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Travis Campbell
Travis Campbell

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Investing in my Future

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General Apprenticeship Updates

So to start with, I'm incredibly excited to work on my Umbrella Project. Next week is our suggested due date as to what we will be using in our tech stack however we already have that figured out as of this week. All we need to do is get it assembled and ready to code, which is honestly more difficult (or at least it feels like it is) than it seems.

I've never assembled a tech stack before, my previous project during college I wasn't really a part of getting that set up, and from what I remember other than bare bones programming languages and the DB we didn't have any other tools. All I know is we came together, and said "We want to use this, this and this all on this IDE" and the next thing I knew it was all put together and I just went head first into coding.

So actually having to create the foundation and make sure it all connects is challenging for me, as I really don't know what I'm doing but so far no errors, so I seem to be doing it right!

The one I've always been looking for

So as part of the project, we started looking at databases and what we should use. And when I contacted my mentor they suggested we use MongoDB and if we decide to really aim for the deployment on mobile devices for our app, MongoDB Realm is a locally stored DB for the phone so it's a great segue and tool for our project.

What's even better, long before I actually got to work with databases in college as part of my Computer Programming classes, I had always imagined a database being a lot of files put together, with all kinds of different tags that you can search for or organize by. And ironically enough, from the look of how MongoDB works and looks (through the use of Studio 3T GUI), it looks EXACTLY how I had always thought a database would look. Rather than just tables of columns and rows, it's like individual files that are put together in a general structure with all kinds of things you can work with.

Coincidence? I think not!


Investing my Time

Going through the week is a hassle for me honestly. I tend to work pretty quickly so when I find a task to do, I end up doing it relatively fast. Accurately is a different thing but typically I do fine. But right now, especially since I haven't gotten tied to a project yet, and we are only just doing the initial framework of the Umbrella project, I really feel like I have too much time on my hands.
I'm meant to have 9-5 each day dedicated for their respective tasks, going through modules and working on things but with my current pacing on everything I'm up to date, I don't want to get far ahead on anything just because I may end up having to go back and change something, not actually understanding something or just putting to much pressure on myself.
So with company work, I've done everything that was sent my way and required. With umbrella project, we have the tech-stack chosen, and as of right now, seemingly assembled properly with no errors. There's Udemy courses that I can go through but they are very visual oriented and I've always struggled actually learning anything from them, and actually staying engaged with them, even if they have a structure such as "code along with us". And from what bits I have seen have them, I've fairly familiar with the concepts.

I certainly have control over my schedule, and am happy with how relaxed it feels of me taking things at a comfortable pace, the only complaint is that despite it I have a lot of downtime that I feel like could be used for more constructive things. I'm just eagerly waiting to get to the implementation of everything and get to work.

Time Constantly is Moving

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