I'm Certified! ...No, Not “Certifiable.”

The very first time I remember using a computer was in the early '90s. Yes, I'm that old. But it was in grade school when we were first learning how to use them to play like one of the original versions of Oregon Trail. Outside of learning that you should never attempt to ford a river and what dysentery was, I didn't really think much more about it at the time. In fact, I don't think I had a single thought about computers until much later when the first family PC with internet made its appearance in our home. You had to dial into the internet and make it screech like a banshee, but it eventually connected you to the rest of the world. You could play cool games, look up information about your favorite musician or TV show, and even chat with other people from halfway across the world. Suddenly, I found myself hooked. And I've been hooked ever since.

I don't think it was until the LiveJournal or MySpace eras when I started dabbling in HTML code. With HTML, you could make your entire LiveJournal or MySpace page look like a real damn website. There was nothing like making your MySpace page play an entire playlist based on your Top 8 friends. But I really liked getting a taste of customizing the web and I've been at least moderately interested in it ever since. That might be why I've had so many different accounts on so many different websites and platforms throughout so many different times in my life, including this very one! Hi, how ya doin'?

Anyway, this past week, I finally got re-certified in @freeCodeCamp.org's Responsive Web Design curriculum. Early last year, I did the same certification, only for it to be sorta downgraded to their “legacy” certification while the newly-developed stuff was added into the full stack courses. And then broken up again. 🙃 In any event, I'm now certified in both their legacy and their current web design certifications. I think that technically means that I officially know HTML and CSS and, like, how to operate a computer? I don't know. But in any event, next up for me to learn is JavaScript! I've done horrifyingly little JavaScript in my several decades on the planet, weirdly enough, so that'll be completely new to me. Expect me to have a lot of migraines. Especially if I get this job that I recently applied for. Boy, am I going to be exhausted! 🫠

But honestly? It's better than being told what to study at a university and I'm taking my time so... By the time I'm like 90 and hiding in a bunker where there are no more computers because AI has already decimated the planet and the rest of the humans, I could maybe program a convincing calculator. And I say “convincing” because math usually got me like:

And since I don't know how to do alt text on Pckt yet, that image is just the confused math lady meme. You know the one.

Hope y'all are having a good weekend!