Member of the month May 2012.
Based on his enthusiasm and willingness to help, I’m very pleased to announce that our May 2012 Member of the Month is @TehYoyo;. So without further ado, please join me in congratulating him. round of applause
And now, put your feet up and enjoy the interview while sipping your favorite beverage.
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Congratulations on the Member of the Month award TehYoyo!
Well, gee. Thanks. It’s quite an honor. Truly 'tis.
First things first, how did you come across the SitePoint forums and what made you stay?
I know I got here from the books, but I can’t quite remember which one. I do believe that the first one was Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML and CSS by Ian Lloyd. Fantastic book - I’d recommend it to anyone. I’m a long time forum-er. I’ve been on forums for maybe 4 years now - various forums here and there. This and one other are really the ones I’ve stayed on for a long time (actually - I haven’t even been here that long!) I appreciate the whole community, the help that I can get, and the feeling of satisfaction that I get from helping people out! What made me stay? I don’t know - just the nice people and my fascination, interest, and love of the web and everything related.
TehYoyo is an interesting screen name. Where did it come from? Is it in any way related to the YoYo toy?
Wow. It’s a sort of long story to be sure. It started back in '06 w/ on an MMORPG game that I played with my friends. My best friend and I created an account with the name Yoyoma313. He was obsessed with the famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. After that, friends in-game started calling me Yoyoma (I was really the only one who played after a few years), and then just Yoyo for short. I wanted to have a name that I could use anywhere and, since Yoyo was always taken, I started playing around. I eventually settled on TehYoyo. Cool, huh? Uh … hello? … hello? You can wake up now!
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your real name? Where are you from?
I’m a Brad Pane. I live in hills, but only ones covered in bamboo.
You seem to be most active around the design forums. Can you give us a brief history of how you came to be interested in the field of design?
I’ve always been interested in computers, so I guess the logical step for me was to learn how to code! My school offered a course in web programming (which, as I look back on it, was a terribly-taught course and taught best practices by someone who was like a female DeathShadow … except she didn’t keep up with the times. She was just alive way back when it was like 1990. (I know, right! So old!) She didn’t teach DTDs, best practices, or anything like that. It was alright, though. I got a lot of lab time and from there I just started exploring! I enjoy the Design section b/c it suits my skillset - I especially enjoy the Graphics forum and the Getting Started With Web Design Forum. I’m mainly self-taught, generic frontend, so Ruby, PHP, etc. is way out of my league. 
As a designer and developer, what are your favorite tools (code editors, design programs etc…)?
Oooh. I might offer a narrow view of things (the following tool is the only one that I was introduced to), but I love Notepad++. Great tool. I love the keyboard shortcut for run (although no Opera support :/) in FF, Chrome, IE, or Safari, the syntax color-coding, the auto-indent, multiple views (although 2 max :/) and even if I “can’t turn all that crap off”, I don’t want to - so it works for me. I also use Photoshop, am learning Illustrator, and am interested in mastering the entire Adobe Master Collection. I have basic skills in After Effects CS5. I also am a lover of Adobe Kuler and, of course, Google. I use Google for GMail and Google Calendar, which, due to the frequency at which I check my email, helps me keep up in life. I also use Chrome, Microsoft Word, Windows 7, AMD processors, flash drives, a nice GTX 550 Ti, a … oh. Did I go too far?
What do you see as the future of web? Where do you see it heading in a general way?
:crazyhugefearface: I think that we’ll have a larger web. The way I see things developing, we’ll have a bigger and, hopefully, better web. I think that sites that allow people to talk with their friends and interact with them will take off, no matter what type of site that they are. In terms of the developer and designer world, I think we’ll see HTML5 roll along in a couple of years - I’m thinking anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8. Hopefully, browsers will keep improving. It seems that IE10 will catch up to just below the other browsers, but I hope that all browsers improve significantly, and continue to do so, as a direct result of the competition that I think we all see for browser market share. As much as I love Chrome, I hope that Chrome doesn’t take over completely, which it seems to be doing right now.
According to your profile, you have the following skill set: “Web design, Web development, Digital media production”. What have you done in the field of digital media production and what attracted you to learn that skill?
I love digital media. Maybe it’s just my generation (although I grew up with tapes, the radio, and a good Hardy Boys book), but I’m enthralled with the production of music, artwork, and video. I have friends who have similar interests, so we’ll sometimes get together and make some cool stuff. I think I was actually just looking for an ego boost when I wrote that - it should really read “novice” before every one of those. I still have much to learn 
If I’m not mistaken, you’re currently enrolled in school, correct? If you don’t mind me asking, what are you currently taking and what do you ultimately want to do when you graduate?
You’re not mistaken 
I’m taking … a busy schedule, that’s for sure. I enjoy history and geography a lot and currently enjoy my class in that subject. When I graduate, I want to do something fun. Ideally, I don’t want to work and just want to win a 200 billion dollar lottery, but that’s probably not going to happen But it might, if we cross our fingers really hard. Or maybe just me … In all seriousness, I just want to do something I really enjoy. I might (and this is on the very edge of reality) take a gap year (if I secure a job) and go whitewater kayaking worldwide for a year. That would be an absolute dream. For work, I’m interested in economics, or maybe something in web (but I don’t want my hobby to turn into my job which turns into … my not-job, if you know what I mean).
When not on SitePoint or the web, what do you enjoy? What are your hobbies?
I like hanging out with friends, playing around with digital media production, and just generally having a good time. I really enjoy working on computers. I built my own computer, am currently working on throwing together and 80-buck XP from random stuff that I had lying around. Other than that, I like playing volleyball and listening to podcasts and other talk-seminars while trying to fall asleep.
This is your chance to change the forums. What do you like about SPF currently and what do you think could stand some improvement?
I like the new option of forum views. I love the “last post” and having the old forum view available (but great job on the updates!). I also love the community, the people, and pretty much everyone here (but don’t ask whether or not you should use Dreamweaver)! In terms of improvements, there’s one thing that really, really bugs me. Fix the dang symbol!! That’s my favorite emoticon and it makes me look like a dork when I use it! I wish it wasn’t so … smiley. Y’know?
As you know, self-promotion is frowned upon here. But if you have something you’d like to promote, we’ll turn a blind eye, just this once.
Just keep on keepin’ on, y’all. Great job with everything - it’s a great forum and community. I’d also like to thank the staff for keeping things under control, running operations smoothly, and also helping everyone who needs it! Great job!
Any closing words of wisdom?
~TehYoyo[/INDENT]
But I’m assuming, TehYoyo, that the joke was about your name?