…coding?

That’s what I learnt from running Coding Grace workshops and PyLadies Dublin meetups. People want help with:-

• setting up their machines
• tools to use for coding

Just basically help on where to start.

Being in a workshop has its advantages, you are with a group of people who want to learn, and I noticed lots of people start pairing up and helping each other along the way. In Coding Grace workshops, I try to have a mentor per five attendees as well as aiming to have diverse mentors (who are awesome and volunteer on their own time).

If you don’t have access to a local coding group, here are a few places that might be useful to visit to get started (in alphabetical order):-

• Code Academy - http://www.codecademy.com/
• Code Avengers - http://www.codeavengers.com/
• Code Combat - http://codecombat.com/
• Khan Academy Computer Programming -...

Last night was great fun, and big thanks to Beautifeye for sponsoring the pizzas (of which there were a lot left over), and arranging the meetup venue at Wayra Ireland.

Thanks to everyone who came along, you can find a list of some of the folks who made it yesterday at http://www.meetup.com/PyLadiesDublin/events/220716616/.

I found some great slides on 20 cool things you can do with Python, they are by Audrey Roy, co-author of Two Scoops of Django (they are working on the latest edition for Django version 1.8 at the moment).

We didn’t step through the DjangoGirls tutorial together as myself, Nadja and Mick were helping people setting up their machines, and doing some basic Python, but we have people working through it, or their own projects, or charging their laptops and chatting, which is good as well. :-)

Ariane has offered to talk about either databases or non-abstract large...

I am so lucky. My friends at Science Gallery Dublin invited me to help them organise a game-themed iCAD house party.

MarQu Vr created this video of the night:

Once again, a big thanks to MarQu Vr for some awesome visuals, and to the staff at Science Gallery Dublin for getting us involved with the ‪‎iCAD‬ house party. It was a lot of fun. And a big shout out to all the indies that came along, BatCat Games, bitSmith Games, LoPoly Games, Pewter Games Studios and Snozbot. And Die Gute Fabrik for the most fun we had with Johann Sebastian Joust.

And not forgetting my awesome hubby who always come along and support whatever I do, and also have fun doing it. And yes, Cards Against Humanity was really good fun, and we are all very bad human beings for enjoying it. :-)

It’s International Women’s Week, with International Women’s Day on March 8th. A big thanks to everyone who showed up this cold evening. :-)

PyLadies Dublin were kindly invited by Luke to be part of TCD’s International Women’s Week, and was hosted by Science Gallery Dublin.

@TCDEquality @SciGalleryDub: Thx for organising and hosting our meetup. Big thx to everyone who came along. More Django next month at wayra

— PyLadiesDub (@PyLadiesDub) March 3, 2015

After getting set up, white board markers at a ready with their awesome huge whiteboard wall, we proceeded to start going through Django Girl’s introduction to Django. Since folks have Python installed on their machine and have their editor of choice, we skipped to Chapter 7. Nadja was our mentor leading the workshop (and by default as she hooked up her laptop to the projector :-)).

In Chapter 7, when setting up virtualenvironment...

I recently did a short video interview and got flummoxed by one particular question… “If I have no worries about money, who would I invite as a keynote speaker?”

Tick-tock, tick-tock… time’s a ticking and a tocking but nothing came into my hamster-driven brain. It was slightly embarrassing, I should be able to answer who inspires me, who would I like to meet, and who would I like to invite as a keynote speaker.

Of course, I have always been inspired by those closer to home, to be honest. Back in 2008, I met Martha Rotter, and my eyes certainly sparkled and wished I can do what she does as well as being so confident and smart. She started Ireland Girl Geek Dinners and was a community evangelist, and now runs her own start-up in digital publishing. Since then, I have come across many people who I admire like open-source geek and fellow animé fan, Julie Pichon, indie game dev...

I was getting a little be anxious after warming up from a ghastly blast of cold winter air walking up Shelbourne Road, and being greeted by Rob at the Irish Computer Society and showing me where our room will be for the first PyLadies Dublin meetup of 2015. Anxious because I was delayed in traffic and was 15 minutes late and yet I was the first one to arrive. Thoughts of “Will Mick and I be the only ones at the meetup?”. It felt like my worst fears are about to be realised after a successful launch back in October 2013.

Sambos & hot beverages thanks to @IrishCompSoc. nomnomnom pic.twitter.com/y2iVYz8fq3

— PyLadiesDub (@PyLadiesDub) January 20, 2015

As the time ticks on, realising that wi-fi didn’t work but glad of the sandwiches and hot beverages kindly provided by Irish Computer Society, Mick and I discussed the future of PyLadies Dublin. It’s not a great use of my/our time if...

It’s just been over two and a half weeks into January 2015, and I have met interesting people giving me sound advice, and being inspiring so far.

Last year was all about trial and error, playing around with ideas, run as many things as possible and see what works. This year is going to be “Don’t be a busy fool!” and “Work smarter!” approach.

I met Mary Carty in Bettystown last Saturday. Mick and I braved the winds, but at least the sun was out and it wasn’t raining, the crazy storm passed by overnight. As we ate our chowder, Mary shared her experiences and knowledge in social enterprises and business in general, gave me some sage suggestions and advice. Thank you, Marion Palmer, for introducing us to each other. I am so lucky to have such wonderful connections, you all rock! :-)

I thought it would be wishful thinking to have a walk down the strand, and it was refreshingly delightful...

The last of my major events for 2014 wrapped up last night. I made cookies for last night’s PyLadies Dublin meetup, but I think that the crappy wet weather and traffic means lower than expected turnout.

Pic of the py-frosted cookies (and cat-shaped as well).

But it doesn’t matter, the whole point was making a space available for people to code and chat. Good thing I turned up early as the room wasn’t vacant and reception didn’t know about the booking. I got the wi-fi password off her as well. Strangely enough that the wi-fi works better when the classes were over later in the evening.

I planned to work on Coding Grace website as I had some work on it during Dublin GameCraft two weeks ago (my time flies). I am glad I took advice from Mick to note down how I set things up as he showed me how to use Heroku as my sandbox and fork the app and its settings so I can do whatever I want. The...

Don’t worry, this is SFW. Since it’s TGIF, do you remember the following clip from Finding Nemo

And why did I show this clip? Because I came across this game that had me laughing so hard, it’s a simple game, and yes… it’s totally SFW.

Touch that butt!

Enjoy!

Just out of three EuroPython Society sessions at EuroPython via Skype as I couldn’t attend EuroPython this year (due to financial reasons).

And one of the sessions was the General Assembly, and it was a nail-biting moment to hear if my proposal to stay on as a board member got accepted, and it went through. And so did the rest of folks who put their names forward. Huzzah!

We made a big change for people to become members of EuroPython Society:

Membership is open to individuals who have attended a EuroPython conference, or are wishing to participate in the organising of a EuroPython conference.

So if you are interested, go to http://www.europython-society.org/cfp to apply.