#ILookLikeAnEngineer

Memories and followup from the fun last year.

Read: Year Without Pants (about wordpress.com)

Well, that was not as scary as the one before. But still entirely populated by young white men bonding over alcohol.

Completed: "Friendly Date Ranges" exercise

"Friendly Date Ranges" completed, without fanfare. About 3 hours I think. So, except the one I skipped,  I am now done with "Advanced Algorithm Scripting."

On to "Advanced Front End Development Projects", of which there are three. (Actually four, but the calculator one I finished back before they moved it to "advanced.")

Balked: Permutations exercise

For the first time at FreeCodeCamp, I hit a clear limit: no. I am not trained for this kind of mathematical thinking. I feel angry and hazed that this is even in the course, as if we are all supposed to be math majors before we begin. I am a long time out of school. Recursive algorithms make me feel headachy and nauseous. I am fine doing research to locate a solution, but I cannot obey "write your own code" or even pretend I understood it. I can find a solution, and copy and paste. I can check the tests to be sure they pass. But no, I am not going to implement Heap's Algorithm in Javascript. Not this year.

I'm skipping this one.

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No repeats please

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Return the number of total permutations of the provided string that don't have repeated consecutive letters. Assume that all characters in the provided string are each unique.

For example, aab should return 2 because it has 6 total permutations (aab, aab, aba, aba, baa, baa), but only 2 of them (aba and aba) don't have the same letter (in this case a) repeating.

Remember to use Read-Search-Ask if you get stuck. Try to pair program. Write your own code.

completed: "Inventory Update" exercise

Completed the FreeCodeCamp's Advanced Algorithm Scripting "Inventory Update" task.

Only two more "Algorithm Scripting" tasks left on their list, then three "Projects" (eg, build an online tic tac toe game). And then, apparently, it's time to "Claim Your Front End Developent Certificate."

It took me two weeks of calendar time to finish this "Scripting" task. (I forgot to record clock time.) FCCamp estimates those "Scripting" tasks at five hours each, and the "Projects" at 40 hours each. At that rate, if one 5-hour "Script" == 2 weeks, that implies one 40-hour "Project" == 16 weeks. If I have 5+5+40+40+40=130 "hours" --> 52 "weeks" left to go... That's a really long time. That put my estimated completion date-- for just the "Front End" portion of the curriculum-- at, uh, September 6, 2017. A year from now.

That's a long time away.

Ray of hope: I may finally have succeeded in restructuring my life to allow for more study time. We shall see what the coming weeks will bring.

(What if I could get five curriculum hours done in one week, instead of two?)
(What if I could get it done in one day, like a normal person???!!! So frustrated with my schedule/availability.)