Again, I took entirely too long off from this little project of mine. On the upside, I've taken up a new activity... Running. Or rather, attempting to run. There aren't enough hours in the day, but I'm back and the computer today and picking up where I left off in LPTHW. Exercise 22 asks that you go back through the code you've written thus far and write down every symbol and bit of Python language that you've used, then to name and explain them all. It seems like a good place to start after taking more than a week off from the book. It's forcing me to review all of the previous exercises before moving on.

I really want to get through this book ASAP. I'm determined to finish, but I have an itch to pick back up my study of web development. If I manage to start actually using my time reasonably, I could theoretically do both at once (Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript) and then throw some Django in the mix. 

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Oops

I've still been slacking off. I started a new job Monday and have been somewhat distracted. I just did exercise 21 in LPTHW because I had a few minutes to kill in front of a computer. I was going to continue, but 22 and 23 are different from other chapters in the book and will be rather time consuming. I've got plans for the night, but I'll try to get back on top of things this weekend.

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I'm working through "Learn Python the Hard Way" (link in my previous post). The book is fairly basic, but provides a lot of practice exercises that will hopefully build up a decent foundation. Unfortunately, I was hoping to finish the book in two weeks and so far I'm not keeping to that schedule. To be more precise, I'm on exercise 17 of 52 and have 5 days left before the "deadline." Hopefully I'll be able to make up for some lost time in my remaining week off before I start my new job.

I've also been brushing up on math a bit through Khan Academy. I'd like to study a bit of Calculus and Discrete, but it's been several years since I've had any math, so I'm starting at the very beginning of arithmetic and working my way up. It feels a bit silly to be doing arithmetic drills, but it certainly can't hurt to improve my comfort level and speed with arithmetic and algebra before moving on to other things.

I would like to come up with other things to study, though nothing comes to mind currently. The Python and all the math should keep me busy for quite awhile though.

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A Brief Introduction

I am an aspiring autodidact, hoping to develop useful, interesting, and potentially marketable skills through self learning. In the past several months, I've dabbled with HTML, CSS, and Python, though I've learned very little. With the start of a new job, I'm hoping to have much more time to study, learn, and play. This blog is an attempt to get serious and track my progress. I'm also open to feedback and advice as to what topics I should consider covering and in what sort of order. Below is my current "to-do" list. I'd like to gain some sort of proficiency in Python before moving on to any other programming languages. I also need to improve and build upon my math knowledge, and I'd be interested in starting to cover some CS topics that I could learn with my current (very little) knowledge of Python.

Book List

  1. Learn Python the Hard Way (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/)
  2. Python NLTK (http://www.nltk.org/)
  3. Pro Git (http://progit.org/book/)
  4. CSS: The Missing Manual

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