The World of Raficus

Tripod - Ocarina of Time Fan-site (defunct)
My very first homepage was one dedicated to "The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time", back when I knew little about HTML. I believe it was hosted on Tripod and was (what I thought) a fair attempt at a first go in cyberspace. Of course, there are way better sites on the topic out there that were far more useful, and eventually I moved on.

Geocities Personal Page - The World of Raficus (defunct)
Once I turned 13, I was old enough to have my own Geocities page, and I took advantage of that offer. After reading up on basic HTML, I jumped straight into coding with the help of some online tutorials. A few things here and there, though nothing special. Mainly information that friends would understand (inside jokes, etc.), and I eventually revamped that (link provided later).

AOL Member Homepage - The Galaxis of Raficus
When we switched ISPs to AOL, out of curiosity I used a WYSIWYG editor, Easy Designer, and went all out with aesthetics. Over time, it became very splashy, filled with inside jokes, poetry, and whatever I could cram in.

AOL/Geocities - The World of Raficus: Project Blue
Due to the constraints of AOL, I decided to use the best of both that and Geocities to make a page hosted by Geocities but referred to by AOL. I'd say this site was my best site yet, using HTML, Javascripts, and Java, and featuring some fun extras and games you could play right from my homepage. The site is still operational, but many functions (including the counter are disabled). And much of the information is outdated too.

Angelfire Personal Page - The Kingdom of Raficus (defunct)
Being a fan of castles, knights, swords, and midieval art, I decided to jump away from the Sci-Fi look and step back in time to the Middle Ages. In this page, I introduced my very own (personally designed) blog (before they became so mainstream and popular). This time, I took a try at Microsoft Frontpage and Angelfire's useful FTP service. Soon I upgraded it to the next site (below).

Angelfire/Geocities Personal Page - The Empire of Raficus
This one is actually still operable. Using a special formatting of frames and slicing, I made a site superimposed on a medieval scroll. This was the most comprehensive to date and that alone is why I still keep it up. Hosted at Geocities, forwarded by Angelfire with an easy-to-remember URL.

Blogger - Deep Contemplation
Later in high school, realizing that I didn't care much for maintaining a site but rather the simple expression of thoughts, I jumped ship and went for the now-popular weblog, but with my own template. When I changed the look and feel, I renamed it "Deeper." As the name suggests, I went pretty far into philosophy here.

Blogger - The Secrets of Raficus (defunct)
After a couple of rough experiences, I confided only in my closest friends (ironically, we don't keep in touch much anymore, but I have no ill-feelings toward them). Using password protection I gave them access to a private blog online called "The Mystic Paradox: The Secrets of Raficus." Being that it's no longer active, I disabled it. The template, however, I kept.

Blogger - Raficus Records
Later on I secured the older entries, and released the blog to the public under a different blogger URL, focusing less on my deepest personal thoughts and more on my daily activities. Same template as before. But didn't last very long.

SEAS Homepage - The World of Raficus@Penn
Well, it came time to go to college and "By golly!" - the engineering school provided me with some webspace. Well, I wasted no time in setting up a page, which I ultimately realized was too cliche and caught in a 90's-esque look. It also became a pain to maintain, even though I had switched over to DreamWeaver to manage the homepage.

Xanga - The Randomness of Raficus
Desiring a change from the time-consuming web management, I took a shot at Xanga, but with a completely different motive. Instead of the mainstream daily journal entries, I tried something a bit more unique and ultimately more popular. My Xanga site focused on hodgepodge information discovered while searching the world wide web. Each entry had a different idea with a bit of background and sometimes a link to more information. The main goal: entertaining my friends and hopefully teach them something new and interesting. Highly recommended, at least for the casual read.

Penn - The Penn Glee Club Homepage
During the first two years of college, I was elected as the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club's webmaster and Sys Admin, which involved constaly updating the homepage. After a serious facelift, I redesigned the homepage. Unlike previous pages (and its old look), I used CSS instead of frames, color instead of black & white, images instead of text-only. A fair success, and I learned a great deal. But since I've passed on the torch, I won't claim any present-day screw-ups in the coding.

Local 99 - Public Access Television
Recently I was hired to contruct a website for a local television station, formerly known as the Lower Merion & Narberth Public Access Television Station (quite a mouthful). Anyway, this is a current project, which will be completed in the common months, so once it's up, expect to see a link to my latest work.

Penn Engineering - ESE Labs Homepage
My most recent project has been to revamp the University of Pennsylvania Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering's undergraduate laboratory homepage. But unlike the previous volunteer activities, I'm actually getting compensated for this. Since the beginning of the 2006 school year, I've been hard at work templating and refining the structure. Look for a link later down the road once we've uploaded my new changes.

Merck & Co. - Intern College Night
As part of my summer 2007 internship, some of the interns working at Merck organized a college fair, aimed at creatively giving back to the company by informing the children of Merck employees about the various opportunities available at colleges and universities throughout the country. I led the web design team, which incorporated an original design I made myself as well as online registration scripting. Unfortunately, it was hosted on the Merck intranet, so it is not available for public view.

STWing - The Mind of Raficus
My last site, originally intended as a permanent home for all of this information. Although I enjoyed the tightly integrated template, I've desired a simpler look that worked better in DreamWeaver and more fit my own tastes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a good year with this slate-blue, futuristic-looking site.