Hello everyone, my full name is Alexander Larsen, but you can call me Alex. I'm originally from Michigan, but I'm really starting to love the West Coast. This is my second time TAing, and I'm really looking forward to an amazing online quarter. It's a bummer that we have to be remote, but I'll do all that I can to make the adjustment as smooth as possible!

 And now a little bit about myself! I love to play video games, and I'm pretty sure I'm the biggest Nintendo fan on the planet (if anyone wants to play Smash Brothers or Animal Crossing anytime just let me know). I'm a junior here and I'm an Oceanography major. I also like to make games sometimes, read, and hike! I'm left handed, and I've jumped out of a plane before. I also can solve a Rubik's cube in under 40 seconds, just don't ask me to prove it because I'm rusty.

 CSE 154 is an amazing class! I took it this fall actually, and I fell in love with it immediately. There are so many practical applications, but honestly, making websites is just fun. Despite this fun factor, it's not the easiest class I've ever taken, so I've compiled some tips and tricks that I probably should've followed when I took the class! Hopefully you can use these to your advantage through the quarter.

• Start Early! I'm definitely the type to procrastinate, but Web Dev takes wayyyy longer than you might think. Even reading the spec and then subsequently not touching the code for half a week is better than nothing. I would personally look at the spec when it came out, think about it for a day or so, brainstorm for another day, and then finally sit down to code. It helped me to not stress about crunching an assignment on the last day.
• Plan! I'm a firm believer in writing pseudo code or drawing out pictures to try and solve a problem. Drawing pictures, writing pseudo code, or anything that might help you visualize a problem will make it easier to break down into smaller, more manageable pieces!
• Ask for help! (after exhausting all other resources). The website, and the internet are wonderful things. There are so many resources on the website itself you can use to your advantage. And if you can't figure out something on your own, you've got a whole staff full of talented, wonderful people who might be able to point you in the right direction!
• Go(?) to lecture & section! Going to lecture is super important in this course to introduce you to the topics that are important for homework and exams/quizzes. If you skip lecture, you might be confused during section, which is one of the best times to work on and learn the topic being taught! There are even TAs there to answer any immediate confusions!

There are, of course plenty of other tips for success in this class. I can't think of them off the top of my head, so if you're ever struggling with anything, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to help out.

 Alright here's a fun slideshow thing. Click through to see a whole mix of pics ranging from me to memes.