DEV Community: Cory

Finding My Path

Cory — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 18:01:05 +0000

Recently I had been working on learning JavaScript but was struggling to put everything together. Part of the problem is that I have very limited time for studying, what with working a full-time job and family life. I recognize the importance of JavaScript in today’s online world. I know that if I kept putting in the time and practicing that eventually things would start to click for me.

But my learning time started to turn into me being unexcited in sitting down to study. Learning JavaScript suddenly started to feel like a chore. The fun I had been experiencing with learning was fading. The whole point of me pursuing a career change was to find something were I could enjoy working. So, I put JavaScript to the back burner and decided to explore some other options.

A new path is born

New path – Under Construction (Photo by Mark König on Unsplash)

I was drawn to web development as a career choice because I liked the idea of getting to build visual pleasing websites. I settled on pursuing development thinking that the design aspect was out of my realm. But you know what? That type of thinking held me back. If I can learn web development (which I do enjoy), why can’t I also learn web design?

A friend of mine that I meet on Twitter ( Gabe!!) ended up on this same type of path as I. He recommended a course he was taking and mentioned that I should check it out. It’s a course over on Udemy, by Vako Shvili, called “Complete Web Design: from Figma to Webflow to Freelancing”. The course focuses on learning web design basics, while also learning how to design within Figma, and then develop with Webflow (I’m not going to get into the details of what Figma and Webflow do, but if you’d like to learn more click the links).

By the time I had completed the first section of the course, I was hooked on web design. It just scratched that itch in my brain. I just never thought I’d be able to do design. I can’t draw. I’m not an “artist”. That’s the beauty of it though. Just like you can learn how to code, you can learn how to design. There are rules to follow, best practices if you will, just like in development. The overall point I’m trying to make is that sometimes you need to push outside of your comfort zone. This is how growth happens. I’m glad I pushed. The path I’m on now feels like the right path.

Where’s this path going?

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

My end goal now is to eventually be a full-time freelancer as a web designer/developer. The choice to decide on freelancing could be an entire blog post in itself, but for me it’s alluring. At this point in my life I’m more inclined to work for myself. I know it won’t be easy and it’s not without its challenges, but for me the positives outweigh the negatives. I want that freedom and this path I’ve set before me is the way I am going to achieve my new goal.

Networking??? But I’m an Introvert!!!

Cory — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 00:12:23 +0000

I have no problem admitting to anyone that I am introverted. World’s worst small talker? Me, for sure. Especially if we don’t know each other. I’ve always been really shy but I like to think it has improved with age, but still, it’s there.

Those who know me, family and friends mostly, know that I can be goofy, and most of the time sarcastic. When meeting new people I tend to fall back on sarcasm when engaging in small talk. I can’t help it. It’s my security blanket. That sarcasm doesn’t always come across with new people though. Makes me seem like more of an ass than a goofball lol. This leads me to eventually regretting every conversation I have with a stranger. Silly, I know.

Me, after every social exchange. But with less muscles.. and bigger love handles. (Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash)

_Yet, in my current field of work, healthcare, I’m great with patients (who are strangers to me). Maybe it’s just from years of practice, or my superhuman soft skills🦸

“Networking” is a scary word for me. How in the world can I meet all these new people and convince them to help me, and hopefully one day maybe, hire me?! I think I’ve figured it out though. GET OVER IT!!!!

Seriously, that’s the solution. At least for me. In order to grow we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones. So I set up a Linkedin profile, adjusted my Twitter account, and started telling everyone I knew that I was making a career switch. Next step for me is to start engaging in meetups and conferences (even in COVID times).

My networking hasn’t led to any actual paid work yet, but it has led me to discover a few things. For one, I never realized how many friends and family I have that either code for a living or know how to build websites. I had no idea. Take for example my friend Sean. Once he heard what I was doing we had the following conversation:

Sean: “Check out these projects I made with JavaScript”.
Me: YOU KNOW HOW TO CODE?!!!
Sean: Yeah Cory, it’s what I do for a living.
Cory: ………..😳

I just thought he worked in investment banking. Turns out I’m an idiot. Or a terrible friend. Or both. Yikes. Sorry Sean!

