Hello, my name is Alex Hackbart. I know, you’re probably sitting there thinking, “What the hell kind of name is Hackbart?” I used to wonder the same thing myself. When I was younger I wished I had a more normal name like Johnson or Smith. When part of your last name rhymes with “fart” you make it pretty easy for 8 year olds to make fun of your name. Hackfart? Akbar? Harbar? I’ve heard it all.
The name, however, does have it’s advantages. Most people have a fear of mispronouncing my name so they’ll just say my first name, at the DMV or a restaurant, for example. I can sometimes fool people into thinking everyone knows me on a first name basis when I’m at these places.
“Alex, your table is ready.”
“Thanks Johnny!” (Follow this up with a well delivered high five and seal the deal.)
Now that you know my secret, this trick won’t work on you. This doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, but it does mean that if I do it in front of other people you’ll have to play along. Feel free to deliver high fives as well, I encourage them.
Now that we’ve moved past my name, let’s keep talking about me. That’s why I pay for hosting, right? My mother would be so proud.
I grew up in San Diego, California. I don’t like salmon and I do like burritos. I love writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript and I believe that to learn a library like jQuery, you should first know some vanilla JavaScript so you can truly understand what’s going on. I also believe in conspiracy theorists existing.
I graduated from Platt College in San Diego with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts. I became obsessed with web development after my first HTML class, being able to create something everyday is something that excites me. Even more than the new Biebster album.
Offline Alex
My favorite hobby is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which I currently hold a purple belt in. I also like to brew beer on occasion. Good beer, none of that fizzy yellow stuff. My main two hobbies don’t exactly live together in harmony, but I make it work. I just know that I can’t combine them. I also like surfing, eating, exploring, meeting new people and traveling. I also believe yams taste like soggy slices of terrible.
Weapons of Choice
These are some of my favorite libraries, content management systems and other “things”.
Text Editor
MacVim or TextMate. I grew fond of TextMate when I realized how awesome the bundles were. But once I tried MacVim I fell in love. Most of the same bundles and I never have to touch my mouse? Excuse me sir, I’d like to sign that petition.
CMS
The one and only, WordPress for smaller projects, ExpressionEngine for larger ones. WordPress makes it really easy to get up and running quickly and is also simple for clients to update. EE on the other hand provides incredible flexibility and has a built in member module that works for large projects. Yes, I called WordPress a CMS.
JavaScript Library
Although I like to write my own JavaScript, for client sites we usually have time constraints. In these cases jQuery makes it incredibly easy to write some simple functions that have a big effect. The plugins community is also extremely active so you can cut your time in half with a quick download.
Version Control
Git. I’m getting better at it, but so far it’s the best one I’ve found and has a lot of support online.
Currently Learning
Ruby, Ruby on Rails & Git. I’ve got my hands full.