My SDBA Coding Bootcamp: Episode 1

Published in

Geek Culture

5 min readJul 27, 2021

The time is tooth-hurty! (language warning)

So I just had to cancel my spot in a nucamp bootcamp. After almost two decades of year perfect teeth when I had great insurance under my parents, my teeth decided to go batshit crazy. Just as I turn 26 in two weeks. Also I have no dental insurance. I didn’t choose the freelancer life, it chews me. LOLOLOL. (Actually I wouldn’t give it up for the world, but you do switch out one set of problems for another when you jump from the 9–5 neo-feudalist system). So much for “be positive”. But if I have learned anything from my 7, 8, 10 (?) jobs, it’s that when one door closes, another opens.

I have found I quite like writing online. I am a jane of all trades (for better and for worse as will come up later here), but over and over my most liked skill professionally seems to be my writing. Maybe because I didn’t all my focus into writing sound bites for social media growing up (says the woman about to start a series that will probably become an online diary). Given also that Medium just added another incentive program ($200 per month GUARANTEED — if you can get in), I have all the more reason to post regularly. Well, you read the title. SDBA stands for “Self-driven Broke-Ass” (have to do that or I will never hear the end of it from the LinkedIn purists). I am going to be my own accountability buddy basically (or you guys will be if you decide to be active in the comments). I am aware this is not as good as an actual bootcamp. But I really do enjoy coding. It is one of the few things you can get me to sit down and do for more than an hour at a time besides video games and desserts.

Here are the basic rules/guidelines/suggestions for myself:

I need to make a website that is actually usable, even if it wounds up being a giant meme.
I will try to post an article every day (at least every few — not doing overworking is the new hot thing), even if it is like 2 paragraphs.
They can be very free -form/loose-association. They can even just be a rant for 500 words. Something to force me to communicate what I am doing. My memorization sucks and I will literally forget what I did the day before. These articles are just as much for me as they are for you.
It is full-stack — soup to nuts (that phrase doesn’t make sense anymore but ok). I need to understand every part. Friends can come help me but I need to know what they are doing. There will be plenty of other chances to do cool shit with other people (probably cooler because I will have help). I am doing this solo to avoid siloing.
All articles will be behind the grand Medium paywall. Sorry! This ain’t just an existential and technological journey. Unless y’all will donate to a patreon or something. I got a tooth that thinks it is real fucking royal and deserves a crown! If you don’t have a subscription and are a broke-ass mother****** like me, send me a DM somewhere and I will send you a link to view it.

So that’s cool. First thing’s first:

What the f*** am I making?

To be honest, I am not going to stress myself out coming up with a VERY SPECIFIC idea. I have seen other’s get bad analysis paralysis that way. I am just going to get started — I know I want a website. What specifically is on it may not even matter until halfway through (Nginx doesn’t really give a shit if I do a Tinder clone or a blog). Here are some ideas to get started:

Dating/Meeting site for asexuals/ace spectrum. I know there is Acebook, but the last message I got on their was a scrambled message of wingding symbols from a bot most likely.
Relatedly, a site to meet friends, minus making it easier to get doxxed.
An over-engineered blog site (It would be!).
A website that that uses a cool API. No, not the weather or cats — everyone has already done that!
A site with a button that just spits out The Eric Andre Show quotes. (Just kidding. I will have that button no matter what I do)

Let’s give a quick shout-out to Christina Applegate!

Here is the obligatory time where I ask for ideas from you all: all 5 people reading this. Oh, you wanted the tech stack? Silly you. I think that is a classic mistake many beginners make too. They are more interested in trying to use whatever cool new technology is out there to impress potential feudalists I mean employers. That being said, I know I will use NodeJs and React. Because they are cool and I know I will use them regardless of what work I do in the future (I actually have played with them a bit).

I am hoping this will be a conversation with my readers as well as a journal of my journey. Lmk what you think, and stay tuned. I will try to have some more shit done on this tomorrow.