Month: February 2021

Roses are Red.

Violets are Blue

Unexpected token in JSON at position 2

This is my ode to programming in recognition of Valentines Day, the day that I am writing this blog. This last week has been a crazy one. We put in a lot of work towards our alpha this week, however we got hit with a serious setback. This week, my house lost all connection with the outside world in such a way that I have honestly missed. There was a large ice storm this week and it ended up freezing on the trees and the powerlines leading to some serious problems. The power was out for 2 days, and the cable and internet didn’t come back until the third day. Somehow it even killed the cell tower and mobile data was also down. It was a complete loss of connection. It felt nice to go downstairs and meet my family for what felt like the first time. They seem like nice people. But in all seriousness, it gave me nostalgia for the days when I was a kid and the power would go out, and we would all come together with candles and flashlights. I feel like that is a pretty common childhood experience, but I don’t really know. This time it was a bit more luxurious than back then, since we have solar panels which gave us some electricity during the day and stopped our freezers from completely defrosting. However, it posed a severe challenge to specifically me, a full time online student. Losing connection to my classes was kind of terrifying, as I had no idea when the power would come back, and I had assignments due. It worked out ok however, and for that I am appreciative. I hope anyone who is reading this is having a happy Valentine’s Day, whether you’re single or in a relationship. If you’re feeling left out just know that its just another holiday designed to get you to spend your hard earned money if that helps. Next time I write this blog my team’s alpha project will be complete and turned in. I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading!

Luke Penner

The day is February 7th. Luke is in his bedroom. He opens Canvas, and logs in using Duo on his phone. He begins to sweat. His eyes are wide, darting across the page. His fingers fly across the keyboard like a hacker on CSI. He clicks dashboard, and sees that Blog 4 is due. He blinks, unable to believe what he’s seeing. Whatever drowsiness he was feeling washes away with the sudden rush of adrenaline. Blog time. It’s time to shape up or ship out. The pressure is mounting. He can’t think of a title, “what month is it again?” he thinks stupidly, “February is spelled weird, what’s with that r?” What a moron. He begins to type. Ferbrewers Blog. He realizes he has misspelled his own stupid joke. Febrewers Blog. Perfection.

Welcome to February 2021, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Statistically speaking you have failed your New Year’s Resolution, and quite frankly reader, I am disappointed in you. I really did think this time you would be able to pull it off. Next year will definitely be different, and the more you tell yourself that, the truer it gets right? Believe in the power of positive thinking. For me, this week has been one of good progress. Our project has moved forward to a point where our alpha product is about complete. An unrefined application that will one day become our final project. It’s exciting for our group. I wonder how some of the other groups are doing. It is hard to judge our progress when it is so specific to our project, and I don’t really have something to compare it to. It feels like we are in a good spot, but usually once you start feeling good and confident the problems start appearing. Hopefully it’s smooth sailing from here to the finish line.

P.S. Valentines Day is next week. Keep your S.O. happy.

Week 3 has been rather chaotic for us. Our classes have accelerated to a point where we are sprinting just to keep up. However, we have been able to make some good progress. We have gotten good enough with react to begin implementing it into our prototypes. I’ve made a prototype map application, and am just looking to project the data I need onto it. And the challenge of our project is basically just getting the data, and then putting it into good visualizations. I feel like soon we are going to step into the iteration phase of our project where we keep remaking and improving things iteratively, in order to end up with our end product.

Otherwise, this week has been a blur. It seems like the days where I wake up and stay at home have been blending together a bit, and this whole Covid-19 situation is kind of adding to that. I wonder what the future holds for us on the other side of this pandemic. While humanity learn from its mistakes and progress? Is there a utopian society or a dystopian society waiting for us at the end? It is wild to imagine how much things have changed in the last 20 years, will things in the future continue to change at the same rate? I am optimistic. I believe that at the end of all of this, we will face more crises, from pollution to corruption, and it will test us, but things will slowly improve. I feel like that slow societal improvement is something that we can’t see when we are focused on our day to day lives, we have to step back, and remember how far you’ve come.

Thanks for reading!

Luke Penner