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If you are interested in learning to code with a mentor, try bloc and get $100 off.

Monday, November 25, 2013

First App is up on Git Hub

UPDATE: You can find my app live on the web here

After spending a few hours setting up my computer for programming, I finally completed something. The app is not posted to the web yet, but you can find my code on Github if you care too look. I am still trying to figure out how to properly design it, but take a look at where it's at.















I had the worst time setting up my system with the OSX Mavericks. After too much time troubleshooting I just decided ti downgrade back to Mountain Lion. After that it took me no time to get up and running.













Stay tuned to twitter an my blog for more updates as I proceed on this journey. 

Friday, November 22, 2013

@OneMonthRails: Just Signed up

So I have learn a lot of Ruby but haven't made a thing still :( I had the pleasure of meeting a Web Developer at the meetup last night (@thedevme) who recommended I complete the One Month Rails course. He even graciously provided a coupon code for me to get started at $25 off, and I am looking forward to getting started tonight after work.

I mentioned OMR in my previous post, but feel free to check out the site. If you are interested let me know, I can get $25 bucks off the course fee.

*Side note: The team at OMR is top notch, Not only did I get a tweet shout within a few hours of signing up, but I also got an email Mattas Griffel himself asking if I got set up ok. That is some great service.


Programming Diversity: Ashe Dryden

I had the please sure of attending a Ruby meetup where Ashe Dryden. Ashe speaks around the world on Programming and Diversity. If you are any way in interest in programming you need to read her blog post that gained a lot of notoriety this week, within the industry.

You can find the post at here: The Ethics of Unpaid Labor and the OSS Community


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Tampa Ruby Brigade: Impressed

Day 37:

I have had the opportunity to attend the Tampa Ruby Meetup tonight and was quite impressed. I can say I was wrong with my expectation of the lack of a coding community in TB area. There is a community, and though not as large as Orlando's, there are quite a number talented individuals who attend.

I look forward the next meeting which a "coder night." A assignment is given to code and must be completed/attempted and submitted prior to attending. Everyone speaks very highly of it and has encouraged me to try it out. I have until Dec 12th to figure the latest assignment and contribute.

This weekend I plan to have something on Github to share, so watch out for it.

I want a new job

Day 36:

I have found myself browsing job websites like a diabetic browses a French bakery. I have found a number of tools that have positions with very low "experience hurdles," and I would like to share:

Weworkremotely - great site for remote positions working

Top Ruby Jobs  - @toprubyjobs on twitter

Ruby on Rails Jobs - @rorojobs on twitter

Flexjobs.com - more remote jobs

Thanks to the remote job postings I am going to 100% focus my job search to only remote positions. I currently own a home in Florida and would like to continue living in this area. I have also decided that my career change will not next October but as soon as it happens. October is now my absolutely kill date, when I will stop what I am currently doing to 100% to pursue this career in Web Developing. In the meantime I will be passively pursuing positions where I can enjoy the comfort of my home office, but this career change will not happen until my mentorship has concluded in March of 2014.


One Month IN

Day 33:

So I am one month into my decision to learn how to code and although I have not actually built a single thing I am still excited to complete this journey. I have recently been swamped with homework for my MBA and look forward to when this semester is done 12/16/13. This will definitely open up a large amount of time for me to dedicate in learning web developing.

My goal for this week if to complete the Lynda.com Tutorial that I have been working on as well upload something to Github, even if its not complete. I have also not hit my goal of 3 hours a day in coding, that will change this week.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Attended my first Meetup

Dat 29:

Last night I attend my RubyonRails Meetup:

The info was great, and though I cant really implement any of the tips as of yet, I still took away a lot from the experience. I am glad I was able to meet so many other people starting out just like me and even hear of great job opportunities. I am still gung ho and plan for becoming a full fledge ROR developer (I am now even considering getting my feet wet in freelancing as another option).

Thanks the Orlando Ruby Group for being so welcoming.

I will be attending meetups on a regular basis and looking to the next one in Tampa next Thursday.

If you have any interest of meeting like minded individuals check out meetup.com


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Bloc.io

Day 28:

*If you are interested in joining the Bloc mentorship, use my link to receive $100 bucks off. Bloc Referral

So I took the plunge 2 nights ago and got onboard with a Ruby mentor. While surfing around Ruby jobs I saw Bloc.io was hiring a mentor, I then went to Bloc.io to see what they were about. After 12 hours of researching and reading every review out there, I signed up.


