Coding Fun

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before – probably not, considering how infrequently I’ve actually been blogging!

But anyway.  Coding for fun!  Some time last summer (I think) I discovered CodeAcademy and I’ve been playing around on there ever since.  At the moment I’m going through their revised / new Javascript course, even though I’ve already done the original one.  Because I’m a geek and it’s fun.  I’m also working through the “Code Year” track, and I’m planning to do the PHP and Ruby ones after that.

Codeacademy profile
A bit of my profile.

It’s good for keeping my brain in gear. :-)

Mind you, I haven’t done much over, again, the last six months due to wonky-brain issues – more on that another time.  I’ve just started up again this week, though.  Unfortunately, where I picked up was right at the end of the original JS track, and I’d done something weird with my code.  Oops!  I haven’t tracked the bug down yet, but I’ll go back to it later on.  Doing the easier exercises on the new track should help me get my head back into the right place for that.

In which I have a revelation

It has just occurred to me that when I’ve been working on a post for this blog (on and off, but still) for nearly a week, then that post is probably really too long and it’s time for me to stop and think again.  I mean, really.  So, I’m going to break it up into two or three posts instead, and be much calmer about the whole thing.  It’s only a blog!  And that’s my little bit of life perspective for the week.  You’re welcome.

On Thankfulness

I don’t normally do this, since it isn’t Thanksgiving in the UK, but I think I will this year.  So here goes: Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3….

  1. My family and friends.  I’m lucky that I have people I’m close to, can have so much fun with, and can rely on.
  2. The Xandermog.  The biggest, daftest, and best moggy in the world.
  3. Technology.  Without it, I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with many people so easily – wouldn’t have met many of them in the first place, in fact – and my world would be a very different place.

There are many more things I could list (music! yarn! spinning! knitting!), of course, but those are three just off the top of my head.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Look back in confusion

No really though, where did September and October go?  I really had had every intention of posting, if not every day, then most days during these last two months.  The NaBloPoMo theme for Sept was Art, and I had relevant stuff to talk about on that subject… but it just didn’t happen.  However, maybe I’ll fit some of that in anyway.  As for the plan to do one necessary and one fun thing per day during Oct… Er.  I think I did?  It’s probably balanced out over all.

Anyway, now it’s November, which is the ‘big’ blog-every-day month.  Maybe one day I’ll try NaNoWriMo again, or even NaKniSweMo, but for now I’m sticking with the blogging.

Two things

Two things I’ve come across on the wide old interwebs have positively warmed my heart recently:

Man builds cat-sized village for homeless cats.  There’s a bloke who went from not really being a cat person, to clearly understanding who’s really in charge.  Like him, I welcome our inevitable feline overlords.

and

Knit-bombed Boris Bikes.  As the original poster comments, maybe not much protection against saddle soreness, but with autumn approaching, a saddle cosy might be just the thing to ward off the misery of a chilly posterior early in the morning!

Can I just say that I rather love the Boris Bikes.  At the moment you still have to apply online for a key card thingy, but even though I hardly ever go up to London I’m quite tempted to do so.  However, by the time I’m up next they might have rolled out the ‘casual use’ scheme, which I think will mean you can do it all directly at the bike stations.  Loads of people seemed to be using them when I was up to see the Proms.  Marvellous!

Fun things (Part 1?)

Alright, so I said I’d make sure I was doing at least one necessary thing and one thing for fun every day… how’ve I been doing so far?

Monday: Cleaned the bathroom and kitchen thoroughly; knitted and listened to podcasts.

Tuesday: Did my library volunteering (this doesn’t really count as a chore, but it’s a commitment, so I’ll count it!); went out to lunch and then round the Old Town with my Mum and visiting aunt and uncle.

Wednesday: Made a whole slew of necessary phone calls; went out for the day to Rye with Mum, aunt and uncle, and later to KnitJam.

Thursday: Waited in for a parcel and did housework; went to knit & natter at C House, took it easy in front of the telly (and caught up on Holby).

Friday: Did housework, sorted some paperwork; watched TV and knitted.

Saturday: Went to the vet, the chemist, the cash machine, the local shop and the post office (whew!); went geocaching along the seafront and found six caches, watched SCD then had a massively early night!

Sunday (today): Filled out a health cost help form (must remember to book my eye-test when/if that comes back), cleaned the kitchen; done a bit of knitting and listening to podcasts, and might pop out to do a geocache in a mo.

All work and no play…

… makes Loopylou something something?  Except it’s not like I do work in the traditional “going to work” sense, so never mind.  The reason I’m vaguely on this topic is that the theme for October’s NaBloPoMo is “Play”.  You can take any possible meaning of the word: playing an instrument, the play’s the thing, the play of something (light on water, for example), or simply playing a game and generally having fun.

I’m a couple of days late in starting, but I shall go from here.  I think for the most part, I’m going to try for the latter interpretation and make it my goal for the month to do at least one serious thing and one fun thing every day, then blog about it here.  That should mean I’ll get necessary things done, but also get a little reward in as well.  I might end up incorporating other meanings of the word, but we’ll see.

I think I’ll also finally play around with a new blog design (or two?), which comes somewhere between the categories – it’s something I’ve been meaning to do, but coding is fun so it’s not going to be any great hardship!