Category Archives: 2018 Fall class

Another week, another language

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We are diving into the world of JavaScript this week through Code Academy. I think this is one of the more exciting languages, or fun rather, simply because it can be used to create pop-ups. I would like to include some of them in my final project site, not in an annoying ‘my computer has virus and is plagued with pop-ups’ type of pop-ups but a fun, kind of ‘welcome to my site, here’s a quirky joke’ pop-up. Now this is something I will be able to do if I am able to grasp some of the basics, I have been struggling with keeping up with the different languages and their functions within the site. Well, that might not be the best description. I understand what role each of the language play in enabling front end functions, but I’m not always the best at ‘code-switching’ between languages to write the proper code for them to carry out. This was something I noticed last week, when we began incorporating CSS, and I brushed it off as just a beginner’s mistakes. But, now that there are three different languages in play, I am going to have to really buckle down and focus to make sure I’m both understanding and properly writing the lines of code. What I will say is, as I went through the different lessons on Code Academy I was able to develop a better handle on the language by trial and error, as well as actually reading the instructions on the side panel very closely, and not just assuming I know what I am doing—because in fact, I do not. As a bit of extra homework for myself, I will be doing some more research on JavaScript and how other people use it (or not) within their websites, because right now I am not it’s biggest fan.

New Language, Who dis?

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This week we began working with CSS on Code Academy and I am pretty excited. I am a very visual person, so I like all projects I work on to be visually pleasing—visuals are actually the first thing I work on when working on a project or presentation. So I am excited that we will be learning how to style the text and features that we create using HTML. During the lesson I did experience some difficulty trying to differentiate the difference between HTML and CSS when on the same document. Well more so, how to create functioning CSS within an HTML file. After a few failing attempts on Code Academy I was able to figure it out, well not figure it out, but get a better working understanding. Also, a part of our lesson this week we started learning the basics of creating a website using what we’ve learned so far with HTML and CSS. At first, I thought we were learning very basic things and it would be a long time before we actually knew enough to create a functioning website, but I was wrong. That was actually a pleasant surprise and a bit of an incentive to pay attention a bit more, because what we are currently learning isn’t just boring basics or busy work that has nothing to do with web development but actually the real deal. This exercise was a great opportunity to put some of those new CSS skills to work. My goal is to really use that a lot for my final project site, so I would like to spend some more time learning some CSS tips and tricks. So, this week I’ll probably Google somethings to see what other people recommend or have done to achieve their desired site ‘aesthetic’ and also use the ‘command+inspect’ tip that Prof. Greg showed us for some of my favorite sites.

Just Starting Out…

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So far HTML seems pretty easy and straight forward to use. I went in thinking that it was going to be some daunting dragon that I was going to have to slay, but it is surprisingly very user friendly. I’m saying this now, but may regret it later on in the semester. But for now, I am having an easy time grasping the concepts. So far, my biggest issue is indenting the lines of code, but the more I went through the lesson I was able to properly indent, so everything aligned and functioned properly. In terms of web development, I am not sure what kind I want to focus on or if I ever plan to use it beyond this semester. I plan to really get a feel for the discipline and see if it’s something that really interests me enough to pursue seriously. I find the idea of web development and coding to be pretty interesting, but I’m sure whatever skills I gain this semester, I will only use for my personal projects. For my final project I think I want to build a blog of some sort. A place unlike my blogs that I write for class that have to be very politically correct or ‘on-brand,’ I want this one to accurately reflect the actual views and opinions that I have about real issues. My current blog reflects the neutral persona that I’ve adopted for my career and doesn’t include many issues I am passionate about or those that I feel affect my community at disproportionate rates. I believe that I bring a unique perspective to things and should share. So essentially this blog will be the home to my real and true thoughts, sort of like a finsta—a fake Instagram where you share everything not just your picture-perfect highs but the lows as well, the real you.

JavaScript or Bust?

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Whew! JavaScript definitely caught me off guard. I had a pretty strong understanding of coding until we got here. Java is kind of like the cherry on top of a sundae. It ties a website together to make it fully functioning. I got lost with the functions and variables. The syntax wasn’t as easy to read as HTML and CSS, so that was my downfall. With JavaScript, the coding looks so complicated; in reality, you could be executing a simple task like making a list drop down.

CSS

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I found that I was a quick learner when it came to HTML and it was a basic programming language. CSS added a slight complexity but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. With HTML you’re setting a basic framework for your website, so it doesn’t look that fancy. When I made my prototype HTML page, I added so much HTML code and it looked complicated through Sublime. When I put the file into my browser, it was such a simple page. I thought I accomplished so much, but I just made a paragraph with a title and posted an image. With CSS you can really see a page come to life. While working on the Codeacademy assignments, it was helpful that the coursework moved step-by-step. There’s many aspects to CSS and multiple ways you can manipulate a page, so sometimes its hard to keep track of what you’ve changed. After learning CSS, I can only imagine how long it must take a web developer to design a more complex website. Now that I know how to inspect the styles of websites that I go on everyday, it’s interesting to see the work that someone put in to creating it. CSS is definitely my favorite programming language I’ve learned.

