Since I did not have the energy to write yesterday (explained below)...I am combining blogposts.

Yesterday was awesome! I attended Code 2040's "Hack 4 Diversity: Closing the Gap" Hackathon in San Francisco. The Hackathon was a three day event but - since we were only able to come for the last day - we were observers rather than participants.

I was unsure of what to expect at my first Hackathon. The project teams' presentations focused on the Hackathon's theme of diversity. It was incredible what the participants were able to code and prepare in only 36 hours!

Some ideas that were pitched:

• Neighborhood - an app where people can suggest things that they are interested in doing and geographically find people with similar interests in what they would define (1 mi radius or etc.) as their 'neighborhood'. This app will raise awareness of what people in a community are interested in and possibly organize a means or group to help accomplish the task.
• Dynamic - a web-based app that professionally builds resumes and matches applicants based on their skill sets to jobs. Dynamic will have the ability to replace someone's name on a resume temporarily to prevent possible bias an employer may have when selecting a candidate.
• Bias Analytics - a facial recognition test app that sorts profiles to assess if employers are biased towards a candidate based on age, gender, or race in the selection process.
• Transforming - a web application that will provide translations for any text into another language and offer the person the ability to edit the text, making it more precise/accurate. Transforming will minimize a language barrier to help people from diverse backgrounds better access technology.

Hackathon:

Very exciting to watch! After the Hackathon, Abril and I walked (and shopped) San Francisco. 

Pictures:

As we walked, I began to notice that my back right tooth bothering me. It continued to hurt and became very painful. I began feeling feverish by the time I got back to the hotel. 

Today, Google sent me to a dentist. It turned out that I had a small abscess in the tooth. I am lucky that it was not badly infected or that the tooth didn't require a root canal. The dentist said it may have been agitated by the pressure of the plane. I feel much better now that it is fixed. 

When I got back to Google, it was the afternoon. I had missed the morning Introduction to App Engine and was behind. I've been working on breaks and am looking over what I missed now. By tomorrow, I should be caught up. 

Things are looking up: