Coming Backby Alexis ParkerLet me introduce myself. I am a 21 year old "designer" un-pursuing a career in Architecture. That would be the Architecture that relates to building structures, as opposed to computer systems architecture. I say that because my second self, known through my website and in chat rooms, is often misunderstood as only doing things related to computers. I picked up HTML with a fever. Literally. Ok, not a fever. I had eight months of strep throat and a side effect disease like mono. That left a lot of time on my hands, and I just took all of my years of painting, drawing, and design and put it into HTML. Then it became a fever. So why am I a first year Architecture graduate student? I figured out that I wasn't one at all when I could no longer answer that question. So, after a semester and a half of torturous work, I am walking away from it. Deep down, I was running away from the somewhat unstable world of web design when I went into Architecture. Despite winning a number of awards for my personal site, serving as an assistant judge at a great web award, and consulting with a few small businesses on their designs, I felt something was lacking in the world of web design. Perhaps I felt I was outside that world I watched so eagerly for cues. Perhaps I was secretly jealous of everyone who could devote their jobs/lives to web designing, while I only got to do it after my school work was done. Or maybe it was because I had a hard time getting anyone in the chat rooms to discuss web design as an emerging artistically historical movement. It's been a year since I have really stopped and looked at the web. I have found in a year that blogs have taken over the personal site in general. This I wouldn't mind if it weren't that so many people are limiting their designs to fit into the blog. Of course, blog services are great, indispensable, and marvelous. I even use them, but very few blog sites make me step back and say, "Wow, what a fabulous design." Yet, since many blog sites have no intention of being anything but a blog, I suppose this is fitting. The design world still seems to be struggling with Flash. Or perhaps it is simply that I am struggling with Flash because I still run a dial-up off of a 56k modem. There is nothing more annoying than waiting two or three minutes for a site to load simply for me to think, "This could have been just as good in HTML, or DHTML." I really don't need Flash music to play over the CD I have in my computer. If it weren't for the large amount of work I have in the next month before I finish out my first and last year as an Architecture grad student, I would do something about this. But would I be heard? Where does a 21 year old self-taught girl fit into this highly established community of web designers? Perhaps I just need someone to reach out and say, "We see you! Come, join us! We understand why you have to stay up into the middle of the night correcting an image pixel by pixel until it is right!" Where do I fit? When do I become a friend? Will I be remembered? This is a re-introduction. I am back, if I ever was here before. I am coming back. I have missed you all.
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