Tag: web dev

Another of the 50 Projects In 50 Days

Carl Setzer2 Comments
Screenshot of 50 Projects in 50 Days Notes App Project

Ok, I got distracted from the 50 Projects In 50 Days Udemy Course. It’s been over a year since my last post with one. I’ve been working two jobs for the past year, so that’s my excuse. However, I want to get back at this as I still want to better my developer skills.

This project is titled “Notes App“, which is, well, a note-taking app with interesting elements. First, we use the “Marked” library to enable mark-down capabilities. Second, it uses local storage. So, this was a pretty cool project!

I still hope to eventually move into web or software development. This is fun, if often frustrating work. But, man, you feel like a wizard when you figure this stuff out. Once I’m done with this class, I’m leaning towards studying Python, though maybe I should dive into other web technologies (React or Svelte, perhaps?). One of my attractions to web development was the ability to continue to grow. There’s always something to learn. Always!

Do search algorithms have a sense of humor?

Carl Setzer2 Comments
close up photo of cat with its eyes closed

Yesterday I set up a YouTube livestream and, as part of that, needed to whip out a thumbnail. Canva is my go-to tool of choice for such work. As this is for a preschool choir, I searched templates for “youtube children choir”, and THIS shows up in the results:

I found this…fascinating…and absolutely hysterical. Maybe the global AI is just trying to brighten my day.

The next project in my 50 projects in 50 days course

Carl Setzer
photo of people sitting near wooden table

Finished another one! Today’s project s titled “Random Choice Picker“. You enter choices in the text area, then press enter, and a random animation will change change colors. This one was a bit challenging, as I didn’t catch some of the automated choices that Visual Studio made for me. (I guess, properly, it’s the plug-ins that are out to get me, but I digress.)

A few weeks back I posted about some additional certificates that I applied for. Well, two of them are officially approved!

  • Database Theory & Design
  • Requirements Analysis

Still waiting for 5 others, but they’re coming, I’m sure. With that, I went ahead and did a few of the LinkedIn assessments:

  • Excel (top 15%)
  • PowerPoint (top 5%)
  • Outlook (top 30%)

I’m not sure if I’ll take any others. I’ll need to see if these really added any value.

Anyway, as I wrote last time, my current contract is quickly winding down. There is still talk about a possible extension, which would be nice considering all the layoffs in the news these past few days. However, I am not counting on anything until I have an offer in had. So, if you know of anyone looking for a business systems analyst, data analyst, web developer, or project manager/coordinator, please let me know!

Growing as a web developer

Carl Setzer
numbers projected on face

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.

My Focus

Carl Setzer
crop colleagues shaking hands in office

As I’ve written earlier, I really hadn’t thought too deeply about my long-term plans when I started this career transition. “I’ll build websites” was pretty much it. I didn’t think about where I’d work (companies, etc) or what, exactly, I’d do. So, the past few weeks I have focused on determining answers to those questions.

I did think about focusing on communications, as that kind of work has been a huge orbit for my career. However, after consulting with several friends and mentors, I now see that my career has had a few key elements that I want to move forward with. Project management is key amongst them.

For every company I’ve worked for, projects have been a key component. Every. Single. One. Some places more so than others.

The other piece has been technology management. Whether procuring and configuring PCs, copiers, etc, setting up and troubleshooting wifi and networking issues, desktop support, fixing phone systems, setting up security systems…you get the picture.

So, with the advice of my key trusted allies, I’m focusing on technology management. After I’m done at Edmonds, I will transfer to Central Washington University’s Lynnwood campus and work towards my Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology and Administrative Management.

I see that my web and cloud development studies, along with my side networking and desktop support courses, grant me a unique understanding of the technological needs of companies. Combining that with my background working for a wide range of businesses, I can make a solid impact anywhere I would work.

I’m starting my next steps with that since I have less than 6 months before I finish the ATA, which will pass by quickly.

Let me know of any leads or advice. I’d be much obliged!

My next steps

Carl Setzer

When I started this career transition, my vision seemed clear: at the end of this I’ll get a job managing websites. Well, my vision has evolved. This is standard in my life, at least. As I learn more, interact with people, expand my view, my understanding grows and new opportunities become visible.

I expected that I would come out knowing nearly everything about building and managing sites. The main thing I’ve learned is how little I know. There is so much left to learn. I expected to study html, Javascript and CSS far deeper, that I’d spend more than one quarter on each. I also didn’t expect the breadth I’d be exposed to. Things like the database theory and design classes, and the SQL classes I’m taking now. Nor did I think I’d dive deeper into project management, systems analysis and design, Visual Basic, or Amazon Web Services.

This range of classes opens up some career areas that I hadn’t considered. Analyst roles for one, data systems for another. Another area I see is project management. And there’s communications, with a focus on digital comms. So much to consider. And I want to launch my need stage of my career plan soon. So I have work to do.

