The New Ruby Newbies

After 2 months of inactivity I have decided to take the Ruby Newbies group down a different path. When I first started the Youtube chats a year ago, I was looking for other individuals learning Ruby, like myself. I have succeeded in this and now work in Rails as well as other technologies.

The model of scheduling g+ hangouts on air worked before but now does not seem to be a great way to collaborate and chat on topics associated to Ruby. I am just unable to keep up with a consistent weekly schedule anymore, but still want to assist and collaborate.

I will be unveiling a new version of Ruby Newbies, in the form of a Slack Chat. This will gives us the ability to collaborate much faster and receive help when we are stuck on certain hurdles.

*Full disclosure, I plan to make this a paid community in hopes to keep out the lurkers and less driven learners. The fee will be small and one time, but until then I am opening it up to the first 15 people who sign up as a beta test. I will then officially open it up for everyone to sign up next Monday the 9th.

All future events and announcements will be posted within the slack chat community.

If you are interested checkout the new Ruby Newbie page.

Learn Javascript quickly with WatchMeCode Screencast

A few months back I sent out a tweet to Advi Grimm, trying to find a screencast service similar to Ruby Tapas, but for Javascript (If you write Ruby and do not have a Ruby Tapas subscription, you need to sign up today).

I actually did not get a response but actually got an email from Advi a few weeks later announcing special pricing for Ruby Tapas subscribers to the WatchMeCode screencast from Derek Bailey. I believe I signed up the next day and binged watched almost all the episodes during my 2 weeks off of work.

The videos were slightly longer than a Tapas but filled with a large amount of content on Javascript. I attempted to learn Javascript properly a few times in the last year and failed to grasp the concepts of Prototypes, Closures, etc. Things finally started clicking thanks to this unique form of sharing code through screencast. I would consider myself now moving away from the entry-level to junior programmer and this is thanks to screencast like these who have given the ability to implement new tricks into my development.

I have a couple node projects complete which knocks off one item from my 2015 goals. I now have my eyes on GO and Rust, as well as putting together my first Ruby Gem very soon. Stay Tuned

.gitignore cached files

I spent some time trying to figure out why my git would not stop add files I added to my .gitignore. I finally figured out there were files being cached, why? I have no idea, but I am glad I know how to removed them now. 

git rm . -r --cached
git add .
git commit -m "fixed untracked files"

Use Vagrant to install Ruby on Windows

Vagrant/Microsoft presentation

A month ago I attended a meetup the speaker spoke on installing Ruby on windows using vagrant. I have not had the opportunity to use Ruby on windows but I hear its pretty difficult getting up and running.

The windows computer I use is my work laptop is my work computer and I have no plans installing vagrant or ruby on that but I thought I should share this to anyone interested.

Thinking hard about what's next (only 3 weeks left)

I have put a lot of thought in which apprenticeships to apply to after Bloc and due to the fact of the local Tampa apprenticeship is now closing, so I need to take serious consideration on moving out of state and to where will be the most feasible for my family of 3.

After a lot of long conversations, my wife has provided her blessing for moving out of state as long if the opportunity is there for me to obtain work post the apprenticeship. Some cities I have on my list are Nashville (My twin brother lives there), San Francisco(Obvious reason), New York, and Chicago.

I am excited at the thought of living in a city other than Tampa and hopeful that one of the now 4 companies I have applied to will respond back with the interview process (I am already in contact with Chicago). I am also purposely leaving the names of each company, but can let you know if you so desire. Just send me a message via social media.

My plans currently are to finish my current app, which I have so many thing s breaking its not even funny. but I have plans to spend a lot of time tonight with my mentor walking through the more confusing errors.

I am looking forward to the next chapter of my journey outside of Bloc and what's in store.

I am also planning on doing a hangout to discuss my thoughts the Bloc program. This weekend I am also hoping to put my plan together for my capstone project and will be posting it here soon.

3rd App complete: Checking logs for errors.

