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Artist Problems
Having a ton of ideas for things you want to make but not being able to use any of them.
Because:
- You don’t have time to make them because of school, work, personal problems or other stuff.
- You forgot to write it down and now it’s lost in void of your thoughts (probably) forever.
- Either you have no motivation enough to make it. Or you realise it won’t ever come out the way you had in mind because your not at the skill level needed for the making that kind of piece.
- You have an artblock or procrastinate for any other possible reason whatsoever.
- You get demotivated because someone already made something similar looking and you’re under the assumption they’re way better anyway.
- People critisize your ideas to the point where you don’t even believe in them anymore.
- You get distracted by social media, tv, events or other stuff.
- Your ideas include way to much work to do all alone. But you don’t know not enough people who would possibly want to help you create even one idea without getting payed.
- Someone steals your ideas and keeps using them without permission.
- You started a project but the people who you worked with you on it throw you out of the group, mistreat you or leave the project themselves.
- You get sick, injured or don’t feel good for another reason. And are practicly unable to work.
- Your art teacher laughs at your ideas and way of making them.
- Your inspiration runs out and you get stuck.
@thinthle
Reblog if this is is relatable. And feel free to send me solutions to these problems if you have any.
TikTok moron tried to hit Denzel for clout, got himself arrested with a broken arm.
So apparently this crispy creme tiktok prankster was attempting to - start recording - punch a stranger in the face - clip out the part with the punch - and then act like a victim of black violence
Their plan failed at step 2 when they chose Denzel as their target, a man who's won every fight he's been in and has a long history of violence stretching back to being a toddler.
The only reason Denzel never gets arrested is because he never starts any of these fights but boy does he end them.
Denzel - sensed the punch coming - stepped away - swung round to face his opponent - grabbed the wrist of his attacker while the punch was still mid-swing - twisted this dude's arm backwards - slammed him face first into the concrete sidewalk - kicked the dumbass in the armpit - and then when the prankster started wailing started yelling at him "We good? We good, son?"
The police turned up and collected the big white baby off the floor and Denzel was later told that he'd shattered the man's elbow.
Denzel's reaction to this information... "Tell me something I don't know."
White violence is a thing. Some people forget that certain people are very used to it.
(so mad i can’t see straight) Yeah i just don’t think chat gpt is a good classroom tool
Read books guys
I'm telling you. Read books. There's an entire world of dead useful knowledge contained. There are so many books that have a TON of useful information while also being easier to read than textbooks.
Listen, I know the internet's gone to pieces. Misinformation is practically the only thing you can be certain of with any search engine.
But books.
I mean yeah, there are books that are inaccurate. Or outdated. But for the most part, if someone cares enough to compile so much information on a subject together into a book, they care enough to make sure it's right. After all, it's not so easy to edit it like a blog once it's published. They're not spending so much time and labor putting together random units of information they stumbled across on the internet. They're doing this with genuine research and careful time and knowledge.
Let me emphasize one more time that there are so many books with real information that are NOT COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS (though those can be incredible sources of information too!). There is real information out there in very easy to process formats if you're willing to open a book and thumb through the index, table of contents, or even just all the pages.
...I mean, it does require us to care a little bit. It's certainly not as fast and convenient as a quick internet search. But it is so much more reliable, and if you care to know more about a subject I think it's important to care enough to get some solid information about it and not just a once-and-done.
Side note, did you know the Dewey Decimal System has a number for everything? Actually everything? Want to pick up a book on crochet or leatherworking? Dewey's got you. Learn about moths? Yup. Politics? Public speaking? Languages? Writing? Architecture? Librarians have master's degrees specifically so they can help you find things in the DDS (and also for other reasons but ya know).
Finalists for a Future Mission to Explore the Solar System
We’ve selected two finalists for a robotic mission that is planned to launch in the mid-2020s! Following a competitive peer review process, these two concepts were chosen from 12 proposals that were submitted in April under a New Frontiers program announcement opportunity.
What are they?
In no particular order…
CAESAR
CAESAR, or the Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return mission seeks to return a sample from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – the comet that was successfully explored by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft – to determine its origin and history.
This mission would acquire a sample from the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and return it safely to Earth.
