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October 17 2006: Interview: Rose of Sillyish (Impish)

Filed under Online

Interviewing: Rose of Sillyish (aka Life As Rose)

Explanation: the purpose of these interviews was to get to know certain webmasters in my little ‘blog circle’ a little better - to see what inspired them to create the designs and sites that they did. They would be given ten questions via email - five of these were standard questions that were asked of all the interviewees, while the other five were tailored to fit them as an individual.

How old were you when you first discovered the joy of web design? How did you discover it?

I first got involved in web design when I was in grade five (1996? 97?), however old that was. After some rough calculation, this probably means I was either eleven or twelve. At the beginning of grade five, I didn’t even know what the internet was, let alone that you could actually make your own websites. I remember this guy giving us a web address, and I didn’t even understand what he was doing. Everyone else did, though - I was mighty embarrassed, and determined to get a computer as soon as possible.

I didn’t have long to wait, as my uncle, sick of my mom making up excuses as to why she didn’t buy a computer, bought us an Apple computer for Christmas. Yay for uncle!

Anyway, once we got a computer, the rest was really history. I found that GURL website (which still exists, I think) That GURL website introduced the very basics of HTML - things like <font> and <I> “Holy crap!” I thought to myself, “Hotness!” So then I began to learn from davesite.com, which also still exists, amazingly.

Do your friends and family know of your activities online? Why/why not? If so, do they approve? What do they think of it?

It’s kind of been a back-and-forth type thing. My mom has always kind of known, and she was originally very excited by it, and thought I was such a smart little kid. As I became more and more obsessed, my mom began to worry a lot and was constantly encouraging me to get away from the computer.

Eventually, she got over that bit too (Once I hit grade 10 and made lots of friends), and now she doesn’t seem to mind, and even brags to her buddies now and then. As for everyone else - Well, most of my family knows, but none of them have any interest. My aunt commented on my blog once when I was in grade eight. I was so upset by this (and couldn’t figure out how the crap she found it!) that I emailed her about it, and she apologized and never visited again. This was too bad, and I kind of regret acting so harshly now. My friends are about the same: They know, but they don’t care. This suits me just fine, for the most part.

I always feel weird when someone from my city googles my name and finds my site. “Who?!” and “Why?!” and “Oh my god, I hope they didn’t find anything bad!” is basically what runs around in my head.

Who would you name as your biggest influence?

It changes all the time. Back in the day, everyone who was listed on woogoo (ack.nu/woogoo, which no longer exists, of course) were my heroes. Then I met Sarah (http://mousekaroos.com) and was so impressed by her mad art skillz that I attempted to become an artist just like her (aww!). But I failed, so… yeah. No more art for me.

So then I ran into Ursula Vernon (http://ursulav.livejournal.com / http://metalandmagic.com) realized that she was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that was the end of that. But are any of these people an influence to me (other than my brief attempt at being an artist….)? Maybe, in a subconscious sort of way, but I don’t ever notice that they’re influencing me. I just kind of do my thing.

Sometimes I’ll do something and someone else will say, “Hey! I already did that!”, but generally, I have never even SEEN their version of it, so I don’t worry about that too much. I am my own influence, baby!

How would you describe your style of layout design?

Confused and not artistic. I try and try, but…. Yeah, I just suck at making stuff. Sometimes I make something good, and everyone loves me, but then I go ahead and make something bad and everyone hates me. I mostly make bad designs. This bothers me from time to time, but I’ve kinda given up and I don’t even care that much anymore. (People will email me with layout errors they’ve found and I’ll just shrug and say, “Oh well!” …Which is something I never would have done in the past. I’m too busy these days, though, and have discovered that some of these things just don’t matter all that much.)

Where, in web terms, do you envision yourself in ten years time?

Probably doing the exact same thing that I’m doing now. Except I’ll (hopefully) blog a bit more about being married and having a house and having some bratty little kid. There will possibly still be cat poop entries, though. I figure I’ll end up getting some sort of pet, anyway.

I dream eternally of being more mature, too. We’ll see.

Being rich and famous for my blogging would also rock my socks.

How do you manage to make colourful and fun layouts that still maintain a sense of professionalism?

I don’t think I do, actually. Who told you I did that? Pah! I suck at being professional. But if you insist, I shall say that I maintain it by keeping my navigation very clear, and making sure everything is organized in a way that’s easy to understand. Oh, and I don’t make my text 10px verdana with a line-height of 13px. Holy crap.

Exactly how proficient are you with scripting and programming languages…and which ones do you like/work with most?

Ok, well here’s what I know, not including xhtml/css/javascript, because they just… lyk, don’t count.

Plus how to deal with sql databases (I learned with Oracle, mostly).

Back in school, C++ & Java were the two that I used the most. Now that I get to chose for myself, it’s all about the PHP. I feel much more comfortable with it because of this. I mostly avoid SQL because it makes me a bit nervous. I’ve made PHP scripts that involve mysql databases, but I’ve never released any of them.

Would you call yourself a blogger who designs or a webdesigner who blogs…and why?

Webdesigner who blogs. Maybe webdesigning has taken more of a back seat to blogging in more recent times, but I know for sure that without webdesign, I wouldn’t blog. This is because:

You’re probably one of the more interesting bloggers I know. What do you think is the secret ingredient is to writing a personal blog that actually makes sense and doesn’t exclude new readers who has no idea who “Kim from school” and “Eddie this guy I know” are?

I have no idea. I really don’t. Um, I kind of do still include Eddie this guy I know and Kim from school now and then, but I try to make it so that no background knowledge is required in order for the person to read the entry and enjoy it. I also try to make them into characters, so that I CAN write about people without being confusing (Shaun being my major example - I write about him all the time, and I don’t worry too much about people being confused. He’s a character in my blog!)

I write about little situations, moments, and thoughts - I don’t write about my day as a whole. Maybe that has something to do with it - and maybe not. I just don’t know. Gawd, you make up hard questions!

There are about a million and one random photos adorning Sillyish. How often do you take photos, how often do you change them, and are you the type of person who carries a camera everywhere on the off chance that you’ll get a great photo opportunity?

My camera is always in my purse, but I usually don’t get it out in time. For example - I recently missed out on an awesome picture of a squirrel splashing in a bird bath. It was SO CUTE! But by the time my camera was out, the squirrel was gone.

I take a few photos every day, or every other day. But only about 5% of my photos actually make it online, and only a few of THOSE photos get put into my random photo dump for the site (you can see them all at sillyish.org/photos.php)

I don’t actually ever change my photos - I just add to the collection.

Anyway, I’m not really a photographer. I just like taking pictures for the heck of it. I don’t actually expect them to turn out all that well.

3 Responses to “Interview: Rose of Sillyish (Impish)”

  1. I’m commenting on my own damn interview, since no one else seems to want to >:-X

    Also, I sound lame in this interview.

    Rose on May 28 2007 #

  2. This didn’t come through my RSS feed! Did you exclude it, Amanda?

    Amber on July 22 2007 #

  3. @Rose - you don’t sound lame… This is very cool.

    Good interview.

    CARLY on June 15 2008 #

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