Hey peeps! I have exciting news to share with you all, my internet friends... it starts with me, unemployed, 5 months ago going on a job interview at Crum & Forster insurance in Morristown, NJ for a temporary position in their audit department.
I'm not a big fan of insurance. Nobody is, at first. But a job is a job and man was I unemployed as fuck. The way my soon-to-be boss described the situation was that they needed someone ASAP to help them with backlogged work, and that if I was good at the job and wanted to stay there may be a possibility for a full-time position.
In my interview she mentioned taking notice of my "Fundamentals in Python, Java, and JavaScript programming languages" under my Skills section. I said I really liked to code, and was interested even in positions in IT and the like. Computers were great, and I was going to enslave them all.
Fast forward 5 months and I'm being introduced to my future supervisor for a new team I'll be moving on to. She asks me all about my hopes and dreams.. so I mention my interests in programming and data, etc etc. I mention the name of a higher-up executive whose job I think is really cool.
With that, future supervisor lady talks to my current boss about how she'd love to have me on her team, but that I also seem very interested in something more IT.. She mentioned the executive, as well, that I had mentioned. My boss then tells that executive that if he has an opening, I might like to take it instead of going to this new team.
MADNESS ENSUES. Not really, but on Monday I'm going to be meeting him and possibly discuss working for him! There is one problem; I'm not entirely sure what he does.
I know he works with SQL and Access and Excel and some databases, but I've never done anything with SQL or Access, and I wasn't even sure about what a database was... So I started watching some mySQL tutorials through TheNewBoston on YouTube (man I love Bucky Roberts so much) and got a very general understanding from the first half hour.
Tomorrow, I'm diving deeper. Right now I feel like a database is just a huge collection of excel documents and there's probably (probably...) more to it than that.
So for the moment, Python is on hold! Haha... haha I say that like I've been just plowing through my Udacity courses. Whoops. Maybe Udacity should stop HATING EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING and let me be on the website for more than 5 minutes every half hour.
Anyway..
Got any experience with mySQL or databases? Give me a holla~
Love you guys even though you don't comment on my shit.
<3 <3 <3 <3 n00bc0d3r <3 <3 <3 <3
Friday, May 31, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
My struggle with a simple problem
Over the long weekend I took some small amount of time to continue with my Udacity class. Right now I'm on a little section of 5 exercises.. not really being taught any new material, but demonstrating understanding of basic concepts.
It's these kinds of exercises that I look forward to. I like being able to look at a problem, conceptualize the solution in my mind, and work through it with the basic building blocks I have been given.
I told a friend once that I thought my problem with Python was that I would encounter a problem and wonder "How can I solve this? How can I deconstruct this seemingly simple process into a step-by-step process?" Usually I'd give up after a while.. the last time I did this I was supposed to take a number of letters and print every possible combination of said letters.
One afternoon I sat in the bathroom at work on my phone, typing on my notepad how to maaaybe make this work. Lots of loops and some math.. I never really worked it out. Eventually, I got fed up and googled how other people did it; they'd just import some crap and throw the variable into a function within that package.
It was like cheating! How can we ever innovate if we just take what is given to us without trying to work through it ourselves first? I had this big mess of code and repeatedly failed at printing all the scrambled-up versions of "Asshattery" and some douche gives me 5 lines of code as the grand solution to my problem.. ridiculous.
I wrote to Mr Dan yesterday, after being in bed on my chromebook for 3 hours messing around on the internetz, about my current problem in Udacity. It was an incredibly simple process for a human.. but the instructor had given it a *GOLD STAR* which meant it was tough to code.
Define a function "median" which finds the median number in a set of three numbers. The numbers may all be different, or 2 or all of the numbers may be the same value.
Great! The instructor had given us predetermined functions, which we had made earlier in the class, called "bigger" which returns the bigger of two numbers and "biggest" which returns the biggest of three.
I sat there for a minute thinking about where to start.. then my brain was farting all over the place. I actually took a quarter, nickel, and dime and thought through the code visually. Using less-than and greater-than was annoying because the values could all be the same, and then what would I do? I only had if statements, while loops.. we hadn't even really covered "or" or "and" so I didn't want to use those.. even if I did I may not have figured it out on my own.
