The Theeki Network first started in 1998 as a small personal webpage on Tripod.com. The following year, she came up with the idea "Crossroads" to describe her site as it seemed to be the converging point for all of her interests. Being very young and impressionable at the time, Elizabeth still had many paths in life that she could potentially take. The state of her site was very much a reflection of this and so the name seemed appropriate.

The following year the "parent" of the Theeki name was created as Elizabeth began taking courses in Japanese. She felt that she wanted to be able to more uniquely express the junction point that was her site and her state of mind. From her classes, she learned that "eki" referred to a station such as a train station and created "The Eki". This seemed to be more appropriate a name than "Crossroads" because it allowed for the imagery of a location that served more as a hub for many other locations rather than a place where the paths of many other places met.

A few years later, the network came to have its own domain. The number of sites at this time was drastically cut down to focus on Elizabeth's prime interests, but the site kept it's "hub"-like feel. By this time, Elizabeth's skill with webpage design had grown quite a lot, and much of her work from this time and afterward is what will be featured here on the main Theeki site.

After her graduation from college, Elizabeth felt that her life was no longer as unfocused as it once was. While she still had a desire to pursue her remaining projects that she had had on the network, her view of the site was no longer as that of a "hub" or "jump off station". Now her goals in life, in play, in site building, and professionally have become more focused to the point that a name change was needed. Or rather, a spelling and pronunciation change was needed.

Although she is more focused, there is still much that she needs to learn and find out. While there are things that she cares about that she would like to impact, she still must build her own path to get there. "Theeki" came out of these ideas where Elizabeth was "seeking" to find a way to accomplish her goals when she is yet unable to because of her youth. "Theeki" is like a cute form of "seek" or "seeker" as this is the path Elizabeth is currently on. Seeking employment, seeking a chance, seeking experience, seeking a means to accomplish her dreams. All this is coupled with an expression of her youth by giving her self-dubbed term "seeki" a child-like lisp to come up with "Theeki".

About Elizabeth Chan

Elizabeth's experience with HTML and web page design began in 1996 when she was at the age of 13. She first learned HTML at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California through a one hour lesson that her mother signed her up for. Immediately after her lesson, she went home to put her newly learned skills to use on her own site.

Over time through observation of others' designs and careful practice with her own abilities, she began to develop an aesthetic of her own and used the resources of the Internet to help teach herself about Javascript and Cascading Style Sheets.

In her sophomore year of high school, she began taking courses in Japanese. When she went to college, she continued her studies and majored in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of California, Irvine. She was also involved in the Japanese/Japanese American Club and performed volunteer work in Little Tokyo and for the Go for Broke! Foundation through the club. From 2005-2006, she also participated in the Japanese Video Conference sponsored by her school's Japanese department and got involved in cultural exchange through that experience.

During her college career, in keeping with her web-based interest, she also minored in Information and Computer Science and Digital Arts. Through Computer Science she learned programming in Java and about software engineering principles. Through the Digital Arts minor, she picked up skills in Photography and Film Editing. College was not without new interesting experiences, however, as in her last year at the University, she received an Antrhopology certificate for Ethnomusicology, which adds to her previous certification in Microsoft Office that she had earned in high school. Also, to supplement her degree in Japanese, she took a course on foreign language pedagogy where she had an opportunity to gain some teaching experience by teaching a lesson in a Japanese classroom.

From 2005-2006, she was the webmaster for her school's Japanese/Japanese American Club, Tomo no Kai. In this position, she designed the web site for the club and maintained it throughout the year updating the news when necessary.

Now as she looks for work, Elizabeth is seeking a position at a Japanese company to gain experience with the language. One day she actually wishes to go into translation, but before she is able to, she needs experience. Because her best skill is in web design, Elizabeth feels this is the best thing she can offer companies to give her that experience.

Can you design a website for me?

Sure. I do some freelance design for extra income that don't necessarily have to do with Japanese. Please send me an e-mail to let me know what you want on the site and so we can negotiate compensation. Compensation varies in price depending on what I'm asked to do.