Yo-Modo

I am recently reinvigorated to work hard on the life I want to lead. My title of “Queen of the Geeks” has been slipping further away than I would like, but the idea and probable opportunity to be in Mexico for 3 weeks in December plus some real but horrible little annoyances have reminded me why I want to be out of the corporate world. I really DO want to work for myself.

So I am recommitting to Project Norbert. He’s my practice guide while I learn skills I need as a programmer. He was built as an expansion on a coding example for writing your own class in Ruby. I was working my way through Chris Pine’s tutorial and loved the idea of a pet dragon to play with virtually. G and I came up with the idea to model my exercise in writing my Dragon program after Bandai’s Tamagotchi. In having a direction to go and an example program to semi-emulate, I could make real world decisions on how my program would act. It would also help focus my next steps in learning on how to keep improving the interactivity of my Dragon. Things I would need Norbert to do next would stimulate ideas of new things to learn. One thing was leaning GitHub and version control, as well as learning to trust in others’ good intentions. So I’ve published Norbert online. To the public. For anyone to see. Here’s hoping his example and my skills gain traction and a clutch of code friends populate repos next to him.

So here we are—at Phase 2 of operation Liberate Modo. Let’s hope all goes well and in December you’ll be hearing from me from Mexico!

It has been a long couple of months, to say the least. With that in mind, it has also been a long couple of weeks. With sweat, blood and tears, here are the fruits of my labor:

>> my_reverse(‘I am noob code ninja!’)
=> “!ajnin edoc boon ma I”

>> my_sort([‘I’, ‘am’, ‘noob’, ‘code’, ‘ninja!’])
=> [“I”, “am”, “code”, “ninja!”, “noob”]

>> m = Musician.new(‘Yo’,’Modo’,100,’piano’)
>>m.first_name + ” ” + m.last_name + “: ” + m.age.to_s
=> “Yo Modo: 100”
>> m.instrument
=> “piano”

And, with that, I am finished with my application (hopefully) for hacker camp. I am noob code ninja!

I’ve applied to the Academy! I am really excited and nervous about my application. I have been obsessively checking my phone every time I hear it *ding* at me that there is new mail. I have been biting my nails—literally—and tapping my foot and pretty much employing any little nervous habit that we as Padawans have available to us before we know we are accepted as apprentices.

This is something that I don’t know if I would have necessarily pursued had it been only of my own volition, nor do I believe I would have even ever known about the opportunity. But life and fortune and love being what they are, the news has come to me, and I have jumped at it like fleas to a mangy dog.

"Kick! Kick! Kick!"

I’ve not only gone both feet into the pool, I’ve climbed up the high dive to take a look from the top. Now, me not really being a swimmer has seemed not to deter my desire to jump. So now I’m wondering……will my floaties be enough to keep my head above water and let me breathe?

Two months ago, almost to the day, I said I hated blogs. I didn’t want to blog. I have my own domain, why should I install WordPress? Ah, WordPress. You are quickly becoming one of my most used tools. ————————————>

Today I took another big leap forward on my way through the Playground. I opened my Freshbooks account, created my first invoice, and worked 4 hours for my first (and only, for now) client. Mostly, I’m updating WordPress sites. 🙂

Some of the items are fairly normal, everyday, if-you-can-use-a-computer-at-all-well-you-can-do-this type of things, but other items are more challenging to my knowledge base and create learning experiences for me while I work. Of course, I have in recent years also admitted that my scale for knowledge and expertise is perhaps skewed toward the high end of the spectrum. What I mean by that is this: my interpretation of what Intermediate means equals what most would consider Advanced or Expert level skills. So, me saying, “if you can use a computer at all well, you can do this” probably makes other folks go, “holy shit, how do you do that?!?!”

So, maybe I’ve upgraded from my newb status. But, seeing an email from my client to UNDO an hour and a half of work and redo it specifically copy-and-paste makes me wonder.

Good thing I consider my new life a complete learning experience and my new Playground.

I am my own new playground

I took a big step today. One of the many projects in the works for Modo is writing an iPad application. Not knowing any programming languages (yet) should not be a deterrent. Nor should having no idea exactly how the process of designing and developing an app make me in any way nervous about taking on such a project. So today I took a big leap—I bought my domain names.

While many of you might not think that is such a big deal, to me it signifies being one step closer to a new self. This new playground I’m forcing myself into—the programmer, the Etsy crafter, the Maker—all of that is big and scary and foreign for me. I like comfort zones. I like knowing what I’m doing and where I’m going. I like having some predictability to life. I would be a good Baggins: predictable, steady, perhaps a little boring to some. This new playground, it’s in the dark. It’s in a galaxy far, far away. It definitely speaks a different language……

So while I search for a way to pay my bills (that’s going well, by the way), I’m still pushing forward into that new frontier. Hopefully, it’s filled with fun and excitement and happy rewards.

Or at least donuts.

Mafl caap a shmeflpup

A short time ago, I committed to the path of a Padawan learner.

Stay on target, stay on target!

While my journey might not take me light years or galaxies away, nor involve cool instruments of justice such as light sabers, it will involve a long road with much to learn. This new experience, of submitting myself as an apprentice (hopefully not to a dark master), is a new one. First, I don’t like “bowing” to anyone. I am an intelligent person, with plenty of experience and developed neural pathways. It’s difficult for me to be a student unless I respect the teacher and it becomes evident that there is something I can really learn from them. Second, I am a sucky student. School was always pretty easy for me, so to actually TRY at something at this point in life…well, it better be really worth it!

Some Details

It has been an interest of mine and a goal for sometime to learn to code. I was never sure where to start–what language, what resource, how best to approach it, who to ask. Should I do formal training in a school/university environment? Course prerequisites: Must already know a programming language. Ok, guess not. How about friends? Oh, you know, I just sort of did it growing up. Wow. Thanks. Helpful. What about books? I think I was always good at book learning. Fast-forward a couple of years, and I’m pretty sure I could find those books I bought; they should be mostly dust free. Hecks, the publisher doesn’t even print the book anymore.

All you need is Ruby

So, what’s next? Again, with a little prompting, cajoling, harassment and help from a local geek I know, I found Learn Code the Hard Way. Never having used UNIX before, either, I had to work my way through a tutorial for that. So now, I am the Kindergartner level Padawan Ruby coder. Chapter 4….of 52. Look out world! Here I code!

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Yo-Modo

Tag Archives: coding

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I am a Padawan learner