Dan and I figured sorting would be the best, since we had a set number of values and could just sort them numerically and print the 2nd item in the list. I couldn't use a sort function so a few lines of comparing numbers and switching them about eventually wound up in my code and I executed it. Everything worked out. I thanked Dan for his help, and felt disappointed in myself.
When I watched the instructor's solution, I felt even more ashamed.. it seemed so simple. Determine the "Biggest" number, then write a few if-statements..
if a == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(b,c)
if b == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(a,c)
if c == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(a,b)
The solution Dan helped me with had a few less lines.. so I figured "Ha! We are superior! Dan the Man and Mike the... uh....dyke?" but my brief soiree into lesbianism didn't lift my spirits for long. I had failed to look at the plain-as-hell clues right in front of me. You have these tools, look at them! These functions which you can use.. just think about it! Understand why they make your life easier, how to utilize them to enhance your experience as a coder!
It will take some more time, but I'm getting over my weird issue, which I attribute to some ego I have. Sure, you could write every program known to man with just some if-statements, loops, and a little understanding of math.. but you'd be an idiot for doing so or even wanting to do so.
Use the tools that are available to you. When a new wrench or power-drill turns up on the market, don't look at it like it's some barrier in-between yourself and your dream of being the l33t3$t c0d3r 4L1\/3. Realize it's there to help you get there, to your end goal: to enslave all computers.
It's these kinds of exercises that I look forward to. I like being able to look at a problem, conceptualize the solution in my mind, and work through it with the basic building blocks I have been given.
I told a friend once that I thought my problem with Python was that I would encounter a problem and wonder "How can I solve this? How can I deconstruct this seemingly simple process into a step-by-step process?" Usually I'd give up after a while.. the last time I did this I was supposed to take a number of letters and print every possible combination of said letters.
One afternoon I sat in the bathroom at work on my phone, typing on my notepad how to maaaybe make this work. Lots of loops and some math.. I never really worked it out. Eventually, I got fed up and googled how other people did it; they'd just import some crap and throw the variable into a function within that package.
It was like cheating! How can we ever innovate if we just take what is given to us without trying to work through it ourselves first? I had this big mess of code and repeatedly failed at printing all the scrambled-up versions of "Asshattery" and some douche gives me 5 lines of code as the grand solution to my problem.. ridiculous.
---
I wrote to Mr Dan yesterday, after being in bed on my chromebook for 3 hours messing around on the internetz, about my current problem in Udacity. It was an incredibly simple process for a human.. but the instructor had given it a *GOLD STAR* which meant it was tough to code.
Define a function "median" which finds the median number in a set of three numbers. The numbers may all be different, or 2 or all of the numbers may be the same value.
Great! The instructor had given us predetermined functions, which we had made earlier in the class, called "bigger" which returns the bigger of two numbers and "biggest" which returns the biggest of three.
I sat there for a minute thinking about where to start.. then my brain was farting all over the place. I actually took a quarter, nickel, and dime and thought through the code visually. Using less-than and greater-than was annoying because the values could all be the same, and then what would I do? I only had if statements, while loops.. we hadn't even really covered "or" or "and" so I didn't want to use those.. even if I did I may not have figured it out on my own.
Dan and I figured sorting would be the best, since we had a set number of values and could just sort them numerically and print the 2nd item in the list. I couldn't use a sort function so a few lines of comparing numbers and switching them about eventually wound up in my code and I executed it. Everything worked out. I thanked Dan for his help, and felt disappointed in myself.
When I watched the instructor's solution, I felt even more ashamed.. it seemed so simple. Determine the "Biggest" number, then write a few if-statements..
if a == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(b,c)
if b == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(a,c)
if c == biggest(a,b,c):
return bigger(a,b)
The solution Dan helped me with had a few less lines.. so I figured "Ha! We are superior! Dan the Man and Mike the... uh....dyke?" but my brief soiree into lesbianism didn't lift my spirits for long. I had failed to look at the plain-as-hell clues right in front of me. You have these tools, look at them! These functions which you can use.. just think about it! Understand why they make your life easier, how to utilize them to enhance your experience as a coder!
It will take some more time, but I'm getting over my weird issue, which I attribute to some ego I have. Sure, you could write every program known to man with just some if-statements, loops, and a little understanding of math.. but you'd be an idiot for doing so or even wanting to do so.
Use the tools that are available to you. When a new wrench or power-drill turns up on the market, don't look at it like it's some barrier in-between yourself and your dream of being the l33t3$t c0d3r 4L1\/3. Realize it's there to help you get there, to your end goal: to enslave all computers.
Friday, May 24, 2013
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
It's my Grandma's birthday today so I've been pretty busy during the week helping my mother prepare a surprise party for her.
I'd like to say that's why I haven't been updating the blog, but that's only part of the reason.
Learning through Udacity is great fun but I'm having trouble with YouTube in general (which Udacity uses a lot) and Udacity also kicks me off the site for 10-15 minutes at a time for no reason so it's pretty discouraging.
I submitted a little support thing on the forums and they said it's definitely my ISP, and they may be illegally limiting my bandwidth or something like that? So, being the passive-aggressive person I am and not wanting to have to call someone in India to discuss the issue with, I just kinda.. let it go for now.
We'll see if things get better. If not, I may write a very stern email to someone in India who will maybe forward it to someone somewhere else and after exchanging a few copy-and-paste emails with them finally maybe they'll forward me to a person with REAL authority who will be like "Suck my dick, we're not screwing with your internet, it's not our fault YouTube and Udacity hate you, you're a loser." and from then on I'll recede into my shell as a loner and a hermit, never speaking to or coming into contact with another human until the neighbors complain of a rotting smell emanating from the property. The end.
I'd like to say that's why I haven't been updating the blog, but that's only part of the reason.
Learning through Udacity is great fun but I'm having trouble with YouTube in general (which Udacity uses a lot) and Udacity also kicks me off the site for 10-15 minutes at a time for no reason so it's pretty discouraging.
I submitted a little support thing on the forums and they said it's definitely my ISP, and they may be illegally limiting my bandwidth or something like that? So, being the passive-aggressive person I am and not wanting to have to call someone in India to discuss the issue with, I just kinda.. let it go for now.
We'll see if things get better. If not, I may write a very stern email to someone in India who will maybe forward it to someone somewhere else and after exchanging a few copy-and-paste emails with them finally maybe they'll forward me to a person with REAL authority who will be like "Suck my dick, we're not screwing with your internet, it's not our fault YouTube and Udacity hate you, you're a loser." and from then on I'll recede into my shell as a loner and a hermit, never speaking to or coming into contact with another human until the neighbors complain of a rotting smell emanating from the property. The end.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
"So one way to solve it is to have a big, complicated, nested if-statement.."
Hooray for Udacity! Boo for me not paying attention last time I learned Python.. I never *fully* understood the return statement.
I was watching an explanation to one of the exercises which I thought was very simple.. I'm way beyond this content, right? This is n00b stuff. I'm no n00b!
...what? No, no no.. stupid teacher man. CLEARLY since the "return False" isn't in an if statement, it will execute no matter what happens in those if statements. But, why doesn't it?
Oh....
.......yup, I'm a n00b.
I don't know why something as important as the return statement didn't stick into my brain. A way to completely end a function, in the middle of the body?! I put that knowledge to work on the next task and was almost surprised when my simple few lines of code did the trick for something that I would have made such a convoluted block of code for.
And then he said it. Right then and there. "So one way to solve it is to have a big, complicated, nested if-statement..." and my mouth kinda gaped open for a second.
I remember Mr Dan looking at some code of mine and being like "What the hell why are there so many if statements" and me being CONVINCED that I had tried alternatives and they weren't working. I probably could have made things a lot easier for myself. I've probably been building a bench with wood, nails, and no hammer.
Thanks Udacity, for reminding me that I am a n00bc0d3r. You're lucky I like you, because usually I would vow to destroy you for humiliating me, once I enslave all computers.
I was watching an explanation to one of the exercises which I thought was very simple.. I'm way beyond this content, right? This is n00b stuff. I'm no n00b!
...what? No, no no.. stupid teacher man. CLEARLY since the "return False" isn't in an if statement, it will execute no matter what happens in those if statements. But, why doesn't it?
Oh....
.......yup, I'm a n00b.
I don't know why something as important as the return statement didn't stick into my brain. A way to completely end a function, in the middle of the body?! I put that knowledge to work on the next task and was almost surprised when my simple few lines of code did the trick for something that I would have made such a convoluted block of code for.
And then he said it. Right then and there. "So one way to solve it is to have a big, complicated, nested if-statement..." and my mouth kinda gaped open for a second.
I remember Mr Dan looking at some code of mine and being like "What the hell why are there so many if statements" and me being CONVINCED that I had tried alternatives and they weren't working. I probably could have made things a lot easier for myself. I've probably been building a bench with wood, nails, and no hammer.
Thanks Udacity, for reminding me that I am a n00bc0d3r. You're lucky I like you, because usually I would vow to destroy you for humiliating me, once I enslave all computers.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
More Udacity, some thoughts on D&D, and more.
So I decided to get back into Udacity and proceed on to Lesson 2 of their Introduction to Computer Science course. My first step in preparation of this was to go out to the store and buy a 4-pack of Monster Energy drinks (fun fact, Monster Energy is a client of my current employer).
It only took, like, 5 minutes for me to be reminded of a very important and basic concept in coding that I probably learned a long while ago. It involved procedures(functions):
It's kinda really embarrassing that I didn't have an active knowledge of this; variables input into a function aren't modified by that function, even if they have the same names.
Ah well. I did some simple exercises on functions before Udacity blew the rape whistle at me and decided to block my connection to the website for the evening... next time I'll bring it flowers and chocolate.
In other news I learned that my D&D character was introduced in my old DM's new campaign and managed to kill one of his players before dying, which is great. It brought back a bunch of nostalgia and nerdy warm-feelings. I'd love to make some online D&D tool... customize your characters, define abilities and such.. D&D was a zone I never wanted to venture into as a nerd but when I did I fell in love. Anyone who has tried to make, or knows someone who tried to make, something like this should drop me a comment.
ALSO.. my 1.5 year relationship kiiinda ended yesterday so I'm dealing with some weird feelings, which is why I haven't done more with Python this weekend. Tomorrow I'll try and devote myself to more rigorous training, and I will persist through Udacity's cold-shoulder it keeps giving me. Peace, Love, and Unicorns everyone. <3
It only took, like, 5 minutes for me to be reminded of a very important and basic concept in coding that I probably learned a long while ago. It involved procedures(functions):
It's kinda really embarrassing that I didn't have an active knowledge of this; variables input into a function aren't modified by that function, even if they have the same names.
Ah well. I did some simple exercises on functions before Udacity blew the rape whistle at me and decided to block my connection to the website for the evening... next time I'll bring it flowers and chocolate.
In other news I learned that my D&D character was introduced in my old DM's new campaign and managed to kill one of his players before dying, which is great. It brought back a bunch of nostalgia and nerdy warm-feelings. I'd love to make some online D&D tool... customize your characters, define abilities and such.. D&D was a zone I never wanted to venture into as a nerd but when I did I fell in love. Anyone who has tried to make, or knows someone who tried to make, something like this should drop me a comment.
ALSO.. my 1.5 year relationship kiiinda ended yesterday so I'm dealing with some weird feelings, which is why I haven't done more with Python this weekend. Tomorrow I'll try and devote myself to more rigorous training, and I will persist through Udacity's cold-shoulder it keeps giving me. Peace, Love, and Unicorns everyone. <3
Monday, May 13, 2013
Double the experience, double the fun!
So after being EXTREMELY FLABBERGASTED after finding out last night that half of my combat system was broken, I was convinced I had messed something up so bad with my code that there would be no turning back.
Turns out I just needed to hit "tab" on a few lines. Such is the way Python works...
So anyway, if you'd like to fight some enemies as well.. (they're sharks on roller-skates).. hop on over to my latest commit of The American Race!
ALSO, shout-out to the only person who actually subscribes to my blog, Mr. Justin Brown. You are the man.
Turns out I just needed to hit "tab" on a few lines. Such is the way Python works...
So anyway, if you'd like to fight some enemies as well.. (they're sharks on roller-skates).. hop on over to my latest commit of The American Race!
ALSO, shout-out to the only person who actually subscribes to my blog, Mr. Justin Brown. You are the man.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
And this is why I need people to test out my code.
It's 11:15 PM, I'm about to go to sleep, and I realize that my latest blog post has a comment:
..........
.......................................................
...................
DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT WTF
Did I REALLY not notice that almost half the code I have in my little test combat system is NOT FUNCTIONING?
Did I sit for 20 minutes trying to make enemy combat interactions sound funny/silly and completely ignore the fact that they weren't showing up in my game?
This, dear readers, is why people who develop need other people who are willing to test out the code and ask questions.
THANK YOU, Justin, for pointing this out to me.
Unfortunately, I don't really have any time to fix this, but I will work on it straightaway after work tomorrow afternoon.
.......................................................
...................
DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT WTF
Did I REALLY not notice that almost half the code I have in my little test combat system is NOT FUNCTIONING?
Did I sit for 20 minutes trying to make enemy combat interactions sound funny/silly and completely ignore the fact that they weren't showing up in my game?
This, dear readers, is why people who develop need other people who are willing to test out the code and ask questions.
THANK YOU, Justin, for pointing this out to me.
Unfortunately, I don't really have any time to fix this, but I will work on it straightaway after work tomorrow afternoon.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
New version of the combat system for my game!
Mr Dan is amazing, and sat with me for like an hour and a half on Google hangouts to figure out my problems with Python.
Basically, I was stuck with the problem of taking information from a user, which could either have been a string or any kind of number, and trying to classify that as either a string or an int. It sounds so simple now that I think about it, but it still took 10-15 solid minutes of Dan and I figuring stuff out, Googling, and me praying to the StackOverflow gods.. and then another hour of us trying to indent properly and me rambling about bullshit.
And with my last commit for the night to GitHub I give you the newest version of the battle system for The Presidential Race. There may be some code in there that we didn't end up using and is just sitting there, so don't mind any if you find it.
Thanks again, Dan, for your patience and your constant aid to me.
Basically, I was stuck with the problem of taking information from a user, which could either have been a string or any kind of number, and trying to classify that as either a string or an int. It sounds so simple now that I think about it, but it still took 10-15 solid minutes of Dan and I figuring stuff out, Googling, and me praying to the StackOverflow gods.. and then another hour of us trying to indent properly and me rambling about bullshit.
And with my last commit for the night to GitHub I give you the newest version of the battle system for The Presidential Race. There may be some code in there that we didn't end up using and is just sitting there, so don't mind any if you find it.
Thanks again, Dan, for your patience and your constant aid to me.
Some content for my text game.
Woot! I've pushed some code up to GitHub, just one simple piece of the game that reflects the battle system. It's just modified code from a game I made in the past, but it's a start.
If you'd like to toy around with it or give me suggestions/feedback, PLEASE do. Just click here to view the code.
As I mentioned previously, the plot is.. you are a canadian racehorse who has given up on his cupcake kickstarter project to run for president, against a cross-dressing skateboarding shark. In this snippet of code, you fight some of the shark's rollerblading minions.
How exactly do sharks rollerblade and skateboard, you ask? Think Street Sharks.
Friday, May 10, 2013
More GitHub, my sickness, and adventuring with Udacity.
Hey peeps! So my last post with any substance in it talked about a flashcard app I found for Chrome.. which I kinda became frustrated with, so I'm just back to writing classic flashcards on index cards. Ah well... n00bc4rd$ for n00bc0d3s, I suppose.
I had a confusing evening and morning with GitHub.. I attempted creating a local repo and pushing it to GitHub but the GitHub app wasn't finding my local repo even though I had successfully committed everything.. I took screenshots of everything as I was excited to rant about it to you guys, went to bed, and then when I booted up and checked the app again suddenly my repo was there.
I think GitHub is toying with my mind. Perhaps an ex-boyfriend of mine died the moment GitHub was created and was reincarnated as the GitHub app? All the more reason to learn how to enslave GitHub once and for all...
