Code Or Die Trying

How do we define success?

Start a family. Raise kids. Have all kinds of pets.

Great corporate career. Work your way up the ladder. Retire comfortably.

Job that allows travel perks. See many different parts of the world. Get paid to work and sightsee.

Finding something to be passionate about: a noble cause, a wonderful relationship(s), hobby-turned-business.

Living up to your parents’ expectations.

Being admired and recognized for your achievements.

Having three meals a day and a roof over your head.

Helping others in various ways, both big and small.

--

The very meaning of success is superfluous and contingent on what happens throughout the years; often they are shaped not just by worldly events but also by personal experiences.

Thusly, it is imperative to ask oneself: how do you define success? Why? To what lengths would you go to achieve them? What happens if you don’t?

Lesson 30 of FHP’s Flixter app (Udemy clone) was verrrrry interesting. Makes it even more churlish that I put it off for so long, fearing it’ll be too tough.

I hadn’t touched JavaScript since that primer lesson a couple of weeks back and this was basically the first “true” usage of Javascript thus far. 

So what I learnt today was:

- JQuery is a JavaScript library of prepackaged code, similar to what gems are in ruby.

Because of it’s ubiquity, it is a default feature of Rails.

DOM Manipulation sounds kinky, but it really means `Document Object Model` which is the changing of HTML after the page has been rendered.

After writing an example alert function, it dawned upon me that all those pop-up ads probably use JavaScript. Great example of powers being used for evil.

Cool functionality - like a drag-and-reorderable list - is made possible and easy with JS. Well, easier.

It’s hell keeping track of all those syntaxes when writing JS.

AJAX is pretty badass and I’m not talking about the new Deadpool villain. It allows us to trigger HTTP requests to our server rather than the usual pressing-buttons-and-page-redirect method; so none of that constant page refreshing/reloading B.S.

Biggest takeaway: coding is much more fun and relatable when implementing cool-bean features that you can envision using at some point.

It’s hard being almost 30. To feel like you haven’t achieved anything enough/yet, to not knowing what you’ll be doing in a couple of years’ time. Now I know why so many choose the comforts of a career; it’s nice being told what to do for a change. A mindless sense of not having to think too hard about a future that becomes hazier as the years roll by.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell why I feel so different from the average person. Not in a oh-i’m-so-special-so-fuck-you kind of way. Like am I really incapable of hours straight of productive work or am I just plain fucking lazy? (Hilariously, Tumblr at this point pops out a “let people answer this” option on this post. I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea.) Do I really hate wearing formal work clothing or is that just a product of my comfortable upbringing and me being a hipster startuppy douche? 

Is this what was previously labeled a mid-life crisis? Everything that people normally find joy in, I associate with a sense of anxious procrastination. Social media, videogames, TV shows, et al. Being where I am, finding a complete sense of enjoyment in any of these things is impossible because theoretically, it could have been time better spent doing something “productive”. That’s probably an insane way to think, and that’s what my current state of mind is like.

On days like these when I’m heavily distracted, it’s like the mind wanders in a hundred different spots at the same time. Kind of like the way a dog sniffing the ground and moving in no particular direction. Things like being on Facebook or Soccernet, or watching a YouTube video, brings about as much relief as a shot of heroin; temporary numbness and an emptiness that inexorably follows.

And it has begun. Long overdue post but I certainly haven’t given up yet, especially since I’m just getting started. 

Spent almost a good two hours trying to troubleshoot the setup process for my Vagrant web development environment. Setting up Github/Heroku accounts was straightforward, but definitely mucked up when running commands in the terminal. Turns out I was just simply pasting the instructional commands in the wrong terminal window. #seriouslydude

First takeaway of the course: it’s reaaally easy to make elementary observational mistakes even when following instructions, especially if performed past midnight.

Just the setup process and I’m taking way too long. I hope my future employer is the patient sort.

Literally just finished my first challenge of The Firehose Project’s coding bootcamp pre-course! It’s my second day doing it (theoretically) and it’s obviously still at the stage where things are prettyyyy simple. But still:

It was pretty straightforward: I’d done up a very minimalistic static html page, following the instructions on video. Thereafter, the challenge was simply to find a way to get the page live on the web, ie. get the page hosted somewhere so that I’d have a URL to the page. Cue Googling of solutions and 2 minutes later.. Presto.

And this is the workable link! Who knew that Dropbox could host a static HTML page. Learned something new today. https://db.tt/UpsQCVi7

Aaaaaand it’s the second day of my coding adventure and things are going swimmingly! Dropped the ball on doing a bit of learning yesterday BUT OH WELL YOU LIVE YOU LEARN EH?

Recap - Things I Learnt Today:

Today’s lesson on my Udemy course was on forms and it was pretty interesting. Basically, it was on how to create a form page with all the usual bells and whistles: text box, option drop-down box, check box(es) and the all-important “submit” button.

Now of course, all this is not applicable (as yet) since you require a server side language like PHP or even Javascript to interact with this data.. Or so the narrator says. Nevertheless, ‘twas an enlightening experience and I was heartened to have clocked almost a good 40 minutes on my Toggl app!

Oh right I’ve been using this mega cool (FREE) program called Toggl which basically allows you to record your various activities throughout the day and collate info on how much time you spend on them and thereafter gives you a weekly/monthly report.

It’s super simple to use, you just select the activity you’re about the embark in and hit the “play” button to begin recording the session time for that particular activity; then hit the “stop” button after. Easy.

With this app, it’s been easier for me to keep on track with my goal to do at least 15 minutes of programming lessons per weekday for sure. Whenever you DO have a productive day, it always feels nice to know it’s recorded somewhere as a sign of ongoing progress. 15 minutes doesn’t sound like much but I’m definitely going through the course at a steady pace!

Alright it’s way past my bedtime. Glad I clocked this one in for tonight. Seeyaaa.

 Woohoo! Day 1 has come and gone and I’ve learnt something new. Well, technically its Day 2 since I’ve already done a bit before but that’s irrelephant.

I had limited time to put into learning anything beyond my 15-minutes per weekday stipulation but hey, every little bit counts! Between the ongoing 9-to-5 reservist week I’m having and hitting the gym earlier this evening, I’d say I’m having quite a productive week so far!

Recap - Things I Learnt Today:

1) Unordered Lists tag <ul></ul> 2) Ordered Lists tag <ol></ol> 3) Using Images <img src=“” />

That’s about it, I guess. Wish I could put a link to my HTML page with the very clear chronology of my slow and steady progress, but the stuff isn’t live yet (currently practising with a .html file saved onto my computer).

With that, I leave you with this very awesome GIF I found on today’s trending GIFs. Toodles.

Alrighty! It’s been two years since my last post so this is me taking another stab at it. As the name of my Tumblr implies, I shall attempt to discover my secret Zuckerberg-self or perish in the attempt. Also, I know I used the word attempt twice. Sue me.

This blog may seem ostentatious but personally, I think it’s pretty important for a number of reasons:

1) As stated above, this blog is a diary of sorts that tracks my progress in learning programming. Hence the tagline Code or Die Trying. If I do actually die while learning programming, its either I’ve developed an incredible work ethic overnight or programming is a much deadlier industry than previously thought.

2) This is also one way of fulfilling that one criterion in every If-I-Can-Then-You-Can-Also-I’m-An-Awesome-Entrepreneur advice column of accountability: putting yourself out there and possibly subjecting yourself to publicly ridicule should you falter or give up in your endeavor. I hereby welcome any criticisms or jibes from anyone about my slow progress, ugly lines of code, awful fashion sense, etc. Just bring it, jabronis.

3) Its also an outlet for me to practice my writing a bit, I guess. Even if the only people that read this are my girlfriend (hi Lauren) and my pet goldfish. And my pet goldfish can’t remember what I wrote after 4 seconds. Also, he/she doesn’t exist. The goldfish I mean. Lame sial.

So, about the programming: I’ve just started not long ago and I’m doing an Udemy course to learn the absolute basics which are HTML, CSS and Java. I doubt this course would be THAT comprehensive but my goal is to get good at this before I invest in a reputable online bootcamp and fully immerse myself in programming.

As of today, I’ve learnt really fancy stuff like how tags work and also fancy text decoration tricks like bolding, italics, underlining (dammit Tumblr doesn’t have this function) and strikethroughs. Groundbreaking stuff, really.

http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/features/people/1524476/He_earns_8_000_a_month_selling_hot_dogs.html

- Oliver Warbucks, Broadway Musical "Annie"