Webmacster87.info is the online home of Douglas Bell. Douglas lives with his family in San Mateo, California, USA, and has lived there since his birth in September 1991. He is a junior at Aragon High School in San Mateo and is set to graduate from Aragon in May 2009. He graduated from Borel Middle School in June 2005.

Douglas is a pretty constant school slave. This year’s classes include AP Calculus BC, AP US History, CP English, Physics, Spanish (fourth year), and Orchestra. He helps out teachers at his school a lot, and also participates behind the scenes with his school’s leadership class. He is currently running for the position of Student Body President for the 2008-09 school year. In addition, Douglas is President and Founder of his school’s Peace Club, and is highly respected by other students on campus. At brunch and lunch, he sells food to students in the school’s snack bar. His two biggest at-school aspirations to acheive before he graduates are 1) to read the daily 5th period announcements as a senior, and 2) to get to attend just one meeting of the teachers’ Barbecue Club. He also enjoys attending school board meetings, although who knows why anybody would enjoy that.

Douglas is highly active in the PTA. He is the Parliamentarian and Webmaster for the San Mateo-Foster City Council of PTAs, and the Webmaster and board member for the California 17th District PTA. In September 2006, he convinced 17th District to launch their first Student Involvement Committee, with himself as chairman, and has been serving in that role since. In addition, he served as Nominating Committee chairman in November-December 2006, and is also on about half a dozen other committees. He is also a student representative to the California State PTA Board of Managers (one of two in the state), and serves on the State PTA Communications Commission and Student Involvement Committee. When his school had a PTSA, he volunteered behind the scenes, and also ran for PTSA president at the end of 2007 along with leading the charge to save it from becoming a PTO. Unfortunately, the parents there voted overwhelmingly to disband, and so he no longer participates with that group. Douglas also recently became a member of the San Mateo County School Wellness Committee.

Douglas has earned a number of recognitions for his work. Upon his graduation from middle school in June 2005, he was awarded with the Dr. Landucci School Service award for his school service at Borel. In January 2007, he was awarded with the California Teachers Association Peace & Justice Caucus’ Youth Activism Award for his activism in the areas of peace and student involvement. And, in February 2007, he was awarded with the 17th District PTA Honorary Service Award and a Commendation from the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors for his involvement and activities in PTA. He also received an academic award in May 2007: the CSF 10th Grade Mathematics Departmental Award, from his teachers. In December 2007, he was the inaugural recipient of Peace Action of San Mateo County’s Student Peace Activist Scholarship Award. In January 2008, his Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay won first prize and received a minute-long standing ovation from the audience–he was later invited by the NAACP to read the speech at their anniversary event in March 2008, where he was introduced by now-Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

Douglas has also done a lot of activity on the internet. He has been doing website work since 2004, working particularly in the fields of phpBB and WordPress. He released his first phpBB MOD in October 2004, and began making MODding a regular part of his life in 2005. In November 2005, he accepted an invitation to join the phpBB MOD Team, and continued working with them until August 2006. Due to time constraints, Douglas doesn’t spend time writing MODs anymore, however in January 2007, he launched the live phpBB Weekly podcast. He now continues to produce the podcast alongside co-host, MOD Team member, and noted phpBB3 expert David Lewis (Highway of Life).

In July 2005, Douglas and his friend Larry Anderson launched a new podcast entitled PreviewCast, one of the earlier podcasts to use iChat/Skype for recording, and one of the few podcasts which embraces the idea that randomness is good. The 2005 series didn’t continue far, but the show was picked back up in July 2006, and thrived for a long fifty-two episode run. In addition to co-hosting and arranging the program, Douglas edited the episodes and maintained the podcast feed, and also carried the burden of most of the jokes from the other hosts. PreviewCast was discontinued in March 2008.

In outside activities, Douglas has been studying the cello since 2001. Although he doesn’t study full time anymore, he still practices with his family as part of a harp-flute-cello trio, and plays in the Aragon High School Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he sings and plays in his church choir on Sundays. He also enjoys baking and summertime jam making (his Triple Berry Jam won Judges Choice Award at the San Mateo County Fair in 2006). His favorite restaurant is Jeffrey’s Hamburgers in San Mateo, which he frequents. He insists that .info websites DO indeed have a place in the world, and despite having owned eight domain names over his life, none of them have been a .com name. He also enjoys biking, and can be seen every year at the Tour de Peninsula bike event, along with biking to and from school daily. He also is a pretty good (although occasional) cook, and can play a pretty good chess game, so long as he isn’t playing against a computer. He is well-known at school for his on-the-spot very bad puns, and he is the “inventor” of the fictional phenomenon known as deep-fried pickle hearts.