July 26th, 2015

Project 52, part 7

Aahh, July has been so busy that I’m behind on reading blogs! The past two weeks have especially been busy when it comes to work.

Two weeks ago, my company decided to do a Fix-It Week with all developers to pay off some “technical debt”. With so many developers and sometimes looming deadlines, we’ve all done some things quickly that we meant to go back and fix. We also use Ruby on Rails which is constantly evolving and our code must change along with it.

I led one of the teams (of about 10 people) to update some outdated frontend code. There were 279 instances of a pattern we wanted to rewrite, and we managed to rewrite all of them! I was so proud of my team that I baked them cupcakes at the end of the week to celebrate 😀

Now 4 other developers and I are taking the task of getting the code together for a release, and that’s taking up my time for the next couple weeks. I also spent all day Friday at a Javascript conference! It was a single track conference with 15 speakers. The talks varied but were mostly about Javascript, CSS, and other client-side things (performance, security, etc). Though it was a tiring day, I really enjoyed it. I will have a separate entry about my day there!

With July almost over, that means it’s time for another Project 52 recap! This is for weeks 27-30, which is the first week of July up til now.

#27 – Summer Grilling
Though we didn’t do anything special for the Independence Day weekend, we made sure we at least did some grilling. Bratwursts and corn are a couple of our favorites to cook on the grill 😀

2015_27


#28 – Summer Treat
Popsicles remind me of summer, and I’ve been wanting to take a photo like this in our backyard of my Kaito nendoroid. Nendoroids typically come with changeable faces and props, and the ones Kaito came with are so cute!

2015_28

#29 – Flying Away
I wanted to take a photo in honor of Satoru Iwata (who I wrote about in my previous entry), so I chose Kirby! Kirby was actually created and designed by Masashiro Sakurai, but Iwata-san brought him to life by working on several early Kirby games.

This little Kirby figure might look familiar because it’s from the same set as week 15’s photo. I used my backdrop set-up with some light blue chiffon fabric on top and added origami stars to trail behind.

2015_29

#30 – Vibrancy
This is my first Project 52 photo that doesn’t use my DSLR! I was downtown for the Javascript conference and didn’t want to take it with me. I used my compact camera (Panasonic Lumix LX5) instead.

There are guitar sculptures throughout Austin, each one painted by a local artist. The sculptures were displayed for a bit before being auctioned off for charity. This one sits downtown on Congress Ave. This idea has been done with cow statues too!

2015_30

And that’s it for this recap! I’m heading to an Anime convention next week (San Japan), so I’ll have cosplay photos to show next time 🙂 I hope everyone has been having a good July!

16 Responses to “Project 52, part 7”

  • Chynna says:

    Congratulations to your team or rewriting all of the code! Sounds tiring. Yay, cupcakes!

    The weather has turned to crap over here now, but I’m hoping that I haven’t missed my chance to grill! Your picture is making me hungry!

    Omo! Your Nendoroid is SO cute… I want one. I’ve never heard of Nendoroids; but omg, I can’t get over how cute Kaito is.

    What a lovely picture in honor of Satoru Iwata. Ooo, I like the guitar sculpture 🙂

    • Cat says:

      Nendoroids are really cute figures by Good Smile Company! They’re all in the “chibi” style, and they’re my favorite of the different figure types to collect 🙂 They come with multiple expressions and body parts, so you can pose them in different ways. Love them!

  • Raisa says:

    Congrats on successfully rewriting your code! 😀 Bratwursts and corn sound so delicious right now. The Kirby picture is so pretty!

  • Christine says:

    I wouldn’t even know how to begin directing people and leading people on re-writing that much code! Just working on my own website gives me heartburn sometimes, haha! Loving your photos; I also am an avid griller of corn. It comes out so sweet and delicious. The guitars are cool, too! Have a blast at your anime convention and take lots of photos!

  • I would have thought the photos you used here were stock photos. They’re really nice, I’m jealous!!! Great project and nice insights as well. Oh, programmer life. Still at the start of it (meaning, I’m still having headaches about it in school), but I’m really trying to avoid the suffering. Haha

  • Michelle says:

    Your photos are amazing and that’s a great tribute to Iwata with Kirby!

    Yay, 4th of July sounds awesome with all that grilling and yummy food. I wish I would have done more for 4th of July, but I did go swimming which was amazing!

    Wow, I didn’t think coding could be so tiring, but it makes sense, but that was sweet of you to bake cupcakes 😀 Man, you’re too awesome for words, I’m telling you. You’re just the sweetest. Hahaha

  • Tara says:

    A Javascript Conference? That sounds really cool XD I mean, I can see a coding conference, but an actual one that’s all about Javascript? Never would have thought of that!

    And that vibrancy photo is amazing. Love that guitar and its colours! That’s something I wish I could see in person myself! ^^

    • Cat says:

      Conferences for specific languages are really common in the tech industry 🙂 We also go to Ruby conferences and Rails conferences. They are very helpful for learning new things and seeing what other people have tried!

  • Lou says:

    Wow! Congratulations to you and your team 🙂 d’awww that grilling session you had 😀 By the way, I used to cosplay Vocaloid’s Kagamine Rin, but t’was only during my shameless days Lol. And your photos are stunningly great! <3

  • Chantelle says:

    I love the paper stars following Kirby in your week 29 photo. It’s a nice tribute. Also, congrats on leading an incredibly productive team during your Fix-It Week. I hope you enjoy the upcoming convention.

  • Kya says:

    That is so awesome that you were able to rewrite all the code through the Fix-It week. It would have been a great feeling to get it finished. It was also a lovely touch that you rewarded your team, I am sure they appreciated it! 😀

    As usual, I love the photos! 😀

  • Jenny says:

    Sounds like you had a busy week at work, but congrats to you and your team for rewriting all the code!

    Love the Kirby photo you took, and i’m looking forward to seeing pictures from the anime convention. Have fun!

  • Holly says:

    I think it would be quite interesting to attend a coding conference. I love learning new code and keeping up to date with changes.

    We have only had one barbecue this year because the weather has been so bad, so I am very jealous of you right now! My favourite barbecue food is shish kebabs.

    The guitar sculptures are pretty cool. In Liverpool we had Lambananas (half lamb, half banana) sculptures which were all different styles, very similar to the guitar sculpture concept in Austin. In Birmingham right now they have owls that have been painted by local artists, including one by my brother!

  • Nancy says:

    Fix-It Week sounds pretty cool! More companies should do this more often to fix the problems that was caused by hastiness ;). You’re a great leader for leading the team to rewrite the codes! You’re so pro ;D.

    It looks like you enjoyed your BBQ feast! My fave are the sausages ;D…. I like the background props you used for the Kirby shoot! another +1 to your proness. Hope you’ll have fun at San Japan!!

  • Richelle says:

    Wow, congrats on being a team leader! It sounds really complicated and hectic (I only know super basic HTML O_O). It was also really sweet of you to bake your team cupcakes though, I bet they were delicious.

    And don’t worry about being behind on reading blogs, I haven’t been doing it for several months.

    I love BBQ, there’s just something so satisfying about grilling some sausages, burgers and chicken wings. Aaaaah, I’m drooling now.

    Love the kirby shot! I wish I was as creative as you are, all my photos look the same -_-

    Have fun at San Japan, looking forward to your cosplay pics!

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