Learn to Code

            Today I want to tell you about a wonderful resource I came across for learning how to program: code.org . As those of you who are regulars around here know, I’ve been teaching myself to code for a little over a year now – and it’s been going well, with the one hiccup that I eventually run out of material on the website I’m learning from, and have to find another.

            Then a hashtag caught my attention on Twitter that was something about an hour of code. I did some research, and discovered that it was part of a movement for encouraging students to learn programming. I was enthralled, so I looked into it some more and found my way to this website that offered tons of lessons on coding – all for free. And so, my education continued.

            As technology becomes more and more prominent in the world, it’s becoming more important for people to understand how it works. Sure, it does what we want it to (at least, most of the time), but how does the technology actually accomplish this? Even a rudimentary understanding of coding is helpful in understanding what’s going on behind the screen, making it easier to deal with those infuriating times when the technology just won’t work properly.

            So, why not pop by code.org and learn a little about programming? Not only is it extremely good knowledge to have, but it’s fun, too! And it isn’t nearly as hard as you think. Really! Anyone can code.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Who Are You?

            As I sit here writing my 200^th blog, I can’t help but wonder – who are you? (It helps if you picture me pressing my nose up against my computer monitor, peering into it.) Yes, you, on the other side of this screen, reading these words that I’ve typed.

            Since starting this blog in 2013, it has had almost 10,000 hits. That’s around 50 visits per weekly post – not much, in the grand scheme of things, but pretty awesome considering how little effort I put into finding new readers.

            Now, I know who some of you are. Some are family and I know of a handful of friends who regularly come to read the latest thing that has spilled out of my head. That accounts for five to eight of those visits. There are a handful of others who visit when the link I share on Facebook catches their eye – I’m quite surprised by some of the people who have liked the links; people who I never would have thought would drop by my blog.

            That still accounts for less than half the visits. So, who are you, out there in the ether(net cables)? What is it that draws you to this place where I ramble about who-knows-what?

            Who are you?

            Well, whoever you are, thank you for dropping by. If you didn’t keep coming to read, I wouldn’t keep rambling – then I never would have reached 200 posts. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Also, happy Halloween!

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Letters and Words

            What are these things? These letters. Shapes. Symbols. Alone, they are meaningless. Nothing more than ink on paper. Paint on a wall. The temporary manifestation of light upon a screen.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

            See? Nothing. Just symbols. Each one is assigned a meaningless sound. We put them in order so we can learn and memorize them. So we can teach them and pass them on. We call it the alphabet because we have to call it something.

            Then we multiply them and mix them up. We lay them down beside each other and their combined sounds take on meaning. They form words. Those words, made up of odd symbols and sounds, mean something to us. They have power. The power to put images and thoughts in our head.

            Tree.

            Monkey.

            Pink rhinoceros.

            We string many of these words together, giving them more meaning. A sentence. We put together some sentences to make a paragraph, with even greater meaning. The more we add, the greater the meaning. With enough paragraphs, you have a book.

            Books contain much meaning.

            The same can be said of the rest of the world. One atom is meaningless. The more atoms that get added, the more meaning they have. They could become a tree. Ink on a page. A person.

            Why, then, do so many people try to tackle the world alone? Why, when grouping together can help us find meaning, is so much effort put into defining others as different and driving us apart?

            Together we could find so much meaning.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.