Addicted: a tiny goal and a retrospective

So I had this tiny goal of reaching 500 commits for this year, and I was most surprised that I'm nearly triple that, and it's not the end of the year just yet.

It's been a lot of fun!

I've also picked up this little coding game, which I stay up until 5am working on.

In six months, this is my rank. I'm pretty proud. I'm aiming to get it better!
This essentially means I'm in the top 94
percent of people in the world on this. I'm aiming for 100!

I did a read-through of the top rankers, and they are all Big Four people. It's pretty amazing.
I never would have guessed. I'm guessing if you can get that far, you'd pretty much have your pick of any company. I just want to be in the company of great people who can continue to help me learn.
I have to say, the community and my h@ckerspace have taught me a *lot*.
I feel grateful that they have embraced me so easily, and I've learned so much from them.
A lot of the time, when I feel discouraged because I did not start earlier (my high school didn't have any programming classes; we had one after school, I believe, but I was too involved in other stuff to even notice, and my brother was substantially into CS, so I didn't think I had a chance), I just keep going. It's both surprising and I'm really grateful that it is starting to pay off.
Mostly, it's something that I really, really enjoy.
It's a strange thing, but I was relating to a relative that it's as though a switch just turned on, to the exclusion of everything else. I don't think about any of my past lives or skills; this is it. I just really really enjoy building and making things and learning new languages and solving problems. But come to think of it, I guess that everything I've been interested in was about building, making and solving problems. So it finally makes sense.

I've never received so much support from such a great community. I also start a mentorship for three months in January, from a dev in Seattle. I'm really excited about that. It finally feels like things are starting to fall into place, and it feels really natural. It feels like this is who I  really am. The people are so easy to get along with and I miss their company when I'm not there. Who would have guessed that this would be my path? What an incredible journey.

I do still take my drawing skills with me, when I make games. Man, do those graphics look pretty good haha. And who knows what the future may hold?
Here is to a great and prosperous 2017. May all your wishes and dreams come true!

Not sure why

So I hit my goal of 500 commits on G!thub. I'm super proud, but I'm aiming for another 500. It's been a lot of fun, and I really really enjoy the tech c0mmunity. They're literally my family, and I've never been so happy with everything. I've had an amazing year (and it's not even complete yet). I'm flying to Aust!n later this year for the first time (I've been briefly to H0uston, and have family there)! I got a scholarship that covers my airfare, a conference, my hotel and a workshop of my choice through the conference!
Oh, I've also taken up sail!ng! I love it more than anything in the world, and am seriously thinking of not getting a house and just eventually getting a sailb0at in the next ten years. I already pretty much have the former, so it's not something I realistically need to worry about purchasing in the future. This is all thanks to my tech!e friends, who have been teaching me...we go every weekend, pretty much, and I'm learning a lot!

I've taken up Ru$t these days, an interesting language, because it's a cross of C++ and H@skell-ish in its syntax in many ways. I'm thinking if I stick with those three, I'd essentially be covered for a real language that can pay the bills (ie C++), a language that I really like and can continue learning for the rest of my life (ie H@skell), and one that blends the two and has functionality that is a blend of the two (ie Ru$t). See, Rust is a pretty new language, but also a favourite, and is being used by companies in the Big F0ur (ie G00gs and F@cebook). I think it also has a huge potential for being used in Sp@ce travel in the future (as an alternative to low level C stuff), and also m@chine learning and A! applications. Plus, I just like it a lot.
I got to speak briefly about it with a legend, Mr N0rv!g, and he lit up about it, also. My other friend at Y@h00 also is quite excited about it. For now, I'm just learning as much as I can.

I'm probably not going to be a regular poster here, as I have a lot going on, but until then..."Helms-@-lee!"

more Object stuff

playing with 0rca whales and stuff!

finally

finally getting into some J@vascript. It's not as bad as I thought it was, and actually pretty fun!

I guess I should post...something?

Been working working working...just finished up some homework that was supposed to take the entire week...in a day. Hmm...

My code is to the side..you can see the trail to the write. This is in Subl!me.

I also decided to add some ASCII art at the end, hahahah.

Enjoy.

Did some p0wer shell Assembly today

and it was awesome...
Here are some pics zoomed in of my monitor...

This is sort of random

But was teaching myself Matl@b for past two weeks. Compared to ten months ago, it's SUPER easy now :) I really had not as much of an idea what I was doing on my first attempt. So this is great to see progress. A lot of the commands are standard Un!x commands. It's like Un!x mixed in with J@va mixed in with C++. So pretty awesome.
I like numerical c0mputation a lot. It's really something I spend hours and hours on.