I am just about to finish my 3rd month learning programming and stoked that I have completed my 3rd web app. I spent about 20 hours building it and maybe another 5 this week cleaning it up. This was also my first app that I did not follow a tutorial to build, although I did reference some old tutorials for specific things and used a Rspec tutorial as a guideline.

I am looking forward to starting my 4th app Blockmarks, which involve quite a few things I have not implemented. More on that to come.

I do want to pass on some advice as well as remind myself to check the logs when debugging. I always start with the error on the localhost page but alway forget to check the "rails server" log for the root of the issue. I found a pattern when I kept getting stumped and going to my mentor for help, only to find out my answer was in the log.

This morning I had an error running my app on the Heroku. I wrote a long message with embedded code to my mentor and realized I did not even check the heroku log. I ended up deleting my message and will work on the solution some time today. I will share the app later once I get a chance to fix. For here is the Github

Remember to check your logs. cmd+f "error"

Need a break from all this debugging.

I spent my morning learning session in Codecademy's Ruby section. I have completed 68% thus far and hope to eventually finish that last little bit. I started a few weeks ago but never got back into it since Bloc started. I have also postponed Learning Ruby the Hard Way until Codecademy is done, just need to focus finishing one thing.  I find myself a little scattered brain in my learning outside of Bloc due to all these awesome tutorials and ideas I keep finding. I am glad I have auxiliary learning to my main learning to help me out when my brain is racked on one issue. I will need to make a gist wish-list of all the things I want to tackle in addition to my 2014 goals.

As of today I am stuck on a NoMethod Error in my code. My assumption is that I labeled an instance variable as plural with an "s" and called it as a singular. That is my guess because that has been the plague in all my errors....TYPOS!!! I can't tell you how crazy my typos have made me so far but I am grateful from the learning experience it has given me. I am just letting my brain rest until its ready for debugging later today! Looking forward to implementing Rspec next week so I can scale down my debugging time.

My current project is available on git if anyone would like to skim it. Called bloccit32. I am currently on lesson 13/21, which behind my schedule but ahead of schedule for Bloc.

I recently found a site where a devloper fed up with not learning decided to create 180 sites in 180 days. Check her out: Jennifer Dewalt. I am definitely inspired and hope to do something similar once Bloc is over, not only will it be "learning by doing" but it will be an opportunity to learn new things for 6 months straight.

(Another guy, Filip, just started this 180 day project and is currently on day 1.)

Why I love Screenhero, git branching, and mentors

One of the benefits of having a mentor is learning how to work with others. I am no expert but imagine once I actually get a job in developing I will need to have the ability to work remotely with others through the use of screen sharing and git branching, both of which I learned how to use last week.

Today marks the 3rd week of my Bloc apprenticeship and I have already exceeded my goal in learning more than I had learned previously on my own. I only spent about 6 weeks learning programming and then Rails. So far I have completed the first 2 weeks of Ruby basic learning, which has helped tremendously now that I am started my first full Rails app while in bloc. The three things I find most beneficial in my learning is the use of Screenhero, Git branching, and Bloc's Office Hours.

1. Screenhero

Screen hero is an amazing free piece of software (which is free). I have used it with the combination of Skype audio. My mentor is able to take control of the screen and walk me through any issues I might be struggling with, and I have had lots of issues.

2. Git Branching

Now git branching is something I have heard of but not something I used previously. I had the opportunity to learn it over the weekend through the Bloc roadmap. Creating a branch in git lets you create changes without committing to the master branch. I am enjoying the safety blanket of not completely ruining my repo especially since I have had experiences creating projects and needing to start over from scratch because a pestering mistake I could not figure out. My recommendation to anyone who has not completely learn how git and branching works to learn it now to prevent the headaches I went through. Trygit

3. Office Hours

Office hours is Bloc's attempt to have 24/7 support for students through the use a private mentor chatroom. I say it's an attempt because it not completely 24/7, but I don't fault them at that because not everyone is up at 4am eastern looking for Rails help like myself. I used the Office Hours for the first time last weekend when I had an issue working with Ruby Blocks. My personal mentor has been readily available on the weekdays but when it comes to the weekends he is less available, but having the assistance of other Bloc mentors is huge plus. I am currently getting about 15 hours of learning during the week, but Bloc requires 25, so I get most of my learning in on the weekends. I am pretty sure the weekend mentors are getting used to me popping in and asking quick questions.

