Here to Learn!

I'm a person with ADHD who is learning to be a programmer. The purpose of this blog is to record my thoughts, help me stay accountable, and hopefully inspire others to keep learning too.

[keeplearninbud]

Come with me on my learning journey!

Hello! I've been trying to learn to code for a long time now, but like many things in my life, it's been very difficult to Actually Do The Thing due to my mental health and life circumstances. I was actually prescribed a medication that helped immensely with my ADHD, but I temporarily cannot get it and that has tanked my ability to focus my brain.

Enter: this blog! I'm going to try to code at least a little bit every day! I will not be perfect and I will not beat myself up about that, but I will also encourage myself to be better. I am going to try to post every time I code and sometimes show what I am working on. I think I want to theme my projects to make them more fun. I will mainly be using freeCodeCamp to learn.

If you are in a similar situation, want inspiration, or are just interested in watching my journey, please give me a follow! I would also be extremely happy to get any feedback, advice, or tips. Thanks so much for reading :)

-Mars 🪐

[keeplearninbud]

Day 23 (11-26-23)

Today, I worked on the second module of my first course - Web Infrastructure Basics and Terminology. This course (and the certificate it's part of) are advertised as "for beginners", but most if not all of the instructional videos seem to expect the viewer to have some background knowledge of the subject. Mostly, they use niche-specific terminology without explaining it. How the hell am I supposed to learn something from a definition containing terminology I don't know? And it's not stuff most people would be familiar with just from using computers.

Thankfully I'm pretty decent at discerning definitions from context clues, and google can fill the gaps. My main problem is that it makes the course incredibly unapproachable and intimidating. I shouldn't have to parse over every phrase to be sure I understand its meaning. It's indicative of poor communication skills on the course developer's end if you ask me. If I'm going to teach someone to crochet, I need to cover the basics before I explain what a treble crochet or magic circle is. It feels like they're trying to explain a treble crochet to me when I don't even know how to chain yet.

I am EXTREMELY thankful to have some knowledge of HTML and CSS. I can only imagine the hell of trying to learn from scratch from whoever developed this course. For shame IBM!

Frustrations aside, I'm just glad to be making progress.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 22 (11-24-23)

Retroactively Posting - I completed my first graded quiz! My first attempt was 90%, but I took it a second time and got 100% :)

[keeplearninbud]

Day 21 (11-22-23)

Retroactively Posting - I don't remember much from this day, but I know that I worked on course one module one.

[keeplearninbud]

Goals Update

Hello! So admittedly I have been away for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy! Busy being depressed, but also busy exploring my city and spending time with new people. I have not been coding as much. Ultimately I plan to continue coding, but I am shifting my focus in some ways.

Recently I was given the opportunity to enroll in Coursera courses for free. Now, I am able to have some structure and the ability to earn a certificate in my desired field. So, I am working on an 11-course Front-End Web Developer certificate from IBM. This seems like the best chance I have to meaningfully change my career path before I can afford college. It may mean being financially stable if I can find a decent job in this field. So, I am doing my best to learn. It's really hard to gain or maintain interest in something when failure to do so feels monumental, but I'm doing my best.

With these goals in mind, I will be posting when I study, learn, take a quiz, etc. If I engage with what I'm learning at all, basically. I'm also going to retroactively post for the days that I already studied (I may do this in the future too). Posting is just a way that I keep track of how frequently I'm actually Doing the Thing.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far. Good luck on your learning journey.

-Mars

[keeplearninbud]

Day 20 (11-07-23)

I didn't end up posting day-of, but I did work on my little personal project from a while this day. A CSS painting of a wolf. It's pretty basic so far but I had fun!

[keeplearninbud]

Day 19 (11-06-23)

Today I did the entirety of the intermediate CSS cat painting lesson. It was a little confusing, but I had tons of fun! It actually inspired me to try doing my own similar project, which I started but have not finished. I love finding new art mediums, and this one is really interesting!

