All in on JavaScript

At night, when I go to bed, code runs through my head in a whirlwind. It's all I can think about, whether I'm studying or not. I'm fully immersing myself in this world, and things are starting to click. FreeCodeCamp does a great job at giving you plenty of exercises to work on the concepts being covered, though some are so difficult, I can't begin to complete them without looking up a hint or googling for some help. It's not as satisfactory when I can't come up with the answer all on my own, but I'm still learning either way and the next time I come to a problem with that same issue, I'm better prepared. I'm able to get more than halfway there with most of the problems, or at least venture a guess at the solution, though sometimes I'm way off base. Regardless, this is much further than I would have gotten just a few short days ago. FreeCodeCamp is forcing me to learn in a way I hadn't yet, one that's fully interactive and not passive in the least.

This learning style, though, is much more taxing on the brain. I'm feeling the fatigue from constantly racking my brain for the solutions to the exercises. I talked about it yesterday, but this is where Frontend Masters is really coming in handy. I started a course by Sarah Drasner last night, which is excellent. It's all about design patterns and how to use CSS in a pleasing way to the eye. I also started a course earlier today by Estelle Weyl, called "CSS in Depth," which goes further into CSS than I've ventured before. Both of these courses are intense in their own right, and may not be the respite from the freeCodeCamp exercises I was looking for, but it's something different to look at. As I was watching these courses, though, I still couldn't stop thinking about JavaScript. I'm so fixated on JavaScript right now, and I just need to get to a point with it where I'm completely proficient. I'm also risking getting spread a little too thin. Eventually, I could start to feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of information being shoved into my brain. Also, these courses deserve my full attention and, if my fixation is JavaScript right now, then so be it.

I've been getting a lot of much appreciated feedback on my blog lately. People have mentioned me in tweets saying they are inspired by the idea of tracking your progress through a blog, and that is really meaningful to me. This is my 85th entry in my blog, and I haven't missed a day yet. Some of my posts have been less than adequate, but for me it's more about continuing the habit of doing this thing every day and building momentum off of that. I've chosen to only write 3 paragraphs every day so it doesn't end up taking me much more than half an hour; I don't want it to become something that ends up cutting into my study time too drastically. Honestly, though, this blog has helped me process a lot of my thoughts and feelings surrounding this journey of learning web development, and has shaped a lot of the decisions I've made regarding the journey. I still think starting this blog was one of the best decisions I've made yet.

Until tomorrow!