Coder Camps Diary

what i learned: arrays and for loops.

arrays aren’t new to me, and i’m rusty on loops, so this was a good review for me. we did a bunch of little labs that were a bit challenging because tbh, i wasn’t paying attention 100% of the time. i had to refer to the curriculum and google things that i didn’t know right away...and still managed to finish all of the labs in a timely manner.

overall impression: it really feels like we are starting on some good stuff. doing so many labs was probably the highlight of the day. 

what i learned: functions and objects.

half new stuff for me today! the knowledge gap is definitely closing. 

overall impression: i think i might be so positive today because i decided to take my learning into my own hands. i asked instructor for project ideas to keep me occupied during all of the down time that we have during lectures when the idiots are asking idiotic questions and during all the extra time we get for the easiest labs. 

the labs today were more complicated/interesting. i enjoyed it! 

i love a good challenge! i’m still working on my project right now. 

where would this entry be without the WTF moments of the day (there will be less moments today and probably moving forward as i work on my projects instead of being forced to listen to the inane babble):

1_instructor had a lame excuse for starting late, but at least he gave us a lab to work on while he got “settled in”. better than nothing!

2_ student mentioned he is using his phone to dial into join.me, and not using his computer. he then said he is expecting a call around lunch time, and openly informed instructor during middle of lecture. as a class, do we need to know this about you? NO, so fucking PM the instructor, asshole!

3_ the topic of ads on the internet popped up when someone asked the possible/actual uses of javascript. student with much chutzpah asked, “after bootcamp, do you think it’s possible that we will get a job to code ads?” HA, the hilarious part is that he even had to ask this question. CODE ADS?!

what i learned: intro to javascript.

i think we are approaching the limit to my coding knowledge! it’s kind of exciting. i didn’t learn anything super new today, but when i was doing the labs, it definitely felt a bit more challenging. 

hey guys, i’m kind of excited.

overall impression: i’m not TOO mad at today. we went through new material at a faster pace than normal. i was kind of surprised that everyone was keeping up but then a few students had to stop him and said they were totally lost. 

anyway, like i mentioned earlier, i am getting kind of excited. i still know everything that’s being covered thanks to code academy, but i am trying to be positive and praying/hoping next week will make me take EVERYTHING back!

BET RESULTS: so i’m sure y’all are curious about my bets. it depends on how you see it, but fortunately/unfortunately? i’m not a millionaire.

-YUP we started over 20 minutes past 9. and yes, he did have to get coffee first. 

-NO, we only spent 10 minutes going over the homework! GASP!

-and ANOTHER NO, we worked on several labs that did not take an hour to complete. he actually gave people about 20 minutes per lab. not bad.

and of course where would we be without our WTF moments of the day:

1_ where are these animals from? when you’re on a conference call, you mute your line unless you’re speaking! we heard some woman/tv? yelling in the background. instructor was nice enough to speak louder but if i were him, i’d have booted them. 

2_ one student revealed that he was totally lost, nothing makes sense to him. wow, he waits until the end of the week to bring that up?! also, why did you spend so much money if you weren’t sure what you were getting yourself into?! i find it reprehensible that these students have no personal responsibility, and i find it equally disgusting that coder camps did not vet them as well as they could have! 

3_ same student also asked “what is javascript used for?” he just killed me with that question. i’m dead. RIP. 

4_ one of the students uses yahoo search engine (wait, that’s not THE WTF moment), and he will type something in the search bar...and click on the search button. ZOMG. 

5_ i think this is the same student from points 2 & 3: “can you make a note of that? because there is no way i’ll ever remember that.” are you fucking kidding me? it’s called TAKE SOME GOD DAMN RESPONSIBILITY WITH YOUR LIFE. YOU PAID A TON OF MONEY TO LEARN, WHY AREN’T YOU LEARNING? makes me wonder if he knows what it means to learn.

