This has been a question that I have been asking myself a lot more lately. Mainly cause, there are recruiters, and applications and cover letters that are asking me to answer this question. Now that I am in the process of finishing up my portfolio and starting to look for work, this question keeps popping up.

Who am I?

In the past, I felt like I had a very defined answer to this question. But, truth be told, I didn’t like the answer. It was business, it was refined, it was colorless. It wasn’t an expression of me. One thing that has happened to me as a result of going through this bootcamp and short lived yoga experience is that I don’t settle. I don’t settle for anything anymore that isn’t exactly what I want. That doesn’t mean that I always know what I want….cause I don’t. But I for sure know what I don’t want. And that is to be an ordinary, tasteless drone going through the...

I am not the kind of person that likes to walk around making grand statements. Well, I don’t like making grand statements that I don’t believe. So trust me when I say that I wouldn’t have made a title like this (see above) if there wasn’t some real logic on why I believe that this is true.

One of the things that I believe has slowed me down in life are gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are the people, places or things that have to validate whatever it is that you are offering, so that you can get access to whatever it is that you are wanting. They require a lot from a person, and often occupy a lot of time. This could be anything…from getting into the college you want (admissions gatekeepers), to finding the spouse that you want (social gatekeepers), etc. But there is something that we have now that we didn’t have in the past.

We have technology.

And that changes everything. I don’t mean this...

Lately there has been some talk about .Net framework becoming open source. .Net is Microsoft’s server-side client that is used in building web applications, among other things. Apparently, Microsoft’s choice to open source some of its software is a pretty big deal. They are know as the king of proprietary software.

So why is this interesting to me at all? I used to be all about Microsoft. It was what I had access to at work. I became a wizard at Access and reporting diva with Excel. SQL server management studio was my friend. I even took myself to SQL Saturday and joined PASS. I don’t regret that time, or those choices. I don’t hate Microsoft. But this was my exposure to software development before the Iron Yard. Before I discovered open source development. The difference?….for me is that, Open Source stuff is just more fun.

Microsoft’s world seems more corporate. More stody, and...

A couple of years ago I trained for a marathon. It was grueling, it was hard, it was a challenge. There were Saturday morning runs that started at 4 am. And plenty of mornings when I was falling behind the group, that I asked myself–“What the hell are you doing?”

Then there were the mornings where I pushed through the pain, and experienced the runners high.

This elusive thing that happens when your body stops resisting the constant pounding on the pavement, and actually starts to flow. It starts to feel good to run. It makes you want to run faster. And the best part is…once you have experienced it…you know it exists. So when you feel the pain the next time you run, you just wait, cause you know that high is coming.

It is addictive.

I feel like that has happened to me again, this time with programming. For months I have suffered through the frustrating moments, and the nights...

Last friday was Demo Day, and the last day of class for my cohort.

It took me until now to write about it cause I have literally fallen into a semi-coma from being so tired, and so sick. Although I wasn’t in a reality show, it felt like that the last couple of weeks. I had a cold, that turned into a severe upper respiratory infection and bronchitis. I was in denial, mainly because I had a final project to finish. But once I wasn’t breathing properly, and going through coughing fits–I had to go to the ER. I am not a good sick person, so this was horrible for me.

Once I was on heavy drugs, I was terrified cause I still had a half formed project to complete, and I knew that I was in no condition to complete it. Luckily, I had a half started a side project. And luckily my instructor allowed me the chance to build it up to par for Demo day. And luckily, I was able to do it…and get it...

So today I had a hard day.

Actually, it has been a hard week. Never mind that I have been sick for the last 2 weeks. I mean, really sick (really, now is that time I get sick)!
Never mind that I had to re-start my final project this week.
Never mind that for whatever reason, the right code just won’t come into my brain and out through my fingertips.

Hence, today was a hard day for me.

So I didn’t freak out, (cause my project is due in a week!) like I would have done in the past. I decided to come home, recharge a bit, and then reboot to start anew. Maybe working on a side project would get me into the groove of things again?

Never mind side project, even you are not working right (I wrote the form, but its not rendering….anywhere…wtf)! So, ok, fine…I get it. Today is not a good coding day, I decided that if i can’t code properly right now, the least I can do is do some online...

Now that I am in then last two weeks of class, I am starting to get excited, and freaked out at the same time. For reasons that include:

My final project.

Everyday I feel empowered that I can do this, and that its not even that hard. At some point during that same day, I feel like I haven’t learned anything. I know that this has been a theme of mine, and its still happening. Its exciting to work on a long term project, but it is also a bit scary to try to build something from scratch. You don’t want to know how many times I have contemplated scratching everything and starting all over.

Class is almost over

As much as my brain has had to stretch and grow over the last 2 ½ months, you would think that I would look forward to the end. But actually, I have gotten used to learning something new everyday, and trying to stretch myself to understand it all. The idea that it will end in a...

This weekend I spent my whole weekend working.

Not on my rails lab assignment, which is usually how I spend my weekend, but working on a building a startup, in just 3 days.

The experience was so amazing. Even though I stayed perpetually tired, I learned so much. More than anything, I realized that it isn’t that hard to come up with a really great business if you know how. Over the course of the weekend I worked very little on writing code, and a lot more on understanding how to find and execute a problem worth solving.

The group that I worked with was focused on building an application that would connect farmers to restauarants. But–it didn’t start off that way. Originally, we thought that farmers wanted to be connected more to individual customers. There are already farmers making deliveries to individuals, so it seemed that the demand was there, and that this space was ripe for...

This week I participated in my first hack-a-thon, hacktoberfe.st. This was conveniently put on at The Iron Yard, and also coincided with the end of the 2nd month of classes.

So…what difference has a month made?

A lot. Things that used to keep me up for hours (like figuring out which code goes in my controller) are now becoming second nature. Not necessarily easier, but more familiar. And new concepts are becoming easier to grasp, like Javascript (who knew?).

Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean that I don’t constantly feel like I am failing. Like writing code, that feeling of failure is becoming more familiar to me everyday. I am taking it more now as just another part of the process. I try not to stress myself to the max over every project. This is still hard for me, cause I like to succeed. But I am learning that just cause I couldn’t do it last week doesn’t mean that I won’t...

Most of us take reading and writing for granted. If you were raised in a western nation, you have probably been reading since before going to school, and maybe even writing before school as well. No one questions whether or not reading and writing is a good, or necessary thing. In fact, its a sign of pride when you have a child that shows the ability to read or write earlier than others.

We see it as a natural thing, like learning to walk and talk.

But, its not. Reading and writing are learned skills. Things that our culture and society deem implicit to your ability to interact. In fact, if you don’t know how to read and write, this can be a huge hinderance to your ability to participate. Don’t believe me, go somewhere where they speak, and write in a language that you don’t know. See how far you can get.

It hasn’t always been this way. Reading and writing used to be taught to only...