Anne N. Mouse: Blog

I think I sent thank you notes to everyone who commented on my last blog, where I talked about possibly learning to code. Someone asked me to learn SQL which I'm looking into. Of course the SQL request may not yield a job that actually pays. But I shall consider it like proofreading here. That is that I do not really expect to earn any money by doing proofreading here (though I do keep hoping that I'll at least make the contacts necessary to move proofreading from hobby to profession) at least not directly.
Anyway it seems I touched a hot wire with my blog as I got about twenty responses. Wow I didn't realize I had so many readers.

So, the first question I have: Could I learn to code?
Answer: I don't see why I could not.
Question, which language should I learn to code?
There are so many answers that I just get lost in the weeds of trying to decide where to begin.
So, what to do?
I looked up what seems to be hot now and came up with ruby and ruby on rails. That looks like a good place to start...
Now to explain my last experience with writing code... at one time in my misspent youth I actually was somewhat able to use BASIC to write programs... Then I experienced my first bankruptcy and ended up working 60+ hours a week trying to dig out of that hole with a 1/4 teaspoon sized shovel... I didn't go forward and I didn't go backward but it essentially crashed my life. I somewhat recovered from that and joined the army where I sort of got sick with the FOMO/YOLO bug... So nothing to show for that except a very toxic marriage. Oh I did learn to operate a backhoe, but realized I really didn't want to drive the transporter trucks. That won't work in most areas... So I probably won't do that as a profession. I put in an application at a certain mining company but apparently my application got lost in the piles of other online applications that were put in at the same time...
So I am back to how to raise an income while doing something that I would be interested in. But enough of my bio... :P~ In short, I did know how to write in BASIC at one time. So the newer languages that don't include line numbers give me a headache. The seem to be somewhat well laid out if I can learn the syntax and what it means in general. So at this point where do I go to learn from the perspective of the utterly ignorant person who probably needs enough info to understand how to use the language, but doesn't need to go into the weeds that might confuse me as far as where something came from, I just need to know what my computer does to use it, not the code under something like this site or this dialogue box which works somewhat like a WP... in order to use it. So I probably don't need to know the background of the syntax of ruby to use it just the current syntax and how it will work and how to keep from damaging my computer (if that is possible) while learning to write.
I'm pretty sure where my strengths lie, which is in proofreading (QA) and instruction (I really enjoyed teaching my job when it got to the point that I was able to do that) so how do I turn my passions into a job? How do I get past the computer gatekeepers when submitting applications to my second tier (not that I wouldn't be very pleased to climb onto a D8/D9 or equivalent crawler tractor in a pit mine) choice of a job. After all if I could do that then I could continue to perfect my writing and proofing without concern that I will end up on the street or worse.

From me at least... I am strongly frustrated by authors who do not use a proofreader. I also want all of my readers of all of my works to know that I strongly appreciate any suggestions that may be made with regard to improving my work.
I know I have stalled work, and I know that what I've called flash stories are closer to scenes that aren't really stories. I do ask you indulgence there as I try to develop my ability to know what constitutes a true story (not a story that is true but one that is complete) when I'm the author rather than the reader.
Anyway, if I run into a story that stays (or is published) with a lack of proofreading I will mark it lower than I would otherwise, simply because in the end, lack of proofreading at a site like this with a number of volunteer proofreaders available is laziness in my mind.
And yes I do know I've been somewhat lazy with what I've put up lately, however, I do solicit any suggested improvements to any and all of my stories once more.

I have a tendency to <s>rust</s> er rest too much when I don't have a regular job... :( so when I do go back to work I often end up feeling like rigor mortis or something has set in once I stop moving at the end of the day... I mean there are days when in the midst of the work I almost wish a chunk of rust would break free and put an end to the pain of trying to go back to work after <s>rest</s> er rusting too long....
Yeah I know bad habits and all... :-(

I refuse to believe that any of my work deserves a vote of less than three. Therefore it is my contention that any votes I have of one or two are as always, someone who essentially bombed the story because they didn't like the subject or the manner in which I handled it... My latest story has about 260 downloads and the usual nice spread of votes in the 6,7,8 range, with the obligatory 2 dragging the cumulative score down. Now I understand there is one more possibility that is driving that in this case, and that is that the story is just over 700 words and I may have not really got a beginning, middle and end in it... But if that is so, and someone disliked that issue, maybe rather than just a drive-by bombing, couldn't they at least send me a note saying, you failed to really have a story here?