(Another half year later...)
Long overdue for another recap! It's been half a year since my last one in April (time flies by so fast).
Life has been busy but sweet (mostly . . . xD).
🏫 Education Stuff
This half year has been filled with lots of great learning opportunities and materials. Here are a few things I dabbled in:
Some Dev Education
- Wix Studio Crash Course
I took Wix Studio's Crash Course back in September, following their video tutorials to build my first webpage in Wix. While I'm still a fan of the flexibility and control that comes with coding, it's nice to know there's another tool in my belt I can use if I just want to throw something quick together.
- Java on Exercism
I've been working through the Java track on Exercism to get a better feel for the language. I'm considering going back to school to finish my CS degree, and both of the programs I'm looking at focus on Java, so I thought it'd be nice to get a head start.
Digital Art
I haven't been steady with it, but I've definitely been dabbling in digital art (mostly Procreate) more than usual. I worked on the Procreate Beginners Series sometime during the summer and feel comfortable working my way around the app now. I can decently follow most easy tutorials now, though I still lack basic drawing skills.
Below are a few pieces I worked on. For the first I followed a tutorial from Art with Flo on YouTube. The second was from the Procreate Beginners Series, and the third was entirely my own (but I drew some inspiration from the first piece).
In the Future
I've been thinking of getting a FutureLearn, Coursera, Udacity, and/or Codecademy subscription once they go on sale on Black Friday — which is still a month away, sadly. (I wish edX was also subscription-based, but I don't think that's the case.) I'm considering finishing my CS degree, like I mentioned earlier, and perhaps going to grad school after that. I'd like to get a headstart on the material I can. And also, I just love learning in general, even if I'm not pursuing a degree.
🗃️ Random Projects
I worked on quite a few things over the past months!
- 5785 Messianic Planner
This year I made two sizes: our regular A5, and a larger in A4. I upgraded the interior, added all Israel federal holidays, and added printed tabs (not real ones, sadly) to the inner edges.
Next year, I think I'll follow a suggestion from my sister Grace by offering two versions: a 16-month one for those who still like having a full year in the planner (or are just starting to use one), and a 12-month one that only runs in the Hebrew year for those who are using the planners every year.
(You can still grab one of this year's from Etsy if you'd like!)
- Ecclesiastes Study
I'm starting to work on an Ecclesiastes study! Right now it's mostly my personal notes on Hebrew and commentaries, random questions, cross-references and more questions, etc. that pop into my brain as I research each verse. I'm halfway through chapter 2 now, and I hope to finish the first six chapters by the end of the year. I'm not sure if I'll make it into an actual study when I'm done, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
- Createful Purpose
The website is still very sparse right now, but at least it's looking better than it did during the summer! I'm hoping to finish all the Academic Pillars pages by mid-November and start getting feedback from homeschool parents on that content, as well as the Getting Started pages. I have so many resources in mind, and so many ideas for the site, that it's getting hard to pull my focus together and sort out everything that's in my brain.
- Personal Activity Log
This one was a fun project! I also made a short post on LinkedIn about it.
- Reading Tracker Journal
Near the end of August, I whipped up a few designs for a journal to track my reading logs and notes! I've been too lazy to snap a photo of the physical copy, but here are a few samples of the interior layouts:
I know some of the fields on the book notes/review pages might not make sense, but I was working on this project for myself. So I used box names that I wanted instead of generic ones that would probably work better for a wider audience.
- Portfolio Projects
I pulled together some of my previous projects for a new portfolio page. There's still a few I have to add, and I'd love to update the projects/portfolio page on this site, but I shall get to that . . . when I get to that!
- Brainstorming for my novel
I don't know if I'll participate in NaNoWriMo this year (who am I kidding? I say this every year), but I've been spending a good chunk of October thinking over it.
I believe the general idea for this specific set of characters I've been trying to wrestle with started when I was somewhere around 13-16 years old. They have stories and struggles I want to tell, but I'm not sure how to pull those together into a coherent story (yet).
🧶 Crocheting
Ahoy! I've been diving back into crocheting recently. Here are some of the projects I've done:
(In the next picture, only the mushrooms and olive green dino were made by me.)
Next up is a monkey (in progress) for my sister Grace and a panda for my mom!
📚 Reading Recap
I read a LOT of books about dragons over the summer.
- Dragon School (the writing starts out messy but gets better)
- Dragon Riders of Elantia (a thief-turned-dragon-rider)
- The Dragon Guard (a servant girl who wants to join the elite dragon guard)
- Heartstrikers (definitely one of my favorites this year!)
📝 Quick Points
A few other things that happened that don't quite fit into a section by themselves:
- I've been enjoying physical guided journalling
- I hit my one-year anniversary at HIVE Strategy about two weeks ago
- I really enjoyed watching The Incredibles (and the second one too, and I wish they'd come out with a third)
- Visited Taiwan in the summer
🚀 Till Next Time
The next few months should bring plenty of news and surprises! I can't wait to see what's in store for me.
~Catherine