The End of the Road…

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This semester has been an interesting one, to say the least. It definitely opened my eyes up to the world of web development and all the endless career possibilities that include the skills of web development. I am thankful for all the skills I learned this semester and excited to see how I can use them in the future. Following this class, I want to further my knowledge, to do that I want to do three things. First, I want to dive deeper into HTML. I feel like playing with that more will help deepen my understanding. I feel like we learning this is really the basis of web development. I can use these skills on making my online portfolio pretty unique and stand-out amongst the others. Secondly, I want to expand my knowledge of CSS. I’m really interested in the making things aesthetically pleasing, so a knowledge of this could really help my ideas become a reality. Lastly, I want to see how I can use these skills in my journalism career. I think having these skills will really help me in the grand scheme of things. My self-learning plans includes, to continue lesson on CodeAcademy, watching tutorials and speaking with the subject of my midterm regularly to help me troubleshoot issues. I will begin this plan over Winter Break, while I have more time to really do a deep dive, opposed to my jammed packed semester schedule.

Prof. Greg, thanks for all the guidance and insight you provided me this semester. I throughly enjoyed the class, it was a welcomed challenge.

The End of the Road

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Just when I thought it was finished, I had 10 issues on my site. I was so glad to be done and then boom. 10 issues.

One of the most frustrating mistakes I made in my the post-development stage when I was attempting to fix my issues was editing code on the actual live site instead of in sublime text.

When I fixed my issues, I bypassed the customization feature. I clicked edit to access the code and I got a scary warning message telling me of the impending doom my site would face if I opened the code (format may be lost, etc.). This time, I bypassed the message. I made all my changes. I looked at the website and everything was shifted and unaligned. I tried desperately to restore the site to before I bypassed the message, but to no avail. I actually just shut my laptop and decided not to show the website to anyone ever again.

Now, I know the issue is that I should’ve edited in the files and in Sublime Text. Thankfully, my site’s format went back to normal and my website is worthy to be shown to other people again.

I’m proud of the work that I’ve done, though. I can actually say I’ve taken some tangible skills out of this class,

Project Analysis… Lord be a fence

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I was finally able to make my website.

This is one of the hardest things I have even done, and I even got help from classmates and Professor Greg. I felt much anxiety with the pressure of this website, but that comes along with much more. While taking this class with 7 others, a lot of things started to run together and I had a very hard time with the amount of task at hand, but that is besides the point.

I received a lot of help from my classmates and that is honestly how I was able to complete the site. In all honesty, I had no idea where to begin, but I believe this is because I genuinely had a lot going on all at once. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but had no clue how to begin this process. It is really hard for me to ask for help and I think that I can do everything on my own, but really sometimes we need to stop and ask for help. One thing is that I really wish that our professor was more accessible on campus with office hours, but this situation was very different.

The customizations on my site are pretty cool, especially the to do list. Although I had a lot to add to my site, the process I was at seemed very well for what was going on at the time. I learned a lot and eventually began to be able to do things on my own or by following general steps. I think because I am such a hands-on person, it was very hard for me to begin, but once a learned the steps it was doable.

My site needs a lot of work, but I am glad a lot of it is done. Making it live is a very difficult process and that is what I am dealing with right now, but by the end it will all be together.

Moving Forward….

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This class was……

Challenging for me personally. I thought this would have been a very fun, interesting, creative class, but it moved way too fast for myself. I am a hands-on learner and I know I need to go step by step to understand things. I would love to continue to get the hang of coding and web development, but this class was actually very difficult for me, but I also had a number of other complications in the semester. I think if this class was twice a week and we began to work on our projects earlier, it would have been a little less stressful for me in the end of the semester. The idea of coding and web development is great, but when I originally signed up for the class, I realized that it was not what I expected. I did not know what I was expecting, but it was not the experience I received.

Although, with the struggles of this class, I did enjoy it. I would love to see how I could build on these skills maybe if I take my time, and actually study the skills, I would grow to find passion for this skill.

Enjoyed the midterm, and the fact that we got to speak to a developer and see what they do and they work. Also, being a journalism major, I enjoyed the writing aspect.

Moving Forward……..

I enjoyed this class, and I learned a lot throughout the semester.

Reduced Speed Lane

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At this point during my process I was starting to feel a little nervous. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to finish this project the exact way I had envisioned it in my head. Reading through other people’s analysis post, I was not sure that this was going to be even worthy of turning in. So I went back to the drawing board and tuned into Codecademy. The small refreshers help to inspire me to get back into a believing in what I could do. So I started with, what would I want someone to see about me from this website.

The first thing I went to add was my resume. What other way does everyone get a full scope of the work I’ve done and also a sort of view of what I wanted to do with my career path. So I went to see how to embed a resume in my website. The only problem with that though, a resume is always changing and so how annoying would it be to consistently have to replace the code in my website every time that my resume changed. So I express this problem to my class mate, Jess, and she mentioned how she embedded her google docs link for her resume in her website. Instantly I was inspired, so with a little bit of her aide, she was able to teach me how to put my google doc resume into the website. Voila! A problem was solved and there was some progress.

The next thing I found for people to see the person I was, was to see who I was on social media. There is no more important tool in the world than social media. With this thought process I then decided to add my LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. I’m not active on Facebook or Twitter, but I would be an obvious liar if I claimed not to have one.

I was still looking for one last modification, and what came with that was a newsletter. I enjoy writing so why not have someone get my thoughts on a bi-weekly basis?

We’ll see how it turns out…