Reflection of first few weeks
So far I’ve enjoyed computer science and learning about all the elements of code that play key roles in the functioning of a website. It is really interesting yet frustrating at the same time to see that if you make one simple mistake such as forgetting a comma or quotation mark that your entire code can fall apart. I’ve learned that unlike humans, computers are very precise and need everything to fit perfectly for things to run smoothly. Sofar in CS1 I’ve created a person card which transitions from a picture of an animated skier, to a GIF of someone actually skiing. To me this is amusing and fascinating, but also a part of who I am as skiing is one of my favorite activities. I’ve also begun to make a codesketch about one of my other passions, soccer. Wherever you click on the soccer goal is where the ball will wind up going. In the future I might add a goalkeeper to make things a little more interesting but for now I am trying to perfect what I already have. For me, one of the most annoying components of learning to code is how one is bottlenecked by terminology. What I mean by this is that computers might understand a specific coding language but for humans, if you don’t know the exact punctuation and phrasing, then everything looks like a jumble of numbers and letters. Despite the fact that this is extremely frustrating, it is also rewarding to be able to Google something and then implement it into your own code. Something that was unexpected for me was that we only meet once a week which in my opinion is not enough. I completely understand that we are supposed to be learning on our own in addition to in class and that there simply might not be enough time to have two classes in a week but it would have been nice. For these reasons I am going to see if setting up a weekly lab would even be possible. In these labs we would work on codesketches and maybe some new terminology. Overall, I think CS1 one is going well considering the circumstances and I look forward to the rest of the year.

11/5/20
This week I was finally able to make my website publicly accessible despite all the quirks and difficulties Molly, Charly and I had to overcome. It is surprisingly difficult to fix problems over zoom which is why I think everything is taking a little longer than It should. I am not done with my website which I think is something that will continue to evolve for the rest of the year. I want to add a gif on top of my background image so it looks like it’s snowing but I don’t know how to do this yet and am hoping to have it done by next week. Despite some technical difficulties we’re moving along and I think I am starting to get the hang of this. I also worked on my soccer codesketch which I don’t know if I’ll ever finish.

11/12/20
This week I finally figured out how to layer a gif onto my website to make it look like it is snowing which is really cool. I also created a codesketch that randomly selects a trail map of a few of my favorite ski mountains and displays them on the screen. It may seem simple but there’s actually a pretty interesting mechanism which makes it all possible.

11/19/20
Today we were given the task of creating an online thanksgiving themed card to give to a friend or family member. When covid first escalated in NYC and summer break had just begun, my family and I decided to take a roadtrip to escape the city. We drove all the way to Idaho in three days which was a lot of driving. However our efforts were rewarded and I saw some of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen out there. So I took ten of our photographs and created a codesketch where you click on the screen and a random one of those images pops up. It was a fun and enjoyable way to recall some of the incredible times my family and I had experienced together. In addition to creating this codesketch I also worked a little bit on a previous codesketch as well as my website but am not quite done yet.

12/3/20
This week we learned about how to create a function that creates divs so you don’t have to individually create thousands of divs which would take an extremely long period of time. I also began to brainstorm how to make a code which would pull a statistic or piece of information from the internet and then incorporate it seamlessly into my website. Turns out this is much more difficult than it sounds and you have to use something called an API which Molly and I have been working on in labs. In addition to working solely on html, I worked on another code in my coding club using python. We made a game called pong and it works but it is not very smooth and is kind of choppy. I will try to fix this later on.

12/10/20
Today we learned how to make a div move without the use of a function which is pretty cool. The way we did this was by using key frames which allow you to create little animations. You use percentages to indicate where the div should be at a certain point in its cycle. I also am working on adding some cool interactive features to my website and am going to try to publish some more stuff. I am trying to learn how to create an API but I don’t quite understand how it works so I’m going to need Molly’s help.


12/17/20 This week, I started creating an animation using the keyframes I learned how to use last week. The codesketch features ski lifts going up a mountain and a skier skiing down. I'm happy how it turned out.

1/28/21 It's been a while since I’ve last written an entry and I’ll be honest, I haven’t been as productive as I would have liked to have been in the last week. I started to make some major changes to my website but I’m still not quite sure how I want my website to look. Additionally, I started making a code where the screen fills up with water depending on how much you drank.

2/4/21 I completely redesigned my website in the past week so that the user can customize it in their own special way. By clicking, the background color changes. Also I added moving clouds, snow and a mountain that changes color. Lastly, I added a menu bar to each portion of my website, the home page, the about page, the journal page and the codesketches page.

2/11/21 This week I spent a lot of time on my water codesketch but I am not at all happy with how it turned out. That's why I’m choosing not to add it to my website. Instead, I’m creating a new codesketch that focuses on fly fishing which I think will turn out well.

2/18/21 This week I almost completed my fly fishing codesketch and I also added a drop down menu to store my codesketches.

2/25/21 This week I polished my website and codesketches and started learning about p5.js which is a way to create simulations.