Anyways, I stole an excel file off the Internet, some N0AA data, and imported into M@tlab, took a small set of values (ie those that tend towards 0) and sin-ed them, and cos-ed some larger values, and when I plotted them, I was able to get an ellipsoidal value.

So here it is...very fun. Doing some hacking tomorrow and then hanging out with a friend. Should be a lot of fun!

I've been

I've been spending most  (if not all) of my time programming. It's been pretty great, and I have an excuse to stay up until 3 in the morning and sometimes take a nap and get up at 6 to go to work (yikes). I love the solitary pursuit, I love the people, and everything about it is great. I love the culture. 

I just never thought that I could fit, but somehow, it's the most natural thing...I can't believe that I was scared...these people are literally my family.

The teeny tiny pic is a snapshot of my G!thub, where I've been uploading projects so far this year. I've done (so far) 210; I try to do some every day. I have everything from Python, Java, C++, Haskell, Lua, Lisp, J, Javascript, R, Matlab. It's been a fun journey. I hope I can continue for the rest of my life. 

The tech community has been more generous and kind and supportive than anything; beyond my wildest dreams. I can't believe I have people from some of THE top and best companies in the world, some of the smartest people I've ever met, who have such high expectations for me. 

They really are proud of me, and it makes me feel so humbled and have such gratitude.

Every time I apply for something, they say "I hope you get it!". It's like they expect great things for me. 

I know I'm a baby still, but everyone is so nice to me; they're like my family, pretty much. I find that I spend my time either at home programming, at work programming, or going over to hang out with them and programme. Ha. What a life. It's really been great. It makes me almost want to cry. They really look out for me and it seems almost undeserving. But I"m okay with that. Maybe one day I will return the favour. 

Till next time..I guess I'll be on G!thub coding....

things are cray-zee

Things are crazy this week for me. I will not be getting a lot of sleep at all this week. Basically, worked, then workshop until 9pm tonight, tomorrow work, then workshop until 10pm, then flying out at 7am Wednesday for three days..hoping when I come home Tues night (around midnight) to do laundry and pack, and then a shuttle is picking me up at 3am to head to the airport. It's going to be EPIC. Pretty much it's going to be a sea of geeks hanging out at THE biggest event in Silic0n Valley this week. And oh yeah..I got a ticket :) You can't buy any...it's all done...had to be invited...so it goes. I feel truly honoured! They're even having a dinner for us the night before, and shuttling us in to the event from the airport, etc.

I can't say again how GREAT everything has been...I am having a BLAST. This is one of the BEST decisions I've ever made, and I feel a LOT happier because of it, and have made some AMAZING friends. I'm happy and excited to see where this all goes.
I'm surprised that it feels all so natural, and everyone has been SO nice to me! It's like they've accepted me as one of them. I wish I had known earlier...but I'm happy. I couldn't be happier right now. And I LOVE programming!!!! I LOVE programmers! I LOVE it ALL!!
In the meantime,...here is some webpage stuff were were having fun with tonight :)

nerd1ness

I've never thought of myself as a nerd. I've always described myself as sort of a g33k, I guess. This week, a friend of mine who does Space stuff (at yup..THAT organization) introduced me to his friends as "really really n3rdy". The general public thinks these people are uber-n3rds, so to hear him describe me as such was um..surprising. We spend Thursdays hanging out, and this particular Thursday, we were literally hanging out until midnight. I feel in LA, out of all the people I've met, he really "gets" me. We met at an event and again, gravitated towards each other, even though he is twice my age. He gave me his card and told me to keep in touch, and I noticed on his card he works for "that Space agency". He didn't even make a big deal about it, and said he enjoys my company.

I'm not sure why precisely, but I really really enjoy his company.  I learn so much from him, and he speaks 10 languages, etc. Sometimes we just talk about math and science and music and architecture and how it all fits together. He's teaching me a bit of Chinese, also. It reminds me of being on the East coast (where I went to school), and some of my friends out there (a lot settled in Boston). They're really bright people, and I've struggled to find people like that out here in LA.
Going to N@s@ was a treat for me, because it's literally a place FILLED with these sorts of people from all over the world. I literally had a smile on my face the ENTIRE time. But it's isolated, so unless you work there and move around in their circles, you don't necessarily have day to day interaction with those sorts of people.

