Education Ecosystem Blog

Who’s Talymo? You’ve seen her coding live on her channel. What else is she up to IRL? We recently did a little Q/A. Here’s what we found out:

Real name: Tabetha Moe

Alter ego: Talymo

Location: Bluffton, United States

Powers/abilities: JavaScript, HTML/CSS

Username: https://www.livecoding.tv/talymo/

Questions:

Q: What do you do in normal life?

A: In normal life, I am a senior web developer at a marketing agency. On a daily basis I help guide new development projects from start to finish. They get a request for work and I make sure that the Creative and UX teams are on the right track, so that when it gets to me and I get to code it, I know that the best, most tech advanced project is being put out. Of course, we have lots of limitations on our projects, but I push the envelope as far as I can.

Q: We understand you love to make your own dresses. Are there any similarities between coding and dressmaking?

A: I started making my own dresses last year about this time. I like expressing myself through my dresses and having one of a kind pieces that no one else has. Plus, there is something about making something on your own and knowing the process. In that way it is very similar to coding. You have a set pattern to follow, but along the way, finding interesting ways to improve upon that using the material you have is where the real fun is. Just like with my dresses, I like starting with an idea and seeing how cool I can make it before I feel like it is done. That’s why, when you watch my stream, I’m constantly saying, “I don’t know if this is going to work, but we are about to find out.” I’ve learned some pretty cool things that way and I am not afraid to fail.

Q: What is the name of the weather app you built on Livecoding.tv?

A: That weather app was a prototype that I built for a FreeCodeCamp.com project. It was designed by Kreativa Studio. I just breathed some life into it. I had some help from Unicorn, a fellow streamer here on LiveCoding.tv,  with the animations. It really was great building that out with the input of all my wonderful followers. They suggested things while I was coding it and I think that really pushed the web app to be as great as it is.

Q: Where can Livecoding.tv users find it?

A: Right now I am in talks with Kreativa Studio about pushing it out into the market, but unfortunately, for right now, users can only find it on my Codepen.io account at http://codepen.io/talymo32/pen/eNPyQR. I have some other pretty cool things there too. I coded my own version of the Google peek-a-boo image gallery they use on their image search page. So be sure to check that out too.

Q: What is the tech stack you used to build the weather app?

A: About a year ago, I had set up a nice little scaffolding tool for myself using gulp, angular, bootstrap, sass, jade, bower and image optimization tools so that I could easily generate a skeleton for any web project I might need. If you are interested in taking a peek at it, it is called Giggle and can be found on my Github page at https://github.com/talymo/giggle. It’s still a work in progress and I am constantly outfitting it with more tools or less tools depending on the evolution of my knowledge and process. If you see anywhere that I could improve it, let me know and I’ll gladly see about getting it in the next build.

This particular project I mimicked my Giggle scaffolding as much as I possibly could inside of CodePen.io to set up the website skeleton, then I set to work coding the HTML in Jade, (which, if you haven’t had a look at yet, definitely put it in your roadmap because it is an amazing tool), the CSS in Sass (another great point for your roadmap), and AngularJS.

These three pieces of tech are the foundation of any project I start and make it super easy for me to build out great websites really fast. If you are a new developer and you are interested in learning these three technologies, be sure to follow my channel on LiveCoding.tv and tune in for the weekly learn-along streams I am going to have. My AngularJS session starts Sunday, August 17 at 5pm EST. I’ll be introducing my followers to the core concepts of AngularJS as we build a simple app and I will be taking any and all questions along the way.

Q: How many streaming hours did it take you to build the weather app?

A: I can’t put an exact number on the streaming hours because I have so much fun with my followers when I stream that I lose track of time. We goof around and listen to music together while I code and I get Rick Rolled constantly. I even had one of my followers walk me through his weather app, (which is way cooler than mine if you ask me!) so I got to see how others are handling their projects. Between goofing around with my followers, the Rick Astley videos and taking time to see their weather apps, I would say this project took me a good 14 hours to complete.  It might have taken a bit longer because I like explaining why I’m doing something a certain way, so that takes some time.

Q: When did you first learn to code? How did it go initially?

A: I was attending a community technical college for Web Design because I have always been insanely good at art and community college was all I could afford. One of the required classes was Intro to Computer Programming and I remember scheduling that class for 8am. I was miserable my first day because I am NOT a morning person. I remember sitting in that class, barely awake, the only girl in the whole class thinking to myself, “Who in the world schedules a programming class at 8am??!!!” I was so grumpy.

The teacher came in and he didn’t wait at all before he pushed us into coding. He had us coding in C++ that first day. I fell in love. The minute I opened up that IDE and started coding, I knew coding was my future. That was the only class I was excited for and it being at 8am says a lot as to how hard I fell in love.

From that point on, you couldn’t get me away from a computer. I was constantly coding something. Most of it was garbage and has long since been lost to time. I still love art and I draw and paint in my free time when I get the urge, but there is something about making the art come alive on the computer screen that ignites a fire in me. I love making beautiful things that people can interact with.

Q: If you were a programming language, which one would you be? And why?

A: I would have to be Javascript. People who love me, really love me and people who hate me, really hate me. At first glance, I don’t seem very powerful but once you get to know me, you are amazed at what all I can do.

Q: What it takes to be a good programmer?

A: Passion. You have to have passion for this. You can have people who spend years in college walking out with a sparkly new degree in computer science yet never get as far with someone who has passion for coding. Passion is going to keep you coding until 3am. Passion is going to push you to learn new that new technology.

Persistence. Don’t give up. If you are a girl and people make fun of you or tell you that you should do something different, don’t listen to them. Your thoughts and ideas are just as valid as anyone else’s. Don’t ever let someone tell you what you are doing is stupid, whether you are a boy or girl. I am working on AI home automation and so many times I’ve had people stop me in the middle of me explaining it to tell me that someone was already doing that and someone is doing it this way, forget that. You do what you are passionate about. Someone may be doing the same thing you are doing, but I can guarantee you that they aren’t doing it the way you will do it because you are unique and no one else in the world will be doing it the way you are.

Steve Jobs didn’t stop building computers because they already existed or someone else was already working on an idea for one. Take your idea and run with it.

Q: What’s the most annoying/irritating/bizarre coding habit you have?

A: Proper indentation and spacing. Oh gosh I get so OCD over it. If I am watching someone code and their indentation is crazy all over the place, I will literally push their chair out of the way and fix it or nag them until they want to murder me.

“You need to indent that…”

“Can you put a space there so I can read that easier?”

“Did you move that over there for a particular reason?”

“Why is that pushed up against there like that?”

“Indent that”

All the while the person is glaring at me ready to strangle me with their USB cable. Then they usually say something like, “WHO CARES. This is all going to be minified anyway.” and I’m like, “Look, if you get attacked by a lion who escaped from a zoo and I have to come in here while you are laid up in the hospital and wade through this ridiculous code to bug-fix or add a feature, I am going to drive to the hospital and repeatedly shoot you right between the eyes with a Nerf gun for 5 hours straight until you lose your mind.”

Check out one of Talymo’s recent streams: Building my portfolio