Hi! My name's Aaron Snowberger and I'm a WordPress/PHP web developer who's living in Jeonju, South Korea. I teach ESL at Jeonju University, Computer Science and Graphic Design at GPA International High School, and do freelance work with various clients to help them achieve their objectives on the web and in design. This is a Review of my Year: 2016.
My Year in Review:
to remember the good things
and prepare for new.
My primary goal for 2016 was: to learn PHP deeply. Here are the results.
Become a Junior WordPress Developer
Completion Date: July 2016
Become a PHP Developer
Completion Date: December 2016
71
WordPress DIY: Community Website
(2:16)
WordPress Ecommerce: Core Concepts
(1:03)
WordPress Ecommerce
(1:10)
WordPress Workflows
(1:06)
WordPress: Building Themes from Scratch Using Underscores
(6:39)
Moving WordPress with WP Migrate DB and DB Pro
(1:03)
WordPress: Building Child Themes
(2:27)
WordPress: Building a Paid Membership Site
(1:48)
WordPress Developer Tips: Information Architecture and the Template Hierarchy
(0:21)
WordPress Essential Training
(5:28)
Customizing WordPress Themes: Simone
(1:02)
WordPress: Developing with Sass and Grunt.js
(1:36)
Accessibility for WordPress
(1:31)
WordPress: Custom Post Types and Taxonomies
(1:45)
WordPress Plugins: Advanced Custom Fields
(1:39)
WordPress: Creating Custom Plugins with PHP
(1:48)
WordPress and Internationalization
(0:54)
WordPress REST API (WP-API): First Look
(1:38)
AngularJS and WordPress: Building a Single-Page Application
(0:32)
WordPress Themes: Twenty Seventeen
(0:36)
Design the Web: Animated Loading GIFs
(0:26)
Web Icons with SVG
(1:44)
Introducing PHP
(6:57)
Creating Secure PHP Websites
(4:16)
PHP for Web Designers
(5:26)
Easy PHP Projects: Time Zone Conversion
(2:54)
Easy PHP Projects: Single-Serving Sites
(3:01)
Easy PHP Projects: Measurement Conversion
(2:17)
PHP with MySQL Essential Training
(14:32)
PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics
(10:26)
Easy PHP Projects: Password Utilites
(1:56)
Uploading Files Securely with PHP
(2:50)
Managing PHP Persistent Sessions
(2:41)
MVC Frameworks for Building PHP Web Applications
(2:39)
PHP 7 New Features
(1:04)
PHP: Advanced Topics
(2:17)
Code Clinic: PHP
(4:44)
MySQL Essential Training
(4:24)
Before & After: Logo Design Tips and Tricks
(0:57)
The Science of Logo Design
(0:45)
Introducing the JavaScript Language
(2:55)
Online Presentations with reveal.js
(2:02)
jQuery for Web Designers
(1:42)
Learn React.js: The Basics
(1:41)
JavaScript Essential Training
(5:31)
Pop Chart Lab’s Infographic Poster Design: Start to Finish
(0:09)
Infographics Fundamentals
(1:11)
InDesign Insider Training: Print PDFs
(1:16)
InDesign CC 2017: New Features
(0:07)
HTML5: Web Forms in Depth
(1:58)
HTML Essential Training
(5:54)
Version Control for Everyone
(2:06)
Up and Running with Git and GitHub
(1:21)
Programming Fundamentals in the Real World
(3:08)
Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals
(4:47)
Foundations of Programming: Databases
(3:11)
Web Form Design Best Practices
(3:46)
Validating and Processing Forms with JavaScript and PHP
(2:51)
Building Responsive Forms with Flexbox
(1:20)
J.T. O’Donnell on Making Recruiters Come to You
(0:26)
Becoming a Web Developer: Full Stack vs. Front End
(0:40)
Building and Maintaining your UX Design Portfolio
(0:16)
Making Sense of the CSS Box Model
(0:50)
CSS: Styling Forms
(4:01)
Advanced Responsive Layouts with CSS Flexbox
(1:49)
CSS: Flexbox First Look
(2:03)
CSS Fundamentals
(2:51)
CSS: Core Concepts
(8:52)
Personal Branding on Social Media
(1:08)
Bootstrap 4: First Look
(1:13)
Learn Atom: The Basics
(2:02)
20
I've been learning WordPress since 2010:
15
Although I've been tinkering with WordPress and customizing code for a while, this year I decided to really hunker down and focus on mastering PHP.
My ultimate goal is Zend PHP Certification.
5
2017 will be my year to learn JavaScript deeply! I've already worked on:
This is a list of my favorite Lynda.com teachers in 2016 (based on how many of their courses I watched).
Beyond my primary focus on PHP and WordPress, I also put together a few small projects utilizing the following cool new (to me) bits of web tech:
svgeezy.js and svg-injector.js to inject SVG code into the specified <img> tags.<animateTransform/> tags.svgxuse.js to inject SVG code in a slightly different way using XML <use> tags.I do most of my "reading" via the Audible app on my 1 hour work commute. But this year I also read my first book entirely in Korean: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
27
The books I choose to read or listen to typically fall into the same types of categories: Business, Personal Development, and Psychology. But this year, I started getting into Biographies for the first time, and added in a few Fiction books as well (for the first time in years).
