About eLIZABETH (PSST...THAT'S ME!)
I'm an entrepreneur, writer, photographer, and creative designer. I love exploring new ideas, meeting new people and solving problems with design and tech.
An eternal optimist, I constantly seek out new opportunities to better myself and the world around me.
I enjoy taking photographs of my surroundings, writing travel articles, and designing graphics, websites, and mobile apps.
I am an avid traveler! Doing so makes me feel alive - there's nothing like exploring new places, cultures, or languages. The world is such a beautiful place to explore!
I quit my job for the possibility of working remotely while traveling. With camera in hand, this new path became a journey to document all that came into contact with me during this new path of exploration - both beautiful or mundane; the big life changes happening right before my eyes without even realizing it! My travel + language blog documents these experiences through photographs as well as written accounts so you can experience them alongside me every step of way (or jump straight down some rabbit hole if reading isn't your thing).
Here's a quick recap of how I met your mother, I mean how I got here.
In high school "keyboarding" was seen as a nerdy elective, so I took it.
"NOBODY IS GOING TO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TYPE?! typewriters are obsolete", they said. *INSERT MEH EMOJI HERE*
I learned my way around the MS-DOS command line on a first date. I guess it was love at first byte.
Then, I was a BBS SySop (system operator) at 15. On a whim, I started a BBS (that’s a bulletin board system or vintage Reddit) in Vegas with my boyfriend called Wicked City named after one of my favorite anime films. Even though it was only a single node (line) it became popular and I met a lot of interesting characters bartering for computer goodies and food. Fun times!
Techie in Training
Started coding with CoffeeCup Software back in the late 90s and was just happy to create cool GeoCities pages for friends.
"WE'RE ON THE INTERNET!"
This is one of the first pictures I uploaded. I'll spare you the liquid raver background and the under construction animations.
That year I paid to have a custom PC built for the sole purpose of being able to provide desktop publishing services to friends. I set up virtual voicemail boxes for each roommate and charged a monthly fee for the service.
My first break into the corporate world was answering phones for a healthcare consulting firm in Oakland. Between setting appointments and transferring calls, I would learn about Oracle networking systems, desktop publishing, and code. The "computer guy" was impressed, had a chat with the boss and I was promoted and given a raise.
Thanks to the creative explosion that was happening within the digital space early on, I was able to let my creative juices run wild and started to design and build sites before drag-and-drop editors were a thing.
But it was when code was just so much more than lines of text that things really clicked for me. It's not about the problems you solve or the languages you know; it's about making people feel like they can do anything with technology because they're never alone as long as they have creativity and curiosity.
A decent wifi connection helps, too.