Really bright people tend to be a sort of focused, multi-faceted sort; I can't explain it. Most schools want you to do one thing, and most people are okay with that...Hammer a nail over and over and make a career out of that, performing the same formula over and over with minimal effort. People at the top in terms of intelligence (from what I've seen) are always DOING, but they have this kind of well-rounded intelligence in which they have immense curiosity for ANYTHING they can deconstruct mentally. A friend of mine who is a member of MENSA was essentially just taking HAM radio just because...that's how bright people are. It's not enough to tell them "You are an X"; they're always doing or trying something. Another one who is absolutely brilliant not only started his business (and makes a bunch of money with his product but he also plays golf and likes mathematical puzzles...just because, and is always tracking the ISS(that's the International Sp@ce station, btw)) will have something just pique his interest and he will just remove himself from the group and sit in a lone 60's type chair, thinking in a way whereby if approached, can seem standoffish. It's something you can't fake; you're either like that or you aren't.

They are always up to something, and will focus immensely on learning something new and learning the most obscure bits of knowledge about anything they are deeply focused on. I haven't found a lot of those people out here outside of the h@cker community.

Anyways...

It suddenly dawned on me, that hmm....my friend may be right...maybe I am a nerd! Ha!
It would explain why people at DefC0n are so nice to me, and why this has been such an awesome experience so far; chasing eng!neering. I've heard that they can be quite nasty if you aren't a good fit, and nerds (or geeks) aren't known to be very kind if you don't fit and don't 'get it', particularly if you are dull. Maybe I was one of them from the beginning; I've just found home.
I can legitimately ask questions and I don't feel like I'm "trying". It's just natural. And it's fulfilling.

This is the first time I've never really attached a time-line to something I was doing (as in, I need to be a professional artist or whatever in X years). I just want to keep going, and just want to continue my entire life. I find myself looking forward and not asking around "what are you taking" in terms of classes or whatever; I don't need validation...I just keep going on my own.

Most of the time I feel misunderstood...a bit alienated. This was always a problem with the artists, because they thought they knew me based on themselves, but in some ways, I think they really didn't know me at all.
I used to find a lot of the artist people to be really dull, quite frankly. I felt like I was dumbing myself down. They weren't 'well rounded', so there were just some things I could never talk to them about. And of course, they had the dreaded mentality of  "I hate math". I don't...hate math.

But meeting these people, I feel like I can finally be myself. We have the same sense of humour, and some of us have read the same books and all of that. It is just crazy.
My dad said that it's clear that I've been having a roaring fun time, and it's true. This has been THE best time ever. I've been SO happy this year; it's been QUITE wonderful! Not to say there hasn't been times of difficulty and struggle, but on the whole, it's been very rewarding. It seems like things are finally..finally paying off in some teeny tiny way after years of work. And it's fun.

So...with that being said..I had to take a test. And it confirmed yup..I guess I am a nerd LOL.
Also, I'm going to I/0 this year..which I am STOKED about. They asked us to make a character, and told us we may see it on the livestream. It's just a mix and match activity (it's not made from scratch or anything), but I made one after my friend, L!am, who is also a huge nerd..I love him to death because by the end of the first class, we literally gravitated towards each other. I thought he was the coolest, and we've been inseparable since in Algorithm class. I LOVE that class; everyone in that class is EPIC. I LOVE Algorithms!
Liam's sort of a hacker/security guy; he has an old computer that he built from scratch that runs Windows 95, but he is deadly with it. It's also wonderful that the three of us (the prof calls us "the smartest" Ha) have flip phones; we all refuse to buy smart phones. Liam also LOVES chess; he's quite good at it! During class, he will be playing Checkers or Chess or Solitaire while listening, because his mind always has to be doing something. It's hilarious.

This has seriously been one of the best, most unbelievable times of my life, and I am so grateful for all the wonderful people, cool times past and to come.

making a lot more sense

It's actually relaxing doing these. I am learning a lot. It's rewarding to render on the screen and have it work, but also fun to troubleshoot.

Not sure why I'm up

But got a version of the 14O1 s!mulator to work. A friend of mine who is doing research and works on it for the C0mputer H!story Museum introduced me to it and is giving me a bunch of stuff so I can do some work on my own with it.
So here are some examples of files run (examples; not my own).
It's a simulator of the real thing, which was printed out on pUnch cards and is on C0mputer paper at the museum. Neato. As you can see, it was written in J@va; so I'm running a J@r file.

Bubble love

Doing a Bubble sort algo for an assignment.
Tested out a bunch of values and it shows the quadratic relationship. (ie the curve, if you can remember quadratics from high school, etc).
It's quite neat stuff!