Category: About Me Information

I’m returning from break to writing blog posts again! While I missed providing new content for my readers, the nearly four months away did help with my hectic schedule. I’ll explain what I accomplished during my break, along with my new posting schedule.

What I Accomplished While On Break

• Stopped reading Algorithms Illuminated Part 1: The Basics by Tim Roughgarden because it was too advanced for me. Instead, I need to start with a book about the basics of algorithms. (However, I was able to create my own version of the Karatsuba Multiplication Algorithm which is available to download from my GitHub repo.)
• Did a deep-dive about Bootstrap’s Utilities, and implemented those changes on all three of my Web Apps.
• Refreshed my JavaScript skills using MDN Web Docs to fix some of the Front-End issues with my Web Apps. You know, addEventListener is a pretty nifty tool. So is document.querySelector.
• Revisited Nodejs and Express because I wanted to recreate my Web Apps in JavaScript. Only completed one conversion before I got fed up with server-side JavaScript and went back to Python.
• Improved my knowledge of Flask by learning about Blueprints and implementing those in my Web Apps.
• Started building a blogging website, but realized I needed to refresh my database skills.
• Learned PostgreSQL by reading Practical SQL by Anthony DeBarros. (I highly recommend this book!)
• Got the idea to create a CLI To-Do list using PostgreSQL as the database.
• Read the documentation about argparse and Psycopg for a long time (probably hours).
• Created TaskDB using my new argparse, Psycopg, and PostgreSQL skill-sets.
• Used Gemini a bunch to refine my code, ask questions, and learn new programming techniques.

As you can see and read as I’m returning from break I was quite busy in my self-study endeavors. I thought about writing all the stuff I learned and did at work, but some of it I can’t talk about so I decided against it. Just know that I was quite busy there too as I had various projects regarding network equipment and/or fiber to deploy and/or audit. Google needs more Trillium Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) since users love Veo 3 and Flow.

My New Posting Schedule

Although I’m returning from break, I’m still busy at work. In addition, I haven’t let up from my self-study since I still want to get a Software Engineering job. Yet, I won’t let that stop me from posting new content on this website. I’ll just post a new post (or two) every Monday at 6 AM EST.

I’m taking a break from new posts on my blog for an uncertain time period. That’s the reason why I haven’t posted anything new since March 6th.

Reasons Why I’m Taking A Break

The main reason I’m taking a break from posting new content on my website is due to an increased workload at my job. I knew this was coming since late last year. January was the start date for the additional workload, but various delays pushed the date back. February passed with more delays. Then in March we had a new start date, but more problems arose. Thus, the new projects my team and I have to work on started this week. I already worked overtime the past two weekends trying to get one particular high-priority project completed. Thankfully we’re almost done.

The other reason I’m taking a break from posting new content is that I’m deep into learning right now. I finished reading Think Python by Allen B Downey and completed some of the exercises in the book. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to improve their Python programming skills beyond the beginner level. I thought about writing a review, but I decided against it due to time constraints.

After that I completed the tutorial on the Flask website to creating a blog website. I’ve wanted to create my own blog website, which is why I completed the tutorial. I started on it, but it’s no where near completion.

That’s because I got an idea to practice web scraping with Python using the Requests and BeautifulSoup modules. After multiple hours of reading those modules’ documentation, and practicing in PyCharm, I created the design to scrape the latest winning lottery numbers for my web app Click-Go-Lotto. I deployed the new feature this past weekend. Go check it out!

Finally, I started learning about algorithms. I’m reading Algorithms Illuminated Part 1: The Basics by Tim Roughgarden. This is going to be a slow-read for me since I haven’t dealt with knowing or using algorithms before. Thus, I’m taking notes in my notebook. This helps me to retain and understand the information better.

I finally read the viral blog post that came out almost a month ago about how the newest junior developer can’t code. The author, using his own experience at his current place of employment, wrote about his displeasure seeing how these developers rely too much on coding tools like Cursor and/or Copilot. Others use ChatGPT or Claude to get their code snippets and perform their job. As a budding developer myself I rather not develop a crutch on AI tools. Thus, I avoid using those tools as much as possible. Here’s how I’m becoming a junior developer who can code.

