And Away We Go!
November 2, 2021
So here it is, 2021, and this old website finally has a new look! It's been a few months in coming and I did a lot of work behind the scenes. It isn't exactly how I'd like it, but it is a lot more modern than the old one. This site was born as my way of experimentning with the craft of making a website. I learned a lot of tools and techniques, always trying said techniques right here on this website. I've had people want my domain name - it has a strange story how it came to be, spawned from my old desktop publishing business I tried to run with back in the early 90's. It was called Shooting Star as a working name and I wanted that for my domain, but it was taken. I figured a shooting star is a meteor; if it lands, it's a meteorite - a rock from space - a space rock. Hence the domain name...
Campside, with the Astroscan, ready for nightfall and some planetary observations
In keeping with the old content, I had to revise the way the whole site talks to its database backbone. The language running it has undergone changes, and I had to learn about those changes to make the new one work. I have also shifted hosting companies. It's all a big change and I hope for the better.
Spacerock.com was built back in the days before social media, and it served as my own personal 'facebook page' of sorts. One of my cousins commented once that it was like going to CNN's website. I think that was a compliment; I'm not entirely sure at this point. But, moving on, this site is packed full of stuff. Funny stuff, favorite video clips, recipes, rants & raves, pix - you name it.
This site started as my journey into the career of building websites. Back when "Webmaster" was a common term for people like me. Framesets were coming of age and quickly snuffed out (thank GOD!) Flash came on the scene and for a while, it looked like Flash was going to take over the web, and that would be our experience! I'm so glad that didn't come to be, although I did have a flash-heavy website for a while promoting my web development business.
I put together my own content management system written in perl, of all things, circa 2002. I learned php and cut my teeth working for the United States Masters Swimming Association as their assistant "web master" (there's that term again). In hindsight, I wish I had learned plain, pure JavaScript when I started, but I didn't, and I am still paying for that today! I am learning it quite well now (now that my life doesn't depend on it).
After running my own shop for about 10 years, that started to fizzle as social media became much more than a place to hang your cyber-hat and say "hi." As a huge advertising/marketing hub, it was tough for me to make ends meet running my own webshop; small business owners really don't want their own custom websites anymore. Plus, a plethora of DIY website solutions are now out there for next to nothing budget-wise.
Fortunately, I found my calling at a municipality and plan to stay until they won't have me anymore. I've learned a lot and even get to teach people now, which is very rewarding.
So, continue to visit this darn website. I have a bunch of features I want to continue building - but I felt it was ready for a soft launch anway, just shy of a month before its 25th birthday.