going through C949. I’m already halfway through Week 3 (of 6) of WGU’s suggested pacing guide for this class… but that’s because I’m spending 4-6 hours on the days that I’m not working at all.
I’ll need to get a tripod for the webcam since I don’t have one with me, but luckily, there is a Best Buy nearby, so I’m not too worried.
Taking both Discrete Maths have helped ease the pains of learning material in C949. There’s a lot of overlap but DSA applies the math topics from Discrete Math into actual code, so I think it gives me this sense of, “Oh, so that’s why I learned it to begin with”; it validates all that hard work from earlier, even if I don’t remember everything from those two classes.
I’ll write up my thoughts about it when I get to passing the objective assessment for this course. For now, though, I’ve been having fun learning. It’s sometimes tiring to study that much, but being here makes me want to get things done.
Here’s a little peak at my Google Calendar…
I’ve been busy! (Don’t mind the entry for “hooliganry”; that’s just my placeholder for when I know I’m not working or studying. The other gaps are for when I’m scheduled to work, but I’ve hidden that part of the calendar to keep my privacy).
Progress on Konvert
Honestly, I’ve had a bit of a writer’s block with this story because there are so many ways I could approach the next major plot point. I just had to take it one small step at a time without dragging it out too much. I’ll most likely cut out some parts I deem that don’t contribute a lot to the story, but there’s just a lot in there that does. But those small parts don’t seem to until later, which I’m worried might have the reader wondering why I’m beating around the bush so much with writing.
At the moment, I think I’m about halfway through with the plot. The current word count is 82,216 words. I’m trying to end it around 120,000-130,000 words, so this latter half of the book is going to be busy.
What’s Next
Since I’m using a laptop while I’m not at home, I’m not going through my courses’ material. It feels very inefficient without another screen that I can dedicate just to reading and using the main one to take notes… and without a mouse? The trackpad isn’t the fastest thing to use. But the laptop is very good for when I just want to write without reading.
But this laptop gives me the freedom to write somewhere else. There’s this certain type of “pressure” I feel when I see that other people are working at the cafe on their own laptops, so I’m able to focus better (even though the cafe gets noisy at times). I find it fun. Sometimes I need to get out.
term 2 progress
I’ve already finished one class, and then I’m working on the second. There may be 11 classes total this term, but I think I can finish it all. I have the facilities to be able to focus all of my energy in the hours that I’m not out/working/doing chores. It’ll be a challenge, but it won’t be too hard! If I already have the “big classes” out of the way (both of the Discrete Maths and the two software programming courses from the pre-June 2023 degree plan), then I think the rest of the term is smooth sailing
I’ll keep cheering myself on!
