Yay! Coding!

We have these classes known as student-led sessions, wherein the professor is not present (but watches the recording of the class afterwards and grades us), and two students from the class lead the session.

Today, we had a Formal Analyses student-led session. I figured I'd drop this little gem here. Perhaps this adds some context to my last post, just coincidentally. (Also, bonus for anyone who is wondering, "You say you take classes online! So is this an online university? What does it look like?!" No, it is not an online university. It's just a futuristic one. ;) )

"My name is Justine (AKA: Yay! Coding!)"
I feel like Roiman came up with that option. :)

Python Charmers

I haven't been able to post as much as I'd have liked recently. I suppose that I'll have to stick to monthly updates. I will try to do one of those later tonight, but here's a quick thought while I balance classes and homework on my head (like everyone around here) in an attempt to get to the San Francisco Opera tonight.

I am immensely lucky that I had the teachers that I did in high school. I am constantly reminded of this in university, particularly when I do the programming assignments for my Formal Analyses class. My other high school teachers have been absolutely wonderful - but this post is about programming, so praise for other teachers will come later (and trust me, it will - I think about my good fortune in this regard almost daily).

High school seems so far away when I talk about it now, which is a bit absurd because it's only been a handful of months. Nevertheless, I shall say this at risk of sounding like I'm speaking of something that happened in 1750: I am immensely lucky that I had the teachers that I did in high school.

In Forms Two and Three, I was lucky enough to be taught by a teacher whom I thought was slightly irrational. That isn't to say that irrationality is bad - as the thirteen-year-old me failed to realize - just that irrationality represents anything different from my perception of the norm.

My perception of the norm was wrong, needless to say. This wonderful teacher strived to impress upon all of us that simplicity is key. We all thought that programming was remote and complicated (not complex! re: complex systems class). I remember the first time this teacher told us about IPOS (Input, Output, Processing, Storage) in the context of programming. For the homework assignment, we were told to use IPOS to examine a given problem.

We all came back with long, winding, overtly descriptive sentences under each of the four columns. It was very irritating to me that the teacher wouldn't accept my overtly descriptive, unnecessarily un-parsimonious analysis of the problem that we were given.

We soon learned that IPOS was a parsimonious structure; that logical deductions often followed Occam's Razor, rather than trying to explain everything in existence ever. "Accept value from user for pounds" "Divide that value by 2.2 and show on the screen this number which represents the value in kilograms"?

Goodness, no! I can't bear to look at it right now. "Input lbs". "kg <-- lbs / 2.2". "Output kg". Simple. Sweet. Parsimonious.

What's my point? Well, this framework of logic and simplicity has been what I've used to teach my classmates about programming in python. At first, they always seem confounded that I could view pandas and python in general as simple, as I do. I try to explain myself as best as I can in the simplest possible terms; pandas seems illogical to everyone who gets it thrown at them as their very first data science adventure (or so I hope).

This framework is what I keep in mind as I learn about data science in Python using the pandas module (a module with which I am completely unfamiliar). I seem to have figured out this module surprisingly quickly. I think I owe that speed to the framework in question.

This framework of logic and simplicity has been the basis of all other programming languages I've learned, have been learning, and will learn (see also: I'm going to get around to learning C the Hard Way, inspiration courtesy of Eliana).

Recently, one of my professors sent out an email thanking the "Python Charmers", referencing the two or three of us who actually understood the programming assignment and tried to help out the other 26 or 27 of us who woefully didn't. The praise could never be solely mine. I owe a great deal of it to this high school teacher, who instilled in us the kind of view on problems and programming that I shall carry with me for a very long time, whether I become a Computer Scientist or not. She, perhaps even unknowingly, tried to teach us that the rest of the world will not be as simple as high school is, thus we should take advantage of the simplicity that is spoon-fed to us while we still have it.

This simple, logical view can be extrapolated to the rest of world, but I'm still working on that: in Form Five, I had a teacher who would often look at my mathematical proofs and laugh at the fact that I was making my life "so hard". (I also owe the development of my logical abilities to the aforementioned Form Five teacher, too. I know many ways to uncover the simplicity in seemingly complicated mathematical problems, thanks to her. She would get along very well with my current Formal Analyses professor: they have the same sense of humor. Perhaps this sense of humor is not French, as my professor so believes, but simply mathematician-like. But I digress - there will be posts for various other teachers in the future.) My logic and simplicity outside the world of programming is still a work in progress, but I owe it to this Form Two teacher for getting the ball rolling.

So thank you, Ms Frection. Thank you for teaching me all about this framework - especially back when I thought that it was irrational. You're inexorably stellar.

Bonus fun fact: Python has list comprehension and it's exciting! No more explicit loop structures for reading data into arrays (even just using python's append() function)! Yay!

Don't Panic, Don't Be So Hard On Yourself

So... I've survived.

I know it's only Tuesday, but I still feel like I deserve the right to throw my hands up, dance, and otherwise be happy that I'm alive. I'm not saying that people shouldn't do this all the time - just that this one moment is very special. I'm absolutely exhausted, so forgive me if some of my sentences are poorly structured or not as articulate as usual. I've strived for enough well-structured, articulate sentences for the day.

