Planning a trip for my birthday

Code Academy Update

There has been some backlash from the whole "learning to code" meme.

I think, for me at least, learning some coding has increased my skills in other areas. That's probably because of what I took into it. I never thought that learning these skills would radically alter my career path, I just wanted to be able to look at a block of javascript or html and figure out what the heck was going on. Sitting at a computer eight hours a day writing code is not something that I would ever want to do!

I do realize that a lot of people may have jumped in, thinking that the payoff was going to be a job making 80k, that's a recipe for failure, and frustration.

I'm enjoying CodeAcademy more, now that the topics have moved on to HTML/CSS, something that I'm a little more familiar with. I was really starting to feel out of my element with the more advanced javascript.

I haven't messed around much with webdesign for a few years, and it's really cool to see how far the technology has come. I'm even working on a website for my business, but if that business were to ever really take off, I would hand the webdesign over to someone in a HEARTBEAT. It's important to know what your real strengths are.

Learning some new things has helped me to look at problems differently, and I don't see how that can be a bad thing.

My "New" PS3

A work friend had to replace his PS3. It was having the Yellow Light of Death issue that apparently becomes pretty common once these console's reach a certain age. He tried to take it apart and perform a fix he found on line but when that didn't work he just bought one of the new PS3 slim. So he asked me if I wanted it to mess around with. I figured what the heck, so I took it off his hands.

Once I got it home and opened the sucker up I realized how over my head I was! The previous owner had taken apart the heatsink and applied new thermal grease. The only other thing that I was comfortable with trying was replacing the power supply. So I bought one on EBay for $30. That didn't work so I returned it for a refund.

At this point I had decided to just put the thing on EBay for parts, and split the proceeds with the person I bought it from. Just for the heck of it, I did a search online for PS3 repair centers. I came across Professional Satellite Repair. They offer a free diagnostic, so I figured for the price of shipping, they could tell me whether or not it was worth repairing.

After shipping it out, I got a call the NEXT DAY (they are located in Pennsylvania) that it could be repaired for the flat fee of $119. I gave the OK. Then they called me the NEXT DAY and told me it was done. I gave them my billing info.  I paid on Friday, I got the console back the following Monday.

That level of service is impressive. Turn around time ship it, have it repaired, and get it back was less than 5 business days! Now they are located in the same state as me, so that would certainly vary if you live farther away. Honestly, I have so many ways to play games, I really wasn't in a hurry. I'm probably only going to use it mostly to play Blu-ray DVD's and stream Netflix. Still, I was very impressed.

Professional Satellite Repair...Two Thumbs UP!

Now if I could just find the time to play!

Storm Damage - Review

I've enjoyed reading this book. It's been a nice change of pace after reading so much George R.R. Martin.

The story is set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Retired police officer, Cliff St. James (horrible name), is working to recover from the storm damage to his Dojo. Since leaving the New Orleans Police Department, he has worked as an MMA trainer. The Storm Damage to his Dojo has caused him to fall on lean times, so when a murdered friends daughter walks into his Dojo one day with the offer of  money to investigate her father's murder he jumps at the chance.

This is pure escapism. All of the characters are basically Hollywood movie stereotypes.
Asian gang members, African American MMA fighters, Crooked politicians. Rough and tumble former police detectives with a heart of gold.

Still, it's an entertaining read. It's a like Carl Hiassen novel, without the entertaining characters, and plot that keeps you guessing.

Learning to Code

I'm a computer technician.

I have no formal education for that career outside of the usual entry level computer courses that everyone has to take to get a college degree (and I took those courses when monochrome monitors were the norm). So all of the skills that I have learned have been: on the job, self taught, trial and error. To get my Microsoft certification I bought a book, studied, and took the test. To get my A+ certification I did the same thing. I used to enjoy learning new things and actually working towards a goal. There was no monetary reward for me, I never got any bonuses, or raises because of what I had learned. I just used what I learned to make my life easier.

Same thing with the small amount of HTML I've learned. I just had to know it to do a website for some friends that were in a band, but I enjoyed learning it. It allowed me to be creative. It wasn't ever going to be my primary job, but at least I wasn't lost when people talked about web design, cascading style sheets, and tables (remember them).

That was ten years and two kids ago. During that time, I started a small part time business, and bought a house. So I've had to learn some different skills. I've enjoyed that too.

!@#$!$%$! nested if statements.

I came to the realization, late last year, that I was in a rut, and I didn't like it. I couldn't put my finger on it at first , but I finally traced it back to not challenging myself enough. That's when I decided that I needed to learn something different, that would challenge me, and be useful to me in my everyday life. So I decided that I should learn how to Code. Programming has always been something that I know exists, but had no real understanding of how it works. I would never hesitate to rip open a computer to see how it works, why have I allowed programming languages to be so out of reach?

It wasn't really a New Year's resolution, I just decided that I should learn to code this year...OK maybe it was sort of like a New Year's resolution. Apparently, alot of people have thought the same thing. Although I was the first!

I haven't attempted to do any sort of programming since High School, so I'm starting from scratch. Luckily there are some great resources out there.

Right now I'm bouncing between Code Academy, and Learning Python. The two languages are different enough that I have to really change gears when I switch between the two. They both have an embedded interpreter for their respective language that you can use to write the required code, and then have it tested to see if it meets all of the requirements for the "Lesson".

Code Academy uses the idea of  "Gamification" to try and encourage you to learn. If you reach certain mile stones you get badges. You can share these via Twitter or Facebook if you like. It sounds like such a simple thing, but honestly I get a kick out of it. Once I figured out the Nested If statement I needed to complete the "FizzBuzz" challenge, damn straight I wanted that badge! That was a real challenge for my incredibly illogical mind.

I'm not going to create a million dollar app. I may never even use these skills in my day to day life, but at least I'm learning something new!