6_ maybe it’s because i already have such disdain for everyone, but today the instructor mentioned something about kale, something stupid like “don’t eat stuff that looks like grass,” and mentioned that mcdonalds was creating a kale salad that had more calories than the big mac. other classmates guffawed at that “factoid” and pretty much put down the fine establishment that is mcdonalds. 

firstly, FUCK YOU GUYS. i’m not saying that mcdonalds is the healthiest option out there. the food is definitely not natural, but i mean, come on, the taste is OUT OF THIS WORLD! what do you expect?! hahaha ok ok, back to my rant about these coder camps dweebs: FUCK YOU GUYS! you should be the last people on this world to disparage the great mcd’s because you’re all fucking idiots who do not believe in taking personal responsibility! mcdonalds provides food, quickly and cheaply. it’s not why everyone is obese and unhealthy. the fact that healthy foods are more expensive, tv/internet is so amazing, gas is so cheap, and you’re quick to blame others for your failures is why america is fat!

secondly, FUCK YOU GUYS! just because something has “more” calories does NOT indicate it’s less healthy. why don’t you do some personal research and stop gobbling up the headlines you read on your fb timelines and regurgitate them as FACTS. i did not find one legitimate news source that indicated more calories from the kale salad made it less healthy in comparison to the big mac! 

lastly, FUCK OFF! stop pretending that you guys are better than people who eat kale, stop pretending that you guys are better than people who eat at mcdonalds! YOU GUYS ARE GOD DAMN IDIOTS WHO SPELL BURRITOS like “BORRITOS” and you weren’t even being funny or making a typo. YOU LEGITIMATELY SPELL BURRITOS INCORRECTLY. 

BECAUSE

YOU 

ARE 

IDIOTS.

FUCK OFF!

what i learned: wrapped up our lesson on css.

we covered stuff i had previously learned using code academy. 

it was a decent review. i did learn something about hex/rgb codes though. 

overall impression: if i had to grade the day, i would give it a solid B only because the other students didn’t annoy me too much. i did not find myself drafting an email for a refund. however, i am still bothered by the flow of the class.

1_ instructor tells us at 9 am (when class is supposed to start) that he is going to take attendance and grab coffee before we can start. hey fuckface, why don’t you grab coffee before class starts? class begins over 20 minutes past 9. 

2_ 50 minutes later, he needs a 10 minute break. we didn’t learn anything new. just went over the homework and reviewed what we learned during last 2 hours of yesterday’s class. 

3_ class ended at 340pm today. while i know it is the content that matters and not the duration of the class, i do not feel like we spent the day being as productive as possible. he lectured for most of the day, and we did 1 lab that should have taken everyone 5 minutes but he somehow managed to stretch it out to about 30-45 minutes. 

4_ why did we do only one lab today? we honestly could have worked on the homework that he assigned for tonight as a lab instead. we had the time! 

BETS:

i’m going to bet tomorrow that:

what i learned: intro to css. 

i’m not well-versed in working with css, but i have had some exposure via codeacademy. i didn’t learn anything new, but it was a pretty good review. 

overall impression: today was not as shitty as the previous days, but i still resent some of my fellow students. major issue with me is that they do not pay attention and that they expect the instructor to write notes FOR them. i think that is ridiculous that they are just sitting there watching, and not doing anything on their part. get a physical notebook, write shit down if you need! i also find it astounding that they expect to be developers in 12 weeks when they don’t even know basic keyboard shortcuts (refer to section some fucked up observations).

but i guess if coder camps can turn these dolts into developers at the end of 12 weeks, then they have done their jobs. that remains tbd. i’ll keep you updated.

i think we wasted a ton of time by waiting for people to complete simple labs. there was this one mini project that took the class nearly 2 hours to complete. is that really the best way to spend our day? 

i wish we did more practice exercises, or had more complicated labs. i think we did 2 “labs” today, and were sent home early with the easiest homework assignment. 

some fucked up observations:

1_ fellow student doesn’t know how to create new files/folders within the text editor that we have been using for the past 2 days.

2_ during one of our labs, we had to create a robot store. one student decided to call his store ROBOTSLAVES.com. WTF!!! of course, student is a white male.

3_ maybe same dumbass from point 2, but he asked to confirm if instructor was using keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste. “is that ctrl+c and crtl+v that you’re using?” significant other was sitting in the same room as me and we both exchanged WTF looks at each other.

4_ a student decided the best moment to ask a question regarding join.me was during the middle of the instructor explaining something related to css. convo to the entire class went something like this:

instructor: *writing out notes and lecturing on css* student: so can i connect to join.me using my ipad or something? i want to be view join.me on my ipad while i use my computer at the same time.

REALLY? that wasn’t something you could google on your own?! or it really was so important to ask during the class’s time and not during the amazing amount of time he provides us while we are working on our labs?! or maybe just skype him or PM him? FUCK YOU. also, is it really that hard to fucking multi-task on one computer? 

what i learned: good refresher on forms and select elements. i haven’t used these as frequently in my previous rodeos, so it was good practice. 

overall impression: i wasn’t as frustrated today compared to yesterday, BUT i was still really annoyed.

why? 

