/ work
What I'm About
In short: creating things using computers. It all started as a semi-obsessive hobby, and now it's my job. Obviously "creating things using computers" covers a wide range of things. Here are a few:
- Front-end Web Development
- This has become my specialty. XHTML/CSS, Flash, Javascript (/AJAX/jQuery), web standards and semantics, accessiblity and useability... and while I'm dropping buzz words I might as well say it: Web 2.0. From a non-technical perspective: I know how to make cool websites - and I love doing it.
- Back-end Web Development
- Although my strength lies more in the front-end, I have experience working with data driven websites using ASP.NET. I've also done personal and freelance work using PHP and have recently begun experimenting with rail-like frameworks such as Codeigniter and CakePHP. I've spent a lot of time with wordpress as well - creating my own themes and modifying it to meet needs.
- Graphic Design and Photography
- I prefer to keep this area closer to me as a hobby, but have considerable experience using Photoshop and Illustrator as a web design tool. I'll also randomly go on photography binges and get that much closer to learning how to make my photos look pro. I like to draw with a tablet and spent the better part of a year drawing and animating an online flash cartoon with a friend of mine.
- Video Production
- I've been making goofy home videos since I was ten. Over time I learned how to do a thing or two. Although most of my personal home videos won't attest to this, I do have some experience with lighting, sound and camera work and I have worked with groups to create professional online educational videos. I have much more experience with editing and animating using applications like Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
I also have a flash-based portfolio that I created in school. Keep in mind it's about four years old now, but I think it's still worth looking at.
Looking Back
The first computer I ever used was one of the original Macs shown in the picture above. Of course I was a little older by the time I started using it, and by then it was out of date.
My internet at the time consisted of a web of about 300 mysterious and mostly unlabelled floppy disks that had built up at my family's business over the years. Anyone who used Macintosh computers back in the day might remember a program called HyperCard. It was pretty cool for its time; I could compare it to primitive version of Flash.
I started out making simple Myst-like games which consisted of nothing but invisible buttons placed over hand drawn scenes like a type of Choose Your Own Adventure. I couldn't help but take it further. By the time we were getting ready to upgrade that old computer I was writing hundreds of lines of HyperTalk to make what must have been some of the crappiest (but functional!) side scrolling video games ever. How I had the patience to figure that out using nothing but a few examples and a lot of guess work I'll never know (no manual, no code-hinting, no Google... it's actually kind of sad... almost as sad as the amount of time I spent playing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure).
Since then - through talking to people in recent years - I've come to realize that those who were forced to obsessively tinker with technologies simply because it was not possible to learn the technique or find an answer online have a distinct advantage. I think something changes in your brain when you hack at the puzzle yourself for a while instead relaying on the cloud. Nonetheless I have - like most of us - learned to lean on a Google search the minute something doesn't work as expected. I think of the twelve year old out there right now with his/her iMac and cloud of information and can't even imagine what they'll be capable of by the time they're out of school. I better stay on top of things... ;-).