So you want to know more about me, huh? Good thing I’ve got this page, then! I think it’s always good to start with the basics to get a quick view of who exactly I am, so here it is:

Name: Jhoanna Kay
Nickname: Chiqui, JK
Current Location: Manila, Philippines
Timezone: +8 GMT
Nationality: Filipino
Occupation: Web Designer
Hobbies and Interests: Surfing the web, online collaborative writing, reading, drawing, designing sites and other random things, shopping, hanging out in coffee shops, watching anime and kamen rider series, talking/chatting with friends, arts and crafts

When I was around grade school, our family decided to get dial-up (which by standards back then was already super fast and awesome), and I immediately started to explore the wonders of the world wide web. I immediately got addicted. People had these really cool sites that had animated backgrounds… and sometimes, they sparkled.

Like this, except multiplied by 3,000

But those sparkly backgrounds quickly disappeared throughout the course of only a few years, and websites got more complex and design-conscious. It was through surfing the Internet that I’ve heard of this cool photo editing program named Photoshop. Back then (and I was in high school, I believe), the latest version had been Photoshop 6.0, so I thought “hey, why not try this program out?”. I’ve never looked back since.

Photoshop wasn’t only pretty fun to play around with, it was also a great help when I discovered that hey, people actually designed websites! Like probably most young designers, I started with an account on Geocities, and used Photoshop and the Geocities site builder to make my first personal website (it died when Geocities did, alas). Soon after, I discovered the world of Fanlistings, and began learning more about html and css from viewing the files of the other more talented coders out there. This was also when I first heard of web standards. And since I am pretty much a little bit obsessive-compulsive, I also wanted my codes to be clean and backward-forward-whatever else compatible. Plus I get to display those cool, little xhtml and css valid buttons on my site like some high-status award.

So as you might have gathered by now, I had been pretty much self-taught in the wonders of web design, html and css. I never thought of pursuing it as a job until well after college, though. It all happened when I got a job at a big-time international company doing spreadsheets, receiving calls, and answering emails. One day, I realized that hey, I don’t really think I’m meant to work on spreadsheets for the rest of my life. There must be something more exciting, more stimulating! So I quit that job, threw all caution to the wind, and pursued what I really loved doing. Sure, it wasn’t as high-paying as my previous job, and there have been times where I felt so overloaded I just wanted to call in sick, but in general I have yet to regret my decision.

There are still a lot of things I have yet to learn, and the one thing I’ve learned from the web is that it’s continually changing and adapting to the needs of the present and the foreseeable future. According to that one movie, the world might end in 2012, but as long as I’m still here and able to code and design and tear my hair out in frustration when one layout looks entirely different in the 124324237867 existing browsers, I will continue to stay in this profession and learn and grow with it.