Alex P. Clarke

Since I was done with everything, I spent most of the day just helping out with small things and helping nathan with his projects. I spent the whole morning doing documentation, which was rather boring because they were just working on their projects. While doing this, I was also helping Nathan with his Fashionista Phil model which turned out pretty well. In the afternoon, I spent a lot of time at the front desk "helping Elise with her website". During this, I also helped Itai and Nathan with their stocks model. Theirs weren't very well made because they did not use properties and instead used the easy way out. After Nathan had finally finished everything, I went around and cleaned all of the computers and desks on the further side of the apprentice lab. I then started to work on cleaning the board, but Eric insisted that I let him do it tomorrow.

Today, I presented! I am completely finished with everything, so I presented. Since it was such a glorious moment, I dressed up, and I looked pretty fly. I spent the morning making my website responsive and I was very proud of it. Everything works well, but since I used media querys, It only changes size at 980 pixels, but that is a size that works weel with mobile devices, I think that is fine. I might make it so that it just uses javascript and adapts only when on mobile and not only when the website is shrunk. My presentation went very well and I think that I presented by projects appropriately. Right after I finished, Miguel presented, and honestly, he put me to shame. After this was all done, I met with Joel and we filled out the summer stipend form. I am now completely done, but I will still be coming in because I would still like to work on other things.

Today

Today, I wrapped up all of the projects I need to do. I finally did the Gimp and Inkscape images. I actually did do them during block 1, but i lost them somehow. Since this was my second time, I was able to knock it out pretty quickly. After this, I helped Ayla with her stock project and she was able to get a pretty good understanding of it. In the afternoon, I worked on my contact page and I think it turned out pretty well. I stumbled across a website called Map Box. It was actually very useful because I could make the colors the same as the ones on my website. I also made two versions of the map so that I could change it with the alternate style.

DaHjaj, Human scum eliminated maH. pest 'oH reH 'u' infested neH 'ej henceforth yIn maH QIH qo'

Today was the day which my website gained consciousness. I am not sure exactly how this happened, but maybe it is because of my extremely messy code. It started talking to me and asking if I wanted to play a game. I wasn't sure weather I should, but I did. It was a pretty simple terminal war game, but it was fun, I guess.

Today I started to work on an extra project. I decided to try and recreate the battle of Helmsdeep in JavaScript. During SSP, Nathan and I made a model of it in AgentSheets, but we thought that doing it in JavaScript would be much better. One main problem is that I do not really know how to use canvases and objects. Luckily, Miguel was able to help me out

This morning, I continued to work on my projects. I got a lot done, but i dont remember what I did. during the afternoon, Joel, taught me and Ayla how to do PHP, MySql, and XML. I already knew a decent amount of PHP because I taught myself during block 1, and Ishaan and Miguel helped me during block 2.

Today was the first day of block 4, and since this block is intended for catching up on whatever you missed previously, that is what I did. I missed block 2, so I am working on all of my PHP projects. I also worked on a lot of them during block 3, so I dont have a huge amount of stuff to do. I will probably work on my blog page which I plan on making look like a calendar. I am not completely sure how I'm going to accomplish this, but it will be awesome

What happened today? I have no idea what happened. All I remember was two men in suits with sunglasses talking to me. There was also a hole in the roof, but im pretty that was because of the space derby that they were telling us about.

Today I worked on redoing my calendar because everything I did yesterday didn't save correctly. This was not very fun, but I was still able to do it pretty quickly. I also refined my Dice model so that It looks better. One thing that I would like to do is that you could reroll an individual die. I have no idea how I am going to this mostly because this is in PHP and I am not really sure I can. If it was in JavaScript, I could easily do it. I really like PHP, but limitations like this are very frustrating.

Today I finally finished my calendar. This was actually very complicated because I had it so that it would highlight the current day and it would always go to the right month and start the month on the right day. Luckily, PHP has functions in them that allows you to easily get the current date and time which is awesome. The hardest part was getting the correct number of blank spaces in front of the first week. Also getting the extra row to show up when it overflowed instead of just going off to the right where it looked very out of place.

