Sense of Place

After moving to different places, what keep us human is a sense of belonging. A feeling of being part of something. This call becomes more urgent during the pandemic period where your movement becomes limited due to border restrictions. Sometimes you start questioning what you want in life. I think that's one of the reasons that despite everything is bright and shine now, I am still not sure about my future with him. Another long distance after a week meet up? What's the point of having that kind of relationship? On the other hand, I also haven't figured out where I want to be. What I know for sure is I want to be part of something.

These couple of weeks, I have been participating with new communities, one is Code in Place where I shared my journey with four other people and the other is a writer's community where people who want to write share their struggles and write together. I like my Code in Place peers. After the official class end, we met for a casual talk and shared our expectations. But being to many places, I became too familiar to a goodbye setting where the feeling was strong, we had a great time but now our paths won't no longer intersect with one another. That's what moving places has thought me, to be good with detachments. 

Probably, in the back of my mind, I still want to have a longer relationship, a sense of place that can give me stability. The power to paint my own room since I know the house belongs to me. Buying stuffs I want because I don't need to think about moving out. Something to call, mine. 

Routine

Entering the second period of circuit breaker. In a way, I am more use to it than earlier and it's also better since I have a better accommodation. On the other hand, how my research has shifted from field work to desk study also affected my productivity. Apparently, being on desk for too long is not really my cup of tea. While I kind of made up my data gathering by shifting offline interviews to online, I started to get fed up with online interactions. Can we just have a cup of tea and sit in silence than talking all the time? 

The bright side is I involve in a new activity: Code in Place. It's nice to distract my head with something else. I have been spending most of spare time to study a new thing and it felt nice. The best approach for me is to have simple projects, which should be solvable and challenging at the same time. I have been joining extra class as well. It's interesting to see different logics in solving a problem and how efficiency may not be the goal for the early stage.

So here is an example of what I did for last week assignment, creating a reflection. I add a twist in the assignment by creating additional filter in the reflection. And another one: the Warhol project. 

Die Hard

My mom told me that when I was a toddler, I started to walk at the age of 9 month. However, once I fell, I stopped walking until I was 11/12 month old. I have the tendency to stop doing something after a failure, either its a personal relationship or work related subject. Each time I face a conflict, I prefer to avoid it instead of solving it. As people say, old habits die hard. Probably, because I am not bad in studying, I could get away with avoiding the subject that I don't like. But it also made it hard to excel in something. I have been jumping discipline quite a lot, math, development studies, innovation science, urban studies and now, ecology. My methods also range from differential analysis, ethnography, case study, statistics, system dynamics and currently I am into big data through social network analysis and text analysis.

I like to study, but every time I face a hurdle, my natural logic sends a break function into my brain. The only thing that usually keep me going is either group pressure (i.e. in class setting, or obligation). But still, if I cannot solve a problem, I have the tendency to create a never ending loop, which lead to a broken program by forcing it stop (I give up) or dragging someone to solve it so I can make sense of it and keep on going. Learning for me is like a rubber band, if you pull it too hard, it will break, but if there is no challenge, it won't be moving. Finding the right balance between challenge and the limit break is the challenge. 

So there I am, in the Code in Place journey. I have no problem following the materials in the Ed environment provided by the course. But when I started working in Visual Studio Code, problems start to emerge. I think that's what code in the wild means, there are many unexpected variables that influence the program. And sometimes being stuck in the details of the wild can be discouraging. 

Game of Nimm

Coding is so fun!!! Where was I ages ago when I learned coding in my undergrad degree? Probably, people can change, you may be disinterested with something in a moment in your life, but you can get hook by it at another moment in your life. So yeah, this my code for a game of Nimm, where the rules are: each player can only pick one or two stones and the player who picks the last stone loose. In the code below, I play with the computer that operates on random function.

I don't know how to insert a code without making it messy, so I put the code in the form of picture. If you are interested, you can find the code in my github account here: https://github.com/Yuti-AI/Games/commit/bafda1edf14c5bea10d41c53ae7992573bf30376

After trying different environments: PyCharm, Anaconda, Spyder and Visual Studio Code, I like VSC the best. So will stay with that one until I find a better one. 

Decomposition

One of Chris' slides about decomposition, infinite time of lathering and rinsing since there is no stop command. I think ghosting works that way, you will fall into infinite iterations since you don't know what went wrong and the other person just vanished into thin air. I know it's bad but sometimes ghosting is the easiest way out, no confrontation. 

Anyway, back to coding ... After studying Karel the robot to understand the basic idea of programming (control flow, logic and decomposition), this week we move to Python. The main difference (for me) is that in this Python world, we play with more types and functions, which usually scared me. I used to be overwhelmed with different types integer, string, numeric and others, how to write and other details. But since I started the python journey by playing, I really enjoy the journey. 

 

Chris' explanation about decomposition is really beautiful. I call things as beautiful if they are logical :D I usually make my code quite long and after understanding the pattern, I make sub-blocks. But the better way to do it is to understand the problem first and then create sub-block.

Code in Place 2021

Super excited to join this course!!! I have been wanting to learn python for quite some time and until now, I kind of did it, on and off. Most of the reason I discontinued my Py learning was due to the process of understanding the 'world' of Py through different types of character i.e numeric, integer, string and others, whereas what I interested the most in coding is the logic. The Code in Place starts with exactly what I want, a robot named Karel, a beeper, 4 basic commands (move, turn_left, pick_beeper, put_beeper) and 20 conditions that I can play with when creating loops and conditions.  

