makz web

Who are you?

Hi, I'm makz. I'm an adult human living in the United States. You can learn more about me here. I like lots of things, but here are three of my favorites:

Web Authoring

I started making websites using Microsoft Frontpage way back in the day, quickly got bored of the limitations of WYSIWYG editors, and taught myself HTML. I've been unlearning deprecated habits ever since. If you want to see bad site practices get better, my HTML History Lessons series includes copious notes on what to do (and not to do) when building a website. I started writing them when a friend asked me to introduce them to front end development, but they soon got busy with other things. I'm going to slowly continue making them so I can stretch my creative muscles and engage in a lot of navel-gazing nostalgia.

Japanese Language Study

Through a combination of self-study, summer camps, abroad programs, and video-confrencing, I've been studying Japanese since I was in elementary school. Since my study habits have been so haphazard, I'm still nowhere near fluent, but I'm getting better each year. I previously hosted a Japanese tutoring group near my college. I've written up some study advice, as well as posted some of my fan translation work here. Right now I'm studying for the JLPT N3 exam, and I hope to one day spend at least a couple of years living in Japan, doing some kind of programming work. (I think I should at least aim for passing the N2 before pursuing that particular dream, though.) Like most Internet-heathens, I got into studying Japanese because I am weeb trash.

Sound Stuff

I like music, and I've been known to sing some things. I used to perform in a cover band with some friends from college. One of my hobbies is adapting Japanese language songs into English. (They're not anywhere near direct translations, but I try to capture the main point of the original song while making them flow well in English.) I started learning ukelele in the twilight months of 2018, but so far I can only play one song decently. I'm hoping to more seriously pursue recording myself in 2019 eventually.