Redditech's Blog

So they’ve kept me really busy here at Medullan...not that I’m complaining, in the last few weeks since I’ve blogged I’ve built perhaps some of the most powerful applications I’ve ever had to. And the challenges keep on coming. Work is slightly off my mind today as I contemplate the dynamics of moving over to a new apartment on Saturday. I call it the “haunted house”, not in a bad way though, just because it’s quite an old Boston building, “quite Bostonian” according to my Boston-based coworkers. It is in truth quite liveable, but it is also quite different from the Harvard Business School apartment I currently occupy in terms of its environment and location. It’s alot closer to the humdrum of Boston proper, since it’s closest T station is Central Square as opposed to Harvard Square, but it’s still a very safe neighbourhood from what I’ve been told. O, and I have a housemate, a very cool dude and my coworker from Medullan.

So I’ve had quite a hectic last few days, so much so that the blog bug kept biting and I had no time to scratch it until now. Boston is a city of many sights and sounds, but it’s not too often one talks about the “colours” of Boston. Indeed, I learnt quite a bit these past few days about these colours, some purposefully, others quite by accident. (more…)

Friday’s Bootcamp session was noticeably different from other days because of it was the first day 100% technical work was requested. I took it from a slightly different angle though, since the earlier days in the week gave some valuable lessons, so during the technical sessions I attempted to apply some of these “lessons learnt”. I’m afraid I have a long way to go when it comes to being an effective team member, while it started out quite well, the energy from Thursday was not quite there again. Going through academia for so many years, we are taught that winning means the success of one individual, in the real world this rule is so wrong. Winning, I’ve realised, means the success of the team to come together as a cohesive unit. Great teams are built, not born (more…)

Can you smell that? It’s the weekend, and it’s coming….and thank God!! This week has definitely been a learning experience, however it has taxed me mentally to the point where I feel I am back in UWI doing my undergraduate degree and it’s time for final exams. Thursday was the first full day we actually spent coding, but that didn’t make it any less demanding, in fact, given my little exposure to the world of Visual Studio and C# I think it was more a learning curve for me than for my other team member from Trinidad.

So today was a day for many new things. I used Microsoft developer tools such as SQL Server 2000 for the first time in almost a year. I used Visual Studio 2005 for the first time ever. I had local pizza from “Pinky’s Famous Pizza” for lunch for the first time. And I finally saw some progress in handling the volume of training I’m being put on since I didn’ totally crash and burn during work today, though I still wouldn’t say I was 100% successful either. So I thought after work, why end there with new things?

Today was as hectic as the the first day of work. Bootcamp really is such, I feel as if every muscle that exists in my mind has been stretched and challenged to the point where it will collapse. But I know it won’t, and given what I’ve been learning, I know I’ll only come out better for it. These guys I’m working with really have their sh*t together when it comes to the game of IT. They asked today if we knew why they chose the members they did from the interviews to come to Boston, they then showed us. I still don’t see anything special about me in particular, other than my passion for learning and improving myself, although what they pointed out otherwise did ring true. While I do not doubt I can meet the challenge put forward to me today, part of me is still underconfident about just how well I can match up in this new world I’m discovering. Time will tell, my will is still undaunting in meeting the challenges of Boston life. (more…)

Things have started off in a rush since arriving in Boston on Sunday morning (12:01am to be exact) so that I guess Days 1 and 2 have to be incorporated in this post. The climate change on arriving wasn’t as bad as if I had come in winter, but it’s still a shock to me. That night it was about 10 degrees and raining. Sunday during the day it was overcast and 12 degrees during the day, not something a guy from Trinidad gets to experience unless he has a walk-in fridge/freezer. Still, it got better today, it was up to about 16 degrees, and I managed to walk around without my jacket comfortably (I guess I adapted). Then I realised it was 9pm and NOW getting a little dark….that part’s pretty weird, but at least it will let me roam about town (if I get time after work) in the safety of daylight.