Resumes, Rants, & Coding Elitism
Well, let me first mention that I have a new page made to display my resume on-line. Just head over to My Resume Page and take a look. Especially if you happen to manage an ISP in the SW Missouri area. Or Colorado--I'd love to move back there!
I'm rather proud of the new resume page. I made it entirely in Dreamweaver 4 instead of doing the Javascript by hand like I used to. I think I'm going to use Dreamweaver exclusively from here. I used to write all my pages in CoffeeCup (which I still love, by the way, and heavily recommend!) using FrontPage2000 only for tables. I'll admit, tables give me problems, especially tables within tables. But I used be ashamed of that, using an OMG wysiwyg web editor! Gasp! What would other geeks say? But I've realized life's too short to live it based on some idea of ivory tower elitism and trying to impress others.
So what if I use Dreamweaver to make my webpages. It doesn't mean I don't know HTML. In fact, I still have to go in and make lots of adjustments to the code. But I feel that since I know the basics of PHP and ASP and continue to learn more, than anyone who looks down on me because I use an application to make webpages can just bite my toe. Sure I could write the code that puts a layer at X and Y, but in the time it takes me to write just that by hand I can have four layers completed attached to mouseovers and have a simple Flash intro done. And if I'm making a webpage for a client, I think having a nice and well done page completed in a short amount of time is certainly more advantageous than feeling smug because I know how to write between brackets.
OK, so that said, why do I still feel like a smuck and like I'm betraying my geekhood by going from ASCII to GUI? *sigh*
Oh well, I'm still writing my "rants" in notepad at least. =)
Rants rants rants. Everyone has a rant page. All the web comic strips I love do, at least. And the guys at Penny Arcade tends to have the best rants. Mostly about video games, so not having time or money anymore to play or buy games, I have to live vicariously through his rants. I want to have a good, almost daily rant page that might be of interest, but to be honest, my life pretty much revolves around work and i-Net+ right now. Not all that interesting. Well, except to other burned out IT administrators I suppose. =) I could put in my PEBCAK issues of the day up here I suppose....
In any case, I still feel weird about demoting CelticBear to my personal web page, so I'm not yet used to just spewing opinion about. But I suppose I could really do what I want since a) no one reads this site, and b) it IS my personal page so I really don't have to worry about babbling. When I really get going on building pages for pay or hosting sites, then I'll have a seperate domain for that. Very professional and all. But for the time being, I'll make do with prospective clients lurking about here. Since the only people I do any work for anyway are people who already know me, I don't think I'm hurting anything by spewing silly opinion and train-of-though internal dialogue here.
And in the spirit of babbling, I just have to say that I'm at work right now, and they're usually playing this satellite music station on the overhead that's full of banal dance and pop music (disco STILL sucks, by the way,) but today they're playing a classic rock station. I'm smiling. Gotta love Pink Floyd! (pre "Wall" that is. Got kinda burned out with "The Wall" in high school when I had it memorized and would listen to and tear up on "Comfortably Numb" every morning before going into the school. But then, what self-centered, moody, artsy, girlfriendless guy didn't do that in highscool? At least, before Nine Inch Nails came around *grin*) Anyway, you know it's a quality classic rock station when instead of playing Floyd from "Dark Side of the Moon" they're playing things from "Ummagumma" and "Saucer Full of Secrets"!
Well, perhaps I'll try to do these spewings more often. But I promise next time to have some more useful opinions. Like regarding movies and music. WHICH reminds me, I should be getting the latest Tea Party CD today! It was released in Canada last week, and won't be released in the States until January or February I believe. So it's taken a week for it to ship from our friends up north. It's a more rocking CD (I already have all the MP3's...and don't give me that look. I paid for the CD in spite. So NYAH!) than their last ones. Hopefully they'll get some US airplay then, and I can thumb my nose at people who dis them. They're one of the most popular bands in Canada and Australia, and so what if his voice sounds like Jim Morrison, and some of their music sounds like Led Zepplin, they've put out five fantastic CD's and have been around for 10 years. They're my favorite band, and I think one of the most musically talented trios ever. Yes, ever. Well, unless Mozart, Paganini, and a Verdi ever played together, but then if I recall, Mozart was dead before Paganini was even born...but I digress. =)
Signing off for today. Peace,
23 October 2001
