Today's Progress: Researched how to go about creating a Wikipedia viewer for the FCC project.
Thoughts: It's been a frustrating day, as I can't seem to understand the documentation. Plus there are a couple of APIs, which adds to the complexity. I've certainly spent more than an hour looking, though! Hope for better luck later today or tomorrow.
Today's Progress: Finally figured out the missing piece for my ajax to work.
Thoughts: The wikipedia API documentation is incredibly large. Despite me reading and reading, I didn't find what I was looking for until I watched a video on youtube about the project. That set me off on the right foot to get to work.
Today's Progress: Completed the Wikipedia viewer project for FreeCodeCamp.
Thoughts: The biggest challenge with this was interpreting the documentation, which, in my opinion, isn't very accessible to a beginner. I'm glad I pushed through it, though, and I am happy with the outcome.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/xgxPWg
Today's Progress: Started looking at how to tackle the TwitchTV project for FCC.
Thoughts: It looks like this will be easy enough due to the fact that we're given a lot of information on how to start. I will probably have it done by tomorrow.
Today's Progress: TwitchTv nearly finished.
Thoughts: The most important parts are done, but the details are killing me. I've spent hours getting one small feature to work and I just haven't figured it out. APIs are annoying.
Today's Progress: TwitchTv project was finished, tomorrow is algorithms.
Thoughts: I found that I had to make some sacrifices for what I wanted and how I wanted to implement it because it just wasn't working. The project meets all the requirements, but I had envisioned more. So that's kind of sad.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/jyPXrR
Today's Progress: Started working on some intermediate algorithms.
Thoughts: Some of them seem simple, but aren't, while others seem difficult... and ARE difficult. Lot's of reading to be done in order to figure out how to approach some of these.
Today's Progress: Worked on drawing with CSS. The algorithms can wait!
Thoughts: Drawing with CSS is kinda fun! It's interesting keeping track of the order that things will render in and such, but fun overall. Certainly a break from the more mentally challenging projects.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/xgZXgL?editors=1100
Today's Progress: Solved an algorithm exercise by thinking it through on paper. So good.
Thoughts: Not gonna lie, it felt pretty nice solving that one algorithm by myself in nearly one fell swoop. I feel like the more you learn, the easier it is to see where/how you should start adressing a problem. Very happy about that.
Today's Progress: Complete failure day.
Thoughts: Nothing like hitting a brick wall when you're feeling invincible. Yesterday I thought I had this coding thing in the bag, but today's algorithm exercise has stumped me hardcore. I've been at it for hours and cannot figure out the logic to solving the issue. Really sucks because I've spent hours and hours on this. Feels like the whole day has been wasted.
Today's Progress: Got yesterday's algorithm done with some youtube help.
Thoughts: After more hours trying, I went to youtube. I saw how to get it done, and they had a much simpler, better answer than I was trying to come up with. Also did the second day of CSS Image challenge.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/ygJxMK/
Today's Progress: Did a lot of reading and learning.
Thoughts: Not much coding, but more reading up on how to tackle certain algorithms.
Today's Progress: Algorithms again!
Thoughts: Only did an hour, which seems like not a lot of time considering I have been doing several hours per day.
Today's Progress: Same set of algorithms continued.
Thoughts: Some are easy to solve, others are more challenging and require copious amounts of time reading.
Today's Progress: Just barely did anything.
Thoughts: Had a lot of other stuff going on today, but I did look at some problems. Not my best day though.
Today's Progress: Spent all day coding!
Thoughts: I worked on a personal project onverting a static website into a responsive one. Boy has it taken longer than I imagined!
Today's Progress: Did a few of the intermediate algorithms.
Thoughts: These algorithms do make my noggin work! But it's fun.
Today's Progress: More alcorithms, hoping to finish Intermediate Algorthims by the end of next week.
Thoughts: They are a good challenge and I surely have to think through them a lot, but it feels good getitng them done. Sometimes I'm not even sure how I did it! Haha. But yeah woohoo algorithms. I'm hoping that in under a month I can have the Front End Certificate from FCC under my belt!
Today's Progress: I just worked on one algorithm problem; still not solved.
Thoughts: I can see how, as problems become more challenging, your use of logic needs to increase. It's with these problems that you can grow your brain's capacity and comprehension.
Today's Progress: Solved that algorithm, and a couple more.
Thoughts: So I'm seeing that you need to really flex your brain's logic muscle to get these done. Unfortunately, mine isn't so strong. I'm getting down about it, but trying to give myself room to grow and realize that if it were easy, everyone would do it.
Today's Progress: Today I spent time working on one problem.
Thoughts: I lean towards writing my own code and solution versus googling to find somebody else's, but I fear that I will be developing bad habits if I stick to what I know, as it may not be the "best" way to go about solving an issue.
Today's Progress: I'm still very much in this! Advanced Algorithms.
