Still struggling

Amy R.
Amy R.
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

(Now with extra scary leg cramping)

Another day, another damn tutorial, another try

I saw that egghead.io had a starter React course for free so I started watching it last night. I’m trying to bulldoze through it for basics and I’m halfway through. It’s not bad. He sort of did that thing I’ve seen before where he started covering state without explaining the concept of it or proper syntax, but just showing how to manipulate it for that one project.

Bleeping computer

All the files were named index.html and VSCode’s live server extension wasn’t loading them properly. It wouldn’t change the page. So another hour (felt like an hour at least) fucking with that. I was opening them one at a time, but today it seemed to work if I opened the whole folder in the editor. That shouldn’t make a difference, should it? Why is everything going wrong when I’m getting close? Things have been discouraging lately.

Someone who created their first Udemy course was giving free codes and I took advantage. I liked how he explained things in the sample video and it’s only 3 hours long. Hopefully it doesn’t completely ruin the tenuous hold I have on this.

Dangling a carrot at the end of the tunnel

And tonight there’s a webinar going over the MyReads project. I looked at the code and opened it up. There’s some basic structure there but it’s hardcoded into the HTML so I’m guessing that’s to give a guideline on what to build. Maybe? I have been thinking about components and what they would contain, but I might be thinking too hard and some of the work is already done.

The part no one but me cares about but this is like a diary so whatever

I’ve had these extra special painful cramps in my legs the past two days. I used to always get cramps in calves, the generic ones. Now it’s a muscle on the side of my ankle and my feet that get it. My big toe will bend upwards and I can’t undo it. So I spent a couple of hours not being able to do a lot because the cramp would not loosen. I couldn’t walk without significant pain. I dragged my foot to the kitchen like I had a cast on it. Trying flex the muscle or rub the leg just make it contract more so I sat there wanting to cry. The cruelest part is it hits both legs at once. They’re still sore and it’s 5:30 in the afternoon.

So my productivity is in the trash from that nagging soreness. I took potassium and magnesium, hoping one of them will keep this from happening again without any unwanted laxative effects. I don’t need the extra humiliation on top of feeling not good enough with this React thing.

Amy R.

Written by

Amy R.

Amy lives in western North Carolina where she studies web development and daydreams about moving somewhere not so humid.