Comets are made up of materials from ancient stars, interstellar clouds and the birth of our solar system, so the CAESAR sample could reveal how these materials contributed to the early Earth, including the origins of the Earth's oceans, and of life.
Dragonfly
A drone-like rotorcraft would be sent to explore the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of dozens of sites on Saturn’s moon Titan – one of the so-called ocean worlds in our solar system.
Unique among these Ocean Worlds, Titan has a surface rich in organic compounds and diverse environments, including those where carbon and nitrogen have interacted with water and energy.
Dragonfly would be a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Titan to fly to multiple locations, some hundreds of miles apart, to sample materials and determine surface composition to investigate Titan's organic chemistry and habitability, monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, image landforms to investigate geological processes, and perform seismic studies.
What’s Next?
The CAESAR and Dragonfly missions will receive funding through the end of 2018 to further develop and mature the concepts. It is planned that from these, one investigation will be chosen in the spring of 2019 to continue into subsequent mission phases.
That mission would be the fourth mission in the New Frontiers portfolio, which conducts principal investigator (PI)-led planetary science missions under a development cost cap of approximately $850 million. Its predecessors are the New Horizons mission to Pluto and a Kuiper Belt object, the Juno mission to Jupiter and OSIRIS-REx, which will rendezvous with and return a sample of the asteroid Bennu.
Key Technologies
We also announced that two mission concepts were chosen to receive technology development funds to prepare them for future mission opportunities.
The Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (ELSAH) mission concept will receive funds to enable life detection measurements by developing cost-effective techniques to limit spacecraft contamination on cost-capped missions.
The Venus In situ Composition Investigations (VICI) mission concept will further develop the VEMCam instrument to operate under harsh conditions on Venus. The instrument uses lasers on a lander to measure the mineralogy and elemental composition of rocks on the surface of Venus.
The call for these mission concepts occurred in April and was limited to six mission themes: comet surface sample return, lunar south pole-Aitken Basin sample return, ocean worlds, Saturn probe, Trojan asteroid tour and rendezvous and Venus insitu explorer.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
New Research Heading to Earth’s Orbiting Laboratory
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…dragon? A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is set to launch into orbit atop the Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station for its 12th commercial resupply (CRS-12) mission August 14 from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It won’t breathe fire, but it will carry science that studies cosmic rays, protein crystal growth, bioengineered lung tissue.
Here are some highlights of research that will be delivered:
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ISS-CREAM!
Cosmic Rays, Energetics and Mass, that is! Cosmic rays reach Earth from far outside the solar system with energies well beyond what man-made accelerators can achieve. The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (ISS-CREAM) instrument measures the charges of cosmic rays ranging from hydrogen to iron nuclei. Cosmic rays are pieces of atoms that move through space at nearly the speed of light
The data collected from the instrument will help address fundamental science questions such as:
Do supernovae supply the bulk of cosmic rays?
What is the history of cosmic rays in the galaxy?
Can the energy spectra of cosmic rays result from a single mechanism?
ISS-CREAM’s three-year mission will help the scientific community to build a stronger understanding of the fundamental structure of the universe.
Space-grown crystals aid in understanding of Parkinson’s disease
The microgravity environment of the space station allows protein crystals to grow larger and in more perfect shapes than earth-grown crystals, allowing them to be better analyzed on Earth.
Developed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Anatrace and Com-Pac International, the Crystallization of Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) under Microgravity Conditions (CASIS PCG 7) investigation will utilize the orbiting laboratory’s microgravity environment to grow larger versions of this important protein, implicated in Parkinson’s disease.
Defining the exact shape and morphology of LRRK2 would help scientists to better understand the pathology of Parkinson’s and could aid in the development of therapies against this target.
Mice Help Us Keep an Eye on Long-term Health Impacts of Spaceflight
Our eyes have a whole network of blood vessels, like the ones in the image below, in the retina—the back part of the eye that transforms light into information for your brain. We are sending mice to the space station (RR-9) to study how the fluids that move through these vessels shift their flow in microgravity, which can lead to impaired vision in astronauts.
By looking at how spaceflight affects not only the eyes, but other parts of the body such as joints, like hips and knees, in mice over a short period of time, we can develop countermeasures to protect astronauts over longer periods of space exploration, and help humans with visual impairments or arthritis on Earth.