I was hoping that, over the weekend, I would've had time to update this lovely little corner of the Internet. Boy, was I wrong! The weekend just got crazier and crazier.

On Saturday, the official end of #MinervaFounders Orientation Week, we had a feast. Unfortunately, I came down with the cold, so I couldn't join everyone else in cooking. I did get to take pictures, though!

We cooked.

We danced.

We laughed.

We made wacky faces like this (this one is my favorite - Kayla makes so many of us smile!)

I even got to use this gorgeous camera with a fancy 50mm lens. Exciting!

Later on in the night, we had a bit of an open mic night. I didn't grab any pictures because we had it outside and it was dark, but a few of us played random songs on guitar, we had sing-a-longs (which have become a real hit in our dorm - once someone pulls out a guitar, expect a crowd within five minutes), there was an improvised skit from the most talented "untalented people" that I've ever seen, there was dancing... wow. We had so much fun with that! I just can't fathom my level of excitement into words. We may have also found a future ukelele singer-songwriter star. We're all still wondering why she's in college if she can just drop out and write a spectacular album (yes, I'm looking at you Kayla, you're outstanding).

But then Sunday came and we all realized that we had assignments due then and the following day. Then Monday came, and we had our first classes in Multimodal Communications and Complex Systems.

Our first classes were not what we expected they would be: we had hyped them up a bit too much, some of us felt, but I know that we just need to give them some time.

And then came Monday night. Monday night... wow. I walked around the fifth floor - our floor - at about 2am, and literally everyone was still up doing homework. Every. Last. Person. Some were even freaking out about the fact that they didn't have enough time to do the work from last week, since we were busy all week, then we were assigned even more work with a turnaround of less than 24 hours.

No, Monday night was not a night for sleeping. Monday night was only a night for some light napping - even if you'd spent the entire Monday in your room doing homework between classes. It's nights like these that bring us closer, perhaps. There is some comfort in knowing that everyone else is just as panicked as you are. So I handed in my Empirical Analysis assignment on the exceptions of Hooke's Law and Newton's Second Law, edited my Multimodal Communications essay, then lay down for a nap.

"I'll get up at 4:30am," I told myself. "I'll wake up and read the material for Complex Systems, then write that 3-4 page essay that we have due later today."

I slept until 7:30am. I snoozed my alarm. My body is smarter than my brain, sometimes.

I say that my body is smarter than my brain because, when the professors from yesterday gave feedback on the classes, I read the class grades and comments and, suddenly, I felt slightly relieved.

Before the start of classes, the professors told us that, on a five-point scale, the highest mark we might be able to achieve this semester is a 3 in each concept. I received a 3 in one of the HCs (Habits of Mind and Foundational Concepts - at Minerva, we receive our grades solely for the application of these) for Multimodal Communications. The professor seemed very happy with my performance in the comments to me, so I see no reason why I should despair. I received a 0 in the other one (meaning 'no data'), but the professor told me that I in fact didn't even have a chance to apply this HC during the class, so I shouldn't worry.

I hope that the grades for the other classes will follow such a trend... a trend of "don't panic". Because, boy, do we panic. This is a lesson for all of us; maybe, this will teach us not to be so hard on ourselves.

Thanks for the lesson, Minerva.

The Managing Directors for each region are coming over for dinner tonight. I plan on attending (especially because I don't have a clue what I'd cook for dinner otherwise - we've been living off pasta, instant noodles, pizza, things we can order, food cooked by our amazing classmate Roiman who can't cook for less than four people, and food fed to us by Minerva). Some of us have spoken about taking a walk around the city - perhaps on the beach, which is about fifteen odd minutes away - for the sole purpose of relaxing ourselves this afternoon. I can't wait.

And I can't wait to see what I'll learn next! ...especially when I don't panic.

Once Upon a (Mi)nerd

This felt too cliché to be called "first post", because this adventure deserves so much more than a "first post". This kind of adventure deserves a grand gesture, one that would impress even the stern venture capitalists over at Benchmark.

I won't elaborate on anything that has yet occurred - I'm saving that for a series at the end of the week - but I will say, four days in, that this has already been completely outstanding. Ben Nelson is really trying to outdo himself and impress us, the Founding Class-- his Founding Class.

I have never been a writer, but I feel the need to dedicate an entire series of blog posts to our Orientation Week adventures. I'll skip the introductions, small talk, and other mundane things. Such an intriguing experience deserves so much more than mundanity; I feel like I'll only have the time to give this venture what it deserves once the end of the week comes.

Until then, I'll leave this here and stop procrastinating my first week work. My awesome roommate, Lucy, just came down here, so I feel bad for captaining the Procrastination Station tonight. Elle blague beaucoup, on parle français, etc etc. C'est amusant mais pas banal. Elle m'ennuie pas quand même.

I'm going to have an awesome week, but I hope yours will top mine. You very likely deserve it. :)