So it’s a brand new year, I’m still getting used to seeing and writing 2011 instead of 2010 - a mistake i’ll probably still be making in August.
Twenty-eleven is certainly going to be an exciting year, what with the Imagine Cup set to take up a large portion of my time in the first half of the year and not forgetting the Facebook Hacker Cup kicking off this Friday (2011-01-07).
Other than programming competitions, I want to try and learn a bit more Python this year, as i’m finding it an amazing language to use (although i’m going through the lambda overuse phase at the moment). I’m currently using it for coursework in an Algorithms class and the language is so malleable and straight forward that writing code is almost as easy as thinking about what you want your code to do. It’s definitely more fun than Ruby (don’t hit me), easier than C and not a pain like JAVA.
Another one of my my big goals this year is also about languages, but not programming ones. I know a fair bit of French already, but I want to build at lot more on this. First off, I have bought a verb book, as French has more tenses than stars, and there’s about a thousand different ways to say each verb depending on it’s use, all of which has led me to be pretty bad at them. Secondly I want to listen to more French radio. I tried this last year, but I only kept up with a couple of words, my basic goal is to try and understand a few phrases and maybe even more. My ultimate goal, however is to try and get into watching French TV and to try and have some conversations in French, no matter how bad I am at speaking in it under pressure.
In order to measure success for 2011, here is a list of goals. I hope to try and add to them, as well as tick them off as the year goes on!
- Compete in the Facebook Hacker Cup (hopefully win a t-shirt!)
- Reach the UK finals in the Imagine Cup (hopefully win and go to the finals!)
- Learn more French
- Specifically, understand French radio
- Watch French TV
- Have lots of French conversations
- Find lots more goals to achieve
Oh and, Happy New Year!