Telescope-hosting nanosatellite tests new concept
The Kestrel Eye (NanoRacks-KE IIM) investigation is a microsatellite carrying an optical imaging system payload, including an off-the-shelf telescope. This investigation validates the concept of using microsatellites in low-Earth orbit to support critical operations, such as providing lower-cost Earth imagery in time-sensitive situations, such as tracking severe weather and detecting natural disasters.
Sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, the overall mission goal for this investigation is to demonstrate that small satellites are viable platforms for providing critical path support to operations and hosting advanced payloads.
Growth of lung tissue in space could provide information about diseases
The Effect of Microgravity on Stem Cell Mediated Recellularization (Lung Tissue) uses the microgravity environment of space to test strategies for growing new lung tissue. The cells are grown in a specialized framework that supplies them with critical growth factors so that scientists can observe how gravity affects growth and specialization as cells become new lung tissue.
The goal of this investigation is to produce bioengineered human lung tissue that can be used as a predictive model of human responses allowing for the study of lung development, lung physiology or disease pathology.
These crazy-cool investigations and others launching aboard the next SpaceX #Dragon cargo spacecraft on August 14. They will join many other investigations currently happening aboard the space station. Follow @ISS_Research on Twitter for more information about the science happening on 250 miles above Earth on the space station.
Watch the launch live HERE starting at 12:20 p.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 14!
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
lessons learnt at educastle's seminar!
25/6 last sunday, i attended educastle's seminar on how to be motivated to learn!
through this talk, i learnt that LEARNING is a choice. it will NOT end after writing that PhD thesis📃. what matters is your curiosity🔍. noone is content with knowing only surface level textbook knowledge, they must also want to know the depths of the iceberg! 🤔
you are a student🧑🏼🎓not because you are binded to high school🏫, but because you are learning. an old man without a degree can also be a student. you choose to learn than stay idle, so congratulations, learner! 📚
a way to be constantly motivated to learn is to develop curiosity for the workings of life🤯. for me, i am extremely interested in the fields of mechanics and engineering🥼, so i will learn that as an interest.
a fact i learnt was that you will remember more of something when you question it🤔, more than if the speaker was directly spitting out facts you don't want to know about.🥱
to understand in depth about real-life problems🤨, you can use the 7 layer technique in which you question your answer 7 times💭. you can use this to develop higher order thinking skills🤔 and also know the contributing factors to your dilemmas.
why do i crave validation? because __. why __? because ___. why...... .... x7
Knowledge let’s us suffer and heal, all our heavens and hells are within us. - Joseph Campbell #wisdom #painting #love #nature #jimcarry #quotes #truth #learn #pic #focus #ease #wise #transcend #flow #chakras (at Nicaragua) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4M0HTRov0L/?igshid=nl7wjcsq4gc4
Yesterday I was so tired from studying, that I fell asleep on my books...
Studying is always hard - but I want to do my best before Christmas - we can do that!
We farm these they are flammable gasoline has additives these are a recipe just another recipe … electric gas yuo lighter uses this type of function there’s few who know but we can farm metals an gold business a chair he dies sun one sits down the rest shit over by one we start at nothing it’s just dirt yuo hav to put it there or there’s nothing
ok so here are some tips for pirating and torrenting.
BASICS YOU NEED. these are non-negotionable.
1. a good VPN, paid for.
I know I know to start a piracy post with “you have to pay for the first step” IS a bad look but free VPNs are worse than no VPNs, don’t ever torrent or even go on a pirating site without one. (+ on public wifi you are also very much in danger of getting your info stolen) you should already have a VPN, I have nordvpn and a LOT of YouTubers can give you discounts in their videos too, so be on the lookout for that.
2. Get a good anti-virus software.
This is a “worst-case scenario” type deal where you got a little bit too cocky and downloaded stuff you shouldn’t have. no worries though! I do think that there are some decent anti-virus software out there, I personally use Bitdefender, but there are many out there and you should really consider having one.
