Journal

Week of 10.18.19
-As we didn't have school this past Monday, I decided to make some banana bread. I had an inexplicable craving for this baked good, even though I haven't really thought about for a while until recently. My mom and I got the ingredients for the bread, including what I consider the essential additions, these being chocolate chips and walnuts. The banana bread actually turned out really well, despite my history with either underbaking or overbaking cakes. Overall it was a productive use of my day off and set a positive tone for the rest of this week.

Week of 10.25.19
-This week I was pretty productive, at least as far as Comp-Sci goes. I created my personal website (yes, the one you're reading now!) and made it publically accessable. Im really happy with it, as I know it is still in its really early stages. I had a bit of trouble pushing it since I already had my gecko thing on my github page. However, I worked this out and it is really cool to be able to show people my website on any device. I hope to clean it up and add some images to it soon, but overall I'm pleased with what I got done.

Week of 11.1.19
-Happy Halloween! I don't think I was quite as productive as last week, but I got some things done. I fixed some little glitches on the website and pushed it, so the current version is fully updated. I had a bit of trouble getting this to work, but for the time being I'm ok. Also, I've begun to work on adding coins to my rocket game. They are not currently fuctioning, so getting them to work is going to be my focus for the time being.

Week of 11.8.19
-My comp-sci highlight this week was definitely presenting at the Dalton Grows Up event along with some of my peers. I didn't feel like I had to put on an act or anything like that, which made it a lot easier to speak comfortably and confidently about my rocket game. During that event I was working on a prototype of a joystick for the game and I actually got it to work. I now have a more final version of the joystick, although it is not yet functional. Lastly, I have encorporated coins into the game, which was one of my goals for this week. I look forward to cleaning up the game more and maybe adding a "try again" button.

Week of 11.15.19
-This week we had a really intriguing talk about TikTok, an app that I occasionally use. More specifically we discussed the algorithms it uses to give us "what we want" and debated whether we truly have free will under these types of systems. I think it is important to at least be conscious of what goes on behind the scenes and I find it interesting how Computer Science and Psychology can go hand-in-hand. Personally I don't find these algorithms to be too predatory but I can understand concerns regarding younger children particularly. This discussion-style class was a lot of fun and I would enjoy to something like it in the future.

Week of 11.22.19
-FizzBuzz! What does this mean? Well, I asked myself this question about a billion times too before I actually bothered to read the assignment on classes. I guess I was a bit intimated to start this project, but it really was not so bad. I decided to do it in scratch, as I'm a lot more confident in that, at least right now. Not only is it functional, but it adheres to an aesthetic. That's right, COHERENT AESTHETIC. ooh... ahh...

Week of 11.29.19
-I'm gonna be real. Javascript is kinda scary. However, it seems like there are a lot of useful resources to become confident with the language and I know it will be an incredibly helpful tool. I am sure that over time I will become more comfortable with this language.

Week of 12.6.19
-This week I made a fun project relating to arrays. You may have heard of spirit animals, but what about SpIrIt ShApEs? I know, super cool. Using arrays, this project allows the user to click on a div and recieve a random result which says the shape they are and its significance. Writing the actual descriptions was a lot of fun, as they are stupid, but in a good way. I'm slowly understanding more and more about Javascript, although I definitely still require outside help when working on a project. Also, I was introduced to the idea of making websites mobile-friendly. While a bit tedious, this endeavor sounds worth it for projects that I really care about. After all, I find myself using my phone a lot more that my laptop.

Week of 12.13.19
-Friday the 13th! EEK! On more relevant note, we have one last project before winter break: an HTML based gift. I currently have two ideas that excite me most. The first one would be for my brother. Since he really likes geese and has some favorite artists that I know of, I want to make a "goose jukebox," which allows you to select a song from a group of some of his favorites and watch a goose dance to it as the song plays. My other idea is for Deen, a member of my house. Conviently, we are actually having a "secret santa" gift exchange so this would be part of my gift to him. He's into history so I want to make a timeline that has pictures of him photoshopped into important historical moments. This idea sounds a bit more fun to me and I think I might go with it. However, it would mean I need to finish it by next Friday.

Week of 12.20.19
-This was one of my busiest weeks in terms of CS, but it was also one of the most satisfying and enjoyable. I decided to pursue the gift idea for Deen, a member of my house, that focuses around a "timeline" of him throughout history. This is both because I wanted to get him a thoughtful gift for secret santa and to connect my interests in Photoshop and HTML. The coding part mostly went well. Things got messy once I tried to push it. My first issue involved the images being extremely large: bigger than github's limit. I tried deleting them and pushing again but they still somehow existed in the online world, despite not being in my repositories folder. After hours (yes, hours) of frusteration and help from Molly, my friend max, and Tom himself, the problem was finally solved and I successfully pushed it. I put it through bit.ly to create a shortened link and wrote the new url on a slip of paper. Along with a box of Sourpatch Kids and a pair of socks with dogs on them, I handed in the paper. The exchange went well and he was happy with what he received. Looking forward to next year! (hahaha...)

Week of 1.10.20
-Happy New Year! Woo. This week was pretty chill, which eased the transition back into school. I enjoyed talking about my resolutions with the class. Also, creating a quick sketch to share what I did during the break was a nice way to get reaquainted with HTML and CSS without going crazy.

Week of 1.31.20
-"Midterms" are officially over and I'm happy to say that I can go back to thinking about CS more. Sadly, the first day back I missed class for an art trip, which was admittedly quite fun. However, I am excited to work on swarming thing, but which animal?

Week of 2.7.20
-The week of bees! I worked on the swarming website and had a lot of fun making it look distinct from my other projects. I think my combination of the playful but modern font and the warm gradient makes it look fairly polished, but I could definitely do some more work on it. Bees... Bees. Bees! BEES! BEEEEEEES!!! This week I also worked more on various parts of my personal website, including working on the projects page, making an about page, and updating the journal.

Week of 2.28.20
-This week I started working on a project that will allow me to incorporate my interest in drawing and my aquired JavaScript skills. The actual project is a webpage that changes the background color and darkness based on where your mouse's X position is. In addition, as you move your mouse from the left to right a hand-drawn face in the middle will continue to get older and close its eyes. It's supposed to represent the transitory nature of life or something deep like that... Back to the code itself. Up until now I have not felt super confident in my ability to do JavaScript alone, but I'm happy to say that I actually wrote a function at my house without my teacher. The key idea of this project is that it uses event listeners to sense where your mouse is and changes the face image based on that. This meant I also got to think about objects a bit more, as by changing a div's background image I was basically using JavaScript to alter an object's trait. I still am yet to draw the actual faces (right now you can see some pretty weird images!) but I plan on doing that soon.