News Good And Bad
Tags: codenewbie, 100daysofcode, webdev, blog
Published: 2020-03-22 18:26:43

[The following is a transcript from the second episode of my vlog (https://tinyurl.com/v9vb67v).]:

Hi everybody, uh it’s me your friend, Matt Geckley AKA Geckodes. Thanks for joining us. Last week I talked about how I was hitting the reset button on my coding journey after a few years of being unsuccessful in landing a professional gig. So I’m happy to report that I’ve been uh, behaving well. I’ve been getting in front of the computer every night. I did take one night off to spend some time with Milady because romance is important. Let’s not forget why we’re doing this in the first place that’s what I say. 

Mmm so I finished all the lessons in the Free Code Camp responsive web design curriculum and I’m coming on the five projects associated with that certificate in order to claim said certificate. In preparing for that I started building a design system. Nothing super complex like you might see in Material or Taco from Trello. More just make - choosing my fonts before-hand, choosing my colors, getting my icon set together. Figuring out how I wanna do layout instead of designing as I’m developing. Which, I don’t know… Okay so it’s a lot more work up front than I thought it would  be to be honest. But it’s a labor of love. But I can already see how its going to streamline my development process and y’know make coming up with wireframes and everything a lot easier. So I don’t know why I never thought to do this before-hand but here I am - better late than never. 

So on to new business um… I wanna talk to you about some good news and some bad news. The bad news is ever since our uh [slight chuckle] ever since dear leader got on the television and recognized how serious this pandemic is I’ve seen a severe drop in business on my end. And as a mechanic I get paid on what’s called the flat rate system. As is the case with most mechanics. In case you’re unfamiliar with it basically, I get paid for the job that I do nothing more nothing less. For example I’ll do a brake job, that’ll pay me one hour of labor regardless of how long it takes me to do it. And that’s really great whenever it’s very busy and I can pull off three brake jobs in the space of an hour and really rake in that money. But whenever there’s a freeze in the economy this is what happens to my [makes shrinking gesture with hands] - this is what happens to my paycheck. I think you can put together how that’s not really workin’ out for me so well in this instance. 

But that does bring me around to the good news is um, Ryan Carson, the CEO of Team Tree House, he got on Twitter about a week ago and said that in light of the recent economic hardship that so many people are facing he and his team are going to open up 100 seats in their Techdegree program. Sort of give it away um, kind of like a scholarship. So I put my name in the hat and I heard back just yesterday that um - that I was blessed with one of these seats. So I’m receiving a-a free years subscription to their Techdegree program. Which is huge, awesome. I’m definitely going to take full advantage of that. Um, y’know this really has the potential to be a life-changer. So thank you to Team Tree House and Ryan Carson of course. I know this initiative couldn’t have happened without you so from the bottom of my - of my little heart I just wanna say thanks. 

And going forward um, I’m going to dive right into it. I don’t really want to do this but I’m gon [slight chuckle] - I’m gonna put this Free Code Camp stuff to the side for now. I’ve got a premium membership to a platform that’s kind of a big deal and I want to make sure I squeeze every last drop of opportunity out of it. So the responsive web design lessons have been a  great review since I’ve been away for so long. But it’s time for me to y’know, give everything I’ve got into this Team Tree House thing. So um, kind of business as usual but on a different platform. I’m gonna take myself so good notes and uh, oh shoot, just get my hands dirty y’know? So, my goals for the week: I wanna get this posted, I wanna get the uh transcript typed up, and I also wanna just familiarize myself with the platform - not get started too hot and heavy. And yeah, just make sure I’m putting in the time everyday. If I can get that accomplished I’ll be in a lot better shape than I am now. 

So um, thanks for watching. I appreciate you. You’re looking great today. I’m glad you could join us. If you wanna give a like that’d be helpful. If you wanna subscribe - see where things go from here for me that’d be cool. And um, what can I say? I love you. Uh not in a creepy way, as a… we’re all family in one way or another way right? So, um, hope you’re taking care of each other and have yourselves a wonderful day. Thanks y’all.