3. Adblock
speaks for itself
Sites, recourses, ect
1. Now, Pirating.
Here are the two Reddit threads I use (piracy for gaming has good tips on torrents and what to avoid to start out) (and r/piracy for when you’re ready to start diving into general stuff) I’ve tested out a lot of the links and such, and while some are dead and deleted threads most are in use. BTW Thepiratebay is used a lot for torrenting and is safe as far as I know. I use it for a lot of my pirating tbh and I haven’t had problems with it. check the comments of a torrent if you’re suspicious.
go fourth and never pay for stupid streaming sites or shitty anime pirating sites with too many ads!
24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year
Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general.
1. Become awesome at Excel.
Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?
2. Learn how to code.
littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com
Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.
3. Make a dynamic website.
You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).
4. Learn to make a mobile game.
If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.
5. Start reading faster.
Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.
6. Learn a language!
With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.
Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.
7. Pickle your own vegetables.
Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.
8. Improve your public speaking skills.
You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.
9. Get a basic handle of statistics.
UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!
10. Understand basic psychology.
Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.
11. Make your own music.
Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).
Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.
Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.
Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!
12. Learn to negotiate.
Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.
13. Stop hating math.
If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!
14. Start drawing!
All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)
15. Make your own animated GIF.
BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.
16. Appreciate jazz.
reddit.com
Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.
17. Write well.
Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.
18. Get better at using Photoshop.
Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).
19. Take decent pictures.
Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.
20. Learn to knit.
Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!
21. Get started with investing in stocks.
If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!
22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.
Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.
23. Start practicing yoga.
Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.
24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.
It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!
Verbal Judo
The other day I heard this on the radio while driving:
I was very intrigued by this as I have been a student of "Verbal Judo" for some years now. I work with people a lot, mostly when they are not at their best (I work with the very ill and those who care for them). Also being I am an introvert and that I can be ironically, um, very vocal, having some insight on how to structure speaking with others when I and/or they are not at their best is super helpful. And truly it has been! I prefer the audiobook by the way and listen to it a lot when jogging, driving, or whatever. Whoever they got to read it I thought was the author reading his own book so it is a very good listen.
Anyway, back to the intrigue of the podcast. When I heard this piece I wondered if this helped shape or influence Mr. Thompson's passion to create a learnable structure for better communication especially in stressful moments ("Verbal Judo").
I'm going to give this podcast a listen and let you know what I learn. If you have listened, no spoilers please!
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There is nothing for free 🖤🖤 #joker #thedarkknight #quote #heathledger #free #price #rip #love #legend #legendary #icon #oscar #bestofbest #beautiful #herewego #master #teacher #learn #education #sick #freak #monster #big #evil #fun #haha #dc #doctor #charisma #batman https://www.instagram.com/p/CQvkhvOh3UO/?utm_medium=tumblr
general revenue key village eat imply Bible wrongbear communicate leading result plane debt wonder moral
Never stop exploring. Never stop discovering. Never stop learning. Just as Carl Sagan said, " Somewhere,something incredible is waiting to be known." #travel #carlsagan #california #rich #instatravel #travelgram #traveltheworld #highonlife #travellovers #inspire #view #discover #explore #learn #incredible #island #usa #photograph #words #inspiration #travelphoto #worlderlust #komalzutshi #zutshikomal #soulfood
🔺Final Summit. This hike was so worth it. 🔻 #hiking #hikingadventures #sunset #travel #wanderlust #worlderlust #nature #naturelovers #photography #eveningsky #sky #colors #beautiful #discover #explore #learn #believe #nofilter #california #bayarea #america #usa #missionpeak (at Mission Peak)
Ideas for Teachers: Programming Lesson Plan
When I return back to my hometown I will be visiting schools to share about my NASA experience and teach programming. I will be sharing my lesson plans here for a day of programming and a day of space related learning. Let’s start with programming. One of my first stops will be my Mom’s Kindergarten class so you will notice my lesson plan is catered for elementary students.
Morning: What is programming?
After your usual morning activities; “G-O-O-D M-O-R-N-I-N-G Good Morning Aye Aye Good Morning *clap* *clap”, drawing sticks and telling about your weekend, introduce students to the concept of programming. Ask students, “What do you think programming is?” Write down the answers on the white board. After answer along the lines of “Programming is telling a computer to do things - make a video game, control a robot, create an App, and more!” Next I would show them a short video with our current stars in technology.
