This is a Blog, by Austin

I have spent much time debating with myself on either or not I really want to put myself out there for all to see and judge my thoughts and work. Along with that, the time and effort it takes to setup the blog itself and the potential of me not even using it at all.

Today has been marked as the first day I finally released something to the public. There may not be much intrinsic value to this post, however it serves to explain why I created this site and what my intentions are for now and the future.

What is This Blog For?

Inspired by the book “Show Your Work!” by Austin Kleon, my primary objective for this site and blog is to document what I am learning, and to showcase any projects I may be working on. This objective is not a strict requirement, however. I may diverge and post about other things at times.

The common topics you can expect to find here relate to information technology, specifically in web development. At the time of writing, I am a college student earning my ATA in Web & Cloud Development at my local community college. I may blog a bit about my experience as a student, though that title will soon be withdrawn as I will be completing my program in the upcoming months.

Brief History of Austin

I have spent a lot of time learning different things, but only this past year have I really focused on particular topics.

Continue to read more about my past experiences with programming and some other hobbies that I may bring up again on this blog.

My Programming Experience

Programming has been an interest of mine since I was in high school many years ago. Since a young age, I had an interest in making my very own video game. My first real experience in learning game dev was from taking a course offered to teenagers by the local college. There we were taught C++ to make a side scrolling, infinite runner game. I really enjoyed this experience, as the teachers were great and it made me very excited to get involved in game development. This is where I had planned my first game: Pomegranate Man, a game about a living Pomegranate who lost all his regular pomegrantes and is on a quest to take them back. I cannot remeber why I chose a pomegranate character, but I do remember being very enthusiastic about it at the time.

Sadly, the game never came to fruition. I gave up programming for a few years after this. After some time, I eventually came back and picked up Game Maker. Despite being known as one of the more beginner friendly engines out there, it was too difficult for me to learn at the time, and I ended up on another hiatus from development for a while.

It wasn’t until I started college (in a different college from where I am currently attending, a long time ago) that I really got knees deep into the programming realm. My very first language that I became comfortable with was C#, making command line and Windows Form applications. During this time I also picked up Java and JavaScript. Java was actually the first language that I really started to become familiar with. It served mostly as a stepping stone to my C# journey, though, as its syntax and object oriented approach was similar to C#. JavaScript was total nonsense to me at the time. I could not wrap my head around any of it for many years, but I really clicked with C#.

After some time, I ended up dropping out of that college and moving away. During the years that followed, I worked in blue collar jobs until starting college again in 2019. Early on, my classes didn’t involve much programming, as most were for mathematics, interpersonal relations, or graphic design. Around this time I gave game development another try after taking some online courses in Unity. The Unity engine was another engine I had briefly tried to learn when I was younger, yet it was very allusive to me at the time. Once I tried it again years later, my experience at college with C# and taking those online courses enabled me to become very comfortable with the program. My first real self-directed project was going to be a 3D infinite runner game, with procedurally generate tiles and three lanes for the character to switch between to avoid obstacles or take new paths. It was heavily inspired by games such as Temple Run or Subway Surfers. This was a very invlolved process for me, as I had even started a YouTube channel to make devlog videos for my game. However, after roughly three months, it was abandoned. Obligations to class work and my job took the attention and time away from my game development.

That was the last game I decided to work on, as my focus began to change to graphic design and web development. My desire to make a game is still within me, however I have garnered a new passion for my web development and design skills.

Other Interests of Mine

Other interests that I take include 3d modeling and animation. I had an interest in Blender starting as early as 2015, yet I never made a genuine effort to learn it until 2019. I would say I am comfortable navigating the interface, and capable of creating models and using its animation tools at this point, along with some knowledge in rendering and sculpting. However, despite knowing how to use the tools, I would not yet describe myself as competent in any of these areas. I have much to learn in terms of both artistic skill and theoretical knowledge. There are knowledge gaps in texturing, UV mapping, and rigging though.

Art, in particular drawing, is another skill I have wish to develop a wont for. Similar to my game development history, this skill as wavered with time, never really blooming in any particularly effective way.

Graphic Design is another topic I have experience in, as I currently work as a Graphic Designer in a student staff position at my college.

What About the Future?

That was a brief history of my experience in programming, with a small hint of other interests. I will continue to build these other skills as I can, but as I said earlier, my interests primarily lie in web development. In fact, I have recently been working on an e-commerce frontend site using simply vanilla JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. I may share some tips on what I had learned from that in the future.

I am also taking a class in SQL, Project Management, and am pursuing some IT certificates. There may be posts relating to those as I learn more.

As for frequency of posting, I have no hard and fast rule at this point in time. I simply would like to have a minimum goal of three posts per month to start. This would be an excellent habit to develop, both in the opportunity to help others and to develop my own skills.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you will join me on this journey to proficiency.

Photo by cottonbro studio