~Lovegood Life, Granger Grades~

((Skye/17/Studyblr/INFP)) Aspiring author and music journalist - because some of the smartest people in the world are either punks or drag queens. ((Parent account is goodnighttheskye))

[genspen]

280616 ◦ caught up with my hobonichi journal entries for this week! ♪( ´▽｀)

[boomeyer]

Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

[mementoluceat-blog]

I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!

Video games:

Easy game engines (virtually no coding): 

Game Maker Studio (2D; free and paid versions)

GameSalad (2D)

RPG Maker (2D; numerous versions ranging from free to $69.99)

Stencyl (2D; free and paid subscription versions)

Scratch (good for kids and is more general; 2D; free)

More difficult game engines: 

Unity (lots and lots of platforms; C# and JavaScript script; 2D, 3D, VR; free and paid versions)

Unreal (specializes in graphics; C++ and visual script; 2D, 3D, VR; free with a royalty on successful products)

CryEngine (Lua script; 3D; paid subscription and full license versions)

Mobile game development: 

Corona (free and paid subscription versions)

SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)

also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)

Game console development: 

Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)

Unity

Unreal

CryEngine

Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.

iOS apps:

In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:

Xcode (the official IDE for iOS apps; can be installed on OS X)

Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Objective-C)

Ray Wenderlich iOS tutorials (Objective-C and Swift)

Code School: Try iOS (Objective-C)

Developing iOS 8 Apps (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Swift)

TutorialsPoint: iOS Tutorial (Objective-C)

How to Make iPhone Apps With No Programming Experience (Swift)

Swift Tutorial: Building an iOS Application (2, 3)

iOS apps are developed in the 2 official languages of Apple: Objective-C and Swift, the latter of which is newer and generally much easier to learn.

Objective-C resources:

the official documentation

TutorialsPoint: Objective-C Tutorial

Ry’s Objective-C Tutorial

Swift resources:

the official documentation

The Swift Programming Language (free official e-book)

Swift: A Quick Reference Guide

Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.

SpriteKit resources:

How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush With Swift (2)

Sprite Kit Swift Tutorial

Create Space Invaders with Swift and Sprite Kit

iOS SpriteKit Physics Tutorial in Swift

Build the Game of Life (Swift)

SceneKit resources:

Scene Kit Tutorial: Getting Started (Swift)

An Introduction to SceneKit (2; Swift)

Metal resources:

the official documentation + other resources (Obj-C)

iOS 8 Metal Tutorial with Swift (2, 3)

Getting Started With Metal (Obj-C)

An introduction to 3D graphics with Metal in Swift

Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:

How to Submit Your App to Apple: From No Account to App Store (2)

Beginner Tutorial: iOS Certificates & Provisioning Profiles

Android apps:

In order to develop Android apps, you’ll need to register as a developer for a one-time fee of $25. Here are some general resources:

Android Studio (the official IDE for Android app development; free; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

the official documentation

Getting Started

Android Tutorial For Beginners (2, 3)

Learn Android SDK From Scratch

Introduction to Android Development With Android Studio

Android apps are developed in Java and the layout is coded with XML.

Java resources:

W3schools: Java Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: Java Tutorial

Core Java Tutorial

XML resources:

W3schools: XML Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: XML Tutorial

For publishing (which is somewhat easier than publishing iOS apps):

How to Publish to the Android Market

3D modeling/animation:

Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)

3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)

RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Misc. resources:

Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.

Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.

Cloud9, Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.

And some general advice:

Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).

If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.

Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.

For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.

Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.

Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.

Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.

If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.

Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.

If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).

If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!

[boomeyer]

Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!

[maliwarm]

@veronicasantangelos You might want this at some stage when you finally start Uni!

[silktum-deactivated20160823]

Just to add to this;

1, Set yourself up an account on jsfiddle.net and you get yourself an awesome, easy to use sandpit for trying out JS/JQuery/JS framework stuff. YOU DON’T NEED TO INSTALL ANYTHING (woo!). It’s free. 

