Tuesday, May 4, 2021

My daughter, the illustrator

I'm excited and proud that the book my daughter illustrated is now available for purchase!

Moldyrocks and the Three Bears by Jared Koyle and illustrated by Ada Cooprider. 

While remaining true to aspects of the original story with beds, chairs, and porridge, this unique story offers a delightful twist to the classic tale—Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This is the story of three clever sisters, princesses, who discover that to preserve the kingdom they were forced to leave, they must defeat their own queen. Together, with magical stones from a mysterious hare, the sisters set out on a journey that will reveal their ultimate destiny. Along the way they are introduced to a glassmaker, a wood worker, and a rope maker. The sisters learn that by giving away something personal, they receive more in return. They must also lose their way before they can know the true direction they are to follow. Then, just as it seems the evil queen Moldyrocks will reign forever, the combined patience and ingenuity of friends and family saves the day.

Available for purchase from these fine retailers: 

Alpha Book Publisher: 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble 

Google Books 

Google Play 



Saturday, February 27, 2021

Learning Python

 I stumbled across what appears to be a great resource for learning Python. It's been over a decade since I've known I need to learn Python. During that time I have taken a Coursera course and written a few scripts here and there, but I still do most of my Python programming by Googling and searching Stack Overflow. That works okay for occasional use, but I have recently found the need to make Python my daily driver. So I went in search of some solutions in the fall. 


I started by looking for something that I could use on my phone. Python Programming: Ultimate guide looked promising, but my enthusiasm for their app waned as I an into some technical difficulties. I should go back and revisit that, though. 

Eventually I found Python Morsels, and I think this is what I need in my life right now. I did the free month-long trial in the fall and I just signed up for a year. The site is created and maintained by Trey Hunner, a Python trainer for teams. I'm still fairly new on my journey there, and he just introduced a new "flexible mode," but the basic structure seems pretty well established. He gives an assignment, reference hints, automated verification, and follow-up discussions of the solutions. I highly recommend it.

The new "flexible mode" sets up a profile that can be made public. Mine's not that interesting, but I expect it will become more so over this next year!


3/11/21 Edit: I just noticed that Trey is a contributor to EditorConfig and his name is on a bunch of the plugins.