I thought that I haven’t blogged in here since forever, but it seems that the last post that I had was back in May. Not bad at all. As some of you know already, I have been on and off with my learning progress because of the same issues mentioned in my previous entry, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been coding or learning anything at all. I’m just not very good with documenting my progress on social media, namely Twitter. I think I already lost my count with my #100DaysOfCode challenge.

But, as I mentioned before, I did make some sort of progress. Also, once again, I’ve remade my own progress map for this site.

New Host

I’ve been on reseller hosting for several years now, but now I felt like I heard a calling that it was time for me to be a lot more independent. I’ve thanked my previous hosts for hosting me all these years. But, we’ve all gotten busy, following different paths in our own lives, to the point that we haven’t been keeping up with each other anymore. It’s not that I no longer want to stay in touch with them, but this is a post about independence, right?

But I do have a technical reason why I decided to move hosts. I’ve gotten a bit more knowledge on how to run sites more efficiently and how I can do some customizations on the backend that my current reseller hosts have placed so many borders that wouldn’t allow me to gain access to the portions I needed to access without permission. I even had an issue when a friend of mine had an inaccessible blog dashboard, and when I requested tech support through my current host, she would have to pass it on to her tech support and wait for their reply. Over a week later and no response, that’s what gave me the sign that I would really have to go independent so that I can fix whatever issues that my friend needs for her sites. ¹ Reseller hosts limited me to get to the support that I needed to provide her that the only way for me to get things done was to migrate to a more open, more prompt hosting and tech support. Once I finally found the right host that would do the job, I finally was able to fix her issue with her blog site and now everything is smooth.

One of these days, I’ll write a blog post, another tutorial of sorts, on how to choose the right web hosting based on your need. You don’t want to waste money on a host with features you don’t really need for your site, in other words. But, we’ll see what happens in the near future.

New Theme

After some 2-3 years, I finally changed the entire theme of the site. I mean, I still loved my previous blue theme with the ninja girl logo, but looking through the types of posts that I’ve been posting for the past months, even the voice behind these posts have changed. I don’t know if I should say that it “matured” a bit or is no longer in line with my original purpose of the site. It used to be both a tech learning blog and an art gallery, but as you can see, I removed the art gallery and transferred it to my fiction writing blog instead, since both are forms of art. ²

So, everything now is primarily text-based. Sure, I still added some “cuteness” to it, just for old time’s sake, but lately, my (child) themes for my sites have become a bit more minimal than it used to be. Call it something like a reflection design-wise, but it has been becoming relevant that I no longer want super-cute or fancy images splashed around headers and other places. Also, it’s fun making cute logos with (pre-made) graphics and saving them as SVGs.

I still have to update some of the content in all the sections to the most current, so this new look isn’t quite finished yet.

Stepping Back to Progate, Udemy, Treehouse, Career Karma

My on and off days from code academics have become a lot more frequent that I’m really losing my mind whenever I try to get back into AppAcademy Open‘s introduction to programming course. I would have to start all over again from the beginning so I can get my flow back. In turn, I decided to go back to basics again.

Progate

This slides-based online learning platform added new modules to their current courses and a new React course too. Rather than starting over again with Javascript, in particular, I decided to go ahead by taking the first few modules of their new React course. It was a bit easier than I thought and somehow it lifted some pressures about being more JS-savvy from my shoulders and gave me a bit of a sigh of relief. I really like it so far that I decided to search around Udemy and Treehouse so I can take more React courses and get a bit ahead.

Udemy

I found a potentially good React course on Udemy, but I also realized that the one I enrolled into was the same instructor behind a popular course, Web Developer 2019 Zero to Mastery.  I actually enrolled in this course sometime last year, but because of the happenings that occurred these past 6-9 months, I pretty much “dropped off” and kind of disappeared from the web dev self-learning community. While I was searching to enroll in a react course, I then remembered this particular course and that it also has its own community on Discord chat. I signed up in there, but never really introduced myself. Recently, I started taking the course and finally joining in the community. I look forward to doing some pair programming with the members there one day, once I get through the basics.

It may not make sense for going through the HTML and CSS and (basic) Javascript modules, but it’s always good to go back to the basics and refresh everything you already know. I’m currently at the CSS module right now.

Treehouse

I’m using my local library³ card to have free access to Treehouse. I thought about getting into their tech degree programs but at the same time, I have to do more research on them. My current employer offers a career choice program for their employees in which they reimburse you for continuing your education and I’ll have to see if they would accept their payment.

Actually, I have a better question. Will they support boot camps that have income sharing programs?

Career Karma

I think this small community has come a long way. Career Karma now have their own app and the #21DayCKChallenge exercise that was established months ago. However, because their app has expanded and I’ve fallen out of touch, I feel like I would need to start over again. I also decided to wait until CK was able to find more bootcamps and online schools to support their cause and that we have more choices than we used to in the beginning. When my path is finally clear, I can start over again with the #21DayCKChallenge again, meet new like-minded individuals myself for networking from pair programming to gaining connections to a new web dev career.

I look forward to that day again. Maybe sometime in the fall.

Past Project Revivals

Here are a few of my current and past projects that I am currently working on launching or at least revive it to active status:

• ADRIMARIE.me – I’ve had this domain for about 2-3 years now. It should be the new home of my somewhat defunct portfolio. However, I never really gotten around to actually building the site, mainly because I wanted to build more side projects or at least provide samples of my code work on my GitHub before I start presenting myself as someone marketable. When I moved hosts, I converted this “unused” domain into a network multisite so I can also build an online resume under a subdomain and finally do some work done on the main one.
• Let’s Volt IN! – Originally my hobby sites collective, today, I’m not sure what this site is, or what it would be. I thought about just letting this domain expire, but the domain itself has a lot of sentimental value to it. This is what happens during your younger years when you start purchasing so many domains for different purposes. Again, this one is out in the open.
• Adri Mars INK – I just need to read books… and review them… or watch a movie or a TV show… and review them… or maybe write some flash fiction… and post more art and start scanning finished pages from adult coloring books… I just need something in there.
• This site – I seriously need to be better at documenting all the things I learned instead of writing babbly-type commentary posts like this one.
• Symmetry @ The ADRICULOUS LIFE – I attempted an Asian skincare and beauty (mostly Korean) blog, but it barely took off. I’m thinking of converting this entire site into a health and fitness tracking blog. After all, even skincare can be considered a subcategory of Health and Fitness. In order for you to be beautiful, you have to be healthy, right?

Upcoming Tutorials

• WordPress Multisites – For example, If you as a hobbyist web designer/developer want to have a site collective in which all of your sites are all WordPress-powered, now there’s an easy, more convenient way to build multiple sites by using just one WordPress installation (your main domain) powering more than one site (your main domain and all of your subdomains/subsites). But, it will take a bit of some code work to do it. Stay tuned!

This is it for now. Will post more soon!

1. She’s a named author in the Philippines, meaning she has a huge following on her site, so think about that.
2. Coding is art too, but visuals and writing are a bit more in line with each other than with coding altogether. I also want to keep the art part separate from my code learning as well.
3. Maybe not so local, but it’s the closest to my home area that offers a free Treehouse membership using a library card: San Jose Public Library and San Jose State University Library systems…