Learning Programming #5
10/31/2024
Wowie, has a lot happened since I last posted here! I won't talk about it much here, but my life has gotten completely turned upside down this year and things are FINALLY starting to look up.
As far as programming goes, I've hit a bit of a "plateau" in my learning process. Things are getting harder, new concepts don't come as easily to me as they once did, and my enthusiasm is starting to wane. Right now, I'm on the CSS section of TOP's Foundations course. I was doing great until I got to the Flexbox lessons!
Something about Flexbox just doesn't click with me for some reason. I suspect it has something to do with how elements can be both flex containers and flex items, and the nesting therein. With enough practice, I anticipate that it will come easier to me. It's just a matter of getting to used to which things do what.
In the meantime, I'll be studying in shorter segments more often so as to not burn myself out with frustration. I want to take good care of myself so that I can make the learning process as consistent and sustainable as possible. Lots of breaks!
This is the point in time that makes or breaks my career as a programmer. Will I give up before I even begin? Or will I stick with it and get my first job?
Stay tuned to find out!
Learning Programming #4
10/09/2024
Still working through The Odin Project (TOP)! I'm trying to do a little each day, which has been working out well for me so far. I'm about 20% through the Foundations Course.
What's nice is that I've retained a lot of what I learned in the computer basics class I took in university over a year ago. I still had my virtual machine, and I was able to set up Xubuntu on it. Pretty easy stuff so far! The only problem I've had is learning how to navigate the command line. Bash does not come easy to me, as I am notoriously prone to getting lost (even in real life!). Navigating all my files without a GUI has been a challenge for me, so I've opted to work in smaller segments more often. So instead of 1-2 hour-long study sessions a day, my days look more like four or five 30 minute sessions all spread out. I don't really time myself either. I just work until my brain says it's time to quit and take a break.
I've joined the TOP Discord server as well. I've been lurking for about a week or so, and I really like the atmosphere! Lots of helpful people, good structure, keeps itself on track; it even has office hours! I anticipate that I'll really need some help with the JavaScript course, and I really appreciate having such a chill place to seek guidance.
Speaking of JavaScript, this place will be getting a complete overhaul once I learn enough. This place is the shooting range, baby! One big experiment for me to play around with while I get the hang of website development.
I'm still very excited to be learning all of this. Thanks for following along with my journey!
Learning Programming #3
10/04/2024
Welp, I've decided to continue along my programming journey in the direction of web development. Particularly, I am focused on learning JavaScript so that I can eventually become a front-end developer. To this end, I am working through The Odin Project.
I've hit a bit of a road-block though. The course requires that I use Ubuntu as my operating system, whether that be through virtual machine, dual booting, or otherwise. My laptop doesn't have a lot of hard drive space though, and I don't have access to another computer. So for the next week or so, I'll look into getting a bigger hard drive for my laptop, which will delay my studies for a little while. I think it will be worth it in the long-run though!
Maybe I could spend some time learning how to type while I wait. Save myself some carpal tunnel in the future. ;D
Learning Programming #2
09/24/2024
I just spent ALL DAY trying to figure out how to get the iframe stuff to work. I was tired of having to edit all of my html files one-by-one whenever I needed to update the sidebar or navigation section. It seems to be working now, even if I had to make a few aesthetic compromises in the process. All things considered, I'm pretty happy with how things are coming along so far!
Outside of working on this website, I've continued taking courses on Codecademy and playing around in PICO-8. I've been learning the bulk of my HTML, CSS, and Lua from Codecademy, and I thank that site for my swift progress. I ought to make a page for all the resources I use while programming; it's quite a list!
As for my PICO-8 adventures, I've mostly been working through this Atari Breakout tutorial and making a flowchart-type toy. The flowchart toy is meant to help my fiancee and I choose an activity when we hang out; it asks you to choose among the listed options until you narrow it down to one. It's sort of like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" type thing? I thought it was funny, helpful, convenient, and simple enough to be a good first project. Something I could make from scratch without following a tutorial or banging my head against a wall.
All that being said, I'm learning a lot and I'm quite pleased with how far I've gotten in such a short span of time! Wish me luck as I tackle bigger and more complicated projects.
Learning Programming #1
09/22/2024
So far, I've spent much of my term learning HTML and CSS to work on my neocities site. It's been okay so far! I used a template (linked to the left) and got it mostly functional on desktop (sorry mobile users). I spent so much time on my site because I wanted to have a place to post all my projects in the wake of Cohost shutting down. As a result, though, I've procrastinated learning Lua, which is what I originally set out to do a few weeks ago.
I wanted to pick up a programming language so that I could get into game development. To this end, I bought and installed PICO-8, and began learning Lua. It seemed easier for me than Godot and GDScript, which I had experimented with in 2021 but never quite figured out. This time around, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to learn programming. I've been having a lot of fun, in fact!
Though, for both of these projects, I feel my skills beginning to plateau. It's what I think of as "the gauntlet" in learning any new skill. Most people learn a LOT very quickly when they're first starting out. When they've gotten the basics down, many people slow down in their intermediate phases, and I think that's where I'm at now. This plateau will make or break my motivation to continue learning these languages, as it means learning will become slower and more tedious until I hit another breakthrough. Wish me luck!
Blog Attempt #1
09/18/2024
The title is pretty self-explanatory; this is my first attempt at updating my blog! While I'm not excited about writing each blog post in HTML every time I want to post something, it seems way easier for me than any of the alternatives. Besides, I like HTML! I think it's a pretty easy language to get the hang of for someone who's just starting out. I think I've done a pretty snazzy job setting this place up, considering it's been a little under a week since I started.
Honestly, once I get things going, the blog portion of my site might become my favorite to update! It's nice to ramble without the expectation of people actually reading. Though, I guess I wouldn't mind if people did start paying attention to my work. I'm not betting on it though! All of this is just a fun creative outlet for me, as well as a way to keep in touch with some friends from Cohost (rip eggbug).
Anyway, I'm just excited to have a place to shout into the void without the void shouting back. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!