I made a tutorial
September 20, 2022, 12:03 pm

I still have a youtube channel. I lost my ability to monetize it a couple years ago, because I rarely upload anything to it, and I have almost no traffic through it. But I do still every so often upload to it.

Toward the end of last month I started work on a javascript written gaming engine. And mid way through it, I thought I should catalog the most basic steps in a video tutorial.

It was a fun little diversion, and it helped cement a couple concepts in my own mind as I went along.

And then I think youtube somehow threw this into some search parameters, and the video got a tiny bit of traction. And now people are saying they want more. And ugh. Fine! I guess I can do a little more. But genuinely I'm still making this all up as I go along, and I'm not sure how correct I am. A lot of the concepts I'm learning at the exact same time and it feels weird to try to explain something to someone else that you don't fully understand yourself.

But I guess that's the life of a teacher. You know just enough to do, and therefore other people only truly want to know just that much as well.

I'm not sure where I want to go with this game engine tho. I've been telling people that I'm working on it. And I HAVE been working on it. But I don't really have a game in mind for it. Truly, I just kind of love making the engine. I like working on library code. I suppose I could go back over other game types and just run them out one at a time in this new engine concept.

Is it bad to not update your blog?
December 30, 2021, 10:29 pm

What if it was extraordinary times? What about then? What if life went absolutely nuts all around you, and you just sort of forgot to update it? What then?

It's been a hot minute since I've put very much on this website. I need to redesign it. I need to rewrite some things (especially an image uploader), and I need to make more of an effort to keep my self honest about my projects by posting about them in public. Let's see... where was I?

This year has been a series of big changes. At the beginning of 2021 I was let go from my full time status at the Academy of Art and I got a job as a Senior Frontend Engineer at a company called IMVU. This job has been really fantastic. But it's the first fully remote job I've ever had. Working fully remote is not something I ever sought, and it's been both freeing and frustrating in a lot of ways. I like to be around people, and if I'm totally honest, when I'm stuck in a house, I find it hard to motivate myself.

I am still teaching at the Academy sometimes. I like it. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to continue, but I think for now if they keep inviting me back, I'll continue teaching a class.

I worked on a number of personal projects. I've been doing a lot of things with themoviedb api. Did a little project with a friend for figuring out which of your friends you're most compatible with, based on the movies you like. And I just pushed a big update to filmswith, a website for browsing movie data, and comparing people and movies together. I rebuilt that app from the bottom up in React, and I've learned so much during the process.

I'm not sure I'd call 2021 a success. When 2020 started, I thought it was going to be such a good year. I had so many plans. In some ways it was great for me. But 2021 just feels like a blur. I'm not sure what to expect in 2022. I just have no idea. But I think I'm going to try to work on more personal projects. Here's hoping I can stick to that. Someone keep me honest.

A minor suggestion
August 17, 2016, 8:51 pm

I have always held off suggesting books for students to read when learning things in my class. Mainly, because I believe that someone else's methods and speeds of teaching will often interfere or even hinder someone learning things in my class. I think websites like Code Academy and Lynda provide brilliant tools for people to learn things at their own pace and at multiple levels. But being that I teach high level classes, I often find these sites either move too slow, or never reach a proper level.

I have, however, recently read a book that I feel is quite good, and I could recommend to people wanting to learn programming using the Javascript language. Eloquent Javascript is really quite a good book. I often tell my students that really the only thing they need is a reference for the guidance they will get in a class. In that case, I would usually just point someone at Javascript Pocket Reference

An hour of code
December 9, 2014, 12:38 am

This week is Hour of Code week. It's a national event to try to get kids interested in programming. I'm a big proponent of everyone knowing at least a little about how to program. I think it all seems so scary, because most people don't have a simple enough place to start.

I am doing a presentation at the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco this Thursday, December 11th. It is going to show you how you can make a simple image gallery with a little bit of html, css, and javascript. This is for absolute beginners to get an idea of what is possible with a relatively small amount of code. If you want to get a head start, the code I'll be making can be found here. I'll be talking about the programs I use, and how getting started is the biggest hurdle.

I personally think everyone should have their own website. Not everyone has to put in my level of effort, but to be fair, I've put in nearly 20 years of effort, and now you can just reap the benefits of my experience. But I definitely think everyone should have more than an auto generated webpage that's just created by wordpress or wix. Make a little code and create something.

If you're interested in web tutoring, in San Francisco, I would love to help you get up and running, so hit me with an email.

Here is a list of important links for this presentation.

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