Category Archives: ironhack

Just a few beers and a rooftop

The home stretch

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So this week marks the final chapter in my Ironhack Bootcamp. It’s been a ride, that’s for sure! Last week we started our Final Projects – a web development project of our own choosing and structure. On Friday we present our projects and then on Saturday I head back to Real Life in Montpellier.

No project is the same as another, so it’s a really diverse mix of technologies and approaches. My project is a riff on the AirBnB model but for specialty bicycles and is built on Ruby on Rails with the front-end based on the Foundation framework. My approach was focussed on getting the main back-end functionality completed before beginning the front and that worked pretty well in my case. Continue reading The home stretch →

Monumental, Barcelona

New Flickr set – Barcelona, July 2014

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Well, I’ve finally been able to do some photo editing and upload an album to flickr. There are some photos of my beautiful friends from home that were here my first weekend in Barcelona – Ady and Tom. I also have a few from some small explorations around the city.

I’ve also taken quite a few of my terrific fellow students and teachers. The best ones are from when we are relaxing after class, of course! Continue reading New Flickr set – Barcelona, July 2014 →

Ironhacking 101

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I registered for the Ironhack web development course a few months ago hoping to rekindle my career as a front-end web developer. At the time I applied, I wasn’t very happy in my job as a consultant and felt like an intensive bootcamp would be the ideal solution and let me return to an industry where I had always felt happy.

Then we moved to France and it seemed like the ideal time to let go of all the stressful things in life and fully embrace change. I am so glad that I did!

I never really formally learned how to be a web developer, I picked up the basics from colleagues and tutorials online – simply learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript as I needed to. At Ironhack we are learning the fundamentals as well as practical implementation skills. With each task or exercise we complete, we are cementing the knowledge and improving constantly.

Continue reading Ironhacking 101 →

Sagrada Familia at sunset

Ch-ch-ch-changes

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Life suddenly became very interesting very quickly… I’m going to explain in more detail in the next few posts, but here’s an overview:

The first major change is that we moved to Montpellier in France. Tom is now working at IRD and we have just found a flat and moved all our belongings into it.

Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier

The second is that I quit my job (related to the first!). I feel both relieved and stressed by this change. Continue reading Ch-ch-ch-changes →

Coding Kata – Mars Rover

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UPDATE: The Sandbox is now deactivated

As part of the preparation for the IronHack course that I am doing in July, we have some homework… There are four modules of pre-work to complete: HTML & CSS, Unix Cli & Dev Environment, Git & Github and Ruby & OOP.

I’ve just completed the HTML & CSS section which finished with something called a “Coding Kata”, a brand new concept for me. Essentially, it’s a small coding exercise that can be repeated and solved in various ways to practice different skills.

The Kata we were assigned involved moving around a grid. It’s explained in more detail here. My solution can be found in my Sandbox. I haven’t solved it completely, but it was actually a really great challenge – and one that I think I will repeat.