title: Jquery $(this).val(); on .ready not working
body: <p>I'm trying to get the value of a dropdown's option (there is an id on the select markup), when opening the web page</p>
  
  <p>Using</p>
  
  <pre><code>$(document).ready(function() {
  
    $('#cat_list').ready(function(){
    var category =  $(this).val();
    alert(category);
    });
  
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get a blank alert.</p>
  
  <p>But Using .change (when selecting something else inside the dropdown) the following code works perfectly with the same function</p>
  
  <pre><code>$(document).ready(function() {
  
    $('#cat_list').change(function(){
    var category =  $(this).val();
    alert(category);
    });
  
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Finally, this works using basic javascript and it gets successfully the values on open, refresh, on form submit fail, ... etc</p>
  
  <pre><code>$(document).ready(function() {
  
    $('#cat_list').ready(function(){
    var e = document.getElementById("cat_list");
    var category = e.options[e.selectedIndex].value; 
    alert(category);
    });
  
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help on why the first version .ready + $(this).val();  fails</p>