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Photoshop Gateways, Balloon Animals, and Going to the Mall with Alena Holligan
10:05 with Alena HolliganYour favorite PHP teacher, Alena Holligan, is due for a new outfit, and she said we could tag along!
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Hi, I'm Craig.
0:00
Welcome to the Treehouse Show.
0:01
The Treehouse Show is our weekly
conversation with the Treehouse community.
0:02
In this episode,
we get to go on a field trip to the mall.
0:10
Sorry, [LAUGH] I love the mall.
0:13
So here at Treehouse,
0:17
we put a lot of thought into our
outfits that we wear on set.
0:17
Your favorite PHP teacher,
Alena Holligan is due for
0:20
a new outfit and
she said that we could tag along.
0:24
So let's go to the mall,
I'm gonna get a pretzel.
0:28
How did you get started in technology?
0:30
>> Well, actually I had an uncle
that was a programmer, and
0:35
I thought programming would
be the most boring job ever.
0:37
>> Why is that?
0:40
>> Who wants to sit in front of
a computer and write lines of code?
0:41
>> Gotcha.
0:44
>> I mean,
line after line of code, boring.
0:45
>> Sure.
0:47
>> I liked art.
0:47
So I did painting, sculpture, ceramics,
all kinds of traditional art stuff.
0:50
>> Okay.
>> When I was 16 we actually got our first
0:56
computer at home.
0:58
We were very late.
0:59
>> What kind of computer was that?
1:00
>> It was a Gateway.
1:01
Well, okay,
we had our first real computer.
1:02
>> Okay.
1:07
>> We had one of those boxes
with the little green screen.
1:07
>> Wow.
1:10
>> And the five and
a half inch floppy disc.
1:11
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:13
>> Yeah, we had some of those.
1:14
But that doesn't really
count as like a computer.
1:15
>> So you had a Gateway that
kind of came in the cow box.
1:20
>> Yes.
We had a cow.
1:22
>> Wow.
>> We had the cow box.
1:23
>> Awesome.
1:24
>> And I got started with Photoshop.
1:26
That's how I got started on the computer.
1:29
I'm like, this is cool.
1:30
I can do art stuff on a computer.
1:31
>> [LAUGH]
>> So that got me into the computer.
1:32
I ended up going to
the Art Institute of Phoenix.
1:34
>> Okay.
1:37
>> Since I decided traditional art jobs.
1:38
>> Right, Phoenix, Arizona?
1:42
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
1:44
>> Phoenix, Arizona.
1:45
And so while I was there, I went for
multimedia because I like everything.
1:46
So we started to do some like
building desktop app type things.
1:51
>> Okay.
>> And
1:57
you could get into the backend of it,
there was a lot of drag and drop, but
1:58
you could get in the backend and
do it was called Lingo,
2:02
the scripting language that they had.
2:04
It was macro media director.
2:07
>> Wow, okay.
2:08
>> And that's where I'm like.
2:10
>> Did that look like JavaScript?
2:11
>> A little bit.
2:13
>> Okay.
>> A little bit,
2:14
it was a fairly simple scripting language.
2:15
So like any other scripting language,
2:18
fairly simple syntax that
you could go in and do.
2:21
>> And do like what sort of stuff?
2:24
>> Like move something around.
2:25
>> Cool, yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:27
>> Things like that.
2:28
>> Right.
2:29
>> Change colors, make things happen.
2:29
>> Okay.
2:32
>> Do something special on
a button click or something.
2:33
So I realized with that,
that programming was just another design.
2:37
It's all about designing.
2:44
And so, instead of just taking a painting,
for example, and
2:45
you just hope that the people looking at
the painting get something out of it.
2:49
With programming, it was kind of
like you could hold their hand and
2:54
make them go where you wanted them to go,
and see what you wanted them to see.
2:57
>> That's a really,
I've never heard it explained that way.
3:02
That's really neat.
3:04
>> So that's how I got started.
3:05
>> Awesome.
What do you teach at Treehouse?
3:06
>> PHP.
3:08
>> PHP.
3:09
>> I love it,
because it's really easy to use and fun.
3:09
And I can do, think more of the design
aspect of it and then program.
3:14
But my favorite part about
PHP is the community.
3:21
There's a really,
really awesome community.
3:24
>> Okay, awesome.
3:26
And our PHP community here at
Treehouse is awesome too, right?
3:27
>> Yes.
We do have a pretty good PHP community.
3:30
I think I have the best QA students.
3:32
>> Wow.
3:34
Awesome.
3:35
>> [LAUGH]
>> So let's go ahead, let's talk about
3:36
something that the students might not know
about you just from watching your courses.
3:40
What's that?
3:45
>> Well the thing that most people
seem to find the most interesting.
3:47
>> Yup.
>> Is that I have nine younger siblings.
3:50
>> Nine siblings?
3:54
>> Nine younger siblings and
an older brother.
3:55
>> Wow.
>> So there was 11 kids growing up.
3:58
>> Wow.
4:01
What was that like?
4:01
>> You don't notice anymore after five.
4:03
>> [LAUGH]
>> That's what I tell everybody.
4:05
It doesn't matter,
you don't notice anymore after five.
4:07
[LAUGH] So five is kinda a lot, but once
over that 10, 20 doesn't really matter.
4:09
>> Wow you must still have all sorts
of great skills from that, right?
4:16
Like what comes out of having, gosh,
when it was like time to be a mom,
4:19
you were probably like, I got this.
4:24
>> It was really helpful.
4:26
I didn't have to go through
the initial first baby stress.
4:28
Like, no, they have a little cough,
are they going to die or things like that.
4:32
A lot of that I had
already the experienced.
4:37
>> Survived through, right?
4:39
>> So it was a lot easier to feel
more relaxed when I had my own kids.
4:41
>> Okay.
4:45
>> So that was helpful, because my
siblings were mostly younger than me,
4:45
I did a lot of stuff being a mom type
things and fun things with them.
4:51
So one of the things I did was
went to do balloon animals.
4:55
>> Like, [LAUGH] [SOUND].
4:58
>> Like the twisted balloon animals.
5:01
>> No way, you can do that?
5:02
>> Yeah.
5:03
>> My gosh.
5:04
>> Along with balloon animals, I also,
actually a couple of my siblings and
5:16
I learned to juggle.
5:19
So I could be like a total clown, yeah.
5:20
>> You're a clown,
you're a clown, wow, wow.
5:23
>> Yeah, so if this whole
programming thing doesn't work out
5:25
I've got a fallback.
5:27
>> Well or like what if you just
went to the stage two of a chorus,
5:27
just full on nose and wig?
5:31
[LAUGH] Making balloon animals.
5:33
>> Yeah, yeah,
juggling little PHP elephants.
5:37
[LAUGH] Try it.
5:39
>> Could do, could do.
5:41
>> Maybe we can get
the students to vote that up.
5:43
>> [LAUGH]
>> The clown and course, that's awesome.
5:46
So let's talk a little bit
about getting an outfit.
5:49
That's something that people
don't think about for our jobs.
5:53
This is a really great
behind the scenes and I'm so
5:56
excited that I get to go to the mall.
5:58
>> Cuz like I have kids too, and
I never get to go to the mall.
6:00
My wife doesn't like the mall.
6:02
>> [LAUGH]
>> I never get to go.
6:03
So what are we looking for
here, for you specifically?
6:05
This is your current outfit, right?
6:09
This is it.
6:10
>> This is it, yep.
6:11
This is it.
6:11
And it's been like a year, in the shirt.
6:12
>> Yeah.
6:15
>> I mean obviously,
I don't wear it every day.
6:15
It's just for filming.
6:18
>> Right.
>> So I need to find something else that
6:19
will look good on camera
>> Sure
6:21
>> So it's a lot harder than I expect it
6:23
to be.