...but before I moved on to do that, I had a lovely phone chat with Mr Dean Machine who I started learning Python with last summer. I kinda fell off the boat with Python after being discouraged, but he continued on and has made some amazing progress. Today he urged me to look at Udacity for learning some new things, and for further solidifying my foundation in Python. Despite the website kicking me in the balls every few hours and then running away acting like I'm trying to molest it, leaving me unable to access my course or continue with the exercise I was working on for roughly 30 minutes, I'm really enjoying it. Not sure why that's happening to me.
I didn't expect to learn anything in the first unit, but I've never done anything web-related and a big chunk of the first course is centered around web-crawlers and creating a search engine, so it's giving me a fresh insight into the potential that a language like Python has buried under its scales.
Here is a happy little drawing the instructor of the course drew when talking about procedures (or functions as I call them):
I had a confusing evening and morning with GitHub.. I attempted creating a local repo and pushing it to GitHub but the GitHub app wasn't finding my local repo even though I had successfully committed everything.. I took screenshots of everything as I was excited to rant about it to you guys, went to bed, and then when I booted up and checked the app again suddenly my repo was there.
I think GitHub is toying with my mind. Perhaps an ex-boyfriend of mine died the moment GitHub was created and was reincarnated as the GitHub app? All the more reason to learn how to enslave GitHub once and for all...
...but before I moved on to do that, I had a lovely phone chat with Mr Dean Machine who I started learning Python with last summer. I kinda fell off the boat with Python after being discouraged, but he continued on and has made some amazing progress. Today he urged me to look at Udacity for learning some new things, and for further solidifying my foundation in Python. Despite the website kicking me in the balls every few hours and then running away acting like I'm trying to molest it, leaving me unable to access my course or continue with the exercise I was working on for roughly 30 minutes, I'm really enjoying it. Not sure why that's happening to me.
I didn't expect to learn anything in the first unit, but I've never done anything web-related and a big chunk of the first course is centered around web-crawlers and creating a search engine, so it's giving me a fresh insight into the potential that a language like Python has buried under its scales.
Here is a happy little drawing the instructor of the course drew when talking about procedures (or functions as I call them):
.
..if you don't get it, you're obviously not 1337 enough.
Anyway, I haven't started development of my text-based game yet. I plan on taking a crack at that tomorrow sometime. The winning idea was a combination of random ideas submitted by a Facebook friend, Ryan, combined by another friend, Justin, into the following:
"Perhaps combining some of Ryan's ideas would be the best approach. I think I'd play a game about a Canadian race horse who puts his cupcake-related Kickstarter project on hold to run for President against a skateboarding drag queen shark."
...sounds legit enough!
Right now, my brain is killing me because it's leaking out of my nostrils. I've been hit with a cold in combination with my horrendous allergies, and I'm all drugged up (as per usual) so I'll save the real work for when I'm slightly less zombified.
Until then.. stay awesome, everyone!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Time management.
Things I had on my to-do list today for after work:
Eat dinner.
Buy Claritin for my allergies.
CODE HARDCORE.
Things I did today:
Watched Pawn-Stars marathon for 2 hours.
Watched "Counting Cars" because I'm a manly man for 5 minutes.
Browse Reddit.
Played a really good, free 5-minute indie horror game and pooped myself.
Read w.e.b.c.o.m.i.c.s.
Ate dinner.
Bought store-brand allergy medication.
Showered... and...
...made some flashcards on a chrome app to refresh myself on command prompt things(looks a lot better on the app..)
And now it's time for bed. Sigh. Maybe I'll continue tomorrow to put all of my Python flashcards online, then work on my GitHub ones, and finally start on my super awesome text-based game which you guys are giving me suggestions for. Currently the winning submission is one that was submitted to me on Facebook, but I'm still open for ideas!
Hit me up in the comments, even if (especially if) I don't know you. Maybe just to say hello. <3 Night.
Eat dinner.
Buy Claritin for my allergies.
CODE HARDCORE.
Things I did today:
Watched Pawn-Stars marathon for 2 hours.
Watched "Counting Cars" because I'm a manly man for 5 minutes.
