// A reminder to me: quit your whinin’//

Life is so good. So, so good.

How do I know this? I had a frustrating day. It’s like getting a cold. You remember how much you miss breathing through your nose. 

I tend to take things for granted. When I’ve had a week of struggling through writing some code that I know I should be flowing out of my brain easily, I want to throw my laptop. When I run into computer issues for testing my javascript, I’m ready to go for a walk.

So when halfway through my day today, while waiting impatiently to get my computer returned to me from IT(where they were graciously restoring my backup to a new hard drive after just plain, bad luck)—I had to laugh at myself. 

Self, you CHOSE this. And this is your frustrating day? No one yelled at me for not being able to code while my computer was being resurrected. My boss didn’t say a thing—just kindly chuckled while I made a joke or two about breaking things. It was all in my head. I have a job that I like so much that I was really bothered to not be working. So much so that I had to snap myself out of that funk.

// “Why do some very smart people suck at programming?”//

Jessica Hui’s answer to Why do some very smart people suck at programming? on Quora

Loving this question on Quora! Mostly because it’s a great intersection of my past and present: psychology and technology. It feels like what keeps hitting me like a broken record— work hard. Persist. Always keep learning and you’ll get it.  

I’ve had this conversation with Justin, more so regarding artistic drawing ordeals.  My personal belief:  you may have a creative leaning.  The only way you’ll be able to express it as sharp as your mind sees it is through practice and application.  You don’t come out of the womb painting like Picasso. Look at how your work has progressed over the last 10 years and tell me I’m wrong!

There will be weaknesses in your code.  It all depends on where your strengths lie—organization? testing? concepts? Keep hacking!

// Small (but oh-it-feels-so-good I did a little dance) Victories. //

    Finished my game of Memory*** for the Interactive Python class I’m taking with Coursera and PyLadiesPDX.  My partner-in-crime worked from home yesterday and was graciously helping me push through concepts that have yet to work into my muscle memory.

    It works! And it’s fun. 

***For the purposes of this course, I won’t publicly post the game(as it vulnerably displays the code for it). I’ll happily send you a link if you contact me though! 

// In a week where I’m feeling very vulnerable…//

     My partner was very encouraging. And so were my PyLadies. After attending a GeekGirlPDX dinner on Wednesday, where I received some great reminders of how women should do nothing but encourage themselves;I landed at my Thursday evening PyLadies code review.  I had a very frustrating week trying to program my Pong project for Coursera, to which we were all working on. My code was messy. It’s all over the place. And so was my work-style—and productivity thanks in no-small-part to my haphazard coding.  They were all supportive. Super patient.  Calm, and very helpful.

And after the meetup, I was talking with a few of the ladies about the Gnome.org Outreach Program for Women (which you should go apply for!) and if I was even at a level for which I should consider it.  Katie, a very sweet PyLady standing next to me, reminded me of a interview statistic we had heard at GeekGirl the evening before:  ”Women, when looking at a job posting, will look at the job requirements. If they don’t feel they fit AT LEAST 75% of the list, they won’t apply.”  ”What could it hurt? ” Look into it and try it!

So when you see this GIF, what do you think? Are you thinking he’s going to fail what he’s about to attempt?  All I’m thinking is how bad-ass he is from start to finish.