Code and cool stuff:
-HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, MySQL… you know… the WordPress stuff! Overall, I’ve built over 50 WordPress sites, mostly as mockups for the few companies I’ve freelanced for.
-W3.CSS, Bootstrap, etc. Yeah I played with a lot of them when they came out because all the YouTubers and Udemy pros were telling me it was everything I needed to know. Loved jQuery mobile when it still was supported – it was great for simple mobile apps!
Ok, so, for years and years, I moonlighted as a web developer. I was incorrectly taught that I have to practically do EVERYTHING on my own and understand all the little tiny parts of literally everything. I was stuck in what people call “tutorial hell” spending hours and hours coding boring stuff, doing quizzes, and designing bad looking pages. I was so stuck trying to do it all from scratch, taking way too much time and moving at a snail’s pace. I didn’t realize then, that I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time just because somebody can raw-code it all.
I eventually got over that, and started to really love the idea of helping people understand WordPress, and learning it better myself. So, my original wheelhouse was lean-coding and reverse-engineering themes and frameworks to customize them to whatever people needed. It’s branched out a bit since then. I’ve gotten much deeper into WordPress, and am learning both theme and plugin development.
Hardware:
Nowadays, I’m also getting heavier into hardware. I landed a job as an Educational Technology Coordinator. I am over somewhere between 800 and 900 Chromebooks depending on the time of year, and have fixed well over 400 Chromebooks this year alone. I took some college classes in hardware and Networking, and am currently enrolled in a Security+ course. I also was a cable installer, and went through the Comcast University apprenticeship.
I’ve really learned to love working with hardware, and before 2022 I never thought I would. I was always afraid of breaking stuff because… well… I was prone to breaking stuff I tried to fix. But the former Ed Tech Coordinator before me taught me a good few things about how to fix computers and I loved it.
Other Media:
Music: I’ve been a musician well over 20 years. Drums and bass are my main instruments, but I also play guitar, piano, mandolin, cajon, and like to think I can sing. I record with GarageBand. I used to also love recording with a digital mixer (like a Fostex or Tascam. I kinda miss those!)
Video editing: familiar with Premiere basics, iMovie, MovieMaker, and Adobe Animate.
Visual Art: Painting, Drawing, Adobe Illustrator, GIMP, Photoshop. If I had more time, I would do much more with these.
Stuff I like but haven’t used professionally:
Python! I am learning to REALLY like the ease of use with Python! I’m not about to proclaim I’m a Python prodigy, but I really do like how easy it is to work with.
C# and Unity: I took one college class, wanting to learn how to do video games, and figured if I did, I would NEVER complain about web development hardships. I was right for a long time. But it was fun to actually get it working.
React.js and React Native.
Sports! Has nothing to do with anything mentioned above. But I like them.