When you shake your fist in the air and make a muffled "Yes!", just for getting a YouTube icon to appear on your screen, you might be a junior programmer.
I did spend hours trying to get Font Awesome to work properly in my memory game. It took quite a few tries, and a lot of searching on the internet to find the answers. But I now have a working JS-based memory game that I COULD turn in for decent credit. But now I feel like I have something to prove. I have an entire weekend to make it better. I can add a scoresheet, music and animations. The sky is the limit, except that the actual limit is my ability to figure out how to create those things. That limit is much lower than the sky.
We spent our Friday in my end of town at another local digital consulting firm. Again, a nice group of people who welcomed us into their space and talked to us about their industry and the things they are working on. Its only the second company we've visited but I get the impression that everyone enjoys what they do on a deeper level than what I've experienced in the hospitality industry. People aren't focusing on projects just because they are getting paid for it (and some of these guys are not getting paid). They are doing it because they genuinely like learning more about it and understanding it. And they help each other too. They are problem-solvers, geeks, nerds at heart. And I mean that in the best possible way because I'm one too. Its fun to understand why things work the way they do. Its fun just to learn, in general. Its fun to hear a room full of people talk about very geeky topics with passion and defend a position with more emotion than some dudes defending their favorite football team.
I've been going to the same stylist for my haircuts for the past 5 or 6 years. Today was my first appointment at her new salon. Its much nicer, in a different part of town and the staff are a lot friendlier and more professional than at her other spot. She looks so much happier at her new place too. I have a lot of respect for people that can step out of their comfort zone and go for the big victory. It is so easy to just maintain the status quo in life, especially since life is difficult to begin with. Most people would not take on big debt and uncertainty to try for a better life. That's what makes the programming bootcamp a special place too. Everyone there is taking the hard road and for some of us it is harder than for others. We genuinely want each other to succeed at this venture. And just like the more experienced developers we meet, we try to help each other too. It does get me excited for the final project when we get to work together on something big.
On a side note, I've noticed that Las Vegas monsoon season only seems to really strike on the weekends when I need to do yard work. I've been unable to clean my yard since about a month ago because of bad weather on my days off. Today was my best chance to get something done but the entire valley is on a severe weather alert until probably Monday morning at 7am.
