Timeline - Page 2 of 17 - Jose M Castaneda

Extended learning

I’m really bad at updating this site. I know. A lot of it being I just haven’t been able to really jot things down here.

Over the years I’ve posted several things. Many were to keep track of things I learned. There were some that were possibly random. Again, I learned from that. As this year start to come to an “end” I think about this site and the content I want to be posting.

For me, this site was a test. To get more and more familiar with WordPress and how things worked with code. I’ve learned quite a lot too along the way. The biggest one being how themes are loaded and function. There is a lot of magic that goes on. It’s super crazy and cool to see the code that runs so many sites on this crazy place we call the web.

I was also able to meet a lot of super amazingly talented people along the way. There are still a lot of people I will meet and I do look forward to meeting all of them too.

I keep getting a bit sidetracked on this too.

As the years went by, I wanted to keep learning new things. I looked at random online course that I could take on. Yes, there are quite a few out there some are really good. Some are just okay in that I would just copy the code, make a small edit, paste and not really learn much from it. Other than keyboard shortcuts are super nice for things like that.

The other day I was looking over some of the places I had enrolled in or rather had my name attached to. 3 sites that I found in my password manager. I’m sure there are a few I may have missed but still those were just free resources.

The real test now will be enrolling in courses simultaneously for an actual degree. Yes, I started the process and will be actually going for one shortly. This will be good. I know it will take a lot of effort and a lot of time but it will be amazing once it is all said and done.

So if you don’t hear from me that’s probably why.

I do want to keep posting here about WordPress things I do find and come across as well it just will be a bit longer now.

Local woes

This morning I woke up like I usually do around 4:15. Actually got out of bed like ten minutes later. Went to my desktop and when I went to log back in I saw that everything was somewhat reset.

Turns out there was an update that had been run.

Now, I don’t mind those but when things get broken, that’s when I get a little upset. You see when I looked at what programs were running I saw that a few were no longer running. The main two were Sublime Text and Local by Flywheel.

I reopened Local and it asked me to install.

Nope.

Big old pile of nope.

How did this happen?

So I think initially that it upgraded to the latest version. No. That wasn’t it either as it continued to install version 2.4.6 on my computer. Odd in that it wasn’t the latest which I’m currently fine with. So I then look and it turns out the containers are missing.

Fabulous.

All the sites I has on there were now missing.

I’m not angry, I’m just upset now.

Reason being is that those are still there it just can’t find them. So now I have to connect them all.

This will be a fun day.

Brain farts and code

As some of you know I like to read and I like to read code. I also like to read about code. The other day it hit me that I haven’t done a full theme review in a long time. It made me a little sad.

I do miss that.

There is a partial reason why I haven’t. Okay there are a few.

Time
Rules may have changed a bit
Backlog of approved but not live
Life

The biggest one being time. My priorities have changed over the years. I went from helping out on the support forums and reviews after I would get off work or even before work to having to almost schedule times for that. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but when I feel like I need to schedule that it almost becomes work. I don’t want that.

I love helping people.

However I can. I think this was also part of the reason I chose to be the lead organizer for this year.

Other things

The last couple of weeks I have been practicing classical guitar songs because that is how I first began to learn guitar. That later transpired to learning to play Flamenco style. It’s been awesome and a great side hobby.

I have recorded myself playing here and there and even setup a Git repo because I felt like it. Also so others could use them however they wanted.

There are a few which don’t reside on there as well. A good example is some of the songs I’m trying to learn like Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra progress

My fingers are still trying to get familiar with a lot of the chords and fingerings used throughout the song. In time I’ll get it though.

Breaking things

The other day I decided to try and update all the things on my laptop. Let’s just say it was some fun.

I say that because I am running Ubuntu on my laptop. I changed it so it is always running the latest version. Even for latest releases. When the laptop was running Bionic Beaver I ran the updates and forgot about that so things changed to use Cosmic Cuttlefish and a few of the things broke along the way .

The one that did was Docker. I installed, removed, installed, removed, and nearly gave up. I read a lot and just walked away for a day. Came back to it and read a few other things and was back up and running.

Always a good feeling when you can get things back to working condition after not having paid attention to what you did.

Now granted that was on one of the laptops I have. The other is a Mac Book Pro and I went ahead and updated to the latest OS. Part of me wants to just start over on that one and remove everything so I can install everything from scratch. It will require a lot of time but I know it will be a bit more manageable. And I know it will clear up quite a bit of space as well since I know I haven’t used some things on there and most likely won’t.

Learning other things

It is no surprise to some that I like to read. One of the things I started recently was reading about Python. I want to learn to program in the language because I feel like I need to do this.

For the longest time I wanted to get more into web development. Python is just another tool I want to familiarize myself with. Ruby is another. I understand some of it because I took one small crash course a few years back but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert in it.

Languages fascinate me. Programming languages even more so. Part of that reason is because I like to solve little puzzles, those little mysteries that can happen. That began when I first encountered an error many, many years ago on Windows 95. I wanted to know what it meant. To this day I don’t think I ever figured out why it would crash at a certain point.

Oh well, that’s in the past now.

This year will be full of many readings. Hopefully I can find the time to share a lot of that here.

On JavaScript things

The other day I began what is to be another random project to test things and get more familiar with how the WordPress editor scripts work. Really the editor in general now since a lot of that is now done with JavaScript and the ReactJS library. It also uses Redux and a lot of that now does make more sense to me.

I sill struggle with a few things but I know the more I use it the more it will make sense,

The other reason is so that I can share that on here so others can also learn from it. I know it really has been way too long since I posted any sort of resource or tutorial too. I need to get on that. It’s long overdue.

The hard part has just been finding the time to really look over the code and just randomly testing things on my local setup. I think part of that is also because it has changed a bit since the last time I really did that. Now I’m using an Ubuntu laptop and a Windows desktop. I still use my Apple laptop but not as much as I used to. I really only use that for Netflix and the occasional Amazon movie.

And random online courses or YouTube videos that I watch in order to learn more.

One more song

The other day I finally managed to learn how to play Moonlight Sonata on the guitar. On my Flamenco guitar really. This was one song I wanted to learn years ago, I did and over time I plain forgot a lot – and by a lot I mean about ninety percent of the song. I could only really remember the first few lines and that was it.

The last couple of weeks I’ve made it a personal goal to relearn the song. A few days ago I finally managed to do so and I was happy about it. This morning I felt like recording it. Part of that reason is because when I first learned to play it I would play for my grandma. She would always tell me to record it so I can track my progress.

There are times I still do and of course a lot of those I keep to myself. Today I felt really more like sharing it because why not?

I know not the greatest playing in the world but it is mine and I will get better at it. The cool part is that it has also helped with the Flamenco playing.

Random music playing

There are two reasons I’m posting it here. The first one is because on the random blog I don’t really share audio or video and second is because I am more than happy to share those files if asked and having it here just makes it easier for me

With that being said, today I was a little bored and decided to practice the guitar. I’ve been practicing how to play Moonlight Sonata. It’s cool. I had learned it years ago but because I focused on other things my brain forgot a lot of it.

Today I decided to record a part that I really like from the song. It is a small clip and I’m still learning the song. I just have a few more bars and I can practice the entire song.

The next thing I recorded was me playing a flamenco rhumba. I’ve played it many times and I still struggle with a few things. A lot of that is because I still haven’t fully learned to slow down and so my fingers want to get ahead when they shouldn’t.

Anyway, here is the song:

The quality is a little better than most of my previous recordings too so I’m very happy about that.

I do not always Git it

I learned Git on my own by reading random answers on StackExchange and other places; some random articles here and there and a lot of that so I can learn how to make branches, revert things, and just plain learn.

Some things have stuck with me more than others but it is partially because I use it more frequently. A good example of those things is branching, committing things, and resetting the staging area. I know I lost a few of my friends on that one since they don’t speak that jargon.

