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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Introduction


Peri the Parrot

Before I launch into my blog, I thought I would share a little about me, my history with websites and what my plans for this blog are.

A bit about me

I am a Civil Engineer working for a consulting firm in Seattle.  For a living, I work on a number of public projects: schools, community colleges, libraries, military, green streets, etc.  I am engaged to an Android nerd, have an 11-year-old future step son and a pet bird named Peri.  In the near future, we plan on buying a house, adopting a puppy, getting married and having children together.

For pleasure, I read fantasy and sci-fi novels, watch fantasy and sci-fi movies and TV, surf the internet (my current obsession being Pinterest) make my own jewelry and love getting out in the sunshine (when we have it here in Seattle).  In addition, I love technology and the Internet.  I own an android phone (SGSII), Kindle Fire and a Chromebook.

It seems like I had way more hobbies growing up (writing stories, photography, drawing, etc).  For a new years resolution, I decided to re-up some of my lost hobbies.  This included taking a jewelry making class and getting back into websites via blogging.

History of Internet and Websites

My family’s very first computer was a LC3 Macintosh.  I remember playing Myst on our first CD-ROM, which was an external drive that was about the same size as the computer “pizza box."  I received my first PC when I was around 12 years old back in the mid 90’s. It was a hand me down from my older brother.  Our first modem was a 12 kb/s modem and our first Internet provider was AOL.  My computer world opened up with my first steps into the internet.  I was fascinated by websites and started working on website projects right away.

Eventually we got our Internet turned off (the audacity!) when I was in high school.  Back in the mid to late nineties there were companies offering free dial-up Internet services.  NetZero was one of them.  These services would have a bar up top that displayed ads to pay for the cost of providing Internet.  I remember I was always trying to find free services that had minimal to no ads and would connect reliably.  I found one once, but I didn't realize that a 900 number isn't free.  I think I only used it for a couple of hours and quit after I realized it was a "free Internet so you can watch pornography" service.  I don't remember how much it rung up my parents phone bill, but I was a good girl and immediately confessed when asked.  I think they were surprised that the sex hot line bill turned out to be their 15-year-old daughter.  I explained what happened and how I was sorry.  I think I worked off my debt doing work for my dad's self-employed business.

I have always wanted to own and operate a website.  As a child, and a young adult, I tried to start-up many different websites.  As a child, and probably the most successful, I had a fan site for an anime from the late 80's.  I even had a domain name for a brief time.  It didn't last long.

So here I am.  Thirty years old and I still have this drive to have my own website.  I think the biggest thing that interested me back then was the actual web development.  I even briefly thought about going into Computer Science and Engineering with my key interest being e-commerce.  This was right before the dot-com crash at the turn of the century.  I graduated high school right before the crash.  This is the era I grew up in.  The rise and fall and rise of the Internet age.

In this day and age most people don't develop their own websites.  It's more about the content then the web development.  When I was younger, I didn’t focus as much on the content, which is why the majority of my pet website projects didn’t last.  There are numerous sites out there that do the development portion for you, that way the blogger can focus on blogging, i.e. content creation. So what unique content can I bring to the foray?

Plans for This Blog

I plan on having a mixture of techy and girly type blog articles (or perhaps girly tech?). I have a few product reviews that I have been working on, including a review of the Kindle Fire and Evernote.  I also plan on writing up a review of my favorite Android Apps and the Chromebook I just purchased.

I also plan to blog about my hobbies.  My current focus will be making jewelry!  I have been taking jewelry making classes and will post what I learned and accomplished here. I plan on blogging on my growth in this endeavor.  I am hoping that at some point I start selling my jewelry pieces.

Another hobby I may blog about are any DIY projects that I attempt.  I am pretty addicted to Pinterest (follow me!) and plan on trying out some projects that people post.  My current DIY projects that I plan on attempting are to create my own jewelry display and to revitalize the guestroom in my apartment.

In addition to product reviews and documenting my hobbies, I plan on also sharing any research I may do for personal reasons. For instance, I may post a summary of the research I did while deciding to start a blog, which will include my decision to use wordpress, how to use Evernote for blogging, tips and tricks, etc. Some possible future research topics may include purchasing a house, puppy training, buying a car (fuel-efficient or electric!)...  The possibilities, as they say, are endless.

As my family starts growing, I may include some family oriented blog/journal type entries.  For instance, I might blog about my new puppy and share photos and videos of his/her development.  Don't worry though. I'm a pretty big nerd, so I'm sure I'll regress and have a pretty nerdy take on it.

Well that summarizes what I hope to accomplish.  This is only the beginning, so I am sure that my goals and focus’ will evolve as I grow as a blogger.  I hope that you enjoy what I have to offer.  Feel free to say "hi!" in the comments below.

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