On introducing myself (again)

I went to see Bullet For My Valentine last Wednesday. It’s been a while (a very, very long while) since I’ve seen a metal band live. I have almost missed the — energy, as Dylan calls it. It’s why he loves metal music and seeing metal music live. We had an issue with him entering the venue because he had forgotten his photo ID. Despite having his blood donor card (with his date of birth and photo) and university card (with the same full name and a photo), some daft security guard held him back. I was already inside and another security guard wouldn’t let me out.

“I have a tattoo sleeve and facial hair too, how do you know I’m not 18?” Dylan exclaimed to me afterwards. Another security guard had given the daft one a WTF look and let him in.

Naturally, I was afraid of being trampled because I’m short and skinny, but Dylan did a good job of using his arm as a barricade for other people who were throwing themselves around and moshing like crazy. I had a good time at the gig, and Bullet played more songs from their previous albums than their current (which was very disappointing, in my opinion). I was pleased with their performance and really did enjoy the set of the opening band Cancer Bats.

Prior to that, I had class, and of course, there were introductions. You can’t really start a class, first day of the course, without introducing yourself. It’s almost inevitable that you do. On Monday, our introductions involved us sitting at groups of desks and introducing ourselves to the people at our desk. After ten minutes, we’d rotate by switching tables or switching seats, so that we’d have a new bunch of people to talk to and introduce ourselves to. I like that better, compared to Wednesday’s round of each person in the class taking turns to speak in front of everyone.

I find that I usually introduce myself as a web designer.

It comes out so naturally, that I end up saying it every time. It’s occurred to me that web design has been something I’ve been involved with more than half my life, and have studied, worked, and enjoyed intensively, compared to other interests and abilities I have.

Working in web design is great because it’s an ever-changing technology, and there are always new things popping up. I am always signing up to new newsletters, bookmarking things, looking for useful resources for both work and personal purposes — whether it be social media icons, fonts, vector graphics, WordPress themes for blogs, photoblogs or tailored to a certain industry, like 10 best poker themes. It’s interesting to see what other designers create, no matter what they are.

I find it a challenge to keep up to date with things sometimes, and there are so many new things to discover and talk about. I’ll actually be going to a workshop in a couple of weeks (paid for by work) which will do doubt sharpen my skills in CSS and responsive design. I wasn’t looking forward to it at first, but I guess I’m a little curious now. There is only so much you can really learn while reading, I guess — so having a course with practical exercises will hopefully be fun. (When I seemed unimpressed, Cal tried to convince me by saying they’d give me food. :P)

I don’t know why, but it’s very hard to admit that any kind of work is fun, which is why I’m a little hesitant and… I guess shy to say that I love my job. It sounds nerdy, and a bit strange, and maybe I also feel that way because most people don’t like their job. James mentioned that it’s freakishly sad that my hobby is my job (or the other way around). He said it’s like I come home and do exactly the same thing I do at work.

It’s a bit of a gem, really. All day I’m working on websites, and I come home and I do exactly the same thing. The obvious difference is that I’m doing it for myself and not for a client, unless I’m doing some freelance work.

So I introduce myself as a web designer, and sometimes it gets boring, but I leave it to my classmates to ask the questions about what kind of web design I do and if I like my job.

Of course, I tell them that I do.

Comments on this post

Great post. You are such a good writer.
Be proud of loving your job. It is a good thing! I quite like mine too :)
I saw Bob Evans on Friday, will blog :)

I believe that loving your job is the best thing ever. You won’t get miserable every time you go to work. So no, you don’t sound nerdy at all for saying you love your job! :D

Whenever I go to concerts, I always go with a good friend of mine, Gerald. And he would always take care of me. When people were pushing and doing crowd surfing, he’d have his arms up around me, pushing everyone aside. Such good friends :D Makes it easier for us to enjoy the show and not to worry about being trampled upon haha.

I’ve only been to two concerts and they were both metal ones (In Flames, back in February 2012, and Sonata Arctica in December 2012). I don’t know if I could go to any other kind of concert, aside from, like, a symphony/orchestra kind of thing. I’m just so used to being able to jump around and scream, headbanging and fist-pumping with a crowd as my ears take forever to adjust to the noise from the speakers. Seeing In Flames was amazing. The mosh pit was really crazy, but there was literally a circle of guys a head taller than me protecting me. I wasn’t even in the pit, but I got jostled around a lot because of it.

