DEV Community: Caitlin Elliott

Days 2-8: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Caitlin Elliott — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 22:43:19 +0000

I took a bit of a personal break between my last post and this one, but now that I'm a bit back in the saddle, I wanted to give a little update as to what I've been working on since I last blogged at the end of May. For those of you who read my last update, you'll know I've been working my way through Responsive Web Design certification from FreeCodeCamp (FCC). In the past two weeks, I've completed all of the lessons and two of the five capstone projects.

I also had a fun career advice chat with a new friend from WomenWhoCode and watched most of this video from RealToughCandy that reviews a bunch of different coding bootcamps.

I've made a lot of good progress over the past several weeks. A lot of the lessons I went through felt familiar, but staring at a blank CodePen screen and trying to remember everything I'd learned had me feeling a little like this:

After having gone through most of this self-paced certification, I think I definitely need to explore bootcamp options that offer a more guided approach. Having someone further along to lead me through the process seems a lot more necessary than I first anticipated. Something like Udacity or Treehouse looks appealing, but I haven't decided which I'll choose yet.

In the meantime, here are my first two completed projects! The code is messy and they're not perfect, but I'm really proud of the progress I've made so far. You can click on the screenshots below to view the full CodePen.

Tribute Page:

Survey Form:

And, for posterity, my task log:

Day	Tasks Completed	Time
2	FCC: Applied Visual Design	1hr 30min
3	FCC: Applied Accessibility	44min
4	FCC: Responsive Web Design Principles, CSS Flexbox, CSS Grid, Tribute Page Challenge	1hr 59min
5	Work on Tribute Page & Survey Form Challenges	6hr 53min
6	Work on Tribute Page & Survey Form	31min
7	Work on Tribute Page	40min
8	Finish on Tribute Page & Survey Form, Start Product Landing Page Challenge	4hr 20min

Until next time, friends!

Day 1: Yeah, Just Change It up a a Bit So It Doesn’t Look Obvious

Caitlin Elliott — Sun, 31 May 2020 01:32:17 +0000

In my younger and more vulnerable years, I didn't really want to learn to code. I just wanted results.

Through sheer repetition, I learned enough to bold and italicize text, sure. I knew how to put an image on a webpage, make a link. But the more complicated stuff, puhh-shaaa! I was far more interested in achieving the look I wanted at the time than gaining a new skill to use later.

Enter coding myspace and tumblr bloggers. My salvation.

I was an awkward teen who didn't want to tell anyone about her internet hobbies, and these pioneers saved me. These folks had already figured out how to do all the cool stuff on my blogs that I wanted, and all I had to do was just copy their code out of the tiiiiny scroll boxes they put it in and paste it into the editor on my websites.

From there, my work began.

My formative coding education wasn't in learning what tags or attributes meant and how to apply them, it was a hilarious mishmash of trial and error as I learned to reverse engineer code someone had written for a slightly different purpose to suit my needs. Sort of like the "Can I copy your homework?" meme.

That's why this first day of FreeCodeCamp has been so interesting. Today, I completed all the challenges in the "Basic HTML and HTML5" and "Basic CSS" modules of FreeCodeCamp's Responsive Web Design certification. I remembered a lot more than I expected to from my teen years, but it was exciting to, for the first time, stare at a blank screen and write code from scratch.

Now, if you'll permit me make a little list, trying out a bit of HTML I learned today...

That Sweet, Sweet Data:

Bootcamp: FreeCodeCamp
Modules Completed: Basic HTML and HTML5, Basic CSS
Time Spent: 1 hour 55 minutes

The spacing is wonky, but there is a list I made with code I wrote, so I'll call it a win for today, my friends!

Day 0: Welcome To My Blog

Caitlin Elliott — Fri, 29 May 2020 13:31:21 +0000

I always used to think I wanted to blog as a teenager/college kid, but then I would get done designing everything and bail. I think I had more fun messing around with Wordpress templates than I did blogging, which seems like a pretty strong indicator that I might enjoy web dev more than writing a blog... so here we are.

I'm 30 years old, and I'm learning to code in the hopes of becoming a web developer. I thought a blog (that I can't get caught up in designing!) would be a good way to document my progress, as well as network and continue to learn more about coding/programming/etc.

So, by way of introduction, here's a bit about me, as told through my teenage coding experience:

Age 11: I downloaded a maze maker from Neopets, and I worked for WEEKS on making my own maze for other users to play. My dad deleted it because it was going to cause ~viruses~ on our family computer.

Age 13: Not to be deterred, I told my parents I wanted to Make A Website. I can't remember if it was on Angelfire or Geocities, but something like that. Anyway, it was biographical in nature. The background was red. Most of the content was devoted to how Legolas from Lord of the Rings was dreamy.

Age 14: Does anyone who grew up in the early 2000s remember buddy4u.com? The name sounds mega sketch, but I did code a dope profile on there for myself with rainbow text that I linked to in my AIM away message, like a classy teen. I was strongly inspired by a friend at the time who figured out how to get "My Boo" by Usher to play on her profile.

Age 15: Got deep into Myspace customization. I made my own top 8 and put my crush at #2 instead of #1 so as not to seem too thirsty.

Age 17: ADAMANTLY resisted the big move to Facebook because you couldn't make it pretty, gave in eventually.

In the years since my teenage coding explorations, I hopped around several college majors (graphic design, government) before settling on English. I've since earned two English degrees, and I now work in higher education.

Though I've enjoyed my career thus far, I'm feeling the time for a change. The landscape of higher ed is changing in some ways I don't love, and quarantine has taught me that I love working from home. I'm hoping to spend the next year or so teaching myself how to code so that I can become a web developer and hang out in my house all day with my dog who would rather be left alone but also all up in my business, as her mood dictates.
Dog (Jinx) and Husband (Coleman)
So this is the beginning of my journey. I'm excited for all I will learn in the coming months, and I hope I actually keep this blog up like I'm planning to!