Journeying into the Unknown

Greetings! I’m writing to you from my newly installed Ubuntu running laptop.

I’ve been dormant, away, inactive – what have you – mostly because I’ve been so engrossed in this new world I’m journeying into. I understand that most of my readers won’t understand what exactly I’m talking about, and trust me, I prefer not to get too technical myself, so I’m going to keep it in laymen’s terms as best I can.

I’ve always been interested in coding. I was moving my brother’s music off of this laptop today and a bunch of other files so that I could wipe the Windows 7 OS (Operating System) that I installed on it previously to place this Linux based-OS on it, named Ubuntu. In the process I found a laundry list of super old files (back between 05-08 and a couple of them were my attempts at learning how to code.

It was sort of a surreal moment. Even the photos that I came across with me at the ripe age of 16/17 and how much smaller I was then than I am now made me rock in a state of awe. Time is such a magnificent, omnipotent beast it is.

Anyway… the code I saw then at least made me feel like I’ve come such a far way, but even now, in this new found community that goes by the name of FreeCodeCamp, every step of progress I make into the world of Web Development is like being an Astronomer finding a new nebula through his telescope. It all feels like such an incomprehensibly deep world that I can find no other way to compare my journeys with it. A new coding language, a new nebula, a new section of that code, is just a galaxy within the new found nebula and all the different parts are just the different planets I have to individually name, explore and become familiar with as if they were in my own solar system.

It seems like such a daunting task and such an exciting one all at the same time. Do you now see why I couldn’t find any better comparison?

I digress. I’ve been completely absorbed into this community and learning Web Development as a whole and it’s been a part of my new found focus for this year. I made a declaration to only read one book at a time and to not pick up another book until I’m done reading the one that I’ve started (because I spread my energy too far out across books.

Ubuntu Logo

I’m very excited about this journey and where it’s going to go. I just installed Ubuntu (Linux-based OS: Operating System manages all of your computers memory, processes, hardware and software). Most people either run the latest Windows 8.1 or Mac OS X Yosemite. It’s not my first encounter with Ubuntu, but before I only played around with it for a few classes in college. A full install is completely different. It’s almost like a relationship you can only get out of by wiping and moving all your stuff to another house (ie. as I had to do when moving from Windows to Ubuntu as previously mentioned).

My reasoning behind doing this is two-fold:

A lot of people in the web developing community suggested it against purchasing a brand new MacBook, which is what I was going to do. Although I do still want a MacBook so that I can have all three operating systems at my disposal. I’m happy to say that my friend told me today that he may be able to gift me his old MacBook as long as his father still has it. He was given a new one and his father took back his old one. Hopefully he still has it since it’ll be better than buying a new or used one from the store or a stranger.
The second reason is that by learning Linux and bash scripting I’ll have a better chance at getting that promotion I want come May. I’m now taking a Linux Foundation course at edx.org and I’m completely looking forward to what I will learn from it. I look forward to pushing myself to the limits because I really want to learn and I want to get that promotion, even if I don’t, at least I’ll give it my best at trying.

I definitely endorse taking some courses at edX.org if you’re interested into self-teaching.