March 2018 - Got my FE Dev Cert!
The goal for April is going to be to find that balance.
So we're nearing the end of March and I thought I'd write another update blog on my progress breaking into the development world. I'm happy to say that I finished the freeCodeCamp Front End Development Certification and I am overjoyed! I really feel like I accomplished something, and I'm proud of all of the projects that came out of it. I could go into detail about each and every project, but I do think that from now on I'd like these posts to be a little more up-to-date, and structured, rather than just run-on summaries. I'm going to be actually putting some though into writing little summaries or coding explanations into the source code whenever I get the chance, so I don't think the blog is the right place to do that for now.
What I think I'll do instead is just explain where I plan on going from here. Now that I'm comfortable with HTML, CSS and JS, I think I can start exploring some more adventurous stuff. There's a bunch of libraries I'm going to look at for JS but the first one is going to be #React.js and I'm pretty excited. I've already started doing some introductory stuff and plenty of reading and from what I gather it's an essential tool for in browser programs, like single page apps and games. It's going to be a difficult journey for sure, but I'm glad I feel ready moving past the beginner stuff. Goodbye $('jQuery') and querySelector, hello React.Component and .render()! Now while, I'm excited to see what I can do with React, I'm not going to start just yet.
Before I get too far off, I'm just doing passive courses on the basics of React while I take on the more urgent and pressing challenge. My next coop term is right after my next school term, and during that school term, I'm going to be looking for a position pretty much immediately after getting there. That means that I should be ready to present my applicable side projects ASAP and that means: get my website up and running!
I had bought that domain, leander.xyz so long ago, but I knew that I wanted to use it as a portfolio page, but I was more focused on FCC. With that completed, I have decided to go full on and develop my entire website from the ground up, no dependencies, no external libraries. Just some lightweight, HTML, CSS, and JS. Well, that's what I thought. It occurred to me after getting a hosting plan that I wanted to also make my own CMS. I don't want to use a Joomla, or Wordpress, or Squarespace template, I want to design everything myself! This might just be me being stubborn, but I think it's a useful tool to at least try and take this on! So, that's what I'm doing: I'm in the process of rewriting and perfecting a total portfolio revamp without any Bootstrap or jQuery, AND I'm learning PHP to run the form data and mySQL for the database. It's definitely a whole big thing but I'm pretty excited! The learning curve is high, but I feel like it's doable, and I have about a month to get it up and running, ready for hiring season! I'm going to be my own Full Stack developer!
The frustrating part however, is while I just want to dedicate all my attention to this site, I can't! I have to complete my Work Term Report, and that 20pg paper is daunting and intensive and is definitely going to be a time sink. I know that I have to get it done, but compared to my website, I just don't feel myself as compelled to dedicate time to it. The goal for April is going to be to find that balance. Ideally, I want everything done by the time I get to school, which, by perfect luck, starts May 1st! This means that by my next blog (if I take another month to write another) I want to have: A functional, live website, all my projects up-to-date and hosted, a new site theme, a custom made CMS, a note section and a researched, proofread work term report, all by May. ._. It seems daunting for sure, but let's see how I do!