Last week I finished my second book on my journey to read my #heightinbooks this year. It’s a thick guy.
A little over a year ago I started getting into Codecademy — an excellent training site to learn the basics of web design. They start you off with an introduction to HTML and CSS and from there you can try out everything from learning the basics of SQL to JavaScript to Ruby on Rails. After three years of working for a tech company and not having much to show for it (in the “tech” sense) I decided to teach myself something.
Codecademy's completely free to use and it breaks lessons into easily digestible chunks of information. It was going great until I started getting into some more heavy topics in HTML. Things like applying class and ID attributes appropriately, wrapping my head around div and span elements, and the inner workings of stylesheets. Lucky for me, my fiancee does this kind of stuff for a living and he suggested I supplement the online courses with a book: HTML & CSS Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett.
The book helped tremendously. Not only is it laid out pragmatically with examples, modern day definitions and end of chapter summaries, but it’s simply beautiful. The aesthetic presence of the book kept me involved in the content and wanting to know what was on the next page. I truly appreciate this layout of textbook-like content in an impeccably designed package. Huge thanks to you, Jon Duckett. 😃
If you’re interested in learning how to build websites I highly recommend the Codecademy + HTML & CSS book combo. Since finishing the book last week I’ve already used it as a reference to fix a few things on this site.
Speaking of this site, I used Squarespace to get this site up and running and wow - they have an amazing product. You can actually get a beautiful site together without having any knowledge of how websites work (but it’s way cooler to customize it with an HTML & CSS background).
Speaking of Squarespace, I used a promo-code (for 10% off, use: supertrain) from my all-time favorite podcast Roderick on the Line. Another shout out to Adam (fiancee) for introducing me to the most hilariously intelligent pair of humans I’ve ever decide to dedicate my Monday nights to. Go listen to whatever their latest episode is - you won’t regret it. These two guys mostly talk about the current state of humanity, their latest thought technologies, they share their unintentionally fascinating everyday lives, and make jokes that only their dedicated listeners are worthy of enjoying. I’m pretty sure it’s scientifically proven you will laugh, cry, and feel the need to hug a dog during every episode.
Speaking of dogs, here’s Dora:
