My name is Brandon Wang.
I'm currently seventeen years old, and a high school senior at Palos Verdes Peninsula High. In whatever spare time I have, I enjoy fooling around with computers, one of my main hobbies. As a result, you have this site, a loose "collection" of my works. Only works from a couple years ago can be seen, as older projects were not preserved, and thus, long gone by the keystroke of a single delete button.
As a pseudo-part-time-job, I freelance web design and develop webpages. Not only does this allow me to pursue my interests in Computer Science, but allow me to earn an extra bit of spending money on the side. Although I'm not as experienced as other web designers, I accept payments as "donations." Of course, since I'm a student, I have to refuse jobs due to work from other aspects of my life, namely school itself.
I'm completely self-taught in web areas. When I was six, I fooled around with HTML, attempting to create a "pet page" on Neopets, a game site targeted at little children. From there, I slowly added on to my little hobby, eventually merging graphical design with it, thereby creating web design. I developed a fascination for graphical design and digital art from the large art galleries available on the internet, the tool that I grew up with. Obviously, since these galleries featured pieces so aesthetically pleasing, many others have posted tutorials on their methods, allowing me to create my own style.
Soon after, in middle school, I wondered how pages were dynamic, changing with every push of the refresh button. I looked around, and eventually found my way to PHP, my first "true" coding language. PHP has allowed me to create my modern websites, using databases like MySQL to store data, and show my original fascination, dynamic pages. PHP's logic concepts, like object oriented programming, allowed me to learn other languages easily. C and C++ were the two languages I heard the most in talk of the subject, so I moved to learn those. Eventually, I joined an open-source project as a developer for a game server emulator named eAthena.
eAthena took my interest of Computer Science and blended it with yet another interest of mine, computer gaming. eAthena emulated a server for the popular MMORPG Ragnarok Online. Though the legality of this project may appear a bit blurry, the project breached no licenses and used code written from its own developers. From this, I was introduced to group dynamics, CVS, SVN and teamwork. I continued to work with eAthena for years, but once I entered high school, I no longer had the time to work on such a project. I'd like to say that I grew up with eAthena. I was very childish at the beginning, lying about my age to gain validity in the community, and to join as a developer. Since I worked with eAthena through my early teenage years, a lot of drama encircled the project and me. Though most events here were not very large, it became my second life, where I could pursue Computer Science as much as I wanted, and a community thankful for my work. To this day, I visit back and chat with old and new members of the community.
Once in high school, I tried taking Computer Science classes. The Computer Science classes at my school are AP-only, with a very low pass rate. Obviously, the class isn't very popular or strong at my school, but since I was interested, I decided to sign up for the class, despite labels of "nerd" associated with it. Though I don't like to discuss the class, I referred to it as CSAP: Counter-strike AP. For the first year I took the class, I took Computer Science A AP in my Sophomore year. I received a 5 on the AP exam, one of three in all classes, totaling to around 150 students. I gave an honest effort to learn Java and all that was required on the AP exam. My second year, though, was a different story. I succumbed to the others, playing without studying. I received a 4 on that year's AP exam, Computer Science AB AP, in my Junior year. Combined with the nature of the class and the large workload difference between Sophomore and Junior year, I received a lower score than I thought I would get. Additionally, that class is often referred as a "self-study," where you are expected to subject material on your own. I self-studied 3 other APs that year, and procrastinated until the two weeks before the exams to start learning the material. With all these factors combined, I can see why I received such a score.
Currently, I am applying to colleges. Though I won't name my list of choices for obvious reasons, I wish to be in many of the higher-tier schools of the nation, and is my dream to study Computer Science further, with a knowledgeable professor, and not on my own. Though it may only be a dream to enter in such schools, I can apply, and hope for the best.
Besides my hobby of computers, I do have others. I enjoy Tennis, movies, and having a good time with friends. I love games of any variety, and I love art.
If you would like me to work for you for web design or web development, please contact me. My contact information can be found on the "contact" page.
