Learning to code: Day 359

Well I can't believe it, it's almost been 1 year from when I decided to teach myself how to code and get hired on my own. A lot has happened in less than a year it's hard to believe sometimes. I am just now getting used to not shoeing horses and catching myself saying: "I shoe horses" when asked what I do for a living.

I was shocked when someone at work said: "Oh he's one of the engineers" I was thinking, I hope no one hears that :-)  My back used to hurt me SO bad I couldn't sit in a chair for more than 30 minutes. It is just now starting to really feel quite a bit better and not hurt all the time. I've lost my last callous on my hands. I was riding home with a weird feeling today thinking: "Holy crap, everything is so different for me now."

Some big things are happening still, my friend +J. Terrell Allen who 's learning to code himself and is currently an awesome writer recently took my book and gave it a much needed facelift and made it look like super sweet. I will have the "much better formatted" version up on Amazon sometime this week. Thanks J! If you guys need any work done in regards writing, you need to look J up at @jterrell. Even if you don't need any writing done, check out his inspiring "learn to code" blog at J.T's Big Coding Adventure J is a former pastry chef, technical trainer and currently author and freelance writer. The man is going places :-)

This week I was also just contacted by Listen and Think Audio™. They said they really liked my book and wanted to make the audio version and put it up on Audible.com, Listen and Think Audio™ heard about me from Dan Miller's Podcast. The whole process to pick out a narrarator, record the book and get everything done will take 6+ weeks so it won't happen tomorrow but it felt really good to have a company contact me out of the blue.

I currently am mentoring +Dustin James for the next 8 months (or until he gets hired) and do a Google hangout with him every Sunday night when my kids go to bed. I was thinking though that I'd like to teach some basic things that would be useful, maybe do a monthly "group" hangout, just for an hour or so. I'd teach things like: "How to quickly make a Gist using Jist", "How to install some basic Gems", "How to do some basic Html/Css", "How to convert Html to Haml", "How to use Firebug like a pro". 

I'm not sure how many people can get on a Google hangout at one time, and I'm not sure how much interest there will be. If enough people are interested, I'll do it, if it goes well, I'll do it again.
Email me if you want to be in the first "group" learning session. Email me at Joshuakemp85@gmail.com. Also tell me 3 or 4 things you would like to know more about. 

-Josh