Month: January 2015

2015.01.21 – Finally Getting This Bug Done

I was up and ready to work pretty early this morning. I was staying home which meant I could stay in my PJ’s if I wanted to. I wanted to! I was determined to get somewhere with this bug today. I started with adding a many-to-many field in the locations model and then running a migration. That went quite well. Now I just needed to get this new field to show up in locations. I navigated to locations on my local copy and wha??? Region was there with the regions I had created before for testing. There were buttons for saving changes or cancelling as well. There were even instructions for selecting more than one region for a location. I have no idea how that happened! Obviously I have a lot to learn about Django.

Not wanting to look a gift abstraction in the mouth, I just continued doing what I needed to do. I next had to get the regions showing up on the webpage. It was a little confusing but I poked around and looked at other examples and then asked Andrew a couple of questions and had it working in no time. Awesome! I still need to learn a lot about database queries.

Peter and Richard were having a Vidyo meeting in the afternoon so I got all set up to join them. It was nice to be able to do that! I showed them my progress and they said it looked about ready to go. I loved that I could screen share. We then talked about what I would be working on next. It feels daunting but they will help me when I get stuck so hopefully it won’t be too bad and I will learn a ton.

Andrew, Jordan and I went to a Treehouse Meetup. It was a presentation about Vim. I think Jordan and I both learned a few things even though it covered very basic Vim use. When we got home Wayne had made salad and baked yams. Yum! I love that dinner. Jayde opted for leftover soup and couldn’t believe anyone would actually eat that. She’s not much of a vegetable eater unfortunately.

Today I learned about this handy website for Portland tech jobs. I’ll need one in a few months.

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2015.01.20 – Mozilla Space

Last night I had messaged Kronda suggesting we co-work since I’m settled and able to do that. She said she was going to meet her sister at Glyph around 13:00 and we should meet there. Wayne had to take Jordan to class so I figured I’d just go work from the Mozilla space until it was time to head to Glyph. I packed a lunch and some snacks and off we went.

It was a beautiful morning in Portland. The fog was just creeping over the houses on the hill west of downtown. Traffic was very light so we had no trouble at all getting there. We dropped Jordan off at school and then I had Wayne drop me at our bank where I’d just walk to Mozilla.

I got there and it was SO quiet! Katt was on a conference call so I sat at the kitchen counter and worked while I had some tea. When she was done she showed me the fantastic room that was set up for us Mozilla interns. Wow, it’s so nice and comfortable! After a bit I moved in there and worked.

I was reading through the setup instructions in the Air Mozilla README and noticed some instructions I thought might need to be removed. I asked Peter about it and he agreed they should go so asked me to rewrite them and submit a pull request. In doing so I found out that the folder I thought I wasn’t supposed to delete the other day was actually supposed to go away. Huh…I thought my stuff didn’t work after I did that and replacing it fixed everything but ok. I deleted it and everything still worked. I have NO idea what happened or what is happening. Yeah it’s one of those days. Anyway, I made a new branch and updated the README, submitted a pull request and for some reason it had some prior commits. I thought I branched off of master. Maybe I made those commits on master? I dunno. More confusion. I messaged Peter about it but he must have been having a busy day so I didn’t hear from him.

Around one Kronda messaged to say she was at Glyph but that her sister was leaving soon so she wasn’t staying long. I suggested she come up to Mozilla if she wanted to. She said she’d come up in a while so I just kept working. Once she got there we said our greetings and both got back to work. We talked a bit here and there but she had this day set aside to get stuff done so we mostly worked.

Wayne and Jordan grabbed me at about 16:30 and we headed home. It was dinner night and we were having fajitas! Wayne and Alice cooked everything while I conveniently stayed out of the way. Tonight we had the six of us, Alice, Jason, Glenn, Clint, John, Roberto, Frankie, Dale, Miri, baby Michael, Lauren and Sean.

Today I learned about Jackie Ormes. She was the first African American Woman Cartoonist. Her story, sadly but unsurprisingly, is barely known. I asked my friend, the cartoonist, if he had ever heard of Jackie Ormes. He said he didn’t believe so and asked me who he/she was. It says a lot when a cartoonist who knows a LOT about cartoonists has never heard of her. I hope he reads about her now.

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2015.01.19 – Thank You Martin Luther King Jr.

I wasn’t sure if I was expected to work today since it’s a day of remembrance and celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.  I got up and showered early just in case though but it happily turned out to be a day off for Air Mozilla. Peter had emailed everyone about some changes to the repository though and I figured it would be a good time to work on getting mine synchronized.

