Susanna Codes

I really feel this sense of purpose I really feel this sense of life purpose, and I have to share it in here. I really feel this sense of purpose, and it is something to do with the pylons, and with the internet towers, and with the offshore wind farms, and the onshore ones as well of course. This sense of purpose is really something to do with the way that I feel when I see pylons. Because how could I feel anything so deeply? And how could I love anything so deeply? And how else could I feel anything so deeply, if this was not a life purpose? So Long, London When I listen to this song by Taylor Swift I hear the urgency. I hear the urgency that I really truly need. I feel full of urgency. There is something that I really need to do - and I really need to do it. "There is only one of you in all of time." I really need to do it. I really need to do it. I just need to do it I used to think that I had to do something really huge on this path and on this

Sometimes what you’re looking for is already there The computer science section of Foyles in London is sacred to me. I once woke up and knew I had to go there. I searched endlessly. Just when I was about to give up I found the perfect JavaScript book. It’s hard to believe the level and the depth of passion I felt at the beginning of my software engineering journey - and even still now. From the very beginning, it was all I ever wanted to talk to anyone about. I’ve been back to that section many times and bought and found several books there.  They are always meaningful to me.  “Effective Python” is a book that I was waiting until I was ready to buy. On my birthday I felt ready. My little sister got it for me as a gift.  I love it. I mean look at it. It has the wind farms on it. The offshore wind farms. I finally felt I reached a level Python where I am ready for it. This is so huge. Sometimes we look for more. Sometimes we think there is a fancy new book that is going to save us. Some

Susanna Learns Regex Part I ARRRRGH so don't ask me to explain what regex actually is; okay fine it stands for regular expressions; at the end of a long and hard workday I finally got down to doing some regex. Regex is basically a way of matching strings I guess. Or other things. It's basically a tool for pattern matching.  Literals A literal in regex is when you literally match something precisely. It doesn't have to be the full thing; it can just be a part of something; but it does have to match it exactly. bananas will match with bananas usanna will match with susanna monkey will match with i am a monkey and i litearlly like to climb all over things in my house and i literally like to eat bananas... not saying if any of that is true... or not... Alternation Alternation in regex allows us to match for multiple things. You can use a pipe delimiter to match for two or more things. alan turning|maragaret elaine hamilton will allow us to match for both i love alan turing 

The Story of How and Why Susanna Became A Software Engineer (with Substations) Once upon a time there was a Susanna. Susanna was born into a world filled with substations, pylons, and lands that would later become filled with wind turbines. There are no coincidences. Susanna would go on through life and her main passions were acting (I still love presenting), singing (I still sing all the time), and writing (... I write a lot...). But it would be 18-20 years after she left that magical town with the magical substation (not this one before but a very special one that always spoke to me) before she would rediscover this her true passion - for electricity, renewables and energy. Renewable Energy Degrees and Job I'm gonna move into the first person now. I got two masters degrees in fields related to renewable energy and I just fell completely in love with it. My first job was for Bulb in customer services. By that time I was completely sure that renewable energy was my passion and my d

I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist: Python Part 9 If you've been reading for a while you'll know focusing is my biggest aim and challenge. Once I get started I can't stop. But it is the hardest thing in the world for me to get started Anyway, at least I have refined my Python strategy: Shamelessly copy pasted from my LinkedIn cos why write it twice: 1. Solve Codewars problems 2. Write about them in my blog and what I got stuck on about them and what I learned from them 3. Solve the problem as best I can; try and make it more elegant if I can but just get it done; I can usually solve the ones I am working on very quickly 4. Stick to levels where I can solve it without too much pain for now; the focus for now is the Python; the higher levels will come later 5. After I have done the problem solving thingy, look at one or two or so other solutions and learn from them 6. Look up any Python I don't know 7. Write step by step what the code

I Can Fly With You: Python Part 8 This morning I got to meditate with my meditation group from around the world. It was beautiful to sit in peace, meditation, beauty and silence. The truth is that we are all friends. We are all friends who haven't met each other yet. There are no strangers - only friend we haven't met yet. W. B. Yeates said it: "There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met." If you only ever take one thing away from my blogs, take this. 3 blogs; well over 300 posts; years and years and hours and hours of writing.  If you take only one thing away; take this. p.s. why the blog title? it's from a song I wrote about Alan Turing earlier this year and I hope to share it soon. It's about continuing his legacy... Complementary DNA Again, I've said goodbye to the level 8 kyu problems (too easy!) and kissed the level 6 kyu problems goodbye (too hard! at least for now). I have solved the Complementary DNA

Everything I Do, I Do It For The Pylons: Python Part 7 Everything I do, I do it for the pylons Everything I do, I do it for the pylons.  I am sorry.  I am sorry if this disappoints you or lets you down.  I am sorry if this breaks the mystique. There are no surprises with me I just love pylons. I just love wind farms. I just love renewable energy and electricity. But I also have a second love, and that is even greater And that is for software engineering. Just for pure software engineering and coding. My only surprise is this The only thing I will surprise you with is my ability to turn a difficult situation around. The only thing I will surprise you with is my ability to grow very, very quickly.  The only thing I will surprise you with is how fast I am able to learn. This is the journey I have been preparing for all my life. This is the journey I have been preparing to go on all my life. I am here, now. The journey of a thousand miles begins at your feet. The

I Love The Pylons: More Python Part 6 I couldn't find any good quotes about pylons.  So I will just have to write my own. I love pylons. I love pylons so so so much. I love them. They take me straight to God. They take me direct to my Being. I once said to my meditation teacher, a very esteemed name in the field, "I love pylons and wind turbines. They take me straight there. They take me there even faster than your meditations do." He told me that what I do was beautiful and he still constantly encourages me and tells me to continue with my work; in a way he is my biggest empowerer and my biggest supporter. I am so so grateful to have someone like that who supports me with my passion - not to mention my managers, my mentors, my teammates and my family. A photo of some pylons in Leeds that my favourite person ever has sent to me. I am so lucky to have so much support and to have people who help me to fulfil my dreams and ambitions and who can help me to make sure that all

 Never One To Hold Back: Learning Python Part 5 Never one to hold back, I have just published my last post, and dived back in.  It's 5 pm and I cannot start new intellectual work on the codebase at this time anyway - so I'm just doing some more Python. I need to be able to think properly to read the tickets, read the links, read the notes, look at the codebase, and really think about what it is that I am doing. A New Python Problem Because I just wanted to get some python in, I am going for an easier problem, a level 7 kyu (they very and sometimes I can solve 6 kyu in 5 minutes and sometimes it takes all day and help from my mentor. 7 kyu can also be a 5-10 minute job but I come across harder ones too sometimes). Okay, so the problem I have decided to go for today is the Credit Card Mask problem, hoping I can solve it quickly, look at some refactors, maybe one or two or so. I AM SOOOO HAPPPY! I solved this! It definitely took me (way) more than 5 minutes but I got there! I had