Sounds like an amazing opportunity! If you were in Portland, I'd seriously consider quitting my job to dive in.
I'm a non-programmer slowly trying to teach myself in my off time, but it's slow, lonely, hard-to-stay-motivated going. I've contacted a few local web dev companies to try to come in as an unpaid intern to at least try to get into a more conducive environment, but haven't had much luck.
Please keep us updated on how this goes! And if anyone knows of a similar opportunity in Portland, I'd love to hear about it.
Regarding learning Ruby in Portland, make it out to a PDX Ruby Brigade meeting if you haven't already. They have meetings focused on learning Ruby: http://calagator.org/events/1250461371
I'm a non-programmer slowly trying to teach myself in my off time, but it's slow, lonely, hard-to-stay-motivated going. I've contacted a few local web dev companies to try to come in as an unpaid intern to at least try to get into a more conducive environment, but haven't had much luck.
Please keep us updated on how this goes! And if anyone knows of a similar opportunity in Portland, I'd love to hear about it.