Forem: Tyra Clemente

Crocheting My Way to Better Code

Tyra Clemente — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 06:54:21 +0000

Growing up, I dabbled in what you might call “grandma hobbies”—knitting, crocheting, and cross stitching that I learned from my aunt. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy them that much. They were tedious, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating. But looking back, I realize those hobbies taught me lessons I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

Take knitting, for example. My first project was a scarf. I didn’t have the right materials, so I got creative. I unraveled old, unused bonnets for yarn and even saved up a little of my allowance to buy a few new colors that caught my eye. As a kid, I wasn’t thinking about matching shades—I just picked whatever I thought looked fun. The result? A scarf with pink, black, green, a gradient that went from brown to red, and bright yellow stripes. It was like a rainbow exploded, but not in a good way. I was proud I finished it, but even I could tell it was more of a wild, messy experiment than a proper scarf. It taught me a tough lesson: just because something is done doesn’t mean it’s done well.

The same thing happened with cross stitching. I’d hold the fabric stretched tight in a little hoop, poke the needle through one of the tiny holes, and pull the thread through. Each stitch felt like adding a single pixel to a blank screen. At first, it was just scattered dots of color—blue here, violet there, with no clear shape. But as I kept going, something started to happen.

The random dots began to connect, like pieces of a puzzle coming together. The violets turned into flower petals, and the blues started to form leaves. Halfway through, it was like the picture was waking up. Every stitch made it clearer, like I was slowly filling in a secret image hidden in the fabric. It was slow, and sometimes I’d get bored or make a mistake, but seeing the picture come to life, pixel by pixel, made it all feel magical.

Fast forward to adulthood, and I gave crochet another shot, this time deciding to make a turtle. At first, things were going okay, but I quickly realized I was missing a lot of stitches. I’d get so focused on the pattern that I lost track of my stitch count. Suddenly, one side of the turtle’s shell would look too big, and the other side would be too small. It was a mess. I kept going, hoping it would all come together, but no matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t working.

I had to undo sections, redo others, and start over more times than I could count. Each time, I thought I had it right, only to find another mistake. It felt like I was chasing my own tail, trying to fix tiny errors that kept popping up. At one point, I even wondered if I’d ever finish it at all. The process was frustrating, and it seemed like the harder I tried, the more mistakes I made.

But as I kept going, I slowly got better at noticing where I’d gone wrong and fixing it. It took time, and I had to be patient with myself. Eventually, the turtle started to come together, each stitch fitting in place like it was meant to. It wasn’t perfect, but it was mine. It taught me that mistakes are part of the process, and paying attention to the little details—like counting each stitch—makes all the difference.

It reminds me of a quote by Vincent Van Gogh:

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

That’s exactly what these hobbies taught me, even if I didn’t see it back then. Every stitch, every thread, every choice matters. Whether you’re crafting, coding, or creating anything at all, the details shape the outcome.

Another quote I keep coming back to is from John Wooden:

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

This quote has stuck with me, especially now that I’m a developer. When I look at my work, I realize that creating software is much like knitting or crocheting. At first glance, it might seem like it’s all about the big picture—the finished program, the final feature. But just like in crafting, it’s the little details that hold it all together.

When I’m writing code or designing a feature, it’s the small decisions that matter. A single misplaced bracket, a typo in a variable name, or a missing semicolon—those tiny things can break the whole system. But when everything is in place, even the smallest part of the code, it makes the whole program run smoothly. It’s like when you crochet a tiny stitch—on its own, it might seem insignificant, but when you put all the pieces together, it creates something much bigger than the sum of its parts.

I’ve learned that the process of making a feature, or building a system, is more than just checking off tasks. It’s about paying attention to every little detail, making sure each part fits into the bigger picture. Just like I had to carefully count every stitch when making my turtle, I have to be precise with every line of code I write. Each small step leads to something much more meaningful.

Looking back, I’m actually grateful for those “grandma hobbies” I wasn’t always fond of. They taught me something I carry with me in my work every day: the importance of the small things. They might seem trivial at first, but those little details can make all the difference in the end.

A Pause in the Grind: Reflecting on the Journey of My Heart

Tyra Clemente — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 00:04:46 +0000

Woke up at 5 am today and my boyfriend was still asleep, so I decided to take a vlog of me starting my day.

Made my coffee and sat at my PC, "Work na ko mahal!." I started, "Soooo, this is a day in the life of a..." and I got cut off. A moment of silence as years of hard work flashed before my eyes. That's when I realized—three more months, and it's freestyle—no more manual to follow.

I looked back on my JHS yearbook. Saw that I once wanted to become a softeng. I had that mindset before I entered senhigh.

Took STEM because I thought I could self-learn programming, as I couldn't abandon my love for science. A few days in STEM, I almost aced the post-test, and so on, but my heart was telling me something else. I shouldn't be here, I want to pursue programming, so I shifted to ICT Animation. I was so hesitant at first because I swore I couldn't draw. Back in JHS, if there was an option to choose between poster and slogan, I'd always go with slogan making.

But during my stay in ICT Animation, I learned how to draw—wow, amazing. I learned from there that you can work hard for a kill to be good at it. That time, I didn't just acquire a skill but also a mindset.

My love for programming blossomed during my senhigh. I loved Java soooo much. I was able to understand every corner of it. And before I graduated from senhigh, my friends and I created a user-admin price comparison website for retail stores for our research study. Damn. It was another "work hard to be good at it" milestone for me.

I couldn't forget that two-week grind of self-learning PHP and coding. I wasn't confident enough in my HTML and CSS skills back then, but I did it with them. We all did it. We just dived in and did what we needed to do. It was a peak for me.

Looking back, my first lines of code were HTML in Notepad++. Six years ago, in grade 9, I just knew how to change the background color and italicize text using inline styling.

I entered college with, i say, good programming skills. I learned Python and also enrolled myself in a full-stack developer boot camp. I invited my friends, but they thought it was risky. I took the risk because I knew I needed to push myself to code more, so I entered the boot camp. One week in, I learned so much already. I was doing the boot camp during my first year in college. I had five classes to attend and the boot camp. I had no good sleep. A student during the day and grinding coding at night. I barely had sleep. But around my second week in the boot camp, I woke up with a stinging pain in my left abdomen, high fever, and nausea. I couldn't bear the pain, so I was rushed to the hospital. We found out I had a kidney infection. It was quarantine, so I was confined at home, in my room. I still attended the boot camp even though I was on an IV drip.

I forced my body to face my computer and do my modules in the boot camp because I didn't want to be delayed in the training. Everything in the training was scheduled. If I missed a module, it would pile up, making it harder for me to catch up. But then, my body got weaker, and the stinging pain got stronger. That's when I learned that, yes, I can work hard for something I want to achieve, but I must not ignore my health too. So then, I wrote a letter to my boot camp teacher that I quit and would be back the next batch. It was the best decision because my body healed. The kidney stone was gone, and I had a clearer mindset now. And I saw my fire of passion, what my heart is telling me.

From my second year of college to the third year, I forced myself to finish my data structures and algorithms certification which I have been crawling for pakking 4 years (but actually took me 70 days).

This strengthened my knowledge of backend programming. It was good timing because I finished it before I entered another boot camp at Accenture. I knew I promised to go back to V88, but Accenture was right in front of me, and it was the exact plan I was going for for my internship. Even though I hesitated to take it because my friends wouldn't, I still took it because it aligned with my plan.

Two months of training at Accenture boosted my confidence in my skills. I'm somewhat finished with the boot camp and an offer came to me. I'm not coding now just to practice, but I'm now coding for others to benefit from what I can do.

Apparently, I received job offers, but in my heart, I don't want to risk these jobs for the next years. For now, I'm currently freelancing web development projects my way out of college, and even though it makes me cry and say I hate programming, at the end of the day, it works out, and I say, "I swear I love programming."

Bitwise Sorcery: Unlocking the Secrets of Binary Manipulation

Tyra Clemente — Wed, 29 May 2024 15:20:00 +0000

Ever wondered how computers perform operations at the binary level? 🤔 Today, I'm exploring the fascinating world of Bitwise Operators! These powerful tools allow us to manipulate data down to the individual bits, providing efficient and low-level control that's crucial for performance-critical applications.

Here's a quick overview of what they can do: