Up and Running!!

As of today, I am up and running with all the tools available to me for using Ruby!!  I have my IRB working, SublimeText 3, GitHub, and GitHub for Windows all working together and running smoothly.  It did take a bit, as I had to revert to Ruby 1.9.3 due to a bug with Windows and Ruby. Its all working now though and I'm full speed ahead with my latest bit of homework Ruby in 100 Minutes.

End of Monk

Happy Saturday!! Well... sorta, I have to work most of today, but I'm getting a little coding in this morning.  This week I finished the RubyMonk lessons and problems.  A few reflections: i) RubyMonk is an excellent resource and was a great follow up to Codecademy.  ii) From my experience, RubyMonk taught me a lot more than Codecademy, but perhaps I would have felt that way done the reverse as well iii) The last two lessons in RubyMonk seem kind of rushed.  It's possible they were just topics I was not familiar with, but the I/O streams and File class lessons contained a ton of info and went too fast for my liking.  I will be review these topics on my own.

There is one real criticism I have though.  First, a note about myself - I'm an achievement whore.  This should put the following complaint in the proper light.  RubyMonk is stuck at 99% completion for me.  Its saying I haven't finished the reading on Lambdas.  I've gone over that lesson, the one before it, and the one after it like 10 times.  Why???  Someone from RubyMonk please fix that. It's like a twitch for me. :P

Next up "Ruby in 100 Minutes"...

It's a good day!

Today is a good day!  I've been working on the problem set for the RubyMonk Primer.  Now this might not seem like such a big deal to you, but I have been working on refactoring my solution before I hit 'Run.'  After I get a working solution, I've found it helpful to see the author's solution for two reasons i) it's usually better than mine, and ii) it's usually done in less words.  Something happened just a minute ago that took me by surprise.  I had the exact same solution as the author!!  *happy girl*  Not only does that boost my confidence and exemplify my understanding of the methods available, it means I'm beginning to think like a professional programmer! That is something to celebrate!  Here is the problem/solution:

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:

NEW! Theme

I'm working on upgrading this theme :)  I'm making changes to an existing template so please bare with me as I figure this out.  It looks like all the previous photos will be skewed till I go back and edit them.  Until then, enjoy this nice {placekitten} image!  Mew!

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!!)

Out of Frustration...

This post is more about my normal life than coding.  Long story short, I have strep, suppose to work at 10, pharmacy doesn't open till 9, no number to reach work before "open", contagious for 24 hours.  I sent an electronic time off request to let them know.... not sure what else to do.