It’s okay.

I was the same for a long time. I’m not going to explain it and there is no need for it in this post because it would take too long. Really it would.

The other day I began to read the documentation on Git. The book they have available to be more exact. I did learn a few new things and actually realized I did know a little than I thought I did. That’s a great feeling. I haven’t felt like that in quite some time.

A very welcome change.

I love to read. I have for quite some time too. Even more when it is things that I know will expand my skill set. I just need to sit down and read more on Git and other things related to the web. I’m going to have to find the time now to read all the things I want to read.

In need of reading things

I love to read random programing books and articles. The other day I read a tweet that recommended some nine books if you were into programming and I felt like I had seen two of those books mentioned when it comes to learning about code.

One of which was Clean Code. I’ve been wanting to read this for the longest time too. One of these days I’ll actually go ahead and purchase it so I can read it. Not sure when that will be but I know I will.

The biggest reason I love reading those is because a lot of the things I have learned I learned on my own. I took it upon myself to not only research but to experiment with it. A great example would be Illustrator. I wanted to learn more about how to use the pen tool so I made a small challenge to myself and drew out the alphabet. I sketched it all out and then used only the pen tool to convert it to digital.

I learned a lot from that.

It was fun and it was different for me. Part of that reason was I wasn’t fully tied to a deadline but I also was because I did it in my spare time. Once I got that motivation I kept going with it. This is how it has been with reading lately too. I think my personal goal before this year ends is to have purchased one or two of those listed books

If memory serves me right a few of those were:

Clean Code
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of programming
Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

I am determined to get at least one of those books before the end of the year, even if it means a digital copy that could only be read on my phone. Yes, I am willing to go that far to get some knowledge.

There is one other thing I have been doing and it’s helped is that I picked out a few other books that I’m going to be finishing for fun. I am definitely looking forward to finishing these up.

My WordCamp experience

This year I helped organize WordCamp Sacramento as the Volunteer Wrangler. It was fun and a little stressful. A little stressful only because there was one track I had forgotten about. In total we had three tracks and the second day I had forgotten to set up one of the tracks with somebody to record or introduce.

You could imagine what that was like.

Throughout the entire event I made an attempt to go to every room and make sure all the volunteers were doing good. If they needed something to eat, something to drink, or just needed a break.

There is a reason for that. I wanted to take care of them because they were taking time out of their lives to not only help me but help with the event as well.

Now, the fun part was getting to see all those people learning and sharing their stories and experiences.

Before the event I had been contemplating on whether or not I wanted to be the lead organizer for next year. The more time went on and the closer we got to the event, the more certain I became I wanted to be the lead for the next year.

I want WordCamp Sacramento to continue for our community.

One of the things about WordCamps is that they are affordable. At $20 per day, you can’t really beat that. Depending on which one you attend, it will vary. Some offer shirts, some offer lunch on both days, some will offer some amazing dance after party. I’m sure all those organizer also had lofty goals in mind when they planned their event; the main thing is that they all offer opportunities for the attendees.

Opportunities to learn, share, and network. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on posts which attendees have written to get a better idea of how to plan for the next year. So if you have a post about WordCamp Sacramento, please do share it with me. I’d love to hear about it.

I’m sort of looking for things that can be addressed and things that can’t.

The cool part is that we have some of the pre-planning already started:

We have a theme in mind
We have possible slogans
We have a possible location
We have ideas to make next year’s better

I’m not going to lie when I say that I’m scared to be the lead for next year. When I told a few of this, they were more than ecstatic for me and said I would be a good lead. It really caught me off-guard. A lot of that is because I still don’t see myself in a lead role.

There are a few things I’m looking forward to though. The first being the experience. I’ve never really organized something like this. The closest would probably have to be our local Meetup group or my son’s birthday party but those are much, much smaller. It is a bit out of my comfort zone so that’s the biggest reason I’m looking forward to it too.

This will be a lot of fun for me and very scary. I can’t wait.