Today I bathed in my dorkiness, full force. I woke up late (almost noon... I can't believe it) and had some coffee before settling into my chair. I've often thought that if I had to reveal a drug of choice, I would most likely go with caffeine. I realize it's not exactly glamorous, but I love the 1-2 hour-long moment of intense, effortless concentration that accompanies a good cup of coffee in the morning.
This morning (erm, afternoon), I went from just checking emails and investigating a potential site overhaul (on my other site) to just jumping straight into the SQL-modifying-file-backupping-forum-searching frenzy that updating a web site entails. And the funny part? Totally rocked it. I know I have some bugs left, but I got further along than I had expected I would before my eyes just couldn't look at the screen anymore. The site looks better, and the geek in me is already fiendishly rubbing her hands together and cackling at the thought of the features yet to come.
There was a brief moment of stupidity that resulted in the forum being down for about an hour. Not a big deal. It's fine now. This is the funny thing, though, the part where the real dork in me comes out: I was able not only to find the solution in the Mambo forums, but also implement said solution. In other words: I now speak computer talk.
I told TheBoy today that if someone had told me five years ago that I would come to know this much about computers, I would have laughed in their face. I first learned about web design during a required course in internet authoring for my BA. I bitched about that requirement for the weeks leading up to the class. In the end, though, the class was awesome, and I got completely hooked.
I will never forget sitting in the computer lab at school and ecstatically telling this German girl - Julia - how you can do some thingamajig while designing web sites. She had asked me for some extra help working on her site, and I guess I just let my enthusiasm get the better of me. Our conversation went a little like this:
Me: "Oh, and you know what else you can do?"
Julie: rolling her eyes and wishing I would just show her how to do the assignment already "What?"
Me: "Well, it's really cool" (clicking madly on the screen) "If you do this..." (more clicking) "and then upload..." (more clicking) "Your links will open up in a pop-up window!"
Julie: (not at all sarcastically or friendlyly): "You are such a nerd."
I didn't even try to stand my ground on that one. I accepted the nerddom right then and there.
And really, I guess it hasn't gone away. Wanna know why? I really do think it's cool that I can do this shit. That I sat up late on many a night several years ago and just read some online help, did some trial and error testing, and now I can do some pretty wild stuff. I know cooler kids don't think that's all that thrilling, but around here, it's kind of groovy.
So now I'm off to go implement a support system in TheBoy's web site. The fun just never ends.
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