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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

Even though things don’t change when we want them to, after a while, you look around, and everything’s different. We have completed the 2nd week of the 2021 winter term. As is tradition, I am here to recount the events of the previous week in Blog form. We watched the inauguration of President Joe Biden this past week. It feels like we have made it through a transition period in history. One thing that I have noticed that is unique about this new period of history that we have entered, is that I have not heard about the President tweeting a single thing. It’s like when the family at the restaurant with all of kids running around and yelling finally leaves, and everyone in the restaurant just kind of makes eye contact with each other, recognizing together the peace and quiet that they had previously taken for granted.

This week was a momentous week for me for a completely different reason however. I am a Buffalo Bills fan. Since my birth in 1996, I have never witnessed a single Buffalo Bills playoff victory. However, this year, for the first time in over 20 years, we won 2 games in the playoffs. Their victories was one of the little things that helped me to get through the trials of 2020. I think everyone had to have something like that. Some creator or hobby or sports team or activity whose contribution to the world may seem small, but what isn’t recognized is the moral that thing brought to each person who enjoyed it. This week I witnessed my Buffalo Bills lose 1 game before the Super Bowl. I am happy with their success, and excited for them next year, and grateful for the effort they put in, and how on Sundays I could count on them to lift my spirits throughout the year.

In more important news, our Dune Project achieved some success this past week. We finally met with a specialist who we have been waiting months to meet with. On top of that, we have been chugging along with our current sprint. I am grateful to be a part of a team that works so well together. I feel like we are a cohesive group, and I am lucky that the team I was randomly assigned turned out to be so great.

Looking forward to chatting next week,

Luke

2020 has come and gone. It was a long year of trial and tribulation, but I and anyone who manages to see this blog managed to survive it. Maybe you hadn’t been born yet and you stumbled across this blog. My question is, how on earth did you find this. I imagine that this blog will be buried in the hole that is the internet for none to see again once graded. However, I will still write it as a testament to the past year. 2020 was a year that was simultaneously the quickest and slowest of my life. The fact that every single week seemingly had one terrible disaster or another made the year feel like it was taking forever. However I, like many people across the world spent most of 2020 holed away in my house. From this position, the days honestly began to blend together slowly. Due to this sort of blending of the days, 2020 seemed to fly by. Every day not having enough unique features to it to make it memorable. In some ways it feels like a lost year, but for me, it became a year of personal growth and reflection. I can say with certainty that through the events of 2020 and the decisions I made throughout the year, I am a better person.

2021 on the other hand looks largely the same as 2020 did at least from the outset. However, as I type this on January 17 while we are hitting record numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths, it feels like we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Through these last years of political upheaval, an insurrection has occurred, which seems like the fitting climax for this political saga. I am writing this days before Biden takes office, so there seem to still be a chance of tribulations in that area. Regarding Covid-19 I hope the new administration can bring more national unity of focus, and I am glad that the new vaccine has been created and has begun distribution. While we seem to be coming out of the tunnel, the issues that were uncovered in the past year, and the difficulties that will spring up due to decisions made throughout the past year, are yet to be fully understood.

Despite all of this, I am excited for 2021. I feel as though I am making more personal progress than previously in several areas. I am excited to see what the future holds. I hope everyone will be able to look back in the future and see 2020 as rock bottom, and we don’t have a year as difficult as that ever again.

It has been a few weeks since the previous blog, and our project has proceeded forward with leaps and bounds. It felt like we were stuck in the mud for a while, but now we have broken free and we have begun moving forward. We completed our first prototype, and while it is very limited in scope, but it is the perfect starting point. Honestly, we can simply build off of what we have so far and eventually the project will be complete. Is that bad design? Maybe. What we have looks pretty cool at this point, and I’m pretty happy with it.

This past week was Thanksgiving, so I am going to use this blog as a bit of an exploration of the things I am thankful for in this wild year. One thing I am truly grateful for is the reprieve coming with the end of the term. While this capstone course has been fun and interesting, and will continue next term and the term after, I am happy to be through with several of my other courses. During this time, I have found the little things that help get me through each day have been important. Things that I would have taken for granted since they are part of the endless stream of information pouring into my life, and the lives of anyone with an internet connection. The human connection provided in the meetings, while they were sometimes frustrating, or felt unnecessary, has truly helped me along. It’s thanks to great professors and volunteers and classmates and TA’s that this experience hasn’t been quite as bad as I’m sure everyone thought it would. These little connections are things that I have grown to appreciate more than ever. I look forward to a brighter year next year.

And thank you, 1 person who is reading this.

This past week was week 6. It feels like the turning point in 2020. I have felt ashamed of my country for the past 4 years, and I feel proud to be an American for the first time since 2016. We see record Covid-19 cases across the country, but at least we have a light at the end of the tunnel now. I hope our nation will start to be able to regain the unity we once had. I have a bit more faith in humanity, and I feel like I’m not just muddling along trying to make it day by day. I feel like there will once again be a positive example leading our country. This week has been crazy, I feel like I know far more about elections and American geography than ever before. Our entire nation has been waiting with baited breath for the drawn out result, but I feel like the wait was worth it. There is dancing in the streets, as our nation is smiling once again. I was born in Canada and immigrated to the U.S. to follow the opportunities provided, and for the past few years, all I’ve wanted to do is leave. I have regained some of my hope for the American people after this election. However, that’s all pretty irrelevant to my project.