Briefly Explaining The Author’s Position

The way I understood the author’s position in his post is like this:

1. He doesn’t like how the junior developers he works with rather type in a prompt to ask for the code fitting certain requirements instead of trying to code it themselves.
2. When these developers run into an issue with the AI-generated code, the author doesn’t like how they used the AI tools to seek a solution instead of trying to solve the problem themselves.
3. Thus, these developers avoid the struggle of writing and/or debugging code so they don’t learn. Hence, they don’t know how to code.

How I’m Becoming A Junior Developer Who Can Code

First, when it comes to my Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) I don’t use any AI assistants like Cursor or Copilot. Of course I get notifications from my IDE trying to persuade me to use them (PyCharm and VSCode), but I ignore them. What I do instead is design my application using pen and paper. I write out the logic flow and a little pseudocode. Designing this way really helps me understand my objective, find any potential problems, and create solutions.

Second, I write the code, test it out, and debug it if it fails. If I mess up my logic, then writing it out again as laid out in the IDE to compare it to my initial design really helps me find the logic flaw. Sometimes I’ll talk out loud as that helps me too.

Third, if I get stuck during the debugging process I use Google Search for a hint. Usually that helps me get going as I can figure out the rest of the solution to my problem. Then it’s back to writing code, testing it out, and debugging if needed.

Finally, if the hint doesn’t help me I’ll use Gemini and ask it to explain to me why my code doesn’t work. When it provides a working solution I read through the explanation to learn where I went wrong. If the explanation confuses me I ask Gemini to explain it a different (or simpler) fashion. It usually does.

Conclusion

Becoming a junior developer who can code is fun, but also frustrating. The struggle to write functioning code, or debug non-working code, is tough. Sometimes it just suck. However, the feeling of finally fixing it makes the struggle worth it. And in the future I’ll know how to resolve that issue faster because I already dealt with it. By allowing an AI assistant or tool to do my work for me only cheats myself of becoming a competent code.

The first time I played a video game I was four years old. Later this year I will turn forty-three years old. Video games is my oldest hobby. And it’s a hobby I don’t actively participate in anymore. I stopped playing video games late in 2024 to use that time to improve my programming skills. In this post I’ll explain how I gave up video games so I could use that time to study.

Step #1 On How I Gave Up Video Games: Uninstalled All My PC Games

The first step on how I gave up video games was to uninstall all my PC games from my computer. I went into Steam, Epic, and GoG and uninstalled all the games. This way if I got the urge to play a game I couldn’t because I would have to reinstall it. Even though I have a fast Internet connection, it would probably take about twenty minutes to download and install. By that time the urge to play would probably be gone.

After I uninstalled all the PC games I thought about uninstalling the game clients. At first I didn’t because I found myself not opening the applications because there’s no games available to play. Later on I deleted the Windows 10 partition on my hard drive because I no longer played video games. Thus, I didn’t need that operating system.

Another reason I deleted the partition because I needed to reinstall Windows 10 to resolve a Windows Updates error, and I didn’t want to do that. Frankly, I’m done with Windows.

Step #2 On How I Gave Up Video Games: Ignored My Nintendo Switch

In addition to PC games, I also own a Nintendo Switch. I decided not to play those games either. Even the ones that are still in the plastic wrapping. Yep, I’m that person who purchases games on sale and don’t play them because life got in the way.

Actually, I did more than not touch the console; I’m ignoring it. Right now as I’m typing this sentence I’m looking at my Nintendo Switch in its dock, on my computer desk to the left of my computer monitor. Before it is a Pro Controller. I can’t even tell you the last time I touched either except to move them out of the way.

And, yes, I haven’t turned on the console to run updates. Why install updates when I’m not going to play a game.

How Am I Doing?

How am I doing after giving up my oldest hobby?

Pretty well! I don’t miss video games at all. I do keep up with some news about video games through social media. And my younger brother also informs me about video games from time to time.

Why has this worked out so well for me? Because I replaced video games with programming.

Instead of leveling up in a Role-Playing Game and feeling good for a little bit, I learn a new Python technique and feel great. Or I try out a Python exercise, complete it without outside help, and feel great. I rather level up this way than in a video game. While the latter is fun, it’s not going to help me upgrade my skill-set, or help me get a better job.

Finally, I don’t miss video games because they aren’t going anywhere. I can re-download my PC games, and play my sealed Nintendo Switch games.