First published: Sept. 24, 2023 | Permalink | RSS

Travis holding a bouquet of flowers in a field of flowers!

I have been working on personal projects in my spare time for a few weeks: stepping into a leadership role at Code for Philly, writing tutorials for upcoming streaming I'll be doing, and working with Ruby to improve our house.

The PLSE Expungement team at Code for Philly has been putting in a ton of work lately and I am thrilled to work with such stellar volunteers. I recently wrote a new update for our project page talking about the progress we've made over the past year. We're actively accepting new volunteers if you live in Philly and are interested in meaningful work and expanding your skills.

I decided to start writing out tutorials for weekend-sized projects in browser-only, native tech (i.e. just HTML, CSS and JavaScript). I have one tutorial completely done, a second almost ready, and a third one in the wings. Once I have all three done I will start hosting weekly streams teaching those tutorials as well as working through personal projects and pixel art. I plan to do those bigger tutorials monthly and edit them into more digestible videos and written blogs. I have found a lack of beginner-friendly written content in this area and am seeking to fill that gap.

There's a few motivations for doing the streaming and content creation despite being concerned about getting back into creating content. One is that I do like making videos. I spent years growing my video production skills and genuinely love making them. Another is that with the streaming, writing, and developing, I will become a better developer and continue growing my skills. The last is that I am interested in doing more independent work and that likely means trying to grow an audience (Hi!) and build out some options beyond just working for a boss.

That being said, I still plan to work full-time and you shouldhire me full time as a Software Engineer, I am certainly still interested in working on civic technology and geospatial projects that improve people's lives. Doing work that is meaningful to me will always be one of the most important factors in how I choose to spend my days. A salary and healthcare are important to me but I work best when I am working to make the world a better place. And that's a huge part of why I'm interested in trying to take more of my workday decisions into my own hands. My goal with these projects is to plant seeds so that I can begin to cultivate a career aligned with my values.

The best way to keep up with what's happening is to check here or subscribe to this blog's RSS feed. To see my upcoming streams subscribe to my YouTube channel where I'll be streaming them.

Thank you for reading!