History:
HTML:
My first webpage ever was a Geocities atrocity I made back in 1996 with their WYSIWYG (i.e., "What you see is what you get") editor. My first real website made with HTML was made in October, 2001, The End of All Reason. And thus began my three-year obsession with HTML tables. (Please forgive me if any of the links on that site don't work. It's not one I actively maintain anymore.)
In the summer of 2002, I worked at Focus Publishing, mainly doing book layout and formatting. I was also asked to update their website, which had been created with Microsoft Frontpage. I'll say more about this experience on the Philosophy page, but let me just say that I reduced the size of the HTML file from 128kb to 33kb.
CSS:
By November of 2004, I was married and unable to hold any sort of traditional job, due to my physical limitations (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis). I was looking for things to do, specifically things I could do, and I decided it was time for a new website. I'd heard wonderful things about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), so I decided to make my next website using CSS. Thus, the first incarnation of The Funnel.org was born. CSS revolutionized the way I developed web pages. Suddenly, I could change fonts, styles, and layout by just changing one file instead of manually changing each HTML tag.
In January of 2005, my late grandfather hired me to create a website for his company, BioMolecular Products, Inc.. This was only my second experience with CSS, where I learned how to make menus.
PHP:
Three years and many websites later, I'm now comfortable with both CSS and HTML and am in the process of learning PHP. I've found the PHP "include" command to be just about the best invention since sliced bread. Not only does PHP make updating websites easier, it also allows a website to be dynamic. And, since PHP is run by the server and not the browser, there are no browser compatability issues, like there can be with CSS.
