MSix Months of Programming: From Man-Rodent to Partyman

http://www.whitakerblackall.com/blog/first-six-months/

The Noob

Almost exactly six months ago, I decided to embark on an adventure. Before October of 2010, I had never programmed a day in my life. Okay maybe I had a week-long unit on the very very very basics in sixth grade. But that is all. I had no idea what to expect. October 19th, 2010, I tweeted: “What have I gotten myself into. I’ve just embarked on learning programming, having absolutely no experience. Oh man I’m already nervous.” That was the beginning of a path that I’m so glad I have taken. I’m not looking back.

Beginnings

I’m going to give you a quick overview of my first few months, because it was pretty boring. I started with Invent with Python, a really awesome book for complete noobs. To show you how beginner it was, here is a quote from the book:

The + sign tells the computer to add the numbers 2 and 2. To subtract numbers use the – sign, and to multiply numbers use an asterisk (*).

After I got the very basics down, I made a bunch of random text-based games, like hangman, jotto, and guess-the-number. My first big hit was a game called “The Man-Rodent.” It was about a Man-Rodent, whatever the hell that is, who was terrorizing the village. He was hiding, and you had to guess where he was:.............