All my life I have dabbled in geek girlness. I was that kid who played with legos, took A,B,C, and D Calculus in high school, insisted she be taught Auto CAD, “just in case”,I even enjoyed reading my dad’s computer magazines. But somehow I have always been able to stay on the non-geek side of the line. Even when I bought those thick rimmed glasses last year, I was not geeky, I was chic.
Last night, all that changed forever.
I decided that it would be fun to start my own web site. Sort of an online journal where my friends could check up on me, a place for me to vent my frustrations or joys. And so it began. I had two teachers. One a geek guy, the other a geek girl. They began to explain things like FTPing, uploading, and html. I knew a little about all of these things, but oh the things they would teach me! Suddenly my head was filled with things like Telnet, delete commands, “rename file spec”, cd. www, href, img src, and the like.
And suddenly, it occurred to me that I’m not just learning VMS, I’m learning how to speak to a computer. I’m teaching the computer to draw what I want it to. I am able to use this tool to paint my words and my imagination across the screen.
That revelation hooked me. I am now addicted to coding. I have to add more links, more gifs, more colors. Oh the colors! The splashes of imagination and images and words!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I became a geek girl this weekend.