Bold undertaking here. I’m “teaching” myself all of the above. It’s slow going. Fortunately, I already had a better-than-basic grasp of HTML, or all of this would seem like a foreign language to me. I would sign up for a class, because sometimes you’re given the most direct way, instead of this catch as catch can manner that I’m using. But, man, have you seen the prices on those classes? One 3-day Javascript class cost almost $1500. Who has that kind of money? In this economy? Even in better times, I can’t see myself paying out that kind of money. Hmmm…maybe if I get really good, I could charge others. Food for thought. Anyway, I’m plodding along, and alone, watching a lot of simple things escape me, spending hours trying to figure out what I missed, finding it, and then forgetting it the next time around. I do believe, though, that this repetition will stick, and one day soon, it’ll all be second nature to me. At least, that’s my goal.
I like fooling around on the computer. I like learning how to put up websites. I am really enjoying tinkering with graphics. I use to use Paintshop Pro, but for some reason, I can’t find that cd. So I downloaded Gimp. Once you get past the interface, it does some fun and beautiful things. I like to draw, so I just load my drawings into Gimp and work them up – like the picture on this site. (I don’t know why the system gave my perfectly rendered transparent .gif a black background–it’ll have to do for now).
I reviewed HTML the other day. There have been some changes. I haven’t put up a site in a few years, so I had to refresh my knowledge. Folks tell me Php is easy and fun. I’ll get to that after I nail down CSS and Javascript. I must admit, I’m proud of myself. I have and will put in quite a few hours teaching myself this stuff. One day…
Meanwhile, a young woman called asking for lessons in graphics. I’m about 75% there, and told her so, but I’ll get back to her in a couple of weeks. By then I’ll know enough to razzle dazzle her with my ‘expertise.’ Right now, it would be the blind leading the blind.
All of this effort has one goal in mind – to find another line of work. I’ve spent years doing stuff I wasn’t all that interested in. I figured it’s way beyond time that I combine the things I enjoy – computers, graphics, and writing – and see what I can make of it all.
