© 2019 Téa Smith & Kintsugi Pty Ltd.
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About me
A brief summary of how I got here. It's been quite the road, but here are the highlights.
I first got on the Internet
Oh, the school Media Room. I cut my teeth at 14, on Quark XPress and Carmen Sandiego in 1993. I built the school radio station and thought I was pretty hot shit.
I learned Hypercard and a bunch of other design tools, including Photoshop using a Quicktake camera and Bolo tournaments with the other nerds.
I sang Mariah Carey's Vision of Love in front of 1000 teenagers. Again, I thought I was cool. I was not.
Thanks Mark. RIP, I owe everything to you.
I got my own Internet
Screeeeeeawwww-ssssccch-pft-eeeeeh-schree. Hear that? That's the sound of my modem dialing.
I Googled my favourite things on Yahoo and Ask Jeeves, went on IRC, and started learning HTML. I made my very first website.
It was bad, but it did sparkle. I also met my husband and flunked out of Year 12 because I got sick.
The Internet was not a real job.
I repeated Year 12. I was obsessed with animation and design, but, faced with the choice between the "risky" Multimedia degree and the "safe" option of Politics and Law, guess which thing I chose.
I had no interest in a Computer Science degree because it had too much Maths in it.
Yep, I went to University and studied Politics and Law. I took as many Multimedia & Comms electives as they would let me take. Became obsessed with political communications and persuasion.
I overshared every aspect of my life on my website. That would not come back to haunt me.
I was also obsessed with Lisa Loeb and in 1998 created the very first iteration of "Wild Plums & Agrimony" - a website dedicated to Guitar tabs of her music.
My website was best viewed at 800x600 resolution in Netscape Navigator.
Was, of course, a student politician. Joined the ALP. Was asked to stack branches. Left the ALP.My daughter was born.
My daughter was born. I overshared online and had lots and lots of memorable fights with women on mother's groups, usenet groups, email lists, you name it. I was kind of mouthy.
Fun fact: my boss at the computer store I worked at found out I was pregnant by reading my website. And that's the day I learned that the Internet wasn't all that private. Or, did I?
Sorry, Mina. I didn't know you'd be mad. I love you.
Graduated, did jobs & built websites and got into flame-wars for fun.
Graduated. Worked in IT recruitment, then as a graduate child protection worker. Worked with kids in Foster Care and trained Foster Carers for the intensive placement program.
Did websites for fun. Accidentally downloaded One Night in Paris 4 times in a row trying to get Pirates of the Caribbean on VCD via Limewire.
Participated in Internet forums and became part of the furniture on the Lisa Loeb fan forum.
Kept my popular website, blog and guitar tab site running - redesigning it every 2 months. We don't talk about my Xara 3D and NetObjects Fusion phase.
Learned Blogger and then Movable Type theming. It was annoying. My website was best viewed at 1024x768 resolution in IE5.5.
Joined the Greens and did stuff.
Went pro after behaving like a Diva.
Pregnant with my second child and on bed rest, I got an email from Lisa Loeb's manager on behalf of Alfred, asking me to take down my tab website. I said "fuck off" and wrote a mouthy manifesto. Somehow that resulted in me running Lisa's website in an official capacity.
As it turns out, Lisa's manager was kind of important so I got quite a lot of work. My Fireworks skills were on point and I wrangled Spacer GIFs and Flash animations like a boss. Including for Rock of Ages and some other cool people.
LinkArtist Multimedia was born. I didn't go back to my job.
Lots and lots of websites and blogging.
Built a following and quite a popular blog. Never kept stats, but had a lot of comments. I found out my blog was popular when a friend sent me a photo of my blog being showcased in a Comms class at ECU.
Nearly died and blogged. Had a third kid and blogged. Blogged and blogged. Then Facebook & Twitter, as you do.
Life fell apart, twice.
Life fell apart. My grandma died, my husband got injured and we didn't make it. Got divorced. Blogged. Got shit for it.
Left the Greens.
Went viral for something embarrassing.
Deleted blog and all social media except Facebook.
Moved to Sydney. Facebooked that. Got shit for it. Started second business with someone I shouldn't have. Business ended. Moved back to Perth.
Got shit together briefly.
Met new husband. Went into business with new husband. Husband amazing.
Cleaned up my archives and put my site back up, with a whole bunch missing.
Kintsugi did well. More websites, more design, more content, more strategy... the usual.
Nearly died again. Re-evaluated my life.
Nearly died again. Spent 4 months recovering, and thinking, and realising that I wanted more out of life.
Decided to start a podcast. Then started YouTube. Realised I was shit at both those things, so spent 6 months trying to get better at those things.
I want to write professionally & make content. Have slowed down the Agency, gone back to basics and freelancing until I figure it all out.
You are here.