My mentor's name is Adam and we start 12/16. I picked that date to start because 12/15 marks the end of this semester for my MBA. I plan to take off the next term since I am one class ahead in the program and will dedicate the rest of my time to learning web developing.

I will keep you all informed on the process. In the meantime I have been given pre-mentor homework to complete.

Assignments:

1 Tryruby.org - Already completed a few weeks ago, but did it again in 15mins (it didnt take 4+ hours this time).
2 Ruby Manifesto - 7 page book, sort of a condensed, sarcastic version of Ruby-doc.org
TryGit.io  - Made by same company that did Try Ruby. Finished in 15mins
Learn Ruby the Hard Way Book - Saving this for this weekend
5 Javascript Codecademy Lesson

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Jumped on the TED bandwagon

I have recently got back into the TED talk bandwagon. Below are some inspirational talks that are relevant to what I am trying to do.

Ruby is easy,but I havent made anything yet.

Day 27:

So I have been working my way through LearnStreet and realize how easy it is to learn. When I was younger, my brother made a website entirely from HTML by copy and pasting the code into text file from other sites. I was pretty amazed, and this was back in the 90's before the internet mattered.

Today ROR has such a large community; because of it I am able to literally Google the answers to any questions I am stuck on. Sites like GitHub and Stackoverflow will be tremendous helps for me in the journey to learn.

Tip:
If you are interested in any way in seeing how easy it is to find answers to programming questions check out StackOverflow or the manual at Ruby Doc. I have used these already and love it!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

My true inspiration

I don't mean to be sappy but just need to put this out there. I mentioned in my previous post that my motivation for learning to code was an article about Leo the Homeless Programmer; this article did indeed inspire me, but it isn't the reason driving to get this done.

About 3 months ago I welcomed my son into this world with my wife. We were quite surprised with him coming 72 days early. But during the 70 days after he was born, my wife spent just about 24 hours a day in that hospital room with my son. I can honestly say that today those 2 are my inspiration for everything I do. If I could spend every day at home at home with them, I would. I hope a year from today I am able to work from the comfort of home with my family in the next room, my hope is learning Ruby will get me there.

My Inspirations:
1. Jesus
2. Madi and Emmitt
3. Leo the Homeless Programmer.

Why Try Ruby?

Day 26:

About 4 weeks ago I was at a crossroad on what on where to start coding. I jumped in feet first with Codecademy but just wasn't getting it. I then decided on going with CSS and HTML with my background (I took a web design class in high school...thats it), I figured it would be the fastest to ramp up on. I also made a couple Squarespace site in the past and might of looked at the CSS a little, thus came CodeSchool.

I got an email stating I could get a 2 day free trial and 2 extra days for anyone I got to sign up, so I signed up my wife and enjoyed 4 days or confusingly completing the CSS course. I couldn't get through the first section without getting frustrated, I guess my ego didn't want to hit the "help" button.

I finally stumbled on this Youtube video explaining what Ruby on Rails was and why they need more developers. From that point on I knew Ruby was the first language I needed to know.

What convinced me? 
1. No repetitive coding - a lot of programming out confuses me. Ruby makes sense (at least to me)
2. Staring pay of 75k for Jr. Developers!
3. Very large Ruby Community - More people to help when I get stuck. 

My goal is be a full blown Jr. Developer by October of 2014.

Monday, November 11, 2013

My Resume

Day 25:

Now that I am almost a full month into my decision to learn Ruby, I figure I can share work experience, just for the record.

I have an undergrad in Finance that was received in 2008 during that whole financial crisis. My hope was to become a Financial Adviser but was unable to find a company not going bankrupt or being bought out that would hire me. I have since been working at a local IT distributor in their Product Marketing department for the last 3.75 years. I am now finishing my first semester of my MBA, but now contemplating it's importance pending my future career change. I hope that the knowledge of the MBA will help in the future;
Because of that hope I have decided to continue on with it, plus the fact that my employer is paying for it.

At this point in life, my background doesn't quite lend itself to a career in software development; But who knows? Maybe I can start a career developing software for that industry...

