It all started in 1996, at least as far as computers and I go... before that time I had no interest in computers at all. It began with my interest in my family history or "Genealogy". I was coaxed into buying a computer to keep my family groupsheets on instead of writing it all down on paper. I was hesitant at first and then started thinking that it might be a good idea. We bought our first computer down at Radio Shack and it was an IBM Aptiva desktop running Windows 95 at 133Mhz with 8mb of RAM and at that time I didn't have a clue. To make a long story as short as possible, I really got into using this new machine and then we connected to the internet of course. The more I used the computer, it was not long before I realized that the crazy thing was too slow, well it was a $3000.00 computer, yup that's right $3000.00. That is an insane price in my book but anyway, I knew we were going to have to upgrade sooner or later. I ended up upgrading the RAM first and that subdued for a while. After a while I ended up doing research online about building my own computer and found some very helpful websites plus my Brother-N-Law Sam knew a little about building computers. I had to learn DOS commands and being that I was starting with Windows 95 I had much to learn, kinda like learning backwards compatability. So it was, I built my first computer and really had all kinds of trouble and was to the point of giving up but my Wife Lora encouraged me to keep going and said that she was going to talk with someone that she knew about the problems that I was having. So the next day she did so and WAH LAH! She told me what he said to do and it worked. It turns out that the Sound Blaster Sound Card that I was trying to configure, was configured wrong and was causing my trouble. It was this little bit of encouragement and help that really got me over that hump and in turn helped in my progress of where I'm at today in my computer knowledge. I have built and upgraded so many computers now that I have lost count. At the same time as all this was happening, I was also studying on how to make my own website and using many online sources to learn. My very first website was hosted on Angelfire.com and then Geocities.com and also Tripod.com and of course it was a Genealogy website. I can't end this story without telling you about the magazine that helped me really get started in web design... It was a magazine that has since been discontinued but I still have the magazines, it was called NET magazine later it changed its name to Business 1.0 or something like that. It was this magazine in the late 90's that helped me get my website start. I want to also mention that my very first HTML editor was called HTML Writer, a free program that some fella made that was into programming and made this software program for others to use! Thank you for making that program, it was instrumental also in my gaining knowledge of HTML. Back in those days, Netscape was the HOT browser and along with that, Netscape had some really good HTML tutorials online of which I printed out and made my own study manual with. I still have the old manual however, it is a bit out of date these days. Along with learning how to write HTML, was my need to learn how to work with graphics and be able to put them into my webpages. I used free versions of everything I could get my hands on. Some come to mind, Paint Shop Pro, LviewPro(produced gif89 graphics), Coral 4.0, Printshop... yup I used printshop in those days to make some of my header graphics. It was a rough start in those days with those tools, nowdays I use Gimp(It's Free) and Photoshop to do most of my graphic work. As you can see much of my "Training" has been mostly self taught with many many hours and staying up all night many times to get through it. I am looking to use my skills in the professional realm if given the chance. It is my hope that something will come along that fits me well as far as an oportunity to work with all this technology that I have learned and put it to good use.
"Over the years, SkillPath has grown to become the premier provider of business training in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. When we launched the company in 1989, we offered 82 seminars. Today we deliver more than 20,000 "how-to" sessions to over 500,000 people in 450 cities. Since joining forces in 1995 with Graceland University, our dedication to providing quality training has never been stronger."
I took this course which was put on in Indianapolis in Feb, 2003 by CompuMaster. It started with the basics and went on into some of the advanced features of photoshop.
Conducted by CompuMaster, the Advanced Photoshop Clinic started with advanced features of photoshop and went into more depth with the inner workings of these features. I completed this course in Feb, 2003.
"Since 1998 eClasses.Org has provided the very best in online training to 80,000 Web developers and other professionals. It offers a catalog of 60 online courses covering the breadth of Web work, from HTML to Flash; from CSS to XML. All classes are taught by fellow experts and working professionals in the field."
There are loads of courses you can take on your own time from About.com. I have taken an XHTML course and currently getting ready to take a PHP course through About.com.
© Tim Keesling 2010
