11 August 2015
So back in June I went to my first hackathon and got second place for the category my group entered (social hack). I was kind of miffed that I got second because obviously I would have preferred getting the first place prizes, but mostly it was because I hate that feeling of being so close yet so far (it's a matter of pride). There was an award reception around a month/a month an a half later, but I didn't go because the winning and runner-up groups had to do another speech explaining their app, and I just was not mentally prepared for that (I have stage freight like many people). I guess I should have gone, but another girl in my group couldn't go either so I don't know; we only had 3 people on our team. Anyway, at first only first place winners received prizes while runner-ups only get a silver trophy (made of plastic mind you). Not to mention, they only give one trophy so only one group member can keep it. That doesn't really matter to me as much though.
Later on, the organizer mentions that the library (the hackathon was held at the library overnight) was kind enough to also provide 25 dollar amazon gift cards to the runner-ups. Naturally, I emailed him and asked when I could pick up the stuff. Apparently, one of the girls in my group had already picked the stuff up, but it's weird because she never emailed us about it. I don't know if she was hoping to just get away with keeping everything, if she just forgot, or if she was planning on doing it later. The thing is, according to the organizer (Matthew) she had picked up the stuff a week from when he replied to me. Meaning she had the stuff for around a week. The reason I'm kind of annoyed is because she (Anika) did the least work in the group. I could see that she was getting kind of annoyed because the other girl in the group (Johanna) is very controlling and, I guess some might say, bossy. She would constantly berate Anika for "not knowing how to do anything right". However, at the same time, Johanna did the most work and was the most experienced with app creation. I was in charge of the design: I created the logo and icon for the app. So in terms of how much work I did, I would say I did not do much of the actual coding (but then again we used app inventor so there wasn't much coding involved anyway). At least I did something though. I honestly believe that if I hadn't made the banner and icon, regardless of how good or bad it was, we wouldn't have gotten second (Man I sound really narcissistic here, but it's like if you create a product, put it in a white—or some other color for that matter—box, put it on the shelves, and expect people to buy it. Honestly, it's not like you own some famous brand. I guess people might just think your refusal to use labels or pictures is "edgy" and "new", but anyway, I digress). I can't really blame Anika either because I can see how it would be hard for her to do things if she would always just get yelled at for trying. I could tell she wasn't really having much fun. We were just not a very cohesive group.
What I think is shady is that after I asked who picked up the stuff, Anika replied and said that she would be at the library from 11-3 and for me to let her know if I could go meet her. I know she didn't mean today from 11-3 because it was already past 3 when she replied, meaning that she most likely meant tomorrow or sometime soon. Then later I remembered that all she had to was scratch off the metallic-looking stuff from the back of the cards and send us the codes for us to redeem. After I tell her to do this, a good while goes by when she replies that she is traveling this week and will send us the codes when she gets home. How can she be traveling and at the library from 11-3 at the same time? It's probably nothing, but I just thought it was kind of weird.
Here are some screenshots of the app we made.
So back in June I went to my first hackathon and got second place for the category my group entered (social hack). I was kind of miffed that I got second because obviously I would have preferred getting the first place prizes, but mostly it was because I hate that feeling of being so close yet so far (it's a matter of pride). There was an award reception around a month/a month an a half later, but I didn't go because the winning and runner-up groups had to do another speech explaining their app, and I just was not mentally prepared for that (I have stage freight like many people). I guess I should have gone, but another girl in my group couldn't go either so I don't know; we only had 3 people on our team. Anyway, at first only first place winners received prizes while runner-ups only get a silver trophy (made of plastic mind you). Not to mention, they only give one trophy so only one group member can keep it. That doesn't really matter to me as much though.
Later on, the organizer mentions that the library (the hackathon was held at the library overnight) was kind enough to also provide 25 dollar amazon gift cards to the runner-ups. Naturally, I emailed him and asked when I could pick up the stuff. Apparently, one of the girls in my group had already picked the stuff up, but it's weird because she never emailed us about it. I don't know if she was hoping to just get away with keeping everything, if she just forgot, or if she was planning on doing it later. The thing is, according to the organizer (Matthew) she had picked up the stuff a week from when he replied to me. Meaning she had the stuff for around a week. The reason I'm kind of annoyed is because she (Anika) did the least work in the group. I could see that she was getting kind of annoyed because the other girl in the group (Johanna) is very controlling and, I guess some might say, bossy. She would constantly berate Anika for "not knowing how to do anything right". However, at the same time, Johanna did the most work and was the most experienced with app creation. I was in charge of the design: I created the logo and icon for the app. So in terms of how much work I did, I would say I did not do much of the actual coding (but then again we used app inventor so there wasn't much coding involved anyway). At least I did something though. I honestly believe that if I hadn't made the banner and icon, regardless of how good or bad it was, we wouldn't have gotten second (Man I sound really narcissistic here, but it's like if you create a product, put it in a white—or some other color for that matter—box, put it on the shelves, and expect people to buy it. Honestly, it's not like you own some famous brand. I guess people might just think your refusal to use labels or pictures is "edgy" and "new", but anyway, I digress). I can't really blame Anika either because I can see how it would be hard for her to do things if she would always just get yelled at for trying. I could tell she wasn't really having much fun. We were just not a very cohesive group.
What I think is shady is that after I asked who picked up the stuff, Anika replied and said that she would be at the library from 11-3 and for me to let her know if I could go meet her. I know she didn't mean today from 11-3 because it was already past 3 when she replied, meaning that she most likely meant tomorrow or sometime soon. Then later I remembered that all she had to was scratch off the metallic-looking stuff from the back of the cards and send us the codes for us to redeem. After I tell her to do this, a good while goes by when she replies that she is traveling this week and will send us the codes when she gets home. How can she be traveling and at the library from 11-3 at the same time? It's probably nothing, but I just thought it was kind of weird.
Here are some screenshots of the app we made.
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| App Icon |
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| App Banner (Light) |
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| App Banner (Dark) |
- 9:35 PM
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