 

What make Code in Place special is its energy, you can feel how Chris Piech is very passionate about teaching (and he admitted it as well in the welcome speech that he LOVES teaching) and the same energy came from all the instructors and student (12,000) that join the Code in Place journey.

I have done all my obligatory assignments, but still struggling in solving "the Fence Post Problem" when trying to solve the hospital assignment as a bonus point.

So here is my code:

def main():

    """

A code to build a hospital using 6 beepers and stop without creating a bug. Haven't succeeded yet :(

    """

    if beepers_present():

        buildhospital()

        while front_is_clear():

            findbeep()

            buildhospital()

    else:

        while front_is_clear():

            findbeep()

            buildhospital()

    

def buildhospital():

    turn_left()

    move()

    put_beeper()

    move()

    put_beeper()

    turn_right()

    move()

    put_beeper() #4,3 second tower

    turn_right()

    move()

    put_beeper() #4,2 second beeper second tower

    move()

    put_beeper()

    turn_left()

    

def findbeep():

    move()

    while no_beepers_present():

        move()

def turn_right():

    for i in range(3):

        turn_left()

if __name__ == '__main__':

    run_karel_program('HospitalKarel2.w')

While my code works perfectly in a world where the last beeper of a hospital has a space before a wall (Fig 2 below), my code breaks when it has no space (Fig 3). What a bugger!

Fig 2

Fig 3

Relationship

What does the past mean to you? If it does not affect your future, would it still matter for you? Yesterday, I tried to migrate all my data from my old to my new phone. Somehow, I couldn't synchronize WhatsApp with the back up so what I got from the app was a list of group that I joined with no personal chat at all. It freaked me out for a bit. I managed to sync all the contacts though, so that was a huge relief but I lost all the chats. I did the same thing with my email where I deleted all the sent items, which somehow deleted the correspondence that attached to the sent items as well. I was quite devastated back then since I have some letters that were super sweet in the email. The same goes for my WhatsApp chat!! But probably because this was the second time I experienced it, I became more accepting?! 

Anyhow, it was quite an interesting experience to download many apps in one night. During the years, I have downloaded many apps individually. I did not realize that I was apps dependent. At least to be able to enter public places, I need lens for QR code and then music, comic, financial services, fitbit and others. This fresh start also allowed me to detach with apps that I don't need. Reflecting on what I consider as important and what is not. 

It also makes me think about relationship. I think what made me accept the lost of my emails were the fact that people's relationship is a work. You will create new stories with the people who are close to you. Their names will start popping out again in your chat. And if it is not, then they are just not important anymore. Not because of hate but because you don't find the need to contact them again and vice versa. Being a gypsy, I experience this a lot. People start to fade away in the distance. 

When life gives you lemon

 ... make lemonade, or sell it.

Yesterday, I got an invitation to present my work in an international workshop. Of course, I freaked out laa, I am not confident to talk among my seniors who have been in the field, like forever. I accepted the invitation but for the coming week, I think I will be super nervous. They give me 10 minutes to talk. What can happen in 10 minutes? Nothing bad will happen, right?

Working in Singapore is new in many levels. I usually work in a male environment, with people older than me. In this type of environment, I usually got protection from my superior so I could get away with things that I did not like. My superior even told me once that he read my blog and said that I could always talk to him if I have a problem with work. In Singapore, the situation is quite the opposite. I am working in a female environment with people similar to my age. I was given a lot of opportunities, which were not really on my comfort zone but I know by taking them it allows me to grow. 

I am not ambitious and probably, that's the reason why I don't really worry about my life a year from now. But I think people care about me. When I got the invitation, the person said that he was being recommended by one the Deputies in an Indonesian agency. So yeah, always be nice, and the Universe will take care of you.

The Gypsy Life

I have been moving places. A lot. Sometimes, it makes me wondering where my home is. Currently, I even don't know where I am going to be a year from now. No permanent position, no specific expertise, I am a generalist, Jack of all trade, master of none. But the theory says that a generalist has the highest survival rate since they have high adaptation skill. Sometimes, I am thinking that I want to be a writer, working from home, daydreaming and creating a world out of imagination. Or increasing my coding skill so I can do some consultancy projects from home. When I started my journey, I never thought life can be so complicated. I thought I would have settled down by now. But here I am, still being a gypsy.

Day 29: Oddness

This is the final post for the break up series. I have not contacted him for two weeks and I don't have the interest to do it anymore. The memory still come and go but that happens to any other memory, it's part of life. Like yesterday, I dreamed about my life in the Netherlands and my friends there. Once your feelings are not attached anymore, the memories start to become distant as well. 

Day 29, an odd day to end an odd relationship in an odd period for an odd person. Sometimes the hardest part is not ending the real relationship but the imaginary relationship that come afterwards, alhamdulillah, I have found my peace. 

So goodbye, I hope you find your peace as well. 

Day 28: Mean

When you were thinking about what you want to find in a partner, one important thing is that you share the same value and vision. I think the biggest turning point was when I was feeling ill and he refused to see me because it would be hard for him, that's the point when I could not see a future with him. I have the tendency to put others' first and being rejected by someone who said he loved me but would not help me during one of my weakest point was simply cruel. How can you trust your life to someone who is not only not able to protect you but also cut you into pieces? I know a relationship should not make you dependent to someone else, you have your God and yourself to define what you are as a person, but when you are in a relationship, you are kind of synchronize yourself with somebody other than you, for better or for worst. 

Alhamdulillah, time has done it magic. I am in a much better state thanks to people who were there for me during the darkness. Accepting someone during their happy state is always easy, it is during difficult state you see people's true color.