New Horizons with Open Source Development
Tags: opensource, javascript, github
Published: 2021-01-15 22:13:41

​	A new month, a new year, and a new semester is upon us. I always felt the idea of a 'new year' to be a weird one. Like as evolved [monke's](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/867/654/334.jpg) we all decided that our rock rotating once around our closest star was something to revel in and make plans over...

​	Anyway, here's the plan I want to revel in later: I'd like to lose this extra Covid Christmas weight, and I'd like to contribute in open source more. I'd also like to try and take the next four months "easy," not to say that I'll be doing nothing but my previous semester required a lot of work so hopefully this one won't turn into that.

​	But given that this blog post is about Open Source Development, lettuce digress.



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​	Last semester I took a course about Open Source Development: [OSD600](https://ict.senecacollege.ca/course/osd600?q=course/osd600). This semester I decided to take its successor class: [OSD700](https://ict.senecacollege.ca/course/osd700?q=course/osd700). OSD700 is a much more personal and team development oriented course. Essentially, we're given the option to work on an open source project of our choosing for the duration of the semester. Furthermore, Our Lord and Saviour Humph has mandated a *stay at home and code* order, as well as a *stay at home and blog* order. So here we are. Blogging. And coding. At home. Alone. With wine. And telescopes.

​	**I've given it some thought towards what project I want to work on this semester, and decided that I'd like to help push [Telescope](https://github.com/Seneca-CDOT/telescope) to the next level.** I'm really starting to enjoy React and JavaScript, well, web development in general I suppose. It's rewarding, rapid, and visual. But it's also quirky, and occasionally annoying. But it's also somewhere that I'm starting to envision myself. The two runner ups were  [WoWUp](https://github.com/WowUp/WowUp) and [Signal](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android).

​	During our first lecture / [meet the team](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62OY19rZ7k), I had mentioned that I wasn't sure where I wanted to head, or what I want to do with myself. This still holds true, but I've always kind of wanted to do something with web and mobile technology, despite losing further and further interest in my phone these days. Coincidentally there's an [issue up right now about porting Telescope to a PWA](https://github.com/Seneca-CDOT/telescope/issues/801) which kind of blends my two desires nicely together, despite PWA not technically being mobile development, but close enough, and at least a mere taste of the world.

​	Nonetheless, I'm really excited for the next four months and for what the future for me holds.  Thankfully the OSD700 team all seem really great. It's going to be an interesting time in my life.



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In other news...

* Cyberpunk was a disaster. Yikes.

* My Christmas was nice, but I didn't get my entire (and endless) TODO list done.

* We're back in a state of emergency in Ontario.

* [My capstone](https://github.com/TheATeam-566/Hermit) is going really well so far.

* I can't for the life of me figure out why my domain isn't working with Digital Ocean's App platform or AWS Amplify. Gotta play around with it some more.

* Been listening to [Vektor's Terminal Redux](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMCsv-zj56s) a lot 🤘.