Friday Lecture

We learned about the technology used in today's gaming industry.  Something that was really interesting was that the speaker mentioned that some of the game makers he spoke about were from California State University of Monterey Bay.  It's nice to see someone graduate from the same school and accomplish big projects.  The most interesting games that I saw was the one that had a big emphasis on art.  It was a black and white game where the user or person playing the game has to continue to find light before it gets dark.  It was beautifully designed and had a good theme as well story.  It was also nice to Professor Tao speak about time management.  I know I lack some of these skills and it's good to see a professionals schedule to see how he manages his private and educational life.

Graphic Design

Today we had a talk about keeping a schedule that you can rely on at all times.  Professor talked about how he creates room for his family and school work.  I really liked how he makes it a point to create a group conversation with his father and siblings to keep everybody together and in contact.  I also like how he makes time everyday to make sure his kids play the piano and he also sits with them to show support and reinforce what it is to be a family.

The second half of the class was a talk about graphic design and our speakers journey through life.  I really enjoyed this talk because I admired her ability to adapt to new environments and stick to her guns.  She took the path less taken and is an inspirational person to all those that seek to follow that same path or tread their own.

Preview Time Management Skills

Review and reflect learning strategy

When studying I feel I'm good at getting the main idea, extracting important details, and outlining textbooks. I went through a phase in my life where I read a lot of books. In order to remember quotes or sentences that I thought were structured in a way I could learn from, I used to underline them. However, that didn't stand out as much as highlighting so I changed my note taking habits. It was easier to extract ideas and get the main point when highlighting rather than underlining.


I'm not very good at finding a place to study, knowing when to study, and making and revising a schedule. I have two kids at home and there's nowhere to hide because I'm always helping with something. I found that the best time to study is after they sleep and that's not till after 9 when I'm tired and not retaining everything I read. One of my biggest flaws is that I'm not very organized. I've purchased calendars to try to fix this but it ended up empty.

Review Learning Portfolios

I really liked Amit Panchal's ILP Portfolio.  I like it because it was nice and clean.  What I mean by that is that it's not black like some of the others I saw online.  I think that white or light grey really makes a website look professional and that's what I liked most about this website.  What I didn't like was it was created by Weebly.  I saw that Mr. Panchal took an Internet Programming class but chose to use a pre-made template.  I feel like he took the easy way out.  Here's a link to his website.


Another website I liked was made by Nelson Lee.  I liked this website for the same reasons as Amit's. However, I liked this one a bit more and I think it was because of the professional photo of Nelson. The only flaw that I saw was that it to was created on Weebly when he too has taken an Internet Programming class.  Here's a link to his website.

Review degree learning pathways

After reviewing the Communication Design and Computer Science and Information Technology degree pathways I reaffirmed commitment to Computer Science and Information Technology.  I'm part of the CSIT-In-3 program and know that this is where I belong.  I love coding more than I enjoy design.  However, I did notice that there were many classes that overlapped between both majors.  A class that I'm really looking forward to is Intro to Database Systems.  I feel that this is the class that will help me decide if I want to get my Masters in Information and Data Science.  This degree is offered at Berkeley as an online degree and it’s the first of it’s kind there at that school.  I don't know much about the subject but I do know that there is a big demand for people with these skills.  More and more companies need data scientists to sift through extremely large amounts of data and make sense of it.  This is what's giving companies the competitive edge that they need.  It’s the understanding of databases that allows websites we revisit to make recommendations to us as users.  I want to be on a team that does that.  I want to help write the algorithm makes recommendations based on the database of your previous transactions or online history.  Another class I'm looking forward to is the Capstone.  I'm looking forward to this because I have a business idea that I've been wanting to work on but haven't had the time because of all the classes I take.  This is the opportunity, if possible to get that project up and running.  Not only do I get to start the project but I get to start it professionally and in the proper real world way. Overall the this assignment was very useful in broadening my understanding of both majors.  I’m really looking forward to a bright future as a Software Engineer.