Kimberly Lowe-Williams

August 12, 2015

Showtime at ACLTC!

I survived an adrenaline and nerve filled day. The showcase of our capstone projects at Anyone Can Learn to Code. The entire room was quite a buzz the whole 2.5 hours. I received so much positive feedback and interest in my application/site – it was great!

If you have been following along and reading this blog I think you deserve the first look at my screencast promoting my capstone project – ‘Volunteer Management System’…. yes I know, I know I need a snazzy name and I’m working on it. I’m very open to suggestions. So if anyone views this screencast and has some naming ideas please share! I’m very open to suggestions at this point.

I honestly was so focused on the logic and functionality of my site I didn’t even consider the marketability factor which some think is really high… so huzzah! Although I am quite proud of my accomplishment completing this course I am well aware of how much I have to learn. It is my hope that my coding skills will continue to grow and that I am provided with the opportunities to evolve into a capable developer.

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015

Coding Demi-god

Someone in my coding class shared this image with us – which definitely summarizes what it feels like to be a new developer:

Some days you really feel like you are really rocking out! Everything makes sense the code you are writing works on the first try, everything looks good you are just cruising along. Other days… nothing makes sense, you lose the ability to type, you feel like everyone is moving 100 times faster than you, nothing works… and you begin to question how you have made it this far into the bootcamp at all. Sometimes you just start to wonder how you’ve held down gainful employment and are raising a family with the less than average IQ you surely have… you begin to wonder if you should start getting tested for either A) Attention Deficit Disorder B) Early onset Alzheimer’s or C) All of the above. However…. you are still having fun! How is this possible? You are learning to code.

This experience has me wondering if there is anyway I can make a living just learning.. seriously. I almost get choked up at the idea. I love learning new technology and seeing how far I can go with it. This is challenging in ways you could never imagine but so rewarding. My fear is that put into a corporate setting it could suck all the life out of this experience and limit just how much you learn. I don’t have an answer to this and it may sound like wishful thinking but why not? I’ve come this far on a hope and prayer.. why not go all the way?

We are 25% complete with this course and I’ve build a somewhat functional e-commerce site built using Ruby on Rails. We’ve covered so much information – even the things I am familiar with HTML, CSS, SQL have been taught at a higher level, integrating into Rails is amazing. We’ve got quite a way to go but I can only imagine what the final results will be. So for today I feel like a coding demi-god with dog-like tendencies. 🙂

June 1, 2015

Stupid “J”!!!!

Sundays at ACLTC are the most intense days we have since we are able to go for 8 hours learning and coding. It is a long day but it also is the most amazing environment and experience. Yesterday we actually took pictures… not my favorite thing in the world but alas it can’t all be fun and games, right?

As has become a habit with me I talk to myself out loud when coding… or basically when concentrating. It’s a low mumble hopefully that does not annoy others; however, there is one thing I tend to shout – “Stupid J!!” It should be noted at this point that our instructor is named Jay and is a very nice guy whom I would never yell such words to despite some of the challenging exercises he dishes out with maniacal pleasure – really you should see the little glint he gets in his eyes! The reason for my Tourette’s like outbursts is because my MacBook Air has a few letters that like to pop off every now and again but that “J” never cooperates!This can be annoying at times but this is my first Mac… the first Mac I invested in bought last summer off of Craigslist after attempting to code using a PC. That was a real challenge especially since every place I went with more experienced developers consisted on Mac users only. I had always wanted a Mac (after all use iPhones and iPads exclusively) but they are quite expensive. Yes my little MacBook Air is a bit older… and smaller… than that of most developers BUT it is a hardworking machine and honestly is the most I can afford. After all, I’ve not gotten a developer’s salary quite yet. I do plan to upgrade eventually but this one has travelled from meet-up to meet-up with me, allowed me to begin coding and just makes me proud. It runs a bit slower than desired and has its quirks… as my instructor found out yesterday but it’s mine all mine and 100% paid for. I also think my perspective is a bit different than some… in that of all the obstacles that I have to overcome and things to worry about on my path to becoming a developer this is so very insignificant. This is just life as an urban geekmom in my experience. I am thankful to have this Mac and until I can afford better it will have to suffice.

Plus, I love my little Mac…. it’s making me a developer and that is priceless.