Programming For Non-Programmers: In Review February 18, 2017

So, my last post on here talked about a class I was taking on coding. This is my summary of the past month:

The course was called “Programming for Non-Programmers” and it was one of the offerings of onemonth.com. Now, in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the choice I would have made for what I want to learn, but there were interesting parts of this class.

We explored lots of technologies used by different websites, went over the history of computer languages and differences between the dozens available, the divide of front-end and back-end web development, and all the basics of what you need to get a website up and running. I had never realized before that there were so many languages or that you needed to know different languages to run front-end and back-end.

By far, my favorite lesson was following the teacher in writing out some basic HTML, CSS & JavaScript. Watching how the page would change by adding or taking away was really fun and I finished the whole week of video lessons in 1 day. The topics of the pages were entertaining and I wasn’t bored by any of the information.

This class was part of a Christmas present from my husband to help me realize my dream of “learning basic coding”. The other part was a book called HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites. I flipped through the first few sections of the book before this class started, and now in the coming months I plan on going back to it. Hopefully the book can expand on the parts of the class I found the most intriguing, the coding.

My future plans for usage of this knowledge are vague or nonexistent as of now, but after I get through that first book, I hope to move on to other books. Even if it’s the For Dummies title, continuation of this interest that’s finally pushing it’s way to the front is something I’d really like to do. Maybe I’ll never use it for anymore than adding a GIF to the about me section of my tumblr (something I actually did about 7 years ago) or to customize the theme on my myspace page (also did this, but about 14 years ago) but as long as it’s fun for me, I’ll find ways to use it.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll know someone who needs a website and isn’t afraid to let a coding hobbyist take a stab at it.

My Journey To Web Development Land January 29, 2017

Recently my mind has been pulled away from the mindless repetitiveness of my manufacturing job and toward something that’s been an interest of mine since the days of MySpace: HTML coding. So my resolution of sorts this year has been to finally expand my knowledge and see if this could be something that could become more than an idea. That brings us to now, where I’m writing this post after enrolling in a class to learn more and interviewing some developers I know about what they do and how they love it.

Peter, who recently left his job as a Mechanical Engineer to pursue a career in app development, and Jason, who works a full-time job as a Graphic Designer and in his spare time creates for his co-owned clothing brand, took the time to help me learn a little bit about what this world is like. Both started coding at different points in their lives, showing that the industry is open to all kinds of people. I like to think that is fitting, because different kinds of people have different kinds of problems and that leaves developers a little more open to play to their strengths.

Almost everything discussed came back to relying on the community of developers. When in doubt, there is bound to be someone there who has an answer for the question you are asking. All you need to do is ask it. If it’s a group project, there are always multiple angles to approach the problem from. Working with others is approved of whole-heartedly because of the different way each person works. The coding world is always changing and there is not one set way to get the intended results. Then there is the fallback of doing a quick google search if you can’t remember or aren’t sure of something.

My interviewees agreed that applying what you know and learn regularly and keeping up to date with the ever changing landscape of the development world is important. It’s impossible to keep up if you don’t do your research and regularly use that knowledge helps you remember and become better.

Both developers were also incredibly open to the idea of working with anyone on a project. One said there is always room for more programmers and was eager to pay back all the help he received from others while learning. This was not incredibly surprising, but gave me a sense of comfort that if I chose to pursue this in some career, there would be experienced people willing to help where they can.

What are you made of? February 26, 2010

so, I decided to do this a little differently than the people on soulpancake…

I’m made of:

1 cup fun
2 tbsp dreams
1/2 cup quirkiness
2 qts helpfulness
1 lb love
6 oz smiles

mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until well blended.

results should be adorable, thoughtful, and all around awesome.
beware, end results may be crumbly, but delicious. 🙂

What piece of prudent advice would you want to give your son or daughter? January 18, 2010

okay, so maybe I decided I might try to stick it out a little longer with the whole soul pancake thing… its hard finding your own topics! haha

so, now for my answer to the question…
I actually kinda think about this quite often. I want to be a parent one day, hopefully an amazing one, and part of that experience is giving advice and knowing what to say. My parents weren’t always the best in that category, so I think about how I’d do certain things differently and stuff like that. I think one of my first pieces of advice would be “the 10 second rule doesn’t always apply”. Juuuuuust kidding! (although I probably would tell my kids that, and make a big joke about it) hmmm, how about “real friends won’t always take your side”. I’ve learned this 10 fold. It may be easier to just have friends that will agree with everything and anything you say, but those kinds of people tend to be kind of spineless and lack their own personality, and after awhile that just gets boring. Being around a person who can’t form their own opinions is like watching the same movie every day. It may start out good and funny, but after awhile it just gets lame and repetitive. Now, I get in fights with my friends occasionally, and I usually end up calling them stupid heads for anywhere from a few hours to a few days after we fight, but we eventually get over it, and one of us apologizes, and we become better friends because we understand each other better after that fight.
Maybe that’s something you kind of have to learn on your own, but I intend to discuss this with my kids anyway, just so they know I was right about something.

changing it up January 16, 2010

so, soul pancake changed their layout, and due to my aversion to change, I’m not going to try to figure it out.
I’m gonna make up my own topics now! aaand I just had a really good one, but now I forgot it 😦

because I can’t think of it right now, I’ll probably be back later today.

