Projects in Ruby

Hello!  Thought I had forgotten about ya?  Not even!  I'm really excited to say I've finished my Prep Work for AppAcademy!  While I took a short break from the RubyMonk: Ascent book, I've started that back up today and will now be working through the additional Ruby projects on the JumpstartLabs website as well!

Finishing the Prep Work, has really boost my confidence.  It can get pretty grim when I'm working on a problem and nothing seems to be going right.  Often times, the dragon voice of doubt whispers in, "Did you really think you understood this stuff??"  My trusty armor of confidence and my sword of achievements fights of the fiend and my attitude is back up in the clouds where it should be!

Next up: MicroBlogger - A second introductory Ruby tutorial building a rudimentary Twitter client
Brought to you by JumpstartLabs!

Get it Set right

I must admit I am so much more a fan of the RubyMonk: Ascent book.  Its like they new exactly what I was struggling with before and added a little extra explanation for me.  I'm working on the last of my App Academy PrepWork problems today and it has been a huge help!

Another helpful tool, for me anyway, has been my "Lab Notebook".  Having been an academic prior, I am very much used to taking notes and recording my thought flow in pen and paper.  This has been an extra reference for me and a great resource in understanding which areas I may need to revisit.  If my notes are kinda vague I either a) have great command of the topic, or b) was not really focused during that bit of learning.  If I have a question on some Ruby topic, I always check my Lab Notebook first!  If I can refresh myself from there, great! that helps cement those thoughts into my brain. If not, its a great indicator I need to go back to the basics on that topic and really spend some time hashing it out.

For instance:  Getters and Setters.  These have been pretty abstract concepts for me until recently.  During one of my problems, I tried to reference my Lab Notebook and didn't find much help.  Thankfully, the RubyMonk: Ascent has a few extra lessons to help me out!  Now my Lab Notebook has extra pages on the topic! :)

Will you walk with me, Grasshopper?

While I'm working on finishing up my Prep Work for the App Academy, I've started on the RubyMonk Primer: Ascent (the first Intermediate level).  I've found it very helpful as it re-iterates the last lesson in RubyMonk (I had previously commented it went too fast).  Its nice to go a bit deeper into the material.  One lesson in particular I have really appreciated is "Yield."  There is a great set of exercises and a useful summary of concepts.  I will definitely be more confident in my understanding of yield because of this lesson!!

RubyMonk: More lessons in Ruby

Hello!  Good news!! I passed my code challenge!!  This was their response:

After reviewing your application, we think you might be a good fit. 

One thing we did notice from your coding test is that you may not have a lot of prior experience programming; many of the students we have accepted in the past did not. However, we would like you to complete some additional programming prepwork for us to review before we offer to accept you into the program.

That works for me!!  I'm working on the additional prep work now!  The RubyMonk primer is one thing on the list.  Its a great interactive website that I hadn't liked at first (hence the Codecademy track), but now really, really do!   I've reviewed lessons learned from Codecademy as well as learned some new things.  I am gaining confidence in my exercises.  That in and of it self has been a huge success.

I'm going to keep plugging away at the prep work.  My goal is to be done by Aug 15th. :) I'll keep ya posted! In the meantime, check out this snipet from RubyMonk:

Submitted.

Well, I've done it. I completed the Ruby track on Codecademy.  I've completed over 500 lessons and successfully submitted my code challenge to AppAcademy.  Today I'm starting a track titled, "How to use APIs with Ruby."  From there I'll swing over to the HTML track and then back to JavaScript.  My schedule has been ridiculously crazy working two jobs.  Its been hard to put any real time into these courses but I've been determined to 'code every day' till I get this career going.  I feel like at some point I should look into the Codecademy Projects track, but I'm taking it one day at a time till I sort this new life out.  Lists, calendars, and schedules - Keep on Track!

Things to do:

• Ruby & APIs
• HTML
• JavaScript
• Projects (including some CSS!!)

Coding, Wedding, Coding, App Academy!!

My day has been a bit crazy!  I did some coding this morning, worked on some wedding stuff, did a bit more coding... tried to read my book but got distracted by some adorable kittens (they are sleeping now), and then went back to some more coding! :D Today I'm practicing more on inheritance.  Things are looking better :D I can do use the proper syntax without peeking at a previous lesson.  yeay!! As another surprise - today I applied for App Academy!!  I have been thinking about it for a while but finally went ahead and submitted an application today.  It is an awesome program with a great curriculum!!  Go check it out!!