Chitchat and Small Rant
Soooo I hope everyone had a restful fall break! We are back in business this week but guess what we only had half a week! This was nice for me, but also slightly more stressful, because less school days means homework but compressed into one day. Anyways, enough chitchat, let’s talk about the bane of my exist- I mean another LinkedIn course we were assigned.
So, if you were like me and barely survived Jen Simmons, rest assure that it in fact gets worse! Instead of having to learn HTML, we were blessed with yet another aspect of coding that made things more confusing than ever. HTML was already hard to get used to, but it finally felt like things were looking up… I was starting to understand the code and the process and intention behind everything in the language… that was until CSS which made life just a tad more confusing, but also significantly more rewarding and satisfying.
CSS and All Its Functions
CSS is a good tool to help design your website. We talked about how HTML is the building blocks and the foundation of a hypothetically house… well CSS is the colors of the walls and the pictures and frames you hang on the walls. Basically, CSS handles how the website appears to us (the viewers). This is a neat aspect of coding, because it instantly transforms a website into any color, shape, etc. that you can imagine.
It is a visual change rather than a structural change, which makes it 10x more rewarding to do, but also adds another level of stress. I say this because like all languages CSS takes time to learn. You can’t instantly be good at something like coding, but you can feel good about little steps. There is a lot to unload with CSS, but as I stated before try not to feel too overwhelmed. So, don’t beat yourself up if it takes you longer to understand CSS and HTML.
Beginnings: Verification Quest
Another thing we discussed today in class was our next project! Woohoo! Everyone’s piece of fake news was so interesting, and I am excited to see how everyone’s project turns out. We went around and briefly pitched our project ideas and talked about:
- What we need to research
- SIFT methods we plan to use
This led to a fruitful discussion on everyone’s piece of false information.
Overall, even though we had a short week back from break, it was jammed packed with information. From the CSS LinkedIn course to in class discussions about our projects, what’s coming up, and CSS, our week might have been short, but it was mighty.
I wish everyone luck with your journey with CSS and HTML! Be patient with yourself when trying to figure out how things work (or maybe y’all already know how HTML and CSS work and I am assuming y’all know nothing like me).
Best wishes, and happy coding!
Comments
4 responses to “After Fall Break Blues”
I totally feel you on the stress of a short week! It’s like the break gave us just enough time to breathe before diving straight into a compressed workload. But hey, at least we’re getting closer to the finish line, right?
As for CSS, I can definitely relate to your “bane of existence” comment. Just when I thought I had HTML figured out, CSS comes in and adds all these layers of complexity—selectors, specificity, and layout quirks, ugh. I also appreciate the reminder to be patient with ourselves when learning a new language. I’ve had to remind myself of that A LOT lately!
On the fake news project—totally agree, it was so interesting to hear everyone’s ideas! I’m looking forward to seeing how creative we all get with applying the SIFT methods. It’s going to be a fun challenge tying it all together with what we’ve learned so far.
I agree with everything you said. As someone who has been personally victimized by Jen Simmons I agree that things just keep getting worse lol. I’m not sure if it’s that the different elements of code would be quite so confusing by themselves but combining them is something I’m really struggling with. I also agree that our next project is an interesting one. I was excited at first and now I’m panicking but hopefully I’ll get excited again (yay). Even though I’m nervous about my own I also thought everyone else’s sound really interesting. Also, you were right to assume I know nothing.
I totally feel you on the Fall Break Blues. It’s like we just got back and suddenly have to cram a bunch of stuff in, including our ‘fun’ linkedin guide. I found the CSS course to be a bit overwhelming too, especially after struggling with HTML (still am a bit but I think I have the basis). But I like your analogy of CSS being the paint and decor of a house. It really helps to visualize how it all comes together. CSS is supposed to make the HTML pretty! However it is a lot but we’ll get it with time. I am interested in other people’s projects now that we’ve told what all we are doing. I am excited about my own project but not really confident in myself. I wish you luck with the coding.
I completely agree that CSS, while very useful, is an aspect of this class that is still baffling to me. I’m getting a grip on it – slowly – but there’s so much that goes into it that it can get jumbled up and confusing (at least in my experience so far). I’m super excited for the Verification Quest project, especially because my piece of potential misinformation is about something I’m super interested in. However, I do have some concerns about some of the things we talked about in class in terms of researching for my project. On the other hand, I’m also worried about how to design it and how to accomplish that with HTML and CSS.