Prior to this class, I have had no experience with any form of code or programming language. I never had to design my MySpace page, nor did I ever take tome to look into how the websites I use on a daily basis function. However I do believe that everyone should learn at least the basics in HTML and CSS.

While I am not able at this point to make a good website, I can make a very atrocious website. I was reminding myself on how to use HTML and CSS before proceeding to JavaScrip and I found myself setting out on a quest to make a website that would make the viewer’s eyes bleed. That is the core of why I believe every one should know the basics. It is fun to make something that you can make worse and worse, or to be able to play around with a website to make a parody of it. Bad web design, when done right, is like good web design, an art.

More significantly, many of us in the humanities miss the extent to which programming is a creative and generative activity. 

Kirschenbaum

As Kirschenbaum points out, there is a lot of creative freedom in being able to code a personal website. It is also cheaper, because it negates the cost of paying someone. Knowing how to use the codes lets the user design and produce the website how they want it to work, without someone else’s interpretation of the original vision. However, if someone does not have the skill to program their own website, knowing the basics helps with communicating with the programmer to design the website to as close to the vision as possible.

It is also a useful skill to have in anyone’s tool belt, even just for resumé padding. In the digital age, knowing even the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are very sellable skills. They can give someone the advantage over someone else and get them the job.

However, to me, the best part is taking what I learned to the extreme, resulting in this:

 h1{
      color: green;
      font-size: 1.5em;
      background-color: #ff6100;
      margin: 20px;
    padding: 40px;}
    h2{
      color: #5fb5b1;
      border-style: dashed;
      border-width: 3px;
      border-left-width: 10px;
      border-right-width: 10px;
      border-color: #21ff00;
      background-color: #ff669e;
      }
    h3{
      color: violet;
      border-style: dashed;
      border-width: 6px;
      border-left-width: 10px;
      border-right-width: 10px;
      border-color: #99dbff;
      background-color: #73ff54;
      }

Which when is live looks like this: