Blogs: Week of 25 Apr — 1 May

What did you do this past week?
This past week, I worked primarily on finishing up my data mining and neural networks projects. Furthermore, I spend a fair amount of time with my prospective roommates trying to find a suitable apartment for next year. Hopefully we are able to sign a lease soon.

What’s in your way?
Currently, nothing is currently in my way, except for perhaps my wonky sleep schedule. My bedtime has fallen within a five hour time window, thus my circadian rhythm all over the place. The days somewhat seem to blur together, so maintaining a more consistent schedule will be a goal for me in the weeks to come.

What will you do next week?
Next week I will do my presentation for my neural networks project. Furthermore, I will finish up the last phase of the software engineering project with my teammates. I will also study for my data mining final, as well as continue the apartment search with my roommates. As I don’t have too many finals, I will also hopefully work on some coding personal projects.

What did you think of Paper #14: The New Methodology?
Unfortunately, I did dot read Paper #14: The New Methodology, thus I do not have an opinion on it.

What was your experience of refactoring.? (this question will vary, week to week)
I thought that refactoring made sense in terms of dividing responsibility amongst the classes. Furthermore, the techniques shown were easy to understand. Also, it’s a good tip to not make too many unnecessary changes to code, especially when performance does not increase, as bugs are likely to be introduced with little to no benefits alongside them.

What made you happy this week?
This week I was able to spend some time hanging out late and talking with some friends, which was fun. This is a partial reason for my inconsistent sleep schedule, however, I feel that the time was well spent. Staying up late watching youtube, however, is a much less valid reason. Another thing that brought me happiness was finding out that my last final is on the twelfth. As my roommate’s last final is on the seventeenth, I will have five days to chill in Austin and hang out with friends, with no homework on the mind to feel guilty about.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
Investing in a large monitor (or perhaps even two smaller ones) is a non-negligible boost to productivity. If one can afford this option, it is well worth looking into.