DEV Community: Ann-Kathrin Heine

How to get out of a rut. Or not 😬

Ann-Kathrin Heine — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 10:52:45 +0000

I am writing a day late. It’s been a crazy two weeks and I haven’t been coding much 😭

Child sick, me sick, Easter holidays and family visits. All of that distracted me so much and at the same time made me so tired that I lost my thread.

But I was able to gain some energy while being with my family and got some time to relax. So I am getting back on track and I just wanted to write something to not lose it here, too.

So off I go! Starting to learn where I left it two weeks ago…

I‘m tired 🥱

Ann-Kathrin Heine — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 22:28:03 +0000

Hi there! It’s Wednesday again (well, at least for another ten minutes where I live) and two weeks ago I started writing about my codeucational journey in this community. AND I almost forgot to post today. Yeah… implementing routines takes time. 🙈

So how‘s it going?

Slow. I think that’s the right word. With only a few hours to spare every day and for these having to choose between sleep/break and studying/practicing it is hard to stay on track. I mean I expected this but it is still unnerving me (as usual) when I can’t go about things at the pace I would like. I think I could use some professional help or better: instruction in order to keep this structured and up to standard.

Looking into remote bootcamp-style classes

To start: I can’t afford a full bootcamp. Timewise AND monywise. Impossible. And to be frank: It’s a jungle out there and the deeper I get in the more brilliant the marketing becomes. I mean the more I read, the less I think most of them are actually worth my scarce personal resources.
I would have to find a class with real professionals as instructors and REAL help in the form of building a legit portfolio and interview training. Is there anything like that out there?

As for my second big obstacle: My only way to pay for that unicorn-Class would be ridiculously low monthly instalments for about half of my remaining lifetime or an ISA which I read is something like a Faustian trade-off. Do you guys have any experience in this? Any recommendations? I might just have to stay on the self-teaching track.🤷🏻‍♀️

Did I learn anything new these last two weeks?

Not much new to be honest… I finished my first little project with freeCodeCamp and sort of cemented some more HTML and CSS concepts into my head. And I got started on some very basic JavaScript concepts like building variables (Do you even say it like this?) and arrays. And I started reading a German book on the subject to actually get an overview of what I learned so far and pick up some of that German coding vocabulary.

My little one is again in one of these developmental stages where sleep for his parents (including me, obviously) becomes a luxury. No talk of additional parental mental load here that slows my head down.
It’s hard to get my brain to work in this state of constant exhaustion (sounds a little pathetic, but still no hyperbole here). But as these phases tend to pass quite quickly, I’ll just have to work with the resources I have, going from one day to another and see where I am at in two weeks time with my next post!

Until then! Good night and don’t forget to dream 💭🔥💙

What am I doing?! - A logbook

Ann-Kathrin Heine — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 13:55:50 +0000

Hi there! I‘m Ann-Kathrin, the new one. The Baby. The Noob. I‘m a dietician and linguist who fell in love with coding about a year ago, when my son was just a tiny baby. How time passes!

Why this?

I have decided to track my learning-journey inside this community. For one, to hold myself accountable and also because my self-doubts could definitely use a kick in the butt! (I read this community can be supportive…😬) I mean, from the moment I started learning, playing around with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python I knew that this is something I want to do. So complex and yet so fulfilling to learn. It’s the first time I’m doing something that could possibly one day earn me a living and it feels light and easy. Not all the time but most of the time. And that’s a massive improvement! Not having to push myself everyday to learn and to practice is such a pleasure.

Never let your doubts… (🤢 cheesy but correct)

Again and again during the last year I have let my doubts hold me back. What a waste of time! And this is the most important (yet cheesy) thing I took away from this so far. Never again will I let doubts and pondering keep me from doing things I like. How far could I be now had I spent my free time last year coding, not just thinking about it? Well, moving forward now.

What is there so far?

By now I know the basics of HTML and CSS with Flexbox (tried out a few simple websites to practise, thanks to Daniel Scott and his team at bringyourownlaptop - Dan is an amazing teacher. Although Designer not Developer, his class gave me courage!) with some Bootstrap coming. Then some more yet unknown to me CSS Concepts trough freeCodeCamp. Transferring this into a small project of my own will be the next task.
On the side I am learning basic concepts of programming languages like JavaScript and Python through an App just to get familiar with the Vocabulary and the way of thinking. All of this whenever my not-so-tiny-anymore favourite human being is asleep. I still need to figure out how to professionalise this behemoth of a journey a little more.

I’m planning to post about my progress every other week. Can’t wait to see where I am at in 5 posts time.

Have a great two weeks, guys! Here, there’s spring coming out just now 🌸☀️🍻 Something small to enjoy while the world is still burning…