So, I've gone ahead and included this website as one of my projects, because really, that's all it is. I began working on this website in early June of 2021. I made it for the purpose of three reasons: the first, being that I wanted to try my hand at simple web development. This is something that I have been interested in for a while, but never actually had any experience in. I mean, I have created a few websites before using those free-to-use website creators, but I had never sat down, chose a custom domain, and written a website using CSS. So, that is exactly what I did. I took a few free HTML courses (a huge shoutout to W3Schools) and began writing one up. I host this website through Amazon Web Services (AWS), mainly for convenience sake, and everything else is written up in NotePad on my desktop.

I believe that there are probably a lot of "rookie mistakes" sprinkled through my code for this website. I have learned that with programming anything, there is almost always an easier way to do the thing you're trying to do. While writing this website, there have been a few times that I have felt like there must be a shortcut for something I was doing, something I just hadn't learned yet. My goal is to hopefully figure these things out and fix them at some point, but for now, I've just worked on getting it to do what I need it to do and look how I want it to look.

The second reason I decided to create this website was because I wanted a "virtual business card", or at least that's how I thought of it.

I was working on my resume one day, cleaning it up, making sure it was short and to-the-point, when I realized that there's so much more about myself that I need to share. I wanted to explain my projects more in depth then I felt like I could on there, or explain how exactly my college classes are helping me become a software engineer. I realized that the best way to do this would be for me to make a website. A website where, if one was curious, they could see exactly what I was working on, how I was working on it, and how I overcame the challenges that I encountered when I made it.

The final purpose of this website, and perhaps the most important, is for me. That this is a place where I can express my thoughts and think out loud a little bit.

Programming can be a very complex task. There are often many, many things that need to be considered when working on a project. I have found that, even with individual work, when I take a second to walk myself through the project, almost teaching it to myself, I have a better understanding of what it is I'm working, and even better, the parts I need to better my understanding of. Hopefully, by giving me a place to explain and walk through what I am working on, this website will help me with my projects and understanding of computer science topics as a whole.

If you have any questions about this website, please feel free to reach out to me at the UNM email address located in the upper right hand corner of this page. Thank you for reading! -L