The email said to delete the virtual environment, recreate it and install the requirements. Simple! Except not really. Not for me anyway. I did everything I was supposed to but now I couldn’t get the server to run. The error seemed to be related to my setup.py file so naturally I just deleted it and recreated it. That didn’t help at all. His instructions also said to delete some vendor directories if they were still around so perhaps that was my issue. Delete! Well now stuff was even more broken. Faaaaantastic. The directories were gone. They weren’t pushed up to my repo since they are ignored so that made me think they must be created locally or something. I was switching back and forth between the master branch and my feature branch trying to make stuff work and finally remembered that I had a copy of the old repo.

I copied over the directory I needed and the server started right up on my master branch but none of the new files I had created on my feature branch were available so I got errors. I switched to my feature branch where I had the files but then the server wouldn’t run. Sheesh! I scratched my head for a bit on that one and then realized I needed to rebase master onto my feature branch. Once that was done everything worked just fine but what a pain anyway!

Bob, the wallpaper remover, came back for day two of removal. He said he was going to have to also come back Friday or Saturday too in order to finish. It’s a lot of wallpaper. I also ordered a dumpster since Wayne is going to start the kitchen demo this week. It should be a big mess. This house definitely needs to get worse before it gets better.

Today I spent a lot of time reflecting on Dr. King and what an extraordinary man he was. He has been gone longer than he lived and it saddens me to think his fight is still necessary. I wish humanity were better than that but we prove time and again that we are not. I’m thankful that although he was gone too soon his words are living on. I don’t have anything profound to say. Each day I’m both pleased and disappointed in humanity. We’ve got a lot of shit to figure out.

So lycra for camels is a thing. You’re welcome.

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2015.01.18 – Whole Lotta Nothing

I didn’t accomplish much of anything today. I did shower and put PJs on. I stayed in them all day and it was great! I did help Jordan get Pygame installed and running on his laptop so he can mess with game development and I made a few more pieces for this scarf I am making. I hope I don’t get bored before I finish it.

Wayne spent the day taking down the ceiling tile stuff from the hall, stairway and entry. He also found some knob and tube upstairs going to the hall light. So much for not having any live knob and tube!

I watched the Seahawks vs Packers game and it was incredible. I’m not a huge football fan but wow this game was so exciting. The Seahawks were playing a horrible game for like 3/4ths of it but I dunno what happened at the end. They were amazing! It ended up going into overtime but they quickly won and are going to the Superbowl again. They went last year and won.

Wayne and I made O’Brien potatoes and tofu scramble for dinner then Andrew made popcorn and we went over to Alice and Jason’s house to watch Transcendence. It wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t spectacular or anything but was entertaining at least.

Today I learned how to invoke Python in 32 bit mode. Never needed to do that before!

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2015.01.17 – A Beautiful Rainy Day

It was so nice to sleep in our bed! Andrew and I went to bed early but I still didn’t want to get up this morning. I was so comfy. I woke up when Andrew brought me some chai though. For some reason I was feeling super motivated to organize paperwork, like boxing up stuff from 2014 and gathering  up stuff for the accountant. Andrew, always more motivated than I, went for  a long run in the rain. I got all of the paperwork taken care of though which was nice.

Wayne and I talked about what the next steps should be for our ongoing house remodel since most of the wallpaper was taken down yesterday. It’s interesting to see where original doorways were and what colors of paint were on the walls way back in the day.  Now we just have to decide whether we want to put everything back the way it was or just improve upon the shitty work that was done. Either way, we need to improve a lot though. We keep finding more interesting and horrible work but luckily Wayne and Andrew are very handy and will get it all fixed up.

Alena came over with Tiberias, Rialla and Anya. We got to hang out and play for most of the day. Alena also taught me how to crochet! I’ve never been interested and really wasn’t interested when she brought up the idea but there was this really cool scarf at New Seasons that I loved but it was ridiculously expensive. I took a picture of it to show her and she said it would be super easy to make myself. Ha! I am not handy like that at all and I am not really into sewing, knitting, crocheting at all. But she got me to agree to a lesson and holy crap it’s not that bad and I’m 1/4 of the way done with the scarf already!

After Alena and the kids headed home I really did nothing but crochet. My hands HURT. Wayne made us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It was perfect for this very rainy day.

Today I learned how to crochet.

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2015.01.16 – Home Again

Up early and off to the airport. We grabbed sandwiches from Vietnam Pho so at least I got to eat there once. Our flights were uneventful. I watched The Fault in Our Stars. Just my kind of movie! I love crying movies. Landed and home by 19:00. Wayne had dinner nearly ready so we had spaghetti and meatballs. I’m beat so this may be my shortest post ever.

Today I learned a little bit about Awk.

