The Story

I began web designing when I was 11 years-young. Back then, I owned my own domain called Big Reds World. My dad picked out the name. Since his nickname for me was big red, we simply decided on Big Reds World. I used Paint Shop Pro 7 to make my graphics. I owned Big Reds World for at least two years. My site was everything it could have been. From what I remember, it was a personal site, a resource site, a fan site, and a free services site. During that time, I was involved in a forum called Splash MB. After moving to a new state, I came to the conclusion that Splash was a bad influence on me. As much as I loved the message board, I assumed it was “good for me.” Keep in mind that I was only 11 or twelve when I made that decision. I quit designing until the summer of 2008. Around July, I opened my own sub-domain called Rationally Detached. I was hosted by Erin for a few months. Right before school started, I put my site on a hiatus. I had ordered my own laptop for home schooling purposes and was going to re-open my website when my laptop came in the mail.

I never took my website off of hiatus and Erin ended up closing it down. I was home schooled during the first three months of eighth grade and then I decided to transfer to the public school. My parents told me that I had to sell my laptop, Phantom. I sold him to my grandpa and went to public school.

In the spring of 2010, I received a new laptop. I spent the rest of my afternoons during the school year at softball practice or watching re-runs of Glee. Picking up the my hobby of web designing had never once crossed my mind.

When summer came, I started getting dreadfully bored. I was surfing around the internet and stopped by to visit Erin’s website. Through her website, I found Skeletons MB and nearly threw a party. I suddenly inspired to make my own website again. I talked to my dad about it, hoping he would help me get started. My memory of graphic and code was fuzzy. My dad and w3 schools helped refresh my memory on how to code a layout. I set to work immediately.

I was surprised to see that my designing skills had greatly improved. I learned a lot of new things about graphics and coding while I was setting up my site. There were many problems with WordPress when I first started out. When I had my old website, my host or a friend some Splash would always code my WordPress theme and let me customize it myself. I didn’t have the slightest idea how to make my own theme.

Finally, after learning how to make my own WordPress theme and after stuffing my brain with mounds of PHP, XHTML, and CSS, my site was ready to open. June 22, 2010 was the day I wrote my first blog. The initial set up took days but after everything was installed and coded, it was smooth sailing