Lets Start Coding
“Enough talk about programming let’s do it!” A great introduction to coding is a Made With Code project. The Yeti project is my favorite of these activities. Students take turns dragging and dropping blocks of code assigning attributes to the Yeti fur color and feet size. After assigning attributes the students can watch the Yeti dance. When I have had students write yeti code they enjoy changing the colors and dance many times!
Afternoon: Code Related Rotations
Skills needed to program are not only found in front of a screen but working in a team, time for activity rotations. (These will be the centers I will have but you all can have different ones.) At one center I will have my LEGO robot for the students to program. There will be objects that the robot can pick up or avoid. At the second center 3D printed puzzles will be available for students to solve. At the third center an activity with half a blank page and half a lined page. Students can draw a picture of what they think would be cool to program and write about it. Last center create a robot out of construction paper, foil, or other mediums.
Now You Try
Take a trip to the computer lab and let students try to program on their own. Hour of Code is a great resource where students can learn programming at various levels. Two activities I tested out an enjoyed was a Flappy Bird Game Creator and Star Wars Drone Game. Students can code on their own or work in a group to help each other figure things out.
Have fun teaching students about programming! In the future I hope to get a Sphero, 3D printer, and Arduino type kit. Maybe you all have other ideas for a programming lesson plan.
Get Hooked on Programming Quick
Highly sought for and praised- the ability to program. Admit it, being comfortable with technology makes you an admirable candidate for your dream job and allows you to navigate the modern world more fluidly. Unfortunately the idea of becoming tech savvy was soiled by the thought of dry lingo and geeky stereotype. For the tech enthused or not, young or wise I have seven ways you can get started with programming in a few hours or much less. (In order of what I thought of first)
1) Codecademy
Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond
Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish
Languages: Web development, Ruby, Python, PHP
Where: http://www.codecademy.com/learn
Friends from internships used codecademy to get exposed to a number of languages relatively quickly and from there decided what to dive into.
2) Code.org
Best for: Elementary - High School
Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish
Languages: Java Script, HTML, basic logic, Lego Robotics, and more
Where: http://code.org/
A really fun way to learn programming by playing games or making your own! President Obama was visited by some aspiring programmers and completed a Disney Frozen themed project.
3) Alice
Best for: Elementary - High School
Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish
Languages: Java
Where: http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice3.1
(Younger programmers may need help downloading and getting started)
Alice allows you to program in pseudo Java code and control characters. You can make movies or perform skits with your characters by moving blocks of code around and assigning values. This was my first exposure to programming in high school. As I continued with my computer studies in college found that what I learned from Alice to be extremely useful.
4) Java Seal
Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond
Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish
Languages: Java
Where: https://www.youtube.com/user/JavaSeal
This is my shameless plug; I started this You Tube channel this past summer and recorded some videos about how to get started with Java programming, a basic 10 minute starter program, and a 30min more complex program. Although I haven't downloaded videos recently these are a good start and I expect to make more this summer.
5) Made With Code
Best for: Elementary - Middle School
Project Time: 5min - As long as you wish
Languages: Basic Logic
Where: https://www.madewithcode.com/projects
My Mom's kindergarten class loved to make a Yeti dance and lights shimmer using the Made With Code project. I visited her classroom and had students drag and drop blocks of code on a Smart Board. These projects teach about basic programming logic and assigning values to variables.
6) Khan Academy
Best for: Middle School - Adulthood and beyond
Project Time: 30min - As long as you wish
Languages: Game, Animation, Web Development
Where: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming
Khan Academy has great videos for every subject imaginable in school and now for programming. There are many projects where you can make video games, a website, or animation. There is even a gallery of what other programmers have made while following along with the video.
7) Major League Hacking
Best for: High School - College
Project Time: Few hours to 3 day event
Languages: Any language! Common ones include C++ and Java
Where: Select Colleges https://mlh.io/seasons/f2014/events
This isn't a website to visit but a Hackathon event to go to! Hackathons are events where students are challenged to create a solution to a problem such as an app that can send you texts to keep you on task, a light that can let you know when you need to wear warm clothes, or the next big social media hot spot. Hackathons can run for a few hours to three days. Most of the Hackathons don't require programming experience and are a great place to learn.
(These age groups are just suggestions, feel free to check out any of them you like. I didn't make any of the logos except my Java Seal one so kudos to you other logo makers.)
