Sleep has become somewhat of an annoyance lately. To blame is my persistant nature of generating fabulous ideas at 1 am and reaching my creative peak at 3 am. This is bad, considering I’m 30 and I recuperate from all-nighters at a much slower than I did 10 years ago. So, I am sleeping, but recently only when the sun is out.

However! Much is to be said for 3 am creative streaks, and the compulisivity that comes with getting wrapped up in a project. Non-coding wise, I have (rather impusively) decided to sew a quilt. I hope to get it done in the next 2 weeks, so that I can take it with me to Boston, but that is a tall order when I have quite a lot of other things that need to get done. Luckily, I have chosen a pattern that is relatively easy, for a beginner like me. I just didn’t know how exhausting cutting out 130 squares of fabric and 130 squares of muslin would be!

After getting distracted by worldly matters for a couple weeks, I’m getting back on track with Launch Academy prework. On Treehouse, I have the Databases unit to get through, and I want to go over Javascript indepentantly. There is also a Ruby track that I’m working my way through that is assigned through Launch Academy, but I think it would be good to review what I’m learning in other places.

I moved this blog from Tumblr (way too many temptations for distraction there) and am using Octopress which is a little over my head, but forces me to practice using command line and git. I’m trying to figure out how to host it on my own website (carojane.com), but right now it’s just one thing at a time.

Speaking of my website, I spent my entire 3 am creative streak working on it last night (or, you know, this morning) and have been working on learning CSS to make it look pretty. As opposed to the 90s-era-esque html only mess it is right now. It is nowhere near ready to launch, considering I need to hash out content and have no idea what will go on the front page. I’m feeling somewhat competetant (though still a beginner) at CSS, at least when it comes to the simple stuff. Though, when I think about it, there’s not really a lot I did with CSS, more than resizing images or changing fonts and colors. I really have no clue when it comes to layout, though, so that’s my next step. It’s another case of ‘The More You Know, The More You Know You Don’t Know’.

There is something I’m stuck on right now… I set up heading to stay permenantly on top with position: fixed; but I’m not really happy with the outcome of it. My name is acting as the site icon, so has prominant placement, but it may be too large to stay at the top if the site, especially if the site is viewed on mobile devices. What I really want is the nav or navigation bar to scroll from its initial position to the top and then remain fixed. When I tried nav {position: fixed;}, it remained fixed at its initial position and the rest of the site moved under it looked horrible. I’ve tried looking at the source code for sites with something similar to what I’m attempting, but haven’t figured it out yet. Google has been my friend and guide for troubleshooting, and some of the things I want to do seem to need JavaScript to opperate. So there’s The Next Thing To Learn on my ever growing list.

Before I launch the new site, though, I want to figure out how incorporate this blog into it. That’s going to be an undertaking, so I may moderate my goals a bit.

In bigger and better news, I’m headed to Boston this weekend. So, ten summers ago, I was living and working on the MHC campus, reading Lolita and House of Leaves. In August, 2004, I left Stateside to live to Montpellier, France for the year with a group of amazing Mount Holyoke women. My memories from the time are a mashup of hookahs, Senegalese food, spring break in Russia, Polish friends getting engaged, trams, trams on strike, Haribo, Carnival, Irish pubs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This weekend, I am reunioning with Wakana, Joanna, Simar, Layne and Diva in Boston (with a side trip to NoHo and MHC) to reminisce and reconnect.

This is how I feel about that:

And then, in just three weeks, I am off to Boston again. Launch Acadamy starts August 11! I finally have a place to stay squared away, and I am so ready to get down to business and get to some coding. In the meantime, I will be over here, practicing my CSS, grappling with Javascript, and playing with Ruby in preparation.