Just remember if starting a fiddle from scratch, you’re usually gonna be coding with JQuery, so you gotta set JQuery as your framework:

2, Got a light/medium understanding of JS? Next step: learn AngularJS. Seriously, it’ll blow your mind. Just remember to select it as a framework in JSFiddle:

[zor-allens]

for the record, codeacademy is good with basic syntax but doesnt teach you much of the why/how of what’s going on. But if you want to learn python for instance, there are several free classes (all you have to do is get an account, but it doesnt cost anything) at udacity.com. also, automatetheboringstuff.com gives you access to a how-to ebook on programming in python, aimed at people who have never coded before. those two resources have helped me out a lot more than codeacademy and whatnot

[monstersyllabus]

for modeling and animation: there is also Maya LT, which is $30 USD a month compared to standard $185+ Maya and 3DS Max subscriptions since it is geared toward indie game development

[grawly]

Few things worth pointing out/adding this post:

Xcode no longer requires an iOS developer’s license to push your app to a mobile device. However, it’s still needed for submission.

If you do develop for mobile and plan on submitting your app I would recommend looking at Apple’s human interface guidelines, or at the very least the do’s and don’ts of UI design. Your app doesn’t have to look and work flawlessly but if it’s clearly a mess Apple will reject it.

TalentBuddy was bought by Udemy and I don’t believe the actual coding problems are available anymore? HackerRank effectively does the same thing.

Speaking of Udemy, they just changed their terms of service and courses aren’t astronomically expensive anymore. It’s paid, but if you learn better through videos here’s my favorite iOS course.

Parse is shutting down, here’s a list of alternatives.

DON’T ignore GitHub. There are a LOT of open source projects available that are specifically created to make the production of your app easier. Few examples:

Chart.js makes adding graphs to web pages much easier [x]

Spring makes it easier to implement UI animations into your app [x]

New XKit’s source is on here [x] (not really something you’d “add” to anything but I thought I’d point it out)

Realm is super easy to use and is great for databases on mobile devices.

Udacity was mentioned but I want to stress how great it is at explaining concepts without taking up too much time. It’s faster paced but it puts a lot of emphasis on creating projects on your own without telling you explicitly how to do it, which imo is the best way of learning because it makes you have to actively think about the material you’re looking at instead of just copying everything the video does.

[thecatdoesdrugs]

reblogging on the off chance i ever get my act together and actually use this in the future.

[studywithkal]

Small tips that make a (healthier) difference

Hey you! I dare you to try your best to follow this checklist tomorrow! But hey! Not so fast. Why not try it again the next day (and every day after that)? Sometimes it’s the smaller changes that can in fact help improve our health and wellbeing, especially when we think we’re short of time. School stressing you out? Everything is going to be ok. Try a few little things here. Tick everything off that you completed! Tell me how it goes for you!

This was a spontaneous post and I’ve found that I’ve been making errors in my posts recently! Plz correct me bc I am an egg. Hope u like it anyway.

Morning:

Wake up as soon as you do naturally or when your alarm goes off. Make your bed! Open the blinds!

Get out of bed and s t r e t c h – all the way from the very tips of your fingers to the tips of your toes. (Trust me, this feels good)

Set your intention for the day. This might be weird for some, but try it. Example: Today I will be productive. I will be focused on my tasks and I will take the time to relax when needed. It doesn’t have to be as complicated – Example 2: I can do this. Remind yourself again.

Eat breakfast. A MUST. Try my favourite: eggs (poached, scrambled or fried) on toast with avocado or baked beans. Yes. We are on a roll today.

Drink one full glass of water within the hour of waking (don’t down it all in one go though!).

Add 1/8 of a lemon to this. Lemon is great to alkalise the body and getting that digestive system of yours goin! This will flush out toxins in the body and support your immune system too!

Side note: Wait half an hour before brushing your teeth after this (or maybe do it before) because lemons are acidic after all and can probably do some damage to your shiny whites.

Try having a water bottle by your bedside and beside you throughout the day as a constant reminder to drink water as you see it. Trust me, this has helped improve my water intake a lot.

Organise your day. What are your plans? What are of priority and what are not? Try brain dumping this, and then organising each task/item into a list, categorised in importance. This will help decrease stress throughout the day and easy referral back to this list.