6:27
>> Yeah.
6:27
>> So my normal routine of finding
clothes is I just go through and
6:29
I pick out everything that looks
like it might possibly work.
6:34
>> Okay.
>> And then I go try it on.
6:37
>> Right, yeah,
cuz there's some limitations for the set.
6:39
>> Yes.
>> You obviously can't
6:41
match the set behind you,
that would be weird.
6:42
>> Yeah, you can't blend into the set.
6:44
Black and white, those start contrast
colors are not usually a good idea.
6:47
>> Right.
6:53
>> So
which kind of limits a lot of things.
6:53
It's really surprising that you can't do,
it's amazing how many things are like,
6:57
this is a nice black shirt, or,
white, that's not gonna work.
7:03
So finding a color.
7:07
>> Right, yeah.
7:08
>> And then the other hard
thing is that is the stripes.
7:09
Like the stripes can't
be too close together,
7:13
you can't find anything
with a tight pattern.
7:15
>> Right, cuz you don't wanna
distract the student's eyes.
7:17
>> It does weird things on video.
7:18
>> Yeah, yeah.
7:21
>> Like it's not bad until
we're out in public,
7:22
I mean it's not gonna make your eyes go,
7:25
well other than people who have strange,
different issues with their eyes.
7:29
But for the most part,
7:35
it's not gonna hurt people if
they're not watching it on video.
7:37
But on video, it's very distracting.
7:41
>> Yeah, totally and
you wanna focus only on the PHP, and
7:43
you don't wanna focus on the-
>> Exactly
7:45
>> Yeah, that makes sense.
7:47
Yeah, when I was going looking for
some clothes, we went into the JCrew.
7:49
And it was funny, I was imagining
a Treehouse student sitting there looking,
7:55
and literally every shift that was out
on the thing was a Treehouse shirt.
7:58
Like I was there's the sun [LAUGH],
there's Andrew.
8:02
That was pretty, pretty awesome like that.
8:04
JCrew was the secret sauce there for
a while.
8:07
We do a little bit of
a different thing now.
8:09
We get a box of clothes and
we try them on.
8:11
And we're gonna go through all of that,
but I didn't get to go to the mall.
8:13
I would have love to go to the mall for
this.
8:17
I was so excited that we're gonna do this.
8:19
>> I might try them.
8:20
They have a lot more things available
now online, like they do this a lot for
8:22
guys and
it's a lot easier to find stuff for guys.
8:26
>> Okay.
>> I'm just saying.
8:29
>> Right.
8:30
>> And there's a lot less,
Even like flannel shirts.
8:31
>> Yeah.
>> It's been kind of a Treehouse thing,
8:38
a flannel shirt.
8:40
>> Sure.
>> I'm like, I like flannel shirts,
8:41
I'd totally wear a flannel shirt.
8:42
But the girl flannel shirts
are all these tight prints.
8:44
>> Okay.
>> So it was like,
8:49
I couldn't get a flannel shirt,
8:50
cuz all the flannel shirts
had these tight lines again.
8:51
>> Right, right.
8:53
And there was probably some kind of
design science behind that of why, but-
8:54
>> Girls are smaller?
8:59
>> You like the smaller,
yeah I don't know.
9:00
>> I don't know either.
9:04
>> I got a new shirt and
I'm so excited about it.
9:05
So I'm so excited for you to have
a new shirt, because it feels good.
9:07
Like here's a new era.
9:10
And then people know.
9:11
[LAUGH] I didn't say,
I can't believe this,
9:13
I've been taking six or seven courses,
I've been with Craig for
9:17
three hours and
he's wearing the same shirt [LAUGH].
9:22
[MUSIC]
9:27
Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show.
9:57
Get in touch with the show,
reach out to me in Twitter or
9:58
hit us up on the Treehouse community.
10:00
See you next time, maybe even at the mall.
10:02
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