Fandango posted today about Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, a regular feature on his blog.
This one is from a few nights ago. And, yes, this was taken with my Samsung S22. I was really delighted with it.
Cellpic Sunday, March 26th Edition
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A Cartoon for your Friday Edification
A friend of mine posted this cartoon in my office’s breakroom. Seems rather apropos, no?
If you’re not familiar with Pearls Before Swine, check them out.
Anyway, I hope you have a lovely weekend!
Reasons to Celebrate “Tea for Two Tuesday”
As a tea fan (yeah, I love coffee, too), I’m glad to have discovered “It’s More Than Tea” some time ago. Today Jill posted about one of those low-intensity holidays: Tea For Two Tuesday. I appreciate her wry take on all these marketing-driven holidays, but then how she dives into the benefits of taking moments to appreciate the “small” things. There are lots of benefits from taking a moment and having a cup of tea with someone. So, take a moment and give the post a read.
Cell Pic Sunday, March 12, 2023
Fellow blogger, Fandango, posted this response to another blogger, John Steiner’s “Cell Pic Sunday” prompt. I love prompts, so thought I’d dive in.
I took this photo a few days ago along the Edmonds waterfront (about 20 miles north of Seattle). I’m walking away from this squall (rather quickly, I might add) in an attempt to avoid getting drenched. Which was successful, though it was shifting from sprinkles to a steady rain when I got back to my car.
I’ve spent the majority of my life in this area. I walked this exact stretch of beach with my grandparents ages ago. I know the winds, the weather, yet sometimes get caught off guard. I was able to read the change before I got hit, while still meeting my step goal. I’ll take that as a win.
Oh, Lord…LastPass
I’ve used LastPass for several years now. Even through a couple of data breaches. But this latest saga, especially with the, *ahem*, lack of transparency in their communications eroded my trust in the app. After looking over several options (if you’re looking, check out PCMag’s list of Best Password Managers), I opted for NordPass.
With all that, yesterday, this video came into my YouTube feed:
It’s a rather snarky rendition of how LastPass failed in their security controls. Anyway, it reminded me of my frustrations with them. I was willing to turn a blind eye to many of their issues due, well, laziness. Porting to a new provider was going to be a pain the…you know. However, a friend of mine’s information was released in this hack, and it was brutal. This was the tipping point for me, watching the impact of this for a friend’s business.
This finally motivated me to shift to Nordpass. It turned out that the transition was nowhere near as hard as I imagined. So, so far, I find the tool works fine and have no problem recommending them. It’s only based on a few weeks of experience, though. I’ll keep exploring it further.
Anyway, I hope you have great weekend plans.
Another #50ProjectsIn50Days Project
Got back at it today and tackled the “Double Click Heart” project. This one counts the number of times you click on the featured image, along with a little heart animation. What impressed me the most on this one was seeing how the heart animation was mostly CSS. It’s also nice to feel my understanding of JavaScript settle in deeper.
I feel motivated to finish this course. Now I’m past the half-way point, and have blocked time to get this finished, I’m starting to wonder what I want to do next. There’s so much more I want to learn that choosing a path is challenging. Do I go deeper still into vanilla web development? Do I explore Angular or React? Or do I go a different direction and look to Python? I’ll write about that as I hash it out!
Also, I’m looking for a new role. Ideally, one that utilizes my tech skill set. However, it seems that more people want to talk to me about my admin skill set. Well, that’s fine. I will continue to grow and develop as a developer. It’ll be interesting to see where all this takes me. If you’re looking for either a web dev or a administrative assistant/project coordinator in the Seattle area, let me know!
Onwards!
Todays #50ProjectsIn50Days Project
Today’s project, titled “Github Profiles“, is a tool that pulls information from Github (if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a site where developers load their code. We do that to show code samples, to share our work with others, and to work collaboratively). This tool uses Github’s API, where we can select whatever elements we want from the profile to display on our own site. For this project, we opted for our name, profile picture, bio, number of followers, number we’re following, the number of repos (repositories) we have, and then the 10 most recently updated ones. Check it out! And feel free to use my username to search by: carlsetzer.
Using APIs is really fun for me. And, in this one, Brad Traversy (the instructor), introduced us to Axios.
