Hallo! I'm Educated Savage, aka Eddie, and I have heard that it's a good idea to share one's learning process publicly. This is new to me - I expect the start to be a bit rough. But that's okay, that's how I do things - I start out rough and in doing so, I learn the nuance and quirks and weirdness of the thing I'm learning REALLY well, and quickly learn to adapt. It may be a bit barbaric, but it's home.
Freelancing
I have been a freelance web designer since 2008 when I left my corporate job as an executive administrative assistant at a rehabilitation accreditation organization. I had been doing freelance web design on the side during my corporate job as well, and in high school of course, but now that tech jobs are becoming more commonly permanently remote, I have decided to dive back into company work. Plus, my primary audience (small businesses and independent artists), are suffering and ALSO having to go back to work, so my business has slowed down a lot. Business has slowed down due to the pandemic, but remote work is becoming more popular due to the pandemic, so the transition seems almost ideal.
Bootcamp
I joined the #100devs bootcamp run by Leon Noel in February and was able to update my HTML and CSS knowledge to HTML5 and CSS3 - and I am absolutely STOKED about flex box! I am not fond of floats at all and flex box is so much more capable (but floats will never be as bad as table-based layouts from the 90s).
In addition, I'm formally learning JavaScript now, instead of the hacker/script kiddie JavaScript knowledge I had organically gained before - and stretching my wings on Codewars which is a bit more math-focused than I'd like, but it at least gets the syntax down and helps me to explore the various built in functions and methods in JavaScript. Not a waste, just not my favorite thing (kinda aced today's Kata, though, so feeling pretty pleased about that).
There's a few more languages and 11 weeks to go in this bootcamp, but somewhere in there I need to revive my old C++ skills and add on some C# and Java, too, which I'm very much looking forward to. And then of course JavaScript frameworks, too.
Accessibility is Important
It's probably worth mentioning that the reason I even got started in tech (at 13yo!) is because my mother suffered a terrible medical incident and as a result, was given an IBM 386 to assist in her accessibility and so I've always been aware of the accessibility and access that computers SHOULD be providing for people and the extent to which the internet can connect and help people. You wouldn't think that looking at social media, but the potential is INCREDIBLE and too often neglected. I'm proud that I've always focused on accessibility in my designs as well as responsiveness and cross-viewport compatibility. I think it's one thing to say "I care about accessibility!" but another to explain how I'm actually personally invested in it.
Art
In addition, I've always been a weird artistic type - but also always really struggled with it. Too many of my art teachers expect that I should just be able to FEEL how things work and how things are done but I do not - I even approach artwork in a very analytical and systemic way (I think starting in code at 13 yo probably altered how I think about things). NOT an asset in learning art, but DEFINITELY an asset in teaching art. I am learning/playing several instruments (piano, tin whistle, darbuka, djembe, zills, and more), have been a professional freelance photographer (portraits, events, weddings, headshots, pin ups, horror art) which gave me experience in the entire Adobe Creative Suite, and have been/am a professional dance performer and teacher (my knowledge of anatomy is weirdly thorough).
That being said, I find my graphic design merely adequate - it'll suffice, but it won't be moving and gorgeous. And as a project manager, I can recognize the human limits of other people and assign them sensible deadlines, but when it comes to me, everything has to be done yesterday. So very much looking forward to being part of a team again, especially with a graphic designer and a project manager - so I can create gorgeous websites with beautiful assets on a sensible timeline.
Linguistics
I'm also relearning 2 languages (Spanish and Japanese) and learning Italian fresh - if it sounds like I'm doing too much, that's probably true. But I typically work on one thing until I reach the point of frustration and then switch to another task as a "break" - I don't care much for TV or passive consumption in general and much prefer doing things - but switching tasks does provide a relaxing "gear shift" for my brain and I enjoy it that way.
Thanks!
So yeah, that's me! I'm going to try to be regular in sharing my learning and exploration process on here - I think that this might be an ideal platform for that, and looking forward to meeting new people and learning from their experiences as well.
-- ES