So Forth

Yeah…so I’ve been busy

• Specifically, just doing applications and other such stuff. In between, I managed to watch two Haskell Streams (one was on a game with textures and stuff and the other involved Tic-Tac-Toe). So that was pretty fun. Today, I was able to ask the streamer questions about how he learned, what was the biggest hurdle, etc. The code was actually very readable, since I’ve done Tic-Tac-Toe in Python and C++ before. Some things are a little bit interesting, though. But it’s pretty much broken up in a similar way that you’d expect, with the board, the player, playerTurn, WinLoseDraw, etc.
• I like this particular streamer because he streams regularly, engages everyone and has a very gracious disposition. He is very grateful for viewership, and it’s fun when he ports us to another channel afterwards. You feel like a real part of the Twitch programming community.
• I liked another streamer also (who doesn’t stream as frequently anymore) because he really understood the point of streaming programming in the Haskell community; to help us and provide an avenue on Twitch for people interested in Haskell programming. I learned a lot through those streams and still revisit the videos occasionally.
• Oh yeah, and I bought a book on making web apps in Haskell, to complement the other book I’m reading which is actually teaching me Haskell.
• Also..I gave a short (2 minute) talk on Haskell! It was my first tech talk! I had a lot of fun, but I had to leave early because I had to get up at 4:30am to head to my dock for race training.
  • that was interesting because there were things you learn from speaking.
  • for example, the mic was standing, so it was difficult to move around
  • also, my text was initially too small, so I had to make larger text for the screen format
  • I also had a strict 2 minute time-limit. So only one or two ideas max were able to be presented.
  • everyone should try a tech-talk at some point! Great experience and it really makes you feel like a part of the community!

Thursday

• I met up with my mentor and we had a blast. Two of my friends from school came along, and we had such a great time that they had to kick us out of JPL with a smile :D My friend, Patrick, was pretty entranced. I think he wants to work in aerospace now. My two friends had a lot of fun, and my mentor was very happy to entertain them and tell them details about missions.

A new Yacht Club

• My race training was at a club I hadn’t been to before. It’s a really nice club, and I met some people I had sailed with before.
• The event was for people who wanted to get into this year’s race season or just learn and train on racing. Subsequently, I signed up for two more such events (one Intro, one Advanced) at my regular Yacht club, on April 7th and 14th respectively :D

So what did you learn?

• How to haul @$$ and beat people. I was on the winning boat, and we smoked them! :D This (below) was our boat. It’s 50’ long.

• We even got yelled at by another racer who wasn’t racing because he got in our way and we yelled “Starboard” at him and he got all upset. Racing is famous for A-Types. It’s pretty competitive and a lot of fun, and I even met a programmer!

This week

• I have this recruitment event on Tuesday, another on Thursday. Mon and Wed are class. Oh yeah, I think we are moving on to writing Ada. I did not enjoy COBOL. At all.
• I have to start contacting the persons I promised to contact for my research for a project. That starts this week.
• I have to finish up another application (just recommendations) for a possible Fall research opportunity that would last a year.

And that’s it!