The last few days I have been in New Orleans taking a mini-vacation. It was much needed after the last few months. As much as I was hoping to completely disconnect, I did bring my computer with me so I could continue to work on some code. I was able to get some things done….but not as much as I had hoped. That will be my goal over the next few days. Nevertheless, the trip was totally worth it cause I got the much needed chance to just relax.

Once I was officially away and in this new city my mind had a chance to recalibrate. I, as usual, am way more preoccupied on my next steps. But while in Nola I had the chance to think about some of my past steps, such as my work in anthropology, and consider where that has taken me.

New Orleans is a great city for that, for relaxed reflection. It’s motto in my head is laissez les bon temps roulez (cajun for let the good times roll). Not just...

A few weeks ago I was interviewed for the Iron yard. That’s me above with my instructor, Jesse. To my surprise, I made the final cut of the video (yay! mixed with….its so weird seeing myself on camera). Jesse made the cut too.

Check it out!

http://vimeo.com/116286145

My hope is that other people who are looking for a change, give this some serious thought. My time at the Iron Yard really did change me, and my life. My hope is that there will be more young women like me who take the plunge, cause frankly…there weren’t that many of us standing next to me. And that needs to change.

The Iron Yard - Learn to code. Life’s too short for the wrong career. I truly believe that!

In my daily porusing of sites related to ruby and rails I came upon a wordpress blog…

Erik Brooke’s Blog and I really enjoyed reading it. The post that brought me there was becoming a junior rails dev. I am always interested in how people got to where they are, and he chronicles that here.

What’s also quite useful are some of the resources that he links to (hint: check those out, there are really good).

It got me thinking about what I would do if I had to do it all again…

Here is what I came up with;

1. I would have tried to become a web dev sooner

I was always concerned that I wasn’t really technical. Sure I was an analyst, and I wrote sql scripts…but I never felt like a developer. In turn, I didn’t think of myself as one and I didn’t learn like one. I was interested in python and web development, but I didn’t go to the meetups, and felt that I needed to master sql before...

Over the last few days I have been working on polishing up my projects for my portfolio. This has been a strange process. Its not that I can’t do the work, I can, its more of going through the mental exercise that is weirding me out.

Let me explain.

My code is emotional for me. There, I said it. But it kinda is. One of these nights recently, I read about how coding is just another form of writing. I probably read this around 2 am in the morning, but it instantly resonated with me. Going back over some of my old code is like reading through a diary. A diary written during a time when I was learning how to write. It can be painful, interesting, and enlightening all at the same time. But overall, it is weird to be so emotionally attached to the process of it all.

Cause not only is reading the actual code weird, but remembering how I felt when I wrote it is way more weird. I remember...

I am taking this course on coursera right now, and it is truly enlightening. Since I have just completed an intense course, with a grueling learning curve, I thought it a good idea to find out a bit more about how people learn. What I am finding is that my instincts were right about what was working for me and not working for me while in bootcamp. Now I am learning the science behind why.

Here are some of the highlights so far:

1. Focused and Diffused Modes
   
   This represents two ways of thinking that your brain needs in order to properly pick up new material. Focused is the mode of concentrated thinking. Its what you are doing when you study, and the way that many of us have been taught to learn. Diffused is what you are doing when you are not studying. It is a non focused way of learning. So this explains why when you are taking a walk, or in the shower your brain can solve a problem...

I don’t have OCD, but I have feeling that I am borderline. That could be my bachelors in psychology speaking, but mostly its my experience.

I have obsessions. They keep me up at night. They bother the people around me at times. But I love them.

Its what keeps me dreaming. Its why I love fantasy movies. Its why I went to code school. Its why I stay up late at night listening to talks by DHH and practicing writing rails apps. Its why I am constantly trying to find other anthropologists who are integrated into this technical world. I keep trying to take the pieces of myself and discover who the whole person that is me really is.

Career is my obsession. Not because I want to be defined by my job. But because I want to do work that is a reflection of who I am. So obsessing over how to describe myself, and the work that I do, and why I do it is a natural part of my existence. I am...

Although I refuse to have a list of formal new years resolutions, one thing I want this year is to read some of the books that I have already bought. I am not a woman that likes to shop, but I am unapologetic about spending money on books, physical and digital. I have so many that I have a hard time keeping up.

So this is the beginning of my reading list (I am sure that I will upgrade as the year goes on). I made this list by gathering books from around my house, and by looking up books that I have waiting for me in my kindle. My first observation is that I need to start reading more fiction(that will get added in as the year goes on, but I digress)!

Here is the list so far:

1. Digital Ethnography–Natalie M. Undergerg and Elayne Zorn
2. Cyborg Anthropology–Amber Case
3. Networking is Not Working–Derek Coburn
4. Never Eat Alone–Keith Ferrazzi
5. The 4-Hour Workweek–Tim Ferris
6. The Passionate...

I have never done this before, but this year it seems fitting to do some sort of reflection on all that has happened. For me, this has been a huge year of change, especially for my career. So here are the highlights of what 2014 brought me.

Career Change

This has been the largest change, with twist and turns that I didn’t expect. I started the year, as a contract employee being moved to full time. I was working as a business and data analyst in an oil and gas company. I was hoping to continue growing my analyst career, with the intention of moving more into business analytics and reports.
Then shit got real at my job, and I had to make a change.

Around the same time, I heard about the Iron Yard and starting asking myself, and my husband, if I could really do this. I had been trying to teach myself how to code for some time on my own, and with the current situation, I thought it...

Because I have spent so much time at home coding during this holiday season, I have been watching movies in the background. Some good, some ok, some are just the movies that you need to play in the background.

In doing this, I ran into an issue. I can’t always find movies that fit the mood that I am in. Its hard to google this, unless you already know what movie it is that you want to watch.

So then I had an idea…what if I made a site for this. At least that way, the next time my husband asks me what I mean by I want to watch a movie that isn’t too loud but has a good story. Plus I like to watch a lot of movies. Not because I am a film critic, mostly because I am a visual person and I love storytelling.

Hence the creation of saturdaymovies.net

I hope to make this site useful (especially for me). Since it is wordpress site, then it gives me the chance to learn PHP as I customize...

The last few weeks have been quite hectic. Really, it has been the last month and a half.

First there was the beginning of the end of school (aka, picking my final project). There was was Thanksgiving, which was really me trying to determine how to organize my final project with a big meal thrown in. Then there was the death bed sickness, followed by the end of the Iron Yard (tear!). Then working on resumes, portfolios and reminding myself that it’s Christmas time.

Now its like…what, the year is over in a few days? I still have so much to do, so much to learn, etc… But in all the mayhem I have noticed that this a certain quietness that has come into my life. It surrounds me like blanket, and keeps me insulated from the “real” world. I truly appreciate it. This quietness has allowed me to be almost singularly focused on the mission at hand. Which is my transition from developer...