This little set of paragraphs allows for adding information in a way that should be easier and easier to manipulate.

I still need to do a lot of refactoring and general cleanup, but I'm happy with the progress so far. There's a little GitHub link on the right if you want to see other examples of my code.

You may notice this page is basically identical to the about page. What I'd like to do is make little template pages like this that are easy to implement and customize. Not that copy/pasting is hard, but it'd be nice to have it a bit more refined.

I'm using bootstrap, font awesome, and jQuery for this page. There's some custom code you can take a look at if you want at the same GitHub mentioned earlier.

I've built the site out as a node.js app, and it currently stores some data in a SQLite database - that will need to be updated to use a standard SQL server. I also plan on using MongoDB for for some of the content that will eventually be displayed.

I will also need a way to manage the content. Some sort of admin page, and a way to manage users. I know there's plenty of existing solutions out there, but I do plan on building it out on my own as much as possible.

I started my journey into computers early in life. Fiddling with the variables in the QBASIC example games to make bigger explosions from the Gorilla's bananas or a faster snake in Snake was the first time I remember starting to understand what coding could do. From that point on my computers were always playgrounds for tinkering.

I avoided pursuing a career in computers for a long time, something just felt weird to me when I thought about taking a passion and turning it into profit. That was a misstep on my part, as I enter my 40's I realize now that my passion for computers should have been tapped into at a much earlier age.

I'm a classic example of a "gifted child." All through elementary, middle and high school I struggled with my grades. I wanted to do the things I wanted to, and I didn't want to do homework. This netted me a GED instead of a diploma and limited my options for extended education. I tried community college unsuccessfully and joined the workforce.

Later in my life I'd find out I was a missed diagnosis of ADHD, once I started learning how to deal with that and what exactly that meant things started changing drastically. I enrolled in DeVry in 2021 and excelled in all of my classes. I've been on the Dean's List since I first qualified, and am a member of the honors society.

Until DeVry I was self-taught, and still supplement that education with my learning. As often as possible I've written my own code for assignments. After I obtain my BS, I plan on attending the Master's program for Data Science at the UC Berkeley Extension college.

In my experience, gaining knowledge in any programming language increases your skill in all other languages. I'm most comfortable in Python, C#, Java, and JavaScript, but I'm always trying to push myself to learn more.

The nerd in me always enjoys looking at interesting data and trying to understand what it means. I enjoy data visualization having tinkered with Tableau and used matplotlib, Seaborn, and Google Data Studio before it was Looker. Once time allows I plan on thoroughly investigating and learning D3.js.

I'm generally skilled with computers as well. The first computer I built was a 486 DX4 100, and the first time I ever used Linux was Slackware 1. This isn't impressive on its own, but considering I was born in 1982 adds a little bit. I long for the days of a frequented BBS.