Adventures in Sublime (cobalt theme)

front end developer ( www.github.com/alexaraes  ) / improvisational comedian   

[awrecksa]

hoo boy

Well, I was laid off at the end of May. Dang it.

Stuff is hard, you know? But I’ve been following some tutorials, trying to build new things, and bone up on my Redux skills (in addition to applying to jobs like a crazy person).

I’ve got this idea of a little web app project I wanna build that’ll be just a really pretty display of an MLB team’s stats, upcoming games, scores, standing, etc. 

I’ll be moving to Dallas soon.

I’m not sure what to say right now. I’m feeling a bit aimless?

[awrecksa]

Holy Moly

Goodness gracious, y’all.

I’ve been so incredibly busy at work STILL. They’ve got me learning React Native as I develop our new mobile app. It’s very nice that they want me to spearhead this project, but asking for help is like, not a thing anymore, because I’m the only one that knows anything ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So I’m learning React Native and heading up the front-end of our app redesign, gonna be starting on the front-end of our corporate website here soon, and we’re about to launch a new product that I was a large part of the UI/UX (that sentence isn’t written right but whatever).

I wish I had time for side projects, or even to build my own dang site, but I don’t have time for anything! I’m either working or doing something at the theater.

Improv is going fantastically, by the way. My new troupe and I are in the finals of a competition on Monday night. I’m so lucky to be in this troupe, everyone in it is so talented and we all mesh so perfectly on stage it’s ridiculous. We’re called Honeypot but we should be called Lightning in a Bottle or somethin.

Anyway, I’m only writing this right now because I can’t concentrate when I’m so full. I should get a coffee.

[awrecksa]

Hoo Boy

Ugh you GUYS I’m so busy with work still!

Good news is I was asked to own a complete refactoring of our iOS and Android apps, so now I’m learning React Native! This is pretty cool, because I’m still the most junior member of our team. However, I think this means I’m being recognized for my proficiency in React!

Bad news is I totaled my car over this past weekend. :( Everyone is fine, and the other guy’s car is fine because it isn’t a car it’s a ginormous truck, and my car is not fine it is very totaled.

I keep hoping and wishing I worked downtown, because then I wouldn’t NEED a car! But for now, I’m catching some sweet carpool action with my coworker who thankfully lives pretty close to me on the east side.

I have so many extra-curriculars outside of work that I don’t have any time for side projects which is kind of bumming me out. I have improv class, improv troupes, and sketches to act in. FOLLOWING YOUR DREAMS IS HARD.

[awrecksa]

Bug Squashing

I love my current job for all the bug squashing I get to do. As a relatively new developer, I feel like I’m learning so much from it.

It’s NOT fun when the bug you’re trying to find/solve is untestable locally because of a dumb API.

Write code blind --> deploy to dev/QA environment --> hope it works --> it probably won’t --> repeat

[awrecksa]

Confession

While reading up on git rebase best practices, my mind wandered to when I was not employed and doing personal projects (soon again...).

I used to commit directly to dev and have no branches at all and I’m sorry to my family.

[awrecksa]

The Return of Me!

Y’all.

I’ve been working working working, and I also joined an improv theater, so I’ve just been so busy.

But, yo, check it, we’ve been ditching jQuery because it’s a huge package that we only used for ajax calls. jQuery’s replacement is something called superagent ( https://visionmedia.github.io/superagent/ ) and this shit it tyyyte, y’all. The docs are good and everything is so cut and dry, I love it. I’m lucky I’ve been tasked with translating our ajax calls from jQuery to superagent cuz now I’m gonna be a superagent superstar. 

Simple and clean is the way that you’re making me feel tonight.

[awrecksa]

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So no job yet... I have an interview today at 2, and one on Monday afternoon. I’m waiting to hear from two others after having a phone interview with one and doing a code challenge for the other. Things have really picked up in February.

On a more personal note: I quit drinking. I quit smoking. I started eating better. I’m working out. I wake up before 8 every day. I make my bed.