[keeplearninbud]

Day 18 (11/3/23)

I'm going slow, but still going! I finished the pseudo selectors/ balance sheet lesson today. It was a little confusing, but I enjoyed it.

Some stress and obligations in my personal life have kept me from staying as consistent as I want to, but I'm proud of myself for coming back to freeCodeCamp and this blog as much as I have so far. Slow progress is still progress.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 17 (10/31/23)

More of the same today! Just chipping away at that lesson. It's a little confusing but I'm enjoying it. I have to get ready for a halloween party, but I look forwards to getting back to coding tomorrow.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 16 (10-30-23)

I did more of the balance sheet lesson today! I have nothing exciting to report really, I'm just glad that I'm staying on track.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 15 (10/29/23)

I missed a few days due to being busy with Halloween stuff, but I am back on track! I worked on the Balance Sheet lesson today and it was super chill. I'm enjoying it. And, notably, I'm now past the point I reached before - I've never touched this lesson up to this point. So it's working! I'm happy about that.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 14 (10-25-23)

Consistency is hard, but I'm back! I finished the certification project and I'm reasonably happy with it. I think it looks really nice!

I'm like, super hungry so I'm not going to post the link right now. But I did do it! And I'm happy with that :)

[keeplearninbud]

Day 13 (10-22-23)

I mostly just adjusted formatting on my project today! Nothing too exciting. Figuring out all of the spacing is kind of annoying, and it makes me glad that I did my best to keep my code relatively clean.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 12 (10-21-23)

I worked a lot on my certification project. Most of it was writing, as I expected. As it turns out though, altering the format from a few paragraphs to a timeline meant changing a decent amount of code. Now all that's left to do is figure out all the spacing. There's also the matter of the secondary page I made in order to have somewhere to link for this project. I think for now I can put it off until I have more ideas for it.

The story is really starting to develop and that's fun! I don't enjoy writing as much as I used to. Now that I think about it, maybe I never did and what I truly enjoyed was having written something. I always recall wanting to get to the end of whatever I was working on. I think I should put more focus into enjoying the process of things I do just generally.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 11 (10-20-23)

I've been feeling a little stagnant for the last few days. I did code a little bit! My certification project is technically finished, I've met all the requirements and it looks nice. I just feel like the text is missing something, which is not the point of my project. I figured it was okay if I started the next lesson to take a break from it, so I did.

It's fun but not too difficult, so not much to report. I'll make sure I code again tomorrow.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 10 (10-18-23)

I made a few adjustments to my project. It's pretty much done, most of what's left is writing info about the subject of the page. I look forwards to finishing it.

I didn't have much time today either, but I think as long as I can code for a few minutes, that's okay. What counts is consistency.

[keeplearninbud]

Day 9 (10-17-23)

I only had about 10 minutes to work on my certification project today, but I enjoyed that time a lot. I've already fulfilled all of the project requirements. The rest is just making everything look nice. That tends to be the most time-consuming bit for me.

I want to share my page when I'm finished with it, but I'm a little shy. I was a Gifted Kid ™, so the idea of putting work out into the world that might not be good makes me nervous. It's silly. Everyone starts somewhere. I know that logically. I enjoy criticism and suggestions when I'm showing work that I'm more practiced at, like cooking or drawing. I think it's because I know enough about the topic to anticipate criticism, decide whether I agree, and immediately apply it. But when I'm a beginner at something, I don't know what I don't know. Not even in broad strokes. I might be aware that my noodles are a little too salty or I need to work on drawing dynamic poses, but I have no idea what the fuck could be wrong with my code and that's scary!

I will likely end up sharing it anyway. I want to break away from this idea that my work has to be up to some unknowable standard to be worth anything. You can never get anywhere if you stay in your comfort zone. I know that, I've experienced it. It's still hard every time. I suppose I just want to express how I feel about it.