About Doug Gibson
I am a full life-cycle web developer, metalhead, and proud father of two. I have lived in Frederick County, Maryland most of my life, growing up in Walkersville, MD, living for a time in Frederick and Silver Spring, and finally buying a house in the Villages of Urbana in 2001.
I have been on the web since 1995 (remember Mosaic and Netscape 1?) and soon after began tinkering with HTML and JavaScript in my spare time and on the job. Once establishing a solid foundation for building dynamic web sites and applications using ColdFusion and SQL Server, I began reading and learning about nearly ever facet of web design and development that impacts the quality of the final product, as well as its success after launch. Thus began my journey into learning standards-based design (XHTML+CSS), usability, accessibility, security, performance optimization (code, database, and HTTP/client-side), and even SEO/SEM. I like to understand how and why things work, so I find learning and new challenges very enjoyable.
My other passion beside web development is music - in particular heavy metal music. I was already listening to some "hair metal"" in the mid to late 80's, but after discovering Metallica, I would never look back. My tastes slowly progressed toward heavier and more extreme music, and today I enjoy nearly all forms of metal music.
Shortly after learning the ropes of building data-driven sites, I combined my two passions and began work on Metal underground.com, which launched in early 2001 and has been running strong ever since - now a successful, top 5 heavy metal news site.
Here are some more tidbits about me if you're still reading:
Likes and Hobbies
- Web Development
- Music (heavy metal)
- Games (used to be PC games, now Xbox 360 is my platform of choice)
- Competition - I love good competition whether I win or lose
- Sarcasm and self-deprecating humor
- Geek Humor (also see above)
- Spectator Sports: UFC, Pro Football and Ice Hockey
- Reading: Star Wars universe, Lord of the Rings, Thomas Harris, Timothy Zahn, Greg Bear...and web-related books and blogs
- TV: Heroes, Terminator, 24, Prison Break, Lost, CSI, Boston Legal
- Movies: Action and/or good Sci-Fi, Fantasy/mythological, or Comic-based movies
- Weight lifting/fitness (this has been squeezed out of my daily routine since marriage and having kids)
- Volleyball (ditto)
- Relaxing (ditto)
Dislikes
- Politics (governmental, office, and otherwise - I'm a "no B.S." kinda guy)
- Country music or anything slow for the most part
- Trash talk and sore losers (often go hand-in-hand)