For more details on my work experience see my site briandouglas.me or find me on Linkedin

Friday, November 8, 2013

Unlikely Developer/Review: Book

I just got done reading a great book called, No Degree, No Problem by Josh Kemp. The book in it's entirety is all about Josh's experience in making the career change from Blacksmith in Virginia to Jr. developer in only 8 months. I only found his blog yesterday and was already inspired to created my first post on this blog. Now that I have read his book, I am now even more inspired to follow through with this Journey.

A Few Take Aways from the book

1. I need to pick a date when I am making this career change.
This is interesting because I am literally in my first semester for my MBA and its currently being paid by my employer (I have a degree in Finance). Rather than aim for Josh's 8 months, my plan is to make it a 12 months experience of  hardcore studying and programming. This might change in the future to be sooner, but at least by then I will have a full year of my MBA and programming under my belt. The MBA might come in handy if I start one of my business ideas.
The date is 10/21/2014

2. Stay focused
Josh outlines in his book how he spent 3 hours every night strictly dedicated to learning, even with two young kids; I can relate with having a 3 month year old son myself. This blog will not only double as my accountability to get that done, but it will also host my coding log. My goal is to keep up with the 3 hours of coding per day.

3. Meet People
I currently work in IT sales and understand networking. It is important to know people if you want your business to grow. I plan to attend my first meetup in Orlando next week and hope to meet individuals with like minds, that will assist in my journey to learn code.

Get the ebook today for only $5 bucks and prepared to be inspired. Use the link I provided below.


No Degree, No Problem

Visit my daily coding log here.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

First Post: I will learn to code

Day 21:

I can say I am not new to blogging because I have started quite a few blogs in the past but have failed to follow through, hopefully this will not end with the same fate. I am in no means a writer but hope to follow through on this blog.

The last few months have been very busy, My son was born 2 months early, My wife and I spent 70 days in the hospital with our pre-mature child. While waiting for him to grow and develop we missed many days of work and stopped all our obligations for teaching music lesson and volunteering at church. Because of this I had a lot of free time to give thought and ponder about my life. During that pondering, I decided I will be taking the plunge into coding, specifically Ruby on Rails. I have too many ideas just sitting in my head and need a way out.

My Goal:
My goal for this blog is to document my journey into coding. During my research, I found there is not a large community Ruby community in the Tampa Bay area, but there is a high demand for them in the industry. Also just like many other industries there not many minority coders; my hope will be to inspire other minorities to join me in this journey.

What inspired me?:
I was a big "Google Reader"user prior to the shut down not too long ago and still spend a lot of time following blog and news on the web. A few weeks back I read an article of how a 23 year old Manhattan based programmer approach a homeless man, Leo, and offered him $100 or the opportunity to teach him to code so he could build a career. Leo chose coding and  in a matter of only 4 weeks he built his first app prototype.

Business Insider Article - The Homeless Coder

My thought immediately went to, "If Leo can Javascript in 4 weeks while living in a city park, then I can for sure learn Ruby on Rails in the comfort of my own while working full time and raising a new baby. Nothing is holding back.

The Plan: Go Big or Stay Home
I first started Computer Science For Everyone but only got halfway before deciding Ruby would be my language. I have postponed that but highly recommend it for your basic computer info. I had previous experience in HTML and Visual Basic in high school, but that was so long ago that CSFE helped me get a great foundation.

I am now focusing on rails exclusively and after Twitter stalking Rubyist on Twitter I will be attending my first Meetup within the next few weeks. Even though I have only completed two ruby course and haven't even completed my first app I want to meet actual coders and pick their brains in person and for free. Stand by for updates on that on twitter @brianllamar

The resources I will use

One Month Rails - Great no frills course from Mattan Griffel. He definitely leaves out the fluff and gets right to the point with making your first app.

How to teach yourself to code - Great video by Mattan Griffel explaining how he taught himself to code in one month

DHH Video - David Heinemeir Hansson is credited for creating rails. This is an interview of explaining what it is.

TryRuby.org - This is the first course I actually completed. Should of only taken 15mins, but it took me 4hours. In my defense, I was doing it in the background while working on other stuff. 

Rails for Zombies - The second course I completed, created by CodeSchool

Udemy - This is a great online resource to pace yourself to learn code. There is also Learnsteet, Codecademy, and Udacity. These are all free options

I hope to complete all these courses and more by May, which would make 6 months work towards one goal. By then I might have a fully functional app or I might. I guess we will have to see.