Dress in some lovely clothes! Your fave sweater and some cool black tights? 100%!! What about that pretty skirt you like with a nice top? HECK YEAH!!!

Midday:

Lunchtime! Eat again. Wholesome foods are an absolute must whenever you can.

Aim for 3-4 cups of water by lunchtime (inclusive of the glass of lemon water you had this morning).

Remember that intention you set this morning? Say it again.

Throw a compliment at someone. Be genuine. This will have a butterfly effect. If someone throws one at you to – don’t disagree! Say thank you. You rock, don’t doubt that.

Are there any ticks beside those tasks on your checklist from this morning? I hope so!

Throw in a random burst of exercise! In public too – who cares! Pick one of these: 50 starjumps! 3 sets of 10 squats! A quick walk around outdoors!

Arvo (/Afternoon… Straya):

Hit that 3pm slump? Same. Here are a few ideas to get you going, especially coming home from a long day:

NAP! 15-20 mins. No longer. No less. Be strict here or your sleep pattern might go funny and we don’t want that. (And groggy headaches are gross)

Exercise! This is so fundamental to our health and wellbeing. Try out short pilates videos (no equipment) here (that as living proof, work) or some really cool yoga videos here, here, and here. Yoga is great. Try this daily. Or take a brisk walk for 30 minutes  = wake up your brain, pick up your mood AND burn some fat. C’mon, go get your shoes!

Have a healthy snack, such as those listed in this great post by @tbhstudying. Get your brain and bod going, my friends!

Write down your to do list for any work, study or event related things that you need to complete this afternoon. Set out all your equipment, sort out your papers from the day and get organised!

Clear your (bedroom/bed/desk/floor/work/closet) space for 5 minutes every day. I’m guessing that you’ve started to pile a few things here like I do. This will save you time and help maintain cleanliness, staving away from the complicated stress that comes from having to reorganise just about everything which we all know to hate when we’re busy with other things.

Have you had your 5th to 6th cups of water of the day yet? Get to it!

Sit up straighter and you’ll look more confident and feel more confident. Your back will also be very grateful for this.

Night:

Continue all your extra to-dos. Get this done. You can do it!

Make sure to put something in your body guys. I’m talking food here by the way… don’t let that sentence mislead you! This is especially important for those of you probably thinking “I’ll just eat later” or “I’m not hungry”.  Eat. EAT NOW. PleASE.

Spend some quality time with your family. How’s their day been? Tell them about yours too.

Glasses of water no. 7, 8 and beyond should be here.

Prep your meals, lists, notes, outfits, etc. for the next day. Getting these things sorted now will help you get it out of the way and save you time!

Settle down a little. It’s time to wiiiind doooooooownnn. Read a book. Scroll through Tumblr (aaayeee!) – but not too deep into the pits okay guys. Watch a little TV.

I know a lot of posts say to switch off 1-2 hours before bed. If you’re literally glued to your electronics, try switching off 5 minutes earlier every day and replace that with something else. What about doing your prep items for the next day (listed two points back!!)? Or, do get those pesky chores out the way.

Side note: Cleaning your room often will help freshen it, get rid of itchy dust and decrease the chances of bugs and other smol random things to crawl around your room. (If that’s not a little motivation then I’m not sure what is…). It’ll also keep your space maintained so you don’t have to do it all at once. *Shudders* Plus the likelihood of those gross germs from the world hanging around and building up in there is a no-no.

Sleep! 7-8 hours. Your body will thank you for it. CRUCIAL for healthy brain and body function. Plus your mood and skin will improve (i.e. gOODBYE EYEBAGS and hELLO GLOWING SKIN).

Side note: I see you reading this at 12am when you should be sleeping. I see you.

I hope this has helped you guys a little or at least inspired you to make a small change to your daily routine! Try doing a few items here (e.g. glass of lemon water, sitting up straighter, 8+ cups of water) and record this on a habit tracker! The smallest changes often have the greatest effects!

Don’t forget to let me know how you go.

Kalyisah (@studywithkal)

[genspen]

week 5 ◦ suffering from a pretty bad burn out + sickness this week…… need me a big dose of sleep please!

