Working with Chef This Week!

I'm digging a little deeper into the DevOps world. Doing OpsCode's Chef tutorial.

Free Ruby Learning Resources

A list of some resources for learning Ruby (not Rails) and my comments about them. I'll add to and edit these as I go. Ruby is the important part, after all.

Learn Ruby the Hard Way You start with the very basics, working in irb, not in their own online environment. I like it.

Codecademy This was originally started as an online Javascript learning tool, but now offers several languages. The best part? Your answers are validated by their gamified scoring system so you know if you are on the right track. Unfortunately, this does not emulate a real development environment.

Rubymonk One of the many Bhuddism-flavored learning resources that is a fun way to practice your skills and pass to the next exercise--and maybe pick up a little wisdom along the way. Browser environment.

Ruby Koans My first exposure to Ruby, and one of the tools that made me love it. There is an introduction to testing methodology as a way to solve the koans.

Project Euler Not specifically Ruby, but this is a series of algorithm exercises that you can work out in using Ruby. Break it down!

Create a New Rails App in a Previous Version of Rails

So, I have Rails 4.0 installed and have been playing around with it, but I wanted to make a new app in the current stable version I have installed, which is 3.2.12. My system was defaulting to 4.0 since I had installed it. I didn't want to uninstall it. You can do this with RVM by creating a new gemset, but as a hobbyist developer, it just seemed convoluted to me.

The easiest way I found to create a new app in a version of Rails previous to 4.0?

1. Create your new app: 'rails new new_app'. 
2. Open the Gemfile from a recent project using 3.2.12 
3. Copy the text of the Gemfile.
4. cd into your new_app folder. 
5. Open the new_app Gemfile in your text editor. 
6. Paste the text you just copied into that Gemfile. This also ensures that the dependencies are there for your previous version of Rails. The dependencies for 4.0 will not work. 
7. Remove any gems you know you will not be using in new_app that you may have added to the previous app. 
8. 'bundle install' and you've got yourself a previous version and you've still got 4.0 installed. 

Today in Intermediate RailsBridge!

Going through the Intermediate RailsBridge Curriculum, building it without using most of the generators to understand the structures.

Also, five different types Ruby of variables and when they're used.

Extremely critical Ruby on Rails bug threatens more than 200,000 sites

Uh-oh...if you have not yet upgraded your site, apparently, the time is now. 

Read more here. 

Bodywork == Debugging Code

When I tell potential employers I also do massage, they always seem to highlight that it is so divergent from coding. Personally, I have never felt that the two are that different. Here is why:

Most people have an idea of what they perceive to be "massage". What that is, I can not control. It's pretty much based on what they have experienced previously. Usually however, their idea of what it is...is simply not what I do.

While I am intuitive and do practice compassion and holding space for my clients to simply be for a short time, I do not and never have considered myself a "spiritual healer", nor do I intentionally manipulate their energy. That is just not my realm. 

The body work I do is very technical and is like solving a puzzle. I work with muscle relationships. I talk to clients about their activities and injury history, do some movement assessment, look at the kinetic chain, possible Trigger Point referral patterns, observe compensation patterns, misalignments and imbalances, then address--not necessarily the muscles that the client complains hurt, which could actually exacerbate the problem they are having--but often the muscles that are opposing the strained tissue. It is often confusing to the client ("Can you please spend more time on my back? That's where it hurts."). It's not always pleasant--and it's not for everyone. But with clear communication, and a collaborative process, it works. Together, my clients and I have many times discovered the root cause of an issue that they have been trying to resolve for years. It demands a passion and a curiosity for the structure of the body and a desire to enable it to function optimally.

I bring that same curiosity and passion to a body of code.

I was explaining this the other day to a small group of Ruby developers, and someone made the connection I have been trying to articulate for so long: "It's like debugging code!" YES! FINALLY! Someone gets it! Thank you Zassmin.

Yes, I am excited and proud to say: "I am a bodyworker AND a coder, and they are not that different, regardless of what your preconceived notions are!"

I'm completing the new Intermediate RailsBridge Curriculum as laid out and posted here, including nested resources, partials, multiple associations, bootstrap css, and more!