Here we go again! I know what I'm in for this time, which makes me wonder if I can do it again. I also had the advantage of my son's naptime last go-around, but not this time.
On my second round of 100 Days of Code journey, I hope to stay more focused and project-oriented. I accomplished a lot last time, including most of my Free Code Camp front-end work and starting a few projects of my own. Now I want to keep pushing myself forward.
Starting November 17, 2017, I commit to improving my code skill set. My focus will gravitate toward a better understanding of web apps, MVCs, and databases. My specific goals include:
- Finish the last 2 FCC front-end projects (Tic Tac Toe & Simon game).
- Refresh JavaScript learning with those code books that are gathering dust. This may include completing JavaScript 30 tutorials.
- Start the FCC Data Visualization section.
- Build one personal project with React and/or Node to expand on my JavaScript (upgrade Mars 511, maybe? Or even an Alexa skill?).
- Finish building my son's photo album (Rails).
- Build one web app with ASP.NET MVC for my full-time job.
- Finish my ARIA tutorial app (Rails?).
- Upgrade my part-time business site for marketing readiness (convert from PHP to another language?). Possibly migrate my blog over to it?
- Create an original project on my Raspberry Pi (Python?).
- Learn about WordPress themes (PHP) and make an accessible one, if I still have time left.
- Contribute to 1-3 open source projects on Github during this time, if it's not too distracting from the projects I'm already aiming to build.
- And.... all the while making these web apps accessible and learning proper ARIA use!.
Just like my first round of 100 Day of Code, I will follow these guidelines:
- I will code for at least 1 hour a day for 100 days straight (with the exception of skipping one day within a 2-week period).
- I will tweet about my progress every day using #100DaysOfCode and noting the day I'm on (R2D1, R2D2, etc.).
- Additionally, I will log my progress on Github, and try to push code on a daily basis. (for private projects, I'll push to Bitbucket)
- Not a requirement, but something that helped me review last time: write a blog post each week reviewing what I learned and projects I'd like to show off.
Exceptions to Kallaway's rules:
- I will count coding at work, if it's something new to me. I won't count my HTML, CSS updates. But breakthroughs in JS and .NET are acceptable to me.
- I will include time spent in tutorials which ask me to code alongside them. Since I have real-world projects in mind, the books I plan to read will help me accomplish that. And I'm a F/T worker with a small child at home, so any time spent focused on code is time well spent increase my project. I'm okay with that.
- I will be creating my repo from scratch, so Github gives me credit this time around for being active on Github and my 100 Days journey. Because not all my projects will live on Github, I want to see those green squares, even if I'm just leaving a link for others to view publicly.
After this round is complete, I hope to be better equipped to find 2-3 contract projects for 2018 and have the projects from this challenge to point to as examples of my original work. Most importantly, I hope to build a stronger foundation in modern front-end development because this is the career I enjoy, yet it's ever-changing.
My greatest struggle will be avoiding cool and simple coding challenges along the way. (I'm looking at you, 30 Days 30 Sites, Daily CSS Images, enticing Lynda.com paths, and all you CodePenners and your cool animations!)
Long live code (and focus)! Let's do this.