1_ instructor started class over 15 minutes late. he claimed there was some sort of administrative issue (not related to teaching) that he could not resolve. i feel like as an instructor, you need to take care of that shit either before class starts or after.

2_ classmates NOT paying attention. the instructor would mention something maybe 2-3 times, and 10 minutes later, someone would ask the question as if they had not heard it ever. PAY ATTENTION! you are ruining the experience for everyone.

3_ the instructor had to troubleshoot non-coding related issue for a student on everyone’s time. i was able to wash a sink full of dishes while this was happening. i am here to learn, and not here to help you figure out why the text editor won’t open chrome as your default browser. either PM the instructor about it, or fucking figure it out before/after class, asshole!

4_ no curriculum overview. i get that instructors like to do things differently. however, based on the fact that everyone has different learning speeds, there should be some sort of lesson plan for the day, ie: tell us what you plan on teaching us so that we know what to expect, instead of sitting around while everyone takes an hour to do a 10 minute lab, twiddling our thumbs. maybe the rest of us who don’t need an hour, can look ahead and not waste time!

5_ instructor spent about an hour going over things we had learned the previous day in detail. although i think this did benefit most of my classmates, i feel like it should not have taken an hour of our time. they all have access to the notes, and we could have spent the time doing more lab exercises/mini projects.

6_ this relates to my first point, but instructor was also LATE coming back from lunch. he gave us some lame excuse about his food being slow. you had over an hour to get lunch, were you waiting for some freshly baked cookies? you’re the instructor, act like it!

7_ so we started late, and ended over an hour early (class hours are 9 - 5). the homework was a lame exercise that we could have completed within class hours. i was expecting something more challenging for homework, like something that incorporated everything we learned that day.

some things that boggled my mind about my classmates/instructor (aka i’m an asshole):

-instructor was casually explaining hex code and said it was 3 digits, like #000 for black, or #fff for white...REALLY? you’re teaching us the WRONG thing!

-i noticed one student RIGHT CLICK to paste something. DA FUQ! 

what i learned: i started learning html/css as a kid in the 90s using HTML Goodies as a guide, and googling anything that i wasn’t sure about. i built many sites, although none of them were amazing, but i understand html, the concept, blah blah blah.

so today, i didn’t learn anything new.

overall impression: i’m afraid. 

afraid that i’ve just made a terrible decision and wasted $14k. 

there are many coding bootcamps out there, so i have many to choose from since i live in the bay area. many good ones too! but as i was going through my research, i decided that i needed more hand holding before i immersed myself. i found coder camps and i liked the idea of the first 3 weeks of “coding from scratch.” i thought to myself, “yes, this will definitely help ease me into coding, i need this to succeed!” 

but today made me think otherwise. i should probably clarify that i am an impatient person before i resume my tirade. very impatient. like, obnoxiously. 

SO the day also upsets me because i felt misled. i was under the impression from all of the admissions/marketing that they do not accept just anyone. HOWEVER, it appears that they did!

my fellow students are fucking idiots. none of them have prepared AT ALL. you are about to undergo an extremely (what i assume is) difficult challenge, wouldn’t you look into what you are about to study? wouldn’t you try something like code academy to ease you into it? why are you taking this bootcamp? 

the fact that they were so unprepared coming into the first day is rude and unprofessional. it took 2 hours to complete one SIMPLE lab (creating a table with a 2x3 matrix). ARE YOU FOR REAL? 

other fun things that happened: -started class over 30 minutes late -one student had a cable serviceman appointment during class and did NOT mute his mic the entire time, and kept updating us about it as well. SIR, was that really the best time to make that appointment??? -took over an hour for the class to install a text editor -switched instructors halfway through, and wasted almost an hour with this transition -when we switched instructors, students felt the need to pretend that everything we learned with first instructor did NOT happen so there were several questions that were answered REPEATEDLY for the last 5 hours. PAY ATTENTION, TAKE SOME FUCKING NOTES. -students were surprised to learn that coder camps provides a student portal with curriculum/lesson plan/additional resources. UPON SIGNING UP, THIS AREA IS PROVIDED TO YOU. took 30 minutes of class time to resolve.

FUCK!

is it my fault that i expected so much? it is only day 1, BUT FML.