Good Times

Exciting things are happening here at camp.  We have had a new troop start, so there are a dozen enthusiastic new coders around. They came in with a wide range of skills from complete beginners to practicing developers.  Not going to lie, I kind of enjoy the feeling of knowing a few things that they have not yet learned! 

Also, new hiring partners are coming on board all of the time.  There are clearly a LOT of employment opportunities out there waiting for us, so it provides tons of motivation to learn as much as we can during our short time at camp.

Having said that, I can see why there is a demand for these skills, because it takes a lot of hard work to learn this material.  I think all of us in the program are thrilled though, to be able to work around the clock for nine weeks to get the opportunity to work in this field.  Plus, the work is enjoyable, and we have a great time at camp.  It doesn't seem like anyone in the troop is dying to be done with camp at all because we get along well and are learning so much.  All in all, it continues to be a great experience!

Progress...

Things have been moving along nicely on the Fund.io project.  Our group has begun to populate the database with mock data and we have begun to put a face on the site. We have begun doing some paired programming, and I can see that it is helpful in a couple of ways.  It speeds up the coding work by giving two people the chance to work at problem solving together.  It is also a great way to learn, because our peers are often able to give meaningful explanations to questions.  And, it gives us practice communicating in the context of programming.

On another exciting note, one of our classmates got the news of a developer job waiting for him upon completion of our camp!  A great reminder that our hard work will pay off!

One Week In

After a long weekend of becoming more familiar with MVC and Visual Studio, we were back at it today learning about SQL Server, building databases manually, then using Entity Framework to create databases, and finally a little on seeding databases.  In addition to all of that, the film crew came on site to shoot a promotional video.  Fun, interesting, and all in all a good day!

Whew!

I found a great resource for helping me learn some of the course material I have been struggling with. It is Pluralsight's "ASP.NET MVC 4 Fundamentals.  It is a video series that clearly shows the steps of creating a solution in Visual Studio, creating classes, etc.  It is turning on a bunch of light bulbs for me.

Pluralsight is a member only sight, but a subscription is only $25/month, and it has hundreds of courses, many of which apply  to all levels of  the stack we are running.

Before I forget to mention it, I should say something about the Pearland Courtyard Marriott.  It is a great place, the staff are super-friendly, and the breakfast buffet is fantastic.

Relief

Four days of camp are already complete.  Time is flying by very quickly, which seems strange since I have been spending about 15 hours per day working on course materials.  If I were at home, of course, this would not be possible.  But being here I have the luxury of being relieved of all other responsibilities.  I love the fact that I only have to focus on becoming a programmer.  It has not been a burden spending so much time at it.  The learning is so fun and interesting that I really wish there were more hours in each day so I could spend more time at it.

Today we got a break on homework so that we could have some time to work individually.  This was exactly what I and other campers were hoping for.  Most of us have identified some areas of confusion, things that we don't fully understand and need some time to work at.  I'll be spending as much time as I can becoming more familiar with the tools and concepts we are using, which include C#, Visual Studio, Bootstrap, MVC programming, database design, html, CSS, and probably a few others that I'm forgetting to mention.  

I did subscribe to Pluralsight, which has tons of learning material on all of these topics.  

GRRRRR

Frustration is the word for the day.  I feel completely lost in Visual Studio and C#.  Going back to the beginner tutorials for a fresh start.  Could be a long night.

Day 1

It is a nice relief to have day one under my belt.  It was good to meet the counselors and other campers.  We are a diverse group and that will be a benefit to us all.  Interestingly, two of our troop had not only both gone to Police Academies at an earlier point in their professional lives, but had both gotten kicked out of their respective Police Academy!  

As the day went along we learned about the project that will be the focus of a lot of our time and attention during our time here, a crowdfunding site.  A lot of time was spent brainstorming ways to make our site unique among the hoards of crowdfunding sites already out there.  Several interesting ideas came forth and will get further consideration.  We also got a bit of exposure to OOP.  Also during the day, three new hiring partners came aboard.

A successful day, all things considered.