DEV Community: Kyoko Kikuchi

'Fugettaboutit!' and 'Yes!'

Kyoko Kikuchi — Mon, 03 May 2021 02:06:33 +0000

Here comes my first app I created from scratch, sort of...
Anytime I work on any project, there's a fighting match between my ideals and objectives of the project in my mind. This time was no exception but I was successfully able to let the objectives win, or I wouldn't be able to make it to the deadline.

Keep it simple

So what my little simple app does is to find a lyrics of the song by entering any keyword into search box, returns a list of 'suggestions', then a user clicks on one of the 'Get lyrics' buttons, it displays a lyrics. Then 'Clear search' button let a user to clear search results.
Even with this simple user story, there were few obstacles that I knew I would have to tackle. so I said 'Fugettaoutit' to myself already have started wanting to make my app fancier, adding another fetch functions to display youtube videos of the songs.

Obstacles

To get my JavaScript right is the biggest hurdle of all.
First, need my API source site to return the data in the way I wanted. I asked a question to my instructor promptly before getting myself into a tunnel of try-fail. Thanks to my instructors guidance for time frame to keep up to speed. I said 'yes!' when I saw those tiny letters of data strings proceeded by a word 'promise' in my dev tool of Chrome.

Second, finding code and constructing them into function to get my app to work. I did good planning and made a list of objectives before starting to write my code. However since I was still not sure what words in what order exactly I can use, none of my code seems working. I got into my mix-and-match game of keywords, reserved words, methods and expressions... Not a good state. So I started to look into my past lecture videos and forked repos of lab. Then started feeling each one of the code pulling me in further study. 'Fugettaboutit! With all these days of juggling classes and work hours dragging my not-so-young body, there's no way at the point I magically understand and memorize them all by cramming them.'
Again thanks to my instructor's advise and Google, I somehow stumbled onto code I can reference and modify to my app. Then I studied and compared to my materials from lectures each code and changed parts to make more sense to myself. Then came the 2nd 'yes!' moment when my Live server displayed 'suggestions'!

Learning curve

I can't seem to point to what problem I had to get project to work. In my case problem resided in managing time. I love learning new things however I tend to overwhelm myself by try to learn more than I can absorb or needs for time being. Tackling one issue leads to another and blocks the flow. 'Fugettaboutit! Why can't you just copy what you've learn and move on? Stop deep digging..'
After all, reviewing through my code writing this, I noticed slight change in my way to read the code. They actually started growing into symbolic state and making sense to me.

Fugettaboutit

Kyoko Kikuchi — Sat, 01 May 2021 13:22:46 +0000

Keep it simple

Obstacles

Learning curve

Symbol and Code

Kyoko Kikuchi — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 21:24:12 +0000

A typical late career change

There are many factors to get to this new phase of my life where I am immersing myself into a sea of coding. Those include ones anyone would face when it comes to career choice. I needed a better paid job that has an increasing demand in the job market and can't take unlimited time and funds to invest in myself. And it has to be something I enjoy.

Computer technology became such a good friend in my life in general as well as in my previous career as a Fashion designer.
I worked in the industry in many different job roles over a decade and still do freelance gig work. As a creative and productive designer, proficiency in graphic design and photo editing programs, namely Adobe Creative Suite, have replaced markers and sketch pads. And I had no problem switching them unlike artists whose objective is their expressions which often depend on mediums of choice.
Managing Office Suite, web based PLM and database programs to communicate and execute projects within enterprise and to oversea vendors and factories were lifelines for fast paced production workflow. On many occasions I have helped my colleagues and IT department to solve issues in programs and hardware settings as well.
As a graphic designer, learning HTML and JAVAscript to create web sites were critical and have become go-to side jobs. I had interest in computer technology well before that point, but I was ecstatic learning a bunch of meaningless words called codes to turn a blank page into a creative visual communication site, and the fact that I only need access to the internet.

Finding true nature of myself

However, an important decision making path for me learning Software Engineering has to be my approach to it as a concept rather than as an occupation or a career.
Japanese is my native language and watching movies in English over and over with closed captions helped me to learn and become fluent in English. But I had great struggles in school. A big difference between two languages that hinder my ability to learn was the way my brain processes letters, words and sentences in written format. Japanese is constructed with three different writing systems, two phonetic alphabets and Chinese characters that are roughly called pictograms. (https://omniglot.com/writing/types.htm). So in my subconscious state, I naturally recognize characters by looking at it as symbols than data strings.
Also, whenever I watch my favorite Sci-Fi movies, I find myself looking for symbolic cuts that trigger my imagination beyond and get fascinated by the story behind.
Now I have come to find out that's exactly why I have been compelled by computer languages. They are a bunch of letters and numbers, they form units, and create new meaning with new symbols. Although I am so visually inclined, that transformation gives me a feeling I got a special key to open a door to the next dimension and inspires me more than beautiful image presentations.

My long term goal

Not only coding but also there are many subjects I want to learn going forward. One of the long term goals is to help grow sustainable clothing businesses by developing programs for their production lines. The ideas are still in progressive state however I am certain leaning Software Engineering is the right track towards it.