Employability Project

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Day 1 of Code Academy: Making a Website

Writing Code - First Attempt!

I've finally started a huge part of my Employability Project - learning how to code. I had heard about Code Academy and decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did because it is awesome. It's free. It's straight-forward. It's fun.

Today I finished the first module in learning to make a website - how to write HTML code.

Before I began Code Academy, the only thing I knew about websites I learned from a baby board book called "Web Design for Babies" which I bought for my nephew for Christmas a few years ago (mostly as a joke).

I actually learned a lot from this board book - namely the fact that I knew less than a baby about web design.

Today, in Code Academy, I learned that webpages are made with HTML and CSS. HTML makes the page's structure - so the fact that there's text, and headings, links and images. CSS is what is built on top of the HTML structure and allows for the webpage to have a design and a layout.

HTML code is made up of a bunch of different HTML elements, which are kind of like the building blocks of the webpage (just as letters are the building blocks of a sentence). Each element describes to the web browser how to display each piece of webpage content.

Here are the HTML elements I learned of today:

1) Heading Elements

There are 6 levels of heading elements depending on the importance of the heading. For example, the main heading is going to be h1 while subheadings will be h2-h6.
Here is an example of a heading tag: <h1>The Employability Project</h1>

The text in between the h1s is the text the user can see.

2) Paragraph Elements (<p>)

These elements allow for paragraph content.
A paragraph tag looks like: <p>
Here is an example of a paragraph tag: <p>Today I learned how to code HTML</p>

Again, the text between the p-tags is the text the user can see.

3) Link (or A) Element (<a>)

The <a> element is used to create links to other webpages.
The <a> element has an href attribute that includes the website being linked to.
The <a> element also allows you to choose the text users can see on the page, with the link hidden behind.
Here is an example of an <a> element:

<a href="https://www.google.com/">Search</a>

4) The Image Element <img>

This element helps add images to a page
Similar to the a-element, the img element also has an attribute, src, which links to the image address.
For example, <img src="logo.png">

5) List Elements (<ul> and <li>)

List elements allow web content to be presented as lists
The <ul> element creates the bulleted list
Within the list (or <ul> element) are the list items which are placed inside <li> elements.
For example:

<ul>

<li>About</li>

</ul>

6) <html> and <body> elements

Everything inside the webpage is nested within an <html> element.
The <body> element contains the actual webpage content - so everything that displays on the web-browser.

Other codes:

<!DOCTYPE html>

This command tells the web-browser which version of html it should be reading.
Doctype ensures that the webpage displays correctly no matter which web-browser we are using.

<div>

<div> elements help keep your webpage organized.
They group other elements together into sections for your website. For examples: the navigation bar, the header, the main body, the footer.

Okay, so I took all this information and I wrote my very first original code using TextEdit, which I saved as a .html file.

I typed this into Text Edit:

And then when I clicked and dragged the file into a web-browser address bar, I got this:

I must say, I'm pretty stinking proud of myself today. I'm also pretty obsessed with coding now. It's like crafts. Or writing. Or like cooking. It's creative, it's syntax and grammar, it's methodological and you have to follow the recipe if it's going to look right.

Well enough for now. I must say hi to my husband.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Personal Development Goal - Exercise More

Generic and Vague Goal - "Exercise More"

So remember when I posted some goals for 2015 and one of them was "exercise more"? I'm just going to come on out and say what you probably already thought when you read that; what a stupid goal. You can't quantify "more".

Considering I was basically doing little to no exercise, technically "more" is just, well, anything active.

As I've learned in my business analysis courses, goals or objectives for any project should be S.M.A.R.T., including (and probably especially) exercise regimens.

Keeping S.M.A.R.T in mind, I've quantified what "more" means to me and I've set an actual goals with regards to physical fitness.

