As a curious kid in fourth or fifth grade, I was lucky enough to attend a school that truly embraced technology (Alta Heights Elementary School in Napa). I remember that we had computers everywhere… two or three computer labs if I remember correctly. All of them probably had about 30-50 Apple Macintosh computers so I’m sure you can do the math and figure out that there was no real shortage on that aspect. I remember browsing the web through dialup modems and back then, it was all about Altavista, Excite, Dogpile, Hotbot, etc.
With all those Macs around being used on weekly basis, it was only logical that my first computer be a Macintosh. So after petitioning my parents with the pros of having a personal computer at home, we picked up an Apple Macintosh Performa 6300 from Montgomery Wards in Napa for something like $2000. For some reason the concept of the Internet always intrigued me. In sixth grade I was moved into an advanced computer class where we learned all kinds of advanced computer techniques and were taught about the latest technology trends.
Fast forwarding a few years, I remember becoming increasingly frustrated with my Mac at the time. I couldn’t get all the cool software that Windows computers could use, it was too slow, I didn’t really know how I could upgrade the machine, etc. I think it was around seventh grade that I dumped the Mac and was able to score a brand new Micron computer (all the rage back in the day). It was loaded with Windows, had the latest Pentium 2 processor in it (400mhz I think) and some other goodies. It was also around this time when I discovered computer games and friends at school where also into computer games. We would all login after school, play multiplayer online and chat. There were maybe five of us and we formed a team called “NFC” (but I can’t remember what it stood for). In those days, as far as online gaming teams were concerned, if you didn’t have a webpage, you weren’t legit.
<Enter stage left: Prashant Patel> At this point, I was already beginning to play with HTML and I somehow put together a website for our team. It some screenshots of our game play, random news about matches we played and the results, and a team roster.
Ever since, I’ve been into web design and development. Latest trends & practices (both design and coding), usability studies, and after college, the numbers/data behind the scenes (analytics) are all things that have intrigued me. I hope to always stay apart of the industry in one way or another, pursuing my childhood passions which I am truly grateful to have been able to do over the years on a professional level.
P.S. If you’re a WordPress geek, you might be asking yourself why I’m using a premade theme vs. coding my own. Good question. That basically boils down to not having the time or patience to design something for myself. You wouldn’t begin to imagine how much trouble I had even trying to fathom the concept of a design for myself. So for the time being, the Thesis theme will have to the trick!