The other thing I discovered was that the web development/coding community is AMAZING! I’ve come across so many wonderful people throughout the community. I’ve had folks offer to look over my resume and provide feedback, show me code that helps me out with specific problems, set up connections with other people they know who can help me, and just get excited to help me get better. It’s astounding, and I love it. This just makes me want to work harder and to try and help others whenever I can.

Just Do It

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

If networking scares you and you’re not sure where to start, you gotta just do it. Take the plunge. Put yourself out there. The rewards are just too good to pass up. There is a world of people out there that want to help and see you succeed. Myself included, so hit me up on Linkedin and Twitter. Who knows, maybe we can help each other out!

Following up on my pseudocode promise

Cory — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 21:00:28 +0000

Last week I wrote about trying to to hold myself accountable when it comes to writing more blog posts. My previous post said I promised to write out some pseudocode for the Tip Calculator JavaScript project I was working on.

To refresh, I took this project from https://fun-javascript-projects.com/ (this course was made and offered by Twitter user @chrisdixon161). Check the free course out as it offers some great practice for using JavaScript.

Let’s take a look below at the end results of the project to see what we’re looking at and what sort of functionality we need.

Side note, for the sake of this article let’s assume we already have the HTML and CSS written out before we begin the pseudocode.

Click the picture to visit LIVE site

We need to be able to enter a bill amount, the percentage of tip, the tip value, and the total of the bill plus the tip value. We also need to know how many people to split the bill amongst, the bill total for each, and the tip amount for each.

The beauty, or ugliness depending on how you want to look at it, of using pseudocode is that there is no right or wrong way to write it.

Here’s my stab at writing out the very basics of what we need in our eventual JavaScript code:

INPUT bill amount
STORE bill amount in BILL variable
OUTPUT BILL
INPUT tip percent
STORE tip percent in TIP PERCENT variable
OUPUT TIP PERCENT
OUTPUT tip value in dollars
OUTPUT total (bill + tip) in dollars
INPUT number of people to split the bill
STORE number of people to split the bill in SPLIT variable
OUTPUT SPLIT
OUTPUT bill total for each person
OUTPUT tip for each person

This is just a very quick breakdown of what I need to get started. Once I have written out the actual JavaScript code for the above pseudocode then I can start figuring out how to make it all function.

For me, the whole process of where to start when it comes to writing JavaScript is a difficult task. Do you think using pseudocode is beneficial? What helps you plan out your JavaScript (or any other programming language)? How would you go about writing pseudocode for this Tip Calculator? I’d love to hear from you!!!

Pseudocode and JavaScript

Cory — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 20:38:02 +0000

Today is August 20th. I haven’t made a blog post since July 4th. Wait, what???! How in the world is it late August already??? Obviously I have been slacking on the blog posts, so this post is mostly to hold myself accountable and to make sure I post more often (that’s a lot of “post” in one sentence…. crap, did it again).

My recent studies have still been focused on JavaScript and trying to get more comfortable writing it. I had gone back to a JavaScript course that I was working through (my second “beginners” course) but was feeling guilty about not actually doing much coding. So I decided to work on a project.

@chrisdixon161 over on Twitter has put together some free JavaScript projects that I thought looked fun (you can find them at https://fun-javascript-projects.com/). I went with the “Tip Calculator” project and really enjoyed the experience. I coded along with Chris’ video and felt pretty good about myself for “building” something (see my results here https://coryrunn.github.io/TipCalculator/).

My tip calculator

About a week later I went back to my code to review and add some comments. As I was going through it was clear to me that I would be lost if I needed to replicate this project by myself with no help. More practice needed? Um, yeah.

This is where pseudocode comes into play for me. My plan is to go through the project and start by writing pseudocode and then go from there. In the hopes of holding myself accountable, I’m posting my intentions here. We all know if you read something on the internet then it must be true . Update soon…… hopefully.

Am I sabotaging my learning?

Cory — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 18:53:53 +0000

A few months back I started learning JavaScript. It was high on my list of “things to learn” to help achieve my goal of becoming a frontend developer.

As you probably are aware, JavaScript is not easy to learn. It’s complicated and forces you to think in ways that your brain has never had before. Learning JS is a commitment you have to make and requires a significant amount of your time.

My primary resource was Skillcrush.com (they are my go to learning on all web development subjects) and I actually went through their JS course twice. I was still confused so I pick up some other JS materials as well as started another JS course. My plan was to go through this second course and then just start building small projects.

But inevitably, I got sidetracked. When my web dev journey began I knew that one of the projects I wanted to do was build a website for my softball team (a passion project for sure). A few weeks back a marketing friend of mine (whom is also on the softball team) threw together an amazing website design.

Pretty sweet design, right?!

I decide the best way to build this would be with a CMS like WordPress (we wanted to easily be able to update the website quickly each week). So off I went to learn more about using WordPress and the theme builder Elementor.

Then I started down the rabbit hole of other CMS builders and “no-code” solutions, like Webflow. To me, these tools are amazing. Why wouldn’t I want to use something that allows me to build quicker and not have to worry about spending 2 hours hunting for a missing closing bracket or some other stupid typo.😋

So now I start thinking, “Man…. I could see myself being a freelance web designer/develeper with these sweet tools. I should probably find a course for that !”.🤔 Guess what? I bought one on Udemy and added multiple others to my “watch later” list on YouTube.

My list of courses and tutorials continues to grow. I’m at the point where I feel I’m sabotaging myself. I keep bouncing around on where I should spend my time learning. Do I learn JavaScript because I want to someday have a job that helps provide better for my family? But to help get that job I need “experience”. So I should probably freelance as a side-hustle to gain experience. Should my time be spent focusing on that???

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

To make matters worse, my free time for learning is limited. Between working a full-time job, helping to raise a family, and only sleeping 6 hours a night already…. there is no extra time.

Whatever I choose to spend my time on, I feel guilty for not doing something else. I can’t win . HELP!

Changing the order of Flexbox items

Cory — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:15:24 +0000

A few months back, while I was learning all about flexbox, I came across the orderproperty. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how cool this is and told myself if I ever start a blog, I need to talk about display:flexbox and the order property. So here we are!

There are multiple ways in which to take advantage of using the order property, but I’m just going to give the example of one use. Let’s say you have a section with your <img> followed by a <h1> and a few <p>. But by having your <img> first in your HTML markup, it makes it confusing for those using assistive devices, such as a screen reader. Your <img> will be read first by the screen reader and then your <h1>, and so on. The screen reader is going to describe an image to our viewer first without really having a context to what the website is all about. Wouldn’t it make much more sense to have the <h1> read first?

“But I want the image to be the first thing in the layout” you may say. This is the perfect opportunity to use our order property! Let’s take a look at this below;

We make a <div> which will be our “parent”. Then we have a <h1>, three <p>, and an <img>, which will all be “children” of the “parent” div.

Now, in our CSS file, if we set our <div> to the code below, nothing is going change in our layout. The HTML will still flow from top to bottom like we wrote it, but we have turned all the “children” into “flex items”.

At this point we can now “re-order” the flow of our HTML without needing to change the order it’s written in, thus enabling us to keep our accessibility.

We want to have the <img> shown first in our layout. Within our CSS file we can give each “flex item” a number and tell it how to “re-order” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but for that to work you MUST assign each “child” to have an order number;

This is a bit verbose for what we’re trying to do. We just want our <img> to be first and we aren’t needing to reorder the other children. So we can assign a value of “-1” to the order property which will place this “child” first without needing to give an order to the other flex items;

Here’s a codepen to better visualize and play around with.

All in all, this is a pretty simple tool to use. For some weird reason my brain finds this magical and I wanted to share!

(p.s. I believe you can use the order property with display:grid; as well. I have yet to dig into Grid, as I’m having too much fun with Flexbox!)