JavaScript+Coffee

A short one, as typing is very tricky at the moment! I'm going to try to amalgamate what 2 specialists have said to me, one yesterday and one 15+ years ago. I have written before about the haemorrhages I had in the past, caused by ' cavernomas ' in my brain. Cavernomas are essentially little clusters of veins that can bleed.  Most people have them and if they were in your skin they would appear as little blemishes. I happen to have them in my brain! I guess I was born with these in my brain, although they have never been picked up before on any MRI or CT scan. I had one that bled three times when I was younger that caused my disability and I had 2 operations to remove.  2 weeks ago, I started to experience extreme tiredness (which I put down to coding) and trouble speaking and typing (which I put down to stress). I've spent the best part of a week in hospital and have had numerous scans on my head. I'm sure I glow with radiation now! It seems that I have had anot...

  Honestly, I wasn't sure whether to write tonight, but I felt like I had something in my head that had to come out somewhere! I am on the way to 3000 followers on twitter, which is preposterous considering I've been on the platform for less than 2 months... People do ask me 'how', and I cover that topic in another post - How did you do that?  but essentially, I still don't really know. My LinkedIn has also felt the benefit, and I am connecting and interacting with so many incredible people every day. I haven't partaken in any sort of course, nor am I part of any secret club! I love speaking and interacting and laughing with all of you - I often talk about the importance of mental health and taking breaks - 'my DMs are open' means just that - you can message me and I will do my very best to reply. Just try to say something a little more meaningful than 'hi'! So alongside all of the incredible interactions and laughs that we have - we also support...

I joined twitter in mid June this year at around the same time that I started my journey into coding. I have had a twitter account before, but I wasn't very active - more of a 'lurker' (just there to look at other people's content!) I posted rarely, and not about anything in particular. Sometimes I engaged with other equestrians regarding a question that I wanted answering. I think I followed a few hundred people and had about 38 followers on that account at its peak.  On my account, JavaScript+Coffee ( @JavascriptCoff1 ), I currently about 2180 followers and am following around 400 people, 2 months after setting up the account. People have started to ask me how I am growing my twitter following so quickly. My first reaction to this was 'I don't know!', but as more people are now asking, I have sat down and had a proper think about it.  I am aware of some courses or resources that people promote, but I have never read anything about how to do 'it', w...

Everyone has a past, a background. How do you feel about yours? Sometimes my background creeps into my conscious thoughts when I least expect it, and anxieties that I thought I’d conquered re-emerge. Like if I need to use a keyboard extension that needs two hands to utilise. Or if I’m trying to complete a task that requires an element of maths or mathematical logic. Does that ever happen to you? Obviously your circumstances and past would be different, and other random, seemingly innocent things might bring up a long suppressed rage or anxiety in you… When I was young, I had three bleeds in my brain, close to my brain stem, essentially strokes. In that respect, I am incredibly lucky to not have been affected more, or even killed. I had brain surgery for the last two. I remember being ‘able’, before the bleeds, I was eight, nine and eleven when they happened, and they were all random and unexpected. After each one, I was left completely paralysed without movement on the left hand side o...