I’m happy to report that this week was much easier for me compared to last week. I breezed through the two jQuery lessons, which was a good self-esteem booster because I actually felt like I knew what I was doing. I’m not sure if jQuery is easier than JavaScript, or if completing the JavaScript tutorials last week helped me better understand the jQuery lessons. Part of me wishes we would have started out with jQuery because it seems a lot simpler to wrap your head around, and then go into learning the basic concepts of JavaScript. But who knows what the best approach is? I think you can argue it both ways.

In last [Tuesday] night’s class, I thought it was helpful that Greg walked us through the take-home assignment of adding captions to our galleries. I also appreciated that he assured us that the objective here is not to memorize the code, but to grasp the overall concepts. This morning, one of my colleagues said something about JavaScript that really resonated with me. He said, “I’ve never really written any JavaScript, but I sure do manipulate it.” What he was getting at was that he knows enough about the overall concepts that he can edit or change existing JavaScript code to make it do what he wants. Looking back, this seems to have been the goal of the gallery assignment.

I’m excited that we are now in the process of setting up our hosting site for our final projects. (But who knew there were so many steps involved!?) I wanted to mention one thing about purchasing your domain from GoDaddy.com. Last night I created an account and added my chosen domain to my “online cart,” but I didn’t actually purchase it. This morning when I woke up I had an email from GoDaddy saying that if I complete my order by July 2, I can use this special promo code to get 30 percent off. So… in case you haven’t purchased your domain yet, this is one way to save on the cost!