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Tue | May 23, 2006

html

G. asked me whether she should take up painting as an outlet for her energy. I said painting is expensive and involves a lot of cleanup, which knowing her, I think she wouldn’t like. I suggested photoshop and html.

Html has come in handy in all sorts of ways. It gave me a role in the Brown club-- I webmastered brownnyc.org for a couple of years, which really solidified my familiarity with html. At the same time I attended a lot of the club events, which for awhile gave me an illusion of having something to do, until I figured out that they were irrelevant and what I really wanted to do was write. I don't view the time spent there as a waste, or not a complete waste, or maybe it was... but at any rate the webmastering part wasn't, because I got really good at basic html and when I had gotten good at it, I did it for awhile longer, and then I stopped.

Around this time last year, I found out about movable type and decided to try and install it. It's not html, but knowing html makes me generally unafraid of other web-tech stuff. I had enough skills to install movable type and pick up on their coding system, style sheets, etc. It was rewarding just to successfully get the system up and running, and to this day I feel a sense of accomplishment every time I log on.

As a result of MT, I have invisiblecube.com and asianwriting.org, which are nice additions to my small collection of websites. As an outlet, websites and blogs are a stable solution, as long as you don't expect anyone to visit or respond. To me, creating the blog or website is enough of a reward, and when people do respond it's bonus points.

In addition to big things like creating blogs and websites and webmastering, html is handy in all sorts of smaller situations, like formatting my friendster profile, sending email messages in html, and posting to message boards. It comes up in all sorts of everyday online situations.

It does take some patience, however. After I stopped webmastering the Brown club website, we went through a half dozen 'webmasters' who had less clue than I did when I first started, and perhaps just a little less interest, and it just wasn't enough for them to stick. It was tough to watch them crash and burn but I knew I'd regret it if I wasted my time giving them full courses in webmastering and html. Instead I gave each one enough to get started-- more guidance than I ever got-- and then left them to figure the rest out on their own. It made me realize that it does take awhile to figure out all the little things and put them together, and that I had come a long way.

And I still have a long way to go-- but the bits that I know are useful. This is one of the reasons why html is a good hobby. There is always much more to learn and grow into, but I don’t need it in order to benefit from what I currently know. One of these days I might sit down with a javascript book, or a website about css, and just learn it through and through. But until then, I benefit on a regular basis from what I have already acquired, which in the grand scheme of all html and web related things, isn't actually that much.

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