Student Life Update

Carl Setzer
gray laptop computer showing html codes in shallow focus photography

One of the more interesting phenomena I’ve observed: the weird pivots between emotions. Late last week and earlier this week, I struggled with some basic concepts in database structure and math that left me feeling like I had no business pursuing this web developer thing. Then there’s today where I blast out two quizzes, that I budgeted an hour each for in just under 20 minutes. With perfect scores, mind you. So, right now, I feel a bit like superman. I’m sure I’ll be humbled again soon, though.

On another note: I’m changing the focus of this blog. Earlier this year I shifted my haiku and other poetry away from Questionsall.net to here, CarlSetzer.com. There were a few reasons, mainly the ads on Questionsall were annoying me. Plus, I thought it would be nice to only blog in one place. Well, a few folks let me know that it was a bit of a confusing muddle. And, as I approach the end of my ATA efforts, I need to give some thought to my “brand”. This site is my most powerful tool regarding SEO. It’s beenbtop of fold when you search “Carl Setzer” for quite some time. I want those HR folks researching me to view what I’ve been doing with my education. Plus, I plan to use this site as a way to generate freelance work.

Thus, I intend to move my poetry back to Questionsall.net. As a side project, that seems fitting. I don’t want haiku, etc, to be my career. Quite the opposite: I want it to remain free of the stress of production. It’s what I turn to in order to relieve stress.

And this site will focus on my journey through my web development studies and how I’m integrating all that into my overall life. My professional brand, so to speak.

Hopefully my little experiment wasn’t too jarring for you. I’ll work on a clear vision as I move forward.

Thank you all for your support and for reading my missives. It means a great deal to me.

Another Career Transition Update

Carl Setzer

I’m currently studying web development. Here’s my post that explains the why, and this link will be show you the series of updates about my change.

My last coding focused class was in the spring, where I took PHP and JQuery, two key programming languages for creating websites. Over the summer I took Project Management, Math and Desktop Software support (when I mapped out my path, I had a few gaps and I thought studying hardware would be fun). With PHP, I got to do some work with MySQL databases. This quarter I’m whole hog into SQL, MySQL and Databases: I get to study database theory and design, along with a class specifically focused on SQL scripting! This might be my favorite part yet!

I really enjoy databases. That might actually be a better descriptor of my current study program. Yeah, lots of web site creation, but I’ve had several classes with database elements (an intro to Office, including Access, and then there’s PHP where we did MySQL API calls, and a few other elements). And now my two data systems classes. Drives home the point that Web 2.0 is, ultimately, about interacting with data.

For some reason, databases come naturally to me (I’m sure I just jinxed myself and the rest of the quarter I’ll struggle mightily with SQL syntax…knocking on some wood now). So far, each of the database classes have just felt straightforward, that the syntax is clear. Javascript, for instance, was considerably less so. I’m looking forward to this, even though I still feel like I’m drinking from the proverbial fire-hose.

As I’m slowly marching towards the end of this stage, I feel the need to plan my next steps. When I went into this, I expected to come out and become a Web Developer, whatever that really meant. Now, I see so many possibilities, so many directions, so many things I can do with this knowledge. And I see how much more I want to learn. I’m exploring these and will post more soon.

My Web Developer Evolution

Carl Setzer
List of Programming Languages

I was just thinking about the programming languages and environments I’ve studied over the past year.

  • The first one was Visual Basic. I have a basic understanding. Not sure how much additional effort I should invest in expanding these skills.
  • Though there’s some argument about whether HTML and CSS are programming languages. I’ll accept that they aren’t languages, but I’ve studied them, and they’re critical to web development. I expect I’m at an intermediate level with these.
  • The last of the web development trinity is Javascript, which is a true programming language and a lot of fun. I don’t know anywhere near what I want to, and so will be continuing in that.
  • With javascript, this quarter I’m studying frameworks, and I’ve been focused on jQuery. I really like how much cleaner it is than straight javascript. I’m just over a month in and enjoying this. Looking forward to continuing to build my skills.
  • Also, this quarter, I’m studying PHP. This has been a lot of fun. This language makes so much more sense to me, at an intuitive level than javascript.  As I’m only 4 weeks in, I’m looking forward to growing that knowledge.
  • At other points in my life, I’ve explored Java and C/C++. This knowledge is quite old and was very basic even in my hey-day. I’ve also explored Fortran and Cobol, but that really just entailed reading some books. If I have the opportunity, I want to explore these deeper.
  • I’ll be diving into tools like SQL and MySQL in the next few quarters. I also want to add Python to that list.

This is just my programming journey. I’ve also explored tools like Access, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Visio. All of this, for me, is fun. I must be a nerd.