lennys February 08, 2024

The frustration continues...

So I made it through Chapter 10 in my Django/react book. I'm working through the React section now, and like I mentioned in my earlier post I'm disappointed in this book. I've been able to follow the code so far, but now I'm in the part of the book where they cover testing in React, and that is not going well. I had problems in the Django testing portion too, and since I couldn't figure them out I just moved on, which is basically what I'm doing again in the React testing section. At this point the coding is just for practice, since it seems pretty obvious that the finished product, whatever it will be, won't be in working condition whenever I get to that point. I've already started over from Chapter 1 once and I don't want to do it again, so now I'm just going through the motions hoping to finish this book soon and move on to other things. I have my eye on another Python book that has pretty good reviews. But based on what I've learned about React so far, I don't think I'll be implementing it in any of my websites. It's just too complicated, and my relative inexperience with it shows me that I'll be better off just sticking to designing with basic HTML and CSS. Oh well. My truck got serviced and has a clean bill of health like I wanted. It cost around $500, but it was worth it to me. The next step is to get a second key fob made, which will cost around $450 so I'm putting it off for a little while. When the rain stops, I'll be washing and waxing it on my days off so it's nice and shiny. But I can't do that right now because of the atmospheric river that's hit California this week. But so far, so good. I've managed to get a basic understanding of most of the features the truck has ( I still haven't tried out the 4 wheel drive), and I like what I've seen so far. The first payment is due this month, so I'll need to try and do some budgeting soon so I know how much money I'll have left at the end of the month. Plus it's tax season, so I'll need to deal with that soon. Right now I'm waiting on the paperwork from Vanguard, once I have that I'll probably be making an appointment with H&R Block to get my taxes done again.

lennys January 27, 2024

Frustration

So the new truck is running well and I enjoy driving it. I'm taking it to the dealership 3 days from now to get it serviced. It may not need it, but since I bought it used I want to get a "clean bill of health" for it before I go much further. I'm learning how to use all the neat features it has, of which there are many, and so far I have no complaints except for the birds that crapped on it. I'll be washing and detailing it this coming weekend if I can find the time. I took it to Half Moon Bay this last weekend and was there for about 6 hours. I went for a walk on the beach and also took a walk in a state park I like to go to when I'm there, plus got a yummy "Jersey style" cheeseburger and fries at a local restaurant. Fun times. The new Django/React book has been a bit of a disappointment. I've found some typos in it, and there are some steps that the author must have assumed I'd know how to do already (which isn't the case), and because of that I looked up the reviews on Amazon. There were quite a few bad reviews of this book that complained of the same stuff I've found in it so far. But I'm slogging through it. I did have to backup and restart from the beginning, and yesterday I got very frustrated with the problems I kept running into. I have to remember to put it down when I get frustrated with it and leave it until the next day. Today I was able to figure some things out and I'm making progress again. I've learned 2 things: don't buy a first-edition coding book, and always read the reviews before you buy it. So far I'm at the beginning of Chapter 3, and hopefully it won't get to be too frustrating for me to handle going forward. I'm dreading the part where I get to the React section. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I won't feel the need to launch the book across the room like I did yesterday.

lennys January 13, 2024

New truck!

So I bought a new truck yesterday. It's not brand-new, its a 2022 Toyota Tacoma quad-cab. Its got about 32,500 miles on it and is charcoal gray. I'm happy with it so far. It's got a 5 year warranty so I don't have to worry about expensive car repairs now, and I have a dependable vehicle again. I probably paid a little too much for it, but I can live with it. I'm looking forward to taking it to Half Moon Bay this coming weekend. I've also been studying React, which is not going very well. The more I learn about it, the more it seems like overkill for my little projects. What I wanted to do was build an API for this blog, so that I could wire in a React front end, and eventually make a mobile interface for it as well as the one for the regular web traffic. But there's a steep learning curve with React, and from what I've read so far it seems like this is only useful to me if I start working on a much larger project. So I'm mildly annoyed with the whole process. I have another Django & React book on the way here but it'll be another 4 or 5 days before it gets here. I'm hoping that the book will do a better job of explaining things to me than the online resources I've found so far. Since I'm not a JavaScript developer learning how to use React has been difficult, and I have several half-finished projects written in Django and React that I can't figure out how to fix. The Django part of it is pretty straightforward, and for the projects that use an API I've been able to get it working, but once I start working on the React front-end I run into issues I can't figure out. It's a good thing I don't have to make a living with React, or I'd be in trouble.

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