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2015.01.16 – Getting Stuff Done

Today is our last full day here in Pittsburgh. Andrew had meetings and I had work to do. Ed was also going to pick me up so we could go to lunch and hang out at his place again. I got up and had breakfast with Andrew and off he went. I got showered and dressed and then got to work. Once Peter was online I sent him what I had completed so he could look it over. He gave me some suggestions and I started working on those until Ed came to get me.

We went to a dumpling house for lunch. I had a giant bowl of noodle soup and could barely make a dent in it but it was good. After lunch we stopped into Jerry’s Record Store. It was ridiculously huge and packed with records! I was really hoping to find a record I have been looking for for a while. No luck though.

We headed to Ed’s place where I worked and chatted for the rest of the day. Ed is really interesting to talk to and he’s got some exciting stuff coming up that I really enjoyed hearing about.

When Andrew was all done, we picked him up and went to the only Ethiopian restaurant in Pittsburgh, Tana Ethiopian. Usually it’s pretty good but this time not so much. We had a nice dinner together nonetheless.

Ed dropped us back at the hotel and we went down to the Speakeasy where we sat and talked with Mathew and Michael, Daniel and Mary, and Jon. It’s a nice place to hang out and have a drink but it was really busy tonight for some reason so it got pretty loud. We stayed until they closed at 23:00 and then said goodbye for now to everyone. We’ll see them in the summer!

Today I learned about a really interesting thing Ed is going to create next. Can’t wait to see/read it!

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2015.01.14 – Time to Level Up!

I was up early and dressed, working at my bug but still pretty confused. I think I was in one of those spots where I just needed to be pointed in the right direction but I’d have to wait until Peter was available. This should all be much easier once I get back home and we are in the same time zone.

I couldn’t figure much out before it was time for lunch. Wow, ridiculously unproductive. Mary and Michael wanted to meet and go somewhere for lunch so we met in the lobby and walked to Bluebird Kitchen. I had called and was told they had a vegan sandwich as well as a vegan soup. Perfect! It was 16 degrees out so soup sounded great. We got down there and it was more of a grab-and-go type place but they did have a narrow bar to eat at. I asked about the vegan soup and sandwich and I guess the soup actually had “a little” milk in it. Yeah, that’s not vegan. I ordered the sandwich and was a little surprised when she handed me this tiny pre-made package. Oh well, we were already here and the others were ordering already. The sandwich was not good but was really expensive so I don’t think I’ll be going back.

We headed back to the hotel and Michael said she’d come up to my room and play, for Mary and I, a new song she was writing. Ok! We all hung out in the living room and she played and sang while I worked. Her voice is so beautiful! I really had only heard her recorded voice but she sounded just as good right there in the room, live.

2015-01-14 14.48.10

I had to step out for a bit during our private show so I could chat with Peter via Firefox Hello. It is a pretty handy voice and video calling feature built right into Firefox and it worked really well! Peter and I talked about where I was and what I was stuck on. He gave me some pointers so I could move forward a bit.

Andrew had worked it out so that I could go to a session his work was having called Perl 101 presented by Tom Christiansen. I got part way through his talk though and had to take a conference call. I ended up on the call for nearly an hour so missed the rest of the talk. More of the “oh well”.

By this time it was the end of the day and everyone was thinking about dinner. I really didn’t get much of anything accomplished today. There are just pages and pages of functions, methods, views, and templates to create and edit and make work with other pages and pages of code. Mentally figuring out how all the pieces fit together is a challenge. This bug is definitely the most complicated thing I have worked on yet and feels like a huge jump in skills required. Time to ramp them up quickly!

Andrew, Josh, Jon and I decided to go to Proper Brick Oven for dinner. Andrew and I have eaten there a few times before and they make great pizza. We got there and it didn’t look too crowded but we were told it would be about 45 minutes. Hmmm….well we were already there and it probably wouldn’t take that long so we decided to wait. We waited, and waited, and waited. We waited long enough that we were discussing sunk costs. We kept getting promised a table and then something would happen and I don’t even know. There was definitely some staff drama going on. Finally Josh and Jon decided to just walk back to the hotel and eat in the restaurant/bar there. We would have joined but they have nothing vegan. Since they left we were just a party of two so got seated right away. In spite of the wait and the drama the food was amazing. We had a Black and Gold pizza that has thinly sliced potatoes and beets as a topping and also got a pesto, marinara, caramelized onion, sun-dried tomato pizza. I splurged and got a hot spiced cider as well. It was great!

Andrew and I walked back to the hotel and he said he’d sit with me and look over my bug. He’s really sweet to do that for me! We sat down and he had no trouble at all talking me through it even though he knows nothing about any of it. On the one hand I feel really useless but on the other hand I know he’s been doing this for a looooooong time so if I just hang in there and keep working it will come easier to me as well.