I would like to preface this post by saying how inspired I am by my friend, Karmen McNamara. She wrote this blog post a few months ago on her website called the "I Can't Run Workout" that I found impactful. I've known Karmen for a few years now and if she had told me three years ago that "she can't run", I would have empathized with her and told her that I too cannot run. But here's the thing - Karmen can run now and she can run really fast and for a really long time, and then she swims for a really long time and then she tops that off with a bicycle seat dessert and pedals her little legs off to finish a triathlon. Karmen went from being a girl who couldn't run to a girl who runs every single day for fun. It's true. Triathletes are not just mythical unicorn-like creatures. They do actually exist. I know one and she is going to the ITU World Championships Long Distance Triathlon in a couple of months. If Karmen can start running, then I can put one foot in front of the other and start running too.

So I have. I downloaded this app called "5K Runner" and I love it. I love how it paces you so that you work your way up gradually to running long distances. I love how it plays along behind my podcasts on creative writing and reminds me when to start running and when to "slow down and walk". I even love the tone of voice of the little coach who now lives inside my phone. Such an encouraging, kind, positive voice. I'm only on week 2, day 3, but with this app I have gone from someone who "cannot run" to someone who can run for 8 minutes without feeling like she's dying or feeling crippled the next day.

Second, I downloaded a general full body workout called "7" by Perigree. I also love it because it only takes a minimum of 7 minutes per day and is an intense compliment to my running regimen. 7 is cool because it encourages you to do 7 minutes per day, 7 days a week for 7 months.

Working with both of these apps gives me a workout plan that is SMART. The overall goals to run 5k or do 7 minutes every day for 7 months are specific and measurable. By being only 7 minutes long, or by increasing my ability slowly over the course of many weeks, I feel that they are also attainable. These apps are relevant to my "exercise more" project - as they will help improve my overall health and they are time-bound. I know exactly how much time I need to carve out everyday to do these workouts and I know exactly how many weeks/months I need to complete them.

So there you have it - actual SMART goals for fitness. I may periodically update my progress with these apps to keep myself accountable. While physical fitness is not the primary purpose of this blog, it is related to general well-being and time management, which I think are key skills for employability.

-Heather

Friday, February 27, 2015

Certain H4s might be eligible to work in the US!

Huge news. I may soon be able to work in the US!

On Tuesday, USCIS announced that it will be extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain H-4 Dependent Spouses of H-1B Nonimmigrants!

I cannot convey how happy this makes me. Don't get me wrong, staying at home every day and doing whatever I want is great. Every day is Saturday! But while Saturday every day does sound amazing, I can tell you that it becomes pretty monotonous, alienating and lonely - especially when you're living somewhere where you don't know many people.

I guess this means that I need to spend more of my "every day is Saturday days" learning more about coding. The clock is ticking!

-Heather

Energizer Bunny - Review: Extreme Productivity by Robert C. Pozen

Review: Extreme Productivity by Robert C. Pozen

My dad jokes that his father was an energizer bunny - always doing something. My dad's jokes are not unfounded; I swear my grandpa didn't sleep - he would just occasionally settle down for an afternoon whirr in front of the history channel.

Honestly, I aspire to be like my grandpa - I love being busy. I love having a number of things on my plate at any given moment. I feel like the busier I am, the better I am at getting it all done, but when I have one project languishing on my plate, I just stare at it and push it around unappetizingly with my fork. To use a term coined by my friend Elle, I like to "GSD" - Get Shit Done.

As such, I am extremely drawn to read books or blog posts about how to be more productive, how to be more organized, and how to be a better leader and delegate. Basically, anything that tells me how to get more shit done.

I recently read Robert C. Pozen's book "Extreme Productivity" and have found it enlightening yet confirmatory. Enlightening because Pozen touches on a few things that I had not yet thought of to incorporate into my GSD strategies, but also confirmatory because...well damn, I already do most of what he talks about.

To give some context about why Robert C. Pozen seems to know what he is talking about and why anyone should take his advice, the dust jacket says it all:

"Robert C. Pozen taught a full course load at Harvard Business School while serving as a full-time chairman of a global financial-services firm. He's written six books and hundreds of articles, raised a family with his wife of more than four decades, and served on many boards of local charities and public companies." (emphasis mine)

Pozen is a guy that Gets Shit Done.

