You weren't :)

I took two night classes- the first was 10-week course on an introduction to python (which used exactly that book) and the second 10-week course was on internet programming. We learned other stuff in that class (REST, CherryPy, HTML protocol) but I spent most of the time going through the django tutorials & docs. djangobook.com provides a good alternative source for django documentation. And then after 5 months of study, I was hired as a python/django web dev. But I got lucky and I was serious during that time.

If you want any more tips or hit any roadblocks, feel free to hit me up: civilianjones gmail com

Wow, a developer job? Impressive. What was your background before then?

I was doing data-entry vomit and I had a degree in biochemistry. I had taken two years of programming in high school (like 6-7 years ago) which helped give me a basic understanding/foundation.

Ha, as someone with a degree is chem with a similar programming background who has been studying rails for 6 months, you give me hope and make me feel like a total slacker! Seriously though, that's awesome!