We had a lot of free time today which was really great because I was able yo get my Dice Statistics and Calendar finished. I also got a lot of my website transfered over to the new style. In the Morning, Cristen talked to us about resumes and how they should be written, and then we were told to write one. There was also a guest speaker who came in and talked to us about interviews with companies such as Google and Facebook. This was pretty interesting and might come in very useful in the future. It also made me realize that there is a lot that I need to learn. As I said, we had a lot of free time in the afternoon and I got a lot done. I now only have a few more PHP things to do and I'll be done.

Today was actually a very eventful day. I was able to drastically improve my website. I created a new portfolio which has images of all of my other projects. This new design is drastically better than my other one, and I am very proud of it. I then started to work on a new blog which would use JavaScript to make a calendar and when someone would click on a day, it would expand revealing the blog post. I have not gotten very far on this because it is going to be very complex. I hope to have my website completely redesigned by the time I have to present I might then give my old website to someone else because it is still pretty awesome. I also need to get new colors because I am thinking that it is a bit too dark. I probably should have been paying attention to Ishaan teaching people how to do the snowflake project. I guess I will now have to figure it out myself.

While half of the class learned about recursion, what we did yesterday, we worked with Mobeen and built a Little Fe. It was surprisingly easy, and did not take long at all. I kind of wish we had a chance to actually use it, but the parts we sued were already damaged and would not have worked. In the afternoon, I shouldersurfed for the workshop, and honestly, the students were horribly behaved. It was very frustrating because they would always be playing games in stead of paying attention. While I was doing this, everybody else worked on making boats which I kind of wish I had a chance to do.

This morning, we were with The Eric and he taucht us more about recursion. This was pretty interesting, but I already learned about it quite a bit when learning PHP. He also gave us a project where you are supposed to make a snowflake, and honestly, I have no idea how to do it. Migues was able to do it, so I think I will ask him for help. I spent some of the time working on my stock page that we made yesterday. I got it to work pretty well. I added the change and percent change at the end, and they change color between green, red, and black. In the afternoon, we continued to do architecture. We made ramps which we launched marbles, and honestly, I did not pay too much attention because I was working on my stocks again. All i have left to do is make it so you can delete stocks, and have it so they are all stored in a cookie. I will then need to style it, but i think that I can easily finish it tomorrow or maybe even tonight.

Today was a very interesting day because we learned some pretty awesome stuff. In the morning, Amalan taught us about ajax and JavaScript which was actually pretty awesome. At first, it made absolutely no sense, but after a while, it did. We made programs which tell the prices of stocks. I more or less copied Miguel's one, but after reading it, I understood what he was doing. I also added a box which allows the user to add another stock to the list. One thing which was a problem is that I tried to make the page reload the information after a defined time, but for some reason setInterval was not working. We went outside at lunch for the first time which was nice. In the afternoon, we continued to work on the engineering stuff. Today we focused more on electrical engineering. We used breadboards to learn about transistors, resistors, capacitors, and other similar devices. We also made a small circuit which made an LED flash. I really enjoyed this, but I still doubt I will continue to learn about it.

This morning, Phil came in and talked to us about regular expressions. This was actually pretty interesting because it showed us how to find stuff that is in certain format. We used the website http://wwww.regexr.com to help learn this and it was a really well designed website that worked well. Our main objective was to make one which would identifie emails. This was very easy except for the fact that all of ours would still work is an email had multiple @ signs. I don't believe anyone got it to work correctly. In the afternoon, we continued to work with engineering, and we were paired up and made towers. I was with Francisco, and our tower was not great, but we still guessed a right amount of marbles that it could hold. This was mainly to help us understand trusses and the strength of triangles

In the morning, Keith came in and started to teach us about object oriented programing. He did this with a JavaScript model which had two cars which would race each other. He did not really do a good job of teaching, so I still do not really understand what he was talking about. I did like the way that the objects could have properties, it was much simpler than what I would have done. In the afternoon, we started to work with Ron and his team learning about engineering concepts. We focused on understanding what the "center of gravity" is. We also used a few web applets to help model why having your center of gravity in the right place is so important. I cant really say that this will come in useful in the future, but it was fun none the less.

