DEV Community

Zach
Zach

Posted on

July 4th (of Code)

Today's the 5th actually. A Monday. Federal Holiday. But the work doesn't stop and so I'm here in front of my computer, leveling-up as a programmer and chronicling the process.

I'm glad to be working today. Even though today's not 'off', it does feel like a regular 2-day weekend (not 3 days though as Saturday was an HR day). I should say that's also despite putting in about four hours yesterday as well. Nevertheless, I feel relaxed and ready for the start of Week 4 tomorrow.

Won't lie - I was initially somewhat bitter over having a mandatory assignment over a national holiday. The staff's off, but we're not? For all the talk of self-care, it felt (feels) like a wasted opportunity to give the students a chance to spend some quality time doing whatever they need on this holiday to get themselves right.

For me, I wanted to have a low-key day catching up on some work. A no-stress day of learning. My self-care. I had a toy-problem that was on my mind, some needed review of assorted topics (see: my last post), and most importantly, some gaps in my knowledge of React that needed filling.

As it happened, our assignment was a React project and was exactly the kind of work I was intending to give myself.

What a relief.

I didn't get as much done today as I wanted on the assignment, but feel pretty good about what I've managed so far - working with state, props, inputs and other click events, and all without majorly relying on the docs (and eschewing non-docs resources).

I'll be up early in the morning to finish up what I can.

Blog thoughts

Here are a few changes that I've thought about bringing to this journal.

  • Tracking my daily state (emotions, energy, etc) during the day that I can apply some sort of visualization to later on. It could be useful for my reflections, or to share with other parties who would want that kind of data (staff, prospective students, my cohort-mates).

  • Moving from a daily to a less-frequent posting schedule that might allow me more time to work on entries and maybe shift my focus towards more technical themes or ideas. Daily is great. It makes me feel accountable. But I also feel like I'm leaving something on the table by not taking the time to ferment a topic and make more of 'contribution' than these posts feel like. Maybe I'd create mini-tutorial or instructionals, or just share js/webdev/programming insights that I've gained.

  • Maybe guest posts?

  • I had a couple other ideas floating around but I guess they've floated away for now.

Top comments (0)