Drums, Rails, Robots

Monday, September 7th, 2009

I know this is lame given it’s only September, but this year has been incredible for me. I don’t know how many of you believe in or follow astrology like myself, but 2009 saw Jupiter return to Aquarius; a year long transit which happens only once every 12 years. Basically this sets all us Aquas up for a potentially fruitful 12 months, which has definitely been the case for myself.

At the beginning of the year, whilst not subscribing to any New Year resolutions, I promised myself I’d get back into drumming. I also wanted to start a project of my own outside of my insurance business, and I wanted to dedicate a lot of time to learning Rails.

Let there be drums

Drumming used to be my identity. I was 14 when my dad spontaneously brought home a 5-piece acoustic kit. I parked my backside on the leathery stool, curiously latched onto a pair of 7As, and I let myself fall madly in love. From that moment onwards, music was all I could think about. I gave up playing after my dad died, only because the business required most of my time and energy. Now I’ve got to a decent stage with work where I can let my mind wander onto other things.

Only recently have I been presented with the perfect opportunity to get back into drumming. I’ve scored unused office space which I have access to 7 days a week. It’s a 20 minute drive from my house and everything is safe and secure. Now my kit, which hasn’t seen the light of day in roughly 4 years, is getting a good thrashing on a regular basis. I can’t begin to put into words how happy this has made me.

Ruby on Rails

I’m still chugging away with Rails, and yes, I am getting more comfortable with it, but it’s going to take time for me to get to the stage I hope to be at. A big inspiration has been Hellamega, or more specifically Andrew Cornett. He’s the guy behind Live for Fame, which you may have seen me Tweeting about once or twice.

Upon asking him how he got to the stage where he was coding (fabulous) sites in Rails, he answered “Just reading most of the books you’ve got, and looking around at tutorials online”. This has encouraged me to keep chipping away at it, because now I know that how I am learning is capable of taking me to the level Andrew is at.

Other than that…

Have you noticed a change in the pictures I’ve been taking? Since getting my camera last year, I told myself I’d learn how to properly use it. Man, I’m such a procrastinator! Fortunately Rick has shared his knowledge on the subject, and it’s been invaluable in helping me improve. Not that I want to take photography any further than a hobby, but I definitely want to make the most of what I can do with my camera. I think Santa is going to bring me a Speedlite.

On the rusty, tin covered side of things, a lot of people have asked whether I’ve turned my back on Robot Panties, perhaps spurred by the ever increasing silence from my robot friend? The answer is NO, of course not. Problems were inevitably encountered, but I’ve been working hard at solving them behind the scenes. I’m still not sure what to expect when it comes to launching. Ideally I want to use this as a platform for experimentation; trying different techniques with marketing, stamping my personality on it, generally adding to my experience in business.

I’m also finding I have to take an in-depth look at my time management skills (or lack there of). In terms of work, I’m not being as efficient as I know I can be. I have to figure out how to effectively make the most of my working hours considering I have a seemingly insurmountable list of things to do. This is the problem with working within a small company – delegating isn’t always a viable option, so you often find yourself taking on board most of the work. If anyone has links to insightful articles on time management, please fire them over here!

What have you been up to?

Tags: Robot Panties, Ruby on Rails
Posted in Personal, Work | 5 Comments »

RoR Is Going Well. Kind Of.

Friday, May 1st, 2009

The past couple of days has seen me making a(nother) serious attempt with Ruby on Rails. Like I mentioned before, a vast majority of tutorials are dated, meaning you can learn a little about what you’re doing here and there, but then get stumped half way through because a particular way of doing something has changed. Frustrating.

I signed up to Lynda.com, which is pretty well known for decent tutorials. I think I got through the first 4 chapters of training without any hiccups, even going so far as things finally clicking with me. Before that there hadn’t been much logic attached to why ‘that’ returns ‘this’ and so on, but that was changing, and I was getting really excited about finally getting somewhere.

Unfortunately even this tutorial is dated, which was made apparent when I got to the section on scaffolding, a method which has since changed. I fired off an email to Lynda, telling them (her?) they should seriously consider updating their tutorials considering it’s paid content. While it may not be so bad for someone who’s comfortable enough with the language to figure a way around it, it completely through me – a newbie – off track. They’re response, however, was that they have no current plans for new, up-to-date tutorials.

With all that said and done, why am I actually fixated upon learning Rails? A couple of reasons, both of which are work related. I’d love to revamp the quote system we use across all our sites for customers to obtain quotes and take out cover. Right now we’re using our agent’s effort, which obviously works well enough, but the look is tied into their brand, not ours. I also have an idea for a basic app we could offer with each new let property policy – or to sell individually – which is property related. Aside from that, developing has always intrigued me, and judging by how much fun I’m having getting hands on with Rails, I’d say I’ve definitely found something worth exploring.

Tags: Ruby on Rails
Posted in Work | 2 Comments »

I Want To Delve Back Into Ruby

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Last year I set aside some time to get hands on with Ruby on Rails. I have several ideas for work related web apps that I believe could benefit our customers. We could offer them free with every new let policy, giving potential customers an extra incentive to take out cover with us. Not to mention it’s something fun for me to learn and experiment with.

I took about a week off from my usual work schedule. I chatted to a few programmers, and every one was of the same consensus; RoR is piss easy to learn! One guy even told me he was coding his first web app the same day. So, seeing as I tend to pick these things up relatively quickly, I figured the learning curve wouldn’t be too steep.

Yeah. Umm, I was wrong. I followed a few tutorials after spending too much time actually searching for up-to-date RoR techniques. Most were out of date, which I didn’t realise until about a quarter of the way through. Doh. Eventually, after many a headache (and copious amounts of coffee), I completed my first Ruby on Rails web app after closely following an up-to-date tutorial, and I thought I was kinda starting to get it.

So, what better way to further your skills than to get your hands dirty? After that I started building the web app I had dreamt up in my head for work. I didn’t get too far. Okay, I didn’t get far at all. Because, as it turns out, I really needed to follow more tutorials and familiarise myself with RoR even more so. But, like I said, most tutorials are dated.

Steep learning curve (for me at least) aside, I think I’ve left it long enough that I’ll actually have to start from scratch. It’s OK, though, as I’m serious about learning this. For as much basic front-end coding I have to do for my job, I think I’d have much more fun doing back-end stuff. But… Where exactly do I go from here?

Tags: Ruby on Rails
Posted in Work | 4 Comments »