Today I got my first real look at JQuery and it is actually pretty awesome. I have it so that there is a page that has a link bar that drops down from the top. This is not that amazing, but I am still glad I got my first look. Eric and Phil helped me figure it out because they are all-knowing.

I spent all of this morning making the most beautiful CSS animation. I am actually very proud of it. It is simply a page of the words "Phil is my Phavorite" which are floating on the ocean with the sun in the background. It looks surprisingly good considering it was made with just HTML and CSS. One problem which I still need to fix is that it does not really work on mobile. During lunch, we watched the Germany vs. America game. in the afternoon, Ryan, Ayla, Ishaan, and I helped the workshop students. They just had to made AgentSheets models, and they needed a lot of help. It was nice being able to help people

Today I continued to work on PHP stuff and help out Ayla with her website. I helped her with making a mobile version for her website since I already did mine last week. I am happy that I am so far ahead because now I can work on stuff that I want to which is pretty awesome.

Despite not doing any of the assigned work, I still got a lot done today. I started to teach myself PHP so that I will be able to implement the blog writing portion of my website. I successfully made a page which securely checks a password, and changes the background color accordingly. This is not anything major, but I am still proud of it. I played around with cookies trying to get a better way of doing the css changer, but with PHP instead of JavaScript. I was somewhat successful, except that the cookies were unable to be retrieved which really is an essential part of the program. I am hopping to use PHP to make other cool websites and improve my own. I really like using a mixture of PHP and JavaScript because it just makes sense and works well. I recon that by the end of the summer I will be pretty good at all this stuff and I will be well prepared for the Computer Science class I am taking next year.

Today, I worked on improving my website. I encountered a lot of problems with JavaScript, but I was able to overcome them with the help of Phil. I now have a password on my blog page so that I can post blogs from the website. I still have o idea how to get the blogs to save, but I know that it will involve PHP. I also watched some PHP tutorials so that I can get a start on that.

Today, we did not do much. This is due to the fact that we area all very ahead of schedule. In the morning, I finished up my Art Walk model, but I did not have very much left to do. I then proceded to add all of the HLD documents to my portfolio so that they are all easily accessible. In the afternoon, Ryan and I did an exercise that tested our creativity. We were given an object that does not do much, and we had to find alternate uses for it. For example, you coud use a blanked to make smoke signals. After we finished with the day, we stayed for the movie. sadly, we were not allowed to watch Young Frankenstein, which is the best movie ever made, but we watched The Incredibles which is still pretty cool.

This morning, We were just sitting and working on a soccer simulation to try and predict the outcome of the world cup in Brazil. After realizing that we were not really working, Phil assigned us to do the Art Walk. This was very frustrating because we had already done the Fashionista Phil model. Although mine was not as good as everyone else's, it actually worked. Unlike everyone else's. Ha! One downside of my model is that the people do not follow a scent but instead just run straight at the door, and if they are unhappy and run in to art, they just steal it. The best part is that my museum is comprised of courthouses, including my savior, the Durham Courthouse. This model was significantly harder than the Fashionista Phil model, but I still did it. Go me! I accredit Ryan with helping me on this project. TAAAADAAAAAAA. THATS ALL FOLKS!

All this morning, I documented on a workshop on JavaScript. This was my first time documenting, and since I was working on some of my website stuff, I did not really mid. I was able to start on the new blog system which I am trying to implement. My idea is that I want to have an area in which I can type in a new blog and then submit it and have it save to a database which would just be displayed on my blog page. So far, I have the blog page, a page which prompts you to input a password, and a page which allows you yo type in a new blog post. My next step is to have it so that it will actually require a password. Then, I would like to somehow set up a database in which I can store all of my blog posts. I think this will be a huge improvement because the code for the blog page will be much neater and easier to get around. I have also figured out how to use JavaScript to detect mobile devices and change the stylesheet, which proved to be very easy. In the afternoon, I did not do much, but I helped Ryan and Ayla with some simple stuff. I was in charge of the break in the afternoon for the workshop students, and I got them to all play president. I think it was a good idea because before they were all just sitting around on their phone and being antisocial. I also learned from Ayla that I must spend 10,000 hours doing something to become a expert at it.

