Day 4 Coding From Scratch

     We have been moving through html and css with ease so far. Next week we begin JavaScript, all of which I have significant experience with. I am already very happy I made this choice, and I am looking forward to learning all I can from Coder Camps. Everyday from here on out is exciting. 

     Coding many hours of the day, and loving it.

Exam Time!!!

Exam Next Week!

I've been working through my prerequisites with no problems, and even been doing some extra learning on the side. I just have Bootstrap and some JavaScript left to check off my list then I'm finished and ready for camp. My exam has to be completed by next Friday which is February 6th, 2015.

I've had no problems at all with html, and minimal issues learning CSS. I've been working with JavaScript for a little over three years, so I don't believe I'll have a problem picking anything further up that I need to learn. I am really focused and super motivated.

I am more than ready to pass this exam, and be fully ready to start camp March 2nd. I can honestly say I am more excited for this than I've been for anything in a long time. Chasing the career of a developer has been a long road full of people who believe only in breaking my back for work. Well, I think it's time I show them I've been breaking my brain for a good reason. 

Changing my life right now for myself and my children!

Stay Tuned!

Big Shoulders to Carry Big Dreams

Believing is the Hardest Part

     While many people say that the hardest part of doing something is starting, I tend to disagree. I've found out that many people like me have more trouble finishing projects and such. Creative thoughts flow freely through my head on a daily basis creating excitement that supersaturates my mind and overflows as if my mind was just a tea cup. Unfortunately, the overflow sometimes contains the creative thoughts that are needed to finish the project I started before, and before I know it I'm starting another project. Starting is what I love to do, and a long time ago I decided to start dreaming. My dreams have weaved together a path that has led to many different experiences in my life especially over the last seven to ten years. For the most part of that I really didn't know what it was I was chasing my dreams for. I just felt that there had to be more enjoyment in my life, and I wanted to see my own creativity giving enjoyment to those around me.  I wanted those around me to know that I was very creative. I wanted those same people to be proud of me for something other than just doing the right thing for my family on a day to day basis. I wanted to be a software developer before I knew what a software developer was. This path I'm on to get there has been tough, and the toughest part of starting was believing in myself.

Environment and Influence

     This initial thought to use my creativity became a hobby. Something I poured hours into just because I loved it, and I love learning new things. Eventually as with all hobbies money was being spent on learning material and supplies while I took advantage of as many free resources on the web as possible. Everyone around me began to notice that I was taking my hobby serious. I began talking about software development to my closest family and friends asking them how they felt about developing as a job. I began thinking about how I felt about making it my future. From the inside looking out I'll tell you that it's rare to find someone around me that will speak their mind, and I'll tell you that where I'm from working hard physical work is what is respected. It was my wife at the time that motivated me to go to school for what I really would like to do. She seen me come home from a job that I did not want to work at forever. I would come home and lose myself in anything I found to have or require imagination to enjoy. I would pass my feelings of imagination on to my family by way of playing games with my kids chasing them around the house, or in the car taking turns each of us making our own parts of a story together like our very own choose your own adventure book. This is how I found my true respect in having an imagination and what it really meant to me. I always knew though in the back of my mind that I had provide for these beautiful people under my care. I had to pay bills, so I had to work whether I liked my job or not. I was very good at this job I didn't like to do, and I made the best friends of my life there. Slowly over the course of my life I had realized that I settled into a belief that I was meant to do everything I was doing, and the things I wanted to be doing was just dreams. Going to college opened my mind to the possibility of a future without breaking my back with physical work, and helped me to understand that I could work smart not hard.

Coding

     In the past seven to ten years I've read through countless programming language books, how to books, for dummy books, and web sites trying to gain the skills needed to become a computer programmer. I found computer programming to be a very difficult skill to pick up and learn without help or classes, and this made me want it even more. The difficulty of computer programming made the subject prestigious in my mind, and after about four years of just sifting through content I made a decision. I picked up a C++ book and actually began to work through it. Before long I found that I was understanding bits and pieces of the content, and the further and harder I studied it I learned more. Learning just the basics of C++ made learning my next language a lot easier. Before long I found myself in a domino effect learning bits and pieces of programming languages whenever I could. I read in a magazine once someone say that being a programmer was the closest that we could ever get to being a wizard, and having programming skills is like having an infinite set of Lego blocks to build whatever we could imagine in computers. I soon fell in love with coding, and spent many hours just messing around with the languages of my choice. Javascript became a favorite of mine, and through the desire to work with the Unity Engine I chose to dip my hands in C#. Everyone around me was looking at me study wondering why or how could I sit in front of a computer screen for long periods of time just typing or attempting to read what looked like jibberish. This made me feel even more special, and made me try harder.

A Special Opportunity

     Through all my studying and practicing I found myself to always seem to hit a hump in my learning. I could and still at this moment can't seem to find the proverbial glue to bring all the parts together into an actual product or finished project. Whether it be I lack the necessary knowledge of the development pipeline, or whatever it may be I can't seem to beat this obstacle alone. Well this past year in November of 2014 I came across a special ad on a website about Coder Camps an intense programming boot camp that I had looked into in the early months of 2014.  I decided to apply for the second time, and actually go through with the interview process this time. I have to admit that for the second time I was very intimidated. I didn't feel like it's in the cards for me to be as successful as I'd like to be. Well, thirty minutes before my interview I decided I wasn't going through with it again, and I would just continue to try and survive finding an animal care job somewhere. It was something that I was already comfortable doing. I sat and thought and thought about it for about fifteen minutes when I decided to go for it. I received my Skype call, shared my feelings with the wonderful person who was screening me, explained my experience with coding, and before I knew it she informed me that I was being approved for a troop in March. 

Nowhere Near Done

     Once approved I learned of prerequisites that needed to be done. Most of the content is more than familiar to me, and I'm having a blast working through all the required material. I am extremely excited to start camp, and I can't wait to be able to update my resume with my Coder Camp experience. I finally feel like I have the chance to work in the career of my choice, and I am heavily motivated working diligently to make sure every bit of content that will be taught in camp will be more than familiar to me. I finally have my chance to show those around me who think like I use to that life is as good as it's going to get for those of us who are where I'm from that those ideals are mistaken. I'm ready to succeed, and I have the desire, the dedication, and the belief that I can get there. I'm nowhere near done with dreaming, and only beginning to make those dreams come true.

Keep watch for my blog and updates on my progress.