hyde_from_systems: The Beginning

OK, OK, it's not exactly the beginning of term, or even the middle... but it's the beginning of something: my very own official Systems blog.

If I can be honest anywhere, it will be here: I am not especially enraptured with this whole Systems thing. I like the soft systems stuff - people working with people and all the things that come out of that. But the XML and the ILS and the RFPs and the eight million other fill-in-the-blank acronyms, it's just not really my taste. I've made a few web pages in my day: an ancient HTML lesson plan terror that I had to do for my BEd, and a delightfully horrific project or two from Applications for Information Management last fall. And you know what (as long as I'm being honest) I really like making web pages! I like when real things kind of just appear out of what is seemingly gobbily-gook. I like it even more when they look good. I spent an inappropriate amount of time with FrontPage attempting to make things look good. And let me tell you, Microsoft DOES NOT make that easy! I like the creative element, I like tweaking things, I like being a nerd!

So, here we are. I have a presentation tomorrow (that just happens to be in Systems class!) and myself and LE have decided to talk about Ruby and Ruby on Rails. At first I was tentative: why do I need to know a programming language? I know it's fun, and it's a great skill to learn, etc., etc.. But (in the spirit of honesty), I have approximately eight million other things that I have to do in order to finish this semester. And it's November 21! It's crunch time! WHAT AM I DOING BLOGGING??

But after a sandwich and a nice cuddle with the cat, I'm ready to play. I've done some basic ruby tutorials (that I'll be going through in class tomorrow - we'll see how that pans out!), and I've read up a bit on the Rails framework and why one would use it (it's SOOOO much faster, more simple, etc.), so I think I might actually know a bit about what I'll be talking about. Here's to hoping. The thing is, ruby seems super cool! I wish I had more time RIGHT NOW to play and play and play! Perhaps over Christmas I'll get super rubyfied (if my Mom's clunker computer can run it?) and show Sam a thing or two next semester.

Hmmm.. maybe not the Sam part.

Update tomorrow on how the presentation went. Fingers crossed.

hyde_from_systems