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1) Math, specifically calculus and linear algebra. I studied enough of it in college to pass the classes, completely forgot about it for 10 years, and now I'm

by tomku 14y ago

1) Math, specifically calculus and linear algebra. I studied enough of it in college to pass the classes, completely forgot about it for 10 years, and now I'm finding myself needing it for some of my coding work. I'm hoping to work through MIT's OCW Scholar class on introductory calc as a refresher, then linear algebra, then maybe something harder on the calc side. 2) Japanese. I'm trying the "kanji-first" approach advocated by "Remembering the Kanji" with practice through Skritter[1]. I already know hiragana/katakana and basic pronunciation, so after I finish RtK I should be in a good position to tackle a couple books on grammar and start reading/watching/listening to less structured content. 3) A creative pursuit that doesn't involve (or at least center around) writing code. I love programming, but sometimes it feels like I'm missing something (everything?) by having my methods of creative expression so clustered together. I want to try writing fiction, drawing/sketching and possibly musical composition, and see what ends up staying with me. 4) HTML5, CSS3 and modern Javascript. At one point in my life, long ago, I would've introduced myself as a web designer. This was back when DHTML was a synonym for Javascript, anything more complex than hover effects seemed to require Flash or Java and every site had an unholy mess of framesets and tables for layout. Fortunately for everyone involved, all of those things (and many more) have changed in the past 10 years. Unfortunately for me, my front-end skills haven't. Hoping to get up to date with stuff like JS MVC frameworks, responsive design and Less/Sass. 5) Blogging, so that I can bore other people with stories about learning the things listed above. [1]: http://www.skritter.com/ http://www.skritter.com/

ditoa 14y ago
I am in the same boat with my math knowledge. Thanks for the heads up about the MIT courses (and Merry Christmas! :)
eykanal 14y ago
For drawing, I've been reading "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. There's a lot of text but the ideas and exercises do seem to work. I haven't gone through the whole book but so far it's OK.
shadeless 14y ago
If you're not too deep in RTK give KanjiDamage[1] a try, I found it the best way to learn kanji, onyomi, some kunyomi and even picked up some useful/common jukugo - and it didn't took that much time, either (of course kanji rate heavily depends on free time/motivation). I used pre-made deck in Anki, set up kanji in question to display stroke order on hover and used dictionaries to double check meanings/usage. I really can't recommend it enough. [1]: http://kanjidamage.com/introduction http://kanjidamage.com/introduction

by tomku 14y ago

ditoa 14y ago

I am in the same boat with my math knowledge. Thanks for the heads up about the MIT courses (and Merry Christmas! :)

eykanal 14y ago

For drawing, I've been reading "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. There's a lot of text but the ideas and exercises do seem to work. I haven't gone through the whole book but so far it's OK.

shadeless 14y ago

If you're not too deep in RTK give KanjiDamage[1] a try, I found it the best way to learn kanji, onyomi, some kunyomi and even picked up some useful/common jukugo - and it didn't took that much time, either (of course kanji rate heavily depends on free time/motivation). I used pre-made deck in Anki, set up kanji in question to display stroke order on hover and used dictionaries to double check meanings/usage. I really can't recommend it enough. [1]: http://kanjidamage.com/introduction http://kanjidamage.com/introduction