Why libraries should always be your best friend

It’s too early to say whether 2016 had been a good or a bad year for me. I don’t want to get into that just yet.

I picked up my new San Jose Public Library card yesterday at the nearest branch ¹ and when I got home, I immediately signed in at Lynda.com and my old deactivated Treehouse account. You have no idea how I felt so good getting back in my Treehouse education because I really do miss their classes. In addition to that, I’m now able to take classes at Lynda that aren’t available on Udemy. The SJPL also has free access to Safari Books Online, one of the biggest tech ebook online library around, ² so now I can have the freedom to reach out to as many books as I can for my continuous learning. And all of these, plus other rich resources available out there, can all be accessed for free, thanks to the almighty library card.

I doubt that I will be checking out (physical) books from any of the San Jose libraries ³ anytime soon, but I signed up to get a library card simply because of its long list of digital eLearning and other resources. I just can’t afford the crazy high-priced subscription fees that both Treehouse and Lynda.com offer to their students, and I can understand why these online learning sites really do need the money. They have to pay their instructors, of course, as well as maintaining the upkeep of their platform as well. Maybe when I finally get a really good paying job, I would go ahead and invest some more in tech education. That’ll be sometime in the future, hopefully.

The reason why I wrote this entry is to provide tech students (whether you want to be a web developer, computer programmer, data engineer, etc.) a valuable tip on how you can upkeep your skills and knowledge in your chosen field. I know that online eLearning platforms aren’t for everyone, but I believe that using your local (or nearest) public library can become a very valuable resource, especially if you are a self-learner like myself. Before I got myself immersed in technology, the library (whether if it’s my local public library, school library, my old college/university library, or even my mini-library at home) has always been my second home away from home. Sometimes I find myself trusting books more than people, and that it makes me feel at ease to be surrounded by books than with people. Even though I consider myself a mild introvert, there is nowhere else a lot more relaxing than a place with books or an open space with a book in hand.

Today, I don’t limit myself to just a book in hand. My Kindle had been such a delight to me that I felt a lot more freedom being at home or somewhere else with no distractions whenever I’m not near a library. One of the things that I have on my bucket list is visiting the Library of Congress, even just once.

Alright, enough libraries. There’s another reason why I’m writing this entry. Again, I’m adding in more future plans for this site and anything related, beginning in 2017.

Free Custom-Built WordPress Themes

I’ve been playing around with both the Cherry Framework and the Runway Framework and have fallen in love with both of them. However, the Runway Framework is quite unique, as mentioned in my previous entry. I’ve mentioned to a few friends that I may be opening a section in this journal when I offer some freebies for hobbyist web designers for their websites, but I’m still debating too. I plan on offering some high quality stand alone WordPress themes using the Runway Framework. I actually have read reviews and comments from users and developers that some people who built themes with Runway have sold them on high-end marketplaces like ThemeForest. That’s because Runway has a feature in which you can convert your child themes into stand-alone parent themes without a trace of anything that mentions Runway Framework in them. ⁴

I could probably offer some paid themes too on this same mini-shop, but we’ll see what happens first with the free ones.

Etsy Shop?

I also plan on creating some random digital art which incorporates my lettering art with other things and then using these as designs for everyday items like mugs, stationery, wallets, tumblers, etc. I can create my very own eCommerce site if I can, but I really do need some formal (?) education on eCommerce sites first. As a start, I may sign up for Etsy and then begin selling my stuff over there.

Either that or submit my designs to my sister’s current employer ⁵ and then have them sell my stuff. Maybe it would be a lot cheaper and convenient that way. Again, we shall see.

That’s it for now. It’s 1am here now. I had to write all these to keep my mind off the ugliest day ⁶ that’s ever occurred in my life right now.