On my Instagram (@thisblackwitch, just like everywhere else), I have been posting pictures and videos of my tech projects. I think of the things I am making, the current pile is:

– A drum light kit that is sound reactive via switch control

– A heating pad for sleeping while injured (thus, it doesn’t turn off or anything, just keep emitting low heat for injuries)

– An updated kitty feeder, because I am indecisive and made a new design that hopefully doesn’t suck. Or can be broken by said kitty. Now I have to mod my code again.

 

This kitty

 

I don’t have a STEM* degree – nor would I ever want one. I consider myself firmly planted in the Arts, strictly. Some may consider that STEAM but I don’t, especially since STEM makes pretty strong efforts to minimize, if not ouster, the Fine Arts. STEM also makes pretty strong efforts to keep it pretty White and male – I consider practically everything they do diversity-wise as lip service and window dressing until it isn’t. Because it usually is, look at Google and Facebook, for example.

Since I don’t have a degree, that means I kinda taught myself for the most part. Granted, I did work for NIST so I had very good help at the start but the rest I procured myself. I want to say it wasn’t that hard but frankly, it is a little bit and not always for the obvious reasons.

When it comes to STEM, I actively seek out female instructors online to get the grasp of things. I have noticed in my experience, the women were better and more succinct at explaining complex details. Their beginner guides were actually made for beginners. Guys seemed to not know how to break things down or worse, just used the opportunity as an excuse to show off an ego because they’re relatively meh at telling the difference between a 1 and a 0. I have no idea how many times I would see pissing contests on help forums that because “for the lolz”. It kind of defeats the purpose of having those places. There are such things as hard teachers but there is a difference between a tough teacher and a person that just wants to be a douche.

Because of these behaviors, I don’t participate, I just take my info and go like a ghost. I just wanna build stuff, not talk to guys who probably think mass murderer Rodger Elliot had good ideas. I already know how male nerds, especially STEM ones, get. Nah thanks, bro.

However, I have found some sites that are very good at teaching the basics as well as some intermediate stuff. It doesn’t look intimidating, the information is pretty clear and it isn’t a bunch of verbal flexing.

I had mentioned Adafruit in the past but there are other sites that I have found that are pretty decent, mainly about Arduino.

 

Tweaking4All

This website gives pretty good info on getting started with Arduino and coding without sounding pretentious or “I dream of Tony Stark every night”.

There are many tutorials, all written to be easily understood by people who are genuinely new to the subject. The tutorials start from “What is an Arduino and how do you use it” to much more advanced topics.

Random Nerd Tutorials

This site has tons of info as well but for those who have a slightly better grasp at Arduino. Just skim through their blog on their homepage and find what suits you best. You don’t have to sign up for anything.

Programming Electronics 

This site really wants you to sign up for free courses but if you dink around on Google well enough, you can get access without putting in any info. Here’s one on having the Arduino give out an outcome based on what it experiences.

 

 

These sites are pretty decent in my experience, check them out! Next up is Ask Black Witch.

 

*Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine