1) I need to practice not freezing like a deer in the headlights during live coding. I started out decently enough, verbalizing outloud that I needed to create a form in order to make a search bar. But then I got to a stumbling block, where I couldn’t remember the method I needed to use to find an object by its name (it was find_by_name….yeah). When I couldn’t remember the method in the first few seconds, panic set in, and then I just got really quiet all of a sudden. I’m not sure if it was 30 seconds or 15 minutes, but it felt like an eternity of silence. I definitely need more practice in this area before tackling a job interview!
For my second Flatiron School project, the requirements were to build a Sinatra Model-View-Controller application using ActiveRecord. While my first project used a Command Line Interface, I was excited to build something that could actually be viewed in a browser (a real live web app!).
This blog will be the first in a series I’ve decided to write about useful ruby array methods. Several times throughout the curriculum, I have written my own method for manipulating or interacting with arrays, only to show my code to someone else and have them say, “Why didn’t you just use (insert built-in Ruby array method here)?” I always feel a mix of embarrassment at my naivete and excitement that there is an easier way to do things. Wow, Ruby is such a cool language! But clearly I need to brush up on my Ruby array methods and should be spending more time checking out the Ruby Documentation.
The Gem
I completed my CLI project, a Ruby gem designed to give the user information about camping options in Joshua Tree National Park, one of the most beautiful places I have ever camped. The gem scrapes the National Park Service webpage (nps.gov) for the names of the available campgrounds, as well as basic information about each campground including number of sites, price per night, elevation, and basic amenities such as water and bathrooms.
I love to explore and create things that transport people to other worlds, other perspectives, other ideas, other realities.