I’m about to post a thread looking for a critique on my current progress, but, before I do that, I figured it would be nice to stop in and say hello.
I was actually just going to put my introduction in the critique thread, but figured it would be more appropriate here.
So, who am I?
Introduction
Turning 23 years old in July of 2011, I’m a young male with a knack for spreading myself too thin across a variety of topics. I have a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, but, as of the moment of this posting, have been unsuccessful in turning that degree into a job, so, instead, I am working at a local Deli in a foodmart as part of a convenience store. However, I have a variety of interests beyond Psychology and cutting meat.
I’ve done graphic design with Photoshop for close to 6 or 7 years at least. I wouldn’t call myself a “professional”, but I can turn out some professional-level work from time to time, especially if I put some real effort into it. I’m rather proud of what I’ve learned in graphic art, and you will likely get to see it on display on any websites I make. As a general rule, I like to make things from scratch. I may, from time to time, use the pen tool to trace a logo or an object, but I generally refuse to use clip-art or other people’s things. Especially for my own personal designs.
I’m also a musician. I learned Trombone in school, but have since picked up guitar and feel a much closer affinity with it. I haven’t played as much recently, due to something breaking on my guitar (a relatively simple fix, I’m sure, but I have no money and no ride). However, playing guitar has been a passion for 4 or 5 years.
I’m also a writer. If you couldn’t already tell by this lengthy post, I have a love for words and description and detailing things out. I’ve written poems, over 300 lyrics, and various short stories. I have a novel concept popping about in my head which may one day come out. I like writing in general though. Even the rambling thoughts of my consciousness on a particular idea, rant, or discussion are often enjoyable to me.
Computers
I’ve been into computers for as long as I can remember. Not having any friends in Middle School and few in High School, computers were my constant retreat. Even now, I spend most of my free-time on the computer. It’s just what I do. I don’t let it take away from the quality time I can and do spend with others, but the majority of my interactions are online and I’ve never really had a problem with it.
My work on understanding computers came as a result of knowledge wars with my father. My father is a pretty intelligent individual, so, even though he didn’t work with computers, he knew quite a bit about them and how they functioned fairly early on, knowing enough also to build computers so that he could have them cheaper.
As a result, if he grounded me and didn’t want me to use the computer, he knew how to do that. At first it started with changing my password. But then I learned, from a friend, about safemode, and apparently my father didn’t know about that, so the admin account’s password was never set. However, he did realize I had discovered how to get past his password changing methods, so he took memory out of the computer when I was grounded. But I eventually figured out that too, and so “borrowed” memory from other computers. On and on it went, and I learned more. For awhile, I even figured my career might be in computers.
As time went on, I became discouraged. In High School there was only one, crappy Comp Sci course which most students took for an “easy A”. While most of the kids were doing the tasks in the class, I was busy working on a text-based game on a coordinate grid with monster battles, etc… I wasn’t really learning a whole lot because my teacher didn’t know that much about C++ and I had hit the class’ ceiling pretty early. Discouraged, I eventually figured my calling would be in Psychology, and that is what I chose to study in college.
Computers ever remained my passion though. Over time I had accumulated knowledge of how to build websites with HTML and CSS. I still knew some coding from C and C++. I took up a work study at my school’s tech services in college, learning how to troubleshoot computers and understanding more about the Windows operating system as well as various software programs and basic methodology for fixing problems.
I also played a MUD, which meant I was using a MUD client called CMUD, which allowed for some pretty advanced scripting through its own language, zScript. More than anything else, I really began to learn some interesting techniques just making scripts and triggers for the MUD I played. As time went on I also picked up WoW and recently made an AddOn for it, using the Lua scripting language.
And now I’ve come back to web stuff, finally trying to learn PHP and MySQL.
I had a lot more to say, but not enough time to say it in. I’m sure you’ll learn more about me in time. I’ll post the code I wanted some critique on when I get a chance later.
