"Building HTML Pages"

OK, so I've been back out lately doing a bit of the kind of networking I should normally always be doing, and I think I may have signed onto a couple too many places / groups / lists... I just got some email spam from a "Strategic" marketing association:

In today's world governed by the Internet, everybody wants to build a website and the major question comes in: How? The research begins, most of the times on the same media you're trying to break in and you end up with more questions than answers. How should you handle this amount of information? The opinions of those that are already in are always different and you end up lost like in the beginning.

(...)

By learning HTML, you are better equipped to be able to change how your blog or website is presented. And doing this can help you stand out from the rest.

(...)

5 reasons to attend

  • You will learn tools for creating HTML documents.
  • You will be able to create and edit a web page.
  • You will explore creating a home page.
  • You will look at creating tables in a website.
  • You will learn how easy HTML can be.

We all know of course, learning HTML is so very strategic. And the kicker? I can attend this audio conference for just $149 USD!!!

To-day's Confession (I think I've not published this here yet, anyway):

When I was finishing college in the mid/late 90s, I was coming out of design school partially unprepared for the bustling job market that was happening just outside my university's walls. In other words, I didn't know HTML. Though I'd spent time in my classes working things like Photoshop and Illustrator into my class projects, with the exception of one Digital Illustration class (elective) I'd taken, all that had been of my own volition and sometimes to the scoffs of some of my professors. That was where things were at with my school, ironically "in the heart of the Silicon Valley"...

I spent some time initially doing technical illustration and desktop publishing temp work, and to this day I'm very grateful to those who gave me that. After doing that, I recognized after a few interviews that nobody was buying my touch 'o bullshit: "HTML? Oh, no... I'm a Designer. I should leave that to the Engineers." As if to imply coding was beneath me or something; as if I came out of the box already accomplished as a designer or anything else for that matter. It was a classic case of "if you don't believe it, nobody else will either." It was time to suck it up, get over my half-codephobic / half-laziness whatever self and hit the online tutorials that were all over the Web and available for viewing for free. And so I did, with my 28.8 kbps dial-up modem over my PC Computing Power Mac clone. I pretty much picked up what I needed to land my first Web job - just in time for my being short of enough money to pay my next month's rent - in a single afternoon. During my first week or two on that job, other than getting used to using Windows I had to very briefly tap one of my fellow designers for a little help trouble-shooting my tables and framesets across browsers (a major one was AOL's at the time), but other than that I was fine.

At that early kick-off of my professional life I was ecstatic. Eventually recognizing that having had a lack of exposure and guidance had held back my Web career getting started by 1-2 years - potentially very pivotal / critical years given the boom time - and then getting past the respective "what if"s and slight bitterness came much later.

The morale(s)?

  1. Timing is everything.
  2. While one can only do so much about time, that doesn't mean what happens is all just dumb luck. What we do with our time is up to us and every moment is precious. If your time isn't being used fully and/or properly, remember at the end of the day you're your own permanent client. If nothing else, when it comes to matters of ownership an area where nobody can ultimately deprive you of it is with your own career and life path.
  3. Time isn't money. It's worth way more than money. Still, though both are finite it's the money part that for most of us is the one that's more so. So just as with time, be smart about what you do with your money. Know how to think hard along the way about when to pay your dues, conversely when dues are actually owed to you, and when and how to know the difference.
  4. Know when to get off the Web (and the damn computer in general) for a while in favor of reading a book. When you really need to absorb something, it's often much better than trying to short-cut it via attending some comparatively pricey webinar or downloading some podcast. Got RSIs? All the more reason.

Currently reading: Click by Bill Tancer, Pro SQL Server Analytics by Brian Paulen


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