This Site

This is my seminal project for a new career in web development. I ventured to combine interesting content, pleasant styling, and some fun interactions and decorations. Another goal was to incorporate a variety of tools and features so that my learning would be broad-based. For example, I used older CSS tools on the retro page instead of Grid. The Grid layout system is superior, in my opinion, yet it's important to respect and learn code that won't dissappear anytime soon.

I also used "helpers" such as the popular JQuery library and Bootstrap framework on some of the pages. These tools have pros and cons. Like them, and use them where it makes sense, but don't fall in love with them.

In 6 plus months I've learned so very much. I've learned to appreciate the smooth rhythm which I now code the basics, along with patience for advanced material. From observation (i.e. message boards, videos) I suspect that many have doubted themselves and even quited the effort to learn Web Development. Fortunately, many, including myself have not. I express my sincere thanks to those teachers and mentors who have given sooooo much effort to make it so.

Personal

I am Tom Carter, a lifetime Minnesotan enjoying middle age with my spectacular wife, Cecilia. While we have no kids, our YorkiePoo, Gus, keeps us joyfully entertained. We also are kept busy thru our professions and hobbies. Cecilia is a seasoned professional web developer, so we enjoy the same field of work.

For entertainment we both like to hike. We recently joined the superior hiking club for a 10 mile trek at Manitou State Park (MN). I enjoy reading with a sundry exceeding 500 published works read. I enjoy historical non-fiction and non fiction alike (all regions, but mostly England, America, and Africa).

Professional

Like so many of the era, I stumbled into I/T in the late 1980s when our education institutions provided scant offerings. So, we learned mostly on the job. At IDS financial advisors we just advanced from keypunch cards to more automated mainframe software/hardware. I quickly learned batch scheduling software (CA-Manager and Zeke) along with many others including some home-grown by employees. It felt crazy at times.

As IDS became American Express Financial Advisors (and later Ameriprise) I continued enhancing my skills. My mainframe learnings included automation (console) with the af-operator and OPSMVS tools. Also, the dynamic PC environment was at it's height (Microsoft was thought too monopolistic, so it helped poor little Apple survive - No kidding!). I learned all the basic PC tools while the internet was really just getting started.

I borrowed some traditional retirment years early as a kind-of sabbatical. I enjoyed travel and reading, but am ready now to restart a new and exciting career in web development and beyond.

TomC unsplash image array
weather photo
more Quotes
This Site
Futures
My Likes
  • Home Page.. CSS flex with some animation for the sliding text. No JS.
  • This page. I used grid based CSS design with some display as flex. I used flex for non Grid supported browsers such as IE. The JS is simple toggling as well as the image array slideshow.
  • Retro page. This is traditional CSS styling with floats and math calculations. I used shared code for the clock, and wrote the JS for Pong and the manual image selector.
  • Trivia page. Here, I used JQuery alot. And, of course, JavaScript for the trivia and helpers.
  • My Resume. This is much like the Retro page. There's no JS.

To make the site more interesting, I have listed the following ideas:

  1. Add a data base for more trivia games.
  2. More advanced Javascript.
  3. More animations & other fun stuff
  • Hiking.. Cecilia and I both enjoy the great outdoors of Minnesota. We recently joined The Superior Hiking Club at Manitou State Park (10 miles!). We augment this with county and urban trails. I try for 70,000 steps a week on my fitbit.
  • Reading. I recently surpassed the 500 books read mark. My favorites are historical fiction, but I also enjoy non-fiction from a variety of authors. I participate in
  • History. While I greatly enjoy my vocation computer science, my avocation, history, is a great joy. My favorite historical authors are Robert Massie, Candice Millard, David McCullough, and W.E.B Dubois
  • Baseball. I am I die-hard Twins fan who enjoyed game 7 of the 1987 world series at the Metrodome (Twins 4 Cardinals 2). Carew, Killebrew, Blyleven, Kaat, Puckett, Mauer were just a few of the greats.

Gus the dog Augustus (Gus) is our very loving, 1 year old YorkiePoo. He barks ferosiously when inside, but turns quietly cautious outdoors...loves toy monkees!