#theodinproject

-- specifically with The Odin Project which I've barely dipped my toes in and am already sold on. I will, no doubt, do a promo post once I'm more familiar with it. Anyway, they give you "assignments" at the end of a section; in the beginning these are reading assignments. And can I just say this "supplemental" reading assignment in the Foundations section feels like it really ought to have been mandatory. Words cannot express how deeply this resonated with me, and how reassuring I found it.

Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Learning How to Code, by Cecily Carver

This resonated with my soul. With every bit of experience I'd had jumping from paid and free courses alike to learn coding. It's not a particularly long read and its conversational vibe is really easy to follow; if you're starting out coding, in the beginning steps, or even just kicking around the idea of coding, I highly suggest reading this.

Also this surprisingly upbuilding article,

Don't Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy, found on TechCrunch

Today, I started working through The Odin Project. So far, I'm only 39% of the way through the foundations course, but already, it's filling in so many gaps in my self-taught knowledge. I started coding aeons ago, playing around in DOS as a kid and pulling apart webpages & templates later. I'm fairly familiar with the likes of HTML and CSS at this point, but diving into the terminal was an experience!

Saturday, 21st October 2023

Well, this has been a rollercoaster of a week. I got tired of my Windows PC (10 years old) freezing when I opened more than three tabs at a time. So, shifted myself over onto a Linux machine cobbled together from bits of old office computer components I got free. Jumping from a 10-year-old HDD to a fresh SSD is giving me whiplash on bootup haha!

But it's so much easier for following along with TOP now. I've gone through the first sections a couple of times now, trying to cement it in my head before moving on. I still find myself checking my cheatsheet every time I need to create a new file or anything.

On an actual coding front, I've been reacquainting myself with isotope.js the last two days. It came as a horrible shock to discover that the site for it was down, but someone pointed me in the direction of the internet archive, where you can still read through the documentation.

Ever so slowly getting there with javascript. I'm looking forward to tackling the HTML & CSS sections of TOP and discovering what holes there are in my knowledge, though. Nothing like reading through things called 'fundamentals' to realise how scattergun my learning approach has been.

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After procrastinating on the landing page for, what seems like, a week, I finally finished it. In reality, I finished most of it over the course of 8-10 hours or so, and I'm sure that someone more experienced with HTML and CSS could have finished it in less than an hour, but that's how it goes. I actually feel way more comfortable with html, css, and flexbox as a whole after finishing the exercise. I still don't really enjoy working with those technologies though, but at least I'm done with those for now. Now it's on to the juicy stuff...Javascript!

So far, I'm still following along with TOP's cirriculum. I'm currently on the section that goes over CSS in the Foundations course which is pretty much a recap for me. Not gonna lie, I understand that HTML and CSS is essential to become a WebDev, but I'm eager to get to the part that goes over JavaScript. The HTML and CSS sections are pretty boring, and actual programming is what I fine both challenging and interesting. As I mentioned before, a lot of what I learned in my intro CS classes carry over to the few introductory JS classes that I've dabbled in (but never completed so far). I set up a few goals for myself to accomplish by the end of next year:

1.) To be able to create a deploy a fully functioning webside: It doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to be functional. I suppose creating my own website should be my target for this goal.

2.) Complete most of the classes for my AS degree: While I don't thing a degree is essential to what I want to do, it is important given the amount of time and money I've invested in it to at least get SOME credential out of it. I will go on the DSU website sometime this week and reduce my scheduled 2 classes to 1.

3.) Complete TOP cirriculum: I have a hard time finishing things that I start, so it would help me gain confidence and prove that I can accomplish long-term goals that benefit me in the long run. Even though I plan on stopping at a certain point to work through the book: Head First JavaScript, I plan on finishing at least most of TOP.

4.) Complete a simple freelancing job: Even if it's just some basic HTML and CSS stuff from a freelancing site, I want to be able to do this so I can claim to be a "professional" developer.

5.) Transition into developing Android apps: This is REALLY what I want to do. From my understanding, I will eventually have to learn Java and/or Kotlin to be able to accomplish this goal, and I think I can do it with my foundation in C.