Today I learned about Firefox Hello for voice and video chat.

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2015.01.13 – Hanging Out

I didn’t sleep well last night but was feeling extra refreshed and motivated when I got up. Weird. I got dressed and was working on my bug before 09:00 which meant Peter was probably not going to be online for a couple of hours. I had dreamed about some issues I was having and about some potential solutions so I worked on those things first. It’s amazing what the mind is capable of!

I worked through the morning and noticed that Peter was having connectivity issues. He tried checking in with me but it wasn’t working out. I just worked on stuff until Ed messaged to say he would pick me up for lunch and then we would go back to his place so we could both work.

He picked me up just before noon and we headed to a great little place called Lili Cafe. They had lots of vegan options and I chose the banh mi sandwich. It was great! I kind of felt like I was cheating on my very favorite banh mi place in Pittsburgh, Vietnam’s Pho. I hadn’t even been there yet and I typically go at least twice for lunch when I visit. I’ll go tomorrow I think.

After lunch we headed to Ed’s apartment. He had just moved in last summer so this was my first visit. He had at least four drawing tables set up throughout, boxes and boxes of comic books and shelves of bound editions. It was amazing! I made some tea and we both got to work. It was really nice to talk about aaaaaall sorts of things while we worked. It was also fascinating to watch him draw and to talk about his process. He knows a LOT about a lot of things! He’s an expert on cartoonists, comic books, the printing process, color palettes, hip hop….A lot more.

Toward the early evening his dad called to say some packages had shown up for him. He left to go get them and was back in no time with huge boxes of books, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Popeye, Charlie Brown and a bunch more. All stuff he uses to research technique and to also enjoy.

It was getting to be dinner time and Andrew was done working so we headed back to the hotel and picked him up so we could go eat. We ended up at the Double Wide Grill. Andrew and I had eaten there the first time we visited Pittsburgh and it was so-so. This time they had an expanded vegetarian/vegan menu but the food was still so-so. Oh well, it was nice to have dinner together.

Today I learned about silver nanowire.

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2015.01.12 – Mozilla OP Internship Begins

I’m in Pittsburgh so I’m three hours ahead of my mentor. I’m still up and online looking over the bug I was last working on before taking a break for the Urban Airship Internship. It takes me a bit to get my brain back in Django mode. Ah yes, I was having a database error. I had created the model and view, did the migration and applied it. It all looked successful but the error says my table doesn’t exist. I see it when I look in the database but I don’t know a thing about databases so it’s a matter of me just not understanding what the heck is going on.

I had my tea and looked things over while waiting for Peter to log on to IRC. I’d give him a bit to get going on this Monday before pouncing on him for help. After a sufficient amount of tea and time I said hello and asked if he had time to help. He did and asked me to push whatever changes I had up to my fork on Github.

He looked things over and said he didn’t think I needed to have a RegionDefaultEnvironment table as well but I was basically implementing Regions as Locations was implemented and it had LocationDefaultEnvironment so I made one for Regions. He walked me through deleting the tables and the migration and then had me migrate again with just Regions. That all seemed to go well so I was moving forward. Or not. I was still getting that stupid error.

But nevermind that for now! I had added a new ‘region’ view to views.py but another contributor had just taken all of the various methods out of views.py and made them their own modules. Well that’s not very handy. I had to commit everything I had done, save those changes as a patch (I also had my edited branch pushed up to my fork so I had a backup), delete my changes completely, then rebase my branch onto master, THEN re-apply my changes sorta, kinda, mostly, except where they needed to be different. I also needed to make ‘regions’ its own module.

Michael, Andrew’s co-worker’s wife, invited me to lunch but all of this felt like a big mess so I opted to stay in the hotel room and eat my cold oatmeal I had skipped having for breakfast and work my way through all of it. I was making good progress but stopped to watch the Monday meeting. It’s very nice that it’s streamed on Air Mozilla! Richard gave me a shout-out as a new intern too.

Back to work! I slowly made my way through everything and then was back at the database error. I also couldn’t figure out how to rewrite the regions_edit function to exclude checking a default environment. I let Peter know I was unsure about it and he said it was for me to edit. Huh….Well ok then. Back to staring at code and trying to make sense of it. I did this until about 17:30 and then called it a day!

Andrew was done working a bit after 18:00 so he came up to get me, we put on warmer clothes and met his team and their SOs in the lobby. We all walked back down to Indian Spices for some dinner. It was delicious again 🙂

GSG was having a game night but I wasn’t feeling it so we came back to the room and talked about our days. I asked Andrew some questions about my struggle but he wasn’t too sure about how it all worked. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Today I learned how to undo a database migration. I’d imagine it’s a bigger pain in the ass if there is actually live data in it though.

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