I started The Odin Project (TOP) on 7th September. We're now almost a month in, and I quickly wanted to note down the progress and journey so far, including what we've learned and what we've struggled with.

TOP seemed like the curriculum and pathway of choice for a beginner like myself, so that's where the web development journey started.

Total time spent studying: 48 hours 30 minutes.

• Linux Installation and VM Configuration

  • Installing Xubuntu and configuring Windows 11 to allow Oracle VirtualBox to access hardware virtualization presented quite a few challenges.

  • The solution below may prove useful for anyone else experiencing similar issues.

  • ChatGPT contents dumped HERE, and we'll summarise it at a later date.

• VS Code Installation

• Command Line Basics

  • The terminal exercises at Software Carpentry were particularly enjoyable and will definitely be something I'll revisit and spend more time on.

• Git and GitHub Setup

  • I'd always heard about GitHub and had visited it now and again, mainly via links on social media, but I can't pretend I really understood what was going on.

  • I'm looking forward to using GitHub as a way to document my portfolio of work over the coming years.

• HTML Foundations

  • Grasped pretty quickly, but there's still lots of syntax to familiarise myself with. We'll be revisiting and going back over more before moving onto JavaScript.

• CSS Foundations

  • Grasped pretty quickly, but slightly more challenging than HTML before it, as expected.

• CSS / Flexbox

  • Oh boy. Lots more work and fundamentals to grasp before moving on.

• Markdown Documents

  • Looking forward to learning a lot more about Markdown elements.

• Hashnode Blog

  • Following on from the above, and with a recommendation from ChatGPT, Hashnode became the blogging platform of choice to complement GitHub and document my thoughts as we go along.

The GitHub Pages for the Recipes projects can be found below:

• HTML only — odin-recipes

• CSS additions — odin-recipes-css

The next steps

We're currently towards the end of TOP Flexbox / Alignment, and the next step is the final HTML/CSS project: the landing page.

I'm not comfortable enough with some CSS elements and Flexbox yet to move onto the project, so the plan is to read and complete the following before attempting the foundations/flex directory exercises or the landing page project:

1. Complete CSS Flexbox Layout Guide by Chris Coyier

2. Complete HTML & CSS Is Hard by Interneting Is Hard

Biggest challenge so far: Flexbox. I understand the basic concepts, but translating them into the layout I have in my head isn't coming naturally yet. That's the main area I want to strengthen before tackling the landing page.

Goal for the next update: Complete the project landing page and update the odin-recipes-css page to include Flexbox elements.

garethsplloyd