Web Development Projects

JustFriends.online

A social media site focused on the essentials of a social media website: friends, posting, commenting, posting photos, and creating photo galleries. Technologies: HTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript, Spring Boot Thymeleaf, Bootstrap, MySQL

Live Site Dev Blog

5-Day Weather Forecast App

A weather app that displays a weekly weather forecast in the location of the user’s choosing implementing Openweather API. Technologies: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax request

Github

Coffee Menu App

Group project: Coffee menu that filters and sort by different parameters in JavaScript and also allows visitors to create and name their own coffee products that are stored locally. Technologies: HTML, CSS, Javascript

Github

Development Blog

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't --you're right." - Henry Ford

June 16th, 2021

Back to Basics

Realizing over the last two weeks that I was spreading myself too thin with trying to learn the whole MERN stack from scratch was a really powerful learning experience. I was starting to get my mind wrapped around MongoDb, Express, and Node.js at a very basic level, but I realized that I was basically going to FOMO (fear of missing out) myself into trying to learn a million new things hoping it would get me any job at all. Instead, I've been putting together a new and improved portfolio site I plan to replace this one.

This time, I'm going to have multiple pages, probably a more elegant way for me to post to my blog with CRUD, and a new section called "What I'm doing" where I get to highlight what I'm focusing on in a more digestible way for visitors than to have to get a feeling for what that is by reading each of my blog posts.

michaeltroia.com is going to be better than ever! And it will be the perfect chance to reinforce what I've learned, and make a platform that I can leverage for the rest of my professional career! If I can figure out how, I'll even build and host a simple game I made on my new site :)

May 21th, 2021

MERN

Short update, I got my first MERN project running locally! I totally copied it from a tutorial, but I followed along, typing it out and taking small notes where there weren't already good notes. Next I'm going to modify this project and make something similar.

May 18th, 2021

Welcome baby Marceline

My 3rd daughter, Marceline Avery Troia was born on April 21st, 2021. She is getting chunky really fast, and it feels like she's already doubled in size. It has been a little bit weird, trying to code while having a new born, but I do what I can after the baby sleeps and the house is clean!

It feels a little bit awkward to be coding when I have a cute newborn snoring right next to me, but I do feel a little motivated now that the turbulent first couple weeks are over to find work that I can do remotely. I think that enough positions I'm interested in are looking for some familiarity with the MERN stack, and I have been studying React, so in the coming weeks I'll be working with Mongodb, Express, React, and Node.js. I already have some boilerplate conceptualized, but it isn't just yet ready to show off. Funny enough is even my 7 year old doesn't really understand what I do on the computer, so I might just be waiting for a while before these kids can appreciate what I'm working on here, haha!

April 7th, 2021

This Feels Like a Moment

Lately, I've been learning React by mostly following along with this online tutorial, but I've really been itching to start a new project of my own. So to take a short break from the grind of following along with video tutorials and sending job applications all day, I decided to kind of get a little more "professional". My legion of dedicated readers/subscribers, you already know this, but I am the proud owner of michaeltroia.com. How cool! And, I designed some business cards and ordered 50 of them, so when they get hear, I'm going to take a picture of them and post that on this blog!

March 19th, 2021

React!

So amidst my job search, I discovered that "React" popped up often in job postings that I thought I might be a good fit for. At least it happened often enough that I thought to myself "You know what? I'll bite."

So I bought the very popular Modern React with Redux course on Udemy and I'm sifting through that now. This is what I've built in my first day or so! It works (React) in a really neat way. I'm starting to look at my plain HTML and plain JavaScript with squinty eyes, because so far what I've learned about components makes me think that React would work really well for webpages that reuse different components, like these blog posts. We'll have to see!

March 8th, 2021

Footer

Somehow I didn't realize my portfolio was lacking a footer! So now that the footer is included, I'm proud to announce that you can now access the same links and content available just like before, but now also at the bottom of the page.

March 4th, 2021

Voila

I think that this portfolio is at least primarily done, but I could always use input! Use the contact form above to send me any suggestions about how I can make this better, but I have some jobs to apply to, so I think for now, I'll mainly be just adding content instead of new features. I hope you like what you see!

March 3rd, 2021

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Michael of course, and thank you for visiting my portfolio. I recently created this portfolio, so expect more blog posts in the near future, and click the contact link above if you'd like to reach out!

Web/Software Developer

Technical Skills

Education