Increasingly Geekier

What started as a hobby is beginning to become a life. I never imagined that attempting to create a web page (the first one pure HTML, done in a text editor!) would have led to where I find myself today.

A couple of years ago work appointed me webmaster, as there was no-one else who had any experience doing web design. I'd learnt everything I knew by fiddling, but had enough knowledge to do more than a trained computer guy who attempted it got right. So I was dumped in at the deep end.

A year or two later, work helped me out with a short course in web design, which upped both experience and knowledge, and gave me a certificate to back up my experience. Cool. With that I managed to redo our website and get it looking a million times better than it had been.

But...

There's always a but. You see, knowledge is unending, and I'm hungry for it. I get a taste of CSS and want to know everything. I learn basic JavaScript commands, and want to be able to rattle them off to do anything. Database? Well, that's my next huge challenge. The entire webiste needs to move over to database-based operation & design!

So I'm trying to get all that stuff into my head - the languages, the commands, the structure, the how-to's. And getting more and more frustrated as I face regular interruptions during the process.

You see, I wear two hats here. There's my official job (admissions) and then there's the one I was given to do "in my spare time", unlisted on my job description and with no extra remuneration (webmaster). The latter takes up more time than the former, and a lot more effort! Too often I find myself torn between these two duties - keeping one going smoothly while trying to upgrade my headspace for the other.

But as I mentioned at the start, the computer stuff is drawing me in. I find it fascinating, I enjoy getting my brain around the challenges, and I find that I'm often the "run-to" in the office (so must be doing something right). The IT guy has been kind enough to let me get my hands dirty with some of the computer things that go on here, and I put up a good facade of knowing what I'm doing. Yet it's not enough. I want to know everything!

With a month's extra leave coming up, I'm considering taking that time to absorb knowledge, get training, and up my abilities. I was thinking of a course at the agricultural college (farming-related, toward the Big Dream) - but to be practical I'd rather Go Geek. Those skills I can use in a myriad of ways!

One of these days I'm going to have to get a pocket protector...