104 days of summer vacation
Tags: java, devjournal
Published: 2020-12-11 12:06:31

# Welcome

It's come to my attention that I have been depriving you all of my online presence - Warning! I have a bit of an inflated ego :wink: - As of today I am going to publicly commit to posting consistently on DEV, wish me luck. I've started this series so that you can keep tabs on me. I will talk about new technologies that I am getting into and giving random shout outs to people on any platform that I feel deserve the praise.

## Introduction :wave:

I'm not sure if I have formally introduced myself on this platform yet so... Hi! my name is Sibusiso but I go by Sibu(*See-boo*). If you have read any of my previous posts you would know that I know a decent amount of Python and Java. These are the languages that are taught in my Computer Science classes. I also dabble in web development from time to time. My favourite programming language is Java and I am not dead set on a specific career path but I would like to be a data scientist :nerd_face:.

## Update  

It's been about week since I have finished my first year of University so now I'm hoping to dive into all things that I found interesting that the curriculum did not cover or even mention. I want to improve on my Java because I took a lot of shortcuts during the semester and it is starting to show. I only learned recently about the method `.equalsIgnoreCase()` and we've been learning Java since August. I still don't know how to read and write to files without googling it. This is not acceptable for someone who wants to master the language. 

My plan is to go over the basics with the help of [Core Java Volume 1 - Fundamentals](https://www.amazon.com/Core-Java-I-Fundamentals-11th-Horstmann/dp/0135166306), a great book for beginners/intermediate Java programmers. This book taught me so much about Java and it gave me a little insight into what goes behind creating and designing a new programming language. When you learn about why Java was created it is difficult to not appreciate the language. Truth be told, there is a lot of hype around Java and some people may say that the language is overrated but I love it. It's favourite programming language to date. 

I'm also working on a school project that I did not finish because it was no longer part of our grade as a result of the pandemic forcing us to do online learning. The project is based on a card game that I used to play called **Crazy-8s**. It's basically the UNO card game using a standard deck of playing cards. It's very informal and the rules always seem to change depending on who you are playing with. I'll leave a link to the GitHub repo here for anyone who wants to check out. I wanted to embed it, but it seems as though Forem does not accept liquid tag URLs with numbers in them.

I have been neglecting web development for about a month or two. The academics started piling up so I kind of prioritised that over everything and I just never made time for it. Since I haven't touched any CSS for a while I will have to go over the basics,, again, because knowing myself, I probably forgot how to link HTML files to CSS.  

As much as I love Java, I do get tired of staring at a blinking cursor in the terminal. So I try to switch things up with some web development because it's more visual and you can see your results immediately. Besides that, CSS really makes me feel like an artist. I find it quite therapeutic. I know that learning multiple technologies at the same time increases your learning curve but I'm willing to make that trade. For now, I care more about direction than speed.

## Closing

I'm really just looking to make friends that I can build projects alongside and join coding communities that can keep me motivated throughout this long holiday (School starts again in Feb/arch). If you are a beginner in Java or web development or if you are interested in collaborating in Hackathons or if you simply want to connect you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/sbu_0V) or hit me up on [discord](https://discordapp.com/users/Sbu_05#0127).

As always, stay safe, wash your hands and happy coding! :computer: