Category: TIL Page 1 of 2

Deep Thoughts (Day 29)

On April 10, 2020

Everyday I often forget, but always remember that there is still kindness and goodness in this world. That we can help each other with a little positive perspective to the many struggles we face. I’m thankful each day for the ability to stay healthy and keep in communication with people online, on Teams, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Blue Jeans, Face Time, and at home with my family. I miss humans, but also don’t want to take life for granted and care about our future on this planet.

ALL NIGHT DRIVE #3: CALUMET
SILKSCREEN, 23″ X 19″, 2010 by Ethan D’ercole

……………….. and then I remember that today is not even Monday.

We Are Not Alone

By Risa Tino

On April 4, 2020

In Roots, TIL

It’s been 4 weeks of working-from-home during a pandemic. Mondays through Fridays, it’s all the same day now. I went from consciously trying to disconnect from social media, the internet, or any digital device to scheduling in-person face-time with my friends and family. I’m a web developer and I’m expected to look at a lighted screen when I’m working. I am very lucky to be where I am. I have been able to safely work-from-home since March 12th, 2020. Most of my friends including partner have lost pay or “temporarily” lost their job during the shelter-in-place orders. As we know, in America, if you lose your job, you also lose your health insurance.

It’s a very existential time. Practicing social distancing feels unnatural, but necessary. I miss the gym so much, and feel guilty for all the times I went in with feelings of resentment. And now, I only seem to remember all the times I came out of the gym feeling good about going. I really miss table tennis or watching sports, too. I think about all the small businesses I haven’t seen the past month, the long list of Go Fund Me pages, the sudden realization that most of these places or people will not exist in the same way I remember them, and I do forget that I am not alone. When I was a kid, learning the basics of social etiquette, I loved saying hello, but never understood why anyone would ever need to say goodbye. It seemed like the rudest practice and I would often replace it with “no goodbyes, I’ll see you Monday!” regardless of whether I would see them again. I don’t know why I’m writing this in my blog. I think I just feel the need to write to an audience, and remind you that I care even if we’ve never met. I care about humanity, self-care, self-training, self-isolation, but I don’t think of myself as one. I want you to know that we all are changing, we are far apart, we are different people, but we are not alone.

Creative Confidence

By Risa Tino

On July 30, 2019

In TIL

The space in which art meets science, this is my favorite working environment. I love strategic creativity, the crossover points between story- and truth-telling, games that allow for multiple paths towards a solution, sports, or a dance that could be choreographed and performed in a scientific manner. A couple years ago, I read the book Creative Confidence by David and Tom Kelly. I’ve forgotten the fine details by now, but the concept of creative confidence stuck. I felt like I finally understand what type of mindset resonates with me. It’s not just problem solving, it’s not just visual communication, it’s not just about being creative but it’s about structured creativity.

Values or things you commit to can change according to priorities, communication, and time. Mindsets change depending on perception, social engagement, and time. Confidence however changes based on values and one’s mindset combined. Having been born in a foreign country to where I am now, I constantly feel the need to adapt. I like to think of it as how a chameleon changes color based on their surrounding environment, except that my changes are on the inside with how I perceive or value myself and others, in turn how my confidence levels are. Regardless of the time, one thing I can always rely on is my creative confidence.

I don’t believe people are creative by talent or by DNA. I believe everyone has the potential to be creative based on how much they practice it or are exposed to it in their life. Any artistic side of me came out of years of development and everyday practice. Being an artist was never obvious to me and any blood relatives that carry creative talent is mere coincidence. Creative confidence is a mindset that I believe in, improve on, and live by so that is why it never fails me. If something doesn’t work, it just means there’s another way to solve a problem.

Digital Graves & What Will Remain of Us

By Risa Tino

On June 30, 2019

In TIL

My father passed away after his 59th birthday, which was a month after 9/11. This was one of the biggest milestones in my life as I was very close to him and often think about how he is not Googleable on the internet. My brother-in-law passed away last year and his blog has recently expired and while it is just words he published in space, it meant a lot to my husband and I to revisit it and read what he felt was important to write about online.

Today, I’m shy a couple years of turning 40 and I often think about the times I’ve had to update or renew my personal blog –often thinking, what is the point in saving any of this. While we are living, we often forget how relevant our digital presence is and how much of our online self is no different from our IRL self. It is old-fashioned to think that you have two lives separate between the online and in-person world. They are both the same. It is almost impossible to avoid any digital or tech device in today’s world. The version or digital communication tool might vary from person to person but at my age, I certainly have lost more close people in my life than I thought I would. Their digital presence is not fully lost with Facebook hosting remembrance pages for our deceased loved ones, but for people like my father, he never heard of social media or what it’s like to search for someone online. The internet was non-existent to him. He never had an email and never knew what it was like to be connected to the internet all the time.

I think about the times before I checked my email daily, when I first opened my catspaz98 at hotmail account and first saw Google’s search box. It was very basic and did not impress me back in 1998. Back when I was a full-time freelancer, my colleagues expected me to respond 24/7. It was unheard of to respond a full day late to any email from a client. It didn’t matter that you had to juggle several jobs or that you might be at a job at the moment they sent you an email. You had to at least respond back saying you received their message and multi-tasking became a requirement. Things have gotten more complex as much as it has opened up our world with more opportunities to communicate in more ways than one. People can now work remotely, but then one would have to find a way to shut off their personal life even if you were working from home. If your cat meowed for attention or your husband wanted to chat, you had to close them off because you needed to make sure your online colleagues knew you were focused and working on their priority project. When I think about how things have changed or what it feels like to not have internet today, and then I think about the future and what will remain of me when I leave this earth. Sometimes I think there’s no point to communicating on a blog or on social media, but then I also think that this might be important to the people I care about who would want to read this –the same way that humans love taking photos or scrolling through the digital memories we create.

We Need QA Data Testers

By Risa Tino

On February 8, 2018

In TIL

I go through information overload on a daily basis, and it’s not healthy. I’ve been trying to clear my focus to what my primary priorities are at work and at school.

My Goals
Career Goals
Relationship Goals

This seems to be the order of my current goals. While all three are equally important on a visual tree chart, they are in order of weakness to strength. My weakness is that I’m not sure why I’m studying Data Science. I love my job, my family, friends, and co-workers. I care greatly about ethics and making the world a better place. My biggest concern of late, has been training data sets, QA Data Researchers or Data Scientists. You could say it’s because of my obsession with Black Mirror, the new X-Files, and other AI battles—while most are seemingly fantasy or contained within a VR headset, the story is very plausible in the near future. I often worry about the relevance of my job position when thinking about the possibilities of robots replacing people, but there’s other opportunities to fill and it’s important to consider these gaps in society. People skills are still important. There’s a reason why a hybrid human-robot is better than just machine parts.

If you haven’t seen Maximum Overdrive, you’ll need that to get my references from that movie. Self-driving cars are already here and self-driving trucks are in the works. It’s both good and bad, but so easily can we think of how bad it is. People are not always efficient in comparison to robots. Truck drivers are working under harsh conditions with incentives that only a machine can really master. Lack of sleep. Lack of health. Lack of stamina. Little incentive for less miles tracked. This is where those mysterious hype terms Big Data, Machine Learning and and Artificial Intelligence come into play. Amidst all this, it’s important to realize that robots and computers are stupid if they aren’t programmed at a high level. This is what Machine Learning is to me. Perhaps, this is why I decided I to study Data Science. I’m still not sure what area I plan to dedicate my time towards, but like HTML/CSS was the basic language to study back in the late 90’s, I’ve adapted and continue to adjust to what tools I will need to keep growing in my line of work. I’m not really sure how far I can go into Machine Learning, but I can see myself getting really good at data cleaning, data manipulation or QA testing.

Many companies don’t give explicit training anymore, but they will support their employees in where they need training. It’s the nature of new tech roles emerging. Sometimes, when you are the first to fill a position that was not previously available at the company you work at—you have to make the initiative to seek out how you can address issues that need to be discovered first. QA Data Scientists and Researchers are specialists that I only started to think about this year. It seems so obvious once you realize the necessity for training set testers, but until others understand the pitfalls, the problem will never be clear to anyone.

Promises & Resolutions

By Risa Tino

On January 9, 2018

In TIL

Just to clarify, I’m not writing about resolutions just because it is 2018. I skipped and unpublished a series of weekly, monthly, sporadic posts ever since the summer hit. It was always untimely, outdated feelings of a very blurry timeline. Twenty-seventeen was tumultuous. I don’t really know how I made it to 2018, but I’m here now and I’m going back to school in a week. That rush of uncertainty, excitement, and commitment I made at the end of last year is soon to be a reality.

My boss shared this article about Making and Keeping New Year’s Promises. I encourage you to read it, too. It helps normalize the natural feeling of developing, adapting, and changing things. It won’t be easy to achieve meaningful goals, but it is better to strive for realistic goals. I think about how far I’ve come in a year and how much more I can do in another year. And while I know I won’t live forever, I can still track my progress and aim to be specific with my goals. I think about the people that have left this world who helped shape me, influenced me, and made a difference in so many lives. Each year, I rewrite my goals and they become more and more specific while maintaining flexibility for change. It’s important to remind myself that, Today will not always be awesome, but it has endless potential for growth. Onwards to 2018—I’m ready to push myself even further!

Broken Door

By Risa Tino

On September 30, 2017

In TIL

In 2015, I had a new vision which was to land my first full-time web developer position. At the start of 2016 I started picking up part-time gigs as a developer and started to build a portfolio. When 2017 crept up, I was contracted by the bootcamp I graduated from for 6 months and I needed to aspire for something bigger. This is when I realized how far I had come and that I was ready to make my vision a realistic goal. The first challenge was to complete an intensive programming bootcamp on very tight finances and time constraints. The next big step was managing new projects as an independent contractor, building my portfolio, passing phone screens, researching opportunities, and finding time for sleep. Looking for my first web developer job outside of my social network was one of the most depressing phases in my professional growth. I would prefer to avoid that moment in time where I was being paid less than my first paid internship two decades ago.

The key to tackling this is and was perseverance (maybe even persistence). I was learning how to use the tools I acquired at bootcamp, but the fact is; no one comes out of bootcamp with experience. When one realizes this, it makes everything daunting. You scramble, looking for someone to network with, but that’s as hopeful as winning the lottery. What helped me get through those hard times, was keeping myself busy. This only works with the right attitude. The kind of carefree spirit that also knows how easy it is to forget new tricks. Addressing problems, questions, bugs, impediments, with the openness of a child who first learns to walk, the first time you managed to balance on your bicycle, the first time you got through difficulties. It’s important to know that you can fix a door with the right mindset.

TIL: gem ‘rails_12factor’

By Risa Tino

On July 25, 2017

In TIL

Let’s begin with a TIL (today-I-learned) from backtracking a git workflow history.
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/rails4

First sign up with heroku! You may receive an email asking you to confirm your account.
Download Heroku Toolbelt here: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-ruby#set-up
Run inside terminal: heroku login
Add the following gems to your Gemfile:

gem ‘rails_12factor’, group: :production

and then run bundle install from your terminal

git add –all
git commit -m ‘commit message’
git push origin master
ONLY ONCE PER APP: heroku create
git push heroku master

(If at this point, you get an authentication failure, enter: heroku keys:add and then try the previous step again)

heroku run rake db:migrate
heroku open
To see your data in a GUI interface for postgres: http://www.psequel.com or https://eggerapps.at/postico/

Workflow:

Make local changes
git add –all
git commit -m ‘your message’
git push origin master
When you wish to deploy: git push heroku master

Optional:

To see error messages on your heroku app:

heroku logs

heroku logs –tail

If you have any seed data, run:

heroku run rake db:seed (If you want to create seed data from your development database, I recommend the seed_dump gem: https://github.com/rroblak/seed_dump, you may also need to update your seed file: rake db:seed:dump.

To use the gem, add it to your project, bundle, and run:

rake db:seed:dump

If you want to run the rails console for your app on Heroku, run:

heroku run rails console

If you want to rename your app, run:

heroku rename new-name-of-your-app

For images:

Use image_tag for all your html pages

For images in your CSS, you embedded ruby (make sure file ends in .erb)

For example:

background-image: image-url(“<%= asset_path(‘retina_wood.png’) %>”);

Connect directly to Heroku Database:

Using PGAdmin, in Heroku find database settings.

