JQuery and I

I am an avid modeler,

And a not so avid coder. I don't get the same kind of relaxation and fun out of coding as I do modelling. I enjoy myself thoroughly, but it's hard to love cricket when you can't swing a bat. I think it's the learning I like. Working at my job doesn't give me too many opportunities to demonstrate intelligence, and learning stuff helps me fill that gap. So coding isn't so much a hobby as it is a means to an end.

But tonight I found jQuery

And found a reason to enjoy the shit right out of web development. I had been skeptical about using it because I have already had to teach myself php, javascript and the nuances of ajax, I didn't think I was really ready for another language just yet. Man I should have started with jQuery. I have been used to following tutorials for hours to get the basics down, and then inferring stuff and googling and whinging to psi on the wolfire irc and taking a generally monumental amount of time to make any real progress in my code. Tonight I slipped jQuery.js into my head and immediately went shooting across the galaxy on a blazing fireball of solidified awesome.

The reason I picked it up was because I wanted a nice slide effect for a div so I could hide and show it onclick. I found what I thought to be a very ominously unpromising example. 6 lines of code and assigning a few classes/id's. I copypasted it into my js.js, changed a few parameters and refreshed my page, wincing at the thought of the hours of frustration I had just resigned myself to.

It immediately worked just as planned.

Better than planned. My div slid smoothly away to its little hiding spot, and even did a little bouncy bit when it extended. I emptied the contents of my testacles straight into my pant leg. I sat there for a good half hour just opening and closing my div.

Hopefully this is the heralder of some more fantastic functionalities for my future forays into the field of javascript. I'm going to make so many slidey fadey movey divs on my site that you'll think you're watching a remake of Tron.