Our group project is working steadily forward, but the obstacles we face have been unexpected. I expected to be working steadily and constantly on the code, yet so far what we have done for the most part is work through the bureaucracy of the government agency that we have to work with. I feel like I understand a little better why nothing ever gets done in the government. We’ve added so many extra steps before you can actually get to work that it just kills efficiency. I wonder what the solution to this problem is. Should the government be more modularized so groups have to focus on less? Is competence the issue? If we made these changes would security be lost? It feels like the government is one gigantic program file that is uncommented, entirely bloated, and using legacy systems from 200 years ago.

Thanks for reading my blog this week! May all of your dreams come true!

The halfway point of the term has been reached. The Midterms are fully underway, and the homework is piling up. This has been a good week. Our project is starting to take shape. We have our charge, and we are charging forward to make something useful for some very hard working people. Current events are underway, and progressing at a rapid pace. By the time I write my next blog, we will see who the President of the United States will be for the next four years. I’m hopeful, but also kind of worried about the fallout. Not only that, but we are seeing record infections and I just know that a lot of people were partying for Halloween. I predict a SPoOky result! However, things in my little world are going well. That seems a little callous to all the people who are facing hard times right now, but I think it’s important to express gratitude for the good things in life, even when things are looking a little bleak. I voted last week, and I hope that anyone who ends up seeing this post did as well. I didn’t vote in the last election, and honestly I think that was stupid. I think a lot of people probably think the same way, and turnout is going to be the highest its ever been.

I know this blog has been more about current events so far, but that’s what has been occupying most of my headspace. Do you think that election day should be a national holiday so everyone can get to the polls? It’s crazy out there right now, and I hope you can find your own little pocket of peace and quiet in all of this. I have been thinking a lot about living in the present moment more and more in life. I feel that the future is less guaranteed than it ever has been, and worrying about what’s going to happen is just wasting the precious time that I have available to myself today. I wonder what I can do to make myself into the kind of person that I want to be, and have found that just doing the best I can to use every fleeting moment of the present is the best way to give myself the future I want. I don’t know if I’m right about this, but I’m giving it my best shot!

Thanks for reading!

Luke

Week four has come and gone. Four me, this was a memorable one. It has gone even faster than the previous week, but four good reason this time. I went on vacation for the weekend, and therefour, I had to get everything done early. It basically was a full week condensed into four days so I could get out and truly relax. Honestly, I feel truly fourtunate to have this opportunity.

Our project has started to charge fourward, building steam as it goes. Ok, I’m done with the fours. At this point the word doesn’t look real anymore. Anyway, our motivation has begun climbing and we, as a team feel unstoppable. Our requirements are nailed down more than ever, but I have the sneaking suspicion, we may not have the full picture, that or maybe the requirements will change down the road. I hope that’s not the case, but this year has so far seems to be the year that Murphy’s Law is basically guaranteed, so I’m not holding my breath. We finally have access to the server infrastructure at Fermilab, so we can begin working in earnest, starting next week. We get access to a lot of interesting information in addition with our accounts, and I’m excited to start poking through the Wiki to try and learn more.

These blogs so far have been very cathartic for me. I’ve basically got like two nonstop streams of consciousness going all the time, and its hard to keep everything straight. I don’t think you really know what you, guy who grades this, has done by allowing me to just word vomit all over an assignment. It’s like I’ve just been mallocing nonstop and the terrified person looking over my shoulder the whole time has just showed me how to free. I guess its been… freeing.

P.S. If you ever get to Manzanita Oregon, go to Yolk for breakfast and order the French Toast. It’s transformational.

Did the week really just go by? I feel like I just wrote my last blog yesterday. I think that means either that I’m getting into the rhythm of school, or I have short term memory loss. This week has been a lot of grinding away at different project. The DUNE project hasn’t been taking up most of my time, but it has been taking up most of my brainspace. I think that’s because its the project that I actually feel a vested interest in, and a connection to the outcome. I think I won’t be able to share any of the details here on the blog because I just had to spend like an hour and a half reading documents that told me in 100 different ways not to share this information with foreigners, else I’ll be put in the stocks. It seemed a little ironic to me as a dual citizen, like, am I these foreigners that I am not to be sharing with? I’ll keep my Canadian personality in the dark on this one I guess, never know what he might do.

This week we prepared our problem statement document. We all worked together through Zoom on one Google Doc. It was honestly refreshing. I’ve been in enough dysfunctional group projects that feel like pulling teeth that one that worked quickly and efficiently writing the document was a breath of fresh air. I think having a group that you work well with is likely one of the Major Keys to success in this class. I feel lucky to have been randomly assigned to such an overwhelmingly competent group. If my partners ever read this down the road, cheers! You make my life better. I’m going on a mini vacation this weekend. This pandemic I guess isn’t all bad, as it has allowed me to let go my earthly tether and get a little bit of traveling in. I’m looking forward to it. I originally began coding because I thought it would be the best job to pay the bills while I sail the Caribbean. It was somewhat a joke at first, but as I went through school the technology and social progress to make it happen has actually happened. Like Elon Musk’s Starlink, and the pandemic normalizing remote work. Maybe it’ll all work out in the end.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m somewhat impressed, it got a little in the weeds for a bit, but we’ve made it out. And you, you know who you are, you’re an everyday hero, and your work makes a difference. Thanks again for reading!

Luke