It’s amazing how taking charge of your health really changes how you feel about yourself. I have a less “woe is me” attitude and more “the right thing is coming in time” attitude. My mom always says to visualize myself where I want to be. To not wish for it, but to really believe I’m already there, and that the job just needs to catch up to me. With all this job waiting-for and lifestyle-changing, I’ve become a lot more patient.

I’m trying to give myself a good 26th birthday present. It’s in another 5 months, but the plan is that by the time those months have passed I will feel better about myself, be healthier, not be a gross smoker, and have a job I can thrive in.

Also I really want to freak out some people I know back home.

[awrecksa]

That feel

When you want to work somewhere so bad that you end up getting too nervous in the interview and then feeling like you did well because you were all shaky and stuff but you answered the questions the best you could at the moment (cuz you were like, super nervous and excited. like it was an hour of that feeling you get when you’re about to get on a really bad ass roller coaster except you never did get to ride the roller coaster) and you whiteboarded fine but who knows what they thought and they have a bunch of other people to interview and what if they’re better than you but you try not to think about it because you want to visualize having the job but sometimes you accidentally let the negative thoughts slip in and also you can’t really find the right gif to explain all of this 

[awrecksa]

Getting better all the time

Ugh you guys so sorry about the absence, I’m just so busy getting a job and the holidays and everything... Just kidding, totally forget I have a blog sometimes. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I may transfer all blog posts to my own dang site ONCE THE SUBMODULES GET ADDED TO THE REPOSITORY. So, when I’m about 50 or so...

I’m still looking for a job.

I had applied to Drumroll back in November but was bummed to find out that they had already filled the position. They graciously offered to keep my information on hand should something arise in the future, which usually garners an internal response of “Suuuure you will”.

Turns out, they stuck to their word, and contacted me a couple weeks ago. I’m really excited to go talk to them on Monday, they’re definitely not one of my “safety agencies”.

Anyways, I figured I’d check in since I haven’t in a while. Also, I’m waiting patiently (read: not-so-patiently) for these submodules to add... The wifi at Royal Blue ain’t so hot.

[awrecksa]

comin up milhouse

Well, now, I’m feeling a lot better since we last talked.

I’ve got two interviews coming up in the next 7 days, and a code challenge to work on for another opportunity.

It’s unfortunate that I needed to be validated to know I’m good enough, but at this point in my career it’s extremely easy to fall into a trap of not believing that I’m actually good enough.

My last day is December 8th, and until then I will be practicing my vanilla JavaScript skills, reminding myself how the hell componentWillMount works in React, and drinking all the free High Brew and La Croix I can before it gets taken away from me.

[awrecksa]

imposter

It’s hard to keep working and keep believing in yourself when your imposter syndrome is validated in one way or another. 

I don’t want to sound desperate, so it’s hard to not email every single possible company in existence that may have developers and just say “PLEASE GIVE ME A CHANCE. I LIKE DEVELOPING, I DON’T CARE WHAT IT’S FOR. I JUST WANT TO DO THIS FOR A LIVING. LET ME IN!”

I don’t feel very good about myself this week. I hope it changes soon.

[awrecksa]

Employment

Y’all. I’ve been at a job for three weeks now.

IT’S DOOOPE.

I was offered a full time intern position at Clearhead (along with one of my fellow Iron Yard graduates). It’s perfect for me because it’s half learning what I want to learn, and half learning how to do what the devs at Clearhead do.

The limited (and somewhat basic) billable work I get is really helping prevent/alleviate my imposter syndrome. My mom still has it after 25 years of web development, so I’m trying to just learn to live with it.

One of my favorite parts of my job (besides free lunch every day and Topo Chico whenever I want it) is the fact that we’re right next door to my Iron Yard campus. We have started a mentorship program with the front-end students and I am super into it.

Anyway, I’ve been neglecting my blog and I just wanted to pop in and let everyone (who?) know things are going swimmingly in my world.

[awrecksa]

Letter to your future self

At the end of the first huddle at the Iron Yard, our instructors told us to write ourselves a letter that we would get back the day we graduate.