I’ve only had to go through introductions in one of my classes, and I’ve had six of them so far (excluding my mandatory online ones). Most of my classes are lectures, and they have hundreds of students in them. The one where we had to introduce ourselves was for a smaller class with about 20 people. We said our name, and then a recent book or film we read or watched. Not much of an introduction, since it was just something we had done, not something about us. I really like introducing myself to people, except my name always… “tastes” weird in my mouth. I don’t like saying it.
When it comes to introductions, I almost never know what to say to people about myself. If I start off by saying I’m a writer, they’ll ask what I write, and then ask details about what I’ve written, which will be a bit too personal for me. It’s kind of difficult for me to introduce myself as anything else, though, because I’m just another person and it’s better to get to know me to understand why I’m interesting.

I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to get a job because I don’t want to always be complaining about it. I want to get a job I love, because then I’d be able to brag about how much I love it and how much I enjoy working. I feel like people see it as a luxury these days when someone enjoys the things they’re being paid to do. I guess it’s the connotation that has risen with the words “work” and “job”–synonyms for drudgery. It’s a shame.

I think one of the things everyone wants in life is to work a job they love. I’m glad you’ve found one you thoroughly enjoy. :)

I don’t need to introduce myself in class because all of my classmates are studying to become computer programmers (initially)… but when I’m out with my family etc. I do need to introduce myself, and if I say Web designer I get weird looks like “what???” because my family consists of mostly engineers and doctors and they don’t understand much in computers other than MS Office and Facebook… and when I explain them what exactly is web designing, they don’t get impressed because they say there nothing so challenging in being a web designer…. So I usually stick to saying that I’m a Programmer and then tell them that I know many programming languages like C++, Java, VB.NET, PHP,XML…and so on!

I’m glad you enjoy being a Web designer and I hope you enjoy that workshop… it sounds really interesting!

It is totally okay to like your job! I have no idea why liking your job is a “nerdy” thing and that being “nerdy” is bad. After all, you are happier than everyone else, and everyone should wish that they could love their jobs too, just like you!

Personally, I find it extremely hard to keep up with all the new web design tools; when I write HTML, it is XHTML 1 with CSS 2, which just won’t cut it at the moment anymore. I feel like new “tricks” with CSS3 and HTML5 come up all the time, and they’re hard to keep track of even as a professional web designer, like you.

It’s interesting to hear that you guys still have introductions the first day of class. Is your class small and discussion based? Because I haven’t had any class introductions since high school. It’s a bit sad that I don’t know my classmates’ names, but it’s also more comfortable for me because it means that I don’t need to talk about myself.

Forgot to mention: you have a hobby that is not web design: photography! Your photoblog is awesome.

I’m glad you had a good time at the show! That’s kind of odd that they gave Dylan a hard time even though he had other forms of ID. I suppose it’s possible they could get in trouble for letting that pass =/

I don’t think it’s strange to like your job. It’s a good thing! I also like what I do and am glad that I actually like my work. The ever-changing thing is how I feel about programming too, especially since we use a language that’s considered “young”. We always have to keep up with the newest version and keep up with the proper standards. The interface uses HTML and CSS, so we have to keep up with those as well. It’s hard to keep up sometimes, but it’s also exciting that nothing is ever static :)

if only Bullet For My Valentine would come and perform in my country XD The concerts that I ever attend were all Korean Pop concerts and I have to say that the fans are all scary! I mean, looking at their small petite size, you have no idea how strong they are (in terms of will and energy).. feeling old, I always opted for VIP passes (or media) so that I can sit down and watch the show calmly.

It is amazing that sometimes random blog can give us inspirations and you get to go for a workshop too! Teachers should be sent to webdesigning and blogging workshop too hahaha~ I bought lots of expensive magazines which teach you on HTML and stuff but I think I only pass 10% out of the whole content because I don’t have the energy to read and follow everything one by one just like before.. Do share with us any interesting content during your workshop ^^ have a nice day!