danielrayjones/content/about.md

+++
title = "Introduction"
description = "Welcome to my website. My name is Dan Jones. I am a web developer and an actor, and I'd like to tell you a bit about myself."
+++

Welcome to my website. My name is Dan Jones. I am a web developer and an actor, and I'd like to tell you a bit about myself.

<section id="webdeveloper">

## Dan Jones, the Web Developer

{{< figure src="https://res.cloudinary.com/danjones000/image/upload/v1518462377/danielrayjones/C64c_system.jpg" alt="Commodore 64" title="Commodore 64" class="right-floated aside" attr="&copy; Bill Bertram" attrlink="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C64c_system.jpg" >}}

I was first exposed to computers as a child. My family had a Commodore 64, on which, as a ten-year old child, I 
would do my homework, play games, and make simple programs. I learned how to program in
[<abbr title="Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code">BASIC</abbr>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC).
It was then that I began to understand how computers could improve our day-to-day lives.

When we upgraded to a newer computer, we finally got the Internet (via [Prodigy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_%28online_service%29)) in our home. When I was 14, I got my first email address, and at 15, created my first website on [GeoCities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoCities) (my site was in the *Silicon Valley* "neighborhood"). My site was essentially a blog before blogs existed.

Initially, I built the site using a <abbr title="What You See Is What You Get">WYSIWYG</abbr> editor (namely, [MS FrontPage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage)), but with my programming background, I was interested in what made these pages into the pages I saw in my web browser. It wasn't long before I was hand-coding the site.

I learned <abbr title=" Hypertext Markup Language">HTML</abbr> to layout the site, <abbr title="Cascading Stylesheets">CSS</abbr> to give it some style, and eventually JavaScript to make it dynamic. During that time, I had my own web design business. I had one client while in high school, but I gained skills necessary to work with others and to take another person's vision, and make it real.

When I entered college, I gained additional skills necessary to run enterprise websites. I learned PHP, for truly dynamic website. I learned SQL, to interact with databases. I also gained some experience with server administration by setting up and running my website on my own <abbr title="Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP">LAMP</abbr> server. I also gained experience with several platforms and frameworks.

Since that time, I've worked in numerous industries, on websites of all shapes and sizes. I continue to learn more and improve my skills.

</section>

<section id="actor" class="hidden">

## Dan Jones, the Actor

</section>