mounfaivy

[mounfaivy]

A Look Back Into the Past

ENTRY #10: A LOOK BACK INTO THE PAST

Dear Self,

Hi, it's me. I'm you from the future. If I wrote this tomorrow, it would have been exactly 2 years and 2 months since my last journal entry. A lot has happened, and we've changed so much-- for better and for worst.

I want you to know that the struggles you went through - all the mental instability, the anger, the despair - they are all valid. Like we had suspected the entire time, it was ADHD. We're different from normal people, and that's ok.

Just a quick TLDR of the past two years:

Grade 9 was the worst year in terms of mental health. We struggled a lot with both family and personal relationship issues. There was even a time we almost cut off our friends. Our passion also shifted from physics and programming to chemistry. Not because we love it, but because we forced ourself to like it simply because we're "good" at it.

Grade 10 was a journey. It had both ups and downs, but most importantly, it was full of discoveries. First quarter, we developed romantic feelings for the first time. Unfortunately, it was on the wrong guy. Third quarter, same thing. Initially we thought it was gonna last but it didn't. The guy's a red flag; we just didn't know about it. Thank goodness we broke up with him.

Right now, it's the summer break just before Grade 11. In two weeks, we'll be back to school again. Honestly, I can't wait. I want to study more-- I want to compete more. A lot of doors are opened in Grade 11. We can do it.

...To be honest, I'm scared. So, so, so scared. I don't know how to do my SCALE. I still haven't done my SIP. Although they say that we don't have to worry about failing SIP because the lowest grade ever given was a 7 (or was it 8?) out of 10 and no one has failed in the history of CLC, what if -- just what if -- that will be me? And I won't get to graduate??? I know it's unfounded, but still--- I'm so so scared.

I was supposed to study today but I ate a second pill yesterday (Ritalin LA 20mg; ADHD meds) at 5PM. Because of that, I didn't sleep until 0830 the next morning. I slept until 1400 and have not done anything productive ever since. It's 1737 and I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll try writing a short fanfic again.

Well, best of luck to tomorrow, I guess. Since school is coming soon, I'll have to do double time on my advance studies, especially Chemistry. I hope we can finish majority by August 3.

Yours Truly, Yvette Future Chemist

Date: July 23, 2024

[mounfaivy]

An Uneventful Start

ENTRY #8: AN UNEVENTFUL START

Dear Self,

Today I started doing beginner projects. I noticed I sometimes forget the syntax. I guess that means that I really should apply my knowledge instead of just watching tutorials.

Anyways, I signed up for Project Euler. Though not a project, it’s a good site for practicing what I currently know. Also it’s math.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to learn how to make tic-tac-toe. Once I get how to make it, I’ll try to make a sudoku game. I already know the concepts or how the computer will work to make the game, it’s just that I don’t know how to implement it in code.

I truly hope that one day, I can transition to intermediate phase. Because by that time, I can probably broaden my learnings. From leetcode to the many basic projects, that’s certainly more than what I’m currently limited to. Thus, I look forward to the day I become an intermediate programmer.

Regards,

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 24, 2022

[mounfaivy]

A Bad Twosday

ENTRY #7: A BAD TWOSDAY

Dear Self,

Today is the worst. I thought twosday is gonna be good? It fricking sucks. Something really bad happened today.

My trash laptop errored so hard. Now, I can't even connect to ANY wifi. I can't do any work with this. Thank goodness I mostly finished the upcoming reqs.

Ah, I really hate this. I cried so hard and I think I had a mental breakdown. Wow, so that's what it feels, huh?

Anyways, I guess one good thing is that my parents will buy me a new one. I kinda want to recommend MacBook Air M1, but I'm shy and don't want them to spend so much.

Will my future self this saturday or sunday be able to convince mama to buy me a mac? Who knows. I do hope she does. Good luck on her.

Regards, Shen Li Future Programmer

Date: February 22, 2022

[mounfaivy]

Information Overload

ENTRY #6: INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Dear Self,

Today I finally finished the course. I also learned a lot of things like:

    1. Getters and Setters     2. Inheritance     3. HashMaps

I don't understand one (1) that much, but I'll tackle it next time. After all, I'm quite tired for today.

Anyways, I think I'll polish my fundamentals first. After I get a finish two beginner projects and good grasp on the basics, I'll study data structures next.

After I finish data structures, I'll tackle algorithms. Wish me luck. I heard they're the worst. RIP future me who'll be mostly learning them. Good luck!

Regards, Shen Li Future Programmer

Date: February 21, 2022

[mounfaivy]

Eureka Moment

ENTRY #5: EUREKA MOMENT

Dear Self,

Today is an okay-ish one. Though I didn’t do much, it’s still good because now I cleared up my previous confusions. If you refer to entry #4, I had difficulty with constructors because I couldn’t understand it. After rewatching, now I do.

Constructors have the same name as class name, and you can make multiple of them so long as each has a different condition(s). 

Speaking of functions, I learned another one - Object Functions. You can make a function inside a class and recall it with just a “.functionName”. It’s really useful because it gives the object information about itself. That bit kinda confuses me, but I’ll look it up tomorrow.

Anyways, that’s it for today. I wasn’t able to do reqs or study c++ much today, but it’s still okay. I guess I do need rest after all. I mean, I was studying for both school and my passion for almost a week straight now, so a rest is a must.

Oh, one more note: I found another c++ video for beginners to advanced. Problem is, it’s 31 hours long. I can finish it from one to two months depending on my schedule. It’s still okay for me though because I’ll take what I can. 

After watching that video, I’ll make sure to finally start doing projects. I can’t do projects if I don’t understand the basics, now can I?

Date: February 20, 2022

[mounfaivy]

First Road Block

ENTRY #4: FIRST ROAD BLOCK

Dear Self,

Today, I learned two new things: Classes and Constructor Functions. I understood well the basics of the former. In fact, I managed to complete THREE exercises about it. However, I can’t say the same for the latter.

For me, it’s a bit confusing. Like, I understand the basics too, but it’s like my mind refuses to wrap itself around it. Because of that, I stopped studying with only 1 hour done today. That’s one less hour for my normal, daily study time.

Oh well, I guess this just means I’m taking things too fast. I still need to understand the others more first. Plus, I still have dues to do. Guess I gotta put off my C++ studying for a bit. Don’t worry, I won’t give up on it. I love coding, after all! 

Regards,

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 19, 2022

[mounfaivy]

First Wow Moment

ENTRY #3: FIRST WOW MOMENT

Dear Self,

Today is an eye opening day. I just learned about one of the concepts I didn’t previously studied - pointers. At first I thought it was utterly useless and super confusing, but now I understand!

When declaring a pointer, you use asterisk (*) then attach a lowercase p to the variable name. To get the memory address of a variable, you use an ampersand (&). Now I thought it will just display random numbers, but oh boy was I wrong!

There’s something called dereferencing. In it, instead of showing the address, you instead get the VALUE from that address. That really saves time in coding projects that use parts of a code a lot.

Anyways, I guess that’s the end of watching the video for today. I’ll try to do a pointer practice exercise from GitBooks. Hopefully I can complete it. If not, I’ll just leave it for tomorrow. After all, creativity falls under pressure.

Regards, 

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 18, 2022

[mounfaivy]

Minor Stop

ENTRY #2: MINOR STOP

Dear Self,

Today is a tiring one. I only had around one and a half hour of C++ studying. Math really just took most of my attention. Like literally, I studied it for almost 4 hours straight.

Oh well, look at the bright side: I only have twelve sections left to go. If I continue doing three sections a day, I can finish the whole course on February 20. Wow, just four more days! After that, I can do Codecademy’s course next.

Speaking of codecademy, it seems like a really solid site. I love that there’s lots of practice problems on there. Thank goodness that site exists. The others were doing only either of what I really needed (practice, learnings). 

Anyways, that’s all for today. Like I said, it was uneventful. I guess the fun times will come once I finish the fundamental basics

Regards,

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 17, 2022

[mounfaivy]

Course Progress

ENTRY #1: COURSE PROGRESS

Dear Self,

Today I’ve managed to complete half of the course Giraffe Academy provided. I had to stop in the “If Con’t” part because it was late in the night (~10PM) and I was lazy. Though I didn’t learn that much, it’s still worth noting that I managed to progress.

Like a wise man said, programming can’t be learned overnight. It takes time. I truly hope all these efforts won’t go to waste. One day, I will finally be able to live my dream life and support myself. 

That day may be years from now, but I won’t give up. Time is fleeting; one blink and 8 years would have already passed. I wonder, how would my future self react to these journals? Only time will tell.

Regards,

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 16, 2022

[mounfaivy]

Serious Start

ENTRY #0: SERIOUS START

Dear Self,

Today I've started to gather potential resources for further study. Some are book materials about algorithm, some online courses, and some practice sites. These will greatly help me in my studies in C++. 

From reading countless reddit posts, I've identified two things that I need to learn more about:

    1. Functions

    2. Algorithms

The second one is much, much important. It's gonna be needed for learning techniques and stuff. I need to focus on it once I complete the very basics. I'll probably start learning about algorithms one (1) week from now.

Regards,

Shen Li

Future Programmer

Date: February 15, 2022