Sunday, February 10, 2013

Adding Another Thread to the Web

Call it silly but I'm a believer in fulfilling childhood dreams. Unjaded by constraints of the real world, they often offer up a true look at the person we're meant to be and contain a grand narrative which helps inform the person we become as adults. Looking back at my own dreams, a few main themes emerge including technology, communications, storytelling, and helping others. This post explores my love for the web.

My fascination with the internet started in the 90s when my mom got our first computer. The amount of information available and ability to connect with others to exchange ideas resonated with me instantly. Shortly after discovering the web I began collecting Dragon Ball Z (DBZ) photos from sites and dreamed of creating a website to share my collection with friends and fellow DBZ enthusiasts around the world.

Like many things of the 90s, my full-time devotion to DBZ fizzled out in the 00s. After I entered Orting High School, my passions changed. I became interested in new activities like track, cross country, driving fast cars (see part 2 about my Maxima), and choir. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a HUGE DBZ fan; I could talk to you for days about the deep history and mythology of the series but given the year, I decided to reconfigure my dream to fit contemporary interests.

Thinking about my dream of creating a website through the lens of 2013, I decided it would be good to focus on my love for social media, networking, and photography. The site will serve as a central hub for me on the web and be an additional platform to share my thoughts about digital life and the vast world of communication. To accomplish this goal, I enrolled at the School of Visual Concepts (SVC) where I learned about copy writing in 2012. What drew me back to the school was its commitment to practical education and gritty real world vibe which made it feel accessible.

Despite not having touched HTML since I was an 8th grader at Sagahlie Middle School – formally Sagahlie Jr. High School, the language felt oddly familiar and was easy to pick up. After a month of developing the site, I'm excited to hit publish later this week! I'm also looking forward to continuing to learn more about HTML and other coding languages.

I never imagined myself wanting to learn more about computer languages but I'm slowly finding I actually enjoy the challenge of connecting the various pieces of code and appreciate the way it connects people with information. It's not the path I'd envisioned taking but like most things in life, it's sometimes better to take the long way around and enjoy the sights.



[Photo courtesy of Flickr user johnkay ]

No comments:

Post a Comment