Gosh, I kinda let this fall behind, didn't I? It's been over a week! Let's see... updates, updates, updates...
Um, well, I still have that new content for the X-Files page about halfway done. I also still have plenty of code to clean up and a whole slew of alt tags I need to add or beef up to improve accessibility across the site. I think I mentioned finding a way to choose font type site-wide, right? Maybe there'd be a way to toggle off the random backgrounds, and make it even possible for visitors to select their preferred background from a list of options? Hmm, that last idea I should add to my to-do list.
For the most part, though, I don't really have anything new to add. I've been chipping away at Kirupa Chinnathambi's Javascript: Absolute Beginner's Guide the last week or so. It's really made Javascript feel possible for me again. The way he explains concepts very clearly and with colorful visual examples also massively helps. I have the book he printed checked out from the library, but apparently this is all available online for free, so I bounce between the two. I was reading a reddit post by this guy who said at the age of 38 he switched from being a PhD professor to getting into Javascript development. He recommended doing 25 mins every day. That feels like a tall order for me at this point, but I think I'm going to try and do a little bit daily, at least. I'm still covering a lot of the basics with Chinnathambi's guide, so I haven't been doing any exercises or projects yet, but so far it's all staying in my head and not just falling out immediately, so that's good.
One thing I realized might ACTUALLY fall out of my head was the recent stuff I learned for HTML and CSS. That's partly what sparked today's post. I went over to HTML Dog and reviewed some of the articles I had recently finished. In the near future I'd like to start their advanced HTML tutorial so I can keep growing my knowledge. I also did small work on the site today by adding some small meta data, and I also moved some of my scripts around to improve load times on pages that used them heavy duty.
I gotta say, I'm just struggling alot with this depression guys. I won't go on about it a ton in this post, but I'm just really having a hard time with that and getting projects done. I feel very aimless and my attention keeps wandering. I think this coming week I'll try to think of a new section to add to the site, something that breaks the design conventions used on all the other sections. It could be silly and whimsical, idgaf. Maybe that will get me motivated again.
Actually, one thing I really wanna do is make more custom graphics for the site. This may involve replacing the skull images on the header and the nav menu, and replacing the header background. I didn't realize how frequently used the smoking skull gif was on Neocities, lol. While I really like it, I'd like to try and make my site stand out better. I have the skill to draw my own skull with my tablet, so maybe I'll try that?
My son starts school next week, though. It'll be a major change in my environment and will even impact my schedule. I mentioned it in a previous post, but he really helped me with my toddler. Without someone else to play with her, I'll have to be more engaged. That means less computer time, most likely. She's the most important thing, so that's fine. I just don't know how I'm going to juggle all these projects and goals. I'm a little worried it'll make me more depressed.
I guess it was a little premature to go thinking I was going to just pick up steam again next week. Maybe what I really need is to just be more intentional with tasks and make a schedule for myself and the baby. That way I won't get as frustrated. Though, if there's one thing parenting has taught me, it's that you have to be flexible and just accept that something isn't going to work out. Trying to force something usually just leaves me and my kids miserable.
That's just about it from me. I hope you guys are doing well. Take care.