GSoC Day 90 - a busy day

It’s been a while

• I’ve been working on finishing up a blog post for GSoC that will detail all the things I worked on this summer, as well as have all my pull requests. I’ll also spend tomorrow working on it.
• I also got a pull request merged today. My mentor and myself worked on it via pair-programming, and it was really fun! I immediately changed my Linkedin profile to say “I love working on open source”. I plan to continue, aiming for one (Pull request) every two to three weeks until the end of the year. I think that this is very achievable. I also plan to reach out for help if I get stuck, of course.

So two meetings

• I had one at 1pm today with my mentor in Dublin, and another with my GSoC mentor, Chris at 7pm. Both went well and I am going to keep going.
• I also have two assignments to do tomorrow. They’re only about 90 minutes each; I plan to do one tomorrow and the other on Monday, to space it out.

Lastly

• I’m going to RustConf officially! I had gotten a ticket, but my plan involved something like taking two buses and not bathing for three days, so Ashley intervened and said the organizers were very willing to help me. I don’t know what I was thinking, in retrospect. I guess I’ll never know lol. She also made me a little weepy when she said that I had made a really positive impression on the Rust community, so they rushed to help me, and they couldn’t wait to meet me.

So I don’t know how else but to say thanks

• Thanks for the incredible support from good people. I’m going to keep going and continue to do the best I can in these communities. Michael G. and I had a talk yesterday (because we have a lot in common in terms of interests in Haskell and compilers and types, but he’s super further along than I am, as I am just a beginner) about getting better. It was very positive and he was very encouraging. I have moments where I’m frustrated with myself because of where I want to be. But I can get there. I ended up taking a break and going to get some groceries, and Ashley told me about the accommodations.

Anyways

• That’s about it for me today. I’m going to get some rest so I can put in some good hours of work tomorrow. I have a long (but fun) week ahead, and I’ll be sure to post about it, as well as talk about future pull requests and learning on this blog!

Also

• RIP VS Naipaul. I plan to re-read the Lonely Londoners (not by him, but by another author I read growing up) . It’s a book about the wave of immigrants (Caribbean specifically) that came to London, and dealing with sacrificing everything for a chance to chase opportunity, and that it doesn’t work out for everyone. My dad told me about it when he did his Master’s.

• He made me write him (when he was doing his Master’s) and I would write him letters and my mom would post them to him; they were written in ink pen. I always looked forward to reading the letters he wrote back, and I look forward to his emails to this day.
• My parents are currently in Scotland, taking care of my brother during an operation that was successful. I’ve been enjoying reading their emails about his progress, even though I can tell my dad is pretty anxious and won’t be settled until my brother comes home and my mom is feeding him as usual :). My dad has a really great way of taking things I say to him in emails and boiling them down to the deeper meaning of what I mean. He’s a very analytical and deep thinker and has probably read more than anyone I know. I always remember he brought home an extensive collection of books when he came back from Bradford (where he did his Master’s). It took me into my late teens to pore through several of them. One of the things I appreciated was in the latest email, he said that I was full of leadership ability, because I’m insightful in the way I see things (especially in a working environment).
• Anyways, I think I own a copy of Lonely Londoners. It’s been a while. I need to read it when I’m out here (ie not in my country of birth). Being in my home country is too comfortable. It’s like listening to Tom Petty or the Beach boys in California. It’s just more meaningful and there are subtleties you “get” from experiencing life the way the characters are mentally. I’ve been thinking about how my last name means “monk”, and that science and academia progressed because of the Church. And how it relates to my own continued search for knowledge. It’s an interesting thing for me to think about. Or that there’s a library with my last name at King’s College. But that’s all I have for now.