Published on 05 Jun 2020 by Dave Regg
And thank you so much for reading!
My name is Dave Regg and I am a self-taught programmer. But I am more than just a programmer! I'm a gamer, I'm a reader, I'm a runner, I'm a doodler, and now- I guess- I'm a blogger. I am located in the gorgeous, mural-filled city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. I work full-time in the produce department of Whole Foods Market, a company focused on organic integrity, community, and environment. I balance a life where I work those 40 hours a week, spend some marvelous time with my partner, run about 10 miles a week, and program daily.
How the heck do I make that work? Well, just typing that out makes it seem like I live in a 30 hour day. I'm hoping this blog will help me balance some of my life and focus on my programming hobby in hopes of getting a new opportunity in software development.
Unpopulated as of now, this blog will be updated often with content related to the technologies that I am learning, but often littered with other topics about my life- my hobbies, my relationships, and my health. So let me give you a brief rundown of the post categories.
As mentioned previously, I run about three times a week for about 10 miles per week. I have never considered myself a true runner, but I do enter races to challenge myself. I want to train to increase my mileage and run all sorts of races. I want to feel accomplished, I want to feel satisfied, I want to feel healthy.
My original programming journey started with the idea of launching my own webcomic. I had a story in mind, and I wanted to use the webcomic as motivation to increase my abilities in my first love, drawing and illustration. However, I quickly fell in love with programming, and although drawing has taken a backseat, I often enjoy doodling and posting those illustrations. You may have noticed the 'elfie' in the Footer of this blog - a Dave Regg original illustration.
I have gone about five years between reading books, but starting this year, I made it a goal to read at least three books. Yes, a small goal, but I wanted to give myself something achievable because, well, like I said, it had been five years! Well, I've already read four books, and I'm now increasing my goal to seven!
Although not a great platform, I want to use this blog as a journal for myself. And as many of you know, working in customer service can be irritating. I could go on about customers, bosses, and situations, but I don't want to bring it to that. Instead, I want to use this label to stay positive.
So the work tag will be about positive things that make me happy during my 40 hour work week at Whole Foods. It will be about my work-life balance, mainly how to maintain blogging and programming while also working full-time. It will be about finding a new opportunity, a change of career, and how work might be changing for myself.
Me, myself, and I - life in general. Relationships, friendships, and thoughts.
This will probably pertain to American politics and current events. Like I said, I want to fashion this as a tech blog first, but a personal journal when I need it to be. I will try to stay away from controversial subjects, but sometimes they may come out.
I feel like a lot of milennials, and generations after us, have become aware of the importance of mental health. I am no different. I have been through a number of years of therapy due to stress, anxiety, and decades of depression. I am currently out of therapy, but writing down my thoughts and feelings is a therapy in itself.
By no means is this a replacement for therapy, but instead, just a way I want to cope with mental health and to give tips on how I deal with it.
And hopefully, it will all come back to programming.
I want to write about how I learn. What I learn. Where and when I learn. I want to write about techniques, I want to write about technologies, I want to write about tips and tricks.
As a programmer, my main focus has been Javascript. I have built applications with the MERN stack. As of now, I am working with the JAM stack. I love React as a frontend framework, but I have also used Vue, and I have experience building my own frontend projects with webpack and babel.
I want to write about how I balance programming with life. With mental health awareness. With socializing, or without socializing, and how I deal with it. With current events. I want to write about how programming can help with these things.
And my journey into a new career.
I look forward to writing as much as I can about the hobbies that I love. I want to give myself an outlet to reflect, or a notebook to remember, or a journal to pour my soul into. If I gain a couple followers here or there, not bad! Feel free to reach out at anytime on Twitter or you can reach out on my personal website.
Thanks again for reading!