About
In case it hasn't been noted or seen elsewhere, I'm Tess, I'm 20 and I live in Florida of the U.S. of A. I don't go by Tess online, as Austin is my real name. Not only is Tess an actual nickname in real life, but I was tired of people thinking I was a boy (re: Austin), and I admit to kind-of, sort-of hating it at one point (don't worry, I'm over it; I accept being mistaken for a boy from time to time). I also don't mind being called either.
As mentioned on the « domain page, I've been designing since 2003, and developing since 2006. I've built all of my sites from the ground up (but this is kind of a compulsive thing versus trying to set a record). I'm advanced in HTML and CSS, but I'm currently in a long-term relationship with PHP; I'm also best friends with MySQL.
I can't really remember a time when I didn't have a camera in my hand, or wasn't trying to boss around the person with the camera. I was into film photography when I was younger, and when I was given my first digital camera – a Kodak C310 – I was in photography heaven. It didn't take the best pictures, but it served me religiously for a year, right until I got my second camera, a Sanyo S650. In November 2008, right after my Sanyo's screen was shot, the parents surprised me with a Canon PowerShot A590 IS, inwhich the start of my Canon fangirling began. In November 2009, I was surprised again – that is actually a really easy thing to do it seems! – with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS, which is the best thing next to a DSLR. I also own a Fuji FinePix S5100, but I mostly use it for taking photographs in RAW mode. Super!fun fact: I've named all three of the latter cameras, in order of camera: King Arthur, Bradley and Santiago. Cookies and foreplay if you get the references!
Some Not-So-Necessitous Things to Know, But I Talk A Lot
I'll by completely honest with you: I'm a nerd. I've stopped denying it back in 1998 when it wasn't as glaringly apparent as it is now. I love spending time with my computer, TV and camera — technology is my thing, and it's something I can always count on understanding; it's calculating, and it pushes me – and I spend my spare time reading the dictionary, looking up the origins of my favourite countries, reading about the 1700 and 1800s and learning Spanish. …Alright, I'm a selective nerd!
I was raised on music, literature, (classic) TV and movies. While my parents played The Beatles and AC/DC, watched I Love Lucy and Star Wars and whored themselves out to Fox Mulder (fine, that was me), I've built up my own likes and tastes apart from what I was raised on. I love almost all music (Placebo, Blood Brothers, Lady Gaga, Ludacris, DMX, Scorpions, Duran Duran and Megan McCauley being a select many few); I get really, really happy when I'm watching action, thriller, horror and comedy movies; and I have a love/hate relationship with anime. I read romance novels, comics (of the Superman, Hellboy and Batman variety) and manga (Bleach, Junjou Romantica, Air Gear and One Piece being the ongoing ones). I love supernatural/fantasy TV shows (and movies), as well as comedy, because Jennifer Saunders and Trevor Moore are Gods. To see the 295859956 TV shows I watch, you can look at my MyTVShows » profile!
I'm an Atheist, though I'm spiritual by nature; I believe in both reincarnation and a hell, which is a little all over the place. :P I try to avoid politics as much as possible, but I do, however, believe in rights and marriage for everyone, abortion, gun control and the separation of church from state.