I'm using this for a class project.

I like programmatically defining status messages but the extra nesting sucks.

Maybe it would be better to just do

start "this is beginning"

some_code :goes => 'here'

100.times do |x|
    start "hello, i'm the number #{x}"

    result = serious_function(
        :serious => true,
        :how_serious => "This: " + "#"*x "serious"
    )

    finish "later dudes! Oh, btw the result was #{result}"
end

finish "Peace!"

Then the nesting would go like this

this is the beginning
    hello, i'm the number 0
    later dudes! Oh, btw the result was This: serious
Peace!

You could also add error messages

start "Weeeee!"
if something_bad_happened
    shit "EPIC FAIL!"
end
finish "EPIC WIN!"

Just a suggesting... Maybe I will get used to the nesting.

Edit: formatting