Chaos Tamer
I have an Associate in Technical Arts in Web Application Development degree, and I’ve built websites with a variety of tools (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WordPress, and Wix amongst others).
My tech stack includes:
I enjoy looking at desk setups. This one, though, really stands out to me. Now, I’ve been wanting an adjustable standing desk for a number of years, which is a key part of this layout. But the wood desktop and matching bookshelves? *chef’s kiss* I think this desk may be the same one. MAY be….I guess.
And then there are the three monitors. THREE! My son has three and the notion is growing on me.
I plan to upgrade my computer early next year. I may need to think about my office furniture, too.
So, I’ve not been great at perfectly sequential days (my current project has expanded out a bit), but I’m still at it.
Today’s project, “Scroll Animation“, is another simple project where we take some boxes of content and fly them in from the side. To add a bit more complexity, we have some coming from the left, and some from the right.
Another fun one. Check out my other work on this course here. Also, check out my developer site.
So, I took the past couple of days off. I was exhausted after work Thursday, then had long work days Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, I did two today! Fortunately, they weren’t too complicated. That brings me to day 5.
Today’s first project is titled “Hidden Search Widget“. A very simple project, where we make a search box that expands or contacts (no search functionality yet).
My second project today is “Blurry Loading“, where an image loads blurry, and comes into focus while a countdown timer counts.
Fun projects which are helping refine my HTML, CSS and JavaScript knowledge. I am working towards bettering my coding skills. Slowly but surely growing. Check out my developer site for more details.
Completed day 3 of the 50Projects in 50Days course, “rotating navigation”. This one rotates the whole page if you click on the hamburger icon in the upper left. Hard to imagine a use case, but it’s really fun.
I’ve been posting these to my recently re-done Github site. Again, I’ve done three of these:
With Expanding Cards, when you click on individual cards, they expand out, and the other ones shrink. For Process Steps, it’s like a progress indicator. Each time you press the “next” button, the line advances one over. And for Rotating Navigation, when you click on the hamburger icon, the web page rotates, showing the navigation buttons. For me, this is fun stuff. Which is good since it’s now 9:30 at night and I still haven’t eaten dinner yet.
Anyway, it feels good to refresh my knowledge and build out these skills. I feel it’s a critical part of my march into a tech career. Plus, the internet and web development are the future of tech. I intend to do one project per day every day, but we’ll see. I have a few things coming up that may cause a day or two to be lost. But I should have not problem keeping this moving forward.
Wish me luck!
So, I finished a associates in web application development back in June. My skills are ok, but pretty basic. I realize I want to code better. As I’m working on being more proactive, I opted to sign up for some Udemy courses. Right now, I’m working on 50 Projects in 50 Days. This one focuses on expanding my HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The first two projects were basic, but I needed that. Rattling through the rust. Plus, my typing has gotten…lame. I used to be highly accurate. Coding, though, is petty and will fail by missing one character, a space, a semicolon. Sometimes, the biggest challenge is simply finding the error.
So, I’ve completed two so far:
With this, I updated my hand-coded site on Github’s free service (check it out here). I’m posting these projects here, as well as in my github repository for these projects.
Part of me wants to significantly up my coding game. Perhaps event to the point of being able to take part in a hackathon. However, I am trying to juggle several things and we’ll see how far down this rabbit hole I venture.
I just finished my final in Enterprise Architecture. By successfully completing this class, I’ve completed the requirements for some additional certificates:
I also have applied for the following certificates:
I’m done being a student for the near term, but I think I’ve accomplished a lot during these past 2.5 years. I’m proud of all I’ve done and look forward to finding ways to implement all I’ve learned.
Another goal is to land a full-time role with a company that will pay for me to continue my studies. There’s so much more to learn! I plan to start a new role sometime around the end of this year, and then be able to start classes with that company in 2023.
I came across this video today, which I think is a great, high-level, introduction to Web 3.0, and how it relates to Web 2.0.
As I just finished a degree in Web Development which focused on the Web 2.0 stack, I see the importance to expand into Web 3. It is the future, after all. Still going to be a bit for the key details to shake out, but I want to be ahead of the curve. And have every intention on making that happen.
In the great debate about which is more important, form or function, I prioritize function. Ultimately, I don’t think “important” is the right word. Form, style, design must support and enhance functionality. Then the overall experience is better.
The user experience is what’s most important. “Form” takes functionality higher, makes it better. When done right, it turns users into fans. Neither is more important. Form and function are both critical to creating quality. And that should be the goal.
Ah, web dev! The path of the future! Well, that’s been my thought for the past few years. I believe that web interfaces are a key part of most every software system we’ll be dealing with over the next few years (not sure what I mean by few…but, you know).
With that focus on the future, I want to consider what the future of the web looks like. I’ve explored web 3.0 a little bit, but there’s quite a bit more to wrap my head around. The key parts seem straightforward: immersive experiences and dispersed architecture. How much of that is the “metaverse”? What’s the role that blockchain will play? That is quite hard to glean right now.
As with any frontier, there’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of risk. And, let’s be fair, a lot of fraud/snake-oil/charlatans. But there’s also great opportunity. Discerning between the two is the challenge. And those that get that figured out the earliest will reap the greatest rewards.
In my current role, I’m preparing to cover for our communications coordinator while he’s out on paternity leave. This will last through November, and my contract is up at the endo of December.
I covered for him 2 years ago on his last leave, so I know quite a bit about the work (check out samples of that work here). Last round, though, we were at the beginning of the pandemic, so my main focus was on creating and editing video for our services. This round, our video production needs are minimal (we’re fully back in person and streaming. Not much video editing at all). Though we’re launching a stewardship campaign, which will have a video component, we’re outsourcing that. Most of this round’s work will be newsletter maintenance and bulletin creation. I’ll also be doing social media work, some graphic design, and some writing. It’ll be fun.
This gives me pause. I’m good at communications work. The main reason I chose to study web development grew out of comms. I get consulting work for my comms and marketing knowledge. Yet, I also love more general tech. I really enjoyed my Cisco networking classes, the hardware classes, and my current Enterprise Architecture class. Of course, more traditional IT work seems to pay better. And there is a lot of competition for communicator roles, especially with all the changes in journalism careers.
So, I’m not sure what will come of all this. Will I try to leverage my experience in this contract role into a FTE comms role somewhere? Or do I want to be straight tech? Or is there something else I haven’t seen yet? Oh, the mystery of life!