Tag: Too Old To Be A Student

Daily milestones!

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I’ve got a lot on the list every day this week in order to finish my coursework, but so far (she says on Monday!) it’s getting done. I spent today finishing the most challenging coding module of the course – I’m glad it’s over, though tomorrow’s soft skills work will be challenging in a different way (I am a lot less comfortable when attempting to prepare things like presentations and elevator pitches than I am when learning to code).

Valentine’s Day has been nice, with a rare off-diet excursion into the land of chocolate and pizza. Back on plan tomorrow.

Planning out a buffer…

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…and hoping that there are minimal or preferably zero spanners thrown into the works.

As mentioned in recent posts, I’m in the final fortnight of my course now, and there’s still a lot to do. On my current diary, it’s all looking very doable, but the nature of my work (which usually comes in on very short notice) means that this could change at any time! As such, I’ve scheduled the bulk of the remaining coursework for the first week out of the two. This will hopefully provide me with enough of a buffer that I can also fit in any client work that arrives in my inbox.

It really feels like I’m in the thick of it at the moment, but hopefully by the end of the month I will have a big achievement to celebrate.

One last fortnight of focus

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I’ve been really relieved that it’s been a slightly lighter week work-wise this week, as the deadline for finishing all my TechUP work (group project and modules) is a fortnight from today. I’m on top of it, just about, but there’s still a lot to do. Hoping to squeeze in a bit of downtime this weekend before the final push!

Suddenly on top of things!

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I’ve spent pretty much the last month chasing my tail, so I was a bit surprised to realise upon finishing work today that the rest of the week (whisper it) doesn’t have much booked in yet. I really hope it stays that way as it’d be great to be able to crack on with my remaining course modules!

I’ve been fantasising a bit about what I’m going to do in March once the course is over. So far it includes super exciting things such as:

  • Get a haircut
  • Play some videogames, maybe? If I have the energy
  • Try to avoid starting any new creative projects and probably fail
  • Find some way of conducting a mildly celebratory eating occasion that doesn’t blow my weight loss efforts

On the whole, though, I’m not planning much. Just having a bit of time to myself again will be enough.

Good hours and bad hours

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That is the way I think about coding and programming, generally. Good hours are hours where I know what I’m doing. Bad hours are more numerous, and generally feature lots of frustrating dead-end Googling to try and fix problems I’m having, meaning that I feel like I’m wasting my time to some extent.

We’re in the sharp end of the TechUP course, and I’m spending lots of bad hours trying to work out how to do things that I feel should be straightforward. This has mostly been caused by the laptop-hopping I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks, as I’m having to keep reinstalling things and dealing with different computers’ idiosyncrasies. It doesn’t feel like time is on my side as a result.

Nevertheless, this current hour is a good hour, because all the problems I’ve been having with my work today have been solved. It’s nice to finish the day with no outstanding issues! It’s also an important part of the learning process, frustrating as it can be sometimes.

We muddled through somehow!

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It’s been another challenging week in our house – between our heavy loads of work/studying/running, the saga of my laptop replacement, dealing with Zombie Eye IV, and a bit of a shock yesterday when we received a letter telling us the company scheduled to do our front garden this year had gone bankrupt (resulting in us needing to find some way of getting our rather large deposit back), it has been extremely eventful and it feels like last weekend was months ago!

Other than a bit of admin relating to some of the above – and finding a parkrun near us that will actually be going ahead tomorrow morning – I expect I will be spending a lot of the weekend staring into space on the sofa. If I do find some energy from somewhere, I may try and get some of my less-taxing course modules done so that I’m not panicking so much at the end of February.

Tonight, though, I most definitely need a couple of hours of Not Doing Anything At AllTM!

Crunch

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We’re getting into the later stages of the group project on my course now, and things are getting busy. Strangely, but not unexpectedly, I feel more excited about it as a result. I don’t know why I enjoy the truly mad period leading up to finishing a piece of software so much (see also: every game jam I’ve ever entered), especially when there are so many other time-consuming things going on with work and running and everything. But I do. Maybe I’m just a bit strange.

My zombie eye is feeling a lot better after a couple of days on the eye drops. Looking forward to next week when I’ll be off the dilating drops and able to see fully again!

Juggling!

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It’s been a bit of a struggle to balance work and studying ever since I started the TechUP course back in October, but this coming week is really going to be a challenge. Lots of clients with deadlines, and lots of stuff going on with the course. It’s also week four of the marathon training plan… all of this will be a real balancing act!

Marathon training is still going well with no major aches or pains – I think the mileage buildup must be going at the right pace. Podcasts are really helping still.

I’ve enjoyed the course but I’m really looking forward to having some downtime in March, especially with the long training runs getting longer.

Eyeing the end of the month…

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…though to be honest I’m not sure why. I’ve been trying to get out of the habit of ‘wishing my life away’ by constantly barrelling onwards to the next thing. Winter may be a bit rubbish and miserable weather-wise, but it’s also nice and quiet and enables me to hibernate indoors and get on with things. I should make the most of that before things start happening again in the spring and summer.

I’ve got an extension for my course deadline, which is a bit of a relief as it means I can focus all my study energies on the group project we’re doing at the moment and save the rest of the outstanding work for later. I should still be done with everything by the end of February, meaning that I can focus on my own tech work again from the spring onwards.

Spring will be nice… but I need to find a way of enjoying winter while it’s still around!

Adventures in Coding: A Brief Update

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Since I finished making my last game in November, I have been doing zero game creation, but that’s because I’ve been really busy learning all about software development on the TechUP course. We’re now into the final stages and are starting work on a group project, which is fairly challenging as it’s a bit ‘in at the deep end’, but hopefully we’ll have a good output at the end of it. I’ve got lots of modules to catch up with at the same time, so it’s going to be a bit manic from now until mid-February!

Post-TechUP I have lots and lots of plans though. In addition to getting back to my regularly scheduled game creation, I will be continuing my Python learning in a more hobbyist fashion, as Geth got me lots of Python game coding books for Christmas and I got some great Python manuals from Mum and Dad as well (mostly Dad… I think Mum may have done the wrapping). I also want to learn a bit of HTML, CSS and JavaScript as I have plans to make some fairly complex websites over the summer – one will be a client-facing website for my business (one of the two key ambitions I had for utilising what I’ve learnt on the course*), while the other will be a fun interactive map for my phone box photo collection.

Lots to look forward to, but I need to knuckle down and finish the course first. It can feel a bit overwhelming sometimes but I have learnt a lot.

*The other ambition is to change careers into something more tech-focused. Eventually!