What is one thing you think everyone should be afraid of? December 21, 2009

as we all know, most fears are completely irrational. no, pickles will not harm you. clowns may look strange, but really? snakes and spiders are a little more rational, but in reality, still not completely understandable. at least not to me. I know I have irrational fears too… like my fear that I’m unlovable. I’m sure like me, other people think about why they are afraid of what they are. I hope they can’t figure it out either, because that would make me feel dumb. hah

obviously, I don’t consider anything I listed above to be something anyone should be afraid of, let alone EVERYONE. So, what do I think everyone should be afraid of, you ask? I can think of a few things…
I think I would put becoming a dishonest person at the top of the list. Corruption is everywhere nowadays, and being dishonest with yourself and others can lead to a very sad life. It can be something as simple as eating things you’ve promised yourself you wouldn’t eat all the way up to things like convincing yourself the mob are not really bad people, they just follow tradition… or something similar to that.
Another thing would be fear of losing oneself. If you don’t know who you are, how can you expect other people to know who you are? by losing yourself you can lose connections to everyone you know and even come to hate yourself. I have to say that would be a very sad existence indeed.
I think I would say those are the two things people should be the most afraid of. I can probably think of more, but I really don’t want to go on and on forever, so the last thing I’ll say is everyone should be afraid of how much they love me. (that’s a reference to The Office btw)

How do you define success? December 7, 2009

Everyone hopes to be successful. Its basically the American Dream. However, for every person, its different. I don’t believe there is any correct or incorrect definition of success. Which brings me to MY definition of what success is.

I’ve never been much into needing “things” to be happy. Growing up my parents couldn’t give me lots of things I wanted, and I think it really helped me not getting everything I wanted. Seeing my sister’s kids getting 500 presents for every birthday and Christmas has shown me that. For me, success has always just been about finding the one thing you want to do more than anything and doing it, happily, and being able to provide the essentials for life of course. No one NEEDS the fancy cars, high-tech cell phones, name brand clothes, etc. If you need those things to feel successful, good for you, but for me those things are just extras. Real success comes with being happy with yourself the way you are. Happiness in the friends you have and the things you do in your life. Anyone can deem anyone else “successful”, but that person might not think themselves to be so. For example: most people think of moderately known actors/actresses as successful, but the very actor/actress might think themselves not much of anything. They may feel that they are missing something huge in their lives; be it family, career choices, or the ability to do as they please without being judged for it by most of the world. When I was younger, my idea of success was being rich enough to buy whatever I wanted. My dream was to buy my own island and live on it. haha As I grew older, I realized that wouldn’t make me happy, and my idea of success changed.
What was the point of having an island? what would the money do for me? money can’t comfort you when you’re upset, make sure you get home after drinking too much, or be there to celebrate precious moments with you. An island won’t do you any good if you’re there alone…
now don’t get me wrong, I realize you do need money. I’m just saying making enough to buy all the things you want isn’t really necessary. I would be lost if I never had any money. I’m a self admitted movie junkie, and I tend to buy an average of 6-12 movies a month lately, but I don’t just go to the store with a budget and grab some movies… I search prices and often buy them for under $5 on eBay or amazon. When clothes shopping I wait until sales and use coupons whenever available. I even get mad when I feel I’ve spent too much the 2 or 3 times a year I do shop for myself.
So basically, I’m saying success is being happy with who you are, what you do and the people that surround you. If you are unhappy with any of those 3 parts of your life, it becomes very hard to be successful in your life.

What praise do you want to receive? November 29, 2009

It’s not hard for me to receive praise. I like hearing that I do things well, that I’m a good person, etc. However, it seems that I don’t ever get praise for the thing I really want praise for.
More than anything, I want my dad to tell me I’ve been a good daughter and he’s proud of me. My relationship with my dad has always been strained. I blame him for a lot of disharmony in our house growing up, the basic failure of my brother functioning in real life, the stress on my mom to maintain the house and the finances, and various other things.
I’ve come to see things a little differently since last November though. I’m glad to still have him around. I just want it vocalized that I’m not a disappointment to him.

