Layouts, Geocities, and HTML...

Yay!  I have a new layout!  It's nothing fancy obviously, but for my first crack at putting together a layout that isn't 100% Blogger-made is pretty exciting.  I'm sure I'll be playing around with layouts a bit more, so don't be surprised if you see it change again.  I've made digital art and websites for a while now, but learning the Blogger tricks will be what takes the most effort.  Want to hear how my geekdom began and progressed?  Let me tell you a little tale...

It was freshman year of high school and, naturally, I was obsessed with a boyband.  (While most of the girls I knew growing up went through this phase in junior high, I was a bit of a social late bloomer.)  The logical (please note sarcasm) thing to do to support my obsession with said boyband was to make a website dedicated to them.  (Yes, I was that kind of teenybopper.  I formally apologize here and now for my past indiscretions.  I am very much embarrassed of my early high school years.)  So I started my own Geocities site.  If you've been around the internet for a while you remember Geocities.  It was Yahoo's drag and drop website building client back in the day.

Eventually, my boyband obsession petered out only to be replaced by an admiration for an up-and-coming singer/songwriter.  I'm sure you've heard of her: Avril Lavigne.  A friend of mine (shout out to Kristy!) heard about Avril from one of her friends, and she began spreading the word and promoting Avril.  I too wanted to spread the word and help promote, so I went to start an Avril website myself.  For some odd reason this time however, Geocities wasn't working on my computer properly.  So out of my many options, I narrowed it down to two: 1) Don't make a website, or 2) Learn HTML.  I chose the latter.  It was an interesting learning experience trying to get the hang of HTML (with major thanks to Hailey), but eventually I did.  In learning HTML, I also had to learn some form of graphic design to produce a somewhat decent layout.  I chose to learn JASC Paint Shop Pro.  Who knows what version it was...  So eventually that Avril site did make it up onto the web.  And thanks to Geocities refusing to work with my old family PC, I now have the ability to code HTML.  It may not be textbook HTML, but browsers can read it just fine.  The HTML also helped in making some pretty cool MySpace and LiveJournal layouts back in high school.  If I can manage those two sites, surely I can manage Blogger...  Right?