Ok…so there is this app that allows you to create static sites. Awesome!
But in the last few days, I have been growing to hate it.

Its a great help when it comes to launching a website, which I can barely do. But for me–it has also become a hindrance at the same time.

And here are some reasons why:

1. Middleman is huge

Basically you can install this as a gem in ruby. Great right. Ruby is awesome like that. But it comes with so much stuff, and folders, etc…that it can be hard to figure out what is going wrong when you are deploying your website. At least it is for me, maybe because I am a beginner.

2. Middleman, and Git, and screwing yourself in the terminal
Yes, I have done this. I have tried to do a middleman build, and ended up somehow messing stuff up. Not committing to the right git repository etc…. I know, I know, its a user error. But, when in doubt, blame the software…

...

I thought that by the time I finished my Ruby Blackjack game, I would be running through the hills, singing of course.

Or, at the very least, I would have a badass finale post. I would write about how I championed over my bad code, beat it to the ground, covered up its tracks, and came out with something that works.
And–don’t get me wrong, I am sooooooo happy that it works, and that I am done. But now that I have finally moved past that obstacle, I realized that I feel differently than I thought. I think its cause…

I fell a little more in love with code this weekend.

Finishing up blackjack definitely had something to do with it. Mostly I think it was seeing that code that I wrote was working. That makes me feel like all of my hours with my head in my hands was not completely in vain. But also, I felt what it feels like to achieve something significant.

And I haven’t felt that...

Today I made the decision to stay home, instead of going into Start Houston for our lab day. I didn’t stay home cause I was giving up, or even because I was tired. I stayed home so that I could learn.

Let me back up.

Thursday in class, Jesse showed the leaderboard for the Code School courses that our entire class had access to. And to my surprise, I didn’t see my name–at all. Mind you–I had been going back to our pre-work since the first day of school to figure out what are the pieces of the puzzle that I was missing. And to not see my name….gave me extreme pause.

And then I realized. All this time—I had missed out on all these courses.

This was huge for me. Cause, for the last couple of weeks I have seriously been questioning why this so hard for me. This was why I was feeling so lost. Not that I was a bumbling idiot (which has been my fear), but because of some weird log in...

During my Ruby trials and tribulations I have often felt as though I was the only stupid person in my class. Or at least the only stupid person who sustains their stupidity as long as it feels that I have (it has been feeling like forever!!!) That was…until today.

After another intriguing, interesting, inspiring, mind-blowing and scary class where we got this weeks new lab (this is not what the post will be about, although I see that coming in my future), I was chatting with my classmates when I realized….I am not alone. Not only are there some who feel just as overwhelmed and understaffed by brain cells as I do, but they expressed feeling like they were the only ones too.

Even though we were warned that this class was going to be a challenge, and there will be some dark days, I didn’t realize how much of the challenge will be a test of my will. After almost three weeks of pushing my...

Although I had planned on writing a triumphant post to finalize my Ruby blackjack….its not quite like that.

I gave up on refactoring and making my code look better (it kept breaking something else)

I gave up on classes (I kept getting confused on what broke)

Instead…I just wrote it out. And it works….kinda

There are still some bugs to it.

But I got a user interface and it is working now. So I am hoping that a good night rest and some prayer will get her done!

I have been tinkering with it for hours and can’t quite seem to get it to act right. And so continues my Ruby saga…..

Today has been a long day, and I am still not done with my blackjack. So I made the goal to at least make progress, so that tomorrow I can finish out the remaining steps.

I took Jesse’s advice, and went ahead and completed the UI questions. Such as, Do you want to hit or stay? So they are ready when I get there.

I also started scripting out psuedo-code for how I plan to set up the conditional statements that will trigger the string interpolated responses.

Whew!

But as far as actual code that works and does something… today, this is what I got:

deal_cards = deck.shift

dealer_hand = deal_cards.value + deal_cards.value

player_hand = deal_cards.value + deal_cards.value

p dealer_hand

p player_hand

I know that it don’t seem like much, but trust me. It took me hours (and research) to get here. And I am still not quite getting what I want.

I am hoping that getting a much needed...

Last week we were assigned a lab that required us to create the game blackjack in Ruby.

This has been the bane of my existence ever since. I am still not done (and it was due today). I have struggled and written, deleted and rewritten code over and over.

But I have been able to work out a few kinks, so as I continue to work on this, I plan on sharing. I, myself have been trolling the internet for help, but there did seem to be that much out there to help me out.

So here is my tiny contribution to the ruby world.

My first problem was creating the cards for the deck. So that is what I will show in this post. Disclaimer: There are many ways to do this, this is mine (so far) and I posted it cause it works (finally).

I couldn’t quite figure out what to do…so I ended up creating each card…individually. It ain’t pretty, but it works..

Here it goes:

create a class for the card, and...

I have commented before on how there is an odd and interesting relationship between my yoga practice, and my experiences as a developer. But in the last week I have noticed that both seem to be pointing to my same strengths and weaknesses.

So…What’s up with that?

Both have brought up my persistent fear of failure. And being that I am starting 2 new things…this is something that comes up often.

Also I have noticed that there is a guilt when asking for help. I always feel like I should know…or that if I have to ask the I am doing someone else a huge disservice.

And last but not least…I am extra hard on myself about everything.

These are things that I know that I will have to get over, but it sucks realizing that this is the stuff holding me back.

ugggh!

I know I know, realizing it is the first step. Can I get to step 10 now?

“Oh make me a red cape…I want to be superman” – ‘83 (John Mayer)

It has been roughly 3 weeks since I have started both Yoga Teacher Training as well as The Iron Yard. During this time I have felt some lows and a lot of highs. But what I wasn’t prepared for was feeling a bit like a little kid again.

Maybe it is because of the all the new things I am learning, maybe it is because of the life changing course I started when I quit my job. But whatever is causing it, I am feeling similar to a little kid.

I pack my lunch everyday, I get snacks, I even get a mandatory savasana (nap) during yoga. I really don’t have the time to make a lot of decisions. The decisions seem to be made for me now that I have picked these paths. I got homework to do, for both yoga and Iron Yard, and I don’t have room to do my usually mental back and forth about what I am going to do and how I am going to do it.

1. Buying good headphones is a necessary purchase

This was the first thing that I noticed I needed when I started coding for hours at a time. I can’t imagine have to solve these types of problems in silence. Even though I loved Spotify before, they have become my best mate. Never underestimate how important it is to have your head engulfed in music, while you are also drowning in code.

2. Daily caffeine consumption is a way of life

I am not a person who drinks a lot of coffee. And I only drink sodas every now and then. That was…until I became a developer. Now…I don’t crave caffeine, I require it to keep my brain going. You would be hard pressed to find a developer who does not have some injection method of caffeine into their system on a daily basis.

3. You have failed more times in one day, than you will succeed in one week (or month!)

This is a big one. I fail all day long...