Browse Reddit.
Played a really good, free 5-minute indie horror game and pooped myself.
Read w.e.b.c.o.m.i.c.s.
Ate dinner.
Bought store-brand allergy medication.
Showered... and...
...made some flashcards on a chrome app to refresh myself on command prompt things(looks a lot better on the app..)
And now it's time for bed. Sigh. Maybe I'll continue tomorrow to put all of my Python flashcards online, then work on my GitHub ones, and finally start on my super awesome text-based game which you guys are giving me suggestions for. Currently the winning submission is one that was submitted to me on Facebook, but I'm still open for ideas!
Hit me up in the comments, even if (especially if) I don't know you. Maybe just to say hello. <3 Night.
Give me suggestions!
I think I've been reading too much and haven't been typing enough, guys!
Here's the deal. For fun, I want to make a little lame text-based adventure, a bit more complex than the one I mentioned in my previous post.
During my process of developing this short game, I'll attempt making the use of GitHub. Afterward, I will post a link to the game on GitHub and you guys can all play it FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES.
Now, since you'll be playing this for all of eternity, you should have input on a theme/plot of the game. Post your suggestions below! When I have a few gathered up, I'll start my work.
GAME FACE.
Here's the deal. For fun, I want to make a little lame text-based adventure, a bit more complex than the one I mentioned in my previous post.
During my process of developing this short game, I'll attempt making the use of GitHub. Afterward, I will post a link to the game on GitHub and you guys can all play it FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES.
Now, since you'll be playing this for all of eternity, you should have input on a theme/plot of the game. Post your suggestions below! When I have a few gathered up, I'll start my work.
GAME FACE.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Gradual clarity
The weekend is over, boyfriend is gone for 2 weeks, and I now have ample time to learn about GitHub!
Thankfully, my day at work is shaping up to be slow, so I've copied some pages of the GitHub crash-course into a word document to covertly study up.
Here are some important things I've learned about today:
Thankfully, my day at work is shaping up to be slow, so I've copied some pages of the GitHub crash-course into a word document to covertly study up.
Here are some important things I've learned about today:
- staging and committing
- When you stage a file to be committed, at the moment you give the command, the file at that instant is what will be committed. If the file is modified after it is staged but before it is committed, you must "git status" and "git add <file>" AGAIN to update what will commit.
- The "add" command is pretty versatile.
- Branches
- I understand what a branch is now. Mr. Ryan tried to explain them to me but I think he gave me a more advanced definition than what was necessary. Now I get it.
- Branches are complicated when working in small groups because merging with the master branch may/probably will cause conflicts. Boo!
GitHub is shaping up to be a pretty cool tool.. I added a crap-ton of files to my repo yesterday, but mainly they consist of answers to python questions on CodingBat, Project Euler, and other misc projects. Nothing fancy. Most of it is bullshit, like a tiny text-based game I made for my friend Dean about thugs who steal swag, or a simple tip calculator that I also made for Dean, while we learned Python basics together..
..but anyway, I figured adding these to my n00bc0d3r repo would help me understand what GitHub has to offer. After I think I have a decent foundation concerning GitHub I'll start diving into the Flatiron Prework, experimenting on my own, and looking to projects that I can work on with others.
For now please enjoy perusing through my n00bc0d3 above or take a gander at this accurate artist's depiction of my computer:
Sunday, May 5, 2013
GitHub First Commit?!
So I woke up this morning, got some bagels, and it's still before 1 PM so boyfriend.exe is likely not to finish it's nap for another two hours.
Upon checking facebook I found that a young Mr. Ryan was online. This computer wizard, for sure, could help me with my prior issues with my first commit to GitHub. has informed me that it won't show characters when I type in my password, even though it's taking it.. so I just need to type it out and hit enter. Not even asterisks, git bash?! Come on..
Alrighty, so I tried again! I navigated to the folder with the README in it, entered my password and username.. and once again..
GitHub keeps screaming at me; "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS I KNOW SOME POWERFUL PEOPLE YOU WILL REGRET THIS!"