Turns out, I graduated. I am so incredibly INCREDIBLY proud of myself and my classmates. It truly is amazing what we’ve accomplished and what else we’re capable of.

This really did turn my life around. I can’t imagine what lays ahead for me even in the immediate future and I just want to say I’m sad that this intense, fun, frustrating, weird little adult summer camp situation has ended, but I’m so excited for me and my classmates to journey into the great unknown of the tech world together.

May 8, 2015

Alexa

It’s the end of the first week and we’ve already come so far! I can’t believe what I can already do and I’m so excited to find out what we know when you read this in July.

DON’T GIVE UP!

You know I can do this and I know you can do this.

Be determined, be proud.

Get your own apartment and a bad ass job and be who everyone else always knew we could be!

SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE AND BELIEVE IN YOU!

[awrecksa]

When I get my badass job

- Full stock of Topo Chico

- Full stock of my favorite beers

-All the spices in my kitchen

-Fresh herbs in my kitchen

-More records

-A mattress that doesn’t make my back feel like a bag of rocks

-New sheets

-Coffee

-Some way to play Mario Kart whenever I want

-A subscription to one of those hip and cool monthly box delivery services

-More than four pairs of pants

-I want a butter dish

[awrecksa]

Test driven development

This weekend was quite a test.

It started out hopeful. We get to choose our own project to work on! It will be a collaboration between developers and designers to make something you can stand behind for your portfolio! Yeah!

This did not turn out fun or exciting. It was incredibly tough and ultimately I couldn’t execute pretty much ANY of the features we wanted our app to have.

I got it to send a new user to the server and to receive current users from the server. Woohoo...

My weekend went absolutely horribly. This project was so exciting for me in the beginning, and my personal shortcomings became more and more clear as I struggled for three straight days just to make it possible for someone to pseudo-log in.

At one point I found myself in my fifth hour of research, staring at eight different tabs of code examples, blogs, and documentation with tears falling down my cheeks. I didn’t take a break to cry, even, I just kept reading and cried.

However, this morning, after we had presented our project and I had the pleasure of displaying my chagrin in front of the entire school, I received a super appropriate Note from the Universe in my email: Ironically, Alexa, had it not been for every disappointment, setback, and detour in the road of your life, you wouldn't have come so far. Nice strategy. Love, love - The Universe

[awrecksa]

Weekender

Well, if I thought the weeks before were difficult, I didn’t know what I was talking about.

This past weekend was our first group project. I was lucky to be paired with Will, a Rails student that I had already developed a rapport with when our cohort first started.

Luckily, Will and I both saw the value in the organization requirements of this particular project. We spent a while on Thursday setting up our Trello and Hackpad. These resources were actually super useful in budgeting our time and knowing exactly what our next step was once we completed a task (which helped me a whole bunch, because I can get bogged down by the volume of things I need to get done).

So, the code part of the project was to write a chat application for web. Will had to take care of the backend; he set up our database and made sure I knew exactly what requests to send back and forth to the server, and provided exactly what data I needed.

Even though we only got one task into “hard mode”, I feel like we worked extra hard. Both of us seem to be on the same level of skill in our respective classes: a bit slower than the rest, but grasping it steadily (I’m pretty sure Justin and Aaron did this on purpose...).

I think I should get extra points for styling the HTML and CSS entirely from scratch. Bootstrap IS something I want to learn, but I missed that day, and I haven’t exactly had an opportunity to sit down and figure it out.

The biggest thing this project helped me with was finding my feet in JavaScript. I felt very much like I was drowning. With every new assignment came my brain-cogs spinning in vain, but now I think I got it.

At least, much better than I did four days ago.

[awrecksa]

This, that, and the other

This is such a strange thing.

This is finnicky, but I think I get it.

This is a shortcut.

This is hard to talk about.

This is needed for access to properties of objects to invoke functions.

How can you know which this I’m using? It’s all in the context.

I think they could have chosen a better word for this.