Cruising along!

Its been a few days since I've posted, but don't worry! I've been on track with my Ruby lessons!  I did miss one day (Friday) but otherwise I've been doing at least one exercise every day since the wedding!  I've really been plugging away at hashes and the methods associated with them.  Today is all about concise-ness. I'm learning how to utilize Ruby's options to get the same outcome with less code.  Ruby gives you the flexibility to get the same outcome multiple ways.  Its really nice!  Here's part of the latest "project" I had been working on.  Its a database to store your movies and their ratings!

Hash.ing it out

Hashing it out... get it? Hash?  Bad pun I know, but I *am* learning how to manipulate Hashes in Ruby! Oddly enough, or maybe not so much, the application of manipulating Hashes is creating a Histogram.  :D  Talk about trailing my old profession into my new!  It was a pleasant surprise and made it fun to learn!

 I really like the course for Ruby more than the course for JavaScript.  Ruby does a little less hand holding and a bit more iteration to really make sure you understand what you are doing.

Also, I've decided to keep a notebook too!  I've been in academia so long taking notes really does help me cement it into my brain.  My notes also make a great resource/reference for when I get stuck on something.  I'll apply this to JavaScript when I get back at it soon!

Working two jobs really does cut into my learning time, but I'm still determined to do at least one exercise every day.  I want to get this application done by the end of the week so.... wish me luck!!

Back to Coding!

Had a bit of a break from the blog and coding as we wrapped up the wedding planning.  My lovely fiance and I were married on Saturday at a beautiful park right on the river.  The weather was perfect, the food great, and the friends and family amazing!  We are so lucky!! Now, back to Ruby!! :D

The color Red

Saturday night I received my code challenge from App Academy!  It's not a JavaScript challenge and so I'll be setting aside JS for a couple days and learning a new language.  I'm not sure if I'm allow to say which language specifically ,  but let me just say the ts really weird to me! 
On a different note,  I'm still plugging away on my Codecademy lessons and really loving it!   I set a record for myself in number of points earned in one day.   The achievements bit of Codecadamey really keeps me going and I use it as incentive and motivation. The new job seems to be going well too! Which reminds me... Gotta run!

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!!

An Instanceof learning ...see what I did there??

Hello!  Well today was mostly filled with wedding planning stuff, but I *did* manage to squeeze in some time to read my book (thanks again WonderS!!) and do a bit more on Codecademy.  Today I learned the JavaScript operator 'Instanceof '  The syntax goes:

object instanceof constructor

Basically it is used as a test to see if the object you have created is truly an instance of a prior constructor.  For example, if you had just made a constructor Car, and now you wanted to make a constructor electricCar you could use the notation:

ElectricCar.prototype = new Car ();

then you could use instanceof to test if ElectricCar had inherited all the atributes of Car.  :D  Pretty awesome, huh? Well that's all for me today! 

Teachers and Tools

Over the weekend I was still really struggling with the Blackjack game.  I was soooo frustrated because 1) it was working and 2) I didn't know why.  What I *did* know was my lil variable "pleasework" was a necessity..

 and that without it my life was in ruins.

Enter a genius programmer, my friend Stu.  I emailed Stu Saturday morning with a plea for help.  Because he's basically Superman (only cool), he was at our house Saturday afternoon with all these mind-blowing TOOLS to help me work through my problem.  Let's just go ahead and say Stu = WonderS.  The first TOOL WonderS gave me was jsFiddle. Then, WonderS showed me how to use Chrome's debugger for JavaScript. THEN, WonderS checked to make sure I understood why everything that WAS working was good, and how to piece apart when things WERE NOT working.  We discovered a mishap in proof reading was the cause of all my misfortune:

After all the help, intro to a bit of theory, and buying me a book (he also lent me another), WonderS ate a bit of food and left to finish off his weekend.

Your's truly owes this man heaps in progressing/learning JavaScript.  This weekend I learned the value of a debugger.  Thank you, WonderS!