First Week at Coding Dojo

Saturday, October 5^th 2013:

After some long-term soul searching I finally found something that I could strive to be passionate about for years to come, coding. There was one small problem though; I had NO coding experience whatsoever. I considered going back to Arizona State University in the hopes of attaining a CIS degree. After scouring the Internet for schools that would teach me how to code I happened to stumble upon the Coding Dojo. The Coding Dojo is a 9-week intensive bootcamp that teaches web-based language such as; HTML, CSS, Java, PHP, MySQL, OOP, MVC, Ruby on Rails etc. I decided to apply and shortly after I was accepted. Ecstatic and intimidated I thought to myself, “surely there are going to be some people that will be more knowledgeable about coding than myself”, but this didn’t stop me from going. Now, I found myself 800 miles away from home living in Silicon Valley where I attend the Dojo 6 days a week. Here is a breakdown of what the first week is like and what I have learned thus far.

Monday, October 7th, 2013:

The first day consisted of a really nice introduction from our instructors and staff. Since you are not familiar with the people or routine, the first day can always be awkward. Honestly though, that awkwardness dies out once you get to know everyone’s names, where they are from and one interesting fact about them. It was really great to break the ice and mingle with my coding mates. Monday’s lesson focused primarily on HTML, which I thought I knew but I guess I was wrong.  The first two hours was a struggle, we had to construct a “fake blog” and I had no idea what I was doing or where to start. However, with time, trial, and error I got through the first assignment with minimal headache. Practice makes perfect and I know if I keep at it I can be a natural. See you tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 8th 2013:

Today we are working on CSS, which is basically the esthetics of a web page. This has been really frustrating! Figuring out where to float a specific piece of content is challenging especially when you have no idea what you are doing until you actually learn it. Slowly but surely I am learning this stuff. You just have to mess around with it and that just takes time.

Wednesday, October 9^th 2013:

Comparable to someone working on the set of a movie and looking behind the scenes, I came to the realization that I can never look at a web page the same.  It’s day three and I have been fortunate enough to learn an overwhelming amount of information at the Dojo. Coding all day can be mentally exhausting, so I learned that sometimes you just need a <br>. Today’s assignment was to emulate a screenshot from scratch using HTML and CSS. I have the HTML part, down; again, just figuring out where to float the content can be frustrating. I also made the mistake of using <div class="header"> and using a “#” instead of the “.” Note to self: Use one or the other! Today is sports day, spent a few hours in the park throwing a football around with some classmates that quickly turned into friends. Time for me to catch some Z’s… until we meet again!

Thursday, October 10^th 2013:

Starting to get this CSS stuff and with more practice I find myself getting faster at building a page from scratch. The third assignment is just another screen shot that has to be emulated. Little roadblocks here and there but I have inspect element on my side, which can ultimately be your best friend when you have no idea what is going wrong.

Friday, October 11^th 2013:

Worked on the last CSS screen shot assignment today, seem to be getting through it quickly with minimal struggle. I have so many div tags nested within so many divs! I figured out that if I start doing the HTML and CSS together from the header all the way to the footer, I would be able to get the assignment done faster and can keep everything simpler and more organized. Finished all my assignments for the week and I am ready to mess around with Bootstrap. I asked a few classmates and some said they love it while others don’t, I will be the judge of that I guess. Going to the Hacker Dojo tonight, hopefully will meet some brilliant minds there. See you on Monday!