1. What did you do this past week? What didn’t I do in the past week? Finished Darwin alone, which was a terrible idea to do in the first place. Deciding to take on the longest project solo added a level of unnecessary stress, but I learned a lot about designing class hierarchy without the crutches of getters and setters. It’s really easy to say getSomething or setSomething, but its much more elegant to write something which can be easily maintained and evolved without starting from scratch. I’m not certain I accomplished that, but whatever. I also delivered the Beta version of out iOS app. It’s ok, but it still needs some work. I don’t think it’s going to be something worth putting on the App Store. I also flew to Dallas to take care of my Mom, who is going through some health trouble at the moment.

2. What’s in your way? If it’s not one thing it’s another – I woke up with food poisoning this morning (I assume), which has debilitated my production more so than Shingles did earlier this semester. Hopefully it will subside by tomorrow. I don’t have any development related blockers at the moment.

3. What will you do next week? The main focus will be the Security project, which involves implementing AES in the the form of 256. After that is done, I can start on Life and hopefully make a sizable dent by the end of the week. I intend to get a partner, but we’ll see how that goes… I wish one of my earlier, competant partners was reusable! This weekend will most likely be a distraction since it’s Honors Day and my Mom will be here. I look forward to after graduation when I can wear less hats.

Thoughts on the course, so far… Still a positive experience for me. We just had our 30th quiz, so I can start replacing those which I screwed up. We are getting into OOP related material (Inheritance), so I’m curious to see what the material the rest of the semester will look like. 4 more weeks…

Tip of the Week: On interview preperation: Everyone knows about Cracking the Coding Interview, but there are other resources out there. The website Pramp will let you set up mock interviews with another person, which can be a valuable learning experience. The catch is that you have to also be the interviewer. I have yet to try out this service because of this. I want to be the one practicing solving problems. However, it can be very enlightening to be on that side. Seeing things from the interviewers perspective can shed light on how to want to carry yourself during an interview and where your weaknesses may be.