[floweringstudyblr]

Saturday 19th March

This week’s spread!! I feel super good about my bullet journal this week- good enough to post it which has never happened before so I’m feeling good about myself✨

[studyrose]

thursday, january 14 // 22:10

think i’ve finally figured out my new bullet journal layout…i find i’m WAY more productive when I just use this as a task list (with some little happy things thrown in). still need to sort out details but hooray for now!!! cheers to @studybuzz for the inspo!!

i found an old art/feely journal that i think i’ll crack into again for when i need that sort of space.

sweet dreams!! 🌙💫✨

[successaesthetics]

1.12.15 // Bought myself a new bullet journal for 2016 and I am in loveee 😍✨

[homeschoolmusicresources]

Homeschool Resources -> http://ift.tt/1KgR54S

[kimching232]

Hey guys! Today, I just wanted to share with you how I go about with my bullet journal. I have collected a lot of ideas from Tumblr, Pinterest and Youtube, and this is the format that suits my taste. I hope you guys find this useful or interesting! :)

1. Index

Of course, most, if not all, bullet journals start with an index page so you can make reference to it in the future. This makes things easier to find and more organized.

2. Habit Tracker 

I track various habits like eating fruits and vegetables, getting 8 hours of sleep, drinking 8 glasses of water, finishing a book, etc. I put numbers in the grids and each number corresponds to a date. If I did that certain task on that day, I will shade in the box.

3. Calendar

This is a calendar for the whole month. Here, I use post-it notes so that it can be easily transferred if the date ever changed. I also use different color of sticky tabs for school, blog and personal life, but the one above is only for blog posts since I don’t have other things to put yet. 

4. Books and Blog Posts

The one above is separated into three columns - “Books I Want to Read,” “In Progress,” and “Finished” - and I used sticky tabs to put the books that I want to read in the month of January on the first column. When I’m already reading the book, I will transfer the sticky tab to the “In Progress” column, and then to the “Finished” column when I finished reading the book.

On the bottom part of the page are the blog posts that I plan to post in January, and it’s also separated into three columns - “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Finished.” I also move them to the appropriate columns when the task changes status. 

5. Expense Tracker

This is where I track my expenses for the month. In the first column, I put the item that I bought. In the second column, I put the date, and in the third column, I put the amount.

6. Weekly Spread

This is where I put my everyday tasks. So first I put the date, and then the bar below that tracks the number of glasses of water that I drank that day (left) and the number of hours of sleep that I had the night before (right). Then after that, I proceed to my to-do list, and I shade the box different colors once the task is done for school, blog and personal. Below that, most of the time I put 1-2 sentences about the highlights of my day.

7. Weekly Mementos

To the left of the weekly spread are the mementos that I collected throughout the week. These are mostly receipts, tickets, stubs, and any other thing that I think might be worth putting in. 

[365text]

01.01.16 

13/100 days of productivity | new year and a (relatively) new layout! walked 15k+ steps today with my family in the morning, but now it is time for me to get to work and tackle that slightly intimidating to-do list! also, my fingers ended up typing “15” automatically — it’s just so crazy to think that it’s already 2016 wow.

[studious-coffee-deactivated2017]

Reblog if the studyblr community has helped encourage you to study more and make learning a big part of your life. We’re all in this together. Cheers to a new year of learning.

[kimching232]

[fichty-deactivated20190307]

there’s too much going on in my brain

[chainmessages-deactivated201605]

YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED ✈️🚗🚕 BY THE ✏️📙📘EXAM FAIRY📖📕👸🏽 she will grant ✨💫you good luck🍀 and success 🅰➕ on your exams📝 just by reading this👀❗️😱 forward🔜this message on📤 so that others 🙆🏿🙋🏽👱🏽👳🏾may have 👍🏽 good luck too😋😜😝

💫

[vestiblr]

06/01/16 || Bullet journal spread. Got a lot of studying to do today 👊🏼📚

[studyingmarvelfan-blog]

It’s 1am and I’m studying biology because my insomnia doesn’t allow me to sleep

[3amstudying]

🌻🌻// Second weeks of school //🌻🌻