NOTE: ALL REFERENCES OF url in your CSS must be changed to image-url

Upgrade to Unicorn server: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/getting-started-with-rails4#webserver

Using custom domain: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/custom-domains

Go to database section in heroku.com

Download PG Commander: https://eggerapps.at/pgcommander/

Turning Off mini for JS when pushing to Heroku (so it doesn’t mess up you angular)

https://github.com/hiravgandhi/angularjs-rails/issues/39

To remove Heroku from your app:

heroku apps:destroy –app your-crazy-heroku-given-app-name-like-lazy-flatlands

Work That Matters

By Risa Tino

On June 5, 2017

In Do Good Deeds, TIL

There are good people in the world.

This project involves creating multimedia educational content featuring “Sesame Street” characters for children in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. (Credit Rahmat Gul/Associated Press on the MacArthur Foundation)

I have supported several non-profits in the past, present, and future. It never occurred to me, that one can be employed by a company that supports non-profits, charity, and humanity. I used to be incredibly pessimistic about being able to raise a family while doing work that matters. As an artist, I used to think that a choice had to be made between having children and making really good work. This year, my perspective has changed several times. One minute I could easily be at an all time low, or somewhat balanced, and then incredibly happy as if nothing could bring me down—similar to the weather in Chicago. I only used to dream about a workplace that values a healthy work-life balance, and so I’m not always sure that I’ve found the place where I can find stability. I have to pinch myself in the morning, or have my cat wake me up.

While it is not realistic to say that everyone should find a workplace where they are valued, it is fair to say that you should keep dreaming and continue to aspire for one because there are opportunities out there. It’s important to realize that not every good opportunity is a fit for you. You will probably have to fail several times until you find a good match. For myself, this means a place that loves your character, your talent, and communicates well with you. My dad always told me never to give up, and no matter how hard or how much loss or lack of hope there may be, time is too short to spend any of it with negative feelings.

Studying Babbage

By Risa Tino

On February 11, 2017

In Education, TIL

I’m secretly a huge fan of Charles Babbage. In 2009, I took an adventure trip out to the Babbage Room in Totnes, South Devon. I carried a book called The Difference Engine, but I’ll admit that I never read the entire book from beginning to end. It was just a book that I stumbled upon, when I still had an active AOL chat messenger account, hitobochi. Derived from the word ひとりぼっち：’Hitori bocchi’ means that you are alone, lonely and don’t have any relatives or friends, but I actually do have relatives and friends back home.

I had read somewhere that Charles Babbage went to grammar school in Totnes, and since I had always been fascinated by computer scientists and technology, I wasn’t going to leave without making a proper visit to the Babbage Room. When I returned to Chicago, I was looking for work again as a graphic designer and WordPress was my gateway into Web Design. Then sometime in 2010, I learned HTML/CSS and figured out how to inspect a web page and send screen shots of myself embedded into the front page of the New York Times. It impressed my mom and it made the internet so much more fun than it ever had been for me in the past.

Everything between 2010 to 2014 is a bit of a blur, but I went from a print media designer, to product designer, to a digital designer and finally, a web designer. Later I realized that all of my technical skills fall under the umbrella of Human-Centered Design. Human-Centered Design is something I learned about from developing optimal user experiences and applying something called Design Thinking. This transformation in my professional career was never disjointed to me. There was a period in which I would work solely as a contractor or in a corporate environment or sometimes both. Being a freelancer or a full-time employee really isn’t much different except for the degree of flexibility in a freelance role. The downside to flexibility is that you become your own HR Manager or better labeled as the Human Experience Manager in today’s workplace.

August 25-26, 2012 => I volunteered at my 1st WordPress Camp
March 27, 2013 => I joined my 1st Meet-up group and joined Github
June 28-30, 2013 => My 2nd WordPress Camp in exchange for free talks
June 13-15, 2014 => My 3rd and last WordPress Camp
April 22-25, 2014 => My 1st RailsConf with free scholarship
November 30, 2015 => My 1st Code School Subscription
*Fall 2015 Web Development graduate from Starter League
*Fall 2016 Full-Stack Web Development graduate from Actualize

Today, I am a Designer and Developer. I am currently seeking a full-time position at a tech company, which will require me to integrate my technical skills, advertising experience, and graphic design expertise to provide quality user-centered experiences. In my free time, I try to teach myself Computer Science so if you specialize in the field, I’d love to meet you, too.