ABOUT

Hi, my name is Chris. I am a chemist with a background in organometallic chemistry. I am currently learning full-stack development to build useful web applications. I've learned through various courses online, from books, and most importantly through a coaching program.

Check out what I've built so far in my portfolio.

Initial brush with coding

I had a AP computer science class learning Java freshman year in high school, but did not continue with it (Java was difficult to understand at the time and the Eclipse IDE was confusing to use). It wasn't until several years later that I became serious about learning to code.

Motivation

I worked with contract programmers by giving feedback on the database interface and testing software I used for my job. The one thing I can't forget is a response from one of those programmers. I would explain what we wanted and asked if it was possible and the response was always "Chris, Anything is possible." They definitely were, but it did take time for a fix or I needed to give more context and draw out some diagrams. While working with them, one thought kept coming back, "Why can't I code? Shouldn't I be able to?"

Starting to Code Again

The world was thrown into chaos with the COVID-19 pandemic and I was furloughed for the majority of 2020. During that period, I started to learn through free online resources. I chose to learn Python due to its readability and popularity in the science fields. The basics were much easier to understand the second time around without the Java syntax.

Purpose of the blog

This blog is my lab notebook to document the successes and failures along the way. I'm not looking for feedback here, but if there was someone who reads it, I hope they can see it is possible to learn to code and learn from the mistakes I've made.

Many people state, "Everyone can code" or "Everyone should learn to code," so why shouldn't I?

Let's get building.