A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
If the worst part of this project is my About page, then hopefully I am on the right track. As I started writing this page, I found myself becoming rather verbose. Thus I broke apart my "elevator speech" (if our elevator is in the former Sears Tower) into smaller, clickable sections, each of which focuses on a goal for this project.
Confidentiality agreements. Non-compete clauses. Private, inner-office intranet projects. Strictly "back-end/server-side" development work. Simply just starting out -- or restarting a career from scratch. And/or... some other thing. When the bulk of your web design and development work lands in any combination of such categories, building a public portfolio is a major challenge.
True, I am on GitHub, ostensibly a good, free place to show people one's behind-the-scenes coding style (especially when it comes to server-side coding). Yet GitHub remains a place of interest only to other coders. Often clients prefer not to know how the sausage is made, although sooner or later you must hand them them the keys to the car you just built for them (if I may mix metaphors [and who's stopping me?]). Plus not as many coders are as interested in other people's coding projects as one might think.
Well, at least for me, that's how it's been. So, with no past work to show, this site must stand as my only portfolio where I may demonstrate my current skills as a web developer.
"Demo site" may be a more accurate term than "portfolio" to describe this project. Much of my own past work used technology now considered deprecated if not obsolete. Unlike a portfolio site, where one might see a slide show of screen shots of someone's past works, this site is a live demonstration of what I currently do as a coder -- and, perhaps, by inference or implication, what more I could do as a coder.
With this site I simply want to demonstrate my basic strengths, which are mostly on the back-end/server-side, as well as my ability to adapt to changes on the front-end/client-side.
Assuming that my basic strengths may not be enough to suit prospective employers, I also need to demonstrate my ability to learn new skills.
For several years I got by as a self-taught, learn-on-the-job developer. Then the Recession compelled me to return to school and pick up some new skills, and thus I earned a Masters degree in the process. Still, changes in web design and development continue to increase exponentially. Concepts which did not arise in past jobs or even when I went back to school are now in vogue and in demand. Thus I still often find myself in self-taught mode these days.
Therefore, this site also serves as a workshop where I may test certain things, learn new concepts, apply a "best practice" or six, and troubleshoot code -- ideally before taking similar risks on a client's project. Thus from time to time you may notice the odd "mistake" here and there, which may or may not be on purpose or which simply may be a subjective judgment call (i.e. "because I can", for now). Every aspect of this site is a constant work in progress. Ultimately I am in search of a simple working method which suits me as a hard coder while keeping current regarding changes in web development.
Regardless, this site should keep me in practice while between jobs. Yes, I might take requests regarding technologies which I should add to my skill set. Anyhow, even if I cannot claim professional, real-world experience regarding certain skills, maybe I can point to this project as a place where have used them. For example: here -- and nowhere else (yet) -- is where I use Bootstrap as well as tap into external applications for data.
And, as a workshop, here is where I welcome constructive advice regarding whether I am applying new concepts properly as well as suggestions regarding other technologies which would behoove me to learn.
And, whether I fail or succeed at any of the above, above all, this is a personal website. Here I am both client and "websmythe" -- the latter, a term I prefer over "webmaster", although I believe that someone beat me to copyrighting it. (I also wanted to use "Dig Me" as the name of my own web business some day... but I digress.)
For this site I am likely to practice with data from subjects close to my heart (e.g. movies, music, baseball, long-term unemployment, etc.). This keeps this project fun for me. Plus, the challenges which I may encounter with the data I use here are commonly found on most kinds of data anyhow, regardless of topic.
Here I am the customer, and my budget (null) compels me to hire myself as an expert. Anyhow, whom am I to argue with me? Not that anything stopped me before. After all, I am nothing if not me.
Although I am not quite dogmatic when it comes to the usage of third-party libraries, platforms, templates and other such tools, I am keenly aware that one uses such things at one's own risk. In fact, this site is where I can take some risks before trying them elsewhere. Beyond that, this is (more or less) a 100% hard-coded project.
Portions of this project (e.g. "data-driven" pages) may include outside resources -- many of which are at a non-premium (i.e. "free") level of access, and thus are subject to the limitations of those resources, for which I claim no responsibility. For example, certain APIs may limit the amount of server calls within a specific time frame. As for accuracy, I recommend contacting the original sources of the data in question.
* My sincere apologies to devotees of ASP.NET (C# or VB.NET), Ruby, Python and other such languages. Yes, I am willing to learn (or, in the case of ASP.NET, relearn) any of these languages and, if necessary, convert to any one of them. In any event I am not personally dogmatic about codes, frameworks, patterns and platforms. PHP happens to be my "hot hand" these days.
I welcome and encourage constructive criticism; I ignore and dismiss any other kind.
Although I have plenty of ideas for this project and although I expect to receive many more, I have priorities above and beyond this project. So please forgive me if certain changes and suggestions do not come to pass here as quickly as you might expect. For example, as I write this (December 2024) I am currently seeking work; thus my job search is a priority. Also, on alternate weekends I run errands and do odd jobs for my Mom. Once I am truly and gainfully employed, I may devote more of my attention to the job at hand than to this project.
That said, I am open to requests within reason where I may use this project to learn, attempt and demonstrate more advanced work. If you have such a request, feel free to let me know nicely, via LinkedIn or elsewhere.