It may look like a step backward from yesterday, but the difference is those three strips of bacon.
I wanted them there, I coded the…thingy…to place them there, and lo, they appeared.
However, it has become quite apparent that I need to take a step back from MODX, and give my HTML studies some more love.

Warning: horrible metaphor crafting ahead.

I am trying to translate German things in to Chinese things. My German is rusty, and I can’t even figure out what I’m looking at in Chinese.

Confused? Exactly! Now you know how I feel about the whole endeavor.

The most difficult thing of all is resisting the urge to shut it all down and go crochet.

Just as soon as I started telling people that I was going to go back to school, I realized I wouldn’t be able to.

Oh, whoops, I didn’t share that before now, did I? That’s probably because I hadn’t fully committed to the idea- with good reason. My plan was to return to school for a second degree, a BS in Computer Science. My application was accepted, I visited an advisor to figure out what my first-semester classes would be, and then I did the math on how long the program would take: four years. Even with my first degree, four years.

I can only afford two years, and student loans are not an option.

It’s pretty damned obvious that I’ve got to do something, and as I hinted at in the last post, I am now studying to be a web developer. My emphasis will not be on front-end design, but on back-end development. I wouldn’t say no to an opportunity to design, but it’s by no means my focus. Not making that mistake twice (I’m looking at you, Architecture.)

I started trying to learn MODX a week ago. The culmination of one week’s work was me being able to successfully install it to my webserver. Impressive, right? Self-deprecation aside, I will spend some time “under the hood,” trying to get this thing looking like…something.

For those of you who care to play along at home, the URL of this design travesty is: jennifermathis.com

This is Day 1. I have installed a very basic template, and am trying to learn what MODX “chunks” and “snippets” do. The end goal involves a travesty of pork products- you can already see that happening with my liberal use of Bacon Ipsum for the “content” text.

I’ll do my best to give regular updates/ screenshots, but no promises. I figure, if nothing else, documenting my progress will keep me accountable.