Website
The design of this website was inspired by a piece of tech that inspired me at a young age. The colors here come from this magical machine I encountered at the Mace Electronics store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during my elementary years. 1984 to be exact. I’d already become an accomplished BASIC programmer but the new interface of the Macintosh captivated my imagination.
This theme in a small way pays tribute to the colors of the original casework from Macintosh.
My first foray into studying HTML took place in the spring of 1996, as I was thinking frankly about my college graduation and what I was going to actually do with my life. My boyfriend at the time had learned some HTML and gotten a job at helping the University of Rochester develop its first public website. I signed on and lent my skills at Photoshop to assist. I then too decided I needed to learn to code webpages.
Soon after graduation, I’d noticed a trend forming in personal websites: web designers were organizing personal thoughts in reverse chronological order. Blogs were born. I started mine in 1997, under the name/URL “biberfan.com.” It was a collection of writings and music reviews.
Today, my writings belong here, more or less, and the music reviews now live at the biberfan address.
The Author
I grew up in Ohio and Pennsylvania cultivating a love for both computers and making music. My first musical experiences were made upon the floor, depressing the pedals of my mother’s Conn organ. At age 5 I began piano lessons and later studied the trombone as part of my district’s band program beginning in the fourth grade. My BASIC programming later included exposure to Assembler for the 6502 processor (Apple //e) and I became quite adept at HyperTalk in high school, when I’d developed a commercial HyperCard stack called Subjunctive Master and sold it with my high school best friend as a Spanish and French language development tool (I covered the Spanish, he covered the French). My introduction to the Mac started with a MacPlus and Finale music notation software in the 8th grade.
Despite studying music and music education, my first full-time professional job was teaching computer applications and graphic design as a high school CTE teacher. My entrance into the education space positioned me to help innovate in many ways, including the advocation for blogging and the read/write web for teachers and students. That work was recognized by the Virginia Department of Education with a leadership award and the later publication of my book, RSS for Educators by the ISTE Press.
Today I am still a Mac fanatic, if my vanity license plate would be any indication. I am also a Francophile, having visited France nearly a dozen times, in addition to developing a number of culinary skills in the kitchen. While I perform less music today, I am a hifi fanatic, spending much of my free time listening to baroque and classical music and reviewing albums. As much as possible, I enjoy international travel that involves Michelin restaurants and concert performances.
I reside outside Richmond, Virginia, where I have lived since 1999.