185:45
That's 7 days 17 hours 45 mins!
260:01
That's 1 week 3 days 20 hours 1 min!
2 weeks
4 days
13 hours
46 mins
WordPress Themes
1/2/3
WordPress Plugins
2/9
This is my FIRST WordPress.org theme! I submitted it in February and it was approved in November.
485
Jan 1, 2016 - Jan 1, 2017
28
21 *NEW* repositories
64 days
March 26 - May 28
I've spent this second half of the last year learning more and more about these technologies, and it's been a blast. The last time I remember having such fun learning new technology was when I first began programming in WordPress back in 2012.
A simple portfolio theme built with Sass and Foundation. It is based on Underscores Components and includes support for Jetpack Portfolio and Testimonial Post Types.
Visit repository
This site was built as an upgrade from a Wix site one of my co-workers was running for a school he co-owns in the Philippines.
Visit repository
MarsX is an underground construction company (start-up) in Korea. This first design was something unique and "space-age" styled.
Visit repository
Ultimately, MarsX wanted something simpler (more like SpaceX). This second design is a Child Theme of Automattic's TwentySeventeen.
Visit repository
Go →
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5
↓
3
3 new English textbooks for Jeonju University (below):
In order to make the school's website more helpful for both prospective (English-speaking) students and parents, and current staff, I took archived content from our old WordPress site and combined it with the Teacher's Manual and additional English content we'd only been using internally. Now, I'm working on synching this version of the site with our current Google Apps for Education accounts and replacing the old English site with this one.
Previously, the Yearbook had been created entirely by an after-school activity program that met twice per week. That club used MS Publisher to create the Yearbook.
However, in Spring 2016, for the first time, Yearbook became a semester-long class. I led the students through an Intro to Graphic Design course and created the Yearbook in Adobe InDesign. This class was successful enough that it is being offered again for Spring 2017.
Another new course offering at GPA was called "Graphic Design" and offered in the Fall 2016 semester. Rather than rehashing what I'd previously taught in the Yearbook class, I decided to teach students the fundamentals of Graphic Design by choosing their own company to fully rebrand (logo, posters, wearables, and so on).
Whereas Yearbook focused primarily on Adobe InDesign, this Graphic Design course focused primarily on Adobe Illustrator. (GPA also offers a course on Photoshop, taught by the Art teacher.)
One of my friends in Jeonju who runs a Study Cafe asked me at the beginning of the year to help him rebrand his Cafe as they transitioned to a new location and business model. I wanted to update the logo and design style without straying too far from the original. This design is what I came up with.
Although most of the new high school courses I taught this year were Graphic Design courses, I've also taught a number of programming and computer literacy courses over the years. Here's a complete list:
NEW Courses in 2016-17
Courses Previously Taught
4,000
16km daily commute × 8 months. At my average speed (25kph), that's 160 hours on the bike!
445:46
That's 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours 46 mins! And it doesn't include the numerous podcasts I've listened to. Here are my favorites:
2
I like to take a personal retreat at least every Quarter to get away from the busy-ness of life, think, pray, and plan for the future. However, from late June last year, I failed to do so, and I feel it caused me to make some bad decisions toward the end of the year (because I was unclear in my purpose). I hope to recommit to taking this personal retreat seriously in 2017.
3
Besides the number of Lynda courses completed and the number of projects I've had the pleasure to work on this year, I was also able to develop the curriculum and teach 3 entirely NEW Technology courses at high school. All told, I've taught a total of 8 different programming and graphic design courses since 2013.
$10,029. 21
My full student loan amount was $41,000 since 2011!
(But we actually paid $50,867.10 when interest is included.)
400+
My wife has been privileged enough to have been contacted in the summer semester to teach a single Korean class to a group of Vietnamese students. Since then, she's continued teaching at Chonbuk University and has accrued over 400 hours of classroom Korean teaching experience! We're hoping that will continue in the next year!
50-60
That's almost 1 hour per week outside normal commitments. It's quite an improvement over my previous 1 hour or less per month in 2015.
49. 375%
As you can see in the chart in the next section, although I'm not 100% satisfied with life (no one ever is), I'm much more content this year than previous years. (43.125% in 2015, 37.5% in 2014)
At the end of every year, I take some time to reflection on my overall life satisfaction in various Categories to see what is working well and what needs improved. Here's a chart cataloging my previous 3 years of Life Reviews.
Lacking: slimming cardio
Lacking: Korean
Lacking: prayer
Lacking: development job
Lacking: new financial goals
Lacking: set-aside time
Lacking: Korean
Lacking: Freedom
This is something I've only started thinking about recently, but it's
definitely something I'm strongly considering. The following are computer
certifications I'm hoping to work on acquiring this year:
