About Me
Hello! I am Robin VanGilder, a Seattleite born and bred. I've lived here all my life, mostly over in the wilds of West Seattle. I attended West Seattle High School, then had a few misadventures in higher education before settling back down at my old home and getting a job selling paintings at the Pike Place Market. But, I didn't want to end up working there for the rest of my life, so I am hoping to land a better, more interesting job by completing the web design program at Seattle Central College.
In the past, I have studied many different subjects within and outside of academic settings. I started off with pure computer science, but it wasn't a good fit for me. Later, I went on to study more esoteric subjects in philosophy and religion. I enjoy studying literature in my spare time, particularly going through the entire bibliographies of old Victorian authors, and diving deep into the work of Herman Melville in particular.
In terms of web design, I am most interested in UI/UX studies. I find that many websites have absolutely terrible UI, which makes them very confusing to use. I am interested in improving things, in whatever small way I can, and in learning the concepts and standards that would help me do that. The actual design part, the front-facing aspects, are much more interesting to me, personally, than the background management work. I will do my best to follow the best practices on that front, but it's not something that really incites my passions.
Hobbies
My primary hobby is definitely playing video games. I've enjoyed them since I was a little kid, and inherited an NES from my brother. I've had many consoles over the years, and also played game on my PC. Of late, I've mostly played games at home on my PC, and only made use of Nintendo's family of portable consoles. I really enjoy playing RPGs, but I have very specific tastes. I enjoy the Souls series of games, strategy RPGs, and more traditional JRPGs like Dragon Quest. I used to enjoy first-person shooting games quite a bit, but I don't have the reflexes for them anymore.
A complimentary hobby with games is podcasts. I listen to entirely too many podcasts, and they are a constant background for any other activity that doesn't require me to listen actively. Thus, while I am philosophically in favor of narrative-heavy games, the ones I most often play are the lighter, more gameplay-oriented ones. They also make great entertainment while walking, or riding public transit, which I often do as I do not drive. In fact, I'm listening to a podcast as I type this!