7/23 - the (non) abridged version

This is what I'm afraid I'll hear from my car guy. He called last night and again today, but didn't leave a message either time (even though I told him specifically to leave me voicemail). When I called back he told me there was about 3 inches of water underneath the padding and carpet in my car, and that he thought the carpet was beginning to smell. I'm thinking this will result in a $500 bill to replace $150 carpet. Hopefully I'm wrong. Hopefully I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, because that's what I do when forced to wait with no real news. I'll just keep trying to tell myself that until I get some actual concrete news on what this will cost. "It's just a molehill. It's just a molehill. It's just a molehill."
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I realized when I arrived at work this morning I'd missed two classes yesterday. The one I knew about I'd already taken while in Support, so I just have to re-familiarize myself with the material and do the homework. The one I'd forgotten about is a self directed "death by PowerPoint" on-line class. In addition, I still have to teach myself enough Visual Basic to get through the homework from last Friday's .NET class (then teach myself C#, since that's the language everything except Bacon Patrol is written in). I spent some time with the Visual Basic this morning, but only got as far as figuring out where I got lost in Friday's class.

Today's class was on Gherkin, which is pretty simple to write in. It's basically "GIVEN this thing that's true, WHEN I do this and/or that, THEN this outcome occurs." I have to learn a section of Bacon Patrol for the homework, and write out every scenario I can think of in a format that can be used for automation. I spent a good part of the afternoon at Google U trying to make sure I understood how to do this correctly.

I'm finding more and more I have to teach myself what I need to know, in order to do the homework for the classes they are teaching me. Either that or I'm just over-thinking everything, which I've been known to do. Maybe not everything, but it's possible I over-prepared before starting the Gherkin homework today. I can't wait until I'm more confident with what I need to know.

I was also volunteered for a card today that will teach me quite a bit about navigating Bacon Patrol. I did make certain the team understood I have a lot of classes and homework right now. I also insisted someone sit with me, at least at the beginning, so I know what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. I'm trying not to back down when the team proposes I do things, but I do not feel at all ready so I prevaricate.

Mostly I'm just feeling overwhelmed. There is SO much to learn, and at least one of the senior developers is being quite pushy about my stepping to the plate. I understand his reasoning. Better to dive in then allow fear of the unknown to develop and fester. My reasoning is, I don't think he quite realizes how much unknown I have to deal with. I've been trying to get my feet wet in the program without getting in over my head, but I'm already in over my head with the classes and homework. Meanwhile, he keeps pushing me to get into the product. It's frustrating, but I keep plugging away. I know I can and will learn what I need. I'm just not sure I'll learn it fast enough. I'm not sure what fast enough is, but until I'm more comfortable with what I need to know, it's not nearly fast enough.

On the up side, the manager who interviewed me for this position told me today I'm doing just fine, and that I'm a keeper. She said this in front of my boss too, which was nice.
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Today's workout was the Tap Out class at work. I definitely do not enjoy these videos. It's an advanced program and there is very little I can do to modify the moves. Lots of burpee-style one-arm one-leg stuff, up and down and up and down, from plank to feet and back to plank again. I don't move fast enough and I end up leaving early every time because my back always starts to hurt. 

I do like the class atmosphere. I think it pushes me to work harder than when I'm home alone. I like the martial arts/combat type portions of the videos, and I've started doing other exercises when the video gets to be too much. I use weights on the punches, to strengthen my arms. I do the burpee stuff until I can no longer, then I do planks, then I find something kind of similar from a standing position. 

This is supposed to be cross-training, and I refuse to shred myself for it when my main focus is increasing distance and improving my runs. As long as I get my sweat on and feel I've gotten a workout, I'm content. I have no ego here. At least that's what I keep telling myself...

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Tonight's learning time was given to Ninja for his birthday. We went to dinner, then I helped him get his student loans consolidated. Now it's well after my bedtime, and the abridged version of my blog post is a full on version after all. 

'Night folks.