So what are (some of) his secrets? (I'm not going to share them all with you because I think you should read his book)

Secret #1: Make sure your daily to-do list is aligned with achieving your highest priority objectives and career goals.

Secret #2: Figure out what the final product needs to be first - and then work towards it.

Secret #3: B+ work is good enough for low priority tasks. This way you have more time to focus on high priority tasks.

Secret #4: Only Handle it Once. When you receive it and read it, deal with it and move on. Don't postpone it, or you'll have to read it again.

Secret #5: Make sure your daily schedule allows you time to think and work on those high-priority objectives. If you don't schedule it, it won't happen.

Secret #6: Avoid meetings whenever possible.

Secret #7: When you are running a meeting, provide presentation materials 2 days ahead of time for attendees to review. Spend 10 minutes presenting a general synopsis of the materials and then launch into discussion.

Secret #8: Allow employees to "own their own space". "After setting clear goals for a project, give your employees broad discretion to decide how best to achieve these goals - and then get out of their way".

Secret #9: Manage your boss by matching your mode of communication with your boss' mode of communication.

Secret #10: Stick to your personal Code of Ethics. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it" (Warren Buffet).

Aside from these secrets, Pozen has many, many other pieces of advice - like how to read and write more effectively. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to GSD.

-Heather

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I love lists

I have always loved making lists. Lists of my favourite movies, lists of my favourite movie hunks, lists of my best girlfriends, grocery lists, chore lists, school assignment lists, work-task lists. I take a bizarre amount of pleasure in listing all of the things I hope to accomplish in the day in my Stuff notebook and then ranking out the order in which I intend to achieve them. When I'm feeling really "plan-y", I write out a schedule of the times that I intend to dedicate to each task. As nerdy as this sounds - this is actually a great way to get lots of stuff done because I find myself racing against the clock to keep up with my schedule. I do things a lot faster and don't check Facebook as often.

Here is an example of my list for today from my Stuff 2015 notebook:

As you can see, in my brainstorm, I identify the main thing that I have to do today and the thing that I want to do. I try to reward myself with doing want-to-do things interspersed with have-to-do things.

As an extra level of hardcoreness that I usually only do on days where I feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks I have to complete, I schedule them and try to stay ahead of schedule. Although my schedule today is far from demanding, I have done up a schedule as an example.

You may notice that I scheduled some time first thing in the morning to do what I want to do. This is personal preference - I think it helps to start the day off with a pleasant task instead of diving right in to something you have to do and aren't necessarily thrilled with. The trick is to stop working on what you want to do and start working on what you have to do the minute the clock hits the minute in your schedule.

The other benefit I see to scheduling is that I am more accountable to getting the tasks that I don't want to do off my plate - without a schedule, I tend to prioritize the easy, fun tasks that I enjoy and the have-to-dos are postponed until they are "really have to stay up all night now to dos".

As I work through the tasks of the day, I cross them off - and it is unbelievably satisfying to a) finish tasks and b) stay ahead of schedule.

Here is my list by the end of the day:

Disclaimer: I forgot to bring the dry cleaning with me when I went for my walk and I checked Facebook instead of working on my resumé (shame face).

I'm not sure where I learned/inherited this penchant for list-making. My mom makes lists - but she doesn't micro-manage herself the way that I do. My dad probably doesn't spend more than 30 seconds planning what to do on a given day. My brother hates being given a list of things to do. Yet when I was cleaning out my grandparents' house after they had both passed away, I found my grandma's journals. And guess what? That's right - she micro-managed herself too and scheduled lists for every single task she had to accomplish that day. I had no idea - but she and I had basically worked out the exact same to-do list system. I'm not sure that organizational preference is an inherited genetic trait - but the only evidence I do have suggests that it skips a generation.