Thoughts: I made it to advanced algorithms! Very happy about that. On some of the intermediate algorithms I got a bit discouraged, which led to me looking for the answers elsewhere. I vow to not do that anymore, only research what I have to but no giving up. My solution won't necessarily be the cleanest or tightest code, but it'll work! This is all a learning process.
Today's Progress: A couple of days ago I started a python intro course.
Thoughts: This python course seems a bit dawnting, but it could be a lot of fun. I need to start learning some back end material, so this should help. So I'm learning python with Flask(a library) and using a virtualenvironment. I'm not neglecting my javascript with FreeCodeCamp, I'm just not doing it every day. The Advanced Algorithms are quite challenging, and I did find myself having to look to youtube for answers, but I feel better about certain methods now, like reduce(function(){},) and filter(index, value, array). Understanding recursion is a big tough on the brain, but I'm getting there. Very proud of how far I've come. :)
Today's Progress: Wow, almost half way done with the challenge!
Thoughts: I'm nearing the 50 day mark! And to think that I wouldn't be committed enough to code every day! I'm so, so, so glad that I challenged myself to do it. It has brought back my work ethic and helped me improve on my discipline. Anyway, I had been stuck on a certain Advanced Algorithm for too long, over a week and a half, but I finally finished it. Man, that was rough. It really made me question everything, from my potential to my purpose. But through the help of the internet and some background music to focus, I made it happen. Right after that I completed another one of the advanced challenges. That made me feel good and proud of my capabilities. As for the python course, I have to catch up! I missed the last 2 lessons and assignments, but I'm confident I can catch up. It's only till the end of the month anyway, so that should be fine. Although I am going on vacation for four days to a country without internet, so I'm not sure what will happen once I'm there in regards to my coding. Anyway, onwards and upwards!
Today's Progress: Progress has been slow, but I'm almost where I want to be!
Thoughts: Goodness! I can't believe it has already been 68 days since I started. I still feel as motivated as ever, particularly because I'm already onto the second of four projects before I can claim my Front-End Certificate from FreeCodeCamp! It's been a lot of work and frustration, but a lot of fun too. I have skipped a few days here and there, like when I went on vacation, but it is already become a habit to code every day, which makes me really happy. My goal is to finish these three projects, claim my certificate, update my website, and be ready to apply for jobs by the end of the month! It makes me nervous but I know that I have desirable skills under my belt and can land a job if I just apply to many places.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/QpGrGr
Today's Progress: Finished my second project! Pomodoro clock.
Thoughts: I just wrapped up the second of four projects for the F.E.D. certificate. It's a pomodoro clock! It was a lot of work getting this done, but I'm proud of myself! Good stuff. Probably will work on other stuff today and start coding again tomorrow.
Link: http://codepen.io/danielbonnells/pen/QppVPm
Today's Progress: Finished my third project, the Tic Tac Toe game.
Thoughts: I honestly can't say I'm too happy with this project. When I started it, the goal was to make a game AI that was impossible to be beaten. I soon found out that this was quite difficult and beyond my current capabilities, so I asked around and was informed that this characteristic was not a requirement. That meant that I could make a game without an AI. Such a game is incredibly boring because there's a slim chance you'll lose if you've got any idea of how the game works. You probably will win even if you don't know how to play! So I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't code that part of it. Otherwise, it looks pretty so I'm satisfied with that. One more project and my FCC Front End certificate is in my hands!
Link: https://codepen.io/danielbonnells/full/WpEZMZ/
Today's Progress: I GOT MY FRONT END WEB DEVELOPER CERTIFICATE!
Thoughts: Woohooooo! I'm so happy I've made it here!! :) Yipee. It was an arduous process, and it wasn't perfect, but I really did put in the work for it, which I'm really proud of, and I achieved what I wanted to achieve! So Yay for that :) Prior to claiming my certificate, I finished the final Front End project, the Simon Says game. That was a challenging project simply in terms of figuring out the order in which things should occur, but there was nothing particularly challenging about the actual code. I did learn how to work with setTimeout though, which is very handy to have. And how to play some sounds. Anyway, below is a link to that project and to view my shiny new certificate. The goal now is to re-do my website, get my resume ready, and apply for jobs! :) Daunting but exciting as well.
Link: https://codepen.io/danielbonnells/full/xqjrmJ/ Link: https://www.freecodecamp.com/danielbonnells/front-end-certification
Today's Progress: I updated my website!
Thoughts: Woohooooo! The past five days since getting my certificate have been about getting my website into shape. I have had a website for a while, and I was very proud of it when I made it long ago, but I had to update it. I'm currently loving the new one that I wrote from scratch. While building it I used chrome, but when I tested it on Safari, a lot of things didn't work. That forced me to look more into cross browser compatibility and try to implement solutions that would work on a variety of systems. I am not looking to run it on really old browsers, but it should look pretty much the same on all of the modern browsers. Next up, my resume.