The amazing part to me is after learning so much, there’s just so much more to learn. That’s one of the reasons I chose this path: continuous learning! But there are times it gets overwhelming. Just dive in, move forward, and grow. So, onward!
Being Strategic With Social Media
I’ve known people whose business is dependent completely upon a single platform. YouTube is a huge one, but I also see people 100% dependent on Instagram, TikTok, or even Facebook, for their business. I’ve been thinking a lot about that recently.
A friend of mine, due to the LastPass hack, lost access to his YouTube channel. Then there’s the drama over at Twitter, with people being banned from the platform on the whim of Mr. Musk, and I can continue. So, I hope you’ll understand that I highly recommend that you DO NOT rely 100% upon a single platform where you have no control.
Social media sites are great tools for connection, but they’re best for directing people to a website. One you own, you control. Encourage folks to subscribe to a newsletter, or the website. Then, by combining your website with blog posts and newsletters, and you have a very powerful tool to stay connected with your audience even if you’re blocked from a key social channel. Also, if you have a website connected to your social platforms, your audience has a way to find and reconnect with you if you lose access to YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, whatever.
I particularly like sites built on WordPress, as it’s extremely portable. Wix, Squarespace, and the like are tied to a single provider, too. With WordPress, I can port my website to another hosting company with relative ease (related: make sure you back up your files somewhere other than on the hosting platform).
Be strategic with your digital portfolio. Be prepared for various calamities, as well as for the eventual falling out of whatever must-use platform the people abandon next. Technologies evolve. Audiences evolve. Platforms evolve. Business sustainability requires you to be thoughtful and strategic.
Developing as a Developer
I’ve been continuing on with my “50 Projects In 50 Days” project. Since my last post, I’ve added 3 more:
- Kinetic CSS Loader
- Content Placeholder
- Sticky Navigation
- This one I did this one today, and I liked it so much that I intend to update my developer site to mirror this style. Not sure when, but soon.
Slowly but surely I’m growing my developer skills. I have realized that some of the video trainings move too quickly for me, but taking a moment to pause from time to time and process what I’ve done helps. I’ve also started reading Eloquent Javascript to get an alternative style of information absorption. Also, I ordered “Cracking the Coding Interview” today, as coding interviews are an area of anxiety for me (I know this is not an uncommon feeling amongst developers). These will be my foci for the next few weeks.
Now, beyond that: I’m still mapping that out. Do I want to deep dive into web development? I’m still not sure. While pursuing my ATA, I took classes in Cisco Networking and desktop support. I really enjoyed that and wonder if there might be opportunities to incorporate that into my career. Perhaps dev ops?
Data, database theory, and design were other key areas of my studies, plus, I really enjoyed them. SQL is SO cool! (Nerd acknowledgment). Another option I’m evaluating is Data Analytics. I would like to add Microsoft’s Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification this year as well.
I also studied Amazon Web Services, but just “got my feet wet” as the adage goes. I would like to go further with Cloud Systems, whether with AWS, Azure (I am a Microsoft Alum, after all, and live in Microsoft Land), or Google (I utilize Google extensively in my day-to-day work, seems like a logical fit). And, after watching several videos about 2023 IT Trends, cloud computing is one of the key growing areas in IT. Since I already have a little bit of training, diving deeper and getting some certifications sounds wise. AI and Machine Learning are things I want to, eventually, study, I am just not sure when.
So, that’s where I am as I map out my 2023 plans. What do you think? Any advice? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Happy New Year! I finished the Drag N Drop Project
Well, Happy New Year everyone! Today, I completed another project in my 50 Projects In 50Days series. This one, Drag N Drop, grabs a random photo from Unsplash, then move it between different boxes. And I created effects styles for the different elements (drag over, etc) . A pretty neat feature/ability.
So, more this is another exploration into JavaScript, which is where most of the functionality of the project comes from. Though I’m not sure I want to be a coder, career-wise, I do want to get better. And I’m not sure how much more JavaScript I want to study. Perhaps I’ll dive into Python soon. It nothing else, it’s more data for my Github page.
On another note, my current contract has been extended to the end of January. Additionally, the plan is to make the role permanent after the next Congregational Meeting. However, it’s only part-time, so I am looking for a full-time gig somewhere. I’m open to a range of roles, from exec support/admin work to project management to web development. My main goal is to have a continuing education budget. Let me know if you hear of anything.