I remember very clearly the first time I programmed. It was on Apple IIgs, and a friend of mine showed me a few lines in spaghetti code BASIC.
I was hooked.
It was a revelation for me, to be able to punch in a series of instructions, to create something on the computer, and after debugging, and testing, and planning, and hoping, when it actually worked was a thrill like no other. And, recently, I've fallen in love with it all over again.
Currently my specailties are Visual Basic, VBA, and Microsoft Access. I've written fairly large programs in all of these, and created and maintained 10,000+ record databases for small businesses and volunteer organizations. Professionally, aside from my freelance work, I programmed in a small shop in the construction industry, working in a language I'd never seen before I started the position, to considerable success-my proudest moment was having code go live on my first day of writing. Recently I've begun to expand my skills, and I'm in the process of learning Perl, C++, and Java. I've also re-entered the world of web design, rapidly learning newer HTML, CSS, and PHP, and working to improve my design aesthetic. I believe in code that's reliable, well documented, well tested, useful, and most importantly usable by the end user. The most clever code trick in the world doesn't make up for forgetting to get the tab index right on your controls, or hiding the help button.
I am available for any programming or web design project you might need me for, on a per project, contract, or employee basis. I welcome custom requests large and small, from full featured applications to 10 line text parsing scripts. A full resume can be seen here, and please contact me with your needs.