There is one major flaw with my to-do list system - at the end of the day, sometimes I find I was over-zealous with my planning and I don't get everything accomplished that I intended. I need a master to do list from which I choose the day's tasks based on priority and deadline. I've tried having a master to do list in my notebooks - but it was always messy and I found myself constantly re-writing it out. I explored different software applications - Evernote, iPhone Reminders, Things, but I just didn't find that the solution really worked with what I wanted to do. It was either too complicated, too simple, didn't synch nicely with my phone, or difficult to edit.

I decided to try a simple to do list in Excel with columns for project, project details, deadline, and status. It worked for a while, but I hated that I couldn't add to the list when I was away from my computer and only had my phone. Kor suggested I try using Google Sheets and having it saved in my Google Drive. I could download sheets for iPhone and update the spreadsheet on the go and the functionality allowed it to do everything that Excel could. I can also share my to-do list with my husband, which I did to show him just how much planning went into our wedding. I'm sure he avoids opening it - but one day when I am actually working on a team project, the ability to share this to-do list system will come in handy.

I currently have my spreadsheet set up so that I can filter it - right now it is filtered by Status and Priority. I filter by priority to exclude items of low priority because frankly, I don't have time to deal with low priority items right now, but I want to make sure they are listed. I filter by Status so that as I change things to complete, I can re-filter the Status column and not see items that are complete. I could also filter by things that are of a high priority, or tasks that only pertain to the Wedding, or to a specific course I am taking.

Of note, when you add rows to the sheet - sometimes the filter does not transfer to the new rows - when this happens, you have to unfilter everything and re-filter it by clicking the filter button in the toolbar (looks like a funnel).

I have been successfully using this system for 6 months, so I consider it a proven system and I am comfortable proselytizing my Google Sheets To-Do list to the masses.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

What is a concatenate function?

Recently, in my volunteer position, I was asked to edit some internal instructions on how to add a filter to a promo-code email. What does this mean? Well, let's pretend that an organization was going to issue $25 free trials to users to make a donation to a charity that focused on youth. When the user clicks on the link in the email to donate using the free trial promotional code - they should be brought to a landing page where all the youth organizations requesting donations are listed and where the user can redeem his/her promo code.

To update the instructions on how to do this for every kind of themed filter (not just youth, but maybe elderly care, sports teams, or homelessness), I had to include some sort of url code and the word "Concatenate Function" was being tossed around. I feigned understanding - which goes against one of my employability project rules for myself. In reality, I have absolutely no idea what a "Concatenate Function" is, what it does or why it works.

I read that a concatenate function is a function in Excel or another spreadsheet software like Google Sheets that allows you to take details from one cell and combine them with another cell. For example, if in column A you have first names, and in column B you have last names, in column C you could have a concatenate function that combined both columns and gave you first name+last name within a single cell.

To demonstrate, here is what it can look like:

In the case above, if you look at the concatenate function, I am telling it to take A1 (Kor), add the literal "loves" (with a space on either side so that all the words don't run together), add B1 (Heather), and then add C1 (very much). I then copied the formula down through column F and in doing so, the phrase in column F would vary depending on which words were included in columns A, B and C.

This function is helpful in using mail merges (when the computer automatically adds names and addresses to a template email through use of a database).

In the case of the instructions for the non-profit website I was volunteering with, the concatenate function was creating a link to include in the email mail merge where when a donor clicked on the link, it would bring them to the website filtered by youth charities, provide the donor with a $25 free trial code and would also greet the donor by name.

Here is an example of such a URL:

=CONCATENATE(http://www.chooseacharity.org/donate/promoOffercode=",A2,"&name=",C2,"&email=",E2)

Basically, this function above is telling you to create a link at the above website and the website will include a greeting for Jimmy, put $25 towards the checkout basket.

So now we know what a concatenate function is and how it is useful. How much do you want to bet that we will soon hear of a celebrity baby named Concatenate? I'll see your $500 and raise you $1000...

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Finding the time to blog more...

This year, New Year's Eve came and went, and I didn't make a single resolution. Perhaps I've finally come to accept the fact that no matter how many times I resolve to "read all the books in my bookshelf before buying another", I know it is a resolution I will never keep.

Post-holidays, I sit in my apartment with a dreadful head cold (which I don't even mind now that Christmas is over and I have an excuse to sit in my pyjamas, watching Downton Abbey and drink tea) - and I find myself re-evaluating my commitments for 2015, as I do every year. Am I doing the things that will be the most fulfilling, worthwhile, and rewarding? At which activity did I contract this virus and should I eliminate it from my life? Which things am I wishing I had scheduled today so that I could politely cancel, blaming an abundance of mucus?

While home for the holidays, I went to Friends Church and the speaker brought forward the concept of 2-2-4. 2-2-4 initially stemmed from a brainstorming exercise that he participated in where he was asked to write down the following:

3 things you wish you did more of
3 things you wish you did less of
3 projects you would like to start

However, the speaker realized when doing this exercise, that he was adding 6 things to his list to do more of, while only reducing his workload by 3. Over time, adding 6 but only subtracting 3 will result in a totally over-worked and unrealistic schedule. Therefore, the speaker put forward a revised brainstorm: 2-2-4.

What are 2 things you wish you did more of?
What are 2 projects you want to start?
What are 4 things you could do less of?

In an effort to evaluate whether there are areas of my current time commitments that I could do less of in order to do more of other things, I created a pie chart estimating my average time commitments over the latter half of 2014. #nerdalert

I think I'm doing pretty good - getting an average of 7 hours of sleep per night, spending 15 hours per week per course on course work, spending almost 20 hours per week hanging with my husband (I've counted eating the meals that I've cooked as family time because we always eat together), and almost 20 hours per week volunteering. However, when I started this blog, I aimed to write a new post every week on a topic that I spent some time learning about and would help me develop professionally - and three hours a week is not cutting it for maintaining that goal. In fact, three hours per week is not even enough time to write the blog post once I've learned something new. Therefore, I either need to scale back on how many posts I do, or eliminate some other activities that I currently do. I think I need to do a bit of both - otherwise the infrequency of my blog posts is tantamount to falling off the goal bandwagon. Keeping up the structured attempts at blogging is important. As Aristotle says, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."

In addition to wanting to post more on my blog and learn more about the things I want to learn about - I clearly have not factored in any time for exercise. While I like to think that the time allotted to "family time", involves exercise (and sometimes it does!) - I would be lying if I told you that my husband and I regularly go to the gym, do yoga, or ride bikes together. I need to exercise more.

In thinking about two projects I want to start - I began thinking big and the results were completely unrealistic: I want to write a book, I want to read War & Peace, I want to sew a quilt, I want to learn to bake bread. However, these are large projects - and I already have two of those on my plate: my blog and my course work. Do I need any more projects? No I don't. I can't cut out enough time to spend on my "wish I did more of" activities to even think about starting something new.

Where can I cut hours so that I can have more time for blogging and exercise?

Well, first you might say - stop re-watching episodes of Gilmore Girls that you've already seen. You have a point. However, in my defense I will say that I watch these re-runs while I cook, fold laundry or tidy the house - so I don't know if they really count. Sure I could be more efficient with those chores if I focused solely on them - but then they wouldn't be very fun.

The volunteer opportunity that I committed to is over at the end of the month, which means 20+ hours of time per week that I will have to dedicate somewhere else (I hope to find another volunteer opportunity in the spring, but not one that takes up 20+ hours per week). In giving up this volunteer work, I will also eliminate the 9 hours a week I spend commuting in to San Francisco.

Over the holidays I also re-evaluated how many courses I am taking and this semester, I am taking 1 graduate level course and two continuing ed courses - which should be a lot less work and the courses I am taking (Program Evaluation, Solution Validation and Assessment and Solution Analysis) are more in line with what I want to learn professionally anyways.

It's going to be a great 2015 and I'm looking forward to having time to contribute more "informed" posts.