I did not meet my goals today. Two breakouts happened today that were on the subject of Javascript. These breakouts both helped show me something about Javascript I did not know or fully understand before, but both at a cost. Going through some examples of psudeo code and actual code with a group helps show me how others approach problems and how to properly format my code. The breakouts themselves both helped and actually caused harm to my overall day. I attended one breakout in the morning on Javascript and another in the afternoon, this prevented me from having a solid 2+ hour focus session at a desk with headphones on. Once the first breakout ended it was close enough to lunch that I could not focus. Once the second breakout ended I hadn't really had any focus time up to that point and felt as though the day were almost over, preventing me from focusing. Tomorrow I will be a bit more selective about my breakout scheduling to make sure I get a few hours of uninterrupted focus time. The breakouts are more beneficial than not, but if I don't stagger them correctly I never fully enter work mode.

I met some of my goals today. One of the earlier items completed was resubmitting my 3rd website. I went to a Semantic HTML breakout with Casey and for me the biggest and most important takeaway was the idea that "If you're using divs, that can be fine, but if your lowest child in a section of code is a div you've probably done something wrong." With that advice he went through a bit with me on the code I had previously submitted and it was very helpful to get some additional specific feedback. I'm very hopeful it passes!

After that I moved on to my Lightning Talk/Slide Show. I moved to the 4th floor to begin my work. I did not need music to drown out the outside world today, I felt particularly focused and driven for the slide show portion of my day at least. I initially had a hard time deciding on a topic, in the end I chose something I know quite well and that's the general life of playing in a small local band. I definitely spent a bit too much time on this project as it ended up being the bulk of my day. I'm pleased with my overall results though as I think my talk went well. Once I had a topic in mind I created an outline which I used to build my slide skeleton and I then found appropriate/amusing memes to add. I leaned heavily on sarcasm and dark humor to make my points. The only thing I think that could have gone better with the process of doing this is having more time. Myself and Mike were the first two to go, and while we had enough time to prepare it in the end, it derailed 1 to 2 days of general work for us as I know I at least had a general feeling of a last minute cloud looming overhead. I see the value in completing the talks, but if there's any way future Lightning Talk schedules could be announced more than 2 days before the first one I'm sure everyone would appreciate it. It would give us more time to casually put something together instead of having to focus so greatly on it.

My last goal was JavaScript and I did not complete my goal. Thankfully Chad was able to grant my user access to the learn lessons, but at that point I was already too deep in my slide show/meme rabbit hole and didn't have the time I'd hoped I would. I lost focus around 3pm and could not regain my previous drive. JavaScript will be my main focus for the next few days, beginning with Drill 1, Galvanize Money.

I was able to successfully complete drill a with assistance from my classmate, Travis. He was a bit ahead of me on this one so he was helpful in guiding me down the right path on my tic-tac-toe game. I generally try to work solo as much as possible to make sure I gain as much knowledge from the subject as I can, but this was an example where having a bit of help was positive. In addition I attended a breakout with Peter on the DOM and though it was short, it absolutely helped me better understand HOW event listeners function. Up until now I felt like I could add an event listener, but I didn't quite understand why or how it worked. Going through it with a group helped clear that up.

I was not able to get started on DOM drill b and that was absolutely my fault. The DOM breakout, though informative, was toward the end of the day. That ended at 3 or so, and our lightning talks were scheduled for 3:50. I couldn't get back into the proper mind set to do my work as I felt like I didn't have enough time to really make any progress. Tomorrow I'll make sure to block out longer sets of work time to stay in the right mindset.