Sydney
Computers
I've been playing on computers for as long as I can remember. I got my own desktop when I was in fifth grade because my mom complained that I was always on hers. I got my mom's old laptop a few years later and had that up until January 2007 when my parents bought me a lovely white MacBook.
Web history
My first interaction with the internet and with web design was when I decided to make my own Harry Potter RPG on Expage. The only HTML I used was for fonts and images. Eventually I moved to Geocities, where I learned more. After a few years, I got hosted, then a few years later I got my first domain.
Web 2.0
I've been around the internet way before the Web 2.0 craze and I'm not that into the SEO monetization thing that seems to have taken over. Stay-at-home-moms have somehow managed to make websites and generate a full time income, which is great for them, but not great for people like me. I don't want to play the system and try to make as much money as I can from ads and affiliate programs. I just want to make websites and have fun. That's the biggest reason I'm reluctant to not become a freelance web designer.
The person
I currently attend a university on the Gulf Coast of Texas where I'm majoring in psychology. I'm pretty sure I'm going to switch my major to either computer science or business. I'll definitely get at least a minor in computer science because I want to learn more programming. I'm a self-taught HTML guru, as well as CSS. I know a little PHP (enough to run this site with it), but I can't write my own programs. I'm currently taking an into class to C++ and I hope to move on to more complicated languages.
Family
My parents are partly to blame for my success with web design because they are the ones who've bought me my computers throughout the years. I've designed my mom's website for the past five or so years, so it's really helped with my portfolio. Don is my boyfriend and we've been together for two years. We live in a one-bedroom apartment with our beagle, Copper, who is featured in this layout.
The website
Domain
I bought this domain in February of 2007 because xFluro was running a deal. It's been sitting here since then. For awhile I used the domain as a testing base for my other websites.
Layout
The illustration of Copper was created in Adobe Illustrator and it took about two days from start to finish. I copied a picture I took of him
when he was sitting at our dining room table. The rest of the images were created in GIMPshop and the layout was hand-written in Coda. It is valid XHTML and CSS and should be viewable in all browsers with no problems.