Mr. Ryan thinks my install was funky. We uninstalled plain-old Git and just left GitHub on my machine, because I probably won't be needing Git until I've already enslaved a few computers...
I've managed to commit a few things to my repo, but I'm still like "What did I just do, I don't understand." but I figure Ryan said them to me, I did them, and they're floating somewhere in my brain.. so hopefully as I read the GitHub guide it will catch those fragments and solidify them inside my mind.
For now, this is good enough for me!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Boyfriend.exe is disrupting my training.
Having the boyfriend down for the weekend is extremely distracting.
Since he doesn't bring down his horrific computer anymore, it's either I'm on the computer and he's doing something on his iPad trying to make conversation with me, or he's on the computer being entertained and I can't practice anything.
The good news is that I'm buying a chromebook in the next few days, the Samsung series 3 one, and then once I have that (provided I can get GitHub to obey me) I will be able to work while he trolls people on Team Fortress.
Tomorrow I will try and convince him to watch TV or play one of my playstation games so I can figure out more Git stuff. I realized this morning that I haven't been through 90% of the git crash-course, so that will be my goal tomorrow.. make some headway with that.
GitHub, why do you resist your inevitable enslavement?
..okay well maybe GitHub wants to stop me from enslaving all computers.
Mr. Dan suggested I get started up with it, and so I, once again, read the guide to what GitHub is and how it works. The basic idea seems really awesome, all your code is stored here, all the changes of your code are stored here, make a repository to put your code in.. okay, sure, sounds great.
So then I decided "It's time to do some basic stuff before this knowledge floats out of my head.." and followed along the guide to making a repo in GitHub.
I made a repository for keeping my n00bc0d3 in, used the command line to make a README file somewhere on my local drive (I guess I need to brush up on my command line flashcards), edited the file to say some corny basic stuff, and then tried to add it to the repo..
..well, GitHub won't have that, mister!! It kept asking me, in the shell, for my GitHub.com username, to which I would oblige (even though it made no mention of that happening in the guide..) and when it asked for my password it wouldn't let me type anything into the shell. I was forced to just press enter, to which it would yell at me like "WHO ARE YOU GET OUT OF MY HOUSE MY HUSBAND WILL BE HERE ANY MINUTE", which I'm used to... so I sighed and exited the shell and ate some horrific Japanese food with my boyfriend.
My adventure continues sometime today!!
Friday, May 3, 2013
ENSLAVE ALL THE COMPUTERS
Hi. My name is Mike. I have no idea how Blogger works yet, but one step at a time..
I am beginning my quest to ENSLAVE ALL THE COMPUTERS!
My good friend Dan Miller, as jazzy as he is, is helping to inspire me to further develop my skills as a coder.
CURRENT PLANS:
Step 1: Complete the Flatiron School Prework (http://prework.flatironschool.com/ roughly 80-100 hours worth of work) to learn great new things like Git Version Control, SQL and Databases, HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails.
Step 2: Possibly collaborate with Dan on a few projects, just to test the waters of being a real programmer.
Step 3: Continue my studies, put as much money as I can from my current job into a savings account, accumulate enough for roughly 6 months of unemployment, and then enroll in a developer bootcamp such as Flatiron, Hacker School, or App Academy.
Please follow me on my journey. Also, hit me up on twitter (mkurtz424) if you want to yell at me, tell me I suck, or other things.
Peace.
I am beginning my quest to ENSLAVE ALL THE COMPUTERS!
My good friend Dan Miller, as jazzy as he is, is helping to inspire me to further develop my skills as a coder.
CURRENT PLANS:
Step 1: Complete the Flatiron School Prework (http://prework.flatironschool.com/ roughly 80-100 hours worth of work) to learn great new things like Git Version Control, SQL and Databases, HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails.
Step 2: Possibly collaborate with Dan on a few projects, just to test the waters of being a real programmer.
Step 3: Continue my studies, put as much money as I can from my current job into a savings account, accumulate enough for roughly 6 months of unemployment, and then enroll in a developer bootcamp such as Flatiron, Hacker School, or App Academy.
Please follow me on my journey. Also, hit me up on twitter (mkurtz424) if you want to yell at me, tell me I suck, or other things.
Peace.
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