Honestly I have no idea on how to even start this. I can’t even remember the last time I had to write an essay. So I am going to just type stuff out and maybe remix and reorganize later.

needs an intro

Coding and creating this blog really has been a great experience that has already taught me so much even though it feels like I have barely tipped my toe into the big ocean that is computer science. The roadblocks have been many and the frustrations even more so, but through it all I have learned to adapt and overcome. Some of the greatest hurdles have been getting comments on blog posts and changing the color of the title (as silly as that might seem). And though it all I feel like I have even gotten to know myself at least a little better.

The problem with the comments was that this site is technically a static site, meaning I push out an update and it builds the site that everyone sees and that is that. It is the same for everyone no matter what. So in order for comments to work I needed something that would update the site when someone posted a comment. In order to do this I have a bot that takes the issues in my git repository and converts them into comments that you can see on the individual posts. While maybe not the most elegant solution as if I had any other real issues in there it would be clogged with comments eventually.

The title color on the other hand was a different problem. I had to comb through several different scss files to try and find the correct variable to change. There are a lot of lines of code spread across 4 different files all defining variables or adjusting settings of various elements. The process I took to figuring out the correct one was simply educated guesses and trail and error. I changed about 10 different variables before I found the correct one and every time I changed one I had to rebuild the site in order to see if the change actually worked. A most definite lesson in patience.

But thoughout the whole experience I was always excited to see if the potential fix worked and after I got one problem solved there was always another one around the corner. I use this blog to not only help practice coding but also to help get my thoughts out of my head and onto “paper”. I haven’t been working on this for that long in the whole scheme of things but I have already gotten a greater understanding of me and my computer along the way.