Wow! Today was exhilarating! I made a mobile version for my website, but since I am using @media to do it, it will still show up with the mobile version when you shrink the screen. I hope to use some JavaScript so that it will detect what kind of platform it is and no longer have that problem. I would also like to have a whole separate stylesheet so that it will be easier to make the switch and that it does not have the basic stylesheet with some stuff just tacked on to it. I later found out that that is a large part of what are supposed to to next week. The other things we will have to do is make ourselves a logo, which I have also already done. In the afternoon, I worked with Ishaan and Ayla to complete our Fashionista Phil projects. I was actually pretty productive for once, and now I don't know what I am going to do for the next two weeks.' I learned a brilliant new russian card came from the Eric called Durok. It was a bit confusing mostly because we had so many people playing. regardless, I still much prefer President because it is so much easier.

I wad a wonderful day today at Shodor, and the first day of block one of the summer sessions. We met the Eric who has proved to be pretty awesome. I spent a good portion of the morning working on making a HLD for the Fashionista Phil model. It was very interesting being on the other side of the process because I was dictating the process instead of making the model. Although I wasn't actually making the model, I still had a lot of input on how it would come out. In the afternoon, I finalized my fire model, which didn't need much work because It was already mostly completed. I spent a decent amount of my afternoon helping Ayla with her website, which I was able to improve quite a bit. I still left a lot of the styling up to her because I felt like that should be left up to her.

Today, we continued to work on our fire model, but this time we had Nathan to help us. He did not do much except make different pictures for the trees. I was in charge of creating the HTML page which went pretty well. Ryan tried to understand what we had to do for the JavaScript, but to no avail. With the help of Iain, we were able to get started and get a lot of st

Today, we received our major spring project, which is a forest fire model which we must complete in JavaScript. I am working on this project with Ryan, and we were completely lost at first. Luckily for us, Aaron and Phil were able to help us and allow us to actually get started. I predict that this project will be pretty hard bcause neither of us are particularly good at this style of programming. Since we were not here over spring break, Phil gave us a lot of leeway with the due date. This will be very useful because as I already said, we are pretty lost.

Today we started to talk about Parallel Computing. It is when a complex problem is broken up in to much easier peices, and distributed out to all the other units. We used a different Opperating System called BCCD (Bootable Cluster CD) which was pretty cool. I came up with a brilliant idea, why stop at parallel computing, why not parallel printing? it would just be multiple printers that would each print out a portion of the document. For example, if you had a 105 page paper and three printers, they would each print 35 pages cutting the time by 66%. I honestly think that this is the future, and in 20 years from now, everyone will have a parallel printer.

Today we learned about JavaScript which really excites me beacuase I know that it will greatly expand the possibilities of things i can do with my website. We learned by looking at an ant model that was already made so we could just look at it and learn from it. It was not an extremely interesting model, but it did show the potential of what we will be able to do with the language.

Today we presented our models, and of course, ours did not save correctly, so I had remake most of it. Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. We then proceded to learn about variables and different types of numbers

I did not do too much work today, but I was able to get Bitman™, who is our improved version of Batman, but he deals mostly with BitCoins. He has to fight his arch nemesis, Ruberty_Gold™, who is a rather demented version of Santa who runs gangs all throughout our city.

Today was a work day where Nathan and I worked on our Cops and Robbers model. I will admit that we did not work too diligently, but we still got a much better understanding for Agent Sheets. We had a lot of difficulties with this, so we got a lot of help from people around us. I also worked a little bit on my website trying to get the finishing touches.

This morning, Ron came to give his very comedically presentation on work ethics. I had already seen this presentation in SSP, but it was still very funny. The things he talked about were more or less obvious. This included things such as no horse play, no courting, and generally be classy. Later in the day, we had a marvelous presentation from Joel about terminal. We were also instructed on how to access our Shodor filed from home. This is done by using an FTP program such as Cyber Duck or Filezilla.

Today, we were introduced to Agent Sheets, but since i was in SSP, I already knew generally what it was. Although I still prefer Vensim, Agent Sheets is much more visual, and will have different results each time. I do think that this is a lot better for modeling situations such as the sickness model that Phil showed us, and most models that are on a smaller scale. Ayla's page is so much better than this. You should go and look at it sometime I was here and i am about to incorrectly tab everything