Another plus is not having to worry about if my dumb question are too dumb to answer. My first day my mentor told me not to fear asking stupid questions and I get the same feeling from the other mentors in Office Hours. I also don't have to worry about lowering my Stack Overflow rating because my questions might get voted down (which happened.)

I am looking forward to this week, all of the Basic Ruby is done and its now on to create my first app Bloccit. Each section runs 2 weeks but I am already on lesson 10/21. I might be getting a bit ahead this week, which will be good since the next section will be working on practice freelance projects.

*This blog is not meant to be a Bloc cheerleading page, but that is where I am currently in my journey and there will be more Bloc praise to come.

Learning Ruby The Hardway

As I am now on my second week of Bloc, I have found my self pacing through the first portion rather quickly. In order to supplement my learning I have opted to also go through the Zed Shaw book, Learn Ruby the Hardway. I am very pleased with the different exercises thus far (52 in total).

I am currently only on #13, but like to complete them while watching television as a sort of winding down for the day...if you can call it that. I also like the fact that the comments below each exercise add more value to the book by going even further in depth. If you decide to use this tool check out this guys blog where he also outlines every exercise while he went through the book.

Code Time:

I did not mention prior in any other post but I put in 94 hours of coding practice/training into Ruby/Javascript prior to Bloc. Bloc has a requirement of at least 25 hours per week, which I completed 26.5 (My personal goal was 35, but I might be a little over zealous). I have placed my Bloc coding time on a seperate Google Doc and will share in a future post.

*The 827 hours is a goal I got from Joshua Kemp and his book.

My problems with Rspec and Debugging

I have spent the majority of my week trying to figure out errors and learning Rspec. I discovered through the codeship blog they were giving a free course for Rspec for free. That same day I completed the Bloc Rspec section...what a coincidence.

Rspec seems to be a valuable skill I will need on my resume when judging my extensive research on job descriptions.

 Below was given as the Rspec test:

To solve the test, the method "add" had to be defined. Here is the answer I finally figured out using the Bastards book of Ruby. (after an hour of being stumped).

The resolution:

I wish I could go into detail on Rpsec and how it works. I will hopefully be able to in the future when I gain a better understanding. 

Happy coding

Free Rspec Course from Code School

I am 20% of the way through the Rspec course on codeschool. I do not have a current code school membership but got the course for free from the following codeship blog post.

If you are looking for for a Jr Dev job, as I am. I recommend going to the link and downloading it.

http://blog.codeship.io/2013/08/28/get-a-free-codeschool-course-sponsored-by-codeship.html

I have done it! Thanks to OneMonthRails

I finally got my app done.

I have spent the past 2 weeks working on the OneMonthRails course and completed it this morning. I had quite of few hiccups during it, but was able to find the answer for my problems from google and stack overflow. The course is definitely work the money paid, because it gives you something a book or cant - Something to put in your portfolio. I have done a TON of researching on how to land a Ruby job and the one thing that stands out is a portfolio. You can really learn till you are blue in the face, but if you have nothing to show for it then its all for nothing. Though I do highly recommend getting a foundation with Codecademy or Learn Street prior to completing OMR, this will ensure you spend the time doing rather than figuring out the syntax.

My next step will be to apply what I have done and continue on to another tutorial that comes highly recommended, Learn Ruby the Hard Way . I will also attempt to create another web app prior to Bloc.io mentorship commencement.

@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.

@brianllamar hell yes! Welcome aboard man with 2 first names. Brian & Douglas. Ready to start with Rails?
— One Month Rails (@onemonthrails) November 22, 2013

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.

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.