I wanted to write more, but this is actually a pretty hard topic to write about…

What’s the most important thing you learned about yourself this year? November 17, 2009

its so weird that I found this question today. I was thinking about how much I’ve changed in the past year just a couple hours ago. I decided it was so weird that things I would’ve said about people just a year ago no longer hold true. I was so innocent to everything 1 year ago… Having thought about this already, you’d think I’d easily have an answer… but of course I don’t have an exact answer. I’m not starting from January either. this question should include last November and December, for reasons I’ll explain…
It was last November when my dad had a heart attack and my entire world changed. I never had the fear of losing one of my parents until that morning, which I still remember like it was yesterday. I’ll never forget the people who were there for me. The next day someone at my work died… a young grocery guy. I felt horrible for being able to hold onto my dad while this young kid’s family could never hold him again. December brought around my first seriously confusing relationship… for all intensive purposes we were dating, but he couldn’t decide what he wanted and never made it official. I stayed latched onto him for nearly 6 months before it ended. badly. In the winter months I grew closer than ever to 6 people in particular, 1 of which I’m not talking with now and 2 others which I only talk to at work. I made a number of new friends too, some of which I’m still close with.

Spring and summer flew past with late nights of laughing and long days of working. I made one last attempt to hold onto something that was already gone. My brother-in-law was deployed for the third time to Iraq, leaving my sister and 4 kids. At least this will be his last time. I felt guilty for being so happy when there were so many problems with my family. I went through a short relationship, and that’s basically where I am now.So, obviously I haven’t learned nothing in the last year, I’m just not sure whats the most important…

I think I’m gonna have to go with loving yourself is the best way to find other people who will love you. I really felt unrelatable and completely out of my element talking to people before I met my friends that I have now. Loving myself was really low on my list of things to do, and I felt horrible about myself. Strangely enough, getting myself into that weird, complicated relationship was the thing I needed to learn to love and respect myself and my feelings. My self esteem went through the roof when I was with Tony… because I felt wanted for the first time in a long time. I’ve noticed that I seem to talk about myself a lot now, and I think I’m just catching up on the years it took me to accept myself and talk about how I felt. There are still awkward places where I don’t know how to relate, but I’m learning, and trying… and I finally love myself. The feeling is great.

List five polyamorous crushes you’ve harbored in your life. November 13, 2009

1. The Beatles

if you were to venture into my room, you would find quite a few posters of people I admire, but I don’t just have 1 Beatles poster, I have 3. sure, they’re probably on almost everyone’s list, but I can’t help it. Every time I hear their music it just does something to me. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t know who the Beatles were, I grew up with them… and every time I hear one of their songs I haven’t heard before, it takes me back to the first time I heard twist and shout at the pool when I was about 5. Their sheer popularity will probably never be matched, and I don’t think any band will ever be as well known and loved as them. if the movie Ghost Town didn’t start with I’m looking through you it probably wouldn’t have affected me the same way.

2. The cast of the Mighty Ducks movies

Emilio Estevez, Joshua Jackson, and Shaun Weiss (Goldberg), not to mention the 15 or so other ducks. I had a crush on all the boys and wished I was any of the girls. The Mighty Ducks trilogy made me want to buy my first pair of roller blades. I was inspired to join my first team sport and have fun because of these movies. So its a no brainer that they hold a special place in my heart. I even thought of trying out for hockey, but decided I’m too girly and afraid of getting hurt. I would be wholly surprised if I ever met someone who could honestly say they did not like one thing about any of these movies. I might even be hurt. I was also introduced to Queen via this movie, in which they sing we are the champions. Good memories and fun times are associated to this movie.

3. The X-Men

I’m not all that familiar with the entire X-Men universe, but having grown up watching the cartoon and just now starting to get into comics again, I want to become more familiar with it. They kick ass, and lets face it, that’s hot. Even if they are freaks, or mutants. Even if some of them have the dumbest powers ever and are totally useless for anything. Their adornment in spandex and ability to kick evil mutant ass is incredible. I have to say Rogue might be my favorite, especially her jumps between good and evil. It amazes me that there are so many well developed characters in the series, another reason the X-Men made my list.

4. Dan, Alex and Jeff from the Totally Rad Show

this is a very recent addition to my list, but just as important. watching TRS is something I’ve come to look forward to every week. I have to say I would marry any of these 3 guys if I ever got the chance… ignore the fact that they’re my sister’s age (which is roughly 13 years older than me). Their knowledge in everything that is entertainment is awesome and somewhat astounding. My personal opinion is everyone should watch this show. Almost guaranteed you will fall in love with it and these guys as quickly as I did. (Thank you, Adam)

5. the cast of Arrested Development

George Sr., Lucille, GOB, Michael, Lindsey, Tobias, Buster, George Michael and Maeby. Oh, it is love. I was first introduced to them by a friend who has an obsession with Buster. I shortly after borrowed the seasons from another friend, and fell in love. They say the best way to the heart is through the funny bone, and in this case, it is definitely the truth. I find myself quoting this show more than I like to admit, and each character holds their own place in my heart. I can’t wait for the movie to come out so I can rekindle the flame. haha

I didn’t really put this list in any kind of order… these are just the first 5 I thought of… I could probably keep going for quite awhile longer. I almost went with the Lonely Island for number 5, but thought it was not so cool to have 2 trios of funny guys and leave out the hilarious nonet that is AD. so yeah, that’s my list! enjoy!