Too Many Things!!

I am quickly getting behind in my blog because I have more and more to talk about in less and less time. I'm trying my best. Here we go.

I Built a Game

I did build a game, but it is not very easily shared, so you get to enjoy this picture and imagine playing it. The graphics were made by a dude who offers free graphics to game developers so that people don't have to spend tons of money on graphics in order to build a game.

Basically you are the little girl and you have to open the chest, which requires a key. But first you have to build a boat to cross the river, and then you have to move the dirt blocks and bribe the dragon to get to the key. Anyway, it isn't the most fun game in the world, but it is cute and I can see myself making a much more exciting game using these same graphics (more on that later).

I learned SQL, HTML, CSS, Flask, Jinja, Javascript, DOM

Holy crap. In a few days we learned a bunch of new languages and concepts. I don't have a firm grasp on any of them, and not many people in my class do. But Liz said that there will be plenty of time to relearn all this stuff when we are working on our projects. Then we will learn everything really well because we will have one-on-one help from instructors/mentors and we will have a real-life need for that type of coding. In case you are not familiar with the string of nonsense above, these things can kind of be translated thusly:

SQL: Building databases and getting info from databases

HTML: Putting words and pictures on the interwebs

CSS: Making the words and pictures pretty

Flask: A framework for Python (I don't really know what that means though)

Jinja: A weird language to be used inside Flask (or a red-headed ninja)

Javascript: Making things online be interactive (like buttons or forms on a website)

DOM: A tree. Or something. All I know is that I have to "get elements by id" and stuff. I don't really get it yet.

I kind of dig the SQL and the Javascript is ok, but I am not sold on everything else. I'm sure I will have to learn all this stuff when I start on my project, so I am not too worried about it yet. I do think it is becoming less likely that I will look for a front-end job after this.

Feeling Dumb, Tired, and Hungry, and hating BART

This week and last week have been physically and mentally draining. There were a few times when I thought I was the only one who totally didn't understand something, but each time it turned out that most people didn't understand it either. It feels so good when you finally get something working, and you just want to shout for joy and high five everyone. On the other hand, it really sucks hearing someone else rejoicing over a coding victory when you have been banging your head against the wall about a stupid problem that you can't figure out. 

What I'm trying to say is that I don't understand everything but I learned a lot and I am tired and I want to lay face-down on my bed for many hours.

Also, BART strike. 

Mentors

I have three awesome mentors who I currently have no spare time to meet with. Tim works for Zillow, Zac works for HandUp, and Sara works for SurveyMonkey. They are all super nice and awesome, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better. Sara is a Hackbright alum, so she knows exactly what I'm going through. I talked to her at length about SurveyMonkey and it sounds like an amazing place to work. I am skyping with each of my mentors next week hopefully, but hopefully once we start our projects I will actually have the flexibility to meet with them at Hackbright, at their places of work, and elsewhere. More on this trio of awesome later.

FutureStack

Going to a conference next Thursday/Friday called FutureStack that is being put on by New Relic. Because New Relic is super nice and they love Hackbright, they are letting us all go for free (normally $600/person). Also, Cake is playing at the kickoff party. Holy crap. I love Cake.

My Project!!

So in a couple weeks we are going to stop pair programming and start our individual projects. We will work on these projects for the remainder of the program, with some interview skills practice/negotiating skills practice. 

The project I want to work on is based on my belief that anyone can learn to program if they 1) are empowered, and 2) have resources. There are plenty of people out there who have neither, and I think this is one of the biggest reasons that young girls don't get interested in programming. I want to build a game that particularly appeals to young girls, probably aimed at 11-year-olds, that provides a well-structured soft introduction to programming concepts. Basically I want to trick innocent little girls into giving programming a try so that they can discover how fun it is! [evil laugh]

I haven't decided too much about the details yet, but I have been thinking about making something similar to Ruby Warrior in concept - with simple graphics and levels - but I would want it to be much girlier and have a LOT more instructional support. My goal is that any little girl could play this game without any help from an adult and they would not walk away from it thinking they are not smart enough to learn to program.

Re: girlier - Obviously the main character would be a girl. I'm thinking at the beginning you get to choose a pet - a dog, cat, horse, baby t-rex, or cute little monster. And it would be very story-based.

Re: more instructional support - Each level would show an example of some code, then have the player do it themselves with help and then without help. I want it to take things very slowly and offer lots of help and examples that are relevant and interesting to a little girl.

I will trick all the little girls and build an army of awesome programHers! Muhuhuahaha!