Kotlin Heroes is a programming competition from JetBrains (creator of Kotlin) and CodeForces. The challenge is to use Kotlin in solving as many problems in two and a half hours.
Kotlin Heroes: Episode 4 was on May 29. I have seen the past editions before but I did not participate yet. This time though, I decided to register just to try it and to learn more. There's a prize for the Top 3 ($512, $256, and $128) and T-shirts for the Top 50 participants. I know it's hard for me to win. My goal is to finish half of the problems. I have done the 5 problems of Practice 4 but it took me a lot of hours to solve them. Also, the ones in the Practice Rounds are easier.
On the day itself, I woke up earlier than usual and prepared the laptop and pieces of paper. I was only able to successfully solve 2 of the 9 problems. My solution to the third problem was not yet good and I ran out of time. It was still a good experience for me. Hopefully, I can do more next time.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things. No more haircuts, no more dental appointments, no mass, no more weekend events, no dine-ins, no movies at cinemas, physical/social distancing... life is different now.
Work
Celine and I were fortunate our employers weren't affected much and we can continue working from home. I was usually at home once a week but the additional four days were different.
Run
One of my plans for 2020 is to run at least 10 kilometers once a month, like what I did from April to December last year. I was able to run six times in the first quarter before the declaration of state of emergency. In April and May, I only did one runs each. Hopefully by June, I can do more.
I was supposed to participate in the Vancouver Sun Run but the organizers cancelled the event.
Nothing
During the early days of our stay at home, I was doing nothing. I am watching random YouTube videos, reading news, various articles and blog posts, and wasting time on social media. Doing nothing is tiring!
Just for Laughs
Some of the stuff I was watching were clips from Just for Laughs. One day, I discovered the official Channel and watched videos from there instead. I saw there is a playlist of the best gags and made it a goal to watch all of them. After accomplishing that, I became motivated to go back to development of my personal apps and projects.
If you're interested, here is the playlist I watched:
This only includes the first 200. To see more, check the playlist
#AndroidDev
I've been keeping myself updated with what's new in Android app development, especially Android 11. I am reading up, watching videos, and taking courses on Android and Kotlin. Recently, I am on Caster.io's Kotlin Programming Language course.
I also made some updates to the Tigcal Apps, Tigcal Utils, and my other Android apps.
Sweldong Pinoy
I made small changes in Sweldong Pinoy, Budget Pinoy, and Thirteenth Month. One is the Share button on web versions of the app. It's a minor task but I procrastinated on it for a while now. I have started coding for upcoming features.
Writing
In January and February, I am writing for the project which began late last year. After initial submission, I haven't written anything new at all. Now, I am back again! I created a post on Medium and made this blog post. I am on my way to finishing another tech article.
Other Projects
As I spent time on my Android apps, I suddenly found some time for my Chrome Extensions, Assistant Apps, and other projects.
Earlier this month, I joined the Flutter Clock Challenge. Flutter Clock is a skills-based contest offered by Google, including participation by the Flutter, Google Assistant, and Lenovo teams that challenges you to use Flutter to build a clock face application.
